No and no. Also, there's no need to rush to check everyone in. Though check/arrival times are almost never enforced, even if they were, a party can all go with the person with the earliest arrival time (regardless of their own).
Yes, unless the edit check in option is not working. You can also change paying options on board.
The F&F flier is quite long this week (due to lots of Icon listings) but quite short on actual deals. Nice of them to separate the cabin categories.
13032574_Travel_Agent_Friends_Family_Rates.pdf (rccl.com)
The wiring on the ship doesn't change (this is what causes the functionality issues) - so if anyone reported it not working, that is unlikely to change (unless Dyson itself has made some changes between different models).
No. That cabin assignment comes the day you win - no other early (1-2 days out) indication other than perhaps your non-winning bids set to "Expired" status while the likely winning bid set to "Pending".
The price on board may stay stable for a while (though varies by ship) but the planner prices don’t always start with that as the base price. All of it is marketing to suck you in. Don’t fall for it- book when you see value and cancel and rebook if prices drop further.
Most reports indicate that official GTY assignments usually come fairly late (the barcode trick to find the assignment 45 days out doesn’t count) and by that time there are few if any cabins to move to.
Biker, who won Royal Up 41 days out.
With that flexibility comes the chances of having to wait. You are very unlikely to get into MTD before about 7 if you go into the no reservation line, though you should still book something (even if only 7:30 is available) and then adjust on board.
It's like just about any other TA. For round trips, it may not be the least costly. The usual advantage for A2S is one way flights in conjunction with a repo sailing.