Tmsmith

Thanks for the feedback! I never thought to check menus in the app but I went through MDR vs CK so I was prepared when the suite concierge email me today! 

This is our 3rd oasis class cruise but first in a true suite. I am excited to visit CK  because of all the feedback here.

Three questions/recommendations:

1) would you book dinner reservations for the entire week or as you go? I am thinking there might be a night or two my husband wants to eat in MDR.

2) Tipping in CK? I know tipping is personal but do you tip and if so, what? We always tip over on cruises because we value to experience the staff provide.

3) I thought I read somewhere that CK serves lobster on night 1. can anyone confirm?

12 hours ago, Oliver said:

Agree

second that!

make the deal, pay the deposit and reprice.  as long as the cruise isn't paid in full, you can check to see if there is a lower fare and call Royal to honor it if there is.

1 hour ago, Pooch said:

Didn’t you wonder how everyone else packing the bar were getting theirs??

I did but it didn't bother me. apparently it didn't bother him enough to go ask. I checked us in yesterday for our next cruise and he wanted a 1:00 check in so the room would be ready. I picked 10:30 because, for me, vacation starts the minute I step on the boat!

57 minutes ago, Pooch said:

Was he unable to get drinks on the first 2?

He didn't even try since we didn't have the room card. He waited not so patiently until our room was ready. Lol

On 9/13/2022 at 8:35 PM, SpeedNoodles said:

You can use  your set sail pass (that you used to check in) for anything on the ship before getting your SeaPass card.  They will be on your stateroom door, so you won't have them until cabins are ready.

THANK YOU! This is our 3rd cruise since the restart and now I don't have to listen to my husband complain he can't get his vacation started without a drink. 

13 hours ago, asquared17 said:

we like the holiday inn express on 17th just before the bridge (https://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/us/en/fort-lauderdale/fllcc/hoteldetail)

but any of the hotels in this area are perfect; there's a hilton, marriott, some other major chain places too. the pricing is not as low as it is farther away from the port -- but from here you can see the ships at the bridge in the morning on a walk, which is so cool when there are multiple ships in port. there's also a starbucks and chipotle across the street (usually where we snag dinner the night before) and of course, the publix and homegoods maybe 5-10 mins away (you could uber if you had a lot to carry) too.

Thanks!

9 hours ago, asquared17 said:

omg YES. OTC meds are so vital!! you can get a lot of things in the 'commissary'/shops onboard the ship but the convenience markup may make your soul WEEP (as it does mine) and depending on your ports of call, you may or may not be able to source it ashore.

a great window to do a final check on this is if you fly in the day/night before and you make a quick run to the grocery store/local drug store to grab anything last minute. we typically grab our bottle of wine, any last minute OTC meds, specialty non-dairy milk, etc.

it's a lot more relaxed and your brain can actually catch up to what you might need last minute.

true story; someone in my party forgot headphones and we had to grab a new pair of bluetooth ear pods at the local TJ maxx. great bargain, and right next to the publix, so we were able to kill two birds with one stone. (this was in fort lauderdale, about 5-7 mins from the port)

Sorry to hijack but what hotel were you staying at in Ft Lauderdale that was that convenient?

We bring enough $1 bills to cover our Diamond voucher tips for the entire cruise. In the morning, we pull out the money for the day and we never have to remember how many vouchers we've used. 

We dud done Salsa, Salsa and Margarita in Cozumel with my early 20s niece and she had a great time. While not "adventurous," we learned how to make real salsa, guacamole and margaritas. then, after a couple of hours drinking margaritas, we learned how to salsa dance (or thats what they told us).

In Roatan,  we took a cab to the beach and spent our money renting jet skis and had a blast. It was our first time there and had no idea what to expect and the water was absolutely beautiful. 

in Cayman,  we have done Sting Ray City twice and enjoyed it both times.

We did Enchantment earlier this year and I would switch ships in a heartbeat!  The boat is in need of refurbishing. There where two days when we had no hot water to shower before dinner.

The Grand suite is nothing spectacular and the ship has literally nothing to do other than karaoke and games that are played at children's birthday parties.  It was our 3rd time on Enchantment and my husband was emphatic that we are done with that boat.

if you purchase the floating mat and change beaches, do you drag the mat around or can you pick up a new one?

Yes, the fee is round trip, shuttles run all day.

We tip on Diamond vouchers: $1 for beer and $2 for mixed drinks. its not quite the 18% but we will give bigger tip at the end of the cruise for wait staff we really enjoy.

5 minutes ago, Pattycruise said:

I would imagine if you went to guest services they could have fixed that?

Probably, but we didn't. we felt "guilty" complaining about a "free" benefit. 

Word of caution. Be explicit when you do not want to use the drink vouchers. we intended to purchase two bottles of water when we were departing the ship for a port day and the crew charged them against the vouchers. $26 worth of drinks for water was disappointing. 

15 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

Don’t worry too much about that. Just have your vaccine card with you when you check in at the port.

What you want to make sure of is that you do have the info on your card that you are fully vaccinated.  A friend of mine was almost denied boarding because of ambiguous information about the vaccines she got and the numbers on the card.

Thanks. Our state has an electronic version they populated  based upon the vaccine administrator logged. I can open that proof too. I just didn't want RCC to cancel our reservation due to trouble in the App.

Has anyone had issues with successfully uploading their vaccination card during check in on the App? My document keeps flagging because it says it cannot be validated and I have tried three times. It is the same card I uploaded for our November sailing.

36 minutes ago, AlmondFarmer said:

Please report back with your findings. I’m in a two bedroom grand suite on cancelled sailing. None available on offered replacement dates. Maybe they will open up more dates or ships for transfer?

After 1.5 hrs on the phone, there are no equivalent  cabins available so nothing they can or will do. Only options are rebook at non-guaranteed rate or refund. All GSs for non-offerred options are more than double, sometimes 3x, what we paid. 

This is the first time I can honestly say I may be done with RCC.

We were on this sailing as well. I am on the phone with RCC now and they are not booking a repositioning sailing in its place. The replacement options offered do not have our cabin category available either. we were in Grand Suite and none are available for any of the offerings. They have escalated to a new department to see if they can "find" a GS. Point to all of that, dont wait too long to contact them if cabin category matters.  They are essentially merging us into already booked up cruises.

1. Purchased from:  Optum

2. Order date: 12/31/2021

3. Approval date: 12/31/2021

4. Shipped date: 1/1/2022

5. Received date: 1/5/2022

6. Expiration date: 11/15/2022 

We were on Liberty in Nov and while sitting in the Promenade, saw store clerks, bar staff and even cleaning crew members stop what they were doing, come out into the walkway, and politely remind someone to either put their mask on or how to wear it correctly.  We were very impressed and commented on it in the survey. There is so much media on negative cruise things, we wanted them to know their crew are doing things right.

On 12/6/2021 at 12:25 PM, TXcruzer said:

Had hunter green out of Galveston a couple weeks ago

We had white out of Galveston.

37 minutes ago, Pooch said:

How did you add the snaps on board???

we did the same thing last week. a needle, thread and two minutes of time.