Yo2slick

I've been to the dolphin swim in Cozumel at Chankanaab Park in Cozumel; it was fun to a point. You are with a group of people and your actual time with the dolphin is short. Enough for them to get pictures to try and sale to you later.  I think once you do a dolphin swim you pretty much have done them all as I am pretty sure I wouldn't ever do it again. It is up to want you want to do. Cozumel has a lot to do...my last trip, three weeks ago now, I went to Nachi Cocom and had a blast. A very nice beach with lots to do and I will go there again.
If this trip is with children the dolphin swim would be fun for one time then do something else. I haven't been to Grand Cayman for a while so I can'y comment on that. I will be back there in 2021.
 

This past April, we did the Turtle Farm and Stingray City .... had an awesome time, but as @monctonguy said, you run the risk because it is a tender port.... that's why we def. booked through RC -- this way, if we couldn't make it, the refund would be instant.

When you purchase the DBP, they'll add the 18% to the cost of the package to cover the gratuities.  So if you see the DBP advertised as $50/day, once you add it to your cart, it will really cost you $59/day.  But then you won't have to pay any tips as you get each drink.

If the tour operator doesn't care she comes with me on some, otherwise she stays on the ships and relaxes, probably sleeping most of the time if I know her.
Sometimes I have scheduled her basically a "day of beauty" in the spa, message, facial, nails etc..

Thank you all.  Looks like we are going to do the 7 night on the Liberty and the Balcony wasnt much more on the Liberty so we are going balcony as well.  
We have an open mindset going on this cruise.  Im sure there will be a shore excursion or two we will do but for the most part just going to take in the experience and see what happens.  I kind of like the idea of having my own private balcony to use whenever we want.  Guess we will see if we utilize it or not.

We are on Ovation August 23rd
 

It's true if you purchase your specialty dining BEFORE you cruise, through the cruise planner.  If you purchase your specialty dining onboard, you will pay an additional 18% grat.  It's one of the advantages of purchasing before boarding.

Got home yesterday from Oasis......scale this morning says I gained 10lbs!!!  

I agree with Matt, pre-paid is fine, if i feel it was exceptional I'll do $20-40.  

Think of The Key like first class seats on an airplane.  It's not that first class seats are a tremendous value necessarily.  Rather, it's a splurge and a way to treat yourself.

Thank you for the reply.  We decided to grab the key before it was sold out.  Being first time cruisers Im not sure if its worth it or not but it sounds like it has some nice perks so we will try it out.

We did $5 a day for our room steward.  So $30 for our 5 night cruise. 
We also tipped $5 to the guy who took our bags when we arrived at the port embarkation day  
We’ve had people tell us we were too  generous and others tell us we were too stingy.  Bottom line, we felt comfortable with that amount.  

A cash tip for the room attendant, folded, fits nice in the SeaPass slot just inside the door and it's the first thing he/she will notice. If warranted of course.

I believe the automatic gratuity is sufficient gratuity to begin with, so do not feel obligated that you have to tip beyond that automatically.
That being said, I tip extra depending on the situation.  If we were extra messy, or the attendant really seemed to go out of his/her way to keep things organized then I definitely tip extra.  
I know you're asking for a fair price, but it really depends on what you're comfortable with.  As I mentioned earlier, I see the auto gratuity RC charges as a good baseline, so I have tipped an extra $20 as a "thank you" for the excellent service.

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

It's definitely worth it if you all would buy internet anyway, and you take advantage of the show's and activities! I loved it, booked it again for my December Navigator cruise, and will miss it terribly on Ovation. Enjoy!

Nice!  Thats a great way to put it.   We are celebrating my wife's birthday and our 14th Anniversary on this cruise so splurging wont be a problem!

Yes
If you cancel before the cruise, it comes back to the original form of payment. If you cancel onboard the ship, it comes back as onboard credit.

Anything you purchase through the Cruise Planner can be canceled up to 3-4 ish days before the cruise.  You will get a refund back to your credit card or your OBC if that is what you used.  It may take a week to see the refund hit your card.

We booked last year at the beginning of August and got the BOGO 60% off.  I haven't seen anything cheaper on our room yet.

Thank you very much.  Im constantly looking at cruise planner and even pricing our room just to try to stay on top of everything but I think we got a pretty good deal on everything so far.

Hey everyone, 
My wife and I are going to Alaska in August 2019 on Ovation of the Seas for her birthday and our 14th Anniversary.  We have never been on a cruise before and after years of wanting to go I finally just called RCI and made a deposit on the cruise.  We have a large balcony on the 12th deck and thats as far as we have gotten. We are looking at excursions and dining options.  There is so much to do we obviously wont have the time or budget to do everything so we are weighing our options.  I guess we are just looking for suggestions on what excursions are a must and what dining options are worth it.  We really arent picky on food, never go to any real fancy restaurants but I would like to do something special for our anniversary.   Also, is it worth it to maybe stay on board when the ship is at port and just enjoy the ship?  Thanks everyone!