whitsmom

We started checking of our Bucket List too:
Alaska (cruise & Land) - July 2018
Iceland (Magical Northern Lights Land tour) January 2020
Scotland, England, Italy and more

Majesty (Western) in 1995!  My daughter was just going into the 11th grade.  Wow - seems so long ago.  We had our one and only inside cabin.  It was so small that we had to go out into the hall to change our mind! LOL.  One night we had very rough seas and walking back to our room we were all over the place.  My daughter was laughing saying that everyone would think that she was drunk! 

Majesty (Western) in 1995!  My daughter was just going into the 11th grade.  Wow - seems so long ago.  We had our one and only inside cabin.  It was so small that we had to go out into the hall to change our mind! LOL.  One night we had very rough seas and walking back to our room we were all over the place.  My daughter was laughing saying that everyone would think that she was drunk! 

We started checking of our Bucket List too:
Alaska (cruise & Land) - July 2018
Iceland (Magical Northern Lights Land tour) January 2020
Scotland, England, Italy and more

Majesty (Western) in 1995!  My daughter was just going into the 11th grade.  Wow - seems so long ago.  We had our one and only inside cabin.  It was so small that we had to go out into the hall to change our mind! LOL.  One night we had very rough seas and walking back to our room we were all over the place.  My daughter was laughing saying that everyone would think that she was drunk! 

I just found out my bid was accepted yesterday 10 days before my cruise!

I always take magnets with clips and use them for all kinds of stuff (walls, doors, and even the ceiling)!

This is the one we will be using from now on.  Our Grandkids gave us this one for Christmas.

Might be in the MDR as well on any given cruise.

This is the one we will be using from now on.  Our Grandkids gave us this one for Christmas.

I have a faux tuxedo shirt like this that I use as a rash and sun guard when snorkeling.  Best dressed snorkeler on the beach.  
Super light weight, easy to pack.  Fairly inexpensive as well.

 

This is the one we will be using from now on.  Our Grandkids gave us this one for Christmas.

I also feel it depends on the kind of cruise you are having.. I am a gambler and I go on many cruises just me and my best friend. Our goal is to eat and then get back to the casino to get a good spot at the black jack table.. However we are also foodies and not a fan of windjammer so we eat in all restaurants.. Like I stated before we wear shorts except on formal night where we put on pants and thats the kind of cruise we want.. However once a year my boyfriends family takes us on a "family cruise" all 16 of us. When we are on that cruise we must dress for dinner everynight to the point that I literally have to go shopping just for cruise clothes.. But I know going into that cruise what I have to do and so my point is I think it depends on the kind of cruise your having. Maybe your just with a best friend and you want to be super casual or maybe it is a big family cruise where you need to be more formal for pictures and all that.. All I am saying is I don't understand why other people care what others are wearing on casual nights everyone has a different circumstance and I think we should all just try and focus on our own vacations and do what's right for us. 

We always do smart casual and then nicer/fancier stuff for formal nights.  We do "dress up" fancy as a rule so we make it fun for us and get some good family pictures in the process.  That being said, what everyone else wears has no baring on my experience at dinner and once they sit down - no one will know that they have shorts or pants on at that point. 

While I don't love the way the lanyard looks, I do love the functionality.  My wife and kids didn't want them when I handed each a lanyard, but within a day or two they all wore them, all the time.  For us, not having to worry that things have fallen out of our pockets, or that we'd left something behind helps the overall relaxation process.  Pros far outweigh the cons.

We stayed at the Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel.  Very nice hotel and no too far from the port.  One of us was using a knee scooter and needed a van-type taxi.  The hotel said that would not be a guarantee so we paid the hotel driver $25 cash to drop us off at the port.

We got 133 pictures on ours last July on the Oasis

You've got it backwards. You get a discount for allowing RC to choose your room.
As for "needing to pay more", this is no different than if you book an airline flight and select a seat with extra leg room or an emergency exit row seat. Preferred room options come with a higher cost. 
In your original post, you wrote in big, bold letters "assuming this meant", so yes, you did assume.
I understand this isn't your first foray into travel, but cruise vacations are different from land vacations. I'm not sure why you did not stop when you reached the point of not seeing the options you expected and completed the booking.  
I'm sorry your first experience was not to your liking, but I think your experience and/or expectations were out line with pretty much everyone else here. If you think you've discovered some vast conspiracy by Royal Caribbean to dupe their customers, well, I'm sorry to say that simply is not the case.  Reading your experiences speaks to a first time cruiser who made assumptions and ended up with a different result than they expected. 
My advice going forward is to give RC another try, but employ some of the advice and strategies we all happily share.  I think with a bit more footwork, you could easily come away with a great cruise vacation.

I understand.  Thank you.  I have 11-11:30 boarding time, expedited arrival and plan on getting there around 10am.  Hopefully one of those thing will be on my side. lol  At the end of the day Ill get on either way.  Just wont be able to start drinking as early if I have to wait a little bit hahaha

We always use our AAA travel agent for bookings, although we research RCI website online.  In your shoes, I would be angry about the glitch in the website, but I don't think it is bait and switch.  Hopefully, your experience will help them fix the problem before others are affected.  I have heard others state they get better service from Crown & Anchor folks than from the RCI phone centers.  Again, having an agent has been wonderful for us over the years.

It needs to be set up prior to boarding on Wi-Fi so that you can set an address for dialing 911.  Afterwards, turn on airplane mode to test it out and you'll be good to go for your sailing.

This is true for me, I have a 13 night, June 2020 cruise planned on Anthem out of Southampton, I will have my TA book airfare, hotel (Pre and post) as well as transportation to and from the pier to the hotel. I do this for simplicity reasons, I plan on staying in London, I don't know London, my TA has experience herself and with her clients, so I will let her do it. I did the same thing in 2016 on a cruise out of Barcelona and it worked very well.
I will do my research and give her an idea of Hotels I think I might like as well as flights and flight times I would prefer.
If it is a Caribbean or domestic vacation I always book my hotel and airfare direct, I'm comfortable making those decisions because I have done it multiple times before.
Sometimes booking a package deal is the right way to go.

We flew into Vancouver for our cruise a day early and we used Go Shuttle.

Kids Sail Free is a great way to cut the price and if you aren't against pulling the older one out of school for the trip you will find prices can be very reasonable during the off season.  This also makes the cost of airfare more reasonable.  
Considering a travel agent doesn't cost anything and you can get them do all the legwork of finding the prices and availability for what exactly you are looking for.  MEI Travel (http://mei-travel.com) is the sponsor of this blog and they specialize in Royal cruises and could help you if you wanted to do a Disney land portion as mentioned in above posts.

Essentially, Voom Surf and Stream is faster and supports video streaming. 
Regardless if you are video streaming or not, I recommend Surf and Stream because it is overall a better experience.