DDaley

Update after ten days: 
While I never figured out sms/iMessage texting, Roamless eSim worked great for data in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and France.  5G coverage in all areas and to my untrained eye, the speeds were just like I'm used to with ATT here in the US. 
I turned off unnecessary updates and notifications, then used my phone pre-cruise and when we were in ports....Google Maps, Facebook Messenger, all kinds of different transit apps, contactless pay (Apple Pay), translator app, and the internet to look up things we were curious about when we saw them.  I didn't restrict my phone usage at all.  I used .9 GB of data..it came to a whopping $2.14 (USD). 
I suspect most people know this, but I'm as far from a techie person as you can get...I believe turning off unnecessary updates (and other stuff) in my phone setting helped curb usage.
One important note:  It is data only, so if you need to use your phone for voice calls, I'd look to a different eSim

This is a fascinating thread...it leads me to believe Royal should change the terminology from Gratuities to Service Fee to be cleaner in their practices. Make the Service Fee a line item on the contract and be done with the wild swings that people object to.
When I read this excerpt from the ChatGPT response, I had a moment of rage.
Just like their marketing, I get weary of the games Royal plays to show these huge profits when services are being taken away. One I'd like to see come back is turn down service...in that case, I assume Royal would require more crew and fewer staterooms per attendant.

Interesting fact finding from ChatGPT
https://chatgpt.com/share/67216364-2540-8006-be34-05aace39973d

Wow I hope everyone I’ve tipped in cash just pockets it without mentioning it to Royal! This is awful.

Some info here, but still doesn't answer all the questions.
 
 

There has to be more to it. Note at the bottom there's a "regular salary" line that's empty in this case. And if this was true across the board, we'd have heard of it before.
 
I'd like to get a copy of the CBA that most crew work under.

Wow I hope everyone I’ve tipped in cash just pockets it without mentioning it to Royal! This is awful.

Wow I hope everyone I’ve tipped in cash just pockets it without mentioning it to Royal! This is awful.

I found somewhat disturbing post on Reddit. I thought that prepaid gratuities are increasing employee net income. OP suggested that prepaid gratuities decreasing RCI salary obligations and are part of guaranteed salary, therefore they are directly benefiting RCI, not employees
Is that correct?
 

When we first started cruising we cruised four in a basic ocean view, so not even a balcony. The kids were 12 and 4 on the first one, and 17 and 9 by the time we did the last one with those arrangements. It was tight and it wasn't ideal but that was what budget allowed so we made it work. Basically, we spent the vast majority of our time out of the room. Admittedly, the ships we sailed on at the time had a huge advantage over Quantum class ships in that the 3rd and 4th guests slept in pullman bunks, way better than the sofa.
If budget allows you to splurge for a JS or a second cabin, great; but my thinking is that on a cruise to Alaska that money would probably be better spent on doing great stuff off the ship rather than on an extra cabin you're going to spend very little time in.

I really don't think it's a cost cutting measure. How much money could solar powered golf carts really have? 
In my opinion, I think it became problematic to run given how few they have. Too many people asking for a ride, long lines, bad customer experience (especially for those that do have mobility issues).

30 Days 'till departure! 
Got my tags all ducked tonight! I might have gone a touch over, but hey a little overkill never hurt any one! The Boy is ready to defend his self granted title of "Cruise Duck Hunter International". We will see how well he does once he gets on board and plants himself in the teen room. 
I think I got my CNC laser working right I will find out tomorrow morning when I click start on a batch of door magnets. Our Hawaiian shirts are all in now so me the DW and the boy can be annoyingly matchie matchie all week. 
Turns out one of the other Scout Leaders I am working with for our Councils NYLT course will be on board this cruise as well. A pretty cool thing to have a friend on board without even planning it. Almost time to start packing the suitcases in earnest. I might need to dig up that rabbits foot out of the Halloween graveyard for a bit of luck. 
 

We stayed at the Park Plaza Victoria Amsterdam and found it to be perfect. Directly across the plaza from the Centraal train station and within walking distance to where the cruise ships depart from. We were on a river cruise but saw the Norwegian Prima embarking one of the days we were there. We took the train from the airport to the station and walked easily to the hotel with our luggage. The hotel was within walking distance of everything, we even walked to the Rijksmuseum! We easily hopped a train on the day we arrived to go out to Zaanse Schans to see the windmills and exhibits which I highly recommend! Great way to stave off jet lag. 

We stayed at the Park Plaza Victoria Amsterdam and found it to be perfect. Directly across the plaza from the Centraal train station and within walking distance to where the cruise ships depart from. We were on a river cruise but saw the Norwegian Prima embarking one of the days we were there. We took the train from the airport to the station and walked easily to the hotel with our luggage. The hotel was within walking distance of everything, we even walked to the Rijksmuseum! We easily hopped a train on the day we arrived to go out to Zaanse Schans to see the windmills and exhibits which I highly recommend! Great way to stave off jet lag. 

We stayed at the Park Plaza Victoria Amsterdam and found it to be perfect. Directly across the plaza from the Centraal train station and within walking distance to where the cruise ships depart from. We were on a river cruise but saw the Norwegian Prima embarking one of the days we were there. We took the train from the airport to the station and walked easily to the hotel with our luggage. The hotel was within walking distance of everything, we even walked to the Rijksmuseum! We easily hopped a train on the day we arrived to go out to Zaanse Schans to see the windmills and exhibits which I highly recommend! Great way to stave off jet lag. 

MSC does this. Great feature. 

YES, YES, YES!  I’d love an “Advanced Search” option where I can check mark cabins I want.  Not only to eliminate GTY but in my case to show only “Ocean Vew Balcony” prices.  Run this up the Royal flagpole!

Day 6 - Sea Day
With all of our ports done, we had 2 sea days on our way back to Ft Lauderdale. No real plans other than just getting sometime in the sun and Splashaway Bay in the morning. Our oldest managed to introduce himself to The Sandlot flipping through channels. We did get in a round of mini golf early after our daily breakfast at the windjammer. Mostly an uneventful day with the afternoon naps in store. 
This was the second formal night or "dress your best" or 70's night, quite the mixture walking around the ship. Before dinner we decided to head for the helipad again and we were in luck. The views are incredible and staring off and seeing nothing but ocean as far as you can see is a great place to be. We managed to dinner and said our goodbyes to Rose and Josh as the Phillies were playing the following night and our plan was to watch them in Playmakers. After dinner the plan was to see the show in the theatre, when both boys realized they left their new sonic and spiderman key chains in the dining room. I managed to get in an unplanned workout running back to the dining room where Rose had them set aside, followed by a run back to the theatre. The show was based around fairytales with music mixed in and a live orchestra. While not the most amazing show we've ever seen it was worth going to and the kids loved it again. After the show it was off for ice cream on the promenade, they had a good selection of flavors and it was very creamy which was nice. 

Day 5 - Charlotte Amalie
Our day started about 7am with the sights of some islands behind us followed by the ship being turned around and backed into the harbor to port. We had wanted to book the excursion to Magen's Bay for the assurance of making it back to the ship, for whatever reason this was not available to book with a 2 year old, Royal claims its due to insurance. We decided to take the risk and pay for the taxi ourselves and go anyway. It was very easy to find the taxi's and get to whatever destination you wanted. We passed a decent sized iguana of some sort on our walk. The roads were an interesting ride with how steep they were but there were some amazing views of both sides of the island on our way. Once there our driver said if everyone on the taxi could agree to a time he would give everyone a discount, this was eventually settled to 1. It's also worth mentioning there is a $7 fee for adults to get into Magen's Bay,, kids under 12 were free. Magen's Bay was very nice and not overly crowded. It is worth noting we were the only ship here today so if there are more, it is probably going to be very crowded. There are a handful of picnic benches under tress that are free to use, other than that they offer chair and tent as well as towel rentals, they are $20 each. We were able to grab a free bench as we got there before the Royal excursions did! The water was slightly deceiving in that it appears rather calm but the strength of the water was very strong. We were a little extra cautious with our over confident 4 year old and made sure to keep him between someone and the beach when he was in the water with us. It was also really warm here, between that, it being day 5 of vacation, and the constant swimming and playing the boys weren't going to make it to 1 without making the rest of the day a waste, so off to find a taxi back around 12. There is a stop where they run taxi's roughly every 20 minutes to either the ship or downtown. I imagine if you wanted somewhere else they could accommodate that as well. We were back to the ship by 1230, grabbed lunch in the windjammer and made it back to the room for nap time. For what its worth, we still managed to save money by going ourselves vs with Royal, although there was a great sale the week before we went the difference was $15-$20. Lunch was unremarkable, but again above average buffet food so we were pleased.
Dinner was the main dining room again with no real rush. My wife snuck off to a massage taster which turned into a 75 minute massage. Meanwhile they boys and I decided to go take some silly pictures with the photographers. To this point most of the photographers were only suggesting the same simple poses with every backdrop and not putting a lot into it. When we began to goof off many of them got very excited and one in particular went crazy with snapping shots and laughing with us. Not sure if this is being pushed by Royal, this ships Focus management or something else. It would be great to see the photographers be able to get creative and loosen up, while still getting the serious portraits as well. After some fun we ended up in the pub when shortly after Darla arrived to start preparing for her set. Our 4 year old is obsessed with the song Two Blue Chairs and You by Zac Brown Band that has just come out. Darla happened to overhear him talking to me and asked if he knew the song Chicken Fried which he also likes. This ended up being her second song of the night, this seemed fair as the first was happy birthday to another 2 year old. When taking her guitar out she asked our 4 year old if he wanted to "help" tune her guitar when he chickened out, our 2 year old jumped up to the plate. They both loved being there for the music and were even having their own dance party. Before long it was time to head back to the room for the night and hope that momma bear would find her way back from the spa, which she did right before bed, even if she did walk down the wrong side of the ship.(her words not mine)

Day 2 - Coco Cay
I was woken up by an increase in vibration in our cabin about 650, peaking out of the curtains, we were making our turn to back into the pier at Coco Cay! I managed to sneak out on to the balcony incase Captain Dustin needed any extra help getting Freedom in there. I managed to do this with only waking up my wife, which is impressive since the boys were both asleep on the pullout couch right next to the balcony door. For a brief period we could see Wonder behind us waiting their turn to dock next to us. After parking like the Freedom is a Maserati, it was very clear there was a storm on the other side of the island coming right for us. Within a few minutes you could watch the downpour come across the island and the ship, fortunately, as quick as it moved in, the storm was gone. This was the only rain we would see our entire trip until we were back at the airport on our way home.
We hit the Windjammer for breakfast and as Freedom is the smallest ship we've been on since Enchantment in 2014, we were pleasantly surprised how efficient and ample seating was. For a buffet the food was surprisingly fresh and hot, there was also a great selection in each section to make it easy to get food and keep track of the kids at the same time. This was perfect because both boys decided they were going for records, our oldest loved the vegetable fried rice, which I had to agree was odd for breakfast but damn good.  Our 2 year old decided to try to eat the ship out of apples, this is a much more normal breakfast option, but equally as odd because he doesn't eat them at home.
Last time we were here in 2022, we spent the day at Harbor Beach since the boys were so young. This time we wanted to be on the Ocean so we picked a spot on Chill Island so we would still be close to Chill Grill. We were able to get a row of 4 chairs about 4 rows up from the water. We spent quite a bit of time in the water, not surprising since our 4 year old is a fish and loves swimming. He was super confident for swimming in the ocean for the first time, even being up to shoulder deep water on me, I'm 6'3. We got some great pictures here by the photo team, only to find out they were from Wonder, it took a while before finding the staff from Freedom who we only saw once. We had seen many more from Wonder and multiple times for a few of them. They were offering to use our phones as they knew we were looking for Freedom's without finding them. 
Lunch was at Chill Grill and was good as we expected. It handles the crowds well and the food is above average for buffet style. I had the Cuban sandwich and a Cheese steak. the Cuban was the highlight and the Cheese steak would probably be good if we weren't from the Philly area. After lunch we wandered back to Captain Jill's Galleon for the kids to get in some pirate ship time before catching an afternoon nap. Our room attendant Bobby was a riot to be around, he was always in a great mood and it seemed as if he was always near our room whenever we went out or returned. He made sure the boys had a towel animal each day and always went out of his way to interact with all of us. Not that we were ever in a bad mood on vacation but if we were, Bobby certainly would change that, he was a true joy to be around.
Dinner was in the main dining room again, I think this was the Italian night and I had the chicken parm, my wife was able to get the chicken parm gluten free. Much to our surprise it came out breaded. Royal seems to have really stepped up their gluten free game recently as both the windjammer and Chill Grill had gluten free sections as well. We let Rose and Josh know that we were planning to attend the ice show at 715 this evening and they were able to get us through our meal in just over an hour!
The ice show was impressive, not sure why but I don't think we've ever gone to an ice show on any of our other cruises. This was also the first show our kids have gone to other than Aqua 80 and they had a blast. After the show we wandered the promenade, listened to a few songs from Darla Fox at the pub before calling it a night.

🤩 Gotta see the mules! I am thinking Panama Canal 2026 may be in the cards for my 40th birthday! 

Wow those lock pics are AMAZING! I just did the Rhine and the locks were all from such a low position since our ship was only 3 decks high (pic for reference). This is so cool to see it filling from such a high vantage point. Could you touch the wall from the lower decks? This is making me wanna book this itinerary sooner rather than later! 

 

While I'm excited about the announcement, I can't overlook how Costa Maya has earned the nickname Costa Maybe. I hope they do something so we don't miss port so often 
 

Day 14
After lunch we rushed to progressive trivia - we came in second! We only lost by 2 points, and given that I didn't actually join until round 2, I'm taking this as a win! We got little cruise ship USBs and water bottles, so not a bad deal for 8 rounds of RC trivia. 
I popped back to our room and discovered the dreaded luggage tags, but also a Panama Canal Crossing certificate - didn't know that was a thing. 
Luckily, we have one more sea day, so we just put the luggage tags in the drawer and pretended they don't exist. 🙈

Hung out by the pool for a bit as there were no afternoon gym classes. The sea is definitely rocking today. I jumped in the hot tub for a bit (had the whole thing to myself) and the water was spilling out. I love having the late dinner because the pool clears out, but we still have a few hours of daylight left.

We went to the show before dinner. Standard production show, however this is the cast's last show of their contract. Seems like they got one of the best contracts - they started in Australia, did a transpacific, had the Alaska season, and got to finish going down the coast and across the Panama Canal. (Side note, our waiter is staying on until drydock in Europe after the NOLA season, so he will have done 4 continents on one ship!)

Tomorrow is the last day and they have only one show time. This is pretty standard. However, the single show is at the same time as the second dinner seating, forcing people to choose! We have negotiated as a table with our waitstaff to come at 8:15 after the show, as long as we're ready to order!

Day 14 - The Penultimate Sea Day
I was up early today, about 6:15. Even though the time difference is crazy, I'm trying to get back to my 5:30/6 am school wake up time ahead of my return.
Quick stop at Cafe Lattetudes. They are awesome. I am impressed by how they seem to know everyone's order. I then went for a hot girl walk on Deck 12. It was a literal hot girl walk because it was 30 degrees at 7 am. I took a few ship photos on my way. Obviously, Brilliance is an older ship, but other than a few small cosmetic dings (chips in a bathroom door, fraying chair in the lounge) it is in good nick. And exceptionally clean. The only major maintenance issue has been that the Deck 4 bathrooms right outside the MDR are freakishly hot. But this is the only place with that problem.