Matt

TBA

As others said, what the OP is referring to was a one-off situation in Australia. There's no pattern or really any reason to expect anyone with a GTY reservation to expect a similar outcome, in my opinion.

Harmony double occupancy is 5,479 guests, so that's well over 100%

Welcome to the message boards. As long as the old wowband doesnt have a muster station on it, yes, you can bring it to reuse it for free.

Just remember, what's expensive in 2023 might not be that expensive in 2025!

You can certainly ask, but not sure if they'll be able to accommodate you. I find in practice people are in flux with respect to seating, so you may not need it.

These days, the question is if your ship is sailing at 100% capacity or 104% capacity.

Me!!

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2023/06/23/royal-caribbean-plan-dominate-short-cruises

The 6 month rule only applies to a small subset of certain countries. It's otherwise just a good practice to have one more up to date. Where are you cruising to?

I don't recall seeing prebooking. Usually once onboard, although suite concierge might give their guests a heads up a couple of days before the cruise.

When I went to the UK this summer, I used Orange and it worked in UK and all over Europe: https://travel.orange.com/en/ It's an e-sim, so no card to flip in. Just activate it when you get there and it works.

Check out this article: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2023/05/03/best-hotels-near-the-cape-libertybayonne-cruise-port

I'll have my write up on Monday about my experience. I stayed in an infinite veranda (not in the Retreat), but I agree with pretty much everything @AshleyDillo said in her live blog. The ship, and the experience were lovely. I had a great time, but I didn't realize how much I depended on Royal's entertainment and things to do. We were in bed by 10pm every night because there just wasn't anything happening, and in the daytime you'd find very few events. Trivia fans? You can forget about that. I was also really disappointed by the Always Included. I sucked it up and stayed with the classic beverage package, but it was a disappointing experience. The basic wifi you get is useless, so you're forced to upgrade if you want to do anything and Celebrity charges WAY more than Royal for wifi. Loved their buffet, the MDR has the "old" Royal rules where you can make special requests, the specialty restaurants were like Royal's (mostly good, but not cheap). The complete lack of bar staff to serve you a drink if you didn't go to a bar was eye opening. Even in the casino, it was impossible to get a drink. Like all things, good and bad.

If you're referring to sales in 2020, 2021, or even 2022, those were pandemic years and Royal was indeed offering deep discounts to keep the cash flow going. That's not the case this year in that demand is sky high. In short, they don't need to offer a lucrative sale. This is also a generally good reminder never to try to time a sale, or wait for a sale.

Sorry this happened. Can I assume this was a balcony room?

My last two visits were just meh, and the last one had really sub par service (I think December 22?) for what I was used to at Nachi. They’ve always had not so great liquor selection, but when the service isn’t as personal as in the past, it’s hard to overlook their other deficiencies. I didn’t have a bad time, and I wouldn’t classify Nachi in same grouping as Mr Sanchos (never again), I just thought it lost a step.

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/ultimate-hawaii-cruise-guide

At least a month early.

If I may offer some advice, now is the time to transfer your reservation to a good travel agent. There are so many considerations with a cruise, and it sounds like a good agent might be a real benefit to you! You can transfer it up to 30 days after you booked on the website.

I’ve also stopped going to Nachi. I love that they limit capacity but their service isn’t what it used to be and drink selection is very limited. Not to mention their pool is tiny and freezing.

The Insider program is through Patreon, which is a completely different site than here. So you’ll have a login for that and a login for these message boards.

Who's coming with us?

Yes

I use a travel agent every single time. It’s not about booking the cruise. It’s about who’s there to fix it when a problem occurs.