forests_lover

1 hour ago, twangster said:

Cruise Planner is normally closed 48 hours before a cruise.

Are you on board?  The app schedule that we have access to as the general public off the ship won't be the same as what guests on board have access to on board.  There is refresh link in the app on board that we can't use off the ship.  

If you are on board I'd be curious if this URL works for you from the ship's wifi with or without a paid Voom plan:

https://minio.rccl.com/compass/cruisecompass.pdf

 

Im not onboard, the ship got delayed by 1 day, just curious on how that would reflect on the app

Cruise planner is not updating with this delay

11 hours ago, forests_lover said:

did anyone try to purchase new items from the new planner (2) website and appear in the original planner (1) website ? coz im planning to do so as my sail is very soon

I just did that successfully with a small issue, the newly purchased item appears on the new planner website but doesn't appear on the mobile app, i believe guest services desk in the ship fixes that for me ..

did anyone try to purchase new items from the new planner (2) website and appear in the original planner (1) website ? coz im planning to do so as my sail is very soon

1 hour ago, twangster said:

If the new version is "My Royal Cruises" beware that some items have taxes and/or gratuity added near the end of check out while the old Cruise Planner bundled some of those items in at the start. 

It can make it look cheaper until you go all the way through the check out process.  

If you previously purchased at sales prices be very careful and don't assume that new look with a cheaper price is really cheaper once they add in taxes or gratuity as you check out.

yeah, I tried to add the UDP (without paying the price), I noticed that they add some extra cost you mentioned above but it still way cheaper than the UDP i purchased from the original planner website, and the weird thing that the new planner (2) website doesn't mention anything related to my already purchased UDP from Planner (1) website as they sound completely different websites that each one doesn't know about the other.

Yes as the title says ...

I'm sailing on Wonder on Nov, 27 (after a week now) and RC is playing with their planner website for black Friday deals, resulting in having a brand new planner website in addition to the regular normal one.

Planner 1 (the regular): can be accessed by going to Royal Caribbean's website, press on top left menu icon, choose sign in ... after signing in, press on the same menu icon again and choose: Manage My Cruise option and then choose Cruise Planner sub-option, the final url is :

https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/cruiseplanner/?bypass=true

I can see my full order history with my purchases.

Planner 2 (the new one): can be accessed by going to Royal Caribbean's website, sign in, press on the top right button that has my initials, then choose my cruise and press on Plan my cruise button, the final url is:

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/account/cruise-planner?bookingId=xxxx&shipCode=WN&sailDate=20221127   [where xxxx is my booking id]

when I open my order history in the new planner, it shows this message:

You don’t have any orders yet
After checkout is complete, your purchases
will be listed here

and when checking the deals on the new planner I found out that it has completely different prices than the ones in Planner 1 (much cheaper).

However, the mobile app shows my past purchases normally.

Did anyone face such weird thing ? I'm asking because I want to cancel my orders and purchase new ones as they are much cheaper.

Thank you guys for the help.

7 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

The UDP doesn't have a lot of upcharges, just more so restrictions. I don't eat lobster, but I have heard that most of it is good at specialty restaurants. Also, pretty much every restaurant has a steak and sort of upscale seafood option. Imho the steak at Chops is my least favorite, the one at Hooked is about 14x better. 

why's the steak better in Hooked ? is it the cooking style or the type of meat and cut ? I eat steaks well-done so I may not feel much difference when I try both.

2 hours ago, Ryan79 said:

You are NOT getting Maine lobster without a surcharge….end of story. Period. The lobster at 150 is warm water as are the lobsters in the MDR at lobster night. Same with Hooked. If you have your heart set on free Maine lobster, you booked the wrong cruise line. You will be paying a upcharge on RCL

AFAIK, any item on the menu that's marked with a price is an up-charge item, exactly like the Lobster at Chop's Grille  which has $20 (marked) up-charge, but the ones at Hooked and 150 Central Park are not marked with any price, I will ask the waiter when I get there.

I am a non-US and non-Canadian foreign visitor to the US, I have a multiple entry visitor US visa, is it enough to sail the 7-night cruise, the itinerary is:

Orlando (Port Canaveral), Florida

Perfect Day at CocoCay, Bahamas

Nassau, Bahamas

Falmouth, Jamaica

 Labadee, Haiti

 Orlando (Port Canaveral), Florida

or should I obtain visa for each country listed above ?

23 hours ago, Pooch said:

Abject lesson on the value of a good Travel Agent.  

I just finished switching my cruise to Wonder of the seas,  7 nights from Port Canaveral into some Caribbean destinations, I've paid no penalties, just the price difference, I told them that one of your colleagues told me that's not possible to switch cruise without a cancellation and re-booking, which's turned out to be the opposite ...

now, returning back to main topic  is Eating Maine Lobster under UDP in Wonder of The Sea free of charge ?

I figured out why there are only 8 restaurants show up on the mobile app, i am on a totally different ship, I'm a first time cruiser here, and I'm kind of lost among app and website features when I back did the reservation, anyway that got me to choose the right date for myself but the wrong ship, my ship is Freedom of the Seas, which's no more than a "bottom-glass boat" comparing to Wonder, in terms of everything, from entertainment, to pools to dining, etc .. so I called RRCL to ask for a sail change (to enjoy the cruise on Wonder), they told me that's not possible, the only possible thing to do is to cancel the reservation and get a refund of 75% of the total paid amount and then reserve Wonder of the seas cruise, I've carefully read their cancellation policy and turned out that the customer service rep was wrong, the policy says that I will be refunded 50% of the total cruise amount if the sail date is more than 62 days, which's unacceptable to lose half of what I paid.

On 6/7/2022 at 11:34 PM, twangster said:

In the Cruise Compass section:

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compass

You can look over past cruises and see what restaurants were open on ports days on each ship in the past.

can i get cruise compass for my upcoming cruise in next November ?

6 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

You won't be able to make reservations for the UDP until you board the ship.

good to know that ... can you tell me why there are only 8 speciality restaurants currently listed in the dining section in the app (sail date will be late November, 2022) ?

does it mean that the number of restaurants to open depends on the capacity of the ship at day of travel ?

4 hours ago, Pooch said:

Nope, only on lobster night, typically the second “dress your best” night.  If you have the app downloaded (and if you don’t, do it) you can view menus for pretty much every specialty restaurant and the MDR by clicking on Dining.

I have downloaded the app and checked the restaurants column under the dining section, they have only 8 restaurants listed in that section other than the MDR, which’s weird coz there are lots of restaurants not mentioned like: Wonderland, The Mason Jar and Hooked, my cruise is Wonder of the seas which have about 20 restaurants including the above.

So does that mean the UDP doesn’t cover more than 8 specialty restaurants which are those listed in dining section in the app ?

one more weird thing: I tried to hit the “Reserve Now” button in Chop’s Grille page and when I pick up a time slot, it shows me a price and my saved credit card to pay that cost if i want to reserve that restaurant, where it should be free considering the I have the UDP.

19 hours ago, Pooch said:

The complementary lobster tails are NOT cold water Maine lobsters.  

can i get this tail in the MDR ? if yes, are there specific days for it or is it every day ?

14 minutes ago, twangster said:

The UDP gets you in the door instead of paying for that visit on a one meal at a time basis.  Beyond getting in the door the UDP had no special power at cover charge venues.    

wow this is interesting to know, they don't tell you that clearly in the description page for the UDP.

51 minutes ago, USCG Teacher said:

There really isn't one unless you're completely enamored by a dish that is specific to the MDR. 

If there's an upcharge, it will be specifically called out on the menu.  This is a sample of a page of the Chops Grille.  Note how the Broiled 1 1/2 lb. Maine Lobster is the only dish with a price included. 

wow, I was really looking for a sample menu, thank you dude.

However, by showing $21 beside the Maine Lobster meal, does that mean that if i order it, then I will be credited the $20 that's mentioned in the UDP description page which says: "For restaurants with a la carte pricing, you’ll receive a $20 food credit."

resulting in $1 + 18% gratuity as a total charge ??

14 minutes ago, Ryan79 said:

The places that serve lobster as an up charge are NOT considered Al a carte pricing. Playmakers and Izumi are al a carte. Chops is not. You just aren’t going to get Maine lobster for free with the UDP….isn’t happening. 

how do you know that Chops is not a la carte restaurant while Izumi is ?  the UDP description page says the following:

"For restaurants with a la carte pricing, you’ll receive a $20 food credit."

and the following: "For ships with these venues, Teppanyaki/Izumi Hibachi is included, with a $10 surcharge, Chef's Table is included, with a $49.99 surcharge, and Dadong is included, with a $35 surcharge. These will be charged once onboard."

so it's unreasonable that i will be charged $10 at Izumi's Hibachi while at the same time I'll be given a $20 credit to eat there (according to the statement above) 

1 hour ago, twangster said:

You don't need the UDP to eat steak in the MDR when it's on the menu but the steak in the MDR is not from Chops Grille, the steak house on board.  I typically don't eat MDR steak because I find the cut of meat not to my liking but others may be fine with MDR steak.  

The UDP does not cover upcharges on the MDR menu for lobster or Chops Grille steaks.  You need to visit Chops to eat a Chops steak included with the UDP.  At least in my experience.  I've not heard of anyone who was able to get MDR upgrades included in the UDP but perhaps it has happened.  

what's the point of dining at the MDR while I have UDP to dine at specialty restaurants which I guess is way better than the MDR.

The description page for the UDP doesn't state that I have a certain amount of balance to not exceed at each specialty restaurant or a surcharge will be added to my account, except for this phrase: "For restaurants with a la carte pricing, you’ll receive a $20 food credit."

The question is: how does someone know that an item like "Maine Lobster" (if it's on the menu at a specialty restaurant) is covered or not by the UDP ?

I have purchased the UDP package for my upcoming Miami-Bahamas (first ever) cruise in next November on Wonder Of The Seas, after reading the description on the UDP page on RCCL website it states that there may be some surcharges, I've read a lot in this forum and other forums (Cruise Critic) about different people stories regarding those surcharges, so decided not to do mistakes that may incur me extra costs over the UDP original cost.

We don't drink Alcohol, we will not choose Hibachi option at Izumi, and we mainly look for Maine lobsters and steaks.

can we eat Maine lobsters and steaks without being charged the surcharges ? if yes, where to eat them ?

Thank you in advance.