JasonL

Interesting topic, I enjoyed reading everyone's background and learning about yall I'm in the 1-2 cruise/year category because I live in Washington state and Airfare is my biggest enemy, but there are still strategies I have used to spend only what I want. When I was younger and didn't make as much I would book cruises out of the less desirable cruise ports and cheaper sailing season. The first couple cruises I went on, I probably spent less than $100 per 7 day cruise for 2 people(not including gratuities). I was just happy to be on vacation and would only drink the free ice tea and lemonade, walk or find cheap transport to a free beach on port days ect... We actually had just as great of a time cruising that way. I have a higher income now, but I also have 3 young children. Airfare is still our biggest enemy, if we lived in Florida we would easily be cruising twice as much. I only like to take off 2 weeks a year for vacation, but I am not going to go when everyone else on earth is going. We pull our kids out of school(even though the school hates it) usually in February when we are sick of the wet winter weather and the rates are cheaper. We spend more onboard these days, but we still avoid paying a lot on booze,food and extras. We also book 1 cruise a year as far out as possible and stalk changes in pricing like a obsessed maniac even though booking so far out is usually the best deal. I'm an Electrical Forman who builds schools and my work is feast or famine so I try and keep money in the budget for a last minute cruise as well for when I finish a project. Schools are build on a fast paced schedule and I am usually super stressed out trying to get the job done. I have to keep a reward trip in my mind to keep my sanity. Also this blog keeps my eye on the prize when work gets stressful. 92 days until Liberty ?? days until Alaska? 469 until Symphony Happy Cruising

i always book every night of the cruise ahead of time. I get an idea of the show times from a past cruise compass to help plan. If plans change or the past cruise compass is off we try and call first thing in the morning to change our time. The only night we had difficulty was formal night

it looks like staterooms with a connecting door have their own category now. The plus side is more connecting rooms will be available later in bookings because they won't be booked randomly now

Just wanna be clear about this offering... It sounds like for $35/person you make(or watch someone make) guacamole and then have lunch and a drink. Or is it saying you make guacamole then feel free to come back for lunch for an additional cost? Become a green, mean guacamole machine and observe the step-by-step process of preparing this renowned avocado-based staple just like we do at Sabor. Then enjoy an authentic lunch paired with a margarita or Mexican beer. MORE INFORMATION Watch the step-by-step preparation and secrets in making authentic Guacamole. You will also enjoy a sip of three Tequilas to gain knowledge of their history and how they can be infused into our signature Margaritas. At lunch time experience the fresh made Guacamole, Salsa's and a Chef selected lunch menu featuring Sabor's most popular dishes. Buen Provecho!

I am really disturbed by the upcharge on connecting staterooms on the new 2021 sailings. I think this is a new charge as I've never seen it before. On the Ovation sailing I'm looking at it is $850/per person more for a connecting INSIDE stateroom than a regular Inside room. Outrageous, shame on you Royal. Guess I'll just book 2 rooms next to each other, the joining door isn't worth $1700

You are given 3 or 4 options for each course

This is why I just booked a Thrill cabana for my Feb 2021 cruise(yes they are available for booking already, crazy right). I got it for $499 for up to 6 guests and includes waterpark tickets. Well I have a family of 5 and the park tickets are being sold for $79/person which would put us at $395. $104 to have a cabana for the day sounds like a great deal to me. If you wanna be exact with the deal, you get 6 free waters included too and we aren't drink package people. Can't remember what bottled water costs, but lets call that a bonus of $20 ?

It’s a 3 course meal, so I can’t see it going less than 1hour on a fast day. If you want a sit down lunch and relaxation it’s fine. My point was only that they should advertise it as a MDR lunch not Chops. I also know now my preference is to grab a quick bite and head to the fun on day 1

Not very many, maybe 50

we just went this this. we ended up going with mariner because we wanted to do a day at universal studios. Price was basically the same for us as we had to fly either way. Next time we'll try Navigator for a short cruise. My recommendation is to do both ?

Since the never ending question of whether or not the Key is worth it, I thought I'd add to the discussion with my review of the program. This was a weekday 4 night sailing that my beautiful wife and I did without kids. So just 2 of us and we got a good price of $19.99 per person/per night(total of $159.92). We were going to get a 2 device internet package already so this played a major role in trying out the program. If we weren't getting the Key we would have paid $23.99/night (total of $95.96) for the 2 device package, so that would have put us at the Key being an additional $63.96 Embarkation day - we got to the port at 10am so we got a private seating area to wait for the ship to be ready. We were 2nd group to board the ship after the Pinnacle and Suite section. Pretty nice to beat the big groups of everyone else. This ended up being a really relaxing start to vacation which is nice because embarkation day can tend to be kinda hectic. Once on the ship we stopped at the dining room for a Key luggage drop off, also super nice to counter the busy first day. After dropping off our extra luggage we sat down for a "Chops lunch by the MDR". This was a big disappointment as they set expectations too high calling it a Chops lunch. While the steak was good, it was not the same as a Chops steak. The biggest disappointment was from the much different atmosphere and lacking service. I don't blame the staff for the lacking service though, it's gotta be so tough to try and turn over the ship all in a few hours and also try to provide yet another service. Lunch was very slow and I feel like I wasted the early arrival waiting around for a lackluster lunch that went on for almost 2 hours. While this was much less hectic than the windjammer, it's advertised as something that it's not. I wish I'd of just grabbed windjammer food and jumped on the flowrider and took advantage of the small crowds. Key "Chops" lunch was a major dud. No tenders on this sailing, but if there was I bet this is where I would be raving about my favorite part of the Key. Special Key only activities: Rock climbing wall - Not necessary since the lines are never very much Ice skating - We didn't feel like iceskating so we didn't utilize this, but if you like ice skating this is a very nice perk. We have done the Open skate before and it's crazy! It's overcrowded and super hectic. Having this private skate time is the way to go! Water-slides - Love the waterslides and during our 1 hour key time we went over and and over and over until I couldn't handle the stairs anymore. A nice perk to avoid lines for sure. Skypad - I was very excited for this as I thought it looked very cool. Turns out you can always go with no lines because the Skypad is a complete fail by Royal. I only did it once and once again I wish I'd of just done another ride on the Flowrider. Sad to say the Skypad is a huge dud, it's not every worth doing once. You aren't missing anything Flowrider - Yes please, love love love the Flowrider! Only problem here is you only get 1 hour of Key only and it seems every Key member took this opportunity to try it out. The line ended up being just as long as the open ride times. Still, anytime I can go on more of this, sign me up. Special Seating at shows - This is especially awesome for the Ice Show. The Ice show is so A MAZ ING. We waited in line early for the first showing because even though we got private seating my wife wanted her first pick of front row seats. We loved the Ice show so much though that we went last minute to the second showing and sat in the Key/suite section. Nice seats, totally a great perk of the Key, but the show is so fun and interactive that I do recommend trying to go early and get front row seats at least once. If you don't know, the Ice show is super popular for good reason and you need to make it a priority on your cruise! We also used the Key/Suite seating for a couple of the headliner shows, center stage on balcony level. My wife prefers front row seating, but I was perfectly content with these seats as I won't get scowled at if I fall asleep. Still if you don't want to show up early for prime seating it's very nice to have the option. Only problem is other people used this seating as it isn't labeled very well and no one regulates it. Disembarkation day we got a private breakfast in the MDR. The wife and I both got NY steak and eggs. This steak was better than the lunch steak, as was the whole experience. This was by far the best breakfast we had all cruise. They also hold your luggage while you are eating, if you kept your luggage for a self assist disembarkation as we did. The Key does offer a special luggage checkout system, but we like to self assist if we don't have the kids. After breakfast we met up with a Key disembarkation staff that lead us to the front of the line to exit the ship. Pretty cool, but we definitely got some dirty looks from the other guests. Overall the Key was very much worth it for just the 2 of us. $63.96 was a steal for all the extra perks we got. $19.99/person is a steal of a deal though as we've seen it as high as $35/person. What's the highest I would go for the wife and I?? Well that depends on the ports and ship. Tender port on an Oasis I might go as high as $29.99, but a simpler ship I wouldn't go over $19.99. I'm not sure if we'll try it on our upcoming sailing with the 3 kids as this is a lot of extra money. I would probably have to find another $19.99 deal to keep the total cost down. I hope this review finds you well and my rambling didn't get too confusing. Nevertheless I am ready for another cruise, February can't come soon enough!

The wife and I usually love dressing up for dinner on our cruises, but I'm feeling really chill for this last minute 4 night cruise. Also on night 2 we are doing Izumi Hibachi, so I'm wondering if we can get away with dressing shorts and a hawaiian shirt and a summer dress. Is Hibachi less dressy? Should I suck it up and make space for slacks, a dress shirt and the space killer...dress shoes?

Sailing on Mariner in 7 days (9/9/19) Woohoo! Feel a little guilty going on vacation in a place where so many have been devastated, but hopefully my dollars help them rebuild. Anywho.... I'm guessing I might experience low passenger numbers considering the circumstances. Have any of yall been on a cruise very recently, what have the numbers been like. I think it could be cool with less people, but I also don't want it to feel like a ghost town. Thoughts?

I am testing out the key with my wife on our last minute cruise coming soon(mariner sept 9th). This is a splurge cruise to celebrate my big project at work being finished. I don't get much vacation time, so I am all about paying for whatever I can to make my time off super relaxing and convenient. For me cruising is a chance to do fun activities or lounging with as little effort as possible. Carrying around luggage or fighing the crowds on embarkment day for lunch, waiting in line for shows ect.... I can handle these things, but I don't wanna

nope, just wear the provided life vest

Last year I was able to do a 3 night out of seattle on Explorer. It stopped in Victoria which we almost didn't get off, been there done that. We didn't care though, we just wanted to get our weekend cruise fix without the kids. Be lazy and get quality time together. I totally get what @twangster is saying though, it's probably not a strong market.... I just want it anyways ?

I'm from Seattle and I feel your pain, I am Loyal to Royal but sometimes I think about trying carnival because they cruise from cali. Also I really wish Royal did a few weekend getaway cruises out of seattle a year. I told my wife I was going to book every weekend trip available out of Seattle when the new bookings came out. So when the new sailings came out and there were ZERO out of Seattle I was pretty bummed. There are a couple out of vancouver, but I might as well fly to California if I have to cross the border for a 3 or 4 night

So we convinced our best friends to cruise with us on our next sailing on Liberty Feb 9th,2020. We are both set up for My Time and it just came available to make reservations. Couple questions. 1. It only lets me book 5:45 or 7, nothing in between. Is that normal, if i want those time slots do i have to switch it onboard? 2. I added my friends to the reservation through the cruise planner, but i don't see their names on my email confirmation. Is that normal? How do I(or they) check to make sure they are on the reservation? Figured this part out, i clicked on the names but didn't click the Add guests afterwards. That did the trick Thanks in advance yall!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe those OBC's are only good on the non-refundable. If you do refundable it drastically cuts back on the OBC. I want to say the last one I did was an oceanview 7night over a year away and my OBC was $50

Blondie don't feel dumb asking questions, everyone here needed questions answered at some point. There will be "ship time" which may or may not match the time zone that you are in. When you get on board set your watch to the ship time(can find in on your tv) and pay attention to be on that time when you get off the ship because you don't want to get back to the ship late. Before getting off the ship I usually double check my watch or make note of the different time on my phone so I don't get into a sticky wicket

Thanks, I was trying to do that but couldn't royal website to load

I have Symphony of the Seas Feb 20th, 2021 - 7 night Yall should all join Me and my family especially if you have kids to play with mine.... better yet ... Group cruise As soon as I saw both private islands, st. thomas, san juan..... if I'm not mistaken this is pretty close to @Matt 's dream itinerary.

Have you thought about looking at flying out an extra day early? Maybe there will be better options and then it's much less risky if you are doing a layover. As long as the extra night hotel stay is cheaper than the $400 pp. Then you should have a full day to explore florida

I know everyone needs to purchase packages for the Deluxe Drink Package, but how about soda? Can I only purchase 1 soda package or does the same rules apply where a cabin of 4 would need to purchase 4 packages? Thanks yall

I have a family of 5 and we always do the Ultra spacious, but my family is young and the price always worked out cheaper for the ultra spacious. We love the room, but next time I book I will do 2 adjoining rooms since my kids are getting older and everyone is starting to need more privacy. I agree with everyone else though, especially if the price is the same. Do the 2 rooms