blueslily

Ok. Good luck to you. Enjoy your sailing.

You're welcome

The Soda + Zoom package is listed for my Symphony sailing in December. It's in the Beverage package section in my planner. Its listed as $25.99 for that sailing. It is not listed in the Internet section in my planner.

I'll just figure out the dining plan a little closer to cruise date. It's just 2 of us. We are resourceful people and our priority is relaxing, enjoying the view, and not being stressed about stuff during the cruise. I'm sure we wont allow ourselves to starve or wait around in crazy long lines. 🙂 My cabin buddy for this cruise doesnt want to be rushed or overly scheduled. We have a plan for now and will adjust it, if necessary, when information is available about how things are going during the fall sailings. I expected chaos during the summer sailings. 🤣 Hence, I pass on cruising during the summer. Happy cruising everyone! 🛳🏝🙋‍♀️🎉

I will just share what it says in the planner right now for my Symphony sailing coming up in December as I dont want to give the wrong interpretation. It says, "Priority access into the terminal (within booked arrival time) on Day 1." People are interrupting that sentence in different ways. Yes, that can help with boarding the ship sooner than people behind you in line, but it is not the same as "early boarding of the ship". I believe this language was different earlier in the cruise restart. I've had the Key before. Other benefits changed a LITTLE bit from earlier during the restart as well. But, it was also a little different on different ships. So, you probably just want to check your planner for the current language that Royal is using to detail what is included. For me, once the price matches 2 devices, then yes, it's a win for us. But, that varies from person to person based on what matters to them.

Thanks for sharing the math and that The key is about which inclusions matter to each person. One note about "early boarding". I've seen people use that language a lot when talking about The Key. The language in The Key inclusions is a little different than that. It does not actually reference early boarding of the ship. Just wanted to share that so you and others might not be disappointed when it comes to that. 🙂 Sure, it helps with boarding, but the language is just a bit different. I will continue to watch for any price drops for The Key. It's good for one device, but we want two. I check daily. 🙂

Yes, that was my experience cruising (different dining rooms). Hence my curiosity about the delay. I wonder if Royal made the change partially because many people wanted Early Seating for dinner . Which is also interesting to me. I am usually out enjoying the fresh air around 4pm and I can tell that folks have gone to get ready for dinner because by 4:30, it was much calmer on deck. I enjoyed that time when fewer people were out. I'm not sure I want to be one of the people that rushes off to my cabin to get prepared for dinner that early in the day. A big part of cruising for me is enjoying as much daylight as possible. When working, I'm in a building all day. So, when cruising, I will sit down and eat later, lol. (Although eating outdoors is my highest preference. I get that more on other cruise lines.) With all the chatter on these boards lately about switching to TD, mostly Early Seating, I am excited that more folks will be indoors by later afternoon, hahahha. I can get an afternoon snack if necessary and eat dinner around 7 or 7:30 and still enjoy the night shows. Anyone sailed on Symphony lately? If yes, what has your TD (Early or Late) versus MTD experience with being seated close to your time or having a long wait?

Did staff explain the delay? Like the 6:45 and 7pm folks were arriving late? Just curious about your specific sailing? Were people with the traditional Early or Late times being seated on time?

Dup

It's served in a MDR versus the Chops restaurant.

Wow, when is this cruise? Which ship and what type of cabin? Oh, also how many days? I need that price! Is that the total daily cost with everything included?

Thank you. Working in the medical field during all this COVID stuff has been quite an adventure.

To answer the OP"s question, in my cruise planner the earliest time was 6:45, then 7pm, and then it looked like the time slots were every 30 minutes from 7pm up to 9pm. That's what I could see. Not sure if it's the same for every ship. Not sure if other slots were full which resulted in me not seeing them. That is for Symphony in December.

Thanks for sharing about your experience. What was your MTD reservation time? I'm wondering if the backlog got worse as the evening went on. Thx

I cruise solo a lot. I chose to cruise when school is NOT on break. Works for me on "family friendly" lines.

Oh my. Royal staff set the check in times, but they are not the people that are out there checking in the folks in the port terminals. Sorry that there was an issue that caused a bottleneck and delayed boarding. I've experienced issues when traveling before as well. I'm thrilled when they are short term problems, and that I can eventually carry on with my vacation. Also, socisl distancing, if we want it, is something we enforce ourselves. Not many places have folks out there enforcing that for us now. In the context of cruising right now, I dont really expect any social distancing protocols to be in place. Side Note - Man, folks have pics of them posted all over the internet without even knowing that other people are plastering pics of them on the internet.

Thank you

Hello All, I'm writing to ask if anyone can confirm that in Balcony Cabin 9150 on the Symphony, the bed is located by the balcony. I used the formula that some people have posted on here for figuring out bed location, and I think the bed is indeed by the balcony. But, I could be calculating wrong. Thanks!

For those of you that purchase the UDP for a 7 night cruise, how many nights do you usually eat in a specialty restaurant for dinner?

Thanks so much. I believe that it is a limited lunch menu as well. Hoping to find what is included somewhere. Thanks so much.

Yes, I've read that folks that sailed earlier this year had cancellations. Will see if there is any better luck at the end of the year. Although with the hefty price tag, I'm not feeling overly concerned about that. Hahahaha.

Hahahaha, Yes, it's probably a no go at that rate for us. LoL. But, that is the "sale" price for goodness sakes, lol.

Thanks.

Definitely! I cruise solo a lot and The Key has more value for me when I sail solo also. I think my best price so far as a solo cruiser was $15.99. That beat the Internet price so I definitely chose The Key. Happy sailing!

We are ok with using that little $50 difference in price for something else. We aren't really cool with giving away $50. But, I totally understand that everyone is different.