Marc

According to this page, she's supposed to be coming back with an arrival at Cape Liberty on the morning of October 6.

I had to give sad news to my younger son last night. We were discussing Crown & Anchor status with Royal Caribbean, and he asked how many more cruises until I get to be Diamond Plus. I told him about 6 or 7, and he commented "Great, then I'll be Diamond Plus, too!" I explained that the link between my status and his ended last year when he turned 18. He was saddened by that, and barely comforted by me explaining that Diamond is a great level to be at.

Royal Caribbean usually starts checking in people around 10:00, and boarding typically starts around 11:00-11:30, but may vary significantly depending on how quickly everyone onboard from the previous sailing disembarked and whether there are any external factors that could delay boarding (US Coast Guard inspection, norovirus sanitization, etc.). Their policy is that you must be checked in and onboard by no later than 90 minutes before departure.

No, it doesn't have to be the exact same drink, although it's possible that it's good for beer/beer or wine/wine pairings; I don't know whether you could use it for one beer and one glass of wine. There are no restrictions as to when or where you can use the coupon. Each Crown & Anchor member has one of these coupons on their SeaPass card. You do need to tell the bartender that you want to use the coupon when you order as it needs to be rung up using the coupon. You can use it for two drinks for yourself, if you want. I've used mine in the past, letting the bartender know that I was using the 2-for-1 coupon, but I wanted to save my second glass of wine until after I had finished the first. There was no problem doing that.

Items that are specifically purchased (as opposed to an unlimited package) can be shared, so feel free to enjoy the bottle of wine with your spouse (or anyone else you wish)!

This is a change from how it used to be pre-Voom. Then, when you signed up for a multiple device package, you used a single username/password that permitted that many concurrent connections. If you have N different passwords, it'd be harder to coordinate a large pool of concurrent devices. That could be a pain if the number of people exceeds the number of concurrent connections.

Yes, they expire, and I think they're good for five years. You can go to RoyalCaribbean.com/MyCruiseRewardsOnline to redeem your points.

If I remember correctly, the fill-a-bag special is technically only for certain garments including socks, underwear, t-shirts, and shorts. I don't know whether this is enforced.

Additional data points regarding price variations: Liberty of the Seas (7 night Western Caribbean, 3 sea days) — $44/day Freedom of the Seas (8 night Eastern Caribbean including Labadee, 3 sea days) — $46/day Anthem of the Seas (7 night Florida/Bahamas including Coco Cay, 3 sea days) — $46/day The only pattern I have is that when a private island is included, it's $46/day. That doesn't seem to match your cruise on Adventure of the Seas, though.

Historically, onboard credit hasn't been available pre-cruise. If you're not seeing it now in the Cruise Planner, you probably won't.

Note that Freedom of the Seas will be at Port Everglades then, so the information you have may not be as relevant. Generally, ships start disembarking with self-assist around 7 AM. Fortunately, getting to FLL airport is very easy from Port Everglades. Still, I wouldn't book flights too early, just in case there are any issues with customs that delay getting out of the port.

Wine tastings at Vintages are not covered by drink packages. A "tasting" is more of an event that you're paying for the wine as well as the bartender's education. Also related, wine flights are not included, but you can order the glasses of wine individually.

I've had small amounts of onboard credit given to me attributed to port fees which I assume were reduced after I booked that cruise.

That's a very interesting theory. Another one that I'm postulating... if an itinerary includes a private island, then the price is higher. My Liberty of the Seas cruise had the Premium package for $44/day. It has three sea days and three non-private port days. My Freedom of the Seas cruise had the Premium package for $46/day. It has three sea days, Labadee, and three other port days.

I notice that on my bookings, they're offering the Deluxe Beverage Package at the same price that the Ultimate Beverage Package was yesterday (also including the 20%-off banner). For my next sailing, the Deluxe Beverage Package is currently $46/day (+ gratuity, of course). Do note that the wording on the Royal Caribbean flyer was that the pricing is "from $55/day (excluding gratuity)", meaning that the base price could be higher than $55/day.

Yes, you can use your package at any bar, including in the restaurants. They'll serve you glasses of wine with a price up to $12/glass (otherwise you pay the difference). I don't know about Prosecco as it's not something I've ordered. Well, that's not entirely true. I've ordered mixed drinks in the R Bar that include Prosecco as an ingredient. Those drinks were included in the package.

I'm thinking that "Foreign Arrival" means that the ship was previously in a foreign country (Canada) and this is their first US stop. That'd probably require US immigration at this port.

I doubt that's the case (sufficient bandwidth for any sort of streaming like Netflix). Assuming that they didn't make any changes to internet connectivity since last October when I sailed on her, then I expect it to be really bad. Wi-Fi would be simply unavailable (the login page would return errors as shown below) for the better parts of a day, and when one could log into the ship's Wi-Fi network, connectivity to the internet was iffy at best. I think that that sailing was perhaps the worst internet service I'd had on a Royal Caribbean ship.

The most obvious thing that comes to mind is Freedom of the Seas could be coming to Cape Liberty, but the question would then be whether she'd be replacing Anthem of the Seas or augmenting her (embarkation on Saturday versus Sunday). And, if she's replacing Anthem, where would Anthem be heading? Florida, perhaps?

According to what I heard on Periscope and I think I read on Facebook, it was reported that Liberty of the Seas does not have the upgraded VOOM equipment installed. I believe that this comes from kcjarvis who received the information from an IT officer onboard. If this is indeed the case, then I consider it false advertising for Royal Caribbean to say "It’s VOOM, the fastest internet at sea – and it’s now available on the entire fleet." Don't set my expectations inappropriately.

That's a very interesting question that my husband and I have discussed ourselves. Technically, "no means no", so the person without the package shouldn't even have a sip of someone's drink from a package. That said, I'm quite positive that no bartender is going to care if you let the other person have just a sip of your drink. Who knows, maybe it'd encourage sales by the other person ordering that drink for themselves. I've done it myself in the past (letting a friend try one of my drinks) and I don't recall anyone ever looking askance.

I had been in the same situation, only receiving direct emails (such as booking or Cruise Planner confirmations). My thinking was that my private domain email address (hosted on GMail) had somehow ended up getting blocked in Royal Caribbean's internal systems, thus preventing promotional emails from coming through. I then decided to give up trying to fight it, and I started changing my email address with Royal Caribbean to my regular @gmail.com address. Shortly after my cruise in March when I gave Club Royale my @gmail.com address, the mail started flowing... to the original private domain address! I continue to receive promotional emails from both Royal Caribbean generally and also Club Royale. I don't know what kickstarted it, but I have to wonder whether attempting to change my email address did something in their databases to remove a block. Of the promotional emails I am receiving, I'm not getting Crown & Anchor emails. I don't know why those are missing, but I'm happy with what I am getting, especially the Club Royale messages since those tend to be offers for discounted (or even "free") cruises.

Do you know whether your rental car company offers a location closer to the port with shuttle service? For example, Avis has a location nearby with a shuttle. You could drop off your luggage, return your rental car at the non-airport location, and then take their shuttle back to the port. We often do a one-way rental from the airport to the location by the port. For example, with Avis, it's location QF1.

Unfortunately, this has been their policy for quite some time now. After the final payment deadline, your only option is to upgrade, if one is available. Royal Caribbean does have a 48-hour price protection policy, but you're beyond that at this point.

My thoughts are more sinister. Originally, when NCL offered the UBP as a free perk, it was completely free. You got the perk and got free drinks onboard. It was great. Then, sometime last year, they changed the rules so that when you selected a free perk like the UBP or the specialty dining package, you got the item for free, but you had to pay 18% gratuity on the price of the package. So, "free" wasn't quite as free, but still a good deal. So, here's my thinking. They raised the price to $79/person/day because few people actually buy it; most people get it by choosing it as their free perk, and those people are paying the 18% on that inflated $79/person/day. That's almost $200 for a "free" drink package for two people on a week-long cruise. Theoretically, that 18% could be going to the bartenders, but who knows? NCL has always been kind of secretive about their daily gratuity (called a "service charge"). Although they collect $13.50-15.50/person/day (comparable to Royal Caribbean), here's what they say about where the money goes: Note that it does not say that the service charge actually goes directly to the crew, but instead to "incentive programs" funded by the service charge.