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Whew! Good point to not automatically freak out! Just read this in a Facebook group: Thought of the day, DO NOT PANIC! We are beginning to wind down our amazing cruise on Adventure of the Seas with Royal Caribbean. We departed from Nassau Bahamas on Saturday and have enjoyed a very relaxing time. One requirement of re-entry to the United States is a negative Covid test. Royal Caribbean International is currently offering this service to all passengers departing from the Bahamas. We took our tests this morning and went on about our day at sea heading to Freeport as our last port of call. The testing process was very simple by signing up via an email. We were in and out in under 8 minutes. Woohoo. Cocktail time with our favorite bartender in Schooner Lounge with some 90’s Trivia. A few minutes into trivia, some ship’s officers showed up and spoke to Tim for a moment and he said he was going to the cabin. I was a bit puzzled until another officer approached me. He said Tim’s Covid test was positive and he needed to go back to our quarters. I was simply blown the $&@) away! I dashed right up to the cabin. Tim confirmed what they said and we both were in shock. Here we are on a full day at sea, hundreds of miles from home, and totally freaking. 15 minutes later a guy from medical shows up to perform a PCR test, the one that takes a sample of your brain according to Tim. The phone rang while we were waiting. I answered and the voice on the other end said he was chief of security. I put Tim on and he walked him through some things on his phone to set up contract tracing. I’m still freaking that we are going to be confined to our cabin, or confined to medical. F$&@!!! OMG we are going to be on the news! I finally checked my email and my results were negative. Woohoo! I can make a mad dash to the bar for a cocktail before they can catch me. I wasn’t even told to stay in the room. I get to the bar and order drinks. A few minutes later Tim shows up. Omg, he broke out of jail. I just knew they would find him and make him walk the plank. Luckily the results of his PCR test came back NEGATIVE! What a sigh of relief. Moral of the story, stay calm and DO NOT PANIC! We can’t thank Royal Caribbean International for taking amazing care of us during an extremely emotional time. Loyal to Royal!

I yearn for the day when even a legit positive test doesn't require heavy protocols to be put into place.

Great news since this was your desire but sorry that I won’t get a chance to meet you. We unvaxxed have to stick together. ? Oh wait….that’s what the vaxxed are afraid of, isn’t it ?

@PoochI am a plus size woman, been that way since I was 14. I didn't even realized I had lost weight because I was working from home. Wearing nothing but pajamas during the first 3 months of quarantine. Went back to work at my second job last July and my slacks and blouses were too loose. Everyone had put on weight but me, I was like yes!!!!

He was potentially positive and you tested negative and your first reaction was to run to the bar before they caught you???

It gets better. Named storms 16 and 17 are Peter and Rose, so I assume both will hit Cincinnati.

I hope that person at least got an RC highlighter for their troubles.

Many suite pax do treat the CK as their MDR...but you don't have to. You can still eat in the MDR if you choose to do that. Whatever you decide to do, it is best to have reservations but not completely necessary - at least not for the MDR. I have been hearing that the dining capacity in the CK will be reduced for a while so it may actually be quite necessary to make a reservation at CK but nobody really knows yet. Yes, you can order whatever you want and as much as you want at the CK. I have mixed feelings about the menu(s) in the CK. Some are good, some are ok and some are "no way". The service in the CK (along with the views, particularly on the O class ships) are the 2 biggest draws of the CK. It is usually very good. The CK is also much less hectic than the MDR which is another plus. No reservations accepted for breakfast before COVID. I assume it will be that way when cruising resumes...but who knows ? Yes, CK can be very busy in the morning.

This may be a deal breaker for me. I am fully vaccinated and see no reason to wear a mask.

The proper response to that is "You can bet on it".

It really depends on what you like. Some eat there every night, some never do, some vary it between CK, MDR, and specialty, depending on what the menu is. For our family, there are some definite menu favourites in CK that I would never pass up for specialty. I never venture into the MDR if I have access to CK. The venue is more intimate, service is similar to the old days of cruising before the MDR became almost like a production line. CK meals are made when you order them, not pre-cooked hours ahead of time and kept warm. Also, the food is much more flavourful and quality is better. Most definitely! They have full breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus. Breakfast is the same each day, similar to eating in the MDR for breakfast, but way better quality. I love their French Toast! Lunch menu is my least favourite in CK out of all the menus. It is still good, but it is not changed daily like dinner. It switches about half way through the sailing. CK has a lot of specialty restaurant menu items on their menu throughout the week. In most cases, comparing apples to apples, they do it better than specialty. You can most definitely order as much or as little as you want lol. You will love the CK staff. As I mentioned before, it is a more intimate venue than the MDR. They actually have more time to spend with you in CK. Reservations are required for dinner. I actually don't know if they take reservations for lunch or breakfast (unless you are star). It does get busy on sea days, but not to the point where you are waiting super long for a table. You might have to wait 10-15 mins at the most, at least that has been my experience with breakfast. When that does happen, go to the suite lounge and enjoy a morning coffee and snacks while you wait. There's nothing more pleasant to start the day!

Very nearly but didn't - because of the protocols that worked. The failed quick test was followed up by a more reliable PCR test. Those are the protocols.

Micheal Bayley posted a response to someone on one of his Facebook posts that if we’re still wearing masks in October, we’ve got bigger problems. So I’m taking that to mean dropping mask requirements come Fall. But as we all know……nothing is certain even 24 hours from now.

I love being able to treat my adult offspring. Seeing them happy is my greatest joy. Maybe it’s not right but it’s how I feel. And they are happy to make me happy ?

I will get into more later but once again you present CDC modeling as established science and yet again the CDC used outdated data. https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/93340?trw=no more articles later but just wanted to present this because there is still concern for children being vaccinated. To present this as anyone that disagrees with your assessment is an uneducated rube that spreads disinformation is not only arrogant but very insulting to the 1000s of doctors out there voicing their concerns and putting in the same kind of work you described above.

While I appreciate your skepticism, here is the link to the COVID info for my state. Cases are indeed averaging 22 per day on our population of 1.4 million https://www.covid19.nh.gov/ My husband is a very well respected physician and is aware of multiple cases of myocarditis locally. CMO of the hospital is also holding off vaccinating his teenager. I, quite frankly, have more faith and trust in them and their 20 plus years of experience each. Interestingly, my 13 year old had his physical today. We vaccinate for everything (except flu) on schedule and the pediatrician never even asked if he was vaccinated for covid

Lol, I starting Covid-19 larger than I finished, lost about 35lbs. I literally just went shopping on my day off to get simple summer dresses for my Oct cruise. We are staying in a suite and plan to eat at least 3 nights at CK.

I've cruised both DCL and RC and I can tell you that on DCL, you are paying for the Disney name. Unlike the difference between Disney theme parks and other theme parks, there is not much of a difference between the overall Disney cruise experience and other lines. The pricing is absolutely ridiculous on DCL for a non-premium cruise line. There are many former DCL'ers here who will tell you without question you are overpaying for a very similar experience on Royal Caribbean!

I could see me dashing to the bar ? Gotta get your money’s worth out of that drink package! This wasn’t me BTW. It came from a Royal Facebook group

When I sail on a ship with a CK it does become my go to dinner venue for most nights. Some nights the CK menu doesn't excite me but that's personal right? Another person may declare that same menu their favorite. The filet is must try if you are a steak person. Usually as good and most of the time better than Chops. In general I find CK in between the MDR and specialty dining. Some nights the menu and food is on par with specialty dining and some nights the menu and food is closer to the MDR but again that's personal. Service and ambiance is always better than the MDR. I do enjoy the CK breakfast even though the menu is the same everyday. I have my favorites I cycle through. Lunch is more hit & miss in the CK but again that's personal. I've grown to enjoy some of the flatbreads offered at lunch more than I did a few years ago. CK menus will be available in the app before sailing so look them over and use that to guide what nights you feel like being in the CK vs. other options. Sometimes daily menus change at the last minute so don't take what you see in the app as written in stone.

@fa-liif you would like to get a rough idea of CK menu items, I've documented quite a few of them in my live blogs. The CK menu is pretty much the same across the fleet, just sometimes the order of the dinner menu varies by ship. You can always check with the suite concierge a week before sailing to confirm which night they are serving which menu. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/14288-“symphony-no-17-celebration-relaxation-exploration-reflection”-–-072719-–-080319/ https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/5780-anthem-of-the-seas-march-9-17-2018/ https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/10695-“i-dream-of-genie”-–-star-class-harmony-of-the-seas-–-031019-031719/

CK is LOVED by most of the regular suite guests. I'm guilty of only 2 visits over 3 cruises. Not because the food was bad or anything like that, but we were sailing with non-suite guests and wanted to enjoy meals with them. Friends > CK (barely ?). The food is delish and service is exceptional, I'd say think of it as specialty dining included in your suite fare. I'm sure the maitre d' will accommodate and keep you with the same server. I'd say you'd prefer CK over MDR. With that, I'll leave it to the CK experts to chime in with better intel!

Same here! We’re going star class on Symphony next year and treating them all the way! We were very financially challenged for much of their childhood years, so I feel very fortunate to be able to share travel experiences with them now.

Sounds like this would make a good story for the podcast, @Matt

First off the schedule is extremely flexible, exception might be Izumi hibachi. You'll go over the week when you first get onboard or if you arrive early and they are able to sit with you prior to boarding. Core of it is dining venue, shows, and special/bonus activities. At dinner the Genie will come by and go over the next day, see if any plans need to be changed or need to be kept in mind, and a general welfare check of how things are going on board. Key thing is be upfront with the Genie. Tell them in advance if you have any plans or prefer different dining arrangements. Pre-cruise when the Genie reaches out tell them if you have any preference for an exact time and date for a particular restaurant. I'll have to dig up (unless someone beats me to it) the initial schedule I've received on one of my sailings.

I don't get the "used to it" part. Why would I pay thousands for someone to make me wear a mask. Quit doing that a long time ago and won't start again for a cruise that costs a lot of money. Hopefully you all enjoy your sailings..............

Yes, based on May 17 data. Based on current data though:

This was posted on the main page of this site today Royal Caribbean will offer full refunds to all passengers who at this time for personal reason don't wish to comply with their current health protocols and requirements. Some times these things take time but I'm glad to see RCC do the right thing by offering passengers who don't wish to get vaccinated or buy travel insurance all their money back and not Future Cruise Credits. In fact according to the article on this site RCC will cash out your FCC's as long as they were issued as a result of the pandemic and not as a result of a hurricane. Meaning if you have an FCC from 2019 and you booked a nonrefundable ticket Royal will not refund your money on that cruise but any cruise impacted by COVID you will be able to received a FULL REFUND. Although I'm fully vaccinated with this news my faith in Royal has been restored, better late than never. I've always said fair is fair now this is a fair deal for everyone involved because now unvaccinated individuals truly have an option and they are not stuck with FCC's that they can't use as a result of their personal choice.

At the request of @cruisinghawgI'll reluctantly respond to this and a few other comments: Not really ........American Citizens have no Constitutional protection from being told by a state vaccinations are required. Nearly 100 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Jacobson v. Massachusetts,33 upholding the right of states to compel vaccination. The Court held that a health regulation requiring smallpox vaccination was a reasonable exercise of the state’s police power that did not violate the liberty rights of individuals under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The police power is the authority reserved to the states by the Constitution and embraces “such reasonable regulations established directly by legislative enactment as will protect the public health and the public safety” (197 U.S. at 25, 25 S.Ct. at 361). It is good to understand the history of how the requirement for vaccinations emerged in the US. I's all right here: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/guides-pubs/downloads/vacc_mandates_chptr13.pdf Look, I get the concern about children being vaccinated and putting thier safety above any sense of duty to the public health. This is true especially given the short history of the COVID vaccines approved in the US. One needs to be on point when they take that position. In a that was then, this is now sort of dialogue, distrust of the state has increased dramatically since Jacobsen v. Massachusetts. But the FDA has remained as apolitical and balanced as any government agency in this pandemic - the rigorous testing protocols that pharma has to comply with in brining a drug to market, even under EUA, and with the exhaustive review process the FDA conducts, all the US approved vaccines are very safe. Yet misinformation about their effectiveness and safety flood social media platforms as in, "that decision (not to vaccinate a child) is a no brainer." It is? Really, based on, "Right now, with cases averaging 22 per day on a population of 1.4 million and multiple cases of myocarditis locally." I doubt both the validity of the numbers and how these are being presented. These are the facts: CDC numbers through late May estimated that 16 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis would be reported for every million second doses given to people ages 16 to 39. That works out to 0.0016%, or roughly 1 in 62,000. By contrast, de Lemos said the best studies on college athletes put the chances of a young person getting myocarditis after COVID-19 at between 1% and 3%. That's roughly 1 in 50. https://www.heart.org/en/news/2021/06/21/should-rare-cases-of-heart-inflammation-put-your-covid-19-vaccine-plans-on-hold There's more: Though fewer children contract COVID-19, and fewer kids and young adults experience serious illness, there’s still some risk of contracting the virus. Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 7.7 million COVID-19 cases have been reported among people ages 12 to 29. In May, that age group represented 33% of COVID-19 cases. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 2,767 coronavirus deaths have been reported among this age gr https://whyy.org/articles/myocarditis-and-the-covid-19-vaccine-what-to-know-about-rare-heart-inflammation/ And then there is this: All of the foregoing facts seem to indicate that it is a no-brainer to not get your kids vaccinated. Profiteering by big pharma as an underlying cause of distrust of vaccines is also a frequently held parental concern. IMO, that denigrates the work of 100s of dedicated scientists that worked on these vaccines and deployed them in record time. I don't think that circumstance is fully understood by critics of big pharma. That pharma developed these in a public private enterprise is perfectly good reason for these companies to be rewarded and the public to benefit from the miracle drug the mRNA vaccines are. I reject that concern as largely baseless. Now of course you could argue that the Chinese and the Russians who deployed Sinovac and Sputnik through government nationalized production did just fine. But they didn't and countries that received these vaccines in a form of vaccine diplomacy are battling reinfections. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/business/economy/china-vaccines-covid-outbreak.html One final comment on another set of stats that are floating around on social media platforms that vaccine nay-sayers grab on to without checking them out. The conflations and missuses of absolute and relative risk along with vaccine efficacy abound in social media platforms then trickle down to casual conversations. The link will take you to a great article that describes these misuses, how believable they appear and how utterly dangerous they are to rational, well informed thought on getting vaccinated or not. https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-thelancet-riskreduction/fact-check-why-relative-risk-reduction-not-absolute-risk-reduction-is-most-often-used-in-calculating-vaccine-efficacy-idUSL2N2NK1XA All of this sounds like lecturing and badgering those who aren't vaccinated or don't want their kids vaccinated. I apologize for that because it is the least effective way to change people's minds on any number of COVID and Pandemic related views and especially in the hotly debated arena of vaccinations. Generally it's hard to do. But judgements based on inaccurate or misleading information are dangerous. What I encourage is not blindly rejecting or accepting, even being moved by what I've posted here but rather keeping an open mind to views contrary to your own. Become convincible. Join legitimate focus groups led by doctors and scientists. Ask questions.

I think I need to start dropping hints to the children lol! We’re only at 32 years but maybe by our 40th they’ll have enough disposable income to treat us! One can hope!

We are a family of 4 scheduled to Sail Symphony on August 21st out of Miami. We are unvaccinated and have little desire to cruise under the unvaccinated protocols. My TA requested a refund on my behalf about 10+ days ago. Crickets. No response or even an acknowledgement. Yesterday I emailed about 10 different email addresses from rccl general mailboxes to specific addresses using a little ingenuity and Google. Just received a response that my refund will be processed. I won't pop the champagne until I see the money hit my account but finally a step in the right direction. Thought I would share as I have been vocal in my opinion on these boards that RCL should do the right thing given the change in protocols and seems they finally are albeit slowly. This was a rebook using FCC from our April 2020 that was cancelled. I am told to expect a 100% refund of my cruise fare and airfare booked through Royals Air 2 sea, roughly $8,000. (Poentially a 1 bedroom Grand Suite might be available to book to book soon for anyone interested) Definitely a benefit booking your airfare through them IMO. Good luck to those in a similar situation. Best to those starting to sail. Enjoy your trips and tip extra if you can.

Here is the link to the thread on All Things Galveston

I recall it being about $12.99 on Mariner when I went in 2019. My travel companion and I were pretty stoked because we scored it at $6.49 during a black Friday sale.

I'd buy the package ahead of time, the onboard price is $13 to $15. You could always use the OBC to upgrade to a special menu item in the MDR or treat your self to something in the spa at a reduced out of pocket cost. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/booked/beverage-packages

No false positive.. She definitely has it, but neither of us are experiencing much symptoms. We both feel like we have a cold, and not even a bad one. I have lost my sense of smell but still have a sense of taste. She has lost neither. The cruise insurance requirement irritates me, but I usually take out insurance anyway. I just got off the phone with the Florida Dept of health for our county (Okaloosa) and took the opportunity to ask a few questions, such as, why would my wife get it after full vaccination? How much do we really know about natural immunity vs vaccination or having had the virus. At the end of the conversation, I surmised that we are still learning about it and so much of this is speculation. Do a little research (Im staying away from CDC or WHO, or even liberal news outlets) and Im seeing more that would support my stance rather than convince me otherwise.

@Lovetocruise2002 Thanks for the rabbit holes! Afternoon productivity went out the window and I am reading up on all your adventures!

Wow, thanks for all this great information! So helpful. I wish all of life's questions could be answered as easily as those I post to RCB message boards! I'm even more excited than before to be giving CK a try!

I'll be looking out for what happens in October as cold/flu season starts to pick up. It isn't unusual to carry a virus around detectable by PCR that doesn't actually cause you more than a day-long sore throat. Actually, unless you can remember screaming your lungs out, that very same phenomenon is probably what causes most of your very short lived symptoms that don't even rise to the level of being called a cold. I say this because right now when it's 1 or 2 people per cruise, it seems manageable. But what about when it inevitably rises to 15-20 (or more) as the level of virus naturally increases and you're still asking healthy people to not only isolate, but wait for a specialized transport to take them back to the US? How long are those extra costs sustainable? We need to have our eyes on a near term goal of essentially treating COVID like any other URI: if you are sick, you isolate and the ship provides you medical care or gets you to more sophisticated facilities if needed. All we should be doing is making sure ships actually have the facilities to provide care in the short term (which IMO, was a huge shortcoming pre-pandemic) and do have robust arrangements in place to move seriously ill passengers if needed.

Here is an example of a schedule taking into account some changes plus the Royal Caribbean Blog group cruise activities factored in.

My thought is it is always better to book early in case the base rate goes up. Once you hit Platinum you can check and see if the current pricing plus the platinum discount is better and reprice it then if so. The discount is a fixed amount based on length of the cruise and how far in advance you are booking. This link is for their Singapore site, but it shows the breakdown. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/sgp/en/crown-anchor-society/balcony-and-suites-chart?country=SGP

Hopefully the requirements will change by next month. If they don't will need to look at my options.

I'm glad to hear that it seems to be working out to your satisfaction.

here in the Midwest, at least where I'm from, we see very very few people wearing masks anywhere any more, even in most restaurants the servers have stopped. it's been that way for the past couple of months already. BTW @SpeedNoodles thanks for pointing out my mistake, that what I get for skim reading, I should know better. Anyway i still ecstatic about being on a cruise again

Wish we were as lucky. Our kids expect us to buy them a cruise as we did several years ago. Told them it a once in a lifetime event but for some reason they expect us to repeat it.

The funny thing is that after the last year, I don’t know if any of us are “in touch” with what the new normal will be. My husband wears scrubs all day at work now, even to see his office patients and not just when doing procedures. He’s wearing jeans to the hospital board of governor’s meetings because they’re still via Zoom. He gets home and changes into tshirts with shorts or pajama bottoms. I have gone from wearing jeans to sweatpants (even when out running errands). The idea of dressing up for a cruise is concerning and worrisome. I’m not even sure any of my “nice” clothes fit. My teenagers’ clothes won’t - One had his annual physical today and grew 5 inches since last year. They’re homeschooled and have been living in sweats, shorts, and pajamas. It’s one of the reasons we booked suites for our next 3 cruises (MDR delivered to room). That and it’s still cheaper than what we were paying for balcony rooms on DCL.

I think you'll love Royal. We've cruised on all the Disney boats when the kids were younger and have now transitioned to Royal. The first pro for royal is price point as you noted. We can get 2 connecting balconies on royal for the price of one balcony on Disney. I also really like the Royal drink package so u are not gouged $15 for every cocktail like on Disney. In terms of on board experience The Royal Freedom and Oasis class (all we've been on) have much bigger pool decks, more pools, more activities (flow rider, rock climbing) and the adults area is much better. Of Course I think Disney wins with overall service, shows, and I really miss the on board movies. In terms of food the lower price for Royal will allow you to upgrade to the UDP and go to a different restaurant nightly. Food quality is about the same. I also enjoy going to the casino on royal after the wife has retired for the night. The best thing about Royal is there aren't nearly as many unsupervised kids running around the ship at all hours.

DON'T DO IT! Just kidding. We made the jump to JSs years ago and haven't looked back. The extra space, the upgraded bathroom, a walk-in closet and double C+A points is worth the extra money, About 8 or 10 cruises ago we made the jump to the bigger suites. It is an addiction worse than any drug. We now book Grand Suites or above. We can't resist the extra perks especially on Oasis ships. If you make the jump you will know what we are talking about. Good luck and happy sailing

Just excited to be going on a cruise again. The smaller crowds will be a bonus!

The main difference is, indeed, price. There are some things that I like about Royal Caribbean better, some things I like about Disney better. I am a Disney fan through and through, but Royal Caribbean has some amazing ships, and because they are a bigger cruise line, can take you to other destinations around the world. From the travel agent side, Disney handled the pandemic MUCH better in terms of refunds, FCCs, hold times. I don't dread calling DCL for questions, I dread calling Royal Caribbean. But in terms of simply cruising, you'll find a lot more similar than different.

***** I have no children I have done 32 Disney cruises and 3 Royal cruises. I have 6 Royal cruises booked and 1 Disney (Wish). I have only sailed on the Oasis Class ships for Royal and honestly I have enjoyed it equal to Disney. Entertainment on Royal to me is fantastic, but of course there are no Disney characters. The Aqua 80's show in the aqua theater is the best show I have seen on any cruise ship. The ship is clean and well cared for overall. Food is just as good as Disney if not better....many more options but they do cost extra sometimes, also tons of options that do not. Windjammers is fantastic and tons more options than what Disney has on their buffets. Service is hands down better on Disney, and I think that is not surprising to anyone. Disney is known for their service and always goes above and beyond, but honestly for 1/2 the cost I didn't have any issues that prevented me from enjoying myself. Here is my very one negative about Royal and it is easily remedied by myself (or you). Disney was my first cruise ever and the ships are gorgeous. The ships were built so you could enjoy the ocean view no matter where you are on the ship....Deck 3, 4 and 5 all have the portholes to look out or the promenade deck with chairs. To me The Oasis Class ships were built to look into the ship....so you see their promenade deck (inside shopping), the boardwalk, Central Park....each of these spaces are amazing but no outside views. So I always booked an inside stateroom on Disney to minimize costs and on Royal it is important if you want an ocean view you need to choose a cabin that gives you that. I know book an ocean view balcony. This by no means ruined any vacation and there are nice spots around the ship to see the ocean . Again I have 7 cruises booked currently, 6 on Royal and only 1 on the Disney Wish. The Disney Wish is a 3 day next September that I am paying $2350 for 2 people and that is more or the same price as I am paying for each of my 7 day cruises on Royal.