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I'm pretty bad myself. I'm a routine lover so it comes as part of my morning routine. I have a problem but I also don't care - it's not hurting anyone.

My name is Emerson, and I'm a Cruise Pplannerolic. I've just realised I have a problem. I find myself checking the cruise planner 2 to 3 times a day pretty much from the time I book my cruise. The symptoms seem to get a lot worse 6 months out and come 3 months out... well, someone please take my keyboard from me. Am I alone? Do others suffer from this crippling condition? Is there any cure or should I just embrace my disease? If Royal Carribean comes out with an app that allows me to check cruise planner I may need to check myself into a treatment centre!

I definitely can't let my wife view this thread. She'd want to stay in the suite just for the purple card.

Not really sure it "forces" one to drink more. It's really a question of your mindset. I bought the package and already am of the mind that I will probably lose money on the deal. However, I know if I hadn't spent the money now when I can be done with it and have it out of my budget, then on the trip my penny-pinching mindset would have scrutinized every drink I bought. Now I can drink whatever, whenever I want and not think twice about the payment. a weird way to think of it in the long run I know, but it works for me! Same thing with the balcony. It's my first cruise and most of the shows / night clubs just don't sound all that appealing. It is comforting to know that should I find myself not in the mood for "partying" in the evening I always know I have a bottle of wine, a cribbage board, my wife, and a balcony waiting on the 8th deck

It was a glitch! Somehow the computer reverted to the non promotional price. Spoke to a wonderful woman in customer service named Stacey. She was able to get me an even lower fare! Wonderful customer service, and I can't wait until our January cruise! Thank you to all of you for your help! I will have to come back to this forum since you are all so nice!

Spotted a Norwegian brochure for Symphony of the Seas. Much of the information is known already, but it does include info on some new restaurants that appear to be coming to Symphony of the Seas. Sugar Beach, which is described in Norwegian as "children's paradise will be on board" El Loco Fresh, Mexican restuarnt Hooked, seafood restaurant

Value is a personal decision, especially for a moderate drinker. However, given that you have access to specialty coffees, teas, and soda in addition to the alcohol, it is very easy to find value in the package even if one does not drink an exceptional amount. The bottled water alone can add value as that can be easily taken off ship for consumption while in port. In addition, while you may not save money, there is a convenience about knowing that something is already paid for which may lead you to be more adventurous in what you try as there's no worry about "wasting money."

Haha! I'm the same. It's part of my morning, afternoon, and nightly routine. That along with checking drops in cruise fares and this blog....?

There,,,There. Everything will be just fine. You're among friends here. This is your safe space. Use wine and/or Jack and Coke to calm the symptoms.

Details: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2017/10/06/royal-caribbean-offering-30-cruise-planner-purchases-set-sail-save-sale Seems to end at midnight Sunday into Monday.

Not having to choke down a drink that tastes like bath water because you paid $12 for it is always a plus :)

...excluding the web service, of course...

That's a Carnival thing as they have the exclusive rights to Dr. Seus at Sea. ;)

I do agree it is worth not having sticker shock after the cruise is over.

I find the drink packages to be more of a convenience buy rather than saving $$ buy. Certain few can get ahead of the break-even point. But after a few straight days of "beating the house", most people will become drink fatigued. With the drink package, you pay a fixed price and won't have a "surprise bill" at the end of the trip. If the other items in the drink packages interests you such as the specialty coffees, purchasing a coffee drink card and then the alcoholic drinks a la carte may be another option.

It can be. It depends on you. My thought is the drink package is a lot like booking a balcony room versus an inside room. If you have a balcony, you will force yourself to spend more time in your room to take advantage of the balcony. Likewise, I feel having a drink package compels you to drink more than if you paid for your drinks individually. If you drink cocktails mostly, 4-6 is not a lot to get to per day. Especially when you start mixing in coffee in the morning, bottled water, etc, which brings the daily "break even point" down. 2 drinks in the afternoon, 2 drinks at dinner and a drink or two after dinner and you're even.

@RestingBirds - correct, and only once did I have to wait 20 minutes. I'm not one for making reservations with MTD as it defeats the purpose. The key is to avoid prime town without a reservation, which is about 6:30-7:30.

Obviously.

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum ;) I would pay you not to let me have internet access, I know that absent a 90% off special I am not going to buy the drink package, so the only thing I am going to be doing in cruise planner is shore excursions ... log in one time, book them if I am planning to do any through Royal and then done until the cruise.

Thank you! I wanted to sing since I saw it on a cruise in July, but I was in trouble because I did not understand the lyrics. I have been singing and enjoying it many times because you taught me lyrics.

The points dont expire for quite a while, hence the 2022 date. However, once you "redeem" them for various cruise rewards (OBC, upgrades etc. ) you must use that redemption within 180 days. So if you convert your points to OBC and then you dont actually cruise and use them within 180 days you lose them

I'd love to do some cruises out of San Juan, but will personally wait until 2019 or later, due to the Irma/Maria chaos.

I did some further research and it seems what is important is the number you are calling from, and the number you are calling to, NOT where they are physically located. Here is my understanding after extensive research; As long as the numbers assigned to both numbers are normal U.S. numbers (and a few other countries) and each of the phones is currently on U.S. cell towers, or wi-fi (each phone can be different), it acts and is billed just like a normal phone call. Of course if one of the phones is off-ship at an international location (and not on wi-fi) the call will not be completed as the off-board phone has no coverage. If you call an international number (say the hotel in Germany) you wold still be charged international rates. Note: Let's assume you have you r phone on wi-fi on the ship....meanwhile another member of your party is in Ocho Rios with their cell phone. If they were to get to a spot that had wi-fi they could connect to (hint: Margarittaville), you should be able to call each other with no problem (or extra charges!) Soooooo....You are on wi-fi on ship, and Grandma is in Ohio? Call her! (and she can call you!)

Day 1 - Embarkation day Usually this day is simple although tense, we wake up eat quick breakfast and take a shuttle/taxi to the port around 10:30 AM . This time its different as the check in to the boast will be only at 5 to 7 PM while the sail hour is midnight (not sure why it still called 10 days cruise … where is the missing a day ? to the finders I promise reward) So we had to find out how to spend the full day before going to the port, to add to the complexity today we also had Hon Kong cycling competition which brought to many road blocks , we found out that the start/finish point of the race is just across from our hotel. To reduce the risk of finding taxi that will take us to the port I reserved a car from the hotel guessing they will have better chance to know how to avoid the road blocks and the extra traffic associate with it, so yes I paid twice what I would pay for the taxi but at least I knew its safer. The good thing was that the hotel let us keep the room until 3 PM . We went again to the same place to eat breakfast, after all you don’t replace a wining horse or a wining sandwich. We watch the bicycle race for a while, preparing our self for the cycling tour we booked in Vietnam which his almost the same then went to take our free drinks at the hotel lobby waiting for our car (watching the race was quite an effort and was enough practice for today).. Once it was the time to go; the hotel send someone with our suitcase as we had to bypass the road block by claiming a bridge and navigate via a street or two to get to our car. The ride to the port was very fast around 15 minutes so it was around 5:15 when we arrived , we gave our suitcase outside ,until now it was like any boarding day, yap until that time … We got to the hall where we saw tons of people seating and waiting for something, there were many lines but we figured out that the biggest line was for the photo copy machine , you see , RC asked people to bring a photo copy of their first passport page , many I guess or did not read it or don’t have a printer at home … The priority check in lines was reverse for Platinum and up (while in Europe and US they have queues for gold also) which was not that bad as the regular line took us less than 5 minutes and hey after this cruise we will become platinum, well we are newbies J We did the check in and got a number for boarding, that actually explain what where all the people doing in the hall, while in many other places you do the check in and then you go via security to the waiting hall here you did the check in and waited for your number to be called to the security. I guess they don’t have place for people to wait after the security.. They started to call all the suites and down to Platinum members to approach the security for boarding around 5:45 PM . We were called around 7 PM , if I just knew it was the first line … The good thing was that the crew tried to maintain the order meaning they really checked the numbers that people had and removed them from the line if their numbers were not called yet, I liked that system. After the security line which went quite fast we got to the immigration line that took another 20 minutes, once we passed that I was relived, finally time to get on board , but no , just another line , this time it was a line to give the passport and a the passport copy , apparently on this route the ship is holding everyone passport as part of issuing visas to Vietnam (remember my previous post of running to the Embassy, well as I suspect it was not required , hey at least I did some walking).. This line was another 15 to 20 minutes and then finally we got to the board. We were boarded at the fourth deck which was a surprise for me as until now we all the time boarded to the royal promenade At least there was one good thing which was the fact that our room was already ready has the ship arrived empty from China the bad thing was that we were missing the major things which usually should be already at room like the shore excursions tickets and the internet code. I went down to the Guest service to fix those issues and to check what happened to our first night done right which the guest service suggested that they will book me whatever restaurant I want. We decide to try Giovanni Table which was excellent, I will just say that for the entry we took the filet (both of us) and it was one of the best filet that I was ever eaten, very tender and taste full. From the restaurant we went directly to the muster drill that was conducted at 10:30. Tomorrow sea day

This is where a good TA comes in handy. If you get the cruise bug like most of us have you might look into getting a TA for your next cruise. It doesnt cost anymore and they fix problems that crop up occasionally. Just find one that has cruise experience. Good luck and have a good cuise

At the port, you will go through both metal detector and carry on bag x-ray. Getting on board the ship, hand wand metal detector and bag x-ray. I haven't seen any bags being opened on the cruises we have been on, but that's not to say it does not happen. As far as the size, it's up to you. Your room may not be ready for you when you board, so, you will have to carry/drag whatever you carry/drag on board until your room is ready. What the majority of the experienced cruisers here do is a small carry on or back pack with the essential stuff, ie, medications, camera, passports, bathing suits, etc. You want your cruise vacation to start the minute you step on board the ship. The less stuff you are dragging around, the more enjoyable the experience will be. Welcome aboard, enjoy your cruise and fire away with any and all questions!

This is my retirement cruise. The food and drinks. Thank you!! I have been to Sinapore before. This is an awesome blog.

Recall though that people like us are the educated cruise minority, the majority of people (and Royal's target market) have never cruised and don't know better. This is just part of their ongoing realization that churning through a never ending stream of first time cruisers is vastly more profitable than catering to those of us that are savvy enough to know not to buy the pictures, how to work the system to wait for the sales and the discounts, that are comfortable booking private excursions instead of through the ship, etc.

Really enjoying your journey! Jane

For our Oasis cruise in January, with the discounted drink package at $46/pp: $760 total for two pax inc. gratuities - $380 each person - $54.28 per day per person - 4.5 drinks per day to break even, assuming drinks are $12 This is not considering the specialty coffees and fresh-squeezed juices, etc. And although I was miffed and poo-pooed the move, I may go ahead and do it. Still not happy, but I certainly don't want to keep eyeballing my tab every night.

A quick FYI: I did get confirmation (in writing!) today that the "note" in my file will NOT prevent my wife from purchasing drinks on the cruise and that it only serves as an explanation fr why the operator was willing to sell me a single package. In other words, i got exactly what I wanted!

I've used Allianz based on reputation. Never made a claim, so can't vouch for their service. But buying it was easy enough.

Really appreciating these daily updates! My older daughter has said multiple times she wants to visit Thailand, so this is some great background material I can share with her!

Did you buy trip insurance?

thanks for all the info everybody....so I emailed RC about the mattress topper and got a response today that they will add a mattress topper to my bed....RC has been great to me...everytime I email them they respond back so positive and so far have been able to give me what I asked for....1) distilled water and electric cord 2)table for 2 in the MDR table number has already been assigned...3) mattress topper....thanks RC you are the best for me...41 days..YES YES YES

I was able to call this morning and purchase the drink package for just myself. I explained to the operator that my wife takes prescription pain killers so seldom drinks. she made "note" of it in our records. I did specifically ask if my wife would still be able to buy the occasional glass of wine on the good days and she said she would. Some folks are saying they will require proof of her medical at the port, others are saying our records will prevent her form buying, still others are saying they are being told when thy call they don't need any reason at all as the rule still only applies to Harmony. Bottom line is the experience will vary for everyone as no one seems to have the same experience. If one thing has become clear to me form reading these pages and various FBs....the only thing consistent is inconsistency!

Actually, at the Gold's Gym we go to they have a "assisted" device for doing pull-ups/chin-ups and besides the normal bars to hang onto they also have the same finger holds you find on the climbing wall, so we always do a few of those.

The Royal Caribbean Australian website currently has a 40% off birthday sale on at the moment. Some pretty good deals to be had. I cancelled our booking and rebooked the same cabin for $600 less. This is on top of the $500 I saved by rebooking a couple off weeks ago. When the cruise launched a GS was $5600 NZD and now it can be purchased for $4500 NZD. I think this is the best price we will see. The website has also been updated to a new design but I am not sure whether I prefer it or not. It probably is better (it couldn’t have got much worse) but it will just take a little while to get used to.

So when I get my Jr Suite card for Anthem next October, I can look forward to having a card that matches the steadily increasing silver in my hair.

Nice write-up. Enjoying your preview very much

Have a great vacation. Looking forward to following along!

How about a list of things NOT to bring in a carry on: your neighbor a goldfish in a bowl an uncooked ham a sofa Anyone think of any others?

Took me a second to realize you meant PEPPER, red pepper. I was looking for a flat sheet of..something red. Love spicy peppers and I'd love to try it out. Great pictures!

Going to follow this one for sure. Thank you for taking time. BTW, your English is MORE than adequate. I admire your skill in a second language. My guess is that you have more than 2.

Something we all need to know If you want to keep that healthy glow Remind your friends, in courteous terms, Let's spread the words and not the germs. Wash your hands It's the right thing to do It's easier when You only have two. Wash your hands Keep them clean Oh yeah, hey, hey, Wash your hands. But if you find you're not feeling well Like too many trips around the carousel Call the doctor, that's what you do The doctor'll take good care of you And you'll feel better too Wash your hands and make your mother proud And maybe you can join the popular crowd Wash your hands, like fifty times a day Oh yeah, hey, hey, wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash your hands.