New Program called "The Key"

[not-enough-cruising]

14 hours ago, marcg125 said:

Here is a picture of the menu from vloggers who went on the Symphony Cruise the first week of February using The Key program for those who asked about Chops Grille menu.

Consequently here is the Key menu from Chops embarkation lunch on Feb 10, Liberty of the Seas 

 

[Lionesss]

Reading this thread has provided me with a lot of information.

 

But as I read on and on about the KEY, I am hearing the price is or should I say has changed with no rhyme or reason to ship or sailing date.

I guess it could be a result of RCI testing the waters and supply and demand.

 

 

Ok now that I have that out of the way.

What is the current cost that all are paying for this service?

Are the perks different for different class of RCI ships?

 

Also I know I can search myself for the answers but would like to continue hearing about cruisers individual experiences.

 

Thanks

 

Safe travels.

[JoeFan]

Kinda cheesy of RCL to cheapen the Chops embarkation lunch like that for a VIP experience.

[xpcdoojk]

The original price was pretty much 19.99.  Since then I have seen both 31.99 and 24.99 on my cruise on which the Key is listed as an option.  

 

It starts to make sense if you plan on booking two internet packages.  If you want/need early disembarking times in ports.  If you like to do the activities that are given special times.  If you are going to book a specialty lunch especially first day.  If you want early access to your room (depends on ship).  You want to dump your hand luggage and be free of it.  

 

It made sense to me at 19.99 per person per day, but a the other prices it would be hard to justify.  Although in my special case I could probably justify it.  Aka flowrider.

 

jc

[Tree_skier]

16 hours ago, tinkr2 said:

Wait . I have to have a windows operating system?

 

No you don't.  I have used my MacBook Pro, my. iPad and my iPhone all without any difficulty.   

[3bzmom]

3 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

The original price was pretty much 19.99.  Since then I have seen both 31.99 and 24.99 on my cruise on which the Key is listed as an option.  

 

It starts to make sense if you plan on booking two internet packages.  If you want/need early disembarking times in ports.  If you like to do the activities that are given special times.  If you are going to book a specialty lunch especially first day.  If you want early access to your room (depends on ship).  You want to dump your hand luggage and be free of it.  

 

It made sense to me at 19.99 per person per day, but a the other prices it would be hard to justify.  Although in my special case I could probably justify it.  Aka flowrider.

 

jc

There is no priority disembarking at port unless it’s a tender port. Also, post-cruise disembarkation last week was a nightmare- the 8:30 time was actually 10:00, so if disembarkation is a concern, you should do self-disembark and not take advantage of Key.

[ShillyShally]

I'm just hoping next week we'll find it provided enough value to justify the costs.  The reports coming back are kinks are being worked out and/or readily occurring but I expect that will happen long after it's new!  Normally we wouldn't care about internet but since we already needed that this trip we aren't paying a ton more at $19.99 a day and still figure this is as good a trip as any to try it on!

[Orsino]

When giving feedback on Key experiences, I think it is vitally important to include the ship and sail date. Key implementation is not consistent across ships! So if you are weighing options, be sure to look for reviews that are specific to your ship. Unfortunately, I think twangster's excellent review of The Key is now too dated to be relevant to people considering buying today. Both because Royal is tweaking the program and the experience on a 'sold out key' cruise simply has to be different than one of the first that had fewer key holders.

[ShillyShally]

1 minute ago, Orsino said:

When giving feedback on Key experiences, I think it is vitally important to include the ship and sail date. Key implementation is not consistent across ships! So if you are weighing options, be sure to look for reviews that are specific to your ship. Unfortunately, I think twangster's excellent review of The Key is now too dated to be relevant to people considering buying today. Both because Royal is tweaking the program and the experience on a 'sold out key' cruise simply has to be different than one of the first that had fewer key holders.

Agreed!  I think the debarkation reports too need to be taken with a grain of salt as even best laid plans can get thrown off when weather or suspected cargo is in play.

 

And it seems it's sold out for our cruise as I don't see it in the planner anymore so I'll just stop debating it, keep it and plan on enjoying and will report back on how it went!

[xpcdoojk]

43 minutes ago, 3bzmom said:

There is no priority disembarking at port unless it’s a tender port. Also, post-cruise disembarkation last week was a nightmare- the 8:30 time was actually 10:00, so if disembarkation is a concern, you should do self-disembark and not take advantage of Key.

 

Yes, I am talking about tender ports and not at the end of the cruise.  I think in all of my cruises I have gotten off earlier than I expected one time.  That was in Southampton on the Navigator.  

 

On my upcoming cruise 4 ports and 3 are tender ports.

 

jc

[3bzmom]

8 minutes ago, Orsino said:

When giving feedback on Key experiences, I think it is vitally important to include the ship and sail date. Key implementation is not consistent across ships! So if you are weighing options, be sure to look for reviews that are specific to your ship. Unfortunately, I think twangster's excellent review of The Key is now too dated to be relevant to people considering buying today. Both because Royal is tweaking the program and the experience on a 'sold out key' cruise simply has to be different than one of the first that had fewer key holders.

Agree, to a point... if one reason you're buying The Key is for priority disembarkation at ports, that's universally ONLY for tender ports- but they don't tell you that in the literature. So it's not ship specific as much as it's itinerary-specific.

In regards to our disasterous disembarkation experience on Liberty last week, yes there can always be problems at port, but do not expect to get priority service above self-debarking passengers. That was my point in posting. If a quick exit off the ship is necessary, self-disembark and don't count that as a Key benefit.

[3bzmom]

2 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Consequently here is the Key menu from Chops embarkation lunch on Feb 10, Liberty of the Seas 

 

That was also the menu on Liberty.

[Orsino]

2 minutes ago, 3bzmom said:

Agree, to a point... if one reason you're buying The Key is for priority disembarkation at ports, that's universally ONLY for tender ports- but they don't tell you that in the literature. So it's not ship specific as much as it's itinerary-specific.

In regards to our disasterous disembarkation experience on Liberty last week, yes there can always be problems at port, but do not expect to get priority service above self-debarking passengers. That was my point in posting. If a quick exit off the ship is necessary, self-disembark and don't count that as a Key benefit.

 

I'm sorry your disembarkation went poorly. Our experience on Oasis on 17 Feb was vastly different. I didn't expect to use the Key benefit because the letter we were given said the Key escort started at 8:15 (or 8:30, I don't remember exactly). We needed to be off earlier so self carried our luggage. To my surprise, we were escorted off after breakfast (about 7:30AM). I don't know that it saved us time, but we apparently skipped "the ramp" (whatever that is). The people we were with seemed to like skipping it. And while we didn't get front of the line access to customs, we sort of merged partway in so skipped some portion of the line. While we self-carried, the other Key guests leaving at the same time had key-checked their luggage and were brought to it. I saw no problems even though it was 7:30AM. Super smooth early Key disembarkation on Oasis.

I am hesitant to proclaim this would be true for all future Key passengers, and the wording of the letter conflicts with what I experienced. but that's something about the Key I saw all week. What was written down was NOT what we experienced. Fortunately, the discrepancy was (almost) always in our favor.

 

 

[bbahorik]

26 minutes ago, Orsino said:

When giving feedback on Key experiences, I think it is vitally important to include the ship and sail date. Key implementation is not consistent across ships! So if you are weighing options, be sure to look for reviews that are specific to your ship. Unfortunately, I think twangster's excellent review of The Key is now too dated to be relevant to people considering buying today. Both because Royal is tweaking the program and the experience on a 'sold out key' cruise simply has to be different than one of the first that had fewer key holders.

My detailed oasis  review is current as we are on the ship now. February 28th.

[bbahorik]

On 2/27/2019 at 10:52 AM, jerseyjjs said:

You're diamond?  From the content of your post, it seems like you spent $280 for a limited menu at Chops and your carry on bags taken to your cabin (though you had to schlep them to the theater first).  Doesn't seem like a sensible value to me.

We love to schlep!  We always get surf and stream for each of us  so there is that too 😉. We had  so much shipboard credit and we don’t drink , gamble or shop so why not?  Plus they put a 🔑 sticker on our sea pass! 😂😂

[ShillyShally]

31 minutes ago, bbahorik said:

We love to schlep!  We always get surf and stream for each of us  so there is that too 😉. We had  so much shipboard credit and we don’t drink , gamble or shop so why not?  Plus they put a 🔑 sticker on our sea pass! 😂😂

I'll admit I am looking forward to the 🔑 sticker 🙂

[bradenj21]

Interesting to me that some people report recieving extra perks with The Key (fruit plate, strawberries, cookies). Is this common or dependent on the ship and/or C&A level? 

[xpcdoojk]

I am guessing some are getting something but higher levels of C&A get stuff always, hard to know exactly what when people post without posting all of the various details.

 

jc

[tinkr2]

So now I am waiting to see if they have changed the Jamies lunch menu options.

[bradenj21]

8 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

I am guessing some are getting something but higher levels of C&A get stuff always, hard to know exactly what when people post without posting all of the various details.

 

jc

I would agree with that for fruit etc. but Key shaped cookies seem pretty specific. 

[xpcdoojk]

Yes, so will I get Key shaped cookies and regular cookies or just key shaped in which case the only change will be the shape.

 

jc

[cre8tiv]

I am looking forward to the Xtra Key Perks...key cookies if they re still doing it. And no Key ..lime pie,hmmm.. that’s a shame. Any “Key” related stuff would just make it that much better, lol 

Appreciate all the Actual Key experiences being shared. 

safe travels all. 

[Grenouille21]

They really should give out keychains.  And key lime pie.  

[ShillyShally]

2 hours ago, Grenouille21 said:

They really should give out keychains.  And key lime pie.  

LOL, I agree, it should be key overload!

[KatheWenz]

The KEY is now available on our Cruise Planner for Mariner of the Seas or $19.99.  We are on a 4 night cruise, leaving in a few weeks.  For the two of us it's $159.92.  If I cancel the internet I got for one device, it's down to $99.  Still not sure if it's worth it.  We haven't been on a cruise in almost 25 years so it's hard to know if any of these perks will even matter to us....