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@RCL_Cruiser Oh no! As a seasoned cruiser my last sailing had me thinking, thank goodness this wasn't my first sailing I would never sail again. Not knowing the specifics of your sailing.... my sailing was super weird, it's important to differentiate the irritants, was it the cruise line OR the passengers that had no clue how to behave on a ship? My sailing was sold out with over 4500 first time cruisers. I'm not saying not to contact corporate I'm saying maybe you could give sailing another try taking into consideration what you learned and your specific cruising style. Being it was your first time I realize maybe you didn't think things could be mitigated, but if the crew can help they will. By all means I have no idea what you endured but I understand with many cruises under my belt that if you pay for a product, you deserve the product. Our sailing was weird for lack of a better term and honestly it was a combination of our fellow passengers as well as the ships inability to mitigate some things. I promise you the time of year and size of ship I'm sure directly impacted your experience. I do not make excuses for Royal, sometimes they get it wrong (to many passengers, not enough ships offerings) but please reconsider a sailing opposite what you just experienced, maybe then you will fall in love with the seas like many of us have. I wish you a positive experience moving forward! Best of luck with the follow up!

Whatever your concern is, you probably should have addressed it onboard before you left the ship.

My wife and I boarded Mariner Friday for our very first cruise and it has been wonderful so far. I followed all of Matt and fellow bloggers advice so far. Got the earliest checkin time. We flew in two days early. We took a Lyft to the port and arrived 40 mins prior to our embarkation time. There was a short line but not bad. Sailed through security to some chairs we sat in until time to board We entered the ship right at our muster station so that was super quick! Went to the stand by the orange dune buggy and made all of our dinner reservations. Got 6p for dinner at specialty restaurants every night!! only negative is our shore excursion tomorrow got canceled. Not a huge deal though. This is awesome!! My wife and I are thinking this is the life. Thank you all for your advice!!! Thanks Matt especially for all of your time and efforts. It really helped us out!

In all honesty I think Voyager or Freedom class should be the first stop for a newbie. If you start big the only way to go is down. If you start smaller or more midsize you have something to look forward to when you become more experienced. Lots of people who start at Oasis or Quantum class don't seem to like the smaller vessels and find much disappointment.

Hey all, Long time reader and cruiser with Royal Caribbean and reader of this blog and love every minute onboard their ships. I was getting tired of trying to compare different options available on each ship and between suites and The Key. I've been working on this for a couple of weeks which started out for just myself, but turned into something more when some friends and fellow cruisers started to want more info and it's just grown and grown. I hope the website https://rc.cruises will be helpful for everyone who cruises with Royal and needs to compare different ships, suites, The Key, etc. You can change the different suites when you want to compare The Key vs Grand Suite, or The Key vs SEA Royal Suites without seeing unnecessary information to get a true comparison (I use this more than once a week myself! ). There is also direct links to blog posts on Royal Caribbean Blog for drink packages, CocoCay, The Key, etc. (Matt said yes to using the logo which I'm very grateful to identify links to here). Love to know what everyone thinks and any feedback, and I hope you find it as helpful for your cruise planning

Perhaps this contact list information will be helpful. If you provide more details, many of us on this forum may be able to provide more guidance.

Which is kind of silly since it's the same end result and their photo is already on file.

I'm cruising for my 50th in October. I may have to decorate too! Happy Birthday!

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2023/04/20/contact-royal-caribbean-customer-service

I am a Coke snob and only drink canned Coke. If you have the DBP you can get canned soda without a problem. Sometimes you can get a canned soda even if you only have the refreshment package but canned soda is not officially included in the refreshment package. Rarely, but occasionally, a bar or restaurant will not have a can handy but most do. If you have the DBP just insist on a can and they will get it. I really hate fountain soda and more often than not, I have found the ships’ soda fountain machines to produce “flat” soda, which is repulsive.

A regular old school letter? I think you probably want this. Royal Caribbean Group1050 Caribbean WayMiami, FL 33132-2096 You'll probably get more eyes and impact using email or the social media channels. Good luck.

I didn't find the pier to be too bad for Uber/Lyft, it's a short shuttle ride or walk. LAX by far is the worst ride share experience. Don't follow the signs for shared rides, that not ride-sharing. Take the 35 minute shuttle bus that stops every 20 feet at every terminal to the ride-sharing pick up area. Do not go to the share ride area. What a cluster.

The cost was raised to $10

In Seattle, the easiest way to get around is the Seattle Light Rail system (https://www.soundtransit.org/ride-with-us/stations/link-light-rail-stations) where you can get from the airport towards Pike's Place Market area (Leave from the SEA-TAC station and travel to the Westlake station - nearest station - just a few blocks walk to Pike's Place; about 38-40 minutes ride from the airport) for a cost of about $3 per person. Trains leave every few minutes. For other activities; you can take the Seattle Monorail ($3.50 per person each way) (https://www.seattlemonorail.com/) that starts from the Westlake center (adjacent to the light rail station) and travel to the "Seattle Center" area where the Seattle Space Needle is at (https://www.spaceneedle.com/). The Chihuly Garden and Glass (https://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/) is adjacent to the base of the Space Needle and is a neat place to go through. There are some combo-tickets available for various activities in the area (http://seeitall.com/?site=sn). Luggage is going to be the biggest issue to deal with. When I travel and am overnighting in Seattle, I typically stay at a Hilton hotel (https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/seaahhh-hilton-seattle-airport-and-conference-center/) literally right across the street from the airport (I walk from the airport towards the light rail station; go "through" the station and walk over the pedestrian bridge; take the elevator down to street level, and walk one block to the hotel). See map on this link: https://www.soundtransit.org/ride-with-us/stops-stations/seatac-airport-station. You can have the hotel hold your bags after checkout if you stay there. I don't have any experience with any other baggage holding services, so won't be any help there... Just a few ideas and suggestions to think about!

I have no input on the topic, but the name "Spicy Cherry" is just fantastic. I just picture this nice Bing cherry cross bred with a habanero.

Generally speaking, a typical large OV balcony is just deeper (often located near the "bump outs" on many ships), not wider than a traditional OV balcony, so I don't see an advantage from a viewing perspective while outside on the balcony. Yes, if you're trying to view from inside your cabin, a standard OV balcony is probably slightly better due to shorter depth of the balcony.

Thanks! I'll work on collecting which ship has each. Thank you, will be fixed shortly. Interesting... I've been on Allure and completely missed this in putting all the data together. Fixed shortly too. After looking over it day in day out it becomes a blur. I definitely appreciate it. Thanks!

Looks great! Feedback: 1. You should probably split up Giovanni's Table and Giovanni's Kitchen into two separate venues as they're pretty different (despite the name). 2. You typoed "Costal" in the Coastal Kitchen heading. 3. Allure has "Wipe Out Cafe featuring El Loco Fresh" as a complimentary dining venue. 4. The 3rd column in the suite class section should be "Star", you listed it as "Sea." NOTE: I think you know, but just to be clear, I'm just playing editor to help, not picking on tiny inaccuracies. I think this could be a big help to many cruisers, especially newer ones.

We both ordered the short ribs and they were excellent. Our waiter brought us the branzino to try and it was good, but not great. Our waiter also brought out all 3 desserts and I liked all of them. The world is one of my favorite desserts. It's a must for any chocolate lover. The other 2 were good as well and dessert may be a compelling reason to come back Wonderland in the future.

This will be first Alaska cruise. My wife and I are celebrating our 25th anniversary and this is our present to each other! I am really looking forward to seeing an area of the country that I have never been to. We are flying in 2 days early to Seattle and staying in the Marriot Waterfront and will have a whole day to explore.

Site looks great!

Very excited to have booked this wonderful ship for next November. Excited to see this from Cape Liberty as a new face for this market. We are able to grab great rates on this as we booked as soon as they released the schedule so super excited to be on this next year. Cheers!!!

In Costa Maya, look into Maya Chan Beach. Ex-US pat owned/operated. Nothing resort fancy just good food, good drink, great service, and they love groups. Quiet and relaxing. $60 US/person and everything is included. Even transportation.

Just mention it to the security line people and there won’t be a problem.

It should be midnight of the TZ where the ship is currently so Southampton.

We are in the Hyatt at the airport. Driver picking us up in the morning.. Whohoo!

DH has the Libre2 and no issues

First day it’s open 7-10pm. The sea days are 9-12 2-5 and 7-10 can pay $7 hour after 10pm. Port days it opens 30 minutes before the first excursion and is open the whole time your in port . Our kids ate dinner on the port day, they took them to the windjammer at 5pm and they were allowed to have things like chicken fingers and pizza.

It's been a hot second since my kids have been in AO, but from what I remember there will be limited hours the first day, like you can go in and check it out and sign them up on the first day after 3 or something, and then bring them back from 5 until 10 p.m. The rest of the cruise they are consistently open, but will close for meal times, so maybe open from 9-noon, and then 2-5 and then 6 to 10 on sea days, but open pretty much the whole day (maybe closing for an hour or two at all aboard) on port days so you can leave the kids in AO while you go ashore, if you want to. I remember that there was one cruise that the kids could choose to eat with the group and they would be taken to the buffet as a group, but I can't remember if that was Royal or Disney, so I'm not 100% sure on them feeding the kids. Sorry!

Thank you for all of the great responses! I will be celebrating my 50th birthday on a cruise at the end of this month. So I wanted to get some birthday cruise magnets. I have found some good ones on Amazon.

Okay, stupid question, but how would a non-governmental agency possibly know if you were holding an older copy of your Canadian birth certificate if there was a newer one issued? To the best of my knowledge, the cruise line simply compares the information on the form with your ID, they don't contact the issuing agency to confirm while you're checking in at the pier or anything. Not encouraging anyone to do this, just genuinely curious.

This is an interesting topic I raised with the captain of Radiance during our recent sailing. The issue is that the Voyager class ships (and larger) won't fit under the bridges in places like Baltimore and Tampa. In addition, (as @bobroo pointed out) there are some ports the larger ships can't go to. The captain of Radiance did point out that there will be another class (currently named "Discovery class") that will be built in 2025 or later. These will be smaller (but I don't know if small enough). On our recent Alaska cruise, we took Radiance and loved it. Last year, I was on Rhapsody (Vision class) for a Greek/Adriatic cruise and it was also great (one of my favorites was Montenegro). I'm not that interested in an "amusement park on water" and would rather experience the classic cruise experience and visit interesting destinations.

Are the internet packages limited a "single dedicated device", or can I switch back and forth from my iPhone to my iPad? Using only one device at a time. Am I making sense?

Day 7 - Sea Day Day 8 - Disembark day We kept things pretty chill for our last sea day. Everyone was exhausted. 16yo and I did the sushi making class which was a ton of fun. I made the mistake of eating breakfast right before. You end up with a good amount of sushi to eat. The raw materials: The finished product: The kids thought they had done pretty well with the scavenger hunt to get crew signatures from every country. They ended up with 23 but the winning team has 43! Our final dinner was at Giovanni’s Table. I forgot to take pictures (again) but my arugula salad and carbonara were very good. Overall I’ve been a little disappointed in the vegetarian options for 12yo. Izumi was fantastic with a vegetarian, and Windjammer of course has tons of veg options. Main dining room, Giovanni’s, and especially Chops though are really tough for a vegetarian. It would be nice to see every menu have at least one or two vegetarian mains. This morning we woke up, finished packing, and walked off the boat without much trouble. We’re in Vancouver for another 2 nights, and of course our hotel room wasn’t ready at 9:30am. We got some breakfast and then checked out the Vancouver Art Museum, which was pretty cool. After getting into the hotel and crashing for a few hours, we got dinner at Little Bird Dim Sum, which was fantastic. Definitely recommended if you like Chinese food and find yourself in Vancouver. One more day in Vancouver and then we fly out first thing on Tuesday. It’s been a great trip, but I think we’re all ready to get back home and sleep in our own beds.

As you can tell from the family photos, I’d be fine using the combo body wash/shampoo/conditioner/dishwasher fluid/engine degreaser, but the rest of the family has hair that requires a bit more care! The seas were a bit rough last night and early this morning as we are exposed to the open Pacific en route to Sitka. I have the sea sickness patch, and that really seems to work well. The biggest worry I had coming into the cruise was sea sickness, but we’ve all done ok so far! Currently hanging out in Vintages before we get into port. @PPPJJ-GCVAB I’ll try to take a few more pictures of the ship!

Day 2 - Sea Day Today was fun - didn’t take a ton of pictures though. Started the day with breakfast in the MDR, which was very good. Need to remember to ask for the pastry basket next time. We tried our luck at another general knowledge trivia game and came in third this time. Got some coffee from cafe latitude. I bought the coffee card prior to sailing, and I just assumed it would be added to my sea pass card like the kids’ soda package. Nope, there was a physical card in our cabin that we had totally ignored. The guy at the cafe was super nice and gave us a new card after looking us up on the list. Had a nice relaxing time reading in vintages and watching out the window. The younger kids have had a blast in the Optix teen club. They’ve mostly been playing video games with other teens. There was a slot pull event for the Facebook group, which was a lot of fun, even though we picked the coldest machine in history. $420 in a wheel of fortune game and no one got to spin the wheel! Everyone walked away empty handed, but it was a great time. We played bingo in the Colony Club - three rounds without sniffing a Bingo! I sat in the Centrum and watched the classical guitar player for a bit while the rest of the family did their own thing. Towel animals in the cabins were awesome. The plushie behind the towel animal is named Catthew (get it,? if Matt is short for Matthew than Cat must be short for Catthew). Got dressed up for dinner and went back to the Colony Club for flag trivia - we got 18/20 and finished around fourth. On the way to dinner, we got some professional photos taken. Then we saw a family taking mirror selfies, which looked like a good idea. It didn’t work so well, though.Someone from the crew saw us attempting this and offered to take our picture the old fashioned way. As he took a bunch of family photos for us, I noticed he had a bunch of stripes on his sleeve. He was probably much too important and busy for that, but I really appreciated him offering to help us out. He wasn’t a great photographer, but the picture did turn out substantially better! Dinner was at Chops, which was very good. The lack of vegetarian options was disappointing though. It would be nice if there was one main without meat. The onboard show, Now and Forever, is kind of weird. It’s a jukebox musical, but without any plot and with some very strange song choices. The ending medley from Mama Mia was entertaining though. It left me wishing they’d just put on that show. Another weird thing that surfaced yesterday - there was only body wash in our shower. No shampoo or conditioner. Is that normal? We ended up buying some from the hair salon, but I was shocked not to have it in our cabin. Tomorrow is our first port stop in Sitka!

Our excursion in Juneau was "Whales, glaciers, and Rainforest trails. We started with a 2 hr whale watch. There were only 19 people on this tour so it was not one of the super big boats. We saw a lot of whales, although none were super close. It was a beautiful boat ride so that was a bonus. After the whale watch, we took a 1 mile hike through the forest to a beach on Lake Mendenhall. We got a really good view of the glacier from there. The tour guide provided a lot of information about the rain forest and the the glacier. It was another good excursion. I would have loved to hike out to the waterfall but it would have taken too much time.

We did our tour through Alaska Shore Tours. I'm not sure if they are the provider for the RC tours. The tour was really awesome. We were taken to their "camp" and then loaded up on a MOG? (not sure if that's right) which brought us up further to the area where they keep the dogs. The ride was an experience in itself, very steep inclines. We were placed onto 6 person wheeled sleds and then took a really fun ride around their course. After the ride, we went down to the camp where we learned about mushing and got to see and hold some puppies. This trip was well worth it and although it made for a long day, I'm glad we did the 2nd excursion in Skagway. I would put this one in as a must do if you are bringing kids, but still very fun for adults.

The smarter people were inside

I cannot recommend the White Pass Railway enough. I have read a few reviews and all I can say is that they did not do it justice, I doubt this one will either. The views were spectacular. We started in Canada at 2800 ft elevation and ended back in Skagway at zero. At the summit it was cold and foggy with plenty of snow on the ground. As we got lower, large valleys open up with spectacular views. I took lots of pictures and will try to post a few to do it justice.

We took the free shuttle into town and then took a 20 minute walk to the Raptor center. We wanted to get there early to avoid the crowds and were almost the only ones there when we arrived. This was well worth the $15 admission. We were able to see multiple bald eagles up close and learned a lot about the birds. This is a great center and they rehab and release a lot of birds. The ones you can take photos of are not able to be released. There was also a short nature trail that lran along a river up to a small waterfall.

Bumper cars are fun! I really liked the SeaPlex. It's really a great feature of the Quantum class. This ship is really well designed for Alaska cruises with lots of indoor space that stll have great views. As I am writing this, we are lounging on a 2 person chair/bed in the Solarium.

Once on, we had drink at the North Star Bar to celebrate. Great views from this bar.

I woke up this morning to the Norwegian Sun at the cruise port across from the hotel. We will need to take a short ride to the Royal Carribean terminal which is a little north of this one. The Marriott is well situated and the room is comfortable and has great views. As much as we like to complain about the cutback in service on cruises, I notice it more at hotels. These days, there isn't much difference between premium hotels like Marriott, and budget hotels. You get a room, but there's not much more to it. Service on Royal is much better.

Closer to noon, we headed out again and went to the aquarium which we enjoyed. From there we went back to Pikes Place which was much more crowded. I really enjoyed the variety of shops at the market. It is just a perfect weather day today. 65 degrees, but feels warm in the sun. We have reservations tonight at Anthony's Pier 66 which is across the street from our hotel. I'm really happy that I decided to add an extra night to our precruise stay so that we could spend a full day here in Seattle.

We were up early due to the time change so we walked over to Pikes Place Market. At 7am there wasn't much open but we did get some great French pastries and a Starbucks coffee to get the day started. It was a good morning walk, with lots of climbing from the hotel.

Good morning from Seattle! We had a great flight and arrived on time. We didn't get to the hotel until after 10pm, which was late with the 2 hour time change. Of course, we are now up early so we are heading out to explore. Our room at the Marriott Waterfront is a corner room with great views.

I am confused, the weather in the ship is always the same. I did the Copenhagen to Iceland to Boston cruise in September. There were not many people on desk of the ship except for looking for the northern lights. During those times you were in close toes shoes in warm jackets with gloves to keep warm. When we got to Iceland it was layers and rain protection (not umbrella). Part of the excursions you were bundled up and part in a shirt and jeans. The one thing you want to do is the Blue Lagoon. The worse the weather the better the experience. Welcome To Blue Lagoon Iceland Resort & Spa | Blue Lagoon Iceland

We just got back from the Allure and our experience with the food quality was excellent. The MDR crew knocked it out of the park. The food in the MDR was absolutely top notch... with the exception of - get this - The Key welcome lunch and departure breakfast. It was shocking to me that The Key meals were by far the worst meals on our trip, with the worst service. The food came out lukewarm, and the staff seemed lost. I'll post my review of The Key in another thread, but in short, I won't buy the Key again - it was a big disappointment. Aside from The Key meals, most all of the food on the Allure in every venue was delicious. MDR - amazing, every night we went. We had two excellent lunches in the MDR as well, and a very good breakfast. Windjammer - couldn't go wrong here with the quick food. Breakfast always worked out fast with plenty of choices. Try the kanji! Solarium Bistro - love the made to order omelets. Sorrento's - better than I remember. They've stepped up their pizza quality a bit. Izumi Hibachi - stellar, delicious lobster, scallops, and beef - cooked perfectly. Mochi and sesame balls were excellent desserts. My 2nd favorite restaurant. 150 Central Park - easily the best food on the ship: amazing scallops, perfect soup, and the fried cheesecake is the best dessert of all. After trying 150 for the first time, this is now a must book for us on every cruise. Chef's Table - delicious courses, but surprisingly inconsistent quality with the main course fillet. My lady's was cooked perfectly, but mine was chewy and dried out on the outside. The bad main course, plus the poor communication over where to meet to begin the meal (we had to sneak in to the diamond lounge and ask the host where to go), has made me fall out of love with the Chef's Table. I very much prefer 150 Central Park. Hopefully most other guests had a similar experience. I don't think I am that easy to please when it comes to food