The big list of tips and guides gathered from several threads

This list is not comprehensive nor from my experience but based over the couple of hundred pages I have read on this site about RCCI ships.

Things to do when you first get on the ship

If you got kids:

- Flow Rider sign ups start at 2:30. Go to the Wipe Out Bar right at the FR to sign the waiver for the entire week. Your child wears this black band all week. This indicates you have signed the waiver releasing RCI of all responsibilities for the normal stuff. Each day, the child goes to the Wipe Out Bar to get another band put on--a colored band. Colors change daily and the kids have fun collecting them all.

- After you sign up for the FR, you get the black wrist band. You can then go over to the Rock Wall and Ice Rink and sign the waiver for those--they are all required if you want to use them. On the black wrist band, there is a picture of the wall, the ice, and the FR. Once you sign the waiver for each of them, they use a hole punch to indicate you have signed the waivers. This only needs to be done once for the entire week, unless you rip the wrist band off.

- The FR is free and so is the Ice Rink and the skates and they give you the shoes for the rock wall too and that's free too!

fyi: do not go over to sign the waivers with an alcohol beverage in your hand they won't let you sign the waivers!!!

- Be sure and get the honey stung chicken for lunch off the buffet (it's only available embarkation day}

- go to the dining room and make sure you're ok with your seating assignment. If you're not, the headwaiters will be there to try and accommodate your request. We were moved the last time from a table stuck in a corner behind a service station to a nice table with a view over the trailing into the whole dining room.

- You should also book your spa appointments the first day, if you think you might want one. They do go quickly, particularly for sea days. Remember, you can cancel up to 24 hours before the appointment but you can't decide later to book one if all the spots are already gone.

- Similarly, you should make a booking in the specialty restaurant, if you plan to go there. Booking early will give you the best selection of dining times.

- You should send any pressing you want done out for the formal on the second night (if that's when it is) on the first day. That way, you can send it regular service (next day) and not have to pay the express fee (same day).

- If your mattress is not comfortable for you, ask your room steward for a foam egg crate. Be warned that they can go fast and supply is limited.

Relax / Workout

- If you like to do your own yoga in the morning and the gym is too crowded and noisy, take a mat and go up to the lounge at the top of the ship. Quiet, peaceful and lovely.

- Don't take the "yoga" or "pilates" classes in the gym. They are not worth the money and the people who lead them are usually minimally trained. The free morning stretch class is better.

- If you ask the crew, they will turn up the heat in the steam room.

- On Voyager class ships there is a lovely hot tub inside the gym/spa. Great when the weather outside is frightful.

- Be sure to sit in the Solarium (adult only deck) in that beautiful hot tub with a fruity drink

"Adventure Ocean".

Here is a breakdown for the program.

* For all kids aged 3-17 years of age. Kids must be potty trained-no diapers or pull ups.

Program Age Groups

Aquanauts - 3-5 Years

Explorers - 6-8 Years

Voyagers - 9-11 Years

Navigators - 12-14 Years

Guests - 15-17 Years

All childrens activities are supervised by both male and female youth staff, professionally certified in education, recreation and/or pre-school or having qualified experience in working with children ages 3-17 years of age.

For a complete breakdown of the program please visit the following link from Royal Caribbean.

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/conten...Fact_Sheet.pdf

Kids club ages 12-14.

- When the kids enter age 12-14 they don't sign in at all;

- There's no form to sign; there's no sign out sheet;

- Kids just show up to Fuel and the Living Room and go to the activities.

- The daily sheets do NOT give all the activities going on;

- You have to go into the club room to get the list of all daily stuff

- There's dodgeball games, bingo, quest for kids, a casino night for the kids, DJ workshops, dance, movie night, etc...

- They only have the WII for gamers (besides the video arcade stuff). There are WII tournaments throughout the week.

- Do yourself a favor if you have a 12-14 yr old and bring them up there on night #1 to mingle and meet the other kids---don't be shy. Be warned: parents are not allowed and will be told to leave if you go in there to 'check up on your little one'.

Medical

- If you need any basic meds, like antihistermines, stomach meds etc, there is a small machine just outside the medical center (available 24 hours a day), $0.50 (2 x $0.25)gets you a couple of doses.

- Bonine is handed out at guest relations at no charge.

- No charge at the Dr. if the visit is for noro. But you will be quarantined to your cabin for 48 hours, not that you WANT To go anywhere.....

Food

Breakfast

- The omelet station in the Windjammer will also make other kinds of eggs. I don't like the steam tray scrambled eggs. I have mine made fresh at the omelet station.

- Back to the omelet station. If you want Swiss or other different cheese, just bring it with you from the cheese tray. They mostly use mozzarella at the station.

Lunch

- Don't miss the salad bar in the MDR at lunch time. It is awesome!

- The Seaview Cafe has great sandwiches, fish and chips, and onion rings.

- Get free lunch, at breakfast you can make little sandwiches for lunch if you are going to go into a port. The Windjammer always has rolls, slices of bread, cold cuts sliced tomatoes and sliced cheese. Just be quiet about this since I don't think the ship wants everyone to take food off the ship. Some ports may get 'miffed'.

Dinner

- Ask the wait staff to bring several fruit and cheese trays to your table every evening before you even order.

- If you eat dinner in the main dining room, do not be shy about ordering several appetizers or main dishes. Just put in the entire order when the waiter/waitress asks for your initial order. It is not easy for them to go back for more after each course is served.

- You can have as much of whatever you want on the menu. If several things are tempting, play "taste and waste" Your mother isn't there to tell you "children in China are starving"

- The waiters will bring you anything you want (even off menu) I got a bowl of fresh berries for dessert one night as I didn’t fancy the desserts on menu - also they will bring extra lobster on that night - just ask.

- If you like a lot of water or other beverage with your dinner, ask the assistant waiter to have several glasses at your plate every night. You won't have to worry where they are when you are thirsty. I have them line up 3 glasses of Diet Coke for me just for starters.

- There will be a dinner menu posted outside the upper level entrances of the MDR. You can decide earlier in the day if you want to do a specialty restaurant. The lowest level is where they serve breakfast and lunch so the dinner menu is displayed later.

Snacks / Tea Time

- Afternoon Snacks" in the Windjammer from 3-5p, usually the time you are returning from port, had the BEST hot scones each day, they also had hot bread pudding, and all sorts of other goodies! All free, and never crowded!

- Grab a cookie or ham and cheese croissant before you crash at the Cafe.

- The long sit down bar in front of the Royal Promenade Cafe is a good place to people watch with free coffee & pastries!

- There is a free soft serve machine on the pool deck.

Room Service

- Order chili chorizo dip from room service is excellent Ask for extra chips though, weren't enough chips for the big bowl of dip they brought us

-if you order room service for breakfast, order whatever you want (i.e. it doesn't have to be just what is on the printed menu). I usually get an omelet, fruit plate, bagels/danish, pot of coffee, etc. for my family. Don't forget to tip the delivery man!

-On room service, during dinner hours, you can also order some of the dinner menu items.

Drinks / Soda / bars

- For soft drinks, Royal Caribbean only serves Coca Cola products.

- When you're in any bar or lounge, you can ask for trail mix and you'll get a DELICIOUS jar of nuts, seeds, raisins and yogurt-covered things. Free

- Go to a store and pickup your favorite soda (diet Pepsi). Roll it onto the ship in a rolling cooler. Once in our room, we ask our steward to ice up some of the soda for us. You can keep the cooler out on the balcony if you have one, or in your room.

- If you have a soda card, go to one of the smaller bars and nicely ask for canned soda. If you get it, the next time you come, bring a $10 and tip the bartender. You now know where to get better soda.

- You can order the drink of the day without the souviner glass, and it brings the price down

Cabins

- Bring a small ziplok baggie of Clorox wipes and wipe all the doorknobs, phone, remote, light switches, etc

- Spray EVERTYHING with Lysol as soon as we got in the cabin.

- Take bags of small chocolates - and leave a few on a tissue on the bed each day for the Room Steward or give a few to the Room Service Waiter with their tip. it makes the Staff smile & great service gets even better!

- Ask the steward to Clear the fridge, that way you are not tempted to buy those overpriced items on a whim

- invest in a USB converter plug to keep my ipod charged

- a nightlight, especially if you have an inside cabin. It's really dark in any cabin at night!!!

- get a few packages of those suction cup hooks--they will stick on the walls, the windows (balcony) and the mirrors, I've used them for hanging wet suits, makeup/toiletry bags, inexpensive necklaces, and curling irons / blowdryers.

- get a cheap alarm clock--although I rarely use the alarm, sometimes I want to know what time it is in the middle of the night

- In reference to the alarm clock, instead of a usual wake up call in the morning, I have coffee sent to my room at the time I was to get up! It's so nice to wake up to someone delivering fresh coffee while you're just waking up!!

- If you are in an inside cabin, put on the TV before you go to sleep to the channel that has the live camera shot of the front (aft) of the ship. Twist the TV slightly so it is not staring at you while you sleep, but whenever you wake up you can take a peek at the screen to see if it is daytime yet!

- If you ask, there's a good chance your steward will bring you robes even when you're not in a suite.

PORT TIME

- read about the ports for the countries tourism website - can get some great ideas on things to do, and maybe even find a coupon

Camera Tips

- Make the VERY FIRST pix on your digital camera a paper with your name, cabin number, and phone number written out neatly on a piece of paper. If you lose it (and an honest person finds it), he will be able to return it to you

- Wear a different color shirt each day that you are in a port so it will be easy to figure out which photos belong to which port when you get home.

- Start each day with a picture of the elevator floor....they mark the day on the floor...great way to keep all of those pictures organized

General Tips

- Notify your credit card company or bank if using a debit card that you are going to be using your card out of the country. It could save you some headaches.

- At the pursers desk you can get a small fold out map of the ship.

- The helipad is a great spot to go out onto. It is beautiful at night and great for star gazing

- look at the art work, where there are ships, or fishes on the carpet, the head will be facing the front of the ship, it helps to give you a sense of direction.

- Kids spend a lot of time on the sports deck. Pack the sneakers!!!

- Don’t miss the ever popular adult only “QWEST”. It takes place in Studio B. The time and day will be advertised in the Cruise Compass.

- There are three distinct types of evenings onboard: casual, smart casual and formal. Suggested guidelines for these nights are:

Casual: Sport shirts and slacks for men, sundresses or pants for women

Smart Casual: Jackets and ties for men, dresses or pantsuits for women

Formal: Suits and ties or tuxedos for men, cocktail dresses for women

3 to 4 - night cruises include one formal night and the remainder nights are casual.

5 - night cruises include one formal and the remainder nights casual.

6 - night cruises include two formal nights, one smart casual and the remainder nights casual.

7 to 9 - night cruises include two formal nights, one smart casual night and the remainder nights casual.

10 to 13-night cruises include two formal nights, two smart casual nights, and the remainder nights casual.

14+ - night cruises include three formal nights, four smart casual nights and the remainder nights casual.

We appreciate your usual parental guidance and cooperation in observing these easy guidelines with your children.

- Reserve (claim) your pool chairs with towels and paperback books BEFORE going to the windjammer for breakfast

- Take a big towel from the dressing room in the spa. No sea pass required and no worries about getting charged for a towel if yours disappears.

- Towels, You really do have to return them. You will be charged $20 for every one you don’t return

- Bring a sweater for nights in the dining room and theater. It gets very chilly.

- there is always a raffle the day you board for dinner in Portofino's or Chops, a spa apppointment, etc. It is usually attended by a few hundred people (must be present to win

- if you or your kids want to have their hair braided, wait until the end of the cruise. If you have it done the first day or two, your scalp will burn in the sun (or you will be forced into wearing a hat the entire week).

- bring a power strip if u need chargers for ipods cell phone, etc…

- Got a $1 over-the-door shoe rack for the bathroom door. Great for putting all kinds of stuff in.

- Post-it notes. Great for leaving note to steward, others traveling with you, etc.

- Backpack for ports

- Notebook journal - you'll otherwise forget what you did day to day if you're like me!

- OFF bug spray - still itching from some beach days

- bubble wrap to wrap breakable goodies

- PLENTY of dollar bills in SMALL denominations. Tough to bargain down to a great deal - then hand them a large bill.

- Once a trip there is a laundry special to fill a bag for a small charge and everything is cleaned. Great for back to backs!

- Pack shirts, pants, anything susceptible to wrinkles in dry cleaner bags. Sometimes they wrinkle very little, if at all. If you KNOW something is going to be wrinkled, don't bother having it pressed before you leave and send a bag to the ship's laundry the first day. Prices are very reasonable and you can pack those items as small as possible, because it won't matter how wrinkled they get.

- 4th floor deck outside – really nice on that level on the warm days. Also around the time the sun setting

- T-shirts from the gift shop go "on sale" the last night of the cruise.

- Buy your water shoes at home. If you are doing water based excursions, you will need them.

- Take small boxes of cereal if you plan on going doing some close to shore snorkeling to feed the fish!

- Get highlighters in different colors if you are traveling with teens! This way you can give each teenager a color and have them highlight what they'd like to do during the day on the Compass--if you need to touch base--or make sure you have some alone time without getting caught (mmmm) you know where they'll be and for how long!

Thanks for the list! I printed it out to show my mom all the wonderful things we *must* do when I take her on a the Grandeur this summer! (Unfortunately not everything is on the Grandeur, but I can use it on the Liberty in October!)

Nice gathering of information. Not all of what you list is available on every ship so might be confusing to newbies though. A correction on adventure ocean, the kids compasses are left in your cabin each night for the next day just like the regular compass. Not sure what ship you sailed that you didn't receive you kids compass. Also, have always had cheddar from the omelet station, what ship had mozzerella?

WOW!!! That's comprehensive!! Thanks, loads of tips without having to trawl through loads of posts, however, I've already done the trawling ;) But, it was really useful for bookmarking and referring back to!!

You are clearly a very experienced cruiser!!

:)

Do NOT 'reserve' your pool chair until you're ready to put your butt in it....that's "chair-hogging" and should NOT be done!

Great list but PLEASE don't do this:

 

"- Reserve (claim) your pool chairs with towels and paperback books BEFORE going to the windjammer for breakfast"

Is it true that the artwork (fish, ships, whatever) will always have the head facing the front of the ship? If this is true, it's the best piece of info I've even gotten on CC.

 

I have a terrible sense of direction, and am constantly asking my husband and my kids (even the 5 yo who knows everything) how to get places. All this time, the artwork was the key...who knew?:eek:

 

Can someone confirm this is true?:D

Nice compilation. Thanks.

 

Woody

Is it true that the artwork (fish, ships, whatever) will always have the head facing the front of the ship? If this is true, it's the best piece of info I've even gotten on CC.

 

I have a terrible sense of direction, and am constantly asking my husband and my kids (even the 5 yo who knows everything) how to get places. All this time, the artwork was the key...who knew?:eek:

 

Can someone confirm this is true?:D

Yup, it is true. The carpet in the passageways is supposedly one color on one side of the ship and another color on the other side but I never went by that since I never remembered which side had what color.:eek::D

This is so wonderful to have it compiled in one heavy duty list. I've printed it and will be sure to keep it on hand.

Thanks so much for posting this it is great info to have for the first time cruiser like me! I have been looking through all the posts daily for all kinds of info! However, I do have to agree with the "chair hogging" thing. Get a chair when you need it not in case you need it. Anyway, just my opinion on the thought since I have not been on a cruise yet and may change that opinion after I have.

I am honored that many of my suggestions are on your list. Thanks. I appreciate it.

Also, have always had cheddar from the omelet station, what ship had mozzerella?

 

Voyager on the 2009 westbound transatlantic. I don't care for cheddar, either. Like swiss so I brought it myself.

Get free lunch, at breakfast you can make little sandwiches for lunch if you are going to go into a port. The Windjammer always has rolls, slices of bread, cold cuts sliced tomatoes and sliced cheese. Just be quiet about this since I don't think the ship wants everyone to take food off the ship. Some ports may get 'miffed'.

This is illegal as you may not take unpackaged foods off the ship in any port. You will see the signs and it is often inspected, but it is against the laws of the various countries that you will be visiting!

"Prepackaged snacks are allowed in nearly every port. Fresh and cooked food and especially fruits and veggies are banned for agricultural safety reasons. The fines can be severe for those caught smuggling food off the ship.

 

People will post saying they have done this without a problem so the final consideration is:

 

Are you feeling lucky and willing to risk a fine to save a few dollars? "

__________________

I would add:

 

Before you leave home

Buy a small gift for your room steward, and give it to him/her the first day. One time we took chocolate-covered pretzels from Costco. Our steward was so touched she actually cried a bit, and we got great service the entire cruise.

Thanks for compiling the list. I've already started my own spreadsheet, but now I think I'll just print out your post!

do not 'reserve' your pool chair until you're ready to put your butt in it....that's "chair-hogging" and should not be done!

thank you!

Wow this is a great list. I'll have to print it up.

Thrdflr, thanks so much for handy, dandy list! I'm getting ready for my first cruise, this list has given me a lot of great tips.

Thank you for this list!

thank you, saves me having to write them all out, much appreciated

Great list, but a few I disagree with (chair hogs and removing food from ship) as well that have been pretty much covered.

Great list, thanks for compiling!

 

One that I will contest and please ask people not to do: play taste and waste and order several entree's because your mom isn't there to tell you not to waste. INSTEAD: ask to have the same entree's in appetizer size - then you can taste all the things you want to and won't waste so much!

To make it clear, I, like many posted here have never sailed on RCI. Our first RCI cruise is 4/4/10.

 

I did not make any suggestions, I mearly gathered this all from about 500 pages (ok, it seemed like 10,000) I scanned over the weekend on this website and compiled it all.

 

The Chair hogs and free lunch are tips others wrote and posted here. All I did was edit some for clarity, brevity and format sake. I do not drink or gamble but will find some related to that as well. Many of these tips do not apply to all RCI ships as some are different. I was hoping the moderators would make this a sticky to help others who come here looking for info.

 

If you posted a tip in another thread don't feel offended I did not include it oe edited it, I scanned over so many pages that if it did not seem to be a tip, I passed over it. My apologies it was not intentional. Sorry I don't take cruises with my kids to be a rum runner.....Not to be a prude but if you are that desperate for a drink, you got a problem and need to go to AA.

This is great! Thanks so much :) Going on my very first cruise this Saturday, on Independence. I'll have a printout of the list with me (and thanks to all the people who contributed)!