RockerDom31

(Note: this is about non-suite bookings) From what I was told from our travel agent (that we no longer use), once you make a payment when booking with the decreased non-refundable deposit (NRD), it converts to the regular deposit amount ($250 pp). Accroding to the RC FAQ (https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/if-i-cancel-a-non-refundable-deposit-reservation-what-refunds-apply), "Outside of final payment, when a non-refundable deposit cancellation occurs, the full deposit amount will be held in penalty." - the key words here are "full deposit amounts". Semantics, I know, but one could argue that the "full" deposit amount is $250, not $100. I have heard of people who book on NextCruise with the decreased non-refundable deposit and then canceled at a later time after making payments and they forfeited $250 pp instead of $100 pp. This is why a lot of people don't pay off the cruise until the very last moment. If they only put down the $100 pp and nothing else, then they would "only" be out $100 pp instead of $250 pp. Hopefully this made sense?

I got questions like this all the time when I used to work retail and someone wanted to buy an item that was on sale the week before. Unfortunately, it's just a timing thing. If I try to book a cruise for the exact same itinerary, date, room category, and ship that I currently have booked right now, it will most likely NOT be the same price. If it's higher than what we paid, then great, we got a good deal. If it's lower, then I am calling my TA right away for a price adjust! I don't pretend to know the model Royal uses to price their cruises but I imagine it's a mix of several factors. It's possible that the new week that you are looking to change to is the typical time for spring break of K-12 students which is usually attached to the week before or week after Easter (which in 2025 will be April 20th). That might drive the price up too. Just my best educated guess!

Hi All, We booked the Coco Beach Club for our visit to Coco Cay! I'm wondering if there are any vegetarians out there who can offer insight if they were able to get anything vegetarian for a lunch entree? We know there's a couple of appetizers that are vegetarian but didn't see any entrees. I know we might have better luck venturing outside of the Coco Beach Club (mozzarella sticks!) but we'd like to make the most of our day there. Thanks!

I do not have personal experience on this matter either; however, I have seen people on wheelchairs carry-on their crutches at Cape Liberty. The difference here would be that the crutches fit inside the x-ray machines. For what it's worth, I would treat the walker the same as prescription medication and other assistive medical devices - carry it on, do not check in.

80 days to go! My wife and I will be on this sailing!

Hmm...contrary to most other cruisers' experience...we've always gotten a paper copy on the last evening (even if the closing balance was $0.00, which was more often than not) and we never get an emailed version. I remember thinking very time "I wish they would just email this to me!".

TLDR; your mileage may vary! Every non-private-island cruise port that I have been to with Royal (Puerto Rico, St. Marteen, Dominican Republic, Bermuda), there's always an announcement from the captain for everyone to bring a Photo ID and their SeaPass card with them when leaving the ship (you have to scan your SeaPass card when leaving anyway). In St. Marteen and Bermuda, agents checked photo ID's when re-entering the port area, just before heading onto the ship. And by "checked", I mean they put my passport photo next to my face and matched my passport name with the SeaPass card. In Puerto Rico and both DR ports (Puerto Plata and La Romana), our photo ID's were not checked. They just made sure we had a SeaPass card for a current sailing. However, this is purely anecdotal and not anything official!

Here is an article from this site on the best practices of contacting Royal Caribbean: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2023/04/20/contact-royal-caribbean-customer-service Hopefully this will help?

I vaguely remember something about PDCC being able to accomodate 10000 people? My memory escapes me but that sounds familiar. And has Celebrity started calling at PDCC now too? I am not too familiar with the size of their ships.

Anecdotally, I *think* the following have taken place when a weather system is coming up the East Coast: Re-route north to Canada. I think Oasis of the Seas did a couple of these over the past few summers as scheduled itineraries so at least one Canadian port can handle an Oasis-class ship (maybe Nova Scotia?) Wait it out by staying docked at Cape Liberty and letting people on/off the ship to explore NYC, which I believe results in canceling a port stop (most likely Port Canaveral) I can't imagine too many other choices since a route to Bermuda (the other popular stop from Cape Liberty) would most likely be affected by the same weather system and also I don't believe I've ever seen an Oasis-class ship in Bermuda so I don't know if that port can handle it.

I wouldn’t expect 2026 for a little while. They just released Summer/Fall 2025 for Cape Liberty a few weeks ago. Unless something drastic happens with the port or the state of NJ imposes some sort of restriction, I expect there to always be at least one ship departing from Bayonne at all times during the year. In fact, I think Cape Liberty is exclusive to Royal Caribbean and their brands.

That was such an interesting read! I always wondered how gratuities worked when it is prepaid with a drink package. It does make sense that it depends on how many drink packages were sold for that cruise.

We did the Key on our first three sailings but have decided against it for our sailing this summer. The price difference between the Key vs. Internet Package x2 is no longer a small difference (in each of the three times we got the Key, we were able to get the Key for just an additional $5ish extra per person/per day). We primarily did it for the internet and maybe one or two random perks the Key had (priority embarkation, reserved seating at shows, priority disembarkation) but we never did any of the reserved activity times (Flow Rider, Rock Climbing, etc.) or priority tendering (since we never had to take a tender). When we had the Key on our last sailing...we never did the Key lunch, our check-in time was already 11AM, we didn't do the Key breakfast, we carried off our own luggage, we didn't watch any shows, we didn't do any of the activities so we basically just used the Internet benefit. Right now, internet is $21.99 pp/pd and the Key is $34.99 pp/pd. If the Key price ever drops to $24.99 pp/pd, we'll consider it.

Thanks for sharing - How did I possibly miss this article??

Does Rover sleep in the handler's crew room? Does Rover have an on-board vet? Does Rover have her own name tag, ID card, etc. that gets scanned when em"bark"ing and disem"bark"ing?? (see what I did there haha). Is Rover counted as a "person" towards the capacity of a life boat? Does she have her own life jacket? I have so many questions! In addition to the Captain's Q&A session, they should have Q&A about Rover! Apologies for me geeking-out. My wife and I love dogs!

What goes on at these Top Tier events? We just got promoted to Platinum from Gold after our last cruse. Our next cruise is our first one being Platinum. Still got a long way to go though!

Something to think about too… Does your itinerary visit Labadee and/or Coco Cay? Your drink package will work at the bars at those private destinations as well.

8/18 - 8/25 is when we’ll be going too!

That's actually the main reason why we stick with Cape Liberty. I imagine that, one day, the repeated yearly itinerary is going to get old but it's hard to beat the cost savings: Cruise fare from Cape Liberty + Parking + Gas costs us less than Cruise fare from Florida port + flights to/from NYC or Philly + hotel stay day before + Uber to/from ports I did the math once and we could get two cruise vacations from Cape Liberty for the price of one flying down to Florida (or any other port). Baltimore is also within driving distance but we'd rather stick with Freedom, Quantum, and Oasis class ships. And with my work schedule (teacher), we primarily can only cruise during the summer time so everything is at a pretty high price then. We try to cruise during that one week in August that seems to be the lowest fare of the summer (I guess historically that is when the most amount of hurricanes/storms hit? or something?? who knows!).

I don't know if there is any other way but the way I find out are from either... A) The Captain's Q&A session B) The Top-Tier event (which I have never been to but other people have and they tell me that's where they get it from)

On my very first cruise, my wife brought some essential oils, just in case I get seasick or nauseous. When her carry-on bag went through the X-Ray machine, the agents asked to inspect her bag. We knew we had nothing to hide so we were intrigued why they wanted to hand-inspect her bag. Turns out, they thought the little vials of essential oils resembled little vials of alcohol. Simple misunderstanding and we were on our way shortly after.

I don’t know how big the actual port’s property is but I always marvel at the fact that during the summer that there are, at most, 3 ships worth of passengers parked at the port - Oasis (soon to be Symphony), Liberty, and Celebrity (Summit, I believe). I know not everyone parks at the port but still…they guarantee parking for everyone.

I had only started cruising in 2019 so unfortunately I don't have a reference of what cruising was like back in the day. However, I imagine Royal does extensive research and have a backup plan before implementing a technology-forward approach. I think that the cruise shutdown and its aftermath accelerated and validated many of their tech initiatives (such as the e-muster, which seems to be universally well-liked).

If anyone is interested, there is a Code of Conduct and here is the link to it - https://www.royalcaribbean.com/guest-terms/guest-health-safety-and-conduct-policy/english/ If something is truly a nuisance or presents a danger, you have every right to inform a crew member. Me? Policing other people or caring what they do is literally the last thing I want to do on a cruise (unless of course, they are a danger to themselves or others. Then, yes, I will speak up).

Any recommendations for the Nassau Resort for a Day? It looks like Baha Bay, RIU, Breezes, Warwick, and Margaritaville are the choices. Thanks!!