joshvc

9 hours ago, twangster said:

Like everything Royal does, they use data analytics to understand how to maximize revenue and react to supply and demand changes in the market. 

I would go so far as to say I suspect most of the prices you see have never been set by a human. The humans set the base prices, and launch the sales, but everything else is almost certainly adjusted by the computer in real time. Nobody could hire the staff required to set the prices for every item on every cruise, it has to be automated.

So essentially, nobody is out to cheat you...but they are out to sell their stuff for the most money they can get while filling up all available space.  It's a remarkable system, especially when it's not your money on the line. 

Anyone else regularly get sale e-mails that don't actually show up in the cruise planner? I know sales vary by sailing, but I'm starting to think that the emails do not (I got one today, but there are no discounts in the planner).

1: Yes! this has been clarified by Royal recently. My only caveat is that we haven't done it yet- we're also sailing very soon and will have assorted sodas, waters, and wine within their limits with us.

2: Has to be in a carry-on, sort of. From what I've seen here, if it's in the checked bag, it'll get held by security. They don't search your stuff quite like TSA does, they'll make you come down and open your bag and show that it's permissible stuff. 

3: Not sure on this one, but probably? Might be a heavy bag, but I think it should be ok.

The blog post with confirmation: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/08/28/royal-caribbean-now-allowing-guests-bring-non-alcoholic-beverages-onboard

We did an Atlantis dolphin visit + waterpark day last year, and frankly weren't impressed with the water park. The rides were good, but there aren't really enough of them and the lines were looooong, even on a random weekday. I haven't been to Coco Cay since the Perfect Day opening, but I suspect it will be as good or better than Atlantis' waterpark. 

That said, the dolphin interaction was great and we'd do that again for sure, and the aquarium they have in the hotel there is pretty incredible.

9 minutes ago, twangster said:

I've often sailed into the sunset but tonight we were sailing into the milky way.

 

Incredible! Was it this visible with the naked eye? We have forward facing rooms on Harmony next month and I'm hoping we get some nights like that, but even with the forward lights dimmed, I'm expecting too much light pollution.

Yes, the governor announced late last night that he was resigning effective 8/2. Hopefully that means the end of disrupted itineraries, although they may be cautious around the late evening departures on or around that day.

I've only cruised once, and only to Nassau & Coco Cay, but they were checking photo IDs in Nassau at the port security check when we re-boarded, before you got into Royal's own area.

My take is that if I'm in a foreign country, I'm going to carry my passport. The only exception might be Coco Cay, where I'll probably just carry my license. 

This seems like most importantly, it's good for the people of the island, and secondarily, good for upcoming itineraries to San Juan:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/24/puerto-rico-gov-ricardo-rossello-expected-resign-today/1812315001/

Been looking forward to our stop there all summer, hopefully it will go smoothly now.

Our August Harmony sailing opened the shows 107 days before sail date.

We booked our August 2019 cruise on Harmony last October, and I check prices every time they have a sale. The Black Friday sale last fall beat them all, except the waterpark at Perfect Day, that went down about $4 each in March. The prices we locked in:

• Refreshment Package (non-alcoholic)- $17 per day + service fee. I haven't seen it below $20/day in the last 3 sales. I think the lowest I've seen for the Deluxe was $49, maybe 47, but we don't drink enough over a 7 day span to make it worthwhile for us. I'll get a handful of drinks along the way a la carte, and am hoping for a drink card. I digress....
• Coco Cay Thrill Waterpark All Day- $59. This is probably not a useful example because prices for the waterpark have varied wildly all year long.
• Voom Surf & Stream, 1 device (nobody else wanted it) - $11.99/day. Fairly common to see it at this price, but haven't seen it lower.
• $50 Arcade Credit - $40, which is the standard price. I've never seen it discounted below that.

I think these are going to be examples of rock bottom prices for an Oasis class ship, so if you see something at or below those prices for your cruise, grab them. You can always cancel and repurchase if the sales get better. 

There isn't one currently or anything announced officially. Right now, everything on the island is available to anyone (wallet size notwithstanding).

I imagine there's a fine line between adding perks for suite guests, and antagonizing the majority of people in non-suites.

4 hours ago, FroggyFlo said:

Thanks for the information!

It's my first cruise with RCI, so I don't understand what South Beach stands for in Coco Cay. What kind of beach is ti? What type of cruisers will this closure affect? What will be the side effects for cruisers (more crowds for sure, but where?)

The short answer is that it probably won't affect most people at all. This is a fairly small portion of the island, and while it could push a few more people into other parts of the beach, all the reports I've seen are that the beaches are much less populated, with crowds distributed to the big pool and the waterpark. The vast majority of the island remains wide open.

(the full map from Royal: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/pdf/perfect-day-at-cococay-wayfinding-map.pdf)

This happened to us a couple weeks ago, booked on Harmony for August, something like $1250pp in an ocean view. Balconies went on sale for $949pp. Emailed our travel agent who told us that those were "Going, going, gone" rates and strictly for new bookings. No workarounds were offered. Not a great feeling (so much for booking early!), but we're still happy with what we have so I've just quit checking on prices.

22 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

That is a "Do Not Pass It Up"! 

Gotta be honest, scratching my head at this one. Orlando is home to some really fantastic food, but Cheesecake Factory doesn't make the list for most people. I had no idea it was viewed as iconic to travelers from afar. It's good stuff, but generally ranks like a 6/10 compared to getting the same dish at a place that specializes in it.

With two full days in Orlando, the obvious suggestion is a theme park. Universal's Islands of Adventure is the place to go for roller coasters, but Disney World is the best of the best and you can't go wrong there. It will be offensively hot, but you knew that when you bought a ticket to Florida in June. The Space Center is also excellent, especially if you're staying on the coast overnight before embarkation. Disney Springs is home to shopping and a bunch of restaurants that I'd pick before Cheesecake Factory, if theme park days aren't on the agenda, or CityWalk at Universal, same thing. Orlando City soccer has a home game the night of the 27th, but compared to the UK, you may not find American soccer very compelling, especially after a day on a plane.

Other restaurants worth considering while you're in town: 4Rivers, several locations, some of the best barbeque in America. Roy's, chain of Hawaiian-Asian fusion restaurants that we miss very badly having moved away. California Grill, atop the Disney Contemporary, is a great meal- if you go late, can view Magic Kingdom fireworks. For very touristy attractions, Rainforest Cafe & T-Rex Cafe are pretty fun. Kobe hibachi on International Drive will be about half the price of Izumi on board. 

If you have other questions about bouncing around Orlando, there's a few people around with roots there who can help.

23 hours ago, Kwevans said:

 My question on Atlantis is, can we access the beach through the waterpark?  The Atlantis website says we can but the excursion details say nothing about beach access. 

Yes, the beach is adjacent to the waterpark. You'll get a wristband that gives you virtually unlimited access to the Atlantis property, and can go back & forth between the beach, waterpark, hotel/casino, and aquarium freely.

1 hour ago, Ramon Gonzalez said:

Did my check in on my laptop and didn't know that you get expedited arrival if you check in on your phone, we are a group of 8 everyone else got expedited , can we still board together? First time cruising. 

 

Has the rest of your group cruised before? We're taking our second and got Expedited check in, but my mother in law and kiddo are on their first, and didn't, despite using the same app. Not too worried about it, as check-in at PC was trivial last time anyway.

9 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

My guess - and it is noting more than that - is that RCCL simply pays a licensing fee for the opportunity of using the name and recipes.  I am almost certain that employees in any RCCL restaurant are employees of the cruise line.

I'm 99% sure this is true, based on what they show on Mega Food (netflix). It wasn't Jaime's, but the signature chef does appear on board, working on the menu and chatting with the staff, but the staff are very clearly entirely RCCL employees.

1 minute ago, Marc Van Niekerk said:

I had forgotten the juice at breakfast!  That is the fresh squeezed from the Windjammer, right?

We had it in the main dining room, I'm honestly not sure if Windjammer has it too, have to defer to other experts on that.

Specialty coffee is in line with starbucks prices on land (but the actual Starbucks kiosks on the ship are not included in the package), $4-6. I believe the virgin coctails run about $8 from other posts I've seen here somewhere. Water & Soda I'm less certain of, I think at least $2 for a bottle of water is a safe assumption for doing the math, soda is a little different since with the package you'll get a reusable cup for the fountain, but you do get access to cans or dispensed soda at bars too. I expect they'd charge for a cup of soda like a restaurant would, $3-4, but can't be certain. You also get access to the fresh squeezed juice at breakfast in the MDR, which I believe was listed at $4.50 on Enchantment last year.

For us, the math works out, because we'll down 2-3 of the coffee per day on vacation, juice at breakfast, and plenty of soda and mocktails along the way.

I'd be surprised if this impacts the ship versions, as they're mostly just licensened branding stocked with RC employees, not standalone restaurants that belong to Oliver's (now shuttered) chain. While I know the signature chefs keep an eye on the RC installations, I'm sure they're separate from their own businesses.

Yeah, our approach on our first cruise, and one we'll probably stick with, is that we're on foreign soil, so we should just have our passports. I also carry secondary ID, and if that's enough to get back on the ship, then all the better if the passport gets lost. 

I also went with a travel agent when we wanted connecting rooms, although I pulled up deck plans ahead of time so I could give him suggestions- "something like 9406/9404," and he took that and ran with it. I don't know how, but they just have access to better search tools, or just experience with the bad tools Royal offers, and can pull things together better than I was able to myself (and I'm one who loves booking my own arrangements too). Call MEI or fill out the form on the front page, they'll take good care of you.

I love water parks. We did the one at Atlantis last year, and with the advent of Perfect Day, I'm pretty certain we'll never go again. We found it very crowded, long lines, and not particularly well maintained (nothing unsafe, just a little worn down). The early reviews & videos out of Thrill Waterpark look like the slides are just as good or better than Aquaventure, and with much shorter lines. Aquaventure has a couple very unique slides (the shark tank one, a "water coaster"), but not really enough to be worth the trouble.

That being said, the aquarium area of Atlantis was really good, and free, but I wouldn't spend the hour+ round trip just to see it alone. We also did a Dolphin encounter that was excellent, we booked that through Resort For A Day. I would do that again, and just consider the water park a nice bonus for an hour, not a place to spend the rest of that day. The casino there pales in comparison to a mid-level Vegas casino, but I suspect that's not a priority with a kiddo coming along.

19 hours ago, Ray said:

You use your RC seapass card which to get off and back on ship

We had to show ID at Nassau security before we got to the ship. We had our passports, but would they have accepted copies or American driver licenses?