karl_nj

Yes, it's true that Royal almost always sells things in the cruise planner at a discount. Generally, the sales are not as 'time limited' as they make it seem. There is always another sale around the corner. As mentioned by others, if there is something you know you are going to buy, you should by it. Then you should check from time to time to see if the price went down, and you can cancel and buy again. Royal does the same thing when selling cruises... the sales get 'extended', and then they come out with a slightly different sale. Sometimes these differences can have an impact for 'corner cases' (solo passengers or putting a 3rd/4th passenger in a room, or sailing with a child age 12 or younger) but generally they all even out and there isn't that much change from day to day.

The offer applies to bookings made September 1, 2022 – September 6, 2022 and applies to select sailings departing September 7, 2022 – July 31, 2023. It's just too early for any sales to go into effect for you. Hopefully there will be some good sales available for your sailing in November.

For the 'free diamond drinks' on wonder in the med last week, I would tip discreetly. A couple of times it was *too* discreetly, as the bar waiter didn't notice and left before I could pass it over... lol I always tip discreetly though; it seems weird and wrong to be too showy about it.

Yeah, I don't think there are really any negatives about it. There is good air circulation, so it doesn't have a strong Chlorene smell, or anything like that. And I don't think it's any louder than the solarium on the other ships.

Rome. Ship arrived at 7am. Disembarkation started at 7:30am for guest taking their own luggage off the ship/suite guests. 8am was the first luggage tag group, 9am was the last luggage tag group, they called the 8am groups at around 7:50am.

Yeah, i see what you mean. I've done that too, and I agree it would be nice to be able to do that with all cabin categories. I only have 2 kids so it's less of an issue for me.

I just send an email to my travel agent if i want to book a cruise. She replies back with a price and a cabin number (or choice of cabins). If everything looks good I just reply and she puts down a deposit on my card. Works pretty well for me.

Another good reason to find a good travel agent!

I didn't spend a lot of time there (port intensive itinerary). It seemed very nice, but i'm also used to the enclosed solarium on Anthem (I sail on Anthem fairly frequently since I live in NJ). The one time I sat there for an extended period of time I felt a little warm and ended up going elsewhere, but this was the Med in August so I guess that isn't super surprising. But other times the temp seemed very pleasant in there.

You get 24h of surf (no stream) free. You can upgrade to 24h of surf & stream for like $7 or so. Or there is a discount if you buy the internet package onboard for the whole cruise.

Some random thoughts about my recent cruise on Wonder of the Seas (7 night Western Med) Most comfortable bed i’ve had on an royal carribean ship in a long time. Almost too soft for me, but way better then the rocks they have on Anthem This was my 4th cruise post “restart” — things are finally feeling “normal”, and I didn’t notice any staffing issues. Perhaps it’s because it’s a new ship and they are staffed with their best employees? It was night and day compared to my cruise on Anthem during Christmas. Staff was overwhelmed on that cruise Was fun to be an American on a ship that was so focused on passengers from Spain and the UK. MDR menu even had a rotating pie and a curry on the menu every night.

In Copenhagen I had to put my bags on a conveyer belt thing myself, while the staff watched me, so there was nobody to tip even if I wanted to.

Perhaps things have changed post-pandemic, but I was quite happy with the Kimpton Epic for a pre-cruise stay in 2019. Especially for the price I paid. It certainly seemed comparable to other Kimpton (or Intercontinental) properties that i've stayed at in other cities.

The Escape room on Oasis was very impressive; I think it's one of the best escape rooms i've never experienced, both on land and at sea.

You have to be 13 in order to have an RCL/Celebrity login. Was a bit annoying when I wanted to be able to use the RCL/Celebrity app onboard to use the chat function to communicate with my daughter last summer on Celebrity Edge, since she was 12 at the time.

I just took my first cruise as Diamond, on Wonder of the Seas. We sailed out of "Rome" (Civitavecchia), which turned out to be the "alternate" embarkation port. The "main" embarkation port was Barcelona. This caused a few issues: 1) The app did not work for people boarding in Rome, so you couldn't book entertainment yourself 2) Entertainment could only be booked for the first half of the cruise; the 2nd half couldn't be booked until Barcelona boarding day On our boarding day we were able to get booked for some shows in the first half of the week, and they wrote down our selections for the 2nd half of the week on a piece of paper. The staff told us they would put in our other requests on Barcelona boarding day. Turns out, they didn't. Luckily, we had been talking with the Diamond Lounge concierge earlier, and he recommended we check back with him to make sure we were booked into the adult comedy club slot we wanted. He was able to fix it for us, but it was a close call. I also had some issues with Diamond drinks not posting to my account correctly, and he was able to quickly resolve those too. So I would say that the perk I didn't think I would have any need for but turned out to be a huge help was the Diamond Lounge concierge. At least for this cruise where I wasn't able to use the app.

Isn’t a Canadian dollar only worth 0.78 USD?

Masks seem to be optional for crew on wonder in Europe right now. Most crew still wearing them. Mostly more senior staff are skipping them. My head waiter is maskless, but waiter and assistant waiter wearing a mask still.

I've seen it offered onboard sometimes, but in those cans with the nitro canister thing inside, not on tap.

Sailing on Anthem from Bayonne at Christmas last year, the pub seemed to have a "secret" menu of some leftover British beers from the summer sailings. I only figured it out towards the end of the trip, even though I had asked what beers were available. I guess they didn't think Americans would be interested.

It's been hit or miss with me, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. When they don't charge me, I bump up the extra end of cruise tip (since I'm usually on traditional dining, or if i'm on my time i request to keep the same wait staff every night anyway). I guess if I was using 'my time' as intended and changing waiters/times, I'd figure out how tip some extra cash that night.

Hopefully... but on the other hand, NCL dropped pre cruise testing out of Europe in July, but RCL still requires it.

I always pack a cork screw, but if one forgets your cabin steward can usually find you one of those too. Basically, since they would assume that you just took in a glass of wine from one of the bars you were at before dinner. Since you are allowed to walk around the ship with a drink.

Where do you plan to drink it? The hallway? Here is the guideline: Does Royal Caribbean charge a corkage fee? | Royal Caribbean Cruises In reality, I think it's unlikely that you would be charged a corkage fee anywhere other than a restaurant. However, it's pretty clear that the 'intent' of the rule is that you can either drink it in your room, for free, or if you drink it outside of your room, where Royal has staff selling drinks, royal only wants you drinking it if you paid the corkage fee. There are obviously ways to 'sneak' around this, just like there are ways to smuggle a liter of Vodka onboard.

I certainly wouldn't describe QM2 as having ship-within-a-ship from an architectural perspective. Perhaps having suite restaurant/suite lounge/small outdoor area for suite guests seemed unusual at the time. But, like I said, QM2 has remained that way, and the mainstream lines have at minimum matched that (RCL Oasis/Quantum class), and other lines (NCL/MSC) have surpassed that. I guess that is the difference, the mainstream lines have changed and added their own suite areas/programs. So what Cunard had, now seems minimal in comparison.