Orange Crush

The Orlando courthouse has one of these systems. I hate it. While it could theoretically work on a cruise ship, the system falls apart if people don't board the elevator the system tells them to board. As folks have brought up a few times, many of our fellow cruise passengers cannot grasp the concept of waiting for people to get OFF the elevator before trying to shove their way ON. I think computer designated elevators are a bridge too far. Any smarts built into the elevators has to be totally automatic and not depend on people following instructions. I suspect some of that is happening already. When I was on the Allure, I noticed several elevator cars pass right on by after pressing the button when I was waiting in an elevator lobby. I think the system can recognize when an elevator is full and only stop at floors passengers were exiting on. I'm sure smarter people than I could program in fancy logic to squeeze out more efficiency that would account for dinner times, show times, port arrivals, etc.

They abandoned the iPad idea and are instead designating 1 out of every 3 elevators "Express." On the Express elevators, the elevator buttons have been replaced by card swipes. They'll cost $1.99 per ride, or you can buy an unlimited package for $10.99 per person per day, plus 18% gratuity. Suite guests will have access to their very own golden elevator with TV screens that let them watch all the people who have to wait for the regular elevators and laugh at them over the ship's loudspeakers. I kid . . . I kid . . . (I actually have no idea what happened to the ipad experiment, but it sounds awful and I hope it fails.)

Twelve was convenient for running between the room and pool deck to get more sunblock, a book, oops I forgot my glasses, etc. etc.

I've never been that close to the wire, but yes, you can drop and add whatever you want in the cruise planner until it gets locked down at T minus 3 days. After that you are at the mercy of guest services on the ship.

But remember, you can bring two 750ml bottles of wine or champagne per stateroom. Room service will deliver orange juice and a bucket of ice for free.

Seapass cards show up in the staterooms around 1pm. You can pre-print a paper set-sail pass at home to use before you get to your room, or they'll print you one at the port before you board. I didn't try to use a free lunch perk (had an ocean balcony, not CP), but the drink package worked fine on the temporary pass and I set up all my specialty bookings with just my name and room number. I highly doubt you'll have a problem using your lunch credit before getting your physical cards. They should be able to see it in the system when they look you up.

We were on Majesty over Christmas. The Main Dining Room had the full sit-down table service breakfast until 9:30am and the Windjammer buffet kept breakfast going until 11:00.

I always link a credit card, but I did notice nightly holds on my credit card account in the $50-$75 range that were cancelled and replaced with the total seapass balance at the end. I imagine there would be similar holds placed on debit cards.

@henrysea13 YES! The ship is very tall with a wide flat bottom so there's a lot of surface area above the water to catch the wind. The stabilizers cancel most of the motion out, but in very high winds, you can still feel the motion, especially on the higher decks. On Deck 12, I definitely felt it on the windiest night. I was having trouble sleeping on my side because of it and had to sleep on my back for more stability. I'm not prone to motion or sea sickness, but I can definitely see how that could bother people who are.

Well that'll be a major disappointment. I sincerely hope they don't go that route.

This isn't going to be the same answer for everybody. There's a case to be made for every deck depending on what kind of room you like, where you want to be close to and personal preferences and sensitivities. Are you going for an ocean view? Do you care about having a window, balcony or a suite? How sensitive are you to motion/seasickness? Where are you spending most of your time on the ship? Your Room, Pool, Casino, Pub, etc.? When you pick a room, look a deck above and a deck below to see what's around you, it's best to be above and beneath other cabins. If you're prone to seasickness, you want to be down low close to the middle. If you want a window, you need to be outside mid-to-low. If you want a balcony, you need to be on 6 or above. Some of the balconies face inward to the boardwalk and central park, some of the balconies face outward to the sea. Also, the ship is HUGE so you also want to think about how far you are from the elevators and stairs too. There's a tradeoff between how much foot traffic there is in the hallway outside and how far you have to walk to get to your room. It's longer than you might think, but hoofing it also burns calories.

What are the rumors about the drink packages?

We've shared a single device code and I honestly can't remember if we could actually bump the other device off or had to logoff each time. We never got the code-in-use error message, but the logoff process is just going to "logoff.com" on the connected device. The only oddity I noticed on the Allure is that my other half's iPhone wouldn't bring up the login page automatically, he had to actually go to "logon.com" to get the login screen. My Android phone would pop up a notification.

For what it's worth, I was on the Majesty this past Christmas and had an absolutely lovely time. I just sailed the Oasis-class Allure a couple weeks ago and I can honestly say that there were several aspects of the Majesty I liked better. My advice is don't do my time dining, get an assigned time. Makes for a much better experience, imo. While it's a smaller ship, it was once one of the largest cruise ships in the world and is by no means tiny. We all thought the service was top-notch and the staff will go to great lengths to make you happy. Food was a mixed bag, but that's true of anything anywhere. If you don't like what you ordered, try something else. I thought the Windjammer buffet was better on the Majesty than on the Allure. The main dining room was MILES better on the Majesty vs the Allure. None of the seafood dishes wowed us, but the other proteins (steaks, poultry, tenderloins, etc.) were all pretty good. Avoid the pizza.

When you get a 4-device package, do they give you 4 unique codes, or is it the same code for all 4?

I nabbed it for $14.13. You have to watch the cruise planner semi-obsessively. The price drops seem to occur more or less at random.

I wish they were building new fuel efficient ships in the Vision to Sovereign size range. Comparing the Allure and the Majesty, I like aspects of both and the ability to chose between them. They each bring things to the table I like. The Allure had the gee whiz factor, nonstop entertainment and hustle and bustle, the Majesty had a friendlier more casual feel. Sometimes we want an action packed vacation, sometimes we want something more relaxing and personalized. It's nice to have both options.

Our room was on Deck 12, which was a nice spot. We spent most of our time two decks up at the pools (there is no 13) or 6 decks down at the Schooner Bar. Easy to take the stairs most of the time. Although we usually took the elevator after we closed the bar down . . .

In a straight run, they are very fast. I took a video of the dress sculptures from the glass elevator going up from Deck 5 to Deck 12 and it was about 15 seconds to go 7 decks. The trouble is during the busy times you're never going to get a straight run. You'll stop at Deck 11, Deck 10, Deck 09 . . . I did notice that full elevators don't always stop on decks with people waiting to board, so there may be some weight sensors or fancy logic at work to improve traffic management somewhat.

I did the Allure just before Spring Break season started, so the crowd trended a little older, but I agree with some points. Our room attendant was fantastic and we saw her nearby just about every time we went to the room. At times it felt crowded, but the ship's design goes a long way to spreading the crowds out. My biggest crowd-related complaint is all the chair hogs. Staff doesn't enforce the unattended chair rule, so you'll see most of the chairs with towels or the in-room magazines thrown on them first thing in the morning but they stay empty till 11. Also good luck getting an elevator during the dinner rush. MTD was awful on this ship. Bad service, bad food. We did specialty dining 4 out of 7 nights, which was fantastic. Went to the main dining room once for dinner, once for lunch and tried to go once for breakfast but left in frustration. They really need improvement there. It's probably better with a scheduled sit down time or not at all. Specialty food was excellent. MDR was disappointing. Windjammer was a mixed bag, but overall fine. The Windjammer seemed to be about the same size as it was on the Majesty, a ship 1/3 the size, so the crowd could be an issue there, especially during breakfast and lunch. Bar service, show access and everything else was fine, no complaints there. I too noticed rude senior citizens, moreso than I had noticed on previous cruises. 60+ year olds cutting in line and elbowing their way up to the buffet or nudging people with their scooters happened a few times and there were a couple of times I had to loudly announce to someone trying to shove their way into an elevator that we were trying to get OFF on that deck. That's not Royal's fault, that's just people with bad manners. Maybe RCI can implement a demerit system where if enough fellow passengers ding you for rudeness, you'll get left at the next port.

1.) $15.99 is a tad a high, but you should book it now to lock in the price, it's been creeping upward over the past few months. 2.) Lowest I've seen for a single device package was $13 and change, but that was last year. I haven't seen south of $14 for anything in 2018. $14 and change seems to be the new "sale" price. 3.) You can buy Surf Only on the ship for $15.99; Surf and Stream goes up to $19.99. I've never seen "Surf Only" offered on cruise planner for advance booking.

Pretty much. Pullmantur (not quite a subsidiary now, Royal owns 49%) picked up the Sovereign & Monarch, Royal is still sailing her sister ship the Majesty. They also had the Empress for a while, but Royal pulled her back to their own fleet for the Cuba runs. From what I've seen, they do some refurbishments, but nothing crazy. Mostly a new paint job, carpet and decor.

The Bow & Stern did have a buffet set up one morning/early afternoon a couple days ago but I'm not sure what it was for (could have been a private party). I haven't noticed it since.

Interesting info on travel insurance plans. I didn't book insurance for this trip, but I'll check the fine print when I think about it for future trips. Ethically, my view is that insurance is a contract and if that's what they promise under that circumstance and it's not tied to a specific loss, then claim away!

I kinda want to swing by guest services once the lines thin out and chat them up. I'm not much of a complainer and don't mind the itinerary skips, but I also want to make sure we get any goodies they're handing out to pacify squeaky wheels.