jticarruthers

They werent full, the computer system was designed by Royal so it didnt work worth a darn. Went to the checkin desk to ask/complain and the customer service manager basically said the system was crap, just show up and you would be fine on stand by.

My understanding is that Royal forbids you from advertising a lower price for the cruise itself but has no issue with the TA rebating back OBC/Specialty Dinners/Etc. That was the confusing thing for me when i first started was the assumption that all TA's had a similar OBC policy and the ones that werent offering it to me "up front" were not as good of a deal.

This is interesting. I have used the same TA for multiple years (found her when i first got interested in cruising and always seemed to get a good deal with her so i stuck with her). I never had to ask about OBC she always gave it to me on every booking. She retired/left the agency a couple of years ago and i didnt care for the person the agency passed me to replace her, nothing really wrong we just dont hit it off as well. Went looking at other agencies to see if i could find a better fit (including MEI) and in all cases received quotes that were the same $ since RCI doesnt let the TA discount the cruise but none of them offered me any OBC. I pushed a couple of them, to the point where i felt i was being rude but it neither of them offered anything. Went back to the original TA and sent a "thank you for your time but i get a better deal with another TA" email to the new ones. At which point i got "oh well i would have given you that OBC but its at my discretion and i wasnt going to tell you until you booked". I'm back with my TA reluctantly since we dont have the same "mind meld" but for ~8% OBC back on every cruise I dont see how i dont use them.

Mariner in May/June had reservations available through Cruise Planner for SkyPad but not for Laser Tag, been watching for our sailing in November and neither one has been listed. Skypad was not in service when we went in may/june so the reservations were not all that useful. We were priority boarding (diamond) went straight to the laser tag reservation desk and got told they were fully reserved for the rest of the cruise, we would need to go standby. Showed up with the teens expecting it to be busy since they were fully booked and the boys just kept going right back in again and ended up playing probably ~9-10 times in ~2-3 hours. I go to relax in the cold/dark stands with a couple of alcoholic beverages after a long morning/early afternoon out in the sun in Nassau so win all around !!

Slightly off topic but the new location for the floating tiki bar is depressing ... surrounded by grass/weeds 😞 There goes my favorite part of CocoCay at least until construction ends ...

Last trip we had tickets for the two teens in our group but i did not have one, when we went to check in they would not let the boys in without me buying a ticket. They offered to sell me one on the spot so i assume its possible but i opted to refund the boys instead so i am not 100% certain. This predated the policy change allowing unaccompanied teens in the water park.

I have been on Mariner (post upgrades) several times and really like it, have heard from others that Navigator is even better but havent been able to convince myself its worth the drive down to Miami to try it out yet. Both good options from all accounts, is price/departure city a factor for you ?

Does anyone know if it ever reopened? I know when i was on her last in early June they still had it closed and were giving no date for reopening it even though it was back up on other ships by then. We are back aboard in November and haven't seen it listed on the cruise planner (although it was listed for the May/June sailings when it was closed ...) wondering whether it is still out of service or just not listed/sold out. Thanks

Just keep calling, eventually someone at Royal will find a policy that tells them its ok to do it.

You either get none or you get them non-stop .. either way its damned annoying. I was in group 1 for a while now i am in group 2. I would like to trade back 😎

it looked to me like the "worst" of the storm was going by north of Coco ... fingers crossed they come through relatively ok. The north side of the island is the pier and rocky so hopefully not to much damage there, the beaches are south and east if i have my orientations right so again to the extent that damage can be limited it should be since bulk of wind/water coming from the north ... Certainly not minimizing hoping that the staff are all safe and evacuated as well but talking about Coco since this is a Royal related board.

On your other question, passport is not required to get off and on in most ports, just photo id so you should be ok.

We did the "big two" slides, one was the centerpiece of the main spire and the other one was the family size raft one on the other spire. Glad i did them, wouldnt wait in line to do them again though. Did not care for the big one tearing up my back but at least i did it once so i can say i rode the tallest water slide in North America (I think thats the right claim anyway).

Expedited Arrival seems to be (as so many things are when Royal is involved) a confused mess. I did Mariner 3 times in May/June with different groups of People. First time ... 1 of our group had Expedited Arrival on their setsail .. dont know how they got it but they did. We were waved through the expedited line, handed a special placard that said "expedited" and sent up to the waiting area ... we then walked straight on board while all the status groups were still sitting ... we asked what triggered expedited and were told "if you check in with the app you get expedited". Second time ... having seen the awesomness of expedited arrival .. we checked in with the app and did not get it 😞 Regular arrival was fine since we are diamond and went on pretty quickly anyway. Made a point of asking about the expedited trigger and got clarfied that you have to make sure your picture is good through the app. Third time ... took and retook pictures endlessly ... no expedited ... asked the guy at the line who said "no clue, but go ahead and use the line since you tried". This time expedited boarded after status groups ... so we dumped the placards and went with the diamonds. Again sought clarity and have been told the key is that you must let the app scan your passport. Checking in today for my next run on Mariner ... deleted the app first ... scanned the passports ... now i just get "your setsail pass has a problem you will have to check in when you arrive" .... 😞🤣😞

If it helps if you find pictures from any of the sisters (or near sisters) the aft structure is functionally identical on all of them. I have sailed Freedom, Indy, Liberty, Adventure, Mariner and Navigator in the aft balconies on decks from 6-10 and loved every one. Is there metal in your line of sight .. yes absolutely but you can still see a ton of water and have a huge balcony to enjoy it from.