DiamondSuiteCruiser

Thanks very much!

 

Do you happen to recall the scents of the body wash, shampoo and conditioner etc?

Looking at the photo Matt posted (I think on pg 4) it looks like Repairing shampoo and conditioner, no sent given, and Revitalizing shower gel, rosemary & lavender scent.

No, not directed at you. There was another post. It looks like it was removed. Quoted Chandlm's post about the star class line and every 3rd person star class would go. Basically called Chandlm a nasty name. I was commenting on that post. Glad it was removed. This is a great thread for keeping up to date on star class benefits. I would hate to see it go away because people are receiving negative comments after posting legitimate questions like yours or really informative updates like Chandlm's. Sorry you thought I was posting about you.

Thank you for the explanation. Since I saw no other post I assumed you directed that towards me.

Enjoy your cruises!

Thank you so much for this information. Since this is a thread about star class perks, all of your comments have been on point and helpful. Please ignore comments to the contrary. So sad.

If that was directed towards me, I was asking because we are sailing in STAR Class, and the last time we were on the Oasis they recommend that you booked your reservations ahead of time.

Thank you chandim for your reply! I will wait for our Genie to contact us.

Hey guys I am new to Cruise Critic however, I followed Matt's journey along with others leading up to the cruise this summer. I know on other threads and post people have had major concerns about what is included and if they are going away with certain aspects on the Star Class. So i am here for the latest update as I just got off the ship this morning.

 

To start with we did have Francesco as our journey just as Matt did and he was unbelievable. He was able to get everything we wanted but was never in our faces all the time, which was nice. We painted contact through deck phones and the phone would literally ring once and he picked up and attentive. Carmen was the lead stewardess and she was simply amazing. Always there, helping out asking questions and even ordering a large Orange Juice container so we could have mimosas in the morning. She literally worked around our schedule.

 

A quick recap of what is included and what they have gone away with is this:

-They restarted the cocktails in room. A cart comes around daily with a cocktail menu

- All speciality dining is included EXCEPT: Lobster at Chops, Scoops, and Starbucks Pastries

-Any reasonable drink is included, Unlimited/Ultimate is one in the same. You want a drink, it is free unless you drink top of the line wine

- Beer, wine, champagne can be brought to your room whenever. Francesco brought us 2 bottles of wine, 12 Budweiser and 12 Budlight and Carmen always kept them iced

- Snacks can be arranged in your room, we were able to get chips, guac, and salsa brought up from Sabor every day

- A one on one galley tour was provided along with group bridge and backstage tours.

-There is no priority access for Rock climbing or Ice skating, however, there is for FlowRider and Zipline. Every third person to go is from the star class line. In my case there was never any other star class people in line so i was always the third to go.

- Star class is allowed to go to their rooms right when boarding starts, every other class and room waits until 1

-Reserved seating is easy, you tell the Genie and they meet you at the event and have the best seats waiting for you

-A new thing I believe is that at bars you get priority access. You walk up and they see your card and you will be the next one attended to. This happened on multiple occassions

 

Really this was an amazing cruise and the Star Class is amazing. Anything you could want is possible and only a call away.

Question about specialty dinning, did you make reservations ahead of time from your online planner, just to make sure you get in the days and times that you wanted? And if so do they refund your money in way of OBC, since you have to pay upfront?

We love Alaska, this past June was our 6th trip, (four with RCCL and two with Celebrity). You are not crazy.

Our last cruise on the Explorer, we missed our M&M never got an invite ant the confirmed list had no information for date and time. This was the first time that we have had an invite in our room on day 1. 🤔

When these rooms (1758/1701) were built it was very awkward as there indeed was no door between the living room and bedroom. Combine this with the fact that at night, the reflection on the window in the bedroom would give everybody in the living room a show if they were in the right spot. Eventually they put a sliding frosted glass door there, in one of them (I forget which) they have a curtain.

Great to know, Thanks for the info. Have you stayed in either of these rooms, if so witch one? I'm excited about our up coming cruise in Feb. We are not worried about privacy since it will be just my DH and myself staying in the room.

I have not stayed in this suite but maybe this will help. This video of 1701 looks like there is a curtain to the bedroom, but the bath is open to the bedroom. There is a closed off guest bathroom with a shower.

When on the May 22, 2016 Allure of the Seas cruise, we had a good waiter and assistant waiter. We had early, traditional dining. The bartender who took our drink order each night also did a good job. On Tuesday, they had the parade of waiters and we all acknowledged them with applause, waving napkins, etc. The Maitre 'D announced how many meals the waiters delivered during the cruise, which was a huge number, as you might guess. This was also applauded with enthusiasm.

 

The next night was the parade of chefs and everyone again applauded and waved napkins, etc. We appreciate the chefs.

 

On the second to last night, our waiter and assistant waiter came together asked if there was anything they could do better for us and we all smiled and told them we were happy with their service. They told us we would get a survey and that a 10 was the only score that mattered. We all again assured them we were happy with them.

 

On the last night, just after getting the dessert menu, they played the "Happy" song and people got to their feet and some danced with the waiters and the Maitre 'D again told us how hard working the waiter staff is and gave us the number of meals statistics again and went on some with this and then asked if we didn't think they all deserved a standing ovation? Everyone stood then and applauded them all again.

 

We had given the waiter, assistant waiter and bartender an additional tip early at dinner when they came to take our order. We had prepaid tips, but felt they deserved the additional cash tip.

 

I respect that the Maitre 'D appreciates and supports his staff. I thought the last night was kind of overdone and was a little uncomfortable with this much adulation on top of the two nights earlier in the week.

 

I wonder if this is now happening on all ships?

 

(When the survey came, I was comfortable with giving our wait staff a 10. I don't think they should ask for it, though. This did not stop me from giving the 10, which was deserved.)

They did the exact same thing on the Explorer a couple of weeks ago. They also aske us to give them a 10 in the Windjammer, which I did not do, only used the Windjammer twice the entire cruise and IMO it was awful.

A genie with 4 Suites getting $500 in tips each week $2000 a week

$104k in tips a year + Salary.

Accommodation and food as well.

Pretty good 6 figure job I would say:D

Can bet you a few cruisers out there would not mind that salary.

 

Appreciate they do not work the full 52 weeks of the year, but a very nice position.;)

 

I would tip $100 per person for a weeks cruise, that would always cost me $300 per cruise, IMO I think that is a good starting point for services provided. If they go above and beyond the norm, would consider increasing.

 

I think 10% tip for the cost of a suite that I could already be paying $20K for, is a little too steep of a tip, regardless that I can afford it:D

And that the price of the suite is already inflated to cover the introduction of Star Class.

 

Happy Days!

Agree totally, and I there is no way I will be tipping $1400.00 to the Genie on my next 7 day cruise on the Oasis . We don't tip the butlers that much on Celebrity, nor do we use them that much (Rarely). 10% of what you paid for the suite is just insane IMHO!

Hi there! My husband and I are sailing on July 8th and it will be our first cruise. We are currently assigned to 5:30 dining time and trying to decide whether we want to switch to anytime dining. I'm worried anytime dining will mean long lines whenever we want to eat. What was your experience with that on the Explorer?

 

Thanks!

We board tomorrow and the concierge made us a standard reservation each night at 6:30, for two at the same table by a window. Either email the ship or when you get on board go to the MTD room and make a standard reservation for each night. We like a table for two next to the window to whale watch, and was told that all the tables for two in the main dinning room are not near the windows.

Denzil is the best I have encountered.

Good to know, we will meet him Friday.

Jorge was on Liberty for a few months and now has gone to Radiance.

Now in the CL It is:

Denzil Fernandes

Concierge | ms Explorer of the Seas

Dect 8903 Office 3239 | ex_concierge@rccl.com

Royal Caribbean International

I'm not sure how he is since I haven't met him yet.

My Southwest flight was at 2:05 and right on time. There seemed to be a lot of cabs and vans, but don't know how those arrangements were made. There were 5 in our group and our luggage filled on of those big rolling luggage bins, so we just followed our guy to the bus. I would hope that by going in a cab you could get to the airport quicker, but only because you wouldn't have the delays of waiting for the luggage to be packed on the bus. At the time we we were on the road to the airport the traffic was very heavy. Also, with a cab, I would think your drop off could be much closer to your specific airline entrance. We had a bit of a walk from where the bus dropped us and luggage, then there was a line to get luggage checked before the walk to the terminal.

Thank you very much, we will try and pre arrange a pick up, but if not we will just catch a cab at the port like we normally do.

Sorry if this has been posted already but in an e-mail just received regarding my Explorer Alaska cruise next week, it states "as a Diamond Plus member you may enjoy exclusive access to the Diamond Club." Does anyone know if the concierge lounge is still there? Did we get bumped out? No sense calling RCI.........:eek:

Hi Lovelife, we are also on this cruise and are also D+, but we are also in a suite. The Concierge emailed us several days ago and stated the CL was for gold sea pass cards only, but since we were D+ we could use either of the two lounges, so I'm not sure, but give it a try once on board. The CL has no windows and the DL is much nicer with a panoramic view. We really won't be in the CL much if at all especially since we purchased ultimate drink packages.

You mean the Royal Breakfast part?

+1 that is what I was going to say also.👍🏻

I was also on this cruise and asked about the valet service from Sea to RDU and was there was NO valet service. I sure would have helped a lot.

 

We were "8" and it took us approx. 3 hours from when our luggage tag was called until we arrived at the air port. We booked through the ship, not knowing what the mode of transportation would be. It was a bus (lots of buses lined up and it depended on which air line. Also LOTS and LOTS of luggage they were trying to fit on the buses. There where lots of reasons for the time to get to the airport that all added up, from waiting for the luggage to be loaded, then the traffic; it's awful getting to and from the ship. We were then unloaded at a tent where we checked in (Southwest) and luggage to be checked was tagged and loaded on the carts, then the walk to the terminal.

 

Getting luggage in the RCL terminal and getting through Customs was very fast. Then getting through Security/TSA at SEA was also very easy, no long lines of people, but the long weaving roped off lanes to walk through just to get to TSA took a bit of time. They had the dogs working the lines, so no need to take off shoes or standing on the foot prints and being scanned; just walk through.

If you don't mind me asking, what time was your flight out of SEA? Our flight is at 12:30PM I just want to make sure we make our flights. Also did you see many cabs at the terminal, we were hoping to catch a cab.

Finally just got dropped off at the passenger check-in. The taxi fare when we got to the vehicle staging area was $15. Final fare when we got dropped off was $30.

 

 

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:eek:It doubled in 26 mins, I sure hope next week gets a little better. Enjoy your cruise.

I didn't see a reference to Luggage Valet in the Ceruise Compasses posted. I board Explorer today, so I will definitely find out. :)

We board next week after you. Have a great cruise!

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/contentWithHero.do?pagename=luggage_valet_service

On the west coast departure boards there was a rumor that the last Celebrity cruise out of pier 91 did not have luggage valet, and the rumor was they were looking for a new contract or contractor?

Okay, I just got back from dinner/cappuccino run. :D Internet is decent but latency is in the high 500ms range. It works, but I havet not started uploading pics yet. I will update as we move on. My suspicion is, this is not Voom because Royal may not have the proper equipment set up or the satellites doesn't reach quite that far up north.

Thank you! How was the check in and boarding, and what time did you board? Enjoy your trip, and thanks again for taking the time to report.

Okay, I'm going to attempt this. I'm going to attempt to post pics as well as providing comments here and there. If you have any questions, please do ask. I will try to answer them as best to my abilities. BRB, going to the sail away party. :D

More to come maybe tonight. :)

Thank you, we have been hoping someone would post before we sail June 3rd. How is the Internet/Voom, is it worth purchasing at the 30% off discount?

I have Plat Amex and Gold Amex but doesnt show up, what the??? :(

Same here, nothing on either for us, and these are cards that we have had for MANY years!

Oh Wow I had no idea that they stopped mailing suite and pinnacle luggage tags, I just received ours Monday for our cruise in June . I guess I will need to order some of the plastic holders for our other cruises. :( Oh, well Se La Vie.

We now only cruise in full suites, yup the wine package is a thing of the past. We cruise for enjoyment, not points but the loyalty perks were nice. I called the resolution dpt to attempt to get luggage tags ( stupid 1st world problems). I used to be a cheerleader for RCI, thats not the case any longer.

:confused: Luggage tags for suites are still available, I just received mine in the mail Monday. Are they discontinuing this as well?