dasi11

I tried that pizza once.  I like good pizza and RCL pizza is not good.  YOU would need to PAY ME to actually eat a slice.

The Genies say everyone in Star class complains on every cruise that nothing is offered to Star class or Suites on Coco Cay like they have on Labadee.  But other cruise  lines also do not offer Suites a special area on their private islands either without an extra charge.  

They always have Strongbow British Original Dry on all the RCL ships!  It is my favorite.  Not sweet like the American made crap.  It is great if you are gluten free also!  

Not sure what a CLS is?  But you can order some of your meals to be delivered from Coastal Kitchen if you are in a Suite.  They are open for every meal so why would you need food from the MDR.  If CLS stands for Crown Loft suite, then why wouldn't you spend your time in concierge and Coastal Kitchen for your meals?  They do deliver

Between my husband and I, I think 10 drinks a day is enough from our D+.  Plus, a suite gives us happy hours in the evening.  I can't imagine even finishing the 10 drinks.  Too many calories, not to mention all the food.  

We did our check in this morning.  We did ours and I had a picture rejected and then resubmitted the same picture and it was accepted.  Then we did my in laws check in for the same cruise.  My mother in laws picture would not work.  We did many pictures, logged in and logged out.  Did all this over and over like a crazy person, sometimes trying the same thing.  Spent two hours on just getting her checked in, since tech support does not work on the weekends.  Then I went back to the first picture and all of a sudden it was accepted.  NCL has a broken system.  You need to log in and out over and over and keep trying a few different pictures and  then suddenly it will work.  This system sucks.

Look at the menu's in the APP and see what looks best to you.  I wrote down everything I wanted to eat and the location to get it.  Then I did some planning ahead with a game plan and gave it to the Genie.  The Genie will put together a game plan for you if you don't want to.

12 minutes ago, the_dylaness said:

 

Thanks! We are obviously pretty new to RCCL.  Is there an advantage to CK versus specialty dining?

I would book dinner at each specialty dining restaurant and then fill in with CK.  Never the main dining room or windjammer.  You can even have dinners or any meal delivered to your room.  Tell the Genie what you want with plenty of time to spare and the Genie will make it happen.  

29 minutes ago, the_dylaness said:

Are reservations required for Star Class pax or only Sky and Sea?

The Genie can make reservations for you.  We planned ahead and lined up what nights we wanted Chops, etc. and what nights we wanted CK.

On 5/25/2022 at 10:44 AM, RCCruiser92 said:

 

I wonder if this issue will be at least partially resolved after restocking from port canaveral?  I'm on this ship/itinerary next week so curious to hear.

 

Also, any insight on whether the breakfast wait times at Coastal Kitchen have been just as long at WJ and MDR?  We'll be cruising with my 16 month old so want to make sure we give ourselves plenty of lead time for breakfast if the waits are going to be crazy since toddlers don't always give you much runway before a meltdown! 🙂

Coastal Kitchen has been fine.  NO waits and great service!  We are a party of 12 and have not had any Issues.  Food has been very good too!  

We are on this cruise too!  Sunday can't come soon enough

see you on the ship

Not everyone is offered royal up.  It seems to be the luck of the draw.  I don't think it has anything to do with who you booked with.  

We had one royal suite, 2 grand suites and 2 junior suites booked last Dec.  We wanted to upgrade the Junior suites to Grands...  Only one of the junior suites was able to do the royal up.  Both juniors had Diamond plus people cruising in them.  But the room that was not able to royal up had 150 more status points so even your point status does not matter for royal up.  We kept calling and asking to just pay for the upgrade so we all could eat in Coastal Kitchen together since they were blocking junior suites due to Capacity issues.  

They said bookings were sealed and just to try royal up for the upgrade.  We did not care about the price.  We wanted the rooms upgraded.  We asked why one of the rooms did not get the royal up option and we were told not all rooms get the option and it was a lottery for the offer to upgrade. 

We kept trying to upgrade those 2 rooms!  When final payment was due 30 days before the cruise we tried again to get those rooms upgraded.  Since we could not even get on a waiting list to get those rooms upgraded we canceled ALL the rooms and did not go.

If we could have just put in the maximum amount to royal up for both rooms, we would have taken the chance.  

Shi....happens.  We were cruise with our 3 kids when they were young.  It took us 15 minutes to get to the other side of the Island of St. Thomas to the aquarium and beach in the morning.  We left early at 3pm to go back to the ship for a 4:30pm departure.  We just made it.  The traffic was terrible.  No accident  just lots of traffic.  The driver said it is like that everyday.  We got on the ship at 4:20pm, just in time.  The traffic made a 15 minute trip take an extra hour.  I know St. Thomas and the driver did not take us for a ride.  The road over the mountain was bumper to bumper.

The ship pulled out at 5pm., not 4:30 so I am assuming they were waiting for people.

Both great ships. I would go with availability.  When do you want to cruise?  Not sure if you are getting a balcony but I would see what deal is the best on the date you want to sail.  Some casino rooms are better than others on different dates.

I have Shane on Oasis in October!

We cruise over Christmas every year.  We don't celebrate, but sometimes Chanukah overlaps with a Christmas cruise.  There are also Chanukah celebrations on the ship.  Usually, hundreds of people attend.  Many times the area needed to be changed to accommodate the large crowds.  This year the two celebrations don't overlap.  I am looking forward to the winter break on the ship with family from other states.  We have cruised with as many as 21 people in our group.

My husband is on a special diet.  He gets plates of steamed veggies and very plain chicken or fish.  Never been a problem in the past.

He orders it the day before from the waiter or head waiter.  

Do we know if the Genie has to share a portion of his tip with the staff pot?  Since we know tips are pooled and split, I just assumed the Genie was on his honor to put a portion of the tip in for those that helped him get his job done.  I know the pot is shared since tipping has become such a problem.  We don't actually know that the Genie gets to keep the whole tip.  Even the extra we give the room attendant and waiters, it is combined into the pot for all to share.  

I can't imagine working 7 days a week every week with very little time off.  These jobs are NOT easy!

I have only done 9 or 10 Carnival cruises, but only 1 in the last 5 years.  I always choose Royal over Carnival.  I think the food is better on Royal.  I am Diamond plus and I have lost count on Royal cruises.  

I have on a few occasions gotten a meal I did not like.  The waiters instantly notice you are not eating.  They have always asked me if I would like another choice.  On a few occasions I have said yes.  Other times it was just to full from the previous courses.  LOL.

I have cruised other lines too.  I did think Princess and Oceania had slightly better food overall but you get a good package at Royal.  The entertainment was much better on Royal.

I have also cruised Norwegian and I have only eaten at the pay or Haven restaurants and most of the food was about the same as Royal.  

I think you will be very happy with RCL.  The whole vacation is wonderful.  The food is good.  Speak up if you don't like a meal and they will bring you another choice.  Or order 2 dinners and eat them both.

I did actually have a cruise over 15 years ago where I walked around the ship hungry.  The food was so bad.  I kept trying to find edible food.  Shocking at how bad it was.  It was on the Carnival Destiny.  NO other cruise has ever come close. 

The Star class room includes the tips you normally get charged to your room.  I do tip the room attendant over and above.  We were 5 people in a 2 bedroom ATS.  We tipped $100+ a day for the 5 of us.  Not sure if that was enough.  The genie planned our whole day and saved seats for us where ever we wanted.  He took us in early for laser tag and other activities.  He planned snacks and champagne for us to have for the water shows.  He found us at our meals to make sure everything was perfect.  He asked to get our laundry and Ironing done.  He walked us on a off the ship.  This was especially nice the last morning on the ship.  Our luggage was waiting in a special area so we could move quickly in the crowds.  

As for other tips, we did have a waiter we liked at CK that we tipped, since we kept getting him.  We left an extra cash tip at the pay restaurants.   We also had $1-2 dollars tips for drinks we got on the drink plan.  Life is too short to feel bad about getting good service and not rewarding it.  It is clear the service industry works on tips.

I think at D+, 5 drinks a day is more than I need.  With my husbands status, that gives us 10 drinks a day.  More than enough and a great selection of choices and bars all day!

We were wondering if most of our meals could just be delivered to the room to eat on the balcony in Star class?
 

I expect he will be fine. The movement is very little.   I have been reading about people's rooms being moved because of covid measures.  Don't be surprised if the room is changed.  People are upset that they paid extra to actually pick a room and then their room was changed anyway.  Hope it does not happen to you.

I checked in for an Oct. 17 cruise about 2 weeks ago on Oasis.  I would call.  

We look to book suites and they are frequently sold out.  People want the double points along with a larger room and all the extra perks.  With more than double point promotions, I am not surprised the suites are sold out.