twangster

For members with more than 340 points when booking solo there is a reduced single supplement. The discount to use when booking is DP340 (DiamondPlus340). It won't work if you don't have 340 or more points.

The reduced single supplement for 340+ points is not available in July or August plus holiday cruises like Christmas and US Thanksgiving.

It largely is a duplicate of what you provide to Royal but Royal doesn't and can't submit it to Canada on your behalf. Canada requires you submit it and that you attest your submission is truthful. I don't like it but it's requirement imposed by Canada to go there so it is what it is.

Free Voom is huge for folks like me that always buy Voom. On the road to Pinnieville I spent over $4k on Voom. Now it's always free. The only "problem" with free Voom is not being to able complain when Voom sucks. Before the six free drinks the 40% off the DX on board meant never having to shop the DX in the cruise planner. Cruise planner discounts usually top out at 30%, sometime but rarely above that. Knowing you have 40% off means you can board and decide if you feel like getting the DX for that cruise. Now with six free drinks it means never needing the DX, the math is just impossible to make work. Six free drinks is just about perfect for my needs, it's basically a free drink package. I'm not one to live in the suite lounge every night but it is nice to be able to drop by the SL off peak and enjoy a quiet area. Access to the suite sun deck is great especially on Quantum class (before Odyssey). In places like Alaska, Hawaii and New Zealand the suite sun deck is a great place to take in the sights as it's easy to go from port to starboard to watch for marine wildlife or take pictures in the Sounds of New Zealand. Coastal Kitchen for filet night can be better than Chops and zero cost. I don't do CK every night but when I do the service is better than the MDR even if the food isn't much different so it is nice to have CK as a fallback when the MDR menu isn't that enticing either. MDR service takes more time. CK is very efficient so while the food may not be all that different than the MDR, service in CK always is. Some of the best Pin benefits are not the hard perks but the soft perks like how you interact with the crew. Once crew see you are a nice pin they generally treat you like you are one of them. They open up and treat you like a long lost friend. It's not the "kiss a pin's butt" like some people assume, they know you've been around and you know the routine so they relax and interact more like you are a trusted friend. Generally speaking when crew learn you are Pin it results in a smile and "welcome back". It's a good thing in a positive way. It's an instant ice breaker. The guest service experience is better. Many GS staff make up stuff as excuses or make up policy. When they know you are a pin they cut the crap and know that you know better. It's hard to explain the soft benefits of being Pin. From terminal contractors to crew they all are more appreciative and warm in ways that is hard to explain. As far as wearing the Pin there are times when it does make life easier. Terminal contractors watch for it and instantly let you access the Suites/Pinnacle queue rather than needing to be shown a set sail pass to get access to the queue. It's just easier and I've had terminal contractors suggest I wear the pin next time to make it easier. I wear it for top tier events at the suggesting from many different LA's over time. Sometimes I wear the pin knowing it drives some people crazy. It's just a piece of jewelry the cruise line gave me yet it drives some people absolutely bonkers. PE is very real for some people. Who am I to deny driving them nuts over it? 🙂

That's why I sail other lines in the summer when DP340 is blacked out. I've sailed five lines since the restart although mostly on Royal. It's just hard to swallow the additional cost to sail other lines when DP340 is available. It's not a matter of wearing Royal goggles, it's a matter of wearing "wallet goggles" saving hundreds of dollars on cruise fare while also getting six free drinks and free internet quickly turns that into savings hundreds more. Sometimes that's a matter of spending $2,500 on one line or $1,750 on Royal for a similar cruise. You may see that as Royal Goggles, I see it as for what it is - saving $750.

DP340 is a trap. Once you get the reduced solo supplement it makes it hard to sail other cruise lines solo. You'll be surprised how quickly the second 350 points racks up once you get DP340. Even with the double points promo the road to Pinnacle before the shut down and the double points promo occurred a lot faster compared to the first 350.

Port fees and taxes, typically about $115 for a seven night cruise to the caribbean. Plus the cost of parking at the port.

Often JS cabins will not get the word "suites" on the app boarding pass but will on the printed boarding pass from a computer. Intercruises, the 3rd party who staffs the terminal doesn't know the cabins that are JS or full suites on any ship. They won't see cabin 6640 and know if that is or is not a JS. If your boarding pass doesn't say "Suites" or "Sea" on it, then you must use the regular lane. Perhaps they have fixed up but through early 2022 a JS still was never branded with "Suite" on the app BP while it was if you printed a BP on a computer.

I doubt that room service delivery personnel have card access to the lounge. Furthermore room service doesn't deliver around the ship. You can't order service delivered to the "solarium port side" or "promenade deck 4 port side". Room service delivers to your room. For that you need to sail Princess although in my experience Princess ignores your medallion location and always delivers to your cabin despite their promise to find you by your medallion.

I was last there on July 24. Didn't see or smell anything at CocoCay. A part of the North Atlantic ocean is called the Sargasso Sea for a reason. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sargassosea.html The first accounts of Sargassum in the Atlantic date back to Christopher Columbus in 1492. This is nothing new, it's just being reported lately for some reason. Must be a slow news day. Wikipedia:

Right, so will ESPN Caribbean be allowed access to any Thursday games this year? Amazon Prime exists beyond the US so does this exclusivity apply internationally?

Also approaching the one year anniversary of my Odyssey block to be. I sailed Odyssey a few more times in the fall and earned a second block in November. Also waiting for my Wonder block from March. Six to eight weeks turned into six to eight months which is turning into double that again. I trust it will show up eventually. Crazy times with supply chain right now.

I love aft balconies but there can be vibrations with all that power emanating from under the aft. The aft can experience some sensations of motion from all that power pushing the ship. The same sensation can be found flying the rear most aisles on a plane, there can be a "wagging of the tail" in aft cabins. It's not motion from swell in the ocean but more like what you feel riding on a subway train, a subtle side to side effect. I don't find forward to have the same wagging tail sensations from all that power of the propellers. I actually prefer forward locations when not in a fully aft facing balcony but motion from ocean swell doesn't get to me. For the purpose of motion coming from the ocean, low central cabin locations will reduce some ocean motion primarily a forward/aft pitching or porpoising effect. Some people are sensitive to up and down motion and when there is large low period swell that can raise the entire ship up and down. There is no place immune from this effect on a ship as the entire ship is lifting up a few feet and lowering a few feet with low period swell. The primary factor in how it impacts people will be the angle of the swell reaching the ship versus the heading of the ship. Even the largest ships are impacted by low period swell.

In the past streaming services were an alternate for when games didn't play on Royal, or Royal only carried the prime game of the week ignoring teams that aren't prime TV draw. I've streamed games on board using Voom in the past but the new streaming service NFL+ only works on phone and tablets so it can discover your GPS location. Something tells me they'll block a device outside of the US. Other streaming services worked on laptops that don't have GPS chips which is how I've watched games on board before. I suspect this is going to get harder with NFL+. It's a decent price for an annual subscription right now but it only works on phones and tablets.

Doesn't Amazon have a lock on Thursday games? Maybe I got that wrong but I thought some service or another has the rights to Thursdays.

It never hurts to ask. One phone agent might not allow it, another might. Have your alternate future date already picked just in case they say yes when you call.

The NFL has launched its own streaming service in 2022 while their contract with DTV is expiring. Consequently it's a whole new game (streaming versus what Royal will be able to pick up). I'd be careful making projections or assumptions from years past now that the NFL is promoting its own streaming service. Time will tell.

This is just the nature of android devices, particularly low end or cheap android devices. The Galaxy Tab "Lite" devices are low end devices. $129 at Costco. The problem is the processor or memory may not be compatible with all apps. My Galaxy Tab A was a little more but still not a full blown tablet. My 10.1 galaxy Tab was $199. It runs the Royal app (despite being listed as not compatible) but there are many apps my Samsung S22U will run that I can't load on my Galaxy Tab A. The Galaxy S series of tablets tend to be more expensive and they tend to run more apps but still no guarantee they can run every app that a full blown device can run. This is exactly the problem with android. A device manufacturer can build a device using a myriad of components and it will run android but that doesn't mean every app created by a developer can run on every android device. An equally cheap tablet from another manufacturer might use a different processor compared to a Galaxy "Lite" tablet and that cheapo device might run the Royal app just fine. The problem is you don't known until you try to load it.

Reports my Galaxy Tab A as being incompatible yet it's running on my Galaxy Tab A. Ironically the latest Royal app update required I agree to the Royal app terms of service but when I agreed it sent me in a loop asking me to agree to the terms of service again. After several loops I declined the terms of service and it launched the app and presented me with my next cruise. Gotta love anrdoid and the royal app...

No price adjustments for changes in port fees and taxes has been a policy for many years now. Nothing has changed in this respect.

Headquarter groups or named affinity groups?

It starts to become a factor more often but still not always. A lot depends on the cruises you book, the season, the ship, how far in the future, etc. As you climb higher the discount is more so it starts to become something that may help more often since it is not combinable with every sale or promo.

This is something that app developers often cite as issues they encounter supporting android versus ios. It's not an uncommon problem unfortunately and not just a Royal app issue. For example my Samsung tablet has issues with the Insta360 app I use for my 360 photos. The tablet would be a better device to do the 360 processing and it has expandable memory that would be ideal for the large 360 video files but alas their app isn't compatible with my tablet even when it was new. I am leery of side loading APKs I find on the internet so I carry an iPhone with lots of storage to do my 360 processing. Galaxy Tab A 10.1" 2019 Android 11 Runs the Royal app okay though.

Cabins with the bed by the balcony and sofa closer to the cabin door work best. When the desk is near the balcony and the bed is closer to the cabin door it can be very cramped or impossible trying to get a scooter into the cabin.

It goes both ways. No one complains when port fees and taxes go up but folks are locked in at the lower rates and Royal doesn't force the increase on existing bookings.