CruisinMikeD

Is anyone else here an MGM Rewards member, Gold tier or higher? If so, have you had any difficulties getting Royal Caribbean to honor the onboard benefits? On my recent booking on the Allure, this was very easy to do. I called in, they verified my MGM account number, and in 48 hours I had my $125 in onboard credits applied to my account. Super easy. Now, I booked another cruise on the Oasis for this November, and Royal is refusing to honor my MGM Gold-tier onboard benefits. The phone representative from Casino Royale claimed the onboard benefits are allowed only once annually, but this is wrong - it is applied per sailing. Only the Annual Complementary Cruise benefit (i.e. a free cruise), for MGM Platinum members and above, is allowed once annually. Has anyone else experienced any problems? On another note, if I book through a travel agent, is this issue a good example of something they can handle for me?

Which cruise have you been on where old folks have been bothering you and coming unglued on someone else's kids? Personally I've never seen this. Please feel free to share.

Sorry to say, this was not the case on the Allure last week. The Bistro was about as loud as the WJ on some mornings. It would be nice, if possible, to have just one adults-only venue to eat at, at least on the larger ships. There are many other great options on the Oasis-class ships for families to enjoy.

Yes, kids are allowed in the Solarium Bistro... but maybe this should change.

Solarium Bistro was jammed full of people last week on the Allure. I was lucky to get a table the last day of the cruise. It was loud, and parents brought their kids. (Yes, kids are allowed in the bistro, but not the Solarium itself.) Food was mostly the same as the WJ. The WJ usually works best for me, as I prefer a quick breakfast. Last week my stateroom was on deck 14 near the stairs - easy to grab a plate full of food and take it back to my balcony to have a quiet and private breakfast! The MDR is good if you're not in a hurry and prefer to be waited on. The food quality is better than the WJ in my opinion. It just takes time, and sometimes the food will not be hot.

We just got back from the Allure and our experience with the food quality was excellent. The MDR crew knocked it out of the park. The food in the MDR was absolutely top notch... with the exception of - get this - The Key welcome lunch and departure breakfast. It was shocking to me that The Key meals were by far the worst meals on our trip, with the worst service. The food came out lukewarm, and the staff seemed lost. I'll post my review of The Key in another thread, but in short, I won't buy the Key again - it was a big disappointment. Aside from The Key meals, most all of the food on the Allure in every venue was delicious. MDR - amazing, every night we went. We had two excellent lunches in the MDR as well, and a very good breakfast. Windjammer - couldn't go wrong here with the quick food. Breakfast always worked out fast with plenty of choices. Try the kanji! Solarium Bistro - love the made to order omelets. Sorrento's - better than I remember. They've stepped up their pizza quality a bit. Izumi Hibachi - stellar, delicious lobster, scallops, and beef - cooked perfectly. Mochi and sesame balls were excellent desserts. My 2nd favorite restaurant. 150 Central Park - easily the best food on the ship: amazing scallops, perfect soup, and the fried cheesecake is the best dessert of all. After trying 150 for the first time, this is now a must book for us on every cruise. Chef's Table - delicious courses, but surprisingly inconsistent quality with the main course fillet. My lady's was cooked perfectly, but mine was chewy and dried out on the outside. The bad main course, plus the poor communication over where to meet to begin the meal (we had to sneak in to the diamond lounge and ask the host where to go), has made me fall out of love with the Chef's Table. I very much prefer 150 Central Park. Hopefully most other guests had a similar experience. I don't think I am that easy to please when it comes to food

To break even on the deluxe beverage package, you need to drink ~5-6 full priced alcoholic beverages every day. If you're not a big drinker, then it makes more sense to get the refreshment package and buy your alcohol a-la-carte.

And in addition to this ^^, Panera is not in the business of serving 1,000 meals all at once at 5:45 PM, and another 1,000 meals all at once at 8:00 PM, while serving a thousand more in between those times, and dealing with potentially 100's of no-show reservations. The MDR is feeding an ill-organized army at a sit-down meal. It's best to set expectations before going to dinner, and to make compatible plans at the right venue. The MDR is meant to be a slow-paced dinner that takes about 1 hour if expedited, and 2 hours (or more) normally. The Windjammer and the Cafes are best for sub 60-minute meals, or grab-and-go options. The choices are available.

https://cockroachfacts.com/asian-cockroach/ Correct, the Asian Cockroach in particular has fully formed wings and can fly up to 120 feet at a time. They live in the southeastern part of the US, so it's not entirely impossible for these to stowaway aboard a cruise ship departing from Texas , Florida, etc.

2025 while in drydock would make the most sense. I imagine "amplifications" will evolve too, and if so, Allure may get a "Royal Amp V2." It might make sense for a version 2 amplification to give the Allure many of the features that we will see on Utopia. At that point, every Oasis-class ship would have some flavor of "amplified" features, with slight variations to prevent the ships being cookie-cutter copies of each other.

One more to go.

"Enterprise of the Seas!"

^^ Exactly this!

If I were in Adriana's shoes, then the best thing about The Key would be to get off that cursed ship before everyone else.

This is awesome. Since I'm not a fan of Facebook, I'm going to do this my way. I'm planning on spending a weekend to get a website up and running to track the ongoing adventures of 50 ducks scheduled to depart on the Allure of the Seas on December 11th! Stay tuned!

Just to set some expectations (not trying to scare anyone), here are some examples of typical mundane and/or annoying things that you may experience on just about any cruise: - Billing errors onboard - Long lines at embarkation, customer service, shows, etc. - Unable to find deck chairs around the pool; chair hogs - One of, or a combination of, loud/annoying/unpleasant/drunk/rude passengers - Passengers smoking outside of designated smoking areas - Below average service from some crewmember(s) - Changes/cancellations to shows/itineraries - Maintenance/repairs on the ship, requiring an area/attraction to be closed - Maintenance/repairs needed in your cabin, or a neighbor's cabin (noise) - Various unpleasant odors on occasion - Kids running in the hallways outside staterooms I expect at least one of the above to happen on every cruise, but no big deal. The crew can handle some of the above. Don't sweat the small stuff on vacation, and enjoy!

My first cruise was much better than I expected it to be, but part of the reason was because I went on an Oasis-class ship - there's nothing like it. My cruise was awesome because I was spoiled for choice in an amazing resort on the water. There was always something fun to do, but I could also relax and do nothing if I decided to. Almost everything went right, and it was the best vacation ever. It's important to understand that every cruise is different. The ships, the itineraries, the service, the other guests onboard, the vibe, the weather, etc. The combination of all these factors can dramatically affect your experience. For example, I'll take short, cheap, spur-of-the-moment Carnival cruises. They're a fun long weekend getaway, usually high-energy, with ok service, and meh to ok food. My Carnival cruises are good and fun, but they're nothing like taking a week long trip on an Oasis-class ship. That's a different sport entirely. For a first-timer, I recommend sailing on an Oasis-class ship - there's something for everyone on those ships. Then, when you discover what you enjoy the most on that cruise, try a different class of ship that focuses more on the things you enjoyed. Or, just sail again on another Oasis-class ship if you were very happy on the first cruise

I had a good experience using the online portal: https://rclshareholderbenefit.questionpro.com/ I received my OBC in less than a week from the date I submitted my request. I'm not sure why some shareholders are experiencing delays in their requests being processed, but my guess is that the request was made too early? The online portal states "Please submit requests 3 weeks prior to sail date." I was over 5 weeks away from my sailing, but my request was processed anyway. When submitting your statement in PDF format, make sure the statement shows your name, address, and the name of the brokerage. Also, blackout or remove your account number from the page(s) you'll submit. That's what worked for me. Hope this helps!

@karl_nj Your Cunard casual is my Royal Caribbean formal. I used to wear ties on formal night, but now I save them for special occasions.

@Adriana You are way too kind. If I am interpreting your experience correctly, then heads need to roll for the treatment you experienced. Every manager who failed to help you needs to be named on your survey, and your experience described on the survey, just as you described it here. It's additionally shocking that you're receiving such bad treatment as a Diamond member. Even the bottom tier passengers should not experience such apathetic customer service.

YES!

@PRMLVM Happy to help! One other thing to think about (which makes it slightly annoying to pack dressy clothes on a cruise) is to de-wrinkle everything after you unpack. Since you can't bring an iron or steamer on the ship, the options I know of are either to: pay and have the clothes pressed; or hang everything up in the shower, steam the clothes there, and use de-wrinkle spray. Not a huge deal, just one extra thing to keep in mind. Hope this helps, and enjoy your fancy date night!

@PRMLVM Probably will be ok. It's a fancy dinner, so I recommend dressing accordingly with respect to your fellow guests. (No shorts and T-shirts, etc.) I treat it as if I'm eating at a restaurant where it costs $200 per person. When I go, I wear slacks, a collared shirt, a jacket, and dress shoes. I skip the tie - it's annoying - I dislike tucking it and it gets in the way. Seems to be the status quo for the guys. The ladies tend to outshine the guys with their dinner dresses. We love the Chef's Table on RC. In my opinion, it's an intimate Michelin Star quality dinner, without the Michelin Star price.

To me, it means, "Go all out with the stuff you've brought." We wear our best on both nights. For us, it's part of the experience and makes the cruise more fun - it's like a luxury night out on the town.

@CanHardlyWait I understand where you're coming from. It's annoying when things are closed, and nobody wants to be short-changed on their vacation. I'm sure most all of us have experienced this. Hopefully you're not letting this incident with the Solarium ruin your vacation. I'm curious to know, what steps did you take to try and make the best of the situation? Was some kind of compensation offered to you? If so, what kind of compensation and what was the amount? Did guest services handle the request courteously and to the best of their ability? Did management need to step in to offer something extra? Did you fill out the survey to explain how the problem negatively affected your cruise? What kind of remedy do you require to resolve the situation to your satisfaction? Then, what did you do to make the best of your cruise? Take an extra excursion? Extra meal at a specialty restaurant? Get some extra drinks? Go to the casino? Spend more time in other parts of the ship? You've got to find a reasonable balance, otherwise most any vacation will feel like a waste of hard-earned money. If RC failed you, then you might not be happy taking another cruise with them. Nothing wrong with voting with your dollars and trying a different line, but you do have to ask, will the other lines at the same price point (Carnival, NCL, etc.) do better? From what I know, their customer service is about the same as RC. (Disclaimer: I prefer RC, but I'll cruise any line that can give me a good deal and a great time.)