The Fun Researcher

The early bird gets the worm in this case. Will be another benefit of booking early... first dibs of desired specialty dining times.

Good point. When we used the coffee machine in the crown lounge we probably had 2-3 each, daily.

Thank you. Do they give you physical coupons to use, or rather vouchers loaded onto your Seapass card in some way? Sounds like some ships are maybe doing it one way and others differently?

Thank you for this. So the daily coffee added to your card, are there restrictions on what type of coffee? Is it a dollar amount, or certain types of coffees allowed?

Especially with family sized groups of 5+

Agreed! We were Diamond for the first time in July and loved the coffee machine. (on Quantum) We had no other reason that we wanted to be in that lounge. At least don't close the coffee part off. Otherwise let us order specialty coffee around the ship.

Kind of depends on what you’re looking for. If you want the quiet, slower paced, served meal then the MDR for lunch is great. If you want broad variety, quickly, the buffet is great for that.

Our June Liberty increased $300. I do like to keep an eye on price and I'd guess 75% of the time we've repriced one or more time for each cruise.

I'm happy it works for you, I really am. However for us it's been a noticeable and significant negative change. We've sailed 22 days with the new system and the very early, early traditionally dinner time is just too early... and like I mentioned with the Quantum all the lunch venues didn't open until 12pm so by the time you got done with lunch within a few hours you are getting ready to go to dinner. 1) It severely cramps afternoon activities 2) We weren't hungry for dinner yet. 3) It cramps port days too, having to make it back to the ship for early dinner. We used to do MTD and prebook the same time each night like 6pm or so. Worked great, no wait. If we liked the table and servers the first night, we just requested them for the rest of the cruise. Always had the same table. Now you get the luck of the draw, and get to stand in a HUGE line. We are typically a table of 7-10 so having a reservation or fixed table is pretty important unless we want to WAIT. We have never eaten snacks in the afternoon, just lunch and dinner. We prefer the late shows since we are still plenty able to stay up until midnight or beyond. The late show doesn't cramp our style. I get why folks would like the early show though. It frees up the rest of the evening which is nice too.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

True, but pretty tough when the lunch venues don't open until 12pm. (happened to us on the Quantum just a few months ago). That's just not enough time to digest my lunch and be ready for dinner again, let alone have time to enjoy the fun things to do on the ship in the afternon.

Hopefully with your reservation you'll be fine. Yes, they ruined the MTD process now (and to a certain extent early seating in the process). When they carved out a portion of the MDR for MTD, it worked great just as you described. This new process forces early traditional too early, and makes waiting for MTD a mess. We've been doing early traditional for the last few cruises due to the screwed up MTD, but have not liked how EARLY early seating is now. Both options are worse than they used to be.

Yes, but I think it's being suggested that they increased that limit too far and too many were allowed to do MTD. It's all hearsay since I'm not sure we know if they started opening MTD to more and more of a percentage of guests on the ship. If they did, I suggest they scale back the amount of those allowed to utilize MTD to help resolve the problems they've created, part of which is due to the new way they are seating MTD guests. It was never the case that if you prepaid gratuities, that you automatically were placed in MTD. For some time, if you wanted MTD you had to prepay gratuities. I think Royal even removed that restriction in recent years, but I'm not sure. I think they stopped requiring prepaid gratuities if you wanted MTD. Can someone confirm? We've always prepaid gratuities so it never applied to us, we were always

Yeah, Chops is historically at least a few dollars more per person for lunch versus Giovanni's or Jamie's.

They could easily limit the number of guests using MTD. Just like when early traditional "sells out", or late traditional, just limit the number of guests who can choose MTD and force the others to traditional times. The way they handle MTD now is terrible. It also forces early seating to be way too early in most cases, so it's a lose, lose scenario.

Royal is TERRIBLE for late night offerings. Thanks for posting this OP. At least it's another option.

Makes sense. The two things that I would like about the Odyssey is the one large main dining room, and Playmakers. The thing I would miss with an Odyssey would be the indoor pool and hot tub area. It’s just not quite as set up for cold weather, cruising (if you are sailing with cold-weather out of the East Coast)

Interested to know what the big difference was for you between the Odyssey and the Anthem? Not arguing just curious since they are so similar.

I’ve ordered the water through the cruise planner (not the gift section) 2-3 times now and have yet to get Evian, or 1L bottles. I did get the correct total ounces of bottled water, and then some. I don’t really care, but if it happens again I will say something at guest services. It is incorrect advertising when that happens and the more voices that spotlight the problem, the more likely they will fix it for those that expect the 1L Evian bottles (as they should expect)

Not sure if I'm reading this right. In our case, our first cruise on X was in 2017 when we were platinum on Royal. That cruise we were Select on X. We are taking a cruise in December on X and are now Diamond on Royal. We are are Elite on X even though we've only sailed with them once before.

I got the same email. I knew already that status transfers, as it has been for years, but the wording of the email could have been more clear. I had to read it a couple of times to understand that basically they are just putting together a dedicated gathering point a 2-3 times a cruise for Elite and above. I just wish Celebrity would follow Royal and implement the drink vouchers for Elite and above. The "happy hour" concept doesn't work for us. It just happens to be right around the time we are getting ready for and eating dinner.

I'll second that. The food quality that we've received in our 3 cruises since the shutdown (Allure, Anthem, and Quantum) has been similar to what I remember before the menu changes. Fortunately we've still had good cuts of prime rib, tenderloin and strip steak. Maybe we're lucky. My problem is the reduction in choices, and the removal of some of the more signature app and entree's, as well as the addition of clearly lower cost options. I really miss the lamb chops for instance. Also gone are the scallops... Stuff like that. The fact that day one, fried chicken is the Chef's Recommendation is particularly telling. I've ordered it just to try it, and the portions are tiny and the way the cut the chicken parts is just odd.

Thanks for this. That's about the cheapest it gets in the cruise planner (not the gift section). I purchased the 12 pack of 1L bottles for $22.99 (plus grat). The gift section has it for $19.99 but I can't select my particular sailing. I'm happy with the $3 difference and knowing I'll have the waters.

I wish they offered Giovanni’s on day one for our embarkation lunch. That is what I much prefer for the same reasons. A very nice, relaxing lunch without the buffet madness.

True unfortunately. The bigger one did but “baby bridge” is still standing. It’s still pretty dang big IMO The one in my photo still stands. I was there last summer 2022.