Royal Caribbean secrets (merged)

[Laurie12820]

I'm clostraphobic so crowed elevators are impossible. When back from an excursion and there are lines for the elevators I always walk up to the first deck you can walk through and go to the other set of elevators..

 

That definitely worked on the Enchantment this past July!

[derrick22]

If you go the the pursers desk you can get a wallet size map of the ship that folds out. There is also a pocket on it to keep your sea pass.

 

Denise

[phtktz3]

not really a secret , but, when you order a drink you can ask them not to put it into a souvenier cup or glass and save money. I wish I had known this on my first cruise! Now I always order my drinks in a "regular" glass.

[FloatingFreely]

not really a secret , but, when you order a drink you can ask them not to put it into a souvenier cup or glass and save money. I wish I had known this on my first cruise! Now I always order my drinks in a "regular" glass.

 

Are the nonsouvenier cups or glasses the same size as the souvenier cups or glasses??

[sophie's mom]

I've always been able to get extra hangers when I've asked my room steward. My DH and I travel with our adult daughter and she is a clothes horse!

[cruznsugs]

You can get sea sick pills free on your cruise , just go to the Guest Relation's desk and ask.

[KarinaGW]

SOME ships with champagne bars (and Explorer seems to be pretty consistently one of them) have 10 champagne drink champagne card for about $50 bucks. Example here: http://cafekarina.org/explorer/scans/misc/pages/champcard.htm

[Cincy-David]

I am not a fan of the heavy (and heavenly in my wifes opinion) blankets found in the guest staterooms. If you ask your room attendant, they will bring you one of the nice cotton blankets from the staff staterooms that I like much better.

 

Also, if you a pillow fanatic, they will accomodate. I normally sleep with about 8 pillows (just for me) plus more for my wife.

 

I left my room attendant a post it note asking for 10 additional pillows (I was to embarrassed to ask in person) and on my next visit to the cabin, they were there. Needless to say, he got a great extra tip that night.

[tterryj50]

Perhaps a "duh" secret but...

 

Simply being nice, courteous, and polite to the crew can get you a lot of things or buy you time.

 

We forgot about packing our luggage the night before we came back to Vancouver from Alaska and mom ran after a guy telling him we had forgotten and would he be able to to take our luggage, and he was the nicest guy EVER.

How can you forget to pack?

[KATHYMAC68]

Here's my tip for people who have the RCI Visa Credit Cards:

 

You earn double points for any RCI purchases. That includes the onboard purchases. So we take about $3000 off the card in the casino and just use that cash to pay off the card when we get home. Thats an additional 6000 points on our card for discounts on our next cruise!

 

Just that alone gets us a $50 onboard credit for the next trip!!!!

[threeofus]

There's a small vending type machine in the waiting area of the onboard medical center. For 50 cents you can get all sorts of otc medicines and even antibiotic ointment -- in small quantities.

 

Just make sure you have quarters with you. We had to walk back up to the casino and ask for change and then return to the medical center.

[robtulipe]

If you pre-order your wine and have it delievered to your stateroom or cabin you don't have to pay the gratuity for the purchase. Just bring your reciept/gift card to show it was purchased thru RCI so you don't have to pay a corkage fee. We also tip our waiter extra so he doesn't lose out per se...

You have greater savings by using the Wine & Dine package on board. The wine cellar gift selection has higher prices than the onboard prices without gratuity by about $2 a bottle. We did the Gold Wine & Dine on our last cruise and for example a bottle of Danzante Italian pinot grinio was $26 (avg. price inc. gratuity) with the W&D pkg, $35 to prebuy as gift and $38 with gratuity to buy separately onboard. The W&D pkg have 5,7,10 and 12 bottles options and all average out at $22.50 per bottle plus the 15% gratuity or about $26 total. You must prepurchase it or buy it on embarkation day as it isn't available after the first day onboard.

Also you don't need to have the wine cellar gift selection delivered to your room, you can have the wine celler gifts delivered to the dining room without corkage added according to RC web site. I agree that this offers a small savings ($3 per bottle) if one or a few bottles only are wanted but the greatest saving is with the above package or not ordering wine onboard at all.

[BabySam99]

Great tips everyone! Some I knew about and some not! :D Thanks!

 

I didn't notice if anyone put that if you ask for robes to borrow your stateroom attendant can accommodate this request. I have been in every kind of stateroom from a D-1 to and Owners suite.

 

Happy sailing~!

:)

Kim

[English Jane]

yeah, I didn't think so either.

 

No one I ever know wins bingo! (maybe they are people that work for the ship and its all a conspiracy??? LOL)

 

On the Jewel in August, my CC friends won the big jackpot sitting right next to us in the theatre - and they were the only ones in the place that had bought the cheaper card. They won almost $7,000 for an outlay of $25! Then my friend kindly told the theatre that dinner was on him - ha,ha!

 

So it can happen to anyone.

[TXRed]

I discovered that you can order from the child's menu at dinner! LOL....one night there was absolutely nothing on the menu that appealed to me...we had eaten on Cozumel and I wasn't really very hungry..and my tummy was churning just a tad....but wanted 'something'..however I did see a child eating spaghetti and I thought now THAT sounds and LOOKS GOOD. I asked our waiter if there was any chance of getting the spaghetti.. but no red sauce...just olive oil and garlic and basil..he said of course. Several at our table asked for it the next night.

[dolfandude]

[quote name='Cincy-David']Also, if you a pillow fanatic, they will accomodate. I normally sleep with about 8 pillows (just for me) plus more for my wife.

[/quote]

8 pillows? does your DW sleep on the floor??????:D

[arcanium]

[quote name='dolfandude']8 pillows? does your DW sleep on the floor??????:D[/quote]

Don't be silly. Everyone knows you need at least eight pillows to build a fort! :)

[BillOh]

[quote name='Sue L']You can get cash out of the casino with no fees, just don't advertise that you are not planning to gamble with it.;)[/quote]


If your a CA member and not a gambler, you can take the coupon for $2 worth of slot tokens and get $2! There were 2 coupons in each of our CA coupon books. They don't have tokens so they just give you $2. That was a free $8 and we didn't have to gamble :D

[robtulipe]

[quote name='BillOh']If your a CA member and not a gambler, you can take the coupon for $2 worth of slot tokens and get $2! There were 2 coupons in each of our CA coupon books. They don't have tokens so they just give you $2. That was a free $8 and we didn't have to gamble :D[/quote]
Actually on our recent Radiance cruise they gave you $1 tokens for the slots coupon and wouldn't give you anything else even though I said I wanted to play the quarter machine not the dollar one. The cashier said I could walk away and return the $1 tokens later for cash, which I did since I only play Black Jack anyway.

[robtulipe]

[quote name='arcanium']Don't be silly. Everyone knows you need at least eight pillows to build a fort! :)[/quote]
or to have a fantastic pillow fight.

[BillOh]

[quote name='Silque1964']The casino pays out more money on the first night of a cruise, then the winners slow down on subsequent nights. This gives people a false sense of how "easy" it is to win money. Folks win a bit on the first night, then lose it and more by the end of the cruise.[/quote]

I have heard this before. I would think it applies to slots only? Anyone want to say this is more than rumor or conjecture?

[BillOh]

[quote name='robtulipe']Actually on our recent Radiance cruise they gave you $1 tokens for the slots coupon and wouldn't give you anything else even though I said I wanted to play the quarter machine not the dollar one. The cashier said I could walk away and return the $1 tokens later for cash, which I did since I only play Black Jack anyway.[/quote]


I wondered if they had the tokens somewhere. This was our first cruise as CA members on Majesty.

[tjmick]

[quote name='robtulipe']or to have a fantastic pillow fight.[/quote]

[B][COLOR=Blue][FONT=Comic Sans MS]Or to cover the floor with that way when I kick DH out of bed he would at least bounce a little! :p[/FONT][/COLOR][/B]

[tripsrme]

I am IMPRESSED,I thought my DH and I were pretty good at getting the most from our cc, but that is a great idea.

ML

[Tranquil Waters]

[quote name='BillOh']If your a CA member and not a gambler, you can take the coupon for $2 worth of slot tokens and get $2! There were 2 coupons in each of our CA coupon books. They don't have tokens so they just give you $2. That was a free $8 and we didn't have to gamble :D[/quote]

That was our experience. Only I did visit the video poker machine with my quarters (they gave us quarters for the coupon). Left the casino with $28 that night. :D