Reigert2008

Hello and congrats on Diamond! My wife and I are Diamond as well and we had the same dilemma. Since we are not "drinkers" we had always purchased the Refreshment package on our cruises. Once we made it to Diamond, we dropped down toe the soda package and then use our vouchers for the various non-alcoholic drinks on the ship. With the newly expanded "zero proof" menu the vouchers are are great way to try out the menu. Things to remember: There are no refills on soda with the vouchers, so each soda is a voucher With the Freestyle machine, the kid will have vastly more choices than at the bars I would highly recommend getting them the soda package since they will probably go through more than 4 sodas in a day and if you get the price right it would be a better value. Vouchers are "sharable" so if you have his card, you can order whatever you like (i guess his card "could" be limited to non-alcoholic if they are under drinking age, so you may need to figure that out, I have no children, so haven't thought about that until typing this.). Good Luck!

It has been a little off all week. For me it was showing Cruise Planner items priced in CAD and not USD, so that was weird. I logged out and back in and it figured itself out.

Another perspective that may be helpful is if anyone had to deal with cruise cancellations while going through Costco. I’m thinking cancellations like COVID, emergency maintenance, longer than expected drydocks,etc.. Luckily I’ve not had to deal with those other than COVID, but my previous agency was not good during that and led me to finally make the jump to MEI. while hopefully nothing like COVID happens again, those types of cancellations not under the cruisers control would really show the merits of the travel agency. personally, I prefer having the TA specifically so I don’t have to do the leg work if an issue arises and it gives me peace of mind. I’ve looked at Costco for short trips and getaways, but not sure I’d rely on them for a “larger” trip.

I do not see it on the special needs form, but you can always call the special needs department to clarify. There is also a section on the form for "other accommodations" where you could put it in. If I were you, I would complete the form and and then reach out to the department. Good luck. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/resources/guest-special-needs

Fun fact: Puerto Rico does NOT do the Fall Back/Spring Forward, so make sure your devices update correctly once you arrive on the island! https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/puerto-rico/san-juan For example, it is now 1:07 PM "EST - eastern time", but 2:07 PM "AST - Atlantic Standard Time" The last time we went to Puerto Rico, we fly in on the weekend of "fall back" on the Saturday and I was so paranoid that my phone would mess it up and we'd miss our scheduled Lyft for Sunday

I’d certainly check your credit card(s) that you used. Most Visa cards these days have a lot of benefits that people overlook. Personally, I wouldn’t take any clothes that would be considered “pricey”. If you get a spill, the laundry facilities may not be able to clean it properly. We’ve had a few things cleaned over the years and the results are ok, but not great. good luck

It’ll be interesting to see if anything happens with cruises since the FAA has now banned flights from going there for 30 days. https://apnews.com/article/haiti-violence-gangs-airport-90dc8d26bc58eb9b214385ac10f315a2 I I’ve been to Labadeee several times and have always felt safe during the visit, but no one wants to be on the first cruise that has an issue. Much like these flights that were shot at. Luckily nothing catastrophic occurred. I think it’s reasonable for people to ask questions about these things especially when new events occur.

Same here, it never downloaded for me yesterday, but this morning it was fine!

I know! I was excited when I woke to the notification in my app that a new episode was available.

@Matt, I'm sure you're extremely busy and maybe i missed something, but it looks like the most recent Podcast episode is from October 23rd. I had recently switched to a app and thought I had forgotten to add the show, but its there. Hopefully the podcast is still ongoing and just on a break. Thanks in advance

Bermuda is great, but I don't have any information about the beaches and caves. I really just wanted to make sure you were aware that Liberty does NOT have the Freestyle machines on the ship (which is lame), so your soda options would be limited to whatever the bars carry. We use the Freestyle machines to get Powerade and sparking water, so Liberty threw us for a loop when we sailed on her in the past. She's a great ship, just the non-existence of the Freestyle machines was weird. Good luck.

I've always wondered about this. If this is truly the case, why to they sometimes not swipe my card when getting a drink that is included in the soda/refreshment package? We still paid a gratuity when making the purchase, so I've always thought it was odd when they just look at my card and then give me the drink. My biggest irk with them not swiping is that it doesn't show up in my account, so I lose track of the "purchases" and then cannot ever tell if my package was "worth it". Not a big deal, but as we've moved to Diamond and dropped down to the soda package, I'd like to have real proof of how many sodas from the bar that we really get. We are getting really close to dropping the soda package on a future cruise, but we've been able to get the package a a good enough price that we've not ventured down that path, yet.

The assignment can come at anytime and there is not really a schedule. We’ve Had assignments made days after booking all the way up to a week before the cruise. If you still don’t have the assignment when your cruise documents / boarding pass become available then you can add your set sail passes to your Apple Wallet and the last digits of the barcode are your room number,but it could still change (although we’ve never had it happen). good luck!

If you cruise with the same people, like I do with my in-laws, you can do what we do. Each year around Christmas, we all line up and I get a good high quality image (with my phone) that I save and use for the check in photos. Then I have it available when I do the 1 AM check ins . So far, we've not had to retake pictures at the port, so it seems like our process works. I treat it like a passport photo, but do allow people to wear thier glasses

While I think this is a huge benefit for Texas based cruisers, I think it will entice cruisers like us who hood not like western Caribbean itineraries. Sometimes we’re limited on options due to timing and we get “stuck” with a less than ideal western route since it’s cheaper and we’re cheapskates this will add a good port stop,for us when we end up out that way. but I agree most people won’t pick cruises solely based on PDMX.

This will open up our options to do more Western Caribbean cruises. We're not really beach people, but do enjoy PDCC and the ports in Mexico are not our favorites. We like to get off the ship and wander the town, but don't feel safe enough in the Mexican ports. Honestly, we stay on the ship at PDCC and then wander off to grab lunch and then get back on the ship. We'd probably do the same at PDMX as well.

Just saw this article. While I understand the need for this to occur, it seems like it would have been easier to just delay all boarding. I also suspect some stressed out cruisers if they did not see the notice. https://www.cruisehive.com/royal-caribbean-ship-to-split-embarkation-leave-pier-briefly/146731

Just wanted to share, since we were shocked when we did our cruise out of San Juan. There are multiple piers in San Juan. There is one in "old San Juan" where ships visit as part of a different cruise and are there for the day and then there is the Pan American Pier on the other side from old San Juan where ships embark/disembark. We had been to San Juan before and assumed we would embark/disembark in Old San Juan, but were surprised. We loved Old San Juan and wandered around on foot for the days we were there pre/post cruise. It seems like scooters may be problematic on the cobblestone streets of Old San Juan. Good Luck!

As a non-smoker, I'm always shocked when I see the prices of cigarettes. Way back in the olden days (late 80's), I used to go into the convenience store to buy the packs of Marlboro "reds" in the box for my dad (when they still allowed children to do that). It was a whopping $1.25 per pack! Lucky for me, I'm allergic to tobacco, so never developed the habit. It's ironic being born and raised in KY, but being allergic to tobacco AND KY Bluegrass, add in the ragweed allergy and the state really doesn't want me to be here

Seeing reports on Reddit that Royal is changing some itineraries this week due to Hurricane Milton, the one that stood out to me was that Symphony of the Seas will be stopping at Labadee and skipping Port Canaveral, Perfect Day, and Nassau. Of course, it's the internet and Reddit, so who knows how much truth is in the matter.

Still have not seen a press release about returning to Labadee, but the travel updates on the Royal Caribbean page now say there are no travel updates. Maybe we are headed back to Labadee! https://www.royalcaribbean.com/notices/travel-updates

I agree with @Matt, the data gets messy when the price mix gets involved. You could certainly do it after the cruise when you knew all the drinks you purchased and the prices to see if you "broke even". We are not drinkers, but for a while we were doing the Refreshment Package for both of us, since we could get it at a reasonable price and didn't want surprises at the end. Now that we moved to Diamond, we dropped do the soda package since we've been getting it for $8.99 a day. Our math on the package is more about can we break even over the course of the cruise and not by the day. For example, on embarkation day, we may each drink 2 sodas so that day we "lose money" on the package. However on Day 2 we may each drink 6 sodas therefore "making profit". Using our method and sample pricing for an upcomming cruise Soda Package -- $8.99 per day plus 18%, 6 N Cruise, Price of soda -- $3.50 plus 18% ($4.13) Package purchase with tip -- $63.65 # of sodas at $4.13 to break even -- 15.411 (so 16) average of 2.66 sodas per day to break even, so 3 a day makes us profitable If anyone cares, we use our Diamond vouchers for mocktails, Johnny Rockets shakes, bottles of sparkling water for the room, and maybe an occasional alcoholic drink to try (like the PB&J old fashioned at Mason Jar). This will be our 3rd cruise since turning diamond and we are seriously considering dropping the soda package completely at some point, but the math makes it hard to do, especially since we had $50 OBC that we used to make the purchase, so in reality one package was basically free We don't do many excursions so using the OBC on the drink package makes sense for us. As a non-drinker, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the prices that people pay for the DBP. Doing some quick math for our upcoming cruise, it would cost us $1104.34 for us to get the DBP, our cruse was only $1619.84. It would be a tough sell for us to get the DBP knowing that we could almost pay for another cruise.

Honestly, that's not much time, assuming you are like me and will be at the airport 2 hours before your domestic flight (3 hours if international). So you're looking at being at the airport no later than 3 PM, but probably closer to 2 PM when you factor in the car rental return. It's at leat an hour from the port to airport, but traffic can be a nightmare, so I'd allow longer. Here's what I would do, assuming the ship arrives on time with no delays (such as fog) Plan to get off the ship as late as possible, let's say 9 AM. Head to the car , load it up, leave the garage by 10 AM starting the route to the airport. I'd find a place along the route to get a good lunch and then continue on to the airport. You're really only looking at about 4 hours of "free time" unless you drag the kids off the ship at the crack of dawn which may make for a cranky day of travel Of course, if the ship is delayed, then all bets are off and you may need to head to the airport quickly. Good luck!

For us, I think we are sometimes making more of our Diamond perks than we should We don't drink and I use the vouchers mostly for fancy coffee on ships where the Crown Lounge is inconvenient. We get the soda package since we can get it for so cheap and while we don't "break even" each day, we certainly do over the length of the cruise. When my in-laws are with us, we use vouchers for thier mocktails and get them the soda package as well. One day, we'll get brave enough to drop the soda package, but at the prices we've been getting ($8.99 pppd), you can really make your money in one night sitting at Sorrento's I guess as an experiment, I should do a solo cruise with no soda package and see if I can do it One suggestion I have made to Royal several times is to give the option of choosing the drink vouchers or the soda package, but they haven't fallen for it yet. I'm not supposed to have the mocktails anyway since they are nearly 100% sugar, so it's not really a benefit to me.

I'll chime in as person 6, 7, 8, or whatever number (i lost count) of getting the status match email We created and linked Celebrity accounts a while back when we were looking at taking a Celebrity cruise, but still have not sailed with them. One day we will cruise on Celebrity, but right now having the drink vouchers at Diamond and above make it so easy to stay with Royal, plus we do love Royal