Mikeb1892

No wait, and they'll give you a bottle of water or 3 with no questions asked

$10 per child per meal

Under 6 are free. 6 -12 are 10$.

Of interesting note, do you know how TA’s check for price reductions? No, they don’t have a software program that monitors their customers pricing; they do it through mock bookings at royalcaribbean.com just like you and me.
 
We all need to appreciate our TAs more.
 
 

That's essentially what I end up doing.  I just use the cruise line website for the alert.  You can set it, then forget it.   If I get an email I'll then check the cruise line website and do a mock booking to ensure I see a reduction in my cabin category or one above.     If I see a 10% change, I'll call.   We have a B2B med cruises planned I've seen and benefitted from 2 drops - saved about $1500/cruise.   Also on our next cruise (Edge) our TA was able to upgrade us from an S3 to S1 after we provide him with the info.

As with others I simply do a mock booking on Royal's site for our date and stateroom category.  I also keep a spreadsheet where I manually enter the price.  I not only keep track of our stateroom category but others as well. It helps know the going rate and if we want to upgrade at some point.  Plus if our category sells out, I can keep track if the category below and above it. It's interesting watching Royal's pricing. A lot of times it bounces between two amounts (for a specific category)

Sounds more straight forward.  How do you get the daily pricing info loaded into the spreadsheet?   Is there an app that can pull it?  Or it software that only a TA would have?

I have a spreadsheet that I use to check for price drops so that I don't  have to do an actual mock booking every time I check.  

Its really a 2 step process, because as you observed, you have to see the discount on the right category.  I get an alert, then I go to the cruise line website and go the the mock booking process for the same room type I currently have.  If I see a reduced price, I call the TA or the line and execute the discount (or in another case, was able to get an upgraded room).  So the CL alert just gives you a generic ping so then you need to dig down to see if its real.  I only will use the cruise line website after that because its verifiable with the agent.
 
Its easier to use it as a filter/alert so you're not logging into the website and doing mock bookings every day.
 
 

The alerts I get only tell me if the price has dropped or raised since the last time they sent an alert. Never once, when they have sent a "price drop" alert, has the price dropped below what I've paid.  Part of the problem may be that you can't set what you paid.  You only choose a category type.  Well there's several different categories of oceanview balconies - you can't choose "2D", just "oceanview balcony".  Glad it's worked for you, but I've found it completely useless.

Even though I am an old phart I firmly believe "bots" will end up doing most of the heavy lifting for us in this arena. The mothership for our franchise already has this yet I still enjoy "the hunt" as I wind down my franchise. 
 
My all time favorite (have told before but still kewl) was finding "GS" for a customer that was less $ than their aft balcony on a Radiance class ship. No drop in their category and no drop in the junior suites, yet the "GS" was less than both of them (for around 36 hours anyway yet it wasn't a glitch, just none had sold until then). A "bot" wouldn't have know to even look for that.....yet ;>)

Oh this so much! There and Jamaica I couldn't go 5 feet without someone yelling that they wanted to braid my beard.  Or sell me brownies.  Felt perfectly safe though.

You'll be fine.. the vendors hawking their wares are the biggest problem.. They wanted to braid my hair and I'm a fat bald guy.. ughh lol 
 

I would say neither would be ideal in your situation but I'd side with the beach club.
 
The thrill park cabana's main draw is the water park tickets, but the actual water park seems a bit too extreme for how you described your kids. You also aren't going to very close to the beach here and the main kids areas are outside of the waterpark
 
Beach club does not have a lot of offerings for the little ones in terms of activities, and the food is  more upscale (they still have offerings for kids but the food is one of those things you are paying for). It will be a quiet spot and has access to the beach, so if you really value a more peaceful spot this would be it.  My 9 year old wasn't thrilled with this area as it felt like a more geared towards adults.
 
As for crowds, i didnt leave the beach club much on my only visit to Cococay but i have heard multiple other posters say that there are plenty of spots around the island so you wont be fighting for loungers if you decide to just do a no cost beach / kids area /pool day. I'd look into the breezy bay area, not close to the main kids play area but they have a small activities section that would have some fun stuff for kids.

I am actually shocked that excursions have already popped up. 
My May 2021 cruise on Symphony did not have any excursions pop up until about 400 days out.  We jumped on the Coco beach pass the day it came up.  It is only 2 of us, so that was the best option for us, we too are like @Ogilthorpe, usually like Chill Island cabana when in a group.  When we purchased the pass in late April, the only other Coco Cay excursion on the planner was the beach bed.  Mid May the over water and Chill cabana came on line.  It was only a week or two ago that Thrill came on line.  Oasis cabanas came on line that day too.
If I knew I was going in a group I would jump on that price, especially with children since the cabanas have a water slide attached.  I could see doing the water park since you are on Anthem.  If you said to me you were on Oasis, I probably would have said that the water park is not worth it since the ship has water slides.  I get Thrill has a bigger slide, but to me, even when I was a kid, a large slide like on the ship is a large slide.  The only thing that would sway me is the fact that I am a beach girl and love jumping waves.  I could live all day in a wave pool.
FWIW, if you do not know this, if the cabana price drops (I highly doubt since that is such a low price), purchase the new cabana at the lower price and than go back and cancel the higher price one.  There are limited numbers of cabanas, however, unlimited number of people looking on the planner.  They could have only 1 left.  By the time you cancel and come back to rebook at the lower price it can sell out.  I have seen this occur multiple times.
~ The way my husband and I have done this is:  1st purchase would be under his name.  2nd purchase (re-pricing) would go under my name.  Went back in and cancelled his purchase. We do this so we don't mistakenly cancel the cheaper cabana.  
 
 

A couple U.S. based airlines have moved past the distancing concept.  They are back to normal seating.
People at a pool outdoors or a house party indoors for a couple hours are spreading it.  It's a lottery right now.  Pick the right seat on a plane next to someone who is asymptomatic and you'll probably be infected by the the end of the flight.  The airline industry needs to be grounded.  They should just stop pretending.  
At least on a cruise ship the maximum time I spend next to a stranger is at a show or muster drill.  I can choose to skip a show or leave 10 minutes in.  Stop the shows and that's solved.   In the WJ I can be in and out in 20 minutes, if I take it to go 1/3 of that.  
Walking through a grocery store isn't the primary source of spread.  That's kind of what a cruise is like.  Walking past people but not sitting beside them for hours and hours.  That pretty much is an airplane ride.  
On a plane I'm stuck next to a stranger with no escaping it.  If they start coughing or sneezing all I can do is scream inside.  Every time you board a plane it's spin the wheel and see if you get the virus.  It's much safer on a ship.

I use cruiseline.com.  You can select any cruise for a price alert.  You'll get an email if the price drops from the date you set up the alert.  I've saved $$$ with this automatic feature but getting the updated rates and working through my TA or when I don't use a TA, the cruise line directly.  Works as long as we have not made the final payment.

I agree with you @SpeedNoodles. I've tried other sites before and have found, even if they have been accurate, the info always lags the RC site.

No, once it's in your CP, it is out of BOFA's hands. Like @WAAAYTOOO mentioned, it will go back on IMMEDIATELY, as in during that current logged in session.

Yes.  Immediately

I have used  Cruiseline.com (aka Shipmate) but never once in a 18 months monitoring 6 sailings was it ever remotely accurate.  I check what I paid against current prices on Royal Caribbean's site.  Since I book through Royal it's the only price that is relevant to me.
 

+1

I signed up for the shipmates app but find I see it days before they notify me.  I check the Royal site daily.

I also use the RC site as @sk8erguy1978 said. What better place than the source. Also, as in my case, if you have a good TA, they will notify you about price reductions and do the work for you before you know there is a price reduction. 

I periodically check Royal Caribbean's site and price compare against my spreadsheet with current price and possible upgrade options. In addition to that, I've used the Cruise Shipmate app, I'd sign up for price alerts for the cruise I want to monitor then uninstall the app (I hate clutter / apps sitting on phone I don't use), they send emails so no need to keep the app.