1st Royal Cruise (in Nov) Platinum w/ Carnival

[rizkeeper]

As I begin to plan for my 8 day Royal cruise in Nov, what’s the beverage carry on policy? 1 closed bottle of wine per adult? (We have 2 adults, 1 adult child and 1 child).  Can you bring on bottled water? canned 12 packs? Etc. what about port stops, can soda and water be brought in? We drink a lot of water!! 

[Tierun]

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/food-drink-onboard-policy

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, rizkeeper said:

As I begin to plan for my 8 day Royal cruise in Nov, what’s the beverage carry on policy? 1 closed bottle of wine per adult? (We have 2 adults, 1 adult child and 1 child).  Can you bring on bottled water? canned 12 packs? Etc. what about port stops, can soda and water be brought in? We drink a lot of water!! 

The big difference is carnival now only allows 12 cans. Rcl allows 12 cans or bottles up to 17 o per cabin. 

 

Wine is 2 per cabin not 1 per person. 

[brillohead]

What's wrong with bringing a refillable water bottle and drinking water from the ship?

Cheaper and more environmentally friendly. 

[soremekun]

The staff at Guest Services will assist you with drafting your Carnival resignation.

[brillohead]

2 hours ago, ChC said:

So why do we cruise or travel at all? Stay at home is more environment friendly. 😒

Just seems a lot simpler to drink the water that is provided, rather than lugging cases of water on at each port.

[twangster]

16 minutes ago, brillohead said:

Just seems a lot simpler to drink the water that is provided, rather than lugging cases of water on at each port.

 

While I don't disagree with you and I drink the ship water it is kind of ironic using the "save the environment" excuse as a cruise ship guest.  😇🤣

[Another_Critic]

11 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

While I don't disagree with you and I drink the ship water it is kind of ironic using the "save the environment" excuse as a cruise ship guest.  😇🤣

Has anyone done an environmental comparison of transporting/housing/feeding/entertaining a full (including crew) ship to airplane + hotel + restaurant + gym + entertainment venues, etc. for the same itinerary?

[GaNavy]

3 hours ago, soremekun said:

The staff at Guest Services will assist you with drafting your Carnival resignation.

You won't really want to do that, and even if you did, RCL's IT department wouldn't be able to process it.

[twangster]

23 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

Has anyone done an environmental comparison of transporting/housing/feeding/entertaining a full (including crew) ship to airplane + hotel + restaurant + gym + entertainment venues, etc. for the same itinerary?

 

Probably but like any study the outcome is based on who paid for the study.  

[topnole]

20 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

Probably but like any study the outcome is based on who paid for the study.  

Probably very hard to get any reliable or valid comparative data.  
 

It is funny that the kid that started tracking Elon Musk for fun now has expanded and gotten much more sophisticated.  He is now tracking celebrity jet usage in general.  Taylor Swift’s jet, among others,

was recently highlighted in the news.  
 

So while private jet use used to be considering so cool, some famous people are now starting to get shamed for it.  Of course many of these celebrities are the very one’s who speak out publicly on how we must take action to protect the environment.  It will be interesting to see how this impacts either usage or willingness to be a public speaker on the topic.  I’m sure most of them will first try to travel more stealthy, but there are many ways to track them so that will be difficult and if caught hiding usage, they will look like even bigger hypocrites.  I find it really clever that a young college kid made such an impact on public perception of private jet usage.
 

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by topnole

[Travel R]

This thread went off topic really fast

[LeeW]

OP, we are Elite on Princess and sailed that line for many years.  Won a cruise on Royal and now mostly cruise Royal.  Biggest difference we noted that on Princess it pretty much isn't possible to get Mytime dining reservations.  On Royal you can do this before sailing and despite a lot of folks complaints it works pretty well.  Trying to show up without a reservation when the dining room opens as bad as Princess.  

 

Second large difference is having to book shows (and iFly) in advance - currently have to do this asap when you get on the ship.  You do get used to this after a while.

 

If you have taken advantage of the Carnival stockholder benefit and you think you will cruise Royal more, consider buying shares of Royal.  At the moment they are down almost to where Princess was historically, around $42.  Stockholder OBC submission is much easier on Royal - a link lets you submit up to 10 cruises at once.  Took two days to get nine credited (so effectively $900 back on investment).  Neither line currently paying dividends, though.

[topnole]

6 hours ago, LeeW said:

OP, we are Elite on Princess and sailed that line for many years.  Won a cruise on Royal and now mostly cruise Royal.  Biggest difference we noted that on Princess it pretty much isn't possible to get Mytime dining reservations.  On Royal you can do this before sailing and despite a lot of folks complaints it works pretty well.  Trying to show up without a reservation when the dining room opens as bad as Princess.  

 

Second large difference is having to book shows (and iFly) in advance - currently have to do this asap when you get on the ship.  You do get used to this after a while.

 

If you have taken advantage of the Carnival stockholder benefit and you think you will cruise Royal more, consider buying shares of Royal.  At the moment they are down almost to where Princess was historically, around $42.  Stockholder OBC submission is much easier on Royal - a link lets you submit up to 10 cruises at once.  Took two days to get nine credited (so effectively $900 back on investment).  Neither line currently paying dividends, though.

Another way to look at it is that Royal stock is now up to $42.  It may be wise to buy just enough of this stock for that OBC if you cruise a lot on Royal.  But other than for that purpose, I certainly wouldn’t sleep well at night recommending this stock to anyone without a very high risk tolerance.   This is not the same company it was in 2019 (see the balance sheet) and there is still a great deal of uncertainty in the industry in general.  Sure, a nice return might be possible, but this could also easily be a $30 stock 3-5 years from now.  Only time will tell.  
 

As far as comparisons to Royal, I haven’t been on Princess in years.   But I will say it is probably more accurate to compare ships (or classes of ships) versus overall cruise line.   The wonder of the seas is not going to be comparable to some of the older Royal ships for example.  

[twangster]

My biggest advice as someone who sailed almost to Platinum on Carnival before switching to Royal would be...

 

Give yourself a cruise lobotomy before boarding.  Remember that first time  you ever boarded a cruise ship?  Go back to there like you have never cruised before.  

 

They are very similar in many respects but there will be subtle difference in how the buffett works for example.  If you go in constantly comparing it Carnival and saying... "That's not how Carnival does it!" it will get old quick.  If you go in with an open mind and embrace the differences you may find you like some of the subtle difference.