FionaMG

Embarkation day lunch is definitely worth it. It's so much nicer than battling the crowds in the WJ.

Us too, although I have to admit DH only really gets to use it when I'm in the gym.

It's been $131.99 on my upcoming cruise forever, hasn't budged a cent. However, the UDP, which has been oscillating between two different prices also forever, dropped considerably.

So did we (note past tense). Our strategy was always "cheapest with a window". That would sometimes be an OV and sometimes a promenade view, on the ships that have them. Then two things happened... one, we hit D, which meant a decent discount on balcony cabins and, two, covid brought prices tumbling down. On the four cruises we have done since the restart, the cheapest with a window has always been a balcony cabin. Now, when I booked our upcoming cruise, that no longer held true, but when I said to DH I was reverting to booking a window cabin instead of a balcony he said no way, he wanted a window that he could open for fresh air, which obviously implies a balcony, so our past strategy has gone straight out of said open window! And in a weird twist of fate, if I were to book today instead of when I did, the cheapest with a window would indeed be a balcony cabin (except at twice the price in comparison to when we booked!)

Somebody over on CC reported getting it for $12 so, like everything else, it's ship/sailing dependent. I see it at $31 for both of my sailings.

Yes! Us too! We'll hit D+ on day 2 of our next one.

Yes, that's true but it's only DH and me. We usually just share one between us. Oh well.

Yup, called it. The price of internet on these sailings has gone back down to exactly what it was before they put it up pre-sale. I'm not surprised but it's kind of disappointing. Even just a single dollar lower would have been nice. Once again, it feels like they take us for fools. I do need to have it so I did go ahead and buy it, but not best impressed.

I was hoping for that too but it hasn't budged and tbh I can't remember it ever going down in any sales across any of the cruises I've done.

Did auto correct get you on that last word...?

Same on my upcoming Symphony and Anthem cruises. It's just so they can generously offer a bigger discount during the BF sale. I'm still holding out in the probably vain hope of it dropping below $19.99.

I got it for 11.99 but that was very early on in the sale just before the whole system crashed. When they finally got it up and running again, it had gone up to 13.99. I have not seen it anywhere near that price since. Keeping my fingers crossed for the upcoming BF sale. However, I noticed they have increased the price of internet on my next couple of sailings, I imagine in order to offer a "sale" price that will be the same as they've been selling it at for months.

There are "sales" every 2 to 3 weeks. Black Friday often offers some good deals on cruise planner items but not always and not always the best ones. It's very important that you check prices at least every couple of days so that you're aware of how much they're selling for in the run-up to the sale. And when I say prices, I mean the bottom line, not however much % discount they're offering because they manipulate those figures so that most of the time you're not getting the deal you thought you were getting.

And as well as what @Rackham said, lots of people were charged more than once for the same purchase and it took them ages to refund the additional charges. It really was a huge mess.

@teddy take all the time you need. Doing a recap is supposed to be a pleasure not a chore. I've enjoyed what you've written so far.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastel_de_nata

Time will tell, I guess. The unfortunate choice of name reminds me of a couple of names I've come across here in Custard Tart Land because non-native speakers of English are determined to use English in their company names without asking for advice from a native speaker. A few years ago, back in the days of floppy disks (who else here remembers those? ), I had dealings with a technology outfit who thought they'd come up with a clever name: Mega Flop. And more recently, a company providing a space for kids' parties thought it would be a good idea to call their venue Funny Farm.

Black Friday is coming up. I got these same prices for lunches at last year's BF sale.

Just received email: Dear Guest, We are excited to welcome you onboard for your upcoming Royal Caribbean sailing! As you prepare to set sail, we wanted to notify you of an update to our daily gratuity charges. As of November 11th, 2023, the automatic daily gratuity charge will increase from $16.00 to $18.00 per guest, per day for non-suite staterooms and from $18.50 to $20.50 per guest, per day for suites. The daily gratuity is shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants, and other hotel services teams. If you’d like to pre-pay your gratuities at the current rate before your sailing, we’re happy to extend this opportunity to you. If you’d prefer to pay onboard, your gratuity charge will be applied to your onboard account at the new rate. Other onboard gratuity policies remain the same – an 18% gratuity will be automatically added to purchases for beverages, spa & salon services, room service, and mini bar items. These will be itemized on your receipt at the end of each purchase. To pre-pay your gratuities before your sailing at the current rate, or if you have any questions, please contact your Travel Advisor or contact us at: 1 866 562 7625 in the U.S. 1800 754 500 in Australia / 0800 102 123 in New Zealand In the UK only, by using our webchat service or by calling 0344 493 4005 All other countries, please visit http://www.royalcaribbean.com/contactus for your local Royal Caribbean International office phone number. We thank you for your understanding and can’t wait to welcome you onboard!

Good idea. I think you can do "pizza-making experiences" or some such thing where you get to make you own pizza. I bet that would be a fun thing to do as a family.

Hope you're able to get it I've been able to take advantage of these algorithms twice on an upcoming cruise on Anthem. Originally booked OV Gty. Then one day a Bal Gty was cheaper so I switched to that. Then not very long after that the OV with large balcony showed up cheaper than the Gty. Upshot is I now have a specified large balcony room for $300 pp cheaper than my original OV Gty.

When I was on Anthem back in July I booked it on the app after I boarded. That way I was able to book it for a night when we didn't fancy the MDR menu. Currently, I can book in the app for my Symphony cruise in February but not for my Anthem cruise next September, so like everything else Royal there's probably no one-size-fits-all approach. The best thing to do is just keep checking. As for what it's like, I was underwhelmed but DD really enjoyed it. You won't know until you try. If you don't like it you can always grab something else somewhere and at least you won't be out of pocket.

Welcome to the boards @Plasticbrain Here's my take on your plans. I absolutely would NOT stay on the ship in Marseille. You don't need to do an excursion but it's definitely worth getting off for a couple of hours. Grab a taxi from the port and ask to be dropped off at the Vieux Port (Old Port). This is right in the centre and from here you can get the "petit train" (a little tourist train) which takes you up to Notre Dame Basilica on the top of the hill overlooking the city. It's a fun ride and the basilica is well worth a look and the view from the top is lovely. It's not a hop-on, hop-off thing. Everybody gets off at the basilica and then you get on another train when you're ready to go back down. Here are a couple of pics; they're a bit old now, so the quality isn't great, but it'll give you an idea. Once you come back down, you can have a look in some of the shops around the Old Port for some soap. Marseille is famous for its soap and you can get it in liquid and solid form. It makes a great gift to take back home with you, or just treat yourself. This area of France (Provence) is also famous for its lavender fields and you should be able to get some soap that is scented with lavender. You should be able to do all of this in a morning and be back on board in time for lunch and a relaxing afternoon by the pool. For Naples/Capri, I recommend that you DON'T buy the Capri on Your Own excursion, firstly because it's ridiculously overpriced and secondly because there is a cut-off time to cancel if you decide you don't want to do it after all. If you cancel too late you may not get your money back. This is particularly important if the weather decides to be unccoperative because Royal will not give you your money back just because it's raining on the day. So, I suggest you make a tentative plan to really "do it your own". This is very easy to do. The ticket office for the ferry to Capri is literally right next to the cruise terminal. Get off the ship as early as you can and get tickets for the next available ferry. Buy return tickets at the same time for early afternoon, to give you plenty of time to get back. It takes about an hour each way. By doing it this way you keep your options open. I suspect that after back-to-back Florence and Rome you may find you're just too tired to want to do anything more than have a lazy day on board but if you do want to go, it's still doable and far more cheaply than buying Royal's excursion, which is nothing more than a glorified transfer. I don't know what the current cost of the ferry is but in May of last year a round trip ticket was less than half the price of the "on your own" excursion. I hope this helps and you have an amazing time when it comes.

Safe travels home. Looking forward to reading your write-up.

I just answered your post over on CC but here's my reply again; not sure which you'll see first. I did a 7-night Norwegian fjords cruise this past July, not the same itinerary as yours, but I would expect the dining to be similar and I can tell you that we definitely did not have the Mexican menu on that cruise. I can't remember the exact order but we had Welcome Aboard, France, Caribbean, UK, Italian, Royal and Bon Voyage. If you're wanting to take advantage of the current sale prices for dining perhaps you could consider just booking any day from day 3 onwards and then when you get on board try to change it (or cancel) if necessary. I say from day 3 onwards because you can pretty much put money on day one being Welcome Aboard and day 2 being France. Hope this helps.