Grenadyr

We recently arrived at 10:35 and people were already boarding.  We were drink in hand by 11:15.

9 hours ago, CarlaB said:

Was this $275 per person or total? We're sailing the Anthem on 11/16 for 7 nights and I bid $275 per person to go from a Balcony to JS and now I'm thinking I may have bid too much. Still says "pending" on the Royal Up login page. 

$275 per person,and they only charge for the first rwo passengers. So, for three of us to go from a large balcony to JS was $550 total. 

We cruise on Nov 10th, we got our offer and I made a bid on Sept 11th, it was accepted on October 2nd.  Fwiw our minimum bid was $250 to go from a large oceanview balcony to a Jr Suite.  I bid $275 and had no expectation I would get it.  Good luck!

Fwiw, we were originally going to get my daughter certified and a refresher for me on our upcoming cruise.  After a little research about our local dive shops we found it was cheaper for my daughter to trained locally and I ended up getting my refresher free.  The deciding factors were the difficulty in planning our excursions when we didn't know when and where the open water dives would be, how much personal attention we would get during the classes, and whether my our certifying dives would be together.  She ended up certifying through SDI over about 2 months, as our schedules allowed, and found it very enjoyable and unhurried.  (She also finds it very amusing that she got her diving license before her friends got their driving licenses.)  As a result we now have 4 dives planned together thru local dive shops when we visit Roatan and Costa Maya.

2 minutes ago, isaywhateveryo said:

Thanks!  I'm not even on Royal Caribbean, so VOOM doesn't apply to me.  But my cruise line also does not appear to have terms and conditions prohibiting this.  Frankly, I'm not sure why they would -- you're getting only a single device's pipeline and splitting it.  It's not like you're pulling additional bandwidth.  It's the same thing as if you logged out on one device and logged in with another, except without the hassle (although it introduces other hassles such as mobility from your cabin with wi-fi).  I don't want to do anything nefarious with it, rather I want to use it to get work emails on my phone but still surf the internet on my iPad.  But obviously everyone will have to judge on their own whether they consider it appropriate legally and ethically.

It is a bit of a gray area to say the least.  For our cruise we got my daughter her own package as she likes to stream music and video when she surfs and would be considered a high bandwidth kind of user.  My wife and I have our own package for checking email and surfing web pages, both fairly low bandwidth activities.  The vast majority of the time we'll be on separately, except when we're winding down at night at which time we're usually on at the same time.  The other concern was my daughter will be roaming on her own so that allows her to be messaged without delay, while my wife and I will be together and can use one device for texts.

Fwiw, its also because I like toys and its something to play with on the cruise.

I contacted special needs due to a allergy I have.  Here is the response they sent me...

Quote

Thank you for contacting the Access Department.
 Allergies are handled daily on all sailings. We have advised our ship staff of your dietary/allergy needs.

Our galley has a separate preparation area away from the main production area to prepare meals for guests with allergies and to avoid cross-contamination of the meals.  Our Food and Beverage Staff attend recurring training programs regarding allergy protocols.

During the booking process, we ask that the guest choose a set dining time versus My Time Dining. This will provide the guests with a dedicated serving staff for the cruise.

Once the guest is onboard, we ask them to visit the dining room, introduce themselves and speak with the dining staff to advise of the (Sunflower seeds, and Raw sunflower) allergy.  Please advise the dining staff with your allergies at the table. 

Please be advised that we offer Gluten Free meals as a standard offering on our menus in the main dining room. We carry lactose free, soy, and almond milk onboard. 

When guests eat in the Windjammer, please ask for a manager so they can arrange to get a meal from the galley. This will avoid any cross contamination that may occur at the buffet. 

When eating in specialty restaurants or other food venues, it is important to advise our staff of the allergies.
If we can be of further assistance, please contact us.

I have the RAVPower filehub and plan on trying it out in a couple of weeks.  I've experimented with it here at home and it seems pretty easy to setup and use so far.  I hadn't heard anything about MAC cloning but I was under the impression that they provided a login and password for each Voom package you buy.  As you can supposedly log one device out and then login another device using the same credentials I'm not sure why they would be checking MAC's against logins.  I have heard they actively block VPN's though.

I'm not a lawyer (and I don't play one on TV) but I didn't see a restriction on using a travel router in the admittedly brief terms and conditions I found.  They certainly specify each package is per device per day and they have a generic note that pricing is per person.  If you wanted to stretch the "per device" part of that to the breaking point you could argue that the travel router constitutes your one device as its the only device actively connecting to the ships wifi.

Fwiw, we bid $275/pp for an upgrade to a JS, when the minimum bid was $250/pp. We were notified about 45 days out that we got it. I wasn't expecting to get the upgrade or be notified that early. 

On 9/18/2019 at 6:25 PM, JLMoran said:

@Grenadyr, just had a thought about this calculator as I was using once again -- Is there a way to modify the program so that items like the Fresh-squeezed OJ (only available at breakfast) and specialty coffees (can argue most often bought in the morning, at least for the first one) are not "depreciated" in the spend-per-port-day calculation?

I'm just thinking that if someone expects to have a fresh OJ with breakfast every day, that would likely happen on port days as well as sea days. Likewise, if someone says they're only have one coffee a day then it's likely with or right after breakfast, and would be as likely to be bought on a port day as a sea day. Maybe the second coffee and higher still gets "depreciated" for port days, though. Same goes for bottled water -- people with the drink packages tend to always grab a bottle or two as they leave the ship to go into port, so they can stay hydrated through the day without having to buy any on land (if it's even available).

I don't know how much flexibility the calcapp site allows for things like that, but thought I'd mention it as it's always good to try and get as close to a real estimate as possible. It'd be especially useful for folks with the Refreshment package, since counting those drinks at full price on the port days helps better track how good the current price is vs. expected consumption.

@JLMoran , Good thought.  I'll have to think about that. Ultimately it would be easier if it was a selectable option but I'm at the limit for usable fields with the level of calcapp I subscribe to.  I might be able to rig something in the background calculations.  As it stands it would probably be a blanket removal of the depreciation for coffee, juice, and water.  That would be easily done without needing another field.

Here's the suggestions I've found while looking around online for room steward gifts in addition to cash...

1.  Hard Liquor.  (Yeah, I know...)  Supposedly hard liquor can be difficult/costly for crew members to get as the crew bars stay with beer/wine.  Anyway, something regional or different could be fun as a gift.  (Assuming you get it onboard.)

2.  Snack foods.  I was thinking about regional foods again as you can buy doritos anywhere.

3.  USB sticks loaded with music / movies.  Crew internet access is limited and can be costly and supposedly there is great demand for electronic entertainment, especially if its tradeable.

4.  Toiletries.  Not sure about this one as people can be pretty picky about their deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, etc...

5.  International prepaid calling cards.  Not sure if this one is still relevant in the age of the interweb.

On 6/12/2019 at 11:43 AM, GeoffG said:

Is it worth buying the drinks package.  Thank you

Try this to help you decide.  Don't forget the package includes your premium coffees, fresh squeezed juice, and sodas.

Btw, Kraken and Coke is the only correct answer.  

22 hours ago, Astra616 said:

Thank y’all for the responses! My husband and I are still debating about the drink package but more than likely we will purchase. Thanks!

Here's a handy calculator I made to help you figure out the dollar amount you may drink while on the cruise.  You'll find it adds up fast when you include coffees, fresh squeezed juice, and sodas.

Black friday also seems to be a great time for Cruise Planner sales.  So far the best I've seen for the Deluxe Beverage Package (DBP) is $49 pp/day, for the Refreshment package was $20 pp/day and the soda package at 8.99 pp/day.  I"m not expecting to see anything better unless there's a particularly good sale on 4th of July or Labor Day.

I'm wondering RCI will offer to move people from later sailings, who are already authorized to visit Cuba, to earlier sailings to fill more ships.

Alright, Drinkcalc V.2 is ready for testing.  The underlying math is identical but the interface is better due to it being through a different service.

DrinkCalc V.2

On 6/2/2019 at 7:33 AM, Cruzinfun said:

Thank you, this is really helpful and very simple!   

Glad it was helpful. 

On 6/2/2019 at 10:21 AM, janesta said:

Thanks - this is really nice.  One suggestion would be to tell you which package would be your best bet based on selections.  For me, the DBP is a no-brainer

DBP was a pretty easy choice for me as well.  I may break even but its more about not seeing dollar signs every time I get a drink, and being able to relax instead.

I thought about the the drink package selection and feel it strays too far away from "pure" math and would involve logic and decision making work.  I'm just a geek / mechanic not a real programmer so its probably beyond my ability to do in a useful fashion.  I have made a different version of the calculator via a different service that may be more streamlined, but have yet to deploy it.

5 hours ago, Momof4crazytocruise said:

Thanks for this. While I knew deep down I would find no challenge getting my money's worth - now it seems justifiable   Also, I drink too much evidently.

I know how you feel.  I'm not sure if I should be relieved or concerned that I should definitely get my monies worth buying the drink package.

7 hours ago, JLMoran said:

This looks really good! Two minor comments:

1. I know you said you're limited in how much control you have over layout, but is it possible to have the calculator panel just be entirely on the main page, instead of being embedded inside a scrolling pane? While it works fine on a desktop computer and a tablet, the current setup makes using the page very hard on a  smartphone -- I wasn't able to scroll the inner pane half the time, and tapping on a control lower down in the pane like "Bottled Water" or "Percent of time on ship in port days" would cause the panel to jump back to the top
2. I think saying that 50% of a port day is spent on the ship is a little high, although I realize it's pretty variable depending on the hours the ship is in port, how popular the port is, etc.
   • Defaulting to 33% might be a better / more conservative estimate, since a lot of the time people will leave the ship right after breakfast and not be back until shortly before dinner
   • I do realize that if you stay up late enough, you really can spend about 50% of your day on board, but I would argue you're not drinking over that 50% the same amount you would be if you were on board for the "50%" between breakfast and dinner, just because you're likely to be tired out, more inclined to want water for a while, etc.

Really appreciate this! It helps figure out the "magic number" for when to buy a package or not!

The first one I can't do much about due the limitations in the service I'm using.  I'll need to find a more flexible standalone website builder that I can work with.  Maybe changing the input fields to the same style as the cruise length and port stays will make it easier to scroll.  I noticed that scrolling on my phone would routinely screw up the values I entered on the drink sliders.

The second one is done.  I changed the default to 33 and allowed selection of any whole number value between 0 and 100.

I made a spreadsheet to calculate my break even point for getting the Deluxe Beverage Package on an upcoming cruise.  It turned out to be pretty useful and I thought others might find it interesting.  So...  I made a site on Wix to host an online version of the calculator for anyone that might be interested.

DrinkCalc

DrinkCalc V.2  (Now prettier and hopefully easier to use.)

I'm open to feedback to improve it as needed.  Keep in mind the options for style are limited but I can tweak the math as much as I want.

Looks like 5 minutes away down A1A. 

Fwiw, we booked a mid-size from Orlando through National for our upcoming cruise in November and it came to $62 plus taxes.

Also, looks like the toll  situation for Florida is a bit complicated and potentially expensive when you pay through your car rental agency.  They're offering a temporary toll pass that hangs from your mirror like a handicapped hanger that will charge your tolls directly to your own credit card.  They're trying it out this summer and have people at the Orlando airport to get you setup.  You can even hold onto it for your return trip to the airport if needed and just return it at the airport.  Might be worth checking out.

Visitor Toll Pass

The refreshment package also includes smoothies (approx $9/each) and milk shakes (approx $5/each).  Add that to my daughter's recent discovery of mocktails and the refreshment package became a no brainer for me when it hit $20/day.

Fwiw, National is in the same building as Alamo and Enterprise.  If your ship leaves from CT1 its a half mile walk from the terminal.  If you're "lucky" enough to be leaving from another terminal you will need to take the shuttle.  There is also a Race Trac gas station just outside the port where you can fill up before you drop off your return.  And, If you need to rent a car when you get back the offices open at 7am most days.