KeroTravel

Thanks for posting this. I've been totally immersed in her website since I saw your post last week.

We will be on SOTS early next year and we do not have a dining package or the DBP, we will have the refreshment package though. Four questions: 1. Are there non-alcoholic beverage options (besides pop/soda)? The online menu only shows 2 x No Alcohol beers available. 2. Do we need to be seated at a table or have ordered food if the kids wanted to play the arcade games or table games like Jenga or Connect Four? (We of course, would never hog up a table if people needed to eat) 3. Do arcade credits work at Playmaker games as well, or only in the regular arcade? 4. On the RCI website it says "Age Restriction 21+ from North America, 18+ from other places" - but I've seen pictures with kids playing games and eating in there, are children allowed? TIA.

Also says in red capital letters - important - if using as onboard credit, the gift card must be redeemed 10 business days prior to the sail date. Or for use toward cruise payment - to be redeemed at least 14 days before. Good to know, because we are also thinking of purchasing gift cards. With the exchange rate so volatile we would rather know what we've spent in advance than being surprised when we see our cc bills after the cruise.

We recently booked The Key as well for our upcoming sailing on Symphony and our math was correct. The price we saw x amount of days is what we paid. No additional charges. Suppose this is just a glitch on their end.

We had originally booked MTD for our upcoming cruise (first time with Royal) and then switched to traditional after reading all the complications with lines and wait times to get seated even with a reservation. The concept of reservations with MTD makes no sense, especially if people don't show up. How long is a "space" (not exactly a specific table) held for someone who has decided they aren't eating in the MDR that night? MTD should just work like a restaurant that doesn't accept reservations - you show up and you wait for a table for your party size. Seems like that would be the most efficient.

Glad its not just me

Thank you so much for sharing. We will be on Symphony OTS April 2023 our of Barcelona and this will be our first cruise with our son who, at that time, will be 2 months shy of 4 years old. I'm not stressing on details, but do want to make sure we all enjoy our trip, and a big part of that will be making sure that our little one is enjoying himself. Our itinerary is the same as the one you just did, so this was extremely helpful.

I'm also one for a waist wallet … or a hip bag (as I believe that is what they are called these days). I'm curious as to what people are putting in the slings and backpacks. For me less is better.

I'm not one for sleeping on planes, but when we do fly from Toronto to anywhere in Europe I insist I get as much sleep as possible because when we land its morning, so I go on about my day like its a new day (because technically it is), in which my night's sleep was just pretty crappy, which can happen on or off of a plane. We also go to bed earlier than usual the first night, maybe 9ish to catch up on some of that missed sleep.

What are everyone's top 5-10 items that absolutely must be in your day bag when you're on out on tour/excursion (that isn't the beach)? Mine are: 1. Hand Sanitizer 2. Tissue/Kleenex 3. Wallet (spare cash, cards, ID & copy of passport) 4. Chapstick 5. Lotion (hand & sun) 6. Stomach and headache medication (just in case)

Oh, this is good to know. Thank you. We have The Key for our upcoming cruise, but I think I will just keep a small bag with some first day essentials with me just in case of an emergency.

The price seems like a lot, but when we break it down its not that much. Right now our upcoming cruise for UDP is $272.36 CAD per adult (as per today's exchange that's $207.27 USD), which is only $38 CAD per dinner (if we're only going to do dinner). Very reasonable - only thing not reasonable is having to fork over $800+ dollars for 3 adults at this very moment.

We will be brining our stroller on our West Med cruise April 2023 for our almost 4 year old. He can walk for long stretches of time, but for European port days, he will definitely want to sit, when he's ready or if he requires a middle of the day nap. I've read that a stroller won't be allowed, or can't fit in many establishments; like restaurants etc. and will need to be left outside un-attended. Has anyone ever had their stroller stolen? Would it be necessary to bring some sort of bike lock for the wheels to prevent theft, or am I just being paranoid? It's a pretty lightweight stroller so I suppose even with a lock someone could just pick it up and be on their way.

This will be our second time to Barcelona. We don't mind the short walk to Las Ramblas, if we need to. We chose Avenida this time around, because its closer to some of the sites we didn't have a chance to see last time.

Due to the horror stories as of late of people waiting too long for MTD, we switched to traditional. Our sailing (West.Med on Symphony) traditional times are 6:30 & 8:30. We opted for 6:30, as most of the MTD reservations we had booked for around 7-7:30. We also asked our TA to make sure our reservation said that we wanted to sit on our own (don't think anyone but us would be interested in dining with our 3 year old anyway)

We were on Celebrity Equinox 5 years ago the family in front of us bought a baguette (we were in Cannes) to bring back on board and they weren't allowed, so they were scarfing it down while in the line.

For our upcoming trip in April 2023 we'll be staying at Avenida Palace for 3 nights before sailing on Symphony. Very reasonable and the reviews were generally positive.

Just from looking at Google maps - your hotel is a 2 min walk to Museu de Cera de Barcelona, a 4 min walk to the Columbus Monument, a 4 min walk to The Maritime Museum, 3 min walk to Placa Reial, a 6 min walk to the Gothic Quarter, an 11 minute walk to the Cathedral. Not sure what types of sights you're looking to see. We'll be back in Barcelona for the second time at the end of April 2023, our Symphony cruise departs April 30 and we're arriving 3 days early so we have ample time to see sights we've already seen plus some new ones. Always welcome to suggestions.

Robbery! And with today's exchange rate at 1.30 CAD, that's $26 a pic 😬 Photo packages are on sale right now (everything actually seems to be on sale every few weeks or so) and I think I will go with a package … now to choose between 10 or 20 digitals (I feel like I wouldn't be able to pick 20 and definitely not 100)

How much, on average, is one picture going for these days?

If there is no drastic price change from now until sailing (fingers crossed for a sale Black Friday), we will wait a couple days to do it once on board. If there is a sale, I'll make the call to see what they say - the worst they can say is no.

We're thinking of calling to ask about this for our upcoming sailing April 2023. There will be 3 adults in our cabin and one of us does not drink at all. We've all got the refreshment package thus far, but are thinking for the other two us we'd like the DDP. Our question is if we are given the ok to proceed with this, would they cancel the entire order and rebook us at 1 refreshment, 2 DDP, or just charge us the difference for the DDP? We like the price we got for the refreshment package and if we do try for the deluxe would try on a day the price was lower if we were able to just pay the difference.

Will do! Thank you.

Thank you! We already have our TA on it. She will make the change for us today.

Ah....that's probably it. We will call our TA and get it straightened out. Thank you so much for your help.