Peter D

11-11 drinks are served from the bar.

Along the same lines, my wife and I use the Diamond plus buy one, get one free for both nights. I'd bet the same could happen for the Diamond BOGO.

The ship usually departs around 5pm on set sail day. It usually arrives back in port around 6am and disembarkation starts ~7am. If you plan to fly out after 11am, you shouldn't have any problems. A little earlier than 11am is probably doable, but if there delays at the ship, then earlier times could be stressful.

@NancyP We planned the extra time ourselves and it was pretty easy to do. We stayed two nights at Harborview Inn at Seward AK, because it was reasonably priced and pretty central to everything in Seward and it happens to be on one of the free bus stops for https://sewardcitytours.com/free-shuttle/. This Inn (and others I am sure) will pick you and your luggage up at the cruise port. I thought it was a pretty good place to stay and would definitely stay there again, but there are many other options right in that area. We took our fjord cruise on debarkation day (Friday) through 'Kenai Fjord Tours'. https://www.alaskacollection.com/day-tours/kenai-fjords-tours/ We did the full day guided tour with dinner at Fox Island. I loved the tour. We saw just about every type of sea life you could hope for including orca, whale, porpoise etc as well as an up close look at Aialik Glacier. We were back in time to watch the Radiance of Seas set sail for southbound cruise. The weather for this tour was extremes. On open water it was freezing cold due to the winds and we were bundled tight, but in the coves and on Fox Island where the wind was less, it was much more moderate. There was plenty of indoor seating/viewing, but I stayed outside most of the time. On Saturday, we did a full day halibut fishing excursion through Anchor Down Sportfishing and it was really fun. We found them fishing through https://fishingbooker.com/. We were on a boat with 8-10 other passengers and everyone caught fish. You need a single day fishing license which is easy to get through alaska.org website. The fishing trip was not cheap, but it was still worth the experience to me. We had the fish cleaned and packed at the pier and arranged for shipping back home, which was very expensive. If I were to do it again, I would have tried to bring the fish home in insulated coolers on ice as checked luggage which was a very common sight. The weather for this tour was much milder than fjord tour. Bright sunny day with no rain. We were dressed in layers, but at one point I was just wearing a T-shirt. On Sunday, we checked out of Harborview Inn and they allowed us to store our luggage for the day in the office. We walked the scenic path along the harbor all the way to 'downtown' Seward. We went to the Alaska Sealife Center. The Alaska Sealife Center is a small aquarium, but it is a decent place to go if you are staying there. You could easily go there off the ship as well on your own, again, using the free bus. On Sunday afternoon, we stopped back at Harborview to pick up our luggage, and hopped on bus to the train depot for our 6pm departure. We took the Goldstar Service on https://www.alaskarailroad.com/. Overall, I liked it quite a bit. pros: outside viewing platform (I stayed outside the entire trip) Con: food in dining car. The dining experience was awful. Half menu was 'unavailable, food was cold, and service was sub-par. I suspect (hope) it was just because we were one of (if not the first) trip of the very early in season. That said, if I were to take the train again, I would still do Goldstar, because I loved the outdoor viewing platform that much and would give the dining the benefit of the doubt. We arrived in Anchorage at about 10 pm and from there we took a waiting taxi to our hotel. We stayed at Comfort Suites Anchorage International Airport. It was fine and I would stay there again, but I am sure there are other (better?) options. On Monday, we checked out and hotel had luggage storage which we used while we went around Anchorage. We were only in Anchorage for a partial day so we took an Uber to the zoo which was just ok and took free zoo shuttle back to downtown Anchorage and walked around a bit and had dinner before taking Uber back to hotel to get luggage and shuttle to airport. If I were to do it over again, I would have tried to plan a longer stay in Anchorage area. Regarding the weather. Locals told us the weather we were experiencing in May was unusually warm and dry. We had way more sunny, mild days than rainy cold ones. You still would want to plan for both. I would not hesitate going again in May if the opportunity arose. Final notes regarding booking this myself. With Covid rules still in place for travel (especially to Canada) at that time, there was certain risks with booking on my own. The railroad is non refundable within 35 days of travel. I tried as best I could to cover the risks with travel insurance. I hope this info helps!

I have the BofA Royal Caribbean card, but rarely use it, even for RCL travel. It might be worth getting it for the first bonus points, but the card does not really have many other good perks. I personally think a good cash back card is always better than a points based card. FWIW, I use the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi which gives 3% cash back on travel including cruises. It does require Costco membership though, but that also provides perks.

We did the Vancouver to Seward in May2022 on Radiance and it was great. We spent 3 days in Seward and did a fishing trip and fjords cruise. Both were very fun. We then took the scenic train from Seward to Anchorage. That was also a very fun experience. I would do the same exact trip again in a heart beat.

yes you can get eggs benedict on the MDR for breakfast.

I am pretty sure it is the same exact menu as every other day, except for Champagne (at least that was the case last year for Christmas).

I would personally keep the prepaid gratuities and still pay cash tip to room steward and bartenders. I have even be inclined to give a little extra to specialty wait staff for a job well done.

Bobby Broughton; however he has been there since early to mid August, so there could be a change coming. As you get closer to your sailing, you can check this website which is fairly accurate (as far as I can tell). https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2816121-current-cruise-director-cd-list-starting-12-2021/page/16/

These are not exclusive issues. When you book onboard through NextCruise, you get the benefits of reduced deposit, onboard credits etc. After it is booked, you can then have it assigned to Costco travel (or any travel agent for that matter), and then you will get all the potential Costco travel perks. Best of both worlds.

What I did was on day 1 (while onboard), I just watched the app entry for the escape room for the 'reserve now' button to become available. Once it did, I had no problem booking 3 of us to participate. I do not know how many events there were throughout the week, but I can say that I saw many group of people queued at the entrance throughout the week. If you are vigilant when the app allows booking, you should not have any issue getting a spot for the week. good luck.

It was open for our August 23 cruise. The app access opened for our cruising late on the first day. It was pretty fun and definitely recommend.

What is particularly interesting is it seems that only wait staff does this. I do not ever remember a room steward ever mention it. Of course, bar staff never says much of anything. Maybe there is something to the whole script thoughts and wait staff (dining rooms) was selected to be the messenger. Honestly, as I think of it, it is probably the cruise director that should give a 'survey is important' spiel. Maybe we need our own passenger pre-emptive spiel. " I know the end of cruise survey is important and if your service is worth a 10, then I will give a 10, but do not ask for it." (of course, this approach is only partially in jest) Sadly, I will have to wait until May2023 before I get another survey.

I think this question generally skews all the responses I make for for all of the services, not just dining. I'm incline to give a 10 for a bar service, for example, even if I had one bartender not meet expectations at all. It's probably warranted to lower it to an 8 or 9 due to one interaction, but is that fair given the apparent weight of a 10? Maybe on all my future surveys, I will add a comment on the question specifically, and see if it helps lead to a clarification or omission of it all together.

I just completed my Oasis of the Seas survey. Overall, we had a great time, and my survey responses reflect it. However, I always hesitate on one question. 'Has any cruise member requested a positive rating, and if so... who?" I never really know how I should answer this question. My experience over the years is that we always have at least one crew member does in fact says something like 'remember, you will be getting a survey and it is very important that you provide your feedback, but my manager considers anything less than 10, a failure". I never answer the survey question 'yes', because I don't really want to throw anyone under the bus... but should I? Do the crew members know that this question is on the survey? If so, why do they still request a 10? Am I doing a disservice to all, by not 'reporting' the crew member? Anecdotally, it is almost always dining room waiters/asst waiters that even mention the surveys and comment on it. What are some other thoughts on this?

Can anyone confirm if Pinnacle is allowed to go to Coastal Kitchen for dinner or not? My wife and I are going on Oasis on Sunday in a suite and we are traveling with my mother who will be on her first Pinnacle cruise and we were hoping to go to CK together. The Royal website description of Coastal Kitchen says "Exclusively for suite guests and Pinnacle Club members, Coastal Kitchen fuses Mediterranean influences..." But my mother says RCL customer service said it was not included.

On several occasions, my family of 5 had tried many of the spacious staterooms on Freedom class. We tried interior on deck 2 (2309), Ultra spacious ocean view (9200/9500) and the spacious promenade stateroom (7307/7607 and 8307/8607). By far, the promenade ones worked out best for us. These were quite nice from a location perspective (mid ship) and accommodation perspective (large room with a bunk room). It was also nice as we used the promenade windows as a 'sign system' to let the rest of family know who was in the room... my youngest daughter also put a 'bring cookies' sign in the window. While these days, the two room connecting balconies is probably preferred, we did enjoy these staterooms and promenade specifically quite a bit.

Even if it is a lab generated report, I would be careful if the report lists her anywhere on it as the 'proctor' of the test. The last thing you want if for someone at the port to question it and delay boarding.

I priced the Villa Suite for Harmony in April 2024 for 8 adults (no children). It was $22k, so essentially $2750 pp. Obviously balcony rooms would have been much cheaper, but we were looking for the Star Class experience as well, which does have an inherent dollar value as well (UDP and Deluxe Drink package for example). All depends on what you are looking for in the overall cruise experience, but from a shear cost perspective, the balcony options are likely cheaper.

I am not sure that Independence of the Seas has show reservations, but if they do, then you are correct, reservations are done through the app once onboard. Even if they do have reservations, and you do not make them, you can still show up at the shows at showtime and they open up seating to those without reservations.

They do make make Dark n' Stormy as you mentioned. I have never asked for a can of the ginger beer by itself, but I think they would undoubtedly give you a can of it under the deluxe drink package.

I have never been in any of them, but as I look at the deck plan, 8500 as the front-facing cabin, and I would think it would give you a good view of both starboard and port sides. I just did a quick Youtube search for radiance of seas 8500, 8502, and 8002. The search returned many views of these cabins for Radiance or sister ships Brilliance and Serenade. Here is a good one for Serenade of Seas (should be identical to Radiance) that features both forward facing and side facing cabins. The forward facing cabin seems to have two windows vs one window on side cabins. Conventional thinking on the Alaska cruises (whether true or not) is that starboard side for northbound cruises and port side for southbound cruises are preferred, but front facing is probably very nice as well. Basically, there are a lot of great views from the ship on the Alaska cruise and where ever you are, you will have something to look at. For what it is worth, a balcony room is very nice and might be able to suit your family needs. If views from your cabin are important, there is no comparison between the balcony rooms and these ocean view rooms. Balconies have superior views.

Its a sandwich I get every time its available on a sailing, but it is definitely variable in quality. That said, on my Symphony cruise in March and Radiance cruise in May, they were both superb.

The two most bothersome protocols are the 2 day testing and the vaccination mandates. I have many friends and family would love to cruise, but will not do so under these current rules. I do not agree. What I am looking for with 'return to normal' is for Covid to be treated the same aboard cruise ships as it is in every other industry/business. 'Return to normal' also means 'Learning to live with the disease' which is what everyone did for every other disease prior to 2020. The days of Covid being treated as special given all the medical advances is what needs to end.