movistar

We are booked on this 🙂 Just a quick cruise for the two of us ❤️ 

We are booked on this 🙂 Just a quick cruise for the two of us ❤️ 

Officer Escort is actually a published benefit for the Royal Suite.  And agree, the Key is pretty much useless and a waste if you have a suite.  The Key is really designed to give non-suiters a taste of some of the suite life privileges.
What are the Benefits of the Suites Program? | Royal Caribbean Cruises

It's going to be soooo different without a genie! Luckily we are back in 2024 with a Harmony Villa Suite ❤️ 

Absolutely !  If you decide you want to dine in a specialty restaurant one or 2 nights, you can pay ala carte for those….same with non-complimentary beverages.  Lately, the specialty dining venues have been fairly crowded so it might be wise for you to get the suites Concierge to help you with specialty dining reservations before boarding if you have an idea of when/where you might be interested in dining.

Absolutely. You may want to look at the dining packages in the Cruise Planner and see what the pricing looks like. May save a few $ pre-purchasing a Chops +1 or 3 night dining package.

The Key would probably be a waste of money unless the cost of the Key and the cost of VOOM are pretty close.  There are really no benefits of the Key that you will need. While it’s not a published benefit, it is customary for passengers in the Royal suite to be escorted onboard on embarkation day…so some of the more useful benefits of the Key will already be forthcoming.
The Royal Suite on Radiance does not include any of the package benefits (Deluxe Beverage Pkg, internet or Unlimited Dining Pkg) so if any of those perks are important to you, you would need to purchase those separately.  As a suites passenger, you will have access to the Suites/Concierge Lounge and you will have a suites breakfast daily - most likely in Chops.

You get free room service and can order off the dining room menu for room service. You gave access to the Suite Lounge which has a coffee machine and will have a complimentary happy hour in the evening from 5-8pm.
There is no special suites only restaurant but they should offer some breakfast sit down option that is suites only.  Internet is NOT included, so if you stay connected on the cruise you need to purchase that.
There should be a seating area in the theater for suites, but it isn't always the best spot anyways. The concierge will email you within the week prior to your sail date and you can request they make any dining reservations you want.

@movistar that is a huge help. Like you we have no expectations. Our only reservation was sitting together at the shows. 

We had no expectations of what our genie could do for our immediate family and we were pleasantly surprised when we were able to sit together at shows (behind the other star families). Dinner reservations, as you mentioned, were easily done since we all had the dining package. Our genie allowed us to have my parents (non star) take the place of my two kids (star class) at chefs table and I simply paid the additional for my parents. In suite the family could come and go and help themselves to the drinks and snacks. 

8330 on Harmony was our very first SC suite !  Reyno was our Genie on that one.  Have a great time !

We had no expectations of what our genie could do for our immediate family and we were pleasantly surprised when we were able to sit together at shows (behind the other star families). Dinner reservations, as you mentioned, were easily done since we all had the dining package. Our genie allowed us to have my parents (non star) take the place of my two kids (star class) at chefs table and I simply paid the additional for my parents. In suite the family could come and go and help themselves to the drinks and snacks. 

We had no expectations of what our genie could do for our immediate family and we were pleasantly surprised when we were able to sit together at shows (behind the other star families). Dinner reservations, as you mentioned, were easily done since we all had the dining package. Our genie allowed us to have my parents (non star) take the place of my two kids (star class) at chefs table and I simply paid the additional for my parents. In suite the family could come and go and help themselves to the drinks and snacks. 

This is exactly my assertion. I agree with it 100% especially the airline scenario. The second  disgusting thought I didn't love & I would assign a disgusting response if there was one. There is NO excuse for the failure pertaining to human fluids. It just seems everywhere I go prices are up and quality is down. Star is about the experience & while I loved it and MAY book it again waaay in the future Sky is still my happy place, but taking a break from Royal right now sadly makes me happier. Just want to give her a minute to figure things out instead of me feeling my experience is meh for the $$. I am a glass half full person in life, but I can also see a diluted experience/product that should not be. I know this is a fan site so I'm sorry ahead of time if I offend with this post. 

You make a great point and we have no way of knowing what is going on behind the scenes. I believe Moby experienced reduced Genies on his sailing due to circumstances. Don’t get me wrong, we are still happy to sail but the Sea Squirrel family will do it with more patience and understanding. Thanks all for putting it in perspective. I would recommend that in each theater of sailing (Alaska, Med, Caribbean) Royal keep a Genie shoreside in quarantine. Sure it expensive to the company but nominal compared to the prices folks pay for Star. Heck, even the yachts on “Below Deck” do this because their customers are not paying for excuses. Before anyone says, “well than rent a yacht” keep in mind that Star was Royal’s answer to folks who choose to rent their own yachts. RC wanted to enter a lucrative market and target folks willing to pay top dollar for an experience. Easing up on how the Star program is executed should concern shareholders. Face it, RC makes a lot of money from top tier. The cheapest interior rooms are not money makers for shareholders…it is the suites. 

@wordell1, i could not disagree with you more.i am not interested in using the travel industry as a benchmark. The fact is I am only interested in my ROI on Star Class.  Royal has not lowered prices, therefore I will not lower my expectations, especially when paying for Star. I know the difference in service pre vs post pandemic and I am well aware of pricing.it is absolutely fair to compare the two when pricing is higher post pandemic and service is less than what was received pre-pademic. This discussion is about Royal’s highest level of service. Not Sea Class, not Sky Class but Star. It is unimaginable that Royal would make cuts here.  

We are winding down at the Hyatt inside the Orlando Airport for the night. The super early wake up and travel day, followed by a few hours at the pool have all of us ready to get a good night’s sleep before embarkation tomorrow. This Hyatt is an absolute sea of pleasant calm in the chaos of the airport, and so convenient for a pre-cruise stay. We went with a patio room this time because the rooms that look over the airport atrium don’t have doors that open even though they have balconies, some sort of “safety risk” and I love the fresh humid air and rain that we don’t get at home. We are using the ship’s bus transportation in the morning to the port so it’s just a matter of getting up when we are ready and going down to level 1. No proper breakfast needed for sure, as we will be starting our 7 days of food. 
 
Here are some pictures of the room ( 2 QNS with patio), the very quiet hallway atrium outside the room that you would never guess is right above the hustle and bustle of the security lanes, and the rooftop pool area with views of planes taking off — definitely not a resort mega pool area with bells and whistles, but more than enough to swim in and cool off, and way bigger than anything we will be dipping our feet in on the ship! We can’t wait for tomorrow, my son asked whether we will be on the loud terminal forklift loading side at PC, or the harbor side looking out towards Cape Canaveral. I’m not sure how the ship is normally oriented while in Port so we will find out soon. 

Made it MCO and waiting a long time for bags. The airport is very busy and the baggage claim ( at least Southwest) seems very backlogged. Just wanted to share something cool my son discovered on the Southwest in flight entertainment page - they must have upgraded the flight path Map - there’s now a 360 plane view with earth maps, right and left window views with maps and a cockpit view too. I admittedly geeked out for a few minutes but I haven’t really bothered to look at the map recently as I scroll through the TV and Movies. This button accesses all the new maps

Covid results are in and we are clear to sail, here’s hoping the air portion from Denver to Orlando goes smoothly. I can’t wait for that first waft of hot, humid mildewy jetway air as we emerge into the MCO terminal, that makes me sweat in places I forgot I had sweat glands living here in the dry prairie that is Colorado. 😀

Some photos of 10324:
ill post more photos later of the room, bathroom, etc.
no bath tub in this suite which really bums me out.

Oh, and one more: daughter tested positive for COVID on day 7 (Victoria) (she's fine! Very short lived symptoms). The usual stuff there, and we found our room service requests were very responsive.
Buuuut... They put all of the COVID positive parties (probably 20-30 of us) in Chops together. We were there until 10:30 or so before we were let off. Feel bad for any of the embarkation day diners in there. What's the recommendation for airborne particles to get out of the room? Like 4-6 hours?

We just got off of Ovation... Didn't sail Star class, but our observations were generally the same: short of many supplies, extremely inexperienced staff, terrible lines. We had a few extras thrown in, but here are the low lights:
1.) Had an emergency which meant we had to turn back on the way to Juneau on Day 2. Disappointing, but it happens. The real mess was at the end of Day 2 when, despite losing 6-8 hours of progress, everyone on staff insisted we would be in Juneau by noon. Anyone who could do the math and knew the ship pegs at just over 22 knots could call bull on that one. Everyone else had to wait until 10am the next day when the captain clumsily announced we wouldn't make that time and the CD came on immediately after and said "but we will reach port at 6:30p and will leave at 11p". At about 7:30p (and before the ship has dropped anchor), the line to get off the ship is double looped through the promenade and building at the direction of the staff while an announcement plays to "remember to socially distance". Lack of communication aside, this was utterly laughable. As many of you know, most things are shutting down at 8p in Juneau. There was a mass rush to the remaining open venues, and then more chaos trying to board the ship in some cases less than 90 minutes later.
2.) Our trip to Dawes and through the Fjords was cut short because of fog. I woke up to find us already stopped at the closest distance we would get to Dawes at about 8am (supposed to be doing the scenic glacier part of the journey from 6-12). By 10a we were already out. How did I find out the official reason this part of our journey had been cut short? From a FB post after the CD and/or captain again failed to adequately communicate the itinerary changes.
3.) The food was such a laughable disappointment. Every steak we ordered came out raw. Not rare... Raw. And most we ordered were medium or well-done. This included Chops, where our waiter neglected to even ask if we wanted drinks and only realized he hadn't brought out our soups/salads once the mains had arrived. At $60/head these days, an absolute disappointment. The evenings in the main dining room were also a joke, and the service was chaotic (I blame this on staff newness and the push to use the Royal app. We literally started to dread mealtime, which is usually our favorite part of the cruise)... If a meal was supposed to come with a baked/mashed potato, it came with French fries. If it was supposed to come with veggies, it came with French fries. If you wanted the strawberry and kiwi fruit cup, you got melon and maybe a smidge of pineapple. 
This is all in addition to the noted long lines for meals and embarkation/debarkation. There were good moments on the cruise, but I wish I had followed my instinct and pushed out our sailing. I'm sure they'll have much of these ironed out by the President's cruise in June. Mad at myself for letting us be one of their revenue "test" cruises with something we were so looking forward to.

Apologies for posting a non-live report in this forum. I just wanted to sum up some aspects of the cruise, while things are still fresh. We were on Serenade May 15-22, 2022, from Vancouver to Alaska. I will share some info that could be useful to others, as well as some more personal reflections. In sharing our experiences, I hope nothing comes across as too political. YMMV. 
 
Due to airline schedule changes, we arrived in Vancouver 2 nights ahead of time rather than 1, giving us a whole day to explore Vancouver. We stayed at Le hotel Soleil near Canada place, which was an excellent value considering the location and set up of our mini-suite. Waking up early due to the time change from the East Coast, we had some delicious coffee and breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Not much else seemed to be open at 6:30-7:00 on a Saturday. Following this, we headed over to scope out the cruise port and try to find where we needed to go the next day for check-in. We were told it would be clearly marked the next day (which was half true), and we checked out some other ships docked there in the rain. (Thought I had a Pic but can’t find ; )

My Granddogs waiting on us to come home to them:
 
 

Well, we supposedly got the story with our Genies.  Apparently, the first Genie, because of the shortage of crew, had to fill in at one of the Kid's rooms to babysit/entertain the kids.  Was playing with the kids and stepped on a ball or something like that and twisted his ankle.  The second Genie, the same story but not sure what part of his body got hurt.  
This is what is unbelievable:  There are only three uniquely qualified people that are Genies on the ship, no one else can do it.  They have what is virtually a 24 hour a day job that people pay a ton of money for their undivided (well almost) attention and they assign them/pick them out to fill a last minute position.  We now understand why we couldn't get ahold of our Genie for hours, for 3 days. 
More enlightenment:  If you take the 7 day, Ovation, Juneau - Skagway - Sitka - Victoria cruise, make sure you cash out your money from any casino vouchers you have the night before you go to Victoria.  Today, which is our Victoria day, the Captain made the decision NOT to open the Casino, ANYMORE.  So, if you have Casino vouchers and you don't hear the announcement that the casino won't be open (they made the announcement during the Pixal Show (in the 270 Lounge) and/or Adult Comedy (In the Main Theater).  We didn't hear the announcements because we went to both of those venues and there was NO written notification place in the cabins.  So, if you have casino vouchers and you didn't get to the casino where they opened the Cashier Cage for 20 Minutes at 8:00 AM, you are out the money that you have on your voucher(s).  ALSO, if you have non-refundable OBCs, make sure you (if you do the casino voucher trick to get the money/cash out) the night before you arrive in Victoria.  If you have refundable OBCs, you can go to Customer Service and cash that out.  
Next:  As usual, the shops closed when we docked in Victoria, totally expected.  Well, they will not open again for the duration of the cruise.  So, as we became accustomed to the final day of the cruise sales in the middle of the Promenade, there will be none.  We held off from buying some items expecting that we could shop for some sale items on the last day.  SO, be warned, if you want to shop, do it on or before in the morning of the last full day (Victoria). 
Now, don't get me wrong, I am very happy with the service that we did receive.  The wait staff was beyond great, the food, for the most part was fantastic (I can't say that the Fish and Chips at the Fish and Ships was any good.  I even liked the Food at Wonderland, and I generally don't like FuFu food.  The two excursions we purchased (Mt. Roberts Tram (I flew my drone from up there (and at Mendenhall Glacier) and Skagway Streetcar Sightseeing Tour) was very interesting and worth the money. 
After all is said and done, I must keep in mind that this is only the second cruise of the season with many first time crew members and far too many supply chain issues.  They do have a lot of wrinkles to iron out and I still think that they are/were not ready to sail with a full capacity ship.  The crew is fantastic, the management/Corp have a lot to be desired!  When the first Genie went down, some member of management SHOULD have come to those of us that were effected by it and what was going to be done to keep us happy.  No one did!  When the second Genie went down, some member of management SHOULD have come to those of us that were effected by it and what was going to be done to keep us happy.  No one did!  When we were assigned a Genie that is her first week as a Genie and she was going to be the only Genie servicing all Star Class suites, someone from management should have come to talk to those, which are all, of us that were effected by this.  We have been told several times that the one and only Genie will take care of us as if nothing was going on.  We asked - Genies are assigned X amount of suites for a reason.  When you take one away and another Genie takes on the suites from the down Genie, SOMETHING has to sacrifice.  Then you take away a second Genie and you are left with a single Genie for all Star Suites, SOMETHING has to be sacrificed.