rudeney

Yes, you can connect to the ship's wifi and use the Royal App with0out paying for anything. If you want to do anything else on The Internet, you have to pay.

Having the name on your ID match your boarding pass has always been an issue. I think they only go by first and last name plus DOB. My wife uses two different middle names. Apparently, when we married and she changed her name, she somehow used her given middle name (which she hates) instead of her maiden name. So on officially federal documents, her middle name is different than what she has on her DL and anything else she signs.

My guess is that if you have Chops booked but it's closed, they would transfer your reservation to Giovanni's. One thing I will say is never once did we see people waiting on tables at the specialty restaurants. There were always plenty of open tables.

Love this! Don't forget that if skies are clear and Voom is slow to shut your wifi off and back on to connect to a stronger access point. I do really wish that RCCL would use better mesh routers on the ships. I think half of the complaints about Voom are the ship's wifi and not the satellite service.

I drink mostly Scotch. What I found on the ship is that Johnnie Walker Black Label was $11, Double Black was $12. Most local bars and restaurants charge at least a dollar more than that. When I travel and stay at hotels like Omni, Marriott, Westin, etc. I've paid as much as $18 for that same drink (all pre-tax/tip).

If you have more than one person in your cabin, make sure you compare the total price of The Key for all of you to the price of a multi-device Voom package. On our last cruise (just two of us), I bought a Voom 2-device package for $31. The Key was $25pp, so that's almost $19/day more ($133 for the 7-day cruise). That's what you need to do to decide if the price is worth it. Just seeing it as $5 or $10 more than Voom is not a valid comparison.

That has been my experience over the last year or so. Like I said, neither Nashville nor Boston last week needed a boarding pass. Actually, I saw the group in front of me with TSA Pre-Check that had a child with them and the agent did ask for his boarding pass, presumably because he was too young to have an ID. The parents did not show a boarding pass - only ID, just as I did.

Correct! On many days, the only pool open was the Solarium and I was in it almost every day - definitely heated. I didn't try the other pools. And no craps tables. I am really surprised they didn't put one in when the restarted. It doesn't seem like it would be a big deal to pull out one of the poker or blackjack tables. Oh, and the "high rollers" section of the casino was closed the whole time. I guess there was either no one with that kind of money, or maybe not enough crew to manage it.

Interesting. It was Oct. 1st when we flew out of Nashville and I had my boarding card (had printed to when we did bag check at the Southwest kiosk) and my passport in hand. The TSA agent said "I only need your passport". I'm flying out of BHM and Tampa week after next so I'll report back what happens there.

I think that's because CLEAR has already confirmed identity.

This makes me wonder if the older ships don't have the ability (or procedures in place) to create and publish the PDF version. Like I said, Voyager had paper and no mention of scanning anything for a PDF.

Yep, we used it regularly or calls and texts. That seemed to work just fine even if Internet access was "slow". One very important thing to keep in mind with Voom - and this may not get any better with Starlink - is that the wifi access points on the ship don't hand-off very well at all. They don't use a modern "mesh" system. If you move around and change decks, you should shut off wifi, then turn it back on and reconnect to make sure you are on the access point with the best signal strength. Often time, we'd return to the room and have one bar and practically no service, but after shutting wifi off and on, we'd have 4-5 bars. We just got in the habit of doing this anytime we went to a different spot on the ship.

There is definitely no dedicated Sorrento's restaurant. I did stop in Cafe Promenade one afternoon to grab a slice of pizza - the had three there ready to serve and I heard the crew member say she was making more. This was a counter perpendicular and to the left of the deli case. I check my copies of the Cruise Compass and Learn to Play was listed only on the first day at 6:00pm - the casino was scheduled to open at 6:30pm. All of our local Johnny Rockets closed, even before COVID. They just became rundown and poorly managed. I did like it on the ships, though, because it was a nice diversion from other food onboard. Voyager does have Cupcake Cupboard, on the port side, between the Windjammer and pool deck. But it's not serving cupcakes - they serve some desserts and sandwiches, similar to Cafe Promenade. It's only open from 6:00am - 7:00am in the mornings, then 3:00pm - 6:00pm in the afternoons. I thin on sea days it may open for an hour or two late at night (10-midnight). I'd have rather had cupcakes!

That was what was odd in Nashville - there were no greeters - just signs. That was the first time I had encountered that. Maybe the greeter had stepped away for a moment. The agent at the entrance to the queue asks to see a boarding pass, but when you get to the station where the TSA agent checks your ID, they don't check for it. I know that in the past they scanned boarding passes because I'd have to place my phone face-down on a screen. But at least since COVID, I've not needed to show a boarding pass there. I'll have my ID and paper boarding pass or app screen at the ready and the agent always says only my ID is needed. This is out of BHM, ATL, BND, MDW, ORD, MCO, BOS, LAS and several other airports I've flown out of.

Our excursion in Portland last week was late by a few minutes returning to the ship because of a drawbridge. It was an RCCL excursion, so we weren't worried and they held the ship for us. I did notice as we were walking down the pier, there were many people looking over balconies. I figured they were just trying to get some video of "runners". Sorry to have been a disappointment to them.

So here's something odd about that...the TSA screeners do not check your boarding card - they only check your ID. Their system ties to the airline passenger manifests by your name and DOB, so they know if you are a ticketed passenger or not. Presumably, they should also know if you have Pre-Check or not. Normally, they have someone standing at the entrance to the Pre-Check line to verify boarding cards. When we flew out of Nashville recently, they were not checking boarding cards for Pre-Check. They were only checking boarding cars at the main entrance to the security area, and nothing was said about Pre-Check at all. I just followed the signs.

Voyager has no Freestyle machines. If you have a beverage package, you can get whatever soft drinks you want from any bar or restaurant. Sometimes it will come out of the nozzle, sometimes out of a can, but I also saw them using 2 or 3 liter bottles of Coke products. Voyager doesn't have an actual Sorrento's, but they do have the same pizza in Cafe Promenade. And Johnny Rocket's was deleted during the amping to add more staterooms. Another thing Voyager lacks is craps tables in the casino. Rumor is that since Voyager spent most of its recent life in Asia, and craps is not popular there, they replaced the craps tables with other games. I did notice that many of the slots had an Asian theme (dragons, Asian-looking anime, etc.)

I don't believe you will be able to do that on Explorer. Years ago on Voyager and Freedom class ships, the entrance to Chops was inside the Windjammer, basically right where you entered the buffet line and you could do this. They even had a sign there welcoming suite guests and we did than many times. Since COVID, they have redesigned the Windjammer entrance so you go through the washy-washy stations. The entrance to Chops is now in the hall, outside the Windjammer. There is usually a door that does enter chops from within the Windjammer, but it's mostly used by servers to access the bar. In addition to that issue, Chops is usually the one specialty restaurant open for lunch (serving it's own menu at lunch prices) on embarkation day. Having said that, on Voyager last week, Giovanni's was the embarkation day specialty lunch. Chops was being used for overflow seating for the Windjammer (for anyone - not just suites).

I bought it at $65 for last week's Voyager cruise. It was cheaper than the so-called BOGO50 which was at $75. I checked every day after I booked my cruise (back in March) and $65 was the lowest I ever saw.

We had paper on Voyager last week. I don't think it was being in a suite or our age because I think everyone got paper.

Thanks - I was only off by 1mbps!

I believe the difference is the maximum speed cap placed on each service. I have heard that Surf is 1-1.5Mbps, where Stream is closer to 5Mps (or maybe it's 3Mbps?). Regardless, you will be lucky to see anything over 1.5Mbs even with Stream. I was able to watch a football game on Hulu using Stream last Saturday on Voyager, but I had to put the app in "data saver" mode, and it would still drop out sometimes.

I don't often drink beer, but when I do, I like something full-bodied and usually choose a local IPA or dark beer. When all else fails, I'll go with a traditional Bud, Coors, etc. I can't stand "light" beer.

Champagne, bourbon , whiskey, whisky...use these terms incorrectly and you're bound to piss off someone!

Ah, yes, I looked online and it's there! I didn't realize any Voyager-class except for Navigator had Playmakers.