RCCL Fan

Unless I've missed something, I don't think Wonder sails out of Galveston.

I booked my first ever GTY reservation and my first ever non balcony/suite stateroom. Our usual junior suite was $2044 per person, the GTY oceanview was $399 per person. That price difference was insanely huge enough that I said, bye bye balcony. So I got us 2 oceanview cabins instead of our usual all of us in one junior suite. I have seen the hack on here where after check-in you save you set sail pass to your apple wallet and the last digits of the code at the bottom are your cabin numbers. Well, I just checked in If the hack is correct I am excited to see Royal assigned us two cabins directly next to each other, so that's really awesome. But.... There are other sets of two cabins together in other areas of the ship that I would prefer location and deck wise. I've read on the boards over the years that Royal will let you switch cabins is you don't like your GTY assignment. But a question... Do I have to wait until they actually send me an email officially assigning the rooms to me? Or can I call my TA and ask her to try to move me now? Also, since Royal now charges $20 - 50 more for a higher deck or mid-ship vs. forward, would I be able to move our cabins from a lower to a higher deck or forward to midship, if I stay in the same category? I know, I know, I paid $399 a person, just be glad they're letting me on the ship, right? But had to ask! and lastly.... just for fun... why do people book connecting rooms, and just book one of them? Why would you go out of your way to choose a cabin with a door to the next room, and not know the people on the other said of said door?? hahaha Every connecting room on the ship has one cabin occupied and the other empty. hahaha We don't really care, but it's amusing to me. OK -- that's enough --- haha Thanks as always.

I just don't like haggling over price, and having uncertainty when I'm standing there with everyone. Found one guy on FB $150 per pulomina for a 6 hour day. city tour, beach time, and stop for lunch. Have no idea if that's expensive or not.

Didn't mean mileage wise. I always fly into MIA because we fly American Airlines and we sail out of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale which is more than 30 miles away. Most limo companies in Miami charge things like a minimum $600 charge for 2-3 hours. But Larry's will drive you from airport to port for like under $150. I was hoping for something similar.

These look like fun and I think my kids would get a kick out of them. Is there a line for them at the cruise terminal? or do we just walk onto the street and look to flag one down? I would rather book and pay for one ahead of time. Does anyone have a driver they recommend? Preferably with a Pulmonia extra decorated rather than just a plain white one.

Glad it's not just me. I looked at a youtube video online, and I was like this looks really dirty and run down. i know I'm used to the white sand and blue water of the bahamas and caribbean, but this looked way too brown. I'm trying to find something more upscale for our group. this port has stressed me out the most in figuring out where to go.

Yes they look very different. We had friends on the deck 9 one and we were in deck 12, it was clear our was once a high end suite. Check out the review Here's my review from our week onboard, has some pics.

Just throwing out random numbers my friend. But you would be surprised! you never know.... Check out my accepted bid for an OS on Enchantment. I believe it was a 6 night.

I understand that... I'm not trying to give one back. Lets say I bid $2,500 for an owners suite for one of the rooms and won. I get that my wife and daughter 1 get the upgrade and me and daughter 2 are still in the OV. What I'm asking is..... Is there any issue or rule with me and daughter 2 just sleeping in the owners suite every night and not using the OV. Is the cabin attendant going to say, sorry, you two can't sleep in here?

Booked another one recently for my family of 4. Pricing for our usual JS was just over 9K But I could book two OV's for a total of $2,700 for BOTH ROOMS. Put two people in each room, loose a balcony and save 6K. So we did it. Our first time ever not in a balcony. We're thinking when Royal Up hits we'll bid high and hope for a win. But.... how does that work? Will they make us bid on both rooms? Or just one? If we a royal up on one of our rooms but not the other are all 4 of us allowed to use the bigger room? So many questions, so many loopholes.... hopefully you have so many ideas and hypotheses to share. 🙂

After doing a lot of cruises in a row I had swore of cruising for a while needed a break. My first thought when I saw Icon.... "that's not a new ship, that's Oasis 2.0" It truly looks like Oasis with lots of tweaks. I was disappointed as I was expected something totally new and different.... maybe finally an outside promenade, or something crazy like a monorail. but it feels more familiar than new. Yes all the tweaks are geared toward families. They didn't jump out to me personally. But, As a dad of two young girls, who are Diamond plus members in their own right, and LOVE this cruise line, this is a ship for them. I took one look at it and I knew our family would be buying a ticket. It's an amazing ship for families who are the bread and butter of the cruise line. They get 7K a cabin when I sail with my kids versus the 3K they get when couples sail alone. Took my kids to Disney and when we left at the end of the week I got, "daddy thanks so much for an awesome vacation, we really appreciate it, but next time, I do think we'd much rather go on a cruise" It's my kids who drive us coming back to Royal.... 4 sailings this year, two last year. 3 booked next year. Every time we plan vacations they immediately start talking about which ships and sailings they want. All that being said there are SOOO MANY OTHER SHIPS. Radiance class Quantum class Vision class and all the celeb ships. They're not the choice for little humans. They're adult ships. Let the families have these two Icon ships. They'll make some tweak of Edge to replace the vision class soon. My kids actually love all of the ships. Vision is one of their favorite ships as is Serenade. They know which ships are quieter and more adult and which ones are packed with activity and fun and both know what to expect before they get on. All of you who who act like a ship with children is a death trap, sail on Anthem or Edge or Radiance. It's a big cruise line, there's space for everyone, let the families have Oasis 2.0.

I was wondering if navigator moved to the new "trial" menu

I'm a huge proponent of going back to the old Viking Crown Lounge. Wonder and Icon both seem to have the structure for it, and they just didn't build it. I don't get why they're so hell bent on eliminating it. I've mentioned before that I felt Wonder and Odyssey both generated far more soot than the other RCI ships I've been on. No idea why.

We just ran the hot water when we wanted to fill it, you can make it whatever temp you like, kinda like a bathtub and then turned on the blower for bubbles. I left the water the first day, and when we came back the next day the cabin attendant had drained and cleaned. So we started draining it after each use after that, and he cleaned it each day.

Yes I should have been clear, i was looking for recommendations on a private charter. 🙂

We're looking for a private boat charter, just our group, no one else.

Thanks for understanding. We're dealing with first graders, I want them to be comfortable, and happy. Access to snacks, bathrooms, and movement around the boat are critical when you have little humans like that.

We spent last Thanksgiving on Allure, our menu in the MDR was the same as posted above from Oasis. It was wonderful. I checked with the specialty restaurants onboard and all were doing their traditional menu's, but offering to get you Turkey from the MDR if you wanted it. Windjammer had a big spread as well. Best I could describe it was... formal thanksgiving dinner in the MDR. If you like the kinda thanksgiving with a little of this and that, and this and that and go back again and again, then the windjammer is your spot. And if you say I don't want Turkey & Stuffing then all the specialties are at your service.

We're doing the reverse.... Renting a car when we land at LAX and driving to family for a few days and they will drive us to the ship on departure day. However, on the return home I was planning not to bother them, and hire a car service to drive us from Navigator of the Seas back to LAX. I know uberXL well.... but knowing cali traffic can be an absolute bear, I was wondering if there was a Larry's Limo type service (cheap cruise limo's in Miami) that works the port in LA.

Thank you, my TA assured me it was safe as well. I'm planning on one of those open air taxi's there and back.... little humans in tow.

N No, not looking for a party boat at all. We're not party people at all! lol Three hours on a flat bed boat with just aluminum benches, will bore my kids, and likely me and my wife as well If we can break up those 3 hours with drinks and snacks and maybe some tunes, then I think my 8-year old won't melt down and my 13 year old won't bury in her iphone. The whale watching tours out there that we saw had lines in their material that said "guaranteed to see whales" or "our inflatable boats are specially designed to get you closer". The focus was on the whales and not the ride to get there. The charter boats we saw the focus was on the food, luxury accomadations and not the whales. We hoped to find both and was looking for advice from anyone who may have found that. My whole point of this post is we're NOT looking for a party boat, seeing whales is a priority. It's our only reason we're doing this. We just don't want to sit on an aluminium bench for 3 hours on rocky seas in January, and would like some thing more comfortable with other activities to break up the time.

We're going to Cabo in the heart of whale watching season. Most of the tours appear to be on smaller boats, with benches and no bathrooms. We're going with kids, and 2 hours on a boat like that would be torture for everyone involved. We're looking to charter a boat with food, drinks, music, maybe a stop somewhere along the way..... found lots of that..... but almost all operators I've talked to say they "don't get too close to the whales for their safety" They seem more music and food and less whale watching. Does anyone know of a whale tour with a nicer boat and food or a nice boat charter that isn't afraid to get us up close and personal with the whales?

Thanks everyone --- promise my geography skills aren't that poor. Not sure why I referred to the coastal cities as islands.... habit I guess. We hired a tour guide in PV, and are searching for a whale watching charter with food and drinks for cabo. We're thinking MZ will be on our own.

I have my own tux, but I prefer the convenience of renting on board. I assumed it was gone, but thanks for the input

Is that still a thing? Back in the day (before kids) I would always rent a tux on formal night on the ship. One less thing to pack. Haven't bothered lately and I'm sure most haven't and it's gone away as i don't recall seeing it on compasses. But I'm doing a NYE holiday sailing this year and I'd love to get a Tux. Anyone know if that's still a thing?