Rackham

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:

It does, but not in the bullet points. From the description: "During your sailing, you’ll savor an exclusive food and wine pairing." I've color coded the description page for reference.

Oooh. Garlic breadsticks and cheesesticks shouldn't be too difficult with their current setup.

Since the description lists with food and there's the bullet point "Wine pairing with sommelier (two guests) - wine is complimentary," it's probably either the Chef's Table or an exclusive event in Vintages (where available) or similar. I could see this working basically as a Chef's Table GTY as a way for Royal to fill Chef's Table slots that go unsold or for them to earmark the Chef's Table one evening of the cruise for purchasers. Conversely, Royal could include "A Taste of Royal" with the wine pairing and still meet the description. Either way, it keeps getting better and better the more we dig into this.

Oh, God. This keeps getting better and better. Chef's Table alone is about the cost of the package pre-sailing.

If it does work, we need "I Royal's Interns" t-shirts.

The Veuve Clicquot, if it's a full-sized bottle, goes for $99 + 18% aboard. It's got to be a daily charge that's been incorrectly entered into their system with how much everything else included would cost separately, even during a major sale.

From comments here and elsewhere concerning Royal's ability to accurately track and award C&A points, what I've been doing is the following: Keeping a spreadsheet with the ship, sail date, reservation number, and C&A points earned that should have been earned (there's more to the workbook, but this is the relevant information if there's an issue). Retaining the Seapass for each sailing so there's physical proof of being aboard. Speaking to the Loyalty Ambassador aboard if there's anything off once aboard the ship. This policy has already corrected an issue where my C&A number was unlinked from the reservation somehow; the Loyalty Ambassador was able to quickly fix the issue aboard Anthem. She also appeared confused as apparently the number was there on the shoreside reservation, but the computer wasn't doing whatever it was supposed to with the onboard account (if I'm recalling her quick explanation correctly). And this was only my 4th time sailing with Royal. I'm also seeing what Mturk mentioned about the points. Typically the points appear with my previous sailing approximately 7 days after disembarkation, and then the C&A point total updates itself to the new balance randomly within 48 hours afterwards. So points appearing today mean the grand total points should update between today (Saturday) and Monday evening.

The change to water only from a personal beverage selection probably has more to do with management and execution costs than product expense. If everyone who's eligible for a welcome aboard beverage is receiving exactly the same thing, just with slightly different quantities, then there's no need for staff to process drink orders before sailing. And then whoever delivers the beverages to each eligible stateroom doesn't need to grab the specific mix for their deliveries and ensure that each beverage ends up in the correct place. The deliverer just needs a cart of water with a stateroom list and count to deliver to each cabin which means less time is required to complete the deliveries.

I'm planning a family cruise a few years out, so I can be ready to book when a particular sailing is loaded into Royal's system for the best rate, and after playing around with mock bookings, my suggestion is to either book a cabin for 5 now or two connecting rooms (assuming your party needs to stay together) with the other adult, assuming the person who may join you is an adult, otherwise you'll need a cabin for 5 as there must be at least one adult in the cabin for booking purposes. Here's why. Rates will rarely be cheaper than they are today. Cabin availability will probably not get any better. Cabin pricing seems to be a base rate for the specific cabin plus so much per person in the cabin (ex. base rate $2,700, two people in the cabin at $200 / person yields a total room fare of $3,100; if there was 4 people total fare would be $3,500) plus taxes, fees, and gratuity. If someone cannot make the ship, then Royal will refund port fees, taxes, and their part of the gratuity. However, if you want to add a person later, Royal reprices the whole cabin at the current rate (and rates seem to move only up, up, up these days). So maybe the new base pricing on the cabin is now $3,400 and the per person rate is $350. Adding a fifth person at these rates would mean the new total fare would be $5,150 from $3,500 for 4 (from the previous example). If you booked under the earlier mentioned rates with 5 people, your fare total would be $3,700; a whopping $1,450 less than the hypothetical future rate. So yes, you're paying slightly more today on the chance this person will join you. But the amount of money you'll possibly save is far greater than the loss if they don't show up. Since it sounds like you might be stretching your budget with how you're writing about the situation, I'd personally ask if they're in or out, and if they say they're out, book for 4. If they change their mind later they can book their own cabin, at their own expense, if any are available on the same sailing.

Just off of Anthem and WOW bands were available onboard. After using one for the week, I'd recommend spending on a quality lanyard for your Seapass card instead. The concept is interesting, but needing to take it off to use at most locations due to lack of mobile readers and still needing the Seapass to get off the ship at for CocoCay, makes it less useful than it could be. Interestingly enough, the way (as far as I can tell) the band works is the address of the NFC chip inside is added to your personal ship account. Your ship account number isn't added to the band or Seapass card either. Unless my NFC reader isn't picking up the encoded data. This is a good security practice as someone would need to read your card or band, then duplicate that, instead of just needing to know your account number aboard.

That was my thought too. Since port security doesn't know who's in which stateroom, it's easier to tell them (and get it enforced) 1 bottle per legal adult than a max of 2 per cabin. Plus, this policy change aligns with how many were already thinking the policy was. I don't think Royal changed the policy because of the interpretation of the rules by others, but I'm sure it made the discussion about implementation easier.

Currently aboard Anthem and received the older style bags, 12 floz cans of Bud Light and the discount brand bottles of water (I think they're 12 floz, but not leaving my window seat in the Solarium to check.) Seems like right now it's a gamble with what you're going to get based on the port and ship.

It's sounding like Royal, or at least their servers, are working around the 1 entrée at a time limit by giving guests what they really want from that steak order. And it's not a second piece of broccoli. Allowing a surf and turf order makes sense to keep people happy, since the introduction of the additional lobster charge, if we take Royal at face value with the cost of lobster skyrocketing.

This wasn't mentioned in the thread header, but I do want to touch on the reduction or elimination of duck and lamb on the menu. People have complained Royal's going cheap by their removal. However, I wouldn't be shocked to learn there was plenty of food waste with both as they're notoriously difficult to cook properly and not overcook. Since Royal is plating and serving thousands in their MDR, the odds of not receiving overcooked lamb or duck (due to residual cooking while waiting to be served) meant people expecting a perfectly cooked dish sent back the entrée. Combine the sent-back dishes with those which people didn't eat, as they were trying the meat for the first time and decided it wasn't for them, and inexperienced cooks overcooking the meat at the start make lamb and duck an easy target for removal. Yes, it saves Royal money, but it also means they avoid passenger complaints from dishes not meeting expectations and can work in inexperienced cooks easier. The braised lamb on the current menus should be moist enough to withstand the rigors of platting and simple enough to withstand preparation by new staff. A duo of grilled lamb and lamb tagine is being offered nightly in the Solarium Bistro on ships which have the Bistro without an upcharge (or at least is listed as such for my sailing next week on Anthem).

Looking over the Deluxe description in my cruise planner for a sailing next week, the answer is no. It includes their lunch buffet and admission to Blue Lagoon with transportation. The video header is highly misleading as it's showing one of the dolphin encounters. You'll be able to observe from afar, but you don't get to sit next to the dolphins without a dolphin encounter package.

These adapters have been confiscated by security for years, but it's been a major YMMV situation. Unless you've got a need for Type B electrical plugs, and if you're just needing the adapter for plugging in multiple USB chargers, bring a cordless USB multiport adapter instead. No risk of security confiscation and they take up less room in the luggage. Security would probably see and confiscate the bottom half on the x-ray, leaving you the top part to keep track of the entire cruise.

Like the Ben & Jerry's, but this one comes with complementary smoked meat and ranch paintings on the wall?

Since this is their first post, feeling it's a hit-and-run. But to give them the benefit of the doubt, while the room is marked as obstructed in the booking system, Royal has you scroll to the bottom of available cabins, click on the tiny "View deck map key" to display what the deck plan symbols mean, and those icons and accompany text are small. There's nothing notifying that the cabin's view is obstructed in a manner for someone who's not thinking about what they're seeing is going to investigate.

I've read when Royal was offering the cooler + beer combo pre-shutdown that beers could be exchanged for a cold one at any bar. Bars aboard might allow a swap for another beer that costs the same as the one being swapped. Haven't tried it, so it might or might not work. And if it does, it's going to be a YMMV situation unless Royal puts into place an official policy.