I like the printed excursion tickets but that might go away.

[Pattycruise]

I’m a “nostalgia” person.  I was very disappointed when tickets to ball games and concerts pretty much went away.  There’s nothing like going through a desk drawer and finding concert tickets you’d been to-showing them off to family.   Tickets to the World Series?-priceless!!

looks like there’s a possibility shore excursion tickets will be next to go.  I’m attaching photos of a FB post.  What a shame- I’ve kept the tickets of the excursions I thought were great and the ones from Europe that were “ok”-especially so I wouldn’t repeat those “ok” -I have a terrible memory.   I know some people won’t care about the potential change but there are others who will. Maybe this experiment will fail.
 

[Jolly Ogre]

Will they have written reminders of where to meet and when put in your stateroom?

I do not use a phone when I am on vacation. It is turned off and locked in the safe at all times when I am on vacation.

[Reigert2008]

@Pattycruise I'm in favor of this change, since we have had excursion tickets not make it to our cabin on multiple occasions and it's a hassle to track them down and ensure that no one else uses the ticket.  But I also understand and will miss the tickets (much like the Old Fast Pass Tickets at Disney).

While I don't get internet on the ship, I do use the Royal App so finding the meeting spot and such should be easy and for cruisers like @Jolly Ogre I would suspect that cruisers can go to the excursions desk and get a list of thier scheduled activities.  I'm getting really close to ditching the phone completely, since in reality I use it mostly to look at dinner menus (during breakfast of course!) and to check out which bar(s) have the drink I'm looking for before trekking across the ship  

Good Luck!

[CrimsonCruiser]

I hope they don't roll this out entirely until things are fixed to work faster especially on islands with less internet infrastructure...

[Gilley]

Hopefully you can just scan your seapass card because you rescues ions are loaded on them.

[whitsmom]

I am not completely sure I like the paperless either.  As we all know, electronic anything can be gitchy at any given time.  I always have my phone with me; however, I know there are many people that like to take a break from electronics while on vacation.  I wonder if your phone is in airplane mode off the ship will you be able to get to the ticket from the app?  I see this causing lots of issues....

[Vancity Cruiser]

All Gen X and older will not like this change as we have been burned too many times by 'faulty' connections in our lives. Millennials and younger will not bat an eye at this.

[Jolly Ogre]

1 hour ago, Gilley said:

Hopefully you can just scan your seapass card because you rescues ions are loaded on them.

WTF are you talking about?

[whitsmom]

4 minutes ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

All Gen X and older will not like this change as we have been burned too many times by 'faulty' connections in our lives. Millennials and younger will not bat an eye at this.

Millennials will have the phone on live when off the ship as their phone is attached  

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, Jolly Ogre said:

WTF are you talking about?

Rescues ions = bad autocorrect for shore excursions 

[Kelseylovestocruise]

5 hours ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

All Gen X and older will not like this change as we have been burned too many times by 'faulty' connections in our lives. Millennials and younger will not bat an eye at this.

As the youngest age of millennials I hate the generalization in this. But also I want the paper tickets. They are a souvenir and are also easier to not go wrong. Yes I always have my phone with me but I like the ease of a paper ticket. I would also like to not meet in the theatre though. I do RC excursions about 40% of the time so there is also that. On my upcoming b2b I have a total of 3 port stops and have 1 outside excursion booked, one excursion with Royal booked (private did not offer the same experience or anything similar) and one with nothing booked.

[Gilley]

6 hours ago, Jolly Ogre said:

WTF are you talking about?

Haha.  It was suppose to say your excursions are loaded on it.   I tell you I have to look before I press submit.   

[Baked Alaska]

20 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Rescues ions = bad autocorrect for shore excursions 

HA! I thought they meant "rescue stations" i.e. muster stations. 

[HeWhoWaits]

On 7/11/2025 at 1:15 PM, Vancity Cruiser said:

All Gen X and older will not like this change as we have been burned too many times by 'faulty' connections in our lives. Millennials and younger will not bat an eye at this.

As a late-stage Baby Boomer, I love the idea of just having it loaded on my SeaPass. One less thing to remember to pick up when leaving the room. My wife, as a just barely missed being a Baby Boomer wants physical everything.

[smokeybandit]

Honestly I'm surprised they haven't phased out printed excursion tickets yet with everything else linked to the Seapass cards.

[RockerDom31]

I don't disagree with the digital tickets...but I am thinking of the mass gathering of many shore excursions at different locations in the Nassau port. The tickets are usually checked when you get in line (or at least, I think so? My memory is not so good!). So at the very least, I would hope that a digital version of the shore excursion ticket (in the form of what the excursion ticket would look like) would be available on the app so port staff can quickly see if you are in the right line or not.

But then, if you don't have internet access in port...how could you pull up the ticket on your phone? I guess taking a screen shot of it while you are on the ship's wifi would be advisable?

[Jolly Ogre]

1 hour ago, RockerDom31 said:

I don't disagree with the digital tickets...but I am thinking of the mass gathering of many shore excursions at different locations in the Nassau port. The tickets are usually checked when you get in line (or at least, I think so? My memory is not so good!). So at the very least, I would hope that a digital version of the shore excursion ticket (in the form of what the excursion ticket would look like) would be available on the app so port staff can quickly see if you are in the right line or not.

But then, if you don't have internet access in port...how could you pull up the ticket on your phone? I guess taking a screen shot of it while you are on the ship's wifi would be advisable?

How is it I can use the app or the phone when it is turned off and locked in the cabin safe?

[JasonOasis]

1 hour ago, Jolly Ogre said:

How is it I can use the app or the phone when it is turned off and locked in the cabin safe?

If they roll this out across all brands the tickets most likely would be on your sea pass card you wouldn't need your phone.   According to the letter posted by Pattycruise it it states your sea pass card with serve as your key.  

Also if you're worried about having a physical piece of paper to serve as a reminder all you need to do is access your calendar while in your stateroom.  Your calendar if you don't want to use your phone is also located on your stateroom TV.

If this rolls out across all of Royals brands this really isn't a big deal you have to have your sea pass to get off the ship it would be the cruisers responsibility to know the date and time, Royal would need to incorporate the pick location into your TV calendar once rolled out digital excursion tickets would cut down on a tons and tons of waist. 

[Jolly Ogre]

7 minutes ago, JasonOasis said:

If they roll this out across all brands the tickets most likely would be on your sea pass card you wouldn't need your phone.   According to the letter posted by Pattycruise it it states your sea pass card with serve as your key.  

Also if you're worried about having a physical piece of paper to serve as a reminder all you need to do is access your calendar while in your stateroom.  Your calendar if you don't want to use your phone is also located on your stateroom TV.

If this rolls out across all of Royals brands this really isn't a big deal you have to have your sea pass to get off the ship it would be the cruisers responsibility to know the date and time, Royal would need to incorporate the pick location into your TV calendar once rolled out digital excursion tickets would cut down on a tons and tons of waist. 

You can print from your TV in the room? When did that happen?

[ChessE4]

Isn't  it up to the vendors who now require tickets? So unless vendors have a list of names from Royal to check off, I'm not sure how a Seapass would work off the ship. I wouldn't want a vendor to be able to extract personal data electronically. Since we need ID, vendor should just check name on it.

PS. It's  not cyber safe for a vendor to be anywhere near your smart phone. I've seen too many Leverage reruns.

[Vancity Cruiser]

On 7/11/2025 at 3:19 PM, Kelseylovestocruise said:

I would also like to not meet in the theatre though

I rarely do ship excursions anymore but sometimes I forget how awful they are. But as I sit in the theatre I am reminded and again swear off doing ship excursions lol.

[mom2mybugs]

Yeah, I'm not a fan. First of all, yes, souvenirs.  But I'm also the person that likes my printed airplane boarding pass.  I never quite trust my phone not to fry out the second I'm walking up to security or a concert venue. I'm never convinced the wifi will work and I haven't truly figured out Samsung/Google wallet.  I get the load on sea pass card, but it does mean I will be constantly checking my phone app to be sure I'm meeting in the right place.  Jane

[Pattycruise]

On 7/14/2025 at 3:37 PM, JasonOasis said:

 

Also if you're worried about having a physical piece of paper to serve as a reminder all you need to do is access your calendar while in your stateroom.  Your calendar if you don't want to use your phone is also located on your stateroom TV.

If this rolls out across all of Royals brands this really isn't a big deal you have to have your sea pass to get off the ship it would be the cruisers responsibility to know the date and time, Royal would need to incorporate the pick location into your TV calendar once rolled out digital excursion tickets would cut down on a tons and tons of waist. 

Funny, I hardly ever use the tv.  Fingers crossed I won’t have to as the few times I’ve flipped the tv on the remote wouldn’t work or the tv wouldn’t.  Electronics are not my friend!

[PhillyLady]

Just returned from my Celebrity cruise and yes, we booked ship excursions, and yes, the bus tour guides TOOK the tickets, ripped them apart, counted them, counted the number of guests, etc. 

We were in Iceland and Ireland, and NO, I did not take my phone (stayed in the ship safe), and the disembarkations were a bit hectic (tenders in two ports), and we all had our little color-coded stickers on our coats, so somehow the message that the excursions were ticketless did not make it over there yet. 

We did take land tours in Amsterdam that I booked, and I faithfully printed out all the tickets, but in some cases they were ignored, and in other places they were scanned, so I am STILL going to make paper copies of everything (including my airplane boarding pass!). 

[FOB]

If you are sailing in a location that is not covered by your day-to-day phone package (for me as a UK resident that is anywhere outside of Europe) there is a very very high chance that you dont have any data when you are not on the ship and even then you only have data if you have purchased Voom or are lucky enough to be on a "free" day if Diamond or above. which means electronic tickets become a recipe for disaster

So not having physical tickets is not a great idea in my view.

It seems to me, having travelled extensively in the US in the last 12 months that there is an assumption

a) that everyone has a smart phone

b) the the smart phone has access to data

c) that the user has access to and is regular user of every app that the person they have just asked for help uses all the time.

I am also very aware that I have adult kids who have phones that run out of charge on a VERY regular basis

So I for one would not be appreciative of this change one little bit

[ScottD]

I used to save tickets and stuff like that, but ever since they did away with them at events, i don't really miss them- just more clutter. I throw away any tickets, passes or whatever from the cruises- just the seapass sticks around. I use my phone to board and my phone to find everything going on around the ship, read the menus and take pictures.  I get not having a phone around on the ship if thats not your thing, but I'm surprise to hear people leave them on board when in port.   But this doesn't seem like a big deal, it says right on that letter that they will scan your seapass at the meeting spot and confirm your spot. You ALWAYS have the seapass on you, so this is a convenience. 

[MaryCS62]

On 8/5/2025 at 7:56 AM, FOB said:

If you are sailing in a location that is not covered by your day-to-day phone package (for me as a UK resident that is anywhere outside of Europe) there is a very very high chance that you dont have any data when you are not on the ship and even then you only have data if you have purchased Voom or are lucky enough to be on a "free" day if Diamond or above. which means electronic tickets become a recipe for disaster

So not having physical tickets is not a great idea in my view.

It seems to me, having travelled extensively in the US in the last 12 months that there is an assumption

a) that everyone has a smart phone

b) the the smart phone has access to data

c) that the user has access to and is regular user of every app that the person they have just asked for help uses all the time.

I am also very aware that I have adult kids who have phones that run out of charge on a VERY regular basis

So I for one would not be appreciative of this change one little bit

I'm 63, mom is 92 - she asked what I was doing on my day off tomorrow, told her I was going to see the Downton Abbey movie while it was still available in theaters - she said to tell her how it was, since she won't be going to see it - because  most theaters now only do electronic ticketing. While she has a smart phone & tablet, does a lot of her banking and pays bills online, she still has difficulty with a lot of it, and just can't be bothered with it at this point. Also one reason she won't cruise anymore.

[karl_nj]

So I think I understand what they are doing here. I have not experienced this with shore excursions, but I have a feeling I know how it works.

On my cruise to Alaska on Anthem last month, I noticed a difference in how the "local" port workers would verify you could pass the first "checkpoint" back to the ship. Previously they would ask to see your SeaPass card, and depending on how strict they were being, they would also ask for your Photo ID.

This time around, I was never asked for a Photo ID, either in Alaska or in Victoria. Instead, they all had rugged tablet computers, and you would scan your seapass card and then your photo would show up. Then they would let you though.

These may have been the same tablets that royal now uses for embarkation, but don't hold me to that. I didn't really look at them that closely. 

So my guess is that they lend the tour operator the tablet, and they just scan your seapass card instead of asking for a ticket.

 

[shof515]

11 hours ago, karl_nj said:

So I think I understand what they are doing here. I have not experienced this with shore excursions, but I have a feeling I know how it works.

On my cruise to Alaska on Anthem last month, I noticed a difference in how the "local" port workers would verify you could pass the first "checkpoint" back to the ship. Previously they would ask to see your SeaPass card, and depending on how strict they were being, they would also ask for your Photo ID.

This time around, I was never asked for a Photo ID, either in Alaska or in Victoria. Instead, they all had rugged tablet computers, and you would scan your seapass card and then your photo would show up. Then they would let you though.

These may have been the same tablets that royal now uses for embarkation, but don't hold me to that. I didn't really look at them that closely. 

So my guess is that they lend the tour operator the tablet, and they just scan your seapass card instead of asking for a ticket.

 

 

not unique to royal. I did an Alaska cruise on Norwegian back in May and it was similar setup with scanning the ship keycard to pass the security checkpoint 

[HeWhoWaits]

All of the excursions on our Brilliance trip last week were paper tickets only.

[WAAAYTOOO]

Our excursion tickets on Radiance are paper

[Southern Dan]

Our 3 excursion tickets on Odyssey last week were all paper as well.

[RCIfan1912]

We had real tickets on Liberty just this past week. I wouldn't mind tickets on the app or loaded on the seapass card.

[FOB]

Looked like the excursion tickets on Indy last week were paper - but that was based on seeing someone with what looked like an excursion ticket in the queue to get off the ship. Will be able to report back more accurately at beginning of November when we actually have 2 excursions booked on the Indy TA