tonyfsu21

Out of curiosity does anyone know if the ships carry Cuban cigars at either Boleros or any other humidor locations? I have sailed many times but I always brought my own cigars to smoke. Since the ships fly foreign flags is there a loophole where they would be available? PS: I know better than to buy a "Cuban" cigar from the street vendors in the Caribbean......

The email is basically the suite concierge introducing him or herself to you as well as an explanation of the various benefits you will enjoy as a suite guest. Enjoy your cruise, we sailed a grand suite a couple cruises ago and will never go back to a regular stateroom!!

And don't forget the casino!

I want to watch her from the rock jetty.

I'm thinking about heading out to the rock jetty on the N side of the inlet next to POTA building. Any locals planning on heading out 11/5 07:00 for her arrival?

Call me CrAzzZy here but why don't you do the following?:
 
1. Call RC and get your deposit refunded.
2. Call back RC and book the cruise you meant to book......

I'm thinking about heading out to the rock jetty on the N side of the inlet next to POTA building. Any locals planning on heading out 11/5 07:00 for her arrival?

I agree w/ Matt, even though I have the ability to pay the balance at booking it is best to pay the deposit only & set reminder in phone to pay off balance on due date. If there is a price change it's better to have RC adjust instead of you waiting on your refund. It's just cleaner.

So I have Harmony of the seas booked twice in 2017. March we are booked in a balcony room and Thanksgiving 2017 we have a crown loft suite. Both rooms were booked under my casino VIP rate. My question is if my casino play goes exceptionally well in March can I call the VIP host and get an additional discount on the crown loft suite for Thanksgiving?

Yes. If you get any certificate you can apply it to any booking you have already made as long as you do not already have any other casino discount applied to that cruise. I do think there is an expirattion period (maybe 12 months ?).
 
The casino rate does not count as a discount (even though it clearly is !) so you could have the $1250 (or whatever coupon value you might get) applied EVEN if you have already been given a casino rate.
 
Even better....coupons are combinable ! On our last cruise (Allure in Feb) Dan and I both received coupons and we were allowed to apply them BOTH to the same cruise (Harmony next Feb). We would have had them applied to our upcoming Navigator holiday cruise but we had already had the last of our cash rebates applied to the Navigator cruise which invoked the "no more than 1 casino discount per cruise" rule so we had to apply them to the next cruise, which was Harmony in Feb. So, in the end, we got a 44% discount off the full fare price plus an additional discount off the price of our combined coupon values. Well over $7k discount in all.

Take an Uber to the rustic inn in Fort Lauderdale for dinner and get the simply awesome and amazing garlic crabs. You will thank me later!

Try to stay out of Miami. Yes, Miami is sexy and the clubs/bars/dining is fantastic but beyond that it's a tourist trap (especially South Beach). I am a South FL local and can tell you the traffic is horrific in Miami and crime is on the rise in South Beach. My suggestion would be like others on this thread, check out Key West (the drive down is fantastic and Key West is an amazing place) or the theme parks in Orlando. Another option is to get a hotel in Fort Lauderdale which happens to have an abundance of nightlife, beautiful beaches and hotels and cheaper! Fort Lauderdale is a 30 minute drive from Port of Miami. Do yourself a favor and stay out of Miami (I forgot to mention ZIKA).

Prob not. There are guidelines and criteria to meet in order to gain entry to the club Royale. I personally play a healthy mix of slots, roulette & blackjack. I personally think that as WAAAYTOOO described it was the amount of money I was willing to change to chips at the roulette table that got the initial attention. I will bring 1000-2000 to the table and bet roughly $100-150 per spin (putting a giant stack on the number 17) and can sometimes win a large amount of $$. As the beers keep coming my bets get significantly higher and it either goes really well or really not so well. In any case, it's fun!!!

Hey, Jill.  There are a number of posts here in the past couple of days regarding the Club Royale program so I won't expound here.  You can go and find them in the "messages" string....just know that just like the changes in the dining configuration, the casino VIP program is also undergoing significant changes.  All of these are "growing pains" relating to RCCL's success !  You are going to love the suite life.  It truly is exceptional and worth the extra money, if you have it.
 
I do have one suggestion to you, if you are interested in being a member of Club Royale - new or old.  I would suggest that you immediately go talk to the casino hostesses as soon as the casino opens the first night.  On the Oasis they are 2 absolutely lovely young women who are the best I have ever met on RCCL.  Of course, their names escape me at the moment.  We were on the Oasis in January.  I have no reason to believe that they have already changed.  Tell them that you want to be "rated" for membership in Club Royale first thing.  They will tell you what the qualifications are so that there is no misunderstanding about what minimum wagering level you must meet.  If you wait around for a couple of days then you will miss the opportunity to be rated right from the beginning.  The longer period of time they have to "watch" you - and the dealers and pit bosses WILL be watching you, if you are being rated - the better. 
 
I also have a little trick for you, if you are playing table games.  Let's say you bring $1000 to the table which will be converted into chips.  When you leave the table, they will "color you up" meaning they will take your small denominations and convert them into large denominations...this is partially for their benefit and partially for yours.  You will have fewer chips to carry away and they won't be letting all of their "change" walk away.  When you go to a new table, shove ALL of the chips (let's say you walked away from the first table with $800 of your original $1000) to the dealer for them to "color down"...give you smaller denominations.  One part of the "rating" system is how much money you bring to the table.  Another part is how much you wager per hand/roll/whatever.  So the more money you bring to the table, the better.  That does NOT mean that you have to spend it all !!!!!!!!   They are going to note how much money you bring to the table and then also how much money you leave with.  All of that is part of the rating system...along with how much you wager.  I have found, over the years, that my cash rebates have been significantly higher using  this method of cashing bigger sums onto and off of the table as opposed to bringing only a small amount of money to the table.  Of course, as with all things, you must be disciplined enough NOT to spend more than you would have with bringing smaller amounts to the table.  Just sayin' -
 
If you are a slots player, qualifying for Club Royale is WAY simpler.  You will be told by the Hostesses what the minimum "point" requirement is.  All you have to do is monitor how many points you are accumulating (the more money you wager, the more quickly your points will accumulate) and when you get to the magic number, you are in !  You can check your points either on the machine itself or at the casino cage/window.
 
So I ended up being long-winded after all.  No big surprise there...

^^^^ I for one wish we could still smoke cigars on the cabin balconies! That was such a relaxing thing to do and I miss it very much.

And as the guy in the cabin next to you...thank God it's banned.
 
Your hobby is smoking.  The by-product of which is smoke, which stinks up my clothes, my hair, and generally makes it hard to breathe.  
 
My hobby is drinking beer.  The by-product of which is urine.  Would it be alright if I peed in your clothes, in your hair, and into your nose?

UltraJewels^^^^^. I actually took advantage of the promotion a few years back when I purchased a nice Breitling wristwatch. I really had little confidence in actually receiving a check from the MX government but sure enough it arrived and it was good.

I have wanted to post this story for a long time to all the RCBlog readers here; mainly as an FYI. Perhaps this might apply to a large $ jewelry purchase???
 
 
Here's How A Drug Deal Can Go For Visitors Of St. Lucia
 
 
Let's say a person gets off the ship in good ol' Castries. And let's say they bump into a drug dealer and buy some weed. This person likes the sample of what he has bought, exchanges some pleasantries with the dealer including "my name is John and I'm on the Jewel of the Seas, I have to be back on board at 5 pm." The drug dealer replies "OK Mon', we have the best weed here in St Lucia I can sell you some more to take home if you like. Like buying Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, John buys a pound or two to bring back home; his only concern being how to get it past the Royal Caribbean security. Doing that, particularly in the chaos of an hour before the ship leaves port; has got to be quite easy.
 
A successful hook up? Not so fast.....
 
The drug dealer; after taking John's cash and making a profit; talks to the local police. Perhaps in exchange immunity or perhaps for $, he squeals that he sold John on the Jewel of the Seas a couple pounds of weed a short while ago.
 
The country of St Lucia has no resources and no desire to capture/ prosecute a drug using tourist. If they did there would be no room in there jails for the natives. So what do they do?
 
The St Lucia police make a phone call to US or British customs. (Really, it's a phone call). It is not inconceivable that there might be some money for information exchanged at some point, but I am not sure of that. But if I were a betting man....
 
So.....US customs is waiting for "John and a couple pounds of weed" upon disembarkation when he arrives in San Juan. Now, they have no idea what John looks like. But that's where the dogs enter the story....
 
While we are all waiting in line to get through customs so we can catch those flights at the airport; the beagles are working and looking for "John with two pounds of weed." The Customs officials seem to be taking their time.
 
The beagles and their keen noses are trained to sit when they smell dope. They don't go ape shit crazy. There's no barking. Just a calm "sit". They are sure to get a confirmation from a couple different animals. Certainly that area is under video surveillance and really being observed by more Customs people behind the curtains than you think are really there.
 
So if you are going through Customs and you see the dogs working, it is very possible that they are looking for a guy named John who was really set-up and game over long before he ever realized it. John, his wife, and all their luggage are politely asked to step into the office when they reach the customs desk. Then that process through customs for the rest of us goes lickedy split.....
 
 
 
My wife and I have seen this happen couple times in our cruising history. 

IMHO one does not need "other" choices when Oasis of the seas is an option.

IMHO one does not need "other" choices when Oasis of the seas is an option.

^^ right on, Matt! Now that I think about it we always arrived within 15 min of the open time and it was seamless.

I have sailed several sold out Thanksgiving cruises on Oasis & Allure and have been able to walk in and get a table for 3 at lunch. Seems like people don't eat speciality much for lunch or I'm just as lucky at lunch as I am at the blackjack tables!

The airport is less than 1 mile from the cruise port. I am local to Fort Lauderdale and recommend taxi cab to and from. On the outbound that's a lot of time (4pm departure). Your better off taking a cab to the beach and having lunch before heading to airport. I see tons of cruise passengers with luggage in tow all over Fort Lauderdale beach each and every weekend so you won't look out of place. Good thing to keep in mind is that Fort Lauderdale is not a traffic inflicted nightmare like some of the other metro ports, you can pretty much get to the airport from anywhere in greater Fort Lauderdale in less than 20 min. Enjoy.

Just look at it as an awesome way to get away and enjoy yourself. Certainly the newer and larger ships have more to do and better options but your on vacation!!! Turn your phone off and have a nice frozen drink by the pool. Don't let the critical cruise critics get you down.

Update**** I called back the CR phone number and the lovely "Connie" informed me that I am in fact now a member!!! I have not the faintest clue as to how or when I was enrolled? I immediately updated our family cruise on Harmony in 2017 and got more than $3k discount off the current promotion! Thanks for your knowledge and info!