Todd W

From the Independence in January 2017 for my birthday, and the Anthem in September of 2017 for my honeymoon. 

Um, yeah, I couldn't choose a favorite so I went a little "overboard" 
A few of my favorite pics from 2016, 2017, 2018 on Grandeur OTS -- all trips to Bermuda.

@WAAAYTOOO    our LoS sailing is April and it dropped to $44 a few weeks back.   keep an eye out, i'm guessing once you hit within 90 days that price may pop up again for you hopefully.

we took our 2 boys a few years back on their first cruise.  they were 12 & 14 at the time and i was of course concerned about letting them have time of their own.   However we found a plan that worked great for us.   I made sure both kids had cheap watches before the cruise for starters.   First day on the ship our plan was check back in with us ever 2 hours.  We made sure they knew where we would be and where they would would be at any given time, within reason.   If we changed our schedule or if they changed location, we left each other sticky notes on our cabin room mirror.   The primary rule we set in place for them, if at any point you missed check-in times with us, they were going to be attached to our hip for the rest of that day as well as the next.    Surprisingly, we had no issues what so ever.   kids generally checked in earlier than expected and because of their extra "freedom", we found that in a lot of cases, they would find us and hang out with us for a bit.   as each day proved to be successful, we would ease up on the check in times and give them a little bit more freedom.   Our kids had a blast, we had some awesome, worry-free adult time and still had plenty of family time as well.     system worked great and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. 

Knowing the amount of research she does, I'm pinging @Lovetocruise2002 , I'm pretty sure she recently booked the 4 bedroom villa, which is not the same I know, but should be able to give you a rough PP head count figure.
Don't wait to long if you are going to book one for 21, the Star Class rooms will go quick.
The web site should let you put in 6 people on a mock booking also, because the room will sleep 8.

Rate is going to be the same for the 5/6 as it was for 3/4. Other words once add person 3 their cost is the same as person 4, 5, and 6.
If you have a sailing in mind run the cost for 2 and then 4. Subtract the 2 rate from the 4 and that should give the 3/4 cost. Take that 3/4 cost and add it to the cost of 4.
Math: (R4)-(R2)=(R3/4), (R4)+(R3/4)=(R6)
Real numbers: 14,000-10,000=4,000, 14,000+4,000=18,000
Example: Person 1 and 2 ends up at 5,000 each. Person 3+ ends up at 2,000 each. 
 
Hope this made some sense. Keep in mind this wouldn't factor in Kids Sail Free type promotions.

For me, any deal i can get is always great however if it comes with stipulations or time restrictions, i have to take them each on a case by case basis.  As an example,  If i'm relegated to getting a great deal for spec dining but can only use it on certain nights and/or at certain times, more often than not, i'll pass on the savings so as to not be bound by their schedule.  I'd rather pay full price and go when and where I'd like.   The more relaxed the stipulations are, the better chance i'll take at jumping on an offer (or putting in a bid in this case) for a package deal.

Yep....do exactly what @CGTLH said.  Your 3/4/5/6 person will be exactly the same cost.  You cannot do a mock booking for more than 4 because Royal will only allow up to 4 on a reservation.  Even if an agent does it for you, they have to put 4 on one and 2 more on the other.  When we booked Villa for 14 people, they did 4 reservations (4, 4, 4, 2) and they actually needed to get permission from another department (I want to say revenue, but I cannot remember for sure) to allow this even though the max occ of the room is 14.  And like @tiny260, I would wait if I found a good deal for Star class.  They go quickly.  Time to YOLO.

I ask my agent and she sends me a quote super quick.
https://www.facebook.com/kristen.a.schirmer
Thanks
Scott Cash
 

I wonder if its too much to hope for her to port out of Florida in which case may pave the way for an Oasis class to shuffle over to Galveston for the new
 terminal  ?

I wonder if its too much to hope for her to port out of Florida in which case may pave the way for an Oasis class to shuffle over to Galveston for the new
 terminal  ?

I absolutely agree with this one (as well as all of @JLMoran suggestions he mentioned).   This is an often missed step and there's nothing worse than being on vacation out of the country and needing to use your credit card only to find it has been temporarily blocked for "suspicious activity"  .   Seems to be common practice for most of the larger CC companies and/or bank cards to flag sudden overseas activity as suspect.     

Just off of Brilliance, and my wife's drink of choice to end the night was a chocolate martini in the Schooner Bar.  She was wary of going off script, since they had made such a great one in the champagne bar on Oasis as noted above.  The gentleman behind the bar was... methodical... but the end result was excellent.  He also kept refilling her glass from anything left in his mixer so it was like 1.5 drinks, which was not bad for a non drink package cruise.  

Yes, pretty much what was said above.  Think Smirnoff vs Tito's or Kettle.  It depends on your crowd who will notice or not.  If people tend to have a bunch of mixers in their drinks maybe not so much but if they drink straight up or only mix with club/water it would be more noticeable.  I know if I were invited to a reception and someone was paying for the drinks I would be happy with whatever they provided.  Maybe inquire if someone wanted something specific if they could purchase it on their own. 

I totally agree.  i have no issues at all adding something extra, usually to keep my drinks on the stronger side.  hah!   I was just more concerned about my perception of the package rules which has been alleviated.    I shouldn't make assumptions of anything cruise related without 2 cups of coffee first.

Me, every night at work - which explains my torrent of ridiculous responses and questions that tend to show up at 3am, lol

Awesome, thanks Joe.  I figured as much but i've had too much time idle time on my hands today at work and some of what i've read just made me overthink it all.   appreciate the quick reply.

Nope, no extra grats applied unless you go over the per-drink limit; in that case, you'll only be charged gratuity on the overage.

I've recently renewed my love of whiskey.   I can't get enough Bulleit Rye Old Fashioned's   with raw sugar instead of syrup, luxardo cherries if available served neat.

as long as the bar is stocked appropriately, you can essentially order any drink from any of the bars.  Chocolate martini's are pretty much a staple drink so you shouldn't have any issue on any of the ships.  it may not be on the menu at all bars but you can certainly still ask for them to make you one.

welcome @Angelicious     one of the biggest things i learned when we took our two boys on their first cruise (12 & 14) was to give them freedom but also at the beginning we kept it in short bursts if you will.   Our number one rule we set was if at any point they missed a check-in with us, then the rest of that day and the next, they would be attached to our hip.     The first couple days we required them to check in with us every couple hours which was a huge success.     We always let them know where we were going to be.  If our agenda changed, we updated them with a sticky note on our cabin mirror.   As the week progressed and they gained more of our trust, we began to make the check in times a bit longer in between.    They enjoyed the freedom and we weren't nearly as nervous.   The vast majority of the times, we were running into them by chance as they hung out with others their age which was nice.    Never had one incident at all,  kids made all their check-ins and even found that they wanted to spend more time with us than had originally planned.       Don't get me wrong,  we spent plenty of family time together on the trip but the boys definitely enjoyed their "alone" time from us.  This wasn't just a run-free and be good, see you in a week type scenario.  ?

Some of us are anxiously tracking the development of the Royal Caribbean app.  I thought it would be a good idea to track the features and updates in this spreadsheet.  With the spreadsheet in Google Sheets format, other like-minded ones can also contribute.  Updates can be found via the changelog when the app is updated.  However, app users may notice a capability that may not have been specifically announced for the ship they're sailing on.
Column A contains the features.
Cells B1-Z1 contain the ship names.
Feel free to add new features as they're announced.

People are jumping ship from Carnival to Royal because of the service level dropping, etc., etc..
I for one don't mind the pricing and don't plan on moving to another cruise line, I like Royal, the product they deliver, service levels and so on.
This is just my opinion.

That reminds me, I need to go to the windjammer!