marti314

2 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

you can eat there and get up to $35 worth of menu items with the UDP.

I wonder why they still have these limits when you can go to as many places as you want or come and go to one place multiple times in an evening.

47 minutes ago, tiny260 said:

I plan to keep sailing Royal no matter what the drink price is.

This is clearly what RCL is hoping for, they can raise the prices to whatever they want and people will keep paying it.  Worked well for APPLE for years and now the IPHONE is not even their largest revenue generator

36 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

^^^totally agree.

I have this hunch that we will see a change to this "program" very soon.  I have bought drink packages for every cruise, even as diamond but with these new prices ill stop buying it and i have a feeling i am not alone.

34 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

They are waaay overpriced and there’s nothing particularly special about them.

You mean like CHOPS?  ahahhahahaha just had to do it

9 hours ago, craig403 said:

Don't confuse voltage/current with frequency.  Ship frequency isn't a standard constant of 60 HZ per second like it is in your home therefore electric clocks don't run properly.  Not a big deal,,,,except for clocks.    

Interesting, yea i was thinking if the voltage or current was not consistent we would have all kinds of problems.  Thanks

OBC can be used for the Automatic Gratuity that is added to your seapass account.  On a 7 night sailing gratuity is around 103.00 per person so you can definitely use it towards that.

28 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

The BOGO deal does not exist anymore unless you are D or higher C&A

Isnt it D+ and higher?  Diamonds do not get the BOGO specialty dining.

30 minutes ago, Baked Alaska said:

I wonder if you could buy the Chops +1 option and then when you arrived to your ship you could actually change it from Chops to something else? FWIW, I prefer Giovanni's and Izumi two chops.

I doubt that they will let you do that and i am not sure you would want to do that because you are paying a premium for Chops where Giovannis is normally only 35.00 anyways.

I think its random, it wasnt either formal night for me, i wanna say it was night 5 where night 2 and 6 was formal.

Either way it was a nice surprise, cake was a tad dry (probably because they have to make so many).

They only brought one for our table of 2 last week.  It was fine though because we had already ordered our desserts so this was just extra.

12 hours ago, raahc said:

Hello everyone - I know this is an older post, but I just joined the forums today. 

We have a free specialty dining for 2 from our TA.  We had this the last time we cruised as well, but that was eons ago.  How much should we tip the waiter? I don't recall if there was an assistant waiter.  

TIA (thanks in advance)

 

If your TA included speciality dining the gratuity is already included in your meal.  As the other posts mention you can leave some extra if you feel the service warranted it.  

If you are looking for a number I would say 5 - 15 dollars additional would be the range i have seen most people discuss.

7 hours ago, craig403 said:

We always use the telephone in our cabin to set a wake up call.  Do not try to use an electric clock on the ship.  It will not keep actual time.  Has something to do with the ships electric power varying in frequency so is not constant. 

?????????   is there some documentation on this?  If this was the case I would anticipate there being fires DAILY in staterooms when people plug in their laptops, SLR's, Cell Phones etc.

People used to say Dont plug your devices into airplane plugs for the same reason, its a total myth though.

Put it in your CARRY ON luggage that you board the ship with.  Do not put it in the checked in luggage or you will find yourself on Deck 0 waiting in a long line of people to claim your bag because it was pulled aside for having wine bottles in it (they cant tell the difference so they pull it aside).  It will be a lousy start to your trip so pack the 2 bottles in your carryon.  Yes its heavy but will save a lot of frustration.

It always goes on sale, the price they list it as in the sale is only something a Magic 8 ball could predict.  

My current cruise planners show the KEY for 31.99 per day, ive seen 19.99, 24,99 sales.

13 hours ago, CoupleOfCruisers said:

I’m a little confused are gratuities included in posted price of $69? If not do you pay when buy the package or per drink once on ship? 

Think of mandatory gratuities as just part of the price of the package.  Since you can not opt out of them even if service doesnt warrant it you always just need to look at the price you see + 18% on top of that.  

1 hour ago, CoupleOfCruisers said:

Im curious at what amount would people stop buying drink packages? As long as people pay the price they will keep pushing price up!  

They aren't paying these prices which is why they are literally hounding you everywhere on boarding day.

1 hour ago, CoupleOfCruisers said:

Im curious at what amount would people stop buying drink packages? As long as people pay the price they will keep pushing price up!  

My Max is 50 a day not because I can break even with 5 terribly overpriced drinks but because over 7 days plus 18% I feel that's the max where I personally find value in the benefit.

Drinking to drink because you have a package is a chore and with all of the food its not all that fun. 

20 minutes ago, JennyJenny said:

"They"...who?

The gov already has my stuff. I know that.

In this secure area where these devices reside RCL does not have any control over the machines or the customs process at all.  

1 hour ago, Yo2slick said:

Our Liberty sailing has been on sale for 46 per day for end of August.  How weird.

I think thats expected since I am guessing that sailing was rather inexpensive meaning they are trying to get any revenue they can.

I am beginning to wonder if we are being TRICKED into thinking that pre-cruise purchases are always cheaper.  Boarding day on Liberty last week had this.  Obviously the math comes out to be 49.50 a day per person and it never ever went below 52 a day on the cruise planner throughout all the sales.  Yes they did remove this offer after day 1

Unfortunately this is USD.  69 + 12.42 grat = 81.42 per day USD.  If the onboard was really 69 + 20% this puts the On board price at 83.00 + 18% = 98.00 per day.

I feel like that 50 ish dollars per day price (now that it requires you the other person in your cabin to purchase) was that breaking point.  Women typically can not or do not drink as much as men so this just becomes almost impossible to justify.

On 8/7/2019 at 5:34 PM, KathyC said:

I could never do it. 

Same here, after 7 days I feel like i am in the twilight zone.....

1 hour ago, Matt said:

Announced late last year: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/10/15/royal-caribbean-posts-2019-drink-package-pricing

This new pricing is in addition to what they posted last year, this time upwards of 30% increase in some cases.  With gratuity 83.00 a day for a Jan 2020 sailing.  

But Wait, if they make each drink 19.95 its only 4 drinks to break even!  The Math always works! 

I can see it now "Honey, did you pack the straws"..... "Oh noooooooooooooo, lets turn around and go get them" :)

On 8/12/2019 at 3:21 PM, JRT said:

Does this mean onboard drink prices are going up?

How much more than 15.50 (After Gratuity) for a blended drink can they charge?

Anyone ever wonder if they can sell a 1 LITER bottle of STOLI for 10.00 on the ship how much they must be getting it for?  Lets say its 6.00 and there are approx 22 shots in one bottle, YES that 10.00 stoli and soda water is really 35 - 50 cents worth of product itself.  Since RCL is not paying the same US taxes on liquor that bars and restaurants on land there is more profit in these drink packages than people realize, even if you drink 30 drinks a day.