Yo2slick

I bring a certain amount of 1s, 5s, 10s and 20s.  We tipped 5 at breakfast, 10 at lunch and 20 at dinner service.  Kept some cash for emergency, shopping at port and then tipped our room attendant on the last morning.  Also carried some for shore excursions to tip ect...  I also used the 1s for tipping at the bar.  Works well for us. 

My wife and I purchased the Key on Liberty and we really enjoyed it.  We utilized every benefit of the Key and for us it was worth it.  Not having to wait in line at all was worth every penny by itself and then you throw the internet in with it....

I believe you have 48 hours from the time of booking to change sail dates ect....  Now if you booked at NextCruise on the ship then you have 60 days to make changes.  The penalty is 100 per person to change ship or sail date.  Thats with a Non Refundable Deposit.  When we moved ours they took 200 from 500 we put down on deposit and transferred the other 300 to the new sailing.

3 hours ago, whenismynextcruise said:

I am curious as to why the holds matter at all? I always put a card on my account (AMEX) and I have never even looked at the account during the cruise. We get the final statement at the end of the cruise. I review that and then look for the charge when I get home. I have never had a problem with the 2 of them reconciling. So I guess I dont understand what the holds even really mean.

They are essentially charging your card temporarily to make sure you can cover it.  That affects your available credit available and if it takes 2 weeks to fall off you are holding onto charges you have already paid for on your final bill.  No different than buying something and returning it to the store.  They take your money right there and it takes them 3-5 days to return your money back to your account.  Thats why I like using my AMEX because the holds fall off very quickly.

On our cruise last month I had daily holds for our purchases that fell off quickly.  On disembarkation day I had 2 holds still present and the final charge.  The holds fell off the next day no problem.  This was an American Express card and I went with AMEX after reading some people having issues with holds (probably Debit cards) but AMEX was quick to release these holds.  

3 hours ago, FManke said:

Yes, you can get multiple apps, sides and desserts, but only one entrée. Everything is great. I really enjoyed the lamb chops.

I assume you're talking about the specialty dining?  I ordered 2 or 3 entrees in the MDR with no problem but never tried it in Chops.

3 hours ago, mcoler18 said:

Just to add, we have done two RC cruises before and didnt know this, I only found out recently on here, you can order more than one starter or desert if you like in the MDR and speciality restaurants. We are on Adenture of the seas in October and am defiantley going to be ordering the Carpaccio and Black Pepper Bacon in chops

 

You can also have things from the MDR brought to Chops.  I order the French Onion soup and have it brought to Chops.  Saw another lady order multiple orders of escargot at chops, no problem.  

6 minutes ago, spiralqueen said:

Lol I initially misread that as you had plenty of lava flow in your kraken. 

After 3 or 4 of them it could have went either way!

2 minutes ago, spiralqueen said:

The gratuity charge is not added on to the dining package if you buy it ahead of time in the cruise planner. I just double checked my confirmation email to make sure I wasn't making that up. 

I stand corrected.  We bought our dining package on board but at a discounted rate.  Now that I think about it adding the 18% to ours on board makes it about the same price that I saw on the cruise planner.  Thank you for the correct info.  

I had plenty of Kraken in my lava flows last month.  

Its per person but keep in mind that anything you buy will have an 18% gratuity charge added to it.  So its really 116.82 per person.  

On 8/22/2019 at 3:14 PM, Louvanh said:

 

Think the key is the greatest scam RCL has come up with. Selling to customer things that actually cost them nothing. Free lunch. The kitchen is cooking anyways. WiFi costs them nothing. Early on yep zilch. Early off you guessed it nothing. Time specified for attractions once again it is a zero. Workers are already there. So if they sell 200 of these on a cruise at 38 bucks it is 7600 a day. 53,200 a week and 212,800 a month. Almost a quarter of a million extra from just one ship a month   Not all ships have need for key but if 15 do that is 3.2 million per month. 38 million a year. All pure profit selling free stuff. 

They sell a ton of stuff thats pure profit on the ship......I thought the Key was one of the best purchases we made.  I boarded right after suite guests and pinnacles, sat down to a quite Chops lunch, never had to stand in line for a show or try to find a seat, got to ride the flowrider for an hour while everyone else had to wait, priority at ports of call (again no waiting in line), internet included which we were going to buy anyway and on disembarkation I had a great breakfast and was then escorted off the ship in front of everyone waiting at the gangway straight to immigration and customs.  I didn't have to wait at all during my cruise and for that I would have paid even more!!!  Not to mention the look on my wifes face every time we went straight to the front of the line or to our reserved seats.   

We chose MTD on our last cruise and we just went with the flow.  Sometimes we ate lunch at windjammer, sometimes we just grabbed pizza.  We went a couple of times to the MDR early before the rush and then grabbed something later in the evening and a couple of times we went late.  Specialty dining I just went up and asked what time they had available for tonight and we took that time.  I went in trying to plan out our meals and in the end it was way easier to just take it a day at a time.  There is so much food on the ship that you will always find something to eat.  My advise is do MTD and just play it by ear.  Also, if you can hit up Chops Grille I highly recommend it.  We went twice back to back nights it was so so good.  One of the best steaks Ive ever had and the service was out of this world.   

16 minutes ago, Constantino said:

imessage on iphones does.  if you have an iphone, the recipient must also have an iphone or you'll be texting into the great blue yonder and they will not receive anything (and I dont believe you'll even know)

Android does not offer this functionality in its native messaging app. though as mentioned, there are various platform agnostic solutions to fill this role.

We are all android in this house.

On 9/11/2019 at 4:03 AM, L454S said:

Then how exactly is your message being sent? If over wifi, aren't you making a wifi transmission and reception? Why not just text and you don't need any app?

Wifi and wifi calling are different.  We enabled WiFi and just used the apps.  No danger of the phone coming out of airplane mode or any hidden charges.  I dont believe regular texting works over WiFi.

We left our phones in airplane mode and never enabled WiFi calling.  Instead we called through Snapchat and messaged through FB messenger.  

Just now, WAAAYTOOO said:

The only time I have ever gotten a response from Customer Relations regarding a post-cruise survey was last year when we went on our B2B Star Class cruises.  I had  a few issues and they did contact me.  Twice, as a matter of fact.  Do I feel like they have done anything to address my concerns ?  Nope.

I was just wondering, we had an issue with a lifeguard on our cruise and I mentioned it in the survey but didn't know if we would hear back or not.  

Does Royal actually pay attention to comments left on the survey after your cruise?  Has anyone gotten a response from a comment left on the survey?

Lava flow with Kraken, the Kraken colada, Long Pirate iced tea, Mudslide, chocolate martini, and you can request any brand alcohol you want.  Just tell the bartender which brand you want in your drink and its all covered.  I don't even drink at home but I broke even and got ahead some nights on the ship!

Liberty of the Seas  April 4, 2021

I prefer being in the aft myself.  We hung out in the forward section for a few hours with some friends this last cruise and must have hit some rougher seas.  By the time we left to go back to our room I felt drunk.  I even had a hard time walking at first.  I felt way better when I got back to the cabin which was all the way aft.  Ill take some vibration over that motion any day.

A couple of weeks ago on Liberty Quest was nuts!  If there are open minded people there that are willing to participate its even better.  Fun time for sure!

2 hours ago, Jill said:

I complain every time on the survey they send out after your cruise. 

Last year on Freedom we had a group of 8. None of us wanted to go to the casino because of the smoke. We wanted to, but couldn’t stand it. RCI lost 8 gamblers on that trip. 

Sitting outside the British pub on the Promenade, the smoke comes right up the stairs. 

I really hope they ban it. 

Imagine how many gamblers they will lose when they ban it though....I dont smoke myself but alot of people are drawn into the casino because thats one of the only places in the world you can smoke indoors anymore.  

Have a great cruise!!!

2 hours ago, MelKaps said:

Don't miss the muster drill.

Don't miss Quest.

Don't miss out on the cruise compass. Make sure to check what activities are being offered every day.

Quest is absolutely nuts!  Great time!