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It hit me wrong when I read it too. Stateroom attendant.

Newest video just released:

Agreed. "Cleaner" feels very disrespectful for their effort, workload, and kindness. Stateroom attendant.

Personally: just got notified about "guaranteed" room, and lo and behold - the room was an upgrade! It can happen.

From what I hear around this site, when it comes to a guaranteed room you should: be okay with the worst possible room in the category. It's not a sure thing that you will get it, but guarantee rooms are generally filled after all the self-picked room are gone. Meaning you get what other people probably didn't want. So if you have a balcony you may end up with an obstructed view balcony, or one on a lower deck, or one where there may be more noise/less privacy. You could end up all the to the front or back, having to walk longer distances. Or you could end up with a perfectly nice room with nothing at all wrong with it. If you can honestly be okay with potentially the "dregs" of the category, then do it. know you may not get your assignment until a week or two before the sail date so there may not be room or space to upgrade. I've seen countless threads posted here asking when they'll get their assigned room because the sail date is coming up and they still don't know. Basically, you are promised a room in whatever category you get for the price you paid. It's a little bit of a gamble but not one where you lose too much if you "lose".

Just returned from a cruise from Galveston on another cruise line that rhymes with "Barnival". Royal is better in every way. That is all.

Greetings from Jamaica! So far this trip is great. Amit the concierge is incredible. Spectacular bar service from the pub. Great MDR service. Yesterday we went to Seven Mile Beach. We rented a jetski and frollicked in the water for a few hours. Today we're pretty much staying on the ship. I dislike Falmouth. It's close to absolutely nothing. 3 nights left including 2 sea days. If you have any questions let me know.

I am on Allure right now. Our itinerary was changed when Fiona was threatening Haiti! We ended up at Curacao first (gorgeous weather), Aruba yesterday (beautiful weather with exception of torrential downpour late morning) and now heading to Labadee for tomorrow. It is bright sunshine this morning and still very smooth seas.

Just got off the plane in Barcelona, they didn’t even check our vax cards. So easy.

Thats the only thing that makes the 3 night and 4 night Florida itineraries appealing to me. B2B them and get 2 stops at Coco Cay in a weeks time

Ok, so let me expound a bit on what I said in my last post. I have taken two cruises in my entire life. Cruise number one was on Adventure of The Seas in April, 2022. Cruise number two was with Carnival on The Breeze in September, 2022. Why Carnival? I listened to a friend. A friend in retrospect who obviously knows no better! LOL Both Adventure of The Seas and The Breeze are of a similar size and had very similar itineraries. So, I feel this is a very good apples-to-apples comparison. The Ships: Winner - Adventure of The Seas. My wife and I both found the interior of Adventure of The Seas to be far more beautiful and appealing than The Breeze. Also, we found getting around on AoTS to be easier and more intuitive. The Breeze felt blocky by comparison without any natural flow. Also, the promenade on AoTS is just much more appealing than the atrium on The Breeze. AoTS is like a nicely appointed high end hotel and The Breeze is like a Super 8 hotel. Food: I am breaking down the food in to categories: Buffet: Adventure of The Seas by a long mile. In almost every category, the Windjammer kicks tail over the Lido Marketplace buffet on The Breeze. I am not saying the food is perfect in the Windjammer, there are hits and misses for sure, but the food was just overall very bad on The Breeze buffet. Sodas: Royal for the win. Why? They have Coke products. Carnival has Pepsi. I am a Coke man. Pizza: Ok, The Breeze wins one. The Pizza Pirate on The Breeze was superior in my opinion than the pizza we ate at Cafe Promenade on AoTS. Overall Included Dining Options: The Breeze again. The included options on The Breeze include Guy’s Burger Joint, Guy’s Pig & Anchor BBQ, Pizza Pirate, and Blue Iguana Cantina. In fact, the burgers from Guys, the pizza from Pizza Pirate and the tacos from Blue Iguana were very good. MDR: Adventure of The Seas. The dining rooms in AoTS are far more elegant and beautiful and feel more open. The food was a notch above as well when compared to The Breeze. Cabins: Tie. I found both cabins on the ships to be comparable. The Breeze may have had more usable storage as well, but lacked in decor. I slept great on both beds. (I like a very firm mattress). Staff: Adventure of The Seas. And really, this was close. We got great, friendly service on both ships, but the staff on The Breeze really bungled debarking for us. And that is another long story for later. Entertainment: Adventure of The Seas. The shows, the entertainers, the options, and the venues we found to be just a bit better on our RC ship. Not to say The Breeze didn’t have good entertainment, just not as good as on AoTS.

Welcome. My best tip is to really read through the boards and look for ideas that work for you. Start here and read through a lot of what Matt posts here What to expect on your first cruise | Royal Caribbean Blog You asked about dining time and the correct answer is really dependent on you. If you are a late eater, then the later time is a better choice. There is also My Time Dining that allows you to go when you want. The Key is probably not worth it for most people. Here is Matt's review Royal Caribbean’s The Key review | Royal Caribbean Blog

Can you believe there are weirdos getting close to D+ with nothing but East/West Caribbean and Bahamas cruises (aside from one 7-nigher in Alaska)? Some people! P.S. If my attempt at humor failed, see my signature. We enjoy our ship routine, a few select excursions even if we've done them before, and could probably go to Cococay once a week if it were feasible. Different strokes...

I hope so, my wife makes it her personal mission to impact the lobster population on lobster night.

Once your GTY has been officially assigned, you can call (or have your TA do it if you used one) and ask to be switched to any available cabin in the same exact category. *NOTE: This is for US bookings.

You can't take te bathrobes home with you, even if you're staying on a suite. If there are 3 persons on the reservation there should be at least 3 bathrobes available on the suite, why there wouldn't be enough robes for all of you?. P.S. It's not a "cleaner", the position is called Stateroom attendant.

The robes should be there based on the number of people on the reservation. If not you can ask your Stateroom Attendant.

Interesting. This is the first instance I have ever heard of where you could not get any number of lobster tails in the MDR on lobster night. Hopefully it was just a one-time shortage.

3 Days Until We Leave!! The luggage tags have been printed!! My drama tonight was figuring out why my printer only wanted to print in grayscale! I ended up having to uninstall my printer and all the drivers and start over! Tim asked if we really needed them tonight - um, YES!! It's on the schedule! He offered to go to Office Depot to print them tomorrow for me, but I couldn't stop troubleshooting until it was done. It's fixed, but I spent way too much time on it. Yes, I have an obsessive side. We've been watching Invest 98L in the Atlantic because it's modeled to go right up the path of our itinerary next week. A little sad that we could be rerouted because we know Mom and Aunt Cindy were looking forward to the ruins and dolphin encounter. However, it's a cruise and I'm sure the captain will make sure we have some sunshine, so it's not a bad thing. It's got our Facebook roll-call group all a flutter! I think I'd be happiest if we got rerouted to CocoCay as that is one of my favorite places, and I know Kenzie and Kayla would have a blast at the water park. If we end up there and the wind is right, I think it would be fun to go up in the balloon. Look at me planning it out already! Tonight is about to the end and that leaves us one more full day/evening before we need to pack up our final things (charged electronics, etc), head over and pack Mom, and then we all head to the hotel. I, unfortunately, have a long way to go with the packing because I've had a busy week. I need Genie Jay!!!

The only hurricane worth experiencing comes from Royal Caribbean.

Anything I can get at 2AM is my favorite treat at that time

Just wanted to warn everyone that OnPoint Testing, which a lot of people are still using for cruises that still mandate COVID tests (Bermuda, Canada), is having some serious issues and should no longer be used. In a Facebook group for my sailing (Adventure 9/24) there were about a dozen people who had planned to use OnPoint and everyone's Zoom links were expired. Nobody answers the phone there or answers emails. Many of us spent the entire day trying to get a hold of someone to help. Some of us were able to get our testing done, but many were left scrambling for a new test. The same is going on with sailings on other cruise lines (my wife joined a few Facebook groups for those sailings and saw many people freaking out over the same thing.) To top it off, I posted a comment on OnPoint's Facebook page saying I had been unable to reach anyone, and I received this note from a former employee... It seems with so few places still requiring testing for travel, this company is cashing out -- and not in a very honest or ethical way. (The note should be read 2nd image, 1st, then 3rd -- I couldn't get them in the right order!)

Every time I've had breakfast at JRs we are always the only ones there. Maybe another table or two inside, but I feel like it's a pretty well-kept secret.

Right there with you...Diamond in December 2023.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/pdf/minor-traveling-without-parent-or-guardian-form.pdf

11-28-22 to 12-13-22 on the Celebrity Infinity from FLL to Rio De Janeiro. It'll be my first time on Celebrity with their status match program.

Reaching Diamond was a game changer for us. We always purchased the DBP but didn't on our last cruise. Still had to purchase a few drinks a day, most days, between my wife and I. We saved several hundred dollars on not purchasing the drink package because of the Diamond drinks.

When you disembark, the Key luggage is in a separate place from all the others making it easier/faster to get your luggage. That was way better!!

Black Friday deals are no different than any other sale. And when it comes to Shore Excursions, the best prices I've found have been random drops in price between sales.

Personally, I'd skip it. I don't think there's $163 extra in value to the Key (and I like it, for the right price. That price, to me, is under $20 pppd).

Cleaner?? Really?

My thoughts: The video finally shows the inside of that ball, but still not indication what it's for! Those could be seats, but they also look like steps. At first I thought maybe a light show, but it's a bit too surrounded on the sides and too open in the front and back for that. I definitely think it's some sort of visual spectacle. The colored waterfalls look cool. They're bringing back Central Park, it looks like. I'd assume the Boardwalk as well unless they have another idea for a neighborhood. Building a ship from start to finish in three years is just crazy and shows how far all kinds of technology has gotten to be able to make that happen. Pretty cool.

Pretty sure breakfast is walk-in only. I actually don't know of any venue that takes reservations for breakfast.

New JVF update says Allure should be able to slip in and around the storm

I am joining in for a cruise fill with joy and happiness.

This is our first Southern Caribbean and I love it! We have had gorgeous weather all week so far although we did catch a strong downpour yesterday morning in Aruba! Torrential downpour! But then it cleared up and was sunny and hot. Another quick storm in late afternoon passed quickly too so for us it didn’t ruin any of our plans! Today we are heading north and tomorrow we will be in Labadee. Bright sunshine right now! Our itinerary was changed around so we would miss Fiona and it has worked out perfectly! Hope yours is just as awesome!

My D+ sister, was also on Harmony in July, she said the lobster in the MDR were tiny and you could only get one. She anxiously awaited our cruise to find out if this was the new norm...we were going on Liberty...it was not. I am thinking there must have been a shortage/availability issue, on Harmony's supply during that time.

You can buy the robes in the gift shop if you want them to keep. Your suite robes are just for on ship use.

We’re on the IOTS right now and I bought the key because it was $2 more a day than the Surf & Stream during a sale. If you’re going to buy the internet package it’s definitely worth upgrading to the Key. We bypassed a long line at the Port to Security and checking in. Right on the Ship and straight to lunch after dropping off our carryons. So far that has been the best perks we used. We also had priority seats at the shows, but the theater was only half full so that’s not really a big deal. I’m waiting to see about disembarking with Key if that adds any value

I am currently on Allure for 8 nights and lobster night is tomorrow which is day 6. If you plan on dining at specialty restaurants you can look at dining in the Royal app to view menus for each night. Or you can just ask the wait staff In the MDR to check on which night.

There will be an adults-only beach, but it won't open until next year. You may enjoy South Beach as it's the farthest beach from the ship and is typically quieter.

We was on a cruise a few years ago, everyone back home was worried, it was the smoothest cruise we had, we kind of trailed it, did a reserve stop on two islands, they was concerned we might have to stay at see one day as it was headed to our port, we was even allowed to make a phone call on the Royal phones from stateroom, as it turned out, it missed Florida , thank goodness. Royal is usually on top of things come hurricane season.

Thanks. This eases my mind. We as well, don't usually disclose his diagnosis, but lines and loud noises are still a challenge. We are not looking for any privileges, but more-so not to incommodate other passengers. Again, Thanks

Traveling Solo There are lots of people that wonder what is like traveling solo. This was a different trip so I thought I would share some of my thoughts. Planning: It was really nice to be able to pick what I want to do and not worry about what anyone else wants to do. When I got to Prague and Copenhagen I changed my plans while out on the town because how I felt changed. Things I wanted to do changed. I did not have to compromise with anyone, I was traveling solo. Flying into a strange country alone: This was a challenge. I had no one to ask what they thought. I had to trust my own judgment and figure it out on my own. I also had to be secure enough to ask other people for directions or how things worked. Traveling on an European Train for the first time: This was a challenge even if there was someone. This was a very uncomfortable adventure and I am not sure if it would have been better or worse with someone else with me. Not speaking the language and the process was so different I was uncomfortable for most of the adventure. Now that it is done it would be much easier the next time. The biggest issue with being solo is you have strangers setting next or right in front of you. On the ship: my favorite saying is a solo traveler is only alone if they want to be. This cruise I was getting tired of people and wanted more alone time. Now to be fair with you I need to remind you I was in charge of some of the Cruise Critic / Face Book activities. That is over 600 people. I did the Sail-a-Way Meet and Greet, the Group Dinners at Chops, Giovanni and Izumi, and the Poker Pub Crawl on three different days. On top of that I helped on two different private shore excursions that was 100 people and 80 people. With all this organizing I meet lots of people and was never alone. I had to find time for "Me Time".

4 Days Until We Leave!! After reading about @Rags1's mic-drop experience, I couldn't even think about writing. It just didn't feel right! They must still be riding the high from that trip! Well done, Genie Jay! Okay, here we go...again...LOL! That saying is so useful! Cruise brain completely hit me today!!! I sat in front of spreadsheets and PowerPoints all day today and had such a hard time concentrating!! 3 more workdays for me and then I can check out for a week! The great thing is that my boss is out the same week as me so that should eliminate some of the emails I will return to. Cruise packing has fully commenced and we spent the weekend staging all of our stuff to throw into the bags after our final load of laundry has been completed. Speaking of laundry, I washed all of the group t-shirts yesterday and dried them on a cool setting, hoping not to make doll clothes out of them. It's hard to tell without the bodies in them to know if I succeeded! We'll find out this weekend! If you see pics of our group and someone is missing a matching t-shirt, you know I goofed! I have to say that if you're on the fence about using packing cubes, let me tell you how much I love them! I only started using these about a year ago and I'm obsessed with them now. At first it was because I was trying to maximize space in a carry on and personal bag for a five week trip - it worked! I start with the KonMari fold, then roll my items. I can get about 8 t-shirts into one classic slim e-bags cube with that method. I get about the same number of my hubby's polos into a classic small e-bags cube without any rolling. At first I wasn't sure what to do with the super large cubes (that came in a set), but this time I found a use!! I have about 75 little misc things that are on my list for the cruise (i.e., first aid kit, sewing kit, towel clips, etc), that would otherwise be loose in my bags. Not this time! I got all of them into one large and three medium cubes. Packing once everything is in the bags is so easy, and if TSA decides to open my luggage, they'll all go back in place pretty easily! I'm a happy camper today! I've printed all of our documents as back up copies, and I'm waiting on my color cartridge to arrive via Amazon to print my luggage tags. At some point this week, we'll make a trip to Kohl's to return the unwanted Amazon items obtained during my last phase. The last time we went, we took our little rolling cart because it was too much to carry! Hubby is our in-home chef and he's on the "eat all of the perishable foods" kick this week, which means no square meals but all kinds of mismatches of things. I've been dying for a good steak! Other than cruising, we maybe have red meat a couple of times a year. I'm so ready for the red meat marathon to begin! I caught up on my cruise vlogs last night after packing all weekend and found out that our very own @Matt is going to be on this cruise! Matt - You seem like a fun guy! If we happen to cross paths, we'd love to buy you a drink! 4 more sleeps!!

We ate in Jamie's on Anthem a couple of years ago on lobster night, not only did they serve us lobster but the chef created a special pasta dish to go with it, it was fabulous.

its not a hotel and you have to carry your bags up some stairs but it is the right price for a good bed and shower. I stayed at this AirBnB and it was half way from the airport and port. I just took a Uber to the room and one to the port. Was much less than the $300 they wanted for a hotel room in February. Airbnb: Vacation Rentals, Cabins, Beach Houses, Unique Homes & Experiences

Couple of updates, decided to do the Hilton Marina, so kind of a late decision on that and it wasn’t quite up to past stays. We knew that it was under construction but there were a couple hiccups that were outside of that expectation. The AC seemed a little sluggish, but we went to dinner and hoped to that the rooms would cool. They didn’t and we had to change rooms. The other thing on our minds was watching Fiona. It really looked like it would impact the sailing, at least with Monday at Labadee. So back to watching some of our normal Florida resources for watching storms, including our old local TV weatherman Jim Van Fleet. Rumors were also starting to show up on the “inter-webs”. One stating that updates/changes would likely be announced in the evening. Well we got the news and they are basically flipping the route. Instead of Labadee first we will now make the run to the south and hit the islands then come back to Labadee. Getting ready for the last sleep before boarding and will be happy to roll over in the morning, open my eyes and see the ship outside our window!