KJones

For me…once you’ve been to a few of them…you feel as though you’ve seen them all!  Almost always same or very similar questions.  Just not entertaining enough to sit through.

I seem to recall a limit on the use of outdoor PA announcements in Alaska but I can't find a regulation that imposes this restriction.  I think it was on a more recent Alaska cruise in 2022 when it was stated there would be minimal outdoor announcements while in Alaska so as not to impact wildlife.
I do recall in 2018 on Radiance the captain making some PA announcements while at Hubbard but it wasn't a narration of the visit.   
Here is some video from that visit:
Honestly I prefer not to have outdoor PA announcements so you can hear the glacier moan, crack and make other noises. 
It's bad enough that other guests can't seem to avoid talking nearly non-stop, often making obvious statements that amount to useless drivel.  "I hear it cracking" (duh!) or "I think its going to start, there it is, look, it's calving now, it's definitely calving, oh my god its calving, wow look at it calving I've never seen it calve like that and it's still going, OMG its still calving and blah, blah, blah".  Some guests, especially their spouses when talking to each other just feel the need to talk and talk and talk.  
In making the video above the hardest part was finding bits where there wasn't useless endless talking.
I guess many spouses in long term relationships learn to tune out their spouse's endless drivel but it can sure be annoying for the rest of us at moments like this. 🤣😇

For our upcoming trip on Freedom, I had been looking at booking the beach club. However, as many will know the prices are just way too up there, it was at $190 pp. So sadly it was not to be.
Until a week ago when I spotted the price had gone down to $75 pp...  Instant book and pay, locked in.  Just as well, it was back abov $150pp the following day.
Seems it pays to be vigilant
 
 

I had read from someone on here that at the end of the night they use their unused drink vouchers to get soda or beer to gift to their stateroom attendant. I have done that on many cruises, and last cruise expanded to include the barista in the coffee shop (gave him Truly's-he was very happy).  Anyhow while sitting at the casino bar on Anthem my friend and I noticed a guest sign a paper.  The guest is definitely Prime in the casino (drinks free) so there was no need to sign for drinks.  Being curious we asked what he signed and he said he signed his Diamond vouchers over to the bartendar so they go to his account for use in the crew bar.  I've never heard of this.  So my friend promtply told the bartendar he wanted to donate his own Diamond vouchers for the day to him and he signed over his drinks.  So if anyone is looking for an alternative plan for unused drink vouchers, here is one!

It was just a clarification. The way your sentence was phrased could have been interpreted, by someone who doesn't otherwise know, as implying that purchasing the Key could grant access to CK.

@smokeybandit why is the image in my head of Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail when they tried to use the catapult to get over the castle wall??

We just completed an 8-day cruise on the Odyssey and we had 4 sea days.  As you can imagine, the chair hogs were out in full force but Odyssey’s staff were ready.  Each pool area had at least two attendants that worked all day long…They were tagging all unoccupied chairs and removing the items if the person didn’t return in time.  They were using little yellow stickies to mark the time they placed the tag, the number of chairs and they placed the tag on the chair in a location the person would not notice.  The staff got lots of thanks and I only witness one upset lady…She came back three hours later and was upset her stuff was removed.  Way to go Royal!!!

Well good thing is it popped back up into inventory. I think I made it go out lol..  So I got that room!!! Thank you.. it was unanimous !

You could try calling to see if you can switch rooms (if they are the same category).

Last year we met a bartender who was starting out on the world cruise, but timed it to have his contract ending in Manila since he's Filipino.

My guesses:
There are multiple laundry areas used by the hotel services, I would say maybe on every deck that is primarily staterooms (if not two small ones each deck - one aft / forward). It would be pretty easy to convert one of these into the guest laundry room, without impacting the crew members' own laundry facilities in the crew area. I can't imagine them having crew bring their personal laundry up to the stateroom decks, or sending guests down to the crew decks.
I think I recall reading something about switching out crew as normal. They might just arrive/depart from more varied ports.
The ship likely has laid out of a schedule of how frequently they need food / water / gas etc and have coordinated with local vendors along the itinerary to have the ship restocked while its docked in the various ports.

My soulmate and I were on the Antarctic leg of this cruise in January. It was definitely a Royal Caribbean style cruise, but with quite a few differences that made for an even better experience. First your questions:
1). Laundry:  Only World Cruisers have access and it was a special (very small) area that was created just for them. It did not cause any confrontations 😉, but the scheduling of time in there was an ongoing “process” each week. I do not know the details, but the World Cruisers (and Royal Caribbean) needed to be totally organized to make the scheduling work. 
2). Crew Contracts: They seemed to be just like regular cruises. Crew rotates in and out on normal schedules. Our favourite bartender was going to rotate out and then get back on to Serenade for the last few legs of the World Cruise.  One of the senior Food & Beverage Mgrs rotated out just after our leg and should be back on the ship soon. Staggered rotations for everyone (as usual). 
3). Provisioning & Port Issues: This is a great question. I did not sense any issues at all, but I did sense a big advantage … variety. The food varied noticeably as we moved from one region to the next.  I had the best Filet Mignon at sea while docked (for two days) in Buenos Aires AND I was in the MDR.  The entertainment was much more varied and plentiful.  More variety of enrichment lecturers and topics.  More variety of climates (93+ deg down to 30ish)
We seriously looked at another leg, but could not make the timing work. We could never be away for the entire cruise, but would look at other interesting legs if they ever do again. 

Curt from Canada

What exactly are you concerned about?
That you might not make it back to ship in time? Book through RC and you'll be fine.
That you might not have very long at the ruins themselves? This is valid- we spent 2hrs max there through the RC excursion out of Cozumel, the vast majority of the excursion is travel time. However, we were still really glad we did it, since we're not sure we would make it back to the Yucatan for a stand-alone vacation.

What exactly are you concerned about?
That you might not make it back to ship in time? Book through RC and you'll be fine.
That you might not have very long at the ruins themselves? This is valid- we spent 2hrs max there through the RC excursion out of Cozumel, the vast majority of the excursion is travel time. However, we were still really glad we did it, since we're not sure we would make it back to the Yucatan for a stand-alone vacation.

Alaska excursions that involve helicopters or small planes are up there.
We didn't book through RC (except one we had to replace last minute due to weather) and I don't want to try to remember what that trip cost, lol, but it was worth it.

Thanks @USCG Teacher @loki007 for the floating mat info. Having those included in cost (and canceling the one's booked separately) brings the price down to about $100pp. It helped tip the scale to give it a try. Also, with the possibility of a second ship (Labadee rescheduling) possibly joining Icon that day, a little extra crowd control assurance will be a nice touch.

America and Haiti?  Or America and Labadee?

Two very different questions.

I enjoy running on the track when we're at sea and I go like 10 miles in 3 minutes. Eat my dust! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Royal's train departs later in the day from a station near the airport in Anchorage and it ends right at the cruise terminal in Seward.  It leaves later so that fly in guests landing in the morning can make the train but this means it arrives in Seward late afternoon or early evening. This is a charter train with only Royal guests on board.
The Alaskan Railroad direct train operates from the downtown Anchorage station and ends at the public train station in Seward.  This is a ten minute walk or a complimentary coach ride to the cruise terminal.  The direct train leaves early in the morning and arrives in Seward mid-day.  Anyone can book the direct train including tourists who are not taking a cruise.
Goldstar isn't always offered on the Royal charter train.  It depends.  I'd call and ask.  If it is the on-board experience will be the same as the direct Goldstar booked train.
In both cases once you handoff your luggage in Anchorage you won't see it again until it is outside your cabin door on the ship.
Personally I like arriving earlier to the ship so I tend to book direct.

You take the glasses and put them on a bar table or in front of your booth in the hallway. They will be picked up. And yours will be replaced

Well Maya Chan it is. The admiral stated that she’d prefer the bumpy taxi ride to the beach and seeing our names on the welcome chalk board than a bus ride with a large group. Thanks for the help

Another thing to do is to get the flySEA app for your phone.  It's the airport app and you can use it to find out the wait times of the security lines, which lines work for clear, TSA precheck or general and you can even get a reservation through the SEA spot saver program.  There are 5 security checkpoints and all of them access the entire airport.  

This is the same list they gave out about a year ago, same people listed.  Other Hotel Services would mean laundry of the sheets\towels for your room. It goes to the laundry room attendants, I would assume.  I also believe a lot of people are doing both, myself included- pre paying then also giving the MDR servers cash a few times a week.  You can tip how you want, I consider these daily gratuities part of my fare and don't even count them as tips, and will leave room attendants and servers additional cash as the week goes on. 

You'd be shocked how many policies can be danced around simply by being genuinely nice to people.