Atlantix2000

2 hours ago, Matt said:

It's rarely combinable with any other discount so not worth it

I was wondering if you've seen anything from RCI about making the discount more useful.  The original poster implied as much but I don't know what the language in the provided link used to say.  Not that it's relevant to me yet, but I've been considering RCI the next time I have the ability to do some investing.

My wife has a simple plain wedding band to wear whenever we travel internationally.  Her ring is insured of course, but she just doesn't want to risk losing it while on vacation.

22 minutes ago, Kwevans said:

Here's hoping this helps any other married women traveling with a birth certificate instead of a passport!! 

It's not just traveling.  Anytime you need to prove your identity, your name must match on all required documents or you need the marriage certificate (or divorce papers) to link the names together.  In cases where couples both hyphenate their names, they will both have to watch out for this too!

Agree that on Adventure and similar class ships, there are two identical shows each evening and the times are designed around the traditional dining times.  If you have early dining, you go to the late show.  If you have late dining, you go to the early show.  If you have My Time Dining, and you want a middle dining time, then your dinner may interfere with one or both shows.  There is also often a late late show (after all dining is over) which will be different than the main shows (for example an adults only comedy show).

47 minutes ago, TFinNC said:

Thanks! How many days should I give it to start being concerned? They OBC is coming from travel agency and not RC. And I am not loving my agent right now! Not returning emails or calls          Clearly not using them again....

Non-RC OBC is usually credited to your account on Day 2 but it can vary.  On one of my cruises, I was given a slip of paper at checkin listing the amount of OBC I would be receiving on Day 2 which was nice but that was unusual I think.

Of course, you don't have to wait for the OBC to start spending.  Charges and credits are posted to your account whenever they occur and all that matters is the total at the end.  (Some credit/debit cards will show daily holds during the cruise.  Those will be removed and a single total is applied at the end of the cruise.  Your bank or card issuer may not show them as removed right away though.  Just so you know.)

5 minutes ago, Nick Ramsden said:

Thanks - also does the RCS have American plugs I presume ?

Both American (120V) and European (220V).  If you've got a lot of devices, bring some adapters so you can use both.  Just be sure you know which devices can be safely used with each outlet type.  You can get plain adapters or more expensive ones that also do voltage conversion.

No interior room that I know of has more than 2 beds (singles that can be pushed together to make a "royal king" which is probably closer to a queen size).  In a room that sleeps 4, the other two people will be sleeping on some combination of pull out couch or Pullman beds (which could fold down from wall or pull down from ceiling).

If you post your room number you can get a better answer.  It depends on the exact category of interior you booked.

12 hours ago, Larry Muster said:

I wouldn’t dismiss it so quickly.  Most of us seem to be pretty positive about RCCL so we in general like the direction they are heading, and probably assume   the stock will go up.  

If you put in the $12K and say you cruise 5x per year and get $500 OBC that’s a 4% return regardless of where the stock goes.

I’m only in the 3x per year club but I’m going to buy enough to get me to the 100 share mark.

And that's before you consider the dividend!  What is it these days 2.5%?  That's another ~$300 in your pocket each year to reduce the cost of your trips.

This is a 5 year old thread!

The ships sail full year round regardless of hurricane season.  Sometimes that means ships divert to different ports to avoid the weather.  Sometimes that means cruises get cancelled.  I'm sure the potential hassle keeps some people from booking, but again, the ships are full so plenty are willing to sail.

20 hours ago, Bakerette said:

If your arriving at the terminal in the same vehicle then you will be arriving at the same time.

Years ago I went on a cruise with 2-3 other people and I checked in all people on my reservation at the same time and we had to arrive to the terminal at the same time since the checkin documents were all combined into one checkin paper that had to be scanned when we arrived @ the terminal and received our sea pass cards at the cruise terminal. 

On my most recent cruise in April I had checked in myself and my mom (who was the only two people on the reservation) and I used the digital set sail passes on the app and we had to arrive at the same time because we had the same arrival time @ the cruise terminal.

You can print multiple copies of the check in paper.  You only check in the people that are actually there.

As noted in the MANY questions about arrival times, they have absolutely no meaning.  To maximize your vacation time, show up before boarding has begun (before the terminal is even open if you want), check in as early as they allow, board as early as you can, and start your vacation on your time.

Again, you DO NOT have to show up together.

14 hours ago, Bakerette said:

YOU AND YOUR FRIEND MUST ARRIVE AT THE CRUISE TERMINAL AT THE SAME TIME ON THE DAY OF EMBARKATION. 

This is absolutely not true.  People on the same reservation (including families) check in at different times all the time.  You each need to print (or electronically show) your SetSail pass when you arrive.  That's it.

They are ninjas that are very good at observing when you enter/leave your room.  They seem to always be around cleaning someone's room but I've never actually managed to catch them cleaning mine.  I have seen them knock on rooms before entering.

Think of your room like any hotel room.  Yes, you can lock your room and throw a latch/deadbolt for privacy but those can be overridden when necessary.

I think it's polite to inform my steward if I'm planning to sleep in really late or take a nap before dinner.  That way they will know and can work around my schedule.  After all, they don't get to clock out until they've finished all their assigned rooms.

I did the galley tour on Adventure of the Seas.  We entered through the dining room and used the staff elevator to go between different floors of the galley.  There were no wheelchairs on our tour but I feel confident they would have been able to maneuver through the portions of the galley we saw.  The tour mostly stayed on wide aisles on a circular path through the middle of the galley.  Working in the galley would have been very difficult in a wheelchair but I think the tour is accessible.

I think the only way to select prepaid gratuities online is right when you book.  After that, you have to call to add them.

5 hours ago, deany said:

My drinks package was included. Will i end up paying the 18% of each drink i order? 

Ive read its 14.50 each day is that correct 

If your drink package was included, the gratuities for your drinks are also already covered.

Separately, there's the gratuities for everything else (all the dining staff, room steward, cleaning crews, etc.).  Those are $14.50 per person per day (or $17.50 if you are sailing in a Grand Suite or better).  You can prepay them or they will be added to your onboard account each day.

The RCCL site says a lot of things that are wrong including describing restaurants on ships that don't have them.

Are you confirming that you've actually done the Galley Brunch as part of a Dining Package?  If not, I would trust what people say they've experienced not what the website says.

I would be highly confident you would receive your passports in time for an August cruise without paying for expedited processing.

2 hours ago, lindylooj said:

Thank you so much for clarifying I was getting confused with it all.  Can we book a different time everytime on the day or do we prebook before we leave?

Either way works!  If you go into your cruise planner, under the dining options, you can make My Time reservations for each day of your cruise.  Depending on when you are booked, you may find that the options aren't there yet (if your cruise is far in the future), ready for booking with lots of times available, or you'll find that there aren't many times available at all (your cruise is soon or lots of other passengers have already noticed booking was available).  Don't worry if you can't get the times you want now.  Once you board, they have flexibility to adjust reservations.  They don't book every table in advance and there are plenty of people who will want to change times once they see the actual schedule of entertainment.

Another thing to not be worried about.  After booking, you may find that your reservation shows up in your calendar as "at your leisure" instead of at your reservation time.  That's a normal (and annoying) quirk of the website.

Yeah the Windjammer staff and MDR staff fall under the same category of gratuities.  As I see it, someone is providing me food whether it's the waiter bringing my plate or the server filling the buffet stations.  Both deserve my thanks and my gratuities!

4 hours ago, bobroo said:

So, with all that experience and human oversight. How do they not know “Hey, we should be much slower at this point in time” “Dude, there is another vessel that is way too frick’in close to our berth” or “We are Waaaytooo close to the dock” 

It seems awareness of a problem should have been known well before the ship collides with the end of the pier and some evasive actions taken beforehand.

Good points but in this case, they weren't trying to dock anywhere near where they hit.  They were supposed to keep going down the canal and turn into the berths at the end of the island.  Their speed may have been perfectly appropriate if the ship was going in the right direction.  There were 2 tugs guiding the ship down the canal with cables attached.  One of those cables broke at some point.  I've seen some reports say it was after the collision and some before.  I think before makes more sense because then the remaining tug could have accidentally turned the ship with its cable due to lack of balance from the other tug.

16 hours ago, JamesLH said:

For a 4 night cruise, do they use the first 4 nights menu's of a 7 day cruise? Thanks if anyone knows! 

Usually a ship doing a 4 night cruise is alternating between 3 and 4 night cruises so they would still use all 7 menus over the course of a week.  I would bet some ships serve MDR menu 1 on day 1 of the 3-day cruise and others do it on day 1 of the 4-day cruise.  Not sure there's a way to know in advance.

42 minutes ago, mook1525 said:

ugh. really? This is released by Royal last month and it says there are two towel station.

bummer if there is no towel station on island.

No, that quote says there are two towel exchange stations (which may or may not exist).  Towels are still checked out on the ship and need to be returned there.

Are you looking for something like this link at the top of the page?  https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/menus

Most of those menus are a few years old.  I think it would be great if people submitted newer ones (either here or by emailing them in).

Edited to add:  Woah, hey @Matt, the Menus link is only visible at the top while in the Message Boards section.  If you click on any other top link (Getting Started, Cruise Compasses, Etc) then Menus isn't part of the navigation bar!

Well, yes and no.  The excursion times from RCI always includes the transportation time which can be significant depending on what you are doing.  Based on your description I would say your excursion was approximately 12-5pm with a bit of buffer in case something happens (which includes waiting for those inevitable people who don't show up on time).  A third party version of the excursion might have said meet our ferry at 1PM at this dock and it would have been up to you to figure out how long it would take to get there.

My excursion experiences fall into one of two categories:

1) Meet on the dock and find the person holding up the Name/Number of the excursion to get your sticker/wrist band.  Once everyone is there, the group heads off to the bus/ferry/etc as needed.  If it's a large excursion, sometimes one person repeatedly takes smaller groups to the transportation while another waits for more people to get off the ship.  In this case, how long you wait depends on the capacity of the gangway and whether your fellow excursion guests are on time.

2) Meet somewhere on the ship but otherwise similar procedure but they do have to stagger when the different excursions leave or there will be chaos on the stairs/gangway.  However, there's no real need to meet early.  Just swing by a few minutes before the departure time, grab your sticker and join the line of people already streaming out of the ice rink, theater, etc.  So in your example, I wouldn't have gone to the theater until 11:50AM.  Worst case, the whole line is already gone and you just catch up on the dock.  They'll be waiting for you.

I don't know much about skates but I do know there are VERY limited hours that the rink is open for skating.  That alone would deter me from using up packing space for my own skates!  Try finding a Cruise Compass for a trip similar to yours and see if it actually makes sense to bring your skates.