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I'm right there with you... Guess being in a suite is a rich mans problem. Wow, someone who someone else think shouldn't be here even though they've spent about 100K to cruise on this line. If thats the case maybe those who cruise in a suite shouldn't be allowed the the MDR or Windjammer, after all, we're just steerage...

It could be worse. It could be Lulu-Bot or Sun-seeker Extraordinaire or I don't do cold

My wife hates going shopping with me because i drag her around all the clothes shops ?

ah it is so nice to not have such worries we lowly emeralds which I finally achieve the first night of my oct sailing will have to do for now and I know for a fact I will never be able to enjoy the mysteries of the suite lounge my income has doomed me to this fate but my booked future cruises will get me to the diamond watering hole sometime in feb 2019 for now I will deal with the luxuries Jack experienced in steerage on the titanic maybe I can meet a rich spoiled girl as he did to show me the luxuries of the suite class if not for the cruise but for an hour or so but with the spectrum now going to segregated experiences this may never happen I love the cruise life and will always enjoy it whether I have to do it from below deck or above some of us have it and some of us don't being one of the don'ts is not so bad I'm still riding the seas and for now will have to be satisfied with my deluxe plush C+A robe happy cruising to all

I happen to like this one.

So here we are on day 7 which means tomorrow we are back home . . .booooooooo. Currently sitting in Sabor for dinner and I'll go out on a stretch and say the shredded short rib tacos have been the best meal I've had the whole trip. We skipped breakfast and ended up sleeping in until 9:30 which is super late for us. Rushed down to promanade to check out the glassware and t-shirt sale and of course walked away with some goodies. Also went to the other gift shops to do some last minute shopping. After shopping we had some time for ice skating. Myself and our 2 oldest went and had a blast. At 2:30 we had our showing of Grease. Was a fun show but not my favorite thing. My wife and kids loved it however. So her we are finally caught up. Will try to post more later but anticipate a busy evening and morning. Have tons of pictures to share so stay tuned

I'm not disagreeing with you, Tony....but couldn't this couple JUST as easily have been inconsiderate suite guests ?

Not uncommon to get free balcony cruises but requires lots of play...and it’s easier to earn credit with slots than table games. unhappy with my last host on Enchantment when i only earned a $400 cert. i monitored my rating more closely on my most recent Adventure of the Seas Cruise. First night, 3 hours at the craps table, 100 per roll and i only earned 179 points. 1hour of slots i earned 900 points.

No more life jackets is so wonderful. Friends of ours were on a carnival cruise 2 weeks ago and 1 person did not show up for the muster drill. They went to his cabin and found him drunk as a skunk. They proceeded to remove him from the ship. And sailed off into the sunset without him. Most muster drills are on the deck but can be held in various other locations. Especially during inclement weather.

Hi @Vee2525, welcome to the RCBlog boards! I haven't been to Coco Cay yet, but based on what I have read here from others and what I know is planned for Coco Cay over the next couple of years with the "Perfect Day" effort, I would say that Labadee is maybe a step past where Coco Cay is now, but not nearly the level they are planning for Coco Cay. What I mean by this is that while you have some "attractions" at Labadee like the Dragon's Breath zip line and Dragon's Tail alpine coaster, plus the small water park area, it is in no way be the extravaganza Royal seems to be planning to turn Coco Cay into. The cabana experience should be the same as Coco Cay, where you will have a personal attendant to take care of you and you will be given some extra amenities like nicer towels than you can take off the ship and a cooler of water. You'll also have access to a "golf cart" transport to get you to all the different spots around the area. My family and I took big advantage of this for getting to places like the alpine coaster and the barbecue lunch, as well as back to the ship at the end of the day. The alpine coaster is a lot of fun if you're into that kind of coaster, and I would recommend that you (a) get the all-day pass if you at all plan to ride more than once, and (b) ride it early in the day, when I found the lines to be minimal or non-existent. My family did the zip line and said it was also a ton of fun, and not nearly as scary as they thought it was going to be. Apart from doing those two activities, our day was pretty much a beach day spent lounging in the cabana or lazing in the lagoon. My kids went to the market area and learned the hard way the importance of good haggling skills when buying anything there; if you're not into haggling, skip that area and save yourself some agita. Hope this helps!

Oh my....this is worse than bot status! I've slid into the unknown "fill in the blank" rank ?

Seward isn't a big town. Here is the difference between where the train booked through the cruise line stops versus booking directly through the Alaskan Railroad: The charter train is only ship passengers since the cruise line chartered the whole train so they can stop right at the cruise terminal. The regular train station where anyone can walk up and buy a ticket requires a proper train station and employees who can sell tickets, etc. Therefore when you book it directly the train goes to the regular or public train station 1/2 mile away from the cruise terminal.

Not sure that is accurate. My only experience is with Celebrity taking the non-Celebrity train at 6:45am, June 2017. In that case, they know 98% of people on the train are cruise passengers. I put my Celebrity luggage tags on my bags at my hotel, took my hotel shuttle to the train depot and handed my luggage to the workers there who are set up to collect ship luggage. I never saw it again until it arrived in my cabin. To be clear, I booked the Alaskan Railroad direct, it was not through Celebrity. Celebrity and Royal Caribbean International and both owned by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and we shared excursions at other ports with RCI so I am fairly certain it will operate the same for RCI as it did for Celebrity last year. In either case of booking the train through the cruise line or booking it directly, they don't load luggage on the train. In both cases luggage is loaded on a cargo truck and they drive it down the highway to the ship. Passengers are worth more so they would rather have more passenger cars in the train versus luggage cars. Either way, make sure you have all your cruise documentation and passports with you on the train. Do not leave them in luggage since you won't see your luggage again until it reaches your cabin and you will need your documentation to check in at the Seward cruise terminal. Referencing the same Celebrity cruise in June 2017, they had free buses to take you from the train depot in Seward to the cruise terminal. I chose to walk because it was a beautiful day, but they were very clear, the shuttle buses were free and willing to take us. They passed us as we walked to the ship.

I think you will have a great time. Sailing into Venice is a fantastic experience and the ship docks quite close to the main attractions. We took an excursion that started at the ship, and visited San Georgio, a Murano glass factory and a gondola ride. A bit cheesy, perhaps, but it had to be done and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The other, unexpected highlight was sailing into Kotor. I didn't know anything about Montenegro, but sailing into a fjord with mountains on either side made for dramatic and memorable scenery. Sorry, you didn't ask about that; I just got a little carried away. On this trip, we only went to Pisa from Livorno. It was a shorter trip that suited us better this time around. It was a very pleasant trip. The architecture of all buildings is impressive, but the famous leaning tower steals the show. There are lots of visitors, though, so be prepared for it to be busy. It doesn't detract too much from the experience. Again, on this trip, we didn't go into Rome. Previously, we visited the Colosseum, the Vatican, etc. all of great interest and well worth seeing. But crowds are to be expected. An organised excursion assists greatly in avoiding the queues for entrance tickets. Other excursions we took this time included Herculaneum (from Salerno) as an alternative to Pompeii. I had been to Pompeii before and recommend it. Herculaneum is smaller and a little less impressive but certain features have been better preserved. This includes painted columns and walls with some mosaics and even a shop advert for a wine seller. At Ravenna (although some sailings are calling at Split rather than Ravenna) we had a relaxing excursion on a river boat, sailing into a lagoon and watching water fowl and flocks of flamingos. Not to everyone's taste, but it worked for us. At Villefranche and Kotor, we just got off the ship (tendered at both) and walked around. Both places were fascinating in quite different ways. The walled city at Kotor was particularly interesting; we had not seen anything quite like that before. I hope this is of some use to you and you have a fantastic time.

Oh BEWARE, for there shall be wearing of sackcloth and ashes, rending of garments, and gnashing of teeth when it finally happens ! I wouldn't even be surprised if the moon turns to blood and frogs rain from the skies !

The cost of Diamond happy hour has got to be on someone's radar. I've sat there and watched the drinks flow, people stuffing 6 soda's or beers in their purse or watched a drunk D/D+/P fall down drunk and crash into a table spilling everyone's drinks only to be hauled away in a wheelchair because of how much they consumed. On Anthem in December a DL server told me "changes are coming". In January they no longer consumed the entire upper level of the Music Hall as overflow each evening. This year on Liberty, Serenade and Adventure they never consumed the VCL as overflow despite the DL busting at it's seams when happy hour began. So far the changes seem to include making the DL an uncomfortable place to be by not overflowing outside of the club. They never seem to enforce the "drinks can't leave the DL" policy. To some degree it has worked as I tend to visit bars using my drink coupons before dinner now because the DL is chaos and you can never find a seat until past 6:30pm when dinner has finally persuaded most to get out of their chair. Putting on my "I own the company for a day" hat, I'd certainly be asking my team how to contain the Diamond happy hour extravaganza. With the growing number of Diamonds they are going to need make additional changes or adjust the thresholds to achieve levels. That is dangerous talk right there because of folks who have been working for years at achieving Diamond and alienating them or pushing them to the competition if they "move the goal posts during the game". The elimination of the CL and converting them to SL is part of this effort leaving the DL alone... for now at least. I suspect they are waiting to see how that plays out before making more changes. No other line offers the type of happy hour elite benefit that RCI does. Carnival's platinum level is achieved at roughly the Diamond level and the biggest benefit is priority boarding. Once on board Carnival's platinum doesn't do much for you and there is no equivalent lounge or daily free happy hour at any Carnival level. I've certainly felt like more changes are coming as RCI aligns itself with the industry more and more which is why I made a push for D+ hoping to be grandfathered in in case they make drastic changes.

This obviously varies greatly ship to ship and sailing to sailing. In our lone Concierge Lounge experience to date, our family of six were often the only ones in the lounge other than the Concierge and the bartender. When it was "crowded" we encountered as many as 20 people at one time. I don't care if all 14 others were Pinnacle (or even not really eligible to be in the lounge) - it's not as though our ability to enjoy the perks was compromised.

Ain't THAT the truth !

OMG, Matt. Please do NOT forget: Shows: Do you want to sleep through Cats or dance in the aisles to Grease ? LOL. Just kidding !

I've seen plenty of annoying non-Pinnacle suite guests in the lounge. I swear if I ever make it to Pinnacle I'm not going to wear the badge but do things to annoy the entitled Pinnacles. When they complain I'll whip out my SeaPass card like a trump card ?

I agree with @twangster, that's beyond over the top. I would have refused to move and told them to go pound sand.

On paper, perhaps. But Pinnacle members are often coddled by the crew onboard with special events and access. Go to any C&A reception and/or suite event and there is more than meets the eye when it comes to their benefits.

Yep, there's a BIG OL' gap there between D+ and P. They've been talking, for years, about inserting another level in there somewhere but for some reason, haven't done it yet. I also read (only one time, in 1 post) that the Emerald Level (created a number of years ago) was supposed to be that D+ - P level but that they released the information incorrectly and prematurely and it ended up between Platinum and Diamond by mistake. I have NO idea if this is true or not....but it sounds kinda plausible since there are really so few points between levels at that area of the C&A ladder. It really didn't make much sense to throw another lower level in there. Whatever.... I'm with you though. I will be WAAAYTOOO old to enjoy P if I live that long and do not run out of money first. LOL

Ray, WHO KNEW you were a fashion snob ? LOL I never would have guessed....?

@monctonguy, there are getting to be more and more Pinnacle's, as well as Diamond and Diamond+, I remember in one of @twangster live blog's. I believe on Anthem that he said there were over a 1000 diamonds on the cruise and that the diamond lounge could not hold them all and it spilled out over to an adjoining room, I agree, there probably shouldn't be an issue, but depending on the cruise it could get crowded. I just figured it out, I will reach Diamond+ next year on a 9 night Anthem cruise, it will then just take me 37.5 more 7 night cruises in a suite to reach Pinnacle, 2 cruises per year=18.75 years, I'm 56 now so I will reach Pinnacle when I turn 75 approximately!!! Hope I stay healthy.

Book B2B instead of just 7 days ?

As am I, just what are you trying to say? ?

is this a change in policy or the way its always been? Don't these people that pay lots of $$ for a suite get all kinds of perks for their money already? Surely sharing a lounge with some seasoned cruises doesn't ruin your experience or make you feel like you aren't getting what your entitled to? And I cant imagine they are over crowded. I guess these are problems I will never have to worry about....staying in a suite and being waited on or reaching pinnacle. There is lots that I don't like or agree with that Royal does...this doesn't even register as an issue for 95% of cruise passengers....just the elite ones I guess!..lol Sounds like those who sit in first class and complain about how NOT first class enough it is......first world problems eh?!.... Maybe cruise on a ship that doesn't have a suite lounge...then you wont have to deal with those pinnacle people that spent like 700 nights in a inside room to reach that status...haha Now if your are pinnacle AND you can still afford to book a suite...then you deserve a whole lounge to yourself..... Oh..and this thread should prob be under Discussion rather than News and Rumors?