Russ Lomas

2 minutes ago, RCCL Fan said:

but tell me more about kiddie diamond plus perks....  what's on the list?

 

I don't think we've ever used them.

 

So they each get two free days of internet,  no photos.   what else?

Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of the perks sheet and did not save it post-cruise.  I know there were things on there for things like arcade credits, discounts in the shops, etc.  Nothing that we really took advantage of (or we thought were that great).  We are Diamond members and all the kids used were their free day of internet (1 day each for Diamond), and their 4 nonalcoholic drinks per day.

3 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

 They went on to say if port fees go up they dont bill the extra, so they dont feel they have to refund port fees and taxes if they go down.

But the counter to that is that if port fees go down after booking, they still happily collect the original higher port fees and do not reduce them on final payment.  The house always wins.

6 minutes ago, RCCL Fan said:

I'm sure I've brought this up before, but don't remember the popular opinion...

 

Is there a policy for drink vouchers when it comes to kids?

 

We usually buy the soda or refreshment pkgs for the kids, but are thinking, if they get 5 free drinks a day as diamond plus members, do they really need more?

 

5 sugary drinks a day in plenty. 

 

But I can't remember what kids get in terms of drink vouchers on the ship.  

 

Do they get 5 free drinks as diamond plus members  or is it just for mom & dad? 

 

Also my daughter is 13 now, this will be her first sailing as "an adult"  

 

I'm assuming even though we book her as an adult and she has to pay to eat in specialty dining that now she will get other diamond perks like free internet etc or am I wrong does she not get that until 18?

 

 

Your kids will have their 5 non-alcoholic drinks loaded onto their cards daily to use as they please.

Until they turn 19 (or is it 18?), they get the kiddie diamond plus perks, and not the adult ones, so they do not get things like mom and dad do (like the free photos).

Kids sail free - kids have to be 12 and under.  Anything else, you get kid "benefits" and not adult benefits.  The house always wins since they make the rules.

Each C&A member should get a paper in their cabin outlining the perks they are to receive.  USUALLY, this is correct, but they did provide our 14-year old with an adult copy of perks, but when she went to redeem one, they told her she was not entitled to the perk and gave her the correct perk sheet at that time.

6 hours ago, chloe kitty said:

In the past, I was able to book reservations for both of these prior to boarding.  Has that changed?

Are you talking about the paid sessions or the free ones?  In regard to the free sessions, since the restart "after" Covid, you cannot book them until you board the ship.

On 9/3/2022 at 11:47 PM, Jadesmom69 said:

I just got off Explorer of the Seas last Sunday and had a great time, but starting feeling sick that morning and immediately tested positive for Covid within an hour of leaving the ship.  I understand this was the chance I took when cruising, but it seems like a good amount of other people also tested positive within a couple of days of leaving the ship.  I was wondering if people on other ships recently had a similar experience.  Thanks

We disembarked the Explorer back on August 14th.  5 out of the 8 of our family and 2 out of 4 in the family we were travelling with ended up with Covid.  3 of the 7 tested positive while on the cruise, the other 4 tested positive the day after disembarking.  It is out there.  4 in my family drove to Florida from Canada, and the other 4 flew from Detroit.  All 4 who flew ended up with Covid.  The other one who caught it who drove, stayed in the cabin with her twin sister, and likely caught it from her.  Therefore, I am guessing that the flight was where they picked it up, but there is no way to be sure.

What I do intend to post shortly, is another post that covers exactly how RCCL handled our situation of having multiple children in our family test positive during the cruise, just so others know what to expect if you test positive while on the cruise.  I also want people to be aware of how the reimbursement process from RCCL went, because I know many people who have symptoms on the ship and then refuse to report to medical for a test.  By no means was RCCL's handling of our situation perfect, but overall, I have been quite impressed with their response and reimbursement process.  There was an error in our refunds from our receipt submission, but they are in the process of correcting it currently.  

7 hours ago, firefly333 said:

We missed a port and didnt even get port fees refunded in march.

 

Rcl has it's own way of operating. ... but their prices are good. 

Agreed.  Their product is good, and we find good prices with them (if you look hard enough).  There are definitely things they could improve upon (as could all cruise lines) to be better, though.  We continue to book and travel with them as well.

Frustrating though that they cut 20% of your cruise off (1 out of 5 days) and they do not cut 20% of the price you booked at.  I had heard that if a port is missed, usually they put a few dollars OBC on your account (though it is usually very small)

8 hours ago, aururab said:

Thanks for that! 
 
I'm a bit confused by the requirements for Barbados and St. Lucia. Royal still says that the tours have to be booked through them on those two islands, but lots of reports on here of people booking direct...

 

from the RCCL website, it appears you can book private excursions in both of those ports currently

Requirements for Guests Departing on Round-Trip Cruises from all U.S. home ports, including San Juan, Puerto Rico

Currently there are no restrictions or required tours for any guest that is going ashore at public ports of call, or at our private destinations, regardless of vaccination status.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-are-the-requirements-for-guests-to-go-ashore-in-ports-of-call

14 hours ago, Surfguyxxx said:

On day 5 of our 8 night cruise in August it was finally working properly.  We kept complaining and they kept saying its working.  NOT.....I truly hope they save this from destruction.

We may have been on the same sailing.  We were on the 8-day cruise on August 6th.  Tried it up til day 3 or 4 and gave up on it after that for the rest of the cruise and stuck to the sauna (which worked well and was free 🙂

3 hours ago, vadersprincess12 said:

Few, if any, people read their cruise contract but it clearly states that the cruise line has the right to make changes to the itinerary, and they could be for a varied number of reasons.  I would have been thrilled with your "meager" $100 OBC.  Things happen in life, don't be so entitled.

Our upcoming cruise was cut from 5 days to only 4 days.  We were offered a $50 OBC per cabin only.  The OP got $100 OBC and still got the original number of days they originally paid for (albeit, not missing the port they really wanted).  Both situations suck, but I think the OP got a better offer than we got.

Barbados - Since you mentioned diving, Roger's Scuba shack on Carlisle Bay was great.  I have dove with Roger several times, and he did 2 dives with two of my daughters when they were getting certified.  They have great wrecks right in the bay.  I see you mentioned the Boatyard, which is very close to Roger's.

St. Maarten - another vote here for Bernard's tours - amazing - done it twice - best way to experience the island.

Similar for St. Lucia - done Cosol tours twice - absolutely amazing way to experience the entire island.

St. Thomas - my daughters did 2 other training dives there with Coki Divers at Coki Beach.  Great because they are shore dives and great to do for new divers.  The rest of the group can enjoy the beach there.

18 hours ago, mcatmcat said:

still free?

Yes, they were still free and available for use in August on the Explorer.  The men's steam room was not really working well.  I was told it was not working at all previously, but it was not functioning properly during my week.  Made me wonder if they are planning on removing it in the dry dock, so they do not bother to fully fix it now.  Sure hope not

2 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

Works great! No longer limited to the small DL drink menu and 3 hour time frame.

 

Lets you try new things, signature drinks from certain bars, frozen drinks but the pool, etc.

 

If you have leftover vouchers at the end of the night, get beer, seltzer, soda, bottled water... anything unopened to take back to your cabin.

I had a couple left over a few days on our cruise a couple weeks ago.  I never thought about cashing them in to get a couple bottles or cans to put in my fridge.  This is why I read CruiseCritic forums.  Thanks for the idea.  I will know better for next time now.

14 hours ago, Surfguyxxx said:

Was on the Explorer earlier this month and one employee said that no sauna facilities were being touched in the Amping this upcoming January while another said yes they are.  Who know but the steam room was finally working on day 5 😳😤

Unfortunately, the steam room was barely working on the Explorer again last week.  It was a warm room, but never saw any steam come out in 15 minutes, like it did on the other ships.

19 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

I’m with the elimination of:

 

bionic bar- I’ve never seen more than 1O in the bar 

You saw 10 in there once.  Never seen that many in there ever, and it is a HUGE waste of space, makes poor drinks, and worst of all...has no character at all - love the personalities of the bar staff, and the robot has no personality.

10 minutes ago, seasidemama said:

Please PLEASE upgrade your casinos! Even the amped ships have no new machines but at least the seats are comfortable. Casinos should be refreshed at least annually.

While at it, put glass doors on the Casino to keep the smoke in the casino as long as RCCL intends to permit smoking in casinos.  The smoke smell on the Voyager class ships in the Schooner bar is disgusting.

3 hours ago, Airbear232 said:

I’m sorry to hear Explorer is being “tramped”.  IMHO, they ruin part of the experience of that class of ship.  Explorer has a great gym with included change rooms, sauna and steam room.  They will relocate the gym from fire to aft and get rid of comp change rooms, sauna and steam room.  The gym will be much smaller and you’ll have to pay for the other services. For me, this is a big downgrade I experience. Very sad. 

I definitely agree that the loss of the sauna/steam room/shower area that seems to be happening now during Amping is a loss that I wish would not happen.  No idea if it will happen on the Explorer, but I expect it will be removed for extra cabins.  Here's hoping that does not happen though.

2 hours ago, RobInMN said:

Originally, Explorer and Allure were scheduled for 2020 and Liberty and Adventure for 2021.

We just disembarked the Explorer last weekend.  Staff said that the Explorer is going in for Amplification (they mentioned the moving the mini golf to deck 13 forward and the addition of waterslides, amongst other things) in early 2023.  Looking at the schedule, Explorer seems to be missing from January 29th til March 12, so I expect that the dry dock will take place then.  No official word on what will be done yet, though.

Independence is in dry dock January 6 - February 16th.  I know this because we got an email cutting our Mariner of the Seas sailing short so that the Mariner could take over the January 6th sailing of the Independence and continue taking over the Independence sailings through February 16th, effectively cancelling all the previously scheduled Mariner sailings during this span.

Mariner of the Seas disappears from sailings from February 18th until April 1st.  Once again, a planned dry dock from what I hear.

All three of these ships are out for dry dock for about 6 six weeks, so a fairly lengthy time.  No word officially yet on what updates the ship will receive though.

4 minutes ago, RobInMN said:

@Russ Lomas posted while I was typing this. I think we're thinking the same way, but I'll leave my post as-is. It's somewhat redundant.

 

What I think happened with MTD was that too many people were trying to get in from 6:00-7:00 and they could only get 1 seating.

So now, as others have explained, they get the early TD seated, and then start back-filling with MTD as the early diners start leaving. And yes, we started seeing this on ships pre-pandemic also.

I think it's basically a feedback loop. Limit MTD, increase Early TD, which causes MTD to be pushed back, which causes more demand on early TD, etc. 

I also think that there is such an increase in demand for the early seating because if you want 6:00-6:30, and you can't book a MTD until 6:45-7:30, your best option is to book early TD. That's what we ended up doing.

5:30 is a little early for us, but we also do not want to start dinner at 7:30 or after. No thank you.

 

I will say that on a couple cruises at limited capacity during the pandemic, we really had zero problems walking up at 6:00 and getting seated almost right away, but come 6:30, the wait list line was pretty long. This was when the first reservation times were about 6:45.  At full capacity, I don't know if that would really work

 

IMO, they have just really screwed up MTD.

Perfectly said and explained.  MTD was a good thing, but RCCL has managed to screw it up, so now more and more of us are switching to early seating instead (I emailed our travel agent tonight to move my groups (usually about 20 people) from MTD to early seating for our next two cruises based on our experience last week on the Explorer.

MTD worked great last August at half capacity (the Odyssey was at 17% capacity when we were on it), but now that ships are at 100% capacity again, MTD is really messed up.

3 hours ago, cruisegirl1 said:

Regardless of how you and your children became Diamond, you still get the benefits. Even if you are Elite with Celebrity, and take a Royal Caribbean cruise, with reciprocity you’ll get all those benefits  on your first cruise with Royal

 

enjoy the benefits. 
m

Not quite true.  RCCL provides a piece of paper on your bed when you first enter your cabin.  The Diamond perks listed for those 18 and under varies a lot from the one provided to those over 18 years of age.  They still get benefits, but the benefits are very different (for example, no photos for the kids, they get arcade credit where we do not, we get casino credit where the do not, and the store and food and beverage discounts are quite different as well)

Just off the Explorer this past weekend, and we had MTD booked for 6:45 (the earliest they would let us book MTD) each evening.  We asked about this and below is what we were told.

They said that early seating dining has become much more popular lately and therefore the level that used to be reserved for MTD now had an early seating (I think the reason early seating is becoming much more popular is that RCCL will not let you book "MTD" prior to 7 pm, which is too late for many with families).

We were told that we likely would not be seated even at our 6:45 reservation and likely would have to wait until 7:15 each evening because someone was sitting in the seats we had (we always ask for the same time each evening with the same waiters) because waiters now serve early fixed, then a MTD, then a late seating at the same table.  We were not permitted to sit for dinner until the early seating guests finished their coffees, and they reset the tables for us, often not until half an hour after our reservations we set for (or later if the early seating guests start their dinner late).

MTD is really now just a 2nd fixed dinner time when you may come to the MDR between 6:45 and 8 pm, but if your preferred time is prior to 6:45 (or later in our case last week), then you are out of luck.

Someone else asked if you are booking MTD at 6 pm, why not just book early seating?  Two reasons for me - 1 - I do stand up Flowriding and the flowrider session on some ships (like the Explorer or Odyssey is often 5-6 pm and is bodyboard only for most of the day). 2- We stay in some ports late and wish for a later dinner on those days (for example, RCCL cancelled our full day in Curaçao last week, and we did not arrive until 1 pm and all aboard was 7:30 pm.  We did not want to have to be back on the ship after a couple of hours to make a 5 pm early dinner seating.

8 hours ago, Toddcan said:

Don't forget to wear them to the windjammer for breakfast. 😉

We wore them on formal night for photos on the staircase in the Esplanade on the Odyssey, and then wore them around the ship for the rest of the evening.  (We did dress up for dinner prior to the photos though)

1 hour ago, Rewind said:

Keep in mind it is a free day of internet per Diamond Member.  I think it might also be a free photo per Diamond Member as well.

We just sailed last week as Diamond members for the first time.  Two adults and two 14 year-old daughters, all of who earned their points (no status matching for the kids to their parent status).  Each of the 4 of us got one free day of Zoom (not surf) internet.  Each ADULT got the free 8x10 photo (kids under 18 do not get that perk, otherwise we would have got 4 photos).

4 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

Yes, I agree Mambo number 5.  We aren’t in love with Aruba, so we never make it to a beach. (Too much wind every time we’ve been there) 

We were there last week.  We rented a 4-seat UTV to explore the island.  Absolutely the best way to see the island.  We stopped and swam at a couple of beaches and if you have not seen the beauty of the desert side of the island (East side), you are missing out.

Favourite is Palm Beach in Aruba (very similar to Eagle, but it has more hotels, restaurants, and facilities).

Right now in Curaçao, I would recommend Mambo Beach.  We were there last week and went to Grote Knip.  It was gorgeous, but we got many stings (likely jellyfish).  We looked online afterwards and they say that Curaçao is currently having its worst wave of Portuguese man-of-war that it has ever seen.  Possibly that is what got us.  Mambo is much more protected.

3 hours ago, jerseyjjs said:

They do this to minimize the use of paper and help the environment, but they'll still leave 3-5 pieces of paper with spa specials, jewelry sales, art auctions, where to shop in port, etc on a daily basis.

For myself, I would be all for receiving a paper Cruise Compass daily and putting commercials and advertisements on the APP.  I try to disconnect on holidays when possible.

The one time we bid and won our Royal Up, we moved from an interior cabin to a balcony that was the 2nd to last room at the aft of the ship, so I know how you feel about getting moved so far from the elevator without actually getting an aft balcony.  We noticed that there were other cabins not assigned in the category we received the upgrade to, so we had our travel agent call in and he got our cabins changed in 10 minutes to one much closer to the aft elevators.  I know some people say you cannot do this after you they assign you a cabin, but we were able to do so and I know others who did the same.  You may want to ask your travel agent if there are any other JS available currently on your upcoming cruise and try to get it switched now.

3 minutes ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Nice if someone would let a person know if there cruise was cancelled. Just went to the website and it shows my next cruise and my Cruise on the Voyager of the Seas was cancelled. Checking what port it iwll be at on that day, it changed from Fort lauderdale to Galveston Tx. It was a great price for that 7 dayer. Now nothing even comes close. I had to use up FCC by a certain date and now I am in a bit in a bind. Booked it 6 months ago. Anytime that has happend before I was just stuck on another ship not cancelled. No matter if the cost of that cruise was higher. Not this time.

RCCL is emailing people affected.  If you booked through a travel agent, the travel agent is usually contacted and needs to forward the email to you.  I believe this only happened in the past day or two, so your email may be coming soon.  From what I read, they are just flipping the Adventure with the Voyager.  Something I read gave 3 options, one of them being just keeping your current reservation on the different ship.  Don't despair just yet.  Seek more info.