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We agree that cruise lines should probably compensate employees fairly, but also recognize that the people who serve you on the ship do depend on tips for their livlihood.

We do hope this doesn't happen. Some increase is justified due to inflation, but you are right that passengers will only tolerate so much.

Me too! They forcefully add on 18% for everything and the per person not per cabin per day is rediculous and highway robbery!

Same here.

I don't believe there is a limit on carry-on's, it's whatever you are able to carry yourself. There is technical a total weight limit for luggage of 90 kg. You don't need to put tags on your hand luggage, only the checked luggage.

Excuse my ignorance, but when you say you don’t need to put tags on your hand luggage, you are meaning the carry on luggage, correct? The carry ons don’t need tags?

@@frankfisher1759 Yes, you are correct, I meant carry on luggage when I referred to hand luggage. Carry on luggage does not need tags, though some people do put tags on their carry on as well, just as a precaution, should their carry on luggage get misplaced.

The most important thing is to have data turned off. Data roaming is what's very expensive. You should be able to enable Wi-Fi even if you are in airplane mode. Most phones allow this. I hope this help.

That's interesting. Thank you for letting us know. We'll check it out. Which number in particular?

You don't have to schedule a time before the sailing but you will have to schedule it at some point, maybe even just a few minutes before the session if a slot is available. You do this through the app. The escape rooms only run at certain times. We generally schedule ahead of time to ensure that we get the slot that we want. There is no best time, it's really up to what time works best with your schedule. We would normally book for a sea day, outside of the other activities we do. There will almost always be slots available to book on your sailing, so if you're flexible you can just book it while you're onboard. I hope this helps.

I'm not sure. I haven't tried that. I'll try on my next sailing.

Thanks for the feedback. Good to know.

Glad you liked it!

Yes, you can create a group in the app and message the whole group.

@@cruiseswithfriends is there a video that shows how to do this? TIA

@@sabeyafrancesca I'll see what I can dig up. Would it be a video on how to add people to a group or sending message to the group?

@@cruiseswithfriends both please 🙏

Yes, you can. Navigator's seapass cards have magnetic strips, not RFID, so you won't be punching a hole in any electronics. Just make sure you don't punch the hole in the magnetic strip or the bar code. Have a great trip.

I've kept most of my seapasses. They are currently in a box, but at some point I may create some montage with them.

I assume you are talking about the password the the tp-link device. The admin username and password are both "admin". The password to connect to the Wi-Fi as well as the admin credentials are written on the bottom of the device. I hope this helps.

It really comes down to how much you are spending per turn or spin. You earn points faster playing the slot machines than table games. We will often play 7 to 10 dollars per spin on the Wheel of Fortune. This gives us 1.5 to 2 points per spin. You can maybe to 5 spins a minute, so 10 points a minute would be doable. We have made 200 points in a 15 minute period once. This is a high stakes play but does give you lots of points quickly.

@@cruiseswithfriends Yeah I played table games last cruise and ended up with 400 points. My husband got 1700 points on slots. But I think I am going to try video poker next time. Wanted to see how quick you can accumulate points

@@MelissaGreer3211 We did a test at the Blackjack table earlier this year and we sat down with $500, playing $25 per hand. After an hour we had earned 10 points or so. If you're chasing points go for the machines. You can play high stakes on the video poker, but it takes $10 to earn a points versus $5 for the slot machines. They say this is because the odds are better on the video poker machines. Video poker will take a bit longer per round so you will probably accumulate points slower.

@cruiseswithfriends OK I will try that. If you play perfect video poker even on 10 a play it's way less volatile than their slots. I normally play the older slots with the arms. New slots hardly ever pay

I don't see how they can block it. Do you have a Windows laptop that you could try setting up a hotspot on on your sailing. It would be a way of testing if they have created a block or not. I haven't sailed with MSC, and I don't plan to any time soon, as they don't have Flowriders...

The setup is done using a web interface on the router, so there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to do it on an Android phone. The set page may be designed for larger screens, so the display may not look great.

It may vary from phone type to phone type. I have an iPhone and that's the home screen I get on my phone. Can you tell me what your screen looks like?

@@cruiseswithfriends it’s an iPhone 13, whenever I click it I just shows *stay connected during your cruise* but the cruise is over anyways so it doesn’t matter anymore😢

@@cruiseswithfriends I met this girl and chickened out asking for her number so I maybe thought I could use the app to ask her. But now I won’t see her again

@@cruiseswithfriendsand when I did click it, I was connected to the WIFI too

@@Wakeko178 Unfortunately the chat function only works while onboard your sailing. Hopefully your paths will cross again one day.

Thank you :)

I'll try to remember to bring a Switch on my next sailing and try it out.

I believe the paper has completely disappeared. You just need to register your account when you get on the ship. You will register using your first name, year of birth and cabin number. You will set up a username and PIN. The username and PIN will be what you and everyone on your account will use to log in. Note that if a person wants to change to a different device they need to log out. Otherwise when they log in on the new device while still being connected through their old device, someone will be kicked off. This can end up going in circles. Check out this blog as well. www.cruiseswithfriends.com/blogs/2023/connecting-to-royal-caribbeans-wifi

So if you have a single device package on the ship, and you use the package with your TP-Link, you will lose your Internet connection when you are out of range of the TP-Link. When you return to your stateroom, you should automatically reconnect to the TP-Link. If you want to use your phone around the ship, there are a few options. * You can have a 2 device package. This something I often do, so I have a wi-fi network in my cabin and then I have the 2nd device on my phone. * You can get a different Wi-Fi router that is portable, and take that around the ship with you. You will then be connected through that device. * You log off of the TP-Link and log on using your phone. I hope this helps. If not please do not hesitate to contact me.

That sounds like what I had hoped. I will buy 1 person/2 devices; one for the wife and one for me. Mine should work as we discussed. And, while we are out of the room, as long as she has her phone, I don't really need mine too. We did this last cruise and, aside from not having the TP-Link, we just had to deal with logging in and out of devices when we wanted to use a different device or the computer in the stateroom.@@cruiseswithfriends

Yes, you can print as many as you need. You can download just the luggage tag PDF, so you don't have to print the cruise document multiple times.

@@cruiseswithfriends Thank you 👍 thats good to know

I'm happy to help 😀

There is no problem with one person purchasing 4 devices and sharing the account among the 4 people. We have done that several times. I'm not sure what the official policy is but it should be fine, it has so far. The only thing to be aware of is that if one of the 4 decides to try to connect with a 2nd device, one of the existing devices will get kicked off. So if a person wants to move from their phone to their PC they should log out from the device they are using and then log in using the new device. You will sometimes see Facebook posts for the sailing you are going on, especially transatlantic crossings, where people buy a multi device package and share it with / sell lines to complete strangers.

Hi Crystal. The recommendation is to put your phone in flight mode, in order to avoid roaming charges. Personally I don't put my phone in flight mode, but I disable data and data roaming. This allows me to receive phone calls while on the ship. I will only pick up calls from numbers I know. This allows me to be contacted in case of emergencies on land. You can access Wi-Fi even if you are in flight mode, so you can use the chat function in the app. The most important thing is to have data and data roaming disabled. The cruise line will charge you about $6 per megabyte if you use data roaming. This can easily end up costing a lot. Phone calls and texts are much cheaper. I hope this helps. John

@@cruiseswithfriendsThis information is so useful for me. Thanks John.

That's a good question. I've had an account for so many years...I'm not completely sure on that one. I would recommend that they create accounts on Royal Caribbean's website. www.royalcaribbean.com/account/signin They can then log into the app on their own devices, with their own credentials. You can link other peoples bookings together with your booking through the Royal Caribbean website, if you have the correct information, which I think is name, DOB and booking reference. You will be asked for this when you link the accounts. When they log in on the ship they should automatically see their party as contacts.

@@cruiseswithfriends I'll try that. Many thanks.

@@Daz555Daz Let me know how you get on.

@@cruiseswithfriends yes this worked perfectly. All parties created their own accounts and within 5 minutes our booked cruise was automatically added to each account. I assume the matching names, nationality and date of birth is enough for the automatic match to happen and there was no need to link our cruise manually. Many thanks for your help. Really appreciated. We are on Icon in August. Really looking forward to it!

@@Daz555Daz I won't be on Icon until April next year. I hope you have a great time.

Guest services is where you get the WOW bands, On some ships they have sold the WOW bands on the promenade on embarkation day. I don't know if they still do it. I usually pop to guest services relatively late, when there's no-one there. I've experienced them selling out for a day, and having more the next day, but normally they are readily available. You can have them reprogrammed between sailings, so once you have a WOW band you don't need to get a new one. If you are in a suite or diamond or above the concierges should be able to reprogram your band. Same with the Loyalty Ambassador. Otherwise guest services will reprogram for you. I hope this helps.

@cruiseswithfriends ok thats awesome thank you for explaining that...

That's a good question. I'm not sure, I'll do some testing on my next sailing. It should work like any other app that does notifications, which would depend on your phone settings.

I've just done a test on Explorer of the Seas, and I did get an audible notification when I received a message.

My wife and I are logged into the app. Our kids have iphones, do they log in with our credentials or do we need to sign them up as themselves?

@@121daperez Everyone who has the app on their phone. Should be their account.

@@121daperez I would sign them up as themselves. I haven't tried signing in with my credentials on multiple phones, but I would expect things like the chat function to behave weirdly, or you would see the same name appear for multiple messages. Having their own credentials would mean you would see who sent what message. Also the kids, I don't know their ages, may want their own calendar of activities.

We have used the TP-Link and our Windows laptops on Royal Caribbean ships without a problem. My may need to use the portal to open the connection. You can do that using the TP-Link. You would connect to the TP-Link or other router and do the setup, by getting it to connect to the ships Wi-Fi network. You would then navigate to the ship's login page, like you would do on your phone or laptop when connecting directly and go through the normal process. Let me know if this isn't clear.

@@cruiseswithfriends Thank you yes perfectly clear. I read the specs of the device and it seems like you can also change the MAC Address of the hotspot so you don't need to keep a device attached to it and on all the time. Based on what I read it seems like it can also be powered by a battery bank so you can carry it around the ship. We'll be on a cruise early January. i'll leave a feedback here as soon as we come back. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Yes, the message will be delivered. We have noticed that if you are using an iPhone you will receive notifications on your phone. This is not the case with the current version of the Android app. We have also noticed that messages may not always appear in the correct order. We discovered this on our last sailing, where I would receive a response from a friend, but it would be in the wrong chronological order.

Yes, it's free to use. You can use the Royal Caribbean app without having an Internet package. You just need to connect to the ship's Wi-Fi network, using the free connection.

No 1.99/day

​@@albertomartinezgarcia3620not anymore

No, we're not affiliated with Royal Caribbean in any way. We have only sailed with Royal Caribbean. The WOW band only works at very close proximity, a bit like a contactless payment card. I believe the medallion works at a greater distance. It's probably a superior technology, but we have had no experience with it. I personally believe that both technologies could be improved a lot. We a different business we were actually looking at developing a technology that would put both systems to shame.

The WOW band is not required, its an optional item that you can purchase and use on certain ships. I'm usually quite active doing activities and prefer to have the WOW band on my wrist rather than carrying my seapass around in my pocket. If you're in the pool or hot tub, you have your "seapass" on your wrist. When you depart the ship you must use your seapass, they won't let you use the WOW band to disembark.

Happy to be of service. :) We're trying to provide concise but useful information to people who enjoy cruising.

We sailed Royal Caribbean Anthem of the seas last March and they had to cancel our theater show We will Rock you because of an illness of one of the main actors. We watched as they were picked up and flown out and no show replaced it. I was very sad for the actor and of course because we didn’t get to experience a broadway show at all.

@@dv3498 I'm sorry you missed the show. Hopefully you get another opportunity to see it before the ship moves to Asia the end of next year. It is a very good show.

Hi Karen. Is your mother on a ship as well? How would you plan to communicate with her? Does your mother have a cellphone with no data plan? The $11 a day can probably only be used while you're port and connected to a land based cell phone network. It's probably not valid on the ship's cellphone network. It's worth checking this with Verizon. If you're happy to only talk while on shore, this is not a bad option. If I'm calling a land line or a cellphone number while at sea I tend use Skype. You will pay local fees. For example if you call an 800 number there is no charge. Skype works globally as well.

@@cruiseswithfriends ok. No she will be in US on land. Yes she has an iPhone but not Wi-Fi.

@@karenamore2560 Sorry for the slow response. For some reason it wasn't showing up... If you have the Wi-Fi, you could use WhatsApp, Signal or Skype. All 3 technologies use the internet to communicate. With all 3 services you can download the app and send messages and speak. If she has a cell phone data plan all three work well. If she doesn't want to install any apps then you can use Skype to call her cell phone or land line. There is a cost for making the call though.

You don't need Wi-Fi to use the apps, but you would need a data plan.

@@cruiseswithfriends great thanks!

We'll be doing some testing on table games in a couple of months time. The previous 2 cruises we looked high and low stakes slot machines.