Wanderlust876

You know its bad when Switzerland who have so many splinters in their ass from sitting on the fence for decades joins in with sanctions lol 

I often get lunch or midnight snack and take back to my room from the buffet.  I get two plates.  one on the bottom for the food and one on top to cover the food while I am carrying it back to the room.  I also have asked for my desert to go when I am full.  They will give it to you with the cover on it.
 

Yes, you can bring food with you.  We do it all the time.

I'm always trying to talk my wife into going to the Windjammer and bringing breakfast back to the room for me.  Most of the time she brings me a cup of coffee while she brings bacon for herself, but occasionally I'll get a plate of food. 😄
We frequently grab lunch in the Windjammer and bring it to the Solarium or Pool Deck, depending on where we're sitting.  Pre-covid, my wife would go to the Main Dining Room on sea days and bring a tutti salad back to where ever we are sitting.
Bringing pizza back to the cabin at night is a regular thing for me.  When we were on Vision in 2019, they always seemed to have shrimp in the evenings at the Park Cafe, and a plate (or two) came back to the cabin with us.
I've seen people carrying food out of the Main Dining Room before, but we've never done it because we enjoy the experience of the MDR.

Yeah you can do that! I always see people taking a plate of pastries/breakfast sandwiches to their room from somewhere like Cafe Promenade or pizza from Sorrento's. Occasionally I see people take food out of the Windjammer.
I've taken dessert from specialty restaurants back to my room before. Your stateroom attendant will clean out the plate(s) as normal from your room.

This seems to vary by ship.  I remember being on Freedom once and we went into JR just to get a shake.  We were told, after we ordered the shakes, that we had to pay the cover charge, too.  We told them "never mind" and started to walk out, and the manager said he would make an exception for us this time....so we stayed and had our shakes.  That was a number of years ago so hopefully they have "standardized" it a bit more....but you can never really count on ANYthing being standard across the different ships.  They all have their own little rules that can vary wildly !

One of the reasons I chose Royal for our upcoming trip was because I was watching YouTube videos of current cruise vlogs and I noticed Carnival was letting people self serve at the buffet 😳. 
Then a vlog came on for a Royal cruise and staff was serving so I pulled the trigger. 
It was gross before covid, and now I don't think we should go back to that....ever. 

Your mileage may vary on the Johnny Rocket milkshake, from ship to ship

One of the reasons I chose Royal for our upcoming trip was because I was watching YouTube videos of current cruise vlogs and I noticed Carnival was letting people self serve at the buffet 😳. 
Then a vlog came on for a Royal cruise and staff was serving so I pulled the trigger. 
It was gross before covid, and now I don't think we should go back to that....ever. 

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/07/13/look-royal-caribbeans-new-fleetwide-drink-menu

Actually, yes. It will be printed on your card and coded into the card. I take my roommate's card down to fetch coffees in the morning all the time.

Just got the Royal Up email for our 4/11 sailing on the Independence. While it was tempting, as the minimum start bid to go from a balcony to a Jr Suite was only $25, we have 2 cabins and I'm afraid we would get separated 😭

We had Jr suites on a cruise 6 months ago, three couples traveling together, reservations linked, rooms in a row. We got our GS royal ups and were separated but not by much since on that ship the GS and OS were all in a row on the same floor. That is not always the case on Quantum and Oasis class or with 2 br GS, but for many ships the suites are clumped together anyways. I've noticed the royal up doesn't take into account groups as much as guarantee suites or guarantee rooms does. On our GTY they've put them together but that's just our experience. But I understand, the royal ups are just filling in the gaps well after the GTY rooms were assigned.

JR milkshake is $5.90 with grats and specialty coffees will probably run close to the same. If you have the app, you can look at drink menus for your sailing. The refreshment package will get you bottle/can water, juices, sodas, smoothies, the coffees and shakes. So even if you have one of each and some water, you have more than boke even.

One of the reasons I chose Royal for our upcoming trip was because I was watching YouTube videos of current cruise vlogs and I noticed Carnival was letting people self serve at the buffet 😳. 
Then a vlog came on for a Royal cruise and staff was serving so I pulled the trigger. 
It was gross before covid, and now I don't think we should go back to that....ever. 

One of the reasons I chose Royal for our upcoming trip was because I was watching YouTube videos of current cruise vlogs and I noticed Carnival was letting people self serve at the buffet 😳. 
Then a vlog came on for a Royal cruise and staff was serving so I pulled the trigger. 
It was gross before covid, and now I don't think we should go back to that....ever. 

Just got the Royal Up email for our 4/11 sailing on the Independence. While it was tempting, as the minimum start bid to go from a balcony to a Jr Suite was only $25, we have 2 cabins and I'm afraid we would get separated 😭

The world is overwhelmingly signaling that Putin's invasion of Ukraine isn't "necessary" as he has characterized it. Performances by Russian artists are being cancelled. Cultural and sporting events around the world are banning Russian participation. Organizers of these events are doing what they think is right, sending a message to Vladimir Putin that what you have done in undertaking an Invasion of Ukraine is not only unnecessary and wrong but we are going to hold you personally accountable and shame and punish you in any way we can for doing it.
I support RCL in their decision and I don't care if it is based on safety concerns, fears of social media backlash, or that insurance companies won't insure their ships if they sail in the Black Sea. I don't care if it is a politically motivated gesture in support of Ukraine. I want the Russian people who are going to get hurt economically by Putin's actions, the ones who don't by any measure hate us or wish us ill will to get so fed up with what Putin has wrought that they fearlessly rise up and get rid of him. The rest of the free and democratic nations of the world will cheer them on - one long overdue step in the right direction for freedom, human rights and mankind. 

Even if RC wanted to go there, I'm sure their insurance company quickly said 

My daughter has found most of the teen events via the app since the restart. If the activities aren’t loaded yet for you, you can check out an earlier itinerary on the same ship to get an idea of what will most likely be offered.
If you haven’t done this before, go to the person icon at the top of the app and choose “Select a different sailing”. Then scroll down and choose “Get more details on ships we support”. Choose your ship and the current week’s sailing to see everything that’s going on. 

This was asked in a Q&A session today that included the Food and Beverage Manager and Hotel Director.  The answer was that self serve is NOT returning.  Richard Fain stated the same when he was in charge.  
Things could change in time but for the foreseeable future it won't be self serve.  

If you go into the Royal Caribbean app and select a sailing when you go to the Main Dining Room menu the vegan menu is listed at the very bottom before the wine list starts..right after the kids menu as you're scrolling through.

You can just select an arrival time & do the rest later.  Your time is retained 

The best stuff on the planet is poo pouri. It's basically a mix of essential oils that you just drop in the toilet water and it creates a film....no smell escapes! It's amazing for any bathroom, not just cruises! 

Booze is a must.  The model ship is cool too.  

My must buy is a couple of bottles of Cointreu for my Margarita's at home.  For $20 a liter bottles compared to $45+ in NJ it's my must buy.