RobInMN

Life is full of these situations, it's not just Royal.

Same for us. Arriving April 9th. All though I don't recall getting an email about that specific change, just noticed it in our documents.

Royal Suite Class Which rooms are what: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-rooms-are-included-in-the-royal-suite-class Benefits: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-are-the-benefits-of-royal-suite-class

People are going to have different experiences on different ships and different rooms, even different weather. From other threads, people have reported that newer ships may have actual refrigerators, and not just coolers. From what I understand, if you have a cooler, they can not cool beyond 'x' (35F??) degrees lower than the ambient temperature. If your cooler is in a cabinet, the heat is contained, making the ambient temperature higher. If you open the cabinet door, you can lower the ambient temperature and therefore lower the cooler's inside temperature. I think age, cleanliness of the heat transfer mechanisms could also affect your experience. Wonder if humidity has an effect?

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/prohibited-items-onboard-policy "Prohibited Items: (Items that generate heat or produce an open flame. This includes heating pads, clothing irons, hotplates, candles, incense and any other item that may create a fire hazard. NOTE: The only exception to this policy are curling irons and hair straighteners. "

FYI, the term generally used on this board is "S2S". I always read it in my mind as "ship to ship", but long after that registered in my mind, I've since seen it described multiple times as "side to side"

Vertical. Sorry, it might look great on your phone, but makes a terrible YouTube video.

I think the average age can vary a lot by cruise line. Our first river cruise was a Dunube cruise on Vantage in 2005. My parents had done a number of river cruises prior. This was something my parents wanted to do with us. There were 6 of us, my parents, me, my wife, my sister, and her husband. My parents were in their 60's the rest of us in our mid 30's. My parent's were probably on the younger side, and the 4 of us "kids" would have been the youngest on the cruise ship (other than crew), by a good 25 years, if it wasn't for the fact that the company owner's (grand?)daughter and her friend were on board. Every daily itinerary listed the number of steps (climbing steps) that would be on that day's excursion. I think all us "kids" would describe it as far more interesting than fun. There were a lot of things "missed" because it was not appropriate activity level wise for the target passengers. Next river cruise was on AmaWaterways, Rivers and Castles, from Nuremberg to Luxembourg in 2018. While my dad still paid for it, I had a lot of influence in the selection. My parents now about 80, us "kids" now close to 50, and our kids, 10?, 13?, & 18 all came as well. There were at least 2 other family groups like ours. There were people of all ages, even a few kids younger than my niece. I think everyone, regardless of age, had a great time. Much more active group, lots of excursion options, and even different activity levels for those excursions. Last river cruise was on Grand Circle. This was sprung on us after it was booked. It was a Christmas Markets cruise just this last December. My daughter and her boyfriend didn't go, but my sister's kids (now 13 & 16) did. While not nearly as family oriented as the AmaWaterway's one, and not as many kids, the crew made a comment about never having so many kids on one cruise before. Average age of the passengers skewed higher. Even so, my sister's kids and other kids on the cruise seemed to have a good time. My wife & I do a lot more ocean cruises (Royal Caribbean), but have AmaMagna booked here next month for the Grand Danube. We plan on doing both more river cruises and ocean cruises in the future. Whether it's ocean or river, we agree about the "floating hotel". We love that aspect. of it.

BBC! (Banana Bailys Colada)

This goes for kids and cell phones/tablets too. I'm so tired of parents giving their kids their cell phone or a tablet to keep them entertained and they are watching videos or playing games with the volume on (sometimes loud). Headphones people! Headphones!

No Royal Caribbean ship has passenger accessible self-service laundry. However one is apparently being added to Serenade for the World Cruise.

This is actually incorrect. In the Star class, you get the Genie, and gratuities are complimentary (not "pre-paid" - although included in your cabin cost). "Complimentary Gratuities benefit applies only to onboard staff who provide standard dining and culinary services, stateroom and general housekeeping services. Star guests may tip their Royal Genie and Concierge separately, at their own discretion." https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-are-the-benefits-of-royal-suite-class

ok, stupid question tie in. We will be in our first Star class next Fall. With or without OBC, can you simply charge the Genie tip to your on board account and have it charged to your CC at the end with all your other on board charges?

🤣 I'm in your camp. I couldn't tell you what it was supposedly about. However, I did enjoy watching it, but mostly for the technical and effects part of it. We also didn't like Effectors. Found it absolutely cheesy and campy. Story was completely lame. And while I liked the effects for The Book, these were just all lights and eh stuff. I also agree about the bright lights in the audiences eyes. To be honest with you, we think the 5 minutes of Rogers! The Musical (as seen in Hawkeye) has better production quality. To put this in context, my wife loves musicals. She loved Hairspray! on Symphony (both cruises), and while I'm not a musicals person (unless you count The Blues Brothers🤣), I actually enjoyed it as well.

We did the 12 night Arctic Circle on Jewel last Summer. Slightly different itinerary, but it was awesome. Norway is absolutely stunning. As others have said, yes, this does Fjords. Flam and Geiranger are the 2 big main ones. We only saw Flam. We loved going up to Honnigsvag. I think we were more impressed with the more northern ports than the more southern ones. And while Symphony is probably our favorite ship we've been on, I think this cruise is probably our favorite cruise we've done. You're going to have an awesome time! This post has some info and links to more posts I made. In that post, click the first post linked for some pictures I took.

There have been many threads and discussions where people think it's perfectly fine for THEM to sneak into their rooms early to drop their stuff off, because they are just 1 or 2 people, so they can't possibly be a bother to the room stewards trying to turn all the cabins. So I am more than willing to give this officer the benefit of the doubt at snapping at anyone that opens the cabin hall doors prior to the announcement. My first thought would have been to wonder how many other people tried to get to their rooms early before you opened the door, B2B or not. And honestly, how much you paid or tipped is completely irrelevant here.

I attempted to summarize various experiences reported on this forum in a pervious thread:

I tried sending an email to that email address, but have not received any response. We also don't do Facebook. 😞

I said something like that, not that one specifically. Sorry I didn't take the time to research and find a specific model.

If you are trying to put 4 adults in 1 room, I'd recommend looking hard at at least a JS. You'll really appreciate the extra space in both square footage and storage. The walk in closet is large enough to double as a private changing room😉 Plus you get double points, as it's a "suite". For privacy, someone on here once mentioned magnetic hooks and (shower?) curtains.

yep. Sorry, was directing that at the OP. Just giving them an example of what you were talking about. I use one also.

Yes, get something like this. Just make sure it doesn't have surge protection https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Charger-PowerPort-iPhone-Galaxy/dp/B00P936188/ref=sr_1_16?crid=1JV84GFHKL4A9&keywords=usb%2Bcharger&qid=1675300707&sprefix=usb%2Bcharge%2Caps%2C150&sr=8-16&th=1 You can also get something like this to make use of the Euro outlet: https://www.amazon.com/European-Charger-Vifigen-Universal-Compatible/dp/B07H3R4JHM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3P8QQHXLSPMC9&keywords=usb%2Beuro%2Bcharger&qid=1675300809&sprefix=usb%2Beuro%2Bcharge%2Caps%2C133&sr=8-1&th=1

Zero charging ports. I don't know if there are any additional ones elsewhere in an GS, but our JS only had 1 Eruo and 2 US at the desk (plus the shaver one in the bathroom). I am pretty sure that this is the standard for any Radiance and Voyager class ships. And likely Freedom also.

Points were converted in 2012 per the formula documented here:

While we haven't gone quite that far, we've simply put "no sales pitch please" on our questionnaire, whether it was the old paper ones or the newer tablet based ones. I feel the wording is non-confrontational. And if we're lucky, we'll get an extra couple minutes of massage that they would have taken up with the sales pitch.