SPS

Hello, All! Been a while since I've been here. Several times in the past, I've done a second "mock-booking" of my existing reservation, to see if I would come up with a lower price to no avail. With the current 2021 sale going on, I was able to see that booking an available cabin RIGHT NEXT TO MINE was $79 cheaper so I decided to call RCCL. (Not a bunch, but, hey, every bit helps!) To my surprise, not only was the basic rate $79 cheaper, but, I actually qualified for an additional discount as a resident of MICHIGAN! This has NEVER happened for me. In my experience, those discounts have usually been available for those in the home port state. At the end of the call, I had a $244 discount off my cruise fare! If not for finding this blog a few years ago, I wouldn't have known that re-pricing an existing reservation was possible.

A little of the late, great Mitch Hedberg for you........ I bought some fake plants, but, I did not pretend to water them, so they died. I was at a friend's house and he asked me if I wanted a frozen banana. I said, "No, but, I want a regular banana later, so, yeah."

Have you cruised with those other companies during a potential global pandemic?

Isn't there also a way for the one person that does cruise to get the C&A points for the person that doesn't show? I seem to recall something about that a month or so back.

Hmm, you may need to call Royal about this. I do know that a woman on one of our cruises brought her own olive oil. (She was on a very restrictive diet for health reasons.) Our waiter in the MDR kept it in a galley area for her and would bring it to the table for her each night.

The title of your post look as though you may think that this is an official RCCL website and asking for these options to be added. It is not. This is a fan site not at all affiliated with Royal Caribbean. Your comments are a bit puzzling. Each ship we've been on in the past four years has had almond and/or soy milk options and oil based dressings are a staple. As mentioned above, there's no need to suffer in silence if you have food allergies or issues. The staff is always ready and willing to accommodate. My wife is gluten intolerant and she is always appreciative of how little she has to worry about food issues.

Oh, yes there is! I end up "infected" with beer all the time!

I find this odd. Our experience with this on Freedom was completely the opposite. Each group/couple had all of the ingredients in separate containers on the table while the server/instructor gave tips on how to utilize the different ingredients to suit our tastes. He also tutored us on making some superb Margaritas and print outs of the guacamole and margarita recipes were provided after the included lunch. All in all, it was a very good experience.

Oops, somehow double posted the comment above.

Here's a tip (no pun intended). There's no need to actually take a bulky stack of $1 bills with you. Just take your larger bills into the casino and use the Cash Out/Bill Breaker machine. It's available for use even when the casino is closed.

I can't speak of the decks themselves, but, personally, I like to pick cabins AWAY from elevators and stairways just for the sake of noise intrusions that may occur. I need the extra bit of exercise anyway!

I agree with @SpeedNoodles , leave that FB group. No one needs that nonsense. I find that this site is all I need for all things Royal Caribbean. You're already paying a good bit amount of money for your vacation and whatever you want to pay above and beyond the standard gratuities is fine. There's no need to practically put yourself into debt just to tip people. Quite frankly, There's no way to verify that the people saying they've paid $50-$100 PP/PD (YIKES!) is true!

Larger ships have a bar in the Windjammer in which you can get one in the morning. Larger and smaller ships usually have a portable bar set up to provide bloody marys and mimosas at the entrance or inside the Wind Jammer. I take advantage of this often.

I have a bit of perspective on why the "not open until 11" may apply. We sailed on Vision out of SJ on January 25th. We arrived at the port just after 10 and were third in line for luggage drop off. Unfortunately, it turned out that the luggage porters were on their lunch break from 10:00 to 11:00. So we had to wait in the luggage drop off line until 11:00. I've never had this happen before and keep in mind that the porters are NOT Royal Caribbean personnel. They are union employees that work for the port. On the plus side, the check-in process in the terminal was very quick and we were on board and ordering our first drink at the Schooner Bar by 11:15.

This was also the butter in the MDR and WJ on Vision two weeks ago.

DITTO!!!!

I was surprised by the refund/rebate we got two years ago when our 9-night Grandeur cruise was delayed (2-day delay for rudder repairs in Canaveral) After refunding us 50% cruise fare, 2 days of DBP, & missed excursions (possibly some other $, too?), our folio at the end of the cruise showed a pretty hefty NEGATIVE balance! It sounds like you are making the best of this delayed and modified itinerary @WAAAYTOOO! Happy cruising!

On our January 25th sailing on Vision, this was changed entirely. The token machine near the cashier was gone. (Could see where it was once installed). Instead, we were given $6 of free play loaded to each of our Sea Pass cards (Platinum level). The cashier gave us a small piece of paper with instructions on how to load and redeem our credit. I was lucky enough to turn that $6 into $15 on a slot machine of my choice. Also, the last night raffle was listed in the cruise compass. When we asked about it, the cashier let us know that each guest in automatically enrolled, provided they have inserted their sea pass into any of the gaming machines at any point during the cruise. The prize was $500 if you were present for the drawing, $400 if you were not.

Now both of you say that five times fast!!!

I'd like to add that another advantage of taxi service in San Juan is the flat rate price from zone to zone. (+bags). I found this helpful for our last two cruises.

Dollar Tree sells two packs of LED tea lights that work great as night lights. We have some VERY small ones that do not have the flicker effect that surprisingly last a long time. They're about 1/2 an inch high and about as big around as a quarter. Over the course of two cruises we've only used one of them all night, every night (14 full nights).

January 29, 2021 - Explorer of the Seas (9-Night from Miami to Labadee and "ABC" islands!)

I can’t speak for the rest of the fleet, but, our Vision of the Seas sailing that starts today is using canned Dasani rather than plastic bottles.

You know that you can actually strike up a conversation with people that are NOT at least Diamond level, right? I'm sorry that you might need to associate with us unwashed masses rather than exclusively associating with people up at your C&S level.