Ampurp85

I was fine until today when I was required to change my password. The old system didn't have a character limit, the new system requires your password to be at least 8 characters long. Mine was already that length but no capital letters, so I just changed the cap and was good to go. 

Most will be but not all. You can check your app for the listed activities available. 

As I stated in my post, it will more than likely be seen as two types of offers and they do not allow you to redeem two different offers in one sailing. 

3 hours ago, Neesa said:

@Ampurp85 I agree the loyalty program is enjoyable for sure. Being D+ we enjoy wonderful perks. In my perfect world (because we also are pre vintage) wish there was some way to earn loyalty points on X to add to our Royal totals. We are really interested in Celebrity now that kiddo is leaving the nest & our cruising style is not Icon & Star at this point. We are wanting smaller and don't need the waterslides etc. I looked for our sailing in 2025 at Celebrity HARD, but not earning points towards my status had me putting on the brakes for a minute. I get it, their program, their rules. Just going to take it one sailing at a time, and I LOVE 2 CRUISE!!

In 2026 I will be celebrating 60 years young & I may break free for an X celebration though to mark the occasion!

 

I have a Celebrity booking on deck, but I am thinking of changing it. I figure if I can push it to 2026, maybe the program will have merged. At the current price I can get 4 sailings from Royal (thanks to loyalty and casino status) and that's not including what I will have to pay for drinks and internet. I want to sail Icon for the shows and food (also the different class), but unless Star gets the Rocky Horror picture show.......I have no interest in sailing it.

3 hours ago, Frank47 said:

I'm cruising on Utopia Of The Seas the Feb2025 Discount offers are now showing up and have reserved, Internet. Beverage, and Photos.  Dining packages have yet to show up.  Are they still offering 2 or 3 night restaurant deals besides the unlimited? We may want to do just 2 or 3 restaurants other then Main Dining.   When do  you think they will show up.  Thanks

It has been my understanding that for 3- and 4-night sailings they don't really offer the Chops/Giovanni's + 1- or 3-night package. It will be unlimited only. I believe it has to be a 5n or longer sailing for those options. 

It is my understanding that you cannot combine offers unless they are "like offers" when it comes to casino royale. A like offer is in the same condition as the offer, the adding of OBC or using the points from the Royal card is an offer within itself. So in this case it would be different offers. 

However, YMMV because I was told with this offer you have to pay for the second guest (at the casino rate) or pay the solo occupancy fee when going solo. But someone also stated they went solo and just paid taxes and fees. 

You can only make UDP reservations on board, so if you change to that, you will have to make all your reservations on board. In the case of "we're stuffed" it means two things: all the pre-boarding spots are taken and if you want to swap you will have to wait to board to get times or they cannot accommodate your party size during those times. 

I think those names might be the new combined tiers. 

Royal has the best loyalty program of the cruise lines imho. But if they could merge those perks with SilverSea and Celebrity, they would be top notch. I personally don't see any issues with the current program other than its not universal across the lines. With hotel loyalty, you can stay at different brands under the umbrella and get the perks. It means access to more revenue. As a pre-vintage I would love to sail Celebrity but between my casino and loyalty status, there is an issue of finances. It's not as financially feasible to sail celebrity when my sailings on Riyal are discounted heavily in the casino and come with discounted internet and free drinks thanks to loyalty. 

The pool should be available when you board, the hotdogs won't be until a certain time. I think the Key lunch is at noon, so if you board around 11 you can spend an hour or so at the pool and then do lunch. 

I have a Feb 2025 sailing on the Ascent and the CP is up and available. The "sales" are there but I think BF will be your best bet. 

11 hours ago, Cruise cuckoo said:

How many formal nights are on a 25 night cruise?  My first translantic! 

I believe it might be no more than 3, max 4. It will depend on the number of sea days as well. There will also be a couple of "dress your best nights" that are similar to formal nights but aren't called formal nights. 

I was in TJ Maxx when the eclipse passed over Chicago. The amount of people just staring in the sun was crazy......I am also sure quite a few demons came through while people were being looky-loos. 

Truthfully the washing on the ship isn't too great. I don't think clothes in general get damaged, but I don't believe actual care is taken. I still believe that if you are star class, they wash your clothes better. If you are in gen pop and don't care about smells or lack of care, then it is for you.

If you send clothes together, they don't seem separate them, so whites and such will be washed with colors. I know this because my brother's white linen items were ruined on Wonder this past Jan. I am sensitive to smells and whatever they use to wash the clothes is really industrial and because they dry them at a high, high heat once you start to wear the clothes, they heat up and smell worse. 

YMMV

Happy early/belated Birthday Ashley, my brother's is the 27th of this month. So he has been getting a ton of emails from Royal.......they are some stalkers . 

That is good about the casino recognizing the points. I can never play poker because I don't have the face for it........ But I was thinking of trying video poker since it's like $.25. You will be back on the road just in time to spend the car ride on hold with casino royale. 

1. I bring a reusable water bottle on every cruise. You will be able to get water in the Windjammer buffet (WJ), 270cafe, and any bar. Since you have the deluxe package, you can get 2 bottles of water each time you are out and stock your room. 

2. Everyone can eat breakfast, but the WJ closes at 8/8:30am and the dining room is about the same. 

3. If the watch is on a data plan, I would advise not to bring it. Cellular at sea is expensive as H#$! The only way any sort of free Wi-Fi is used is through the app on devices in airplane mode.

4. The website is pretty straight forward in that minors cannot be booked alone. If you spoke with a rep or had a TA they would have booked you in any manner. But you are correct that the rooms will only be unlocked by the person on the room's card. On embarkation day you can have guest services remedy this but swapping out the names. Your TA or a CSR cannot do this because at least one original person must stay on the reservation.

5. I think tipping is and should be personal but if you would like some anecdotal advice to help with planning. On the smaller scale I would plan to bring $20/day pp for tipping. Which would be about $560 in your case. That should cover anything you would like to give extra. 

JS on Harmony do not get voom included. In most cases a JS is nothing but a glorified balcony when it comes to perks. Everyone in the room must purchase the Key.  So, if they get the Key, it might be worth it for things like reserved show seating, priority embarkation/disembarkation, the lunch, and voom. They will have the possibility of dining at CK if the demographics allow. 

3 hours ago, SplashOfWater said:

FYI...The letter C lists are for the 6+ nt cruises. Use the letter A for the 3-5 nt lists...2404A06 in your example.

Thanks, just to clarify your post to others. The C is put in when you are sailing 6+ nights and the A when its shorter than that. 

That is a long day in St Thomas. But congrats on the Royal flush, I have no idea how to play video poker, but dancing drums is the only game my brother "knows" how to play in the casiner. You are also right; I can get two dancing drums all the time and 3 or more rarely but the sound of them keeps you hooked. 

1 minute ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Dan just downloaded the comp sheets from the casino (EX 4-5-24). Surprisingly, the 2500 level list has disappeared.  It jumps from 2000 to 3000 points.  Seems a bit shady since the 2500 point threshold for making Prime was previously a logical goal. The lower-level comps have always been weak but they’re really bad now.  Nothing much at all until 2-3000.

If anybody wants to see them let me know and I will try and upload them. I’m terrible at this stuff but I’ll give it a go…

I thought I was going crazy. Since last Oct, I haven't seen the 2500pts, it just goes from 2k-3k. 

I found the trick for looking up the comp sheets on the website. You just go to "Certificate Offer code Look up" and it is year, month, the letter C and level. So 2404C06, should be 1500pt level of cruises. 

15 minutes ago, Debstr66 said:

Hi Everyone!

Forgive me if this has been asked and answered (I searched first...). My second cruise as a Diamond member is coming up in a couple weeks. I notice my Luggage Tags say "Gold Member" shouldn't it be Diamond? Does it matter?

Cheers! 

While it doesn't matter, as long as your setsail/seapass says Diamond you are good, I have found the tags revert to the lowest level in the room.  I am D+ but if my mother stays in the room, the tags say "platinum."

On 4/2/2024 at 3:37 PM, Smokey79 said:

Word from the crew said it was going to be converted to playmakers. 

Considering it shares space with the Solarium, I highly doubt that. I believe they will remove the Samba grill and possibly replace Sabor on the Boardwalk with Playmakers. 

The only place with an actual stand alone bar is Wonderland, which you can pop in without a reservation and drink. The Cheshire cosmo is my favorite. I am unsure if Symphony has Giovanni's wine bar but that would be your only other option with the DX package. The other specialty restaurants don't have a stand alone bar, so you would have to dine in to get any other special drinks.

Last year I was on hold for 4hrs trying to use my prime certificate......and I was on a ship.

I was told you can also do this with a rep or TA.

I can tell you the issue with overcrowded Crown Lounges.....people bring their traveling party. It's not that it's too many. I made D+ on my Freedom sailing last April and on every cruise I have been on since then the lounge is always packed for happy hour.  But on each sailing it was a large handful of non-diamond/+ guest in the lounge. I know this because of people watch and quite a few mentioned that if they left they wouldn't be able to get back in. It's the same way that on certain ships non-suite guest take from suite guest on the suite decks. They are thirsty for the pre-dinner snacks. I saw some people lined up on Allure before they even finished putting the snacks out.