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You do not have to wait until the end of the cruise to cash out refundable OBC, but except for tipping, there's not too many opportunities to pay cash on the ship. But, if the cash is needed on shore, then cash it out any time at Guest Services. I found last month that now if any amount, for any reason (obc or just a room charge), is transferred to a slot machine and cashed out, you cannot transfer money to a machine for the rest of the cruise.

Yes, there are lower prices, but you have to check frequently, especially around holiday weekends when they have "sales". Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Father's Day, 4th of July, etc. I calculate price per meal, because the number of lunches included in the cruise can vary. Go to the Cruise Planner for your cruise, click in and out of "reserving" specialty restaurant lunches, and you will see the days each restaurant is serving lunch. Add total number to the dinners to get the total number of meals. Divide that into the current price, including gratuity, and that's your price per meal. Right now my sister and I have our 7 night September Freedom cruise for an average of $19 for 11 meals. Considering that I ate 2 nights ago here on the Anthem in Jaime's and the regular price is $59 per person, including gratuity, I consider $19 excellent.

In 5 decades of sailing with RCCL, I have found they are VERY attentive to world events anywhere along their ships' routes. I've personally had an experience where RCCL had to charter planes to help stranded passengers in Barcelona during a fishermen strike, blockading the port until 9pm. An entire ship of passengers missed their flights that day. Hotel overnight and flight home covered. LOTS of chaos, but it all worked out. We docked in Grenada shortly after the military action there, and other than having armed military guards everywhere, it was fine. So, don't leave RCCL out of the safety equation. Having said all this, your routes are through an area with a HUGE US presence and influence.

If you like your coffee a little later, Cafe 270 has the same coffee and a LOT less people!

Thanks for this information. I heard on the Anthem in February that for ships with a Coastal Kitchen, Pinn access to the Suite Lounge and CK was open, and ship's management was dealing with any potential overcrowding. Now, your post clarifies this even more. It's too fluid a situation, as the amount of people using these venues ebbs and flows daily. I know when leaving the CK after dinner there could be no people waiting to get in, a few people, and every so often a crowd of people. I was on the Anthem for 19 days and there was NEVER overcrowding in the Concierge (Suites and Pinnacles) Lounge.

If it's bad weather outside, either hot or cold, all I care about is getting INSIDE. I don't really care what time I board. Seriously, that's what a Kindle library on my iphone is for!

The only other thing to keep in mind is to dress for the weather just in case they are running late for some reason. People late to get off the previous cruise, and the ship not being cleared, held me up in Cape Liberty, NJ, the beginning of January this year. Their check-in computer system was also down. By 10:45am there were hundreds of us (like the line was over a block long) standing out in the very windy 37-degree weather with a 10 degree wind chill factor. My "windward" ear got frostbitten, because I dumbly thought I would go in through the Suite/Pinnacle entrance (that wasn't there). My ear lobe looked like it was going to fall off for several days until make up could hide the mess. Headband and gloves permanently in my travel accessories now. Customs and Immigration can also hold up clearing the ship for the previous cruise. Also, most of us know what it's like standing outside in Miami and Fort Lauderdale when it's hot.

That's cool!! Many newer cruisers don't realize staying with one cruise line (especially Royal who has the best loyalty perks in the industry, IMO) saves them much more in the long run. Building CAS points works (financially) better if one can be flexible with the cabin choice. You get the same number of points for an inside/ov/balcony.

I buy GeoBlue Trekker Essential ANNUAL insurance. $188 for 12 months. Good coverage, but since I have good primary coverage already, and my credit card includes trip interruption and cancellation, lost luggage coverage, I use GeoBlue for an extra layer for medical evacuation and the high maximum payable. It covers me for any travel 100 miles away from home or more. So, even when I visit friends and family in the US, it will pay if needed. I consider it a good addition for $16/mo.

Agree. My TA told me a few days ago if Royal's booking system won't calculate the DP340 rate, he calls to see if it can be manually applied.

I just checked my Cruise Planner a few minutes ago for a cruise I'm taking this Sunday. It was booked with a TA, and Tlbecker1 is correct above. Even with a TA, the "You don't have a balance due" statement still shows for my cruise. That is verification the balance was paid. However, even though you know you're paid in full, I would not use that TA again who is sloppy with the financial documentation.

In most insurance claims processing, the insured does not make this decision. It doesn't matter which one you want to pay, it's usually the insurer following insurance laws from your US state of residency. Plus, if they are set up to secondary, they ask for other insurance you have on the application. Many travel insurance policies don't allow any deviation from their primary/secondary liability for payment. You have to shop for a travel policy that does allow for them to be primary. Standalone Medicare doesn't pay outside the US. However, Senior Advantage/Medicare combined coverage can cover. I live in CA and have Kaiser Sr Advantage with Medicare, and it pays for everything anywhere in the world, but copays and deductibles are applied. The travel insurance, as secondary, would cover the copays and deductibles the primary (Kaiser in my case) doesn't pay.

I have too many money saving perks to give up to leave Royal. I've previously priced cruises with Princess, HAL, and NCL, and the solo rates were much higher for the cruise I was booking at the time with Royal. That's because of the DP340 discount code for solo cruisers. Even though I may have found a few less expensive on other lines, giving up the points on Royal to make 340 points back then wasn't worth the savings on a single cruise or two. I did take the time to price out what I'm saving with my Crown and Anchor perks, aside from the DP340 discount, and it's $156/ day. 6 drinks with gratuity, wifi, a wash and fold laundry bag. That savings per day is almost equal to my average cost per day for the cruise. Actually not surprising why I stay with Royal.

I am deeeeeeelighted to have the Quantum in SP!! I just booked a 6 night Mexico today for October 2025. If enough people ask for Hawaii, they might add it to their itineraries. They aren't going to do that from the get-go, however. They have to make sure it's gonna make money for them. I've sailed on the Navi a lot since she came to SP, and the Quantum's itineraries do give more choices. The one thing my TA and I noticed was RCCL was stingy with discounts, or they haven't got things completely set up for booking yet. He will have to call and get my solo discount manually handled, plus there are no group bookings available to him yet. I'm OK with all of it, because the rate I got is a good one, and I've got 20 months for the group rates to kick in.

Princess and HAL have great Hawaii and South Pacific itineraries.

Because many travel insurance carriers consider themselves secondary IF you already have coverage that will cover you. Many primary carriers do not cover their policy holders outside the country of residency. The EOB is to confirm what was denied or paid by your home country's coverage. Even if they denied everything, the travel insurance company then knows they pay primary. It's usually clearly stated in terms and conditions of coverage. I had a friend call me up about a year ago to ask about travel insurance. (She knew I had worked in the health insurance industry at one time.) I told her the first thing you do is see what you already have: country of residency coverage, credit card benefits, etc. THEN, go buy travel insurance to cover the rest. She found out her primary (government) coverage covered her outside the US. I don't need any medical coverage from travel insurance, for instance, because my Senior Advantage Plan pays outside the US.

Absolutely NOT thinking of leaving RCCL. I'm a solo cruiser now, so my rule of thumb about pricing is if the price is close to a hotel room, the rest of what I get is cherries on top my cruise sundae. I went back 2 years and figured my price per night all the way from then to October 2025: $168 / night sailing solo. Mostly Virtual Balcony or inside cabins, but there's also OV, JS, and Balcony cabins in there, too. Ships from Grandeur all the way up in size to Quantum. Food included, Coastal Kitchen on ship's with it; Chops or Coastal Kitchen for breakfast every day; free wine, sparkling water, cheese, and fruit in my cabin; 6 drinks a day, free wifi, free bag of laundry each cruise, priority boarding, lounge access 24/7 with appetizers in the evening. Transportation Southampton to LHR this coming April for half what it would cost me independently as a single. So, I think I'll stay.

I agree, and I go to lunch at one of specialty restaurants that is open on embarkation day. Give them my list for my UDP reservations for the cruise, tip them, and have a nice lunch away from the WJ.

Yes, the ship we were on at the time of the Frozen Insulin event, did not have medical fridges to provide.

It really is. With insulin, we didn't want to depend on a melting ice bucket. That's why we asked our cabin steward to put the supply in the housekeeping refrigerator, and he must have had an ESL problem, and delivered it back to us frozen! The ship's doctor had a FIT, and told me he would add this incident to Housekeeping's training. He gave us two bottles he had in the medical center, and had a pharmacy in Cozumel deliver us 4 more literally minutes after the ship docked the next day. We then had to pay full price for the rest in Key West and get reimbursed over $1,000 by our health insurance when we got home.

You and I will not agree on this one. I just got through with 45 days on the Vision and Anthem. The food was still a problem on the Vision (exactly a year after I sailed when the menu changes occured), and the Anthem was much better quality. I did notice the variety in the Windjammer had been reduced on the Anthem, too.

Even if your reservations are linked, show up with the cabin numbers, anyway. Go to the specialty restaurant on the first day that is open for lunch, and ask them to make all your reservations for the cruise. As mentioned above, have the cruise days and times listed with the cabin numbers. Give the list to the person at the podium (a tip would be nice, too), and go have lunch there. By the time you're finished, all your reservations will be done. Be flexible with the times: e.g. 5:30 - 6:30pm. All specialty restaurants have large tables, so being there on embarkation day when the lunch restaurant first opens not only gives you the opportunity to get your reservations done, but also you get to have a great lunch away from the really crowded and noisy Windjammer.

Sometimes Smokey's sarcasm cup overflows..... To answer your question: I think the only way to find out is to fake-book a specialty restaurant after you've purchased the Unlimited Dining Package, and see what your payment options are. I just did this for one of my cruises, and it's still asking for immediate payment. So, they haven't updated the Cruise Planner with the ability to book and use the UDiningP to "pay" for the reservation.

After a disastrous experience with housekeeping freezing my husband's insulin, we started bringing our own: $99 I suggest bringing several external power banks. I just bought one of these and I love it: $20 And a car-to-USB adaptor ($7), since the mini-fridge includes a car adapter. All of the above is from Amazon, and $127 for peace of mind flying or driving to/from and on the ship, with no iffy fridges from the ship. When my husband passed, I gave all of this to someone on the Disabled Cruisers board here on CC. Seems someone had just posted her brother was in the hospital with a diabetes crises, but was being released, and they didn't know what to do about his medication on their cruise. Sometimes life includes serendipity...............

I also was blown away by Up in the Air, and We Will Rock You and Mama Mia are my other two favorites.