Atlantix2000

Indian food (vegetarian or not) is generally not on the menu of the main dining room (especially on a US based cruise).  When people say it is available, what they mean is the wait staff is able to bring you food from the crew dining room which has a totally different unpublished menu.  The main dining room menu is based on the tastes of the average passenger (mostly US and Europeans) while the crew dining room caters to the tastes of a mostly foreign crew (foreign from a US perspective).  I've heard the crew is very willing to share their cuisine with those interested.

If by "buy a random cabin" you mean you booked a GTY (Guaranty) cabin, then you will get one of the cabins remaining after everyone else paid to pick a specific cabin.  Generally, people pick the cabin they think is best from those available.  But everyone's opinion of best is different.  Some like to be near the elevators, some hate that.  Some pick a specific cabin because they want to make sure they don't have an obstructed view, but others purposely pick an obstructed view to save money.  So the only thing you can say about the GTY cabins is that no one else picked them but the furnishings and size are still the same as all other cabins in the same category.

Your actual cabin assignment can happen anytime between when you booked the cruise and when you board the ship.  That's part of the terms of the GTY.

You CAN, but it's not a good use of your package.  Think of it this way.  Let's say Chops is $50 and the 3 night package is $120.  You use the package at Chops all 3 nights and get $150 of value for $120.  That's clearly good.  At the other end of the spectrum, if you used all 3 of your "nights" as a $20 credit from Playmakers, you would only get $60 of value for that $120 package.  That's clearly bad.  Using the 3 night package for 2 dinners and one $20 lunch falls somewhere in the middle.  You're not getting as much value out of the package as you could but that might be OK to you.

Just go to Royal's website, and search for your cruise as if you were going to book it.  When you click "view itinerary" it will show the ports, what hours you are in port, and if it is tendered.  I just tried this by searching for all transpacific cruises and testing a few.  The info is there.

You CAN, but it's not a good use of your package.  Think of it this way.  Let's say Chops is $50 and the 3 night package is $120.  You use the package at Chops all 3 nights and get $150 of value for $120.  That's clearly good.  At the other end of the spectrum, if you used all 3 of your "nights" as a $20 credit from Playmakers, you would only get $60 of value for that $120 package.  That's clearly bad.  Using the 3 night package for 2 dinners and one $20 lunch falls somewhere in the middle.  You're not getting as much value out of the package as you could but that might be OK to you.

More and more diamonds are lab grown and they are authentic...just not by the meaning you want to use.  It's on you to ask this question if it is important to you.  There's very little on a cruise ship that is exclusive and cannot be bought elsewhere.  Remember that your cruise may be special to you but it's not unique.  Your cruise's "last day sale" also happened a few days ago and a few days before that and on and on.  It's no different than the never ending sales at stores on land.  You fell for marketing but that's not a scam.

More and more diamonds are lab grown and they are authentic...just not by the meaning you want to use.  It's on you to ask this question if it is important to you.  There's very little on a cruise ship that is exclusive and cannot be bought elsewhere.  Remember that your cruise may be special to you but it's not unique.  Your cruise's "last day sale" also happened a few days ago and a few days before that and on and on.  It's no different than the never ending sales at stores on land.  You fell for marketing but that's not a scam.

6 month validity ONLY applies IF you are visiting a country that has such a rule.  The most common caribbean itineraries do not visit any such countries.  There are many threads here that will confirm this.  Your passport just has to be valid while you are on the cruise.

Based purely on the photos (since I haven't sat in those in too long), I feel like if they were reclined all the way to flat, they would easily tip backwards and people would hit their head on the floor or sliding door.  Perhaps that happened to someone and this is an overreaction to prevent future lawsuits?  I would definitely cut them and complain on the post cruise survey.

While there are some vendors that truly are cash only, there are also plenty that will claim to be cash only but will take one when pressed or if they think they are going to lose the sale because you start to walk out.  They are just hoping to increase their profits by not having to pay the card fees.

We know Royal doesn't allow all dining times to be booked pre-cruise.  They hold back for those people that purchase specialty dining on board.  Yes, even someone without UDP can get a good dining time on a first-come, first-served basis on the ship.  They also hold back for UDP purchasers to complete their reservations once they get on board and yes you can get get good dining times on a first-come, first-served basis.  You are assuming that guest that are purchasing the UDP now and can make reservations now are seeing the complete inventory of dining tables/times and will book everything good.  I think that's a bad assumption based on history.  I think they are only allowing a certain percentage of all reservations to be booked pre-cruise with UDP and that is why some people are finding things "sold out".  They've just reached the limit of what is currently allowed to be booked.

According to Matt's article from a few days ago, it was an announced permanent change: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2024/10/14/royal-caribbean-cuts-cococay-tram-service

The advantage of prepaying gratuities is locking in the existing rate at the time you pay.  (At least that's been true for the last several increases.)

It's very easy to mistakenly think UDP means Ultimate Drink Package.  Especially if you are currently enjoying the DBP.  Those damn TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) all look alike!

It's very easy to mistakenly think UDP means Ultimate Drink Package.  Especially if you are currently enjoying the DBP.  Those damn TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) all look alike!

It's very easy to mistakenly think UDP means Ultimate Drink Package.  Especially if you are currently enjoying the DBP.  Those damn TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) all look alike!

It's very easy to mistakenly think UDP means Ultimate Drink Package.  Especially if you are currently enjoying the DBP.  Those damn TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) all look alike!

They may not be interested in sending personal replies to everyone but history shows that they've been stopping at Labadee for many years while there have been travel advisories in place.  They only stop when Haiti is making big headlines.  Once the news turns to something else, they resume their visits.  There's not much more that can be said.

It's very easy to mistakenly think UDP means Ultimate Drink Package.  Especially if you are currently enjoying the DBP.  Those damn TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) all look alike!

The only useful perks for Junior Suite are 50% larger than standard balcony room, walk-in closet (most ships), and the extra point per night for being a "suite".

There is no such thing as a "cruiseline approved" adapter but there are MANY shady third-party vendors on Amazon selling products with those words in their marketing.  That's a HUGE red flag for product quality.  As an electrical engineer, I despise how hard it is to find electronics I can trust on Amazon.  If the brand name is a bunch of letters and the manufacturer's address is china, PLEASE don't buy it.

Electrical grounding just doesn't work the same when there is literally no ground.  On land, the ground plug of every outlet in your home traces back to a physical grounding rod that is buried deep into the earth.  Over-current situations (whether a short due to a device failure or due to a lighting strike) are dealt with by directing that current into the ground which can safely absorb it.  Marine electric systems cannot do the same so over-current situations represent a serious fire hazard for a ship.  Surge protectors rely on the normal grounding system to protect devices from catching fire.  But on a ship, a surge protector actually creates a greater fire risk which is why they must be banned.  Unfortunately, there is no way to quickly test whether a given device has a hidden built-in surge protector.  Therefore, it is safer to ban all devices that might have a surge protector no matter how inconvenient that is for cruisers.

The simplest way to sum up the rules is "Don't add power outlets".
Single outlet power adapters (for voltage and/or shape) are fine.  Multi-port chargers (USB/Thunderbird/etc) are fine.  Neither of these increase the number of power outlets.

The simplest way to sum up the rules is "Don't add power outlets".
Single outlet power adapters (for voltage and/or shape) are fine.  Multi-port chargers (USB/Thunderbird/etc) are fine.  Neither of these increase the number of power outlets.

Hello ChatGPT, nice to see you again.