RadioRob

Looks like we're going to Bermuda! No major damage to docks etc. some fallen trees and damaged buildings. But no plan currently to change.

I used wifi calling in May on Allure without issue. Wifi speeds were great and was able to not only access the internet but also send/receive calls. I was in the middle of the ocean somewhere between Nassau and St Maartin when I received a phone call from a co-worker who did not realize I was out on vacation. At the end of the call, I asked how the quality was and if he realized I was literally in the middle of nowhere.

Regarding international rates... only applies if you're DIALING international numbers. Receiving calls and placing calls to normal US numbers are subject to your normal plan.

This means:

a) If you're in a foreign port, even when using wifi calling if you dial a number at that port, it's subject to international rate (even if you can see the destination from your room).

b) If you're sitting at that same foreign port and call your neighbor back home in the states, it's still a normal call.

But wifi calling is awesome and cannot recommend it enough!

One of the things I've noticed was the much improved level of communication from the genie.

The initial email from the genie was much clearer on expectations, what they do, etc. They've also introduced an email for the day before the cruise letting you know where to go and how on boarding logistics work.

This was much better as on my first cruise, we had followed the standard instructions and gave our luggage to the team by the shuttle instead of keeping it so it would be delivered directly to our room. The new pre-boarding email makes it clear where we should go and what happens with our luggage, etc.

Dear RadioRob,

 

It's almost time for you to experience the wonders of the Royal Suite Class as a Star Class suite guest. Your Royal Genie eagerly awaits your arrival. With regards to that, kindly be advised that tomorrow your drop-off point, at Cape Liberty Cruise Terminal, will be Zone 6. There is a large purple banner, which says Star Class, at the location. Please do not get off at any other zone. Once at Zone 6, kindly identify yourself as a Star Class guest and the assigned pier staff will ensure that your luggage is loaded onto a cart and will be sent directly to the suite while you go through the check-in and security screening process. Your seapass cards will be at the door of your suite. Your suite will be ready by 12:30pm, at the latest.

 

I will be informed of your arrival, if I am not already there waiting for you, and will be escorting you onto the ship. If I am escorting another guest onto the ship, please wait for me in the VIP waiting area, inside the terminal, and I will be there to escort you as soon as I can. Kindly be advised that there might be some waiting time involved, especially if you'll are arriving early at the terminal. Also, I might have to escort multiple guests at the same time, if they arrive together. I thank you, in advance, for your kind understanding and patience in this matter.

 

Lunch will be served at the Coastal Kitchen from 12:00pm to 1:30pm and at Solarium Bistro from 11:30am to 2:30pm. If you'll arrive early and your suite is not available, I will take you'll over to either of the restaurants, depending on your arrival time, where you can enjoy your lunch whilst your suite is being made ready. Once the suite is ready, I will come and escort you to the suite, if I am not escorting a guest on board at the time. If I am, then will come over as soon as I get the guests on board.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any queries with regards to your arrival at the port.

Kindly be advised that I will not have access to either loop or my email during the boarding process. Should you need any assistance, prior to your arrival to the pier, kindly contact XXX-XXX-XXXX (11am onwards, on boarding day) and the Star Class Pier Agent will assist you.

 

Wishing you a safe and pleasant journey to the beautiful Anthem of the Seas!!

 

Thank You.

 

Derick Martis

Royal Genie | Guest Services

I received my email with my dinning confirmed as well, but based on what I heard, the Genie walks you to your suite with luggage. Derick told me that my suite will not be ready until after 12:30? That was surprising.:confused:

Hi there!

I talked about this with the Genie on my last cruise... basically what happens is it depends on how fast the people are in leaving the room on the cruise before you. Star Class suites are the very first ones to be turned over as they're going to be the first to be occupied. If the people in the room before you don't leave until 10:00-10:30... it's very hard to get the room fully turned over right as you might be coming aboard at 11. If the prior occupants are out earlier, they'll have the room ready before the next boarding begins.

I think he's trying to set worst case expectations. It could be ready sooner. Also new for this cruise versus my first Star Class cruise was the night before departure email. I just received an email from Derick a little bit ago saying:

Dear Mr RadioRob,

 

It's almost time for you to experience the wonders of the Royal Suite Class as a Star Class suite guest. Your Royal Genie eagerly awaits your arrival. With regards to that, kindly be advised that tomorrow your drop-off point, at Cape Liberty Cruise Terminal, will be Zone 6. There is a large purple banner, which says Star Class, at the location. Please do not get off at any other zone. Once at Zone 6, kindly identify yourself as a Star Class guest and the assigned pier staff will ensure that your luggage is loaded onto a cart and will be sent directly to the suite while you go through the check-in and security screening process. Your seapass cards will be at the door of your suite. Your suite will be ready by 12:30pm, at the latest.

 

I will be informed of your arrival, if I am not already there waiting for you, and will be escorting you onto the ship. If I am escorting another guest onto the ship, please wait for me in the VIP waiting area, inside the terminal, and I will be there to escort you as soon as I can. Kindly be advised that there might be some waiting time involved, especially if you'll are arriving early at the terminal. Also, I might have to escort multiple guests at the same time, if they arrive together. I thank you, in advance, for your kind understanding and patience in this matter.

 

Lunch will be served at the Coastal Kitchen from 12:00pm to 1:30pm and at Solarium Bistro from 11:30am to 2:30pm. If you'll arrive early and your suite is not available, I will take you'll over to either of the restaurants, depending on your arrival time, where you can enjoy your lunch whilst your suite is being made ready. Once the suite is ready, I will come and escort you to the suite, if I am not escorting a guest on board at the time. If I am, then will come over as soon as I get the guests on board.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any queries with regards to your arrival at the port.

Kindly be advised that I will not have access to either loop or my email during the boarding process. Should you need any assistance, prior to your arrival to the pier, kindly contact XXX-XXX-XXXX (11am onwards, on boarding day) and the Star Class Pier Agent will assist you.

 

Wishing you a safe and pleasant journey to the beautiful Anthem of the Seas!!

 

Thank You.

 

Derick Martis

Royal Genie | Guest Services

I'm leaving on Anthem 5 day to Bermuda this weekend. Once we're back to the US, we're taking an extra couple of days in the Big Apple and going to enjoy the city before heading back home. We've got tickets to Wicked and Hamilton and plans to hit the streets to do some shopping.

It should be lots of fun and a great way to ease us back to the land of doing things ourselves. haha

Skype, Netflix, iMessage and anything else I tried worked on Allure earlier this year. Anthem has the same type of internet (O3b) as Allure, so you should be fine. (Basically Quantum and Oasis class ships have the "good" internet. The rest of the fleet does not.)

As some folks may remember, last May I was aboard the Allure on one of it's first sailings with the (then) new Star Class suites. (See http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2353411 for details.)

We had such a great time aboard, I decided to book another cruise with some other friends that have never cruised before. We're staying in an Owner's Loft Suite for this trip.

So far I've noticed the Genie welcome letter is much clearer and sets expectations much better than before. Other than that, I'm looking forward to seeing what else has been improved on since I last sailed 5 months ago.

If anyone has any questions about the ship, Star Class perks, or the destination (Bermuda), feel free to ask. :)

I'll be on Anthem this weekend as well. I'm SOOOOO ready for this vacation. Regardless of what happens, we're going to have fun.

RadioRob - Thank you for the information, was just getting a bit concerned because we have some reservation we need to make for the Specialty dining. We were going to do them on the RC website but it wanted to charge us :-)

 

Thanks again

Don't worry about your reservations. Your Genie can get you in wherever you need to be. :) There are spots held for Genie use that are not in the main inventory.

I told my Genie what I wanted from a high level (specialty dining each night), Wonderland on the first night... and let him take care of the rest. I got an email yesterday confirming everything is set. Have loved the experience so far.

Hey there! I'll be on the 10/15 sailing as well. (We have an Owner's Loft Suite booked.) Derick will be our Genie. He's been very responsive to communications via Loop so far. We're doing specialty dining each night of the cruise and he's already setup reservations for us each night.

Lucas46972... you're genie will reach out to you the Sunday before your cruise. So look for your email this weekend. On both of my Star-class cruises, the Genie reach out has been on the Sunday before departure.

Would a week out be too late to make your reservations to the pay restaurants through the Genie?

We made most of our reservations on the ship. Remember there are slots held for genies that are not released publicly. :)

We are a family of 7 sailing on the Harmony' date=' Ft. L, November 5th, in a 2 bedroom Aqua Suite, a Star Class category.

The RCL site reads, Star Class Guests receive complimentary specialty dining throughout their entire cruise. I tried booking our specialty dining reservations in advance, but incurred some difficulties, so I called the help desk. I was politely told that Star Class guests cannot pre-book their dining reservations via the Cruise Planner unless they want to pay the dining fees that are non-refundable. I was assured our Genie will do his or her best to book the restaurants and times requested once we hear from him or her.

Fingers crossed, being we are a party of 7; the times won’t be difficult to arrange.

I did pre-book our entertainment, not knowing if the Genie would be able to secure 7 seats on the day and times requested, especially since this is only a 3-night cruise.

Any feedback would be most helpful.

 

Thank you,

Marilyn[/quote']

 

We were in the 2 room AquaTheater Suite when the program was first introduced last May, so I've actually been fully through this already.

 

The person on the phone is partially right and partially wrong. If you choose to make a reservation online, you have to pay for it. However your genie can work with the back office on the ship to get it refunded. It's NOT "non-refundable".

 

Now... with that being said... LET YOUR GENIE TAKE CARE OF IT FOR YOU! Don't worry about reservations. They can get you in where and when you want. We did not have any problem dining anywhere or getting into shows. (In fact, for shows, the genies will go back and hang reserved signs on chairs for you before a show and get specific seats for you.)

 

Your genie will reach out to you about a week before your sail date. You can let your genie know preferences for specific dining and shows on certain dates. If you don't, you can do it with him/her once you're aboard.

 

Royal has trained us we have to reserve everything, but remember there are extra spots held back for genie use. Make use of your genie! Let them help you and enjoy your vacation!!

 

(We had such a fantastic time last May, we're doing it again October 15th on the Anthem staying this time in a Owner's Loft Suite for a Bermuda cruise. You'll LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Being escorted on and off the ship at the start/end of the cruise was worth it's weight in gold alone!)

I don't like picking one over the other... on a cruise, I would do both.

Now... if for whatever reason it was going to be only one of the two, I would personally go Chops. On both Grandeur and Allure, we've very much enjoyed our visits to Chops. Have only done Giovanni's on Allure, but it was a great experience too. However out of the two, if I could only pick one... it would be Chops.

Ours was about a week before the cruise.

Maybe! We will be in the Grand Loft Suite. Did you have the Genie experience in May?

Yes, on 2 bedroom AquaTheater suite on Allure.

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Good to hear they're including the wine now. It was not back in May on the Allure. It was just the 2nd sailing so I assume they were still tweaking things.

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Nope not was Chef's Table. Now... you CAN get wine and have the full experience, but there is a surcharge for it. Think of it as a highly discounted dinner there. At Chops, the deluxe steaks had a surcharge as well. (It ended up like 3 bucks.)

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Matt- you know a lot about Star Class and I believe I have information overload! I am going on the Anthem of the Seas on October 15th and read that Chefs table is included and then read it was not included. Do you have an idea?

We may end up as neighbors! I'll be in an Owners Loft Suite on the Anthem's 10/15 sailing. From my cruise last May, the wine was not included with Chef's Table. Don't know if that's changed at all since we were the 2nd cruise where Star Class was officially offered.

My genie said it was easier to just let him handle reservations. We did not have any problems getting in where we wanted. While they can do refunds it's more work. Cupcake class and cupcakes themselves are not free. Not sure on character breakfast.

We loved our specialty dining experience. The waiters obviously don't follow you but you get incredible service. I was very happy.

It can be done by genie in terms of service I believe.

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Loved our experience with our genie on the Allure last May. I wish we could have taken Daniel home with us.

As a result of that cruise, I have 3 more star class cruises booked.

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For my Allure cruise in May, it did not show up for purchase until about 30 days ahead of time.

Last year on Grandeur, I ordered a soda package for the other person in my room and a ultimate package for myself. (I enjoy a cocktail or 10 on a cruise...)

There were two cups in the room for us upon arrival. (The other room had 2 soda packages and there were 2 cups waiting for us as expected.)

Enjoy your first cruise! I remember being in your position awhile back. The dress code on formal night is not super strict. What you described sounded just fine.

The only thing I've seen enforced in the MDR was no shorts/tank tops at dinner. Even that enforcement varies from ship to ship from what I've read here. (I mention it because I personally witnessed it on the Grandeur last May.)

Greetings neighbor! (I live near Alexandria.)

While Memorial Day is the official day of remembrance, any holiday is a good chance for us to reflect on our values and those who are working to protect them.

To all those around the world that don't celebrate this particular holiday, I wish you a great day as well. :)

I can't wait to try out the lofts. In Oct, will be in an OL on Anthem and next May in a SL again on Anthem.