JeffT237

We paid $101.99 + 18% gratuity on our March 4th Wonder cruise, that was pre-purchased about a year out.

We just returned from the Wonder this past weekend and to answer your question about feeling as you do and feeling ripped off, no we don't we had such a great trip all around. Certainly not perfect, but overall a great time with great service, entertainment, food etc. So much so we booked another cruise on board. It's a shame that every single part of your cruise was horrible, since your'e done with cruising best of luck with finding that perfect vacation.

We were on the Wonder this past weekend and we had: 1. Michele Scarpato as CD 2. There was one but didn't catch his name, the piano guy at Schooner's if you're interested was Andy C who was very good 3. Our entertainment reservations opened online Feb 1st for the March 4th sailing so I would assume yours would open April 1st. 4. There was a well attended 70s Disco Inferno on the promenade, quite a few passengers were dressed for the era, including us, it was fun. Ours was on Day 5. 5. There was a Quest, we didn't attend and I can't recall the day

For clarification, yes we were lined up outside by time and status, but it's my suspicion since we were already inside that those in the later time slots outside were allowed in earlier than their assigned time. I'm guessing that as the crowds were dispersed they would free up more passengers to enter the terminal, I don't think even the 12:00 group I saw that were lined up outside behind us were held till noon. I believe they were allowed in much earlier.

We were on the 3/5-3/12 sailing on the Wonder out of PC, we had a 10:30 boarding time. For our cruise and the one that followed ours they were being enforced. We arrived around 9:45 and our boarding passes were checked and we were directed to our appropriate line. Later times definitely were made to stand in their appropriate spots, some were unhappy. After a short wait they allowed groups into the terminal, Pinnacle and suites, followed by the Key then our group. Once past security we checked in and were seated again within our appropriate groups. The later time groups were directed to their appropriate seats as well. About 10:15 the back to back passengers were allowed onto the ship first, followed by the appropriate groups. They dismissed the groups row by row so it was pretty well organized. I feel this was done manage the crowds that arrive early and once the flow gets going they are relaxed a bit. We had friends who got there around 11:30 and they said they pretty much walked in, went through security, checked in then onto the ship. This is exactly how our boarding day was

I wish the 10 scale would go away and be replaced with something more realistic. Something like rate the service: Great, Satisfactory, Needs improvement or Poor. 1 to 10 is too hard to analyze or rate, I mean what's the difference between a 9 or 10? We just got off of the Wonder and I feel the service was great all around, an example was our room steward was friendly and efficient our cabin was always clean and he either had our requests waiting for us or when asked for something had it delivered efficiently. IMO that's great service and what I've come to expect, that should be enough for Royal. Is that a 10 or do I take one off because we had to ask him for a corkscrew for the wine we ordered from Royal pre-cruise?

We booked a future cruise for an ocean view balcony cabin on the Harmony last week on our Wonder cruise, the offer was $100 deposit each and $100 OBC, I believe that's the same offer for a JS. The agent from the Next Cruise office transferred it right on the spot to our travel agent and when we returned home our TA already had it and added more OBC, a specialty dining voucher and pre-paid our gratuities. It was super easy. The agent said we have 2 months to change that booking with no penalty if we decide on a different ship/itinerary. https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/NextCruise/17057524_NextCruise_ShipTour_Flyer_Final.pdf

We've cruised different lines and this passionate loyalty exists across all brands. Our Alaska Princess cruise last May had major issues that were discussed at the time on CC by those of us who were actually on the cruise who were critical were met backlash from the Princess loyalists that weren't even on that cruise. We just returned from the Wonder, had a great time despite all of the "cutbacks" as it appeared most passengers did. Even with the CC doom and gloom, high prices and cutbacks the ship was full, most everything was sold out and the future cruise appointments were booked solid almost everyday with a lot of people waiting stand by to book another cruise. I don't think Royal or other lines are suffering from how they are currently operating.

Just off the Wonder and same experience in the MDR, only asked for an extra entree once on lobster night to make it a surf and turf. After the lobster I no longer wanted the steak so we just finished. Different story at the speciality restaurants, at the Coco Cay Beach Club our waiter brought us a lobster to share in addition to our entrees and at Wonderland we were deciding between 2 entrees so our waiter brought us the branzino to share in addition to our short ribs we each ordered. At Giovanni's we were offered additional entrees to share but we declined, too much food already.

Currently onboard the Wonder, prices have been high on everything. I don’t think Royal is trying to take advantage of their passengers, they’re making the most they can at price points many people are willing to pay.

Here's my take, we've never been to CoCo Cay either but we will be there Monday, which also happens to be our 30th Anniversary so we did purchase it at $159pp when it was on sale for Black Friday. It was mostly advertised at $239pp for most of the year. It has been sold out since Black Friday. I was hoping it would get to under $100 but it never did. The #1 reason I bought it was there will be 2 cruise ships at Coco Cay that day. We will be on the Wonder and the Odyssey will be there as well. Potentially over 10k on the island and we just wanted to be in a quieter and more relaxed area. So we found the value in it, the upgraded dining and amenities are nice, but the most important thing to us (a couple in our 50's) was having a lighter crowd. Now you are traveling with your 15 y/o son, he may want to be around younger people enjoying slides, zip lines, water activities, etc so the value may not be there for your situation. As far as worth, it is to us even though I feel we're overpaying. But once we pay for something we tend to not even think about it anymore. But to you depending on your financial situation may feel it's at the right price. You will get a bunch of comments on if it's "worth" it. Here's a link to Coca Cay's port schedule if you think that's a consideration: https://cruisedig.com/ports/coco-cay-bahamas

yeah I was being sarcastic, first off: I more than likely wouldn't take the time out of my vacation to attend an event with the Captain or any staff. If it came down to me making a fool of myself at the 70's Disco Inferno or taking the time to go to and event like that I pick Disco Inferno every time, much to the dismay of my wife. But to some that's important so go for it. Second: A lot of the tipping posts include observations made by passengers who talked to their waiter or cabin steward about how tips work and this becomes a Cruise Critic fact. Just trying to have fun with this whole debate!

After 15 pages of responses backed up with answers originating from people's personal opinions, to speculation, to a YouTuber said or I met a crew member who said this is how it works the only thing settled in the great tipping debate is nothing. Not one person's views on this has changed, nor will it. But at least by jumping in I got my post count up to over 400 so it's not been a total waste 😄 And yes (from my previous post) it's still cold and rainy in SoCal! Perhaps when I board on Sunday I'll spend time talking to crew members, officers and GS about how tipping really works, as well as the economics in the crew's home countries. I'll make sure I report back to Cruise Critic with "facts" to end the debate once and for all. I know before I retired I really enjoyed random people coming up to me and discussing my salary and benefits. I'm sure your waiter who is serving multiple tables loves stopping to chit chat about his or her thoughts on auto gratuities vs cash. On second thought I think I'll just enjoy my cruise, good luck with your debate!

Yeah we leave Saturday for Florida, the 8 consecutive days of temps under 60 have broken us out here in the west, not to mention my solar production woes! My brother in CT mocks us for our whining about the weather, and anyone coming out from the east coast be prepared for endless traffic on our roads driving can be a challenge for us in this weather! I fear toilet paper hoarding all over again.

Not taking a side but I'm just curious, to those who remove auto tips at GS what is the conversation like? Does the GS member try and discourage the practice? It is my understanding from Royal's policy "is that in the unlikely event service is unsatisfactory auto gratuities can be modified", do they attempt to offer a remedy for the lack of service? Or is the conversation something like "please remove the auto gratuities as we will be tipping in cash"? Legitimate question, I've never overheard it go down at GS although from these threads I know it happens. Side note: I vowed to never comment on tipping threads, but a week of rain and cold in SoCal has made us all crazy out here

What is "prime" and 'prime drinks"? I'm assuming it is drinks from the casino? We are not gamblers and don't visit the casino, just curious as I've never heard of that.

Royal loves more than just the Key, and newbies to make money off of. Their whole operation is to make as much money as possible. They don't care if you're a newbie or Pinnacle. To your point, we would probably never buy the UDP as you do, we don't find the value in it. Although we enjoy speciality dining we almost always hit the wall day 5 when it comes to eating. We eat pretty light from that point on making the UDP less value to us. But you enjoy it so you buy it. The difference is I'm not posting how much of a waste the UDP is. I may be wrong but you seem to discount everyone's point on what the Key has to offer that each individual finds value in by contrasting it with your preferences. Examples, the Chops lunch being a small menu, that's actually appealing to me, i'd be satisfied with the burger to start off my cruise or we enjoy sitting down in the MDR on the last morning while you enjoy Park Cafe. Doesn't make the Key a waste.

I think this is a mind set rather than reality thing, for most passengers, not all. We go into all of our travel experiences with an open mind, what our expectations and tastes are. Vacations for us are fun and enjoyable, more expensive now and filled with mostly hits and some misses. We don't expect perfection, things happen. We had a disappointing experience last May on the Crown Princess, that experience was thoroughly discussed on CC, but early on we decided we'll make the most of it and deal with the unsatisfactory experience with Princess when we return. Reviews on CC need to be taken with a grain of salt. Throw out the extremely high ones and extremely low ones to get a more accurate review of the experience.

We board the Wonder in a week, and despite all of the negative reviews on most things Royal Caribbean lately we intend to have an enjoyable week. Glad you had a positive experience! We dealt with the same thing before our Discovery Princess cruise in October, a lot of negative reviews and we some how had a great week.

Why is it such a waste? It may be for you but to others it may have value. I've never had it, but I always watch the price and since we buy 2 internet packages ( I know we can share but we choose not to) if it drops to a certain point I'd buy it. As far as boarding early, that's a nice perk. I have a 10:30 time for our Wonder cruise and although in theory we should get on 5 minutes after the Key passengers there's a good chance we'll be competing with a lot of passengers who have later boarding times to get on early. A lot of passengers have decided honoring Royal's boarding times do not apply to them. We like getting on early like everyone else, to get our dining package reservations and start our vacation. Lunch at Chops to avoid the crowds on embarkation day and the breakfast on debarkation day since we almost always have a late flight home is also desirable for us. Was hoping to buy it for this cruise but it never dropped to a price where we found value in it, and then it sold out.

Tipping posts and questions are always lively and passionate. I read them and just don't understand why so many passengers care what others do. Royal is clear with their own policy what is recommended and give passengers the option to pre-pay, as well as remove them if they feel they don't receive good service. Both of those things can be true at the same time. That's really the end of it. Worst case some passengers don't tip, I think that number is really small, but it doesn't impact my cruise at all. As far as who and where the tip goes, how much someone else tips "above and beyond" or whatever else other passengers do again has zero impact on me. We cruise for the enjoyment of the experience, we like the ease pf pre-paying everything we can pre-cruise and simply having a good time and not let what others are doing negatively impact our experience. I agree, in the grand scheme of what we spend for our cruises it is such a small amount of the vacation budget.

For my personal opinion and tastes I'd rank the speciality restaurants on the Harmony in order as: 150 CP, Chops, Jamies, Izumi and Sabor. Have not dined at Wonderland, but it does look fun. So subjective, for us in SoCal we eat Mexican food and fresh Sushi quite often. They were both good, not great on our cruises. Sabor does seem to be more of a lunch spot. I also like the location of 150 CP and Chops on Oasis class ships, both being in the Central Park area. Get the dining package and try them all.

On our cruise planner this morning for our upcoming Wonder cruise the drink package dropped to $75.99pp, it was $85.99 last night.

What are you and your son's interests? To me St. Thomas offers more beach day activities and San Juan more sightseeing and historical sites to view. They are both enjoyable, and you will certainly get plenty of beach related activities at the other stops like St. Maarten and CoCo Cay. Old San Juan is cool with it's architecture and exploring the forts, but I think the 15 y/o version of me would pick St Thomas and want to go to Megans Bay or explore St. Johns. We've been on both the Oasis and Harmony and enjoyed both those ships, we like the Oasis class and will be boarding the Wonder in a couple of weeks. Plenty to keep both of you entertained and happy. Check out the entertainment offerings as well if that's important to the two of you, they all offer an aqua show which we really enjoy. Best of luck planning, sounds like a great trip!

We've never purchased it for our Royal cruises, simply we do not consume enough to justify the cost. $1400 for the 2 of us for our upcoming Wonder cruise is just too much, we'd never break even. We have purchased it for our past 2 Princess cruises, the Princess Plus which includes most drinks, Wi-Fi and gratuities for $60 pp per day and amazingly people on the Princess board complain about the programs high cost!