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The Key Updates


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1 hour ago, dutchsgirl said:

Anyone know about The Key and the new updates I have heard about. I heard that there was no longer the welcome lunch in the dining room and that it changed to room service for the whole trip, but the website still says the lunch is included. Has anyone used The Key this year? 

The room service benefit was for a short time during the initial restart, it has reverted to Chops lunch in the MDR for sometime now.

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First time purchaser of The Key sailing on Mariner out of Port Canaveral Saturday. 😃 I saw the "no shorts" policy for the MDR; does that apply to the welcome lunch? Don't want to drive two hours in smart casual clothes. Thanks for all your great advice on this forum! 🥰

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1 hour ago, Debstr66 said:

First time purchaser of The Key sailing on Mariner out of Port Canaveral Saturday. 😃 I saw the "no shorts" policy for the MDR; does that apply to the welcome lunch? Don't want to drive two hours in smart casual clothes. Thanks for all your great advice on this forum! 🥰

You'll be fine, trust me. As long as you're not in a soaking wet bathing suit or a robe, they'll probably let you in. My wife and I broke the cardinal rule about no shorts at dinner the last night on Wonder after Coco Cay because we were sunburned and got back to the boat with not much time to spare before our dinner reservations as it was.

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2 hours ago, Debstr66 said:

First time purchaser of The Key sailing on Mariner out of Port Canaveral Saturday. 😃 I saw the "no shorts" policy for the MDR; does that apply to the welcome lunch? Don't want to drive two hours in smart casual clothes. Thanks for all your great advice on this forum! 🥰

8 days on the Allure a couple weeks ago, and I NEVER wore long pants the whole trip, no problems in the MDR nor specialty restaurants 

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On the Explorer now with the Key. You get the "Chops" lunch and free room service. Shorts 24X7 if you so desire. The lunch was kinda weak and we skipped it the second part of our B2B. The departure breakfast has been good on Explorer and the Mariner. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
11 hours ago, Ike_317 said:

With regard to check in with the key, did RC send an email prior to embarkation advising to arrive at specific times or provide guidance for bypassing  check in lines? 

You will get an emaIl to show up at 11:00-11:30. There is a dedicated line for The Key holders. 

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On 3/22/2022 at 1:25 PM, dutchsgirl said:

Anyone know about The Key and the new updates I have heard about. I heard that there was no longer the welcome lunch in the dining room and that it changed to room service for the whole trip, but the website still says the lunch is included. Has anyone used The Key this year? 

Yes, the Chops menu Key lunch is still in the MDR as of last month when we sailed on Odyssey. We all enjoyed it!

As far as the eternal question, "is it worth it"... everyone has an opinion and everyone places a different value on things. Is a STAR class suite worth it at 4-5 times the cost of an ocean view balcony cabin at $10-$15K? The value to you is all that is important. I understand why people love Sky and Star class (we just can't afford it, LOL! 😆). I will say that having the Key at reduced capacity with some of the Covid-related changes (early seating vs. dedicated reserved section) made it less desirable or necessary on our last sailing on Odyssey.

As we return to full capacity sailings, and as long as you can purchase it around $20, it's a no brainer for us especially on Oasis class (and not in a suite). We enjoy the Chops menu lunch and always purchase the VOOM Surf & Stream. We now skip Chops and elect for the other specialty restaurants during the cruise. So at that $20 or less price point, you get all of the other benefits for effectively less than the cost of a drink per day. We're just hoping they return to reserved seating for the shows again. Leisurely showing up 15 minutes before the start of the show and being escorted to a roped off reserved section in the middle of the venue was priceless! Oh, all of the dirty looks... miss that! 😎

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45 minutes ago, JohnK6404 said:

As far as the eternal question, "is it worth it"... everyone has an opinion. Is a STAR class suite worth it at 4-5 times the cost of an ocean view balcony cabin at $10-$15K? The value to you is all that is important. I understand why people love Sky and Star class (we just can't afford it, LOL!).

well said.

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1 hour ago, pixieprinces925 said:

What did the reserved times for attractions look like? We're not on Indy until August, and weighing our options

Can't speak for Indy, but on our last few sailings they tend to allocate only 2 separate one-hour or so periods for the duration of the cruise per activity (eg. rock climbing wall, North Star, iFly, Flowrider, zipline). Problem is that at least one of those time periods will likely be in conflict with an excursion or some other plans you've made for that day. I would not let this perk be a major reason why you purchase the Key. If it works for you while onboard, then it's an additional bonus! 

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46 minutes ago, pixieprinces925 said:

What did the reserved times for attractions look like? We're not on Indy until August, and weighing our options

There will be a couple 30-60 minute slots per activity for the duration of the cruise. I think they were in both the morning and afternoon. We didn't use them at all.  My son always uses the flowrider times but he wasnt with us this sailing. i would not buy the key for this benefit. I'm buying wifi anyways so the extra cost of the key gets me priority embarkation (Nice), chops grill lunch (Nice), reserved seats at shows (nice when at full capacity), priority debarkation with breakfast (really nice). 

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We were just on Anthem last month and we had the key. The part that was the biggest benefit to me was being able to get off when we wanted. We chose to have the staff take our luggage for us and we were second off the boat. There was a special line specifically for key holders so we got off even before the self assist people and we didn’t have to bring our luggage with us. For me and my husband that alone was worth it. 

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