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I was just on Liberty last week. Some of the bars had 2 liters of the very popular sodas- Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite. Unfortunately, a lot of them were flat. Others used the guns

8 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I'm guessing a lot of people misuse them (innocently), too.

I had no idea you weren't supposed to mix them. I have mixed them in the past and been okay (as far as I know).

I want to start off by saying that I am not trying to scare anyone. I'm trying to give information given to us by the medical staff on the Liberty of the Seas.

On June 10th, my Brother in law had a seizure while on board. It didn't last very long but it was quite serious. They were able to stabilize him in medical and there is no lasting damage.

While talking to the medical staff, who were absolutely amazing and genuinely tried to make the entire experience as least scary as possible, they told us that they have been seeing an increase in what they called an 'allergic' reaction to the scopolamine patches. My brother in law was unfortunately one of those who had the reaction. *The reaction is not a seizure* It just so happened that his reaction coupled with many other factors led to a seizure. The medical staff says it's impossible to know who's going to have a reaction until you use the patches. The reaction mimics seasickness so it's a little hard to differentiate. It's nausea, tiredness, lightheadedness, and sometimes fever. They recommend that if you do feel like you're having a reaction to take the patches off with a cloth of warm water to help wipe away the residue. They also said that the patches and Dramamine shouldn't be mixed together. 

I have used the patches myself on many cruises before and not felt any of these side effects. Again, I am not trying to spread fear, just information. 

I parked in the lot for out June 9th-13th cruise. We got there around 10:15am. It took us 30 minutes to get parked. When we walked back to the car around 9:30am on the 13th, there was already a line of cars waiting to park but they must wait til a certain time to let them start parking. There are employees with the QR code to scan when you first join the line, then once you get inside, there are employees that check to make sure you have done it right. If you haven't, you are asked to pull your car to the side until you have completed it. Once you get to the area to park, the direct all larger vehicles to the left and all smaller vehicles to the right. I have a 2024 HRV and I was parked with the small cars. There is one employee on each side that assists in parking the cars one at a time. They park them very closely together. They recommend you drop extra people and luggage off before parking.

The 'free' portion of the parking is 45 minutes. The app starts counting down 45 minutes from the time you press start. After that it was $150 for our 5 day cruise. I would recommend downloading the app and making an account ahead of time. It saves time the day of.

There are shuttles from the parking lot to the port and they run very frequently. They do not wait for the shuttle to be full. The drivers look around and see if there is anyone waiting and if there isn't, they take off.

It wasn't awful. The worst part were the small vehicles that thought they could get ahead by parking on the left but were turned away and then tried to merge back into the single file line as a clump of cars. It definitely confused things. 

Mine closes tonight and I was able to get $70 savings on the UDP. It's not a ton but every penny counts!

Has anyone had this happen to them and if so, how did you fix it?

I booked a cruise through my TA, who is amazing. It has been booked since March. It was showing on my Royal Caribbean account, and then one day, it disappeared. I thought maybe it got unliked somehow so I went to link it again. Told me it was already linked to my account. I reached out to my TA to see if anything had changed with the sailing. They said everything was fine. So then I tried different browsers, different computers, different internet, uninstalled/reinstalled the app. Still not showing anyway.  So I contacted Royal's customer service to see if they could help me figure out what the issue is. They say everything is fine and it's linked and I should be seeing it. I did have them escalate it to the IT team and supposedly, there will be a resolution in 24 hours (I'm not going to hold my breath for that one)

The cruise is in April of 2027. I'm wondering if since it's that far out that's why there's a glitch? My anxiety is not liking not seeing it on my account.

I started to bring this stuff and using it on every bed that I stay in outside of my own. Not sure if it actually does anything but it does give me a bit of peace of mind. And no bed bugs yet. 

I got the survey yesterday. I've had the card for about 3 years now and that was the first time I've gotten that survey. I agree that an annual fee would make me consider dropping the card. The benefits I would need to see for the card to be worth it with an annual fee would far outweigh what they would want to offer.

I remember the card options being $0 annual fee, $99 annual fee, and $550 annual fee with various combinations of perks and rewards attached to it. They also had a section on whether I'd be interested in one card that covered all 3 of their cruises lines and whether I would want options for improving my loyalty with the card. Purchasing loyalty points with the cards, increased earning of loyalty points, etc.

Personally, I would love to see changes as the credit card is one I exclusively use on Royal Caribbean because it's not a great rewards card. I imagine if they introduced purchasing loyalty points, it would either be ridiculously expensive or they would drastically increase the points needed to reach each tier, or both. But I know people would do it. I would only consider it if I was 1-2 nights away from the next tier and it wasn't plausible to fit a short cruise into my schedule.

The first time we went we paid around $25/person and thought that was pretty reasonable. The second time was around $34/person. I wouldn't pay more than $40 for it. We've been to Coco Cay without it and don't feel like it made much of a difference to us. We enjoyed it but not at the price it's being listed for now.

I found a few micro ducks on the paintings in the stairwells on Allure in September. Before that, I hadn't found any. But I wasn't going out of my way to look for them.

On my last cruise, we would go get seats in the solarium saved with towels and bags and books. Then we would get in the pool and have some drinks and occasionally come back to the chairs to sit and put on sunscreen a couple of times in an hour.  We would only be there for like 2-3 hours. There were 7 of us but we would only grab like 4-5 chairs. On the last day we came back to a couple who had taken over two of our chairs. They moved our bags off the chairs and laid out their towels and our towels on the chairs. We were irritated but we were also leaving. I asked the couple if I could grab our towels off the chairs. The woman refused to get out of the chair and instead simply leaned forward and I had to pull the towel out from under her butt. The kicker was there were plenty of open chairs in the solarium. That has been one of the weirdest situations on a cruise ship yet for me.

I am seeing some new to me options on my cruise planner.

I just did a 9 night out of Baltimore in June that sailed to Bermuda, Nassau, and Perfect Day. I like Perfect Day. It's easy and nice. We got off at Nassau to look at the new port area but probably won't get off again. We don't really do excursions and Nassau doesn't do it for us. In the past year, I've been to Nassau on all three cruises I've taken and I'm quite bored of it. I probably won't get off again at it unless I'm with people who have never been before. I just see it as a less busy sea day on the ship. I don't mind the older ships out of Baltimore and unless they raise the bridges, that's all Baltimore will get. The older smaller ships are a different vibe. They're a much more relaxed vibe than the new, bigger ships. It's a nice change of pace sometimes.

I just got off Allure on Friday and had none of my usual outlet extenders confiscated or unplugged. Now it could be that it was too recent of a change for it to be implemented. But I do carry multiple with me just in case. I use USB multipliers as well as multiple outlet extenders. My next cruise on Royal isn't until next June so we'll have to see if things change then. 

Won RoyalUp on Mariner in 2022. Went from an Interior to a Spacious Balcony for $200 per person which was a little above the minimum. I think the minimum was $160/person. I was notified about the win 2 days before sailing. And when we got to the room, there were papers in the room for the couple that had booked the room originally.

We just got off a very short cruise and wanted to share our experiences with both the ship and the port.

We flew Southwest the night before (Thursday) and stayed at the Best Western about 10ish minutes from the airport (FLL). The room was about $120 after taxes and fees with an additional $25 deposit. The hotel offered a free shuttle from the airport and a shuttle to the cruise port for $15 per person. We opted for rideshares instead of the shuttle because reviews had said that they waited a while for the airport shuttle at night. The rideshare was around $15.

The room was pretty much what I expected for $120. It was clean. The decor is a little outdated and the lobby could use a bit of a makeover but that’s me being nitpicky. If you are sensitive to noise or light, this hotel would probably not be good for you. We could hear and feel every door open and close all night. The doors slam close every time. Our room faced the shopping center right next to the hotel which had a McDonalds in it. It would have been fine if the thick curtains closed all the way but they didn’t. Only the thin curtains closed all the way and they let a lot of light in. The hotel has a pool and a complimentary breakfast. We did not use the pool but my travel companion said it looked nice. We did eat the breakfast which was your standard hotel breakfast. A small selection of hot items, juices, coffee, pastries and bagels. It was good and kept us full until lunch.

We took another rideshare around 10am to get to the port. We had an 11:30am check in time because that was the earliest I saw after checking the app a few times after the initial check in period. I was fine waiting in the port until 11:30 but I wanted to get there and be ready to board.

A first for us was having to show our passports to simply get into the port area. At other ports, we’ve just driven right to the terminal. The signs for the ships were a bit confusing. Liberty was listed at both terminals 18 & 19 but was actually docked at 18. The porter at terminal 18 was very rude to the Lyft driver, yelling at him to pull all the way up and how they wished rideshares would be illegal. It was around 10:15am and there was only one other car in the area for drop offs. I’m not sure if this is normal or this porter was simply having a bad morning. We checked our bags and proceeded inside the terminal. No one asked us for a check in time. We breezed through check in and when we went upstairs, they were seating you in order of when you came in not by your check in time. Boarding started around 11am and was very orderly. They came to your row and told you when they were ready for you to go. They weren’t allowing anyone to skip ahead or go before their row. The terminal wasn’t very full when they started boarding. Maybe 10 rows of seating were full. We were on ship with drinks in hand by 11:15am.

Our staterooms were ready by 1pm. We had an interior. We checked 3 bags. 1 showed up around 1pm but the other two didn’t show up til closer til 4pm. We did not see or interact with our stateroom attendant the entire time on ship. That was another first and very odd to me. We had requested one bed instead of separate beds. They did not put a single big mattress pad over the bed but instead used the twin ones so the bed had a big split in it where the two bed were pushed together. I was worried that the beds would be pushed apart or the seam would be a divot that would make sleeping uncomfortable. It did not so we chose not to say anything about it. The last night, instead of a fitted sheet over the mattress, there was only a flat sheet. So every time we moved, we pulled the sheet and mattress pads. I move a lot in my sleep so when I woke up, I was laying on the bare mattress pad tangled in the flat sheet that was acting as a fitted one. If it hadn’t have been the morning we disembarked, I would have said something to guest services about it.

For meals, we ate breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer and dinner in the Main Dining Room. The Windjammer food was good for buffet food. And while it was crowded, it didn’t feel overcrowded. We always found seats. In the MDR we had My Time Dining with a 7pm reservation each night. On boarding day, I went and requested a table next to a window if possible. We ended up loving our table and were told if we wanted the same table to show up at 6:45pm each night instead of 7. We had Frank as our head waiter and Kudakwaishe as the assistant waiter. They were amazing. The first night, Frank heard us talking about how we wished we would have ordered the fried chicken to split and he brought us a plate with our meal. Whenever we ordered multiple of anything, they were always brought at the same time. Frank would also bring us something extra at each course.

Our ports of call were Nassau and Perfect Day. We did the base dolphin encounter at Blue Lagoon at Nassau. Before you board the ferry, which looked much newer than the last one we were on, you have to sign a sheet with your name and stateroom number in case anything happens. Once on board, the rows have numbers and someone comes around and notes which seat you’re in and you have to show your excursion ticket again. They do give the same talk about which celebrities are in each house. Upon arrival, they tell you what time your ferry is going to leave. I do wish that you were able to catch any ferry back instead of having to wait for your specific one. With the animal encounters booked through Royal Caribbean, lunch is not included. It’s $35 per person for the buffet lunch. Our ferry left around 9am and we boarded the return ferry at 1:30pm. We opted not to pay for anything extra and brought water and snacks for the lagoon.

This was our first trip to Perfect Day and we had reserved Hideaway Bay because the tickets went down to $20/person which we thought was reasonable. Both Allure of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas were docked that day. Allure was there first and while we weren’t in a hurry to get off the ship, we did get off around 8:45ish to get good chairs at Hideaway. It was maybe about a 5 minute walk to Hideaway from the ship but we’re fast walkers. They did have trams running every 2-3 minutes. We did get front row chairs close to the bathrooms, bar and food and far enough away from the DJ to still hear the music but not be overwhelmed by it. The ocean water was a little cold. I think someone said around 60 degrees. The pool was heated and it felt like lukewarm bathwater to me so I did not spend a lot of time in it. Even in the pool, the music  wasn’t super loud. The bars get overwhelmed very fast, especially the swim up bar, so be prepared to wait. The pizza looked similar to Sorrentos so we opted for a fish sandwich and chicken sandwich to split. Overall, I was happy we only paid $20/person and wouldn’t pay more than $25.

Disembarking was easy. We did self-assist and were off in under 10 minutes around 8am. We were in line for airport security by 8:30am. I would definitely sail out of Fort Lauderdale again.

TL;DR- Food was good. Ports were good. Stateroom was okay. Hideaway was okay. Disembarking was fast and smooth.

Went to do the health questionnaire this morning because yay sail date but it has disappeared from both the app and the website. Do we think it’s a temporary glitch or is it gone for good?

I was able to do the safety. And before today, the app had said to come back this morning to do the health questionnaire. I also checked my travel companion’s app and it was missing from there too. 

33 minutes ago, Dad2Cue said:

I don't see how mine was 30% off for $59.36 and yours is 30% off for $43.96.  My cruise is 3 weeks away so maybe Royal is anticipating more inflation.

I have 3 cruises on 3 different ships in 2024. One in 2 weeks, one in June and one in September and all three got to Coco Cay and all three have different base prices for Hideaway Beach. 

I am 2 weeks away from sailing and was able to cancel and reprice Hideaway yesterday when the price dropped. No mention of nonrefundable.

11 hours ago, BrianB said:

Cape Liberty is up.

Ouch!

Did a few quickies. February 2026…a solo balcony is six hundred more than a single in a regular midship balcony.

 

$1773 for an interior on Vision out of Baltimore in June for 5 nights. I love Royal but these prices are making me have to look at other lines. 

3 hours ago, BrianB said:

People who not only stop to talk in the middle of walkways…but those who also have the habit of ‘spreading their wings’. That’s when they put their hands on their waist and their elbows stick out, doubling their size!

Or when a group of 3-5 people walk side by side going in one direction taking up the entire walkway with no consideration of people walking the other way. (This is a personal pet peeve of mine everywhere, not just on cruise ships)

About how long does it usually take for the website to be updated? The DBP is cheaper for me than the Black Friday sale so I canceled my previous order. And I received an email confirmation saying it was canceled but the cruise planner still says reserved. 

Edit: about an hour is the answer

I booked Giovanni's Table for lunch on one of my upcoming cruises during the Black Friday sales. But I find myself with some questions.

The app says the dress code is formal- does this apply to lunch or just dinner?

Can we order multiple entress and appetizers or is it strictly just one appetizer, one entree, one dessert per person?

My county recently put into effect that businesses aren't allowed to give plastic bags for purchases anymore unless they charge for it. They're attempting to reduce plastic in the world. Most places are only charging 5 cents per bag. But it was a shock when it went into affect without much notice, especially when I had a cart full of things and my reusable bags were at home. I can see charging 5-10 cents for a plastic bag but not over a dollar.

I saved $36 on Internet for one of my cruises so we'll call it a win but the big Black Friday sales are kind of meh for my cruises tbh. Some things didn't change at all. But oh well. we still get to cruise and save $36