TeeRick

AARP Gift cards with 10% discounts. That is something new I learned today. Thanks!

My two cents- all subjective of course based on my tastes. We cruised Symphony a couple of months ago. Our favorite show was the Ice Show called 1977. I personally thought Hairspray was too long and dragged in spots. I prefer Mama Mia and Grease on other O-Class ships.

HaHa yes so true. But that is the business that they are in, right?

Early in our cruising days with RCCL, we would book a Jr Suite and an interior cabin across the hall and our two kids would sleep in that cabin. Or we would book two adjacent connecting balconies as you mentioned. Either worked for us. A Jr Suite is more spacious but has little in the way of suite benefits.

This is an older thread but the answer still applies. In Feb on Symphony we went to the Suite Concierge and got a reservation to the comedy show in The Attic. No problem. It was not available on the app at all.

Honestly it would take less time to do a google search on the topic than to post the exact same question on 6 or 7 boards here. Seems a bit fishy to me.

They are your kids and you know them best, Nobody here knows them and can only post about their own kids and experiences. Given that, how can anybody truly put you mind at ease? If you are really concerned enough to post here on this topic, then maybe your gut is telling you something about your situation?

What is the availability for the specific cabin type and deck location that you want? You need to decide how important that factor is vs a "possible" decrease in prices.

How old are the three kids?

I thought the "urn" coffee in the WJ was Lavazza on my recent cruise, but I might be mixing it up with Celebrity. Anyway it was fine.

We were in a CLS. You will love it. The CLS-only area on deck 17 is adjacent to the suite lounge and CK so very convenient. But the suite sundeck on 17 requires that you go down to deck 16, cross the ship. and go through a card access gate, then up the stairs.

We recently sailed on Symphony in a suite. Assuming you are referring to the Suite Sun Deck? Yes it is quite nice and has a hot tub and very nice bar with service. There is plenty of quite comfortable seating in the shade. Some of it dependent on ship's direction and time of day. You need card access to get up there. It is adjacent to water slides on one side. Some days it can be windy.

Seems important to you to have a snack before dinner. As I mentioned before, go to dinner a bit later. Or switch from the 5PM dinner to My Time Dining and you can snack then dine. Lots of options for you.

If you are really eager for the snacks in the Suite Lounge then just go have some at 5PM and go to dinner a bit later? Maybe 5:30?

This is kind of a gray area. Technically it is beer and wine only. But twice recently we stayed in a CL suite (same suite class as a GS). We got various mixed drinks in the SL without using our coupons outside the 5-8 timeframe. Also no coupons asked for CK dining. Others have reported on here that they needed to use their coupons. I guess it depends on the ship and bartender's discretion. We have not bought drink packages, because the drinks in the SL plus our 5 coupons each are plenty for us. By the way, we were asked for coupons at the bar for mixed drinks on the suite sun deck, same cruise. And coupons were taken in the suite area on Labadee.

Curious about the country where you live. Is it cultural to tip or not tip? Restaurant dining, take out delivery, private transportation, etc. Now in the US, where we have a tipping culture galore, everything you buy with a credit card at a store or wherever, now a box pops up for an additional tip. We are made to feel guilty if we don't tip. This happened during the pandemic and carried over. Time to stop over-tipping IMO. On the other hand, on a cruise, I know the deal going in (for decades) and tipping is simply one of the known cruise costs. I would not stiff the hardworking crew.

Snarky? Oh not Pinboy! I generally enjoy your good-natured snark!😄

Slight nuance here to mention. Sometimes you and your cabin mate have different amounts of vouchers remaining on a given day. So you might tell the bartender which voucher to use, or to use two from the same person.

Won't Get Fooled Again by the Who. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

Here is what it means I think. Over and Above, Above and Beyond (service, not the ship!), anything describing service, like food, is in the subjective category. And it comes from an individual's personal expectations.

This is true - but also comments with their name mentioned with an exceptional service story are very good for them in the post-cruise survey.

We do tip extra above the standard daily gratuity - with cash in an envelope the last night of the cruise. Many cruisers do this. Here is what we typically do. Amounts are up to you. For a CS, you will have a true dedicated butler. That never changed*. When we cruise a CS and above, we tip him/her if we used them. Some use them more than others on here. We use our butler to deliver and set up breakfast, leave refreshments, etc. , also laundry services. [Note: Many Sky Suite cruisers no longer tip the butler team - although that is changing back]. We tend to leave an extra cash tip for the room attendant if they attend to any special requests. We tend to give an extra cash tip in Luminae - address it to the Team. Some give to individuals like the wine steward. We tend to give a cash tip to the Retreat Concierge if they did anything above and beyond for us. Bartenders and Bar servers - in the Retreat - we add a tip when they deliver our drinks.

Why do you think Baltimore is a large (enough) cruising market? It is secondary at best offering smaller older ships from a few cruise lines. It serves limited passengers.

Maybe if it were a local currency in a very small country hosting the Olympics. But definitely not the Euro.

Symphony. We just sailed on her and loved it. Are any of you in a suite per chance? Symphony is the much better choice there too.