AlohaLivin

Hi you two, hope you are doing well! . I hope they bring them back, but the ones they did have for various cruising groups (I only have attended ones set up for CC roll calls in the past and have no idea if there were other such meet ups for other large cruise groups). Those meet and mingles have not come back on any ship since the restart (although RCCL does have various meet ups for limited groups such as vets, solo, lgbtq+, and others, those differ from the meet and mingles). I thought they were really good, and I hope they’ll bring them back, but for now the various roll calls on multiple sites (FB, CC, RCB) just try to set up their own meet and mingles to at least compensate to some degree (when there are enough participants in the roll calls to warrant one).

The best excursion that we ever had was one through https://www.thenativechoice.com in Costa Maya. At the time it was billed as a cultural experience (dinner with a Mayan family) plus the Chacchoben ruins, but that exact one no longer exists. A lot of their staff are current and former educators. It was just wonderful and I would highly recommend any tour that they offer. There is currently one called “Mayan Family + Seven Color Lagoon Tour” and also “Chacchoben Ruins Tour.” We also love Jaime’s Blue Reef in Costa Maya since we have now done a lot of the tours because we’ve been to Costa Maya so much. It is in a more rural part of Mexico, but not very far from the port. It is a small, all-inclusive with super friendly staff (shout out to Digby). But, you do need a reservation. http://www.jaimesbluereef.com (Royal Caribbean blog also recently posted its own review of Jaime’s). In Cozumel, we have done Mr. Sanchos many times and can *no longer* recommend it. The food and drinks are now more like fast food, it is too crowded, and the service is fair to poor. Nachi Cocom is highly rated and what we have reserved for an upcoming West Carib cruise. We prefer Mexico to many of the Caribbean islands, I think you’ll enjoy it!

One can only hope that by the time any of us get there those name tags have evolved beyond the “hotel check-in staff” styling! They earned it, they should definitely spend it. Their kids may well be making far more money than they ever did (unless they are in the top .00000001% of course). We love our kids and there will be plenty for them no doubt, but there is no goal for that other than to have comfortable and happy twilight years that we worked hard for over 50 years to have

It seems like there are very few people who look down on people who do, at least in this forum based on the responses.

They are definitely some people like that. The first cruise that we ever took on Royal after we had been cruising Norwegian we met a couple in the coastal kitchen day 1 of the cruise. We saw them a number of times after that and over that week the wife must have said “Diamond Plus” 10 million times (and we definitely knew every possible benefit that came with being a diamond plus before the week was done because she mentioned them all a few times).

Next tier for us would be pinnacle - hubby says he would never wear the pin, but then that is maybe 5 years off so all is hypothetical. There should be something creative to do with these though. Hubby just sticks his on the strap of his lariat (although it really is not noticeable). Anyone have any ideas?

I just checked again to be sure, but our app shows it correctly as being now Adventure out of Port Canaveral. With other app issues, people often find it useful to delete the Royal app and reinstall it. Hopefully that will fix the problem!

I would think you are correct for all or most states. It did not cost us anything extra, it was part of the license when we last renewed in GA.

We have stayed there before our Alaska cruise in 2018, a splurge indeed. But we also stayed in a 2 BR suite at the Landis afterwards for a week and it was amazing (and ideally located for that very walkable city!)

We most often stay at the Hilton Hampton Inn at Blue Lagoon since they are so friendly and there is a free airport shuttle (plus it is only 10pp for the shuttle to the port). Their Brickell property is also very nice (although pricier and further from the port). But for our post Thanksgiving B2B this year we have lost our minds and have booked an oceanview room at the InterContinental Miami (since we will fly in this time 2 days prior and wanted something a bit nicer for the longer stay).

The suites lounge on radiance doesn’t have a separate bar (as do the ships with a coastal kitchen). They usually have a small temp bar set up for happy hour beginning at 4:30 or 5 pm (but for a much briefer time you find on the larger ships where you can get a Coke, wine, or beer most all day). Often the suites guests have breakfast in Chops, but I have heard that some ships use the Italian restaurant instead. We like the MDR, but honestly it is nice having a smaller, quieter venue like Chops for a breakfast hide away

True - at least until it goes into the upcoming dry dock. The concierge in August stated that the concierge lounge (now basically a claustrophobic interior closet) would be moved to the same upper deck where the Diamond lounge and Dizzy’s are now located in the spot where Izumi is currently. It seems that all the concierge lounges will eventually be replaced by suite lounges (which is okay since the Diamond lounges usually are very similar in offerings at least for the basics).

Well yes of course they would, I think they are around $80 each. As would be the case with a cruise ship or hotel of any kind. But honestly I assumed that I was misunderstanding what the OP was sad about because I could not really imagine someone thinking they were free. Thus I asked for some clarification.

Sad? Sorry, I am confused, are you saying that it’s sad that you can’t take them home for free? I realize that I must be misunderstanding.

I have seen them on friend’s luggage, but we have not received any yet (but our status is quite new, so maybe soon!)