Suite Perks

[Missusdubbya]

4 minutes ago, Midway7934 said:

I too have a question regarding the Grand Suite perks on Adventure of the Seas

and @JohnScot this list is pre-COVID and defines the differences between classes

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/aus/en/faq/questions/what-are-the-benefits-of-the-suites-program

[Missusdubbya]

Haha sorry @reallyitsmema great minds etc 😁

[reallyitsmema]

1 minute ago, Missusdubbya said:

Haha sorry @reallyitsmema great minds etc 😁

 

No worries, as long as they get the information they are looking for all is good. 🙂 

[Midway7934]

Thanks guys. It helped me.Now I know I have to book my WiFi. I should be Diamond by then, so maybe no drink package if they keep up the present free range perks…………although it is a birthday celebration!  

[George C]

1 minute ago, Midway7934 said:

Thanks guys. It helped me.Now I know I have to book my WiFi. I should be Diamond by then, so maybe no drink package if they keep up the present free range perks…………although it is a birthday celebration!  

If your diamond you get four free drinks anywhere on the ship plus suite happy hours with unlimited drinks that don’t count against the four , with the combination you most likely will not need drink package.

[firefly333]

11 minutes ago, Midway7934 said:

Thanks guys. It helped me.Now I know I have to book my WiFi. I should be Diamond by then, so maybe no drink package if they keep up the present free range perks…………although it is a birthday celebration!  

You do get 24 free hours of wifi at diamond or that much off. Liberty I believe it showed as a 24.95 credit.

 

If you still cant get enough to drink you can carry on 2 bottles of wine per cabin. 

[Midway7934]

Now that’s funny! It’s a 5 night cruise. Did JohnScot get his question answered? Sorry for the hijack.

[reallyitsmema]

4 minutes ago, Midway7934 said:

Now that’s funny! It’s a 5 night cruise. Did JohnScot get his question answered? Sorry for the hijack.

 

He was looking at Navigator, so he should be good.

 

If you are looking at a 5 night cruise, you might not need to buy Voom unless you want to be on it 24/7.  With a short itinerary like that, you could easily spread the discount.  Day 1, we don't bother using the credit as we are on cellular most of the day and don't need it that night.  Day 2, we would use a coupon around lunch time if we are on a sea day and that would give us until lunchtime on day 3.  If in port on day 3, we might not use the other person's coupon until dinner time or not at all if we were able to use free wifi in port or used a travel pass with our cellphone carrier.  Or we would use other person's coupon to buy Voom for the remainder of the cruise.  It really depends on how much you really want to be connected.

[ScotBrit17]

Yes I got my answers thanks to all

[Midway7934]

Wow, thanks for the WiFi lesson. I am just used to having it for sending pictures and “old fashioned” emails or watching a TV show on board. Like what was discussed, each ship has different amenities and this will be my first time on Adventure, most of which was paid for with FCCs. I have one more cruise (Celebrity - June) which will make me Elite, equivalent to Diamond on Royal. I should check more carefully what I am entitled to. Again, thanks for the tips.

[George C]

14 minutes ago, Midway7934 said:

Wow, thanks for the WiFi lesson. I am just used to having it for sending pictures and “old fashioned” emails or watching a TV show on board. Like what was discussed, each ship has different amenities and this will be my first time on Adventure, most of which was paid for with FCCs. I have one more cruise (Celebrity - June) which will make me Elite, equivalent to Diamond on Royal. I should check more carefully what I am entitled to. Again, thanks for the tips.

I was elite on my first celebrity cruise because of my rccl status, elite perks are not as good as diamond, but celebrity suite perks are way better that rccl .

[ScotBrit17]

Just to clarify for everyone. I have a balcony cabin booked on Navigator for beginning of March and was looking to upgrade through Royalup for a special occasion but the perks are not appealing so I will stay where I am booked 

[reallyitsmema]

3 minutes ago, ScotBrit17 said:

Just to clarify for everyone. I have a balcony cabin booked on Navigator for beginning of March and was looking to upgrade through Royalup for a special occasion but the perks are not appealing so I will stay where I am booked 

 

I would only upgrade if it was a GS or higher on that class of ship.  I do not like the aft facing JS that are behind a large open space making the railing of the "balcony" way deep in the superstructure of the ship.  If you look for aft facing JS, you will see what I am talking about, some like those cabin, but we avoid them.

[grandgeezer]

46 minutes ago, George C said:

I was elite on my first celebrity cruise because of my rccl status, elite perks are not as good as diamond, but celebrity suite perks are way better that rccl .

When you compare suite perks make sure you compare the pricing too. You will find you are paying a big price for the perks on Celebrity.

[George C]

1 minute ago, grandgeezer said:

When you compare suite perks make sure you compare the pricing too. You will find you are paying a big price for the perks on Celebrity.

No , I would have paid over 3k for a grand suite on allure in November, for same week I got aft sky suite on a brand new ship for under 3 k with 400 OBC per person, drink package and tips also WiFi which I would have got on rccl . A couple of years ago rccl was cheaper no longer.

[chill6x6]

1 minute ago, grandgeezer said:

When you compare suite perks make sure you compare the pricing too. You will find you are paying a big price for the perks on Celebrity.

One thing about perks...while you don't always get what you pay for, you don't get what you DON'T pay for. Celebrity does probably have the overall best "suite product." There's really nothing left to purchase once you pay for the cruise.  Everything is included.  Even OBC for specialty dining or excursions.  Most times one can get a Sky suite for about the same as a GS on Oasis/Harmony type ships.  Sky suites include all the "stuff." Celebrity has the best suite restaurant and suite areas on Revolutionized ships. I will say the GS is generally a nicer/larger cabin...much better balcony which I like.

I like to mix it up with cruise lines.  There's something for everyone! 

[ScotBrit17]

14 hours ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

I would only upgrade if it was a GS or higher on that class of ship.  I do not like the aft facing JS that are behind a large open space making the railing of the "balcony" way deep in the superstructure of the ship.  If you look for aft facing JS, you will see what I am talking about, some like those cabin, but we avoid them.

I have a perfect balcony cabin mid ship, agree about the aft JS cabins

[topnole]

14 hours ago, chill6x6 said:

One thing about perks...while you don't always get what you pay for, you don't get what you DON'T pay for. Celebrity does probably have the overall best "suite product." There's really nothing left to purchase once you pay for the cruise.  Everything is included.  Even OBC for specialty dining or excursions.  Most times one can get a Sky suite for about the same as a GS on Oasis/Harmony type ships.  Sky suites include all the "stuff." Celebrity has the best suite restaurant and suite areas on Revolutionized ships. I will say the GS is generally a nicer/larger cabin...much better balcony which I like.

I like to mix it up with cruise lines.  There's something for everyone! 

I think the difference is somewhat the ship.  It is hard to compare oasis class to anything else.  If one likes oasis class the best, there is no other line that provides anything remotely comparable.  

 

Also, suite pricing is somewhat nonsensical right now.  So many cruise credits being used from prior cancellations.  Plus limited capacity.  This means low supply and potentially higher demand.  Not all ships and weeks,

but compared to prior normal times the suite prices can be all over the place

so it really hard to make apples to apples comparisons.  Some weeks sky class suites on oasis class are priced ridiculously high.  On other weeks I’ve seen star Class for relatively reasonable rates.  
 

 

[grandgeezer]

15 hours ago, chill6x6 said:

One thing about perks...while you don't always get what you pay for, you don't get what you DON'T pay for. Celebrity does probably have the overall best "suite product." There's really nothing left to purchase once you pay for the cruise.  Everything is included.  Even OBC for specialty dining or excursions.  Most times one can get a Sky suite for about the same as a GS on Oasis/Harmony type ships.  Sky suites include all the "stuff." Celebrity has the best suite restaurant and suite areas on Revolutionized ships. I will say the GS is generally a nicer/larger cabin...much better balcony which I like.

I like to mix it up with cruise lines.  There's something for everyone! 

Before the pandemic we did 14 days on the Allure, in a Grand Suite, and 14 days on Celebrity Equinox, in a Sky Suite. The Grand Suite was over $100 p.p. per day, cheaper than the Sky Suite. The drink package and obc given by Celebrity has little to no value to us.

[chill6x6]

8 hours ago, topnole said:

I think the difference is somewhat the ship.  It is hard to compare oasis class to anything else.  If one likes oasis class the best, there is no other line that provides anything remotely comparable.  

 

Also, suite pricing is somewhat nonsensical right now.  So many cruise credits being used from prior cancellations.  Plus limited capacity.  This means low supply and potentially higher demand.  Not all ships and weeks,

but compared to prior normal times the suite prices can be all over the place

so it really hard to make apples to apples comparisons.  Some weeks sky class suites on oasis class are priced ridiculously high.  On other weeks I’ve seen star Class for relatively reasonable rates.  
 

 

Yeah it really always has been kinda hard to have apple to apples comparisons for a whole lot of reasons... Itinerary, embarkation port, date of cruise, ship, cabin location/size, cruise line amenities differences...and more come into play. And you know....there's no one ship or cruise line that has it all.  

Right now I've got 4 cruises booked for this year. FOUR cruise lines.  Prices vary WILDLY but so do expectations:

Royal- $2000/Day. Star class

HAL- $1000/Day. Neptune suite

Celebrity- $1100/Day, Celebrity suite

Carnival- $450/Day, Vista suite

Of course the Carnival suite includes next to nothing over their inside cabin. Minimal perks and as you can see, I didn't pay for it.

The HAL cruise actually includes quite a bit. $100 OBC, wifi, beverage pkg, $200 shore excursion credit, and 1 night speciality dining. HAL also includes the Neptune Lounge, concierge, room service, Club Orange restaurant, and prob a few other things. 

The Celebrity cruise includes even more. Personal Retreat Host, concierge, room service, Retreat Lounge, Retreat sundeck, Luminae restaurant,  premium drink pkg, wifi, $60O OBC, gratuities.

Star Class- What does it NOT include? So no OBC. So all excursions are on you.

Point is amenities went from few to maximum with price increase accordingly.  First Star class for me and it will be interesting to see how it compares to what I'm familiar with in the Celebrity suite experience. 

7 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

Before the pandemic we did 14 days on the Allure, in a Grand Suite, and 14 days on Celebrity Equinox, in a Sky Suite. The Grand Suite was over $100 p.p. per day, cheaper than the Sky Suite. The drink package and obc given by Celebrity has little to no value to us.

I guess if the beverage pkg and OBC had no value to you then it is of no benefit. We aren't big drinkers BUT...it's fun to have wine with dinner, mimosas(or three) with breakfast, specialty coffee, beer by the pool, cokes when we wanted. We use the OBC for specialty dining and excursions.

[MichaelCMTX]

On 1/13/2022 at 7:03 PM, chill6x6 said:

One thing about perks...while you don't always get what you pay for, you don't get what you DON'T pay for. Celebrity does probably have the overall best "suite product." There's really nothing left to purchase once you pay for the cruise.  Everything is included.  Even OBC for specialty dining or excursions.  Most times one can get a Sky suite for about the same as a GS on Oasis/Harmony type ships.  Sky suites include all the "stuff." Celebrity has the best suite restaurant and suite areas on Revolutionized ships. I will say the GS is generally a nicer/larger cabin...much better balcony which I like.

I like to mix it up with cruise lines.  There's something for everyone! 

The cruise AFTER we were in a GS on Navigator was a corner Sky Suite on Equinox for Mardi Gras 2017.  I really can't compare apples-to-apples pricing 'coz that was a long one; but killer perks. Credit to Celebrity here, between booking and sailing, the perk went from "on a 11 night cruise, we'll throw in 2 nights of Specialty Dining"   to "you get to eat at Suite restaurant Luminae."  Once we're aboard, Suite Concierge tells us we get the freebies anyway because of when we booked.  Nice.  All that, plus our Diamond status meant we were Elite on X and got THAT stuff too.  Between the prepaid gratuities, wi-fi, drink package, Michael's Club, and the dining stuff, we were looking for ways to use up all the OBC we got.  

Only shortcoming is the "standard issue" drink package didn't include the place that made the frozen slushy stuff, an upgrade was in order.  

Celebrity's only downfall with us is sailing with them also means flying to where they sail from.  Royal's an easy drive 3.5 hours away in Galveston.

 

[chill6x6]

2 minutes ago, MichaelCMTX said:

The cruise AFTER we were in a GS on Navigator was a corner Sky Suite on Equinox for Mardi Gras 2017.  I really can't compare apples-to-apples pricing 'coz that was a long one; but killer perks. Credit to Celebrity here, between booking and sailing, the perk went from "on a 11 night cruise, we'll throw in 2 nights of Specialty Dining"   to "you get to eat at Suite restaurant Luminae."  Once we're aboard, Suite Concierge tells us we get the freebies anyway because of when we booked.  Nice.  All that, plus our Diamond status meant we were Elite on X and got THAT stuff too.  Between the prepaid gratuities, wi-fi, drink package, Michael's Club, and the dining stuff, we were looking for ways to use up all the OBC we got.  

Only shortcoming is the "standard issue" drink package didn't include the place that made the frozen slushy stuff, an upgrade was in order.  

Celebrity's only downfall with us is sailing with them also means flying to where they sail from.  Royal's an easy drive 3.5 hours away in Galveston.

 

The corner S1s are nice cabins! I think NOW all Celebrity suites include the premium beverage pkg. Don't quote me on that. Ive always been in a CS and it was included. You can't beat Luminae!

I wish I lived close to cruise port! I have to fly everywhere! LOL! I go out of NO a good bit(6 hr drive) on NCL but it's western Caribbean OVER and OVER so have to fly to Florida.

[topnole]

50 minutes ago, chill6x6 said:

Yeah it really always has been kinda hard to have apple to apples comparisons for a whole lot of reasons... Itinerary, embarkation port, date of cruise, ship, cabin location/size, cruise line amenities differences...and more come into play. And you know....there's no one ship or cruise line that has it all.  

Right now I've got 4 cruises booked for this year. FOUR cruise lines.  Prices vary WILDLY but so do expectations:

Royal- $2000/Day. Star class

HAL- $1000/Day. Neptune suite

Celebrity- $1100/Day, Celebrity suite

Carnival- $450/Day, Vista suite

Of course the Carnival suite includes next to nothing over their inside cabin. Minimal perks and as you can see, I didn't pay for it.

The HAL cruise actually includes quite a bit. $100 OBC, wifi, beverage pkg, $200 shore excursion credit, and 1 night speciality dining. HAL also includes the Neptune Lounge, concierge, room service, Club Orange restaurant, and prob a few other things. 

The Celebrity cruise includes even more. Personal Retreat Host, concierge, room service, Retreat Lounge, Retreat sundeck, Luminae restaurant,  premium drink pkg, wifi, $60O OBC, gratuities.

Star Class- What does it NOT include? So no OBC. So all excursions are on you.

Point is amenities went from few to maximum with price increase accordingly.  First Star class for me and it will be interesting to see how it compares to what I'm familiar with in the Celebrity suite experience. 

I guess if the beverage pkg and OBC had no value to you then it is of no benefit. We aren't big drinkers BUT...it's fun to have wine with dinner, mimosas(or three) with breakfast, specialty coffee, beer by the pool, cokes when we wanted. We use the OBC for specialty dining and excursions.

I hope to hear how you view star class vs your other suite experiences on other lines.  We’ve done star a few times and loved it.  I’ve read some that think sky class on Royal is inferior but we’ve enjoyed that too.  I haven’t done celebrity or Hal because it isn’t our preferred demographic crowd (we have kids) and I love the flowrider which is only on certain Royal ships.   I’ve done several carnival suites but stopped cruising with them years ago once I got hooked on the flowrider.  As you said, you only get a nice cabin with carnival.  The suite benefits are nothing.  

[MichaelCMTX]

8 minutes ago, chill6x6 said:

The corner S1s are nice cabins! I think NOW all Celebrity suites include the premium beverage pkg. Don't quote me on that. Ive always been in a CS and it was included. You can't beat Luminae!

I wish I lived close to cruise port! I have to fly everywhere! LOL! I go out of NO a good bit(6 hr drive) on NCL but it's western Caribbean OVER and OVER so have to fly to Florida.

I'd have liked the bathroom a little bigger, but with all the other things bestowed upon us I did not complain at all, and the big round window was cool.  And Luminae was the best restaurant I've ever eaten at on a ship from a setting, service or variety standpoint.  By day 3 they figured I was saving my turn-down chocolates to melt into my morning oatmeal, so they brought chocolate out with it every morning.  

You're right about the variety. We're doing the 13-night repositioning on Adventure in April mainly because - well, MAINLY for 2x points in a suite getting us nearly all the way form D to D+ but also they're including Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia - maybe we'll get to go to those because from the looks of things Georgetown, Labadee and Falmouth are unlikely.  With Allure coming to town that'll kick Georgetown off the list - you can't tender 6000 guests.

We did Serenade out of NoLA, that was probably a 7hr drive from Dallas (woulda been easier if the last 90 mins weren't pouring down rain in the dark!!). Love that class of ship, and walking across the street from the Marriott was killer.  Thought about doing NCL out of there someday.