Reigert2008

I think one thing to consider as things get back to normal is that you may not be waiting in your room before getting off the ship. You would then need to drag your luggage to the dining room/windjammer for breakfast and depending on your cabin location, could mean waits for the elevator or going up/down steps. Even with a single bag this could be daunting to navigate. We pack in "carry on" size bags and even then it has been a pain for the few times when we had to get off early and did the self carry option.

My wife and I were discussing this the other night. We’re not Diamond yet, but it could happen this year. Wo don’t really drink alcohol and have been buying the refreshment package for all our cruises. We’re thinking we drop to the soda package and then use our vouchers for coffee, bottle water, and mocktails. We also have to factor in the Freestyle machine availability since she likes the Powerade Zero that is in the machine. On the “rare” ships with no freestyle machine then maybe we get that refreshment package since more water may be consumed. If the vouchers “rolled over” it would make the thought ices much easier. we also, don’t want to be limited, so we may set us a price point for the refreshment package and then use the vouchers to “try” things that we’ve never had before.

I always recommend that people make their final payment at least 5 business days before the date on the invoice. This allows time for you to know the payment occurred and that there were no issues. You never know when you or your TA could have an emergency and in an emergency, you’re probably not thinking about your cruise payment. In most cases the day it hits your credit card doesn’t matter, unless of course your final payment date coincides with your credit card billing cycle and you’re trying to push your bill off one more cycle.

personally, I wouldn’t travel with those types of people , but I’m a ”rule follower” and try to make my life hassle free we had to have a serious discussion with some family members since they wanted to combine all their meds into a single bottle, and we let them know that they were on their own to get to cruise. They came to their senses and carry their meds appropriately. For what it’s worth, here’s Royals take on it. Not sure it counts as a policy, but this is what they say. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/onboard-packing-clothing-recommendation Personal Items: We suggest that guests transport all their medications in their carry-on luggage to minimize the potential for diversion or loss of medications and advise that all medications remain in their original, labeled prescription containers. It is also advisable to pack at least three days of extra medication in the event of an unexpected change in the itinerary of the voyage.

It’s always best to carry medication in the original containers. Should an emergency occur, first responders could look at that bottles and at least have an idea of what someone is supposed to be taking and how other medications may react.

While this is a nice gesture, it really doesn't work in practice. Your best bet is to make up your own certificate and present it to the person, then when they book the item you could arrange for it to be billed back to your room instead.

Like everyone else has said, you will find your sea pass cards either on the desk in your room or on your cabin number plague. I also recommend that you print out your set sail pass (amongst all the other boarding documents). While early on the first day, many locations will ask for your cabin number, sometimes they want to see the Set Sail Pass as well. You can also get it in the Royal app, but having that piece of paper makes it a bit easier.

Ah…. That was well before I started cruising. I assumed they worked at some point, I always set the volume in the middle, just in case

Posted in the wrong chat, but i'm leaving it here

Was in my cruise planner for one of my upcomming cruises and noticed that a couple has the number of remaining spots listed. This could be helpful to see if you want to risk the cancel/rebook if the spots are low. Probably would want to factor in what the savings are for it. Example, maybe not worth the risk for $5 a person, but for $20 a person then spin the wheel!

For the ships I've been on - On the "desk" panel there is a cream colored knob that is labeled something announcement related with a volume control. To date, no amount of adjustment allows any announcements into the room. We hear them in the hall and then crack the door open to hear them better

Was in my cruise planner for one of my upcomming cruises and noticed that a couple has the number of remaining spots listed. This could be helpful to see if you want to risk the cancel/rebook if the spots are low. Probably would want to factor in what the savings are for it. Example, maybe not worth the risk for $5 a person, but for $20 a person then spin the wheel!

I agree and do the same thing. It is 2 calendar days before you cruise. For us, we were cruising on Sunday, so we did ours Friday morning. Technically, we probably could have done them "just after midnight at 12:01 am", but we did them around 6:30 AM before starting our work day. Here's the link to the Health Sail center, somewhere on there, there used to be a chart that showed which days you could test, but i could not find it at the moment. Link to Health Sail Center --> https://www.royalcaribbean.com/the-healthy-sail-center?icid=hlthys_wrnssn_hlt_nbrdxp_pghdr_3467

I would have your travel agent check on this as well. If you're not using a travel agent, then I would highly recommend you do this in the future. This is one of many services that they can assist with.

That makes sense. We just received our platinum and emerald pins and it never occurred to me that people would actually wear the pin on a future cruise. One of the first things I did when we unpacked from our cruises with the pins, was to put them on our pin board with our Disney Pins (in the “cruise area” of course )

I think that there will always be a certain segment that will complain about anything.I also think that as you do things more you just notice things that others don’t. However I think the complainer group also had a lot of “do you know who I am” when it comes to status and think they should have more say in things. I’m a “problem solver” as part of my career, so I do write suggestions and leave them at the front desk when things are “off”, but there really has to be some major issues for me to complain about something. I’m curious how you know they were Pinnacle? I would never think to mention my C&A status and would find it weird if someone asked me about it. We are more of a “go with the flow” type of traveler.

It’s also important to note that not all the ships have a Freestyle machine. It seems odd that every ship doesn’t have at least one in the Windjammer. I recently learned this, and I’v3 cruised many times on several different ships. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-are-coca-cola-freestyle-machines

It’s best for each adult to have their own account and the name on the account must match the name on the ID.. when you do the testing they want to make sure that the account logged in is owned by the person taking the test. it could be different for children,but I do not have that information

For the foreseeable future, I’d recommend that you always have a mask. While municipalities may not have any requirements, individual locations may. We were just in New York City and at some stores they required masks to enter. Some places also asked for proof of vaccination, so you should probably carry that with you as well. at the end of the day, it’s easier to have the mask or vaccine card and not use it than it is to track all the rules for whichever places you’re going to be visiting. I suspect things will be more “normal” in 2023, but 2022 will probably be a transition year. Good luck!

I agree. While I appreciate the $50 OBC I had, we only care about the Total Cost of the Trip when I look at "the books". I'm always chsing the cheapest price on each item flights, pre/post hotel, cruise, cruise planner, transfers, etc... For one of our remaining 2022 cruises, we've already used our Rapid Reward points to get the round trip flights for free, so that was really awesome! If I can get us the hotel for free through Marriott, I'll be on top of the world!

For clarity, here was the chain of events Booked Cruise which included $50 OBC from Royal Caribbean Booked Drink packages using $50 OBC Repriced cruise (saving $187 total) this caused us to lose the $50 OBC from Royal Received email from Royal letting me know I now had a balance and when the deadline to pay was. email instructed to call to make payment Called Royal and made the payment @ChessE4 - I could have cancelled and repurchased, but my original price was $5 a day cheaper than the current price, so it wouldn't have made sense to do that at this time. Paying the additional $50 was the better option. I looked in the CP and i think because i had already purchased, it just doesn't know how to take the extra $50. Not a big deal, but I have reached out to Royal with a suggestion to add a link in the email that allows you to pay the additional funds online. I'm not sure how often this would even occur, so it's probably not a big deal. I do have another cruise this year that my TA is working to see if it can be repriced cheaper and if so will have to call again, since it also has $50 OBC associated with it. Thanks everyeone!

It is best for everyone to have a valid passport that doesn’t expire for at least 6 months after your trip. Should an emergency occur, you cannot just fly home from a foreign country without the passport. Should someone become sick or injured and have to stay in the foreign country for an extended period, you will probably need to fly home. Can you cruise without a passport? Yes, In some cases. You may be too close to your timeframe to get the passport now and if someone needs a new birth certificate, you may not get that back in time either. From a stress point of view, I would not try to cruise this June and take this time to get passports for anyone that needs ones and plan a cruise for later in the year or next year. good luck.

Due to a recent change to one of our bookings, we lost the $50 OBC that we had used to purchase some items in the cruise planner. Now we have a balance to pay. Is there a way to do this online? I'm on the phone now waiting and don't see it in the planner, but figured I's ask just in case. Thanks! (We did a reprice and even after losing the OBC, we're still ahead by $137, so it's all good. )

agree with @twangster, i was supposed to be on the 8N Allure repositioning cruise from Florida to Texas, but they canceled it (although the ship is still moving there around this time) and none of the replacement options worked for us. The worst part is that they wouldn't price protect our Cruise Planner purchases. We had the refreshment package at $18 a day. Took a few sales, but we did get that price again eventually. Seems like they could do something for the CP purchases, if you or your TA "move" to another cruise like we did. I totally get not protecting it if someone cancels the cruise and then rebooks, but ours was just a move. Now we're on a 8N on the Harmony which will be amazing. Still a bummer!

While I trust Royal, I'd question who is servicing the ATM machine. Sure in an emergency, I would have to use the ATM, but it is probably best to bring cash along with you. I personally treae the ship ATM like I would with the random ATM you'd see on the street, chained to a pole If you know you are going to need some cash, I'd suggest that you just bring it with you so you don't run the chance of the ATM being broken/empty or a policy change in the casino that prevents you from getting the cash. You can then use the casino/atm as a "backup option" if you need additional cash. Also remember that the ship is mostly cashless, so you probably won't need as much as you think. We always take cash with us for additional tips, casino play, and port purchases, and every time we end up with too much and re-deposit it at home.