Royal Caribbean Cruise — What to expect during your first cruise
There is always a first time and loads of questions that seems not be answered by Google. Some one has to pen it down, who else if not you. My way of contributing back to the knowledge pool. Below was our experience on Royal Caribbean cruise for 5 Days (Singapore — Klang — Penang — Phuket — Singapore)
Booking and Deals
You have cruise ticket by now, I am not going into how to buy the best deal ticket in detail, these are covered by a lot of videos and blogs. The gist behind it is, if you book early and travelling as a family, you get to stay together in one stateroom, otherwise, you will end up needing two rooms and end up paying more price too.
Other useful information is, if the website doesn’t allow you to only pay the booking amount, SGD 100 per person, call their customer support, a friendly person will take down your details over phone and you just have to pay a non-refundable booking amount of SGD 100 per person instead of the full amount. This was helpful since i booked mine about 6 months and hence didn’t want to lock in the money or go thru the hassle of refunds in case i need to cancel it.
When budgeting for the trip, take into account Gratuities. Royal Caribbean mandates that you pay 18% Gratuities on any spending on-board. Gratuities have to also be paid for the cruise tickets, depending on the number of days, they can either be paid in advance or they will be billed on the card on file. Cost per day is USD 14.50 per person per day, including kids.
Food
Meals and snack are something that you don’t have to carry, don’t even think about carrying it please. By the time you are done with the cruise, you will start hating food and run away from it. Royal Caribbean feeds the best food, there are multiple restaurants open all the time and you can always walk-in and enjoy them free of cost. Below are the options available if you are hungry. Details below are for Quantum of the Seas and every other Royal Caribbean cruise has similar names or the same name in most cases.
Windjammer — This is a casual dinning buffet restaurant which is open most of the day time and closes for 1 hour between meals. It opens at 6:30 am and goes till 9 PM. There is no dress code and casual dressing with covered feet is good. There will be at least 15 counters catering from pastries, breads, rice, noodles, all types of meat, local flavours. There was also a dedicated Indian Vegetarian counter for all 3 meals. The menu here is 60 % close to what you would get in a fine dinning areas in the cruise.
Dinning Rooms — These are proper dinning room setup where there is a dress code to be followed. Smart casuals is bear minimum, so make sure to carry 2–3 pants just for this, collar T-Shirts and cargo pants should be ok for Men. These dinning rooms have proper table setup with an assigned waiter and assistant waiter, who would help navigate menu and suggest items. It is a three course menu with 4–5 choices for starters, mains and deserts. Starters and deserts are mostly similar for all days, the main course changes each day. The last day has the best menu, by the time you give up on food. Did i mention that this experience is free and their service levels are top notch.
24 hours Cafe
Each ship has a 24 hours pizza place and Coffee shop for those folks who missed dinning times or midnight hunger pangs.
In-Room Dinning
Royal Caribbean offers free Room Dinning for breakfast, this is an awesome experience to get free room service and enjoy coffee and bread in the morning resting in your balcony. Room service forms needs to be filled and hung on the door before 3 AM on that day or previous night.
Speciality Restaurants — Each cruise ship has multiple restaurants that are to be paid and used. Didn’t try any of them. In my opinion, there is no need for this.
Water and Drinks
Water from the tap in the room (bathroom) is drinkable.
During each meal — Water, Ice, Coffee, Milk, Tea, Lemonade and Sugary drinks for adults and kids are available free of cost. During the times when restaurants are closed, you can go to 24 hour cafe for having them.
Don’t forget to carry water bottles, since you can refill them at tap in your room, restaurants and use this. For kids, it is better to have something hung around their neck. If you are a fan of bottled water, yes this is available inside the cruise for a steep price.
While refilling water bottles, use a glass to fill from cooler and pour into the bottle. Yes Royal Caribbean makes it difficult to have water and persuades you to buy.
Don’t by packages from the pre-cruise offers, not worth it.
Should I buy Refreshment or Beverage Packages ?
My direct answer is NO. We didn’t see the need for it, with the amount of Coffee, Tea and Soda that we drink during meals, you can easily survive with water during the break.
Staterooms
The place we stay is called a Stateroom, welcome to sailing lingo. You will have a housekeeping person assigned to make your bed and clean up everyday. They are very friendly and can help you would with any questions about the ship or recommendations for shore excursions. Room cleaning and maintenance is included as part of cruise price. You will find a bottle of water, a cooler (not fridge) and Towels. Standard toiletries such liquid soap and shampoo will be present. Bring you own toothbrush, paste and shaving items.
Shore Excursions
Depending on your port, you can either walk into the nearby town/city or take an excursion. We walked into the town of Penang and took a Royal Caribbean paid excursion for Phuket. This can be paid in advance for a 10% deal or also booked in the cruise once you are onboard. There will be a briefing session onboard on day one and a desk open during several times a day. All shore activities booked thru Royal Caribbean are addl cost and not included as part of ticket fare. If you require visa, Royal Caribbean will take care of visa process and charge you. For example, we hold an India passport and went to Phuket. Though Thailand doesn’t charge any visa fees, RCL charged each person 16 USD for processing charges. This was a nominal charge considering that everything is taken care by RCL, you don’t even have to go thru immigration and RCL takes care of stamping your passport.
When we went to Penang, we already had a Malaysia visa and hence, RCL did not levy any charges.
Swimming Pool
Carry your swimming clothes, RCL provides pool towels free of cost. They can be collected using the room card and dropped back.
Activities for Adults
There will be multiple theatre shows and movies played in the Royal Theatre, some of them needs reservation that you can do onboard or use the Royal Caribbean app to make the booking. Bookings open on the Day of sailing. So watch out for this and when reservations open, go for it.
The shows that don’t require reservations are not so crowded and being 10 minutes before the show starts will help you get a seat with better view.
Other than theatre, there are multiple activities like team games, quiz and dance that keep you engaged.
Activities for Kids
Adventure ocean is the place for kids below 5 can enjoy. Adventure ocean is like a day care, where you can leave the kids for 3–4 hours and enjoy. For a cost they also take care of kids during late nights, if you are planning for dinner.
Check-in
Check-in starts 5 to 6 hours before cruise departure time, you can go in and start enjoying the facilities and make the planning and booking of shows. Our departure time was 5 pm, activities started as early as 11 am on that day. Our rooms were ready by 1 pm and we had lunch on the cruise.
Passport will be collected from you as you enter the ship, you will only get back on checkout. For shore visits and excursions, you just need to use the SeePass card provided for tap in and tap out. No immigration counter visits.
Check-out
On the day of arrival, your bags will be collected the night before at 10 pm, so carry a small bag to pack night clothes, breakfast will be available on the day of arrival.
On arrival date, we docked at 7 am and were assigned a time slot of 7:30 to leave the ship and collect bags. Passport will be given back the day before arrival around 3–5 pm. You will get an announcement and letter to your room on specific place where to collect it.
Planning Activities — Install the Royal Caribbean App
Install this app at least 10 days before your cruise so that you can plan activities and completed online forms. This will help speed up onboarding, help reserve shows and plan your day.
