forests_lover

oh man i feel so bad for the crew having to work the WJ at 3:45am. not only is the first day their longest from start to finish but now tacking on that early wakeup and turn around -- woof.

Post Canaveral also put out an E-mail that says they will be docking the Independence at Terminal 6 and busing passengers over to their parking deck at terminal 1 later Monday morning also............so expect a mess

Probably not perfectly, but the cruise director staff will update and plan new activities that the digital manager on board will get added to the app.  They are probably making announcements reminding guests to refresh the app.  
The URL posted above allows for that's days cruise compass to be downloaded as a PDF file.  Those aren't available off ship either.  On board the URL will point to a local server on the ship.  Not all ships feature a local PDF of the cruise compass so I was curious to see if Wonder did.    

Cruise planner is not updating with this delay

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.

Thank you guys for the help.

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.

The only thing that is required is the ESTA which is for entry to US. 
As long as you have that then you are OK. 
 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/non-united-states-citizen-travel-documentation
 

It was flavor, juiciness and cooking IMHO at Hooked that made it a better steak. Maybe because I have eating steak so many other places but other than the Beach club steak, I hate whatever marinade/seasons they use, every steak everywhere has been better than Chops. I do medium to a medium well, haven't done well done so don't know if that will change the flavor and such. 

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. 

UDP is the ultimate dining plan.  Both of those restaurants are included with the UDP.

Remember both of those restaurants are an up charge.  So if you get a 3 night dining package you could be fine.  The lobster at the 150 is Lobster Thermador which is pretty good in my opinion. I think it is a warm water lobster tail. 

Glad it turned out for you but a TA wouldn’t have let you make that mistake in the first place.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/menus/hooked-seafood-menu-sample.pdf
It's on the menu at Wonder.
There's also lobster on the menu at 150 Central Park, but it doesn't specify it is Maine lobster.
https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/menus/one-hundred-fifty-central-park-menu-sample.pdf

The short answer is yes, it's possible to get a 6PM reservation once on board.  The website is only showing what availability they are selling pre-cruise.  Royal does not publish what percentage of availability is held back for UDP or other on board bookings but frequent cruisers with UDP report no trouble getting what they want.  Of course, the standard caveats apply.  The later you board and the later you get around to making your UDP reservations, the more flexible you might have to get.

Freedom isn't bad, it's just not Oasis class. I would do Freedom over any other non-Oasis class ship as it is still fun. The El Loco Fresh is awesome and so are the other speciality restaurants. Wonder is the newest with all the bells and whistles, so lots of ships look like "crap" in comparison. 

It depends on how much time we have. 90% of the time we will eat breakfast but back when we were flying, sometimes we had to skeedaddle and get to the airport.  Much nicer if you have time for that last, leisurely breakfast before the rude jolt back to reality.

That would be pretty cool.  In reality the Cruise Compass is created on board by the cruise director staff and they are literally making it up the day before and sometimes the day it's printed.  For food venues and dining times those don't change much cruise to cruise but for show times they can make minor tweaks going with the flow of what's happening each sailing.   

@forests_lover The amount of specialty restaurants on Wonder is on the higher end, some ships have 2-4. There are only 8 specialty restaurants that are included in the UDP, the other places are complimentary. There are no venues closed due to capacity. 

If you're on Wonder, lobster is on the menu at Hooked. Hooked is included in the UDP.

Not really. Best you can do is look up  a past CC for your ship with the same itinerary.

The price you pay(or don't pay) for the UDP is that you can't make reservations until you board. If you try booking now it does not recognize your UDP purchase.
It is treated as a normal reservation at current price of venue at that time.

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

The Maine lobster is an UPCHARGE, not ala carte pricing.  Ala carte venues have prices next to every item.