recogneyes

That's been our experience as well - most are very talented. Stephen is just very unique the way he adds percussion to his performance .... he does so with his feet. Just adds to the overall performance. He's also very good at interacting with the crowd. You can find him on instagram at stephenburkemusic and he usually posts what ship he is going to be on. Enjoy your vacation on Utopia.

We have cruised many times with Stephen as the pub performer - he is fantastic! He will be heading to Quantum starting July 7th so you're going to miss him by just a little bit. Hopefully you can catch him another time.

Now that sounds like a much better design!

That sounds like a good plan - these rooms are not worth upgrading to IMO, unless the location is better based on what is left for a particular sailing. There is room to stack packing cubes below the clothes that hang so you should be able to manage with what there is to work with.

We were on the December 14th Icon sailing in an Interior Plus cabin. There are no drawers at all. It is the worst cabin we've been in as far as storage. There is no storage at all in the main cabin area. Then you go behind the wall that the TV is on and you have a vanity with one drawer and then an area with hangers and a few shelves that are actually baskets. We have packing cubes so we just stacked them but I wouldn't pay anything extra for this room. The bathroom was nice and the shower was good but beyond that I would not recommend this room.

You could do a mock booking on royal's website and if the category of stateroom you have been assigned is still available, look to see if any cabins are near each other. If you happen to find 3 that work for you, you could contact your TA and ask them to make this request to royal on your behalf. Perhaps you only need to change 2 of the 3 if you can find 2 near the third that is assigned. Specifically sate that this should not result in any increased costs as you are staying within the same category.

We were in this situation last year. We left Honolulu and arrived back in Vancouver but due to a medical evacuation on the ship we arrived later in the day. The value of reimbursement you stated above is what we were offered as well. We did not have Air 2 Sea flights so we just made our changes directly with the airline and then submitted our receipts to the email address provided on the form. I will say it was a bit of a long process. Lots of back and forth in which I honestly felt could lead to some people just giving up. Each time someone responds, it's different from the last person so that it is a bit frustrating. While we could have incurred much higher costs by staying in a hotel (they offered that as part of reimbursement) we opted to fly home that same night which was cheaper than getting a hotel but we were still out of pocket from what Royal was willing to reimburse. It took about 3 weeks for our refund which I'm pretty sure went right to our visa. Royal was very particular about $$ amounts so I would be cautious about using points - that was part of our issue in that we used some Visa points and Royal did not compute that value. When sending everything in for reimbursement, they wanted everything in PDF form so start off with that and clear explanation and hopefully they will process without many back and forths. We could have tried to claim the rest through our insurance but we didn't bother. Good luck and safe travels home.

Two nights in the music hall and one night in the theatre on Utopia. I hope you get a chance to see a great band on at least one of your sailings

On Utopia in August we were treated to DSB - Journey tribute band and they were amazing. The lead singer is outstanding and the whole band was just so talented.

I don't think this is a US citizen situation, I believe it is to do with where the cruise was booked from. If you are based in the UK and book with a travel agent in the UK or through Royal's UK website then re pricing is not allowed. Perhaps the way around it is to book with a US travel agent.

There is no real advantage on waiting as prices will likely increase not decrease. You can book and still track prices and if you see a lower price, contact Royal and have it repriced. One other suggestion is to work with a travel agent to find a group rate. Usually these are cheaper and deposits are refundable. We find Harr Travel to have terrific great rates as well as great service and many on this blog recommend MEI Travel. Have fun planning your cruise.

That is a terrific repositioning cruise. Thank you for referring to it - we are going to keep this sailing in mind.

In August, on Utopia, we saw dog collars and toys in the gift shop. We hadn't seen those on other ships prior.

We have avoided rooms under windjammer for that exact reason. We've learned to be very picky about selecting our cabins. The effort in advance can save a lot of grief after. I'm glad they were able to move you - with ships sailing at capacity these days that isn't always possible. Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

I book a hair appointment on most cruises. It's a nice treat for sure. Sometimes there is a savings in booking ahead in cruise planner. Whether you book ahead or onboard, you will be charged an 18% gratuity on top of the price (like every other purchase). The salon can get busier on formal nights so another advantage of booking ahead is getting the time you want. One thing to be ready for is they will try to upsell you to purchase their products while in the salon. I just politely decline as I don't need them and would rarely have weight allowance in my luggage to bring them back anyway. Enjoy your first cruise - Harmony is a great ship.