Lexster

I've seen mentions of Genies being able to arrange parties and I was curious, is this parties with people the guests know or, like...random people invited? If a couple, say, wanted to have a party, would the Genie find people to attend it or something?

10 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

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

If you look at the last menu picture in this blog post it has a page from the recent drink menu that's all new mocktails that you can try!

Ooh, neat! I hope they make more in the future. It's easy to feel left out of fun drinks if you don't drink alcohol.

Bonus points for any fun mocktails outside of the normal ones like mudslides, daquiris, etc. I have a refreshment package on my upcoming cruise.

10 hours ago, Matt said:

Prices for the spa are pretty much a wash online or onboard.

Online, you can get a discount on a single treatment.

Onboard, they tend to offer deals on combo offers, like multiple treatments in one, or a discount if you book 2 or 3 different appointments.

I find the best reason to prebook  online is just to lock in a convenient time.

So far I've found that massages don't tend to get discounted during sales. At least, not for my sailing. I've been wanting to try to get a discount, but the prices don't change during sales.

I've been told by someone who cruises a lot that you can often get good prices on embarkation day if you want to start you cruise off with a nice massage.

For what it's worth, on the Royal app Chops menu for my May sailing, it lists the Mushroom Soup. Can't wait to try!

9 minutes ago, Larry Muster said:

Also get European adapters to utilize those as well.  

Yeah, depending on the ship, some will have more European plugs and some will have fewer. Oasis of the Seas, for example, seems to only have some US plugs on the desk and nothing else.

You can buy a USB hub like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P936188/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Basically, you can't have anything with surge protection. I think they err on the side of caution and just don't allow any extension cords, but this will allow you to charge multiple USB devices at once. Another option is something like this if you need more regular outlets.

https://www.amazon.com/expanders-POWSAV-3-Outlet-Extender-Protector/dp/B082FJXVW6/ref=sr_1_3?crid=6GNKRSPNY673&keywords=outlet+extender+for+cruise&qid=1648472431&sprefix=outlet+extender+for+cruis%2Caps%2C147&sr=8-3

It's validated! Okay, so I don't know if this is what helped, but considering it was rejected two times before, I have to wonder if this extra piece of info helped. So, along with the vaccination card, I took a picture of my Walgreens vax record that I printed out and included that in there. Next day, it's validated. My only guess if they didn't know what WAG was, but once I included the printed record, they knew what company to search for the lot #.

16 minutes ago, MelandyGA said:

Cruise newbie here.  How do you know if there will be parties on your cruise?  I enjoy a good theme night, but do you pack themed get up “just in case,” or can you find out somewhere in advance?  
 

Gotta get through 1 more week of work then we’re FL bound to sail on Harmony 4/3.  

I have this same question. I know you can look at past cruise compasses, but not sure that's a definite thing or not.

Welp, Royal accepted my husband's vaccination card, and keeps marking mine as invalid. No idea why. Heck, my card is in perfect shape whereas his is beat up! All I can think is the provider box says WAG (I went to Walgreens for both) and they just don't accept that it doesn't say Walgreens. I printed out my proof from the Walgreen's site as well. I know I can just go to the port with all my docs, but I really don't want to leave it to chance that I get someone who just won't accept it. So frustrating! 

Wow, that's crazy. I can only think of a few things one could do on a ship that would cause someone to need a blood transfusion. Hopefully they're okay!

I feel like I'm just asking a ton of questions this week. So, I've been reading things about "cruise documents." Most of the articles are years old. Has the app check-in process taken over for "cruise documents" or would I still be getting these in the mail? I booked through a travel agent and even on RC's website, it says they'll mail these documents to the agent and then to me. What are these for?

1 hour ago, Riley said:

We are going across FtL to Barcelona and then flying home for about $800 per person but I got creative - cheap flights within Europe are well under $100 each way so we are jumping Barcelona to Paris for about $59 each then Paris home to Chicago.  You should be able to search which major European hubs are the most reasonably priced and then cheap flights there.  Same with landing in the US - check flights to O'Hare and then a cheap flight O'Hare to Cincinnati. Or stay a day downtown and take the train for $42 a ticket (nice ride, I've done it) or even drive the .53-4.5 hours to Chicago or Detroit (which has a big international hub as well), depending on how much you can spend.  

I appreciate the ingenuity, but I'm definitely not someone who wants to have to plan multiple connecting flights (or drives between airports) and hope none of them get delayed along the way, especially in a country where I may not even speak the language. I guess those kind of cruises aren't for me if that's what it takes. I'll plan for more Mexico or Canada/Alaska cruises instead

1 hour ago, YouthD said:

Unless you're flying premium seats, where are you seeing $3k for a roundtrip flight for two? Flight costs aren't that raised right now.

It was just a quick check using Google flights. I looked at CVG to Tel Aviv since Haifa Israel is where one of the cruises I was looking at left from. For two people the lowest is $2655 on American for a random day I picked for a few months from now.

So, I'm already looking toward a cruise after my upcoming one and was looking into European trips. To me, I just don't see this ever being financially feasible unless you have a ton of money. Am I wrong? There don't seem to be any cruises which start in a US port, go to Europe, and come back which means I'd have to fly internationally, take the cruise, and fly back. That's already nearly $3000 for two people to fly round trip on top of the cruise cost. Do people usually get packages for this sort of thing or what?

Well, it's my first cruise as an adult. Went on a Carnival ship in 2001 with my parents, so it's very exciting. Just hit 45 days left, going on the Oasis of the Seas. I'm pretty excited to explore the ship. I remember having a lot of fun doing that as a kid. Also really looking forward to just getting to relax and have nothing to worry about for 7 days. I couldn't work or check email even if I wanted to since we are not getting an internet package.

27 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Crew no longer has to double mask in public or mask at all in crew areas.

 

I've seen a few outdoor crew not masking at all this week, too

I'm hoping they won't need masks soon. It's not really fair that if passengers don't need them, that crew should at least get the option to wear them or not.

I'm going to remove this comment so as to not turn things toxic.

Got checked in last night! It opened at literally 12:05, so that does seem to be the standard. Thanks, all!

54 minutes ago, mcfo said:

I am an NCL cruiser generally. Is there an advantage to checking in right at 45 days out for RCL as opposed to 30 days or closer to cruise?

From what I understand, check-in times are first-come-first-serve, so checking in as early as possible gives you more options on times. I'd like a time as early as possible.

I'm fine with it either way. It's more frustrating how gross and selfish people are. I couldn't imagine picking up food and then putting it back. Yet, the funny thing is, you never meet anyone who will admit to doing it. They know what they do is gross, but they do it anyway.

6 minutes ago, EmptyNestTravels said:

Hi @Lexster.  I used the Royal app.

Okay, that's what I planned on using as well. Thanks!

6 minutes ago, EmptyNestTravels said:

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?

Thanks, I'll be checking for sure. Did you use the app or the website?

22 minutes ago, VACruiser said:

I have no issues with using a TA as I've used MEI on several cruises; however, the reason that is given by this Blog is basically that Royal is so screwed up that it takes too much time for a "amateur" to endure the pain of dealing with the corporation. Is that by design? I wonder some times.

As the OP said, he took lots of time with all kinds of personal pain to work through something that should be pretty straight forward that the best answer is to get a TA so they can take over the pain of dealing with the cruise lines. That's messed up for an industry that is supposed to run on customer satisfaction,

While true, I'd say every company is like this when it comes to phone-based customer service. I wish I could get someone to make all my customer service calls for me. I was on the phone for 30 minutes the other day just to cancel my internet. 30 minutes! And most of that was sitting on hold after asking them to cancel it.