Marc

I discovered something very interesting during my last Oasis of the Seas cruise. I was speaking with the casino host to find out how my points were doing toward the cruise certificate (2400 for an inside cabin, 3600 for an oceanview cabin, 4800 for a balcony cabin). She checked my points which were about 2500, and then did some more checking and said that due to my "actual", I had already qualified for a balcony certificate. I had long thought that it was merely the points earned by money wagered through the machines that only mattered, but apparently, what you've lost is also a factor for the certificates.

That may not necessarily be the case. If one's cellular provider supports it, one may be able to text (both SMS and MMS) as well as place and receive calls while using the ship's WiFi (with an active internet package). I have Verizon Wireless and they support WiFi Calling which extends their service over WiFi networks. There is no extra charge for this service and all use over WiFi Calling is considered domestic use.

This may have changed. On my recent Anthem of the Seas cruise, I was told that the limit was $5,000/day.

Thanks for this thread, @ekaiser0328! I just discovered that the over-the-water cabana at Nellie's Beach dropped from $495 to $396 for my cruise on Oasis of the Seas next March!

I've heard from others that if you have a cash account (no credit card on file for your SeaPass account), then they don't charge the 5% fee. The only experience I have with that was that I was asked once whether I had a cash account, but then the cashier noticed the "Club Royale" sticker on my SeaPass card, so I think that rendered that question moot.

I've been buying my drink packages before the cruise, and in one case, it would have been cheaper for me to buy it onboard due to a Diamond discount they were offering (30% off the onboard price, if I remember right). The problem is that a Crown & Anchor discount isn't guaranteed, and the pricing itself isn't even a constant as it varies from ship to ship.

I especially agree with your last point. Someone at Cruise Critic who was on Allure of the Seas recently reported that when trying to buy a drink package onboard, they were told that both of them in the cabin needed to purchase the package.

For my upcoming Anthem of the Seas cruise in October, I managed to catch a sale on the Ultimate Beverage Package (as it was called when I bought it) for $40/day (+18%, of course). I also got the VOOM Surf & Stream package for $6.99/day and just recently added the Ultimate Dining Package for $24/day. Royal Caribbean is currently offering a combination Ultimate Dining Package and Deluxe Beverage Package for $67/day (which seems to break down as $48/day for the beverage package and $19/day for the dining package when factoring in how the gratuities are calculated), but that's a bit higher than what I paid for both separately. Although I'm all set for this cruise, I'm looking for a discount on the beverage package for my Oasis of the Seas cruise next March. It's going to be a back-to-back, and I'm likely just to purchase the package for the first week, but if I were to catch a great deal, I might be inclined to get it for both.

I don't know about a casino rate because all three of my cruises with them have been comped (first by partnership with a local casino, the other two by Casinos at Sea directly). My out of pocket costs have been ~$250-300/person for taxes and fees, plus whatever gratuities they're charging for their current "Free at Sea" perks. I would imagine that they probably do have some sort of casino rates, but since they're so free with comps, near as I can tell, maybe it doesn't actually matter that much in practice. They do waive the convenience fee if you're at least at their third (well-documented :)) tier which requires 15,000 points per "evaluation period". NCL accumulates points from April 1 through March 31, so you can go up tiers over the course of a year. Point values for slots are the same as Club Royale, so I would imagine they're probably similar for table games as well.

I absolutely agree. NCL's Casinos at Sea is far more competitive with attractive offers to casino players than Club Royale.

I just learned a new twist on this. Casino rates are only available for sailings within twelve months after your most recent Royal Caribbean sailing. I last sailed on Freedom of the Seas in March 2017. This means that they were unable to give me any sort of casino pricing for a cruise I was looking at in August 2018. (In comparison, after having sailed on NCL in December 2016, and having played less than on the Freedom of the Seas cruise, offered me a comped balcony cabin on their newest ship, Norwegian Bliss, for a net price of $976.90 total including taxes, fees, and gratuities for the free dining and beverage package perks.)

I feel your pain. Having also recently started a new job, my vacation time reset. Worse, I had a few cruises already booked when I started my new job last fall, so I actually had to go negative in my vacation balance to keep the cruises. As it stands now, my vacation time is fully allocated for the next five cruises that I have booked between now and March 2019. Fortunately, though, in October 2019, I'll start earning an extra week of vacation per year. That'll help make booking cruises easier.

In March, I was told the magic formula for this and I'll share it here in case it's accurate. It seems reasonable. Once qualified, you get perks like free drinks in the casino and waiving of the 5% cash-from-SeaPass fee. In order to establish your qualifying credentials, you must earn 1,500 points during a cruise. Fortunately, for slot play this is easy to determine as it's $5/point for slots and $10/point for video poker. Table games are a mystery. Here's where it gets a little weird. If you qualified on your previous cruise, you are prequalified on your next cruise and get the benefits from day 1. To continue the chain of qualification, you must then earn 1,000 points on that cruise. If you fail to earn 1,000 points on that cruise, you are no longer qualified, and you must then earn 1,500 points on the next cruise after that one to requalify from scratch.

Cruise ship casinos operate in international waters and don't follow any particular state's laws governing casino operation. It's probably safest to assume that the slot machines onboard are set to the lowest value possible that doesn't otherwise scare away players.

I found another reason not to be satisfied with Club Royale, although to be fair, I knew about this one already. I book my cruises far in advance, often when the schedules first open. This past March, while onboard Freedom of the Seas, we booked Symphony of the Seas for March 2019. Since booking then, the price has already gone up about $300/person. I mention this because I called Club Royale today for a bit of booking maintenance, and I asked about any casino rates available for that cruise. Unfortunately, the casino rates are only available for sailings within 12 months or so. Realistically, by the time next March rolls around, it's likely that the base fare is going to be even higher (as they tend to be somewhat before 12 months in advance of sailing), so whatever casino rate they may have available then is likely not to be less than what I've already booked the cruise at (also factoring in the $100 in onboard credit I got from booking onboard), making that benefit of Club Royale have much less value for those of us who book so early.

I don't understand what they're doing. I would expect that any properly run business would try to be competitive, but they're so far behind the others in the business. I've had great personal success with NCL's casino program (last cruise was a comped New Year's Eve cruise in a balcony that we got for about $5,000 off the going price at the time, after taxes and fees were paid). With Club Royale, I'm almost left to feel as though I'm reluctantly being given a gift whenever I get casino pricing or use an earned cruise certificate.

Here are the rules according to Royal Caribbean: Age policy FAQ Cruise Ticket Contract: It's not required that an adult be booked into each cabin as long as the kids' cabin is adjacent to the parents'.

For those who may be curious, this practice is called "interporting".

Yup... and we're sailing straight to San Juan, so we'll be getting there at 8 AM instead of the previously scheduled 1:30 PM. In addition, our stay at St. Maarten is being extended an hour so we'll leave at 7 PM instead of 6 PM.

It's actually a W-2G that you get for sufficiently large gambling winnings (these instructions describe the conditions that warrant a W-2G). Slot and video poker machine winnings of $1,200 are reportable with a W-2G. From what I understand about most casinos, if you are a US citizen and don't give them your SSN, you don't get the handpay. I don't know whether that's specifically true about onboard casinos. Given the number of handpays I've seen at casinos over the years, I bet lots of people have divulged their SSN to the casino employees. When was that? Was the $1,700 won at one time on a slot or video poker machine? I had won a jackpot on NCL in 2014 and was issued a W-2G at that time. And, for accuracy about taxable income, any amount of gambling winnings is taxable (and may be offset with a corresponding deduction of up to that amount in losses), but any amount won on a slot or video poker machines of $1,200 or more in a single spin is reportable to the IRS, thus the W-2G. As a parallel, let's say you do some consulting (not as an employee) for a company and they pay you $1,000. They are obligated to report that income to the IRS in the form of a 1099. Let's say, instead, that they only paid you $250. In that case, they are not obligated to report that income. However, both amounts are taxable.

The past few cruises I've been on, I think it was just based on the sticker. I don't remember whether I was even offered individual drink cards, but then again, since I've been getting the drink package lately, if they had offered, I would have declined, so my recollection may be amiss.

I agree with this. This is our general post-cruise plan. However, for our upcoming cruise next weekend, we rescheduled our originally purchased late flight (that had been rescheduled by Southwest to arrive back in Pittsburgh after midnight) to a mid-day flight just in case there's wintry weather to deal with upon our return.

I believe that 30% off is better than the discount you'd see onboard. If you purchase in the Cruise Planner, and if you want to have both devices active at the same time, you can save a bit more by buying a 2-device package (rather than buying two 1-device packages). With Wi-Fi onboard, you can send messages onboard if you use an internet-based messaging application like Apple's iMessage, Facebook Messenger, or Whatsapp. If your cellular provider provides "Wi-Fi Calling", you may be able to call and text for free as well. (Do note that you want to ensure that you have "Airplane Mode" enabled on your phone to prevent inadvertent cellular charges.) Do note that Royal Caribbean is running a Black Friday/Cyber Monday special right now (good for another hour and a half) for some sailings. You can get their "Sip + Stream" offer which is their Deluxe Beverage Package and Voom Surf + Stream for a significantly discounted price over purchasing them separately. For my sailing in March, it's being offered for $49/day + gratuity (only on the beverage part of the package), total is about $56/day.

My understanding is that pools had been traditionally saltwater because that was easily available to get from the seawater and filter. With the Freedom class of ships, they started using desalinated (nearly freshwater) water for the pools as there was sufficient capacity from the onboard desalinization system. Oasis class ships use mostly desalinated water except for the "Beach pool", which I assume they use saltwater for theming. I don't know what Quantum class ships use, though.

LOL I think you need to update your signature here because I don't think you're on Sunday's sailing with me any longer (judging by your CC signature).