TheBucketLister

I may be in the minority here, but I prefer it one at a time.  That way while I am eating one, the other is not sitting on the table getting cold.  I prefer to enjoy each dish as it is presented.  I have never been a fan of nibbling on different dishes at the same time.

If that happened to me, I would politely ask for my luggage back and take it on the ship with me and eat the loss of the tip I gave to the original porter.  If they refuse, simply find one of the many police officers that are there at the terminal and I would imagine there should be no reason they would not be able to get the bags back for you.

@Smooth_J When we book Star Class, it is usually just me and my wife.  Of course tipping is highly subjective, however my baseline is $100 per day (total) for the both of us.  Then depending on the service and the amount of requests we make, that number could be adjusted.

I have noticed Star Class suites have jumped pretty substantially recently. My fear is that some, or a majority of people, are going to cut back or eliminate tips for Genies completely.  Which could in turn affect the level of service that the Genies provide.  I know that "should" not happen, however we are all human and sometimes that could subliminally happen.

3 hours ago, LilBlackDress said:

 

I had it booked for $58. The cruise was during the global shutdown. On the next cruise that I was going to CocoCay they wanted $226. I couldn't figure out how or what changed to jump so much... We passed on it LOL 

I had it booked for as low as $46 on Freedom in November of 2021, and at that price I feel that it is worth it.  However there were probably only 40-50 people that had booked it on the day I went, so that is one of the key factors for me saying it was worth it.  I personally would never pay anything over $60 for it now.  I just don't feel that you get that much value from it, but to each his own.

I have noticed this recently as well.  There are multiple excursions that are already sold out on our transatlantic for October.  Also, I have noticed that a bunch of excursions have increased in price as well, and in some cases pretty substantially.  I am talking about the base price before discounts, as well as many discounts having been removed completely and no longer being offered for a majority of them.

15 hours ago, BND said:

Ours also showed "suite" a few weeks ago.  Now, it's not on there.  How exactly are we supposed to use the suite entrance without it?   I swear I printed out our passes when I first checked in, but we just moved and I can't find them so I went to print new ones and noticed suite was no longer on them.

You could always go to RoyalCaribbean.com, login, and then under your booking click on the View More Details.  That should show the word Suite along with your booking number and cabin number.  I guess you could print that out and have it just in case.

I am on this cruise, and our first transatlantic as well.  Never did Star Class before with this many nights, so we are excited!  See you all on there!  Also look at your booking invoice, it should show you the number of days for each type of dress night…at least mine does.

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

The user can't, but, you can report it to the mods for deletion via the three dots in the upper right.

Thank you.

3 hours ago, ScottR714 said:

Just curious, your post implies that all sailings on Quantum in August will receive one days cruise fare refunded (as OBC). I haven’t found that post on Royal Caribbean Blog. Could you please post the link to that article?

At the time I read the article, it was the initial first three cruises in August.  I don’t know if I can post the link here. But google “quantum royal caribbean engine” and it should be the first link or so.  Blog post title is “Royal Caribbean updates Quantum of the Seas engine trouble that requires skipping glacier viewings in August” posted on 07/03/2022.
 

Sorry for the confusion.  When I said August I was referring to the only three (first three in August) that were affected at the time.  I believe the remainder of August and all of September were just announced as being altered a couple of days ago.  Where all the newly altered itineraries are at the $50/$100/$200 of OBC, which I feel should be the same as the first three in August.  The first three in August were originally the $50/$100/$200 of OBC, but RC changed it to the one cruise fare day of OBC shortly after announcing  the lower amount.

Posting errors... 🙄

Side note, is there anyway to delete accidental duplicate posts.

Posting mistake...😕

On 8/5/2022 at 7:30 AM, heatherandnick said:

We are on the August 22 sailing and they’ve cancelled the glacier and icy strait.  We are getting $100 OBC.  I believe that’s per balcony room, not per person.

Interesting, I read a post on Royal Caribbean Blog that Royal Caribbean changed the compensation for affected cruises in August (originally the first three in August) from the $50/$100/$200, to one day of cruise fare paid.  So whatever the cruise fare price was (not port charges and taxes) divided by seven.  Which I think is a fairer deal.

What bothers me is that they are offering less compensation than those in August.  They get one cruise fare day back in OBC.  Also I believe they get to keep an originally scheduled port (Icy Straight Point), thus their excursions were unaffected.  I don’t  know about all September sailings, but shore excursions on my itinerary are almost all sold out.  I would imagine the same is in Ketchikan with all the previous scheduled ships, so what if any will be left to choose from.  So not only do I lose my excursion in Icy Straight Point, but may not be able to book one in Ketchikan.  Plus extending in Juneau doesn’t make up the fact that they are decreasing time in the other ports, so it is still a net loss of time.

i understand that things happen, and they are not required to compensate at all, but at least offer the same compensation equally.  There is no reason for those in September to get any less compensation than those in August.

15 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

They don't always check what kind of suite.   Most times we are waking right onto the ship by the time we arrive, with minimal time waiting to check in outside.  

 

 

 

 

Correct, they did check our boarding pass and it said suite class, so I am sure that’s all they are checking, since I doubt they have memorized every cabin number and the corresponding suite category.

6 hours ago, molly361 said:

Someone posted on my roll call that they were in a JS and were not allowed in the suite line.  It used to be JS and above and P's.  Guess I'll find out later this morning

I am in a Junior Suite and was able to use the Suite line and waiting area.

No sure about Harmony, but have been on three different Royal ships and most, if not all, of the lanyards are with the plastic holder.  I am not 100% certain (I just can't recall), but I believe you can remove the plastic holder on them and just use the latch for a hole-punched card.

On Mariner now (12/4 sailing).  There was a suite line as soon as you get into the terminal.  The left line is for all guests and the middle line was for Suite Guests, and then there was a line on the right for The Key.  Since there were only 1800 people on board, the suite line and the normal line were the same (zero wait at 11:00 check-in).  There is a suite waiting area in the terminal if you get there with the earliest check-in times, and they have not begun boarding.  That was the extent of it.

To each his own, but $37.99 is definitely not worth it.

On the Mariner now, will check tomorrow and post back.

Also  on certain ships they have glasses at the Freestyle machines so you don’t need your cup there, just show your Sail and Sign card to the server at the machine.  As an example, this was the case on Freedom, but not the case on Mariner.

6 hours ago, Seville2Cabo said:

So why are the 3 nighters more full than the 4 nighters? Just would not think the difference would make a difference

Three nighters are over the weekend, so less time having to be taken off from school and work.  Plus on the 5 cruises that I have taken in October (all out of Florida) the overwhelming majority of people have been Florida residents.

3 minutes ago, marktwothousand said:

Were they from Floridian ports?

Yes, Miami and Port Canaveral.  There might have been other meetups as well, but those two I mentioned, I remember seeing in the planner.

On both the Freedom and Mariner, they had the Friends Of Bill W and LGBTQ meet ups.  They were both in the Star Lounge I believe. So I am sure those would be fleet-wide.

On 10/29/2021 at 11:48 AM, alexgtp said:

Was on Freedom 3 weeks ago. Only 1200 passengers on board.

That was probably for the 4-day right?  The 3-days on Freedom and Mariner have been running close to 70-80% capacity for the month of October.  I was on three Freedom cruises in October and the 3-days were 2800 and 3300 and the 4-day was 1200. 
 

At this point I don’t think Royal is limiting capacity as much as there just aren’t enough people willing to book the cabins.

28 minutes ago, jonj said:

Thanks, found it but where do I make reservations for the specialty restaurants. I ordered the 3nt dining package but do not see how I can reserve the specialty restaurant it only allows me to add it for the first night when I reserved it. Do I need to wait until onboard?

Yes.  I don’t know if the 3 night is like the UDP where there is a reservation made for you for the first night only, if it is, then all remaining reservations need to be made once on board at any specialty restaurant.

Do this first thing when you get on the ship.  Also you don’t have to visit all the different specialty restaurants for reservations.  Each restaurant can make any of the the specialty restaurants reservations.