pambam

If you can afford a cruise, you should be able to afford the (I believe it's $4.95 fee.) It's people who do things like this that have made ships change rules for example the fact that if one person in a stateroom buys a drink package then everyone has to buy a drink package. It's a shame that the ship has to change it's rules because people can't be honest. I'd recommend you just pay for the number of people you are buying food for. It's a VERY reasonable price anyway.

When the Gangway goes up it pretty much means, "Game Over". If Gangway is up at 4:00 and you come at 4:02 then you likely will become the victim of somebody's YouTube video to be seen by the whole world. Yes, people actually stand on their balconies and record what are called, "runners". In the end the majority of runners end up standing on the pier looking dazed and confused as the ship sails away. Should this scare people? Heck yes it should. For several reasons. This can cost you a lot! You will either have to fly to the next island at your expense or fly home at your expense. What is even more costly is for those traveling with a birth certificate and ID. Yes, this can be done in a closed loop cruise. There is just one problem with this. While you may have saved a few bucks on not getting a passport, you are going to pay dearly for this mistake if you miss the ship. Airlines require passports so you will be stuck on an island dealing with the Embassy trying to fix this big mistake and paying for a hotel, food and airfare for a while until the problem is resolved. If you missed your ship and it is no fault of your own, (an example would be if your transportation on the island broke down and you did not book the tour through the ship) then it may be covered by travel insurance (Which is cheap! Always buy it) This is more than you asked for, but I can assume you are first time cruisers and so I'm trying to save you the trouble of costly mistakes. The short answer would be that when the Gangway goes up, nobody else will board and the ship is getting ready to sail. It is always a wise choice to leave your shoes excursion into plenty of time to accommodate for traffic and otherwise to give yourself plenty of time to get back to the ship. If you are on one of Royal's excursions they won't leave you behind unless you get off the excursion and go shopping or something and then become late for the ship. If the Gangway goes up at 4:00 I would recommend getting on the ship by 3:30 at the latest.

The ship recommends "smart casual". Polo or button down shirts and long pants for men and dresses, skirts or long pants for women. No shorts, tank tops, beachwear. That being said, it seems many people are no longer adhering to the ships recommended attire. I've seen men in shorts, women in bathing suit cover ups, jeans and all sorts of attire not recommended by the ship's rules. Some ships are more stringent than others. The Utopia being the most lax as I saw men in shorts in the unlimited dining venues. But I had also noticed that if you weren't dressed by the ship's recommended attire they were seating people in the patio area. I'm pretty sure your wife would be able to wear flip flops and get away with it, however I'd suggest sandals that cover more of her foot as this probably is more about sanitation than any dress code. That being said, wearing flip flops would probably be more up to whatever ship you are on.

Unless something has changed recently, yes, you should be able to go earlier. If you can not I'd suggest getting a RSVP at the Solarium Bistro or going to the Windjammer. I think RC needs a better plan for conflicts with dining and show times.

I think this answer is dependent on the ship. However, on Allure we had gone to the MDR and asked the person in charge of we could come early that evening due to a conflict with our shows. They were very accommodating and told us to be there at 5:30 sharp and they would get us seated. We did so and also told our servers about our show time and they were very accommodating. We made our show in plenty of time!

Royal has changed this around more than once making it confusing. I have utilized the dining packages more than once. The first time on Harmony, I called to ask the question you are asking and was told they will make your first reservation as a courtesy and then we book the rest when we get onboard the ship. The second time on Oasis, we made that first RSVP and were in the first group to board the ship. We immediately went to make our other RSVP'S and Izumi Hibachi was sold out for the whole week! Upon asking how it could be sold out since we were in the first group onboard we were told that people did their Reservations on the app? Why weren't we notified about this? Last week on the Utopia I had called so this wouldn't happen again and was told all RSVP were being done on the ship now. We had early boarding and managed to get all the restaurants that we wanted. I had spoken to someone with RC about an idea I had to avoid the confusion with the dining packages and a better way to set up their reservation system for dining. He thought my idea was a good one and said he was going to bring it up at a scheduled board meeting. We shall see. However in answer to your question, I would suggest checking your app to see if they were allowing online RSVP. If not call Royal and see if you can get the first reservation in. Then I'd get the earliest boarding time and go directly to the dining RSVP area and get your reservations made. Do this before you report to your muster station. I hope this helps since my answer is sort of a non answer due to my experience.

We have been in that situation more than once and went to the main dining room early and requested to come at 5:30 due to having a conflict with a showtime. They always were happy to accommodate us. If the MDR won't work with you try going to Guest Services on the Promenade deck and explain your situation and they will likely make it happen. If that doesn't work I would suggest trying to make a RSVP for the Solarium Bistro which typically has really good food in the evenings or resign yourself to the Windjammer so you can get good seats for your show by showing up early.