sushitex

We sailed on the Brilliance of the Seas, also in May - that's a sister ship to the Radiance. We were the closest to the glacier than the ship had been in two years, according to the captain's announcement. This was in Tracy Arm. I chose the Brilliance specifically because of the Radiance-class ships' enormous picture windows, which served us well during this cruise.

Yeah, for awhile, Royal could do no wrong for us...we cruised like crazy during the restart, due to the offers we had been sent during the shutdown. We also took advantage of their double points promotion and now we've been Diamond Plus for awhile. We love the C&A perks, much better than what we receive as Platinum members with Carnival. Those perks are what keeps us cruising with Royal - free drink vouchers, free laundry, free photos, B1G1 free specialty dinners...we are just hoping the flush of new cruisers will settle down so that there may be eventually more casino spots available.

Well over a year ago, our offers from Royal at first dried up completely, but after playing while onboard recently, we are back to getting $100 off discount offers. Our solution to this dearth of offers is to play onboard enough to get an instant reward certificate, then book it ASAP. A lot of people in my Royal Casino FB groups, even signatures and masters (we're Prime) have gone the "instant reward" route to get cruises, because their offers dried up/disappeared as well.

Oops, maybe the rep was referring to 3 each for us, since we’re Diamond +. Thanks for posting the updated list- I hadn’t seen it yet.

Getting those extra bottles of water will make a few less trips to the casino bar, where Prime members can get them for free. With the 5 daily drink vouchers and the free sodas from being Prime, and the extra 6 pack from the amenities list, we’re not going to miss the 2 cans of soda too badly, lol.

I just called C&A because we needed to ensure we will be getting the 6-pack of Coke Zero instead of the Diet Coke, and changed our second amenity to the tote bag. Does anyone here have the tote bag ( can you post a photo, please?) or knows if it will be totally new? We have tote bags won as trivia prizes, don’t know if they are the same thing. Funny -we’re scheduled for a B2B on the Allure starting this Sunday. We may have the old amenities (2 sodas) as part of the welcome gifts for the first cruise, and more water for the one starting March 12. BTW, the rep I spoke with said that each C& A member will receive 3 bottles of water, so I expect to see 6 on March 12. Not a problem for me- I guzzle a lot of water at night, lol.

Last August, we experienced 1-cleaning-a-day for the first time, on a Carnival ship. I didn’t notice any difference in our room as for it being less clean. The room steward gave us a choice between morning and evening cleanings, and because of our breakfast, daily walk and shower schedules, and the fact that I wanted a bucket of ice at night, we chose evenings. The only thing that didn’t work well was that I noticed that, as the week went on, the ice was already melting by the time we returned to the room after dinner or a show. So I think he decided to clean our room sometime in the afternoon. 😒 I am still going to ask for evening service and ice as well on the Royal ships; I just hope that their stewards pay more attention to my requests.

I have yet to sail in the Allure, but we have done several B2B cruises on the Adventure, Liberty and Grandeur, all out of Galveston. As soon as the guest count goes to 0, they can start processing the Back-2-Backers. It usually happens @ 10:00 -10:15. With the new terminal, even this process has been streamlined and shortened to 10 minutes or less, whatever it takes to disembark, go back to the customs camera, and scan the new Seapass card to get back on the ship.

While we aren’t booked on the Allure until February 12th, we’ve munched on tacos and burritos from El Loco Fresh on the Freedom. My favorite is the pork carnitas taco and dh likes the beef burrito. I’m looking forward to enjoying this food again in a few months.

Hubby and I are both Prime in Club Royale and a few months ago, earned instant rewards certificates for interior cabins using the ships' current casino promotion. He convinced me to have us each book our own comped room, side-by-side, for the same cruise. With Club Royale, booking this way gives us the benefit of earning double points per night, without the cost of sailing solo. We cruised as solos for a couple of cruises, and our favorite, of course, was when we booked connecting rooms: 2 bathrooms, 2 tv's, double the storage space, but no having to use the hallway to get to the other room. We also had a change in plans for 2 of these cruises and gave one room to our daughter one time, and just last week on the Liberty, gave "my" room to our son. We always get a second room key when booking 2 rooms, so I just used that key for access to hubby's room. The only extra fees we had to pay, since they were comped rooms, were the port taxes and fees for ourselves (of course) and for our son and daughter when they sailed with us. Since each certificate is good for 2 people, they were our guests. Completely legal and do-able, yay! The only hitch is when more than 1 person is in the room, you lose your solo status, but I truly didn't mind - my son and daughter sailed with us on a cruise 🙂 .

Good luck and Bon Voyage!

Sea Dog, thanks for posting about your Liberty experience. Hubby and I just stepped off the ship on October 16th - we have sailed on her probably for 13 or 14 cruises, but the October 9th cruise was poignant because it was likely our last cruise on her for who knows how long. As most of us know, she’s moving her home port to Ft. Lauderdale at the end of the month, and as Texans, we mostly sail from Galveston. Liberty was our first Royal Caribbean ship - she opened our eyes to the fact that other cruise lines exist besides NCL and Carnival, lol.

Indeed, water IS your friend. My story goes like this: We were staying at home in February 2021 (like most of us here) and hubby and I had received our second in the Moderna series of COVID vaccines. In January, we had received the first, and other than a sore arm, no issues. Different tale this time - after retiring for the night in February, I woke up first with chills, but managed to go back to sleep. Then a few hours later, I had the feverish feeling. I went back to sleep for a few more hours, then woke up again, this time needing a potty break. I should have stayed put, because my head was throbbing. Hubby was already awake but had taken the dog out for his morning walk. I made it to the bathroom, did my business, and the next thing I knew was hubby propping me up against the bathroom vanity, and then I passed out again. When I woke up, we decided to go to an urgent care center. They did a chest x-ray, a CAT scan, and gave me a saline solution - and by that time, I was feeling much better. I did suffer a couple of very minor cuts on my scalp, but no concussions, thank goodness. I think I hit the doorframe of the bathroom door on my way to the floor. And yes, I definitely did not drink much water that evening, dummy that I was. Was it the vaccine? I'll never know for sure, but I now know enough to drink PLENTY of water when dealing with booster shots, getting COVID itself, or any "bug" in general. Case in point: We finally got the bivalent booster shot 2 days ago, and you bet I was drinking water like a dehydrated camel on Wednesday evening. I did wake up in the night for bathroom breaks, but at least I didn't feel dizzy or pass out.

On the newer and/or amped ships, that is. On the Liberty, Adventure (I think), Enchantment and Grandeur, there are Purell dispensers nearby and/or a crewmember spraying Purell directly into your hands, usually while singing "Washy-washy!" and sometimes wearing very colorful outfits, lol. I can't recall her name right now, but there's that famous lady from Jamaica who comes to mind right now. Wish I had a photo of her in her Minnie Mouse getup - very cute! I think I saw her on the Liberty a few months ago.