ptod

We went here.. and to the place across the street - wish I remembered the name - but they filled the pastries while you were there so they  were not soggy when we got them.  BUT.. the plan was to bring them to the ship - hmmm...... they didnt make it! ?  I ate the last ones in the Lyft on the way back to the ship.  So my add to this - buy more than you think you need if taking back to the ship!

A stroller can be tagged like luggage and given to a porter.  Might be a good idea to put it in a bag first.

If you pay the supplemental whether at the 200% or 150% level, you will get 2 points per night.

A stroller can be tagged like luggage and given to a porter.  Might be a good idea to put it in a bag first.

If you pay the supplemental whether at the 200% or 150% level, you will get 2 points per night.

The Key breakfast has a few extra items on a special menu such as steak and eggs.  All the normal breakfast items are also available to Key guests.
Non-Key guests are able to eat breakfast in the MDR on debark day, however, Key guests are usually grouped in a different section of the dining room.

Beware of taking pictures at the terminal!!!!   I was wondering why the security staff started greeting me by name before my card dinged me on/off ship.  My husband finally suggested that I look at my picture on their screen the next time - turns out he had given me bunny ears while having my picture taken at check-in and the check-in person let it go.  Security thought it was funny too.  ?  

Beware of taking pictures at the terminal!!!!   I was wondering why the security staff started greeting me by name before my card dinged me on/off ship.  My husband finally suggested that I look at my picture on their screen the next time - turns out he had given me bunny ears while having my picture taken at check-in and the check-in person let it go.  Security thought it was funny too.  ?  

We pick up at least 2 sea pass cards around the ship every cruise and drop them off at Guest Services.
We have even found multiple cards (not Royal cards) on different sidewalks in Alaska - gave one to a crew member we just happened to run into from the ship that matched the first lost/found card and actually walked up to other ship and handed the 2nd card to security before making our way back to our own ship.
I always wonder how freaked out people must feel when they realize they have lost their cards - especially in a port.

Beware of taking pictures at the terminal!!!!   I was wondering why the security staff started greeting me by name before my card dinged me on/off ship.  My husband finally suggested that I look at my picture on their screen the next time - turns out he had given me bunny ears while having my picture taken at check-in and the check-in person let it go.  Security thought it was funny too.  ?  

Beware of taking pictures at the terminal!!!!   I was wondering why the security staff started greeting me by name before my card dinged me on/off ship.  My husband finally suggested that I look at my picture on their screen the next time - turns out he had given me bunny ears while having my picture taken at check-in and the check-in person let it go.  Security thought it was funny too.  ?  

Beware of taking pictures at the terminal!!!!   I was wondering why the security staff started greeting me by name before my card dinged me on/off ship.  My husband finally suggested that I look at my picture on their screen the next time - turns out he had given me bunny ears while having my picture taken at check-in and the check-in person let it go.  Security thought it was funny too.  ?  

Beware of taking pictures at the terminal!!!!   I was wondering why the security staff started greeting me by name before my card dinged me on/off ship.  My husband finally suggested that I look at my picture on their screen the next time - turns out he had given me bunny ears while having my picture taken at check-in and the check-in person let it go.  Security thought it was funny too.  ?  

I just upload my pic with a smile on my face.
 

Pocket. . . And I've lost one on every cruise I've been on, even DCL with their free lanyards. I'm good!

Belt Loop Holder

Last cruise wow band but if that's not an option ... just put it in my pocket (even bathing suit) or backpack that we are bring to pool anyway (sunscreen, book, etc).
At one point I had 3 wow bands on when I went to get a round for everyone. LOL

@morgan94 - based on what you wrote, I would suggest you skip purchasing The Key for this trip.  imho, having The Key on the Adventure will not make a material difference in your experience as a first timer.  You have no frame of reference yet.  If you want access to the internet for 1 device or a meal at a specialty restaurant, buy those things a la carte - but don't talk yourself into buying The Key, just because various items/experiences are bundled.  Had you said you were absolutely buying a 2 device internet package, my answer would be to consider The Key (assuming only 2 people aged 6 or older in your cabin).  No one can tell you if The Key or any other purchase it worth it for you - price out what you can, then go with your gut.  In the end, your decision is neither right or wrong.  That is my short answer - keep reading for my very long answer.
Here are my thoughts on The Key.... 
It will move you closer to the front of the line when boarding, but that might only be a few minutes difference.  Timing your arrival to when boarding likely starts and you might not even have a chance to try out a chair at the terminal - check in and walk right to the ship.
Drop off for carryons - sure that is nice, but we would never give up the bag with all our paperwork/ids/electronics/meds/etc so we always carry 1 bag around till cabins open. The bags we drop with the porters do contain some things that others would never let out of their sight, but sometimes we like to live on the edge.
VIP seating is not always in the best locations.  Before cabins are open, go into the theaters and scope out where YOU think is a great seat.  This will also let you figure out the best deck to be on as you make your way to a show.  Remember, there could be 100+ other Key holders vying for those "VIP" seats - you are not be guaranteed a seat in that section.
Chops Lunch is stripped down from the restaurant's regular lunch menu.  Although you mentioned you aren't planning on doing specialty dining, look at purchasing just lunch at Chops on its own.  On one sailing, I found it for $17pp.  You can have lunch on your schedule with the full menu - it can be a small but very tasty splurge.
Special times for Key holders for certain activities might not work for you.  You won't know until you get to your cabin and read the Key letter when the special times are scheduled during the week.  Key times for an activity might be when you are in a port or as you are getting ready for dinner.  If you can take advantage of the Key times, you will likely have very little company.  I know of a few people who could make the IFly time for Key holders on the Anthem and flew several times during the session.
Internet codes are sometimes waiting in your cabin.  There might also be a crew member stationed near the boarding area who will have a master list of all the Key internet codes if you don't want to wait for cabins to open.
Debark breakfast and walk off ship - anyone can have breakfast in the MDR on the last morning.  There is a special Key breakfast menu that morning, but there are only a couple of things that you can't get on the regular MDR breakfast menu.  Walk off is whenever you want to leave and all Key tagged luggage is in a special section in the terminal.  Key holder also have a special line for customs - short line depending on how many others are in your Key group during walk off.
 
Full disclosure - We had The Key while on the Anthem this past April.  I got it for $19.99 pppd.  I bought it because I was curious about the program, had never been on a ship where you had to make reservations for shows (wondered how VIP seats worked) and didn't have a lot of money tied up in excursions at the ports.
Priority boarding isn't a big deal for us - ever - but had we been in our C&A section I think we might have waited 5 minutes longer to board (rounding up).  As stated above, we carried on only 1 bag of important stuff (no wine/soda this trip) so we didn't use the drop off perk.  We had a choice of Chops or Jamie's for the Key lunch - we picked Jamie's since we have had lunch at Chops on other ships.  Menu again was stripped down and while what we had was tasty, there were some things on the regular menu we would have liked to order.
This was the only time we had an internet package while on a cruise.  We can get by with finding free WiFi in port and family always knows how to reach us when we are on a ship.  Honestly, we like to disconnect while on vacation.  Phones become cameras and we post/email when on shore.  If we ever want internet access again, we now know sharing 1 login code will work for us.
We sat in the Key seats in 270 for the Cabaret show but I as soon as the show started I wished we sat somewhere else.  We have never chosen to sit close to the stage at any production show (or in theaters at home), but we chose the Key seats for We Will Rock You and I will say that the middle seats in Row 4 were in a word - AWESOME!  We did enjoy that!  However, we would have enjoyed that show from any of our usual seating preferences in the main theaters.
We didn't utilize the Key time for certain activities because...wait for it.....we were in port or getting ready for dinner.
When we were at Coco Cay, Key holders could wait in the Music Hall before we were cleared to get off the ship.  As a first timer on the Anthem who didn't know any better, we went there to wait.  The Key group had an escort and left the ship from a special door, but then we realized we had to walk back the entire length of the ship and the non-Key guests had been leaving the ship from the regular doors for a while.  No harm, but could have just waited to get off the ship like a regular guest.
Key breakfast on the last morning is a story unto itself - food was tasty.  Find me onboard at a bar and I will share.  Makes me laugh out loud every time I think about it.  The Key walk off worked but gave us another funny story to tell sometime.  Key tagged bags were waiting right next to customs and as I said before the lines for Key holders were quick.  IIRC, porters and Key people shared the same custom agent.  Some Key people with lots of luggage still got a porter to help with bags.  We normally get a porter to bypass the regular custom lines so having the Key didn't get us anything a non-Key cruiser couldn't get.
Hope this helped some.

@morgan94 - based on what you wrote, I would suggest you skip purchasing The Key for this trip.  imho, having The Key on the Adventure will not make a material difference in your experience as a first timer.  You have no frame of reference yet.  If you want access to the internet for 1 device or a meal at a specialty restaurant, buy those things a la carte - but don't talk yourself into buying The Key, just because various items/experiences are bundled.  Had you said you were absolutely buying a 2 device internet package, my answer would be to consider The Key (assuming only 2 people aged 6 or older in your cabin).  No one can tell you if The Key or any other purchase it worth it for you - price out what you can, then go with your gut.  In the end, your decision is neither right or wrong.  That is my short answer - keep reading for my very long answer.
Here are my thoughts on The Key.... 
It will move you closer to the front of the line when boarding, but that might only be a few minutes difference.  Timing your arrival to when boarding likely starts and you might not even have a chance to try out a chair at the terminal - check in and walk right to the ship.
Drop off for carryons - sure that is nice, but we would never give up the bag with all our paperwork/ids/electronics/meds/etc so we always carry 1 bag around till cabins open. The bags we drop with the porters do contain some things that others would never let out of their sight, but sometimes we like to live on the edge.
VIP seating is not always in the best locations.  Before cabins are open, go into the theaters and scope out where YOU think is a great seat.  This will also let you figure out the best deck to be on as you make your way to a show.  Remember, there could be 100+ other Key holders vying for those "VIP" seats - you are not be guaranteed a seat in that section.
Chops Lunch is stripped down from the restaurant's regular lunch menu.  Although you mentioned you aren't planning on doing specialty dining, look at purchasing just lunch at Chops on its own.  On one sailing, I found it for $17pp.  You can have lunch on your schedule with the full menu - it can be a small but very tasty splurge.
Special times for Key holders for certain activities might not work for you.  You won't know until you get to your cabin and read the Key letter when the special times are scheduled during the week.  Key times for an activity might be when you are in a port or as you are getting ready for dinner.  If you can take advantage of the Key times, you will likely have very little company.  I know of a few people who could make the IFly time for Key holders on the Anthem and flew several times during the session.
Internet codes are sometimes waiting in your cabin.  There might also be a crew member stationed near the boarding area who will have a master list of all the Key internet codes if you don't want to wait for cabins to open.
Debark breakfast and walk off ship - anyone can have breakfast in the MDR on the last morning.  There is a special Key breakfast menu that morning, but there are only a couple of things that you can't get on the regular MDR breakfast menu.  Walk off is whenever you want to leave and all Key tagged luggage is in a special section in the terminal.  Key holder also have a special line for customs - short line depending on how many others are in your Key group during walk off.
 
Full disclosure - We had The Key while on the Anthem this past April.  I got it for $19.99 pppd.  I bought it because I was curious about the program, had never been on a ship where you had to make reservations for shows (wondered how VIP seats worked) and didn't have a lot of money tied up in excursions at the ports.
Priority boarding isn't a big deal for us - ever - but had we been in our C&A section I think we might have waited 5 minutes longer to board (rounding up).  As stated above, we carried on only 1 bag of important stuff (no wine/soda this trip) so we didn't use the drop off perk.  We had a choice of Chops or Jamie's for the Key lunch - we picked Jamie's since we have had lunch at Chops on other ships.  Menu again was stripped down and while what we had was tasty, there were some things on the regular menu we would have liked to order.
This was the only time we had an internet package while on a cruise.  We can get by with finding free WiFi in port and family always knows how to reach us when we are on a ship.  Honestly, we like to disconnect while on vacation.  Phones become cameras and we post/email when on shore.  If we ever want internet access again, we now know sharing 1 login code will work for us.
We sat in the Key seats in 270 for the Cabaret show but I as soon as the show started I wished we sat somewhere else.  We have never chosen to sit close to the stage at any production show (or in theaters at home), but we chose the Key seats for We Will Rock You and I will say that the middle seats in Row 4 were in a word - AWESOME!  We did enjoy that!  However, we would have enjoyed that show from any of our usual seating preferences in the main theaters.
We didn't utilize the Key time for certain activities because...wait for it.....we were in port or getting ready for dinner.
When we were at Coco Cay, Key holders could wait in the Music Hall before we were cleared to get off the ship.  As a first timer on the Anthem who didn't know any better, we went there to wait.  The Key group had an escort and left the ship from a special door, but then we realized we had to walk back the entire length of the ship and the non-Key guests had been leaving the ship from the regular doors for a while.  No harm, but could have just waited to get off the ship like a regular guest.
Key breakfast on the last morning is a story unto itself - food was tasty.  Find me onboard at a bar and I will share.  Makes me laugh out loud every time I think about it.  The Key walk off worked but gave us another funny story to tell sometime.  Key tagged bags were waiting right next to customs and as I said before the lines for Key holders were quick.  IIRC, porters and Key people shared the same custom agent.  Some Key people with lots of luggage still got a porter to help with bags.  We normally get a porter to bypass the regular custom lines so having the Key didn't get us anything a non-Key cruiser couldn't get.
Hope this helped some.

@morgan94 - based on what you wrote, I would suggest you skip purchasing The Key for this trip.  imho, having The Key on the Adventure will not make a material difference in your experience as a first timer.  You have no frame of reference yet.  If you want access to the internet for 1 device or a meal at a specialty restaurant, buy those things a la carte - but don't talk yourself into buying The Key, just because various items/experiences are bundled.  Had you said you were absolutely buying a 2 device internet package, my answer would be to consider The Key (assuming only 2 people aged 6 or older in your cabin).  No one can tell you if The Key or any other purchase it worth it for you - price out what you can, then go with your gut.  In the end, your decision is neither right or wrong.  That is my short answer - keep reading for my very long answer.
Here are my thoughts on The Key.... 
It will move you closer to the front of the line when boarding, but that might only be a few minutes difference.  Timing your arrival to when boarding likely starts and you might not even have a chance to try out a chair at the terminal - check in and walk right to the ship.
Drop off for carryons - sure that is nice, but we would never give up the bag with all our paperwork/ids/electronics/meds/etc so we always carry 1 bag around till cabins open. The bags we drop with the porters do contain some things that others would never let out of their sight, but sometimes we like to live on the edge.
VIP seating is not always in the best locations.  Before cabins are open, go into the theaters and scope out where YOU think is a great seat.  This will also let you figure out the best deck to be on as you make your way to a show.  Remember, there could be 100+ other Key holders vying for those "VIP" seats - you are not be guaranteed a seat in that section.
Chops Lunch is stripped down from the restaurant's regular lunch menu.  Although you mentioned you aren't planning on doing specialty dining, look at purchasing just lunch at Chops on its own.  On one sailing, I found it for $17pp.  You can have lunch on your schedule with the full menu - it can be a small but very tasty splurge.
Special times for Key holders for certain activities might not work for you.  You won't know until you get to your cabin and read the Key letter when the special times are scheduled during the week.  Key times for an activity might be when you are in a port or as you are getting ready for dinner.  If you can take advantage of the Key times, you will likely have very little company.  I know of a few people who could make the IFly time for Key holders on the Anthem and flew several times during the session.
Internet codes are sometimes waiting in your cabin.  There might also be a crew member stationed near the boarding area who will have a master list of all the Key internet codes if you don't want to wait for cabins to open.
Debark breakfast and walk off ship - anyone can have breakfast in the MDR on the last morning.  There is a special Key breakfast menu that morning, but there are only a couple of things that you can't get on the regular MDR breakfast menu.  Walk off is whenever you want to leave and all Key tagged luggage is in a special section in the terminal.  Key holder also have a special line for customs - short line depending on how many others are in your Key group during walk off.
 
Full disclosure - We had The Key while on the Anthem this past April.  I got it for $19.99 pppd.  I bought it because I was curious about the program, had never been on a ship where you had to make reservations for shows (wondered how VIP seats worked) and didn't have a lot of money tied up in excursions at the ports.
Priority boarding isn't a big deal for us - ever - but had we been in our C&A section I think we might have waited 5 minutes longer to board (rounding up).  As stated above, we carried on only 1 bag of important stuff (no wine/soda this trip) so we didn't use the drop off perk.  We had a choice of Chops or Jamie's for the Key lunch - we picked Jamie's since we have had lunch at Chops on other ships.  Menu again was stripped down and while what we had was tasty, there were some things on the regular menu we would have liked to order.
This was the only time we had an internet package while on a cruise.  We can get by with finding free WiFi in port and family always knows how to reach us when we are on a ship.  Honestly, we like to disconnect while on vacation.  Phones become cameras and we post/email when on shore.  If we ever want internet access again, we now know sharing 1 login code will work for us.
We sat in the Key seats in 270 for the Cabaret show but I as soon as the show started I wished we sat somewhere else.  We have never chosen to sit close to the stage at any production show (or in theaters at home), but we chose the Key seats for We Will Rock You and I will say that the middle seats in Row 4 were in a word - AWESOME!  We did enjoy that!  However, we would have enjoyed that show from any of our usual seating preferences in the main theaters.
We didn't utilize the Key time for certain activities because...wait for it.....we were in port or getting ready for dinner.
When we were at Coco Cay, Key holders could wait in the Music Hall before we were cleared to get off the ship.  As a first timer on the Anthem who didn't know any better, we went there to wait.  The Key group had an escort and left the ship from a special door, but then we realized we had to walk back the entire length of the ship and the non-Key guests had been leaving the ship from the regular doors for a while.  No harm, but could have just waited to get off the ship like a regular guest.
Key breakfast on the last morning is a story unto itself - food was tasty.  Find me onboard at a bar and I will share.  Makes me laugh out loud every time I think about it.  The Key walk off worked but gave us another funny story to tell sometime.  Key tagged bags were waiting right next to customs and as I said before the lines for Key holders were quick.  IIRC, porters and Key people shared the same custom agent.  Some Key people with lots of luggage still got a porter to help with bags.  We normally get a porter to bypass the regular custom lines so having the Key didn't get us anything a non-Key cruiser couldn't get.
Hope this helped some.

@morgan94 - based on what you wrote, I would suggest you skip purchasing The Key for this trip.  imho, having The Key on the Adventure will not make a material difference in your experience as a first timer.  You have no frame of reference yet.  If you want access to the internet for 1 device or a meal at a specialty restaurant, buy those things a la carte - but don't talk yourself into buying The Key, just because various items/experiences are bundled.  Had you said you were absolutely buying a 2 device internet package, my answer would be to consider The Key (assuming only 2 people aged 6 or older in your cabin).  No one can tell you if The Key or any other purchase it worth it for you - price out what you can, then go with your gut.  In the end, your decision is neither right or wrong.  That is my short answer - keep reading for my very long answer.
Here are my thoughts on The Key.... 
It will move you closer to the front of the line when boarding, but that might only be a few minutes difference.  Timing your arrival to when boarding likely starts and you might not even have a chance to try out a chair at the terminal - check in and walk right to the ship.
Drop off for carryons - sure that is nice, but we would never give up the bag with all our paperwork/ids/electronics/meds/etc so we always carry 1 bag around till cabins open. The bags we drop with the porters do contain some things that others would never let out of their sight, but sometimes we like to live on the edge.
VIP seating is not always in the best locations.  Before cabins are open, go into the theaters and scope out where YOU think is a great seat.  This will also let you figure out the best deck to be on as you make your way to a show.  Remember, there could be 100+ other Key holders vying for those "VIP" seats - you are not be guaranteed a seat in that section.
Chops Lunch is stripped down from the restaurant's regular lunch menu.  Although you mentioned you aren't planning on doing specialty dining, look at purchasing just lunch at Chops on its own.  On one sailing, I found it for $17pp.  You can have lunch on your schedule with the full menu - it can be a small but very tasty splurge.
Special times for Key holders for certain activities might not work for you.  You won't know until you get to your cabin and read the Key letter when the special times are scheduled during the week.  Key times for an activity might be when you are in a port or as you are getting ready for dinner.  If you can take advantage of the Key times, you will likely have very little company.  I know of a few people who could make the IFly time for Key holders on the Anthem and flew several times during the session.
Internet codes are sometimes waiting in your cabin.  There might also be a crew member stationed near the boarding area who will have a master list of all the Key internet codes if you don't want to wait for cabins to open.
Debark breakfast and walk off ship - anyone can have breakfast in the MDR on the last morning.  There is a special Key breakfast menu that morning, but there are only a couple of things that you can't get on the regular MDR breakfast menu.  Walk off is whenever you want to leave and all Key tagged luggage is in a special section in the terminal.  Key holder also have a special line for customs - short line depending on how many others are in your Key group during walk off.
 
Full disclosure - We had The Key while on the Anthem this past April.  I got it for $19.99 pppd.  I bought it because I was curious about the program, had never been on a ship where you had to make reservations for shows (wondered how VIP seats worked) and didn't have a lot of money tied up in excursions at the ports.
Priority boarding isn't a big deal for us - ever - but had we been in our C&A section I think we might have waited 5 minutes longer to board (rounding up).  As stated above, we carried on only 1 bag of important stuff (no wine/soda this trip) so we didn't use the drop off perk.  We had a choice of Chops or Jamie's for the Key lunch - we picked Jamie's since we have had lunch at Chops on other ships.  Menu again was stripped down and while what we had was tasty, there were some things on the regular menu we would have liked to order.
This was the only time we had an internet package while on a cruise.  We can get by with finding free WiFi in port and family always knows how to reach us when we are on a ship.  Honestly, we like to disconnect while on vacation.  Phones become cameras and we post/email when on shore.  If we ever want internet access again, we now know sharing 1 login code will work for us.
We sat in the Key seats in 270 for the Cabaret show but I as soon as the show started I wished we sat somewhere else.  We have never chosen to sit close to the stage at any production show (or in theaters at home), but we chose the Key seats for We Will Rock You and I will say that the middle seats in Row 4 were in a word - AWESOME!  We did enjoy that!  However, we would have enjoyed that show from any of our usual seating preferences in the main theaters.
We didn't utilize the Key time for certain activities because...wait for it.....we were in port or getting ready for dinner.
When we were at Coco Cay, Key holders could wait in the Music Hall before we were cleared to get off the ship.  As a first timer on the Anthem who didn't know any better, we went there to wait.  The Key group had an escort and left the ship from a special door, but then we realized we had to walk back the entire length of the ship and the non-Key guests had been leaving the ship from the regular doors for a while.  No harm, but could have just waited to get off the ship like a regular guest.
Key breakfast on the last morning is a story unto itself - food was tasty.  Find me onboard at a bar and I will share.  Makes me laugh out loud every time I think about it.  The Key walk off worked but gave us another funny story to tell sometime.  Key tagged bags were waiting right next to customs and as I said before the lines for Key holders were quick.  IIRC, porters and Key people shared the same custom agent.  Some Key people with lots of luggage still got a porter to help with bags.  We normally get a porter to bypass the regular custom lines so having the Key didn't get us anything a non-Key cruiser couldn't get.
Hope this helped some.

We normally tip the recommended and usually not addition. The one exception was our main dining room staff last year on Symphony. My daughter really likes strawberries and every night for dinner she got the fruit as her appetizer. The fruit was a mix of melon, and 1 or 2 pieces of strawberries. We mentioned it to the staff after our first dinner and every night after, she received here own bowl of strawberries and after each formal night and on the last night of the cruise, they provided her with her own plate of chocolate covered strawberries to take back to the room each night. She was very excited and it really make her dinner experience a memory.

I have my fingers crossed for you.
If your bid is accepted, the genie should be able to take care of any refunds due if you can't get items canceled before the trip.

I'd be finding a way to drive to Puerto Rico

You should see the purchase on the cruise planner - check the order history on the top of the page.
Many people also print the email confirmations to take with them as well.