leaveitallbehind

We also take nice clothing and have not had a bad experience. My question was not with regards to blindly judging one's on board attire but as to whether or not you are forming your opinion of the risk of using the ships' laundry services based on actual experience or just speculation.

Not sure why you have quoted me with this response. My comment was not needing a confirmation of the dress code, but was in response to a comment indicating that one has seen a dress code enforced. To which I was asking what they saw enforced. To which they subsequently responded.

Are you speaking from experience or just assuming? We have used the on board laundry as well as the dry cleaning service without any issues a number of times, in particular with longer cruises. Not sure what the risk is.

My comment was not about only getting the treatments on land, but specifically about not getting an IV treatment by the spa personnel. Obviously if a medical situation were to occur on board where they would need a medical IV treatment that would be done by the ship's medical staff. That then leads to the comments about by how that would be paid. I agree with other's comments about consulting with a physician at home before considering a cruise to be sure that would be a wise decision. Required medical IV treatments at sea would not be an option on which I would feel comfortable relying.

With US travelers, in most cases any medical treatments required on board would be paid in full on board by credit card. One would then have to seek reimbursement by way of insurance once back home. Not sure if that is different with separately purchased third party travel insurers, but I'm sure they have their own process. Either way, typically your home primary insurers do not directly cover medical expenses incurred out of the country. BTW I personally would never entrust a ship spa person to provide an IV treatment of any kind to me while on board. I would leave that exclusively up to a licensed land based physician. JMO.

Just because there are a number of staterooms showing on the website as available does not mean the cruise is not selling well. With 11 months to the sailing date there is plenty of time for the available staterooms to be booked. And with cruising demand as strong as it is it is not likely they will start discounting stateroom fares, at least not anytime soon. If that would take place at all it likely would not be until a few months before sailing. So I would not count on any upgrade deals. My guess is, as with most ships, by your departure you will be sailing on a full ship.

You can email rcldining@rccl.com about 2 weeks or so prior to your sailing date to request a 2 top. Just include your ship name, sailing date, and booking number with the request. They will read the email and review your request, but may or may not respond back. Just go to the maître d after you board to follow up if you don't hear back.

That is because they have fewer ships in their fleet compared, as example, to RCCL, and in FL they primarily sail from FLL. But they do have ships out of Miami and Tampa, and as mentioned, are bringing Equinox to Port Canaveral.

Not sure I understand what you mean. Eclipse is sailing out of Bayonne currently.

So much for the RCCL FAQ's - LOL. I have heard that it was only available at select airports and airlines and flight times, with FLL making sense. But clearly that contradicts the "published" information. That is good to hear as we will be cruising out of FLL in November and, in the past, used the service frequently and would plan to do so again.

In our experience there has often been some bed things (blankets mainly) under the bed, but they were not in the way of our two large suitcases and smaller carryon's being able to fit underneath with them. We have always stored our luggage there and never had an issue. Most recent experience was NYE Oasis.

From the RCCL website FAQ's: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/does-royal-caribbean-offer-luggage-valet It looks like Seattle is the only port offering it at this time.

I was only curious as, when we would eat in the MDR, we have booked MTD since it was introduced and although we have had times when getting the desired reservation times was difficult, we have never had them changed by the cruise line once set. Just seems very unusual.

While we enjoy Celebrity and cruise with them frequently, in terms of loyalty programs, I agree that the RCCL C&A program is far better in terms of benefits than Celebrity CC. The new tier for tier reciprocity update IMO significantly favors Celebrity cruisers sailing with RCCL, and not so much the other way around.

No - absolutely not! I am referring to the article which first promoted smuggling alcohol on board and then sharing packages as methods to avoid paying for the product on board. I fully realize what you are saying and how you are saying it and completely agree with your "sketchy" assessment. To be clear, I am supporting your comments and agreeing with you. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Very interesting. My guess would be that, while admirable with environmental motives, the cost of the packaging with waxed cardboard v aluminum v plastic would make a product such as water not viable in containers other than plastic. It may also be difficult to get the alternative containers on a network wide supply chain limiting availability to certain local areas only?

It's one thing for someone to find ways to cheat a company out of their legitimate charges for a product. It's another altogether to have the media openly promote a method of doing so. Very sad!

Thank you for this update acknowledging, as I suspected, that no announcement was made regarding the issue. The only reason I raised the question is we were on a ship once when a rather aggressive domestic issue took place in a stateroom that resulted in the couple being separated with the husband locked in a vacant inside stateroom on our deck under guard. The husband and wife were both escorted off the ship the next morning in St. Martin, the husband in handcuffs. No announcement of any kind was ever made regarding this. Guest Services staff actually claimed no knowledge of it when a woman who was traveling solo, who was very frightened by the commotion with the husband being detained in the inside stateroom, which happened to be across from her stateroom, asked them if everything was resolved and wanted assurance all was now safe. We went with her to GS and she was very frustrated that they denied any knowledge to the point of implying that the woman must have been incorrect indicating it never happened. Our confirmation of the event was responded to with a blank stare. We only knew of it as we witnessed the activity with the husband and saw them escorted off the ship from our balcony. My point being most cruise lines are very guarded of these things on board and IMO go out of their way to avoid any mention of it, and certainly don't typically announce it. Very protective of negative fallout.

In the past when there have been issues I have heard others say Safari wouldn't gain access. I always use Chrome and have never had a problem, including earlier tonight when I tired prior to answering the OP.

Just checked. No problems getting to the website, signing into my account and checking my cruises, or with finding a cruise to book and doing a mock booking. Maybe it has to do with your browser or other similar issue? Maybe clear your cache, sign out, and restart? Just speculating.

That would fit my understanding of the timing. I think between the onset of the pandemic shutdown and 2022, as mentioned we saw them on two ships - one each on RCCL and Celebrity.

Very surprised they missed that! The other one I liked, which goes hand in hand with my previous comments about encouraging violating the rules to avoid legitimately paying for something, is the suggestion to share beverage packages, which in my experience is prohibited by most lines.

RCI introduced Dasani aluminum cans I believe in 2020 with RCCL and we saw it on at least one of our cruses. It was also intended for Celebrity, although I think if we saw it on Celebrity it would have only been on one cruise, likely Equinox. I believe the program was discontinued a couple of years later as I have not seen it on any RCCL / Celebrity ships in recent cruises. Not sure the full reasoning but believe it was in part cost related and replaced by Evian returning to plastic.

The total daily gratuities are $18.00 pp/day in Inside, OV and Veranda, $18.50 pp/day in Aqua and Concierge, and $23.00 pp/day in Retreat. Just to note Always fares discontinued their inclusion in October 2023. (Although there are certain group based Always fares that will include them with post October '23 bookings for sailings completed through 2024).

Certainly times have changed and the point values aren't what they used to be. But many years ago when the RCCL Visa card was first introduced we got one, which I used exclusively for business travel and entertainment expenses, which at the time were fairly high. Within two years we qualified for a free double occupancy 7-night cruise in a balcony stateroom from the points. We gave up that card some years ago but have recently gotten the Celebrity Visa card as a back up card. Those days are gone, as I believe are the point values, but OBC is still nice - LOL.