YellowBrickRoad

There are no poolside casitas; they are all on the deck above the pool.
The vast majority do face the pool but some are set farther back and if I remember right only a couple are set a bit closer to the overlook.
You need to go to the Mast Bar on deck 16, which is where the casitas are located, to select the one you want. I would suggest going up there as soon as you board to see which ones suit you best and then heading to the Mast Bar as soon as it opens to ask about selecting. I have read that you don't have to wait till the day of your actual booking to do this but don't have first-hand experience so can't say if it's correct.
Also, just FYI, the sides of the casitas are slatted so they do let in the wind and the amount of shade they provide varies over the course of the day depending on the position of both the sun and the ship. The padded loungers looked very comfy.

No reason not to share. I’ve seen those Diamond & above sales maybe twice ever but only noticed things like CocoCay cabanas (I don’t buy drink packages or much of anything for that matter).
Letting people know about a sale you see has no downside, IMO. Either it will help someone or thy will just ignore it.

Interesting to hear that the 10 drink package was available onboard.  It has been rare, lately.  You do realize that it is not always available ?  In fact, it's fairly rare.  

Last year, on Oasis, we ended up changing ours so we can be protected by sun. It would have been  beating down on us for too long. Same location and place the year prior, we had shade so you never know.  Only reason we could switch and try time the sun location was because we had it on a port day and some were available.  The sun chairs where available if you wanted sun but again, it was a port day so made the difference with availability. 

i have stopped getting mail offers from Royal and Celebrity but when I go to clubroyaleoffers.com i always have new offers available. 

I've shown similar examples before...
My Wife just got off Oasis yesterday.  And in the week she was away, we've received all these offers in the mail.

 
I don't know how the cruise ship advertising industry works.  Does Royal/Casino Royale pay for all this advertising, or allow an advertising agency to foot the expense, with the agency keeping a portion of the sales?  And if so, just maybe we are on the easy-sell list.
 
 
 

We just go off an 8 night cruise this past Sunday on Symphony and my husband got one instant offer onboard and he also got monthly certificate in the mail and they both were for either a balcony or JS for multiple cruises including Utopia in September of this year. He gambles but not that much and usually his offers are for either an ocean view or balcony which we will usually take the cash offer and apply it to an existing cruise we all booked.  He's never gotten an offer instant or monthly for a free junior suite and at first we thought it was a mistake.  Long story short the offer was real and we booked a B2B in a junior suite on Utopia this September using his Casino Royal offers. 
Now we have to find a different cruise to take in January of 2025 as we were booked (not for free) on Utopia on a B2B.  However, there was no way we were passing up a free JS and his certificates were only valid for 1 month so they don't give you a whole lot of time to find a cruise.  But his offers had nearly every US based ship except for Icon, from the 3/4 night Caribbean cruises to 7 night Alaskan cruises although the Alaskan cruises were for balconies only. 
Also we were told by a Casino Royal agent on the phone when we called if you get an certificate for a free JS redeem it immediately, because revenue management only give Casino Royal so many JS's and once that allotment is gone that is it even if there are JS open for sale to the public they can't give you the JS once they given away their allotment.  This is why the offer is for either a balcony or a JS, once they give away the fee allotment they can upgrade you into a JS from a balcony but you have to pay for the upgrade which defeats the purpose of a free cruise. 

Just in case anyone is curious, you can look up the current (and previous) instant reward certificates to see what's available for yourself.
http://clubroyaleoffers.com/CertificateOfferCodeLookUp.asp
The code format for instants certs is: (2 digit year) (2 digit month) ("A" - 5 or less night cruise, "C" - 6+ night cruise) (07 - 1200 points, 06 - 1500 points, 05 - 2000 points, 04 - 3000 points, 03A - 4000 points, 03 - 6500 points, 02A - 9000 points, 02 - 15000 points, 01 - 25000 points).
So for example, if you want to look up the 1500 point for short sailings ending in Feb '24, the code would be 2402a06.  If you want to look up the 4000 point long sailings ending Jan '24, the code would be 2401c03a.

In a pretty steady 5 years of getting and using casino comps I have seen allllll of the short Caribbean out of FL, smaller ships weeklong out of FL, the Navigator Pacific cruises, just started getting some Oasis weeklong and more Galveston, very rarely an Alaska but have never seen a Europe offering

Instant certificates?  Absolutely, even on the lower tiers. 
Online offers?  I've personally never seen any.

I've never gotten an offer that included a European cruise....but we don't get the big offers (instant or monthlies).  Alaska ?  Yes.  But never Europe.

We are booked as well! Traveling with my husband and another couple. So happy to have something to look forward to!!
 

I have had 1 offer over the past 13 months !

I have 7 offers as well which I never I never had as many offers before. I book about 1 or 2 a year and just became Diamond. Didn’t know if that made any difference. 

Cool !!  Good problem to have.

We sail exclusively on the Casino comp cruises and the offers come and go depending on the time of year and how often we are booking. Currently the wife has 7 offers listed but we have had only one or two at different times of the year. It was a few months since she booked a cruise so I guess they were throwing a bunch at her to try to get her to book another one. Guess it worked as she booked another the first of this week for a B2B in October. Maybe she will take me on this one.😄

Thank You! I didn’t realize I would be getting so many casino comps since I’m only Choice. I was Prime before but that expired. And of course they started coming  and the exact one I wanted right after I booked! 

Back in the old days, they would just make the switch for you without much ado, but those days are long gone (sorry, I know that's of no help to you now).
If your TA is not experienced with casino bookings I would be loathe to ask them to do this kind of switcho-chango for you.  Not only is it likely to be a very stressful maneuver, as @Ampurp85 mentioned, you would basically be snatching money right out of the TA's hand for their trouble.
My advice would be to keep the booking you have and use the cert for another cruise.  I know that's not always possible due to work schedules and travel expenses, but that would be the most prudent thing to do.  If that is not an option, I guess there's really no option other than to thrust your TA into that difficult position.  

I have not experienced this, but you could always call and ask what the best option would be. If it was just booked, they might be able to apply the offer and use your deposit to cover the cost. If it is past final payment, you might not be able to do anything. I mean you have to call anyway, unless you are booked with a TA and that is a whole other can of worms because they don't make commission on casino comps. 

If you are staying in a full suite, happy hour beverages (including cocktails) are complimentary during the HH time in the Suites Lounge.  If you are a Pinnacle and go to the SL for HH but are not staying in a full suite, your vouchers will be used.
Happy Hour in the Crown Lounge will result in using your vouchers no matter what type of room you are staying in or your C&A level.

Confirmation email came through this evening - I've been upgraded from a guarantee balcony to a spacious balcony! Very excited to win, and I love the location of this room too. It's a bit more forward than I might have chosen to be, but I will take it because it is quieter, near the stairs/elevator, and bigger!

I don't drink as much as I used to.  And now I am D+ as well as Signature in the casino.  I'm finding I don't use all those drink benefits.  I probably never drank my moneys worth when I'd buy the Deluxe Drink Package, but that was not my whole persuasion to do so.  The drink package is so convenient.  And I was able to experiment with drinks that I normally would never buy.  Or if a drink became warm or stale, or even boring, I could push it aside and order another. 
Value, as in getting your moneys worth, is not my whole consideration.  I think convenience is valuable too.🍹 

Well, first thing is you’ll need to add the 18% gratuity to your total price per person…which is about $102 more per person.  Next…you have 3 port days and if you plan to be off the ship a good part of each day, well…that’s a lot of time with no opportunity to use your drink pkgs.
If she is a drinker and wants the package…why not buy it for her and get the refreshment package for you?  Then when you want something alcoholic…just pay for it.
OR…neither one gets the package and you just pay as you go for drinks!  Most likely it will be cheaper than paying over $1300 for 2 drink packages.
This is strictly my opinion!  😊 

It’s sad that I had to actually add “look for top tier info” on my list of things to do on embarkation day.  I boarded Jewel and no invite cards.  So I went to the C&A loyalty ambassador to make the inquiry and she said it was on a sheet of paper in my cabin.  Then she showed me this paper-of which I had not received in my cabin.
apparently the invite cards no longer exist.  Look for this paper.  Write yourself a reminder to go chase these things down.  I’ve been on multiple sailings where the invite was not in the cabin and no-I did not change cabins last minute or royal up. 
 
there were a number of people at the lunch who said they had not gotten the info in their room.  I highly doubt we all had the same cabin steward.