Ryan79

@AshleyDillo is spot on. I was on an Alaskan cruise out of Vancouver with an 11pm departure a few years ago. Embarkation process was 100% the exact same as far as timing as a normal 5pm-ish one. I was on board with drink in hand by 10:45am. The tides dictate when large ships can get in and out of Vancouver. It’s not a city that is right on the ocean like most cruise ports. It’s over a 100 miles inland so it has a couple relatively shallow channels to navigate.

It is assumed that the onboard drink package will NOT be honored at the beach club based on the wording and they way packages are marketed. Since they are offering specific packages offering unlimited drinks here and they don’t offer such packages at PDCC and Lebadee where the beverage package is honored, that is a big clue that the onboard package will not be honored there.

Nope!

I also managed to get that on sale when I did that on Rhapsody in January. But I will say that it wasn’t on sale very long and my OCD in looking at my CP daily is what caught it. Might have been on sale for a total of 48 hours for the 15 months that I had the cruise booked.

If you own a globe or have the ability to look at a map, you will see there are many other places in the world outside of the US. This is also easily confirmed by going to RC’s webpage and seeing that they have cruises that go other places. Sorry this is news to you at this point in your life.

I managed to snag it for $58 for 3 nighter in January. $63 is the normal price that I have seen for that cruise.

Formal night and lobster night are two totally different events. Shorter cruises usually don’t have lobster night at all. I know 3 and 4 nighters out of LA don’t have them, not positive about 5 night cruises but I wouldn’t hold your breath as lobster night is “usually” night 6 on the MDR rotation. The lobsters aren’t anything to get excited about anyways so you wouldn’t be missing anything if it wasn’t offered on your cruise. The tails are small, tough, warm water tails.

Menus don’t really vary from sailing to sailing, so looking at your ships current sailing, especially if it’s a 7 nighter, will tell you almost with 100% certainly what your menus will look like.

Enjoy it! Tip amount is up to you. Some people will do $0 per day and some will do $100. Do what YOU are comfortable with, not what others are comfortable with. Costal Kitchen is something you should absolutely eat at at least a couple of times. But I would advise to look at the CK menu each night and look at the MDR menu and pick the one that looks better for YOU. No one can tell you how to enjoy your suite…that is your job!

I agree with lobster night being overrated.I cannot understand for the life of me the people who get all hyped up for those very small, dry, tasteless tails that are now being served. Low end restaurants like Red Lobster serve better tails…what does that say?

You can always pick up a phone and call up Royal to make your payment. That is a guaranteed way to solve the issue and much quicker and more efficient than waiting hours/days for a response on a message board.

Passports are not required for closed loop US based cruises, unless if you have a port that specifically requires one.

It is almost always open on Day 1. However the CP is wonky in that it doesn’t let you make Day 1 reservations until you are much closer to embarking sometimes. I have/had a few upcoming ones where I can make lunch and dinner reservations for everyday except Day 1. When I got to roughly the 120 day mark, then they opened up. This hasn’t been the case for all sailings, but a good number of them.

Random sales have been much better than holiday sales, especially the past few years. I wouldn’t hold your breath for anything spectacular. You are much more likely to find better deals on a random Tuesday unadvertised 24 hour sale than a 4th of July or a Labor Day sale anymore. Even Black Friday hasn’t been as good the past two years as the random unadvertised sales

I did this in January. The first part of the hike was an asskicker, and almost made me regret booking the excursion. However once the first major hill was conquered, the rest of the hike wasn’t all that bad. Absolutely pack water and some good traction shoes. The beach is an afterthought and it’s the beach that is right next to ship that is quasi-public. No one in my group stayed for that portion as we all did our own thing after the hike. The beach was used more as a place to store your stuff while you are on the hike.

I cannot for the life of me think of anything that would be worth just viewing from a roadside on a driving tour at Cozumel or even on the mainland. Cozumel is a beach, shopping, cenote, and Mayan ruin port and none of those would be any fun via a driving tour, if even possible.

I got this card as well and I’m a lucky one in that I won’t get hit with the higher renewal fee for about a year due to my renewal date, so I will have about 9 months to take these new “benefits” out for a test drive before making a decision to keep the card or not. I’ve already started giving the Venture X a look or downgrading to the Preferred. It’s a shame that they just might have butchered this card because it really was a great one that has really paid off for me.

@ChessE4 Adventure isn’t an oasis class, so you have nothing to worry about. Adventure is Voyager class which is easily able to dock in San Juan.

@Nathan adams Only Oasis class ships are affected by the pier issue. Brilliance is one of the smaller ships in the RC fleet so you aren’t impacted in the least. You will be just fine.

Same experience as @WAYNO. I’ve always booked private transportation from the airport, but booked RC transfers to the airport. Pretty sure I even used the same shuttle service and they were fantastic.

It is amazing to think of an Oasis class ship as a downgrade. There is a ton to do for your family and I doubt that they will be bored for one second. While not as new with the bells and whistles as Icon, it is still a fabulous and fantastic class ship for families and is second in the world only to Icon. So while it may appear to be a downgrade on paper, it will in no way be a disappointment. Oasis is a great ship and don’t overthink this and psyche yourself out to think anything non-Icon is a sub par ship.

Just call them up and they will be more than happy to charge for an upgrade at the current and higher price! It’s super easy.

While not an outright requirement, the younger the child is the safer it will be to have a consent form. There is no formal document, you just need the other parent to have a notarized letter saying that they are aware that you are taking the child on the trip. The letter should state the name of the ship, port of departure and the dates. It’s a better safe than sorry thing to have. My stepson is a teenager and we have never been asked for any kind of form, but he was younger we for sure would have gotten one.

Midnight PST