twangster

20 minutes ago, Matt said:

At first I never went to Coastal Kitchen because I thought it was too "stuffy". 

Then when I did try it, it was for lunch (meh) and breakfast (not bad, not awful but we prefer to just grab and go for breakfast).  Never tried dinner, which @Lovetocruise2002 raves about.

Lunch is my least favorite CK meal which was my very first CK experience upon boarding once back a few years ago.  Since then I have tended to avoid CK at lunch, the menu doesn't inspire me.

CK dinner though, very different experience.  

When in Sky class CK is my default breakfast venue, usually enjoyed with a Mimosa and my default dinner venue unless I visit specialty.   I do lunch elsewhere.

7 minutes ago, fonemanbob said:

And when is the propulsion issue going to be fixed?   And where and how long will that take?

There is a thread on that

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/12127-allure-propulsion-issues

6 hours ago, JohnK6404 said:

Wow! MSC is building a ton of new ships. Hong Kong based Dream Cruises has Breakaway class ships like NCL... very interesting.

With 2 more Oasis class ships coming in 2021 & 2023, looks like RC will have the 6 largest ships for a while. Looks like there are 6 200K+ ton ships on the horizon from MSC and Dream Cruises that will just beat out the upcoming Icon class ships.

MSC is poised to become a serious player in the cruise industry.  They have extensive knowledge with shipping.  Once they figure out how to adapt to North America it will be interesting.  

Some new ships are projected to carry more guests but in ships technically smaller than Oasis class.  No doubt they’ll claim to be largest based on passenger capacity.  

Interesting times.  Competition can be a good thing.  

7 hours ago, ChessE4 said:

In addition to the detailed analysis by @twangster , there was a "boycott" of St Thomas which was recently announced for various reasons.  Not sure if your itinerary was caught up in that, and I'm not saying it was, but there's been some press...  All this means it made sense to go to San Juan. 

I'm still trying to determine the validity of the St Thomas story.  Empress went to St Thomas today.  While it doesn't have the capacity of an Oasis class ship, it's still some traffic and revenue for the port.  In fact in the wake of the Cuba changes, St Thomas is picking up a number of ship visits from various cruise lines.  

It's possible the reporter that published that story was drawing conclusions to suit tbe narrative.   The story has since been taken down if I'm not mistaken.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cruise_ships

She is tied for number 40.  Voyager class ships are 30 through 38 with a few other ships in that mix.  

Carnival's Mega ship is the size of Royal's mid size ships.

Vista is roughy 58% the size of Oasis class.  Just over half.    

2 minutes ago, BunnyHutt said:

Very cool! We saw the Vista while in Costa Maya and Cozumel a couple of weeks ago - it’s a massive vessel, making that floating dry dock that much more impressive. 

One of Carnival's largest ships yet smaller than Voyager class :) 

By letter of policy, higher ranking member of the Crown and Anchor Society are welcome to join other guests with lower status in that group's boarding process.  In other words you go down to their level.  

In practice it depends.  Sometimes the terminal contractors will oblige, sometimes you would think you are trying to steal the crown jewels by asking.  The elderly aspect may work in your favor if they look the part or simply tailgate following along with your family.  Just understand the policy is no so if they don't let it happen, they are rightfully enforcing the rules.

Royal had indoor smoking lounges on some ships, the "Connoisseur's Club". They've been removing them and converting for other uses. 

I think they cited "changing attitudes in society" or something to that effect as a factor.

55 minutes ago, Shauna said:

Are the partitions between the balconies removable? We have a boardwalk balcony and apparently a 16 year old died trying to go from one balcony to the other recently. 

The young man who died was climbing around the outside of the ship and he fell to the pier.  Why the balcony dividers were not opened is unknown.  Maybe the family didn't know to ask, maybe they wanted privacy and didn't want them opened.  Maybe the other room was occupied by his aunt, uncle and cousins and neither set of parents wanted the dividers opened for privacy purposes.  Such a tragedy.  

The balcony dividers have a fixed section and a section that hinges back against the fixed section.  

In this photo the section of the divider with the red mark on it swings or hinges back while section of the divider with the green mark is fixed remaining in place.  

Here is a picture from a blog post of an ocean facing balcony with the dividers opened.

Source:

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/01/02/photo-tour-of-connecting-category-d7-balcony-staterooms-oasis-of-the-seas

20 minutes ago, ydoodle01 said:

Just an update but the wifi calling worked fine while on Anthem! Thanks to everyone who helped me out!!

Thanks for coming back and updating us with your experience!

Today you departed San Juan at 2pm on the way to Nassau for a 10:15am arrival (guest walking off the ship at 11am).

The roughly 60nm extra for St Thomas may seem trivial but that is 3 to 4 hours for a ship especially for a ship that can't run at full speed.  

For a 10:15am arrival into Nassau you would need to leave St Thomas 3 to 4 hours earlier then you left San Juan, departing at 10am to 11am.  That would have created a port stop in St Thomas something like 7am to 11am.  That's not a very nice day in St Thomas.  

As an alternative you could have left St Thomas at 2pm and arrive into Nassau at something 2pm (with guest walking off the ship at 2:45pm) but you are leaving at 6:30pm so another short ugly day in port.

While 60nm may seem like nothing, it is for a ship.  Lobbing 3 to 4 hours off a port visit is a big deal.  

Some users have reported WhatsApp on Android works like the iPhone hack, worth a shot, just get it working before you sail since it sends a text to authenticate during setup.  Do try the Royal app chat feature.  With so many different users on different phones just because someone else didn't get notifications doesn't mean you won't.  

For activities I wouldn't rely on the app yet, stick with the paper cruise compasses.  I often take a picture with my phone so I have the paper compass with me all the time.  

28 minutes ago, Hagar said:

My largest overall $aving$ has been the solo travel discount that kicked in as D+. DW wanted to know " why you keep dragging me along on these cruises." So playing into the "how can I miss you if you don't go away" line, this has worked out well for both us

I know it's wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea but 29 year anniversary right around the corner!

 

 

Congrats!

DP340 has been a game changer for me, especially for bucket list cruises like Panama, Hawaii, Norway, Med, Greece, etc.  

I didn't have any July or August cruises booked until Empress and Majesty opened up without single supplements in July and August so I picked up a few cruises on the old girls.  

59 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Empress has been cursed since she came back to the Fleet

Hey now, leave my favorite little sister alone. 

Overall I'm pretty pleased with Royal which is why I am here.  This is how to make it better:

1. Keep cruising affordable.  
2. Improve the website.
3. Add free texting across the fleet using wifi based chat applications such as iMessage, WhatsApp or FB Messenger.  More airlines offer this now for free.  Time to allow it on ships.  Stop trying to build chat into the Royal app and let people use what they use already.  Royal talks about making vacation stress free, communicating with loved ones on board and at home makes vacations stress free.
4. Migrate all ships to O3b Voom and leave the 1980 satellite technology where it belongs, in the past. 
5. Add technology to allow mirroring phones and tablets to cabin TVs
6. Eliminate the Diamond happy hour binge drinking nightly event by removing it from the Diamond Lounge.  This would solve the "How many Diamonds can you cram into a phone booth" effect in the lounge every night.  Keep 3 drink coupons but expand the hours of use and quality of choices.  Give Diamond members 30% off drink packages, move Diamond Plus to 40% off and Pinnacle to 50% off drink packages.  Even at those rates there is still profit to be had.  Currently many guests at these C&A levels don't buy drink packages or drinks at all, relying on the nightly happy hour for drinks.  These changes would increase DX revenue and reduce happy hour costs, a combined win-win.  
7. Deal with chair hogs by actually enforcing the rules and do so consistently across the fleet
8. Add USB outlets to all ships, add power outlets by the beds
9. Clarify dining package rules.  State exactly what is included, apply this consistently across the fleet
10. Make all rules consistent and apply them consistently across the fleet.  Be consistent with every thing across the fleet.
11. Make Sea and Sky suite class available on all ships with consistent benefits across the fleet.  Star class can remain exclusive to OA/QU.
12. Smoke free casinos across the fleet.  If Celebrity can do it, so can Royal.

Adding this as well - Royal just announced a new C&A Ambassador.  I'm anticipating that she has been tasked with containing costs for the C&A program and dealing with this. 

With new leadership now in place it's just a matter of time before we'll be hearing something.  

11 minutes ago, Poleman88 said:

Thank you very much twangster!

Being from Canada I'm not sure your cell phone will have coverage included at US ports but for me since my phone works right up until sail away on day one I often wait to buy Voom on board on the morning of day two.  The full voyage plans on board go down in price as each day passes since there is one less day left in the voyage.  Combine that with the $22.99 discount and it can cost less to buy Voom on board compared to in the cruise planner.  As a D+ I get two free days or a $45.98 discount off the on-board full voyage plans so I often use this tactic to save some $$$.

Assuming a cruise planner cost of $14.99 for Voom Surf and Stream for a Diamond member it looks like this:

For seven night cruisers or shorter the green cells indicate it's cheaper to buy Voom on board on day two.  On a four night cruise a Diamond member can save $20 USD by employing this tactic.  For longer cruises the cruise planner is the way to go.

PS - love The Rock, it's a great part of Canada.  

36 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I spoke to him the first night and the during the morning on Day 2.  The second night (formal night) he stood outside of the door and asked to see my card before entering.  That annoyed me slightly.

This is quite common on Quantum class and often other crew will guard the door in shifts.  I think they sometimes do it so that other cruisers walking past see them doing it and it discourages interlopers from attempting it.  It's a show or display that they are checking.  On Harmony and Symphony with the DL down on deck 4 this also occurs since again it's a common area for the general population to mill about and try to tailgate someone into the lounge.

I wouldn't take it personally.

30 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Just projecting my fears....but I will not be surprised when we hear that Diamond members are being restricted to 3 drinks per night - in or out of the Lounge.   I feel like that’s coming. Not sure if that will happen in the Concierge/Suites lounges or not since Suites guests are not given the 3 free drinks/night outside of the Lounge.  Maybe it will happen there, too, eventually.

If this does happen, it will not affect us greatly as Dan has recently given up drinking any alcohol and I have never had more than 1 or 2, at the most, of any Lounge beverage.  But if it does happen, I predict significant thrashing and gnashing.

Agree.  With Diamond, Diamond Plus and Pinnacle numbers ever increasing something has to break.  Twenty six ships all offering happy hour evening drinks 365 days a year  - that's gotta be a huge bar bill for them to swallow.  More ships coming, more guests reaching Diamond.  Change is coming, they are just trying to figure out how to roll it out with the least impact or backlash.  

Plus this blog post:

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2017/01/31/first-time-cruisers-guide-royal-caribbeans-oasis-of-the-seas

I'll be on in December soon after her Amplification when she comes back to America.  I'll probably be live blogging so keep an eye out in the live blog section of the message boards come December for a peak at the changes she has coming. 

In Concierge Lounges I have often had the Concierge ask for my cabin # early in the cruise.  He had a paper list of all cabins with eligible members and he would cross them out as people entered. He didn't ask to see cards nor were they swiped for a drink.  

The Diamond Lounge goes through a lot of bottles each evening, often several garbage bags full of wine and booze bottles.  I've yet to be swiped for a drink in any lounge, Diamond, Concierge or Suite.  You would think just the tally of bottles would suffice for inventory purposes.  Lounge drinks are often poured as doubles or triples, wine is often a very generous pour so how does swiping a card account for that for inventory purposes?

I've never been approached to change rooms and I can see why they don't want to open this door.  There would be an endless line of people asking them to ask another guest to move for one reason or another.  it would become a significant effort requiring a lot of labor.  

In some cases the cabins might be a different category such as 8D versus 4D even though they are connecting.  This is often the case when one cabin can hold additional passengers but the other can't.  Changing categories requires re-pricing at current rates.  That might end up costing quite a bit.  

Keep checking around the ship, maybe something will open up and you can move both cabins.  

Both Empress and Harmony had later arrivals and were suppose to spend the evening in port leaving well after dinner.   Empress was to be there until midnight.  I suspect that factored into the decision to divert.  Civil unrest, guests walking around late at night, potentially some danger there.

Allure has an early arrival and earlier departure.  All aboard is 1:30pm I think.  Many of the protests have been late afternoon or early evening.  Allure will be long gone by then.  

I've got so many Royal beverage cups at home that I've started leaving them on the ship still sealed.  I'm not a soda drinker, it's either an adult beverage or water for me.  

I've got the last three generation of cups in front of me right now, still sealed.  Time to clean house.  

Both are appealing but for me Bermuda would win.  It's longer and I've been to Nassau so many times.  

I've grown to like solo cruising and I'm completely over any fear of solo cruising.  You do have to pay for two since cruise fares are based on double occupancy but you get double C&A points.  This is called the single supplement.

A great benefit of solo cruising is the double C&A points.  Couples advance up the C&A ladder based on who has the higher status.  If you level up so will your husband.  

Sometimes they'll waive the single supplement like they did with some Empress and Majesty sailings in the wake of the Cuba changes. 

When you are solo in a small cabin it's very doable because it's just you so a cheap interior cabin for one can save some money.  

I found some very affordable junior suite rates on Empress and as a solo in a suite I'll get triple C&A points which I'm using to climb the C&A ladder even faster - 6 nights is 18 points, 8 nights is 24 points.  Think how long it would take to accumulate 24 points - for most people that would take three and a half 7 night cruises.  You can get there with one cruise.

I exercise caution visiting ports as a solo and I'm careful venturing around on my own.  A ship excursion is safe and it's a great way to meet other people plus you are only paying for one person.  Since I am paying for just one person I'll often do a more expensive excursion like a helicopter ride somewhere.  For two people that really adds up but for one person it's more affordable.