Marc

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!

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!

The NCL casino program sounds like a better program. I can't even imagine the fact that they disclose "tiers" after dealing with the casino Royale Top Secret/Classified program for so many years! At least you know where you stand on NCL.

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

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.

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.

I'm on the other side of that coin... my airline of choice is Southwest. I like their flexible pricing policies, and once I accept that flying coach is essentially being treated like cattle (assigned seat or not), I can deal with Southwest's boarding system. I do pay the extra $25 roundtrip to get an earlier boarding position in order to ensure getting a window or aisle seat. 
Thanks to them not charging a fee to change flights, I've been able to reduce the cost of future flights by applying credits from earlier flights where the price has dropped. Plus, we've been able to change our minds about which flights we want without a penalty. I like having that flexibility.

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.

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.

I got my first (and probably last for quite a while) gold SeaPass card on my last cruise. In the growing pile of blue SeaPass cards, it stands out quite nicely.
 

Yes, you may get drinks in Windjammer whenever it's open.
 
You may fill your travel cup, however it's standard practice not to fill your cup directly from the beverage dispensers, but instead fill a regular plastic cup and then pour that into your travel cup.
 
I know that people generally take bottled water with them when going ashore. I don't think it'd be a problem to take your travel cup.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 will be on Liberty October 30th and am already taking the approach that I will only be able to scope pre cruise, embarkation day, and from the ports thanks to having global travel pass with Verizon. I did call crown and anchor about it and even told them what Ken Jarvis was told about Voom on board last week. If I'm not able to scope while at sea, so be it, just stop advertising it and selling it as Voom. :)

Hello All,
 
I wanted to see if we could commence a running Cruise Director and Activities Manager list here on the Royal Caribbean Blog Boards.   As many of you know, the Cruise Director can be very influential in providing a fun and interactive experience while on a cruise and for this reason the question is often asked "who will be the cruise director on my sailing?" However, as with any position of importance, the Cruise Director also enlists the assistance of his or her Activities Manager to host a number of events throughout a sailing (e.g. trivia, bingo, karaoke, etc...).  Therefore, I would also like to keep the list updated with the current Activities Managers whom many of us develop strong relationships with based on our varying degrees of participation in ship events. 
 
While I know there are similar lists maintained elsewhere on the internet, my desire is to provide an easily accessed (thanks in part to the long-term edit function of these boards) and more user friendly document than what currently exists.  In addition to receiving regular updates from the fantastic blog community that fill these boards with Royal Caribbean knowledge everyday, I also hope to leverage Kat's evergrowing Periscope community to obtain real time and accurate updates as to who holds these very important positions throughout the Royal Caribbean fleet.   Below is my first stab at a draft of the list based on information I was able to retrieve from various social media and online content.  As you can see, there are some blanks, which I am sure many of you will be able to assist with filling in.  Please feel free to respond here with any list updates or any comments as to the format or layout of the document.
 
I would like to thank all of you in advance for any assistance you can provide with making this list a useful resource for Royal Caribbean cruisers.
 

I have a couple group cruises booked over the next 14 months. One is with a travel agent who seems to do the least he can. He's generally responsive to inquiries, but I don't feel that he's fully engaged; he's missed a lot of details (such as ensuring that everyone in the group had the same dining time, or even that I was the group coordinator).
 
The other, however, is booked with a travel agent who is completely engaged with our group and extremely responsive, even without being prompted. When this WOW sale started, she took it upon herself to work with Royal Caribbean to update the fares for some of the people in our group and get them additional onboard credit, too. That's even considering the WOW sale is technically for new bookings only.
 
I've also booked in the past with a couple different web cruise travel agent companies (nobody particularly notable), solely for getting the additional perks (onboard credit, wine, whatever). I gave that up a long time ago when I realized that those agents weren't in the business of helping me, but instead to get as many cruise bookings as they could, and I much preferred having more control over my booking instead of getting these token perks.
 
Bottom line, if you can get a good TA, they're really worth it.

I have a couple group cruises booked over the next 14 months. One is with a travel agent who seems to do the least he can. He's generally responsive to inquiries, but I don't feel that he's fully engaged; he's missed a lot of details (such as ensuring that everyone in the group had the same dining time, or even that I was the group coordinator).
 
The other, however, is booked with a travel agent who is completely engaged with our group and extremely responsive, even without being prompted. When this WOW sale started, she took it upon herself to work with Royal Caribbean to update the fares for some of the people in our group and get them additional onboard credit, too. That's even considering the WOW sale is technically for new bookings only.
 
I've also booked in the past with a couple different web cruise travel agent companies (nobody particularly notable), solely for getting the additional perks (onboard credit, wine, whatever). I gave that up a long time ago when I realized that those agents weren't in the business of helping me, but instead to get as many cruise bookings as they could, and I much preferred having more control over my booking instead of getting these token perks.
 
Bottom line, if you can get a good TA, they're really worth it.