SailorMarg

Great information. This is what I was looking for. Thank you. How do they know who has a RCCL Visa if it’s not used to pay for the cruise or as your onboard account credit card?

We are booked on the 2023 President’s Cruise aboard Allure. We will be Diamond+ by then. My question is for those that have sailed on a President’s Cruise as a RCCL Visa cardmember. Were there functions/perks that were made available to Visa cardmembers that were not open to Diamond+ passengers? We will probably only do this one President’s Cruise, unless it really blows us away, so I’d like to have the option of as many events as possible. Applying for a RCCL Visa and using it to pay for the cruise would take little to no effort so it would be worth it if doing so opened up some event that being Diamond+ did not. We currently use a credit card that pays 3.5 points for travel so I wouldn't use anything but that card with regularity. Extra points for any images of President’s Cruise daily planners with events listed or flyers for Visa or Diamond+ events.

Since the Galveston Voyager cruises are now showing up on RCCL site I checked my two “new” Voyager cruises, both are in very particular cabins. One cruise is booked in an Oceanview Panoramic suite of which there are only two and the other cruise is booked in the Royal Suite of which there is only one. Glad to see neither is showing as available to book on my cruises. Now to wait for the email confirming.

We were on the sailing just previous to yours and also had our first night’s meal in the Pinnacle Grill. We were extremely underwhelmed. From the microwaved onions rings atop our overcooked and grisly ribeye steak all the way to our watery Caesar salad which they really shouldn’t call a Caesar salad because what they dressed it with was more an extremely watered down ranch, at best. The lobster bisque was nearly tasteless. We had this same meal in January aboard the Zuiderdam on a 14 night Panama Canal cruise and everything was excellent. Our meals continued to be equally underwhelming in the Main Dining Room later in our cruise. Tamarind saved the cruise from being a complete dining wash out. Whoever is currently the Executive Chef aboard the Eurodam is not doing their job very well. I’ll be curious how you find the rest of the dining aboard.

I know that ride shares need to drop off in the parking lot which is some distance from the terminal. Is the same true for taxis? We will be leaving our downtown hotel this morning and taking a taxi to the pier and wanted to know if the taxi can drive up to the terminal for drop off.

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I called the day after I asked this question (28 days before sailing) and they had offers available (July 9th Alaska) that had not been sent out yet. I upgraded from Spa Balcony (VQ) to Signature Suite (SS). The upgrade to Neptune was doable but I’m one of those in the minority that doesn’t really see the value of a Neptune suite. We spoiled ourselves with a Neptune Suite during a 14 night Panama Canal transit cruise earlier this year and found we never used the Neptune Lounge as being in a windowless room while at sea didn't appeal to us. We rarely eat breakfast so the Pinnacle Grill breakfast didn't have great value to us. We are not snackers so the tid-bits in the Lounge weren’t tempting. I prefer the lattes at the Exploration Cafe over the cappuccino from the machine in the Neptune Lounge. Laundry can be purchased very reasonably. So other than the Neptune Lounge Concierge helping us with relocating to a different Neptune Suite after finding ours was not able to be cooled sufficiently, we didn’t make much use of the Neptune perks. The Signature Suite cabins are plenty roomy with the size difference between it and a Neptune Suite basically the width of the dressing room area that also adds the same width between the foot of the bed and the seating area and then the balcony. Exact same bathroom. So, we are very happy with our Signature Suite upsell. We greatly overpaid for our Spa Balcony (VQ) a long time ago so it was nice to apply that to the Signature Suite and with the upsell charge come out about $2500 less than for what a Signature Suite (SS) is currently selling.

What would you recommend is the ideal number of days prior to embarkation to make your first call for upsell opportunities?

I’d have a real problem with this if I was a shareholder. Basically shutting down sales for two days. Clearly I understand there are alternate ways to book a cruise, but to have one of the major ways completely unavailable for DAYS and not make any statement about it is really bad business. I’ve considered buying shares in the past but stuff like this always stops me from pulling the trigger. Might we be hit with some big surprise, and not a good one, when they come back online for direct sales?

I have read that it is possible to make your unlimited dining package reservations on the App once signed onto the ship’s wifi. How exactly does one go about doing this? I am very familiar with the App but not with the UDP. My guess is that there will be a button for “Reservations” on each venue in the Dining area of the App once signed into the ship’s wifi. If not, then what? And once making the reservation, if I can figure that part out, how does the system know it’s under the UDP? We also want to sign up for the Chef’s Table with the reduced rate that is included with the UDP. My hope is that I can do much of this without having to seek out a dining podium or a restaurant maitre’d upon boarding to make the UDP reservations. Any insight into the process using the App would be much appreciated.

I understand this is a change in policy starting this week. Only those of drinking age will be permitted in the Suite Lounge in the evenings. I hope people don’t put the concierges in the position of enforcing this new policy and instead go to management if they disagree with it. Changes such as this come from listening to feedback. It is clear what feedback Royal is getting. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-dining/suite-lounge