fireclan

Just fund your own drink package.  To avoid the worry, take the price of the drink package, extend it out by the length of your cruise, then multiply by 1.18 for gratuities.  Double that number for your cabin mate.  Put that amount in an account or under your mattress or whatever.  Then just order all the drinks you want without worry.  At the end total up your drinks and pay yourself the left over.  If you ended up exceeding the amount, then you'll know that you should get DBP.  Generally I think that those who are unsure will do better self funding and paying a la carte.  Those that know they need it, are usually right.

I wasn't able to get a pic from a similar angle but I can tell you that the scenery in Norway is absolutely stunning.
To whet your appetite, these are from the top of the Loen Skylift in Olden. You can Anthem in the first one.


 

I get the Icon excitement, I'm really anxious to seeing her as well but if calculating bang-for-your buck then I think the Hawaii->Vancouver reposition is a no-brainer. Don't know if I balcony is a must for you but you could save a little more even on Ovation by doing an inside with a virtual balcony. How much would you use a balcony on the 5 sea days anyway with not much to look at? Excursions in Hawaii are expensive, maybe not quite as high as Alaskan cruises, but they're up there. So with your savings you could spend more toward experiences or even a dining package onboard. 
As a disclaimer, I'm on the April 2024 sailing from Hawaii and really looking forward to it. I have never been to Hawaii and have been wanting to get back to Vancouver so this one checked the boxes for me. I know I won't get to see all of Hawaii, but it'll be a good taste for me and will give me an idea of where i might want to go for a land trip in the future. I love sea days and having been on Ovation's sister Anthem for a 9-nighter, I'm really looking forward to relaxing on those sea days in 270 and the solarium.
As for it being rough... it's impossible to predict. I had always heard the North Atlantic was rough until I went on my Canada/NE cruise and it was one of the smoothest sailings I've been on. The Gulf of Mexico can be rocky too if a spring storm or something blows through. Just no way to know this far out. 

Was considering it til I saw that price tag O.O $2300 for an interior...on Mariner?!
Unless Jean Luc Picard is tucking me in every night that seems excessively not worth it...

Only with the Pepto Bismo shake.  
Conjures memories of work when our station had one of those "all nighter" nights.  In between calls a stop at the Krystal for an order of 50 Krystal Burgers with cheese and 10 orders of fries for the engine, truck & rescue crew. Wonderful back in the day, I took it all in stride. Today, would probably kill me. 🤣

It's crazy that despite all the evidence to the contrary, that people still believe that the US government would never think to misuse the means to collect data or the data that they've collected through legitimate reasons.  I'm probably not as serious about my privacy as I could be, but understand and respect those that are much more cautious than I even if it's done just on principle alone.

I am a market researcher for another company.  Like previously mentioned that feedback tab is for the website. I manage one for my company's website as well.  I just went and looked at Royal's and the question they are asking is an NPS or Net Promoter Score question.  They say how satisfied are you with the website, but really what it is asking and what they are reporting to the Royal exec's is how likely are you to recommend Royal Caribbean to others, based upon your experience with the website.  
The way the analysis is done on this type of question is if you answer a 9 or 10 you are a Promoter, 6-8 you are Neutral, 0-5 you are a Detractor.  So if you think changes and updates need to be made to the website put a 0-5.  If you think its okay, but don't really need changes put a 6-8. If you think it is amazing put 9 or 10. 
That's how it works anytime you see that scale on a survey for any company by the way.  
As someone who runs surveys and moderates focus groups I can say that there is a group of people in a company who looks at that data and tries to be your advocate within the company.  Now getting the executives to listen to the results of the data we collect and make changes based off it is another story.... 

Just disembarked this morning and it could not have been quicker or easier.  No separate line for BC.  Dan and I went to the same agent; he, with his passport and me with my BC +drivers license.  Barely even slowed down as we walked past.
I will add….both the embarkation and disembarkation from Serenade (Tampa) were amazing !  We were at the front of both lines both getting on and off the ship.  This is primarily a function of being EARLY.  We were the first GenPop to get on the ship when boarding and the first in GenPop to disembark.  The on/off processes are very organized and timely.  I can’t say enough about the efficiency of the terminal folks at Tampa.  I thought Port Canaveral had their s**t together but Tampa was even better.  So pleased with everything at Tampa.

My wife and I boarded Mariner Friday for our very first cruise and it has been wonderful so far. I followed all of Matt and fellow bloggers advice so far. Got the earliest checkin time. We flew in two days early. We took a Lyft to the port and arrived 40 mins prior to our embarkation time. There was a short line but not bad. Sailed through security to some chairs we sat in until time to board
 
We entered the ship right at our muster station so that was super quick!  Went to the stand by the orange dune buggy and made all of our dinner reservations. Got 6p for dinner at specialty restaurants every night!!  
 
only negative is our shore excursion tomorrow got canceled. Not a huge deal though. 
 
This is awesome!!  My wife and I are thinking this is the life. 
 
Thank you all for your advice!!!  Thanks Matt especially for all of your time and efforts. It really helped us out!

The reason for so many problems. 

My family and I always wear formal attire. We will be wearing evening gowns in December for the Chef’s Table.

It's very fast, we have a split every time, and without fail the passport lines are slower than the BC lines coming back from Galveston. We sailed in September, January, and April, part of the family used the BC line each time, they were through before the rest of us each time.

Today's delusions are tomorrows FOIA admissions. You do you, my family can do what they want, it's nothing to you. Just stop being rude.

@twangster ... The "bot" with a sentimental streak. 😉
Curt from Canada

Hey all,
Long time reader and cruiser with Royal Caribbean and reader of this blog and love every minute onboard their ships.
I was getting tired of trying to compare different options available on each ship and between suites and The Key. I've been working on this for a couple of weeks which started out for just myself, but turned into something more when some friends and fellow cruisers started to want more info and it's just grown and grown. 🙂
I hope the website https://rc.cruises will be helpful for everyone who cruises with Royal and needs to compare different ships, suites, The Key, etc.
You can change the different suites when you want to compare The Key vs Grand Suite, or The Key vs SEA Royal Suites without seeing unnecessary information to get a true comparison (I use this more than once a week myself! 🙂). There is also direct links to blog posts on Royal Caribbean Blog for drink packages, CocoCay, The Key, etc. (Matt said yes to using the logo which I'm very grateful to identify links to here).
Love to know what everyone thinks and any feedback, and I hope you find it as helpful for your cruise planning 😁

18 years here next month. 
 
As taught in the state sponsored class I had to take a long time ago (that coincides with the incident that caused me expenses to go into Canada to see my in-laws), non alcoholic beer still contains a tiny bit of alcohol, so if someone is on a zero tolerance drivers license (like when coming off an alcohol related suspension), non alcoholic beer could still cause you to show a minute amount of alcohol in your system.  That’s why it’s treated as an alcoholic beverage and part of the deluxe package not refreshment package.  Minors can’t purchase it in the States, either. 
 
Disclaimer:  I’m not an expert on all things alcohol. 

But as long as they show up for dinner with their parents and keep in touch via text, it's fine...

Absolutely!  It’s fun to do and helps you find your room after a few drinks!  🤪  On our last cruise our friends hung up a magnetic board with an outline of the US States.  There were very tiny sticky dots in a baggie next to it and people stuck the dots on the state they came from.  By the end of the cruise there were over 75 dots which filled at least 60% of the 50 states!  
Of course, it helped that our rooms were near the top of the hallway so there was lots of traffic to stop by!

Not until I get to use the $11.01 of the $100 dollars Royal said they would give me for buying 2 of the Premier Pass.

I wonder if the cabin that suddenly lost their "obstructed view" designation was billed the difference in fares? LOL 🙂 

I’m trying to explain what a humble brag is to my kids.
May I use this as an example?

You realize that choosing the lower cost GTY rooms is essentially placing yourself as a last minute room assignment don't you?  That's what the discount is about.  If you decide to save a few bucks and roll the dice, don't be upset when the numbers don't read how you want them to.  You explicitly chose the option that took away your ability to select a particular room or deck.  You're misdirecting your disappointment.  RCI gave you what you chose, you chose something when you apparently wanted something else.

A less than desirable cabin via gty beats a day at work.