JDHOWARD

You can definitely use the pool or anything else that's open (water slides, Flow Rider).  You can put  your swimwear in your carry-on bag (also keep things like charging cables, sunscreen, medication).  Rooms are usually open by 1 or 1:30.  You can change in any public locker room (I wear my swimsuit under my clothes on day 1!)

i ordered the cans of water 24 for $28 canadian. worth it to not drink from the bathroom sink

It's the same.  The difference is that when you use a TA you don't have to spend forever on hold calling Royal Caribbean.

One other thought: if you have on board credit from your travel agent, RCL stock ownership, an RCL promotion, or other source: it is not always wise to prepay gratuities, as OBC can be used toward gratuities as well as other purchases on board.

They should just make it that you cannot sit by the pool, eat lunch or buy any drinks until you do the muster drill.

We purchased the Key for both of our upcoming cruises (Harmony-July and Jewel-August).  This is the first time with the Key also.  I like the fact that we will have our own check in line (hopefully) and disembark as our July cruise we have a 12:05pm flight out of Orlando from Port Canaveral.  We were going to get WiFi package for all 4 of us anyway so that helped us decide to purchase the Key. After we purchased the Key, we got an email telling us that in lieu of Lunch at Chops on boarding day, we would get fee-free room service for the entire cruise.  Of course, lunch at Chops is back on.  However, my son-in-law called RCI regarding the room service email and they told him to print it out and go to guest services as they "might" still honor that.  Not sure I would even do that anyway but that is what they said.

I thought long and hard about the Key.  I read a lot of blogs and watched Matt's video on what the Key covers. He said that with some effort, you can get almost the same perks that you would get with the Key.  For example, last night at Midnight, I was able to snap up an 11 am embarkation time.  I won't get the Chop Luncheon meal that the Key members will get.  I did get a really good deal on the VOOM surf & stream package.  Yeah, I won't get the prime seats for the show but Matt said you would have to show up 45 minutes early for those seats.  Well, if I show up 45 minutes early for a show, I should get some pretty good seats too.  Finally, disembarkation time - Yeah, I won't get my choice of time so I don't know if that will affect my plans on getting off the ship early to pick up a rental car and drive back for my siblings, who will be getting off later. 
I guess you can guess, I did not get the Key.  One more piece of advice I read about - for first time cruisers, the Key may be a good thing to get but once you are at Diamond level, you get most of the perks anyway. 
Good luck with your decision.  I wish you calm seas and fair weather on your cruise.  

Hello, Yes have signed up for the key - to be honest and things may well have changed dramatically since the pandemic as next week will be our first cruise back since 2019, but the 'simple chance' of skipping any Q's for check in and the same for disembarkation, make this worth every penny for us - as well of course as prime seats for shows and zoom included for one device etc etc. We've recently been notified by RCC that people with 'the key' for our cruise can check in for 11.30am - as it happened, this is our time anyway, but sure that anyone with a later time will be delighted - we've also been told to follow signs for 'the key' so hopefully will skip any big Q's accordingly. What I WOULD suggest, is keep checking in on the price - we got it when it was a 40% saving and I've noticed recently that the price does vary considerably - hope this helps and good luck

In my experience, as long as it's in your order history, it's good.  Once  you check in and you have your set sail pass on your app you will see a DX on it to confirm.