Welcome to the Royal Caribbean Blog podcast, a weekly look into the world of Royal Caribbean cruising.

I'm your host, Matt Hodgeberg, and this is episode number 130.

I'll open up the inbox this week as we answer more of your questions about your Royal Caribbean vacation plans, tips, advice, and a whole lot more.

Some of the topics will include this week are Crown and Anchor benefits, brilliance of the Cs reviews, the best way to give Roll

Caribbean your feedback, next cruise booking bonuses, and a whole lot more, here we go.

One of the aspects of the show that I really enjoy so much is hearing from you and helping

to address and answer some of your personal individual questions that quite often are being asked by

many others as well. And this helps make the show a two-way conversation, as well as hopefully

continuing to enhance your experiences and your appreciation for a Royal Caribbean cruise during

your next sailing. And each and every week, I invite everybody to send me emails about

whether you have a comment, a question, a thought, whatever's on your mind about Royal Caribbean. That's what we're here to answer. And so on this week's episode, we're dedicating to you by answering your questions and making sure that the email bag doesn't get too full of emails because obviously a lot of people are asking questions. They want answers before their crews and I try to make that happen. And so if you want to send me your email, so you can always email me, Matt at Royal Caribbeanblog.com, M-A-T-T-Royal Caribbean blog.com. First up this week, we have an email from my good friend Laura Douglas, who writes, I wanted to mention a quick note about when you become a Diamond Plus member, you receive a free bottle of wine of your choice in this selection online, but you needed to do it 12 days prior to your sailing.

Since I was not allowed to online, I simply asked my little ambassador for it and she sent over a bottle to my room.

But it is always good to research the next level of benefits if the situation does occur or anyone you know so that you will receive all the perks.

I witnessed several people on my cruise who did not know that Diamond Plus members

receive a free bottle one and simply did not receive it because they did not ask.

Thanks again and I look forward to seeing you on another Royal Caribbean cruise.

Laura, great advice and Laura's referring to the situation where if you were going to maybe do a back-to-back cruise and on sailing number two, you are going to be moving up a different level. Make sure you research in advance any perks you're going to be entitled to. So that way you can make sure that you do get them because when you're in a situation like that where you're doing a back-to-back and you're going to be changing levels between cruises, you know Crown and Anchor doesn't have time to process it internally, but a gentle nudge with the loyalty ambassador, as Laura points out, will certainly help with making sure that you get everything you're entitled to. So great email, Laura. Love it. Thank you so much. Next up, we have an email from Darrell in Orlando. It's Matt. Love the show and all you do. My dear wife could not take having no cruises plan. So after listening to you this past week, I quote unquote fixed the problem. And now we're booked on the Western Caribbean Freedom in October. Book the aft corner balcony on deck seven. It'll be our first aft state room looking forward to it. And our first visit to Labee. And it seems like the more I listen to you, the more cruises I book any chance Michael Poole will be on this cruise cheers. First of all, congratulations on booking that. What an awesome sailing. And, you know, oh, man, I love Freedom of the Seasons. I'm sure you've heard me talk about it many, many times,

Darrell. And those aft state rooms, those aft balconies are really highly sought after.

These are the state rooms that are on the back of the ship that are balconies. And there's a certain

subset of Royal Caribbean fans who absolutely swear by balconies on the aft of the ship for the

amazing view. It's a little less windy and just a different experience. So, Darrell, it sounds like you're in good company there. And I'm not sure Michael is going on that cruise. Michael does have many, many, many, many cruises booked at any given time. But I won't speak for him, but I'm pretty sure he does everything book, but maybe check the comments for this episode and he'll share if he's got that particular one eyed up over there. So thank you much for the email. Next up we have an email from another Laura, a different Laura this time. Hi Matt, I'm just back from my December 5th cruise on the oasis of the seas. I asked you what the difference was between the thermal spa pass and the ultimate spa path. Now I know. The regular pass gives you access to the

stone loungers, tropical showers, steam room, etc. That was $179 for the week for a couple. For

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