AGSLC5

We loved Empress because the ship is small. We wanted to go to Cuba and the ship provided that option. Now, we thought the food was excellent. We live in Chicago and we consider ourselves a foodie. Empress spends more on their food budget, because they are small. The only food we didn't like was the pizza. But when you tried the best (Chicago), the rest comes up short. We also liked our room location. We were on deck 7 aft. We had a small little lookout  which made the room seems larger. I went to the casino, it was ok. I love the fact that we had breakfast in Chops everyday. I would go back on Empress in a heartbeat. We work for the Chicago Public schools and sometimes we don't want a crowd. With that said, we are booked on Anthem (New Years) and Harmony (Spring break). We have to take our vacation during schools' holidays. Cuba was our destination. We had a wonderful time and was glad we went there. We also loved Majesty. We were on here three times this Summer. I hope I answered your question. 

I have been cruising with Royal Caribbean since 2005. Back then the food in the MDR was great. Now I find the food in the MDR not very good at all. I always get the Ultimate Dining package and love it. I find the food in the specialty restaurants the only way to go. Now of course there are many people who will disagree with me but I am a foodie. Food is very important to me so I don't mind spending the extra money to have what I consider delicious food. 

Matt I was just on Harmony last week.. I was able to use my ultimate dining package at Chops on the first day. This is the third time I have been able to do this on an Oasis class ship

In addition to dinner.. For example on Allure a couple months ago I had 3 sea days.. So I had 7 dinners and 4 lunches including embarkation day. I went to Chops on Embarkation day and said I have the ultimate dining package are you open for lunch and they said absolutely come on in and my bill was zero and that night I still got to eat at 150 Central Park. I am going on Harmony in 10 days and plan on trying to do the same thing so I will report back with what happens. 

Ended up getting the ultimate dining package for the three of us. Thanks for all the friendly advice.

Ultimate dining package, soda and voom package and a bungalow on Labadee. Plus a day before and after in Miami.

That's how you do March break.

As of a few minutes ago, there is still a remarkable price glitch on the second of our B2B cruises on Anthem in Feb. 2019.
The cruise for 23 Feb - 3 March (8 day) is showing the same inside price for inside, OV and OV balcony rooms - $918.
Michelle (the miracle worker) managed to get our cruise repriced at this rate for only $40 TOTAL....so we were able to go from an inside room to an OV balcony for $40.  This room was already a casino comp so this upgrade was incredible for us !  Even though the first half of the B2B did not have this price glitch, I went ahead and had her upgrade that one too so that we could stay in the same room for both parts of the B2B.  Also, since this was a casino comp, we will now get cruise points for both segments.  If we had remained in the "free" inside room, we would not have received any cruise points (casino comp rule) but by upgrading, we will.
So...if anyone is already on this cruise and wants to upgrade from an inside or OV room to a balcony for next to nothing, I recommend you call or have your TA call immediately.  I suspect this price is a glitch and when they catch it, it will be gone forever.  Even if you are already in an OV balcony you should be able to have the price adjusted as long as it's showing this low price.
See, sometimes Royal Caribbean's IT incompetence pays off !!

Found this just now...she looks great!
@KLAconQueso and @AGSLC5...if you read through, OP said that cabins were not refreshed.....

I, too, have a JS on deck 9 in October! Would love to hear any feedback (or pictures!) you might have! 

I'm very excited! I will be on her a week from tomorrow!! I got a nice Junior Suite on deck 9 thanks to all my donations to the Casino lol

I have a feeling this has to do with being able to open up the casino fully. Currently when we are in Coco Cay we are tendered and still in the water so they leave the Casino open. But when we go to Labadee  they only have slots open and not tables so maybe there is some rule against it. I am not sure but just a thought.. 

A) This is nuts that there is so big a discrepancy in points rewarded given the difference in play time and I assume average bet (although I'll grant you can burn through money at the slots about 20-50x faster than at your typical craps table).
B) It's a serious testament to how freaking tight the slots are.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'd just as soon dump my money overboard after the casino host counts the bills, or set fire to it in a rubbish bin, as play those slot machines.
But I don't care about making that second tier, either, so I'll just play my $5 pass line with $5 odds, have my time in the casino last a hell of a lot longer, and also have some fun being social with everyone at the table.

Congratulations, Stephanie -
Dan and I are just prime but we're both happy with that.  Glad the letters have finally arrived.  Haven't called to inquire about comped cruises yet but I'm in Detroit on biz this week.  Will call next week.

Yeah it was my best win ever. At the end of the week I walked away with 6k and a certificate for a free balcony cruise. So yes I did end up giving some back but I netted 5.5k plus the free balcony cruise so I was obviously quite happy with that. I happen to just be at a very HOT blackjack table that night and I think most of us walked away winning quite a bit and it was on night 1 so like I said for the rest of the week I got to play with the house's money. I mostly play black jack and for some reason I do much better on Oasis class ships. I don't know why but both my "Big Wins" have been on Oasis class ships. 

True of every casino loyalty program in the world.
What an awesome win! Did you pocket whatever out of that $10k your cruise cost before you went back to the casino? Then you're really playing with the house's money!

Hello, Attention fellow gamblers. Club Royale has finally got their act together and started to send out the member tier info email today!! I am officially Signature! They also are ready to book you your annual comp cruise.. I just spoke with Club Royale it has to be 7nights or less and can't be during a major holiday but other than that it can be any ship or sailing. I am pretty happy with this news.. Whose with me?

I am 31 years old Diamond plus with 273 cruise points.. But I don't live on a boat lol. However I do go on between 6-8 cruises a year. 

I still have no clue what my tier level is. Every time I call I get the same answer that they don't know it or they are not fully finished rolling out the program. I then say how is it possible for the people on the ships to know the info and they claim they get the info from another source which makes NO SENSE. my next cruise is not far I will be on Mariner on 6/29 and again on 7/13 followed by Harmony on 7/21 (yes busy cruise summer for me lol) so I am hoping when I get on board magically the host will have my info but I agree with Tony I feel like we should be getting something in the mail or email. Also I asked about the friends and family perk as that is listed on there and again I was told they haven't rolled that part out yet nor have they sent out anyone's yearly comped cruise based on their tier level. Get it together Casino Royale it can't possibly be this difficult. 

I understand your concern. Why pay for internet if you will get it as a perk.  I guess the good news is, it will only be a mystery this one time. After your next cruise, you will know for sure and then you will be able to plan accordingly from then forward.
As you said, the most important thing to us is waiving the 5% fee with free drinks coming a close second.  After that I don’t really care.

I agree with you, Stephanie.  It seems insane that they don't all have the same information.  I will say, however, that you will probably get whatever information you need when you get on board.  Dan and I were both able to get our tier levels from the casino hostess(es) on board and they seemed to have all of the information - the points count from the first qualifying period, etc.  Not sure they will know about friends and family....
If it's true that the shoreside CR people don't have any information it's b/c the information has been withheld from them for whatever reason.  SOMEbody has the information or it couldn't get out to the ships....so I find it hard to believe that nobody at CR customer service knows anything.  So frustrating.
I have been reading on CC and other sites that we are supposed to be getting an email by the end of May that will tell us about our free cruises.  I won't hold my breath on that one since this program is now more than 2 years behind schedule.

I'm very glad to hear they made it right for you as of course they should. Enjoy your CLS. One day I will get one but I love gambling so I rather spend my money on that than the room lol. 
 

I'm totally a gambler. I booked a cruise on Allure for Sept 16th.. But I live in Ft. Lauderdale so if there is a hurricane I rather be on a cruise then in my hot apartment with no power... And if they did cancel my cruise I wouldn't be out any airfare so for me its worth the gamble 

Update-
The shoreside CR team has kept me updated and it looks like they are in the process of approving a full cruise fare refund! I also asked that they comp upgrade my May Allure sailing from a grand suite to a crown loft suite. Holding on approval call. It appears as though they are going to make me whole. 

Just thought I would pop in here and let everyone know that I was wrong about needing to earn 1000 points on your last cruise to get the free drinks and fee waiver.  According to the Allure hostess, the ability to get free drinks and fee waiver is solely dependent upon you tier level.  If you are tier 2, which is the minimum level to get these 2 perks, you keep that level and all of the perks associated with it, for the entire evaluation period.  So if you only aspire to be level 2 then you can attain that level and stop earning points if you want to.  This will be an advantage for people who have a slow cruise every once in a while or choose just not to gamble for whatever reason. So according to her, there is no more “ you’re only as good as your last cruise”.  That’s a good thing IMO.

There is still a lot of mystery involved with determining what the onboard amenities are going to be.  While this has NOT been confirmed, I understand that once you are rated to a certain tier, you will remain there until the next rating system comes around, at which time you will be re-assessed and either remain in the same tier, move up or move down depending upon your accumulated pounds during the rating period.  I also understand that in order to keep your “free drinks”and waiving of the 5% convenience fee, you must accumulate at least 1000 points on the previous cruise.  This may all be wrong.  I plan on having a chat with the Allure hostess before getting off this cruise and hopefully she can let me know the truth.  Fingers crossed anyway.  I have a couple of flyers that we received on this cruise, which I plan on posting once I get home and can scan them.

I find the certificates to be nearly useless.  The emailed comp offers are extremely valuable to us as they are cheap to upgrade.  Since the no longer allow us to combine carts and casino rates (or comped rates) then the carts have nearly no value to us.