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New Program called "The Key"


ValerieJo
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2 minutes ago, icemanoneaatl said:

I can only speak for our trip last week on Allure, and from reading the comments- the experience varies from ship to ship and even sailing to sailing.

 

our key logo was not printed on our cards but instead a key logo sticker - mine was a bit lopsided and I had to be careful not to have it pulled off by mistake.  

 

Also of interest,  we did not get our room keys until we were at our door around 145p.  At Chops, I mentioned we were part of the key as we only had our set sail pass- he typed in our room number on the computer and voila - it must be indicated in their system- no problems simply great service.  We did not get our key paperwork until we arrived in the room- in an envelope on the bed- we didn’t really need it before then anyway.  In the envelope were the purple bands but we opted not to wear those and simply showed our card when needed.

I'm curious...what were your purple bands?  no bands on Anthem.  Just the blue one when we dropped off our luggage at the theater and we ended up buying black Wow bands after the fact.  And I was talking the paper set sail pass.  When we got the cards, they had a black sticker key on them.  

Edited by MissLittle1959
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On Allure now and we got both a purple one and a pale blue one with the key printed on it. No idea what the significance of the purple one is. There is a black key stuck onto my sea pass.

 

All my key paperwork was in my room. Nothing was passed to us when handing over carry on luggage at the Theatre where they checked our room number against a list of people with the key.

 

We got in a queue for Chops just after 11.30 and a couple were turned away grumbling that they needed something called the key to dine there. The concierge checked our room number and then had someone show us to our table.

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With any type of priority boarding you can arrive whenever you want. (Acrually anyone can arrive whenever, they just use the times in an attempt to somewhat control the flow of boarsing) We cruised 2 weeks ago and arrived at Port Everglades about 10 am and were able to board as soon as they began the process. 

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7 hours ago, cre8tiv said:

Would you mind commenting on RCCL implementation/lack there of, of adult only areas being Kept, adult only?  Solarium, late nite comedy club, etc?


The only way into the late night comedy show is with a reservation, and the only way to get a reservation is to be over the age of 18.  

Ditto for the adult nightclub -- you have to show ID (Seapass card) at the door (unless you're VERY obviously an adult -- I've had them "card" me when I was 49yo! LOL), and only those over the age of 18 are allowed in the nightclub.  Children are not allowed even when accompanied by their parents.

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Children (under 16) are not supposed to be in the Solarium. They are allowed in the Solarium Bistro. I would hope that the crew would keep children out of this area. I think it will be the only pool and hot tubs that I would feel comfortable using as I have read some unpleasant experiences with diapers in the main pools.

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13 minutes ago, brillohead said:


The only way into the late night comedy show is with a reservation, and the only way to get a reservation is to be over the age of 18.  

Ditto for the adult nightclub -- you have to show ID (Seapass card) at the door (unless you're VERY obviously an adult -- I've had them "card" me when I was 49yo! LOL), and only those over the age of 18 are allowed in the nightclub.  Children are not allowed even when accompanied by their parents.

 

Don't you love being carded😊 Makes me feel young again!

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26 minutes ago, blueridgemama said:

 

Don't you love being carded😊 Makes me feel young again!


Out at restaurants this month (turned 50 a few weeks ago), had servers legit guess my age at 34 and 39.  I guess I'm just never going to grow up.

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On 4/20/2019 at 3:28 PM, October17 said:

Today is last day at sea, had the key luggage tags and a letter in the room in the morning. Key breakfast on deck 4, then to go to a meeting point to be escorted off ship, and to ask staff to help us past lines ashore (so I take it as meaning there will be no separate line once off the ship). 

 

Also got a form for key feedback that needs to be left to the cabin attendant today.

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We just got off Symphony and didn’t get a key feedback form.

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5 hours ago, brillohead said:


The only way into the late night comedy show is with a reservation, and the only way to get a reservation is to be over the age of 18.  

Ditto for the adult nightclub -- you have to show ID (Seapass card) at the door (unless you're VERY obviously an adult -- I've had them "card" me when I was 49yo! LOL), and only those over the age of 18 are allowed in the nightclub.  Children are not allowed even when accompanied by their parents.

Thanks!

spoke to someone recently off the Allure and they said they’d not do it again

😞 kids were everywhere and unsupervised so my heart kind of dropped. 

I think the combo of many kids ( they specifically mentioned running rampant in the Solarium) and the spring break atmosphere(?) Just didn’t work for them. 

Regardless, I’m sure we ll have a great time and I’m looking forward to the activities of the ship..and will find some quiet spots, I’m sure. 

thx for all the info!  

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5 hours ago, blueridgemama said:

Children (under 16) are not supposed to be in the Solarium. They are allowed in the Solarium Bistro. I would hope that the crew would keep children out of this area. I think it will be the only pool and hot tubs that I would feel comfortable using as I have read some unpleasant experiences with diapers in the main pools.

Fingers crossed ur right. Thx!

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I have now used the KEY program twice in the past couple of months and both experiences were quite different.  When I used it in Tampa, they had signs directing passengers with the KEY all over so there was no confusion as to where to go.  We immediately went up an elevator and into the check in area designated for KEY passengers, got our sea pass cards with the key logo on them, waiting is a special area and was allowed on ship right after Diamond members. Approx. 10 minutes, went right to CHOPS for lunch after giving our carry on's to staff waiting just inside the door.  We only paid 19.99 a day for the KEY which is 10.00 less. I am not sure why we got the offer. It could be it was just a 4 day cruise, or a special, not sure but it was so worth every penny.  We had free wifi, reserved seating area, first off ship at port, drink specials like buy one wine get one free, buy one specialty coffee, get one free etc.  Designated times for flow rider/rock wall.  Fruit plate in our room at arrival and then specialty restaurant on debarkation day and our luggage is a separate area. We were escorted off ship away from the crowd.  Now with that being said, we had the KEY on our last cruise for 10 days to New Zealand and I am not sure it was worth the money totally however appreciated some of the perks.  We got on the ship in Sydney Australia and they did not have their act together for KEY passengers.  There were no signs anywhere directing us to where to go. It was total mass confusion at the cruise pier. We asked approx. 6 employees at the pier where we were to line up for the KEY and nobody knew. Each person sent us to a different location. Finally, a gentleman announced a meeting area for the KEY passengers and then we were in line and embarking in no time.  Sydney was the most confusing cruise port we have experienced but a beautiful location to visit.   The important thing to remember if trying to decide to purchase the KEY is your cruise itself.  The KEY meant nothing at the ports in New Zealand as each port we were at, they were commercial ports.  They would not allow you to get off the ship unless you had an excursion booked because of them being commercial ports.  There was absolutely nothing around to see or do.  You could only get off when it was your turn to based on the time of your excursion. You were only allowed to walk directly to the bus transportation and same once you returned. You had to immediately get on the ship.  the WIFI worked excellent in New Zealand and since we have the What's APP we could always be in contact with our friends and family at home.  We are going on another cruise in September on Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas however will not purchase the KEY program since we are in a grand suite.  It's personal preference and price is questionable.  It sounds like a lot of people are having different experiences with them too. 

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We are just off the Adventure of the Seas and I wanted to share our experience with the key program.  There were 3 in our party (2 adults and a 7YO) and we paid $19.99 a day per person.  They were still selling the key a few days before our cruise so I expect it did not sell out.  Overall I would say it was nice to have but far from necessary if you don't want to spend the money.  We chose it because my husband really hates crowds and having to wait in line so we're generally willing to pay a little more to avoid those situations.  

 

We used the special check-in lines and embarkation lunch at Chops.  The check-in lines in general were not long so I don't know if that saved us much time.  We did drop off one bag to be delivered to our stateroom an it was there no problem.  Lunch at Chops was nice but our server was poor and it took much longer than it should have to the point where we just skipped dessert because we wanted to explore the ship.  Other tables with other servers did not seem to have this problem.  The menu was what I had seen posted on this thread.  There was also no kids menu available which was a bummer for our 7YO. 

 

We used the express debarkation at our stop in San Juan.  We arrived in the afternoon and had a private excursion so we wanted to get off the boat as soon as possible.  We met at one of the lounges and were escorted around the line to get off the boat.   This probably saved us about 10 minutes of waiting to get off the boat. 

 

My husband and I used the reserved seating for shows several times.  The reserved area was in the balcony with the suites and elite status members.  We would arrive right before the show started and there were always plenty of seats.  There were also plenty of seats available throughout the theater so I'm not sure if this was a real benefit.

 

There were dedicated hours for rock climbing, flowrider and ice skating.  We went to 3 or 4 of the rock climbing hours and only ever saw one other family there.  We also went to one of the ice skating sessions and were the only people on the ice which was very cool.  We did not go to the flowrider hours.  There was no mention of skipping the lines at times not designated on our schedule.  

 

We used the internet for one devise throughout the cruise.  In general it worked fine although was to slow to stream videos in the evenings.  I had no problems in the morning when I'm assuming less people are using the network.

 

On our last day we went to breakfast in the dinning room.  The hours were 6:30-9am.  We got there around 8am and were escorted off around 8:45am.  There were at most 10 other families there.  When we were done eating, the escort took us to the exit off the boat.  Then we collected our luggage from a designated key area and were then directed to a special line to clear customs.  This saved us considerable time because the customs line was pretty long.  

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We are on the Liberty on May 12th.  The Key has been sold out for our sailing for weeks.  As soon as I learned of it, I went to book it and it was already showing as unavailable.  There was a blurb that said check onboard.  Even though it was sold out, it was showing a price of $19.99 per person per day.  This morning when I did my daily check to see if it was available, the check on board blurb was gone but it still wouldn't allow me to add it to the cart.  I called and they said it was sold out. Later I looked again and the price now says $31.99!!  That's a little too much, even it it was available.

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On 4/22/2019 at 8:35 AM, MissLittle1959 said:

I can't figure out why there are so many who don't have the Key symbol on their printed set sail passes.  Ours was a black Key right alongside our Gold designation.  You will love Allure and no matter how many people are there, it will never seem crowded unless the parade is going on.  Enjoy her and make sure you see Mamma Mia!  It's fantastic!

We had printed out our set sail passes a few weeks before we decided to buy the key, therefore the key symbol   was not on the set sail pass.  But I did go in and reprinted the set sail pass and the key symbol is on it now.  

 

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44 minutes ago, tcmagnum said:

We had printed out our set sail passes a few weeks before we decided to buy the key, therefore the key symbol   was not on the set sail pass.  But I did go in and reprinted the set sail pass and the key symbol is on it now.  

 

Our set sail pAss did not have a key on it and we had the key months before I printed the set sail pass.

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2 minutes ago, Lindanuf said:

Our set sail pAss did not have a key on it and we had the key months before I printed the set sail pass.

Same here. I event went into my booking and 'updated' my info on the set sail pass and saved it to see if it would trigger adding the key. Nope.  Shows my C&A status and that's it.  It's the same for either the web version or on the app, no sign of 'the key' on either.  So I've printed out my confirmation that I have purchased The Key.  My sailing is May 19 on Allure.  

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We recently returned from our twelfth cruise out of Galveston, our last one before this being in December. During the interim, Royal instituted another cha-ching producer known as The Key. For a pretty steep price ($25/pp per day ... and all members of the party must enroll) passengers receive a bunch of perks (some of which are only otherwise available to suite guests), and must join in advance of the cruise (it's not available on ship). By itself it doesn't affect us, but when we arrived at the terminal, our preferred boarding (which we earned by paying tens of thousands to become D+) had been eliminated by a line designated exclusively for The Key. Royal has taketh away yet another perk. Instead of whizzing through security and boarding, it took close to an hour to finally get our Sea Passes. During our wait, absolutely nobody came through that dedicated Key line. The attendant, rather than coming over to assist with the crowd, just stood there, staring at her phone. 

 

No, we're not picking up our toys and going elsewhere, since Carnival is the only other option out of Galveston (for adults anyway, at least chronologically), and living less than an hour from the port, not having to fly to cruise is a big deal. With so many Diamond and D+ members, Royal is in effect a victim of its own success (witness the Diamond Club on Liberty). But by diluting the benefits to its loyal passengers in favor of another revenue stream (which apparently has few takers at this point), while (in case you haven't noticed) raising cruise fares and eliminating every incentive (save for a reduced deposit) to book on board ... oh well.  Just a couple of observations ... time to go and look for our next cruise.      

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I'm booked on Allure in November and paid 24.99 per day for The Key.  I just looked at the cruise planner, and the price is up to $37.99, so an increase of over 50%.  

 

I'm leaving on Navigator Friday and paid $19.99 and I was debating if it was worth it. Since I want internet anyway, I decided to give it a try. 

Edited by RW_MI
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