Bowen

We did a 2BR aqua theater suite on Harmony and it was so loud. My kids were young, still napping, and it was impossible. The aqua show would practice and that music and bass would permeate the room. I wouldn't do it again. That said, we had no issues hearing the Flowrider. 

4 hours ago, steverk said:

My kids have done it and found it to be an great experience. That said, it is en expensive splurge, so you have to really want to flow ride (or have a ton of OBC) to be worth it.

For those that are already proficient in Flowriding, you can talk to the sports staff on board and just do a private hour of Flowriding without instruction for less (I think it's $345, but YMMV). To do this, book a lesson. Then talk to the sports staff and get it converted to a private hour. The price difference will appear as an OBC on your account.

I had no idea this was a thing! I would definitely consider it over the private lesson. Great info.

We've done it a few times, and it's been amazing every time. My husband used it to learn to stand up, and then was able to stand up and learn at his own pace on subsequent cruises. My oldest had a lesson to learn to stand up (after having a body board lesson about ten years ago) and now loves to compete in the Best of the Best event on the last day, he's quite good. If your kids enjoy the Flowrider, they will probably love the lesson. It gives them so much confidence just having an hour to grasp the ability to stay on the board, push out, come back in, balance, etc. Well worth it. We'll actually be doing it again for my youngest in December, which will be his second stand up private lesson, but we'll probably split it between him and my husband after reading this. I didn't even realize that was an option. A whole hour is a really long time for him, he gets tired of it.

We hide them all over, depending on the size of the ducks and the ship. I've hidden them on top of wall art, in the holes of statues, near the fun games on the boardwalk. We just don't hide them in foliage. My mom likes to hide keychains and she'll hang those things all over the place. 

That is wonderful news in a terrible situation.

I recently changed a booking, the original was a single room with myself, my husband, and my two kids (one of whom just turned 18). I changed to two side by side rooms, putting myself in one with the youngest, and my husband in the room with the oldest. The booking agent listed my now adult son as the main on the second room instead of my husband (I'm only mentioning this because I feel like that might be relevant?) and now when I try to link the cruise to my account it says it's linking, finds the reservation, but does not link it. My son logged in to his account and tried to link it there, but the same thing happens. It's been about eight hours since I made the change. I'm just wondering if it messes up the reservation to have it look like it was booked under an 18 year old? Or is that just fine and I need to wait it out? 

Thanks!

Update - I called this morning as the booking was still not showing on the website. They had it on hold waiting for a deposit. It's a good thing I called. I'm sure it would have been cancelled in a few days if I hadn't done anything. Despite having the confirmation showing the deposit paid and the reservation complete, it wasn't. 

On 4/3/2025 at 2:49 PM, Ryan79 said:

Yes it is. It’s certainly a step up in class for sure, but not stuffy and not to the point where it feels like a retirement home. I would say it more caters to those at the tail end of their careers and are more recent empty nesters who get to finally have an “adult” vacation without having to plan around kids/teens/college age kids. The entertainment options aren’t as loud and flashy. The dining room has less people in shorts. You see less obnoxious “Carnival-type” people who invade RC ships every once in a while. Overall, it’s more of a relaxed environment 

The worst sentence to hear from people when you get on a Royal ship: “We normally sail Carnival, but decided to try Royal this time.”

On 4/3/2025 at 2:08 PM, WAYNO said:

Royal has always been family friendly.  We'd see lots of kids during the obvious kid-vacation times such as summer or spring break.  I believe with all the home schooling with covid, folks realize school attendance is not all that important, and now we see lots of kids onboard throughout the year,

This is what I was going to say. We’ve always homeschooled, so we’ve kept up with local groups for gatherings. The amount of homeschoolers has boomed since COVID. A group of fifty in my town is now over 500. I believe I see the same thing reflected on cruise ships. But also Royal has done a lot to make the new ships very family friendly.

1 minute ago, smokeybandit said:

Important details and advisements

• One photo package covers all guests in your stateroom.
• Digital and print photo packages are sold on a per stateroom basis only, and photos are linked to staterooms based on the guests traveling in that stateroom. Photos of accompanying children aged 21 and under who may be assigned to a different stateroom may also be included in the photo package.

I think that’s the photo package, not the private session. 

I wanted to get some good family pictures on a cruise we have coming up. My oldest just graduated high school, so cap and gown photos, and then family stuff as well. I went to book it online and saw it was $250, no problem. But then when I added the whole family it was $250 per person, so $1200. Is that correct? Or is this like a glitch where you book the cabana and only need to pay for one person? $250 I can justify. $1200 I cannot, lol.

Nice! I like that you all got in on it!

If you show up earlier than your assigned check in time, let's say by an hour, do they give you a problem or let you board? I always get an 11 or 1130 check in, and I'm usually at the port and on board before 11, and it's never been an issue. But I wonder if that's just because I get there early? Does it get crazier as the noon boarders get there, and then the boarding time is more strictly enforced?

9 hours ago, CHart said:

$70.99/day is what I paid for Harmony in February. It was well worth it for me as I had 126 over the course of the week. I also snagged a gift card for 20% off so it was like ~$56/day plus gratuities. 

How do you get a gift card for 20% off?

Thanks!

Man, this is one of the only reason we ever book The Key. My family are huge Flowrider fans, that private time was golden. 

Hi! I'm trying to gauge what I ought to be aiming for as far as $$ for the deluxe beverage package. It's a December 2025 cruise, one week on Harmony. Currently at $70.99. Is that a good price? I've never bought it before and have no idea.

Thanks!

I had no idea you could change a guest online. How convenient!

On our last cruise with a GTY room we didn't get our assignment until a week out, though everyone else in our party of twelve got theirs at least by the 30 day point. Our cruise was sold out as well.

We have four people booked on an upcoming cruise, all in one room. Two more people have decided to come, being from two of our families, one from each. We do want to be in the same room as our respective family members. Should we pay the change fee to change out a person on the four person room, moving them to the new room, or can we just book the new room with the two new people and then get cards made for them for the rooms they will actually be sleeping in? Sorry if that sounded confusing. 

Edit: I read that there is no fee to change names. I'll call today and verify that. 

Thanks a bunch! We did decide today for sure to do the Ravenna round trip cruise, so I'll definitely be looking at transfers to BLQ (which is probably where we'll fly in), train tickets, shuttles, etc. Very exciting!

Has anyone taken the train from Venice to Ravenna? 

We're looking at two different itineraries now, both going out of Venice:

Visiting:

• Ravenna (Venice), Italy
• Dubrovnik, Croatia
• Santorini, Greece
• Athens (Piraeus), Greece
• Split, Croatia
• Ravenna (Venice), Italy

or 

Visiting:

• Ravenna (Venice), Italy
• Santorini, Greece
• Athens (Piraeus), Greece
• Mykonos, Greece
• Split, Croatia
• Ravenna (Venice), Italy

We'd have to miss either Dubrovnik or Mykonos. I know very little about either place, and I think I'd be happy with either itinerary, but if any of you have thoughts on a "must see" of those two, please let me know.

10 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

Just be sure to check about train strikes.  Though not frequent they do occur.

https://www.italiarail.com/train-strikes-italy

Good call, thank you!

Thank you so much! That is really helpful! It definitely reopens the idea of starting and ending in Rome and going to Venice. 

4 hours ago, FionaMG said:

@Bowen, you've been given some great advice by @Pattycruise.

Given that your dates appear to be flexible, I agree and would just like to underline how hot and crowded the entire Med can be in July and August. Pretty much all of the European schools are on holiday in those months so many, many families will be travelling during this time.

Your best months for sightseeing are June and then from mid/late September through October. There will fewer kids and (somewhat) smaller crowds during these months too.

If you want to sail from Venice itself, you'd probably have to look at lines that sail from the port of Marghera. Unfortunately, neither Royal nor Celebrity do, so you'd need to be OK with going with someone like MSC or Costa and that's a whole different experience. That said, they do tend to be a fair bit cheaper, so I guess it depends on what matters to you the most. They do have some very decent itineraries. Note, however, that even these lines no longer provide the same sail-away experience that people used to rave about in the past, now that the Italian government has banned the larger cruise ships from the immediate area.

Yeah, we're thinking October. So that works!