BrianB

So here I go...."telling" on myself.  Sheesh...
I made the rookiest of rookie mistakes.  I double-booked (overlap) cruises !  I still can't believe I made such a stupid, rookie mistake but I sure did !
When I booked our annual tier casino cruises yesterday, I booked the 9th and the 16th of March B2B on SY.  All was well until I realized that we had JUST booked a 10 night EX cruise (an instant casino comp from leg #1 of this trio) for 3-20-25.  That means that I would still be ON SY when it was time to board EX.  OMG, the panic !  I felt like I was going to be sick.  I had JUST spent HOURS on the phone with Club Royale to get these 2 bookings (plus fix another comp that had gotten totally FUBAR, but that's another story....) made and now I had to go BACK and move the March 16th to March 2nd.  I was fully prepared to have to pay a $200 fee to move this cruise but it had to be done....moving the EX cruise was not an option since there was no other 10 night cruise in the casino offer to choose from.
I got BACK on the phone with Club Royale and honestly, it could not have gone more smoothly.  No change fee, she simply changed the sail date and that was that. I didn't deserve such an easy fix to a TOTALLY avoidable blunder on my part. The only problem was that there was a very small upharge for upgrading from the interior offer to the XB, Ocean View Guarantee for this sailing. For this particular cruise, the XB was slightly more than the 4V (which is the way it usually is.....I just got super lucky with my original bookings) but I gladly paid it to have my mistake behind me.  In retrospect (this is not an excuse....just an explanation) this pricing upcharge is the reason that I originally chose the 9th and 16th instead of the 2nd and the 9th.  The fact that I was already booked on EX never entered my pea brain.  Anyway....crisis rectified.  We are still on B2B on SY but slightly earlier than we were, originally.
UGH

I like what they’ve done with the port revitalization. They invested quite a bit. Much nicer, modernized. No more trip hazards and broken pavement. Easier to walk around.
Very nice area just past the gate with lots of brightly colored booths and shops. Don’t have to run the gauntlet of people vying with each other for your attention, and your money as you try not to trip over uneven and broken pavement. Now it’s all new.
Calmer, clean, airy and spacious. Some places for snacks and drinks in that area. A very convenient excursion boat docking area attached to the pier…before the security gate so still inside the port.
There's plenty of videos posted showing the new port area. Check them out.

I made the same mistake as a lot of others….thinking this was the list of available cruises. Got excited until I read it here.
C’mon Royal IT! Even a non-IT savvy person like me would at least put an ‘Excluded Cruises’ watermark diagonally over the pages.

I made the same mistake as a lot of others….thinking this was the list of available cruises. Got excited until I read it here.
C’mon Royal IT! Even a non-IT savvy person like me would at least put an ‘Excluded Cruises’ watermark diagonally over the pages.

I didn't expect our certs to show up until this afternoon (according to the release schedule) but they both showed up early this morning.
I spent ALL morning on the phone (we are in Falmouth and I used the ship's phone to call) BUT we ended up with some great results.  I was able to book both Dan's and my Prime comp cruises for B2B SY sailings (Miami) and we were able to get XB (ocean view balcony guarantee) for -0- upgrade as the XB category for our cruises was lower than the 4V interior room on both of our cruises !!!  We are on 3-9-25 and 3-16-25.
I am not a huge fan of ANY kind of GTY but in this case, it will be worth it, no matter where our OV balcony is. Yes, we will have to change rooms but we saved probably $1000 by opting for the XB over a chance to choose our cabin.  ANY balcony will beat ANY interior !
So be sure to check and see if the cost of an upgraded category is actually less than the interior fare, which is most likely what your offer is based on, if you are Prime.

You can use offer code 24Tier3 if you want to go ahead and see the full exclusion list.  http://clubroyaleoffers.com/CertificateOfferCodeLookUp.asp
 
Summary:
No Icon at all (even Feb/March)
No Christmas sailings
No New Years sailings
No Thanksgiving sailings
A lot of Summer exclusions
A few very random exclusions (like 1 Oasis and Odyssey in Sept)

AGREE !  They made it SO confusing by not making it clear that the list they cite is a list of EXCLUDED sailings.  If I had not already read about it here, I would have totally believed that the cited list was a list to choose from, NOT a list of what was excluded.  Leave it to Royal Caribbean to make a simple thing SO confusing !

I like what they’ve done with the port revitalization. They invested quite a bit. Much nicer, modernized. No more trip hazards and broken pavement. Easier to walk around.
Very nice area just past the gate with lots of brightly colored booths and shops. Don’t have to run the gauntlet of people vying with each other for your attention, and your money as you try not to trip over uneven and broken pavement. Now it’s all new.
Calmer, clean, airy and spacious. Some places for snacks and drinks in that area. A very convenient excursion boat docking area attached to the pier…before the security gate so still inside the port.
There's plenty of videos posted showing the new port area. Check them out.

Ports may have different procedures and different port workers may have their own way of doing things…but…
If you have the Key, there should be signage directing you where to go. I have had the Key many times in the past and the only time I had a worker try to turn me away because my boarding pass had a later arrival time, I just went to a different worker who pointed me to the correct line for early entry. After checking in at a kiosk, I made sure the worker directing passengers where to sit knew I had the Key and she sent me to the right row.
With the Key…you have early check in and early boarding. This is so that you can take advantage of the perks. Dropping off your carry on isn’t a perk if the rooms are already open. Boarding after the Key lunch is over would be a waste. Those perks, along with the internet and early walk off priority, are the reasons I got the Key in the past. But, you need to make sure whoever is directing passengers knows you have the Key. Sometimes it’s not easy to see on the boarding pass.

I posted a while ago how I checked in at midnight for my May Liberty cruise from NJ and the first available slot was 11:30. I kept checking back and no earlier time has opened. My cruises over the winter have all had 10:00-10:30 available.
Keep in mind this is the time to arrive at the terminal. It is not ‘boarding time’.
I sail primarily from NJ and found it’s pretty good. Usually they just wave everyone into the terminal on to and the security lines.
The only hold up is the security line. It can get pretty crowded. Especially with people who don’t pay attention and have to waste time emptying their pockets and putting their metal stuff into their carryon when they get to the screener rather than before. So everyone else has to wait for them. Then there’s those who go overboard (pun intended) and waste time taking off their shoes and belts even though it was obvious nobody in front to them did that. If the security line gets too crowded, they may start enforcing times outside the terminal.
As long as everything goes as planned, there is usually little delay in getting checked in at a kiosk and then boarding.
But…here’s where that ‘Vacation Patience’ comes in…if the ship was delayed getting into port (diversion to medivac a patient, propulsion issue, harbor traffic, assist another vessel…or many other possibilities. Or the ship is undergoing a coast guard or public health inspection…or needs a ‘deep cleaning’) then boarding new guests can be delayed.
Then everything gets backed up.
 

I posted a while ago how I checked in at midnight for my May Liberty cruise from NJ and the first available slot was 11:30. I kept checking back and no earlier time has opened. My cruises over the winter have all had 10:00-10:30 available.
Keep in mind this is the time to arrive at the terminal. It is not ‘boarding time’.
I sail primarily from NJ and found it’s pretty good. Usually they just wave everyone into the terminal on to and the security lines.
The only hold up is the security line. It can get pretty crowded. Especially with people who don’t pay attention and have to waste time emptying their pockets and putting their metal stuff into their carryon when they get to the screener rather than before. So everyone else has to wait for them. Then there’s those who go overboard (pun intended) and waste time taking off their shoes and belts even though it was obvious nobody in front to them did that. If the security line gets too crowded, they may start enforcing times outside the terminal.
As long as everything goes as planned, there is usually little delay in getting checked in at a kiosk and then boarding.
But…here’s where that ‘Vacation Patience’ comes in…if the ship was delayed getting into port (diversion to medivac a patient, propulsion issue, harbor traffic, assist another vessel…or many other possibilities. Or the ship is undergoing a coast guard or public health inspection…or needs a ‘deep cleaning’) then boarding new guests can be delayed.
Then everything gets backed up.
 

I posted a while ago how I checked in at midnight for my May Liberty cruise from NJ and the first available slot was 11:30. I kept checking back and no earlier time has opened. My cruises over the winter have all had 10:00-10:30 available.
Keep in mind this is the time to arrive at the terminal. It is not ‘boarding time’.
I sail primarily from NJ and found it’s pretty good. Usually they just wave everyone into the terminal on to and the security lines.
The only hold up is the security line. It can get pretty crowded. Especially with people who don’t pay attention and have to waste time emptying their pockets and putting their metal stuff into their carryon when they get to the screener rather than before. So everyone else has to wait for them. Then there’s those who go overboard (pun intended) and waste time taking off their shoes and belts even though it was obvious nobody in front to them did that. If the security line gets too crowded, they may start enforcing times outside the terminal.
As long as everything goes as planned, there is usually little delay in getting checked in at a kiosk and then boarding.
But…here’s where that ‘Vacation Patience’ comes in…if the ship was delayed getting into port (diversion to medivac a patient, propulsion issue, harbor traffic, assist another vessel…or many other possibilities. Or the ship is undergoing a coast guard or public health inspection…or needs a ‘deep cleaning’) then boarding new guests can be delayed.
Then everything gets backed up.
 

I usually purchase the 3 night package on a seven day cruise. The only issue I have is I can’t  make reservations before boarding day. Then, after boarding, I go directly to any restaurant host desk and make all my reservations for the week. The one reservation made for you is just a place holder. Just change after you board.
With these new protocols, I decided not to purchase the package. I’d rather spend a little more and just make my individual specialty reservations in the cruise planner prior to sailing day. This way I’m guaranteed the times I want. Less pre-boarding stress.

We are currently on Explorer.   On boarding day the Cap included, in his welcoming chat, that chair hogs would not be tolerated.  He said, "These chairs do not belong to you.  They ALL belong to me !".  I thought it was awesome.  We do not use outdoor loungers (well, Dan will on occasion, but not routinely) so it's not an issue that we deal with but I am totally on the Cap's side on this one.

The ‘Chair Hog’ conundrum involves more than just releasing hogged chairs.
For the cruise line, and especially the crew members, the issue includes taking action that results in passengers confronting each other over who ‘stole’ whose chair and what did you do with my stuff! Many passengers who unknowingly find a recently cleared chair have no idea that the previous occupant had their stuff removed. The returning occupant has no idea that their stuff was removed by the crew. Also, confrontations with crew members simply doing their jobs. Tempers flare and can have unintended consequences. 
Hopefully by consistently publicizing and enforcing this new policy…it will become common knowledge and have a positive effect on preventing hogging, and confrontation between passengers.
Also, the crew must be able to release the right items to the right passenger. Once they take possession of someone’s property, they are responsible for safeguarding it until they release it back to the rightful owner. Mistakes can happen. Not to mention dealing with passengers who claim they were ‘only gone for ten minutes!’…or so many other excuses.
Finally, the crew and the bosses don’t want negative reviews because of their actions trying to deal with hogs. I’m thinking that there have recently been so many negative reviews about chairs being hogged that the ship has decided to take action, knowing that it will generate negative comments…but less than they are getting now.

I’m on this one!
Second half of a b2b. I was lucky to be able to snag one of the new Sky Class Junior Suites. I booked as soon as it opened and was able to get the same room for both weeks. Really excited!

This has ChatGPT all over it. I call BS on the entire thing. I mean, Lauren appears to be everything but an astronaut (she might be that as well??)

Prayers to all of those affected by this horrible tragedy.
I’m sure the investigation will be federally led and include the Coast Guard, NTSB and other federal investigative agencies.
The loss of commerce due to the stoppage of container vessels and also the interstate road system used by trucking will be substantial. Although rerouting vessels and vehicles to other ports and roads will quickly take precedence. 
As for replacement cruise ports…Bayonne is a good possibility. There are many days each week where there are no ships in port. Right now it’s only the Anthem on Sundays. In May it will be the Liberty and Symphony. There’s also the possibility of the Manhattan Cruise Terminals which consist of piers 88, 89 and 90. Pier 88 is the one most used at this time…primarily by NCL. There is also the Brooklyn cruise port used primarily by MSC and Cunard.

Onboard the Anthem sailing from Bayonne NJ…
Last night (day 1) in the casino there was an issue with the player card recognition system on the slot machines. Only the machines…not the tables.
When players tapped their cards, the receiver turned green and screen said ‘Welcome Guest’ instead of ‘Welcome (players name)’. Because the receiver turned green, many players thought their card was accepted and the points would count.
However, although the points played would count on the display…they would not be applicable to the player. The casino host had to keep making announcements over and over as the casino became more crowded after dinner.
Apparently, there was an IT issue resulting in all of the player’s information being deleted from the system. The onboard technical members were working with shoreside to manually enter each player’s information into the program and that was taking quite a bit of time.
The casino host kept telling people to take a photo of their points before leaving a machine. Otherwise, there would be no way for them to post the points to the player’s account when things got back to normal.
As time went on, the host kept announcing how many more players had their information restored and kept asking for patience from those still in the queue.
Wondering if this was just on the Anthem or were other ships affected.

Okay…upon further investigation, I found the nonrefundable note on both of the excursions, the 3 night dining package and the embarkation lunch for my 4-5 EX sailing.  Interestingly enough, that note does NOT appear on the purchase of the Hideaway reservations for the second third on our EX B3B (4-14).  For anyone else interested in looking, go to your “Order History” and open the reservation.  This is where I found the notes.
 
I find it hard to believe that they are going to implement a non-refundable policy on excursions.  On their private island experiences?  Maybe.   I really don’t see how they could enforce a nonrefundable policy without stating that information clearly at the time of purchase, so I think this is a glitch BUT it is a strong hint that this might be coming.  Not a fan…

@All4family  I uploaded the video to YouTube so that you can see the whole thing.  https://youtu.be/s-ci8or__pE

I think you should feel lucky that they found the items. If you search lost and found on even this forum, you'll see that more often than not, the items aren't ever found, since turnaround is so fast and hectic. They were found, you have proof of that in email and now they need to get to you. be patient, I'm sure they're coming.

I know it’s been discussed before…but…
One of the most important tasks to perform just before leaving is to make sure nothing gets left behind. I understand the difficulties when dealing with a family group including children, especially toddlers. One positive thing is this regard is usually the cabin isn't so expansive as to include lots of space.
I recommend a quartering search. Search like your looking for a lost quarter!🤣
Once everyone with you steps out of the cabin, one person goes back and starts moving through the cabin…left to right, up and down…bathroom first, every shelf, hook…then the cabin, opening every drawer, cabinet and door…every nook…the safe…over and under the bed, including moving pillows and sheets…behind the curtains…on the balcony…the mini fridge…all the way back to the door, including the back of the doors. Search with your eyes and with your hands. Be thorough and patient.
Finally, I always make sure that the last thing I take is the card I inserted into the power slot (if one wasn’t in there when I arrived). If it is mine, then I usually hook a hanger over it the night before just to remind me.
Even though I usually travel solo…sometimes I find something that would have been left behind if I didn’t do my search.

I have one that even comes with its own commercial….

Seize the excitement! 
Seize the action! 
Seize the day! 
Seize the moment!….
On Royal Caribbean’s new…
Seize of the Seas!
Seize the Seize as she seizes the seas!
Come be a seize seizer while sailing the seas on the Seize of the Seas!
See?

I know it’s been discussed before…but…
One of the most important tasks to perform just before leaving is to make sure nothing gets left behind. I understand the difficulties when dealing with a family group including children, especially toddlers. One positive thing is this regard is usually the cabin isn't so expansive as to include lots of space.
I recommend a quartering search. Search like your looking for a lost quarter!🤣
Once everyone with you steps out of the cabin, one person goes back and starts moving through the cabin…left to right, up and down…bathroom first, every shelf, hook…then the cabin, opening every drawer, cabinet and door…every nook…the safe…over and under the bed, including moving pillows and sheets…behind the curtains…on the balcony…the mini fridge…all the way back to the door, including the back of the doors. Search with your eyes and with your hands. Be thorough and patient.
Finally, I always make sure that the last thing I take is the card I inserted into the power slot (if one wasn’t in there when I arrived). If it is mine, then I usually hook a hanger over it the night before just to remind me.
Even though I usually travel solo…sometimes I find something that would have been left behind if I didn’t do my search.