Rackham

Kinda surprised they're going to full Star benefits instead of a premium tier of The Key. Skip the Genie, update The Key to include the DBP and UDP, charge $199/day without discounts, and collect the Bennies without adding labor costs. Call it The Royal Key or something.

A better shot of this end from the 'jammer. And the other end from the Solarium.

It appears the Bionic Bar is using the Beaumont 25mL (0.845 floz) dispensers. Which means it's making some of the most potent menu drinks on the ship at up to 3.38 floz of hard liquor per beverage. This also explains why visually 4 parts hasn't looked like 2 floz to me, and that the maximum parts per drink for creating your own is 14 (that'd be 11.83 floz in a 12 floz cup). Best practices right now seen to be 3 parts hard liquor, 4 parts mixer, and 5 parts ice for self created drinks for a total of 12 parts (10.14 floz). Also I've noticed it has problems with dispensing the correct number of parts ice. If the machine hasn't been used in a while, it'll plop 10 parts ice into the cup instead of 5, assuming 5 parts in the recipe. Which makes a mess for the attendant. Edit: This leads to an idea for more bang for your buck. Order spirits and mixers only in a self created drink, then grab a glass of ice from anywhere else on the ship.

The pool is now concreted in and there's vertical action happening.

They're also offering discounts for "Top Up" with an active plan too. There's a small blue link on each of the active plan cards to do so.

CocoCay cellular network survey data for GigSky taken with a Pixel 8a. I got bored at Hideaway Beach and decided to walk the public areas of the island. Includes Hideaway. Doesn't include Coco Beach. Supposedly Google Earth can import this file, but I haven't tried it. I might eventually create a nifty map from this, or I might not. If someone is inspired, feel free to have at it. CocoCay Survey Apr 23 2025.csv

Hotel director on Odyssey, during the Top Tier Event, mentioned that Royal will be increasing cabin size on Discovery-class. With how cabin size has increased on Icon-class, I'm now expecting something similar for Discovery.

Thanks for the offer. However, I've come up with a hybrid graphics style merging current and original interface designs with a splash of my personal sensibilities.

It should still work since I have the Cruise+Caribbean plan. However, it'd be using data which can be used at sea instead of data from the plan which only works on land. Edit: Cruise+Caribbean plan should work on land in... Antigua and Barbuda Anguilla Argentina Aruba Barbados Saint Barthélemy Bermuda Bolivia Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba Brazil Bahamas Belize Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Curaçao Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Grenada French Guiana Guadeloupe Guatemala Honduras Haiti Jamaica Saint Kitts and Nevis Cayman Islands Saint Lucia Saint Martin Martinique Montserrat Mexico Nicaragua Panama Peru Puerto Rico Paraguay El Salvador Sint Maarten Turks and Caicos Islands Trinidad and Tobago United States of America Uruguay Saint Vincent and the Grenadines British Virgin Islands U.S. Virgin Islands

Arriving at CocoCay this morning. Which means a chance to try switching GigSky plans thanks to a freebee from VISA. After opening the app and navigating to the "My Plans" tab, it was as easy as clicking the "Enable" text, then confirming that I wanted to switch. Now data used is counted towards the newly active plan. The catch, if you will, is time is still decreasing on the first plan started. Speeds at CocoCay are a definite improvement over Cellular at Sea! Yesterday, I headed into Orlando for Gatorland and kept GigSky service running the whole time (about 7 hours). No problems encountered. Based on data usage during the excursion, I'm personally budgeting 120MB per hour of usage for future planning purposes. Gonna let data service remain enabled overnight tonight to get an idea of how much is used when I'm not doing anything. It's worth noting that I've got data saver turned on and the only apps allowed background data are things like email, messaging, and financial where I'd like to know if there's an issue ASAP

I DMed them before starting backend planning just to make sure they weren't already doing something similar. They're not, but basically said as much with the follow!

No, this isn't an expose that the Bionic Bar is really controlled by teleworkers in Bangladesh, carbon unit. With the Bionic Bar seemingly living on borrowed time, and the shear volume of video on how to use it yet lacking drink recipes, I decided something should be done to document what hasn't been documented. Namely those recipes. Love 'em, hate 'em, or indifferent to 'em, it's been an interesting project from Royal Caribbean. Currently I'm aboard Odyssey of the Seas and have completed phase one of this project. I've recorded every single Bionic Bar recipe entered into their system aboard this ship. I've also been ordering select drinks and custom made beverages to get a good read on exactly how much a part is. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack my measuring cups. But I did remember a write on everything marker so level lines on cups it is. Right now I'm leaning towards 1 part = 25mL = 0.845 floz. While I do have some ideas on how I want to present the recipes, in the mean time, if you have a favorite drink from the BB you want to make at home, drop it below and I'll respond when I get a chance. Here's the BB recipe for Captain Jack Sparrow to make at home. Stir together 125mL oz ice cubes 50mL Captain Morgan 25mL Jack Daniels 25mL Peach Schnapps 75mL Sprite 12mL Grenadine Edit: Updated with current information.

GigSky has been working reliably this morning. Speeds are slightly better too. I checked the Windjammer and Seaplex this morning. Speeds are about what's being read elsewhere on the ship where there's a strong signal.

Dined at Wonderland tonight for the first time in a few years, and while the food was the same, none of the wait staff were doing any of the old script or routine. It was like any other specialty dining, but with a slightly quirky menu figuratively and literally. Kinda reminded me of what's happened with changes to Samba Grill from what it started as to where it is today from what I understand. At this point, Wonderland has gone from a "if it's interesting to you do it" to a "there's better uses of your specialty dining dollar" recommendation from me. While the restaurant hasn't been placed on newer ships, has there's been any word on it being removed from ships which currently have it?

Forgot to mention that the free VISA offer doesn't include cruise service. So there's that.

So GigSky service on Odyssey has been bad, but now okay? It seems like there was issues with authorizing the eSIM as I'd get service, then I wouldn't have service, then service would resume for a few moments before being lost again. Now I'm getting full bars of LTE in my cabin on deck 6. 5G was displayed on deck 5 at about half signal strength from the Bionic Bar to Two70. It appears that there are 3 micro cells along this passage. All speed readings were around here on down and up. This includes my cabin. And cabin reading of network information. Posting from my cabin.

If you're trying to decide between the two (VOOM and GigSky) I've created a very broad brushstroke comparison which doesn't require data estimates. VOOM is an automatic win if you're needing service due to work, school, or life event and for streaming video. GigSky excels if you're wanting to keep up with email, do the occasional web search, or have roaming service off the ship. One drawback to GigSky is that you'd need to switch to the ship's WiFi network for things which require that connection to work. VOOM is already connected so there's no network switching required. What this chart doesn't consider is both. Maybe you'd only need VOOM for a day or so during the sailing, while GigSky is enough for the remainder, thus a day pass on VOOM plus a GigSky plan would be best for your situation. The chart also doesn't consider the different tiers of GigSky plans concerning service length and data provided. For that, you'd need to run the numbers and make the call.

What you see is what you get. There's no alternative options for those who don't eat seafood. Adults can order from the kids menu if there's items there you'd eat.

Royal doesn't need to.

It was my understanding that menu drinks including protein were included, but adding protein to a drink wasn't. Wouldn't be surprised if this was a policy which depended on who's serving and their interpretation.

For anyone wondering how much data is used for different activities, I've cobbled together a chart from several sources. Consider these estimates to rough out how much data you actually need. There's ways of conserving data too, such as downloading what you'd probably stream before embarkation and ensuring only apps which need background data are allowed to use background data during the voyage. If you're running Android, there's web browsers such as Opera Mini which can use a free, built in proxy service to compress images and webpages (while removing ads) before they're sent to your device to save data. FYI: There's roughly 50 text emails per MB. So if you're receiving 100 text emails per day, that's 2MB/day or 14MB/week. Emails with images will, of course, take more data.

Savings comes from a week long pass (or longer) if your data needs are primarily text and some pictures. I'm running the same experiment next week on Odyssey, sailing the Atlantic, so there's going to be some decent data on the service. But I nabbed the 7 day package. Edit: Since this was such a great write up, I'll just add to this thread with the results and my take on who this is best for plus tips to maximize the limited data.

Based on this information, it appears Discovery class would have around the length of Voyager class, but have the beam of Radiance due to Tampa's cruise port restrictions. So I could see a six-digit GT with the final design. Maybe not 130,000, but definitely over 100,000.

I'm trying it next week on Odyssey since Visa cardholders get a small package free. Will report back. However, on Smokey's point, it's certainly something which requires the end user to know how to put their device into low data mode by turning off all automatic updates and background network activities. Depending on the plan, streaming is right out just due to transfer limits. I'd turn off images, or use a text based web browser, for most online activity along with a mobile ad blocker to conserve data, but also due to network speed.

April 30th appears to be their last day of operation for Playa Mia from website reservations. Reservations are being accepted on the 30th, but come May 1st, there's an error message if you try to book.