TheBucketLister

I find it is hit and miss and really depends who is manning the queue that day. The same pretty much goes for any port. I have gone to the same port multiple times and some times I see they are refusing early entry for people. Even on days where there are 5-10 people in a queue, they could still deny you. It really comes down to the person and what they are feeling that day, or so it seems. Also if you are in a suite, they have flexible arrival so they will let you in the queue up to one hour prior to your scheduled time. Bottom line is don't count on it, if they do great.

It will be tight, but not unbearable. I used to cruise with four in an inside stateroom, which is smaller and never regretted it while we were there. Heck, I have even done 5 in an inside stateroom with Carnival (3 teenagers) and it was still doable and those staterooms are even tinier than RC! How much time are you going to spend in the room other than sleeping? The biggest issue I found was for getting ready throughout the day (showers, etc.) Because of the one small bathroom, it does add a lot of additional time to that aspect of your day.

Check the cruise planner. Go to Spa Services and then filter by Men's Services. If it is offered on that ship, it should be listed. For example, for Anthem (in my Cruise Planner), a Men's Wet Cut and Style Dry is $32.

Bidding will more than likely (high probability) net you an obstructed view or accessible junior suite. They are typically the ones that are left until last for those actually booking them. I would go into it thinking that's what you are bidding on and if you get one that is not obstructed or accessible, that would be a nice surprise.

II have heard of this kind of thing happening more and more. One more reason to have a good travel agent. That way you don’t have the stress of trying to get it corrected.

Deck plans show this is a stateroom that holds three, so more than likely it will be two twins that can convert, and a pull out in the couch.

@LrgPizza In case you don’t know how to do that;, swipe left and tap Select a different cruise, then tap Browse our Ships, select the ship, then select the current sailing. Then you can scroll through all the activities each day.

Has that recently changed? I could be wrong, but I swear I remember outside of Sorrento’s, they had cups stacked for water to get from the Freestyle machine.

Yes, as long as they have times available.

Since the laws in Texas dictate the policy, unless they have changed recently, I would imagine this threads responses would still be accurate.

Curious as to why you think Chef's Table is a one time thing for a cruise, especially for a 15 night cruise. Isn't it the same as going to the same specialty dining restaurant multiple nights? I was thinking like going once within the first couple of nights and once within the last couple of nights. Any thoughts?

Typical media sensationalism. 😁 The whole sector was down that day.

That would be nice if that ever came to fruition on a large scale. However I wonder if it would be carbon neutral if they were to harvest it out in ocean, versus waiting for it to wash up on shore. Ideally not waiting for it to wash up on shore would get rid of the negative externalities of it sitting on our beaches.

You can eat at as many places in one day for restaurants which have a traditional fixed price for dining. You can only eat at the restaurants with à la carte menu prices (that have a dollar amount allowance) once per day. So in your example, yes you could do Portside BBQ-Chops-Playmakers.

No, you can only go once a day to Playmakers. You could work around that limitation, if you have more than one person on the UDP and just not use one person's Playmakers visit for lunch and have them use theirs for the second visit.

Typically it is more wide than deep. So I think most of the propellers are far enough below the water line to not be affected.

To be fair I don't think they were wanting to remove the gratuities, just wanting to budget correctly. But I agree, as long as your infant is utilizing any dining room services or stateroom services (like the ones you mentioned), you should pay the gratuity.

You’re welcome. Unfortunately the agents at RC like to just make stuff up and not research it. You ask 3 people the same question, you end up with four different answers. 😉 Royal Caribbean FAQs will be your best friend.

Straight from Royal Caribbean (first paragraph): “The gratuity applies to individual guests of all ages and stateroom categories.” https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/onboard-service-gratuity-expense

I am pretty sure gratuities are for any guest traveling regardless of age. You can remove gratuities by going to guest services and requesting them being removed, which you can do regardless of them being an infant or not.

Just got an itinerary update on our TA in October. “Dear Guest, To maintain a safe and comfortable speed along our journey, we’ve adjusted the times…” Two ports have been adjusted and one port, Vigo, has been adjusted enough to possibly cause multiple excursions which are 5+ hours to cancel. Bummer. I couldn’t imagine this is related to the issues they are having, but it wouldn’t surprise me since the Quantum took months to resolve. 🤷‍♂️

We have never done the Chef's Table before, even on previous Star Class sailings, because I am not a seafood person. I don't wan't my wife to miss out on the experience since she LOVES seafood. We want to try it out this time on our Anthem TA in October. First, are there any additional charges for this? Second, since it is a 15 night cruise we were thinking about doing it a couple of times possibly, is there a limit to how many times, other than space availability? Lastly, can we let the Genie know that one of us doesn't eat seafood and can they (kitchen) tweak the menu for the one person so that there are no seafood selections? Thanks in advance!

Hopefully. I was on Quantum last year when she had her engine issue. That took a couple months to fix I believe, so hopefully Anthem will not suffer the same fate.

While that makes sense, you wonder how closely the kitchen follows that forecasting. Based on your hypothetical scenario, do they only make up to 625 and then stop, and then make to order each dish after that where their forecasting was off? Or to play it safe do they still make 650? If they still make what they were originally making then there is no cost savings as the food is still wasted. I am guessing the bean counters at corporate think that way, but you wonder if in implementation it actually works and really does save money. 🤷‍♂️ I am guessing the cost savings is no where near what they forecasted, unless they are really monitoring it on an individual dish basis in the kitchen.

Since it was not specified as currently sailing ships 😉, I will have to say my favorites were Monarch of the Seas and Sovereign of the Seas. These were the first two cruise ships that we sailed on RC back in the 90's and will always have a fond place in our heart.