10 cruise ship questions I get asked all the time!

every week I do a live show here on YouTube where I answer Royal Caribbean cruise questions today I've got the 10 questions I get asked all the time up next [Music] hey everyone it's Matt from realgramblog.com I absolutely love answering Royal for the increased questions every Monday Live on YouTube at 7 30 p.m Eastern unless I'm on a cruise ship then it's a different time and I can't foresee that but most weeks of the Year we're on at the exact same time answering your cruise questions so we get a lot of questions and many of them are definitely questions based on advice they kind of maybe know the answer but they have no clue at all but they want to hear my thoughts on a certain topic but over the years I've certainly received a lot of questions that I basically get all the time maybe I get it once per live call maybe I get it once every couple weeks but these questions really come up all the time and I thought you know what let's answer them right here so you have a concise easy to find answers to these questions not because I think they'll stop being asked but hey maybe we can just point people in the right direction let's start with number one does everybody need to get the Royal Caribbean app this is a really common question these days because the Royal Caribbean app is super important in order to do the online check-in and a variety of other functions on board your ship you're gonna need the Royal Caribbean app to do so to be fair you don't actually need it you could go on a cruise never download the app and be totally fine but it's in your best interest it just makes your life all that much easier to have but a lot of people want to know okay I get it but does everybody in the cabin have to get the Royal Caribbean app if you're sharing the cabin with a spouse with kids with whomever do you all need to get and the answer is no in order to satisfy certainly the online check-in the muster drill some of the basics one person in the cabin needs to have the Royal Caribbean app in order to do that after that point the other people can simply rely on that other person who has the phone to be able to access the app and do whatever they need to do in there I think quite frankly it's pretty easy to use the app and I think it's more to your advantage to have one but if somebody doesn't want to do one whether they're all leaders just simply don't want to use their phone on a cruise I get it you don't have to have it if somebody else has it on the ship probably the most critical aspect is certainly for pre-cruise and embarkation again the online check-in the ability to get into the cruise terminal and of course the E muster drill it just makes your life so much easier and of course once on board the cruise you can use the app for certain things like of course accessing the Dell activities the chat feature in which case by the way you all need to have the app for that in order for that to work that's fairly obvious but at any rate the app makes your life easier but you could rely on simply one person having it number two is the key worth it man I get this question all the time and I give the same answer all the time and I try this out all the time in fact I recently retried the key again for the um billionth time when I was in Europe but essentially my thoughts on the key is no it's not worth it because the benefits sound better than they really are many of the benefits are simply front loaded meaning the best benefits occur on day one but of course you have to purchase it for everybody who's six years old and older in your cabin for the entire duration of your cruise but beyond that when you go through the list of benefits I simply think they sound better than they really are for example if you want to get the early check-in time the key offers you anybody can get an early check-in time just do so exactly 45 days before your cruise via the Royal cribbing app and you too can get the same exact check-in time as people with the key and internet package is included with the key but of course you can purchase an internet package on your own and it'll be cheaper than the key overall there's Reserve times for Signature activities like water slides and Flowrider my problem with this is that the times they give you are usually very limited and oftentimes either during dinner or very early in the morning either way they're inconvenient and not as useful as you might think there's an embarkation day lunch which is nice to be able to have a chops Grill type lunch for embarkation day I would argue the food in the windjamber is certainly good enough but if you do want to have an elevated lunch you can just Reserve chops as well on your own that's available to you on embarkation day I do think there are two benefits that probably stand out from the key that I do like quite a bit and they can't be replicated it on your own one would be priority tendering if your ship actually tenders it's pretty rare these days back in North America it's very rare but if you have the key you'd be able to Tender uh theoretically faster than other people and the other benefit of course is that on vacation day you can check your carry-on luggage usually in the theater or some other location and that is nice but again at best that's useful until your stateroom is open because you're talking about two maybe three hours of usefulness for the entire duration of your cruise overall I don't think you need the key if you do a little bit of research watch a couple of these videos here on this channel you're going to be able to have a great experience without the key and maybe save some money along the way number three is can I buy the drink package or Wi-Fi for only certain days of the cruise let's start with the drink package and the answer to that is no when you buy the drink package it's for the entire duration so if you have a seven night cruise you can't cherry pick which days you have the drink package for when you buy it's for the entire duration of your cruise there is a little bit of a workaround to this in that if you don't purchase a pre-cruise and you get on board your ship as long as there are a couple days left in your sailing you can purchase it while on board so as an example on a seven night cruise if you skip the drink package completely on day one and buy it on day two you'll only pay a prorated rate for the rest of the cruise now to be fair you're gonna be paying a much higher rate per day than if you pre-purchase it before the cruise but there is a kind of workaround but I think for most people what they're looking at is oh I only want the drink package for like day four six and one well it doesn't work that way you can't do that for the internet package you can do that there is a 24-hour pass you can purchase while on board of course the daily rate for the 24 hour pass will cost you more than if you purchased a internet package for the duration of your cruise but hey if you just want the internet for like one day of your sailing then a 24-hour pass is going to be your best bet up there this next one is one of many questions that just there's many derivatives of it but essentially I'm going to Blank Port what should I do there what should I do in Cozumel what should I do in NASA what should I do in Grand Cayman et cetera etc etc now obviously I can't sit here and answer every single direct question about every single sport but what you should do in every single one there's a couple ways you can certainly get a answer to this depending on where you're going number one we have an amazing sure Excursion Forum over at Royal caribbeanblog.com our message boards are totally free and you don't have to sign up in order to use them at least to view the responses anyway and you can search in the sure Excursion forum for answers from other people who've probably asked it odds are there's probably a thread or six about the reports you're visiting the other way you can also learn about your Port is to Simply Google it one of the things I always do after I of course check the forums is I go to Google and I'll type in the port name things to do report names sure excursions right Cozumel short excursions cosmel things to do cosmel best things to do this gives me an idea of what support is known for and what are the most popular choices out there then you can certainly consider what Royal Caribbean offers you as well as things on your own another really fun catch-all for the Caribbean is a wonderful website called resortforaday.com This is a website that sells day passes to many popular hotels and resorts that you can go to what I love about this is you get access to the facilities that the resort has to offer their pool their Beach and even a lot of times food and drink are included as well they're on your own so you have to get there on your own it's not through the cruise line but I really like this in a pinch especially for families and this is so useful in the Caribbean in which a lot of the places you simply want a beautiful beach to go to but are also looking for more than just simply a slab of sand to enjoy you want to use facilities you like the pool more than you like the beach you want some food drink service and shade this is what resort for a day.com is really good for there's no rooms given to you but access the facilities is usually pretty darn nice another really common question I get is is blank of the Seas a good ship whether it's Explorer Adventure Allure Symphony icon Quantum it doesn't matter I get questions all the time about specific ships people book a cruise on a specific World greeting chip and want to know is it good did they make a mistake that's a really common concern I get why they want to know that so my answer is simply this there is not one Royal Korean cruise ship I don't recommend I think they're all great I think they're all worth selling on however it is important for you to recognize what the ship offers and what the ship doesn't offer and then figure out if it's a good fit for you what I mean by that is if you're going on Grandeur of the Season as an example which is a common question I get about Grandeur does the ship have the amenities that you were looking for on the ship as an example Granger doesn't have water slides does that matter to you maybe it does maybe it doesn't if you got kids who are looking forward to water slides then yes it does Granger still has a couple special restaurants a great pool deck and a variety of activities but again if you're looking for a zip line real Promenade aforementioned water slides or even a full Broadway show those are things Grandeur doesn't have and in that case that might not be a good fit for you if you really value those options but if you don't really care you must say Matt I just want to go on a cruise and I want to have a nice time sit by the pool have a drink tan take a nap and go to the amazing places Ranger's great for that there isn't an inherently bad Royal creating cruise ship there are only bad choices based on what you're looking for in a cruise vacation next up people want to know all the time should they upgrade their cabin with rail up and how do they win rail up rail up of course this is Royal Caribbean getting program for the cruise ship cabin allows people to bid on higher category cabs before their Cruise if you win the bid you'll be assigned an upgraded cabin pretty straightforward but a lot of people ask me almost every week if it's worth it to upgrade their cabin with rail up and how do you win a cabin bit of course more often than not the answer is pretty much the same if you want to upgrade your cabin my opinion your best advice is to contact your travel agent or roll cribbing directly if you book directly to the cruise line check how much it would cost to outright upgrade your cabin and determine if the price is reasonable for your vacation budget the problem with rela is number one just because you get a rail off opportunity does not mean there's actually a cabin to upgrade too real cripping uses relup as a way to kind of give itself a backup system in case somebody cancels at the last minute they can fill that void with somebody who placed a bid back in the old days pre-rail up essentially they might have sampled that room completely open or completely dependent on a super last minute booking either of which was not ideal but the other problem with royal up is even if you under understand that cool you just want to make a bid because you think it'd be fun that makes perfect sense but it's a blind bidding system you have no idea what anyone else bid it so you have no idea if you're low bid or your high bid is competitive or not so basically it's a black box that you have no idea what's happening behind the scenes and it's a complete mystery as to whether or not Royal up will actually work for you now some people do enjoy the Royal up bidding process and it is possible to get a cabin upgrade for a lower cost than upgrading outside rail up as long as you understand that you may not win the upgrade there's really no harm in trying it just understand the realities of the royal up system another really common question I get asked all the time is I bought the dining package can I book my reservations before the cruise or do I really have to wait until on board the cruise the answer is you really have to wait Royal Caribbean specialty dining package essentially allow you to enjoy either a couple or unlimited dining on your cruise all especially restaurants but the cab the odd is you have to wait to book it on board it allows people who pay full price to get first dibs on specific times and days and they fill that up with a dining package it makes a lot of sense when you book a dining package you will ask you you know what day and time do you want to make your initial placeholder reservation but it's just that a placeholder reservation you can choose any time any day it's completely irrelevant because when you get on board the ship is when you're actually going to make the reservations now yes the system will make a dummy reservation for you but you don't have to go to that place it doesn't really matter heck half the time I forget I have it but at any rate you don't have to do that but once you do get on board the ship my best advice to you is probably go make your dining reservations first even before you have lunch or do almost anything else on board your cruise if you have a dining package it's a really good idea to go make reservations the good news is you can go to any specialty restaurant and book any other special restaurant my favorite tip is if you're on the Royal Promenade or sometimes on the central as well you see a little desk a little stand with a crew member there and it says something like especially dining reservations you can go there and those people are waiting for you with the dining packages to quickly Bebop in to the system make a reservation and get yourself all set up let's go back to the drink package because the next question I get asked all the time is what's a good price for a Royal Caribbean unlimited drink package and the answer is it doesn't matter if that seems a little condescending I apologize what I'm trying to say is it's irrelevant what somebody else paid for the drink package this isn't like price matching at a retail store in which you can say okay well I'll wait for that price or better yet you can take your receipt and go show it to somebody in price match you get a lower price the price for a drink package varies from ship to ship and selling is selling roller cream doesn't have a standard fee for the drink package but the reason why it doesn't matter as well is that you can't be sitting there waiting for a possible sale or a lower price if you want the drink package or you think you might want the drink package my advice is book the drink package now and lock in the price but if there is a better price there is a lower price tomorrow next week next month anytime before your cruise you can easily go into the cruise planner website cancel your reservation immediately and then rebook the drink package at the new lower price the danger with waiting for a lower price is sometimes the price goes up and it never comes back down so by booking a drink package now you lock in the current rate guard against a price increase but are still able to take advantage of a price decrease the next question I get asked all the time is I'm going on a cruise soon should I go to next cruise to book my next Cruise there and that seems like a very simple question because of course you want to book a cruise and at next Cruise you get certain benefits for booking a cruise while on board and the next year's back you'll get deposits as low as 100 per person and you can receive up to 600 in onboard credit on your future Cruise these perks can make it really tempting to wait to book a future Cruise until you're on board your next sailing but that's actually a bad idea let's say your Royal Caribbean cruise is a month away and you're waiting to book next Summer's Mediterranean Cruise once on board in that month between when now and your next Cruise the price of that cruise could increase several hundred dollars thus negating any savings that you would receive by booking the cruise on board the ship therefore it's best to actually book a cruise today instead of waiting weeks or months to book it at next Cruise the reason to book a cruise in next Cruise you might be wondering what the heck is the point of it if you're on the ship and you think to yourself boy this is so great I would love to book another cruise and on a whim you want to book another Cruise then next cruise is a fantastic choice because of the benefits I mentioned earlier but if you know or you're thinking about booking a cruise in the future my best advice is to book it now and be able to lock in the price prices for Royal Caribbean cruise has changed all the time and these days the prices seem to be going up more than they're coming down so I would hate for you to wait book The Cruise at next cruise and then be offset by The increased price compared to what you would have gotten with all those benefits and whatnot anyway at the end of the day most people just want a cheaper price so book it now to lock in that cheaper price and finally the last question I get asked all the time on our YouTube channel is I've got kids and I'm going on blank of the Seas is that a good ship for them now this question is kind of similar to the one we talked about earlier of is blank of the Seas a good ship but a lot of people want to know specifically for kids because the answer can vary greatly right they're taking teenage they're taking infants they're taking elementary school kids they're taking their adult children which ship is a good fit for them now Royal Caribbean is a family cruise line so the advantage is you probably have to struggle to find a bad choice for you ultimately we're talking about facilities once again what amenities do you want or more specifically do your kids want on board the cruise now every single Royal creme cruise ship has a horse Adventure ocean you have to worry about there not being kids programming on board the ship but there are certain things that when you look at a Royal Caribbean commercial your kids might really want to check out whether it's the escape room whether it's a water slide whether it's the aqua Park on board there's a lot of cool things kids can do on board their Cruise in addition to other things that I think are quite frankly universally appealing so just like the earlier answer it really depends on the ship you're picking and does it have those amenities now let's be clear let's say the ship doesn't have any of those things you go on let's go back to Grandeur of the Seas for an example is Grandeur a bad ship for kids the answer is no I mean listen there were plenty of kids back in the 90s that had a great time on grand jury this season continue to have a great time you don't need a water slide or an aqua Park to have a good time on a cruise even if you are a kid certainly it might help or might benefit you or plus up the experience I'm not denying that but a lot of times when you're talking about these smaller older ships you're trading those amenities for maybe some more interesting itineraries maybe you're getting a better price on the cruise overall and that allows you as the parent to be able to afford more interesting and cool excursions to do I don't know I'm just simply pointing out that what the ship offers on board to do is that the end-all be-all of what makes a fun time but of course you know your kids better than I do and if a water slide is going to make or break their vacation book a cruise has water slide instead so there you have it 10 of the most super common questions I get asked all the time and I love answering these questions I don't mind answering them a bunch of times because at the end of the day it's easier for me to answer questions I know the answers to the questions I don't so I sound kind of smart with that but in the comments below let me know if there's a super common question you think I missed what should have made the top 10 most commonly asked questions you guys actually know a lot better than I do in terms of what questions get asked all the time let me know in the comments below and while you're down below our video hit the like button subscribe to our Channel and turn on notifications that way YouTube lets you have a brand new video to share this has been Matt from royalcamiablog.com and we'll talk again real soon

Channel: Royal Caribbean Blog

Views: 36,272

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Id: pPxc8Hs8h6Y

Length: 18min 2sec (1082 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 06 2023