r/royalcaribbean

I am exploring travel protection for an upcoming cruise. Am curious if anyone knows of a good travel insurance outside of RC travel protection plan and can recommend to me.

Thanks

Hi

We are sailing on October on Oasis OTS. We are trying to figure out how much credit we should buy for our kids.... How much is one game in the arcade? They are 7&4. We don't want to run out of credit

Thank you

Utopia has a dedicated non-smoking casino, completely detached from the main one. Does Harmony have one too?

RPT has been gone for a week. Are there any alternatives that will automatically check prices of excursions and packages?

I just returned from a 5 day itinerary on Harmony of the Seas and wanted to share a few impressions of crucial differences in this experience from experiences on past Carnival and other cruises given the frequent "how much better is RCL" talk that we all can't help but partake in! Before I make a few points, I am more convinced than ever that anyone who enjoys cruise vacations should make an effort to try multiple cruise brands, destinations, and ships, as each offers something unique that may mean that extra difference to you.

First, RCL does a good job at designing their ships such that common areas, elevators, and the placement and number of hot tubs and pools makes the ship feel less crowded than experiences on other lines and ships. Carnival and Disney's public spaces and elevators, for example, often require quite a bit of waiting to navigate after shows or dinners, while there was little to none of that on Harmony of the Seas. The exceptions to this are Harmony's small lounges/bars they use for karaoke and other games (On Air/Bolero's), which are often impossible to find a seat in, even between events, although this is a problem shared on other ships/lines such as NCL's Aqua.

The Fine Line is a great, high energy show that demonstrates creative use of the talented athletes and performers found on these ships as well as new engineering that can enable bigger, grander shows. Having said that, I found the overall entertainment on RCL only somewhat better than that found on other lines. The ice show 1887 and the Columbus theater show are both an amalgam of insanity so impossible to follow as to be distracting. Having sharks dance the Can-can while singing Cheeseburger in Paradise made me feel I had accidentally gotten into my edibles. Some people loved the productions; I thought some of it was "cute" but did not care for these two shows at all. Having said that, they're still better than most of the theater shows you'll see on Carnival, especially given that RCL's production value is so much better. Although I was aware of RCL's intention to move away from featuring comedy, I was unaware there would be zero comedy or feature acts onboard. Granted it's personal preference, but having a comedian or comedians in rotation among some other guest act that will come onboard (sometimes a hypnotist or magician, although the last few years have seen fewer of these acts on most ships I've been on). There are fewer activities overall on RCL compared to Carnival, but this of course comes down to personal preference.

The food on RCL is surprisingly poor in comparison to other lines. My whole group continues to remark at how disappointing the food was, especially in main dining and other included venues. Our meal at 150 Central Park was the best of our dining experiences, but Chops Grille was a letdown. Every single breakfast whether in MDR, Windjammer, or elsewhere was OK at best and typically served cold. Johnny Rockets' burger and onion rings were good but not worth the upcharge, lunch at Giovanni's was worth it, and I had some solid pork carnitas on CocoCay. Otherwise, I hope "Loyal to Royal" people understand that even just the included food alone on Carnival's newer ships absolutely laps anything RCL currently includes with your cruise fare, and that includes much of what you pay an upcharge for on RCL, too. The difference in taste, quantity, and quality cannot be overstated and is even more exaggerated than the difference even a few years ago according to some older RCL cruisers I chatted with onboard. There wasn't a single thing I ate or drank on RCL that didn't have a better equivalent on Carnival(!!!), and I genuinely hoped that would not be the case.

The service on Harmony of the Seas was outstanding. Cruise staff continue to make vacations for us special by going the extra mile, and our experience on this trip with RCL was no different.

CocoCay has lots to see and do, but the upcharges for activities like the water park are outrageou$.

Although I understand the argument that putting beach towels in staterooms can create additional laundry that might otherwise not have been necessary, not providing each person a beach towel in our staterooms but instead requiring us to "check out" a beach towel from a towel station that mysteriously only opens at random infrequent intervals with no predicted schedule or placement at the threat of a $25 charge if not returned to a towel station feels cheap and is not at all conducive to a seamless experience. Again, my personal pet peeve, but there it is!

Finally, much has been said about the behaviors of cruisers between the brands, especially when it comes to Carnival's reputation as a sort of floating Wal-Mart that sees frequent fights on their ships. There remains an assumption among many people that because RCL charges more for their product, you'll be less likely to see behavioral issues more common among first-time cruisers and those with smaller budgets. However, the primary driver of what kind of cruiser you'll see on a given cruise is typically its itinerary; 3 and 4 day cruises are party cruises whether on RCL or Carnival. Utopia of the Seas features crew members using water guns to blast champagne into peoples' mouths in the pools, something you likely won't see on one of RCL's Mediterranean itineraries. There remains at least some truth, though, that many loyal to Royal people root their loyalty in a belief that paying more for the same (or, in some ways, materially worse) product means they never have to witness such behavior. Although I have never witnessed a fight on any ship, I have definitely witnessed people be rude to staff or other passengers or not exercise simple manners when in public spaces. RCL's passengers are no different in this regard, and one only needs to read the posts in this very forum to see how insane some RCL cruisers act about these vacations.

Would I cruise RCL again? Absolutely, albeit a different ship and different itinerary. Overall, my experience on Harmony of the Seas was that of a solid vacation that would have likely been "great" had I not already been hopelessly spoiled by earlier cruises.

Currently working on getting my wife onboard to go on a cruise in the next year or so. She does have a mobility issue, so that can cause issues. She can stand, but she can’t walk long distances.

I know there are services where you can have a mobility scooter dropped off in your stateroom.

My main thoughts are if we should use a travel planner or not.

We don’t travel. Never been on a cruise before. This is us dipping our toes into the water and bringing our daughter (10 years old) with us for the fun.

My understanding is that a planner would basically handle the heavy lifting. Booking the mobility scooter, checking for rate drops, and the things like that. We basically say “here are the dates we are free, our budget, and some things we want to do”.

Is it better or worse to do that way? Based on your experiences, what would you do?

My wife’s mobility issues are related to MS, so it isn’t something where she will be healing and it won’t be an issue in the future.

Apologies in advance if I offend any TAs that may be reading... This post is largely based on my experience and I realize not all TAs have the same work practice.

I used to be a frequent cruiser with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, but stopped cruising with them in favor of another line (not relevant to this post). I used to always book directly with RCCL/CC, but with another line there were some major advantages booking with their accredited travel agents, including substantial additional OBC above and beyond what the cruise line offered. Does this happen nowadays with RCCL/CC?

I am looking to book my first cruise with either in a few years and wondering if folks here can (a) confirm working with a RCCL/CC specialist TA is worth the hassle for additional perks, and (b) if so, who do you recommend? I would strongly prefer and value input from non-TAs.

Personally, my experience has been the TAs can be great until you book, always available, responsive, and after you book, they disappear, stop answering emails, have life emergencies, or are so slow to reply that timely requests (such as price matching a lower price) become null and void. I realize they are not incentivized to downgrade or save you money after something is booked, but if I am working with a TA I expect they will have my best interest in mind.

When is the latest anyone has gotten their RoyalUp bid approved?

I fly in for my cruise the day before and I'm concerned if I do get approved, I might not have access to a printer to print my new luggage tags.

Loyal to Royal here. I found a last minute deal on Adventure of the Seas for $665 for both of us guarantee interior 6 nights Western Caribbean. Although we have never sailed interior could not let this deal pass. Well we were assigned a promenade room, 8th floor midship.

Yes we got lucky! Not a new ship but that's our preference. At our age we do not need the thrills. LOL

Greetings from Anthem of the Seas, at sea on Day 2 of our sail from Seattle to Alaska. This is our second cruise on RCCL (third overall), after doing our first-ever cruise two years ago on Symphony of the Seas. We are on a sailing with the Fresh Kosher option (see my forum post on the Royal Caribbean Blog for more info), meaning that the organizer has reserved the Solarium Bistro for the entire cruise as our sole restaurant choice. Walking up to the ship yesterday before boarding, it looked about as big to me as had Symphony, and the same was true in the photos I saw while booking.

Obviously, those of you with more experience know how wrong I was.

The first clue was shortly after boarding, when we went to our buffet lunch in the Solarium Bistro. It was of course located in the same part of the ship as its Symphony counterpart, but I was startled by how much smaller it was. Where Symphony had had three full buffet stations in the center plus the ones on the wall, Anthem has a single smaller station in mid-floor and a shorter set of stations along the wall. Obviously, the seating was also more compact, but it was the buffet that told the tale. The other real obvious difference was in the public space on decks 4 and 5; rather than the open expanse of Central Park on Symphony, Anthem's two floors of Royal Esplanade reminds us very much of the layout and scope of the similar area on Sun Princess, our other previous cruise. (A quick Internet search confirms that Anthem and Sun Princess are of similar scale, so that makes sense.) Beyond that, and at least so far, there are obviously fewer shows on Anthem, and only one requires reservations. The ship is, of course, still quite spacious, and while we do not visit the specialty restaurants and other dining areas (beyond Sorrento's, at which our program organizer has arranged for a kosher pizza option with a separate ordering area and its own dedicated oven, and the soft-serve ice cream machine on the pool deck), but I'd imagine they too are smaller than their Oasis-class counterparts.

That said, I think we may well end up preferring the Quantum-class ships to Oasis or larger, since it is just my wife and myself traveling, and we prefer the shorter hikes from end to end and the somewhat quieter vibe. We've got Odyssey coming up in January, so that will either verify or disprove this initial observation.

Smooth sailing!

Curious about this. My fiancée and I always get the drink package. We’re both prime now, and have still been getting it. We are leaving on the Icon in about a week, and still haven’t bought it. This will be our first time not having the drink package so we’re a little nervous. We’re both 24 years old so we can easily throw down 30+ drinks a day if we’re drinking from 10am-2am. Don’t judge 😅

What’s your guys take?

edit:// based on answers it appears this is not normal and I do have reason to worry, and need to contact the agency to figure out what is wrong. Thanks, and sorry for dumb question.

I have a cruise coming up that I reserved via a travel agent, and I had paid for the auto-gratuities and a drink package as well.

I've now gotten the Royal app, to start preparing for the cruise, and I noticed it doesn't show me any information about my drink package and actually instead I constantly get offers from Royal to buy one.

Has anyone made their purchase via agent and could confirm if this is normal, or should I contact the agent to see what the issue is?

I’m looking at doing a back to back cruise for my 40th in 2028. It would be wife and me on Independence of the seas and then jump off the boat and walk onto Hero of the Seas.

The first cruise would be the two of us, the second cruise would be with our 6.5 and assume a grandparent or set of grandparents who would fly out with him.

How burnt out would we be on B2B for different boats and itinerary or is it at fun as I would expect!?

I do NOT get tired of cruising on a 7 day cruise. Outside of missing the kid if we cruised without him.

EDIT: I realize this is technically a side by side- still curious on people’s thoughts. How did you do laundry?.

We have sailed on Royal Caribbean twice now and have been extremely impressed, especially when comparing it to Carnival which we had sailed with three times before switching. We have been on Symphony and Oasis. I feel like we’ve been spoiled in terms of being on mega ships, but I’m worried about being bored or unimpressed on smaller ships, especially freedom class ships. We were looking into Independence of the Seas for next summer. The other option would be to do Oasis again. For those who have “downsized,” what do you think? Will we miss anything?

Hello,
We are sailing the Oasis of the seas next Aug. When we are docked at Cococay the Utopia of the seas is also scheduled to be there. Would it be smart to book a cabana for a family of 6?

I booked my first cruise for October. It’s a 5 night cruise on Freedom of the Sea to the Bahamas and Cococay perfect day. Before booking, I’ve always wanted to do the swimming with the pigs! What are some thought? Is that even worth it? I saw that it’s about $200 to do that. What are some must do’s and things that you think aren’t worth the money? Open to anything! Give me all the input! Thanks :-)