EmptyNestTravels

@Pooch The reviews on Yelp don't seem to be very good. https://www.yelp.com/biz/springhill-suites-fort-lauderdale-airport-and-cruise-port-dania

Has anyone stayed at the Home2 Suites by Hilton Fort Lauderdale Downtown (315 NW 1st Avenue)? Any review/feedback to share? Yelp reviews are not great for this property, but perhaps someone has first-hand experience staying there prior to their cruise?

Excellent video @CHRIS WONG. Watched it on YouTube yesterday. Will the casino staff provide any guidance/help on how to play the various games and gamble onboard so we can give Royal more of our money? Do the experienced gamblers get frustrated with the newbees who are trying to learn? Any thoughts or recommendations for how to best get started playing in Casino Royale? Thanks!

Mariner 04/09/2022 per Guest Services: Pax: 3,284 Kids: 826 Capacity: 85%

@Matt @SpeedNoodles @AshleyDillo @bazingau Thanks for making this happen! IMHO, the new format looks great, and should be very useful and easier for forum members to find/post roll-calls without creating duplicates!

Answers from Royal Caribbean's FAQ web page: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-documents-are-accepted-as-proof-of-vaccination According to Royal's FAQ response, pax should be OK to board with a letter as proof of vax. See attached image, and link to the Royal FAQ topic for full info.

Yes, it all depends on the particular sailing and not guaranteed. Here are the details for Military, EMT/Firefighter & Senior discounts from Royal's FAQ page.

@Matt & @SpeedNoodles & @AshleyDillo - For your consideration - can we please resurrect this suggestion from @bazingau for you to consider making a separate subtopic ("folder" if you will) under Roll-Calls for each ship name, so that roll-calls can be placed in the "folder" (subtopic) by ship name for ease of use? I'd recommend still following @JLMoran's topic name format syntax for the roll-calls in the (new) separate subfolders. And hopefully the admins could simply move old/existing cruises into the respective new folders by ship name to get us started. Thanks for considering.

CP prices are definitely going up, up, up. I just looked for my November cruise and Drinks (DX, Refreshment, and DX w/ Voom) packages, and the two separate Voom Internet packages were all the highest I've seen them so far. Ouch.

Yes! Trellis for sure!

Hi @Lexster. I used the Royal app.

Check-in for my upcoming May 7th cruise opened at midnight last night (45 days out). Check-in didn't show as available at first. I kept refreshing, and was able to check in at about 12:05 am. If your cruise is May 8th, perhaps you will be able to check-in after midnight tonight?

I haven't been on Wonder yet to go to the Mason Jar. But other specialty restaurants that I've been to thus far just have a separate lunch menu (different from the dinner menu). It's been my experience there is no restriction on the amount of food one could order. However, I know there are some a la carte restaurants where you would have to pay extra per item(s) ordered. I don't believe Mason Jar is one of those. See @Matt's blog post on specialty restaurants, and his review (complete with menus) of the Mason Jar. The Brunch Menu from the Mason Jar (in the aforementioned Mason Jar review) may answer your question, too. Hope this helps! Folks who have been on Wonder, and to the Mason Jar, will hopefully chime in and provide more accurate Mason Jar-specific info.

Can't answer for Allure, but here are some recent pics of the snacks available at Cafe Promenade on Harmony and Independence.

It was closed three weeks ago on Harmony. Maybe @Pooch can update us (please) since they were just on Harmony last week?

I haven't used the Royal chat app myself, as I always purchase Wi-Fi and use other chat apps to connect with folks. However, in @Matt's article "Royal Caribbean's chat feature is now available on every cruise ship", he says all users that you want to chat with have to purchase the $1.99/day chat feature; and maybe most importantly - guest users will only appear :online if they have the Royal app open to the “chat” window. This leads me to believe the app may not be very useful, as one could not communicate with an "offline" cruiser who doesn't actually have the app actively launched on their phone, AND with the Royal chat window actually open. So if your kids have the app on their phone, but they are playing a game or doing something else with their phone, presumably they would not get a message alert, or you simply could not even message them. Seems pretty useless to me. I can't imagine many pax opt for this paid chat feature, but I could be wrong! Would be interested to hear from any folks who have actually used the app as to its usefulness. As for me, Wi-Fi will always be worth the cost of $15.99/day to stay in touch with folks on the ship and at home.

Was very happy to see this post by @Matt "Hochberg of the Seas" this afternoon. "UPDATE: Royal Caribbean crew members continue to serve guests at Windjammer across the fleet. While there was self-service on some ships today, crew will be serving guests tomorrow again in Windjammer." https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022/03/22/spotted-cruise-ship-passengers-serving-themselves-buffet-again

On Harmony three weeks ago, the Freestyle machines were open for self-service at Sorrento's and in the Windjammer. There were no COVID restrictions to use these self-serve vending machines other than washing your hands first (hand gel stations were conveniently located in front of each machine area). However, one must have a drink package (soda, refreshment, or DX) to get the authorized Freestyle cup with embedded chip in the bottom of it to be able to use the machines. The machines have a chip-reader in the base of the dispenser, and only dispense beverages into an authorized cups. The machines dispense flat or carbonated Dasani water in addition to the soda products, Powerade, and vitamin water.

I also I favor the crew permanently serving the buffet food for health and sanitary reasons. Do NOT want to get Norovirus (and who knows what else) from the buffet courtesy of dirty hands and cross-contamination by fellow passengers.

I'm planning to try the exact same thing for an upcoming cruise. I usually get the DX package, but decided I'll give the refreshment package a try; paying for any alcoholic drinks as I go. Afterwards, I'll compare what I actually spent vs. what I would have spent with the DX package and see which will be the better plan for me moving forward.

You can purchase bottled water onboard at Cafe Promenade or at the bars. Some Royal ships are now serving water in cans instead of bottles. If you have the refreshment or DX drink package (not sure about the soda package), the bottled/canned water is included.

I've had no problems using ExpressVPN onboard Royal this year - except once when I forgot to turn it off manually, and couldn't figure out why my Royal App wasn't updating with my onboard dining and entertainment reservations. User error! Oops. LoL

Same for Verizon Wireless per VZW CSR post online: "St. Thomas and St. John are both considered as domestic for talk, text and data at no additional charge. This means that calls and text and data used while you’re at those specific locations would count towards your allowance as if you where still here in the United States." - JenniferH_VZW Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

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