not easy being green

@MattG Will update you shortly, on my phone (can't do squat).

With prices we can afford the cruise, but airfare is anything but fair!! With our upcoming November/December cruise, the Drink package no longer has the internet option and is around $ 80+ a day. Also the Dinning Package is crazy expensive - we still may do a one nighter but not the every day plan. We check daily to see if the price drops, so far nope/nada only time will tell.

From the RC site: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/prohibited-items-onboard-policy If you have other questions about prohibited items you may want to check with your TA if you have one.

Find a place that has great breakfast food and coffee, I no longer have suggestions the place we used to frequent ended with Covid.

We have cruised a lot, and sometimes we do tours and other times we just stay on board. Last year I marked off a major item on my visual board of life, we did a transatlantic cruise 14 days and only 4 ports the rest of the time was open seas! I think we found our new way to cruise (only if vacations/cash could keep up). Our plan is to cruise transatlantic or transpacific when vacation and money allow, and cruise less on island hopping. Hopefully this works until we retire (if that ever happens).

Say a very quiet YAA WHOOOOO! Then grab a shot and a beer,

When trying to "Royal Up", to us it is like going to the casino... You never know how you are going to do and like others have said a big part of it is the "CHASE". We have an upcoming cruise and for the first time ever I have not changed my bid a all. Usually I start at the minimum and raise the bid, if I feel lucky, To be blunt, we have never won, and we will try every time it is available you never know if you will win or not. I have lost count on how many times we have not won, and again it is all part of the game.

First time we did Star Class before Covid we used 4 different cards, as long as the cruise is paid for I don't think RC cares about how many payments are used as long as everything balances out. Recently we have been using a TA and we are now paying monthly on up coming trips so we don't get "hit" with a massive payment at the 90 mark. This really helps us to keep on cruising....

Here is a link: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/plan-a-cruise/cruise-weddings Brochure with some prices https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/pdf/royal-weddings-brochure.pdf RC does a great job (not us, but we were invited once)

Also check-in recently is 45 days out and the "base time" is the time of the port that the ship leaves from ~ sometime the opening is not at 12 sharp, it varies sometimes. Be on the app/website and be ready for the earliest check in time. We are "batting at about 95%" of the time being able to board in one of the first groups. No matter what some people say I like this method more than the old way. Usually the terminal is not overly crowed anymore.

@Pattycruise ~ (not trying to sound critical) Some people do not use social media for anything like me (not that old) just don't care about it, personally drives me crazy! I rather sit and wait on the phone and keep calling if needed. One day I might start on social media and the kids will go crazy. With this process I am not sure if it would have helped, I did think about it for a little bit of time and I am happy that it went through the system and we did receive the refund.

We have always used RC Travel Insurance (AON) and we have only used it one time we have gone on a ton of cruises, the refund was very prompt - we had to supply the reason/s and in our case hospital notes/bills and also from the doctors. We did not file right away (about 5 years ago, we filed about 6 months afterwards) due to the circumstances and we still received the refund. RC worked with us to refund, all packages, Wi-Fi and tours we were not happy with the situation, but the refund part was very straight forward. We will not travel without some kind of insurance - yes it has costs, but if you ever need it, seems to work. Hopefully you will NEVER need to use it ~ forgot to say that

We posted this a while back, we were on the pre tour so no ship quarantine https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/35134-covid-refund-~-royal-caribbean/ I hope this helps a bit (always ask for a name, this helped us)

This is my suggestion/caution about non RC tours: We have done taxi rides (beach and or other things close by the docks) or walk around islands, if not doing an RC official tour Just remember, if you are NOT on an official RC tour and they run late the ship will not wait for you/your group. Too many times I have seen dock runners, and I never planning on being one... If it is not an RC tour you need to give yourself leeway for the "just in case", also make sure your watch/phone/time piece is on ships time and not local time, sometimes they do differ. Like above, sometimes people do cancel so things open all the time and also prices sometimes change

We stop by on my every cruise we go on, part of it is to be social and the other is sometimes the suite lounge is too packed. Seems to be the DL is usually less crowded then the SL, it is also great when you are NOT in a suite.