All Activity

We always book mytime dining times through the App/Cruise planner. That way we have a spot reserved. Without exception, we always have a table for 2 and have thus far, been seated with the same servers each night. A quick pleasant chat at the desk on the way out on the first night takes care of that.

This. Can't blame Royal for either cancelling Labadee or not being able to dock in PR... which then caused them to have to switch out the DR as well. They can't control civil unrest, dock damage, or geography. While I largely agree with you, some people are more interested in the ports than the ship so I can understand being disappointed, just not to the extent of the OP. We missed the port we were most looking forward to once (high winds) and had a great time overall, yes, but we were disappointed even with the full understanding that it was no one's fault. We also had a port swapped not too long ago and were happier with the replacement (and fortunately had a couple days notice so we could book a 3rd party excursion in the new port). Many people were unhappy with the switch. Lots of personal preference involved in cruising.

At first look, this is just a picture of the artwork on Odyssey, but a quick zoom in shows a creative way to hide a duck

I agree that that show has changed., I couldn't believe it was an afternoon show on our last cruise on Freedom. I want to say it wasn't even on our Liberty cruise, but that was a short 3 day cruise. And on our cruise before that, it was not very well attended or that well done at all. We brought 2 new couples to cruising on Freedom and had talked about how much fun and crazy the Love and Marriage show can be. Was disappointed to miss it, as afternoon on a cruise in the south during wintertime, is NOT when i want to be in the theater for a show. That being said, the CD makes a big difference when it comes to that type of thing for sure. After having Marc "Bing Bong" CD for my first 4 or 5 cruises, i was spoiled as he is everywhere, all the time with lots going on and energy.

I want to encourage everyone to step back and take a deep breath. Speculating is fun but doesn't really change anything. Regardless of what each of us thinks or wants, Royal is going to do what Royal is going to do. Please don't let your emotions run too wild!

They dropped DR due to geography with the replacement ports. Plus DR is pretty overrated as a cruise port.

No port is guaranteed. You will have a wonderful time and won't even miss it. The real fun is always onboard. Enjoy and congratulations.

Wow! That is one awesome itinerary!!

Symphony was our first Oasis class ship....and we noticed the scarcity of the cruise director compared to smaller ships. Of course, they have a lot more places to be and can't be everywhere at once. Just different after sailing on Brilliance, Empress, or Enchantment and seeing them everywhere!

I do bring a few and try to find some. Have been lucky to a find a couple. Yes, it can be overwhelming. I've read that some people bring bring 100s or close to it. I don't have room in my suitcase for that many.. I know of one cruise line that has banned ducks, (mouse). People also are starting to hid other critters as well. Anything goes.

First time on Royal, trying to find good cruise line for world cruising. Folks chose cruises in large part on itineraries. To just drop the D.R. is unconscionable. We are now on the exact cruise we just took in January and would otherwise not have booked. Royal has now delivered on 25% of the destinations we purchased.

Kids should have to swim and play in kids pools.....pretty simple and easy solution. We wonder every cruise, and we have done a few, why the cruise lines don't enforce pool rules and/or make kids stat in the kids pool areas. Often the kids area was dead and empty on our Freedom cruise..they were all in the main pools and hotubs., I joked we should have taken over that area, but I am sure Royal would be quick to kick us out if that happened.

Honestly, I think St Maarten and St Thomas are better.

Sorry to hear that..although I would be pretty happy with itinerary change as I think much better stops imho. But i didn't hear anything abut it either.

Interesting.....never seen a duck like that on any cruise..heard of it but.

Ah yes i wasn't thinking about the comedy show

It was great when everyone didn't know about it because a few people would bring ducks and, if you didn't know about the trend, it would be fun to find one. Now it's reaching the point where it's becoming too big of a thing so there are hundreds of ducks on every ship. There are some real Scrooges out there who really hate it. I'm not one of them. I love the idea and it's fun for kids. But there's a fine line between a fun little treasure hunt and dozens of people bringing what can sometimes be hundreds of ducks and there being ducks everywhere. Now, there are ducks from previous cruises visible in inaccessible places. I feel like, if it gets much bigger, Royal will have to do something to limit it. No idea how they would do it, but once ducks start being left everywhere and dropped into art installations and on top of elevators, etc., it goes beyond its original intention.

For a couple of reasons. First, loyalty benefits are there to drive bookings. With drink packages as part of the cruise booking bundle, there needs to be something a little extra to encourage Celebrity bookings if drink vouchers make a debut on X. Having the vouchers go up to those drinks is a nice perk with a drink package. Without any data, it'd make the premium package feel like it's more inclusive and make the classic (? can't recall the name) feel less restrictive. Thus, encouraging bookings with the inclusions. Second, on Royal, at Diamond it saves at least $5 pp per day, $2 pp per day at Diamond+, and would cost Royal an extra $1 pp per day at Pinnacle if someone actually had that many $17 beverages as they'd be entitled to. This makes increasing the voucher value, with decreasing their number, a net positive on the Royal side while sounding like a good trade to the general public.

I'll be on Harmony next week, and will see if they have any "wood cut-out in the shape of the ship" magnets.

Adult comedy is most important, IMO, due to the small venue. Never had trouble walking into anything else standby.

you really only need them for the aqua show. they will be checking your reservations as you sit sown. For mama Mia its always good to reserve but you can just walk in (Mama Mia is fantastic)

We chose Utopia in October and booked a balcony upgrade for about $200.

i do find this part fascinating because - we typically drink chandon sparkling wine on royal. it falls under the $14 threshold — again, it’s a nice sparkling wine. on celebrity, it’s $17. for reference, a bottle of chandon costs about $24. so they are considering it a “premium” when it really… isn’t. and i understand the convenience factor and everything; obviously we can just bring a bottle of it on board ourselves. but it makes me wonder how many other of their wines/beverages fall into that category. like yes, a handcrafted martini at the martini bar with the special tricks and pouring skills — that’s a performance on top of a beverage. i understand that. but X lumps in premium water (evian, acqua panna, pellegrino) at the $17 cap and you can’t get unless you have a premium package — ie, you can’t get for happy hour, even though it’s nowhere near $17 a bottle. (or a water package) i understand thats probably more to discourage people from grabbing endless bottles of "free" water during happy hour — but the long winded point of this is that i think some of their thresholds — $14 for basic drinks and $17 for premium — is a bit murky. if it were based on top shelf liquors, yes, okay — i understand that completely. but it isn't. and obvs they have the right to set their prices at whatever they'd like. it would be interesting to see a comparison between the two (an old fashioned costs $14 on royal and $17 on X, for example) just to get a better understanding of this.

Sorry, that was unclear, I'll go back and edit. The door inside the cabin that connects the two rooms closes automatically. It's not locked because we asked that it be opened. It's just really heavy and opens into our room blocking off the area around that side of the bed and the bathroom. The door between the balconies was opened and locked into place by this little thing.

Just brought the washer sheets.