Scottee25

One thing I have noticed is that people are always more likely to bid (more) on suites than on lower categories so you will more than likely need to bid more than the minimum to better your chances at getting a suite. I have used Royal Up twice and won bids both times. First was minimum bid ($150pp) to move from an Oceanview to an Balcony on Vision and the second was maximum bid ($3500pp) to move from a Jr Suite to Grand Loft Suite on Odyssey. Thing to keep in mind is the algorithms used will calculate how much did you pay for your cabin (category), how much your bid is in relation to what you paid & how many bids and how much those bids + what they paid of anyone who may get upgraded to your current cabin (and this is recursive of who may move into their cabin and so on). The desired outcome is to maximize the amount of money Royal earns for the sailing. Since you don't know who you are bidding against and how much they have paid and are bidding or who is bidding to move into your cabin and how much they bid and paid for their cabin, some of it is simply luck as to whether or not you win the Royal Up bid. You could still bid the maximum and yet never win a Royal Up bid.

Does Harmony have the Stowaway Piano Player?

I literally posted that 5 minutes before you did.

Just checked the unlimited dining package for a sailing I currently have booked: For restaurants with a la carte pricing, you'll receive a $20 food credit, which can only be used once a day. So you are correct. Bummer because we loved going to Playmakers on Odyssey but I can't say we ever went there more than once per day to eat. To drink, that's a different story 🙂

We were actually considering doing a WB TA in Fall 2024 but Royal changed the end port for the ship we wanted. We really wanted to do the WB for all the reasons everyone is suggesting. Unfortunately the stars don't always align the way we want and we need to take what is offered.

It was my understanding that you are limited to $20pp per tab at Playmakers. Never heard of any limit on the number of times you can eat there per day. In fact, was told that if you wanted you could close your tab when you hit the $20 limit and just open a new tab.

Surprised your TA has never heard of this. This is very common on this class of ship. I have experienced it with this class on numerous occasions. Questions I have for you... If you attempt to do a mock booking on Royal's website for this sailing does the cabin show available when you select: 2 Passengers? 3 Passengers? 4 Passengers? If you answer No, Yes, Yes then that would confirm that the cabin you want requires 3 or more people. I get that you were talk something by someone on the phone. I would also venture to say if you call back, you'll get a different answer. It's the nature of the beast with Royal's call center staff; they simply are not adequately trained on all matters.

Thank you!

I am wondering the same.

Where can one find the deployment flyers?

Something to keep in mind when catching a cab NOT at a cab stand... you are likely to be charged more and the driver most likely won't use the meter. There were a few times we were exhausted and didn't want to walk to the nearest cab stand (or the nearest cab stand didn't have any cabs) so we would see a cab and hail them and pay their inflated price for the convenience. They'll usually quote you a price at the beginning in such cases. As far as English goes, most of the cabbies we encountered spoke at least a little English but I would plan on having any deep conversations 🙂

That's pretty much in limbo now that the CEO of the venture resigned not so long ago.

How married are you to the idea of taking the train from Rome to Civitavecchia? How many pieces of luggage do you have? I know everyone's tastes are different but I personally wouldn't want to take the train to Civitavecchia and then try to work through the rest of logistics of getting to the port. We were just in Italy in mid May (Transatlantic from Fort Lauderdale to Rome and then 8 nights in Rome). We arranged a private transfer to pick us up from the port and take us to Rome. They also work in the opposite direction as well and can drop you off at the port. They can be a bit pricey (anywhere from 130-170 Euros for 2 people) but well worth it in our opinion. We made day trips to both Florence and Naples during our stay in Rome. We booked business class seats on Trentalia high speed trains. Trentalia seemed to have many more high speed trains running through out the day so the schedule worked better for us which is why we chose them over Italotreno. If you book ahead of time and don't need refundable or changeable tickets, Trentalia offers Me & You rates that are for 2 people and often can include Business Class seats. They do charge 2 Euros to pick your seats. I don't remember exact costs but it was most likely around 35-40 Euros per person each way. Business class had comfortable seats and once the trip is underway, they come buy with a beverage cart with a light snack. Coffee in the morning, alcoholic beverages in the evening. They also have sodas and other beverages. They also gave us bottled water that we took with us while we were off exploring the city.