Considering The Key

[Paid4c4]

We are cruising in April on the Harmony out of Galveston.  We will taking our 91 year old cousin who is very spry and young for her age on her first cruise.  Kathy and I always cruise in a GS so boarding/disembarkation, shows and tendering has never been a problem.  We booked this cruise late and ended up with four balconies for the family.  I've never had a reason to consider The Key as we are Diamond Plus and stay in a suite.  However with our older passenger I'm consider The Key.  This would provide easier starting and ending the cruise with some nice perks.  When I consider the Voom, 20% off Speciality restaurants if booked the first day, lunch in the dinning room the first day and breakfast on the last day I'm thinking the cost maybe worth it.  We would really like for our cousin to enjoy her first and maybe her only cruise.  I would appreciate your thoughts and comments, pro or con all will be appreciate.

Bill

[whitsmom]

The Key has been worth it for us.  We have done the Key on our last 4 cruises and on our 2 upcoming ones.

[Cory]

if you dont have a suite the key is nice to have, suites have very similar incentives 

[Carpe Diem]

I too am Diamond Plus and we always stay in a balcony room. 

* I purchase the internet package when they go on sale. 

*We are not "foodies" and the specialty restaurants are not our thing. 

*There is always reserved seating for the shows for Diamond Plus members.

*The ships dock in most ports, with the exception of just a few ports.  Most of the time (but not always) the concierge in the Crown Lounge will provide us with group 1 tender tickets the night before we tender.  If not, I bring a cup of coffee with me as I wait in the tender ticket line about 1 hour prior to distribution of the tickets and then I usually get group 1 tender tickets anyway.

Given all of this, I have never had the need to purchase the Key.  But, if you are considering buying internet for all people in your family, eating at specialty restaurants and if you really want to impress your cousin with all of the amenities, then the Key might be worth it for you.  Since you usually stay in a grand suite, you saved a lot of money by booking balcony room(s).  Therefore, the added cost of the Key is probably less than the cost of booking a grand suite anyway.

[RockerDom31]

We did the Key on our first three sailings but have decided against it for our sailing this summer.

The price difference between the Key vs. Internet Package x2 is no longer a small difference (in each of the three times we got the Key, we were able to get the Key for just an additional $5ish extra per person/per day).

We primarily did it for the internet and maybe one or two random perks the Key had (priority embarkation, reserved seating at shows, priority disembarkation) but we never did any of the reserved activity times (Flow Rider, Rock Climbing, etc.) or priority tendering (since we never had to take a tender).

When we had the Key on our last sailing...we never did the Key lunch, our check-in time was already 11AM, we didn't do the Key breakfast, we carried off our own luggage, we didn't watch any shows, we didn't do any of the activities so we basically just used the Internet benefit. Right now, internet is $21.99 pp/pd and the Key is $34.99 pp/pd. If the Key price ever drops to $24.99 pp/pd, we'll consider it.