YOLO

@ckruetze & @Pooch  Thanks - good to know...

I had @Sharlapay for mine ahead of time for our July sailing. We then tip on top of that as the service is usually outstanding. Last sailing on the Mariner was a bit rough so I left our room steward a cabin so clean he didn't have to practically lift a finger BUT the prepaid gratuity was all I felt was earned. First time EVER we didn't give extra. The snafu in the MDR when we arrived and someone else was dining at our assigned table (specially requested off in a quiet corner it was day 4) We still gave our hard working servers extra gratuity but the head waiter received nothing extra either. Our servers were so upset they kept coming over to our table across the restaurant to make sure we were okay! I felt strongly that their hard work not be reflected in a lost gratuity  because someone clearly palmed the head waiter some extra $$ for our table. 
I never pre-paid gratuities before about 3 sailings ago & now I'm hooked. I like my on board account just being our extras for me it leaves me feeling great stepping off the ship as opposed to getting hit in the face with that last folio. 

We're getting our quote from Kelley...   looking like a fun one!!  I did this many years ago on a grey-hulled ship...  😉

If you can raise billions of dollars on a GoFund Me page you can quite almond farming now.  🙂 

They don’t show on my iPhone in portrait mode, only if I turn to landscape.

Not sure what the problem is but you can disable all signatures here https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/settings/signature/
I have turned them off and it makes the reading experience much nicer I think. Plus on a slow connection it should load faster.

On the Ovation last week our head waiter helped us a lot.  We had a group of 8.  One is vegan and he took her custom (not off the app vegan menu) order for each following day - whatever she wanted and they could make.  One of us has pine-nut allergies.  He checked every menu the night before for her allergies.  One of us required Gluten Free and he took care of that too each night.  And lastly my wife had surgery the previous week for a blockage.  He got whatever soup she wanted (that was all she was eating).  He earned our money last week!

Of course... all Vision and Radiance class ships are available to any serious buyer.  However they need to be careful they don't sell them to a startup company that would become a competitor and erode sales. So it's not so simple as it say a ship is for sale to anyone like an old VW sitting on a used car lot.
At some point "soon" they will be gone.  Is that in the next 1 - 2 years or 5 - 10 years?  I'm not sure even Royal knows right now.  it will happen when it happens.   By the year 2035 it's pretty safe to say they will all be gone.  By the year 2025 maybe some or all will be gone.  By 2023 it's very uncertain if any of them will be gone.  Despite that when it happens someone is going to come back to these threads and say "I told you they were for sale!".
Over the years many ships have left the fleet.  How or why they leave isn't important.  Until a departure is announced officially it is business as normal.  When it comes to the Panama Canal if you want to do it on Royal you had better do it "soon".  Once these two classes of ship leave the fleet there will be no more Panama Canal on Royal.  

That was us - years ago when we were younger... 🙂

We are "generic diners" who have no specific dietary needs or have a large group requesting being seated together.  We most likely never employ the services of the head waiter unless we had an issue?

With the included gratuities, you either pay in advance or pay at the end of your cruise.  If you pay at the end, you can see them added daily when you look at your account via the app or the in cabin TV.   You’ll settle up at the end of your cruise either with the card on file or I guess you could pay cash at guest services. 
 
We choose to pay at the end of our cruises, but everyone is different.  It works for us, and that’s all that matters. 
 
We would never cancel the automatic gratuities, and we do give cash tips the last day for outstanding service….although after 30+ years in retail, we would have to have had some absolutely horrible service to not give some extra cash tip to our waiters, cabin steward, etc.   ymmv 

Pre-paying is about convenience, but if you'd rather tip those same people in cash (and it sounds like at an even higher rate) and will tip the wait room staff (waiter, assistant waiter, head waiter) and stateroom attendant, you're absolutely more than welcome to do that.
When I've tipped someone more than the standard rate, what I'll do is still pre-pay gratuities just to have that base rate and then tip on top of it (instead of in lieu of it)

@Tania I was at Polar Park last night (July 4th Fireworks Game) and saw the AAA WooSox [BOS Red Sox] score 4 runs in the 8th to come from behind to defeat the RailRiders [NY Yankees].  🙂⚾🙂
Also, the WooSox wore really awesome jerseys last night.  The front looked like an abbreviated flag.  You can sort of see it here...https://www.masslive.com/worcesterredsox/2022/07/ronaldo-hernandez-blasts-game-winning-home-run-in-the-eighth-boosts-woosox-over-railriders-6-4.html
 

Me too! I like the plush loungers closer to the entry doors. Some people come along and open the window to look out…and then just walk away leaving the window open. So every time the doors open, a blast of air comes through the window. And I’m not just getting old…I’m there!😜

I have been on the Anthem 23 (had to go count) times since 2016. I have never seen the roof open.

Yes, that is it.  They mustn't carry any short extension cords onboard.  And I think they are all 12 gauge / 20 amp types!

Do you one better!  We used to go to the New Britain Rockcats when they were a Twins affiliate.  DAVID ORTIZ!!!! Torii Hunter.  My daughter developed a friendship with their catcher Jeff Smith and his wife and she got to meet them all in the family area.  Of course who knew back then!
Then she went to RIC for college & cheap beer nights at the PawSox!

Grab a drink, sit back and enjoy a great game of cricket at Playmakers  

I had such an issue getting if for one of my sailings….I finally sent an email inquiry, in the interim I got the credit and while on that sailing I received an email reply to my inquiry saying it could not be processed because the stock statement was over 30 days old (it was not).  They suck!  Sorry that happened!

That's great.  They took 3 months earlier this year.  Missed $500 across 7 cruises.  

Can you believe it!!!  I already got my OBC!  We purchased the stocks yesterday.  We filled out the PDF and emailed it last night.  We got notification this afternoon.  And the OBC appeared on my account just now!  Happy Dance!! 

I used the online form linked from the rclinvestor.com site - https://rclshareholderbenefit.questionpro.com/  twice in the last 8 weeks and had the credit posted to my account in 2-4 business days.

I just did my latest benefit request this past Thurs. and it was in my account the next day.  It's definitely possible right now, but I wouldn't count on it as every time I've requested it in the past it took a couple of weeks.

Oh, they do - like 3 weeks.  But my husband dragged his feet on buying.  Either way, $40.91 is a great price so if we don't get our OBC, I am not going to cry.  🙂 BECAUSE I AM GOING ON A CRUISE!!!

good luck.  I do believe they ask for a longer lead time.