jeffporfirio

The "free" Wi-Fi only works with the app, so they would most likely need an internet package to cast. 

Yes - Odyssey is one of the few ships that is enabled with Chromecast 'casting'. We used the feature often in our room. 
I think you likely need to be connected to the wifi, but not positive that you'll need to have the internet package. 

Quality. That seems to be disappearing.

The wine package. Seems like it was around $75 for 5 bottles and the waiter would bring it to your table and pour.

Thanks to this board and check-in suggestions. I was able to grab the 10:30 slot for all 4 of our cabins. Today (4/28) was our 45 days out for our sailing out of Seattle on the Quantum OTS (June 12). We had huge storms last night that woke me up.  I got up knowing that it was after midnight Pacific time, so I jumped on my phone thru the App and got the early times I wanted.  Much thanks to all. 👍

First time on RCCL for us  (group of 7). We are doing a tour of Italy on our own afterwards

Items readily available onboard like this, usually no problems.  Someone will run and fetch the items if they don't have them on-hand in the kitchen at a particular restaurant.

You already paid gratuities for your specialty dining when you purchased the UDP (18% was added to the daily per person price when you checked out).  That covers your specialty dining whether you eat every possible meal as specialty or not.  (Not counting any upcharges for fancy entrees at a few places.)
The standard gratuities which you can also pre-pay cover your room steward, some behind the scenes staff, and your non-specialty dining wait staff.  Even if you never have dinner in the MDR, some of these gratuities still go to them because they also work in the buffet and other dining locations that you may still use. 

I have done UDP on 6 cruises this year and this is how they have worked.  It might change.
You can eat at any of the Specialty Restaurants for lunch and dinner when they are open. You can eat at Johnny Rockets one time a day. You can eat at Playmakers with the $20 limit a time. At Izumi's you get one small dish and 2 large dishes and desert.  This is more than one person would want to eat. There is not a limit on eating.  On Thanksgiving I had lunch at Jonny Rockets, afternoon wings at Playmakers, Dinner at Chops, Turkey and Ham at Windjammer and desert at Jamies. Notes:
figure out where you want to eat dinner each night.  As soon as you get on the ship book your reservations. You can book on the ship app or go to one of the open restaurants to book it for you. After the first day most of the reservations are full except for 8:00 and 8:30 reservations

As @CGTLH said, almost all of the specialty restaurants should have chicken fingers & fries. If you're worried that one may not (Izumi maybe?), stopping in the day before and letting the staff know your request would almost certainly guarantee that they could accommodate you.  Those items are found all over the ship, and the staff is always willing to help out when able to!

Chicken fingers and fries are available on the kids menu at most, if not all, specialty restaurants.

Not sure.  We sailed Brilliance out of Ravenna this summer and the chair hogs were out every day.  Most of the passengers were from Europe.   Even though it didn't seem like the ship was full, every chair on the pool decks and solarium were occupied by blue towels all day.  We ended up finding chairs on the bow below the gym. 

Here is a link to all drink prices posted on this site recently  https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/royal-caribbean-drink-prices

MSC just dumping money into building cruise ships, Virgin coming online in the last couple years, bargain cruise lines like Margaritaville at Sea, etc. all have an impact.  Coupled with the new ships coming online for NCL, Disney, Princess, and Carnival and you now have a glut of overall cruising inventory.  The older ships need to go offline (aside from a few niche itineraries or seasonality destinations) and cruise lines need to stop discounting the older (but still new within the last 5-8 years) as soon as a new ship comes into the fold.  The old model of capturing revenue when cruisers are on board isn't what I see as the new way of going.  Sure, you will capture liquor sales revenue and some shopping, but photography isn't as big as it was 10-15 years ago.  Shore excursions seem like poor value for the dollar especially if you do a little research on tours available at and just outside the port and again, not like it was 15 or longer years ago.  Casinos make money I'm sure, but they still seem to be giving away free cruises for fairly low throughput which tells me that perhaps the gambling isn't like it was pre-pandemic.  
I also think that the packages they offer in advance takes some of the revenue away.  If I can pay about $86/day (gratuity included) to drink whatever I want while on the cruise or one of the cruise island destinations, I'm drinking more than if I pay out of pocket for those drinks. A couple coffees, a couple beers, 4-5 bottles of water, a few whiskeys and I'm taking advantage of the package, not adding revenue while paying per drink.  Same with dining, if they charged cover fees and didn't offer the packages, it might net into more overall people trying paid dining vs. catering to the person that bought a package that can get mostly what they want for something like $30/day.
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cjtv172r25U/

You have to schedule the meals once onboard. The 5:30 on the first day is just a placeholder with no real significance. Get there early enough to do a specialty lunch also. My first task when doing UDP is to reserve all my meals - even before muster.

If it does not work in the app log in on the website.  

Boarding times are first come, first serve, but hopefully RC can give you whatever paperwork you need to get to the front of lines once you to arrive.
 
There are typically 4 places (might vary by port) you could encounter a line.
 
1) Outside the terminal checking that you have a set sail pass.
2) Security line, typical of your airport security line
3) The actual check-in desk
4) Boarding the ship. Even once the ship is cleared for boarding there still could be a line to have your set sail pass scanned to board.

Jeff you mentioned you aren't doing AOTS, I believe you might be able to switch the cruise over to them if it isn't too late.  And if it is, I know that they've given RC some sort of designation as being autism friendly.  I would contact RC's special needs department and explain your situation, perhaps they could make arrangements for boarding?  It's been many years since my little guy (now 20) needed accommodations on board, but I do recall that if the right people were made aware, they'd do everything they could.   Your TA might be right, it might be on your official paperwork/info, but my concern would be getting that information to the right people with the right timing.  Also, can you stay in Civitavecchia itself the night before the cruise, to minimize the craziness, instead of coming in from Rome city?  I recall it's a bit of a schlep from Rome to the port.

I would not send anything for the wash and fold service that you really care about. They do a fine job, but you can tell they're definitely using very hot water and very hot drying for anything that goes in for the wash and fold. Most of the time I'll only send t-shirts, socks, and underwear. 

Okay, for some really cheap tricks, but unfortunately,  not the band. 
Clean your formal wear when you get back home. Ditto for heavy or bulky items. 
Get some clothes that dry quickly when handwashing. Think nylon or wicking material. Costco and Macy's carry 32 degrees.  The shirts dry quick. 
I have not done this one, but the room is good for magnets. Put up a clothesline while you sleep with heavy duty 🧲 magnets. 
I admit to this one. The pool towels can be easily replaced at the kiosk. Press your hand washables to get most water out of it before hanging to dry. Exchange for fresh towels. 
I use hand wash for clothes while traveling.  
My husband swears by this one: a stained t-shirt looks better after some time in a hot tub.

So, they actually hold most of the reservation times for people onboard. The people who pay outright for a dinner are subject to a small number of reservations for those times, which is probably why the most popular times are already gone. 
With a decent boarding time, you should have no problem getting the times you want........unless you have a huge party. Obviously if it is 6+ people there may be a small issue with getting larger tables.

As long as you are in the ship early and go straight to a specialty restaurant, you should have no issues getting the time and venue you want….within +\- 15 minutes. 

No apologies necessary.
1. Host at Chops can make all resos for all venues.
2. Yes but it is quicker and easier to make the resos in preson. 
3. Prime Times?  That depends on when you board.  If you are one of the first 100 or so people to board, like we usually are, there is no times that you should worry about getting.  You should get the times you ask for.  If you board later in the day, then the Host will tell you what is available according to your preferences.
4. I don't know about large resos.  I only cruise with my family of 4.
5. Yes. Lunch and Dinner reservations.  BUT---your question is do you "need."  You can always see if the venue can accomodate you.  For instance, Izumi was usually pretty empty between 11:30 and noon-thirty most days and I saw walk-ins often.  BUT----Jamie's Italian had wait lists 10 names long for most lunch and dinners.
My advice is to eat at specialty restaurants early.  Since you are an early diner, my advice would be amicable to your needs.  I say eat specialty early because you can always eat a second dinner around 7 or 8, or even 10, but specialty dining venues are really packed later in the evening.  Besides, I don't want to eat a second dinner at Chops after still digesting food from Windjammer; do it the other way around.

I don't cruise until October, and this is my first RCL cruise, but they appear to be standard plastic bottled water like you would buy at the grocery store.
Screen grab from RCL site