Rob&Ana

We have found that lately the specialty restaurants aren't that busy, in fact they seem to have people roaming the ship offering discounts to get more people to them.... It will depend more on the time you want to eat....it really depends on each sailing...they only way you can be 100% sure is to book online.

We have found that it's really piece of mind for short flights because cost is same but for international one way flights they have been much cheaper on many occasions for us. We will be flying in to Houston the same day as the cruise leaves so I feel safer booking with A2Sea and the Royal transfer and they let me pay for the flight on final payment of the cruise. We fly in from Canada so I like to book my flights at lease 6 months before if I can and its nice to not have to pay right away.

Very true, the big ships are amazing with all they bring to the table but there is certainly something very special about sailing on the smaller ships...I'm very glad we still have a choice today.

I did read some comments somewhere that someone asked Michael Bayley about this same topic and he said they were looking into unifying the loyalty programs across all the Royal Caribbean International brands. Does anyone have info or comments on this?

Sept 10 Radiance of the Seas to Hawaii Oct 20/27 Liberty of the Seas B2B Caribbean Nov 29 Explorer of the Seas ABC Islands Dec 9 Navigator of the Seas Perfect day at Coco Cay (We were on the Explorer B2B2B but Royal chartered the middle cruise....so we had to improvise ?) Dec 13 Explorer of the Seas ABC Islands

Yes a big differance they give you more than double the bandwidth with Surf & Stream. But if you are only doing Facebook/Emails and messaging it wont make much differance, you will notice if using facetime or any video chat or watching movies online.

If you are interested in an upgrade go straight to Guest Services and ask to be put on the list for an upgrade (the standard reply is we are sailing a full capacity). Once the ship sails any unsold or un occupied cabins are passed to the GSM/HD who can offer them to sailing passengers. Its something that sometimes happens but its first come first serve and they will contact you on day 2 with the upgrade cost and what's available. Good luck!

I was speaking with a few different officers over the years and they told me that Royal would have a hard time selling the Radiance Class ships because of they are Gas Turbine Vessels (although they were adding diesel engines in some) it seems they are more expensive to run. They also told me that the reason Vison, Rhapsody and Grandeur were still not sold is because they have less balconies then Splendor or Legend did. I personally love the smaller Vision and Radiance class ships but I think soon the cost of drydocking will outweigh there value and they may have to drop the price to sell them. I saw that all Vision Class ships were up for sale a while back. I guess we will just have to wait and see...

We booked a GTY for 2 weeks on Liberty for Oct this year and still no cabin....lately we don't seem to get our cabins until a week or so before the cruise....

Although I also think your Mini Segway is very cool, I can't imagine any ship ever letting you use it on board. If its in some sort of carrying bag you might be able to take it with you ashore like people do with folding bikes that fit into carrying bags. Just my 2cents.

Interesting question, now with the lifeguards I am sure they are much more strict. A few years back before lifeguards they would rotate shutting one and cleaning then open it and close the other....like what they do with the Jacuzzis. The mini golf was 9pm on my last cruise that had it, they actually take the putters and balls and lock them away. I don't think the ping pong has a time, like the shuffle board.

My wife is gona love these, very chic!

I don't know anyone that could endure the 9 months at sea working 7 days a week....but the day that blows my mind is turn around day...that day everyone works there butts off and the day starts a 4am for many. I am so amazed that these guys do such a good job and smile...they are truly amazing.

I vote for the elephant!!!?

I think with what we pay in port fees the local authorities can also do things to mitigate this problem. It's only going to get worse...

You will also have to actually be in the photo for them to let you use your FREE coupon....We had a small issue that my wife had used her FREE coupon and then when I went to buy a picture that I was not in but my wife was they would not let me use my FREE coupon....in the end he looked up my room and found my wife's pic to prove what I was saying was true....just FYI

I think Royal is using the same algorithm for the drink packages as they use for cruise prices (totally dynamic)....it's not normal to see such fluctuations for these types of things. I wish they would bring back the beer drink package....it was like $35, I guess people were getting to much value for money on that price.....

It looks like this will be the new normal, I figure we still have 3-4 years before they revamp the whole fleet into having no free saunas or steam rooms....When I book a cruise I always try to sail on a ship that does offer these services for free.

The last few I have seen were 10 drinks (valid for drinks up to $13) for $80 plus 18%. A lot of the people that were buying them were using them to buy Martinis...

I would recommend asking for what you want, if you say Gin and tonic they tend to use the well bottles they have under the bar, If you ask for a Bombay Sapphire and tonic they will use that. The bottles they have under the bar just say RUM, GIN, VODKA on them.

Especially since you need to add the extra cost of the perfect day....

Yup we were on a back to back a few months back and on the first leg they offered the drink cards but not on the second.... Also they like to wait until the end of the cruise to offer them.

Cool are they overnight stays? Why are they saying 2 stops...do they leave and then return?

On any Holiday cruises we have been on they do a special dinner both Christmas and New Years and the price is much more. Maybe they wont honor the pkg on those 2 nights.... Not sure how to make sure your OK 100% for those nights.

It does get quite hot as there is no air flow in CP and the AC in the ship is quite cold so the contrast is even more when you go outside.