KJones

Have you considered flying out of a different Italian airport? There should definitely be more direct routes out of Rome or Milan, and those are easy train rides from Bologna.

I agree with @Plumlee2028and @WAAAYTOOO's reviews. We had so much fun the first time, that we chose the Champagne Catamaran excursion again on our 2nd trip to St. Thomas. The crew was different the second time around, but still had the same fun atmosphere. Great snorkeling at St. Johns and very strong rum punch on the leg back to port. We also bought the "crew" shirts and its one our favorite souvenirs from any of our travels! (shirts were about $25-ish, cash only I think, FYI)

Does MTD show up as a dining option? If it doesn't then you may need to verify with your travel agent/ Royal if you do indeed have MTD or traditional seating. It should not be too early for dining reservations on a December 2021 sailing.

It's like thrill water park, but on the ship! With no excursion fee!

For a typical 7-night, we did an additional $20/p for head waiter, $15/p for asst waiter, $20/p for stateroom attendant, $1/drink for bar staff. For an upcoming 10-night, I'm budgeting to double waitstaff & stateroom.

I don't know if anyone really knows how long the onboard-only reservations will continue. But for dinner scheduling purposes, you could look at previous cruise planners to see what time shows typically have been. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compass

+1 to XE

$23 sounds like the price I paid for a bootcamp/ TRX class on Harmony (that price included the 18% gratuity)

I booked an excursion today. Got the text from my credit card company that a charge had been made, but have yet to get a Royal confirmation email. The excursion does show up in my Cruise Planner calendar/ order history though. Update: just reserved My Time Dining and immediately got a confirmation email

Older ships and those which haven't been amped tend to be priced lower as well. The trade off is that they are smaller and thus fewer activities compared to the new ships.

Sorry to revive an old thread, but @DDemuth did you ever end up doing the Soufriere/ Pitons tour?

When you check in at the cabana booth they'll ask for the other guests' names and hand out the wristbands (or whatever is used to identify cabana guests) then

Matt just posted an post-shutdown review of Maya Chan on the blog's home page

Agreed - the aqua show on Harmony was fantastic! We also enjoyed the escape room- though I'm unsure if that will be operating next month.

@Ian TI think the 11am end time is just an error. You'll have full access to the beach lounger for the entire day. The correct end time would be like 30min before the all-aboard/ship departure.

+1 to Maya Chan! We were there in September 2019, so unsure what the post-covid service is like, but pre-covid service was fantastic

Not sure when you last booked a cabana, but I don't think you can pick your exact cabana (regardless of location/type) anymore, even by stopping at the Shore Excursion desk. They're all automatically assigned in order of when they were purchased. The only exception might be if you're in a suite and the Genie/Concierge can select for you.

Yes, you would only be charged for the shot. Same concept for virgin cocktails (free with the refreshment package) and paying the upcharge for the alcohol only.

I never personally received the email. It was sent to our travel agent, so if you have a TA, it may have sent to them

What a bummer of a situation! Echoing the others here, in that making final payment would tie up cash that could be spent on other non-cruise things, and making sure you can use all the credit by the expiration date. Good luck in your studies!

Our cancellation email didn't mention anything about 125% OBC, but that could have been because we hadn't actually bought anything yet. But if I recall correctly (and it is still something RC offers), the 125% OBC is only an option if you take the 125% FCC, and doesn't apply if you take the cruise fare refund route.

Yes, our 4/10/22 cruise on Radiance was cancelled. All Radiance sailings are cancelled through 4/30/22

Our April 10th Radiance Panama Canal sailing also appears to have been cancelled - no email yet but it's disappeared from the website and its first sailing is listed as 4/30/22.

It's going to vary by ship arrival time. IIRC, our shipped docked at maybe 8am? We were on the slides by 9am.

I thought I read that you could add (2) extra people to the floating cabanas at Cococay to bring occupancy up to 10 - the additional persons would have to buy their own passes for Beach Club access plus the additional cabana charge. In theory they could do something similar for the water park. But in your case, with (3) people over the limit, it increases occupancy by 50% and I can't imagine they'd allow that as a policy (vs at the discretion of the attendant). Like @AshleyDillo mentioned, seating and space within / between water park cabanas are limited.