Traveler

I guess currently it mainly related  to the Spectrum Of the seas .

In Spectrum they published the golden and Silver cabin types , the interesting thing (and that is why I used cabin and suites type) in the golden you can see even rooms that are only balcony (golden balcony) or golden suites. Which mean you can choose to have the perks of suites while not require to be in a suites  , (or maybe just be in JS) ( F.Y.I @Lovetocruise2002  ) 

Its seems that beside the Golden dining room for the golden cabins they are also adding Silver dining room (and lounge) for the Silver cabin type (JS mainly), this one is still speculation as RC did not discussed it yet (And I can not see it in my cruise planner). As I committed to check such things, I booked an October cruise on Spectrum OTS so I can report back ).

Here you can see deck 16 that contains the golden cabins/ dining room and deck 14 which show the silver dining room and lounge 

Hi , 

Sorry for later answer , our cruise did not brought us to Hanoi so I can not answer on it. the dock port for Ho Chi Minh is around 1 hour from the city if it helps.

Make sure you have the name of the port also printed in the local language  just in case , also you can install the Grab application which is the most common taxi  ordering application in this rejoin 

On 2/12/2019 at 1:41 PM, SpeedNoodles said:

I'm thinking it does little good if RCCL staff can get into your safe to retrieve your passport, but the ship has already pulled away from the dock. But these are just things I muse about in the middle of the night when it's dead at work.

Maybe they roll your passport very tight, entering into a bottle and hope it will reach you after some time

I guess , they have some kind of procedures before pooling off , checking which customers did not board , fetch there passports and leave it with RCL agents in ports or with the port authorities. what is strange to me is that RC allowed to go to you safe without a permission , so maybe  the procedure is only for people that are calling before to say they are not going to make it . 

20 hours ago, Mondas42 said:

Similar question for any Brits who are on a Caribbean cruise, do you take your passports of ship with you? As we don’t have photo I.d. Do you use your driving licence if asked for id for times you don’t have your passport?

I am not from the US and I am using my driving license as identification in ports that require it. All they ask is some kind of government issue id , they are not saying which government    Anyway , if they accepting my driving license I am sure they will accept your UK DL as long as it has picture on it.  

Just now, twangster said:

Perhaps satellite costs are more expensive in that region.  

Could be , although when I was on Hong Kong cruise to Singapore I paid normal fee , many things are different in China based cruise   (they are charging for activities which are usually not charges in other cruises) 

I wonder , RCL can automatic open your safe if you are missing the ship ?  

Anyway  , on most ports I also leave my passport on board but I take a copy and also I take a picture of the section in the CC were it list the phone number of RCL representative on each port.  

The Voom price I guess is also driving by the capacity and the demand , for example , on my cruise from Japan to China they are selling Voom currently at 18$ for one device !

13 minutes ago, nda776 said:

Hey All, 

 My next cruise is this April 13 on Rhapsody. Just wondering how your experiences have been with Rhapsody of the Seas? Liked? Disliked? 

Well, its a ship well maintained, if you are not expecting a flow rider /zip line , Broadway show etc , you are on the right ship

Pros : 

Excellent service, nice solarium , lots of public spaces , wonderful chef table (it has separated room), well maintained, not too crowded 

Cons : 

mediocre food options during late night,  suitcase can not be pushed under the bad, missing some of the attractions and promenade. 

I was on the Rhapsody last year and return to it this year , I like the port option which the Rhapsody goes to  

21 hours ago, Sok said:

Hey guys. Looks like we missed out on the shore excursion to have a boat cruise on Halong Bay. Is it easy to do this on are own.

We only need a 4 hour cruise, is this possible and is it  Bai Chay Wharf the boats leave from and how far is it from where the boat docks.

 I know it's a lot of questions but this is one tour we really want to do.

Thanks

First of all , Vietnam is a very nice country to tour ,  second , which ship you are going to cruise ? We took this cruise in the past with Voyager , all the ports were docked ports and it was very fast to disembark from the ship. Two of the ports were quite far from the destinations and in one of the ports the taxis were not allowed into the port.

5 hours ago, Ogalthorpe Haywood said:

My wife and I both get the drink packages and give our kids the cups. I don’t care, RC nickel and dimes us for everything now. My kids really only drink soda at dinner so we fill them before and drop them back at our rooms before they go to the kids club. Everyone can judge away lol.

I Guess if this is/will become a common approach  RC will soon solve it by forcing Soda packages for everyone under 21 if all the other in the cabin have the Ultimate drinking package, just like they started a year ago to demand that if one person in a cabin is buying the ultimate drinking package  all  the rest above 21 must buy it. 

1 hour ago, ScooterScott22 said:

Love the grid and the information.  I do understand that it may still have some edits in the future I do have one question.  There is a line for “VIP theater seating” and a line further down for “ Theather seat waver”.  The thread helps clarify the first one but I was trying to understand the second one.  

I was guessing it had to do with reservations before boarding.  In my mind I was thinking it could be someone standing there waving you to your seats, an antebellum south style fan that they leave at your seat for use during the show or is it a person gently waving a palm frond over you while you are seated to keep you cool.   (Although silly that last one is possible since the grid shows that it applies only to the Star class.)

Thanks,

The reserve seat waver should be change to  show r reservation waver , which mean , the key people still need to reserve the show  while start class can get to any show without pre reservation. 

2 hours ago, DrRyan said:

Hi, I earned Prime Status for the first time this year.  I know that the membership year is April 1 - March 30, but I am curious about when they actually issue the annual cruise certificate.  Does anyone know if it becomes available prior to April 1 or do they issue it on April 1?

The certificate will be available only from April.

The Prime Benefits are available from the time you earned it

7 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

"They" need to fix this !  A benefit that you cannot use is no benefit at all.  Sorry you had to deal with this.  You should not have had to be the enforcer.

Usually while tendering RCL open more than one location to board the boats , they just need to better organize it with separate place for the key/suites.
I found it to be a bigger issue while the ship arrives to the port late or for short period and everyone tries to gout at the same time.   

16 hours ago, Bish said:

Has anyone got any suggestions about dealing with the time difference in Sydney?

Things that works for me :

1. Sleep well before the flight , do not try to be tired to better sleep in the flight , it will not change
2. Do not consume Alcohol During the flight.
3. When landing , try to walk as much as you can under the Sun , the Sun light trick the body to reset its clock.
4. Go to sleep around 10 PM at local time.
5. I take from time to time melatonin 0.3 mg , but this is something you should discuss with your doctor first (although its dose not require prescription) 

27 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

And I see you also removed Genny. @Lovetocruise2002 will be relieved!  

Noting wrong to have Genny in the room   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genny 

For Rhapsody August  it drop from 50 to 47.

Also they offer many discount on other items. 

I updated the table , adding the D/D++ (I have not included all the benefits of D and D++ as they are not relevant for the comparison) .

23 minutes ago, mworkman said:

I noticed that Quantum, Radiance and Vision class ships have Concierge Clubs and Oasis, Freedom and Voyager Class have Suite Lounges. How long will it be before the Concierge Clubs are changed over to Suite Lounges? Or do you think what is will stay that way?

@Traveler Do you plan on adding C&A status vs your current matrix..ie Diamond and up?

Regarding Concierge clubs , they already started to change it on the Vision , at least there was some people that were saying  that on Rhapsody they changed it few month ago.  they will need to do it as there  more and more people with diamond plus and by switching the concierge to suite launch the do not need to revoke any benefits from D+ .

Regarding adding C&A status , I will try but I will need to switch to another tool or to split it to two pages . 

I have updated the table per the comments , added also SKY class to separate it  from the other ships suites.

I still struggling to decide if to take it to our  Greece Island cruise as we have few tendering  ports, but not sure if it worse it on a Vision class ship.
For my Japan cruise from China I would really want to use it to skip some queues (and there will be queues there) and for the internet , but the key is not offer there yet (hope it will appear later) 

2 minutes ago, KLA said:

A follow up for the more experienced for the key - if I purchase they key for both my husband and I, we BOTH get our own VOOM code, correct? It's not one per stateroom?

Leaning towards it hard now because I realized I never do fun things on Oasis class or most ships (zipline, flowrider, etc) because I hate lines. 

I asked the same questions few days ago and the non official answer was yes, you are getting two devices , but might be good to check with RC as it is a major benefit of the program , opps , just saw @Lovetocruise2002 answer , which is the most official answer (for sure more reliable from any RC phone representative    . Also , I guess since the internet price per device is going down as you add more devices , the price compare is different  

Just now, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I'm pretty sure that breakfast is not a perk of The Key.

Correct , only the last day breakfast.

1 minute ago, KLA said:

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/12/04/review-royal-caribbeans-the-key-vip-guest-experience

It doesn't look like that's a perk - but the debarkation day breakfast is a lot better than I remembered seeing. I DREAD and avoid debarkation day Windjammer. 

Thanks, I have fixed it. I guess my memory starts to betray me  

2 minutes ago, KLA said:

The Key - special location for breakfast? Is this daily, and where on the ship might it be on an Oasis class ship?

My husband and I were just going back and forth on it last night since it's not a TON more once you wrap in the VOOM cost. 

Regarding the special location for breakfast , this is one of the items I am not sure , I think I read in the past in one of  @twangster Live blog , but it required to be verified , I can always correct the table.

I know its not first discussion about the Key and  I guess its not the last one . 
To help deciding  if the key program making  sense or not (at least for me) I created a table with all the benefits comparing  the key to the different suites .  I was not sure on one  or two items so please let me know if something need to be fixed here. hope its helpful.