monorailmedic

This is a great question.  I'll start by saying that I don't have any experience with this challenge in particular, but do have a couple thoughts.
 
Contact Royal Caribbean via the below link, or have your travel agent reach out to RCCL's special needs group.  It wouldn't surprise me if they already have a solution for this.  
 
Outside of that, I'd note the doors are quite heavy and I know that it would be impossible for somone to leave the room without waking me, especially if the top lock is locked (more noise), but I also realize that your stakes are higher, and everyone is different in terms of how deeply they sleep.
 
There are of course commercial solutions specifically for temporary (hotel) use, such as those below, which I think you alluded to with the wedge alarm:
http://amzn.to/2alMvZH
http://amzn.to/2axDKGR
 
Let us know what you end up doing and how well you find it works.  I'm really curious if RCCL's special needs team already has a solution for this.
 
https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/allaboutcruising/guestSpecialNeeds.do

There is a simple solution to the single supplement problem: take more cruises!
That's right.  Straight from RCCL's website:
Single supplement cruise fare reduced to 150% from 200% for members that have 340 or more cruise points

There is a simple solution to the single supplement problem: take more cruises!
That's right.  Straight from RCCL's website:
Single supplement cruise fare reduced to 150% from 200% for members that have 340 or more cruise points

I noticed that on the sale page it states that kids sale free on 5+ night cruises. However I am going on a 4 night and was given the kids free. saving hundreds. So if you are going on a 3 or 4 night you might want to double check.

There is a simple solution to the single supplement problem: take more cruises!
That's right.  Straight from RCCL's website:
Single supplement cruise fare reduced to 150% from 200% for members that have 340 or more cruise points

Check out the bottom of this blog post about how to get premium drinks for free: http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/08/11/first-time-cruisers-what-drinks-are-included-your-royal-caribbean-cruise

I'm 100% with Matt on this one.  

You only have about 60 days from when the booking is made to transfer to a TA.
 
Honestly, the ability to make changes to your reservation on your own is far outweighed by the service a good TA provides.  I love texting my TA to re-price something or change someone's name and then not spending time on hold with RC and doing something way more fun.

Hi Jeff,
  
Generally, a 0730 arrival means that you'll be able to get off the ship as early as maybe 0800.  There are a number of variables though.
 
-Are you carrying all of your bags off or checking some bags?  If carrying all your luggage off, you can be amoung the first off the ship
-Your luggage tag/disembarkation number.  If you're provided a higher number, just ask guest services, they'll work this out with you
-The ship and the port. Enchantment obviously has a much lower pax capacity and Miami handles many pax, so even if you get off at peak time, you're unlikely to lose more than 30 mins or so to customs, lines, etc
-Are you planning on having breakfast onboard?  If you're in a hurry, grab some cereal, etc the day befoe and have a snack in your stateroom to beat the crowd.
-Have any other perks?  If you're in a suite you get priority disembarkation.  If you were sailing into Port Everglades Global Entry can help, not the case in Miami...yet.
-Luck.  This is the biggest one.  Why?  Paperwork, criminal activity, inspections, weather, technical issues.  All of these things and more can impact when the ship is actually able to arrive and how long it takes the ship to clear customs.  I've seen ships clear hours late (nearly a full day as Matt once saw b/c of fog).  This is rare, but is important to remember.
 
The bottom line is that this isn't a time, in my opinion, to take big risks, b/c you want to relax your last day of vacation.  As such, I'd plan on getting off the ship by 0930.  Will it be earlier?  Almost certainly (they want you off, they've gotta turn the ship around with more passengers), but as mentioned, things happen.
 
Now, read the link below, which I didn't read (or find until just now) and let's see if Matt disagrees with me :-)
http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2014/08/12/first-time-cruisers-disembarkation-day
 
Billy

Hi Jeff,
  
Generally, a 0730 arrival means that you'll be able to get off the ship as early as maybe 0800.  There are a number of variables though.
 
-Are you carrying all of your bags off or checking some bags?  If carrying all your luggage off, you can be amoung the first off the ship
-Your luggage tag/disembarkation number.  If you're provided a higher number, just ask guest services, they'll work this out with you
-The ship and the port. Enchantment obviously has a much lower pax capacity and Miami handles many pax, so even if you get off at peak time, you're unlikely to lose more than 30 mins or so to customs, lines, etc
-Are you planning on having breakfast onboard?  If you're in a hurry, grab some cereal, etc the day befoe and have a snack in your stateroom to beat the crowd.
-Have any other perks?  If you're in a suite you get priority disembarkation.  If you were sailing into Port Everglades Global Entry can help, not the case in Miami...yet.
-Luck.  This is the biggest one.  Why?  Paperwork, criminal activity, inspections, weather, technical issues.  All of these things and more can impact when the ship is actually able to arrive and how long it takes the ship to clear customs.  I've seen ships clear hours late (nearly a full day as Matt once saw b/c of fog).  This is rare, but is important to remember.
 
The bottom line is that this isn't a time, in my opinion, to take big risks, b/c you want to relax your last day of vacation.  As such, I'd plan on getting off the ship by 0930.  Will it be earlier?  Almost certainly (they want you off, they've gotta turn the ship around with more passengers), but as mentioned, things happen.
 
Now, read the link below, which I didn't read (or find until just now) and let's see if Matt disagrees with me :-)
http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2014/08/12/first-time-cruisers-disembarkation-day
 
Billy

The Labadoozie is indeed the signature drink in Labadee (known as the Coco Loco on Coco Cay).  More information can be found at the link below.  It's not a bad tropical drink, though I'll have to admit, that for my money, the Conch Cooler, the signature drink on Disney's Castawy Cay, is actually better.  I'll concuct both this weekend, side by side...for resarch...again.  
 
http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2013/07/15/royal-caribbean-classic-labadoozie

The Labadoozie is indeed the signature drink in Labadee (known as the Coco Loco on Coco Cay).  More information can be found at the link below.  It's not a bad tropical drink, though I'll have to admit, that for my money, the Conch Cooler, the signature drink on Disney's Castawy Cay, is actually better.  I'll concuct both this weekend, side by side...for resarch...again.  
 
http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2013/07/15/royal-caribbean-classic-labadoozie

While I haven't tried, Matt has said it hasn't been an issue.  A Labadoozie is the same as a Coco Loco, so Kayla's rationale is sound in that as long as the bartender knows how to make one of those, and has the ingredients, you should be good.

While I haven't tried, Matt has said it hasn't been an issue.  A Labadoozie is the same as a Coco Loco, so Kayla's rationale is sound in that as long as the bartender knows how to make one of those, and has the ingredients, you should be good.

Agreed! The extra $125 OBC was not worth the hassle. I used a regular TA for our 2017 sailing, and so far I am very happy with the service! You live and learn right? 😆

Thanks everyone for your input!! I was able to switch to a D3 on deck 11, no additional costs or loss of OBC!! 🖒

Mark,
 
I'm confident that I speak for Matt and others when I say that this type of feedback makes us genuinly happy.  I have a passion for sharing information about cruises and making sure that people have the best possible vacation ever.  That spans the range of convincing someone to try a cruise for the first time, to sharing new discoveries with friends who have sailed 50+ times.  It's fun for me not because I get to talk to a wall, but because there are people on the other side, and they get to have a great time.  Knowing that this happens, and in your case, takes the addition leap of helping you to then share that experience with others (directly with your wife, and maybe through others via social media), is really awesome.  This, by the way, is a similar passion that great travel agents have, they just have better work ethic than I do, so thank them :-)
 
Thanks so much for sharing your feedback, I'm really looking forward to hearing all about your upcoming cruise.
 
Thanks,
BH

Good Morning,
 
I wanted to share with everyone an email that I sent to Matt last night ...... the more I thought about it, the more I felt this should be shared with everyone.... I owe all of you soooo much as my cruise is fast approaching ......
 
I mentioned a few people in the email to him, but it really belongs to ALL of you, oh, and klaconqueso, I just went with kla, it's all I could remember....lol
 
Thank You ALL so very much,
 
Mark
 
---------------------------------------
 
Matt,

As I just made my payment for our drink packages for my wife and I, I sat back and thought how amazing it is that I "feel" like a seasoned cruiser, even though I only have my third one booked (first one since 2009).  

And the reason for that is YOU.  I started to learn about the do's and don'ts from your podcasts (I still say #71 is your best ever, at least it's the one I learned the most from).  Then came the message board on the blog and Periscope.  Thanks to you, I've made many connections (Rich Triplitt, Tim (Yorkvillain), CruisingKat, Kla, and the ever entertaining, Michael Poole -- oh, and let's not forget Billy scoping the ships leaving Lauderdale.  

You, and the rest of the crew, have taught me and given me the knowledge & confidence to be able to book my upcoming cruise and avoid any unnecessary surprises.  

This will be my wife's first cruise, and being able to avoid any headaches has been paramount.  I want her to fall in love with cruising the way we all have.  We're already looking to book another one while on board for Spring 2018 (of course, if a certain someone announces a group cruise during that time, that may help in the decision as to what cruise we choose)

Again, thank You, and thank you to all the others for making me feel like a member of the RCLblog family.   

Mark Greenwald (aka Coneyraven)
Lonaconing, Allegany Co, Maryland

p.s. I think I'm going to try my hand at Scoping while on Grandeur in September.  I'll try to be as entertaining as Tim (Yorkvillain) was and as informative as Rich was.  That is, unless the Mrs says otherwise... Lol, we'll see, I'll keep you posted.

Keep in mind if you change categories after final payment you're generally being priced at the current price - which may be higher than it was when you first booked.  The price could also be lower, it all depends.  If you're talking a lateral move (same category), this can usually be accomplished by talking to your TA or RCCL.  Once on board these moves are possible by visiting guest services, but made significantly less likely because by that time, there is frequently little or no space available.
 
While I can't speak to the noise of your location, I've only been on one cruise even where I experienced noise from above (and that ship isn't sailing any longer).  Now, maybe that's because I've been lucky, maybe it's because I go to sleep late, maybe I'm just hard of hearing.  That in mind, I still feel like I hear people concerned about noise more than I hear about people complain of noise.
 
Edit: Just spoke with Michael Poole, currently live blogging from the Empress of The Seas (link below) and he complained about noise from the deck chairs above his cabin.  Make a liar out of me ;-)  So as they say, your mileage may vary.
http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/category/category/empress-of-the-seas-live-blog

Your asking this question in addition to it coming up before contributed to the inspiration of the below post that has a nice summary of ways to keep in touch onboard.
http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/07/27/how-stay-touch-someone-your-royal-caribbean-cruise

Very good point, Mark.  It's certainly no guarantee, but gives you a nice idea of what might be to come.  If it was all guaranteed, they'd post the schedule in advance.
I often to do this to figure out exactly what I want to pack.

Assuming you're referring to a port of call (rather than port of embarkation), the all aboard time is usually thirty minutes before what has been published on the itinerary, but these things can change.  The all aboard time appears in the day's Cruise Compass, will be mentioned by the cruise director the evening before and the day of, and is posted on a sign somewhere as you walk off the ship in that port.  Personally, I make it a goal to always arrive one hour before this, just in case.  Cabs get flat tires, traffic jams occurr, etc.

Another option, while not perfect, would be to view the cruise compasses here on the blog, it may be possible to find a cruise identical to the one that you'll be on .....now, it won't be exactly what you'll have, but it'll at least put you in the ballpark.
 
For example, I'm going on the 5-night cruise on Grandeur to Bermuda in September, I was able to find here on the blog, the cruise compasses for the exact same cruise from a couple of weeks ago .......
 
Mark

Agree to disagree:

On this always controversial topic, first, I'd like to thank everyone for their friendly discourse.  ::clapping::
 
The dress code seems to steer people away from shorts and other casual-wear.  While I am not a very formal person, I understand what they're going for.  I also understand others might be not thrilled if they see someone interpreting or acting on the rules as they'd like.  RCCL (or any other cruise line) ends up in an awkward position of wanting all persons to feel comfortable and enjoy their cruise, and that sometimes means they're the bad guy for doing something about it - or not.
 
Now, how do I handle this?  As a very casual person, I'll chime in on my personal take.  Not an angle that I am posing as right or wrong, just my feelings.  
I don't find it takes me much effort at all to put on a pair of pants instead of shorts, or a plain shirt instead of one that says, ,,Ë™looʇs ɹÉq ʎɯ uo ʞɔÉq Çɯ ʇnd 'sᴉɥʇ pÉÇɹ uÉÉ” noÊŽ ÉŸI,,
So, because it takes me so little effort to comply, and because I want to keep the peace and make everyone as happy as possible, I don't wear shorts in the MDR.  Does it matter to me personally?  Nope, as long as no one is sitting in my chair at the dinner before me wearing a wet bathing suit, I'm good.  But again, compliance w/ the dress code and keeping everyone happy is simple for me, as such, my choice is a simple one.