TwoMisfits

Or they planned to heat and plate X dishes per hour, and had too many show up (or too many requested and eaten) the 1st few hours, getting behind and having to cut short full heating times for the later diners...

Thank you for this email...since I had to have it for personal peace of mind to avoid crowds for embarkation, 1st day lunch, and debarkation, I did jump on the Key. More than I wanted to pay, but 1st sale since I booked (and it was a full 25% off), and looking at last year's Black Friday, not sure it will get better on an enormous new ship during a holiday week sale. It helped the kids told me they couldn't believe we might live the week without internet when they have phones and boyfriends to talk to...and a spouse who also felt like he was gonna need to be connected. Then, it wasn't just me avoiding all the mob scene crowds of the 1st and last day. They are uber-excited, and we booked crappy cabins so I originally could get this for me - then we saw the original price ($44) and waited and waited...I just wish it was under $30/person/day and not $32/person/day...but if it was, maybe it would have sold out before I saw this post. And selling out would have made my stress level for the vacation skyrocket. PS - My daughter did make the point that if I waited for Black Friday, with inflation, it might not get any cheaper anyway, and it's not like her dad's salary goes up between now and then...I did also tell the spouse when we are old enough to go as a twosome, this will be much easier to buy. Oh well...at least the kids will love skipping lines for the activities!

I think the preciseness is in RCCL labeling the area "gluten free." If they do, they are guaranteeing zero gluten, not "small enough you won't notice" amounts of gluten. So all folks can trust the food they are eating there, no matter the severity of their need to avoid gluten.

Aldi's sells a "Crispy Rice" generic cereal that is fully gluten free...I'm betting it's that (or another generic version of the same)...

I tried to book the $199 UDP error, just to see. It was impossible. Ah well, I didn't need specialty dining, and now I probably will not book it on principle unless it gets that low again. My price went back to normal ($260.99) a few hours after the error.

I'm hoping 1st night dinner was horrid b/c the kitchen never caught up after inspection, and that day 2 onward was much improved!

And to give you hope, they do normally grow out of it. Peels weren't vomited instantly around age 7...and now peels are happily eaten as a teen (although I still peel almost everything out of habit). But I had 2 picky eaters out of 4 (although only one insta-vomiter) - by age 10, most of the worst of it passed, and now they eat almost everything (although textures are still one reason they don't like things, which comes from my spouse, who won't eat raw bananas and tomatoes just for that reason)...

OP, I would just plan on paying the child fee for the older child. It's $10, and it makes everything easy. If your children eat nothing, and the waiter/manager decides to pixie dust you after eating, all the better. But this way, you don't have to worry about...anything...related to dining there, separate than your kids' needs. And I do get kid sensory issues. The Easter holiday of vomit at the Outback b/c my spouse didn't stop the waitstaff from putting apples with peel in front of my son fast enough will forever live in my memory. The kids don't mean to be difficult eaters - they just are:).

Yeah, I don't know why they'd match anyone anymore with the diamond vouchers usable anywhere...all they are doing is giving money hand over fist to folks who didn't "earn" it with prior spending. It's not like there's really anything that now splits a family on board if someone has status and someone doesn't. And the drink vouchers can be shared with other people, so if an adult kid wants a drink, the adult parent can still give them a free one from their own benefits...

If it were me - Ask for it served family style - you'd like the plate delivered with each person's solo entree b/c you will share it at your table...even if you don't.

Spectacular. My fam and I swim on a cruise (not lay out), so we only need 1 chair for all 6 of our stuff, and we just find one when we arrive at the pools. It would be nice to not struggle to find a chair.

And now it's officially a full 2K less...another sale, another $120 ($20/person) increase. Crazy!

I booked my May 2024 cruise on MLK weekend 2023 - every week I see this cruise climb higher (and yet, if I try to book a room, there are tons of my type available). I'm glad I got in at the price I did, which is about $2K less than it would cost me for the same 2 interior cabins for 3 now...

Since I have 2 cabins and 6 total people, I always prepay to keep the daily bills cleaner, so errors are much easier to spot (I have had to fix 1-2 mis-bills over my cruises)...

That's my sale price, too - $169.99. It does make this an easy pass for my family, too. Reg price is listed at $179. I told the spouse I'd spend $2K extra on special stuff for the spouse/kids (since we already have the cruise and grats prepaid). There are 6 of us, so that's not as much money as it seems. But it appears that with RCCL's "extras" pricing, that money is gonna go to the ports, b/c my value bones just can't spring for things tons pricier than NYC/Las Vegas. Which is okay, b/c it's been 6 years since we've been on RCCL (once we cruise), so everything, even the free stuff, will be brand new (especially since this is also a new ship for us)...so free stuff only it might be, which I'm okay with... But I hold out hope for Mem Day/Labor Day/Black Friday/New Years deals...

Thanks, I actually have a few base dishes, not just a salad, that would work in my mental mind...some even fit the food theme nights (like another could be a raw bruschetta topped grilled protein with a white bean ragu and a macedonia fruit salad for Italian night, vs "have a vegan pasta" - I did this for a murder mystery dinner party for chicken breast, chicken thigh, and roasted portobello b/c I had folks who only ate chicken breast, folks who only ate chicken thigh, and folks who ate vegan - and one person didn't eat the topping, but since it was raw topping and added after the protein cook, that was an easy leave-off - see component cooking at its best)...

My Time Dining rotates time and wait staff, while traditional dining does not. So, it's probably 2 reasons why customers are not allowed to opt out. 1. There is no singular waitstaff to blame for bad service since patrons experience so many. 2. The percent who were opting out of automatic tips after choosing MTD was enormous, so to shut that down, they include the inability to opt out, as they do on some international cruises.

There's a restaurant I frequent in Williamsburg that is on the top 10 allergy places to eat in America that does this. It's genius to have a "make your own" dish that can be pieced together, and that was the one thing that shocked me that wasn't on the menu. Even if that dish is a main course "make your own salad" with the ability to add (say, like select up to 3 - grilled steak, fish, chicken, tofu, portobello mushroom, cheese, eggs, chick'n, etc, etc) to a salad of raw and/or cooked veg with an oil and lemon or oil and vinegar dressing...

Key for my cruise is $42.99/person/day before tax...that's too rich for my blood right now. I told the spouse it would have to reduce by at least half for me to buy it...just b/c I'd be buying for 6...so the internet included is only so valuable... Although it was nice the price started so high. It took the "do I buy" decision right out of my mental calculus b/c at that price, it was so obviously no. Same as the all-in alcohol package - right now, it's "on sale" for $79.99/day plus tax/tip. Spouse told me at that price, he'd rather just stick to a drink a day and a coffee out of pocket. We'll see if that one drops later... I guess it's nice the May 2024 prices are so high...it keeps all the money in my pocket for things I don't actually need to enjoy the ship...

Thanks for all the updates, and I'm glad you found out how to get the Udi cookies. I'll probably be the same for the single serve plain potato chips, b/c those and (some) pretzels are about the only salty snacks I can have with my allergies - it will be me on board trying to figure out who might still have them so I can have something "naughty" on board, while my kids go to town on fries, fried stuff, cakes, and pastries...

Since you had The Key, what activities had dedicated "Key" times for the week? And how often did they have them (or do you have the actual schedule)?

The other huge problem with Indian is that if it's authentic, it's terrible for allergies and dairy/nut intolerances (even before you talk some of the spiciness issues and actual spice intolerances, which some folks also can't handle). Lots of dairy and tree nuts underpin almost all of the famous Indian cuisine dishes. If you remove all the dairy (including the ghee), you are getting less authenticity, which would then make it taste less good for the masses.

I could see a free restaurant for Indian, but Indian served on ship is cheap, and the ship would LOVE everyone to eat that and order a ton of it. They don't want to take it away from main dining - they'd rather add more to main dining if they thought everyone could and would eat it.

Thanks for this info.

It's not paranoid. It's reality. The bean counters know all this data. And I'm sure management asks them for the info. All the tipping data is there b/c it's all electronic. It would be bad management on Royal's part if they didn't know, and bad representation on the employee negotiator side if they didn't know. So, they all know. But, if you're tipping, you truly have nothing to be worried or paranoid about.