Curt From Canada

This has been covered extensively here.  I did find the formula though:
=90x +62.99y + abs(sqrt 50%) + 2π-5/9 + 32

Just off Enchantment this month.  This is how the "Chops Grille / Chef's Table Shuffle" [CC Shuffle] worked well for us.  The background is that 3 meals in Chops is just a little too much for us.  Therefore, the 3-Night Dining Package is not that interesting for us on smaller ships.  In this case, the "CC Shuffle" turned out to make at least one night very interesting.  We understand that the Chef's Table is not for everyone (a lot to drink and too much food), but for those who do enjoy it ...
1).  We booked the 3 Night Dining Package well before our cruise (at the best discounted price we could find).  We booked our first night in Chops, at a time we wanted.
2). We booked Chef's Table on the exact night we wanted (4 nights later), and paid the full price before our cruise (no discount was required ... due to the "CC Shuffle").
3). On embarkation day (at Chop's) we told our waiter we wanted to book one more night in Chops AND use our third night at the Chef's Table we had already booked.  Much confusion ensued 😉.  The waiter and head waiter said they had never seen this done before.  Luckily, in the 3-Night Dining Package Description on the RCL APP it was very clear.  The Head Waiter had to take a picture of my phone's screen 😂 ... It was a comical interlude to our nice meal in Chops.  
4). By the next day, our full Chef's Table payment had been refunded to our On Board Account (full refundable) and at the Chef's Table (later in the week) we were charged $49.99 each.
CAUTION:  Be very careful to read your Dining Package Details to make sure that the $49.99 Chef's Table Upgrade option is available.  We have seen other cruises where it was not allowed. Also, have your cell phone at the ready! 😂
Your Mileage May Vary ...
Curt from Canada

 
 

I would add Enchantment to that list.  I must eat GF.  The head waiter would see me every night and plan the next meal.  The first few times I did not believe him when he said they would adapt anything.  I tried to order very different things and they tried all of them.  Most were very good.
With the old "wheat symbol" system I never asked.  Looks like "asking" is a better process.
Only one data point so far ... I will have more data by July.
I hope that helps ...
Curt from Canada

I would add Enchantment to that list.  I must eat GF.  The head waiter would see me every night and plan the next meal.  The first few times I did not believe him when he said they would adapt anything.  I tried to order very different things and they tried all of them.  Most were very good.
With the old "wheat symbol" system I never asked.  Looks like "asking" is a better process.
Only one data point so far ... I will have more data by July.
I hope that helps ...
Curt from Canada

We have been many times.  We love it, but it is not for everyone.  Pros and Cons below:
PRO:
Great food prepared extremely well.  Nothing exotic, and most dishes are excellent. The wine pairing is quite good.  No wines are excellent, but all of them are very drinkable.  The pairing is done very well. I have a gluten problem, they are very accommodating and did a great job with the substitutions. Sometimes can be combined with the 3 night dinning package (look above for the "CC Shuffle").  This is important on small ships with 1 or 2 specialty restaurants. We like other people, so the conversation can be very enjoyable. CON:
Tons of food (too much for us).  Plan the entire evening, because you will "roll back to your room". Too much to drink (too much for us).  Plan the entire evening, because you will "roll back to your room" ... possibly a slow next morning. 😉 I hope that helps ...
Curt from Canada

Rhapsody, Grandeur, Vision, Freedom, Odyssey, and Quantum. They've all been top notch when it comes to accommodating GF needs.

This is an excellent question ... I SUMMON THE GENIE FROM INSIDE HIS BOTTLE:
@twangster ... please come the rescue with your thoughts.  (I was going to call you The Oracle, but I thought your would like the idea of living in a bottle). 😉
 
Curt from Canada

This is an excellent question ... I SUMMON THE GENIE FROM INSIDE HIS BOTTLE:
@twangster ... please come the rescue with your thoughts.  (I was going to call you The Oracle, but I thought your would like the idea of living in a bottle). 😉
 
Curt from Canada

I read it again, still no reference to a guarantee of 24 x 7 service.  
Just because I don't agree with you doesn't make me a defender of Royal.  I have repeatable slammed Royal's practice of throttling speeds per user.  I've pointed out time after time that Royal is technically inept for doing so and that is an old and abandoned practice. 
All Royal has stated is that they desire to leverage Starlink to provide a better guest experience while never stating a specific performance target to measure "better".   Maybe we both can at least agree that Royal failed to provide a better experience.  However in Royal's defense Starlink has misled a lot of their customers.  For the most part the only customer's staying with them are the ones that have no other choice.  Royal sort of falls into that category because Royal is a financial disaster right now and they can't afford a decent provider.  
As far as hotel internet, as a former frequent business traveler I've encountered so many bad hotel internet experiences I used to carry my own hotspot with me.  The company had no issue paying for it because they knew hotel internet sucks often.  

Basically, they need extra time to wipe down surfaces and sanitize more than they normally would because likely there were more cases of Norovirus or similar gastrointestinal illness.
Not to worry, it's something we've seen over the years. The good news is the ship will be super clean. Wash your hands!

I could be wrong, but I thought I had read that any cruise lines that were using E-muster were having to pay Royal Caribbean a royalty, since RC had patented the process.  I also read that this is why NCL had gone back to the manual muster.  Maybe they got so much blow-back that they decided to bite the bullet and pay the royalty ?

Princess for example.  Princess doesn't employ per user caps that throttle bandwidth.  

The Chef's Table is not included in the 3 Night Dining Package, but there is an option to take one of the 3 nights and go to the Chef's Table (instead of one of the Specialty Restaurants) for an extra $49.99 per person ... the regular rate fluctuates between $79.99 to over $100.  The main difficulty is that the Chef's Table can book up quickly and typically we want to spend a certain night there (Chef's Table is an investment in time ... it runs from 6:30PM until late).  Usually we can only fit the Chef's Table in on one or two of the nights on a 7 night cruise.
Therefore, we book both and "shuffle" to a cheaper rate ... instead of (in this case) going to Chops 3 times in one cruise.
I hope that makes more sense ...
Curt from Canada

Just off Enchantment this month.  This is how the "Chops Grille / Chef's Table Shuffle" [CC Shuffle] worked well for us.  The background is that 3 meals in Chops is just a little too much for us.  Therefore, the 3-Night Dining Package is not that interesting for us on smaller ships.  In this case, the "CC Shuffle" turned out to make at least one night very interesting.  We understand that the Chef's Table is not for everyone (a lot to drink and too much food), but for those who do enjoy it ...
1).  We booked the 3 Night Dining Package well before our cruise (at the best discounted price we could find).  We booked our first night in Chops, at a time we wanted.
2). We booked Chef's Table on the exact night we wanted (4 nights later), and paid the full price before our cruise (no discount was required ... due to the "CC Shuffle").
3). On embarkation day (at Chop's) we told our waiter we wanted to book one more night in Chops AND use our third night at the Chef's Table we had already booked.  Much confusion ensued 😉.  The waiter and head waiter said they had never seen this done before.  Luckily, in the 3-Night Dining Package Description on the RCL APP it was very clear.  The Head Waiter had to take a picture of my phone's screen 😂 ... It was a comical interlude to our nice meal in Chops.  
4). By the next day, our full Chef's Table payment had been refunded to our On Board Account (full refundable) and at the Chef's Table (later in the week) we were charged $49.99 each.
CAUTION:  Be very careful to read your Dining Package Details to make sure that the $49.99 Chef's Table Upgrade option is available.  We have seen other cruises where it was not allowed. Also, have your cell phone at the ready! 😂
Your Mileage May Vary ...
Curt from Canada

 
 

Just off Enchantment this month.  This is how the "Chops Grille / Chef's Table Shuffle" [CC Shuffle] worked well for us.  The background is that 3 meals in Chops is just a little too much for us.  Therefore, the 3-Night Dining Package is not that interesting for us on smaller ships.  In this case, the "CC Shuffle" turned out to make at least one night very interesting.  We understand that the Chef's Table is not for everyone (a lot to drink and too much food), but for those who do enjoy it ...
1).  We booked the 3 Night Dining Package well before our cruise (at the best discounted price we could find).  We booked our first night in Chops, at a time we wanted.
2). We booked Chef's Table on the exact night we wanted (4 nights later), and paid the full price before our cruise (no discount was required ... due to the "CC Shuffle").
3). On embarkation day (at Chop's) we told our waiter we wanted to book one more night in Chops AND use our third night at the Chef's Table we had already booked.  Much confusion ensued 😉.  The waiter and head waiter said they had never seen this done before.  Luckily, in the 3-Night Dining Package Description on the RCL APP it was very clear.  The Head Waiter had to take a picture of my phone's screen 😂 ... It was a comical interlude to our nice meal in Chops.  
4). By the next day, our full Chef's Table payment had been refunded to our On Board Account (full refundable) and at the Chef's Table (later in the week) we were charged $49.99 each.
CAUTION:  Be very careful to read your Dining Package Details to make sure that the $49.99 Chef's Table Upgrade option is available.  We have seen other cruises where it was not allowed. Also, have your cell phone at the ready! 😂
Your Mileage May Vary ...
Curt from Canada

 
 

Before MAR 2020, I kept a database (with lots of input from this fantastic board).  Below is the data (a small sample, but with some trends if you look at it).  My plan is to start up again (as soon as the sailing begin ... I should have said that louder ... AS SOON AS THE SAILINGS BEGIN! ... and they will).  A few observations:
1).  A few get assigned very far in advance.  These appear to be outliners (and the frequency may come down over time with more data).
2). Just over a month before there is an inflection point where almost half have their assignment set.
3). Almost all have been set 10-19 days before sailing.
4). All have been assigned by the time you board. ?
 
Stay Safe, Stay Apart, Stay Connected,
Curt from Canada

You are in for the treat of a lifetime!!  Navigator has the BEST PUBLIC WASHROOM at sea.  Deck 11 aft elevators port side.  Do not pay any attention to any "passé" gender based signage ... you will be DIAMOND!!  If I remember correctly, Diamond members can use any public washroom regardless of gender.  Please check this out ahead of time with the Diamond Concierge (as I could be wrong)
😉
Have a blast ...
Curt from Canada

I'm a meat and potatoes guy who doesn't like seafood.  I can eat shrimp and lobster but it's kind of wasted on me on me.  Some people have seafood and it is something eurphoric or orgasmic, for me it's like, okay, whatever, meat please.  If something has a strong fish taste or smell, forget it! Ugh.  Puke.  
When I did Chef's Table this was noted and they substituted courses.  I told them to bring the lobster and it was like lobster always is to me... whatever, meat please, but for the fishy course they gave me chicken.  It was pretty terrible chicken as chicken goes but since everything tastes like chicken so be it.   It was one course.  It was fine.  Drank the wine.  Next course.  
Overall it was still a great experience.  
As someone who enjoys wine and good company I enjoyed the experience largely because of my table mates like @WAAAYTOOO .  
If I didn't like wine and I didn't like seafood that would be a different story.  Bad table mates would be the trifecta of perfect storm Chef's Table for me

A "Pew" with a View:

😂

A "Pew" with a View:

😂

I have not been on Mariner, but Adventure, Explorer and Voyager do not have them.  It is the only one at sea I am aware of.  It is not my full time "job" on cruise ships, but I always on the "lookout" for anything like it.  So far it is the only one after 26 cruises.
I think you are correct ... this might be one of those "Use Only When Under Sail" washrooms.
😂
Curt from Canada

A "Pew" with a View:

😂

Following with much interest.  My soulmate and I plus 3 friends are on Enchantment in March.  We will be the ones monopolizing the dance floor.
We love sailing out of Baltimore.  Small but fit for purpose departure areas ... and definitely quick to the ship.
Have a blast ...
Curt from Canada
 

Here's the Powder Room Power View on Mariner -- Deck 11 Ladies' Restroom