romance package?

[Ima Princess]

I just added the REAS to our Thanksgiving cruise -- which also happens to be our 16th wedding anniversary. We are traveling with our DDs (10 & 4) and I, too, am looking forward to a snuggly breakfast with the kiddos!

So when do you tell DCL which day you want the turn-down and breakfast? Our anniversary happens to be Castaway Day, but I think I'd rather have the b'fast on a sea day when we don't have to go anywhere. Is that something they ask at the port?

TIA!

 

[mugsy]

We just got back from the 1/24 Western, on which we had the REAS package. Some observations:

1. The welcome gift is nice -- two robes, a soft-sided champagne cooler with tongs, and a bottle of champagne (Korbel). We drank the champagne with one of our dinners (at AP).

2. One unadvertised special -- you get a gift certificate for a free portrait at Shutters! We liked this add-on, and used it to get a nice family portrait.

3. The Rainforest Pass was nice, but we didn't use our passes as much as we would have liked. Plus -- I found the Rainforest Room O.K., but I liked the sauna in the mens' locker room much better (it was hotter than anything in the Rainforest Room -- my personal preference). The spa puts a sticker on the back of your key to the world card to evidence the pass.

4. It is true that the wine is a $50.00 credit at Palo -- we used it to order a more expensive bottle of wine ($99.00) to enjoy with our dinner.

5. The breakfast in bed was a different menu -- with eggs benedict and other hot dishes, as well as your choice of champagne or mimosas.

6. The romantic turn-down was weird - those rose petals seemed to stain everything, and then you have to pick them up (we put them in a glass to freshen up the room).

7. We can't comment on the enhanced reservation ability - we booked the package too late to get the earlier reservations. However, we did get all the times we wanted (for Palo dinner and brunch) on the ship after we boarded.

I probably wouldn't buy it again, but it was nice experiencing it.

 

[mugsy]

You are assigned a time for the turndown in your welcome letter -- you can change it at guest services if you want a different time.

You get a room service card to put on the door for the breakfast -- the only limitation is that you cannot use it for disembarkment day. Any other day is fine (we used it on our second sea day).

 

[Tiggerfan14]

Andrew, for the rainforest room for the spa,do you have to make reservations for that also, wasn't sure if you could do that one the cruise. not sure what days we would wan't to do that.
thanks.

DCL say's on its website,





Now The REAS package includes:


• Romantic gift amenity delivered to your stateroom (one per package, usually includes two one-size-fits-most robes, a bottle of champagne and chocolates)
• Bottle of wine from the Premium Wine List (one night)
• Tropical Rain Forest pass for two at the Vista Spa & Salon (length of cruise)
• Priority seating at Palo (one dinner or brunch - package covers the usual nominal per-person fee)
• Romance turndown service (one night)
• Champagne breakfast in bed (one morning - this is a full breakfast, from a more extensive menu than the standard continental breakfast room service)

The retail value of the stateroom gift is $90 The bottle of wine is worth $25-$50.
A Tropical Rain Forest pass costs $15 a day or $75 for a 7-day pass (per person),

and the Palo fees for dinner normally total $30.

There is some additional value in the upgraded room service breakfast and being pampered with the romance turndown service. Plus, you have the luxury of pre-booking everything early.* It's hard to put a dollar value on the REAS add-on.

*An unadvertised (loophole) aspect of the Romantic Escape at Sea add-on is that you get to pre-book your Palo reservation(s), shore excursions and any spa services 105 days in advance of your cruise (the same time frame as passengers staying in suites!), as long as you've paid for your cruise in full. Only the cost of one dinner at Palo is included in the package.

The fees for additional Palo reservations, shore excursions and spa appointments aren't included in the package, but you can still book them 105 days in advance if you've purchased this add-on.

The 105 days booking, is a loophole for everything bar the one Palo booking, and has been around for some time, but must be made clear this is NOT part of the REAS package and could be removed.

IMHO only ever book REAS for the FULL package, if you want the full package, not just for booking early as if you get on ship early you can secure all Palo bookings without the charge.

 

[lulu0506]

I just added the REAS package to my 7 night Eastern trip for May. Being this was our first DCL cruise I wouldn't have been able to make ressies online (ie Palo) until 75 days out. This allowed me to book 105 days out. My concern wasn't so much for Palo ressies but for corresponding Flounder Nursery reservations. Anyway, I was able to make Palo dinner, tea AND brunch reservations, Spa reservations and shore excursions along with necessary Flounder Nursery reservations.
In order to take advantage of early ressies, your entire trip must be paid in full.
Have fun!!!

 

[trimix]

On your last note about service breakfast- is the breakfast not different anymore? We did the REAS pkg in 2006 (and weren't able to on our crusie in 2008 since it was the panama canal cruise) -and were considering doing it again which is why I read this thread. But when we did it in 2006 we were allowed to order that breakfast off a completely different breakfast menu- not continental style... anything you wanted basically. We loved it and sure did wish we could order off that menu every day! (the regular menu was things like cereal, donuts, etc. The REAS breakfast in bed we were able to order eggs, bacon, oatmeal, sausage, etc. etc.- can't remember everything but it was like stuff you can get for breakfast in the restaurants)

It's not like that anymore?
Just wondering. I was primarily reading this thread to find out if you still got to book things 105 days out too. LOL

(oh we still have our robes- they are great quality although for some reason one of them turned yellowish hanging in our closet for years. Weird huh? The other one is fine. I'm using my mickey metal shallow rectangular basket thingy in our bathroom still to this day LOL Does it still come with that?)

Looking at everything available it appears that, for non-suite guests you can order a continental breakfast from room service, but for the Romantic Escape breakfast in bed you get full choice from the breakfast menu.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

We just got back from the 1/24 Western, on which we had the REAS package. Some observations:

1. The welcome gift is nice -- two robes, a soft-sided champagne cooler with tongs, and a bottle of champagne (Korbel). We drank the champagne with one of our dinners (at AP).

2. One unadvertised special -- you get a gift certificate for a free portrait at Shutters! We liked this add-on, and used it to get a nice family portrait.

3. The Rainforest Pass was nice, but we didn't use our passes as much as we would have liked. Plus -- I found the Rainforest Room O.K., but I liked the sauna in the mens' locker room much better (it was hotter than anything in the Rainforest Room -- my personal preference). The spa puts a sticker on the back of your key to the world card to evidence the pass.

4. It is true that the wine is a $50.00 credit at Palo -- we used it to order a more expensive bottle of wine ($99.00) to enjoy with our dinner.

5. The breakfast in bed was a different menu -- with eggs benedict and other hot dishes, as well as your choice of champagne or mimosas.

6. The romantic turn-down was weird - those rose petals seemed to stain everything, and then you have to pick them up (we put them in a glass to freshen up the room).

7. We can't comment on the enhanced reservation ability - we booked the package too late to get the earlier reservations. However, we did get all the times we wanted (for Palo dinner and brunch) on the ship after we boarded.

I probably wouldn't buy it again, but it was nice experiencing it.

Thanks for posting that! Looks like the "gift with robes" has changed a bit but that's okay- it would take up too much space on my bathroom counter for another rectangular thing there. LOL The bucket and tongs sounds nice too. Soft-sided though? Kinda weird- is mickey head on it? I hope so! LOL

I called my TA to ask about the ressies still allowing you to do everything- they checked with DCL and called me back to say yes.
Another perk some might not be aware of is if you are like us and book 2 rooms for your larger family- and like us with one adult/parent in each room... you get to book the ressies at 105 days out for BOTH rooms. That's another thing the TA checked on before I booked the REAS and the answer was yes. (I'm assuming this is because this is a "couples" type thing and one of the couple is in each room! LOL)

I had forgotten about the hidden perk of the free photo too!
the rainforest passes we never used AT ALL (not once) the first time- then we wanted to do the REAS for that perk too on the last cruise but it was a longer cruise so we couldn't. We intend on USING that part of the REAS pkg this time. LOL
Also the last time we had no idea the wine was included at Palo and declined getting the wine -we're not really drinkers much anyway and didn't want the extra expense! LOL We'll get it this time but maybe take to share with our tablemates or something.

We didn't notice any staining of the rose petals- but we also picked them up and put them in a wine glass. LOL

We also didn't realize we could take our champagne to dinner- we drank a very tiny bit and left the almost full bottle in our room the entire cruise (and when we left) LOL Lesson learned there too I guess. hehe

Looking at everything available it appears that, for non-suite guests you can order a continental breakfast from room service, but for the Romantic Escape breakfast in bed you get full choice from the breakfast menu.

Thanks! I was hoping that hadn't changed! Not only because we like the food better but you can order as much as you want- last time we ordered enough for the kids too. hehe We were all wishing we could order those food items every morning! We weren't much for getting up early enough for breakfast in the restaurants and/or usually getting up in just enough time to hurry for our excursion- so we mostly did room service all that first cruise. The one day we got to order off this menu (not just continental) was wonderful!!!!!!!!!

 

[stingmom]

i can't wait! I just added this today to our western since it's our 11 yr anniv. while on the Magic! What a nice surprise for DH!

 

[goofygal1975]

I have ordered this as well for our May 23 cruise!! this will be DH's first cruise and thought it would be nice to do this.

The only thing I have a question on is Palos. We really don't want to do the dinner there...we'd rather just do the Brunch. Can we switch out the dinner for a brunch?

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

double post- sorry!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I don't know about switching for brunch- but you know.. unless something has changed we found out on our first cruise that the REAS pkg also included brunch. We found out because I booked brunch too, we FORGOT TO GO (yes, we totally forgot) and I thought we'd have a charge on our room for it anyway since we no showed. It never showed on there and I talked to guest services about it- they looked into it and told us there was no charge even though we no showed because it was included in REAS free anyway.

Interesting, no? Not sure if that is still included and if not- if they'd let you switch it. I don't see why not though- it's still Palo- and does it specify dinner? I'm not sure.

Wanted to post that my TA wrote me back letting me know the exact date that was 105 days out and ironically it is 2/14. So on 2/14 I can book our ressies because of the REAS- how appropriate huh? LOL

Wait- look at Andrew's post... it says dinner OR brunch. So you can do brunch instead if you want!