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I like Rice Krispy Treats!

So the lesson here is schedule the first one at CVS and the 2nd at Walgreens, I guess.

Thanks to my "Cruise Godfather" for the tip, I got a rapid test appointment from Walgreens. It goes along the lines of "the early bird catches the worm."

Just another experience with CVS PCR test. My wife and I booked our tests online a couple of weeks in advance as soon as the scheduling opened up. Sort of a dry run for our cruise in OCT as we have another trip this week that requires a NEG test result as well. We did the test at the CVS drive-thru just before noon yesterday (SUN, 8/29) morning and just got our results e-mailed to us this evening (MON, 8/30) around 7:00 PM... so, just under 2 days. Results came via e-mail from both CVS and from Quest Diagnostics (they actually ran the test for CVS). Hopefully, we'll get the same quick turnaround for the cruise! Will definitely be monitoring the policy and timeframes in SEPT. Good luck everyone!

Just got home from the Allure of the seas Aug 22, 2021 cruise. So first I have to say, that I felt safer on the ship then I do at my work(I work in a hospital). Everywhere you look and turn are hand sanitizing stations and hand washing stations. They clean your stateroom twice a day, all theaters are fogged after each show, masks are required for everyone indoors and pools and hot tubs have a capacity limit as well as elevators which are also cleaned ALL DAY LONG! The care that is put into making sure we are safe is above no other. The buffet was weird to not serve yourself but was still kind of normal feeling (as much as it could be), you cant even get your own drinks for the refillable cups, they have someone there at all times to serve you. we were at about 30% capacity (1684 passengers and 1800 staff). We have already booked for our next cruise to cozumel in March 2022. We did have to present our negative covid test and vaccine record 3 times prior to boarding the ship but we gladly did so. We have no doubt Royal is going way above what the CDC says they need to do.

That's what I did. I have 3 appointments - one at CVS, one at Walgreens, and one at a Health Department Center at a county next to mine. Then I'm doing a "walk-in" at a testing center a few blocks from my house.

What do you know , royal up is working (at least for the first leg) Bye bye GS hello crown & loft .

We just got our email... all good to go. Looks like they were in process of sending them out yesterday and today...

The 'Jam Rock' charter and the '70,000 Tons Of Metal' charter, were by far some of the craziest pool parties I have ever seen.

We are on the 9/26 sailing and the rep I spoke to on the phone said, "While not official", from everything she reads coming through RCL the ship will be at about 40%.

It is a lot of work and stress! It's not something I enjoy doing a few days before a cruise. Pre-COVID, my only concern before a cruise was making sure I had enough clothes to wear for the entire sailing...

I haven't started looking yet since my cruise is still 3 weeks out but this is rapidly starting to sound like a lot of work and stress.

In previous years the advice would have been that St John on your own is doable when the ship has a longer stop in St Thomas. Here in 2021/2022 I'm not sure there is a lot of experience with tourists using the local ferries to make a recommendation. Coki Beach is a smaller beach but still a very nice beach. Historically there has been an abundance of Sergeant Majors and Yellow Jacks hanging around at one end who have been willing to approach very close to swimmers. Snorkelling out a bit and you'll see Parrot fish and other reef fish. It's been a few years since I've lived on St. Thomas and I'm sure things have changed but Coki Beach is where I used to take my kids to swim with fishes and it is very close to Coral World.

Just go in and buy it on the last day of the segment; they'll just hand it over. If you buy it before then they'll hold it and deliver, and there's always a chance they'll notice you're on a B2B and will hold it till the last day of your final segment, which is what the policy says they will do, even iif in practice it just goes to your cabin on the last day of the current segment most of the time.

Just got my upgrade to Crown Loft Suite. I am super happy as I paid about half of what it normally costs.

Odyssey might have two concierges. Try oy_concierge01@

I traded an Owner's Suite on Empress for an Owner's Suite on Odyssey. Win ?

I know things change rapidly….that being said, our pcr tests results from CVS in Portland,ME came back in 23 hours. we did those for Bahamas visa. Antigen tests scheduled at Walgreens for Royal on Thursday

So, it seems like the majority of passengers here on Odyssey, were originally supposed to be cruising on Independence. From everyone I've spoke to so far, they have not been disappointed with the ship change.

Currently here on Odyssey, 35% capacity is the most we've had so far. (1700 passengers)

Yep, no problem! La Spezia - we booked the Best of Florence and Pisa. We absolutely loved this, as we'd never been to Florence. We didn't get to go into any of the churches, but we saw enough that we know we'd like to go back some time and spend some more time on our own. We saw many statues, including "a" statue of David. It's not "the" statue, but we saw a lot of structures that we loved. Pisa was exactly as we expected. We spent about 90 minutes there, which was enough for us to see the leaning tower and the buildings around it. I personally do not like guided tours, because they move so slow, but you're going to get that with all Royal Caribbean excursions in Italy. Rome - We did the Gladiator tour, as we'd both been to Rome already. I had not been inside the Coliseum, so this is exactly what I wanted to do. We explored the Forum as well, so we saw a lot of Rome. We had already been to the Vatican, etc, so that played a big part in our tour. We loved going into the Coliseum for sure. (Vaccine proof required) Naples - Capri, Sorrento, and Pompeii by Land and Sea - Capri was possibly our favorite spot in the Italy stops. That place is incredible. Again, another guided tour, but we spent a lot of time getting snacks and doing some shopping, which we didn't get with the others. I had been to Pompeii before, and did it without a tour guide. We didn't get much time in Pompeii at all, so that was disappointing based on what I know is there. We still loved this tour. (Vaccine proof required) One thing to note about the tours is that they sold water at the beginning of all of them. We did get a bottle of water in our Naples excursion, for free. We just filled water bottles before we left the ship and took them with us, to avoid dragging around their giant bottle of water that cost $4.50.

Wow - backup for the backup and another backup...?

I'm on Symphony the week after you. I watched a youtube videa of someone on the ship last week and she said there were only about 1,300 passengers so that's only about 20%.

I'm not going anywhere! Except for my trip on the Symphony in October! ??

The Roll Call threads on this site are pretty new and not used heavily yet. If you want to reach out to (or even just see) more people on your sailing, check Facebook or Cruise Critic and see if you find more people who are talking about that sailing.

Thank you so much for your sharing your experience. With Cruising changing day by day this gives us an opportunity to see how it was for you on the ship. For Everyone still going on Harmony if you can share your experiences for the rest of us that would be amazing. For the rest of us who have not gone on Harmony yet, and our concerned about the Covid test we receive before you get onboard you might want to check out this link below, a friend of mine who works in a Covid unit uses this everyday and swears by it. I ordered it myself but has not gotten here yet. In my mind every little bit of protection cant hurt. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086Q8V26P?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

I'm getting the impression walk-up for shows is no longer available for Sky class. Always felt that was one of the better benefits for those that don't like to plan.

Oh, I didn’t know there was an antigen test at the terminal now. In other news, super excited for you. Sad that the seafood tower is gone though. ?

This is a very useful official EU website that you can use to check the various countries' requirements: https://reopen.europa.eu/en.

Just to be on the safe side I've scheduled two Antigen tests at CVS for Friday and Saturday in case something happens and they change the rules. I sail Monday. If protocol testing requirements don't change, I'll cancel my Saturday test. I'm also thinking if Royal does change it to two days out, they would give some sort of window (like two weeks) before implementing the change, or I would hope!

It just hit me that our cruise is next week! This got me so excited that I figured I'd check our sailing's Facebook page, and I picked the perfect time to log on. Someone posted 47 minutes ago that Royal had opened the 12-12:30pm boarding times, so we gladly switched from our 1:30-2pm time. We are all for whatever gets us on the ship faster. Not to mention, we don't have to kill time between hotel checkout and boarding time now.

My results came in an email.

I created an account (first post!!) to recommend Walgreens, which I see a few folks have suggested as well. We started using them earlier this year on a trip to Hawaii as they are an approved Hawaii State Safe Travels provider. Since then we've used them for pre and post trip testing to Japan as well. All that said, both (1) which local Walgreens have the rapid PCR testing varies along with the (2) available times here by me. We usually receive our results for the rapid PCR in just under an hour, and at least our local Walgreens (we've used 2 locations) don't really care what time you come in so long as it is the same day. We're leaving on Ovation of the Seas on Sept 17th!

Very positive for sure! My ONLY fear is that for whatever reason when we test 3 days out, we come up positive for whatever strange reason. That would be crushing! The only positives I want right now are positive vibes! ?

Walgreens at midnight seemed to open up the next booking window. At midnight tonight (technically tomorrow) Thursday slots should open for you. What I did last night at 11:30 PM was go through all the steps and got to the appointment pick part. Nothing for Wednesday, yet. I continued watching TV and shortly after midnight hit refresh and BAM Wednesday slots opened at a Walgreens offering rapid 20 minutes away... I had lots of choices with times too.

Hmm, what happens if I'm a Pinnacle interporting in a Star Class Suite? Do I get a gold, burgundy, and orange striped card?

One other suggestion for a pre-cruise covid test are urgent cares. Most urgent cares do not take advanced reservations. First-come, first served that day for tests. Call ahead to verify that is the procedure at ones near you, but it's good in a pinch.

Over the years have seen a bunch of weird things. The German Shepherd security bomb sniffer who spent the cruise on the balcony next to ours after 9-11. The teenagers jumping off the aft of Grandeur docked at Cozumel. But the strangest (I guess most interesting) was the US Sub that made transit through the Gatun Locks beside us while in Panama on Brilliance.

I have to admit that one of the many reasons I'm excited about sailing on Oasis in September is because I'm looking forward to doing exactly this. ?

I thought about correcting grammar but……

I'm laughing at Room Stewart. But this is a great idea!

Another option is to do a B2B, turning it into a 14 day round trip

Cruise Director on Allure posted on his Facebook page that small wrapped treats are appreciated. There is definitely a convenience factor that crew misses out on when they can't hop off the ship on turnaround day and Uber to the Walmart anymore. Of course this would be on top of giving them cash. As long as it's something consumable I'm sure they can find someone who would want it even if they personally couldn't use it.

I am sailing on Allure of the Seas September 19th through the 26th. I have wondered the same question. Thanks for asking! I’ll be following this thread.

1 day to go.... still no cabin.... I think I will go for a new record

There is a cruise created walled in shopping area at the port that is very typical of what you would see in other ports - there is some shopping in town and at the beach area. The beach area is very nice with plenty of shade if you don't want sun. There are some very good Mayan ruins nearby that are not strenuous to enjoy. Unfortunately, there is not a lot else as this is basically a remote fishing village that was turned into a port by the cruise lines.

While I really do like The Key (at the right price), the private hours are usually at really crappy times and I've never gone to any activity set aside for The Key. It's definitely not a reason that I'd get it.

The ships won't be at 100% capacity in 2021. At most you might get 50% for holiday sailings. With all the restrictions and protocols, there isn't a way to sail at full capacity. But I also expect that you won't be able to book entertainment until they are at least 75% capacity. The whole purpose for booking entertainment early in CP is to ensure a space, no need when its <3000/6000 pax.

So true ! How things have changed in the past 1 1/2 years !!

We normally add all the stuff we want in the cart, and then I print that out as a PDF. Every once in a awhile, I log in and view my cart and then compare the prices online and the PDF.