fireclan

I'm sure that's exactly what the drama queens/kings are hoping for. Then they can claim that they're being harrassed/penalized for "revealing the truth".  Royal's best tactic is to ignore them entirely.

We are on the Ultimate World Cruise right now. Just heading back to Ushuaia (after visiting a Penguin Rookery). I will post something more substantial and detailed later, but the short course is:
1).  No drama … the experienced cruisers already figured this out. Actually, the cruise so far has been extremely relaxing.  Although we have been a little bit too busy. 
 
2). Thé entertainment overall has been better than “normal” cruises (some of it excellent … rare for a Radiance class ship). The food has been hit and miss (as usual) … however, we did have the best MDR dish in over 30 cruises a few nights ago. 
 
3).  The staff is in over perform mode. They are doing a phenomenal job. 
 
4).  1,600 on this segment is well below capacity. 700+ Diamond and above C&A members.  1,600 only should bring up some questions. 
 
5).  Tons of dancing opportunities … only once did we have to elbow our way around the dance floor 😉
 
I will start a start a separate thread when we get back on board.
 
Curt from Canada
Partial Ultimate World Cruiser 😂

We won! Received the email yesterday. Ocean View with Large balcony on the “hump”. $100 a head. A bit of an upgrade I guess from far back of the boat and smaller balcony. We spend a lot of time outside in the morning drinking our Crown Lounge coffees. Simple things in life, I guess...First we’ve won since right after the pandemic. 
J&S

The problem is people watch that junk.  

Why isn't this in my cruise planner? And will it be 30% off pre-cruise?

Welcome to the message boards!
Voyager class does not feature the outdoor Windjammer aft seating like Radiance or the original Quantum class do.  
I have seen guests bring plates of food to the seating areas on the sides of the pool deck on Voyager and Freedom class but these are not like the aft outdoor seating areas on the two classes mentioned above.
I know what you mean though because I really enjoy these outdoor seating areas for the Windjammer on the ships that have them.

I'm actually taking a bit of a new stance on tipping and people can think what they want. 
Royal Caribbean asks for an overall tip for the cruise. We pay a gratuity on the 3night dining package. That is what is asked of us and that is all we are doing going forward. We tip porter at the cruise terminal also. At some point it's enough. 
We tipped our cabin attendant extra, we tipped the head waiter extra, specialty dining extra. Each drink extra. What is asked or is mandatory is what we are doing going forward. 
I hope that doesn't sound bad. 

Don't tell RCL, but I'd pay to avoid this pool. 😉 

I was curious about this, so I did a dummy booking for 2 travelers and for 1 traveler on Mariner on a 4 night sailing from Port Canaveral on April 4, 2024. Given the reports that Celebrity is charging extra for single travelers, I wondered if Royal may be starting to do the same. I share the observation that a single traveler does not consume as much complimentary food, and that is a cost savings for the company. If the food cost is $30 per person per day for the company, then they would theoretically save $120 on that sailing for one fewer guest. I don't really know how to apply a value on things like fewer people to take care of in a stateroom, less use of pool towels, etc.
I did a 2 passenger booking in Microsoft Edge and a 1 passenger booking in Firefox in private (incognito) mode. This was necessary because if you allow for cookies, one of the bookings will bump the other. I made the booking of a spacious ocean view balcony on deck 6. The same cabin was available on the port side (cabin 6604) and starboard side (cabin 6304) directly opposite the other on the deck, so I am certain this is apples to apples. I didn't try to book the same exact cabin because I got kicked out when I used different tabs in the same browser. The two person booking was $2,919.16 and the one person booking was $2,816.08. The difference was in Taxes & Fees. Taxes on the two person booking was $206.16 and the one person was $103.08.
I was not able to duplicate your results with my dummy bookings. I don't have a definitive reason for why my results were different than yours other than they are different sailings with different sets of conditions.
 

Is anyone blogging the world cruise *not* on tiktok?

Hello! The remainder of 2025 including Cape Liberty will be out the week of FEB 12 🙂 

Royal tries to maintain relationships with countries around the globe.  Yes, the U.S. is liberal now regarding these products but in Europe alone as an example CBD products (non THC products) require prescriptions in Austria, Belgium, and Finland.  They are outright illegal in Albania, Belarus, Bosnia, Malta, Serbia, and Slovakia.  In South America Argentina and Brazil require prescriptions and CBD is outright illegal in Venezuela and Ecuador.  I’m sure there are similar lists in Asia and the Caribbean.
Are there CBD sniffing dogs at check in?  No.  Will you get away with it, probably.  It’s against policy and I just steer clear of potential travel issues.
 

obviously missed that...guess my quest for perfection in 2024 has ended. What a relief. lol

As a lifelong Maryland resident, I occasionally cruise out of Baltimore and wished that port provided ship options other than the oldest and smallest in the fleet (but, hey, it's still a cruise!). I'll relay a few things that I've been told in the past few years which MAY indicate a change coming to Baltimore - several years ago my son, a  county (adjacent to Baltimore) firefighter toured an area south of the Frances Scott Key bridge which they were instructed would be "Royal Caribbean's new cruise port". At the time, if I remember the conversation correctly, the property was undergoing some type of soil remediation (?).  The location would be in his station's response area and definitely eliminated the Key bridge as an obstacle.  More recently, my brother, who owns a communication business located in a suburb of Baltimore, put a bid in to provide services to "Royal Caribbean's new cruise port" and he indicated the same location as my son reported. Unfortunately, he didn't get the bid so no more information forthcoming.
That's all I got, but I'm hopeful it's news and not rumor!

Just some advice from an old lady who has been washing towels a looonnnggg time - don't use fabric softener on microfiber,  it reduces absorbency. 

We're in the mother ship (home) right now.  LOL
Next up is Liberty 1-22-24.  It's just a short 4-nighter.
Give our love to G, too !!

Just some advice from an old lady who has been washing towels a looonnnggg time - don't use fabric softener on microfiber,  it reduces absorbency. 

We don't eat out often due to cost and few restaurants where we live, so anything that someone else cooks is a real treat for us.

As a lifelong Maryland resident, I occasionally cruise out of Baltimore and wished that port provided ship options other than the oldest and smallest in the fleet (but, hey, it's still a cruise!). I'll relay a few things that I've been told in the past few years which MAY indicate a change coming to Baltimore - several years ago my son, a  county (adjacent to Baltimore) firefighter toured an area south of the Frances Scott Key bridge which they were instructed would be "Royal Caribbean's new cruise port". At the time, if I remember the conversation correctly, the property was undergoing some type of soil remediation (?).  The location would be in his station's response area and definitely eliminated the Key bridge as an obstacle.  More recently, my brother, who owns a communication business located in a suburb of Baltimore, put a bid in to provide services to "Royal Caribbean's new cruise port" and he indicated the same location as my son reported. Unfortunately, he didn't get the bid so no more information forthcoming.
That's all I got, but I'm hopeful it's news and not rumor!

You know I sail interiors and don't care about the cabin and we used to book almost nothing but GTY's... but deck 3 is about the only place I would strongly not want to be (even worse to me since we only sail bigger ships).
We did the cheapo version of what you did in 2022. We had a 3/4 B2B on Indy, changing cabins like you, and drew deck 3 on one of them (using the bar code trick). Even though I normally just switch out for free once assigned, we placed some small RUB's just to help get us off deck 3 and wound up in a Promenade View for like $20 or $25pp. We didn't even like the layout (first time in a PV) but it was 3 nights and it still beat deck 3.

We moved from a connecting ocean view (category CO) to ocean view balcony (category 1B), which was the highest category I was able to bid on.
When I booked this cruise (which was an add-on to another Radiance sailing to create a B2B), the CO was the best category left.  UGH  It was on deck 3.  Double UGH.  I hesitated even booking this sailing when I saw what rooms were bookable....but I wanted to do a 9 night cruise instead of a 5 night cruise so I booked that crappy CO in HOPES that I could Royal Up.  And it worked !!!
 
I agree - I don't recall ever having anyone say that their RUB was accepted the same day they submitted it !
This is pretty much exactly what happened but in truth, the bid was only about 1/2 way to max bet.  I was prepared to do whatever it took to get us OUT of that CO room on deck 3.  As it turns out, it only cost $300 ($150 each RUB) so I got off cheap.
These Radiance sailings (most of Feb and some of March) have been very screwy.  One day they are completely sold out and all categories are showing "Closed" and the next day there are new/different categories available.  I'm very relieved to be out of that deck 3 CO !
Another reason that I was willing to submit a RUB on half of our B2B is b/c we were already going to have to change rooms, anyway....so there was no incentive for me to just suck it up and stay with my original room.
Thanks !!!!
I'm about 3/20 on RUB !  LOL

Recently, I have been receiving the invitation to submit a Royal Up bid the same day that I check in for the cruise, which is 45 days prior to boarding.  For example, yesterday was check-in day for our 2-22-24 Radiance sailing.  I checked in mid-morning.  In the early afternoon I received the RU offers, which I completed immediately and submitted.  By dinner I had received an email letting me know that my RUB had been accepted.
Honestly, it doesn’t normally happen that quickly in succession but the RU invitations do seem to be coming in conjunction with check-in for me.

I LOVE CafeTwo70. It's so underrated for both breakfast and lunch. The make your own salad or their specialty salads are my favorite. 

I enjoy MDR for lunch on Sea Days when not in a hurry, and they usually always have french onion soup and floating island on the menu 🙂 

Still too expensive. Should be included in the cruise price. I'm not going.