WAAAYTOOO

Welcome to the blog, mariette costin. There are 2 ways to purchase any of the beverage or dining packages. You may purchase before you sail or after you are onboard. Generally, you will save money by purchasing the packages before boarding. You do this either by booking it online through your Cruise Planner or by calling Royal Caribbean and purchasing over the phone. You will be charged for the entire cost of the package at the time you purchase.

If you’re talking about a free spin in the casino, they give you some special tokens that you use in a special machine. Usually you win nothing but if you do win, it’s usually a trinket like a set of dice or a marker. Dan won a casino shirt once. I’ve never seen anyone win anything of real value.

Concur

Welcome and happy Honeymoon !!

I don’t understand why they made the unforced error to begin with. All that angst and wrath were so avoidable. Glad to see them make the right decision in the end.

We have a garment bag that we put all of our hanging clothes in. It does a very good job of keeping clothes from getting wrinkled and it has wheels so you don't have to lug around a hanging bag. ...but it's a pretty big piece of luggage. I normally only bring the garment bag when I am on a cruise of 7 nights or longer b/c it has become our habit to not participate in formal nights on any short cruises. It's just not worth the hassle of bringing all that stuff for less than 7 nights. But yes...I do also believe that the hanging bags/garment bags do a great job of minimizing wrinkles.

My favorite topic !! Very often, if you want a cabin crawl, you have to be the one to set up the cabin crawl. This has been the case for almost every one that I have done. You still have plenty of time to do this but you will need to get started pretty soon. I always organized my CC through the CC Roll Call (sorry for all the CC's). I know that many people are doing this through Facebook these days but I do not have or use FB so I cannot help you there. I can't imagine that it would be any different through FB than it would be through CC. If you create and organize the CC yourself, you will need to start tracking who is coming and whether or not they are going to be just gawkers...I mean, viewers, if they are also going to be show-ers and a basic head count. A simple spreadsheet has always worked for me. I will usually ask the people who want to participate if they will provide their stateroom category and, if they are willing, their stateroom number. Some people are concerned about advertising their particular room number (which I think it paranoia, but that's just me). The most successful CC are those that offer the opportunity to view the largest variety of cabin categories. Things like accessible cabins, suites with no balconies (a rather new category for Royal) and the virtual balcony rooms are all ones that attract a lot of attention, not just the big suites. It has been my experience that once people realize that someone in a SC suite is participating in the CC, the interest usually picks up. People like to visit the high end suites. It's just normal human nature and curiosity. I normally do not disclose the details of the "party" but simply allude to the fact that there will be a surprise when they arrive. That helps sell the event. Something that I have failed to mention in any of my recent CC party descriptions is that I usually (but not always) bring a "parting gift" for those who visit during the CC. Refrigerator magnets is something super easy to buy and give away. It doesn't have to be fancy. What the Genie can do: - Order all of the party stuff - food, beer, water, anything to drink except for wine and liquor. The food will be from 1 or perhaps 2 (at most) specialty restaurants. Choose one and go with it. - Coordinate with housekeeping to have all of the dishes, glasses, etc. delivered and picked up - Both of these first 2 can be done with $-0- expense. - Arrange for a server and/or bartender - Order wine and liquor - These last 2 will cost you. If you want any of these $$ items the Genie can let you know how much it will cost. We got 4 bottles of champagne (certainly NOT champagne....sparkling wine, at best) and the total bill was ~ $80. It's very reasonable unless you start ordering Dom Perignon or something. I never EVER order liquor. That IS expensive. Here's what the Genie can NOT do: - Order food from lots of different specialty restaurants. It's simply a question of logistics. If you want your food ready and delivered at the same time, choosing 3 or 4 different venues is going to complicate that request immeasurably. They will not do it. Don't even ask. - Be at your party to help entertain your guests ! No way. The Genie is an assistant, not a manservant (no sexism or racism implied there....). The Genie will help coordinate everything and will come by at some point to make sure everything is going smoothly, but they do not stay, and they do not participate. I'm going to skip a lot of details as I just went through this on another thread. If you have specific questions, I will do my best to answer. - The Genie will handle food - Room Service will handle dishes, glasses, silverware and napkins (but the Genie will coordinate with room service for all of this) - Your room attendant will get you ice. It is advisable to let your room attendant know ASAP that you are going to need an ice chest full of ice EARLY the day of the party. You will need to allow the beer and whatever else you are serving cold, to cool down. Nothing worse than serving your guests warm beer but that takes time. Don't wait until the last minute on this one. One last piece of advice. Don't forget that there are others who are showing their rooms as well. Try not to steal ALL of the attention. That's why it's really so important that the other cabins go first and you are at the end. Once people get to your room and start looking around, eating, drinking, they are pretty much done. It's VERY hard to get that crowd moving again once the party starts. The Genie should reach out to you at around 60 days prior to sail date. It's generally a good idea to let them know right away that you are planning to have a party...but be sure that they understand that this is going to be a NO COST party. I have done 4 or 5 of these and I have never had the Genie ever offer to arrange anything that would cost extra but I have read recently that some of the Genies have offered $$ services. That's not what you want...I don't think.

Maybe the internet pkg was a TA gift ? I love this room. We were in something very similar on our TA on Jewel a number of years ago. Looks like they could use some new furniture though.....

Just remember that it is almost always more cost effective to purchase these kinds of additional items BEFORE you cruise. Once you get on the ship it is almost always going to cost you more. The single exception to this rule are spa services. They are rarely discounted pre-cruise but sometimes you can find a deal. Spa services are more expensive on sea days and they usually run some port day specials when in port. The spa is pricey though. No doubt about it.

I happen to agree with you on this one.

These are people like the laundry room folks and the maintenance crews. They have no chance to make any tips directly. Whether you agree that they deserve a small sliver of the pie or not, that's who is getting the other part of this pie.

Yes, it is exactly like that. If you are not comfortable with very aggressive vendors, just stay away from that area. They are restricted from leaving their market area so if you stay away from there, they will not bother you. If you are going to Columbus Cove, take the tram. It goes through there but does not stop.

I think that's what MTD is designed for. As long as you recognize that there may be a wait (not that there isn't a little wait even if you DO have reservations !) and chances are you will have different waiters and areas of the dining room, I think it's a great option.

You can (and should) have your reservations linked. Your agent can do this for you or if you booked directly with Royal you can call and have them link the reservations.

Assuming you have My Time Dining, you can do it either way. It is generally helpful to have dinner reservations made before sailing BUT it is also nice to have the flexibility to eat whenever you want to. My recommendation would be to make a reservation for the 5 of you for the first night and then wait until you get onboard to decide about the rest. Once you decide when and where you will go to shows, etc you can always either make dinner reservations day-by-day or just show up whenever you’re ready to eat.

They calculated cruise points for all of the "old" cruises using some sort of conversion (the details of which escape my memory). As I recall, they actually were very generous with the points conversion for the old cruises. At any rate, Dan and I have cruised on every single Royal cruise together (I have a few "extra" cruises that he did not go on) so our points should have been identical, but somehow, he had 7 more points than I did. I called and asked them to do an "audit" which they did and at that time they explained to me how they converted those old 1-point-per-cruise points. They never could figure out why Dan had more points than I did but the guy at C&A just gave me the extra 7 points and called it a day.

I thought they served from the right and cleared from the left ! I've been eating for 66 years and I've never seen ANY of this before. Very interesting !

I'm actually a pretty picky eater, too. If not picky, a bit pedestrian, perhaps. I really enjoyed the Chef's Table both times that I did it. I found the company to be a more enjoyable part of the meal than the food, itself. I am also not a wine drinker, but found that I enjoyed the wine (perhaps the effects ?). I would recommend for everyone to do it once...

I suspect there is quite a difference in damage, as well.

I believe that you were misinformed by the casino rep. I would recommend that you call C&A and ask for an audit. They did one on the phone with me a while back. I found them to be very forthcoming about conversions from the "old" process.

No. It only works the other way. You can order food from the MDR to be brought to the specialties but not the other way around.

...then you got one heck of a deal.

At least 1 person from the original booking must remain on the booking. If you booked a solo cruise, then there is no way to transfer that cruise to anyone else. Royal (and all cruise lines, I imagine) do this to preclude people from booking cruises when they are “cheap” and then selling them to others for a profit. I realize that is not your motivation but the rule still applies.

Royal Caribbean does not permit any Agency to discount their cruise fares. The only way a fare can be lower than the published rates is if the Agency has negotiated a group rate. It’s possible that the rate you were quoted is an Agency that has group space. As Matt said, be very wary of an online cost estimate. Before comparing it to a quote from Royal (or MEI) make sure you are comparing apples to apples.

Congratulations to Michael !!