WAAAYTOOO

Did you bring this up with the Loyalty Ambassador ? The D+ perk is not a special that is offered or not offered. It just “is”. If you are D+ or Pinnie you rate a free bag of laundry. Period. No special needed.

Welcome !

Yes, Star Class can have laundry done daily if you want that. The attendants bring back cloth bags to you for this purpose. Unfortunately, even Star Class still get those itchy labels. Ugh If you are D+ Or Pinnie you will get 1 free bag of laundry on cruises 5 days or longer. Since Dan and I are both D+, we each get a free bag of laundry so we pretty much go home with clean (albeit itchy !) clothes.

I recommend you do not give your luggage to ANY porter even if they claim to be a Star Class porter. We once had to retrieve our bags from the so-called Star Class porter and it was a Charlie Foxtrot. Keep your bags with you. Don’t give them to anyone except the Genie. Tell the Genie you want your bags to stay with you. Period. It’s important that you let the Genie know before embark day that you will be keeping your bags with you. Don’t ask....TELL them. Trust me....they CAN put even the big suitcases through the scanner. They will get a Terminal porter to take your luggage up to the gangway and then a ship’s porter will take the bags with you to your suite. If you are in a Loft, have them take the bags upstairs. Your request for fruit and drinks on embarkation is perfect. But you need to let them know that’s what you want, so you’re going to need to communicate with them ! It’s completely unsatisfactory for your Genie not to be communicating with you. If you aren’t getting emails from him, I would escalate this issue immediately to the ship’s Hotel Director. No emails from the Genie is not acceptable.

The only thing you need to worry about at this point is what you want to happen on embarkation day. You need to tell him when you plan on being at the port and how you want embarkation to go. We always insist that our luggage remain with us throughout the boarding process and you need to let him know what you want to for lunch on boarding day. Other than that, you can wait to meet with him to plan the rest of your meals, entertainment, etc. Do NOT let anyone take your luggage. Keep it with you.

+! ^^

Not much. Just let the Genie know which meal you want and when and it will happen. You can tell the Genie that you want dinner tonite out on the balcony from Jamie's (or Chops or wherever you want...including the Main Dining Room !) and they will set it all up. Most often we choose to eat breakfast out on the balcony b/c it is coolest. Just let the Genie know the night before what you want to order and they will set it up. I will recommend that you do NOT try and order this yourself, although you can. I have found, over the years and on EVERY ship, the room service number is useless. Rather than go through the hassle and frustration of trying to order food yourself, just let the Genie do it. At first I felt very uncomfortable asking the Genie to order food for me. It seemed like something I should be able to handle, but honestly, they do not make it easy. More times than not, the room service number just rings and rings without any an answer and then half the time, if I DID manage to get someone to answer and take an order, the order was wrong when it got to the room. Be sure and tell the Genie EVERYTHING you want, down to butter, salt, pepper, milk, cream, sugar...they will only bring you what you order. You'd think that salt and pepper should come without asking but it normally will not.

Yes, so long as it is during normal operating hours. You cannot order lobster at midnight, for example. They prefer if you keep your room service orders from 1 specialty restaurant at a time, so no ordering steak from Chops and something else from Jamie's and something else from Wonderland. The logistics of getting different foods from different venues is just too complicated.

Exactly !

Wear whatever is comfortable and don’t worry about what others are doing or wearing. Nobody cares ! Enjoy yourself and be comfortable.

What a wonderful gift ! You are all going to have the times of your lives. They will never forget it ! The ATS are awesome ! Be sure you have at least one nice meal out on the balcony. Sometimes it can be waaaytooo hot out there, but it's so special. It's usually a little more tolerable while underway vs being in port b/c at least you get a little breeze.

Don't miss the Grand Marnier Souffle for dessert. Oh-so good.

Here's the scenario I use at Port Canaveral. Rent a car from Hertz at the airport with a 1 way rental. Drive your rental car from the airport to Coco Beach/Cape Canaveral. Use the car all day long to do whatever you want to do...visit Cape Canaveral for the day, go to an amusement park....whatever. Use it all day and as long into the night as you want to. Stay at the Residence Inn on Astronaut Blvd. The Hertz office adjoins the Residence Inn parking lot so you can return your car anytime of the day or night (even after hours) and just walk from the Hertz office to your hotel. The hotel has a shuttle to the port the next day (I believe there is a charge) or take an Uber or taxi. It is very close. It's by far the easiest scenario.

While I guess it CAN be done, we have never asked for it to be done. I am too picky about my stuff and I would not be comfortable with anyone else unpacking for me....that's just me. If you are in a loft suite you need to make SURE that the Genie knows you want your bags taken upstairs. If you don't say anything to them your bags will be left downstairs. No bueno.

I believe that the food at Cap'n Jack's is not included. All of the other "restaurants" on the island are complimentary so even without the UDP the food is "free".

Nope

I believe that is no longer the case. We have a UDP for our upcoming Brilliance cruise over Thanksgiving. There was no trouble at all purchasing it. We also had the UDP last Christmas on the Christmas + NY cruise on Grandeur. Our only restriction was on Christmas Eve where we could not choose Chops but both Giovanni’s and Izumi were available to us on Christmas Eve. I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks if there are any restrictions on Brilliance for Thanksgiving

Not very strict on this rule for closed-loop Caribbean cruises. I wouldn't worry about this at all. If you were visiting Europe or Asia or doing a transatlantic, it might be an issue but with the itinerary that you are describing, they will be fine.

Welcome to the Blog, guppyfresh !! Yes, your soda cups will be in your room when you get there. If they are not, ask your attendant and he/she will get them for you. If your son/daughter loses their cup, I'm sure they will replace it. Not sure what kind of hoops that requires but it's a problem that can be solved.

YIPPEE ! A Star Class live blog. Can't wait !!

Not much. There may be a Valentines Day cake in the Windjammer or some kind of special "drink of the day" but that's about it. I can't remember anything special for Valentine's Day.

That is correct. Only GS and above.

You luggage tags will not automatically update. They are "static" once your cruise docs are published. If you want new luggage tags (and I don't blame you, if you do !), call Royal (or your TA) and ask them to re-issue your cruise docs. Then your luggage tags will update.

I have never cruised on Mariner but I feel certain that it does, as every Royal ship has at least 1 poker table. The rake is killer - 10% of the called pot up to $15 per hand. They normally play either a $1/$3 or $2/$5 cash game and those are generally only at night. The tournaments are usually held on sea days with a few preliminary rounds and a final table on the last sea day. Depending upon how many tournament entries they have, the final prize will either be a complimentary cruise and seat in the Royal Poker Tour finals (normally held the first or second week of December every year) or if there are not enough entries to pay for the "free" cruise, the prizes will be cash after a very heft rake for the house. So yes, chances are there will be a poker table with cash games and tournaments but it's not a particularly player-friendly arrangement, IMO. We rarely ever play poker onboard anymore.

We did this on a recent B2B but it was on NAV out of Miami. I can't imagine that FLL would be much different. It was super easy in Miami. We rented a car from National with points. There was a rental car bus at the port when we got there, which took us to pick up our car. We just had to show them the reservation so that they knew we weren't just trying to get a free ride to the airport. Then after we were done with the rental, we did the opposite. We had to show the bus driver our receipt and then the bus took us back to the port/ship. SOO easy. I can't answer the question about how frequently the bus runs back and forth but my experience in Miami was that they run very frequently in the morning and early afternoon, but probably not all day. To be safe I would probably suggest that you try and be back to the ship by around 1:00. You can check with the bus driver when they pick you up to ask when the last bus comes back to port.