CruiserNic

Update on my post.  For giggles i have been checking each day for additional time slots to open up to no avail.  Well last night around midnight, 2 days before the cruise, low and behold additional slots opened and I was able to move up two hours.  Bingo!  Got what i was hoping for without upsetting the apple cart.

Since each port is different, you can expect things to be different. I recall reading that San Juan was the strictest in terms of sticking to boarding times. While I can attest that Port Canaveral and Miami are dependent on port workers attitudes. Also being solo might be a determine factor. 
I understand sticking to the rules, but I also don't get blaming people for showing up early. It's a paid vacation, they will either get in early or be forced to wait. 

Similar experience at Port Canaveral two weeks ago (Harmony).  No enforcement whatsoever of boarding times.  Maybe other ports enforce it, and maybe my cruise was an outlier, but you could have arrived at any time after ~10:30, gotten in line, and boarded the ship.  No one was checking.  

They may still need to have waiting areas for the earliest times since CBP is in control of when boarding commences, not the cruise line.  
Star class guests still need to be queued since genies service more than one suite for example. 
Waiting in a tent isn't the start to the cruise experience that Royal is going for. 

Thanks for all the advice.  As a newbie to cruising, I booked everything on my own, so new to any of the processes.  May take my chances and show up early and if I have to sit in the hot sun a couple hours, I guess I get a head start on my Tan:) 

We were on the Wonder of the Seas last month (3/11/22 sailing date). We had a 2:00 PM check-in time (we booked our cruise 3 weeks before sail date, so early check-in times were long gone). We got to the pier at 11:15 AM, and were on the ship by 11:45 AM, with beer in-hand by 11:47 AM. They did not check our boarding time.
Hope this helps!

I hope they keep them. While it can certainly be frustrating to get a “later” boarding time, I think the current system “rewards” people who take the steps to stay on top of the reservation. There are also ways to get an earlier boarding time if you want to pay for a higher cabin class.  As a mostly inside GTY cabin cruiser, I’ve been able to get early boarding times with no issues, by just knowing when the dates of different things occur.  It’s all in the app or from your TA, so everyone knows the same thing.

Just had a little win I wanted to share.  My wife and her sister are cruising together each with a daughter.  We originally booked interiors.  I bid on obstructed view balconies for both at $10 over the minimum and won both.  
The reservation that was just a guarantee room came in first, (two weeks before sailing) and the other came in today (4 days to sailing).

Royal Up bids only apply to the first two on the reservation. You would not pay a "Royal Up" for the additional three people.

So your lesson learned is monitor your account daily while on board ship.

So did you prepay gratuities with your cruise fare?  Unless you specifically requested this, each days gratuities (14.50) are added to your final room charge.  You can look at your precruise bill (or check with that family member!) to see if you have the prepaid gratuities listed there.  If not, you are charged on board.

Getting an invoice doesn't mean they won't put further charges. It's just telling you what the final bill will ultimately be. They may simply not have gone through yet before you got off the ship. If you look at the invoice and see extra charges that aren't there on the invoice, then by all means contact Royal.

As extensive and accurate as your response is, I'm guessing the OP won't read it. Seems they just like to complain and deflect their lack of research onto others.

That gratuity is shared among many levels.  Do you leave your dishes in the WJ at your table? No, well that person cleaning up after you is part of the gratuity you refuse to pay. 
  Are you washing them?  No.
Taking out the trash you make and leave at the WJ? No
At the pool  do you always bring your drink and never go to the bars even to get a glass of water? The bar staff is responsible for filling the water container at the bar.  Do you say no to the wait staff when they walk around picking up empty glasses, but instead do it yourself? Again, do you empty the trash on the pool deck where you tossed your trash?
Are you making your bed daily, and replenishing your towels, toilet paper, etc?  No.  
Do you eat at the MDR for lunch or dinner?  Would you not tip your waiter at Applebees? So why not them?  Your tip at Applebees is like on the ship...a waiter/waitress in the food business shares it with the person clearing your dishes.
People do not understand that the gratuity you pay includes not only food but cabin attendants.
You may say RCCL should pay their staff more. Sure, but the fact and reality is this is a common practice among their industry.  
My husband and I worked through college in the food and beverage industry.  I get not tipping for poor service, but anyone that has worked in the industry knows they live by tips since they are not paid min wage.
I am totally opposite than you.  I respect your opinion, but disagree with it.  We are like many and tip personally certain staff on top of our tips added via RCCL.  For example, we tip about 100 to our cabin attendants for  7 nights. Day 1 we ask for pillow toppers if we are below a suite.  They have made the bed and now have to remake it again . I request due to a knee issue that I need 2 more pillows.  They have to get them.  They went out of their way to make me happy, impo they deserve a reward. 
We tip our MDR staff at the last night we eat in there , we do specialty so we're not in there every night.  However, when we show up they immediately remember our bevs. and ask if we would like that again.  
Finally, look at the hours the wait staff works.  If you only eat in the WJ for all of your meals you probably don't know that the wait staff picking up your dishes also work in the MDR on sea days for lunch and dinner.  When you hit Coco Cay or Labadee  before you get to debark you'll see staff leaving.  They will be your bartenders, wait staff at their private island.  They will than return to the ship and start their shift that night.   
These are people that live on the ship for 9 months in cramped quarters and long hrs.  Yes, they chose this life, but many do it to support their family. They work probably 12 hrs a day.  In essence for your tip, it equals to a dollar or 2 per hour. I don't know how  anyone
Done with my rant and only hope you see 
 

Its not just Royal Caribbean that charges these gratuities its every cruise line. You should of done more research before you went on the cruise to find out about all charges and practices cruise lines have. Sounds like based on how you feel cruising in general isn't for you. 

Maybe cruising isn't for you. Gratuities are normal for most cruise lines, they're either baked into your bill or you pay onboard. Someone cleaned your room, gave you towels, made your bed, cleaned the ship...this is for them. For the buffets, someone cooked that food and someone else refilled that food and kept everything clean. 

If I have to end up paying $43.50 x 2 for gratuities, I'll never use Royal Caribbean again. I got my own food (buffet) and I got my own refills (drink stations) most of the time on the boat. 

In the future, a little research on your part will help avoid these issues.  My guess is your problem is with the family member not Royal.

The 3 separate authorizations for gratuities that you noted above should have been included in your final invoice from the ship.  They should fall off of your account in a few days.  If they turn into actual charges to your card account, call Royal to have them reversed.
Royal had about 8 authorizations run on my card in various amounts during my last cruise.  A single charge for the final invoice posted to my charge card and the other authorizations took about a week to fall off.  Nothing nefarious.

Wont help you now, but in the future two recommendations:
1. Always dispute billing discrepancies onboard the ship. As you are about to discover, once the cruise is over, it's difficult for the shoreside team to quickly and easily look and resolve onboard spending.  Get billing problems solved before you leave the ship.
2. Look at your bill before the cruise ends. You can go to Guest Service at any time and ask for a copy of the bill.  On many ships, you can also review it on the Royal Caribbean app. 

Were you both in same cabin? If so, I would be mad at Family member not Royal.
The deluxe beverage Pkg requires ALL Adults in same cabin to purchase. If one does not drink alcohol you can call Royal and get the refreshment package (pre-cruise).
Were any "premium drinks or wine ordered by somebody at the table. Even with the deluxe beverage Pkg you will be charged the difference for drinks exceeding $13.00.
Hope you can get it resolved.  This forum is a great place to garner info so your Next Royal cruise will be more enjoyable

I would definitely recommend making your dinner reservations as soon as possible and then try and "fill in" the double dips around lunches.  I also agree that it is wise to try them all and then decide which ones to re-visit.
I am not a huge fan of 150CP but many really enjoy it so I would say to try it for yourself and see !  We found that Izumi is a great lunch option b/c you can get as little or as much as you want.  We normally never eat lunch except for when we're on a cruise !  If I eat even a moderate lunch I am NOT hungry for dinner so we have to be very careful about over-grazing.
We also enjoy visiting Johnny Rocket, which is also included in your UDP so if that's something that you would enjoy, make sure to leave room for that, at least once.
The UDP is a lot of food.  Just sayin'....but we get it b/c we want the options.
Also keep in mind that you can mix it up a bit.  While we have NEVER tried to visit 2 separate restaurants for main meals (although I think it is permitted if there is availability), we did enjoy a meal at either Chops or Giovanni's (can't remember which it was) and then later went over to Wonderland for The World dessert.  I realize Oasis doesn't have Wonderland, but you could do the same thing with 2 different restaurants on Oasis.  We normally skip dessert b/c that's a LOT of food for us but we wanted to do it just once, so we did.  It was a lot of fun.

I'm glad you asked!  

While I always try to be the best person I can be for the crew, I still have to think to myself that I paid a lot of money for the cruise and I'm going to have the best time and service I can possibly have.  But, I do go overboard trying not to be the "ugly American".  Okay, I can't help one of those things.  But, unless you are asking for the impossible, I'd go ahead and ask for it.  If they can't, they'll let you know.

It should be on your calendar on your app when it gets closer, but don't worry because when you get on the ship on the first day the first thing you'll want to do is go to one of the specialty restaurants and make reservations for the entire week (so you'll be able to change the time and place of that first reservation if you want, anyway).  Also there are no burger joint specialty restaurants on Royal Caribbean ships, so no worries there.
Enjoy!