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Booked on a Symphony cruise next May 2020 and the current price of this perk is $37.99, which seems astronomical compared to what others have gotten it for. May purchase then rebook if the price drops, but still iffy on doing so. I know there's no real coherent logic or way to estimate what this program will cost because of the fluctuation between cruises and ships, so my efforts may be futile. 

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1 minute ago, kcchief said:

Booked on a Symphony cruise next May 2020 and the current price of this perk is $37.99, which seems astronomical compared to what others have gotten it for. May purchase then rebook if the price drops, but still iffy on doing so. I know there's no real coherent logic or way to estimate what this program will cost because of the fluctuation between cruises and ships, so my efforts may be futile. 

It's hard to say if the price will drop. It's all supply and demand and that is dependent on how well RC conveys the narrative of The Key being "limited." As posted on other threads, the fact that the embarkation lunch for the The Key, has been moved from Chops to the MDR is an indication about the numbers being sold. If people jump on it, the price won't drop, if not then it might. If you feel that the perks are worth the current price to you, I'd buy it and don't look back. If the price drops in the future, that's a bonus for you. If people buy it early though, to lock it in, that in itself may prevent it from dropping in the future.

Happy Cruising!

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Just now, FManke said:

It's hard to say if the price will drop. It's all supply and demand and that is dependent on how well RC conveys the narrative of The Key being "limited." As posted on other threads, the fact that the embarkation lunch for the The Key, has been moved from Chops to the MDR is an indication about the numbers being sold. If people jump on it, the price won't drop, if not then it might. If you feel that the perks are worth the current price to you, I'd buy it and don't look back. If the price drops in the future, that's a bonus for you. If people buy it early though, to lock it in, that in itself may prevent it from dropping in the future.

Happy Cruising!

Agree 100%. It's definitely a gamble, but that's part of the fun of this whole cruise planning adventure (to which I am a complete rookie - luckily I found this blog which is a haven of information). 

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1 minute ago, kcchief said:

Agree 100%. It's definitely a gamble, but that's part of the fun of this whole cruise planning adventure (to which I am a complete rookie - luckily I found this blog which is a haven of information). 

@kcchief remember this goes with everything you book. If you want it, book it. Pull the trigger and don't look back. It's always a nice benefit if the price drops and you get a break on the price. It gets very addictive to be constantly chasing the elusive best price, as most of us here can attest.

You are correct that this blog is a wealth of information, but better than that, a wealth of really great people here to help.

Happy Cruising!

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We recently had the key on Symphony. We were going to have voom surf and stream anyhow so decided it was worth the extra. I think we paid £24.99 a night.  The early embarkation was not used as everyone who had printed off sea pass was straight on at 11 am when we got there. It was good to drop off our carry on knowing that would be in our room at 1pm. The chops grille lunch served in the main dining was fabulous . We attended 3 shows and thought the reserved key seating was ok and saved the worry of having to get there really early and queue but there were better seats. We used the reserved times on climbing and flow rider . 

 

The final day breakfast was nice but nothing to rave about. 

We were escorted straight out on debarkation day  ( past a large queue ) and had no problem just asking a steward when we felt ready to leave . 

So all in all we thought it was a great experience for our first cruise however we have decided not to purchase it for our next one and see how it goes. 

 

Feel free to ask anything else and enjoy ?

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i just got off of Liberty with the Key and it was fantastic!  I noticed that there were not alot of people at the Chops Lunch and never an issue with reserved seating at shows or private hours for activities.  I figure either people dont know about the Key or won't pay for it.  Either way unless I am in a suite or climb the loyalty ladder high enough I will continue to purchase the Key if available and not ridiculously expensive.  Well worth the money for us! 

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5 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

We wondered if maybe they had moved the Key lunch to the MDR b/c we were there for lunch (UDP) and were surprised at the small number of people there for embarkation lunch.

We ate on Deck 5 in the MDR.  We only saw maybe 30-40 people eating lunch with us and on disembarkation during breakfast about the same.  I have no idea how many bought the package but it wasn't crowded at all.

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23 hours ago, Kpak said:

We recently had the key on Symphony. We were going to have voom surf and stream anyhow so decided it was worth the extra. I think we paid £24.99 a night.  The early embarkation was not used as everyone who had printed off sea pass was straight on at 11 am when we got there. It was good to drop off our carry on knowing that would be in our room at 1pm. The chops grille lunch served in the main dining was fabulous . We attended 3 shows and thought the reserved key seating was ok and saved the worry of having to get there really early and queue but there were better seats. We used the reserved times on climbing and flow rider . 

 

The final day breakfast was nice but nothing to rave about. 

We were escorted straight out on debarkation day  ( past a large queue ) and had no problem just asking a steward when we felt ready to leave . 

So all in all we thought it was a great experience for our first cruise however we have decided not to purchase it for our next one and see how it goes. 

 

Feel free to ask anything else and enjoy ?

When did you get to book the special times for the activities? I think I heard it is right after we get our room.

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1 hour ago, KBugNC said:

When did you get to book the special times for the activities? I think I heard it is right after we get our room.

For the Key when I was on Symphony, I just used the special times they stated on the welcome letter. For the Rock Climbing it was one day from 4-5 pm and there was no wait for me - the only issue is that you had to climb on the advance wall (the other wall was easier). The flowrider was one day between 9-10 am. Was about 10 people there from the Key for one of the two flowriders (opens up to all at 10 am). Similar timing also happened for the zipline.  If you choose to use these activities (including the abyss) outside of the key hour, you can ride that activity after every 4th person.

Getting on the ship early with The Key allowed me to get my WOW band from Boleros real fast as well as a quick walk-up to the kiosk at the On Air Club to reserve Laser Tag.

 

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23 hours ago, marcg125 said:

For the Key when I was on Symphony, I just used the special times they stated on the welcome letter. For the Rock Climbing it was one day from 4-5 pm and there was no wait for me - the only issue is that you had to climb on the advance wall (the other wall was easier). The flowrider was one day between 9-10 am. Was about 10 people there from the Key for one of the two flowriders (opens up to all at 10 am). Similar timing also happened for the zipline.  If you choose to use these activities (including the abyss) outside of the key hour, you can ride that activity after every 4th person.

Getting on the ship early with The Key allowed me to get my WOW band from Boleros real fast as well as a quick walk-up to the kiosk at the On Air Club to reserve Laser Tag.

 

We plan on getting on board as soon as we can. I will look for that welcome letter. Thanks!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just noticed that The Key price on our Oct 2020 Rhapsody Greece cruise just dropped to $19.99 pp, more than a year out. But, what I noticed more than that  was that it also had a small banner that said "Online Only." I had never seen that before on any other add-on options in the cruise planner.

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7 minutes ago, FManke said:

Just noticed that The Key price on our Oct 2020 Rhapsody Greece cruise just dropped to $19.99 pp, more than a year out. But, what I noticed more than that  was that it also had a small banner that said "Online Only." I had never seen that before on any other add-on options in the cruise planner.

Mine went from $37.99 yesterday to $29 today for our sailing on Allure November 2020; hoping it gets to $25 (wow $19.99!!) to purchase; mine planner also says ONLINE ONLY

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1 hour ago, PRebecca said:

Mine went from $37.99 yesterday to $29 today for our sailing on Allure November 2020; hoping it gets to $25 (wow $19.99!!) to purchase; mine planner also says ONLINE ONLY

Ohhh thanks for the heads up on this! I had purchased at $38 for my May 2020 Harmony sailing but with the full intentions of cancelling it if it never dropped. I saved $168 and got the lower $30 price which is the high end of what I'm willing to pay. I also hope it goes down more but I can rationalize $30. $38 is just absurd though. 

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Our Oasis August 23, 2020 sailing from Bayonne currently has the Key for $24.99 pp/pd. This is how much it was on our Anthem to Bermuda sailing in August 2019.

We had The Key for our Anthem sailing and there were Key crew members outside the MDR taking reservations for shows, iFly, North Star, Wall Climb, and FlowRider and also collecting carryons before guests went into the MDR for the Chops Lunch. My wife and I didn't do FlowRider or the Wall Climb. We booked the shows on the Royal App (note: the North Star times for The Key guests was during At Sea days. My wife and I decided that we'd rather do the North Star while ported in Bermuda. We just canceled The Key appointment and made a reservation on our own on the Royal App. There were plenty of slots open).

As of right now, we do not have The Key for our Oasis cruise. It was nice to have on Anthem since it was our first Royal Caribbean cruise. We decided against it when we first booked Oasis because it was $31.99 pp/pd. We'll have to do the math and see if the lower price is worth it since we are getting the internet package anyway (the UDP + Voom Surf and Stream bundle).

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