Rackham

Least favorite has been Oasis (Oasis-class) due to how it felt the ship's design limited ocean views from many of the passenger decks, but at the same time, Central Park was impressive. The number of live entertainment venues and performances was nice. Royal completely nailed the ship as a destination with this class. Most favorite has been Adventure (Voyager-class) from the combination of things to do aboard, the itinerary with the feeling that we're going on something like an adventure, and how the ship felt like a ship with the ocean views. Honorable mention for Anthem (Quantum-class). Felt like a mix of Oasis and Voyager with its own unique thing going on. I don't know if it'd be my first choice for warmer water sailings, but for a winter sailing from New Jersey, the indoor public space design was really nice. There's really not a bad ship in the fleet. It's what you're looking for on a particular sailing that should guide your choice.

I'm curious as to what was on the menu? Any chance there's a picture of it? As it sounds more like jealousy at this point than a lousy MDR lunch menu.

Can anyone chime in who's recently done a B2B if the MDR lunch is still being offered? https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2826602-no-more-dining-room-lunch-for-b2b-passengers-fleet-wide-change/ Reading through the thread first is important. From OP over there on page 4. "The officer in charge of in transit guests was checking us off her list as we showed up for testing. I mentioned the B2B letter did not say anything about lunch and she confirmed since there were so few doing B2B it was decided not to have one. The F&B manager told me they have a cutoff number and if that number is not reached or close, the lunch is not scheduled." Edit 3: Page 4 has a picture of what the B2B MDR menu looked like in early 2022.

https://www.bunkerspot.com/global/58588-global-first-engine-started-on-lng-fuelled-icon-of-the-seas "GLOBAL: FIRST ENGINE STARTED ON LNG-FUELLED ICON OF THE SEAS" Short story shorter. The first of six multifuel diesel/LNG engines aboard Icon was started on March 15 using diesel. Bit of a major milestone with its construction. Here's to successful starts for the other five engines.

Let me try to remember how these have worked on other ships. Royal Mystery by Puzzle Break: A packet is provided to each 5 person (or so team) with a bunch of pages. Pages contain the clues needed to solve the puzzles and the puzzles themselves. There might be additional clues/puzzles located in the room where the game is taking place (such as printouts of footsteps) needed during the game. Game shows. 1. If you know it, dance it. Contestants will have to dance to a popular song that has "official" dance moves correctly. Host may or may not be easy with the judging on how close contestants need to be to stay in the game. 2. Majority Rules. Teams write down their answer to a multi-answer question posted by the host. Teams are awarded points if their answer was the most frequent answer given to the question. 3. 60 seconds or less. It's "Minute to Win It" games hosted by Royal. 4. Battle of the Sexes. Trivia competition of men versus women. 5. Friendly Feud. Royal is the official cruise line of Name That Tune, not Family Feud. It's Family Feud renamed for the lawyers.

Royal's execs have mentioned that's the demographic that they're targeting along with a general nod towards being 20% cooler less expensive. Multigenerational families who would consider vacationing at Disney or Universal or similar and don't have a problem paying the asking price. And there are plenty of potential customers who meet this description even if families and individuals are priced out along the way. The AARP article mentioned at the start is making a bad comparison just based on where the c-suite at Royal is attempting to position the company.

Since you went there, here's my take. For most people, based on message board postings, they're better off financially paying as they go instead of purchasing a package due to drink fatigue and opportunities for use. It seems most frequently people break even on a drink package (that includes the Refreshment package) versus paying out of pocket. The DBP at current pricing makes the most sense for people who really enjoy premium cocktails and cruisers who don't want to think about the cost of what they're ordering while on vacation. While it might seem silly to overpay to not think about drink costs, there is a certain value to just going and having a good time without worrying about the bill at the end (not something I'd personally do, but I can understand where people are coming from who do).

Got the invoice for payment when they reversed the $100 OBC. Called customer service, was told the wait time would be longer than the typical Disney animated film, hanged up, and then canceled all cruise planner purchases which OBC was used (including those with OBC earned from booking the cruise). Once the $50 OBC hit, gave it a resting period then repurchased only the DBP.

Right. $50 per booking. 1 booking = $50 OBC. 2 bookings = $100 OBC.

At this point, I'm halfway waiting for an apology for canceling the previous apology due to staff error with another $50 OBC included which would bring the final OBC total to where it was before it was reversed. Royal really needs to figure out what they're doing and fast.

$100 OBC was credited for one package to my account. That's since become funding for the DBP on this sailing. I wasn't planning on the DBP for this one, but with $100 of Royal underwriting, it brought it down to an acceptable level.

Anybody else considering using the $50 OBC on a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, then telling fellow passengers it was your welcome aboard bottle from the Premier Pass package? Edit: The forum keeps getting rid of the crazy face at the end of the above.

For funsies, just did a mock booking for 4 adults in two connecting rooms for a 7 night Symphony sailing next May. Only $4,201.44 for connecting oceanviews on deck 8 before gratuities.

People are willing to pay it, so Royal is going to charge it. In many ways, this reminds me of what happened with Disney theme parks and resorts starting late 90s to early 2000s. Disney found people were willing to pay much higher prices, so they kept raising and raising the rates. At least with Royal, there's only so much they can raise on the fare before people start looking to cruise with another company.

Yep. Under the old benefits, I would've received the Platinum pin on a recent Anthem sailing. Due to the change, I ordered the pin off of eBay after getting back, about $13 shipped, so I'll have the full collection eventually (or at least through Diamond Plus).

I use a combination of spreadsheets and OneNote. Different workbooks for different trips (an example pic is below, there's more to the workbook that's not shown) and another workbook as a 10,000-foot level view of my Royal Caribbean cruises booked (for tracking and estimating overall expenses and C&A level). With OneNote, I have a notebook just for cruise planning and notes. I've attached a screenshot of my cruising notebook tabs. The notebook is for keeping track of information about places, ships, and policies. I also use it to keep track of the non-financial end of my cruise trip planning. So as I make decisions about what to do and see on and off the ship, or just the possibilities, it gets added in. There's a lot of information about cruising out there, but there really isn't a good central resource document. This notebook fills that gap for me.

I imagine so, though I could also see their exec team brainstorming ways to turn this into a win for them. Without knowing Royal's costs, and with the number of customers who canceled their internet packages because "OMG! This deal!" one option for Royal is emailing out a mea culpa about this mistake, and give people the option of either receiving a refund or receiving a two device internet package and a bottle of bubbly to their stateroom on embarkation day. It'd still cost Royal money, but I also wouldn't be shocked to learn that Royal would still make a slight profit on the people who accept the alternative offer instead of a refund.

I'm with the bandit, take the hit and book both. As far as calculating when breaks are, as someone with over a decade of experience in public education at this point, my recommendation is to keep a stash of historical school calendars, then match up the calendar of the vacation you're planning with January 1st on the historical calendars. The dates might not exactly align, but usually the week's position in the month will. For example, the last time January 1st fell on a Sunday before 2023 was the 2016-2017 school year. Our break calendar for this year is exactly the same as that particular school calendar. Days where students are out, but the staff are in, can vary. However, it's almost always a safe bet booking in the slots from the historical breaks. Looking forward to 2025, the school calendar that will possibly be reused is for the 2019-2020 school year since January 1st will be Wednesday.

I'll be aboard. Splurged on the DBP for this one, since it'll be my last sailing before reaching Diamond, with the intent of trying every single cocktail that sounds interesting that I have yet to try aboard Royal. Thanks to a recent Royal mishap, going to be enjoying the DBP on Allure this summer instead.

The side of the ship where you're standing on your balcony and not holding on for dear life.

So Prima 3 & 4 will be about Freedom-class size while 5 & 6 will be slightly larger than Quantum Ultra? Will be interesting to see what's next for Royal as ships age out of the fleet. Though from what I recall, Royal has enough cabin capacity coming online over the next several years that they could retire both Vision and Radiance classes and end up with more capacity than before 2024.

I have and did reserve for an Allure sailing in August.

DIGITAL TERMS OF USE AND END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, Section 18. Purchases, Paragraph 2 We reserve the right to refuse or cancel any order prior to delivery. Some situations that may result in your order being cancelled include system or typographical errors, inaccuracies in product or pricing information or product availability, fairness among customers where supplies are limited, or problems identified by our credit or fraud departments. We also may require additional verification or information before accepting an order. We will contact you if any portion of your order is cancelled or if additional information is required to accept your order. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/terms-and-conditions/digital-terms-of-use-and-end-user-license-agreement

It's a mistake and should say per day. The only precedent to an error of this magnitude (to my knowledge) was pricing the DBP for slightly more than a single cocktail a few years back. Royal ended up honoring that mistake, but they might not honor this one due to everything involved with it. Right now, if they do cancel, hoping they'll at least send a bottle of the listed champagne to the cabin as an apology. I'd settle for a bottle of their favorite Domaine Ste. Michelle too.

I didn't see this plot twist coming. Somebody called and asked about the sommelier wine pairing perk, and they were told it's good at every meal in the MDR and specialty dining. From: