ARandomTraveler

Below are 2 threads that might give you some good insight on dining and drinks. The first is a thread about people's favorite specialty restaurants, and the second is a live cruise review from @Sea Dog who shared a lot of the different drinks he tried, along with their recipes.

Pre-pandemic, a taxi from Old San Juan to the airport was around $25. Their taxis are regulated so they have flat fees based on "zones" that you're traveling to/from/within. They also charge a small fee per suitcase, so the more luggage you have, the more it will cost. The last time I was there, I seem to remember that Uber had just started to be allowed, but they weren't letting them into the taxi area at the airport and you had to leave the airport property to meet up with them.

While on hold to book over the phone, I continued my attempts to book online. I had originally checked the box for "My dining time is not available," so I switched it to "My time dining" and whaddya know, it let me complete my booking 🙄. This will be my first Quantum Class cruise, and is making up for the Singapore cruise we had booked in the summer of 2020 that got cancelled. The only downsides are that I should have booked this 3 weeks ago when the price was $1600 cheaper, and the cost of hotels in Singapore have gone WAY up since 2020. Really looking forward to it though, and am lucky to be able to go at all, so I won't complain.

Good question, that might be the issue. I'll have to call RC and sit on hold I guess.

I've been trying to book a 12-night Singapore to Japan cruise for next summer, but every time I try to pay the deposit, it tells me "Sorry, something went wrong, we are unable to complete your transaction." I've tried using 3 different devices (iPad using Safari browser, iPhone using Safari browser, PC desktop computer using Google browser). I've also tried using 3 different credit cards, all of which have a $0 balance, and minimally a $26,000 credit limit (all 3 are Visa). Is there a glitch with Safari or Google browsers? Is RC not taking payments from Visa? Am I forgetting to enter something or check some box that is in an obscure, non-obvious location on the screen (I clicked "I agree" on the terms and conditions).

Yes

Then they should have made this a discounted cruise with notice to people who booked it that major public areas would be closed and pools would be unavailable. This is totally unacceptable to charge full price for a cruise with these areas under construction.

From the other threads that have been posted on this topic in the last week or two, the main thing I've taken from the advice is that whatever they tell you you're going to receive, make sure they give it to you in written form, BEFORE you leave the ship. Make sure the letter has your name on it, and that it tells you how many days you're getting the benefits for and/or you have some way of proving which day you went into quarantine. It should also tell you when you should expect your pro-rated refund (if that's still a benefit they're offering), and who you can contact once you're off the ship if you need to follow up.

If it's possible to take a cruise from San Juan, I'd suggest doing that. The seas in the Southern Caribbean are much more calm than Eastern (the worst in my experience because you're further out into the open water of the Atlantic Ocean) or Western (closer to the Gulf, which is a more contained body of water than the Atlantic). I get seasick, but have only had a major problem once, when we sailed an eastern itinerary on a Voyager class ship during rough seas (rough enough that people were losing their balance walking through the hallways). Since then, I've always brought the scopolamine patch with me. I've learned that it's best to put it on the morning of the cruise, before getting on the ship, and then leave it on until day 2 or 3, and then remove it for at least a day (or more if you feel that you're not getting queasy). The reason I do that is because the patch can make your eyesight blurry and it can give you a sore throat, when you get too much medication for your body to process. I left mine on for almost the whole 7 days once and by day 5 I couldn't even read the dinner menu. My eyesight came back hours after removing it. I've cruised the Southern Route out of San Juan a couple times, and haven't needed the patch at all. The seas down there are so much calmer, and there are so many port stops that you're never on the ship for very long, and the likelihood of getting sea sick is much lower. Another benefit of the southern route (and I stress again that I'm talking about the southern route that leaves from San Juan, not the ones that leave from the mainland), is that the beaches are so much better. Such beautiful, crystal blue, calm water, and just overall more authentic islands. It's my favorite route, and in my opinion, the best Caribbean route for people who get seasick.

Yikes! You've got enough replies at this point to know that's a no-go. I have the same issue with flights out of Miami. Southwest Airlines only has 1 direct flight back to my home, and it's not until 6pm, so that's the one I'm taking. If it were an option, anything around noon is comfortable for me. I get off the ship as late as possible, don't stress about how quickly my Uber shows up, don't stress about lines to drop off baggage, or lines in the terminal (though I have pre-check so that's never been a problem), and if I want to grab something to eat or drink before my flight leaves, I still have time. Noon-1pm is always my sweet spot, but I'd rather take the 6pm direct flight than get on an earlier flight with a layover that has me on airplanes for 7 hours.

In addition to this, if they book a single person in the balcony room, they should make one of themselves the single, so their family can benefit from the extra solo point per night (assuming they cruise more than the grandma, and the grandma wouldn't care about the points as much).

Can I add an unpopular opinion of "Live threads that are started a week before the person even gets on the plane to get to their cruise, and where the "live" part doesn't start til page 7"

This was gonna be my suggestion.

Gotcha. Then I'd probably go with the specialty restaurants as they're making a smaller number of meals and you can much more easily customize them, and trust that the information has made it to the person in charge of making her specific meal. The MDR is putting out thousands of meals, and while people do report that the chef will come out and talk to you, and that you can get customized meals in there, depending on the food allergy, it could be risky. @CatLadyFemme has a lot of good experience with this, and I know they eat in the MDR. Hopefully they'll chime in.

My comment stands

Personally, a cruise is not the vacation I'd be taking until I got the food issue worked out. FODMAP is a diet used to eliminate common foods allergens and irritants to help people with digestive issues figure out which food(s) the problem stems from. It's not a "forever" diet, so I'd either wait until the cruise is over to work on the FODMAP, or I'd wait to take the cruise until I figured out which foods are the issue. I've been given that FODMAP diet before and it's so extremely restrictive that there's just no way to eat out everyday on a cruise and follow it.

This exact question was asked a couple weeks ago, not sure if it was the same poster. Seems a little troll-y, so I'll refrain from the answer I gave last time as well.

I like the buffet, not because of any specific food quality related reasons, but because I like the flexibility of being able to eat when I'm hungry, not when I've reserved a time. I like not having to change my clothes and do my hair and makeup to be presentable for a nicer dining option. I like to take a little bit of everything that looks good, and get up and get seconds of the stuff I like, without waiting for someone to ask me if I want something more and then waiting for them to bring it back to me. I like to be able to eat without constantly being questioned by the waiter about why I don't eat very much, and needing to give constant reassurance that I like the food, but that I just don't eat a lot. I like to come and go as I please, and not go through the formality of a 2 hour dinner, especially on vacation. But alas, my daughter also likes the dining room, so that's where I go 😂. I sometimes have first-dinner at the windjammer, and then endure the dining room dinner later. This next cruise I bought the dining package, mostly because I knew my daughter would love it, but also because it's our first time on an Oasis class ship, and I'm looking forward to knowing I can try any restaurant option that sounds good, and the price of the dining package seemed negligible compared to the cost of the rest of the vacation. But I'm not looking forward to having to plan ahead for all my meals. I also know that I don't have a big enough stomach to eat the amount of food that's generally served for one meal, but again...it'll make the vacation more fun for my daughter, and that makes me happy.

Royal Caribbean's insurance also only refunds your money in the form of a future cruise credit (FCC), I think. With independent insurance you can get actual cash. Like others have mentioned, independent insurance also covers things that happen outside of missing the actual cruise. It can cover medical expenses, evacuation expenses, private excursion reimbursement if you miss a port, rental cars or other rental sports equipment if you book a tour like Aruba Trikes where you're driving a vehicle that you may damage, or renting a jet ski or things like that. I have a recent non-cruise example of using my independently purchased travel insurance. I was in Europe and there was an air traffic control strike that caused me to have to rearrange one of my travel days. It cost me extra money in hotel fees, and I missed a tour that was non-refundable. My insurance not only paid me for the hotel night, they also paid me for the travel to and from the airport, the food we ate at the airport, and covered my non-refundable tour tickets. The cost of that insurance was under $100, and it saved me almost $600 in expenses.

I was responding to @Husky1987 post above where they referenced that being the cost. The lowest I've seen it on my Symphony cruise next month is $20.99/day. This was a few weeks ago when they seemed to be having a random fire sale for a few hours and lots of people were getting The Key for $16.99-$20.99/day. Usually for my sailing it's between $30.99-$35.99/day.

The thing with The Key is that you have to buy it for everyone in the room. Buying surf and stream for one device at $17.99 is still a better deal than buying The Key for $19.99 if you were only planning to buy the surf and stream for one device. The other calculation you need to take into account is that when you add a second device to your surf and stream purchase, it costs less than if you bought a surf and stream package for 2 people. So it's rarely an actual savings to buy The Key over buying the surf and steam package and adding additional devices, but can be a "better deal" than buying They Key would have otherwise been.

That does make more sense 😂

Dang that's expensive, $945 for 2 people is about $118/day. $98/day seems really high too, but for only 4 days, not nearly as bad as if it was 7. You should get your money back within 10 days give or take. *Edited to add that at $945 total, assuming that included the 18%, that ends up being $118/day with the 18% (or $100/day without the 18%). If the $98 new price does not include the 18%, then you're really only saving $2/day per person, rather than $20/day, which is only and $16 total savings. Make sure you're comparing prices that either both include the 18%, or don't include it.

That's true, I'm just making sure he knows how to calculate the cost before he cancels a package that may be a better deal. People have reported doing that before, and ended up Re-buying their drink package at a higher price. Still - even if he's on a 14 day cruise, that's a $14/day price drop, which still seems like a lot. Maybe he's on the world cruise though. My guess is he's not but we'll see.

$200 cheaper? Are you sure? That seems like an extreme price difference, the likes of which I've never seen reported on here. That would be a $28/day drop in price. Are you sure you're not looking at a price that says something like $72/day, 50% off, and you're thinking that it's 50% off of the $72, when in reality the $72 is the price after the 50% was already factored in?