If you're wondering when you can book shows on Royal Caribbean, the answer depends on your ship, sailing date, and when reservations open in the Royal Caribbean app.
The problem is shows aren't available to book immediately. Royal Caribbean opens reservations for its shows much closer to the sail date.
Without a reservation, you will have to wait in the standby line for the show. That isn't inherently a problem, but it requires you to show up earlier and there's a risk of not making it in.
If you have the option to make a show reservation, here's when and how to book them so you can see all the performances onboard.
Royal Caribbean's policy isn't always accurate
The official policy is you can book a show on a ship a month before your cruise, but in practice, it's not always the case.
"Show reservations open on the first day of the month before sailing," is what the cruise line has on its website.
That means if you had a cruise in July, shows would be available to book on June 1st.
In my experience, show reservations don't always open exactly then. More often, there are discrepancies for when shows actually become available, and that's likely why you searched the internet to find an answer to this question.
I recommend starting to look for show reservations up to 60 days before your cruise is scheduled to set sail, because there's no consistency when Royal Caribbean actually opens up reservations to book.
Furthermore, there's no notification function to alert you that shows are open to book. It requires you to proactively log in and check to see if show reservations are available yet.
This is why a lot of cruisers will join a roll call for their cruise so that they can crowd-source when one person spots shows open to book.
Only Icon, Oasis and Quantum class ships require pre-reservations. Other ships don't offer reservations because it's not needed.
Reservations can be made online up to 4 days before the sail date. After that, you'll need to wait to make a show reservation onboard.
New ships are even less predictable when shows are available to book
Royal Caribbean is consistently inconsistent with opening show reservations online, but it's worse with a new ship.
Legend of the Seas launches this summer and will offer a brand new musical onboard, Roald Dahl’s "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."
There seems to be an extra lag factor with opening reservations on any new ship because apparently the onboard process of loading everything associated with a new ship requires extra time.
How to pre-book show tickets
Once reservations are open, it's free and easy to make a reservation.
You can use the Royal Caribbean app or My Royal Cruise website to book them by going to the Entertainment section.
Each show will appear, and from there you can select a show time.
There's no cost to make a pre-show reservation. Reservations are available on a first-come, first-booked basis.
If you're staying in Star Class, you don't need to make show reservations because your Royal Genie will arrange seating for you.
If you bought The Key, you still need to make a reservation for the show. The difference is there will be a section of seats held back for guests who bought The Key up until a few minutes before showtime.
If you're sailing with friends or family and want to book them tickets, all you need is is their reservation number and the last name of the primary guest.
When you go to make a reservation, there's an option to add other passengers.
What if all the shows are sold out?
If you missed the chance to book a show, you're not out of luck to actually see the shows.
Periodically check back if more reservations are available. It's unlikely, but sometimes more shows are added or people cancel their reservations.
Once you board the ship, I would recommend going to the box office on your ship. You can ask a crew member where it's located, but there are usually extra tickets held back to be offered onboard.
Likewise, the Royal Caribbean app once connected to the ship Wi-Fi may be able to access those extra seats.
Let's assume none of those tips worked, now what should you do? Get in the standby line!
Every show has a standby line, which begins letting people in once you're about 15-20 minutes before the show is scheduled to start.
The reality is people book up show reservations early because it's free and they want to get reservations just to have them. But once they're on the ship, they're busy, tired, and distracted. So there are a lot of no-shows to performances.
In my experience, if you can get in the standby line at least 30 minutes before the scheduled performance, there's a good chance you'll make it in.
