Atlantix2000

I've heard it has something to do with medical emergencies and getting the patient (in this case an infant) to qualified care in a reasonable amount of time. For the most part, the 3 consecutive sea days rule only eliminates transatlantic/transpacific voyages where you're multiple days from a hospital. Royal's doctors have a chance to stabilize an adult with a heart attack but don't want to take that type of risk with an infant.

Most likely this was due to rearranging passengers due to covid concerns. Either your original room is now in the covid quarantine area or they moved you to meet their distancing plan. It is unfortunate that they would now be downgrading you if you truly did win your RoyalUp bid. Hope your TA can come to a satisfactory resolution.

Time to update the title of the thread!!

You probably don't want to use the Verizon cruise package, you want Verizon's TravelPass service. It costs $5 or $10 per day where each day is a 24 hour period. You need to activate it before you leave (I think you have to call), then when you connect to cell service in an international country, you get a text from Verizon asking if you want to use TravelPass instead of international roaming. Respond yes and for the next 24 hours, they extend your normal phone/data service plan to cover you internationally. That includes unlimited data if that's the type of plan you have. The best part is it doesn't matter if you change countries during that 24 hours! So you could activate it in Antigua at 2PM and use it in St. Lucia the next morning. TravelPass doesn't work while at sea so Voom is still the best choice there. On most Caribbean itineraries, you spend more time in port than at sea so I've been able to use TravelPass without Voom and only needed to use it every other day if I'm careful.

Often the differences aren't much. If the room is 5 sq ft larger, but they changed the loveseat (a 2-seat sofa) to a regular sofa (a 3-seat), then they've actually already filled that 5 sq ft! Of course, it's much easier to lie down on a sofa than a loveseat so that might be worth it to some people. Another example, an extra 5 sq ft on a balcony could be the difference between a chair and a lounger on the balcony.

The laws on car seats are rather different (or non-existent) in many ports. Taxis/buses are far more likely to expect you to hold your child because that's what the locals do. It's something to consider when booking the excursion.

Every ship can't do Saturday-Saturday (or any other day of the week). There are only a certain number of terminals at the ports. They also have to spread out the demand or there would be massive issues with traffic, parking, customs, loading and storing supplies and fuel, etc. There would also be staffing problems if the terminals were only in use 1-2 days a week.

The app chat feature (and its fee) is definitely aimed at those cruisers that don't want an internet package. I cannot think of a reason anyone would purchase both unless they don't really understand the options.

They don't NEED to accommodate smokers. Smokers are banned from many places on land with no loss of revenue. They will be banned everywhere eventually including cruise ships. You're welcome to disagree but that won't change the eventual outcome.

If you are under 30 days, you clearly meet the eligibility requirements for CWC that are given in the first half of that answer. It says the NRD bookings follow the same guidelines, so what are those guidelines? The second half that you highlighted is about changing ship/date so I don't see how that's relevant to your question.

Depends whether you've scheduled traditional or My Time Dining. With My Time, the default is to seat your party alone. With traditional, the default is to fill tables of 6 or 8 people. Generally, they match people up by party type. So if you are cruising as a couple, you're going to be seated with other couples (as opposed to a family with multiple children). Of course, even if you have other people assigned to your table, they may not show because they are doing specialty or prefer eating dinner in the windjammer. On my first cruise, I had a table for 8 and we had the same 3 couples every night. Not sure if there was supposed to be a 4th pair. On my second cruise, we had a table for 6 with 3 couples on the first night but no more than 2 couples the rest of the week because we each did a few nights of specialty.

Awesome news!

Possibly dumb question, but have you tried using the new password from one site to log into the other? Or purposely set them both to the same thing to see what happens?

At one point, the answer depended on the ship, but it didn't matter. On ships where the max was $12, most drinks cost $12. On ships where the max was $13, most drinks cost $13. I think all ships have standardized at $13 now. One other benefit of the package, if the drink price rises to $14 by the time you cruise, your package would also change to cover up to $14. The bartenders don't have time to look up when you bought the package to see what it covers! So you're safe from increases in prices. Same thing with pre-paid gratuitites. I think they are currently $13.50/person/day and if you pre-pay them, it won't matter if they go up. If you wait until the cruise to pay, they'll charge the current rate.

If you've got the Surf and Stream Voom package, you can use any messaging app including plain old texts (if you have WiFi Calling enabled) to contact people on board (whether your family or those you just met), at home, or anywhere else in the world. The chat feature in Royal's app is only useful for contacting people on board that don't have/want/need any other form of internet. So while not worthless, it's only going to be useful to a minority of the people on board.

Can they charter a private plane to bring your home without a passport? I honestly don't know. If not, I imagine they would still pay for your flight home but that flight won't happen until you visit the local embassy and arrange for an expedited passport. That's going to take some time. The question is who would pay for your hotel while waiting for that passport. The cost of a passport is far less than the inconvenience of being stuck in a foreign country.

Honestly, I think the only way Royal releases a voice recording is after you file a lawsuit against your "friend". During the evidence gathering phase, your lawyer or the court would request the recording from Royal. Outside a lawsuit, I don't see why they would release this to you.

Every restaurant has at least 3 pools of reservations: X% available to be sold online for direct reservations (for those that plan ahead) Y% held for those that purchase the UDP package (must be reserved on board except for the first night placeholder which can also be changed) Z% held for anyone to book on board (because many people don't do any pre-cruise planning) If you absolutely must eat at a specific restaurant at a specific time, you want to book directly but it will cost more. If you are willing to have some flexibility, the UDP will be cheaper and generally get you the right restaurants at about the right times.

Making reservations onboard has always been the trade off for getting a lower cost by buying the dining package. That said, it is extremely popular with the regular cruisers on this forum which wouldn't be the case if they were unable to get good reservations. Really the only common "complaint" is that you can get too much food when you always dine specialty. This is a case where it's important to remember that the average forum poster knows and plans a LOT more than the average cruiser. Many people don't even know specialty dining exists until they get on the ship. That's partly why it's generally easy to make reservations on board on the first day. If you wait until day 4 of 7, then you can't be surprised that good reservations are hard to find but that's true with or without a package.

I have no idea if there's a rule, but based on my limited experience with wet suits, I don't think you would slide too well in them.

A lot of first time posters do that even though the box says "Title". Maybe it would be better if it said "Subject" but I don't know if @Matt can change that part of the forums.

@KayCee009, @barjpoe, @1978bucketlist, and anyone else this may apply to... Please be aware that new/pending charges will show up on your bank/credit card accounts in almost real time but the same is NOT true for removed charges. In fact, it can take multiple days for pending charges to disappear. This is not Royal's fault (assuming they processed the refund of course), but a weird quirk of the banking system. The closer you watch your accounts, the more weirdness you'll see. For example, there doesn't seem to be any logic to how long it takes a pending charge to become a "real" charge and sometimes you can see the the real charge but the pending charge is still there too. Unfortunately, all you can do is keep track of what the end result should be and check again a few days later.

Every guest earns points for their stay. You and your husband would each earn 14 points for a 7 night cruise under the double points program. You would each earn 28 points if you are staying in a suite. (Cruises had to be booked by Sept 30 to qualify for the double points program). Of course, if you and your husband always cruise together, it doesn't really matter whether you both get points because you will always have the same total and therefore the same loyalty benefits. It does make a difference if you ever cruise separately or if one of you cruised with Royal before you got married. Then, your standing in the Crown & Anchor Society is determined by whoever has the higher point total.

The total refund probably comes from different accounts. I deal with that at work all the time. I'm salaried but I still have to track my hours using different cost codes for different projects. (And stuff like vacation/sick time has their own separate cost codes.) Of course, it would be simpler if Royal put everything in one account to start and transferred the appropriate amounts to the correct accounts only after the cruise is ready to sail. But that would require a total overhaul of their accounting system!

Just checking to make sure we're interpreting your question correctly. Are you trying to buy the package itself or make dining reservations for the package (specific times at specific restaurants)? All reservations for packages are done on board. They only sell a certain number of packages and they hold enough reservations at the specialty restaurants for all the package holders. But there is a trade off. You pay less with the package but you might not get exactly the times and locations you want.