Hoppy2cruise

(My opinion only since many 70+ year olds are healthier than much younger people) 
In a perfect world, all passengers and crew would need written consent from their physician.  We, however, do not live in a perfect world.

(My opinion only since many 70+ year olds are healthier than much younger people) 
In a perfect world, all passengers and crew would need written consent from their physician.  We, however, do not live in a perfect world.

(My opinion only since many 70+ year olds are healthier than much younger people) 
In a perfect world, all passengers and crew would need written consent from their physician.  We, however, do not live in a perfect world.

Made Diamond January '08, Diamond Plus January '13, and Pinnacle November '19.  
 
As a solo cruiser since 2011, the reduced supplement at 340 points was HUGE.  
 
There is an additional welcome gift at 175, another at 340, and another at 525.  700 adds a few bottles of wine/champagne.  These are a variety of things you can choose from.
 
D+ gets 30% off the deluxe beverage package (sometimes offered to all in Cruiseplanner), and Pinnacle gets 40%.  Pinnacle also adds free Voom surf & stream.
Bottom line for me is that if I wasn't happy sailing Royal, no C&A perk would make up for it.  

I cruise because it is the best way to vacation. I've done backpacking, tour groups, budget and luxury traveling. The C&A program is nothing but a bonus: like my membership with AccorHotels, my Chase sapphire reserve(CSR) or any airline loyalty program. I was already going to do this; so them giving me free drinks, happy hour snacks, and other stuff is icing. I did my first sailing with RCC in January 2019. I did a couple of river cruises, tried NCL and Regent and will do my first Carnival in April. I decided that I liked everything about RCC better, Regent is nice but it really skewers older. I have three RCC cruises scheduled for this year: Enchantment-Oct 16th, Liberty-Oct 25th, and Navigator Nov 2nd. The middle is with family and the others are solo. I have 2 more scheduled, so far, for 2021: Mariner-Jan 25Th and Allure Oct 31st. I know that I will schedule at least one more cruise in 2021.
I mean, I hope to reach diamond by 2022. I personally don't care to get higher than that, but if I don't its not the end all be all. I will also be staying in suites in more than half of my sailings. I am paying for that privilege. I don't understand getting upset about the fact that RCC is catering to guest who are paying for something that is a PERK of your loyalty. I get Priority Pass with my CSR, if business or first class fill up the lounge before I can use it I don't get upset because they brought a business or first class ticket. Nothing that is a perk is a guarantee in my mind, everything is subjected to availability.

When I used to fly a lot frequent flyer programs were a thing that I paid attention to.  Top frequent fliers often get free upgrades to first class.  Two years straight I received complimentary first class upgrades 99% of the time.  The only time I didn't was when missing a connection due to flights delays.
It was interesting to hear complaints and claims of upgrade shenanigans from folks who weren't at the top level.  Claims of upgrades being given to employees or military or someone in a lesser level were commonplace.  
The wisdom I'll never forget was "Upgrades are not an entitlement.  Book a seat in the cabin your want to fly in".
If a stranger was given an upgraded cabin on a sailing 99% of guests would never know.  How Royal chooses to hand out upgrades before sailing is a mystery because it rarely happens.  
A loyalty ambassador in days of old sometimes had unused inventory at their disposal.  They might offer upgrades on board.  Loyalty ambassadors have no input to a pre-cruise upgrade.  Now with cruises selling out and with RoyalUp the loyalty ambassadors don't have upgrades to hand out very often.  
It's entirely possible someone wanted that cabin for a specific reason.  They may have asked and been denied by Royal, unless they were willing to pay to upgrade those guests to a suite.  
We'll never know the mechanics of why that cabin was chosen to be upgraded.  You were not owed an upgrade, Royal was not disloyal.  You can choose to dwell on this and let it impact your cruise or you can shrug it off and let it go.  
With thirty two cruises under my belt at the D+ level I'm not going to waste a moment to fret that at some point someone else got an upgrade.  In all those D+ cruises I was never upgraded.  I cruised in the cabin I booked and I enjoyed all thirty two cruises.

To answer your question I haven’t encountered any disloyalty from Royal Caribbean.  
As a D+ I’ve encountered many times the concierge lounge becoming over subscribed and the need for them to accommodate D+ in an expanded Diamond area.  That’s always worked very well.  The result is no loss of benefits.  
As far as upgrades go, those are not promised to anyone.  No D+ should ever get upset over a missed upgrade.  If they did give out upgrades by CAS status a Pinnacle would have received the upgrade so either way you lost out on nothing.
Instead be happy for your friends.  

I booked spring break 2022. Prices are better than I expected for that week!

Cabins for two are plentiful and the most common type of cabin on the ship .  Cabins for three are more scarce.  They sell out faster because there are fewer of them.  
As any cabin type begins to sell the system increases the rate on cabins that are crossing thresholds and selling out.  
You often see this effect on Quantum class ships.  They are mostly balcony cabins with lower numbers of interior and ocean view cabins.  As people book the cheaper interiors they begin to reach a point where they approach being all booked.  Revenue management software automatically adjusts rates based on supply and demand principles.  When 90% of interior cabins are booked (demand is high) it's quite common to see rates increase to the point they are equal to or more than ocean view and sometimes even balcony rates.  Crazy right?  An interior cabin is more than a balcony?  Who would book such a cabin?  The interiors weren't always that price, many people booked them before the interior rates went up.
Like airline seats demand dictates the price.  People often think the rate they see today is the "standard" price of a cabin.  It isn't.  Prices change based on supply and demand principles.  There is no "standard" price for a cruise.  It's fluid.

This is actually an excellent question.  I'm not sure I've ever seen or heard of anyone in this situation to provide you with an answer.  
I know in a regular situation you can add people up to a couple of days prior to sailing but if you haven't already established a 3rd person price then sometimes they end up repricing the whole room when you try to add the 3rd (and beyond).  But if you're originally booked with 3 people then anyone after 3 gets locked into that 3rd person price until sail date.
I would hope that if you already had 3 people and successfully RoyalUp'd in enough time to add people prior to sailing that you could at the prevailing 3rd person price.  
You also have to remember that the muster stations have a capacity and if there isn't room for more people you won't be allowed to add anyone, so that may come into play with a last minute add.

No reduced price for WiFi simply for being in a suite on Voyager Class.  Check the Cruise Planner frequently for sales.  I order the 2 device Surf & Stream plan if I find it for $18.99 or less per day and only click on one name when ordering.  This way, my husband and I can each be logged onto one device each at the same time.  That tends to be cheaper than each buying our own one device package. 

This often occurs when there is one cabin left.  All it takes is one person clicking on it just to see where it is and then it's temporarily taken out of inventory available on the website to prevent multiple people from booking it. Once that person stops going through the booking process it can take a few minutes for it to reappear.  
Often when you get that "No staterooms in this category" error it means there is actually one available unless someone beats you to it.  

Per the website: Names may be changed up to 24 hours prior to sailing provided one of the original names remains on the reservations.
 https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/electronic-cruise-documents

Per the website: Names may be changed up to 24 hours prior to sailing provided one of the original names remains on the reservations.
 https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/electronic-cruise-documents

IMO, El Loco Fresh is tastier than Sabor. 

I've sailed a number of times now since The Key program has been available.  Only once have I purchased it when I did the review on the initial Key cruise on Oasis in November.  
I've cruised six times without buying The Key as a D+ with the Key available for purchase.
I've experienced zero impact to my D+ benefits.
As far as I am concerned I am glad Royal has a developed a new source of revenue that doesn't require me to buy into it or have any impact to me.  This means they can keep the cost of cruising low for the rest of us without cutting service levels.  I have no problem with that.
The most impact was one sailing when Key guest were called to board after suites but before D+.  This "delayed" the D+ call by 47 seconds.  Yep, I boarded 47 seconds later that I would have otherwise.  No big deal.  No impact.