Royal-Upped to a GS and We are Forever Doomed….

[teddie]

….to only wanting a suite. Now, I know many of you frequently or exclusively sail in suites, but our cruising history consists of regular balconies and a few Junior Suites. 

 

Since our February 2023 return to cruising post-pandemic, we bid on three separate sailings. Bids on the first two sailings were not accepted, so I wasn’t holding out much hope for this one.  I was notified 3 days prior to our Anthem March 17th sailing that our low-ball of a bid was accepted, and we went from a JS to a one bedroom GS on deck 7.

 

So, what was so special about being a suite passenger? I know you “suitees” already know. Here’s our list of how it went as first-time suite guests. 

 

Priority Boarding/Disembarkation

• Easy peasy in every way.  We were among the first onboard. 
• Our return arrival to Cape Liberty was delayed for at least an hour, and the non-suite queues for departing the ship were humongous.

The One-Bedroom Grand Suite 7634

• The large balcony with the second large window in the bedroom was awesome.  We had quite a bit of “weather” on the homeward journey, and DH loved watching the sea as it rocked and rolled the Anthem.  We spent more time in our cabin than we typically would because it was so large and comfortable. 
• The spaciousness and amount of storage was great.  We couldn’t fill it all.
• The full bathroom with tub and shower, two sinks, and two doors—you can enter from the bedroom or the living area.
• The Lavazza coffee maker! Midway through the cruise we ordered one for our house and it arrived today, just in time for our homecoming. 

Coastal Kitchen

• Amazing service! Excellent teamwork by the staff 
• Most meals were super-good. A few choices we made were meh.
• Beautiful dining room
• Both the Maitre ‘d and the hostess truly hustled to make everyone comfortable, clearing tables, setting up, and looking after the guests. 
• The servers had no problem stepping into the Windjammer at breakfast to bring me my favorite cranberry raisin bread.

The Concierge/Suite Lounge

• We visited twice. Nice happy hour offerings, but I do think the decor and furniture would benefit from a update 
• We never did see the concierge, Joana, in person.  She did call and few times to ask if we needed anything. 

Suite Sundeck

• Comfy seating in both sun and shade.
• Overlooks the main pool which can get noisy at times

Miscellaneous Niceties

• No need to check towels in/out
• Free internet—what can I say? We love free!
• Diamond 4 daily drinks per person continues to be a great perk for us, suite or no suite. 

 

I realise that much of what I’m saying maybe “old hat” to those who exclusively sail in suites; but I wanted to share our experience with other non-suites folks here.  

 

In closing, I will say that there is a method to the madness of the Royal Up process—we are pretty sure that we will be booking a suite for future cruises. 
 

teddie

 

Edited March 24 by teddie

[joepeka]

Glad you enjoyed the GS. We've always had a GS on RCI and got more than a little spoiled. That said, we have a JS booked on Harmony and recently did likewise - put in a minimum bid for upgrade from JS to GS - I doubt it will be accepted but like the local state lottery people used to say in their slogan: you can't win if you don't play.

[teddie]

1 hour ago, joepeka said:

Glad you enjoyed the GS. We've always had a GS on RCI and got more than a little spoiled. That said, we have a JS booked on Harmony and recently did likewise - put in a minimum bid for upgrade from JS to GS - I doubt it will be accepted but like the local state lottery people used to say in their slogan: you can't win if you don't play.

Hope yours get accepted!
teddie

[perfect match]

I put in lowball bids for an upgrade from a JS to a GS on both legs of our upcoming Allure B2B. I did a self upgrade once from a JS to a GS when the GS price dropped so we’re already spoiled! 😂 

 

I do not have high hopes that my lowball bids will be accepted but like. @joepeka said “ you can’t win if you don’t play”.

 

 

[Another_Critic]

Had a free upgrade from 2 OV cabins (deck 2) to a 2BR GS (deck 7) on Vision for a 16 night Arctic Crossing.  I was not impressed.  Of course, Oasis, Quantum, and Icon class suite benefits are superior to Vision, Radiance, Voyager, and Freedom classes.

 

I got an upgrade to a Jaguar F-Pace rental car in England.  Was not impressed.

 

I guess I'm not easily impressed.  😄

 

Edited March 25 by Another_Critic

[SRF]

There are suite people and there are other people.

Welcome to the ranks of the suite people 😄

[SilkySal]

I experienced a near death (DH says I actually died and was revived) experience just this last January. So, for my February 2026 birthday on Oasis, we decided to upgrade our balcony cabin to the Crown Loft Suite, which will be our first experience in a full suite and I'm hoping it'll be amazing! We plan to enjoy CK for most of our meals and, since we are both D+ with 5 drink vouchers each, we can enjoy additional drinks in the CL or SL, so no packages needed.

 

On another note, I had never flown first class until last September, when we flew to Vancouver, cruised Hawaii, and flew back to Indiana from Honolulu. This had been on my bucket list for awhile but, I must say, I was not impressed. I have never been able to sleep on a plane and, for me, this was no different. Watched a movie until I felt sleepy, turned it off, tried to get some sleep but the sheep never arrived. No sleep, nada! My DH, DB and his wife were all sleeping like well-fed babies! Never again will I splurge for first class but I will definitely upgrade to comfort plus or business class for the extra leg room! DH says I can't sleep on a plane cause I'm too nosy! He's probably right but I would never admit it to him! LOL!

 

Thanks for sharing your suite experience with all of us suite virgins!! Cheers!!

 

Sal

 

P.S. Great title for this thread to "hook" people into reading!! It hooked me!

Edited March 25 by SilkySal
add

[DragonOfTheSeas]

19 minutes ago, SilkySal said:

On another note, I had never flown first class until last September, when we flew to Vancouver, cruised Hawaii, and flew back to Indiana from Honolulu. This had been on my bucket list for awhile but, I must say, I was not impressed. I have never been able to sleep on a plane and, for me, this was no different. Watched a movie until I felt sleepy, turned it off, tried to get some sleep but the sheep never arrived. No sleep, nada! My DH, DB and his wife were all sleeping like well-fed babies! Never again will I splurge for first class but I will definitely upgrade to comfort plus or business class for the extra leg room! DH says I can't sleep on a plane cause I'm too nosy! He's probably right but I would never admit it to him! LOL!

 

In the summer of 2022 the airline flights to Europe were in a turmoil. There were strikes for SAS [months long] and Lufthansa [just our flight day].  Many passengers had flights cancelled.  Ours United flight was, too about a month before our Baltic cruise leaving Stockholm. 

 

We booked it through Air2Sea.  They told us be patient and we would get a flight.  . . . and we did.  They gave us the United business class with the lay flat seats.  Like you, I can't sleep on planes and I didn't then either.  The seats were OK.  But DH and I agreed it would not have been worth the money to purchase the upgrade.

[jakeil7]

49 minutes ago, SilkySal said:

On another note, I had never flown first class until last September, when we flew to Vancouver, cruised Hawaii, and flew back to Indiana from Honolulu. This had been on my bucket list for awhile but, I must say, I was not impressed. I have never been able to sleep on a plane and, for me, this was no different. Watched a movie until I felt sleepy, turned it off, tried to get some sleep but the sheep never arrived. No sleep, nada! My DH, DB and his wife were all sleeping like well-fed babies! Never again will I splurge for first class but I will definitely upgrade to comfort plus or business class for the extra leg room! DH says I can't sleep on a plane cause I'm too nosy! He's probably right but I would never admit it to him!

I will note that if you ever get the chance to do it on an international route you should try it (or even business). You will be much more likely to sleep on a lie flat seat. That said…the only time I have done that is with FF miles 😛. It is not worth the extra cash. 

[SilkySal]

1 minute ago, jakeil7 said:

I will note that if you ever get the chance to do it on an international route you should try it (or even business). You will be much more likely to sleep on a lie flat seat. That said…the only time I have done that is with FF miles 😛. It is not worth the extra cash. 

Thanks for your suggestion but United First Class did have the lay flat seats in a private cubicle - still no sleep for me. We have Delta Comfort Plus seats (for the extra leg room) for our upcoming flight to Vancouver, so I plan to carry on my neck pillow just in case!

[jakeil7]

50 minutes ago, SilkySal said:

Thanks for your suggestion but United First Class did have the lay flat seats in a private cubicle - still no sleep for me. We have Delta Comfort Plus seats (for the extra leg room) for our upcoming flight to Vancouver, so I plan to carry on my neck pillow just in case!

Oof. Sorry to hear that. I always had luck with the lie flats when the flight was long enough. 

[Another_Critic]

I flew first class in 1987 to MIA (Eastern Airlines narrow body).  Bigger seats and more legwork.  But at that time economy actually had legroom.

 

I flew first class from DFW to HNL and HNL to DEN in 1991 (DC-10 [wide body] plane).  Bigger seats (before lie flat existed?) and acres of leg room.  I was actually impressed.  😄

 

I actually flew economy from LAX to MNL (747 plane) in 2005(??).  It was actually comfortable.

 

Not looking forward to my flight home from BCN in economy (787 plane) in May.

 

Edited March 25 by Another_Critic

[BND]

We started cruising in suites. With Royal, we started in JS, quickly moved to GS for several  and when the deposit rules changed years ago, we went back to JS.  We did GS mostly on EX when she was in NJ which meant longer itineraries.  When the deposit went from $900 to $1800,we said nope. We didn't want Royal having almost 2K of our money for that long. Part of the issue is back then deposits were refundable.  So, people would book a GS 18 months out so if we wanted one, we had to do the same, and then they would cancel later (we never did) so RCI's answer to that was to double the deposit amount on GS and above.  We have done JS ever since.  This was all before Suite lounges and CK. 

 

We've flown first class a few times. Most recently to DFW from IAD in Nov on a 737. Seats are wider and we were fed pretty good food.  We took our sons to CA in April 2001 in Business class on a large wide body plane(can't remember which but it wasn't a 747) and the food was really good and the seats comfortable.   It does help that DH is a million miler with United and we used points for one ticket to TX.  He doesn't travel for work anymore so points are almost gone. 

Edited March 25 by BND

[teddie]

1 minute ago, BND said:

We started cruising in suites. With Royal, we started in JS, quickly moved to GS for several  and when the deposit rules changed years ago, we went back to JS.  We did GS mostly on EX when she was in NJ which meant longer itineraries.  When the deposit went from $900 to $1800,we said nope. We didn't want Royal having almost 2K of our money for that long. Part of the issue is back then deposits were refundable.  So, people would book a GS 18 months out so if we wanted one, we had to do the same, and then they would cancel later (we never did) so RCI's answer to that was to double the deposit amount on GS and above.  We have done JS ever since.  This was all before Suite lounges and CK. 

 

Explorer was our first RCI ship way back in 2002, and we were in a JS; we really do like the Voyager class. In reaching our current Diamond level we booked regular balconies, and a few JSs.  On the Anthem, we would have been happy with our original JS booking, and dinners (if able) in the CK, and we already had the Diamond drinks voucher.

 

Agree that the suite pricing these days is pretty insane; but the entire Sky/Suite package was pretty darn nice.  

 

Teddie

[George C]

We upgraded to a grand suite about ten years ago and have booked nothing but full suites since , total of 9 suites on rccl all grand but one owner, ten suites on celebrity everything from sky to penthouse, one MSc yacht club, two Hal suites. Have flown in either business or first , rather do less vacations and do them first class.

[Havin'fun]

I normally book a JS and have stayed in a GS once on Symphony - nice upgrade, loved the perks and Coastal Kitchen.

The upcoming cruise on Adventure, I had a JS through the casino.  When the Royal up email came, I thought what the heck and put in ridiculous low offers on a GS and an OS.  I was shocked when I received the congratulations you have been upgraded to an OS email. 

I know the benefits of the OS on Adventure are less than other ships but that's ok with me this time around.