nolegirl01

Agreed! Two70 theater is not my favorite. It’s a cool and unique place but horrible for shows. We tried to get seating upstairs but it was packed, nothing available. I think those might be the best seats as you can see everything from up there. I didn’t care for the story on both the book and the effectors but the tech, the acrobats, the performances on both I appreciate.

I agree! When I book I always try and make sure I book one with the bed by the balcony. It gives you much more space in the cabin to walk around, especially when getting ready for dinner! It's definitely our favorite layout.

You can reserve on ship but the times are the same as on the ones online so there's no need to do it in person. I would keep checking and see if something opens up, you never know, especially as you get closer to sailing. There was one night it was showing as sold out and then all of a sudden one slot opened up. Also what you can do is book the 8pm and you can show up at 7:30pm and they will still seat you. We did that a few times when we had late reservations. One time we showed up an hour before and they still sat us. At least we didnt have to wait in the no reservations line.

When you first book your cruise you can select MTD or Traditional Dining. Once you select MTD and you book your cruise, you can reserve times on the app or on the website. Choose dining (like you would select specialty) and you select Main Dining Room and it'll give you the option for My Time Dining. Here is a helpful post on it as well: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2023/02/28/how-book-my-time-dining-royal-caribbean

and yes, you can book everything (shows, dining, spa, etc...) online on the website or on the app. I did all my reservations online, I didn't have to speak with anyone.

We do MTD at all the cruises we've been to... I usually plan around the shows. So if we have a show at 9pm or 10pm, we usually reserve a time that works for that so like 6-7pm... gives us plenty of time to eat slowly and enjoy dinner. I recommend making the MTD dining reservations as soon as you can so you can get good times. When you get to the MDR (there's a deck just for MTD), there is usually 2 lines, one for people with reservations and another with people without. Yes you can still eat in the MDR if you don't have a reservation but sometimes it takes a while for them to seat you. Keep in mind, sometimes you'll see the line for people with reservations is longer than the ones without but keep in mind the line with reservations will move pretty quickly. We just got off the Odyssey and I had MTD with reservations and even though the line was pretty long, we didn't wait more than 5-10 minutes to get seated. As opposed to those without a reservation ,they were waiting 15, 20 sometimes 30 mins. We love MTD because if gives us the flexibility to eat when we want to. IF we are in port, and we have to be back by 5pm, we don't have to rush to eat at 6pm. We just choose a time that is later, like 7-8pm... it just gives you the freedom to choose your own time so you can shower and get ready and not rush, especially on port days or days you have shows. But I do recommend making your MTD reservations early because times to sell out and then you have to make the no reservations line.

No ice rink. There are 3 shows. The book I thought was good, but make sure to get a reservation and also make sure to get there really early for a good spot. The two70 theater has horrible seating. We got there 45 mins before the show started and got a seat behind the big book and could not see the dancing in the floor. The effectors was cool, had drones and other cool things, so it was entertaining. Wish it was a different story, the super hero was a little cheesy but had its funny parts. Showgirl was nice, lots of dancing. As a former dancer, I definitely appreciated it. I felt it needed a bit more but it was just a nice show.

Any other post I would believe that but since I started this, I can wholeheartedly tell you I am in no shape or form nor have ever been a RCI exec and if I were, I would wholeheartedly not be in this forum because I would be too busy cruising using all of my exec discounts LOL

Yup, we just got off the Odyssey on Sunday. Yes the ship was packed, I was just bringing up a point that before covid, when cruises were a bit cheaper, it was easier for people to reach Diamond because you could book more cruises a year. Before you could take a few cruises in a year and get those points, but with cruise pricing going up, a family that used to take 3-4 cruises a year, might now only take 1-2... Someone like me still in Gold, I can't afford to take 1 cruise a month. We are trying to now take at least 1-2 a year but if this was before covid, I could have probably afford to book more. Ships will always be packed, cruise lines have ways to sell those tickets regardless. May it be new cruisers or repeat cruises, my point was looking more ahead to those that are trying to build up their points. Maybe they'll see a slow down in people going up in tiers.

We just got off the Odyssey on Sunday and Capt Marek Slaby was our captain. We met him and he was wonderful. Very down to earth and very easy to talk to. We loved listening to his announcements in the morning and he would call out all birthdays on board. Was a special treat since it was my husband's birthday during the cruise. Since we were on the ship on April 1, the Captain decided to make a little April Fool's joke and told us that our next port of Aruba was unfortunately cancelled. I panicked and starting thinking of our excursions that we had booked (not with the ship) and started getting phone numbers and emails to call the vendors! haha after a few minutes, he told us ha! April Fools! I let out a big relief and deleted all my emails I started to write. Great sense of humor, we loved him!

yeah things before covid were definitely cheaper... things have gotten crazy expensive while our paychecks remain the same 😞

yeah I hear you all... It was just wishful thinking lol we used to book a simple balcony for 2 people $2-3k for a 7 day cruise now it seems like it's going to $4-6k... it's definitely pricing us out a bit. We did a mediterranean cruise on NCL Epic back in 2017 and we got a spa haven suite for $4k. That was a great price and great experience. Now the cheapest haven suite is $10k... granted that is NCL but RC is getting expensive as well. But I hear you all, I didn't think RC would change, but I was hoping it would 🤪

So I'm a few points away from Platinum (I know still a newbie) and we have a loooooong way to go to even hit diamond but I was just wondering....now with cruise prices going up significantly, do you think that Royal Caribbean will eventually do a revamp of C&A tiers? It seems like back then and even before covid, it was much cheaper to cruise and quicker to get points, but now with cruising getting so expensive, people can't afford it like they used to. What do you guys think? Just a thought! 🙂

We were on that same cruise! We had a fabulous time! Looking forward to your review!

Hey Everyone, so we just got back from our cruise so I figured I would do a little review. We ended up booking ABC Tours and it was amazing! Definitely recommend them! They picked us up at the port and took us to their headquarters. While we waited for our tour guides and for everyone else to show up, they had a bar, so we ended up having a drink! The tour was great, we absolutely loved it. It is really rough terrain so it does get a bit technical the driving at times but we really enjoyed it. If you don't like driving on big rocks, dust, bumps, holes, just really rough terrain where everything shakes, this might not be for you. We do have UTV and ATVs at home so this was familiar for us. We did see the jeep tours there but we talked to people who said those were making them nauseous. So I recommend the UTV and maybe even the ATVs. The tour guide kept a good pace, not slow so we enjoyed that because it allowed us to go fast and really enjoy the ride. The only thing I was a little disappointed on was that we didn't get to do the little cliff dive that I saw pictures of. I knew the natural pool wasn't included because UTVs can't get into the national park where the pool is but I did see that there was a little cliff into a smaller pool that others have done but we didnt do it on this tour. At the end, they did take us to a beach (3 step beach) so jump in the water but the other tours had that same idea so it was a bit packed. We were only there for 15 minutes so it was a bit rushed. Other than that, we had a great time, the cars were cool and tour guides were awesome! Super fun!

Aruba is one hour ahead so the companies that I did contact all told me that if the ship says it's docking at 8am, it's on ship time and it'll be 9am in Aruba so we will have missed the time. So we have decided to get a 2pm reservation for the UTV tours.

Looking for an amazing restaurant with amazing food for dinner! Bonus if it's on the beach 🙂 What is the best restuarant you've been to on the island for dinner?

Yeah we’re leaning ABC as well, their cars at least look cooler lol haha We’ll be there April 8 so we’ll be there before you! lol I’ll post a follow up as well and let you know!

We are wanting to book a UTV tour but are having trouble deciding which company to go with! We are looking at the 4 hour UTV tours at 2pm from ABC Aruba, Rockabeach tours, Around Aruba Tours and DePalm.... anyone have a preference?? which will take you to the most places? They all seem pretty much the same, same price as well, from their website so I'm looking for more personal experiences. Thank you!

Has anyone done the Dolphin Scuba Encounter with Dolphin Academy? As much as we wanted to do the Open Water Dolphin Dive, our ship won't be there on the days they offer it but we can possibly do the Dolphin Scuba Encounter one. I believe this one you will be inside the dolphin enclosure and I believe you are just kneeling down on the floor rather than going out to open water as the other one offers. Has anyone done it? Is it worth it? It's quite expensive so my husband and I are wondering if it is worth it. Thank you! https://www.dolphin-academy.com/experiences/dolphin-scuba-encounter/

What do you guys think of NCL? I hear a lot of comparisons between RCL and Carnival but what about NCL? I don't think I will ever go on Carnival, not my cup of tea, but even though I love RCL, the prices are getting ridiculous. We've done NCL but only twice a few years ago before covid and we enjoyed it. What are your thoughts on RCL vs NCL, are they more, less or equally as expensive?

I would love to take a tour but it's always so expensive! It's $168 a person on our cruise (with the 30% discount), so we'll pass but would love to take one when it's a little cheaper!

Saw these today and wanted to get one and saw it says at the bottom that "Substitution can be made for similar product and size." Has anyone bought these colors and successfully substituted the beers for something else? What did you change it to? Husband doesn't like Bud Light.

Glad I'm not the only one! We used to like the couch by the balcony so we could eat breakfast on the couch while looking out but ever since I had a bed by the balcony, it's my favorite layout. The room does seem bigger and makes getting ready way easier since you have more space. I also love laying in bed looking out the window and now we just have breakfast in our balcony 🙂

We went on the symphony in December and even though we had a formal night, it was more like cocktail night. People were dressed nice, but not formal in any way. I wore a fancy short cocktail dress and my husband wore a dressy button up collar shirt with no tie and we were fine. It was my fanciest cocktail dress out of the other ones I had brought so I felt a little more dressed up. There were other people there very casual with jeans and polos and then some ladies with gowns but everything was very casual, wear what you want type night. I dont think I saw one person wearing a tux. If they did, they were taking pictures. But like others said, cruises now are wear what you want so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just choose a nice dress for formal night and you'll be fine.