RCCL virgin...help please!

[winniedapooh]

Help please...we have cruised with Disney 7 times and are used to it. We have never been on another line...I have registered our paperwork, kind of like Disney online check in I believe.

What next??? I am lost, overworked, have not finished Christmas stuff yet and am going to heavily rely on my DIS friends to send me in the right direction...oh and we sail on January 3rd...

1. Do I pay for drink packages now or is that just put onto my account. We prepaid our tips already.

2. Is there anything special I need to do for their online check in or just the basics like Disney?

3. What about the kids club...do we check in ahead of time?

4. Do I make restaurant reservations?

5. Excursions...feel OK about these.

6. Does RCCL offer a shuttle back to the airport like DCL does? If so I know I have to pay, but about how much please?

I think this is all for now...panic is seriously setting in...TIA!

 

[bumbershoot]

What ship are you on?
What airport are you coming in on, are you coming in the same day? What port do you leave from?

Do you have any onboard credit? If so, and you would like to use that for a drinks package, then buy it onboard. With Royal, UNlike with Disney, excursions and drinks packages etc are paid when you book them (not put onto your account). We have a nice OBC on our next two cruises, and we already bought the requisite watches onboard Royal (the hawking of watches is unbelievable*), so we'll buy DH's Replenish package and then the water package for me and DS. The rest of DS and my drinks will be bought out of pocket, from the rest of the OBC.

Drinks packages: http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/shared_assets/pdf/menus/beverage_packages.pdf

If you have questions about that, do ask. I tried to get a thread going about it, but I have no followthrough so it died, LOL.

If you buy the drink packages ahead of time, your soda cup will be in your cabin. If you are on a ship with the Freestyle machines, that means you can't use the machines until it's allowed that you enter cabins. you can still show your keycard at the bars to get sodas, though. If you buy it ON the ship they hand you the soda cup right then, so if the Freestyle machines are there, you can use them immediately. We don't drink soda so it doesn't matter at all to us. And if you're on a ship withOUT the Freestyle machines, it doesn't matter, either.


I truly cannot recall what we did about the kid clubs. I know DS loves it, though! He likes their kid clubs more than Disney club/lab, because the counselors get to know the kids. He isn't one of hundreds who is unknown; the counselors on Royal have known him *by name* after his first day there. This is nice for him.


Shuttle between the Orlando airport and Port Canaveral was $35 per person each way, just like Disney's bus. We chose to not use it, we got a car service instead, because we were not at the airport.

 

[bumbershoot]

* Oops, didn't close up that asterisk I made there.

Watches. If anyone in your party is a watch person, the key to a good deal is to know what the price is at home. They will have sales, or perhaps we should say "sales", the whole time. If you see a good deal and you KNOW it's a good deal, go for it. If you don't know, well, you can probably get a better deal at home.

This is all especially true if you fall for the lure of the Invicta watch. DH did, though not the HUGE-faced ones (once you get onboard you will understand all this, if you don't right now). Actually I think he ended up with a woman's watch b/c the face is so small, but he likes it. Mine must have been a toddler watch LOL. When we looked at prices later, one of us got a good deal, and the other one could have done better at home. It ended up about even, though we didn't have to pay sales tax (purchasing through amazon was the other option, and since we are in WA we have no choice but to pay WA sales tax on direct amazon purchases).

Anyway, all that will mean nothing if you aren't a watch person.

 

[winniedapooh]

What ship are you on?
What airport are you coming in on, are you coming in the same day? What port do you leave from?

We are coming in from WDW and will be staying in port the night before taking the hotel shuttle to the port on 1/3.

Do you have any onboard credit? If so, and you would like to use that for a drinks package, then buy it onboard. With Royal, UNlike with Disney, excursions and drinks packages etc are paid when you book them (not put onto your account). We have a nice OBC on our next two cruises, and we already bought the requisite watches onboard Royal (the hawking of watches is unbelievable*), so we'll buy DH's Replenish package and then the water package for me and DS. The rest of DS and my drinks will be bought out of pocket, from the rest of the OBC.

I believe we have about 800.00 OBC, so I will get the drink packages we need online.

Drinks packages: http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/shared_assets/pdf/menus/beverage_packages.pdf

If you have questions about that, do ask. I tried to get a thread going about it, but I have no followthrough so it died, LOL.

If you buy the drink packages ahead of time, your soda cup will be in your cabin. If you are on a ship with the Freestyle machines, that means you can't use the machines until it's allowed that you enter cabins. you can still show your keycard at the bars to get sodas, though. If you buy it ON the ship they hand you the soda cup right then, so if the Freestyle machines are there, you can use them immediately. We don't drink soda so it doesn't matter at all to us. And if you're on a ship withOUT the Freestyle machines, it doesn't matter, either.


I truly cannot recall what we did about the kid clubs. I know DS loves it, though! He likes their kid clubs more than Disney club/lab, because the counselors get to know the kids. He isn't one of hundreds who is unknown; the counselors on Royal have known him *by name* after his first day there. This is nice for him.

I am glad, as I am nervous about this and worried she will not like them. She is 8 and functions about 6 yo socially.


Shuttle between the Orlando airport and Port Canaveral was $35 per person each way, just like Disney's bus. We chose to not use it, we got a car service instead, because we were not at the airport.

Do you book ahead of time or on the ship? Thanks so very much!!

 

[winniedapooh]

Hmmm, we are not watch people, but I am thinking DH might be if I am not careful lol!!!

 

[starvenger]

You should be able to make restaurant reservations online. check to see if they offer a "package" for multiple restaurants.

That said, you should be able to book onboard as well.

Also, if there is an option to reserve show times (don't know if this is available for all of the ships) I suggest you do that as well.

 

[eskimoinparadise]

A lot of good answers so far, so just filling in a few blanks. If you signed up for my time dining, you can go to rcl's site and choose your dining times before you board. For specialty restaurants, I'd wait until you are on board. They usually have some discounts on those throughout the week. Anything you book before you board, you pay for before you board, and on things like drink packages, you pay tax. If you wait until you set sail, you can save the tax. RCL does airport shuttles, but I have never used them (well not in 20 years or so, and back then they were included in the cruise cost.)

Kids clubs - you sign them up once you board.

Online check in closes three days before you cruise. Make sure you have everything checked as "complete" before then, and print out your set sail passes. You should have already received your cruise documents via email, but don't hold your breath waiting for luggage tags - they don't send them anymore unless you're in a full suite. there is a "print luggage tags" tab on line when you go in to retrieve your cruise documents.

 

[bumbershoot]

Do you book ahead of time or on the ship? Thanks so very much!!

Book dining? We haven't eaten at the extra-pay restaurants so we haven't booked those.

We have done one cruise with "my family time dining", which meant seating was at 5:30. It was supposed to be so DS could get fed quickly and moved on to the kid's club (much like Disney does), but, just like on Disney, DS doesn't eat just from the kid's menu (especially now that he's 11 and an inch shorter than me) and that slows everything down, AND we flat out forgot. He's a good kid who doesn't mind adults and doesn't mind a longer meal, so we all just enjoyed the dinners. We had another cruise with "my time dining". We booked NO times ahead of time. Got onboard and went to the dining desk to arrange that night, then went back later and arranged the other nights. In that way we got the time we felt was good, and we stayed with the same serving team and basic area the whole cruise.

I have booked drinks packages ahead of time, but that's when I didn't have onboard credit.

Online check in closes three days before you cruise.

Great point.

Also, their website likes to pretend your cruise doesn't exist once you're inside of that 3 days. Do NOT panic! It's Royal-normal. Shouldn't be something that happens, but it does, and it means nothing except that you'll be getting on a ship in a few days.

Honestly, you could lose everything but your proper identification for the cruise (dependent on where you are from and what cruise you're going on) and you could still get onboard. All paperwork can be worked out there, and the porters will have luggage tags to be filled out at the port.



So, what ship??? We're approaching final payment for our March trip (DH's very first birthday trip!!!) and it's feeling rather real right now!

 

[starvenger]

Also, their website likes to pretend your cruise doesn't exist once you're inside of that 3 days.

The developers at my workplace would call that a "design feature" when the rest of us would call it a "flaw"...

 

[Laz]

RCCL website use to have a calendar that suggests when to do what before you cruise.

 

[bumbershoot]

The developers at my workplace would call that a "design feature" when the rest of us would call it a "flaw"...

Ha.

RCCL website use to have a calendar that suggests when to do what before you cruise.

I think they still do.

 

[winniedapooh]

Thank you so much for all of your replies...

1. We have not gotten any cruise documents in the mail.

2. We show completed on everything, so I am guessing that is good??

3. Do we go to the upper decks to eat like on a Disney cruise once we board?

4. Do they have a "guest relations" where I can sign us up for our drink package as soon as we board? We are getting $900 in OBC and I want to use it for that!

Again thanks so much!

 

[Laz]

I think I can help on a few of these:

1) If I remember correctly, you print your own documents off on your printer, including your luggage tags. For the tags, I would suggest you get some sort of protective sleeve or cover for them. I know www.Cruisecritic.com sells some. I am not sure of the timing as to when you can print.

2) Sounds good, but it never hurts to double and triple check.

3) The Windjammer buffet should be open. Check out the ship map online to see where it is located on your particular ship

4) guest relations will have a desk, but I can almost promise you it will be packed with people on the first day. You really do not want to spend you first day on board standing in a long line. Try to get signed up before you board. Your OBC should still apply. Talk to your TA.

 

[plutolovr]

Thank you so much for all of your replies...

1. We have not gotten any cruise documents in the mail.

2. We show completed on everything, so I am guessing that is good??

3. Do we go to the upper decks to eat like on a Disney cruise once we board?

4. Do they have a "guest relations" where I can sign us up for our drink package as soon as we board? We are getting $900 in OBC and I want to use it for that!

Again thanks so much!

Only E-Documents with Royal. Print them out after check-in.

If you did not want to purchase a drink package beforehand, no need to wait at Guest Services. When you board the ship there will be table set up solely for the purpose of selling drink packages.

 

[winniedapooh]

Again thank you...

1. Do people guests decorate their doors much like they do on a Disney Cruise?

 

[eskimoinparadise]

oops

 

[eskimoinparadise]

OOPs

 

[bumbershoot]

1. We have not gotten any cruise documents in the mail.

Nothing to get; they don't send stuff out like DCL does.

4. Do they have a "guest relations" where I can sign us up for our drink package as soon as we board? We are getting $900 in OBC and I want to use it for that!

Yes, but you will have passed 8 different areas where they are selling the packages to get there.

We boarded Freedom and before we could go, really, anywhere there was a table set up with a bunch of Coke Freestyle RFID cups, and employees willing to sell you any drinks package. It will become very obvious very quickly.

The kids will need to get very simple bands there, which have the muster station info on them. It's a safety thing.

3. Do we go to the upper decks to eat like on a Disney cruise once we board?

We went to Windjammer. I can't remember if the main dining room will be open for lunch.

On Freedom, at least, you have to go to the very front area and get in a line to be seated. It looked like it was a free-for-all, but it actually wasn't on embarkation day.

Try to get signed up before you board. Your OBC should still apply.

OBC will NOT apply if they buy it ahead of time. They have to be onboard for it to apply.

But they won't walk 30 feet before they find someone selling packages.

 

[winniedapooh]

Thanks so much for all of the information...last question...

1. Do guests decorate their doors like on DCL?

Thanks again ALL!!

 

[starvenger]

I've seen decorated doors, however I haven't seen doors decorated to the level of that on DCL. Then again, I'd only found out about door decorating on my first (and probably last) DCL cruise, so I wasn't looking for it, if that makes sense.

My thoughts - if you want to decorate the door, go for it!