RFerrington

2 hours ago, LeeW said:

Ocean World.  Dolphin show and experience, shark demo, beach, snorkeling in tank, great bird house where you can feed them.  Pretty good park food.  We would go again. 

We did Ocean World as well. We did the Sea Lions and Shark Experience.  I was very surprised at how large and well-maintained the Park is.  It’s a bit pricey but we thoroughly enjoyed it and would go back again.

32 minutes ago, BNR091496 said:

I am new to the deluxe dining plan as well.  In order to purchase the dining plan, I had to select a reservation for day one but it didn't give me a choice as to which restaurant.  How do I know where to go?  How / when do you make reservations for dinner?  lunch when at sea?  TYIA

When you get onboard, go to one of the specialty restaurants or to one of the specialty dining kiosks and ask where they have scheduled you.  Of you want to change to a different restaurant, different time or different day, you can do it at that time.  You can also make the remainder of your reservations at that time.

I’ve noticed that they seem to be removing VP machines and not replacing them.  They’re becoming extinct

49 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

@RFerrington was just there and went to "Aqua World", a sea life park that she spoke highly of if that's of interest to you. Maybe she'll chime in.

Yes.  Ocean World.  It’s a very nice aqua park with sea lion, shark and dolphin shows.  There is a nice beach area and fresh water pools.  There are 2 (smallish) aviaries and 3 separate “performance” venues.  There is a nice, big aquarium full of lots of fish and coral in which you can snorkel.  It is a bit on the pricey side if you use the Royal Caribbean excursion (~$200 PP with taxes, etc) but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Our excursion included interactive experiences with the sea lions and the sharks.  There was also a package that included dolphins. Note:  the Royal Caribbean excursion included the buffet lunch which would be an additional cost if you went on your own.

Ocean World is not far from the port (~15 minutes by bus) so it might be less costly to do this “on your own” as opposed to going through Royal.  I simply do not know how much admission is, if you were to buy it individually.

My main concern in doing Ocean World on my own would be the time.  It’s actually a pretty big park with lots to do and our ship departed PP pretty early (I think 3:00 ??) so just be sure you give yourself enough time if you do this on your own.

You cannot reserve BOGO reservations in advance.  Go to one of the specialty restaurants when you board and book the reservations.  As long as there are 4 D+ involved, you will be able to cover 8 people regardless of the others’ status.  

3 hours ago, birdofsong said:

 Can you get that rate before sailing by calling the Casino Royale Prime number?

No.  The discount is off the full onboard price so you must wait until after you board to apply for the discount.

We recently tried Hideaway.  I paid $19.99 PP

IMO it is not worth paying extra for.  I did like 2 things:

Heated pool

Some overstuffed furniture

other than those 2 things, there is nothing there that I can’t get for free on the “regular” side.

Welcome to Club Royale !

If you want to choose your own room or are considering an upgrade, I strongly recommend against using the “redeem online” link.  This amounts to basically a Guarantee reservation.  I have read that some people have requested a specific room in the “comments” section and been successful, but there’s no guarantee that you will be awarded your requested cabin when doing it online.

The cash value is just that.  You are entitled to apply the cash value of the certificate to a new booking.  In the past, you used to be able to use the certificate (either the “full” value or the cash value) to an existing booking but recently there have been only a few reports of being able to use the annual tier cert on an existing booking.  YMMV

You can always upgrade your tier comp to a higher category.  In the past, there was a “casino rate” applied to comp upgrades but those days are over.  Nowadays, you pay the full retail price difference between the value of your comp (typically a 4V category for Prime) and whatever the current sticker price of the upgrade you desire.  No discounts whatsoever.

Something to keep in mind.  Sometimes (rarely) the cost of a higher cabin category will actually be less than the cost of your award (the 4V I mentioned earlier).  For example, I booked both of our annual Prime tier comps on Symphony for March 2025.  For both of these bookings, an ocean view balcony guarantee (category XB) was lower than the interior (4V) so we will get an OV balcony at no additional cost as opposed to a dungeon inside !  So be sure and do some research (and ask the rep with whom you speak) to see if there are any “hidden” upgrades.  These are rare…so you have to do your homework.

The staff that I really feel sorry for are those poor servers in Johnny Rockets who have to stop and do a silly routine from time-to-time.  They always look like they would rather be ANYwhere else.  

I am skeptical that any dining package for a cruise a year away would be sold out now.  When a package does actually sell out, it will generally remain on the website with a “Sold Out” banner across it.  It may have just disappeared from the website for some bizarre reason.  Check back periodically.  I’m guessing it will reappear soon.

2 hours ago, gavvy said:

Is it normal for the invoice to show a balance on a comped cruise, I don't think I had one like this before, its showing the full cost of the cruise and the taxes I paid as a deposit

The same exact thing happened to me with a comp cruise I booked a few days ago (it was an instant reward cert as opposed to an annual tier comp) I made the rookie mistake of not waiting to get the confirmation before hanging up (I was calling from a cruise ship and the confirmation was taking waaaytooo long to get to me) and when it finally arrived it showed a big balance due.  I called back and it took an act of God to get it fixed.  I ended up with a nice refund which was nice.  It was a FUBAR booking all around…but I got it straightened out, finally.

1 hour ago, bajathree said:

The exclusions are the sailings in the list. All Icon sailings are excluded. It's good for non except sailings up to 7 nights. I found a 7 night Symphony sailing that was good for an assigned interior cabin that had an ocean balcony guaranty that was only $7/pp more than the interior....so I upgraded to a cat XB ocean balcony for only $14 total ....plus taxes and fees of course.

The XB category (OVB GTY) for SY for 2-9 and 2-16 were actually lower than the comp interior category (4V) so the upgrade to the ocean view balcony guarantee was $0 to upgrade !  

18 minutes ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

You meant Adventure of the Seas

Thanks

30 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

I believe Izumi is Deck 4 forward on Indy

Thanks. I guess it’s Adventure, not Indy.  Too many different cruises I guess !

Indy has Izumi located on the Promenade where is no proper kitchen so the Izumi menu on Indy is much reduced.  

1 hour ago, Carol28 said:

Is bottled water and an amenity? Can our room steward bring us bottles as we ask for them?

Not unless you’re Star Class.  There will probably be a bottle or 2 in your suite when you arrive but they won’t be replaced unless you’re in a S.C. suite.

13 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

It was a strange experience.  Because I needed my card to get into the suite lounge so obviously not sneaking in.  I think 2 drink vouchers were charged 1 night then the other night 1 drink voucher was charged.  We were new to suites and it was our 2nd time as a suite guest.  

So I know now no vouchers to be charged between 5 and 8 in SL, correct?

Pinns still have to use a voucher for drinks unless they are in a full suite, so that’s the reason the servers might ask to see your Seapass card….if they don’t know who the Pinns are.  Yes, if you are staying in a suite they should not be using a voucher for drinks in the CK/SL. I guess the single exception to this rule would be if you wanted a cocktail during non-Happy hour hours…then they might want to use a voucher.

I saw it but I count figure out what it was…just deleted it.  All Royal promo emails are garbage anyway.

23 minutes ago, Cruise a holic said:

Hibachi. We didn’t order any additional items

Ok.  That’s standard.  Always been a $15 upcharge for hibachi for UDP.

2 hours ago, Cruise a holic said:

We were on the Icon of the Seas in March.  They charged us an addition $15 pp for dining a Izumi.  Never happened on any other Oasis class ship.  To make matters worse- I must have gotten food poisoning as a few hours after we left- I got sick.  I will remove Izumi from my list of specialty restaurants to dine in.  I ate a combo- steak and seafood- my DH was ok- he only at steak.

They charged you extra for the sushi side or for the hibachi/teppanyaki ?

The most “flipping” we’ve done is to switch spots with the chair and sofa in the JS so that the couch is next to the vanity.  That allowed us to sit on the couch with our devices plugged-in.  It was a simple switcheroo and we moved it all back into place before we left.

Not to confuse things, but I will just relate a recent experience.  I purchased a number of CP items for the cruise that I am currently ion (EX 4-5-24) - a 3 night dining package, a boarding day specialty restaurant and a couple of port excursions - and when I later checked the reservations in my "Order History", I found a ribbon at the bottom of every one of those purchases that said something like, "Nonrefundable, cannot make changes to this purchase".  This was well before any deadline date.  I had no need to make any changes so I don't know if the ribbon was an error, a hint at things to come or if those purchases were truly non-refundable.  

I have always known Cruise Planner purchases (in the US) to be fully refundable but I have a very bad feeling that Royal MAY be in the process of changing the ability to refund previously-purchased items.  This is SPECULATION....not fact.  But those purchases did, in fact, show that they were non-refundable.  Whether they actually were or not is unknown since I never had any need to make a change to any of them.

On EX now.  No lunch in the MDR on port days….just sea days

Thank you @LadyZolt.  What a truly incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  So glad you got the chance to experience it and for helping us enjoy it as well.

14 hours ago, CSHS1979 said:

Plus you could leave your stuff in your cabin. Very generous.

Thanks for this little tidbit.  I was wondering about this.