sas80

Thank you researcher and britian!

I was on a cruise once where a gentleman drank too much and decided to vomit over the edge of the ship, and fell off the ship, into the ocean.  

He wasn't discovered missing until the next day, mid morning, when his friends couldn't find him.  He was lost at sea.  We were docked in St. Thomas until 11 pm so the ship could work with the FBI, etc.

One would think that every cruise ship would have a clause that stated that they reserved the right to stop serving someone whim is inebriated.

Sailing soon on the liberty, saw:

Royal Caribbean allows its passengers to bring up to two bottles of wine per statertoom onboard their cruise on embarkation day. 

It seems that they are assuming 2 adults per stateroom, but this is worder to be 2 bottles per stateroom.

We have 2 rooms.  Each room has 1 adult and one child in it.  Technically we can bring 4 bottles. 

Has anyone ever run into trouble embarking with 2 bottles for one room when there is only ONE adult in the room?

TIA!

Im contemplating purchasing discounted arcade cards for my kids.

Does anyone have any knowledge/opinions on if the arcade on Liberty is worth it?

Is it worth a $25? or $50? or $100 card?

Thanks!

2 minutes ago, Tulsacoker said:

cool, but just curious why 9? giving a $10 bill seem easier  

I seem to recall that, back before tipping was a one pot situation, it was $9 per person, per day, so we decided to go with that.

we have decided not to do MDR dining at all.  in truth, once we make it to 7pm, I'm betting we will have eaten enough thru the day to not be hungry.  If we do the MDR dining we feel that will obligate us to eat late and we really dont need the extra calories.  We're not tipping the MDR waitstaff because of this.  

If we do room service we will tip

if I could tip cash on the table at the windjammer, i would but that wouldnt get distributed to everyone who contributed.

I'm completely fine with these decisions, so feel free to argue about it if you want to, I wont be defending myself.

Thanks and happy cruising!

Not that I need  to justify anything but, we are giving $9 per person, per day cash to our room steward.  I already have the cash in an envelope for he or she.

22 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

Royal used to provide a breakdown of how the daily gratuity was doled out between the Stateroom attendant and the 3 MDR personnel - head waiter,  waiter, assistant waiter.   I haven't seen that breakdown in years, most likely because the tips are now pooled together and distributed to everyone.

 

If my hazy memory serves correctly, the MDR staff used to account for half of the daily tip.  Using that as a rough guideline, it should be roughly $7.50 pp/pd or $30 per meal for 4.

Thanks. We were thinking $9 pp per day for the stateroom attendant, so that's almost in line

Thanks everyone

10 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

You can opt out of grats at any time regardless of dining plan. Hope you are prepared for "feedback".

Thanks

Well, let's hope ppl actually READ what i posted.  if we eat in the dining room we are prepared to tip for those nights.

I've cruised long enough not to worry if ppl tell me it's my job to fully tip regardless of if I eat there or not.

@Biker19, you dont know if I can have guest relations tip for 2,3,4 days, do you?  and/or if I should just leave an envelope of cash at the table every night we do eat there?

we are going to skip having an assigned dining time. 

we are contemplating doing anytime dining, but we may never actually eat in the dining room

If we do anytime dining can we decline gratuities?

If we do anytime dining and decline the gratuities, but do eat in the dining room, is there a way to add tips on at the end of the cruise? If we add tips at the end of the cruise, can we only add the amount for the number of nights we ate in the dining room?  or is it an all or nothing tipping situation?

Can we/should we just leave the tip at every meal we do eat in the dining room during anytime dining? 

4 people, how much per meal to tip?

thanks!

22 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

On Anthem and Ovation, internet traffic related to texting gets through without a VOOM package. On Allure and Harmony (and eventually other ships) the free RCI app has a texting/chat feature.

I can only find documentation that it works on Anthem and Ovation 😞  Need it for Liberty.

4 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Depending on the ship, the ability to communicate on board may be free.

how so?  Could you elaborate, please?

Apologies about asking this again, as I am sure it has been asked but im having difficulty figuring out how to perform a narrow search in the RCCL forum.

Question -

We will be departing with our 11 and 13 y.o. in march.  I know they will want to explore the ship and would like to be able to phone/call them (facebook, whatsapp, google voice etc) when they are not with us.

Which internet package will be sufficient to do that?  Voom Surf?  or do we have to upgrade to Voom surf and stream?

Also, does anyone have suggestions as to when abouts package prices drop for soda, alcohol, internet, etc?

Thank you in advance 🙂

12 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

Late cruise, we arrived at the port around 11AM.  Walked in, checked in, boarded, done

 

We arrived late due to rain.  Arrived at 1pm.  The zoo was over and we breezed right on.  We decided to always do a late arrival/not stress about getting there early from now on

5 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

This seems to be a generalized issue on these boards and elsewhere... people don't understand other's points of view and also seem to have little interest in learning.... and that is not directed at you personally.

I understand what your are trying to say.  When I comment, I am only typing my own POV.

I also understand that ppl have a desire to get on the ship early, that others have anxiety that wont stop till they re firmly onboard, that others ae so chill that they assume they will make it to the ship on time, but refuse to sweat about it.

To each his own (posting style, likes, dislikes, etc)

I've posted enough on the internet not to take things personally, even if someone out rightly disagrees with me. Everyone is different

so it's best to wait to book?  Does that hold for all items? Excursions, dining, etc?

1 minute ago, SciFiGuy1960 said:

sas, you'll have to access it through your cruise planner on the Royal website and check the prices there. Different ships different prices.

Thank you, yes, I managed to figure that out. Let's all clap for the slow ppl, eh?  lol

Beverage packages for my sailing are not available yet but I am ore than a year out.  Anyone have an idea of when my bev packages might open for booking?

Thanks!

can I get the link to this package please?

21 hours ago, BopRN said:

We had to cancel our B2B Allure cruise for this month with less than a month to go because my husband has to have an unexpected spine surgery. We had ordered travel insurance through insuremytripdotcom with a pre-existing condition clause since both of us have uncertain health issues. SO thankful that we did! We had a non-refundable deposit and I am happy to report we are getting EVERY penny back! RCCL refunds the taxes which I didn't know and the insurance covers the rest. I never like paying for travel insurance and have always gotten it for our cruises, but have never had a claim. If we didn't have it, we would have lost $4100 since we were only a month out! SO worth it!! You never know what tomorrow may bring!

Well hello there my little chickadee!  We finally booked another cruise, after 8 years :)

20 hours ago, JRudy33 said:

We have always gotten travel insurance through the cruise line.  Is it better to buy the insurance from another source?  How do the prices compare?

insuremytrip.com

better insurance than what the cruise line offers

21 hours ago, BopRN said:

We had to cancel our B2B Allure cruise for this month with less than a month to go because my husband has to have an unexpected spine surgery. We had ordered travel insurance through insuremytripdotcom with a pre-existing condition clause since both of us have uncertain health issues. SO thankful that we did! We had a non-refundable deposit and I am happy to report we are getting EVERY penny back! RCCL refunds the taxes which I didn't know and the insurance covers the rest. I never like paying for travel insurance and have always gotten it for our cruises, but have never had a claim. If we didn't have it, we would have lost $4100 since we were only a month out! SO worth it!! You never know what tomorrow may bring!

We booked travel insurance for a trip to Rome last March.  The insurance cost $160.  We decided to stay a day extra due to storms in NYC and potentially getting stranded on the day we were supposed to fly back.  We kept our receipts, filed a claim and received about $300 back in hotel, meal and incidental charges.  Worth every penny AND we got an extra day to sightsee.

insuremytrip.com

Ill add a shout out for Delta.  We used @Delta twitter to reschedule our flights.  EASY PEASY

On ‎1‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 11:48 AM, FrankNBrew said:

We check out of our hotel in Houston the morning of the 10th. Then a 45 minute ride to Texas City to drop off the rental car. And another 15 minute Uber/taxi to the port. Are there any reasons we would want to rush to board at 11:00? If we can't get into the room until 1:00 why would we want to be on board any sooner? We're supposed to be on board by 3:00. Are there any potential issues with waiting until 2:30?  I'm simply looking for opinions to plan our morning. Thanks.

We like to board after 1pm when we can just walk right on.  Don't understand why ppl want to wait, wait, wait with the masses

Here you go.....

https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/royal-caribbean/

Contacts for RCCL are on that page.

Start with a polite and consice email to RoyalGuestRelations@rccl.com

Simply explained what happened, that you were making sure the birthdays were correct, and the system must have glitched somehow.  Explain that your boys are X and Y years old, as evidenced by their C&A accounts, and that they (or one of them?) had the drink package on cruise Z.

Then explain that, when you called customer service and explained the glitch, you were offered the package at n increase of $$$.  Explain that, as you understand this was a computer glitch , you would like to re purchase the drink package at the initial price.

Do NOT say the CS rep accused you of anything, swap IN the word "confused".  The CS rep I first spoke to was confused and asked if I had <something about the birth dates>

Be polite, you love RCCL, you re looking forward to the cruise, and just need to get this one last item sorted out.

Short and sweet.

If royal guest relations rejects your request, move up to the primary contact and try.  Then move up to the secondary contact etc.  Depending on your cruise date, try to let a week, or rejection, occur before you move up.

Good luck and happy sailing!

Not sure if you are driving to the port or not. We took a six pack size cooler on our cruise and just refilled with ice every day. "Freezing" temperatures can be achieved with ice. You wont get "frozen solid" but you will get 32 degrees Fahrenheit (check it @ home if you don't believe me)

Perhaps a collapsible cooler if you are flying & just unpack and initially fill on the ship. Dont know what your last port of call is but I bet you can do some googling and/or use the port of call board to determine if there is any dry ice to be found near the port.

You do know that Lansinoh and Gerber make specialty ziplock packs to store breast milk, right? They are not as cheap as reg ziplocks but they are not too expensive. They are very durable and can be reused a few times if you clean and rinse well and dry immediately (at least I did)

Good luck!