CruisingNewb

I totally understand that lobster has become some kind of cruise tradition, but its 2023, are people really that excited for lobster still? Go to Costco and get lobster tails. Lobster, whether available or not, whether free or $20, whether warm water or cold water, should not and WILL NOT ruin your cruise.

That is a keen observation and good point that you make!

I am curious. If you were to take some bread and cheese from the Windjammer, would the omelet bar cook grill it in the omelet pan for you? That would be the best grilled cheese on a cruise ship. Perhaps someone has tried this hack?

1. General rule (old school tradition) is hats off in private places, hats on in public places. 2. Hats are almost always acceptable if you have some illness or physical/medical reasons to wear one. Again, I am a modern traditionalist and often times play by ear. It really depends. I love wearing baseball caps but if I know that someone in my party or family, or even if there are older people around whom I don't know, I try to be courteous and respectful. This is only my personal opinion and my way of handling this topic. Another rule I have for my family is: If you make a choice and go through with it, understand that you may face criticism for your choice and accept it. We don't say "no crying over spilled milk"...we say "no crying if YOU spilled the milk."

We did sushi take out. For some reason or another, my oldest son's top "to do" thing for our summer cruise was to eat sushi on the balcony of our room. LOL

No one has said anything to me about a baseball cap. I was raised with traditional western etiquette but with an understanding of the modern times. So, for me, no hats in church. Hats off when praying. Hats off during National Anthem. But on a cruise, in the MDR, or even Chops, if its lunch, hat stays on. MDR dinner for non-formal nights, I may wear a hat. Again, never asked to take it off. The single best thing I can say about baseball caps, or any attire, that may be questionable, is don't wear anything that is questionably offensive. Sports' team baseball caps, okay. Political jargon and propaganda hats, no. T-shirts that say Love2Cruise, yes. T-shirts that say "F---" this or that, no. We have a saying in our home, if you act in a civil manner, chances are that you will be treated in a civil manner.

Chris Wong is young, talented and has a skill set or two that will get him far in life. We met him last June. Aside from the observations and experiences regarding Chris being a "nice" guy, what impressed me the most was that even though he was on his shift, he would take that split second or two to pose for a picture with cruiser-fans, while still being able to maintain his duties as a Casino host. I mean, as a casino host, your job, amongst others, is to be the face of the casino and greet guests, but he stuck a good balance of work-related meet and greet and fan service. I like this dude and watch his videos often, not as often as we watch Matt's YouTubes (lol), and I see a bright future for him whether with Royal or elsewhere.

YAY! First cruise! Congrats! The experts here have many, many tips and tricks specific to checking in. I will only add this: DO THE WORK NOW SO YOU CAN ENJOY THE CRUISE ONCE ON BOARD. Once you get on board, you should be home free, so do your due diligence now.

I am glad that you had some good experiences alongside the bad ones. Its my perception and therefore my opinion that being a "foodie" means that a person has high expectations and tastes. I am a former chef of a couple of well-known high end restaurants. From my experience, alot of us (chefs) want simple comfort foods when we aren't working. For example, in Vegas, many of my chef friends and I would go to Fat Burger after work for a greasy cheeseburger with fried egg. Nothing extravagant by any means. In fact, many "foodies" have negative things to say about many of the places we (chefs) eat. LOL The reason I go into my narrative above is that this is a fan forum. I appreciate all opinions, good or bad, but I personally make sure that when I type a comment, that people understand the perspective I come from. My family is by no means wealthy, but we are well-off. Still, we are budget conscious and try to live humbly below our means. When I cruise, I am expecting an overall pleasurable experience. I never go into a cruise ship dining venue expecting Michelin Star quality food. If I wanted that, I would be dining Robuchon's at the MGM. For others who are new to Royal or cruising in general, I would have to say don't "lower expectations" - just have different expectations. Expect not to have to drive home after having several cocktails during dinner. Expect plenty of options for dining, drinking, entertainment. Expect to relax and let your guard down.

Unless things have changed, it is not a bad walk from the town to the ship in Skagway. Plus, there are some really neat streams and creeks along the way. I don't think it took more than 15 minutes from ship to town. There are shuttles that run constantly too.

No need to apologize for valid questions! 1. We usually book our cruises ourselves. We do this because when we are in "travel mode," we enjoy spending our time looking up fares and itineraries. 2. We transfer our bookings to a TA afterwards. We do this because although we love the initial planning, we do not love contacting the cruise lines with questions. Sometimes the TA already has the answers because its his/her/they job to know the ins and outs and be up to date with information. We also transfer our bookings because our TA is our friend and single mom. She gets a commission and we get her to do the difficult stuff like tracking best prices for excursions, ground travel arrangements, etc. 3. We were lucky to already have been friends with our TA. If you don't know of any TA's, look through this forum, make friends, network, and get referrals! Honestly, sometimes, our TA does very little work for us because the trip is already a no-brainer. But sometimes, our TA does TONS of work for us.

100%!!!

Here are some general tips: 1. Depending upon how long the cruise is, don't forget to give the "free" dining options a chance. If you are on a longer (let's say 6 nights or more) trip, have at least 3 dinners at the main attraction restaurants using the UDP (ie; Chops, Giovanni's, Hooked, etc.). BUT---the MDR and Windjammer has great dinners too. 2. For the lesser venues (by lesser I mean not as high end such as Izumi, Johnny Rockets, Playmakers), limit the UDP to lunch. Mostly same menus for lunch and dinner in those venues. 3. Don't go in feeling obligated to making back your money. I have mentioned many, many, many times that people on vacation tend to economize everything. If the UDP was $200 per person, why stress thinking that you have to eat at Chops every night to make that money back? Part of the unlimited packages include the stress-free peace of mind in not having to do math and calculate everything, freedom of options (unless you forget to make reservations), and more options for food. 4. If you have kids and got the UDP for them as well, kids ARE NOT LIMITED TO the Kids' menu. Let them decide whether to order off the adult menu or kids' menu.

Our rule of thumb: Whichever venue has the shorter line, that is where we will eat for the free dining options. Both WJ and MDR are great!

Another thing to remember here is the frequency of our cruising experiences. I will give you an example. I used to work for NY/NY Hotel and Casino, the Palms Casino, Caesar's, Venetian, and MGM in Vegas. As employees, we would have access to the EDR (employee dining room). At first, man-oh-man, the EDR was GREAT! Its was a buffet everyday for employees. Every break I got, I would go down to EDR and eat something. After about a year of eating at least one meal a day and multiple snacks a day while working, the food seemed to get old and poorer in quality. For us, we thought the food on our first Carnival cruise was outstanding! Then after our 3rd or so cruise on the same ship, it became meh. Our first RCCL cruise was this past June. I thought the food was night-and-day different and worlds apart better than anything on Carnival. Recently, we took a short 3 nighter on our second RCCL cruise. The food was good. This is when I realized that eventually, our perceptions diminish based upon our first experience(s) and usually, secondary and tertiary experiences do not live up to the first time. Soooooo....maybe its just us and not the actual food? Sometimes it is the food, the preparation, the quality of ingredients--no doubt. But to generalize things and simply say that the food quality is going down is not a fair assessment.

My youngest son is 9 and we went to Alaska last June on the Ovation. Although we cruised before with the older son, this was our youngest son's first cruise and our first cruise paying for most of the bells and whistles. We got the UDP for both kids. The 9 year old's UDP was about $9 per day when we bought the package. Though I am a former chef, my 9 year-old is a picky eater. Once on board, our first dinner was at Wonderland and my 9 year-old tried things he would never eat at home. He ended up learning to love things like lobster, lamb chops, mushroom soup, etc. Anything he did not want to eat, we simply considered it an extra course for us and went to Sorrentos for free pizza if my 9 year-old was still hungry. So from our perspective, the UDP was a great deal even with a 9 year-old. Just because he is 9 doesn't mean he was limited to the kids' menu.

I'm sure this was a one off, or rather 9 off, but: 1. Nacho cheese fake? Please do tell! Let me say this....I don't know what you think "nacho cheese" is, but it can be anything from just melted shredded cheese to cheese goop. Honestly, I want the cheese goop. Also, I have been to many, many cities in Mexico, many places use the cheese goop that I am referring to. 2. I'm fairly confident in saying that either you are mistaken, or the crab moratorium has reached RCCL crab cakes. I don't know what you think "real crab" is, but most non-seafood specialty restaurants use claw meat and/or knuckle meat. Those places that specialize in seafood will more often than not use lump crab. I have NEVER eaten imitation crab meat crab cakes...anywhere. If the crab moratorium is affecting the cruise industry, what makes you think that it isn't affecting other cruise lines. 3. I seriously, highly, and confidently doubt that Windjammer is serving the SAME food everyday. Even during breakfast, there are daily changes although the main staples like scrambled eggs, omelets, breakfast meats, etc will remain the same. 4. MDR food is what you make of it. AS a former chef, I honestly think that the food is decent considering the sheer number of people they have to feed daily. I know that complainers will complain and nothing that I say or write will change that. But honestly, making blanket statements or statements that are highly dubious doesn't help your cause. LOL fake nacho cheese! BAHAHAHAHA

Most replies to these types of question comes down to straight economics. However, I don't think in strictly those terms. When you dine at a restaurant, you are paying a HUGE mark up on dishes. For example, a steak that is listed on the menu as $60.00 likely cost the restaurant no more than $10.00 a pound (wholesale). So what are you paying for then? The drink package has always been satisfying for my family on every cruise line we have traveled on. Our opinion is that you are paying for the drink, the service, the variety, but for us, the most important thing is peace of mind. We are on vacation. We don't want to be taking out our smartphone calculators and doing math or going to guest services to pay daily expenses. Having said that, don't forget that every time you go to the bar, you can ask for 2 bottles of water and the package includes specialty coffee drinks. If you want to run numbers, 4 cocktails, 1 glass of wine, 4 bottles of water, 1 soda, and 2 lattes a day is what we averaged and the math comes out in our favor.

You can fill that cup as many times as you want with whatever offerings you choose until the cup breaks. Then, you go get another cup and keep going until you get diabetes. (just joking-not meant to offend anyone-I have diabetes)

Sorry, JT has a second channel. I posted the link. Watch it. This seems to fit your needs in many, many ways. I bet its cheaper than 3 rooms.

1. YASS!!! Quantum Class is great! Even at full capacity, PLENTY of room to sprawl out and tons of quiet lesser-frequented areas to relax and enjoy. 2. The Ovation has a kind-of-secret room. I think I saw it on YouTube (JT the Nomad). There is a a door that looks like a stateroom door, that leads to a tiny hall where there are two (2) more doors. One door leads to a balcony suite and the other door leads to a windowless single occupancy room. It is very unique. The suite can accommodate 4 of you easily. The single room can give your mom privacy while being connected through the mini-hallway. Words do not do this option justice and I don't know more details. Try looking it up. It WILL be cheaper than three (3) rooms. If I find more info, I will post here. 3. We did not do any physically demanding excursions on our Alaskan cruise. We are relatively young with a 14 year-old and a 9 year-old. We walked, but honestly, outside of hiking (which I wish we did), the port towns are small and your mom, depending upon her own limitations, should do just fine.

If your port city IS NOT your home city, consider the two extreme scenarios I posit: 1. Wait to check in at the last minute (around 5 or 4pm-ish) and board by 4 or 5pm-ish. This means that where ever your port city is, you will be checking out of your hotel around 11am-ish. If you normally eat three square meals a day, you will have paid out-of-pocket for breakfast and lunch. Between checking out of your hotel, unless you are strictly free water drinking people, you will have spent a few dollars on beverages. You will need to keep entertained to some extent until you arrive at port. 2. Check in and board before noon. You may have paid out-of-pocket for breakfast and possibly a coffee or two, but lunch on board is included. You will have had however number of drinks (if you purchased the DBP) by 4pm. You will have had access to free amenities from boarding time. Is it worth it? Economically yes. To me, it is worth the peace of mind that you are finally on board. To me, its worth not having to wander the port city until boarding, unless that was your plan all along.

No apologies necessary. 1. Host at Chops can make all resos for all venues. 2. Yes but it is quicker and easier to make the resos in preson. 3. Prime Times? That depends on when you board. If you are one of the first 100 or so people to board, like we usually are, there is no times that you should worry about getting. You should get the times you ask for. If you board later in the day, then the Host will tell you what is available according to your preferences. 4. I don't know about large resos. I only cruise with my family of 4. 5. Yes. Lunch and Dinner reservations. BUT---your question is do you "need." You can always see if the venue can accomodate you. For instance, Izumi was usually pretty empty between 11:30 and noon-thirty most days and I saw walk-ins often. BUT----Jamie's Italian had wait lists 10 names long for most lunch and dinners. My advice is to eat at specialty restaurants early. Since you are an early diner, my advice would be amicable to your needs. I say eat specialty early because you can always eat a second dinner around 7 or 8, or even 10, but specialty dining venues are really packed later in the evening. Besides, I don't want to eat a second dinner at Chops after still digesting food from Windjammer; do it the other way around.

Best thing about dining Royal....or any cruise....within minutes, you are back in your room for a nap. And no....Nothing is like Vegas dining. Nothing. I say this with extreme prejudice because I was born and raised there and had a career as a chef there.

There has only been 2 $0.99 buffets since the mid-80s that I know of...the Boardwalk Casino (which is long gone) and Arizona Charlie's. Trust me when I say, those buffets made Carnival and Royal's buffets look EXOTIC. Powdered eggs? No thanks. LOL