RockerDom31

I was just on Liberty. The soft serve definitely was not sugar free as evidenced by the dramatic spike in my glucose when I had one! There were sugar free desserts in Windjammer and Cafe Promenade that were actually decent - lemon cookies, pudding, cakes, etc. The menu at MDR said they had sugar free desserts available but I didn’t try them. I imagine other ships would be similar.

I have a Dexcom G6. No issues whatsoever going through the normal detector. No hand wands needed.

My first thought if I walked into a room with luggage that wasn’t ours would be “Uh oh did we go to the wrong room??”. Upon verifying that we are indeed in the right room, my next thought would be to call guest services immediately. I would want nothing to do with a bag that wasn’t ours!!

I am on Liberty now and I haven’t seen one in a public area…however, I did see one on Deck 1 near the gangway (I forget which one) but I suspect it is for crew use only.

On Oasis last year, my wife asked the person behind the burger bar if they had veggie burgers and they were more than happy to get us some. They just had to go in the back to make it. They told us to come back to the burger bar in 10 mins. I think we asked two more times throughout the trip, and they did it for us every time. It was a veggie burger of the fake soy kind (not one with black beans or veggies in it). YMMV!

Good call! It's just how I imagined how they do it on the computer side of things.

I think "re-pricing" is essentially a cancellation of your reservation and re-booking the same exact room at the prevailing rate (which theoretically should be lower if you are willing to go through that process). While I certainly don't speak for Royal (as a matter of fact, none of us can since this is an unofficial and fan-based forum), since anyone can cancel their reservation before final payment date - whether it's because you can't go or if it's because you like the lower price - this is probably why the re-pricing process isn't advertised anywhere. If you have a travel agent, they can do this whole process on your behalf (so you don't have to sit on the phone with Royal). And Welcome to the Boards! (I've always wanted to say that but someone else always beats me to it )

I don't think we can know for sure but maybe Liberty was slated to get it when she was supposed to go get amplified? Does anyone know all of the other ships that DON'T have Freestyle?

I feel the same - I've only been on Anthem and Oasis - both of which had Freestyle. Looks like I'll be relying on the cans of Coke Zero (and hopefully other Zero Sugar drinks).

MEI all the way!

The first thing I would do is fix the funny math. I'm sure everyone on this board can think of at least one instance of pricing that just doesn't quite make much sense (whether it is the cruise fare or the cruise planner purchases).

We are "loyal" to Royal, which started off because of convenience sake. We live in NJ and Bayonne is a much more convenient port than any of the NY ports. Our first cruise was to Bermuda in 2019 and if that had not gone well, we probably would have tried another line. But it did go well and so we did another Royal cruise. And then that went well, so we booked another one for this coming summer. And heck, just a few weeks ago, we booked a Royal cruise for NEXT summer. Maybe one day we will try Celebrity but still from Bayonne. Driving to the port is such a money-saver. Not having to pay for the NYC bridges is also quite the money-saver. We did an all-inclusive resort for our honeymoon and another one for our 1-year anniversary. Between the cost of flights and the cost of the resort itself, we could've gone on 6 cruises and saw more places for the same price. Loyalties can come and go. I was once loyal to K-mart, Nissans, and Organic Chemistry. But now, I go to Target, drive a Subaru, and teach HS Chemistry and college General Chemistry. For the time being, we like the way Royal operates and it works out for us.

I just re-read the original post and realize my reply was not answering the question! Sorry! If given the option, I personally would purchase from the travel insurance company directly. While I have never done 3rd party booking for travel insurance, I have had nothing but bad experiences when using 3rd party services for other kinds of products (airfare, hotel, car-buying).

You would need to look at the terms of each policy and decide what is important to you. For example, medical transportation is a big factor that should be carefully looked at since a private jet or helicopter transfer can cost a significant amount. You should also check to see how your claim would be paid out - future cruise credit vs. cash. Another big consideration is how they handle pre-existing conditions. Fwiw, my wife and I use Allianz. They checked all the boxes for us but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will for you.

Do the Spotted Lantern Flies count as a wild animal? If so, there were plenty of those on the top deck on Oasis out of NJ last summer!

My wife and I were so eager to go on vacation that we spent all of embarkation day basking in the hot NJ summer sun, sipping many cocktails. …And not a drop of sunscreen was used! (Which we did bring with us!) Unfortunately, we didn’t feel the consequence of this until the following morning when we both experienced some extremely painful showers. And with 3 sea days and the first port being Labadee, we had to live off of the vending machine aloe for 4 days. I’m pretty sure we emptied the vending machine! Once we arrived to Puerto Rico, we hit up the CVS and bought more aloe, which is when we realized that the ship vending machine aloe was super marked up! We knew it was but we didn’t expect it to be that much! Lesson learned!

104 days to go! Who's on the ship with me?? This is the second time we are going to Bermuda and Labadee and our first time going to DR. My wife and I are very excited! Since we've started cruising, we've never seen an itinerary from Cape Liberty that went to DR so we jumped right on to that opportunity as soon as we could!

There's also other casual quick-eat options besides Main Dining Room and Windjammer Buffet. On Liberty, there's Sorrento's (pizza) and Cafe Promenade (sandwiches and small plate stuff, including sweets). Room service is also an option with a $7.95 charge per order (you can order as many items as you want but each order is $7.95 + gratuity). I actually find it easier to just load up a plate from Windjammer and take it back to the room (if Windjammer is still open that is).

I have used that exact same Anker charger on Oasis (2022) and Anthem (2019) - no issues either time. We even bought USB-powered fans so that we didn't need to use up a plug.

I'll be on Liberty in June and was wondering something similar...What can someone with the Deluxe Beverage Package get in terms of Zero Sugar drinks (I'm diabetic). On Oasis and Anthem, I used the Freestyle machines to get Coke Zero, Sprite Zero, but most importantly, Powerade Zero for hydration. Besides Diet Coke from the bars, are there any other options? I did use to stock up on Coke Zero cans from Windjammer when I was on Oasis and Anthem (I never got charged for them so I am assuming they are covered with the DBP?). Thanks!

From what I've been reading in mutliple online places, it seems that the ports are the ones that are cracking down on these. Unfortunately, I don't think there's an easy way to differentiate a "power strip" from a "surge protector" so it might just be easier on the port agents to just err on the side of caution and just confiscate anything remotely resembling a surge protector. I seem to recall an online post in which a passenger was told by a port agent that even if the CEO of the cruise line told him not to confiscate the item, he's still going to because he wouldn't be doing his job if he didn't (and something along the lines of "I don't work for the cruise line").

I always err on the side of caution and bring the original container with the pharmacy label on it (that has my name, doctor's name, medication name, etc.). Additionally, when my travel agent called to verify that our medical fridge and sharps container request was noted on our reservation, Royal sent this email: Nobody asked about it at all but knowing the kind of luck I have, if I didn't bring the prescription labels, that's when they would ask!

I have a thing for hot sauces. One time, I bought several hot sauces in St. Marteen and was flagged by security when my bag went through the scanner. I just showed them that it wasn’t alcohol and they sent me on my way. No biggie but it might save a few seconds if you let them know before putting your bag in the scanner.

Booking as soon as possible is your best bet. Should the price go down, you can re-price up to the final payment date.

And I second the Poopourri and Liquid IV! I would like to add aloe to that list because it is really expensive from the ship’s vending machine