YOLO

Check out this topic about bringing your own straws. I don't think cleaning them with sink hot water is a bad thing.

I would be interested in knowing as well...

@heffy2 Sorry I did not contribute to this blog. Ceil and I had a great time on this cruise though. We were mostly in the Solarium. I'll check my camera pics (not yet downloaded) to see if I have anything interesting to add here. We usually "disconnect" on our cruises and pretty much stay off-line. This is actually the first time I am seeing this. Thanks for your blog work! I wish I had been following...

I for one would actually start gambling on cruise ships if the casinos were entirely smoke free. So I wonder how many current gamblers would quit and how many new ones would start...

I like this idea better. It is super easy and quickly customizable...

I think the OP's original question had to do with re-pricing cruise essentials (ie cruise planner) items. Matt's recommendation is always exactly that - purchase your items ASAP and then reprice when there is a sale or discount. I found that joining your specific cruises's FB group is a good way to get alerted of CP price changes for your sailing. It worked for me...

There is a crew drill scheduled for later this morning, so our boarding is scheduled to be delayed. BUT, thanks for getting your luggage out early. Preesh. ?

Joe, sounds like you had a nice trip. Thanks for paving the way for @heffy2 and I, even though we go to NE/Canada instead. How were those edamame at Izumi?

Thanks Ashley, that's kind of what I was wondering. We are in an inside room and our offers went up to balcony. Makes sense...

Yeah, I agree for booking if it is a sure 3% with Costco vs an iffy 2% with the RCL card. But, what if you buy anything on the Cruise Planner? Maybe then the RCL card is worth it. But if you have another 2% card (like Citi Double-Cash or Synchrony Bank) then it may be a moot point. Me personally, I use the RCL card for all Cruise Planner purchases...

You can convert 10K points to a $100 On Board Credit. So I think the card is worth it.

I got a RoyalUp email last week for tomorrow's Anthem cruise. I clicked on the link and looked at the choices, but there were no suite choices. Does this make sense or did I just do something wrong and not see those options somehow.

Gee, for me that would take a lot of the fun out of upgrading to JS. IMO that doesn't seem very fair and I find it very confusing...

Ditto - even though I am a bit late...

@ChrisK2793 & @wstephensi. Let me first start with LESSON LEARNED: When on a cruise ship, if you, a loved one, a friend, or a passenger are involved in an incident DO NOT try to handle it yourself! Security is everywhere, often much closer than you might think, so your ONLY involvement should be to seek them out for help. Please please learn from me and DO NOT DO what I did! My Elevator story has a lot of facets which make it a rather long story so I will keep it as brief as possible by leaving out many details. Hope it is understandable... Our 121028 Freedom cruise was a partial charter by the https://www.highseasrally.com group. In talking to members of the group we learned there were over 2000 of them. So they easily out numbered us. Suffice to say (and you can read my related posts in the link below) that this cruise was unlike ANY of our over 30 cruises - very unlike! On the second night (Formal) five of us boarded an elevator going down to dinner (my wife, my sister, and two friends). The elevator was nearly full and at our first stop there was a man and a woman in a wheelchair. They were together and he was carrying both of their glasses of red wine. We did our best to squeeze them in and at our next stop going down it became apparent the man was already having a very good time for himself. At that stop we found more people on their way down to dinner. With barely any room left in our elevator, the man invited more people on. We squeezed in two more, but my sister got stepped on. This was a really bad situation for her as she had recently had foot surgery and still had temporary pins in her foot. So we politely, but quickly try to explain this to man and asked him to not move any further back. This is where he became belligerent as he either did believe us or just did not care about us. It seemed to us like we were not going to stop his fun. Two more stops and he and his wife got off for dinner (thank goodness). The five of us were in a back corner of the elevator. As the door was closing a passenger next to me (who I did not know) broke the camels back by shouting to the man something like "good riddance and take your wine with you". So just before the door closed the man threw both red wines into the corner of the elevator where we were standing. We all got the wine on us, but my sister took the brunt of it. We were all really pissed by this point and no one more than I. My sister did not deserve that. She wears very nice clothes to formal night dinners. The next elevator stop was ours just one floor down from the couple's so I made the decision to run up one flight to confront him. THIS is where I should have found security! Anyway we both got into it, both ended up in sick bay, and both ended up getting dis-embarked two days later in Jamaica. When security talked to my wife and I, they make it very clear that I would NOT be banned for life, so that made me think that the other man may have been. FYI: All decisions of this type are completely up to the ship's captain. Thank You Captain for having some mercy on me. ? Four of my group got off in Jamaica and two of us stayed on the ship. So my sister asked "Art you just thrown off a cruise ship, what are you going to do now?" I said "Let's go to Disney World" and we did... See here for a small discussion on partial charter cruises...

Not to mention changing flights...

True, but they ruined it for themselves both too. They will never cruise RCL again! Can you imagine? I got thrown off Freedom once. Luckily, I was not banned for life...

I thought about doing this. I am not sure how easily doable it would be for this booking, since this is my free cruise using my RCL credit card points. The rules on this are pretty strict. Also, we have 3 other couples booked with us and they would have to change too.

We have our first Harmony cruise booked for Nov 1, 2020 but never again. I already hate it because of the lack of a pool in the solarium!

@KBugNC Just wondering what did you decided about the credit card?

Yes, like many have said it this thread, the perspective of this photo (and the fact that photos don't show depth of field like our eyes do) gives it a flat depth making it look wrong to our eyes. If there was more detail in the photo [depth of field], or if it have been shot from a different position [perspective], we might interpret the photo differently.

While not a board game, I love to seek out Table Tennis on the ship. Truth be told: I have my own racket which often cruises with me. Its a great way to meet new people and have a good laugh. BTW, this game does not mix very well with the DBP.

Hey Mike, This is not same question/issue the OP had. If your OBC shows up in the Cruise Planner check-out you can certainly choose to use. There is a an option for you to do so. But I have had many OBCs which don't show up until I board the ship. If this happens to you then you will have to pay for your planner purchases now and wait for your OBC once you are on the ship.

@Mackensie Hi and welcome to the RCB forums. I must say that I have never done this before. And it sounds like you have already made your final payment, so getting your money back on kid's room may be an issue like you seem to be expecting. But, I don't see any reason if you win your RU bid for a GS that you can't have your kids in that room with you. You can try calling RCL to see what they have to say, but they don't always provide consistent answers. Maybe just do it if you win and don't tell them...

I've had the card for about 15 years and managed to get 3 free cruises during that time. Well the cruises aren't exactly free. In all free cruise cases (125K points), you need to pay port charges and taxes. They change the rules as they see fit, so you have to deal with that. The basic free deal is this: You can get a RCL 7 day Ocean View Caribbean cruise for two at a value up to $2500. That's about a 2% return if you do the math (assume you book a room close to $2500 in value, some of your points are doubled from RCL purchases, and minus the port charges and taxes you have to pay). This is tricky, takes patience, and not an exact science. Also, if you use that card for only RCL purchases you will find that exchanging points for OBC will yield a 2% return. These days, I use the Citi Double Cash Card (2% for every purchase!). I find this is just easier to deal with for the same return. NOTE: During the time I booked my second free cruise, RCL's policy had changed and they made me pay more for the cruise than I could actually purchase it for! They had some sort of lookup table that they were required to book the complimentary cruise using. Needless to say, that free cruise netted me less that a 2% return and I was NOT happy. My 201101 Harmony cruise is a free BOA RCL card reward. I upgraded to a Balcony from the standard Ocean View and our total cost was around $650. An OK deal, but the old C&A balcony upgrade for diamond was $175 and they used to honor that upgrade deal - back in the old days... ?