recogneyes

Congratulations Matt....and thank you for creating this blog and a format for us to share tips and chat about all things cruising.  Cheers to many new cruising adventures for you and your family.

On 6/18/2023 at 4:39 AM, daha699 said:

I am looking for help to decide for the best area for a Beach bed for just my wife and I ,  has anyone stayed at all 3 locations South Beach , Breezy and chill , what would you choose for calm waters and just a peaceful relaxing day next to food and Bar ?

i am leaning towards South Beach but i am second guessing my self

Thanks in advance

We have reserved beds in each of these areas and South Beach is definitely our preferred location.  It tends to be quieter, washrooms, bar and food all close by.  Nice walk but also easily accessible via the tram.  

58 minutes ago, Weezie57 said:

Thanks for saying that.  After tons of research for our cruise in June, we decided Paradise Beach is the place we are going to go to.  We are really looking forward to it.

You will love it - we've been a few times and can't say enough great things.  I would recommend making reservations in advance especially if you would like to reserve one of the day beds.   The food, drinks and service are all amazing.  Have a great time!

Yes, we visited a few times during our April 22nd sailing.  It was nice to spend a little time in there and not have anyone smoking but the room is quite small.  

On 3/30/2023 at 8:10 AM, Alistair said:

Anyone going on Harmony, have six of our seven cruise magnets but for some reason missed out on our Harmony. If anyone has a spare or could purchase one on my behalf I will of course fully reimburse you for your trouble.  Looking for the ones in the shape of the ship.

many thanks 

Alistair

I did try to find one for you last week when we were on Harmony but they only had the large ones with the picture of the ship.  I asked if they ever have ones in the shape of the ship and the young man working in the store said he has not seen them on Harmony.  I would have been happy to have picked one up for you had they had the one you wanted.

I would definitely be visiting guest services and asking how long this repair work/noise is going to be going on for.  If this is for the duration of your cruise then perhaps ask if there is another room you could be moved to (might be more difficult to accommodate due to the type of room you are in).   Once you know what you are dealing with then perhaps compensation would be worth asking about.  Good luck - I too would be annoyed.

10 hours ago, bronxwarrior said:

I am willing, read before you reply. One adult and one minor per room. 

You are only a few days away from sailing so my suggestion would be to contact Royal now and see if there are any cabins left in the category that you booked and see if you can be moved to new cabins at least on the same deck.   I'm assuming you booked GTY staterooms - with Royal sailing at or near capacity most dates, it's a gamble to hope to be able to get rooms reassigned but doesn't hurt to ask.

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Lol, I didn’t even know you COULD purchase an opening booking through the app !  

1 hour ago, DoomSlayer said:

Me either.

Yes....there is a section on the app where you can do so.  Super easy - good option when you are not tying in casino offers for sure.

52 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Yes, you would retain the bonus IF you purchase the open booking and reference the instant [casino] reward certificate.  If you just purchase an open booking but do not incorporate the affected reward certificate, you will not retain the bonus associated with it.   …at least, this is m understanding…. @Pattycruise can you verify ?

Thank you @WAAAYTOOO - if we don't book while onboard we will make sure to go to Next Cruise to do so instead of just purchasing the open certificates from the app as there wouldn't be a way to make mention of the reward certificate that way. I couldn't agree with you more that standing in that line at the end of the cruise is not how we choose to spend the last hours of our cruise.  

With a new casino year starting, many of us are planning how to get the most out of casino status.  Can anyone verify if you purchase a next cruise voucher while onboard but don't commit to an actual sailing, does the "bonus" still get applied as long as you choose a sailing on your casino offers list within 7 days?

On 3/30/2023 at 8:10 AM, Alistair said:

Anyone going on Harmony, have six of our seven cruise magnets but for some reason missed out on our Harmony. If anyone has a spare or could purchase one on my behalf I will of course fully reimburse you for your trouble.  Looking for the ones in the shape of the ship.

many thanks 

Alistair

We will be on Harmony in April and I will certainly take a look and pick up a magnet for you should they be in stock.

1 hour ago, Pooch said:

Some of you will remember the earlier chapters of this saga - “Flights Cancelled, Cancelled, Cancelled”.  Well we have the replacement cruise all booked and ready to go in 37 days.  Yesterday I get a call from him that he and his girlfriend (it’s been about a year for them) are breaking up.  Yep, you guessed it, she’s booked on the cruise too.  Please don’t tell him the rest of us are secretly doing the happy dance cuz none of us really like her anyway.  I have advised him to just let her be a no show at the terminal.  I can’t think of any advantage to canceling her now other than being sure they can’t reconcile & her join us again.  Am I missing anything?  The cruise is after 4/30 so I don’t think there would be any refund of the cruise fare.

Might be a good idea to remover her name from the reservation and just add anyone else in (who would also be a no show).  That would avoid any chance of her being able to board the ship.  

We were on a sailing a few years back with the Steelers partial charter.  It was super fun - obviously lots of team jerseys and gear and there were some closed off spaces for them at times but we did not feel that it hindered our vacation in any way.

7 hours ago, Matt said:

Starlink on Wonder was absolutely terrible this past week. Speeds and (perceived) latency were really atrocious and it honestly felt like I was on Mariner of the Seas pre-Starlink at times.

I don't know if this is the result of a throttling on the network level, or an upnetwork change.

I heard from multiple guests onboard the Voom rep said it was an issue with Starlink, but for an entire week? Not so sure.

Very disappointing.

We had the same experience on Anthem last week - it was beyond frustrating.  Many times just connecting to "guest Anthem) to the the app or chat feature wasn't even possible.  

4 hours ago, jfizzlewizzle said:

I had 4 confirmation numbers. Spoke with royal carribean and they were helpful with finding us an accommodation. 

Thats great - enjoy your cruise!

This is one of the college party cruise sailings so I would assume the organizer booked a large number of rooms and then maybe Royal released some back into inventory.  Did you receive receive 4 confirmation numbers when you booked or just 3?  If just 3 then we have to assume there was a glitch and 4 rooms were never booked.  If you have 4 confirmation numbers then I'm sure Royal would do their best to accommodate you all.  If you never had 4 then I think you may have an issue.  One suggestion I have is to search college party cruise and contact the organizer to see if perhaps they have any cabins left in inventory.  

6 hours ago, Colombia20102018 said:

You are correct. That’s the reason I made this post

Well I think that makes it easier to predict your chances of receiving a room with bunk beds - slim to none as the oceanviews that sleep 5 and the all of the suites have pullman beds and not bunks.  In my experience the only actual bunk rooms are the large spacious oceanview balconies on the oasis class ships.  They have a set of bunk beds when  you walk into the room and are roped off.   Those and the ultimate family suites.   All other set ups are pullmans.  As @twangster indicated, you are at your own peril if this doesn't work out.  I second what I said before - try to time your sailing with the kids sail free promotion and book the cabin you need at a price you will be happy with.

36 minutes ago, Colombia20102018 said:

A child under three years old can be added to a room for 4. Same category.

Double check that this is still the case 1) with a guarantee booking and 2) if the ship has already reached capacity.  I would think if the ship is full, it's full and you would be out of luck.

34 minutes ago, teddy said:

When we were on Anthem 2/4-2/12, this was the only show that required actual reservations.  We never had any difficulties getting seats at any show we wanted to see.  We even caught the end of a different showing of Spectra's Cabaret when we got to 270 early for an event.

Good to know.  Fingers crossed we have a similar experience.  Thanks for sharing.

22 hours ago, Colombia20102018 said:

I understand that but there’s nothing wrong with asking for actual data and the price difference is quite significant. So if there’s anyone out there that has been thru this exact escenario, it would be nice to hear from their experience.

I think the bottomline is - you're simply not going to "know" without trying.  By consensus,  you can see that many of us would not be willing to take the chance.  If you are ok in doing so then go ahead and book it and hope for the best.  You can always keep checking Royal's website to see if you are able to make a booking for 5 at a price you are happy with.  Keep in mind most ships are sailing at full capacity so not much chance you will be able to switch cabins closer to your sailing date. 

20 hours ago, Rfk said:

Yep, just did a few laps of logout/login and got one show booking on Anthem - Spectra’s Cabaret. 

Us too-  we are on anthem next week and only spectra's has been available to book

19 hours ago, rjac said:

Didn't find an answer online at the C&S website. If I pay for my daughter and her two children to accompany us on a future cruise, do I get their cruise points added to my account? Thanks.

rjac

As many have stated, points are assigned to the names on the reservations.  Make sure they have crown and anchor numbers so they can start tracking their points if they haven't done that already.

16 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Finding Harmony on Harmony???  HM 3/11/2023 – 3/18/2023

 

This is Us – A Little Bit CRAZY, A Little Bit LOUD, A Whole Lot of LOVE! 

10 people, one cabin, crazy cousins, “set in their ways” older parents, plus a Genie…Will we find Harmony? Nobody knows? Not even us!

This sailing as been a long time coming. I am beyond excited, and a little bit sad. Originally, we had booked this sailing for December 2020 to celebrate my Mom’s 70^th birthday. We lost that sailing, and we were most fortunate to be able to reschedule it to now. However, as much as we tried to retain our original group, my other sister and her family could not make it. That leaves 10 of us, instead of 14. I am sure that our Genie is breathing a sigh of relief lol.

This is our 3^rd time on Harmony, but for my parents and sister’s family, it’s their first. It is by no means anyone’s first cruise though. My parents have cruised more than any of us have, but never in suites. They are pretty stubborn inside cabin cruisers, well my Dad is anyway. This cruise is another way that we are trying to thank my parents for everything they have done for us.

We last cruised as an extended family in December 2017 on the Disney Fantasy. The kids were all a lot younger then and I am sure this experience will be a whole lot different.

This is wonderful.  We will look forward to following along.  Have the best time!

21 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

Sorry, I didn’t notice as we didn't do either.

That's ok, thanks again for the heads up on the WWRY.

15 hours ago, BabyCruiser said:

Thank you for all your kind and helpful responses! And apologies I’m just now seeing them. Our room is 2032, so there is one pullman bed over the main bed, but not two. Two rooms does sound nice, but we have a 5-year-old, a 3-year-old and a one-year-old—pretty little kids who sometimes need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night or otherwise need us and wake up earlier than us in the morning and all that. In other words, in this case there really are benefits to having everyone together in the same room. Plus, we don’t really want to give Royal Caribbean even more of our money when they have already, we feel, robbed us of what we rightfully paid for. 
I think the last response in this chain really did answer the question: after calling Royal Caribbean several times, they said that yes, you can fit a crib in this room. It’s very hard to tell from the pictures, but apparently there is enough room to squeeze a crib either to the side of the main bed or at the foot of the main bed, and there’s still room for the couch bed to pull out too. Will it be comfortable? No. But we planned and paid for comfort and that was already taken away from us so it just is what it is. So long as it will *technically* work, that is our main concern now. 
Thank you again!

I can appreciate what you are saying - when we travelled when our 3 kids were little, figuring out the right configuration was so important.   One time on Oasis, we booked a balcony that showed an allotment for 5 but there was physically no where to put the play pen.  Just my opinion but I would contact Royal again.  The cabin you are referencing only sleeps 4 which means the lifeboat set up will count 4 in your cabin.  Do you have a reservation that shows 4 people and another reservation showing 1 (and all showing the same reservation number).  I just don't want you to have any issues when you board.