Ret MP

I mildly disagree with one thing: You, me, everyone that has paid for, earned a benefit knows that we earned it or paid for it. So, I don't think that it is possible to "innocently ask" if a friend(s) and/or Family can accompany you if you know they haven't earned or paid for it. Also, I wouldn't feel very good about myself if I asked an employee or crew member to do something against the policy/rules. First, you are putting the employee between a rock and a hard place. Do they satisfy a customer's request or follow the rules/policies. And if you manage to get the employee/crew member to give in to your request, are you putting him./her into jeopardy of adverse disciplinary action, up to and including termination. JMHO

I'm generally a Star Class Cruiser (not bragging, just fact). I know I have never brought anyone in the line with us that weren't Star Class. I have never done it. Like I said above, I don't think the signs say anything about Friends and/or Family. And, I don't think there is a written public policy/rule about it. By not having a written public policy/rule they have the flexibility to appease the Squeaky Wheels amongst us.

I don't think I've ever heard that in the WJ. I have heard it a lot in Rustbucket Cruise Lines, Inc. I freely admit, I could be wrong with that. But, that is my memory of the WJ.

The only thing that I've seen in writing is the signs that state, "Star Class", "Suite Class", or Whatever Class. I don't think I've read one once that said, "Star Class & Family and/or Friends", "Suite Class & Family and/or Friends", "Whatevers & Family and/or Friends" or "Entitled Class" & Family and/or Friends. I could be wrong, but I think the signs are fairly clear.

There are publicly published rules/policies, there are company non-publicly published internal rules/policies, word of mouth rules/policies, and then there are employees/crew that either don't know the rules or ignore them for whatever reason(s). So, in absence of a publicly published rule/police, we can only go by what we are told by the last employee we talk to, in person, on the phone, or on the internet. So, it's a crapshoot in far too many cases.

Please let me know if you find out anything officially. I love flying my drone. I asked a question about the GPS signal strength in Alaska once in another cruise social media site and you wouldn't believe the false information and down right hate I got for asking the question and that I had the nerve to want to fly a drone in Alaska or anywhere else for that matter. There's a lot of S-house lawyers out there.

Totally agree! My wife like to go to the MDR on Formal Nights, not for the Formal aspect, but for the Lobster. Too bad though, Lobster isn't served on our next cruise, day after tomorrow on the Independence OTS, 4 night. I like Lobster a lot, but the Lobster we've experienced in the MDR is usually a tiny 1/2 tail, cut long ways, which is fine for my wife. Yes, I know I can order as many as I want. But, I like my meal, if I'm not in the WJ, to come all at once and one plate. I ordered 4 Lobster tails on one cruise and they brought me 4 separate full course plates of food. I just wanted the tails and drawn butter. What a waste of veggies and meat (surf & turf is what they brought). I can't remember the last time I eat dinner in the MDR. This is my experience and desires. Not intended to detract from those that like, don't mind, accept, love, or whatever the MDR. Chops, Hooked (if available) Sabar (if available), Johnny Rockets and Hitachi (if available) is my preferred dinning venues.

$$$$$$$$$$

I guess if I told the guy that I tip the table cleaners in the WJ, that would shoot a hole in his theory, wouldn't it.

Your probably right! But, to be honest, I didn't see any Coast Guard or heavy police presence in boats or on land at the Seattle Port, in May. They could have been there, but I didn't see it. Heavy = heavily armed, large numbers

I always get a kick out of the posts that are overly (my opinion) critical of the WJ. My first thought is, "IT'S A BUFFET"! What do they expect, Ruth's Chris, Yes, the hot food isn't going to be HOT, usually. No, generally speaking, it's not going to be cooked to order. Yes, there may be a line up. Yes, the recipe my not be like your mom's. Yes, there are a lot of foreign foods available. Yes, there are a lot of kids (unfortunately far too many unsupervised and misbehaving). No, it's not perfect. But, I don't know what people expect. I'm not a big buffet type of guy (except for breakfast (bacon bacon bacon)). That's not to say I don't like a buffet, I just usually don't care for the behavior of far too many, supposedly adult people that don't know how to act. JMHO

I've got a photo and/or video or two, somewhere, of U.S. Coast Guard vessels patrolling around cruise ships in Port Everglades, Port of Miami, and Port Canaveral, with M-60s or SAWs (machine guns for you civilians) mounted and manned on the bow of the vessels. AND, local law enforcement in their vessels patrolling around the port and ships. What's my point? Well, it shows that today we have threats everywhere. Yes, some more than others.

Tragically funny, but true!

I'm ready to captain my next cruise;

Mine still says, "SUBMITTED". lol

As I've said in the past, I'm a realist, I live in Realville. I made the minimum bid for the RU. I have no delusions of grandeur. And despite my constant complaining about Royal Landside operations, including IT, I'm still loyal to royal. I love the shipboard experience, and that's enough for me.

LOL, I get what you are saying, I really do. But, the wiseguy in me wants to say that "malfeasance" is totally acceptable because they are not regulated by the FDIC, FCC, et al, their incompetence is acceptable. Again, just the wise guy in me.

I don't disagree with what you said, at all. But, it seems to happen far too often and far too randomly. In this case it seems to be system wide. But, how often do we hear of individuals and/or small groups of people having issues with Royal's IT, with various issues. My bank(s) and other very large organizations notify it's customers/clients when they are going to have a system outage for maint. Usually done on a Sunday morning starting at 2:00AM. And no where near as often as Royal does. In fact, my bank, I can't remember when their last scheduled maint., was done. And many of the businesses I'm talking about are world wide, so time zones don't seem to be an issue with them. Personally, I'd prefer and complain less if I know what is going on. Nothing worse than scheduling my time to find out that my time, as a customer, doesn't mean much to the company that I'm a customer of, a long time customer of, a loyal customer of. Again, I see what you are saying and this is not meant to be argumentative. Just one layperson's experience/view of things. One thing I totally disagree with though. Accepting complaints of not being informed. I'd rather be inconvenienced with a known issue than not being informed in advance. It's like their philosophy is like, "It's easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission". It's not exactly like they are begging or asking for anything but I hope you get my premise. Having said that, I've read complaints about Royal's IT when I believe it has had nothing to do with Royal's IT. For example: Pricing errors, wrong bookings, etc etc. But, access issues is totally on IT when not scheduled maint. I bet we will never know if this morning's issue was, as it's up now, scheduled or not. I'm sure they thing it's none of our business.

This question is for all you IT types in here. If you messed up as many times and as much as Royal's IT seems to, would you still have a job. I've fired employees just for not showing up to work on time (repeat offenders, of course). I wonder how much it costs Royal every time they have a glitch like this and the other glitch examples I could give.

Went into Royal Caribbean . com/account a minute ago and much to my non-surprise, my upcoming cruises aren't there. My wife says it is all over Facebook that Royal IT is having issues this morning. My response, "THIS MORNING". Before she said that, I was hoping that it was going to be them adjusting my reservation for this coming Monday as I may have won my RU bid. No such luck. Oh well, back to hurry up and wait, again!

Gotchya 😉

Sorry, I don't know where you are getting the "My Friend" from, especially "my desperate friend" thing. I'm only talking about my wife and I and my wife is not desperate. No, this is not a pissed off post to your post. I just don't know where you got that unless you are thinking my use of the word "your" was intended for someone else specifically. No, my use of the word "your" was in general. If that's the case, I did not intend it to be that way.

Serious question; I've been there a few times and I never saw a fence or anybody armed. To be honest, I haven't really looked either and I haven't gone beyond Barefoot Beach either. But, my question, have you seen guys with "machine guns"?

Totally with you there!

Take this for what it's worth: I called my hotel and an off site parking business, Port Canaveral Parking, and both assured me that the traffic will not be MUCH of an issue. The Parking lady said that Port Canaveral, on launch days, only allows Cruise Passengers, port employees, and those with actual business on the port, in. Before I asked that question, I was concerned about the general public coming into the parking garage, taking up all the spaces just to watch the launch. I guess, if the above is true, that's not a problem. I'm more concerned with the traffic getting to the port on the causeway. But, again, the lady said that the traffic on the causeway was tightly controlled and most areas will be roped or barricaded off by local PD, SO, HP, again, they do a fairly good job of keeping traffic moving, we'll see.