daze6399

Since your on board and offered......[emoji2]

Any good spa deals? And do they have a rasul room in the spas?

Plus everything, tell us everything!! [emoji2]

Enjoy the cruise!!

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We will be sailing on the Liberty this April and although we are experienced cruisers we have never sailed on Royal or Liberty. We love cruising and are excited to try Royal.

 

 

 

Suite questions

 

We are staying in a Junior Suite(7712)-What perks do you get with Junior suite? Can we go to the suite lounge, breakfast in the specialty restaurants-free or fee? We do have some non suite family sailing with us. Will they be able to board with us?

 

 

 

Kids activities

 

Our son will be 12 on this cruise. I noticed his age group is in the teen club and he will be on the young side. Will the activities in the teen club be suitable and interesting for his age? Lots of planned activities? Is there an option for him to move down to the other club with the younger kids?

 

 

 

Communication

 

What is the best way to communicate with your kids onboard? My son does not have a cell so messaging is not an option for us.

 

--cell service is flakey and expensive anyway. Post it notes and whiteboards are commonly used for leaving messages in rooms. The door are metal so you can use magnets to hold whiteboards-----

 

 

 

My time Dining

 

We have my time dining but I was able to make reservations for Dinner. Is this a waste of time? Do you really show up at the MDR and get seated promptly if you make a reservation in advance? If no ressie how long do you typically wait to be seated?

 

 

 

Running

 

I enjoy running on the ships but noticed the track on the Liberty is on the top deck. I typically run early in the mornings 7-8am, will I be dodging a lot of passengers while running. Can I run on Deck 4 or is there another deck that is a good running deck?

 

 

 

Food

 

Where can you eat lunch for free? My family drinks soda at lunch and dinner. We drink water the other times. Is the soda package worth it or is it a hassle? Does is include bottled water? How much is a soda with no package.

 

---there are a lots of included lunch options, Windjammer buffet, Main dining room, and other look in your cruise compass for all the current details. There are 3 drink package options: Soda @ about $8 per person per day. This includes sodas. The Refreshment package @ about $25 person per day includes most non alcoholic drinks, Starbucks may or may not be included. There is the alcoholic package which includes everything including booze, Starbucks again maybe maybe not included. (There is apparently some variance in Starbucks inclusion depending on the ship the phase of the moon and weather or not the Hippos in n Africa are pointing east that day.) Bottled water is included in the two upper tier packages. Sodas are just over $4 with the included 18% gratuity I believe. It is easy to use, I've used a soda package on just about all of my cruises for myself and my daughter, you just show the sticker to the person getting your drink at that's it. (Or it was the last time I cruised which was several years ago)

 

 

 

Carry on

 

I refuse to pay lots of money for evian water. Can I carry on my own water in Galveston. Are you allowed to carry on 2 bottles of wine per person or cabin. What other items would you suggest we carry on?

 

 

----Bottled water is against the rules, but frequently allowed, so you might be allowed to take it on, or it might be confiscated. You are allowed to carry on two bottles of wine per cabin. As i said earlier post its or a white board for leaving messages are good thing to bring. Power strips are not supposed to be allowed, but I BELIEVE you can get away with the USB chargers the use one plug and charge 4-5 usb type devices. ------

 

 

 

All information is greatly appreciated!

 

 

 

TIA

It's been a while since I cruised but I've included the info I have found while researching my next trip, some of it may be off and I'm sure someone will correct any mistakes I made.

Enjoy the cruise!!!

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Royal has the wash and fold bag, $35. Limited to socks, underwear, t-shirts, pajamas, etc. Ask your stateroom attendant when it will be offered.

Any idea how much you can get in a bag? We're going to have some before and after travel so doing laundry may be needed, at least for the essentials like socks and underwear.

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I would have never thought of some of that. Great idea! We are in a basic interior room on the 9th deck. I am worried about the space...

Pack half of what you think you need.

Luggage can typically be stored under the bed

The 3rd/4th beds will be stowed away when the cabin is not setup for sleeping.

Most importantly you'll likely spend most of your time out of the cabin. [emoji1303]

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Thanks daze6399. We will see what happens. As long as they refund my credit card that they have already charged, we will be fine[emoji4] I'm not going to bother to call, it seems to me the people at the call center don't always have the correct information. We are looking forward to our 1st RCI cruise. We have sailed with Disney many times.

Enjoy the cruise! Make sure you let us know how it went when you get back (purely selfish request, we're sailing in June [emoji2][emoji1303])

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We are on the Feb 25-Mar 4 sailing. I was able to book Chops a few weeks ago. I have pre booked Giovanni's for the 1st sea day and Chops the last night. So I'm assuming Chops will be done soon.

Just an FYI...everything I've read indicates that Chops is opening late March, I saw 25th on CC somewhere, but I can't find a date on rccl.com, so it might be worth verifying that it will be open during your sailing.

The amazon fire stick has a hotel proxy feature, where it will load a web page to let you enter login info (like room number, last name, etc). it is my go to travel streaming device for that reason.

Excellent info! At the low prices for these things it's easy enough to have one of each. [emoji6]

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There are ways to do it on Windows 10, I've done it in hotels. It's not super easy, more trouble than it's worth IMO.

 

OP, FWIW The Roku Streaming Stick has a feature called "Hotel & Dorm Connect" that is just for this purpose. You do the login stuff with your phone. Streaming stick is about the same size and works more or less like a Chromecast

I prefer my Roku for streaming, the only thing it doesn't do better IMO is displaying content from my iphone

That's what I was thinking when I mentioned the username/password above.

I hadn't thought about needing to load a web page. Lack of a browser would certainly be an issue.

I've been watching every review of this ship since November. I'll look forward to what you think, I value all reviews. I believe I have heard the water slides are now open as is the new 2 story miniature golf? Has anyone heard of an opening date for Chops? We like to eat at Chops on our anniversary, I haven't even checked yet to see if its reseverable in May yet.

I saw somewhere that it was supposed to be opening sometime in March, but, have no evidence to support that.

Chromecast like a lot of these devices will set up its own wifi network for initial setup, during that setup process you enter information from your phone for connection details. So username and password shouldn't be an issue.

I *believe* that for some things the chromecast will stream things directly over the internet and not from your device, also you control the chromecast from your device over wifi so both devices need to be connected to the same wifi network, so you'll need an internet package for both devices.

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Ive seen quite a few comments in assorted places that you can't control the tv input. Chromecasts are small though, so it might be worth trying just for giggles. Internet connection will be a bit of a pain.

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The majority of cell phones (And tablets) in the world today on have a single wifi radio, that means they have to use cell service to function as a hotspot, normally if you have wifi there's no reason to make your own hotspot.

You would have to have voom for the dot at a minimum, and really to be most effective you'd need voom for your other device as well. You can configure the dot using your device, it doesn't need a screen as all the input is done through your phone. That being said I don't see any reason to bring your dot with you, seems like a lot of hassle for very little gain. For playing music you're probably better off with a Bluetooth speaker and some songs downloaded to your phone.

Edit: the OP mentions reminders, not music. Technically it will probably work, but your phone can do the same thing and probably more easily, of course 90% of the fun with new toys is playing with them. [emoji2] if you take your dot please let us know how it goes!

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I hadn't heard that, but then again on this subject the saying, " The silence is deafening! " Liberty didn't get them after her recent re-fit. Its been hard to find any logic to which ships have them and which don't.

Just something I read somewhere gave me the impression, it certainly seems to be an inconsistent deployment of them. It's a shame those machines are pretty fantastic and I imagine there's a pretty good cost savings in labor time delivering soda for the soda pass crowd.

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Not only did the pending charges not drop off I got another charge for $10.70 that was not pending today 4 days after i got off ship. Customer service response was we are aware of this problem?????????

 

 

 

They should do something about it if they are aware. Maybe after people vacate cabin someone is taking the bottled water??? Some investigation should be done

 

 

 

Also should not have a credit card hold when I had a ZERO BALANCE. I EVEN HAD $2.09 CREDIT!!!!!!

 

 

 

VERY FRUSTRATING TO COME HOME AND HAVE TO CALL TO HAVE THESE CHARGES TAKEN CARE OF. AS OF NOW THEY DID NOT TAKD CHARGE OFF.

 

 

 

I WILL NEVER GIVE THEM MY CREDIT CARD AGAIN I WILL USE CASH!!!!!

Suspiciously close to the magic $12 error. Did you get your $2 credit?

And who needs a newspaper? Royal Caribbean has a Facebook page and a twitter account (I'd guess) ask there what the deal is and why so many people are seeing this same charge over and over. Nothing like bad press on social media to get someone's attention.

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There are 4 on the entire ship. There are 2 in the Windjammer and two in the promenade. I just ordered a coke from the sky bar. He poured from a can. I asked if the fountain soda was working. He told me that they are getting rid of all fountain sofa and going to cans and the freestyle machines only.

 

As far as I can tell, they are working okay. I saw one of them getting worked on on the first day. I have used them several times.

Thanks!!! Another question and in the grand scheme of things.....not all that important, but did they have Coke Zero?

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Just boarded today. The ship looks great! I was just on a sailing in 7/16. Here is what I have noticed so far:

-Flow rider and new slides are fantastic!

-10 hand washing stations as you enter the Windjammer

-2 new Freestyle Coke machines in Windjammer and 2 in Promenade.

-New golf course looks better than the last one

-Huge hot tub in Gym is GONE! OH NO! I loved this hot tub!

-Slashaway Bay is cute and my DD loves it.

-There has been new carpet put on the actual stairs but not on the landings.

 

I will post again once I see more of the ship.

 

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I'm glad to hear the Freestyle coke machines made it on, I thought they weren't putting those on any more ships.

Have you guys used them? Any issues?

Listening to Drinks101 currently. Audio is pretty good.

Count me in the please put it on iTunes crowd, and ports of call info would be awesome!

Avid podcast listener also, probably somewhere between 30 min-4 hours a day.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip!! Did you use the spa services at all?

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Great to hear! We're sailing on AdvOS in June. Let us know how the rest of the trip goes!

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Not from my understanding. Messages on the room phones or post-it's on the doors seem to work well. There was an app that tried to do something like what you're asking but it seems to have failed.

iMessage requires internet as the messages are not sent cell to cell, they have to traverse the internet.

There is the RoyalQ app on two RCCL ships, Quantum and Allure maybe?? Otherwise I don't know of anything short of buying an internet package.

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We're sailing on the AdvOS later this year and I've looked on the RCCL website, but I'm not certain it's correct, so I figured I'd ask people who might actually know the answer as opposed to the RCCL phone center.

Does the AdvOS have a Rasul room in the spa? And has anyone done any of the spa treatments onboard recently? DW and I will likely be getting a couples massage and maybe some other treatments so any comments / must do spa treatments / advice is welcome.

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Is there a list of what alcohol is included in the ultimate beverage package?

 

 

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I'm pretty sure it's anything under $12. Over $12 you have to pay the difference (here-say, I have no evidence one way or the other). 10 or 20% discount on bottles of wine. As for actual booze flavors, that varies some depending on a number of factors. Last I looked it was a good selection of most whiskey, tequila, bourbon, and the other basics. My wife wasn't real impressed with the wine list, and I'm a beer snob and I wasn't impressed with the beer selection. (Beer was the standard selection of imports and US domestic).

The only thing that stood out to me was some high end scotch at between $20-$30 per glass and that there are a few bourbons I'll try that were under the $12 cut off.

Hope that helps.

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Seriously Mike, excellent review, and what a great way to surprise you wife.

I just might steal the idea one day. :D

I hope you enjoy your next sailing, and I hope we enjoy our next cruise, half as much as you guys seemed to enjoy your trip.

daze

+1 on crusinmama06. Michelle knows everything. I'm not sure how. Magic maybe? ;)

trainman, radio, merionmom for the best live reports!