rockmom

you can arrive up to one hour earlier or later and still be considered to be within your assigned time.

Totally normal, especially post-Covid restart. I have things showing up for an October cruise, but not much for my December one yet. And nothing at all for the ones in early 2024. For a May cruise--so just a few months from now, I think everything has finally loaded, but the shore excursions for at least one port, didn't show up until just a couple a weeks ago.

even with suites, you are still supposed to choose a boarding time but doing the online check in when that opens up (45 days out). But suites can arrive at the terminal an hour earlier than the time they chose--unless the chose the very first time slot of the day, getting their earlier than that will just mean a wait.

yes, I always do this for my whole group/travel party. As long as you're linked and you can access their reservation number when you go into 'my cruises'. I will grab their boarding time so it's the same as mine and I will put in 'dummy' things, that it might want for me to be able to save and secure that time (for example, checking that a birth certificate and government ID will be used). Then you can have everyone go back in on their own and put in the rest of/correct the info. Like putting in their credit card. Just make sure they don't choose a new time. 😛

bigger yes, but set up kind of weird and part of that square footage is a really long hallway. And the J1s only have one bathroom, versus the J3 and J4 having split baths. It's a chore to figure out what is what. I will say that I was in a J4 aft, next to the J1 on 12. Lots of soot on that balcony.

The earliest spots go very quickly. So maybe you don't need to log in at midnight, eastern time, but probably wise log in and grab your desired spot the first day it opens up. You can do it on the app, or on the web and make sure you check in everyone in your party because that way you all get the same time. If you don't, the times can be all over the place. Note, you can do minimal data entry and grab your preferred time and then come back later and fill in things like credit card info. As far as showing up at a different time, that has varied widely over the last year. I have seen it go both ways: they tell you to go away and hang out and come back when it is your assigned time, or they aren't checking. Or somewhere in them middle where they look at your assigned time but it's not very busy so they wave you on through.

I'm waiting for the posts from people who are furious with Royal because they missed the ship because they were being detained because they were caught smoking and the ship didn't wait for them. Or expect Royal to reimburse them for the $500 fine. (joking, sort of)

Yes, it will include Cafe Latte-tudes. Royal confused things when they switched to using Starbucks beans in their own cafes. What is not included is anything from a freestanding and branded (official) Starbucks, which quite a few ships do have, but not all. For the actual Starbucks stores/kiosks, you are able to use your own Starbucks card/Starbucks gift cards. Clear as mud? 😛

That's the same type of room and you can see how tight it would be once the sofa was also folded out. This room has a slightly larger balcony, but the interior is the same as the room you were looking for.

It's crazy. The really bizarre thing is that they took away anything vegetarian and replaced it with just that one, single vegan option. Someone clearly doesn't understand that there's a huge difference. I eat eggs, dairy (milk, butter, cream...and all the cheese!) They don't seem to realize vegetarians want that protein--and they also eat things made with all those things, such as most pasta, cakes, pastries, ice cream, puddings--that vegans do not eat. But now it's veggies and tofu. I admire those that can stick to totally vegan, but I will never be that person. I think there are going to be quite a few vegetarians pointing out the big different between the two. I did love so many of the vegan appetizers though, totally some of my favorites. But both vegetarian and vegan should at least have 2 things to choose from.

Meanwhile in Mexico...

Coco Cay, yes. Labadee, no. At least not yet.

I wish. And a lottery win.........

I'd like the Athens to Copenhagen, please. 😂

I anxiously waiting, I'd love to do one of the longer ones from Cape Liberty that they have typically had in January each year. Hoping January 2025 has them too.

No beer. You can bring on 2 bottles of wine total per stateroom, not per person. And only on embarkation day, not from each port. You can also bring up to 12 bottles/cans of water or soda per stateroom not per person, not to exceed 17 oz each. All of these must be carried on, not put in checked bags

Unfortunately, you cannot. You could try searching for a roll call for that particular sailing and maybe someone can look in the cruise planner to see what is offered. But that doesn't mean that there will still be spots open by the time you book. And if you're looking pretty far out in the future, excursions haven't been showing up in the planner nearly as soon as pre-Covid, for those of us already booked. Heck I still have some things slowly showing up in the planner for a cruise in May--and nothing showing yet for some late this year.

Are you coming in day of the cruise? That's a 75 mile drive--and with 10 people, and luggage, I'm guessing it would add a fair chunk of change to the budget. Not to mention the risk of flying the day of the cruise. If there are any flight delays, that will then be magnified by the potential for traffic issues on that 75 mile drive.

I grew up in California, and fish tacos were always a thing least for the last 40+ years. Tons of articles if you google fish taco history, but Baja is where they started, no matter which source is providing the info. My cousins were in San Diego, so very close to the border and fish tacos were always an option when we'd go out to eat. https://www.sunset.com/food-wine/flavors-of-the-west/in-search-real-fish-taco

I think when you are talking about serving drinks in the room, that is going to fall under catering and setting up a bar/having it staffed. That won't land under your drink package. Same for food. Also, while the dividers usually can be opened, they don't open the space totally--it's more of a passageway. So it doesn't make for one massive deck area, but is still convenient.

Yes, they do issue tender tickets. Priority for tenders is as follows: Those who have purchased an excursion through Royal, those staying in Grand Suites or better, those who have purchased The Key. None of those groups will need a tender ticket. Once all of those people have been able to tender ashore, they will go by ticket number for the rest of the passengers. If you aren't in one of those priorty caategories, to get your tender ticket, you will need to line up somewhere early in the morning (or perhaps the evening before). The time and location for getting tickets will be announced in the Cruise Compass, on the TV where it shows the daily schedule and through announcements over the loudspeakers. The lower the ticket number, the better place you have in the tender line. ETA: if you don't have any priority and will be getting tender tickets--don't book a 3rd party excursion that starts too early, allow for a couple of hours after the tendering starts since you won't be getting off the ship until all those other people have already tendered over.

So, I'm not sure I've seen posts where you said if you are working with one of their wedding planners, but I assume so? They do have packages for receptions and the pricing is on the pdf brochure. If you're working with one of the planners, I would hope they'd give you options on rooms that may be able to accommodate a cocktail party. But land or sea--these things are not cheap by any means https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/pdf/royal-weddings-brochure.pdf

Agree that it won't be cheap. And 30 people is a lot of people milling about in a suite--you'd need one of the very large ones. IF a cocktail party is something you can live with compared to doing a sit down dinner, was there a venue on the ship they could use for that? Because whether in a suite or not, you'll be paying for all the appetizers and for whatever drinks aren't covered by drink packages. I've been a corporate event planner for several decades and sometimes it's hard for people to envision just what 30 people milling about looks like with regard to space.

exactly @Donsyb. With vegan being a subset of the vegetarian population, it is a much smaller number. That's what she's not understanding. From a study in 2022:

Let me try this another way. You and your family/group are on a cruise, you like the main dining room, and all want to eat together, it's part of what you love about cruising. You are given a menu. You get to choose what you'd like to have. It used to be that if you didn't eat meat, you could still choose what you'd like to have from 2 or 3 options. Now, if you don't eat meat, you don't get a choice. There is one thing only. The cruise line has decided what you will eat each night if you want to go to the main dining room. Imagine if you went and the menu said that tonight you will have lamb. That's it. No other option. Then the next night it said, you will have turkey. And so on. Having a choice is important. Even if it's from 2 things and not 5 or 6. Especially when, unless it's a medical need, they are no longer taking requests. People who don't eat meat are growing in numbers, it's not like 30 or 40 years ago. More and more physicians are suggesting a plant based diet as the amount of people dealing with heart conditions, high cholesterol, obesity and other health concerns is growing. It's not like we 'only eat blue food on Tuesday when there is a full moon' kind of a situation. It's much more mainstream. Saying that because somone doesn't eat meat that they should go to another place to eat or try and see if the MDR is really sticking to 'no requests, you must choose from the menu' is true or not.