ColdRingo

We leave on Saturday out of Fort Lauderdale, 2 sea days then the St. Croix and Tortola. Hard to say if we'll get an itinerary change or not.

Regardless, if all they do take the Adventure of the Seas out and do circles in the Gulf, I'm still going to enjoy the hell out of my vacation!  

I think I booked mine 1 day at a time, which worked. Not as efficient though....

8 Days till departure (and 7 days till we fly)!

This thread was a great read - wife and I are sailing on the Apex in December to try out Celebrity.  I'm not upset about the status match at all..

This explains why there aren't any CoCo Beach Club options for our August 2024 cruise...oh well. It gives me a reason to periodically check the planner.

On 10/10/2022 at 10:32 PM, TMatl said:

 

WHOA!!  So the Mason Jar has EH Taylor for $13 a drink?  Wow, that’s Awesome.  EH is head and shoulders better than any bourbon on that list.  I have 13 bottles of EH and thankfully do as it’s become hard to find.  There’s liquor stores near me where I can find Eagle Rare for $45-50.  And not usually hard to find.  Baker’s is another great bourbon and rather hard to find.  EH and Bakers on a cruise?  That is awesome, take advantage of those two bourbons.  Don’t waste your time on the others. 

I went on Harmony just before Covid, the final cruise before they stopped.  They had a big barrel cut open in the liquor shop and they filled it with bottles of Blantons—$80/bottle which is basically retail price.  They were promoting they had every letter in stock (the letter on the cap by the horses back leg).  There were over 30 bottles in/on the barrel.  I have 6 bottles at home but grabbed 3 bottles while I had the chance.  I went on Harmony again this year expecting to find the Blantons again and they didn’t have it on the ship.  I’m guessing their supply chain got cut off or short. 

Just got off the Harmony in April of this year - they had a ton of Blanton's for sale at the Port Merchant's shop. We picked up 2 bottles, $110 each, which is about halfway between retail and what you can find on the secondary market.  No complaints from us! 

I haven't done this, but last week on the Harmony we were able to cancel our beach excursion in Costa Maya (with open bar) because of the sargassum in the seas and on the beaches there. Royal actually sent us flyers giving us the option on Day one of the cruise, so our assumption was that the beaches there aren't currently that great. We had a nice, mostly empty ship day... 

Our recent cruise (April 15-22 on the Harmony) had a stop in Roatan. We picked this excursion: Mayan Princess Beach Experience with Lunch and Drinks. The club was nice, lunch was good (5 courses) and it included an open bar.  The beach was very well kept, and chairs were provided with umbrellas and some open beach beds.  Water was beautiful - it was a great choice for anyone wanting a few hours at a nice beach. I think it's a newer option, because one of the Royal Caribbean shore excursion team accompanied us to evaluate the excursion. I chatted with him afterward, and he said he thought it was well managed and would be expanding the number of slots available for each ship that stopped there.

My lone complaint would be that every 5 or 10 minutes someone is coming up to you and selling shirts, trinkets, massages, etc.  As long as you can get past that, it's a pretty good choice (IMO) in Roatan.

Same thing happened to us yesterday for our sailing out if Miami on the Harmony. Took about 14 seconds to answer the questions during boarding though. 

Just boarded Harmony in Miami with Sea Class designation. Waved us right into the Suite line and we were on the ship in 10 minutes. It was the smoothest boarding process we've had yet.

15 minutes ago, Lexster said:

I didn't mind the mattress, but I had an aching neck most nights from the pillows. I'll be bringing my own memory foam pillow for sure.

That's one thing we always ask for from the stateroom attendant - 2 extra pilows!

15 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

UGH. Thanks for the warning.  I do notice that my SSP now have "suite" on them so I think the issue has been resolved.  For how long ?  Who knows....

Let you know in 2 days how our Junior Suite with Sea Class and Diamond tags goes in Miami....

Mixed bag for us - have had a couple of cruises where the beds weren't all that comfortable, but generally they're fine. One nice thing about the JS cabins and up is the pillowtop mattress, which we generally find more comfortable. YMMV, of course.

I just checked the app for our sailing in 3 days - it's there for CK. I see Lunch, Dinner, and Bar menus for all 7 days.  Since we're in a junior suite and don't appear likely to win that RU upgrade, we probably won't get a chance to eat there regardless. We'll check though, never know if they have a spot! 

Nice! We're doing this exact same cruise in....3 days. April 15th sailing.  I'll be interested in reading your notes about it and comparing it our own experience.

On 3/11/2023 at 11:04 AM, smokeybandit said:

Atlantis not happy

 

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ports-destinations/atlantis-chief-calls-bahamas-reconsider-royal-beach-club

Boohoo.  Maybe Atlantis could offer something more compelling that would get people off the boat (honestly I rarely get off in Nassau these days).

Besides, Royal is just one cruise line that stops there...plenty of additional $$'s to be had if you can provide people with an incentive to spend them (read: something fun and worth doing on your vacation).

One. More. Week.  

Prices do fluctuate, though seem to generally trend up...

Having said that, it's totally worth watching the prices after you book. The first time we booked an overwater cabana for the family (it's been more than a year), we caught a $400 price drop prior to sailing. The cruise we have booked for September I did the same thing, but this time we caught an $1100 dollar price drop (including taxes, etc.).  Just cancel and rebook - but do be aware you run the risk of not getting the rebook if people are trying to book at the same time.

On 4/5/2023 at 8:13 AM, SeasAdventure said:

What was your bid, I'm 0-fer!

Hah - me too. 0 for 4 so far, and in about 8 more days likely 0-5! 

On 3/18/2023 at 8:09 AM, ColdRingo said:

This thread made me curious, so I looked at our digital set sail passes (web and in the Royal app) as well. They say neither "Sea" nor "Suite" in both cases, though both should be true (we're currently setup for a junior suite on the Harmony for a cruise on 4/15).  Guess we'll see how it turns out!

Anyone know if you can add your set sail pass to Google Wallet, for the Android crowd among us?

10 days out from our cruise on the Harmony from Miami and...our digital Set Sail Passes now say "Sea Class" on them.  TBD on whether or not that gets us into the priority boarding area (though we have the Key, so it's not like we'll be waiting too long either way).  

I've never sailed on the Mariner, so your mileage may vary, but...we do the Key on most of our sailings. The menu is the Chops lunch menu (most of it), and generally it's good food.  We like it because it's a quieter place to have lunch shortly after you board (usually just enough time to take care of the safety briefing video and check in at our muster station before the lunch). On some of the ships there's a reservations desk right there when you check in for the lunch too, which is handy for getting all your dinner reservations set if you need to.  Plus, you can check your carry-on luggage right there and they'll get it up to your room for you, if you're so inclined (we're about 50/50 on needing the carry-on stuff handled).

Enjoy the lunch AND your cruise!

Agreed on the Freestyle machines - we've been on cruises w/no issues and on cruises with specific options (we're big on Coke Zero) already out on Day 1. Some cruises Coke Zero is so rare it could be used as currency.... 

For the Coke Zero issue specifically, we've often had good luck finding one or more bars that have them in stock in the coolers, and periodically picking up a can or 2 and storing them in our cabin fridge. It's always good to make friends with the bartenders, even if you're just getting soda refills or bottled water.

For those that use a Travel Agent - does this problem (mostly) go away?  Just curious since I've always booked my own cruises and excursions via the website.

This thread made me curious, so I looked at our digital set sail passes (web and in the Royal app) as well. They say neither "Sea" nor "Suite" in both cases, though both should be true (we're currently setup for a junior suite on the Harmony for a cruise on 4/15).  Guess we'll see how it turns out!

Anyone know if you can add your set sail pass to Google Wallet, for the Android crowd among us?

19 minutes ago, ZBrady said:

Hmm, that shouldn't have been the case. Those drinks are included. 

That's what we thought too, but they showed up on my bill at the end.