Atlantix2000

As far as I know, there is also no limit on the number of devices used with VOOM. So you could have a family of 10 sharing a one device plan as long as you can figure out who gets to use it when!

Someone could have chartered the ship or it's got a couple days of maintenance planned or Royal is using the ship for media relations (free cruise for the best travel agents or some such thing). Lots of options

With 4 Oasis class ships in the Caribbean and more on the way, I think it's about time to invest in a bigger dry dock on this side of the Atlantic!!!

Well, yes, if you made a call through Cellular At Sea it would be pretty expensive but your phone company would be passing along that charge to you. There are plenty of other options for making calls though. Besides, I'm quite certain guest services would have provided a complimentary phone call to Air2Sea if you'd asked.

My only experience with an all inclusive was our honeymoon two years ago. We started with a week-long eastern caribbean cruise on Adventure of the Seas followed by 5 (6?) nights at the Excellence Riviera Cancun. I had a very different experience than twangster. We were blown away by the food at their restaurants (with the exception of the tapas place) and their drinks included top shelf liquor with proper pours. I did a quick look at the reviews on tripadvisor. Both resorts have an overall 4.5 stars (though the one in Cancun is based on 16,000 reviews vs 4,000 for the Hyatt Ziva) so I'm not sure how I'd tell the difference. I can say from some of our planning that a lot of the all-inclusives we looked at mentioned limited selection on liquors. Some even said drinks made with locally made rums, vodkas, etc. were included but anything name brand was extra (even if the brand isn't that good).

With the new features open, I don't think it will feel crowded even when multiple ships are at CocoCay. I've only ever found it busy on the beaches closest to where you go ashore. As soon as you walk a bit further, you could easily find yourself alone on a beach. Even if you double or triple the number of visitors, they've added so much non-beach space that I'm confident it will still be possible to get away from everyone.

Try a google image search for the name of your ship and "dining room". Most of them are really multi-story rooms where the main floor is full of tables and the other floors have an open area in the middle to look down so they seem like huge balconies. There's a grand staircase connecting them that all the waiters will gather on for a photo op at some point.

Unfortunately, I believe the answer is it depends on which ship you are sailing. If you let us know, I'm sure someone can give the correct answer for your cruise.

In general, tenders run continuously in both directions (leaving when full or after X minutes of waiting). I searched and found some posts on another forum from 2016 saying that tenders ran all night in Maui for their cruises. I wouldn't take that as a guarantee, but I'd feel safe assuming the tenders would continue until some reasonable hour (let's say 11PM) so I'm confident you can go ashore for dinner and even something else after. There were also posts about sunrise bike trip excursions so it sounds like they would need to be running plenty early in the morning too.

Is there actually a difference in cost between ordering a shot of Captain and ordering a Captain and Coke?

True, you leave one tip for your server, but then they are supposed to give a portion of it to all those people. If that hotel had hundreds of employees working behind the scenes to make it comparable to a cruise ship...

You can also just grab a frozen drink on the way into the MDR. Or run out and get one at the closest bar in between courses.

Pretty much. As an example, let's say they start allowing check-in at 10:30AM and they start boarding at 11AM. Everyone that checked in before 11 would board in their priority order and that will probably only take a few minutes, let's say 15. Thus anyone checking in after 11:15AM would just go straight to the ship. Of course, the line to check in will also be growing through all of this. There are dedicated check in lines for suites and for the different levels of Crown and Anchor (depending on the size of the port). Ironically, sometimes the pre-gold line will be shorter than the Diamond and up lines!

Priority early boarding sounds better than it really is. If you show up and check in BEFORE boarding has actually started, then you are directed to sit and wait in various priority groups (such as the Key, suites, pinnacle members, diamond members, etc all the way down to no level of priority). Then when they actually start boarding, the priority groups are released to board. Depending on how many people are checked in, priority boarding may save you a few minutes, or none at all. If you arrive and check in AFTER boarding has started, you just board the ship so priority gets you nothing.

With My Time Dining, your party will always be seated at your own table unless you specifically request to be seated with others. With Traditional Dining, a party of 4 will probably be placed at a larger table with at least one other party. (I think the most common table size is 8.) You can call customer service and set a preference for your table size.

With Traditional, every night is the same time at the same table with the same waiters. Exact times vary by ship and itinerary but will be something like 5:30 PM for the early seating and 8:00 PM for late seating. No mixing between early and late. With My Time, you can make reservations for some nights, all nights, or no nights. Without reservations, it's just like going to a normal restaurant...there might be a wait if they are busy, or you might be seated immediately. Some people want to reserve every night for a specific time but think the early and late seating are bad times so they reserve every night at 6:30 PM. If you like your table and/or waiters, you can request them for future nights. They will do their best but this option works best if you want a similar time every night. If you jump around a lot, it might not be possible. Another consideration is if you will be dining in specialty restaurants frequently. Many cruisers choose My Time when they do multiple specialty restaurants so they aren't leaving empty seats at a traditional table.

I've never heard of a benefit associated with when you check-in. Of course, Royal's website has frequent issues so waiting to the last minute probably isn't a good idea. Boarding times are meaningless for US departures. You can always show up at the port starting around 10:30AM and be some of the first people on the ship.

Will you be using 2 or 4 people's worth of towels that need washing? How about sheets/beds/sofabeds that need making and setting up and taking down twice a day? Will only 2 people create trash? Will only 2 of you need to be served in the dining room? Should I continue?

How long after returning from your cruise? If you use a debit card, you will see daily temporary holds placed on the account for the day's charges. Then at the end of the cruise, they'll submit the real bill (sum of all days). However, the temporary holds won't fall off until a few days later. How long will be based on your bank's policies. If this is what has happened to you, it's not Royal Caribbean's fault and there is nothing you can do but wait. This is the number one reason debit cards are not recommended for travel expenses...you temporarily need twice as much money. This actually also happens with credit cards, but the holds don't actually take your money.

While at sea, your only options are Voom or paying MUCH more to use Cellular At Sea which is sort of like international roaming except it isn't included with any cell phone plan. There are no cell towers at sea so you're paying to use the ship's tower connected to a satellite. While on the ship in port, the ship's tower is off, so your options are Voom or trying to connect to the local cell network. This may work if you are on a balcony or the open decks but not so well inside. Cost depends on your carrier's rates for international roaming. While off the ship in port, you can almost always find free wifi somewhere (most bars and restaurants offer it to paying customers but some towns just offer it free.) You could save your posts and upload them while you are off the ship. I haven't done a live blog but I've used this method to check email and send/receive texts once or twice a day.

Right up at the top (on a laptop at least) there's a menu bar where you can click on "Cruise Compass". If not, here's a direct link, https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compass. It looks like there are several recent submissions from Liberty on the Western Caribbean.

In general, everything will be more expensive to purchase on the ship. About the only exception is spa services (specifically while in port they often have deals because they have less business then).

On most ships, there are early and late show times that coordinate with both the early and late dinner seatings. That actually means making the shows is hardest on those that insist on eating halfway between the two seatings. On some ships, you may have to eat dinner in the windjammer or elsewhere to make the specific show you want but that can happen to those with early or late seating. The best recommendation is to look at some old cruise compasses from similar itineraries to your cruise to get an idea of when things get scheduled.

Remember that the earliest you can reach your stateroom is 1PM (later if they aren't done cleaning) so if you board before that you have to carry everything with you. You COULD put everything in smaller luggage/bags to keep it with you but then I wouldn't recommend boarding early!

You can invite the whole ship to your room at any time! There's no guard at the door, just you and your room key. I'm guessing no for Coastal Kitchen but have no evidence.