Evantra

Idk but I had a similar experience on my last two indy cruises end of 2022. I went in Aug and then in Dec.
Did not enjoy MDR or WJ for lunch.
WJ for dinner was solid, great variety too.
I ended up paying for specialty dining and had a better experience + food was fresher. (I am a foodie if that helps and I have been cruising on Royal for some almost 10 years)

This thread brought the laughs on a Tuesday morning!  
I've been on 8 or so RC cruises now (a rookie around these parts, I know), and I have never had one incident with another cruiser and drunkenness.  And most nights I am out "enjoying the ship" until after midnight.  
Now I have definitely had a few incidents with sober people on a cruise ship (elevator etiquette, line cutting at the windjammer, pool chair hogs), but those are topics for another thread!  

Yes.  Itineraries and ship porting tend to follow an annual cycle.  Rates will be different.  Ships will be re-deployed as newer ones enter the fleet.

I am surprised there isn't a dedicated forum to this here 👀 really considering a segment

The cruise line will keep everyone safe by avoiding the heart of the storm.  Itinerary changes and sometime cancellations can occur due to weather.  Indy from Port Canaveral offers short 3 and 4 night cruises so unlike longer cruises there are not enough days in a 3 night cruise to reach more distant destinations beyond the Bahamas.  If the Bahamas closes it could end with a cancellation.  If the situation ends up with a cruise cancellation then they will refund the cruise fare. 
Royal is at the mercy of the weather just like all of us are.  Royal is not responsible for the weather and they can't control the weather.  It is not reasonable to expect compensation when a cruise line has to make changes for something that is beyond their control.  If they can't visit one port on an itinerary sometimes port fees are refunded, sometimes they are not.  The single largest expense of operating a ship is fuel and a ship that ends up having a sea day when a port closes costs the cruise line substantially in fuel costs.  Each situation is unique so there is no single way it will be handled.  

If you don't go to a port, you will get back port taxes and fees as OBC. If you change ports then best you can hope for is another, cruise contract say itineraries can be changed without any compensation or little notice. Of course, any excursion will come back as refundable OBC. I wouldn't go in, during hurricane season, expecting OBC or anything for itinerary changes. 

I'm sailing on Celebrity Equinox departing Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday, the 17th and heading E to Key West, porting there on the 18th, tracking back NE with a day at sea, then a planned port call in Bimini, Island of Bahamas on Sunday the 19th. Fiona is far enough south through that time period that while it might be a bit rainy, nothing serious associated with Fiona is in the offing weather wise.
Fiona will be approaching PR from the ESE and moving WNW on Sunday the 18th, slowing down and extending its presence in that area through the 19th. Starting on the the 20th, we'll have a day at sea, while we cruise enroute to the NE and to Grand Truk to arrive on the 21st. Then we head a short distance in a southerly direction to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Not looking good! for that. Like, no way as the consensus tracks through day 5 are pretty firm. There is a high likelihood that part of our itinerary won't happen as we'd be cruising right into the path of Fiona as it tracks slowly W over Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) then (maybe) makes a right turn to head out into the Atlantic. Fiona isn't a Hurricane but rather a TS with a ton of rain and winds to 50-60+ kts. Right now, it is not very organized and isn't showing signs of strengthening. It is predicted to do that as it clears Hispaniola and turns to the N (fingers crossed) over open water late next week. 
I'm going to speculate that after Bimini, Equinox will make a dash to the west passing Havana Cuba to port and making a call in Cozumel.... and that all depends on berthing and the plans of 1/2 dozen or more cruise ships who will be altering E Caribbean itineraries to the western region due to Fiona's track. Lots of moving parts for all concerned to deal with. If Coz works out for Equinox what could happen next is a port call in the Caymans than east via a dash between S Cuba and Haiti then on to Grand Truk. After a day there, back to Port Everglades in FL. Sounds nice and like a decent plan if I were in charge. I'm not so ...... who knows.  
All very speculative at this point but we're not at all concerned as we've cruised numerous times in the Caribbean during Hurricane season and always had great trips even though we've experienced itinerary changes. It's up to the line to decide what sort of compensation you might receive - port fees and taxes come to mind but even then, the contract doesn't require the lines to offer anything. They usually do though. We just go with the flow.
For those traveling to Fort Lauderdale this weekend to start a cruise, it's been wet and stormy especially after 2pm with heavy downpours and lots of thunder and lightening. However, there is  plenty of sunshine early, breaks in the PM weather and sunshine between storm clouds. It is typically hot and humid though. It does dry out a bit on Sunday and into early next week.

Supposed to be this week! I am sure we will hear something before end of month

An Amped ship is a ship that Royal refitted to include more of the modern amenities. For example, Oasis of the Seas was Amped to include things like the Bionic Bar and Ultimate Abyss dry slide which debuted after the Oasis was originally launched.  Amping a ship allows it to feel newer without Royal having to build a whole new ship and it keeps people interested in sailing them. Plus, on a money-making side, Royal can justify charging more for these amped older ships because they have so much to make them "new".
Other things you might have seen floating around:
UDP = Unlimited Dining Package
DBP = Deluxe Beverage Package
GS = Grand Suite
OS = Owner's Suite
AS = Aquatheater Suite
....I know I'm forgetting some.....but most of these are just shorthand jargon to avoid typing a bunch and you don't really need to know them beyond these forums.

Matt is generally correct, of course, but as mentioned in this thread, waiting is worth it for certain cruises (i.e. the 4-night Indy's from SEP-NOV 2022).
If you're flexible and able to go on last minute cruises, just keep an eye on prices and especially the GGG sale.

Keep an eye on the Going, Going, Gone sale to get an idea of the timeframe when the prices drop for sailings.  This link gets updated weekly with the new flyer.  You will see none of the 3 nighters out of PC on that list.  There's high demand for those weekend cruises; they always seem to be more $$ than sailing out of Port Everglades or Port of Miami.
https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Multi_Dest/Special_Offers/rci_sales_event_USD.pdf

Basically, you're booking at the last minute and there's little availability left.
It's why booking in advance is so important with cruises.
It's very similar to airfare. Booking a cruise less than a month before it sails is like booking a flight a couple days before the trip. You usually run into higher prices.
Compounding the problem is you're looking at 3-night weekend cruises, which almost everyone can book since it goes Friday to Monday. This means even families with kids in school can make these cruises work.  
Top demand + last minute = crazy prices.

Do your homework so you know what price you should be paying for the room you want.

My first cruise and honestly the service was incredible, this was a few years back.
What I did learn is that the service excels on these smaller ships due to less overall capacity. After Enchantment I did independence which we loved but felt the difference in service, not bad by any means but there was minor, noticeable difference.
If its port intensive, would recommend. 
Also def felt the ship we were on deck 2 though haha

$77.99 for U Drinking P on Independence 🙃 hmm

This happened to us one time and we were upgraded from a 5 night on freedom to a 7 night on Harmony when it first launched 😃  (we got a call not an email)

Order exactly like your title.  "Lava Flow with Kraken Rum."

Its time Royal Caribbean steps up like Norwegian did yesterday, and is getting rid of the Vaccine mandate, Just like the CEO said we just have to move forward like the rest of the world and live with it.  

Moving to the honor system to cut down on paperwork?

With cruising being so competitive, I wonder if NCL's announcement about unvaccinated makes RC speed up their timeframe/announcement.

This happened to us one time and we were upgraded from a 5 night on freedom to a 7 night on Harmony when it first launched 😃  (we got a call not an email)

I have a question .. So I uploaded vaccine cards yesterday.. First cruise since the shut down.   Ealier this morning all said “approved “ on the  App...  So I was just looking on the app  and now the third section is totally gone .. Does not even show the “vaccination status” box.. Just shows Travel info , Arrival time and health status .  is this normal ?

Hey guys! Hope everyone is doing well! I wanted to go ahead and share my experience with the premium package, I notice it is a question brought up by many and before my most recent trip I also had a few concerns! I hope to clarify a few things for everyone. This is of course my opinion on the topic.
 
In my opinion the package is worth it....
 
1. if you don't plan on spending too much time with excursions
2. it is your second time cruising!
3. You have OBC
4. You enjoy drinking and can see yourself having a minimum of 5 spirits a day
5. Enjoy trying new drinks, beers, wines.
6. Short duration cruises (3-5 nights)
 
To be fair we had $125 in OBC, it was our second time, so me and the gf decided to put it towards our packages, since we didn't really plan on doing excursions this time around and last time we experienced Nassau, we did so off the beaten path and planned on doing the same which didn't take too much time of our day so we were back on the ship sooner than expected, our itinerary also helped, first two days at sea, nassau, and then Cococay.
 
I thought it would be great to experience our vacation without worrying of overspending on drinks and if we decided to get one of the other packages available and still spend on drinks we probably would've overspent and regretted not getting the package which included non-alcholic cocktails, frozen drinks and the souvenir cup, on top of beer, wine, and spirits, it just made sense to approach it this way!
 
I am usually up early so I enjoyed drinks for lunch, by the pool deck and anywhere we made a stop really, I also enjoy dancing so I took advantage at night during the club hours and pool deck parties. I suggest to get drinks before attending any of the entertainment (comedy, gameshows, broadway, etc) Its kind of annoying to be signing while the show is going on and disturbing others all together, they also usually take quite a while.
 
One thing to note, some drinks are premixed, therefore they taste as if there is no alcohol in them, if you mention this, they can either get you another drink or some bartenders were cool enough to add an extra shot, but company policy does not allow them to, if I am not mistaken. Its definitely something to keep in mind, I wish I knew which ones were premixed, I want to say the rum runner was definitely one, the blended ones usually aren't hence you see them making it in the moment.
 
Also the $50 fee covers the gratuity for the package! Hope this helps guys! any questions post them here, hope that was enough info! lol
 
 
 
 
 

My husband and I bought the drink package on Quantum for the 8 night cruise.  Loved it.  I tried drinks that I would not normally try.  If I didn't like it, I didn't drink it.
 
BOTTLED WATER:  Still bottled water is included but you can't drink it from the mini bar in your cabin or you will be charged.  You must get it from a bar.  They will only give you one water at a time.  So every time we went back to our cabin we stopped at a bar and got two waters - one for each package.  Each 16.9 oz bottle would have been $3 if not on the package.  That would have really added up - we drink a lot of water.
 
GRATUITY:  I had a different experience than described in the original post.  I purchased the packages on-line before the cruise and was charged a 15% service fee in addition to the advertised daily cost.  I assumed that was for the tips.
 
MAX DRINK PRICE:  We saw different information in various places about the maximum cost of a drink covered by the package.  Some literature said $10 and others said $12.  $12 was correct. 
 
BEST WINE ON QUANTUM:  The best dry red on the package is served at Vintages and Chic.  It is the Spellbound Petite Sirah.  I was disappointed that they ran out of it at Vintages on my cruise.
 

Very clear now, thank you very much Evantra