Jack805

The experience was night and day for me between the two recent sailings. I'm sure the efficiency of this at customs will only be increased in coming weeks as it seemed like a VERY recent addition with the setup and the queueing still to go through the facial recognition lanes. But most I talked to after had a longer wait to get scanned off the ship than the walk and going through customs.

Just got off of a sailing in Los Angeles, and in the 2 months since my last trip CBP has added the facial recognition tablets to the Customs clearance process. Wanted to share with the entire community since it dramatically improved clearance times after debarkation. Seemed to have a few hiccups still being new to LA, but it was great to be off the ship and in my car in less than 10 minutes this time. (Also, @Matt could you update the RC Cruise Terminal directions and parking post to show LA parking at $20/day?)

@TessOR looks like the Royal Gift portal is back up as of this morning. Happy ordering!

Oh that's rough to find out that miscalculation happened! I'm still quite a long way off before I get up to the Diamond (or higher) status. But I'll get there soon enough, and even sooner if I keep cruising solo like I have been.

I got paper menus in the MDR (and all other restaurants with menus) with my last cruise a couple months ago, and the host brought the menu from the host stand to the table as I was being seated.

I've looked into the Doubletree for possibly staying the night before (I'm still close enough driving distance to the LA port) but could never find pricing competitive enough to make it worth it for me versus just driving to the port in the morning and parking there. But the hotel looks great for that purpose.

The benefits always start on the following cruise from when they're earned. If you have another cruise before the points "post" and the status is updated (~10 days after cruise is completed), you should be able to go to the Loyalty Desk to have them update the account. I've heard numerous people do this for a B2B where the first cruise made the passenger qualify for the next tier so that the benefits could be used for the subsequent leg.

@bobm174 For Navigator, pretty much everything beverage wise at Cafe Promenade is covered (just not the actual Starbucks location, but that's on a different deck). No smoothies though on Navigator - the WJ "smoothies" are basically just juice of whatever fruit is listed, small but still tasty if you like that fruit in eatable form.

Haven't seen an announcement for reduced single supplement, often it's just being lucky to stumble on it. I found one a few weeks back for a cruise that leaves tomorrow, but only noticed because the price didn't jump in my mock booking after choosing 1 passenger. I think it was due to being a not typical 3 day sailing for the ship during the week and Royal trying to fill the ship up as much as they could (which I think they did because as of last week some cabin categories were showing sold out). But when I saw it as cheap as it was I called my TA to get it on hold, then made sure I could get the time off work and booked it!

Definitely don't have to sign if it's a drink package (or voucher) drink, I don't even think they printed receipts for the zero total transactions. I just have my single or two ready to hand off when I'm getting my card back after applying the drink package to the transaction.

DBP on Navigator sailings dropped to the lowest price I've seen in the last 3 months of watching (seemed to be the every 3 weeks or so "sale" was the cheapest I would go) so I booked at the time, but rebooked today for my upcoming cruises. Just about everything else I saw was the same price or more than what I booked at on other "sales".

I had no problems on Zoom a couple months ago while on board (family does a weekly Zoom call that we started early in the pandemic and continue to this day) that I didn't want to miss but everyone totally would have understood if I didn't check in for that week. The others on the video call were impressed with how good my connection seemed to them for the quality, etc. But there are lots of variables at play and I may have just gotten lucky. I did go to a more open area of the ship though where I had found more consistent connections previously in the sailing versus my cabin (which always seemed to be slower and more lagging speeds).

The "Zero Proof Cocktails" can be hard to find on the app's menus, as not every bar has it show on the app. But most are available at every bar, so once you find the spot in the app to find it quickly just look there when needed down the road.

The blueberry nojito was pretty tasty, though the final result can vary depending on the bartender making it. But I liked it for being not too sweet (even with the blueberry puree used) but light and refreshing with the mint, lime, and soda. The mocktails were $8 on my last sailing in August and showing as $7 now in the app for my upcoming one. I would have expected it to go up to $9 given the price increase for the alcoholic beverages, but then again this is Royal and their pricing logic.

I always make sure to check that the ambient humidity where I am at is in the sweet spot of 43.6-45.7% as part of the process

It's definitely been a pretty good bargain from what I've seen lately. I'm roughly 1.5-2 hours drive from the port in LA so I have a feeling I'll be doing a bit of sailing on Navigator too in the near future, and am trying to get friends and family to book some trips to experience the ship etc, as well. I want to explore some other ships and destinations, but just keep cringing whenever I see the airfare to try and get to those places. So I'll just keep enjoying Navigator for now, it's a pretty "just right" ship for me with the mix of size and amenities, especially with the things that got added with the fairly recent amplification.

I see myself doing solo cruising a lot. I still consider myself a newbie cruiser but was happy to see I got double points on my first cruise (since most stuff I saw said you wouldn't on the first cruise) but definitely not complaining about getting a better result than expected! I'm normally a planner for stuff like trips involving an overnight stay, but I have been trying to lean into the go with the flow and seize a good opportunity for a trip mentality, especially with a drivable option for a cruise nearby (to get away from work for a few days to reset via a happy place on a ship). If I end up going for the couple trips I'm looking at, I'll have gone from never cruising to hitting Platinum within 4 months on (mostly except for a 7-night) short sailings.

Thanks! I'm pretty sure Navigator doesn't have any studio cabins, and I did a mock booking on Royal's site using the same cabin (so same category) and trying single was half the cruise fare as two people. I'm sure there are any number of reasons why they might waive the single supplement, but in my mind I'm thinking it might be them trying to fill up more of the ship on an unusual 3-night sailing during the middle of the week heading into November. Good to know, hadn't seen that "discount" on the breakdown before, and threw me off when it still showed if trying to price for two to confirm the single passenger booking rate was the same as the per person if two.

Thanks for all the insight! I was pretty sure (in typical Royal fashion) that all departments involved would work together to make it as seamless as possible for the transition to help me have a great experience should I decide to book. I'm still trying to decide if I want to give up the weekend after returning from my week-long getting things back in order before having to head to work - or to just take those extra couple days to enjoy more cruise time before having to get back to reality... But the odds seem to be tipping toward more time on board... Definitely would be easier if I got to stay in the same cabin (I have family who frequent another line that will sometimes book a B2B on board, but only if they can keep the same cabin). I'm still at that point where I think of my cabin just as the place I sleep, shower, and get dressed so I don't really care where/what cabin I'm in. But those family mentioned earlier want their specific cabin and hate when they try to "upgrade" their cabin because they chose it for reasons beyond just what the specific room category is.

Same 11/11 Navigator sailing for me! (At least right now, 10/31 Navigator sailing is tempting me but haven't convinced myself to see if I can get the days off work just yet) I'm also tempted to add a 11/18 booking to make a B2B with the 11/11, even though options are more limited than Florida being driving distance from LA has triggered the cruise wanderlust in me.

If booking a sailing with a single passenger, do you still get double C&A points if a "single supplement" isn't charged at 200%? I came across a sailing that's a few weeks out that the price didn't double from the per person rate when I chose just one passenger, and I don't think that the ship (Navigator) has any solo cabins from what I have seen (and I know solo cabins only give 1 point per night). Mock booking for the same category room seemed to show only double rate when two people selected for the room, and per passenger rate stayed the same for single traveler. There was a line in the discount section that said "Single NRD $0.00" that I hadn't seen before on a booking, but that line was there with two guests too. If I can still get double points (without paying double fare) that can make the sailing look that much better.

Thanks to finding out about the current Going Going Gone sale, I saw that one of the sailings listed was a 3-night that departs and is on the same ship as a 7-night I'm booked on next month. Since seeing this, I'm really tempted to book a B2B, but just want to know how the debark/embark process works for someone who has B2B sailings booked? Is luggage transferred to the new room (since for the price difference I might book it as a GTY room for the additional sailing)? Do you get scanned off then scanned right back on for the next sailing? Do you just go through Customs at the end of the final journey? Thanks in advance for all of the knowledge and assistance!

Glad you got all squared away @Pinky, hope you enjoy your trip!

I do this as well. Mostly to check to make sure my account wasn't "counted" for a towel delivered to my room when the form looked like it sent on day 1 but I never got the towel. Since they just scanned the towel back in it's easy for them to see if there are any still "outstanding".

If it still doesn't show in the app @Pinky, try signing out and then back in again. I've had issues where things from my cruise didn't show in the app (including the entire reservation for a recent booking). On rare occasions I've had to delete the app and reinstall it to get things to work, but I've heard from others that they have had to sign out and back in to get updates to show in the app as well.