CrimsonCruiser

Based on what I know...nope nope and nope. But this could be a YMMV situation as it seems certain port staff have a different understanding of what constitutes an extension cable/power strip. Universally, the safest ones that get on all ships at all times are pure USB towers. Some people report success with the usb/outlet combo but I've also read of people getting stopped and those getting confiscated.

I will agree with others - once you have a travel agent, all update emails go to them. The issue may be, the emails may not go directly to your individual agent but to a general email in the company. Which mean the email has to go from Royal to General company to all TAs to all clients of a TA and it may get lost in the shuffle. The most you can do, I think, is to check in regularly with your TA about any updates/changes/notices etc that may have come out.

Yeah, unfortunately Houston is far enough away from the port in Galveston that no hotels there find it worth the gas/time to have a shuttle all the way out to the port. We ran into this as well and were fortunate enough to see it in advance and plan to fly into Hobby which has a more direct highway route to the city of Galveston. Uber/Lyft is going to be your best option to get from Houston to Galveston (cost us about $50 each way back in 2017) but once you're in Galveston there are plenty of hotels that will offer you a free shuttle.

Thanks. at leas i have an idea what to ask for

Hijacking this thread to ask about the customizing the Emerald perk welcome beverages and snacks. Is this something we coordinate with our TA or with Royal ourselves? How far from the cruise can we do this? (I tried going to RoyalCaribbean.com/UpgradePreferences as listed on the C&A pdf fine print but it just sends me back to my base account page)

I've never done or seen a cruise ship scavenger hunt but if you're looking for suggestions, I love ones that involve harmless people watching. So a hunt could be: * People wearing matching custom family cruise shirts * The not-so-elusive hogged chair Also one that could be a fun bonus: evidence of the elevator day plate ninjas!

I just want to add in my support for the flowrider. I was interested in my first 3 cruises but too scared of embarrassing myself since the spectators were kinda harsh on those who wiped out. But on Odyssey with limited capacity, I got my chance with only a small crowd watching and it was great! The instructor kept an eye on me and corrected my form and when he saw I had a good handle of the belly board he showed me how to hop up on my knees and encouraged me even after I failed the first time. And I did it! managed to stay hands free for a whole 5 seconds but it was awesome! Now that I've gotten an opportunity under my belt, I'm looking forward to doing it again on Allure. Also - wiping out looks scarier than it really is. Both times I was scooped up into a sitting position by the water despite falling off the board forward facing and on the side. Got water up my nose and what not but nothing that hurt.

It's on rotation on the same channel that shows the map and course. I don't think they have a steady feed channel anymore.

On land and sea I have been mistaken for significantly under 21 and I haven't been carded once onboard. Sometimes when that happens I wonder if I just older that day or if they're lax or if my seapass has some indication that I'm not a minor...

No complimentary lunch but you can get complimentary breakfast in Chops as a suite guest. You do also get free room service including items from the MDR menu.

Odyssey had paper (or the like) straws in the bars and they actually held up really well. I got a beverage at a karaoke event, then decided to sign up to sing, was too nervous to drink and forgot to remove the straw the whole time....about 20 minutes later I finally took a sip and the straw was completely intact.

Uhhh Grab my what now?! Also.. my first thing....find out when the karaoke is!

Ohhhhh! I've never seen an accessible room but that makes sense!

This one took me a second until I realized no JR suite balcony is this big. So I think that might be where a divider was supposed to go if this balcony was used for a smaller room. Though I am also wondering if this is Royal at all because I didn't think any Royal balconies were carpeted like this? Is it carpet?

Red Circle is Speaker Green circle is Light

So..I don't know if it was a glitch or not... but... on Odyssey last fall, with only the free wifi on, I was able to connect to FB messenger BEFORE I logged into the free Voom that came with our suite. Did it recognize my app and room before log in? Was it an oversight that's been fixed? Who knows! I plan to test it again when onboard this August. It could be as @Ampurp85 mentioned above - that it worked only because we were still docked at the time.

Thanks. Yeah I realized my wording was weird; by solo I meant without a pre-determined travel partner. I'm just worried about booking it only to find out that I'd be SOL. In a similar circumstance, I wasn't able to ride the boomerang slide on Liberty because you HAVE to have 2 people and there were no solo riders for the 5 or so minutes I was standing there taking up space. I know a ship isn't the same as a waterpark where they'd have me wait for a solo rider because the chances are high one would come along sooner rather than later but it really did bum me out. I'd hate to have something similar happen with an excursion I spent money on.

Hello! I'm looking at the Labadee parasail excursion but I'd be booking it just for myself (my travel partner is afraid of heights). The booking says all rides are tandem. Has anyone gone to this excursion without their own ride partner? What did you think? If they don't have another person to ride with you (aka another solo adventurer) will they tell me I can't go? Stick me with staff? Force a couple to separate for me? If they tell me I can't go, will Royal refund me or am I at loss because I understood the risk and ordered anyway? It's a third party excursion so I'm not sure if Royal customer service can help me with on-the-ground details like this. Thanks in advance!

In addition to what the others are saying about the casino being closed and there being less activities on board, I've also noticed more of the shops will be closed - primarily the more expensive ones. But! Spa sessions in port are discounted so that's nice.

How it works: All throughout the cruise (most specifically around dinner time, formal night, in the dining rooms, within the first 3 or so hours at each port and on embarkation day - also maybe at the water slides or pool) there will be Royal Cruise line photographers at sectioned off staged photo areas with either canvas backdrops of various scenes or colors, a prop or costumed crew member (at ports) or around highlight points of the ship such as The Royal Promenade Bridge, Central Park on Oasis Class, the atrium glass stairs, Wonderland's chair on Odyssey. They will scan your seapass card or just ask for your stateroom number and then guide you through several poses though you are more than welcome to try some out yourself. By the next day around mid morning, those photos will be viewable in the ship's photo area on computer workstations. The pictures are (I think) lightly edited - blurring backgrounds, adjusting lighting - but no heavy photoshop changes. They don't have time for that lol. With or without a package you can take photos - you are only paying to OWN them after the cruise. Within the first 2 days onboard, Royal will have photo package prices that echo what you see on cruise planner now (save for any steep discounts that come with specific sales) and you can buy a package at any time on board. I would suggest, that even if you're on board and haven't settled on if you will or won't get a package, stop by every station and take all the photos you can. If you end up with that 100-photo package, you want to have plenty to pick from to get your money's worth. Packages: As with most things on Cruise Planner, package prices vary by ship and sailing and not everyone will have the same thing. Not since my first cruise in 2015 have I seen prices as low as Mum got. Most times I see $20 single photo, $150 for 20 photos, and $250+ for 100 photos. There is also a private session package which may interest you if you want to go bigger on your anniversary. With the ongoing sale, prices on my August Allure cruise are: 10 photos $96.99 (regular price $149.99) 20 photos $119.99 (regular price $199.99) 100 photos $136.99 (regular price $249.99) Is It Worth It: That is something only you can decide. Some people don't find it worth it if they have a cell phone or DSLR that takes really good photos. All of the areas the photographers are in are publicly accessible and you can use them once the photographer leaves or before they get there. But, you may struggle to get non-selfies of the two of you together unless you ask a passing cruiser or staff to snap a photo or 2 of you. In that circumstance you won't have the photographer to help you pose best (i.e, what to do with your hands, how to open your body to the camera, where to look, avoiding a double chin etc), not as much time to get it right, and be subject to the potentially dim or bad lighting of the area. You should also consider if you're going to be off ship early enough to catch the port photos (my favorite). Since they have to be back on board in order to get them processed for viewing by dinner-ish, they aren't out there all day. Only a couple hours. Also a good idea to consider what you'll do with the photos.

Really it depends on what I'm getting. We only do the soda drink package and that pretty on bigger sales will dip down about $2 per day so we wait for that but know we're getting it. For excursions, we kinda see what's what. If there's something we absolutely know we are going to want, book it as soon as we can so long as it's within our budget for that event. But ones we're just kinda looking at...we wait til it gets closer less because of potential sales and more because we don't want to have more things paid for than we'll actually use. So we'll scroll through, save things, keep an eye on costs and quantity and kinda go with the flow.

I think it would partly depend on how fast you eat. we did it for dinner at about 6 something I think on a day when we wanted to make a 7something show. We ended up skipping dessert. That said, we neither informed the wait staff of our scheduled or request expedited service. Plus we eat relatively slow - I'm almost always the last eater in my groups on land or sea. So I would recommend no later than 6 with a notice to the staff that you're on a tight schedule.

This is WILD to look at! It's both REALLY dated but also easy to see where our beautiful promenades came from. Maybe the ball was an observatory? Ooh ooh! Or a stationery precursor to the the North Star!

Go tug boat go!!! I always love tug boats actually tugging...so tiny...so powerful

Echoing what another person was saying about the standard room gratuities which are per person, per day. If you don't prepay gratuities, these will be added to your final bill. There are also gratuities baked into the beverage packages that, since it sounds like you guys purchased the package on board, may not have processed at the time of initial payment. A tip for the future: check your bill daily during your cruise. You can easily access it via the free Royal Caribbean app or on your stateroom TV. This will have an almost immediate record of all of your charges so you can keep an eye on what you're getting charged. You will probably also get a print out on the last day of your charges up to that point, giving you another chance to go to guest services and get things straightened out onboard. Also, if you have other adults sailing with you, be sure that they each link their own form of payment to their sea pass. Then you don't end up eating someone else's charge. Sorry this confusion happened; hopefully you can get things straightened out and you are armed with this lesson for you next adventure.