twangster

Came here to post the same. A poster on the ship:

Youth have been damaging ships (and hotels) for decades. Current policies exist because of previous transgressions. Occasionally a dysfunctional family boards a cruise ship and stuff happens. However that doesn't mean that ALL youth behave this poorly week after week, cruise after cruise or that it's a generational issue. Bad parents have existed for decades too. This can and does happen anytime. It's not a spring break thing. This sounds like one bad set of youth, maybe even one bad individual who influenced others to behave beyond their normal limits. Hopefully the family belonging to the youth ring leader are put off the ship and have to pay for the damages as indicated. I've seen something similar happen and it wasn't during spring break. A child around age 8 or 9 was in the habit of throwing a tantrum and would punch random people. As it turns out one of those people included the staff Captain who happened to be walking through an area during a tantrum. While this child didn't damage the ship their behavior was unacceptable. The father of the child was himself a special individual who got into a heated exchange with the staff Captain over the incident. They were confined to their cabin and put off in San Juan, the next stop. It happens. Some people have little respect for others, people or property, and their children learn from the parents. That has been happening for generations and will continue with future generations. It's not about the current generation of parents and it's not a reflection of today's youth in general.

Apple's randomized MAC is called "Private WiFi Address". There is also Apple's Relay service and if it's an AT&T branded phone it could have AT&T's version of Apple's Relay service. Both are designed to "protect" you by tunneling all your traffic through them on the premise that your service provider is spying on. Instead Apple/AT&T are spying on you. They can also change the DNS servers again so that your ISP "can't spy on you". Google offers these types of services as well. They all really do it so they can monitor every packet your send and they know what you are doing and searching for. The problem is all of these "protection" services can interfere with captive portals like the Voom login page. MSC does a better job informing people to disable all of these types of services. Royal does not.

Fifteen years ago the mention of large ships in Alaska would have resulted in laughter. Now large ships have been sailing in Alaska for five years. Like in Alaska the ports that can will adapt to accept larger ships. Five to eight years from now some ports will adapt while other ports will close themselves to cruising entirely. The British Virgin islands has some small(er) capable ports that Royal infrequently calls upon vs. other cruise lines including Celebrity. Few ever complain about Royal not going to the BVI. Just like in Alaska there are enough ports that are large ship capable to make interesting itineraries. There remain some ports in Alaska, just like the BVI, that remain small ship only. Despite that, large ship cruising in Alaska (and the Caribbean) is hugely successful. Other regions will yield similar outcomes over the next 5, 10 and 15 years. There is no need to make small ships to remain a hugely successful cruise line. There is no mandate or requirement to sail into every cruise port everywhere.

Airlines have been doing it for years. Look around the next time you fly. Some folks near you probably spent less than you did and some folks paid way more. Supply and demand pricing concepts have been around for decades. This is hardly a new practice. Royal has been mining data for over a decade as well and using that data to model pricing. Look at the price of a house in one city or neighborhood versus another. It's well known that in real estate it's all about location, location, location which is just another way of saying demand, demand, demand. Is that gouging?

Royal doesn't own the port, pier or terminal. Any assistance must be provided by the local officials that operate the facility, much like at airports.

Royal has had dynamic pricing since like forever.

As long as you didn't get there from a RoyalUp, you get a total of 3 points per night. One point per night base, one extra point per night for being solo in a double occupancy cabin plus one more extra point per night for booking and sailing in a suite.

The only though I had about a new ship doing 3/4 short cruises is that they charge such a new ship premium that by offering short cruises the sticker shock isn't so bad and folks might be more willing to splurge and accept the new ship premium since the total doesn't appear so bad. On a per night basis it's outrageous but when it's only 3 or 4 nights the total amount appears more "affordable". $1,800 to $2,400 for an entry level cabin on a short cruise doesn't seem so bad even if that is $400 per person per night. A 7 night cruise would be $5,600. $2,400 is a lot easier to justify compared to $5,600 to experience a brand new ship.

Kids match their parents internet perk at all levels of CAS including gold through emerald. Parents who are gold have long received 10% off on board packages... and so do their kids. Parents who are platinum and emerald have long received 15% off on board packages... and so do their kids. The purpose of the chart is not to include every on board benefit in exact detail for every level as it relates to youth. Kids match their parents Voom discount. Concise and exact.

That was grabbed from the website a few days ago. I don't know what the old verbiage was or when it was updated.

True, but the onboard prices for a bottle of wine even with a discount are much higher than the price for a bottle in a retail store that can be carried on.

Hurts the solo cruiser though.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/onboard-alcohol-guest-policy Guests are not allowed to bring beer or hard liquor onboard for consumption or any other use. Alcoholic beverages (beer, seltzer or hard liquor) seized on embarkation day will not be returned. Security may inspect containers (water bottles, soda bottles, mouthwash, luggage etc.) and will dispose of containers holding alcohol. Guests who violate any alcohol policies, (over consume, provide alcohol to people under the legal drinking age, demonstrate irresponsible behavior, or attempt to conceal alcoholic items at security and or luggage check points or any other time), may be disembarked or not allowed to board, at their own expense, in accordance with our Guest Conduct Policy. Guests who are under the permitted drinking age will not have alcohol returned to them. Please Note: All guests must comply with TSA guidelines for transporting liquids. On embarkation day, each guest of drinking age may bring one (1) sealed 750 ml bottle of wine or champagne. Boxed wine and other containers are prohibited. Guests who purchase alcohol bottles onboard, in a port-of-call, or bring more than the one permitted bottle on boarding day, will have their items safely stored by the ship. These bottles will be returned on the last day onboard for enjoyment once home. For consecutive sailings, guests of drinking age are allowed to bring one (1) 750 ml bottle of wine or champagne for each individual sailing. Additional bottles will be stored by the ship and delivered, one bottle at a time, to the stateroom on the first day of each new voyage. Guests bringing more than one bottle at the start of the first sailing should have documentation for any consecutive sailings available to share with security.

Exactly. Some people don't care about blocks. Some people do care about blocks. So as a compromise they are finding cheaper blocks. So be it. Their ship, their rules.

WINE ALLOTMENT UPDATE Starting on March 3rd, 2023, the new wine and champagne allowance for Royal Caribbean will be one (1) 750 mL bottle, per adult of drinking age, per sailing. The bottles should still be brought via hand luggage/carry on and not in checked luggage. We recommend each guest bring their bottle in their respective carry-on bag for security purposes.

When I book Star it is generally for the cabin. The genie is a side benefit. Sometimes, Star is better deal especially with larger groups where adding UDP, DX and gratuity on a per person basis adds up quickly with more people involved. For a solo or a couple it can be harder to make Star numbers work purely on the basis on what's included.

Every perk or benefit has an associated cost for every business that offers a loyalty program. To any business it all sums up to a line on a spreadsheet at budget time. When that number is too big something has to give. Give up the v1 blocks and accept v2 cheaper blocks or give up some other perk. I'm not sure anyone would like the other ideas they had to contain the cost of the loyalty program.

I'll reserve judgement of the blocks until I see them. The way I see is the company is a financial wreck right now. Sorry, but it's a disaster from any money perspective. The free blocks from the free loyalty program have a cost to them. They tried to get rid of them and they could have held that position but they relented. Now they are trying to save money. Completely understandable. It's a free gift in a free loyalty program. Nothing more. It's not a birth right of cruising. With nearly a complete set of v1 blocks the v2 blocks just create a whole new reason to book more cruises.

This is cruisecritic. Try cruisehappy. :)

The interior guarantee cabin can only hold two guests. You can't put a 3rd in that cabin regardless of age or size. The 2nd mock booking is for a cabin that hold three guests. That's a different category of cabin so while both are interior it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. Cabins that hold only 2 guests are plentiful and because there are more available they are cheaper. Supply and demand. There are fewer cabins that hold more than two guests so they are more in demand and they fetch a higher rate. Also guarantee cabins are almost always less than picking your own cabin. Try pricing 3 adults vs. 2 adults and 1 kid. Pick the same cabin # for both mock bookings. Only then is it an apples-to-apples comparison. Then you should see the effect of KSF if it is offered on that sailing.

They started launching v2 mini as a stop gap realizing that Starship in regular and routine service is still a while away. The full size v2 can't fit on Falcon 9.

You get priority to wait... instead of regular waiting. With regular waiting you show up, they punch several keys on the keyboard and the result is you wait. With priority waiting they see you coming and make you wait right away. It's much faster waiting.

If you call and tell them it's your fiancé they sometimes will and sometimes won't. Technically a fiancé is not an equivalent to a spouse. If you refer to them as your spouse they probably will without getting into the details. The same address notation is widely accepted as a criteria but that's never been documented by Royal anywhere. The exact wording is: A Crown & Anchor Society member can be added into a relationship with other family members in the same household and receive equivalent tier status; however, Cruise Points will remain according to actual cruises taken and calculated using the Program level accrual system described above. Pinnacle Club member tier status will not be awarded to dependents if earned by their parent and/or guardian. Pinnacle Club member tier status can only be earned by an individual, spouse or significant other* by one of them accumulating 700 Cruise Points or more in the Crown & Anchor Society program. For all tiers except Pinnacle Club, a relationship is defi ned as a spouse or significant other* and children less than 18 years old. For Pinnacle Club a relationship is considered a spouse and/or significant other*. *In all instances, a “significant other” is defined as someone in a similar relationship to an individual as a spouse.

Depends on the LA. Sometimes day one, sometimes on some other night. I don't think they put that much effort in to it. I also don't think the LA does the actual placement in the cabin so they have to rely on other staff to do that and that means it can vary and out of their control.