basicprincess24

excited to read these answers! 😆 we'll be the Jewel in September

This is amazing to hear, thank you! We've got our reservations for Teppanyaki and Cagney's all squared away. 😋 Also good to hear that we might get lucky and not sail with a full ship, it would make for such a relaxing trip.

We'll be a group of 4 on the NCL Jewel to Alaska in September. Are reservations generally recommended for the MDR on a smaller ship? We haven't been on a smaller NCL ship since our first cruise on the Pearl in 2017, and at that time MDR reservations weren't even offered pre-cruise. On the larger ships I've always made them just in case, but I'm hoping that on a smaller ship with a small group that we'll be able to be more flexible.

Cruising on Oasis OTS in a few weeks and considering the coffee card. When using the card, are you limited to only coffee drinks from the cafes? Or can the punches be used toward the specialty tea drinks, such as chai lattes or tazo hot teas? Thanks!

Is there a way to pre-pay gratuities online? We always like to pre-pay just to have it taken care of in advance, but I'm not finding the option in the planner.

I'm leaving on a 4-nt to Ensenada from San Francisco in just a few days, so I'm wondering what they'll do for us. Our group wasn't planning to do much in Ensenada, maybe just get some tacos, so the port itself isn't really a big deal. I assume they wouldn't cancel the cruise completely? Should we be expecting a cruise to nowhere? I'm not sure where else they would send us so close to our cruise date.

Oh I'm glad I asked! 😂 Those sugar straws were so bad. I guess I'll see about bringing some on board.

Wondering what kinds of straws are currently available onboard? It's been 3 years since our last Carnival cruise, and at that time both paper and sugar straws were offered, with the sugar straws primarily for frozen drinks. Is this still the case? Not a big deal by any means, but I remember really disliking the sugar straws in particular since they got sticky over time.

Following along! We'll be on board the Miracle in a couple weeks for a quick cruise down to Ensenada, so I'm looking forward to hearing about your experience on the ship. 😄

Perfect, thank you! Haha, thankfully we all have CHEERS! this time!

We’re sailing with a group, and we aren’t sure whether everyone will be able to arrive at the port at the same time due to traffic and other issues. Our current plan is to wait and all check in at the port together, but if some are delayed significantly, are we able to check in separately from others in the same cabin?

Thank you! I was able to find it on the app. I did see my request on our booking invoice but since we booked through a third party I was looking for something official from Royal directly.

We booked our first ever Royal Caribbean cruise today! 🎉 When booking, we were giving the option to choose between my time dining and traditional dining at 5:30 PM, and we chose traditional. I can't seem to find this info anywhere in my cruise planner to confirm this - does anyone know where this info is displayed? Thanks!

This is a great tip! I was thinking about sea days and that was concerning me, but "stocking up" on water on port days would probably take care of any issue. Thanks!

How strict is the 15-drink limit for the beverage package? I'm more familiar with the beverage packages on Carnival and Princess which also have the 15-drink limit, but on those lines it only applies to alcoholic beverages, and non-alcoholic beverages are unlimited. I don't think I could hit 15 alcoholic drinks in a day so that limit wouldn't bother me, but between specialty coffees, bottled water, sparkling water, and soda in addition to wine and cocktails, I think I might get close! In practice, are guests cut off due to non-alcoholic beverage orders?