Marc

The pizza on Wonder was fine as usual. The only thing I noticed was the lack of variety. They only had cheese, pepperoni, and some sort of vegetable pizza every time we stopped by or a slice (or two or three!). On Oasis and Odyssey, they offered other specialty slices (chicken, etc.).

It's comfort food.  And it's convenient.  Although I wont compare it to my pizza joints at home, it's still tolerable considering the mission it's supposed to perform.  Often I get the little finger sandwiches while my Wife gets the pizza.  At midnight, it does the job.😊
I have sensed no changes in their product.

The pizza we had on Allure (Dec) was fine -- no complaints.

On our last cruise I really disliked the pizza. Usually it's the goto snack on the way back to the room after the shows. This cruise got it two separate nights and both nights were pretty bad

This has been valid for a while now, and FYI if you are traveling by yourself they will give you 50% off a specialty dinner (first or second night) if you ask the concierge in the Diamond Lounge.

Don't forget today is the last day to book for some FCC's.  I'm currently working with MEI to see what I have available to use since the last TA has it in a mess. 

We did just that in March and it was a good thing, too, as this was the second week of a B2B and our first week's points hadn't yet gotten added to our start-of-cruise balance. Once we pointed out our prior week's sailing, the Loyalty Ambassador took care of it. The block was in our cabin on the last day. (We were not offered the choice of having it sent to us.)

We did just that in March and it was a good thing, too, as this was the second week of a B2B and our first week's points hadn't yet gotten added to our start-of-cruise balance. Once we pointed out our prior week's sailing, the Loyalty Ambassador took care of it. The block was in our cabin on the last day. (We were not offered the choice of having it sent to us.)

We did just that in March and it was a good thing, too, as this was the second week of a B2B and our first week's points hadn't yet gotten added to our start-of-cruise balance. Once we pointed out our prior week's sailing, the Loyalty Ambassador took care of it. The block was in our cabin on the last day. (We were not offered the choice of having it sent to us.)

You should definitely speak with the Loyalty Ambassador at some point during the cruise (don’t wait until the last day) and let him/her know that you will be eligible for a crystal block.  The LA will give you options for receiving your block.  Congratulations !

NAAT is actually a PCR test. It is acceptable for sailing. 

After my cruise, all I can say, boy I’m glad I didn’t buy the drink package. I saved about $1100. My wife and I had about 70 drinks total. We drank more on sea days and went a little over our vouchers, but not much. Island stops we broke even or didn’t even use them up. In Aruba we didn’t get back on ship until 7pm. Then we had 4 glasses of wine at 1/2 off and the casino gave us a bottle of wine and we don’t gamble. So with all that, I only spent about $150 on drinks. Granted I’m not a huge drinker, but I don’t think I held back if I wanted one thinking I would need to pay as I had over $900 in OBC due to cabin price change, so money wasn’t a issue. But as I was thinking about my last cruise on Allure in November with the drink package, I felt sometimes I was getting drinks to make me feel like I was getting my money’s worth, but really didn’t need it. So for me being a Diamond member, the UDP is not worth it.
on a side note tho, it seemed staff wasn’t to excited that I was a diamond member by there expressions, and it seemed like all my drinks we very weak almost virgin like. Yet on Allure with package, tasting the booze wasn’t a issue. Even on CocoCay, I found drinks very weak Maybe it’s just in my head. I guess I’ll find out again in December on Harmony. 

When you normalize Crown and Anchor versus other cruise lines they are all very similar.  Normalization is required since they use different points systems and the top levels vary in terms of the absolute number required.  Carnival for example tops out at 200, Celebrity at 3,000, NCL and Royal at 700.  
What the graph does show is the weird anomaly between Platinum and Emerald for Royal.  Platinum should probably be lowered slightly for a smoother transition compared to the other cruise lines.
As mentioned there are incremental perks within Diamond Plus between 175 and 700.  They are published so it's not a secret, just something that isn't discussed frequently.  

I don't think I really thought about Prime offering drinks. I've been Signature forever it seems (well, the pandemic has really stretched this tier out far longer than what it should have based on my actual play), and I remember that comped drinks was a perk specifically only for invited casino guests in the early days. (I think one had to earn something like 2,000 points on one sailing to get invited, and once in, one stayed in.)
These days, I don't even go into the casino much. On Oasis, the only time we went in was to play the $500 in free play we had gotten for that sailing. We turned the free play into $540 cash.
I'll note that we actually only paid a total of $422.90 for that cruise — comped JS upgraded to GS. Thus, Casino Royale paid us $117 for us to sail that week.

I don't think I really thought about Prime offering drinks. I've been Signature forever it seems (well, the pandemic has really stretched this tier out far longer than what it should have based on my actual play), and I remember that comped drinks was a perk specifically only for invited casino guests in the early days. (I think one had to earn something like 2,000 points on one sailing to get invited, and once in, one stayed in.)
These days, I don't even go into the casino much. On Oasis, the only time we went in was to play the $500 in free play we had gotten for that sailing. We turned the free play into $540 cash.
I'll note that we actually only paid a total of $422.90 for that cruise — comped JS upgraded to GS. Thus, Casino Royale paid us $117 for us to sail that week.

I received this from the concierge for next week's (eastern) sailing. It may be of use to others, but it is subject to change, of course.
Whoops, forgot it had the highlighting in there. Well, now you know what I've chosen. 😁
Shows at Glance.pdf

I received this from the concierge for next week's (eastern) sailing. It may be of use to others, but it is subject to change, of course.
Whoops, forgot it had the highlighting in there. Well, now you know what I've chosen. 😁
Shows at Glance.pdf

I received this from the concierge for next week's (eastern) sailing. It may be of use to others, but it is subject to change, of course.
Whoops, forgot it had the highlighting in there. Well, now you know what I've chosen. 😁
Shows at Glance.pdf

I received this from the concierge for next week's (eastern) sailing. It may be of use to others, but it is subject to change, of course.
Whoops, forgot it had the highlighting in there. Well, now you know what I've chosen. 😁
Shows at Glance.pdf

It had been the case that kids weren't permitted in the DL during happy hour; that didn't apply to kids in the suite lounge.
The last time I looked at that, though, was several years ago.

Thanks, Marc.  I think the above is something that many [new] casino players often overlook.  Even if you are booking a cruise with which there was NO casino offer at all, chances are they can still save you money.  It took me a really long time to figure this one out and they do NOT advertise it at ALL.  IOW, investigate booking through the casino for ALL of your cruises and see if there is a savings.  Betcha there will be, even if it is a small savings.  I think I saved a minimum of 5% on each and every cruise I booked last year (30+ of them !).

I don't know whether this will be useful, but I'm offering it as a way to show that if the casino is offering you free cruises, you should consider calling them when you want to book cruises because they may be able to provide additional discounts if you were to upgrade as well.
Below is the pricing for a cruise that I had for Oasis of the Seas, the week after Labor Day.

The offer I'd received from Casino Royale was a comped junior suite. So, the "Casino Offer 67" is basically taking off the cost of a junior suite. However, because I booked through the casino, the incremental cost to upgrade to a grand suite was only $237/person. I don't know where that number came from because it wasn't something I saw on the public-facing website, but for a total price of $800.90 (not including gratuities) to get a week-long cruise in a Sky Suite accommodation on an Oasis-class ship? How could I say no?!
Now, note the bottom line here. This was the second week of a B2B. The first week was in the same cabin, booked on an identical offer. Yes, I got comped a junior suite on Oasis of the Seas for Labor Day week. It's rare, but it happens. That sailing only cost $422.90, and that included $500 in freeplay, which hubby and I handily turned into $540 in cash.
 
I will note, however, that Casino Royale is definitely overestimating any future revenues they will likely get from me. It seems that I somehow finagled their rating math to get a higher standing than I should get. Still, you may not get offers like this. Heck, I don't usually get offers like that. My B2B on Symphony of the Seas (same offer -- comped JS upgraded to GS) are about $4K/week total, still quite a respectable discount for the "Signature" tier, but much more typical.

Royal Caribbean also allows you to submit your special needs requests online.

The price of specialty dining gets to me, too, but that's really just supply and demand. Clearly, enough people are paying those prices to appease our cruise masters. Still, now that we choose to sail in suites, I'm perfectly content with Coastal Kitchen's first night's filet mignon instead of Chops Grille's for $55.