Atlantix2000

I agree that baby monitors using radio waves would suffer the same fate as walkie-talkies - too much metal in the walls, ceilings, and floors mean they aren't going to work well. In theory, a Wi-Fi based baby monitor would work just fine. However, I suspect they also want to discourage/prevent parents from leaving sleeping infants/toddlers alone in the room while they wander the ship. If your intention is just to hear your child from your balcony, I suspect you don't need to do anything other than open the door once in awhile to check on them. Unless you've got a big suite, you're not going to be more than a few feet from your child. The rooms aren't that big!

Most likely, they booked under the same promotion that gave you OBC and they received the same amount. Has anyone from either reservation spent any of their OBC in their cruise planner for excursions or dining or anything else? Once you do, it should be clear whether you are seeing your, theirs, or both.

There is usually a message board near Guest Services. Anyone can add an index card with info. Things like "Chicago Bears Fans meetup in Playmakers at 3PM" or "Friends of Bill W meeting in <location>" (that's an AA meeting if you didn't know), etc.

Unfortunately, anytime from the day you book to the day you board.

Scott's experience is the first time I've heard of anyone finding out their table number in advance. So it's not clear if this was something one employee did or if it's a new policy. Either way, the table number isn't very useful because they renumber them every cruise once they figure out what size tables they need to use. (If they push a bunch together to accommodate large parties, etc. that changes how many tables are actually in the room.) There are probably general rules like "the 100s are over by those windows", "the 200s are by the stairs", etc but that's not publicly known info.

I think the issue of inherited status affects fewer people than we might initially think which may be why Royal has such an inconsistent response on this topic. Keep in mind, the posters on this blog are not a good cross-section of the general cruising population. We are all either frequent cruisers or cruisers who want to discuss ALL the details. So let's think about an 18 year old that would be eligible to inherit their parent's diamond status. This teenager must have parents that cruised often enough to reach diamond BUT did most or all of their cruising before having their children or they left their children home for most of their days at sea. Otherwise, this teenager would likely have enough points to qualify as diamond on their own and not need to inherit the status. So how likely is that scenario? Royal is a pretty family oriented cruise line. I could be wrong but I don't think a lot of parents are taking Royal cruises while leaving their kids at home. Royal is never going to release numbers, but I would bet there are more people inheriting status through marriage/living together than through their parents.

Are you asking if they will let you book 5 people in a room that sleeps 4 or less? No. They'll only allow you to book a room that sleeps 5 or more. Don't assume it will be cheaper than getting 2 rooms. There aren't a lot of rooms that sleep 5+ so they are in demand and the per person price can be higher.

I agree the Bahamas requires 6 months validity for arrival BY AIR because you are officially entering the country through customs and immigration. However, arriving by cruise ship can be different. US citizens don't need a passport to travel to the Bahamas by cruise. As long as the cruise departs and returns to the SAME US port, a US citizen can cruise with birth certificate and driver's license. Unfortunately, getting clear info for non-US citizens on a US-based cruise is definitely more complicated. I wouldn't trust a call to Royal customer service. If your country has an embassy in the Bahamas, that might be the safest place to call to get a definitive answer.

The vast majority of the Caribbean countries do not have a 6 month passport validity rule. (I'm tempted to say none of them have it but I could be wrong.) This topic pops up often because there are countries in the world that have such a rule so the general recommendation is to renew your passports early just in case. For US citizens, there is no need to worry about a 6 month rule on the cruise you have described. For non-US citizens, I'm not 100% positive, but I believe you're still good.

You already paid gratuities for your specialty dining when you purchased the UDP (18% was added to the daily per person price when you checked out). That covers your specialty dining whether you eat every possible meal as specialty or not. (Not counting any upcharges for fancy entrees at a few places.) The standard gratuities which you can also pre-pay cover your room steward, some behind the scenes staff, and your non-specialty dining wait staff. Even if you never have dinner in the MDR, some of these gratuities still go to them because they also work in the buffet and other dining locations that you may still use.

You (or your Travel Agent) selected Early Traditional, Late Traditional, or My Time Dining when you booked your cruise. You can call Royal to change it but since you are sailing soon, you would likely be put on a waiting list to change. There is no way to make this change online.

The answer will depend on what ship, what category of stateroom, and sometimes which exact stateroom you are sailing. If you tell us that info, someone may know. You can also google your room number and ship and often find photos and videos of your exact room.

One clarification based on how you phrased this question. Assigned times don't mean much. If you let Royal take your luggage, you can still depart whenever you like and pick up your luggage from the area marked for your assigned time. Of course, they don't actually promise to have your luggage delivered to that area until your assigned time so no reason to go earlier but you can go later. If you carry your own luggage, you can also depart at ANY time you like. They describe this option as getting off first but that's just because many/most people carrying their luggage are rushing to get to an early flight. They'll want you out of your room at some point but you can carry your luggage to breakfast or hang around the common areas of the ship if you like. Eventually, they'll start pushing you off the ship because it has to be emptied for the next cruise.

You can and it will usually work out the way you would expect. You would eventually get assigned a room of the category you booked but might win a Royal Up to a better category. However, there's a small chance something weird could happen because Royal handles the Guarantees and a different company runs the Royal up program. Your GTY room is for a certain category but the fine print says "or better" if they run out of rooms in your original category. So you could book an Interior Guarantee and bid on a Balcony through Royal Up. Then, something weird happens and you get assigned a Junior Suite! You're thrilled. Then you "win" your Royal Up and you pay to be "upgraded" to a Balcony. Not you're not so thrilled. This would be REALLY unusual and the odds are REALLY low, but I think I read about something similar happening to someone on this site.

Since you currently have late dining, on the small ships (non-Oasis/Quantum classes), you will not have an issue with show conflicts because there is a late show (for those with early dining) and an early show (for those with late dining). It's actually the people with My Time Dining that want to eat at a "middle" time that could run in to show conflicts. On the large ships (Oasis/Quantum classes), the shows don't occur at the same times each day. So anyone could have a conflict with a specific showtime but that same show would be at a different time on the next day. So you just have to find the right show time that works with your dinner time. (There is always a small chance there's no good possibilities and you'd have to eat at the buffet or a specialty restaurant, but in general, the schedule will work out.)

Out of curiousity, why would you think the balconies would be restricted at sea?

You would have a point if the sentence ended after the words "including Gold" because that would call out Gold as somehow an exception or special. But the sentence doesn't end there, it continues to lists EVERY level of the C&A program from Gold to Pinnacle. That makes it clear that you have to be in one of those categories to qualify. Someone who has never sailed before does not have a qualifying level. It IS possible to get a C&A number before your first cruise, but you are not Gold until AFTER your first cruise.

I think you can book them on the app, but not until you are on board. That's the trade-off with any dining package - book on board for a discount or book in advance at full price.

Why doesn't your friend on the cruise ask this question? That would give us an actual real world recent example!

The default for My Time Dining is getting a private table for your party. The default for Traditional (Early/Late) Dining is sitting with others unless your party is large enough to require its own table. However, you can get a private table with Traditional or share a table with My Time Dining. Try to get the style (MTD/Trad) of dining set before the cruise. You can always request a different table while on the ship but it is not always possible to switch the type of dining.

But that's why people are asking where and how you booked. The terms and conditions ARE different. If you book through the US site, you are bound by US terms. Through a European site, you get the European terms where the pricing/repricing rules are very different because Europe has stricter rules on getting your money back. But you can book any Royal cruise anywhere in the world using any of Royal's websites. (And if you use a travel agent, that opens another set of questions over how they booked it. Some TAs will only use their local rules, others will book through international terms when they find better deals.) It's really no different than the airline industry. The person sitting next to you could have paid a wildly different price and have wildly different cancellation terms but you're on the same plane taking the same trip.

She had a valid passport with valid expiration date for check-in. When packing, her husband put the expired passport in her bag. My wife and I have our old passports also and they are in the same safe as our current passports. This story makes a good argument to stop doing that!

I assume you're referring to the new deck 11 cabins. Have you looked at the videos available on YouTube? The guy in this review doesn't like them due to seeing so much of the ship and the lack of privacy due to the rooms above. I think I would love it but it seems like opinions could really be all over the place on this. I'm pretty sure various posters here have done reviews when these cabins were first added. Try a quick search for "Deck 11" on the forum.

Given the reaction of the Israeli official, it kind of sounds like they may have been calling your wife's name for awhile and you only noticed at the 2 hour mark when they shouted it. Since you just returned to the ship at that point, you don't even know if there was a simple miscommunication or an actual problem with your wife's passport. You don't know (or at least don't state) that you were denied entry to the country, so I'm not sure what you want from Royal.

This is a good example of why Royal Up is not recommended when you have more than one stateroom. Officially, they don't have to do anything to help you. They will certainly give you extra keys but whether they would rearrange who gets the suite perks is going to depend on the whims of whoever you talk to. Please also consider that you should increase your gratuities to the suite's attendant. You would have 4 people in the room, but they'll only be getting paid to clean up after 2 people.