Oh it's a thing. Especially with the drink package. General rule of thumb is that if you like a price, lock it down by paying for it. If you see a better price, cancel your previous purchase and rebuy. There's no penalty for doing that.
Speaking of prices, there's a couple more things with that
- As you have no doubt heard, sodas/pop/coke costs extra on board. There is a soda package available in the cruise planner and is usually one where the retail price doesn't fluctuate based on the promotion. This package won't cost you that much if you pre-purchase, and if you cannot live without the fizzy stuff it's probably best that you go ahead and get it.
- There are also refreshment packages (includes specialty coffees, bottled water and juices)
- And the "Ultimate" drink package (aka "drink package"), which is basically all-you-can drink alcohol (but not the top shelf stuff). There is a requirement that if one adult purchases the drink package, all adults 21 and over in the cabin must also purchase the package, with exceptions.
- Internet is charged by the day. It's quite reliable and you can use one wifi account across multiple devices, but the catch is that you can only use one device at a time. Probably just fine for two adults. There are internet/drink bundles as well.
Other stuff:
- The kids club is well run, but it's not like Oceaneers. Adventure Ocean has daily themes and kids are generally expected to participate. That might be good or bad for your kid. But of course I have no idea what the kids club will look like post-pandemic, and maybe you want to just stay with your kids all day instead.
- Many of the ships now have a splash zone called Splashaway Bay on the pool deck. It's fairly large, and one can usually find seats in this area versus trying to find seats by the adult pools.
- There is a towel check in/out on the pool deck and usually near the gangway when in port. Slightly annoying.
- Royal has an app for several of their ships, which is free to use on board (i.e. you don't need an internet package to use it). It does a decent job of showing you shows, upcoming activities, and dinner menus. But there's no chat feature yet.
- Fish extenders is not a thing on Royal. Slot pulls apparently are.
- There aren't too many people doing door magnets on Royal. If you want to do it, the doors ARE magnetic, but I'd say to limit yourself to maybe 3-4.
- If you have lanyards, bring em. even if they're
DCL themed. You might even get some compliments. But mostly no one cares.