twangster

They'll get a Chops lunch on boarding day and exclusive hours at certain activities that you will not as Sky Class. You already get Voom with Sky Class so that's a huge part of The Key wasted. You can eat lunch in Coastal Kitchen. The only reason to buy The Key is to hang out with your friends at lunch on day one and to participate in exclusive hours at activities with them. For me that would not be worth it.

Varies by ship. On Empress they had two drop boxes. One for ship books being returned and one for donations. All books in the library had a large sticker "Property of Royal Caribbean" so it seems they accept donations and brand them so they become permanent ship library books. I haven't seen this approach on other ships but I haven't put a lot of research into the libraries across the fleet..

Can't do it, bot wiring and programming doesn't allow it.

Interesting story from the previous 8 night Eastern Caribbean Empress cruise. A guest on my Empress B2B last week had been on for a month and she told me this story. Empress has a 2pm departure from CocoCay in order to make San Juan a day after a sea day. On the last run of this route, several guests missed the ship in CocoCay. Apparently they didn't note the 2pm departure. In one case a couple were enjoying CocoCay. Oblivious to the ship's whistle the woman went to get something to eat while the man went to a bar for a drink. When he presented his Empress SeaPass card they informed he was about to miss the ship and whisked him away in a golf cart. Unsure where the woman had gone he got back on board, she missed the ship and it left (late now) towards San Juan. Once she figured out she missed the ship, they put her on Mariner and she was taken to Port Canaveral. She then had to make her own arrangements to get to San Juan which she did at her expense. The problem is San Juan had some civil unrest and Empress skipped San Juan as a result. So she missed the ship again. This time, since Royal cancelled the call on San Juan they paid for her hotel and airfare to Tortola. Tortola doesn't have an airport so she flew to a neighboring island and had to take a water taxi over to Tortola where she finally re-joined the cruise. From what was explained to me they stated the excursion they booked said it ended at 3pm so they thought they were good until 3pm. A total of five guests missed the ship at CocoCay. Unsure what happened to the rest other than being put on Mariner for the ride over to Port Canaveral. Lesson learned. Even at CocoCay, don't miss the ship! Side note - when Empress skipped San Juan they had already taken on the San Juan pilot when Miami decided they should skip San Juan. Because the pilot had already boarded they were on the hook for the ~$10k pilot fee. Hoping we don't skip San Juan but an overnight in Tortola does sound very tempting.

In the words as sung by Britney Spears... ? Oops, I Did it Again ? For those who are wondering what is he talking about? (or thinking I've enjoyed one too many happy hour drinks) I just finished 14 nights on this little beauty last week. You can read about that B2B experience here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/14213-empress-b2b-14-nights-on-the-biggest-little-ship-july-2019/ Those cruises were great but they were Western Caribbean and this 8 night cruise is Eastern Caribbean including a stop at Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. Royal hasn't visited the BVI very much in recent years so when I saw the BVI added to the itinerary in the wake of the Cuba cancellations I knew I had to do it. Icing on my cake comes courtesy of another visit to Perfect Day at CocoCay. Itinerary Miami Perfect Day at CocoCay Sea Day San Juan Tortola St Thomas Sea Day Sea Day Miami Our Perfect Day ends at 2pm so we can make it to San Juan for a 3pm arrival after a day at sea. We stay until midnight in San Juan so if all goes well I hope to get some evening and night pictures around San Juan. Sailing in a Junior Suite I have scored one of the most forward deck 9 JS cabins this time. I love this small ship and her big heart. It's a good thing I love this ship because this will be my fourth cruise on her. My Crown and Anchor points haven't been posted yet from my last cruise on her so with the "paint still wet", I'm heading back to the love of my life, or at least the love of my life right now. Because I'm flying I don't like taking just one cruise so with a night off the water in between, I'm doing a side-to-side over to Majesty right after this cruise. A few years ago I started dreaming about a tour of the small ships and this marks another step towards completing that goal. I think I set a record this time having packed my suitcase a full two days before the cruise. Basically I took my cruise clothes from the dryer and put them right back into my suitcase. " You see my problem is this I'm dreaming away Wishing that heroes, they truly exist I cry, watching the days Can't you see I'm a fool in so many ways But to lose all my senses That is just so typically me Oh baby, oh " Okay that doesn't make total sense but it's the only part of the lyrics that somewhat fit so I'm going with it.

MSC ships are registered in Panama with a few in Malta so they can operate in the EU (much like Royal's one token ship registered in Malta). The Italian business environment wasn't favorable so they moved to Geneva. The company is registered in Geneva just as your post indicates. They market themselves as Italian though which is where the company was originally founded before moving to Switzerland.

Like a lot of things with cruising... it never hurts to ask. Technically they are not required to do so. Just be prepared for an answer you don't want to hear.

No.

I'm more of a forward person. Some ships do shake in the aft depending on ship speed but more importantly when I'm forward I get to where we are going first.

I must have missed it, where is the live blog? Surely you've started it...

Buy it! Even if you are unsure you can always cancel later. I scored a zip line and thrill water park combp for ~$60 for an upcoming cruise. Then Perfect Day demand went through the roof and prices adjusted upward.

Tickets will be delivered to your cabin. They will list the time and meeting place. They are all you need.

It's not something commonly mentioned. I often see towels left behind, sometimes at a beach off the ship, sometimes curled up in a wet ball near a pool when most people have gone to sleep. I suppose these folks might think their towel was stolen or maybe they just forgot about it. Either way it's going to cost them ;)

Yes, by the pool or by the ocean, they are everywhere and free.

Inevitable I suppose. The cruise industry will adapt.

Absolutely, and cruise planner prices will be better than on board prices 99% of the time. If you don't watch it closely you might not get the best price you could have, but it will be cheaper than on board. If you didn't score the best price, that's your fault, not deceptive marketing.

The majority of guests boarding Mariner have never been on a cruise before. Perfect Day is proving to be immensely popular for good reason. Combine the two and I can understand why they are trying this. If the feedback is positive they'll likely continue, if not they likely won't. The idea of two stops is appealing. That's taking me two cruises, one last week and another next week. Let's examine this concept that the new Perfect Day is a money grab compared to the old CocoCay. Thrill water park is a small section of the island. Beyond the water park the same excursions are available that always have been at CocoCay, except... Remember the old Aqua Park? $37 for one hour. That's it in the distance. Yep, that's what you got for one hour and $37 back in 2017. Remember the old slides from 2017? $26 for a day pass. Not included in the Aqua Park. Now for roughly the same price of the old aqua park and old slide you get an entire water park with wave pool and multiple slides that are incredible. Thrill water park is $62 in most of my upcoming stops at CocoCay. To me that represents pretty great value compared to the CocoCay of yesterday. BTW - see all those loungers in the top picture? Notice anything missing? The $20 umbrellas! Here is a Perfect Day picture from last week. Now, umbrellas all over the place and they are free! If you just want a relaxing beach day without spending a dime that describes 90% of Perfect Day including a free fresh water pool and now Perfect Day is so much nicer than the old CocoCay. If you want a water park, the price today has so much more value compared to the old Aqua park and inflatable slide of yesterday's CocoCay at the same price. Plus no more tendering! Come and go from the ship as much as you want. What's not to love about Perfect Day?

How will two sound machines work right beside each other? Any chance you can get them to share one and agree on the sounds? A cruise ship cabin isn't that big...

I see things differently. Once on board there are always new cruisers who have never sailed before lined up at Shore Excursion paying the full and higher price. Look at the excursion books left in your cabin. The on board prices are always highest. The same can be said for Voom and other items like drink packages. Anything discounted from on board rates is a sale price. Not all cruise planner sales are equal and not all ships and sail dates will get the same discounting but anything that is lower than on board prices is a sale price, not a marketing game trying to deceive guests. 99% of the time when you purchase something in the Cruise Planner you are getting a better deal. Just ask the folks on their first cruise paying full price on board. Once you tell them about the Cruise Planner, they won't make that mistake again.

Nothing specific to RCBlog but you can bookmark any page using your browser. Depending on your browser you could create an RCBlog Folder and save all such favorites posts to that bookmark folder.

They do it enforce it because of the physics involved. A 300 lbs object can safely slide down, a 325 lbs object might go too fast and fly out in a curve. They cap it to 300 lbs to leave a safety margin. When the slide company first installs a slide, they run dummies down the slide to validate the engineering data that was used to design the slide. They run overweight dummies and underweight dummies. Then they adjust water flow rates and repeat the process. It's actually pretty important because an overweight person could be hurt very easily if they exceed the engineering specifications for a particular slide.

Every sale comes with the fine print "Not every ship or sail date". I've never seen a sale that applies across the board to every excursion or every cruise planner item. Like everything Royal does, they use data analytics to understand how to maximize revenue and react to supply and demand changes in the market. It's 200 days before the cruise and if no one has ever purchased a particular excursion on a particular cruise date they might drop it 30%. People like me see that and buy it. Now out of 20 seats available say 6 have been purchased. Sale ends the price goes back up but not to the full price it was originally, rather to 95% of the original full price. Many people are not thinking about excursions 200 days out so many people never see this sale. No it's 100 days out and the next sale they drop the price to 20% off the original price. As the cruise gets closer more people are looking. They never saw the 30% off, they just see 20% off so 8 more people buy it. Now 14 of 20 seats are sold. Price goes back up to 90% of original price. Fast forward two months and maybe one person bought it at full price oblivious to the previous sales. Now it's 75% sold out. More people are clicking on it so they know there is interest so with the next sale they drop the price 15%. Three more buy it and the guy who bought it at full price catches the price drop and re-prices. Now 18 of 20 seats are sold. A month later they drop the price another 10% and the final two seats get sold so now this one excursion is sold out. Play this scenario out on each individual excursion on each individual cruise date. Depending on sales trends each excursion runs down a different track. For the casual observer who only focuses on a couple excursions it seems random. Prices go up and down then a new sale isn't as good as a previous sale (because they have already sold some and only have a partial inventory left to sell now). For many businesses in the past they couldn't see the granular details of sales trends such as how some things might sell better at 90 days compared to 120 days. Maybe for a particular something, if it isn't purchased by day 60 it's less likely to be purchased at all. Armed with these analytics they know for that one something they had better get it sold before day 60. For a different something maybe sales are slow until day 75 then they take off. Being able to collect all this data and analyse it they can determine how to maximize revenue. Excursions priced under $100 will sell different than excursions between $100 and $200 that will sell differently for excursion priced over $300. Each has to be treated differently in the discounting process during a sale event. Today businesses don't have to rely on the old method of putting everything on sale just to generate cash flow. Today, smart businesses are armed with a lot of analytics to more intelligently create sales campaigns and maximize revenue while not leaving money on the table. With 25 cruises booked I have the ability to see things from a different perspective from someone with one or even a couple of cruise booked. With this many cruises booked I can see some items on one cruise go on sale but not items on a different cruise. A month later and one excursion for cruise #17 is cheaper but only one of four I have booked for that cruise. A month later and all three excursions for cruise #21 are cheaper. I keep a spreadsheet that tracks items I am interested in. I have the maximum price I have seen and the minimum price I have seen. Every week, sometimes multiple times a week I check prices. The White Island Volcano Experience was $324 but once offered for $243. Today it is $307.99. That's still cheaper than the maximum price and maybe next sale it will be $299. It might seem to someone that they increased the price to $308 so they could put it on sale at $299 but that isn't the case, they just never saw the $324 price so they don't know any better. Next time you are on an excursion look around. Someone paid more than you and someone might have paid less than you. That's just the way it goes.

Limited outlets in a typical cabin. If two sound machines are using them you won't have any outlets left to charge phones or cameras.

On board C&A benefits can change for any level but have been pretty stable over the past couple of years. Some D+ perks I like: 30% off drink packages on board. Typically the very best cruise planner sale might reach 30%, maybe. I don't have to worry about it now. If I feel like it I buy it on board, if I don't then I don't. Plus I can buy it on day 2 or 3 and reduce the cost further. BOGO specialty dining. Buy a specialty dinner, get one free. Must be used night one and two. Two free days of Voom Surf or $45 off any package. For a travelling couple each gets two free days so that's four days between you. For many that's enough to save buying Voom. For shorter cruises like a 3 or 4 night it's nearly free internet for the whole cruise. Some ships like Oasis class have a My Time kiosk for D+ and P. Skip any lines go straight to the D+ kiosk. Some ships offer priority seating in theaters or studio B. Behind the scenes tours including bridge or galley and sometimes both. Not the same as Full Access Tours sold in cruise compass but all the important stuff. Some terminals allow D+ into higher priority queues for check in, some group D and D+, but generally speaking some sort of terminal boarding priority one notch higher. Concierge Lounge access while there are still some left in the fleet. Radiance and Quantum class offer the biggest bang here. Sometimes Vision class as well.

Great question. Shakes like Johnny Rocket shakes or smoothies from the Vitality Spa? The results of JR shakes being included is inconclusive. Some have success, many don't. Typically requires buying a meal at JR but that isn't absolute either. Smoothies are typically included but that isn't written in stone and subject to vary from ship to ship or as ship management changes.