saytheb

Just got one of the mail-card offers for an interior room. Per the clubroyaloffers website, only choice tier with 0 tier credits.. I wonder why we got the offer? We've done only one cruise on Royal so far, and our other isn't until next year (though it's in the Royal Loft.. maybe that's why?)

What's a bit odd is the clubroyaloffers website also shows 0 offers. Should I see the offer there?

Either way, it's pretty dang tempting..

Allure - March 7-14, 2021

Apparently I booked a week early

2 hours ago, TXcruzer said:

Side note : the Allure dry dock seems to be getting greatly reduced as well, no AMP,  just propulsion and other mechanics 

Any confirmation of that? I had booked in 2021 expecting it to be AMPd, May change plans if it’s not...

8 hours ago, Scrumps said:

I have been looking at RCL stock too.. but I have a couple of fears..   1) I think recovery is going to be very very long and I question if the cruise industry will ever return to the highs on recent times.. and 2) there is a chance that RCL goes into bankruptcy protection if this goes on for several months and I believe common stock becomes  worthless then..

Thoughts? 

Looking at their earnings report, I'd be amazed if they go into bankruptcy protection with a 30 day shutdown.. Given their liquid assets and cash, and the fact that they'll be saving on food/fuel, I'd see it taking much longer.. They'll scale to fit the demand until it returns, and likely they'll be back to full capacity WELL before the end of the year, if not before the end of the summer.

As for the stock prices.. if someone wanted to ensure they could get the 100 stock at ~30 and are afraid it might jump, you could always buy a single 2-3 month call option and then exercise it if it's suddenly $40  Though finding a 2-3 month call option that isn't 1k or more is the real challenge currently ($995 for a $35 call expiring June 19th, though that'll probably drop in price monday). I do think the stock will go down further this coming week, though. There's a lot of push to downgrade their rating and although it shot up with the other stocks Friday, it again started dropping in after hours trading.. I could see a bottom-out of $20, but right now some of the swings are so chaotic it could plummet to <10 or shoot up to 50! 

I had decent luck - the watch I bought ended up within ~$10 of what I could find online, but was not discontinued. It was also one of the watches that was on sale in the actual watch store rather than the promenade if that makes any difference. I'd assume most of those watches in the promenade sales are just bulk clearance ("warehouse" deals)

49 minutes ago, SnickerTail said:

From the description, you will go to the same classes (says to check compasses for times) - were they historically subject to a fee? This says it includes $25 in casino credit and two drink vouchers (I guess that's where they get the $45 value).

That's a damn good deal in my opinion.. We could sign up via planner on-board of Symphony in Feb for free, but they didn't offer anything other than the lesson!

If I remember, I'll scan my Feb 15 Symphony cruise compasses, but I'm sure the Jan ones are similar.

2 hours ago, CrznTxn said:

Bid Royal Up Sunday from an Ocean View (got the last one) to a Balcony at the minimum  price on a sold out cruise March 22. Added a bid for a Spacious Balcony this morning for the minimum when I saw they dropped to the same price as the regular Balcony. Received the Spacious Balcony upgrade email 30 minutes later. Guess they were going to upgrade me and I hit the additional bid at just the right time. Also the sold out cruise went to only sold out for Suites. Must be the Corona Virus causing folks to cancel out. May be an empty ship for us.

I imagine it might also be people looking to book.. It seems people can "lock up" rooms pretty easily through the booking sites (including RC directly) just by navigating to the room selection and/or beyond. I've done this a few times to myself.. chose a room in one window, went to see reviews, get distracted for a few minutes, do a new search in different window and the room is gone only to reappear 10-15 minutes later. 

1 hour ago, Leroyr55 said:

I’m on Symphony May 2nd. It was literally $99.00 I believe yesterday. 

Shoulda snagged it

On 3/2/2020 at 5:42 AM, Curt From Canada said:

 

The bigger issue for us was a number of idiots not washing their hands when it was required.  Walking through the Windjammer wash station to avoid both the sanitizer "spritz" and the wash station requirement (there was lots of room) was the gold medal of stupidity.

 

I now question if people had that thought about me... I stopped at the restroom (washed hands! waved hand at door opener) before going into the WJ and didn't wash my hands again. Considering the only thing I had touched prior to that was a paper towel slightly more than a minute prior, I didn't see a reason to do it again.

Even with the hand washing stations though, the number of people I watched sneeze/cough into their hand then walk to grab serving utensils made me realize It's a losing battle and the only way to avoid it was not going there at all 

Anecdotally, our sea days for 2/15 Symphony sailing were nights 2 and 6, with the 6th being the lobster night.

My wife and I only went on the 2nd night and while we were dressed formally (tux and dress), there was a guy who showed up in sandals, shorts, and a NASCAR shirt. I wouldn't worry too much about it

14 minutes ago, Jolly Ogre said:

Wait?? Jr suite is sea class??

At least on Symphony it is/was - I assume for all Oasis class..

4 hours ago, PG Cruiser said:

I've been trying hard to recall if they ever did that with me.  I can't remember at all.   All I did was find the bus, leave my luggage with them and tell them my airline.  I actually remember telling myself, "People could just sneak onto these buses and get free transfers".

One thing they don't forget to do though is to "remind" you how well they took care of you and that they'd appreciate it if you "took care" of them too. *cough* TIP *cough*

Maybe I shouldn't "cough"... I might be denied boarding ... ha ha

This was my exact same experience.. though the guy at the podium told us "Go to the green bus".. as we were 3 buses away, we were suddenly shuffled onto a different bus rather haphazardly and we left our luggage. We figured it was a 50/50 shot of either going to the airport, or being kidnapped to a timeshare presentation.

I was Pre-Gold on Symphony in an OceanView Balcony. Both my App/Online printed version showed "Sea" class. I ended up in an upgrade via RoyalUp later on to a JS, so it stayed as Sea, however I showed as Sea long before I even made a RoyalUp offer..

What honestly really amazes me is that Pfizer stock is going down as well.

Especially given the sheer amount of Purrell stands around the symphony and that during ship reboarding at ports crew literally were squeezing massive Purrell refill bottles onto our hands. Just goes to show very few, if any stocks are currently safe.

When exactly can you buy the OBC for RC cruises and apply them to a booking? Any time after booking? Within 30 days of booking? Not clear to me. Just shy of 100$ OBC and should manage within 30 days, but if I have more than 30 days (370 days until cruise...) I'll go for broke

Same exact coffee maker for me in JS on Symphony.

16 hours ago, Pamlvt said:

Thanks for the info.  I do the same all the time in hotels while out on business.  My husband and I never watch movies because of our busy careers, but on vacations it’s something we love to do!  On both the Oasis and Harmony we’ve been able to stream movies on an iPad from Netflix, Hulu and Prime without issue, but now knowing the televisions aren’t just monitors without HDMI ports, we’ll be bringing our Fire stick!

 

Previous post said you need a universal remote and to unplug the network cable -- assuming it was the same Samsung style TV I had on Symphony, you may be able to get by changing the input using the TV power button on the right-hand underside of the TV. Push it once and you should get the menu, keep doing short presses until it highlights "Change Input", then HOLD the button in, it should change to HDMI. The timing is tricky the first time, but it's incredibly simple after.

16 hours ago, MKSglitz said:

Is that a walk-in closet that I see in the pictures?

 

 

Yes! I had another picture from inside, but I can't seem to find it.. It's plenty large and has cubbies off to the right side as well.

1 hour ago, mac66 said:

 

A few comments....

You should have told the room attendant about the hot water pot and the balcony doors. They can't fix it if they don't know about it.

You missed a great opportunity by not eating in the coastal kitchen. The two big bonuses of a JS is double points and eating dinner in the CK.

 

I was actually going to mention the popping (window frame, door was fine) to the attendant on the last day but of course that was the only day we didn't see her. I'll likely try to report it to RC customer service so they're aware, but I'm still waiting for them to tell me where a mystery charge came from that wasn't on my final folio. And yes -- the pot I should have mentioned but we were so overwhelmed with the room and everything else I quickly forgot

We sadly missed out on the double points since it was an upgrade! We'll be on another cruise, likely Star Class so we'll have plenty of CK I'm sure!

20 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Most of the coffee makers that I remember seeing are Mr. Coffee

I don't recall checking the brand, but that seemed vaguely familiar. I was hoping for a basket style of some sort instead of the all-in-one packs.

I had no issues via cellphone or laptop.

2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Disappointing to find that there were "structural" issues with your window when this ship is so new.

I was fairly surprised too! Thankfully it was only in the more rough seas/windy days so in general it was fine. When we got to the real rough parts coming back into port, there was a lot of noise all over the place

2 minutes ago, HAK1906 said:

Great review. My family and I go out ne t week on the Symphony and are in a Jr.Suite. Room 7632. It’s four of us and we did a junior on Liberty and it was enough room for us as the kids were comfortable on the couch. They were 9 and 11 then and 11 and 13. On liberty it was two loungers and two chairs (total of 4) on the balcony. Disappointed this only had two chairs with the ottomans. 
 

Was the coffee maker a kuerig or a traditional coffee maker and did you experience the continental breakfast?

Maybe they had it setup this way simply because it was just the two of us? Not sure..
The coffee maker was your standard hotel coffee maker -- tear open the bag and it has the filtered coffee "pod" that you put in the tray. I've grown to hate them after countless hotel stays, but it had the same look as them all ("was it actually cleaned at all?") I'd have loved a Keurig but the waste...

You did remind me, there was also a hot water pot that still had water left in it, and was..questionable. There was a noticeable film floating around. I emptied it out and didn't bother to touch it.

1 minute ago, Smurfy said:

What was your winning bid? I have a large ocean view balcony and considered using RoyalUp to try to get a Jr. Suite on Oasis this summer.

In the $600s/pp if I recall correctly. Roughly 3k-3.5k total including initial room cost? Basically the same cost as paying for one outright on Symphony in Sept. Not terrible, but definitely didn't save much if any.

Hey All,

Just wanted to share my personal review of our Jr. Suite on Symphony (16-636). We originally had booked an ocean-view balcony but won an upgrade to the Jr. Suite from Royal Up. I regretted having made a bid for one, especially after having won, but we lucked out a bit and apparently 636 has a slightly larger balcony than the other Jr.s which was nice, and the location was great! 

On to the review!

Note; This is just my personal opinion and it will sound very nit picky, but I did love the room and would like to provide as much detail as possible. Also worth mentioning I've never cruised before and having nothing to compare against.

Location (and noise):
This was a terrific spot as far as being away from the "action" and constant foot traffic. We had our share of yelling from people passing by early in the morning on shore days and of course running, but I feel it was pretty minimal overall. We could only hear music from the pool area when out on the deck, and even then it seemed like it was only during sail-away parties.
No noise otherwise and it would have been easy to fall asleep out there. For the first few days though the room to the upper right of us (Grand Suite? Huge balcony..) had a kid doing laps back and forth early in the morning which our neighbors also mentioned in passing. That thankfully didn't last long.
Privacy was great for 90% of the balcony, but due to the shape (somewhat slanted), if you were to stand on at balcony edge itself, you and everyone else were in sight, including neighbors to both sides. Not a big deal but awkward when I made direct eye contact to a neighbor once
What might be some of the more appreciable things of this particular balcony is that there are no cameras pointed at it unless you stand AT the edge, and even better was that the ship speakers were located on the balconies to the sides of us!
You're gonna need to walk a fair distance to any elevators/stairs, though it's great if you dine in the MDR as the nearest "lobby" drops you right at the MDR entrance (and a few other venues).
A few comment specifically for room 16636: If anyone ever books it on Symphony, I will warn you that the left window trim has a horrible popping sound under the riveted trim when in higher winds (25+ kt wind, and/or 10+ ft swells). It was jarring at first, but even for me being a light sleeper I got used to it. I didn't bother with maintenance call given it was under the riveted part.
The other comment is either our cabin attendant hated us, or our room was the most convenient, but her cart and bags were always flanking our door. At one point the cart handle was actually in front of the door.. I swear we didn't do anything to upset her, at least that we're aware of! It wasn't a big enough issue to ask her to move them, but it was a bit interesting.

Bedroom:
The room size was great for two of us. Plenty of room to move around and not bump shoulders at all.
The closet had the perfect amount of space for both of us, though trying to do anything (change, find clothes to wear, pack/unpack) in there with more than 1 person is difficult but doable. There are three luggage racks but I unloaded my suitcase on the ground. They seemed like they were screwed into the paneling only and like they'd rip out under any sort of heavier (30lb+) load. I'm sure it was fine, but I didn't want to even risk it.
The TV is located in front of the couch in the little lounge area, but pulls out and points perfectly at the TV for short spurts (an hour long TV show episode before bed, for example), but anything longer starts to hurt the neck as you need to either lay/tilt yourself on your side to see from the bed, or turn your head. Ideally you'd be doing things other than watching TV in bed (sleeping...!) but if it was a long day and you just needed to relax, it's a so-so setup. 
The TV has HDMi ports accessible on the right side, but you'll need a tiny hand to get the cable plugged in. I tried doing it with the TV pulled out as well, but the bracing blocks off most access to those ports. One other thing is that the remote didn't allow us to change the input to HDMI 1. I had to use the TV power button to navigate (press once to bring up menu, press briefly until the selection is on Input Select, then HOLD the button until input changes). The input resets after power-off so this needs to be done every time you want to use HDMI 1!
The lounging couch was great - very comfortable but still firm enough you didn't just sink into an abyss, and setup in such a way that you can lay around inside looking out the windows and enjoy the sights.
The AC did a pretty decent job cooling down the room. We had it cranked to max coldness, but rarely found that to be too cold. We're from CO though, maybe that's a contributing factor
There is a very small table in the "lounging" area, but it's not conducive for meals. In fact, there's no good surfaces for meals beyond one person. Room service was tricky - we had items on the desk and the coffee table even though it was just 1 tray and a 2nd plate. It means no area to eat together unless you want a plate in your lap. 
I did really appreciate that the giant mirror opposite the bed is lit - for me to apply sunscreen, the wife for makeup.
The bed itself was fairly comfortable, but the mattress topper did seem to move around a bit. Easy enough to fix but on occasion I'd wake up to a bundle of it sticking into me from my tossing & turning. The bed was the two twins pushed together with the "bridge" in the middle. It wasn't noticeable at all until at some point we managed to push them slightly apart. Easy fix, though.

Bathroom:
The bathroom was a good size, but the shower/tub combo was honestly terrible. The combo has the front half enclosed in a glass "door", but the rear half completely exposed. If you keep the water flow low it's not much of an issue, but anything up to the button limiter and beyond guarantees you're going to have a puddle on the floor without a towel down. Not a deal breaker for never picking the room again, but a nuisance for sure. The BIGGEST issue I had with the tub/shower is that it's too damn narrow! It was a constant battle with stepping on the drain cap or getting my feet just right to the sides so I wasn't closing the drain and not standing on the tub's slopes. My wife got so fed up with it she eventually pulled the drain cap out altogether! We're pretty tiny (5'8 and 5'4), so it's not like bigfoot is trying to shower..
The shower is big enough for two people (tested, verified), but you're going to get water everywhere and really only one person can be in the stream at once. We tried every orientation of standing and risked death multiple times to verify it's a no-go.
There doesn't appear to be any sort of vent/fan either, so expect a lot of steam (which I've read here is great for releasing wrinkles but I wasn't so lucky!) One downside to that is your mirror will absolutely be fogged - it's not heated.
The walls between bathrooms seem pretty thin. At one point I could clearly hear my neighbor talking to his wife. It didn't sound like he was yelling, but maybe he was. You can ABSOLUTELY hear any conversations in the hallways. I heard my cabin attendant all day, every day when she was in the halls.
Oh, and the toilets are interesting. I can only describe them as airplane toilets when flushing. So, any late night/early morning trips can be startling..
The L'octane bathroom amenities are nice, but I didn't get the room for them. They felt/smelled no better or worse than most 4/5 star hotel amenities and were restocked any time we were low (while leaving the near empty bottle to avoid needless waste)

Parting thoughts:
Overall, it's a nice room. Would I have paid what I actually did after the upgrade? No, probably not. There wasn't enough "wow" for me to justify the cost difference, even with the larger balcony and the closet. We didn't use the extra balcony space (there's still only 2 chairs and a small table), and while hanging our clothes up was nice, they were already wrinkled from the suitcases so without doing laundry, it wasn't a huge boon for us. If I had to nail a price on it and assumed an ocean view (standard size) balcony was going for $1800, I'd cap myself at 2-2100 for this room. Since this was our first cruise, we did NOT try Coastal Kitchen, so I'm leaving that out of my price/thoughts as it would be unfair. We wanted to stick with the MDR as a level-set of expectations for dining, outside of the one complimentary specialty dining we had a voucher for (used at Hooked).

I'm curious what others who have been in the room think! Also, if there's any specifics you might have, let me know and I'll either add them, or reply!

On 12/4/2019 at 8:19 AM, MikeK said:

I think you covered about all the free dining but I think there is a free soft ice cream machine somewhere on the top deck.  Maybe the pool deck?

Symphony has two self-serve soft-serve ice cream machines on the pool deck. One right in front of El Loco Fresh, the other I can't remember exactly, but essentially the opposite side of the ship. They do "close" later at night. The ice cream itself was a bit icy/"crystaly" for my tastes and not like you'd normally expect from a soft-serve, though.

3 hours ago, Matt said:

Where did you sit exactly? I found the bartenders to be roaming so often I had to let them know I need a break from drinks 

The buffet is for appetizers only.  It's similar to Solarium Bistro, where food is ordered from the kitchen but apps are available to grab.

You also have to keep in mind the food served at Coco Beach Club is specialty restaurant level food. This is not burgers and hot dogs. Thus, it takes time and it would be worse to let a "cattle call" approach occur where everyone stands in line waiting for food.  

I think the reservation system is better, since it prevents standing around and waiting.  

The key for all involved here is to simply make a reservation sooner than later. I recommend doing so when you enter the club.

Far left side -- when facing the beach/back to Coco club. That seemed to be the experience for the other areas as well - they were crawling with bartenders and they weren't that much more packed with people than where we were. It was very odd..

Our lunch actually was incredibly fast at 2.. we ordered our food, went to the apps buffet, grabbed a few things, and before we could even finish them our lobster was being set down. I'm assuming they were mass prepping them in advance so for things like that, it's perfect. I'd still prefer if they just allowed for walk-up dining but possibly with the option of reserving a time, but even then I don't see myself returning at it's current cost so it's a moot point.

I'm curious @Matt if you had the same experience with the beach (lots of broken shells)? I know a few prior visits had been canceled before ours due to weather, so I'm wondering if we were just "luckily unlucky".