Engineroom Snipe

3 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

 Of course It also helps if you love the included food there as much as I do.

The fixings bar for toppings is sooooo goood.  The tacos toppings are the absolute best except for the "sour cream" which seems to have separated into water and 'something'. Someone did not tell the preparers to smooth the sour cream so that the water would not separate from the solids and placed it back into the refrigerator.

The guacamole, cheese, salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, jalapeno peppers, and everything is soooooo gooooood.

Cuban sandwiches are extremely good.

I have stated, "Why can't the ship not make this stuff as good as Coco Cay."

I would eat that stuff, "Everyday,"

No question, the highlight of my trip for dining.

10 hours ago, Biker19 said:

It was reported on Spectrum and maybe at least one other ship, though that may have been a test/temporary.

Yes, let us put one toe into the water to see if a crab nibbles at it or a shark arrives to bite the whole foot off.

😉

Pardon my typos, getting tired.

Goodnight everyone.

The Enchantment of the Seas in April of 2023 was one of the ships at the time which had turned off the ability to get ice from the Unlimited Soda Machines.  My goodness, all I was trying to do was get some ice and it was a journey.

This is why I distinctly remembering it so well.

I made a very heated response in my Royal questionnaire.

Since then, the soda machine have been distributing ice on my last November 2023 cruise on the Jewel.

1 minute ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

Enchantment on the third deck, no cooler. trust me.

Add on, April, 2023, I can quote you the room. I did not even have ice for two days after requesting it on the first day and I posted it on CC.

33 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

On Enchantment you

might have one in the cabins in the stretch section of the ship. On Vision it would be unusual if you had one in an inside cabin. 

Enchantment on the third deck, no cooler. trust me.

9 minutes ago, miyanc said:

It may be in this now 330 page thread, but has anyone booked a gty, been given a room or noticed after 45 day check in that it was a bad or undesired room and successfully bid a royal up?  If I remember correctly we sailed on allure in 22 ( all got COVID only waved at ports from the balcony) when the 45 day check-in yielded a bar code there was something we didn't like about the room and for a small fee we were able to pay for an upgrade.  But that was by calling cs and switching the booking.  

I have purchased 3 GTY interior no view cabins in the past three years. I was fortunate on all three to like the cabin placements.

I did bid on other rooms in higher categories bud none were successful. My bids were slightly more than minimum.

Others have posted you might have a remote chance of switching rooms but the new room must be an identical category to the GTY. With ships filled beyond double capacity in the past year, very few rooms if any are available at 45 days out.

I never called my TA to try and change them so I do not know if he could have helped but again, I was happy with the GTY cabin.

1 minute ago, firefly333 said:

 I'm preparing to hear complaints from newbies when their cruise is interrupted and no compensation. 

Maybe some of the newbies do not read CC or know about CC until they have a problem and do a search engine which leads them to this site.

3 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

Yes they do.  You can have room service deliver drinks to your cabin.  Not ideal, but they will do it.

@time4u2go

Good to know. I never tried. Do they add a room service charge for the drink?

9 hours ago, SRF said:

Be advised, the bottle is only 375 ml, so 1/2 a normal bottle.

Add on: The standard US "shot" is 1.5 ounces of 40% spirits in general mixed with approximately 6 ounces of soda if it is say, a rum and coke.

The 375 ml will roughly translate to 12 ounces (13.2 ounces if you want to get picky) which gives you 8 US standard shots.

The package includes 4 X 12 ounce sodas which happens to be 8 x 6 ounce servings of soda to go with the 8 US standard shots.

At $45.99 for the Rum and Coke package, it comes out to 8 drinks for $5.75 per drink.

Not bad if you did not want a drink package or wanted something for your balcony since they do not deliver drinks to cabins.

There is a caveat that it should be consumed in the privacy of your cabin but I do not think anyone cares if you take the glass or cup out of the cabin. They just do not want to see you pouring the alcohol from the bottle in public spaces. I.E. Going to the Schooner Bar area at a table with the bottle, the pool deck, dining areas (you get the picture).

This is a nice add-on for Crown & Anchor members who might like a bit more alcohol than their voucher minimum and it can be consumed over multiple days of your cruise.

2 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I have found the same thing in Cozumel. I suspect RCI gets some sort of deal to do that just like they do at Crown Bay on St. Thomas. It doesn't seem to matter that it is much more inconvenient for many of their customers.

Years ago, Royal used to give "Ship Shape" dollars for engaging in physical activities onboard. I can't believe how hard we worked for those yellow paper Monopoly style money dollars to exchange for shirts, water bottles, and visors. So much fun and so many memories.

The competition was brutal and some people tried to pull the "New York Marathon via the subway" run. We might have to do ten laps around the promenade deck to get a "Buck".

They would do slow laps, disappear for a while and mysteriously appear during the "last" lap.

I still laugh when I think about it.

"Money for nothing and your chicks for free." (Dire Straits, 1985)

Now , Royal is helping us to get additional steps in as they are consistently ported at the furthest dock.

Now, at Nassau, I think I walk more steps from the gangplank to the exit of the port area than ten times around the promenade on the Nordic Prince.

Where are my "Ship Shape dollars" for doing my exercise?

Come on Royal, "Throw me a bone."

Some typos are better left uncorrected if only to make us smile and laugh as we tend to take ourselves too seriously.

Thank you for leaving us something to chuckle about.

3 minutes ago, cruisegus said:

Just an FYI when sailing from NOLA Royal eats the state sales tax and the last on Carnival in 2019 you could use their drink package, but they charged you the State Tax separately.

 

I am on vacation and hate to read all of the fine print.

Only those who look at the final bill sometimes say, "Where is this x.xx% VAT coming from?" I am still in the United States.

We are used to the foreign islands tacking this on.

Domesticated VATS, they are multiplying everywhere.

The cruise lines can pass them on and keep that price per person double occupancy number looking very lucrative to the newbies.

6 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I have never received a military discount on any RCI cruise. I assume they exist since it is an option on the website and people have mentioned getting one like in this thread, but I guess I always pick the wrong cruise ship/dates. 
 

Just an FYI, I have gotten several military discounts on Celebrity cruises. 

In thirty-five years of cruising, I only applied for one military discount on Royal which was worth about 10% off of the cruise but conditioned that with non-refundable deposit. I had insurance and knew, short of something going catastrophic, we would make that cruise. I took it and saved some money.

Maybe once in my lifetime considering my cruise experiences.

TA's pricing is so good that I have never been able to get a price adjustment on any of my cruises to date.

I am hoping this changes because I might have lost my house on a bet about the timeline of the Baltimore shipping channel. I need all of the discounts I can get!

😬

1 hour ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

OK, I'm still a teenager at heart.  I laughed at this.

🙄🤭🤣

1 hour ago, mjkacmom said:

You really do need to eat your sandwiches under towels, all of my kids have learned the hard way.

Yeah, they really love the ham and cheese sandwiches slathered with mayo and fresh Jersey tomatoes. We take turns guarding each other as we eat under a beach umbrella....I always carry a loaded flyswatter with us. The ammo is unlimited until I get exhausted.

From Finding Nemo (2003), "Mine,...Mine...., Mine, Mine...."

🤬

13 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

🥹

We don't qualify for this one but frankly, I have never heard of ANYone getting it.  Why even have it ?

As my TA explained to me:

I qualify for LEO, Veteran, and over 55.

I have seen LEO and first responder discounts on a few cruises this past year but it was in the last ninety before embarkation.

I book almost as soon as the cruises are listed on the TA's website. I normally get to pick my room for the same price as Royal's GTY of the selected cabin class.

I get a small amount of OBC from my TA and in most cases OBC from Royal. My deposit is fully refundable until 120 days when final payment is due as part of my TA's contract with Royal regardless of the length of cruise.

If I try to apply the discounts in most cases, the deposit becomes non-refundable.

I am not sure if it would be worth the 4 to 5% savings to lose my ability to refund unless my cruise was within the 120 embarkation period when the full amount would be due upon booking anyway.

If you click discount check boxes for all of the discounts, it normally defaults to 55 plus discount because all of the them are the same percentage and it only allows one discount in most of my mock bookings.

I could click any one of them and get the same discount and the deposit changes to non-refundable.

2 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I would be interested to know why, if the coast guard was willing to bring them out to the ship, the captain refused. I'm not judging the decision as I don't know the reasoning. However, I'd like to know the reasoning.

I was thinking the same thing.

If all of the equipment used for tendering was stored and the anchors up, maybe any attempt at boarding was considered unsafe?

I cannot imagine what would happen if someone fell into the water during the transfer.

1 minute ago, ONECRUISER said:

3 Military Discounts on Cruises last yr. At least 20 my Cruises in last 10yrs found Military Discounts on Royal. Ships Sailing Full less likely get Discounts, on older smaller Ships more likely. Most time they are offered closer to Cruise though have got few over 1yr out

Spot on.

Thanks for the all the responses.

The question has been answered.

As the Madagascar Penguins would say, "Nothing to see here."

🤐🫥😶‍🌫️

16 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

It has nothing to do with "when they feel like it".  It is whether or not it can be combined with other promotions.  I know that you book suites and the extra OBC or instant savings that you get for suites is always more than the balcony discount and the two are not combinable.  

This is something that took me some time to digest with my TA.

Everyone wants to combine every discount they see with their current discounts.

He had to "edukamate" me. Still learning the ins and outs of it all.

1 minute ago, c-leg5 said:

 Whatever the answer is, is it going to affect your decision to sail?

No, absolutely not.

Drinking vast quantities of alcohol are long gone in the mirror that says, "Objects appear closer than they seem."

Just preparing myself for a cruise that might have passengers jumping through some hoops to make a voyage, getting there, and finding out THEY cannot numb themselves a bit after some stress to start their cruise.

I was more concerned about placing my out-of-state licensed vehicle in a public parking garage for eight days in an area where would be car thieves know no one will report the car stolen for seven days.

I have that handled now. thanks to some great advice from fellow cruisers on this site who did not tell me to put my "big pants on" but actually gave me solutions which I am grateful.

I am great. No need for alcohol until day 2, 3, or 4.

I just hope passengers who are not well informed are prepared to go "Sugar Free" for a bit or be informed of the price they might pay.

😁

12 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

Sailing from Galveston, the cruise lines are subject to TABC (Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission) rules until they reach International waters, which limit them to serving only alcohol  purchased from a Texas distributor. It's a tax thing. Royal offers a limited menu & then switches over once they reach International waters. I've actually watched the bartenders bring out a bigger selection and remove some of the Texas-only bottles, such as Shiner Beer.

 

Apparently Carnival makes it easy on their bartenders & just doesn't offer drinks while in Texas waters.

 

Having said all that, not sure if Virginia works the same way.

 

Sounds logical to me and that is what appears to be happening after @smokeybandit responded in a similar way.

I have never seen Cruisehive.com report this in such a specific fashion but it must just be because of the events happening in the reshuffling of Baltimore cruises.

Another question: Does this affect Crown and Anchor complimentary drinks the same way?

I know, I am starting to sound like Lt. Columbo with the "one more question" routine.

Just now, smokeybandit said:

Carnival also doesn't start your drink package on the first day out of Galveston, while RC does. So I'd suspect it'd work like that.

Thanks for responding. I never purchased a drink package but this sounded a bit unusual.

Per your response, this is not unusual and happens in certain ports.

Something they do not advertise when you buy it.

😁

44 minutes ago, bajathree said:

Maybe it shouldn't just be during "spring break. In Dec there was a large group on young 20 somethings on our Odyssey sailing that kept ordering shots of Patron while they were in the pool on Odyssey. It was very annoying as they just kept ordering round after round not only consuming the pool bartender but eventually running the bar out of Patron for everyone else who wanted it.

Unfortunately, @bajathree, those "yutes" were us forty years ago. They just found a loophole in the system and took advantage of it.

I feel your pain for the lack of Patron in Hideaway Bay but maybe Royal has to anticipate the consumption and have more available.

Royal likes the bookings and the profit off of the "spring breakers" and this is part of the deal.

We think they might be inconsiderate but they think they are paying for it and getting their money's worth.

What a tangle web we weave.

Oh, to be young again, consume all of the Patron in the house and feel healthy enough to do it again the next day.....

🫠