Star class for dummies

[ThirstyCruiser]

This was our zoo by the last day.

On the first day:
Us:  "Hey, wow, that towel animal you made was really cool!"
Attendant:  "Hold my beer..."

[scubaslayer]

So at what price point is the upgrade worth it from Sky to Star for most of you? I am debating between the 2 bedroom Grand and the 2 bedroom aqua for a high school graduation cruise on Harmony. Also should I wait to book onboard in a couple months or just book now to save our spot. What tours can your Genie arrange onboard? One or 2 of my kids are interested in theater but the backstage ins and outs as well (think stage crew, sound, and lighting). What experiences/extras have you had your Genie provide besides the food (and OMG the food)?

[AlexandNessa]

 

Hi! And welcome to the good life!

 

We've done one SC pre-rona and one after. We've been lucky to have 2 great Genies. We communicated with the first Genie through email and the 2nd through WhatsApp. Both worked well. Our Genie who used WA was great. She knew we didn't care to be bothered in the morning and so she would message us around 11am or so to say she hoped we were having a great day and to please let her know if we needed anything, to please contact her if we wanted lunch in our room, etc. (We LOVED our room and Tarah left it during the day. She figured this out quickly.) She always messaged us to ask if it was convenient to come visit us. We loved her so she was always welcome anytime. She would always act as Maitre D'for us as well I'm Amy specialty restaurant,

unless we were in Coastal Kitchen, then she would just meet us there. 

 

Here is a tip: since this is your first SC cruise, make time with your family to fill the survey out together and have some fun with it. I find it a fun way to get pumped for your cruise, though repack relatively meaningless. But, this is more important: when your Genie reaches out via email, reply. I created a one page,  bulleted Word doc to briefly describe what's important to us, what's not, foods we hate and love, must dos, must nots. Our Genie ate that up and took it to heart in ways i never imagined. She commented many times how helpful it was. Be sure to include allergies or dietary needs here. 

 

Also, your Genie will tell you to let him/her know how you want your fridge stocked. She didn't offer Blue Moon in her initial email but i know they have it on the ship, and it was no problem. She also arranged a bid red cooler full of drinks for us. 

 

I'm sure you'll appreciate the magic Genie elevator key on occasion as well. 😅

 

Enjoy!

 

 

[jaaem]

>> So at what price point is the upgrade worth it from Sky to Star for most of you?

 

Just got off 1st Star class cruise. It is not about the price, it is about the experience and the luxury. On Anthem, my family had wonderful time and skipped lines for bumper cars and laser tag. Priceless time savings. Genie handled all the bookings, which was great for a 1st timer on Royal. If we were experienced cruisers probably not much benefit. Unlimited specialty dining (restaurants, pub, patisserie) amounts to ~$1,500 for 4 on 7 day cruise. Drink package another $1,000. Unlimited laundry maybe $250 (we had it done every day).

 

We got theater, galley and bridge tours. They were ok, nothing special. Also got in-port and at-sea North Star. Star Class hour on flowrider, puzzle room. Reserved seats at shows, which was nice. Genie then brought us drinks to seat. 

 

As other blogs say, it is like buying a first class seat. Still get to the same place, just more comfortable.

 

[Dan83]

We just finished our first star class cruise. It was really great and now we don’t want to cruise Royal Caribbean without it. It wasn’t perfect, and some of my expectations may have been too high. The rest my family was more impressed than I was. I was chatting with a family in another 2 BR aqua suite, they had a completely different experience than we did and it all boiled down to differences in Genies. I’ll list my things to fuss about first and then list the things that were awesome. 
I felt communication was lacking with our genie. I didn’t understand their capabilities until about halfway through the cruise. He never really explained until later.  For example, they can only reserve seating at an event that requires reservations, such as the aqua show or the comedy club. I had messaged about getting seats in Studio B for the crazy quest game show. This event doesn’t require reservations so no reserved seating for the genies. Seats don’t really matter for that event anyway but I didn’t know at the time. So when I would ask for something like that he couldn’t do, I would get radio silence. I just wish he would have responded and said , I can’t do that and this is why. No problem. But instead I’m left wondering with no response for a couple hours.  He did print the list of dining reservations and show times at the beginning of the cruise. But we never got any daily reminders. I was always hunting for the schedule or trying to find it on my phone. The genie would show up at dining times and meet us in the theater. That mostly was all we saw of him except for a couple other times which I’ll mention in the awesome things he did. Another thing that I didn’t really figure out until later in the cruise was how to handle changes in dining plans. With a group of 6, there was bound to be someone wanting to go off schedule. And I was usually the one who was craving something different last minute. Having the genie change reservations was a much more complicated process than just showing up at the venue we wanted to go to. For example, my wife and I had a craving for the guacamole at Sabor. We just showed up for lunch and they were happy to work us in. Messaging the genie back and forth while he checked the system for available slots would have been a 30 minute ordeal. The staff at the specialty restaurants were all fantastic about making changes, always very accommodating. We didn’t always want to dine as a group of 6 and sometimes we wanted to separate and go to different venues. It seemed like it put a lot of strain on the genie when we asked for changes like that. Last thing to fuss about, and really it’s no reason to fuss. It’s just one of the things that I had my expectations set too high. I was hoping to have something specially prepared. Nothing big or extravagant, just something made for us. Many have mentioned a cake but I wasn’t in to that. We can get cake anywhere. I had a goal to get biscuits and chocolate gravy. I’ve never seen chocolate gravy on a cruise before. It’s super easy to make with about 5 ingredients. Wasn’t going to happen. I may as well have asked for the moon.  All in all, I got the sense that the genie had a high workload.  He mentioned once that he had been dealing with a situation when he didn’t show up as usual for dinner.  So there you have the gripes. Really all nothing burgers, didn’t slow us down a bit.  Oh one more gripe, I almost forgot. There was a sheet listing star class perks left in the cabin. It mentioned a priority line for select activities. It had times listed that basically excluded peek times during sea days. These priority lines did not exist at any of the activities. The kids did report skipping a long line once at the abyss slide and being sent back to the end another time. None of that was really ever an issue because we never really saw any extremely long lines anywhere. 

 

Now for a few things that really impressed me. The last night our genie really came through. We had chefs table reservations at 6:30. Since adventure ocean didn’t open until 7, I suspected that we would have to get creative. I asked him earlier in the week how we would handle those 30 minutes. He said he would check with the kids club staff and get back to me. I never heard back from him about the matter and hoped for the best. Now this was the last day and I’d been drinking heavily all day. I managed to get the kids to windjammer sometime after 6 pm while the rest of the adults finished getting ready for chefs table. So I messaged the genie again asking about this 30 minute situation with the kids. He asked where I was at and within a few minutes he had found us. He escorted us to chefs table , dropped me off, then he took the kids up to adventure ocean and got them checked in. The adventure ocean is usually pretty strict with check in procedures and times. I’m not sure how he pulled this off but it worked out perfectly. I’m like wow, you just performed a miracle with the kids club but you can’t get me a table at sorrento’s pizza, lol. Now I mentioned that I had been drinking heavily. We were getting holiday pours at chefs table and my wife doesn’t drink wine so I had hers too. I don’t know why I had to push it with the wine after having a drink package all week, but it is what it is. It happened.  The way I remember it was that I realized that I had had too much and I politely got up and left for the room. My wife tells a different story.  Our genie escorted me from chefs table to the cabin. I’m certain that I couldn’t have made it on my own. I don’t know if he was in the right place at the right time or if the waitstaff at chefs table called him. Doesn’t sound like a big deal but at that moment it was extremely helpful. The wife and in laws stayed and did damage control.  All the other little things about star class really do add up to make for a great experience. The genie elevator powers, theater seating, embarkation, debarkation, etc. Oh and the aqua suite is amazing. Absolutely worth every step down a long hallway. That balcony is amazing and you can’t get that view anywhere else on the ship. This was our 15th Royal Caribbean cruise and it was a completely different experience for us. I wouldn’t hesitate to book star class again if a bargain ever presents itself. Prices have skyrocketed since I booked this one nearly two years ago. 

 

Thanks for sticking through a long post. Let me know if anything needs to be clarified. 

[RFerrington]

Who was your Genie ?