CruisinUpinLife

Any bar or place serving any type of drink would be where they can get soda.

We must have gotten lucky or we were late enough on our stop to St Thomas that it wasn't very crowded at Magens Bay.

My husband and I loved Magen’s Bay Beach in St Thomas. We just walked off the ship and took a van can ride there. We did the RCCL Snuba excursion at St Maarten and enjoyed that as well.

I think by 9 you are generally expected to be off. They generally have a quick turnaround to start boarding the next sailing. Some schedule port day excursions via RCCL or 3rd party in this case.

When is your cruise? You could be too far out.

We live in MO, cruised in Dec both times, pale as can be. However, with my husband suggesting we apply sunscreen before leaving our room followed with lots of reapplication, we have enjoyed getting a little color without burning. With a friend who has already (in her 30s) gotten Melanoma, better safe than sorry is my suggestion.

I edited this because you are already in a suite and I misread.

I believe extension cords are allowed but not surge protectors. Edited since I was wrong-extension cords are NOT allowed. Thank you @AshleyDillo

Given that they do not verify/save handicap rooms for those that need them makes me think they won't do the same with connecting rooms. It's unfortunate but early bird really does get the worm.

I cannot recall how early bars open but yes, you can get drinks in the morning. There are just a lot fewer bars open-try the pool area as it often has one bar open. The cruise compass may provide you a few clues about how early they open.

Better functioning website.

It probably will not be posted until closer to departure but it can be posted sooner. They might be waiting until the Royal Up is completed to finalize your room and others.

I will second @fonemanbob's recommendation. The Key was just released as a perk when we went on our Oasis of the Seas cruise in December of 2018. At the time it sounded awesome but I did not like the price (and having to pay for every person and every day). When I got on the ship I had a little bit of FOMO when I saw signs of it but recalled the price and did not feel it was worth it. After seeing Matt's podcast yesterday, that confirmed what we were thinking-The Key is not worth it. However, there is clearly still people who find value in it since it's still being offered by RCCL.

To know if the deluxe package is worth it you will need to do the math. My husband and I are in our early 30s and did not find benefits with the DBP on our 7N cruise. We are getting ready to do another 7N cruise and opted not to purchase the DBP this time. Also consider that it also includes all specialty coffees (but not Starbucks), bottled water, juices, etc. When we did a 5N cruise with my family we found it to be more valuable. We just were drink fatigued at the end of our 7N cruise. I was also battling serious allergies since I forgot the good meds so that added to my lack of desire to drink. No matter what your choose, it's really what you think you will drink. Often people have commented on here that they purchase it, even if they do not get the full value of it each day, for the ease of having it and the lack of a huge bill at the end of their cruise from all their drinks. I've seen the DBP be as low as $49 per day for my FOTS cruise in Jan 2020. If you see it drop below $57, go ahead and purchase. If it drops again, purchase the new reduced price and cancel the higher priced one. You can do that for no penalty. Whatever you do, try not to wait until you are on the ship as you will likely pay the highest possible price for it. Also another note is that you can bring up to 2 bottles of wine per stateroom onto the ship. You cannot bring liquor or beer...just wine. Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials and enjoy your honeymoon!

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-are-the-benefits-of-the-key-program This link may help you understand your benefits with The Key. It does not appear (to me) that you can enter your stateroom early but only that your carry on bags (with limitations as mentioned in the link) will be delivered to your stateroom. The rest of the cruisers will be having to hold onto their carry on bags until the rooms are ready. I also have not seen anyone comment on the blog about being able to get into your rooms early with The Key. I also have never cruised with Carnival so I do not know if anything is similar or not. Welcome to the blog! This place is FULL of amazing information and helpful tips. Enjoy your cruise!

@mom2mybugs has a great point on the not wanting a huge bill at the end of the trip...that is one reason some buy the DBP anyways, even if it doesn't add up to the math. It really comes down to what you want to drink (alcoholic or not) and how you want to get it. You can also get bottles of water at ports but of course that is less convenient than getting them as you walk off the ship.

When you say "all the excursions are gone" do you mean RCCL excursions are gone? A lot of people, including the RCB Admin Matt would say to look at 3rd party excursions. I have not done one myself yet but will be when we go to Barbados in January.

I agree with @twangster in the longer the cruise, the harder it is to find the value in a DBP. I'm not prime either so I cannot answer the question about that but I would assume that those drinks can only be purchased in the casino. I personally have ordered a DBP (so not prime) from the casino and walked out with them and also walked in with drinks from other bars. If I were you and the prime is true, I'd just use that and skip the DBP. If you are REALLY lucky, though it seems more rare than ever, you will see a sale for a beverage card offered for purchase (like you pay a set amount of money for a 10-15 drink punch card). The only evidence I have heard of this in the last few years was on a recent Majesty of the Seas sailing that was one of the first ones with an itinerary change due to the Cuba ban.

@twangster Your explanation is spot on! I think that brings a great perspective to all...nothing is ever truly free. Companies are going to set themselves up to make the largest profit possible and that is evident in the wide variety of practices across a wide variety of cruise lines. Given where I am at in my life, I appreciate the financial flexibility offered by having a cost overall for the cruise but options to add on activities if I wish to do so. I am able to afford cruising and can add things on if I wish. Once I started seeing the explanation for Spectrum of the Seas having a basic cost and many things that are included for Westerners are not for that ship made sense when I saw the Spectrum OTS cruise prices.

I would imagine it is the same but there are probably differences between the staff making them. My husband and I enjoyed the pizza on Oasis in Dec 2018...not the best pizza ever but it was pretty good.

This thread calls for @twangster for sure....hope he can provide you some great advice! Edit: As someone who has been working on her MBA for far longer than I care to let on....if this "school" is in the form of online, try to do as much as possible beforehand and even get ahead if at all possible. Try to talk with the professor to see what kind of accommodations they can make for her such as a late discussion response (or some other way to make up something in which you have to wait for classmates to respond). There are a lot of working people who go back to school so adjustments are made, particularly when they have to travel for work. Just a few thoughts for her...good luck!

The best advice if you want to get off as soon as you possibly can is to talk off with your bags. And a little tip-if you cannot go down (because you are on a lower deck and everyone is going up to WJ for breakfast/filling up the elevator with their bags/selves) just ride up then ride down to the disembarkation deck. Get a porter to assist with bags-they often go in a different, shorter line in customs but this could be different from port to port-saw this at Port Canaveral.

I too am looking for that intern!

I haven't found a need for the bathroom organizer but I can see if you have a lot of people in one room with one bathroom that it could be useful. I think this is where Matt (admin for the site) recommends getting two rooms instead of one big room for families-extra bathroom and extra storage space!

@twangster Aren't you one that is also able to work from a ship? If I recall, then I totally understand why you do B2-3B. I'd love to but unfortunately, I must be present on site when working. Insert very sad face. However, I do have a B2B on my bucket list for sometime. I think I also need to get my husband to be a little more open to cruising. He likes covering a wide variety of vacation types and not going somewhere or doing something over and over again.