WAAAYTOOO

The Genie will do whatever YOU want to do. They will make suggestions/recommendations (and they often have a reason for the recommendations that they make !!!) but it's your cruise and they are there to serve you...you will get whatever you want. Do NOT worry about not getting a table when you want it. You will get what you want. The "rule" you stated is technically true...about the restaurant being open...but I can tell you from experience that generally a great deal of the "snacks" that are delivered to our suite on embarkation day have come from Izumi. I imagine that, as long as you let the Genie know in advance what you want, you will get what you want. They are hesitant to try and put a formal, sit-down lunch together on embarkation day b/c everyone (particularly the Genies) are so busy but if you let them know what you want, they will make it happen. My biggest concern with something like tempura would be that it might (WOULD) be cold by the time it gets to you....or more accurately, by the time you get to it. I think that's why they generally have "finger food" on embarkation day...trying to keep warm food warm is a losing battle. Just be midful of that. The whole "drink in the suite" thing is so much more complicated than it needs to be....IMO. The truth is, they will bring you any drink you want at any time. Just let the Genie know what drinks you want (even liquor) and they will bring it. What they will NOT do is leave you a bottle of liquor. Frankly, I have never thought about asking for the liquor in a glass without the ice/mixer but I suspect that they would do that. As for the wine, either ask for as many glasses of wine as you want or just pay for a bottle to be delivered. The same works for champagne. It's far less of a hassle, IMO, to just pay a couple of bucks for a bottle and be done with it. They will bring glasses, napkins, silverware, etc. You should be able to have a nice spread with food and drinks that you want. What you will NOT get is a full, multi-course, sit-down meal for embarkation lunch. If you want that, you will need to go to one of the open restaurants....which is certainly doable. I have done it both ways. The very first SC cruise I was on, we were with friends also in SC. They had their Genie (I can't recall her name at the moment) and we had Reyno. It worked very well as some of the times their Genie made the arrangements and sometimes Reyno did, but they always coordinated. Having the same Genie also makes sense b/c you know things are well coordinated that way. I'm not sure I have a recommendation on this one. I don't think you can make a mistake on this one. Wasting food in SC is one of the unfortunately unavoidable pitfalls. We have learned, over the course of many SC cruises, that we do NOT want extra food brought to our suite but we aren't "snackers" to begin with. We love our specialty dining and we utilize that but we just cannot eat more food than that !! That being said, the Genie will bring you whatever you want, whenever you want it. Many people ask for an afternoon snack and that's great. I wish I could eat an afternoon snack !!! The best thing (IMO) is to ask for what you want and, during the course of the cruise, you realize that food is going to waste, cut if off. By the end of our last SC cruise, we had a strict "NO MORE FOOD" policy in effect. It is true that your meal gratuities are included in your SC cruise fare. We have a very standard meal tipping philosophy and we do not change it whether we are in SC or not. $5 for breakfast, $10 for lunch and $20 for dinner. Always...whether we eat in the Windjammer or Wonderland (God forbid). You will be with a larger party most of the time. I never worry about what others in my party do. If they all tip like we do, the server scores !! If not, oh well....I can only control what I do. It keeps me sane. Yes. That is the best thing to do. When I first started cruising in Suites and finally SC, I used to feel very guilty about asking someone else to order food for me. It seems like such a personal thing and something I SHOULD be able to do for myself. So I started trying to just do it myself by calling the Room Service line. I quickly learned that this was a fool's errand. Nobody EVER answers that line. It was so frustrating. I eventually realized that if I wanted to eat in my suite, there was only 1 reliable way to get that order made and that was to use either the Concierge or the Genie. As those who have used Room Service before know, they will bring you EXACTLY what you ask for and nothing more. You must ask for salt, pepper, butter, bread EVERYTHING or you will not get it. Therefore, I began a ritual of making all of my Room Service orders in writing and handing them to either the Concierge or the Genie. It ends up saving us both a great deal of time and the order will be right. Give your Genie your breakfast order the night before. Breakfast is the BEST meal of the day for Room Service, IMO. SOOO decadent. We have never tipped our Genie $100 PP/PD. We tip $100 per day, period unless we have had some kind of complex event in our suite during the cruise. $700 for the week is very reasonable, IMO. 9. I know we have to go to the Star Class Zone 6 drop off area. I was a little confused as to what to do when we get there. I know I don't give the bags to the pier porters so is there someone at the star class banner that will tell me who to give them to or should I go inside with them? Definitely DO NOT give up your bags before you have checked in with the Star Class greeter/coordinator. You will have to fight off the luggage handlers but hold your ground !! Once you check in with the SC greeter, he/she will let you know where to go with your luggage. We choose to keep ours with us but you can choose to let yours go, if you want to do that. I don't recall which SC suite you are in....but if you are in a loft suite, I recommend that you keep your luggage with you and have the porters bring it inside and take it UP the stairs for you. If you are in one of the ATS or one of the panoramic suites, it isn't as critical b/c you don't have to deal with stairs. If you choose to keep your luggage with you all the way through the boarding process, be sure that you have coordinated that with the Genie ahead of time. They have to arrange porters to take care of this. It's easy to do this at Terminal A in Miami. Not quite as easy with the other ports...but it can be done. Just be firm.

We were just in 1758, which is the Grand Panoramic Suite that is "attached" to 1756. The setup is still the same. You have to go through that first door and then your suite door is inside that. I remember reading somewhere...long time ago....that the second "outside" door was added to reduce the noise from the CK. That doesn't seem to make much sense to me, but that's what I recall reading. As I mentioned in my recent blog, the biggest NOISE that we experienced had nothing whatsoever to do with the CK but came from the blaring speakers on the new pool deck area. It was ungodly loud and NONSTOP. By day 4 I had to call the Genie about it and she and the Cruise Director took care of it. Whether or not it was a permanent fix or just something they did to appease us, is unknown.

Eek. That Maori looks pissed ! ??

The truth is, on our last SC cruise (Oasis) our Genie told us that we could have filet in the CK for every meal if we wanted it. We just had to let them know ahead of time. NotTHAT big a fan....

Apple pie. With or without noxious raisins ?

Nope. Nothing special. As a matter of fact, you even have to pay for any extra $$ food from Cap'n Jacks....not that I'm at all interested in wings... You would have to still pay to get into Coco Beach as far as I know. We have not yet visited Coco Beach, of course....since it's not even open yet....but my understanding is that SC will still have to pay if they want to go there.

Regarding Coco Beach Club. The prices for the day pass have gone waaay up on our trip. We will be there Feb 11. They started out at about $64.99 PP then went through a few iterations up and down. I got ours for $50.99 and then the prices started to go up. My guess is that they are starting to sell out for that date. They went as high as $94.99 PP and are currently at $88.99. The moral here is....if you want a day pass to Coco Beach, do not wait to buy them.

We had a great deal of trouble with the cruise docs for our upcoming Anthem cruise (7 Feb). After numerous contacts with Michelle, it seems that Royal was showing a balance due on the account. Of course there was not....this cruise had been paid off since last spring (casino-reduced cruises must be paid in full when booked). But this snafu caused 2 lengthy delays in getting our docs. They said they had fixed the problem, but had not, and then said they had fixed it AGAIN but had not. Finally got them. One more example of why a good TA is worth their weight in gold. I recommend that if you have experienced more than 5 days’ delay (beyond 49 days) then you probably need to look into it.

Wow ! You’re getting very adventurous. Safe flight and fun all around.

The soda package is soda only. No water, coffee or mock tails. The refreshment pkg includes all of those. There is no restriction on how many/often you can get a beverage but you only get 1 at a time. The single possible exception is usually the server will give you a bottle of water in addition to whatever drink you order. This varies from time-to-time. Sharing drinks with people who are not entitled to them is strictly prohibited and if you are caught cheating, Royal retains the right to cancel your plan without refund. There are no surefire ways to monitor everyone for cheating but I wouldn’t want to be the one they caught...

YIPPEE !!! So glad it all worked out. I hope you all have a wonderful cruise !!!

Interesting. I didn't realize that Suite Guests got the drinks on the seapass card. I thought this was strictly a C&A perk.

They can’t force you to go back on the ship. I would wait for my son vs getting right back on the ship.

No, we don’t wear our pins.

Congrats. I know you will have an awesome time !

Welcome to the blog, Nikki !

Unless you delay in making your reservations, you will not have any trouble getting your desired venue and times. Just do it quickly after you board. When I say “delay” I mean 2 or 3 days.

The last 2 times we were on Liberty they did not have red velvet cake.

Sorry....I thought they were in SC ! Oh well....they just disappeared !

They’re so adorable ! They both look wide awake to me though ! ???

If you have the Unlimited Dining Package then you can eat in one of the specialty restaurants on embarkation day.....or can choose to eat at one of them if you want to pay full lunch price. There is no Coastal Kitchen on Mariner so it's either the one of the complimentary places or one of the specialty places.

Faintin' goats ? There's a story there somewhere.....

Just another example of the Star Class hypnosis...they always completely Shangai'ed with activities and overindulgences.

No, Traditional or MTD would make no difference for this. You can get as much of anything on the menu that you want in either TD or MTD.

Welcome to the blog, S Godzicki !