somerandomidiot

The list of free cruises, that I got onboard last month, had about a year's worth of sailings on it. Not sure if it will be the same in March 2024 since the benefits seem to get crappier over time.

On 6/18/2022 at 4:29 PM, bayonnejoe said:

Just got off Friday. Crowded doesn't do the term 'crowded' justice. Elevators packed. Venues for things like trivia were packed. I actually saw  people sitting on the floor for a few. Buffets crowded. Windjammer especially.  Stick with Solarium Bistro.  Smaller with not as big a selection but far more manageable. Pools unusable, in my opinion unless you go first thing in the morning. Shows OK if you're into them.  There were far more children than I ever saw on a cruise. Having said all that, my guess would be as long as you sail in the fall while school is in session you should be OK. The Oasis is an amazing ship. 

The staff created those lines outside of windjammer the last couple of weeks. There were lines even when there were plenty of seats in WJ because the management of the handwashing stations sucked. They let in sets of people and didn't let the next batch in until the previous batch was done. So they were limited by the speed of the slowest person in each batch and there were unused handwashing stations people could have been using.

13 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

You are getting a lot of "general" information.  You need port-specific information.

 

You are cruising out of Bayonne/Cape Liberty.  My experiences there are roughly 50/50 - stay on ship and be led out into the terminal and back again.  You won't know which you will have until you get that letter in your cabin halfway through the first cruise.

 

The meeting time was either 8 or 8:30.  I am just drawing a blank at this moment.  

Didn't have to get off the ship on Oasis, June 10th. The customs guy was at the meeting point. The letter only had generic information. The meeting time was 8AM but the line didn't move until about 8:45. I assume that was when the customs guy arrived.

On 1/23/2022 at 11:02 AM, WarfRatWA said:

Beside the fact that tips are a major part of the crews compensation, the reason I tip is that I want those dealers to look out for my bets.  Perhaps I forgot to add odds, they let me know.  Maybe another player has grabbed my payoff and I didn't notice, or perhaps my bet isn't maximizing payout, they clue me in.

 

This is especially true right now for craps. The casino seems to be very short staffed and they rotate in a lot of dealers who aren't as familiar with the game.  Many more errors happening with payouts and money being placed in the wrong spot. Helpful to have an extra set of eyes or two watching your bets.  Also seem to have a better chance of the really close "no rolls" going in your favor. 

10 hours ago, Auntiemomo said:

Not sure how that will work.  I had the surf & stream internet package, and the 2 day D+ internet was taken away.  I asked why -- they told me I didn't need it since I had the package.

I had a different experience. I had the 4 device package so I wasn't able to set up another login for my 2 days of D+ internet. Went to the Voom desk and the fella there happily put it onto someone else's account for me. He initially set it up as surf only, i asked him how much it would cost to get surf and stream instead and he just gave it to me since both accounts were D+. Whole process took less than 2 minutes.

14 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Pretty sure the double masking was a HQ mandate to all ships after the outbreak on Symphony on 12/17 - the double masking started the next day throughout the ship. Like passengers, staff compliance was not universal. 

Thanks for the clarification, that makes a lot more sense. I was wondering how they did that so quickly after the casino hosts got sick.

6 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

This is encouraging!! Nice to hear some positive thoughts.  How are the buffets being handled? 

Not too different from before, the crew served the food and they really pushed the washy washy. 

6 hours ago, DevonfromAcme said:

*** EDIT:  Just checked the Roll Call for the December 12 sailing.  They made it to all ports.  A minor onboard band cancellation, and a handful of popped positives among passengers at the end of the cruise.  Looks like they made it through relatively unscathed.  YMMV, of course.

 

 

It was very odd. I'm surprised more people didn't get sick. A few days into the cruise, the casino hosts got sick. Seems like all the staff onboard went to double masking immediately. The casino handed out N95s to the casino staff. I was waiting for the craps table to open and they were pulling bags of them out of a large box. They then got rid of the smokers but a lot of guests were still at the tables without masks. Same thing with the gym, plenty of guests not wearing masks (after the policy was changed mid cruise) and at night the off duty crew that used the gym also were also mostly unmasked.

Didn't need reservations during my cruise last week but I mostly went mid afternoon and at night. Not many people in there during those times.

1 hour ago, Another_Critic said:

Did they add any coffee vouchers to your SeaPass card?

On Anthem, during the 12 nighter that ended today, you could use the diamond drinks for coffee drinks at La Patisserie and for shakes at Johnny Rockets. The espresso machine in the Diamond Lounge was also working.

the mailed/emailed offers stopped for a few months then resumed a couple of weeks ago for me. i also just got off of a 12 nighter on Anthem.

Just got off of Anthem. Pretty much the same as pre-pandemic, except for the masks and smoke free casino.

Has anyone been to St. Kitts recently?  I'm curious about the specifics of the rules for departing the ship listed below.

There's a restaurant about 5 minutes walk from port that I want to get food from.  I was wondering if "government approved tour" just meant approved tour operators, which means I could probably pay them to bring me over to the restaurant, buy the food and bring back to port/ship to eat or if it means tours with predetermined destinations (like the RC excursions).

If I can't have someone bring me over, does anyone know if locals can come into the enclosed port area to deliver the food to me?

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/the-healthy-sail-center/getting-ready-to-cruise

• St. Kitts

At the above destinations, vaccinated guests may depart the ship and visit the enclosed port area on their own. If they wish to visit further into the island, they must have booked a Royal Caribbean shore excursion, or participate in a government approved tour. The government approved tours are unaffiliated with Royal Caribbean.

22 hours ago, RFerrington said:

When did they reduce the length of the annual tier comp cruise from 8 nights down to 7 nights ?

 

My tier comp cruises have all been 8 nights in the past. Now they’re telling my TA that the annual tier comp cruise cannot exceed 7 nights.

 

I’m trying to convert my 8 night SY Aug cruise to use 1 of our 4 annual comps and they are saying “no”.  I did see that the rule state 7 nights on the website...but it had always been a max of 8 nights previously. Just wondering when it changed.

they cancelled the cruise that I used my 2020 annual comp on but I was able to re-book it in late March and switch to an 8 night southern caribbean itinerary.

21 minutes ago, psternklar said:

Second vote fro Bahamian Kitchen

This rec is only for fried conch (to be even more specific: cracked conch, not fritters). its not bad at bahamian kitchen but better at greek islands. be prepared to wait though, they're slow at  bahamian kitchen and even slower at greek islands.

this promo is perfect for craps.  after watching how they are used last week, i wish i'd bought a bunch of them for my future cruises. i didn't realize before getting onboard that you are allowed to use them for every bet, not just the ones with even odds.  so you can use the promo chips for all of your bets and presses and your winnings you take in real chips. works great since you know from the beginning all your bets will be lost at some point.  this deal gives you extra chips to play with and you get 4.5% back on your credit card. i bet it wouldn't be hard to run through 20-30k in chips in a week. 

8 hours ago, tekguy26 said:

From what I've know about bonus wagers is, you don't actually get the wager back. You only get the winners. So if you place a $25 bonus bet and win, they take away the voucher and you get $25 for the win. If you lose they just take away the voucher. That's why there's a rule about contra betting. In roulette when you win, they take away the bet instead of leaving it in play for the next spin.

I don't see how there's a benefit at all to buying these chips. Say you wager your 1000 promo chips on red and it hits. They take your 1000 in promo chips and pay you 1000 in real chips. You need to bet the whole amount and win just to break even. This only works if they give them to you 2 to 1.  

thanks!

Does anyone know the internet discount % for Prime? The page with the rewards table only says "discount" and all the other pages I've found seem to link back to this one.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/pdf/casino/casino-royale-rewards-table.pdf

Can it be combined with the D+ discount?

I'm trying to figure out if buying a surf and stream package for a 14 night cruise in advance is cheaper than using the D+ discount/prime discount once onboard.

Seems like it's 11.99/per day if you buy it precruise.

Not Allure but on Anthem, they lowered the craps minimum back to $5 last week. Was $5 also on Navigator in May but there were only 4 regulars at the table that sailing.

Yes. On a recent cruise on Grandeur, I only accumulated 1126 points but was given a complimentary balcony room due to my losses (some will say I simply pre-paid my cruise...which is a fair assessment). We took that complimentary balcony room (the one that was upgraded to an OS for $498) last week. On THAT cruise both Dan and I got complimentary inside rooms even though neither of us reached the "free room" threshold. So yes, they definitely count your losses when calculating your "rewards". But here is the lesson. ALWAYS go to the Casino host on the last night and talk to him/her. If we had not done that on this last cruise, we would have gotten 2 certificates for a total of $400 instead of 2 free cruises. While I know for sure that they consider your losses, I am convinced that they do NOT do that automatically. I think you have to ask them to calculate it to include your losses or they will just give you whatever is easiest for them to calculate, which is points alone.

 

What is the criteria for calculating losses ? I have no earthly idea. All I know is that I have been given 2 complimentary cruises on my last 2 cruises and if they were going strictly by points, I would not have qualified. Also, if I had not gone to the host/ess to verify it, I would not have received either complimentary cruise. If you have lost significant $$, MAKE them calculate your losses and see if it will make a difference. I'm batting 1000 right now using this strategy.

Same experience here. You may not have the points but if you lose enough they'll give you the cert.

I've also had instances where:

They issued a cert but I didn't receive it. The casino host reissued after I asked.

They issued a cert for $100 when it was supposed to be the cert for $1000 (or balcony). The casino host reissued after I asked.

She didn't understand why I was upset.

They issued the cert for $750 (or oceanview) when I qualified for the cert for $1000 or balcony. The casino host reissued after I asked. I've gotten the cert for $750 (or oceanview) a couple of others times in the past but didn't think to ask.

I feel like this happens too often for it just to be incompetence.

I agree. They have no ability to track craps play. It's bad enough that they offer single odds (with the exception of the nine chip payout or a bet of 25+) and won't open a table until 7pm, they should at least be able to correctly register your play.

There seems to be at least three types of them when you order from the kids menu in the MDR. The processed fast food kind of nugget is rare. I think I'm 3 for 15 on those. It's mostly the large chicken finger type strips of fried chicken breast that they serve me. There's also one kind where it's smaller chunks of chicken breast. I like the fast food style nuggets the best but don't get them often. The waiters don't understand what I mean when I ask them about the type of nugget being served that night. I just get a confused look when I tell them I only want them if it's the fast food kind of nugget.

I realise the question was about Athem but just to inform you if you find it to be of any help.

We have eaten dinner on HOTS on two occasions and enjoyed them both times.

Self service buffet starter and dessert with very good selections.

Entree served at your table from the menu with no up charge or indeed we could have helped ourselves from the many buffet items.

I only went a couple of times on HOTS but the SB there is much better than the one on Anthem now. Baklava was tasty on both ships.

Must be new, haven't heard of a JS upcharge. Maybe a way to control demand.

Was on Anthem in a JS last week. There wasn't an additional charge for dinner at CK.