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When I think of Royal Caribbean, I think of feature-packed mega resort ships, with good value cabins. However, I have seen Royal Caribbean now has some of the biggest and most expensive suites money can buy at sea.
So, instead of using some savings to book a smaller luxury cruise line that I usually would, I decided to splash that cash on a Royal Caribbean suite to see if I would get all the service, glitz, and glamour they promise in their “Royal Class Suites”.
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ABOUT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS: If you want to get cruising right, Tips For Travellers makes it easy to plan and have the incredible cruise experiences you dream of every time. All my Tips For Travellers advice, tips and tricks tips draw on everything that I have learnt on the 101 cruises I have done to date.
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00:00 Start
00:45 What did $10,000 get me?
01:12 Issue: Not all suites equal
03:36 Issue: Not A Suite Area
04:30 Issue: What Worked and Did Not
13:20 Issue: Stacks up versus alternatives?
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
when I think of Royal Caribbean I think
0:01
of feature-packed Mega Resort ships with
0:05
great value cabins however I've seen
0:07
that Royal Caribbean now has some of the
0:10
biggest and the most expensive Suites
0:12
that money can buy at se so instead of
0:15
using some savings that I was planning
0:17
to use to book a smaller luxury cruise
0:20
line that I usually would I decided to
0:22
Splash all that cash on a Royal
0:25
Caribbean Suite to see if I would get
0:27
all the service The Glitz and the
0:30
glamour that they promise in their royal
0:33
class suets here's what I found out if
0:36
you're new here by the way welcome
0:37
aboard I'm Gary benridge making it fun
0:39
and easy for you to discover plan and
0:42
enjoy incredible Cruise vacations with
0:44
$110,000 that's about £ 8,200 of savings
0:48
I booked a one-bedroom owner Suite on
0:50
Symphony Of The Seas on a seven night
0:52
Western Mediterranean cruise at the same
0:55
time and for a similar route I could
0:56
have booked a small ship luxury Cruise
0:59
in a very Miranda cabin on Viking
1:01
Oceania or even Seaborn ultr luxury
1:04
lines so my expectations were high when
1:07
I thought about those Alternatives and
1:09
what Royal Caribbean needed to do I did
1:11
find out while booking that even within
1:14
their Suites there is a class system
1:16
with big differences in perks on board
1:19
rural Caribbean so they split the Suites
1:22
into sea sky and star C is the lowest
1:26
level and they're the Junior Suites they
1:28
cost about $6,000 £5,000 for a week sky
1:31
is a next level up which is almost
1:33
double that including Suites like mine
1:35
that owner Suite then there's star
1:37
Suites which are at least double what I
1:40
paid and goes right up to some like the
1:43
ultimate family Suite which can cost
1:48
$60,000 a week so anyway what did I get
1:51
at that Sky Sweet level that kind of
1:52
middle level well first of all a massive
1:55
cabin two to three times bigger than if
1:57
IID spent the same amount of money on
1:59
those other smaller luxury lines that I
2:01
mentioned earlier I got access to the
2:03
Sweet only Coastal Kitchen for breakfast
2:05
lunch and dinner I had access to the
2:07
Sweet lounge with two concierge then
2:10
also a site Deck with bar overlooking
2:12
the pool deck priority embarcation and
2:15
dis embarcation to as well as reserved
2:17
seating in certain areas in the shows
2:20
now I'm going to talk about the upsides
2:21
and downsides of all of these perks and
2:24
how they worked out in practice now they
2:26
also by the way through in a couple of
2:28
plush bathrobes and some fancy mattress
2:31
toppers some pressing of my clothes on
2:33
formal light coffee machine and zoom
2:36
streaming Wi-Fi per person now it really
2:39
annoyed me by the way because even
2:41
though I had to pay for two people as a
2:43
solar traveler they still only despite
2:45
all that money only gave me one device
2:48
Connection gruis by the way were not
2:51
included in that level that I'd booked
2:53
although actually promotional deal at
2:54
the time I booked did include it so
2:56
that's important to note so I got more
2:58
than the sea level those Junior sweets
3:00
because they just got dinner in the
3:01
Coastal Kitchen the coffee machine and I
3:04
think a couple of luxury bath robes so
3:06
not that much the Star level the top
3:09
level got way more like a butler or what
3:12
they call a royal Genie I just had cabin
3:15
student again I'm going to talk more
3:16
about the pros and cons of that later
3:18
too because there's some really
3:19
important stuff in there they also got
3:21
to dine in the Coastal Kitchen but also
3:23
any speciality restaurant they got a
3:25
deluxe beverage package they got a stock
3:27
soft drinks mini bar gruties wearing
3:29
included the best seats in the theater
3:31
which I'll come back to and all their
3:33
laundry impressing as much as they
3:35
wanted now one thing I would like to
3:37
talk about before diving into those pros
3:38
and cons of those sweet perks and
3:40
experience is unlike their direct Resort
3:43
ship competitors MC Cruisers Yacht Club
3:47
and Norwegian Haven rawal Caribbean have
3:49
not created a ship within a ship with
3:52
all the Suites and all those dedicated
3:54
facilities in one you know just one
3:57
special place instead the sweet areas
3:59
are kind of dotted around the ship which
4:02
which kind of made it all feel a little
4:04
bit less exclusive a little bit less
4:06
cohesive my cabin for example was on
4:07
Deck 11 amongst just a range of kind of
4:09
balcony cabins Coastal Kitchen and the
4:12
lounge was then right up on Deck 17 so
4:14
it meant fighting the busy lifts or
4:16
taking all the stairs all the way up the
4:18
sweet deck was then down a deck across
4:21
the pool deck and up some stairs so did
4:24
make it feel a little bit less special
4:26
and kind of all bit kind of tagged on so
4:29
what else was good so so and not so good
4:32
in this experience well s demarcation
4:34
disar turned out to be a fantastic perk
4:38
to get around having over 6,000
4:39
passengers getting on and getting off
4:42
however unlike MC Yacht Club have there
4:45
was no separate kind of drop off for
4:47
sweet guests to hand of your luggage
4:49
there was no special entrance through
4:51
security so I had to queue up with
4:53
everybody boarding the ship to get into
4:54
the terminal but once I'd got through
4:56
all the security there then was a sweet
4:58
line which did of course check you in
5:00
way quicker but the disembarkation perk
5:03
was fantastic I could decide what time I
5:06
wanted to get off as soon as the ship
5:08
was cleared getting off first no longer
5:11
and didn't require me to do self- disar
5:14
carrying all my own bags because the
5:16
sweet bags were taken off ready for when
5:19
the ship was cleared so I just went to
5:21
the Sweet lounge and then a concierge
5:23
escorted me down an elevator allocated
5:26
that day only for sweet guests then they
5:28
escorted me right to to the gang way by
5:30
the way they would actually also do that
5:32
kind of uh thing with a lift if you were
5:34
self touring in ports for about an hour
5:36
each morning they would run that too I
5:39
really like the venue and the food
5:40
quality and Coastal Kitchen overall the
5:42
menus were sizable they were though
5:44
smaller than if I'd gone on those luxury
5:45
lines that I mentioned and while the
5:47
food was good it was probably not as
5:49
exotic or as fancy as those lines
5:52
breakfast was I thought a pretty
5:54
generous menu it was packed with all the
5:56
kind of expected items you'd think of
5:59
lunch menu menues were also too pretty
6:01
hefty there were six starters six main
6:03
courses and four Desserts Plus ice
6:05
creams dinner had a pretty decent range
6:08
of four starters and five Mains that
6:10
would change every day plus then on top
6:12
of that there was four starters and
6:14
three Mains that would stay the same
6:16
salmon chicken breast and seron steak
6:18
but then they had another menu with 10
6:20
desserts so a pretty big menu I found
6:22
the Matra D and the waiters good and
6:25
they definitely tried to get to know me
6:26
it was a lighthearted jokey kind of
6:28
service and they remembered quirks like
6:31
me having diet Sprites because they know
6:33
C free diet coke sparkling water and
6:36
decaf coffee at meals so they kind of
6:38
just knew that and would bring that now
6:39
I ate most of my meals in Coastal
6:41
Kitchen because it wasn't generally
6:43
packed out I didn't Splash out off all
6:45
that Hefty fair that I'd spent by the
6:47
way on specially dining on top of it
6:49
because I thought the food in here was
6:50
pretty fine I occasionally used wind Jam
6:52
at the buffet for lunch and portes when
6:55
that was less busy but was really
6:56
pleased that I had the nice quiet venue
6:59
Coastal Kitchen for breakfast especially
7:01
the two downsides for me were the venue
7:03
were surprisingly noisy at dinner it
7:05
just had a lot of hubub and then having
7:07
to book a time for dinner where on those
7:09
luxury lines it's open seating there's
7:11
no need to book both of those issues
7:13
were a function of just the pure number
7:15
of sweet guests on this huge ship there
7:18
are many many of them of course there
7:20
was also the big upside of not having to
7:22
navigate the main dining room or the
7:24
Wind Jammer as I've mentioned now I
7:26
actually had friends on the same sailing
7:28
and they found the whole main dining in
7:30
quite a stressful situation cuz they had
7:32
gone with anytime dining and just
7:34
getting a slot was a challenge the sweet
7:36
Lounge also had some ups and downs now I
7:39
mentioned earlier that the lounge had
7:41
two concierge one great thing that I
7:45
haven't had on luxury lines that I've
7:46
been on Sydney to date is I actually got
7:48
an email from the concierge about 10
7:51
days before my cruise introducing
7:53
themselves and asking if I needed any
7:55
help kind of making bookings or I had
7:57
any questions that I and sorting before
8:00
the cruise and actually it was really
8:02
helpful cuz I could clarify a few things
8:03
around show bookings and they set up all
8:05
of my Coastal Kitchen dinner bookings
8:07
which is great because you couldn't
8:08
actually do that on the app so that was
8:10
a real plus I really really liked that
8:12
they did that they were friendly but
8:14
possibly again due to the numbers
8:16
traveling the Suites they would call me
8:17
different names many of the days and
8:20
even on one day they asked me how the
8:21
kids were doing on the cruise so again I
8:23
think that's kind of just because
8:24
there's so many people and it's hard for
8:25
them to remember everybody it was though
8:28
great to have them on hand to handle
8:29
queries it me I could avoid lions at
8:32
Guest Services and also what was great
8:34
is they would send a daily email out
8:37
with activities tips how they could help
8:39
and I thought that was a really great
8:41
touch the lounge itself was was a good
8:43
size it was comfortable the best thing
8:45
about the lounge that was actually uh
8:46
between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. they had
8:48
a very large canop spread and they had
8:51
free drinks at that time they also had a
8:53
continental breakfast in there but I
8:54
only actually ever used it on the last
8:56
day on dis embarcation day the lounge
8:58
though was not a quite of treats and it
8:59
could get pretty loud again due to the
9:01
numbers and of course families are a key
9:04
part of all Caribbean so kids would of
9:06
course be kids in there and also
9:08
actually by the way in the Coastal
9:09
Kitchen at the meals you've got to
9:10
expect that on Royal Caribbean the sweet
9:12
deck for me though was disappointing I
9:14
could always get a lounger and didn't
9:16
have to stress about getting kind of one
9:18
if I was on that really busy main pool
9:19
deck though I will say this was a very
9:22
Port intensive Cruise so I didn't get to
9:24
test that out because we didn't have a
9:26
sunny SE day where I could really test
9:28
out how hard it was to it somewhere up
9:29
there but again it was quite noisy
9:32
because it was slap bang above all the
9:34
busy pools and next to the water slides
9:37
so it was kind of noisy uh by the way it
9:40
also had a bar but unlike say MC yach
9:42
Club at Norwegian Haven it didn't have a
9:44
pool or a kind of a casual dining spot
9:46
as well there was a couple of hot tubs
9:48
there I really liked the reserve seating
9:50
in the shows that the seating was not in
9:52
my view anyway always the best seat so
9:54
for example it was on the side for the
9:56
ice skating shows then it was on the
9:58
upper level for the shows in the main
10:01
theater but knowing there would be
10:02
plenty of seats held and not having to
10:04
go too early to grab a seat was a real
10:06
plus because they would be held back
10:08
until 10 minutes before the show started
10:11
whereas otherwise you had to get there a
10:13
really long time before the show however
10:16
I did notice that the very best seats in
10:18
the House were held and reserved in a
10:20
different place for those in that star
10:22
Suite level the high level for example
10:24
they were slap bang Center Stage for the
10:26
ice and theater shows they really were
10:28
the absolute best seats the only
10:31
downside again comes back to the numbers
10:33
in Suites because the people manning the
10:34
seats didn't recognize who was and
10:36
wasn't in the suits because there were
10:37
so many of them so' be a little bit
10:39
aggressive a little bit assertive and
10:40
they kind of demand to see your cabin
10:42
car before you enter the area so it kind
10:44
of ruined a little bit of the
10:45
specialness because you know you're not
10:47
kind of being recognized which on
10:48
smaller ships you are but I haven't
10:51
spoken about the suite enough yet so
10:53
let's talk about that that $10,000
10:55
bought me a dramatically bigger cabin
10:59
than I would have had if I'd gone on
11:01
those smaller luxury lines that I
11:02
mentioned with the same price this is
11:04
where the money goes and for some I
11:06
think this is really key to why this may
11:09
make sense versus those it had a dining
11:13
area a large Lounge area with a sofa bed
11:16
for kids or friends then a bedroom area
11:19
with curtains and a bathroom there was
11:21
interestingly though no second or
11:23
separate toilet and then if I was a Miss
11:25
is this cabin is probably what families
11:27
with some sort of budget would go for
11:29
and so just kind of one bathroom with a
11:31
toilet and felt like a mess but there
11:34
was you know especially when there was
11:35
so much space to actually have one in
11:37
here anyway it had the most enormous
11:39
balcony with a table and lounges it was
11:43
great for a family group or friends
11:45
sharing a cabin like this to hang out I
11:46
did have incredible sleeps in there so
11:49
that fancy mattress topper perk
11:51
absolutely worked it like though luxury
11:54
touches I felt the toiletries were not a
11:57
luxury brand just kind of some
11:59
nondescript one I had a tiny little bowl
12:02
of fruit when I arrived that was never
12:04
kind of replaced or replenished uh I got
12:06
some bottle water that's allocated
12:08
within my fair at the beginning but you
12:10
know that wasn't repl once I drunk that
12:12
there were no kind of flowers or uh
12:14
welcoming bottle of something I did one
12:16
day get some canipes which I actually
12:19
didn't take a picture of I just ate them
12:20
because I kind of assumed I would get
12:22
them every day but no you just get them
12:25
one day so there kind of little luxury
12:27
touches that you get on other lines were
12:29
missing now the other Miss versus luxury
12:32
lines I felt was service I had a cabin
12:34
Steward and he looked after all the
12:36
cabins along a large stretch of my deck
12:39
on both sides of the corridor as I had
12:41
balcony cabins just opposite me which
12:43
were overlooking Central Park and so
12:46
things like I would normally expect in a
12:48
suite was missing when it came to
12:50
service so for example these are small
12:52
things but important on this cruise I
12:53
decided I wasn't really going to get off
12:55
the ship so I asked him to do the cabin
12:57
when I was at breakfast cuz he was
12:59
already there kind of working but that
13:00
kind of Never Happened despite asking
13:03
day after day after day I told him I was
13:05
going to dinner every day at 6:30 p.m
13:07
but he would come at kind of random
13:08
times before them so this is small
13:10
things I know but these kind of little
13:12
touches what does kind of add up to a
13:14
more kind of luxury pampered
13:16
personalized feel so again I think it
13:19
was another reminder that while the crew
13:21
absolutely were good I was very
13:22
impressed with the crew raw Caribbean he
13:24
did a great job but the number of you
13:26
know of crew of guests still makes it
13:29
really hard to provide personal named
13:32
detailed attention that a smaller Luxury
13:34
Line can do and so I felt the sweet
13:37
experience gave me a way absolutely to
13:39
tap into the upsides of this big ship
13:42
you know the amazing shows the range of
13:44
entertainment the huge casino and what
13:46
the suite did is it gave me a way around
13:48
some of the lines of bustle dealing with
13:50
the main dining room disembarkation
13:52
Crush not him to deal with guest
13:54
services so it gave me ways to kind of
13:56
get around all of the downsides it also
13:58
by the way meant having that way bigger
14:00
cabin than the same money would buy on a
14:02
luxury or an Ultra Luxury Line which
14:05
actually is not a big plus for me
14:06
traveling by myself or even as a couple
14:09
but absolutely if you're traveling with
14:10
kids or friends that big cabin would be
14:13
a massive big plus for the money but it
14:15
wasn't really a luxury pampered made to
14:18
feel special through personal attention
14:20
small details kind of experience I think
14:22
if you want that experience if that's
14:24
more important to you then I think you
14:26
need to spend the money on the other
14:28
smaller lines and that's what I think I
14:30
would need to do you know but then they
14:32
come with a smaller cabin you end have
14:33
the amazing tractions shows and so on so
14:35
it's kind of a balance so I I can't wa
14:38
not seeing the Royal caran sweet
14:39
experience as an alternative to a luxury
14:42
line but it was about having a big ship
14:45
resort vacation but with many of the
14:48
downsides reduced or negated I think
14:50
it's a very different concept and
14:52
they're not really comparable now I've
14:54
mentioned MC y Club a few times so join
14:57
me in this video where I delve into what
14:59
what that really was and a few things
15:01
that led me to a different conclusion on
15:04
that line see you over there
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