CrimsonCruiser

Since the cruise is ending, I'm adding this as a note for the future. I've only sailed with my time dining and have always had the same staff. If this happens again, or you just decide to do MTD again, you can request to be seated in the same section every night. This might result in a wait if the section is full and you are likely to get a different table than depending on what opens first, but they will absolutely accommodate you. You can also circumvent this by making "reservations" for your preferred time so they always make sure to block out the table you get on the first night.

We do but we also know it's not mandatory. On packing night of the cruise, we think about the people who we felt went above and beyond and really only tip extra on that. We may also tip at the bar on the rare occasions we stop there. For example, on our last cruise, the Next Cruise agent had no idea who just sat in her chairs when my mom and I went over to talk about our plans. The more we cruise, the more we know what we do and don't want but don't have an unlimited budget and sometimes it's hard to get those things to align. I think we were a lot to handle, bouncing around between 5 different itineraries and then even coming back the next day to change again! She put up with our himing and hawing like a champ and got us our second best deal ever (the first being said Odyssey for the price of Indy due to a ship change). So she for sure got a tip. We also enjoyed that our room steward and waitstaff did a couple extra little things simply based on noticing that we liked or used them a lot (such as ice twice daily in the room or extra cheese bread in the basket because it's my favorite). We generally do about 20-30 as the highest amount, but no less than 10.

not terrible all things considered

I don't think you're going to have too much of a difference between the two so the only real factor, I think, is how much you plan to visit central park. I, personally, like to be on purely residential decks that are relatively equidistant between the various centers of the ship. I'm on Allure this late summer/fall and based on that, the Next Cruise agent gave us deck 10. (4-5 decks above the promenade and boardwalk and 4-5 decks below the pool areas and buffet). If something like that matters to you, 9 is more equal than 8 but....it's a small difference.

I was looking at some of the pictures of the park/boardwalk balconies and...I may be the naysayer here...I would worry about fit. Even if you don't open up the couch to it's bed size, i think even an air mattress at the foot of the couch will essentially block you guys from crossing over to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. Maybe you can go with a sleeping bag on top of extra blankets? Or, to share the double pull out bed, maybe a long body pillow laid down the center of the bed so they don't have any chance of kicking or rolling over on each other during the night?

As the others said, they are now in little envelopes on the room number plaque when the rooms are opened.

Oh absolutely! The mom and I were creeping along with a plan to earn 14 points per year (7-nighters + suites). It wasn't nothing but we were a good 3-4 years away from hitting Diamond before the panini. Then...double points hit and we pole vaulted from middle Platinum to the end stretch of Emerald in one 8-nighter GS. Now, we're scheduled for Allure this fall which will give us another 32 points each and we'll be Diamond in 5 total cruises! I don't know what we're gonna do when we have to go back to slogging our way up the ladder to get to Diamond+

hehehe....well....I'm in the 2% of the world who never saw the show....very different theme than I would have expected for this show lmao

Wow....based on deck plans alone, I would think you'd have been in a good spot to be free of noise like that...I can't even begin to imagine what it was like for people closer to the edges of the GS section....

I have no idea who the band is...but I like bringing people happy thoughts!

ooh ooh! let's talk about the mountain climbing adventure that is getting into the tubs in the suites! I'm a little bit out of the first quarter of my life but I still have to do some yoga and send a prayer to the ocean gods that I don't snap my ankle against the edge or pull a muscle getting in! Still beats the capsule shower though!

at least it was same day but did it have an impact on the next day's schedule?

Oh no that sounds terrible! Especially since there is no other deck choice for grand suites. What room were you in, if you don't mind me asking.

I saw something similar on our upcoming Allure booking. - balconies cheaper than ocean views and - a star class suite for the same cost a br grand suite. it's so crazy cool when that happens.

So you can't purchase a package if it's already purchased. So you would have no choice but to cancel first. The last couple times I did it, I called Royal. They were able to check how many slots were still available BEFORE cancelling to see if the chance of it getting snatched out from under us was a possibility. I enjoyed that bit of security. I know many of us here would prefer to do things ourselves but Royal can help. They were also able to immediately unlock the OBC I had used on the initial purchase so I could turn right around and use it on the repurchase, rather than potentially waiting for it to clear the queue 24 -48 hours later.

I think they're trying to say that with the casual-ness of the e-muster people aren't taking the instruction as seriously and therefore are prone to becoming more confused, flustered and panicked during an alarm. I disagree though. I watched people at the old muster procedures and I saw people whispering to their companions, playing in their phones, looking around bored, looking around trying but failing to see, mumbling about not being able to understand an accent etc etc. Fact is, much like air travel or anything else, people don't think it's really important to really listen because the thing they're being warned of will never happen to them!

Whoa...that sounds pretty scary. I remember seeing a video on a Disney ship some years back when the same thing happened. In the video, the person recording was trying to figure out if they should (1) go back to their rooms to get their life jackets, (2) telling someone off camera that their kid would be taken to the station, and (3) trying to get help from members of the crew, some of who seemed to be just as confused. I know mistakes can happen, but judging by the story here and from that video I think somethings might need to be further expanded/fixed overall in the muster drill capacity.

Really curious if the suites all being on the top deck is convenient or not... Visually it seems like a lot, being so far from the pulse points of the ship, but maybe it's not that bad?

I would imagine it was more or less a matter of timing. They booked the original fare and RoyalUp months before the sail date but then changed to this much higher priced room within weeks. At that point, I'm sure Royal was dropping the price of the Villa in order to tempt people into upgrades or last minute bookings so they were able to snag a great deal.

Smart casual according to some google searching is: "Smart casual attire is a dress code that combines well-fitting, polished business wear with elements of casual attire—think blouses, polo shirts, button-downs, chinos, dress pants, dark-wash jeans, and polished, practical footwear." Basically a step up from your everyday casual. If you normally wear shorts and a tee up it by switching to khakis or neat jeans and a polo. But the reality is...with the exception of chef's table...you're not going to find Royal staff really turning you away for dress code. As PeterD said above, as long as you're not in your swim wear, you're good most anywhere. I do recommend shawls, cardigans for the MDR and theaters (especially the Ice Rink) as they can run cool but again, not necessarily needed. You will want to pack close-toed shoes and a couple pairs of socks for activities on board - sports, ice skating and the rock climbing wall in particular.

Airplane mode is the standard and will absolutely be enough. But if you're like me you can also manually turn off mobile data and roaming before turning on airplane mode and that gives you extra security in the event you accidentally turn airplane mode off. Those two features are what connects to the cell towers of your local area and if those are off, even with airplane mode off, your phone still won't try to connect to them. But in both cases you can still access wifi.

I would believe so. My understanding of the different packages isn't so much what sites you can and cannot access but more about the speed/connectivity. The streaming one would have to have better speeds/connectivity to maintain a live stream of potentially HD video data whereas the surf one needs only load static text and images. Facebook falls into the latter category and you should be able to access it via the surf package. You may find any videos on FB struggle to load though. At least that's what I think I understand. I will say, I've only had the internet once since they've upgraded it and it was whatever comes free with a Suite in Sky Class.

I had an excursion cancelled and I swear it took over 2 weeks to get the money back to my credit card. It's gonna be a bit but it will show up.

We got our first blue cards on Odyssey as well despite being in a Grand Suite. I immediately missed our gold cards! They make me feel so special! I think they may have been a slightly different shade to the standard cards but slightly means one has to look carefully lol