AshleyDillo

The train is something you are going to want to plan and book in advance for the Anchorage/Seward run as it may sell out. When we did it they actually had luggage drop off for the cruiseships where they took the bags and got them to the ship which was convenient. There are several trains at varying times and they collected all the cruise luggage throughout the day.

You can add after booking. http://www.choiceair.com to check prices yourself for an idea.

But the new November inaugural was to be 5 days is what he means I think.

Doesn't matter how you will end up paying, making the reservation effectively is just reserving your table and time. You will sort out who pays for what and how at the meal. Go to a specialty restaurant when you first board and make the reservation.

There's really no one-stop shop way to find a list of partial/full charters out there. The best thing you can do is try and Google your ship name and sail date and "charter" and see what may come up.

Getting any specialty restaurant for boarding day lunch is hit or miss. It's specific to the ship and the food/beverage manager on board. Some folks have had success while others are told they can only get food from a specialty restaurant when it is open for dining. We were denied on our first Star Class experience on Anthem and gently guided to dining at Coastal Kitchen for lunch, citing that the specialty restaurants don't open until 5pm. We didn't ask for anything for boarding day on Symphony and ate at Playmakers. The Genie will give you a way to contact them onboard and you can come up with things to ask with while you are on the cruise. You can set up a daily coffee/mimosa/bloody mary/breakfast delivery. You can see something specific on a restaurant menu and ask for it to be delivered to you. Outside of boarding day, with advance notice they can arrange special food requests for you. If you have kids, you can ask for them to set up having a pizza delivered to them if they are hanging out up on the pool deck. They will keep your room stocked with all the soda, juices, and beer you would like. They will reserve seats for you at the theater shows and meet you there. They will handle scheduling all your dining and shows. They will be available to escort you off the ship at port stops so you can skip the line. As for flowers, if you let the Genie know that you like to have fresh flowers in the room they may be able to make it happen. The difference between requesting them and having to pay for them could depend on the "ask". If you ask for flowers to be in the room, it may be a pay for them situation. If you tell the Genie that's something you enjoy, then that leaves the Genie more ability take the initiative do it at their discretion which they likely wouldn't charge for if that's something they are allowed. It's things like the latter case where the Genie can shine as opposed to simply serving as a Concierge/Butler. But you won't know if you don't ask, so it can't hurt to put any requests out there but also leave it open for the Genie to use their imagination to cultivate you a truly personalized experience. Let them know if you are celebrating anything special so they can take that and run with it. Don't compare your Star Class experience to others' experiences and go into it without any expectations other than a more personalized level of service than a typical suite experience. I've thought our Genies did an excellent job and provided us with a great experience, but then later reading other Star Class reports in comparison sometimes there's a sense that you missed out on something.

Agree with this. If I had to choose between the two tours, this is the one that I choose too.

Ding, ding, ding. I think we may have a winner!

It gets refunded as OBC in that case. Any unspent part of that will be refunded to your credit card that you put down to use for our onboard account for the cruise. You can not use OBC to make future cruise bookings.

Only been to Alaska once and I will chime in with the others that I found doing the Royal tour was great. I am very much a DIY person, but Alaska was such an unknown that it was nice to have someone else take care of everything (hotel, transportation, decision making). You still get to DIY it at the stops if you want or Royal has excursions you can choose to purchase from.

You can take any drink anywhere on the ship. You don't have to order anything to sit at the bars eithers.

Freedom is doing a June test cruise out of Miami right? They are scheduled to sail out of New Jersey this summer and not Miami? What if the plans are to cancel the NJ season for a Caribbean season on Freedom out of Miami. They are holding off on the July cancellations til they have all the new Freedom itineraries ready to go..so then they do a one-two punch with the good news..hey Freedom is sailing out of Miami but the other ships are canceled..but you can call us and switch to a new Freedom sailing and still cruise this summer!

Do they still have the Ben & Jerry's "sweets" on the Freedom class ships? https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2011/08/01/look-royal-caribbeans-ben-and-jerry-sweet

They are actually on Quantum and some Oasis class ships.

No, you still get a key card. WOW bands are included for everyone in a suite and you can purchase one for $5 if you want to use one.

No penalty to drop, but you can't get back a nonrefundable deposit. It goes towards the balance of the room. You can change the name on a booking as long as one original member is on the booking, no charge, up to a few days before sailing. Adding a guest depends on several factors. If you book a room with wt least 3 people, you will lock in the 3rd person rate which is the same cost it would be to add people in the future (could book the 3 of you without the GF for now, for example). But they do have capacity restrictions that could come into play if you are trying to add someone later and there's no more space in the muster station to accommodate.

Other folks have been reporting this across the board, not that specific cruise, but they are seeing their July cruises altered like this in the app. With Royal IT you never know what they are doing, so no way to tell if this is a sign or just Royal IT being Royal IT.

You have to call Royal to use the FCC as a deposit. Might as well let MEI handle it from the get go!

The Oasis-class ships give you a lot of variety and flexibility with the dining plan but if you've never sailed on one before, there are plenty of included options as well that you might not even feel like you are missing out if you don't get the dining plan. I know I've seen it on sale as low as $179 for the week for those ships. You may be better off looking at what specialty restaurants on Allure that interest you and decide if you may be better off buying a 3-night dining package or going ala carte for those that interest you.

Drink package yes. Dining package really depends on what ship.

Ovation does not have an onboard Starbucks. They do have La Patisserie which serves Starbucks coffee for an extra charge.

Agree. All the conflicting information out there makes it very confusing. I can only find on the website that the vaccine requirements pertain to the sailings from Seattle and The Bahamas currently. There is another blurb about other international ports, but nothing to indicate that sailings out of the US ports will have the same requirement.

Royal has tried to stay out of the mandatory vaccination debate for as long as they can and they are still going to try and stay out of it with the test cruises. I don't see Royal doing mandatory vaccinations across the fleet unless their hands are tied. It's my understanding that they had to with the Bahamas sailings to appease the Bahamian government. And maybe with Alaska it's the only way they feel they will have enough time to save their season, plus the age demographic on Alaska sailings is likely to naturally fall closer to that 95% vaccination threshold.

Well I guess @Matt won't be able to participate in testing on Freedom even if he got invited to!

The health visa is required for entry into the Bahamas and for these particular cruises are starting in Nassau so the health visa is required same as if visiting for a land vacation. It remains to be seen if the Bahamas will require them for cruise stops when cruising starts up out of the US.