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ONE MORE DAY! Today was a WHIRLWIND! A very exciting one but a whirlwind! We drove from Tampa to Miami and it was a breeze. Took us about four hours. Sadly Jarell did not get to see an alligator along Alligator Alley….there was only one and he missed it but of course I saw it LOL Oh well…looks like we gottta hit up a zoo to make up for the betrayal soon! LOL We got to our hotel (Holiday Inn Port Of Miami) around 2:30. Since check in wasn’t until 3 ( or so we thought ) we decided to grab some food at Bayside Marketplace. I’m not sure if they were giving our free $100 bills or handing out a shot for every child you bring but it was PACKED! We literally had to play a game of frogger across traffic so much traffic that is felt like a taking a Zumba class from someone with an extreme caffeine addiction. Eventually we made our way over and settled on Chilis since it had no wait and we were in DIRE need of a cocktail. A few bites and a margaritas later and it was 3:30pm and we were read to check in! So we made our way to the lobby and they informed us that the hotel was at 100% capcity and everything was behind. So sadly our room wasn’t ready yet. No big dealsince we had to drop off our rental car anyway. Eventually they called us at around 4:15 and said our room was ready. Perfect timing since we had just dropped the car and we’re READY to take on Miami! We arrived at the hotel and checked into our bay view suite #711! Much like the other 7/11 I would say this hotel had a lot of amazing attributes and is SUPER convenient however….it could use a fresh coat of paint and maybe a light wash of holy water. None the less the views were FABULOUS and it was so spacious that we forgot all about the chipped paint and late check in. As soon as we got settled it was time for dinner at The Versace Mansion! I cannot recommend this enough. The house is iconic and STUNNING and the food and service was absolutely incredible! Now it is almost midnight and I am WIDE AWAY with excitement wondering how I am going to go to sleep…. Tomorrow is the day!!!!

Here’s mine. We’ve arrived at a port. People are getting off. This isn’t out first port on call. People have no idea they need to have their SeaPass card out ready to be scanned. Then they fumble through a backpack/purse/pockets/look at spouse who has all the cards…somewhere. Meanwhile crew have been loudly announcing to have your SeaPass cards out and ready.

Here you go, courtesy of my front yard! Congratulations and have a LOVE filled week!

Guess what day it is?!?!

Yes, I know this isn’t unique to cruising. I see it at work, too. It just seems extremely prevalent this week. Please don’t stop in the middle of a busy walkway, narrow hall, or stairs to discuss plans with your group. Step to the side.

We were just on the Symphony last week. I thought I would put this out here for anyone on the fence about cruising right now. First off some background, my wife and I are often asked, "do you cruise a lot?" Well this depends on the person that is asking. We are 57 yrs. old and on the Indy of the seas tomm.. This cruise will be our 45th and 32nd on Royal. To some that is a lot... to others who are on cruise #169th, which we saw on Symphony that may not be a lot. For us we had a blast last week in fact many times it was totally like it was pre pandemic. Poolside no mask required. The Schooner, the pub, Boleros and casino no mask also. Flexibility has to be used also as the entertainment is less. Gone, for now are the street festival type parades in the promenade. If I recall correctly Hairspray was only shown on nights 1 & 2. They did not do the 70's on the promenade. Halloween costume contest was in Studio B as they are not allowed to have big public gatherings on the promenade per cruise director Brian. It was fun and a lot of people were dressed up. The servers in the MDR did not sing on the final night either. They also are not allowed to crack a lobster for guest. They can't cut a child's steak. Coco Cay was awesome as usual! That is about all I can think of right now but like I said for us it was a blast to be cruising again. Oh yes 1 more thing we met a very nice couple in the MDR at lunch also from Florida. Well we continued to see them and talked often. On night 7 they were in the Next Cruise off the promenade. A few hours later they came up to talk to us. My wife asked hey which cruise they booked. They booked the 274 night world cruise. We about fainted! We spoke for several hours and thought thank goodness we ran into these 2 at lunch on day 2. They also told us 2 other couples had also booked the world cruise and a 4th had it almost booked as they had not yet paid the $8,000.00 deposit. Happy Cruising!!

Please keep the topic cruise related.

If I know someone is going to no-show, I never say anything in advance. There's nothing their system can do to change/alert anything. Just no-show and their system will give you the double points, refund for fees, etc.

Just curious as to why you think everyone at the airport would have a negative test and be vaccinated? I’ve been flying every couple months since late last year and have never been asked for test results or my vaccination card. Flying requires wearing a mask and is not restricted in any other way that I’ve seen.

One more sleep!!!! Also thank you so much for thinking of us today! That means so much!

Ok - so I’m currently on Freedom of the Seas - watching the fox broadcast of Indiana and Michigan - it’s on a channel called Prime One (channel 16) I’ll presume that’s where all the main Fox sports events are aired.

October 24…For the first time since the re-start, the Windjammer Buffet has opened for dinner on the Oasis of the Seas. The passenger count for this week’s cruise is finalized at 3,630. That’s almost 500 more guests than last week. Almost 1,600 more than just four weeks ago. For a ship that holds approximately 5,600 double occupancy…the numbers are rising steadily. Hopefully we keep moving forward…back to normal cruising once again!

My very first thought when I read the first post of this thread lol

My favorite are the people who stop immediately upon entering a busy Costco.

I would fly to the grocery store if I could, I don’t like driving for vacation, I have what I call the 5 hr rule, if it’s over 5 hours I’m on an airplane, the day before cruise is over, you start thinking, ghz I have a long drive home, no thanks, I work at the Cincinnati airport ( which is actually in Northern Ky), I worked every day of the pandemic, flying is totally safe, as soon as the plane unloads, a crew is cleaning and spraying, plus still a mask mandate.

https://www.canada.ca/en/transport-canada/news/2021/10/mandatory-covid-19-vaccination-requirements-for-federally-regulated-transportation-employees-and-travellers.html Any planes, trains, ships leaving from Canada need to be fully vaxxed.

They would be flying from Canada and would require a negative test to enter the US.

Not just cruise day! It’s FILET DAY!! LOL thank you so much love!

It’s cruise day! Happy sailing!

The 3rd party, Cellular@Sea scans for any land cell towers before it activates. Once away from land it turns on. That’s typically beteeen 6 to 9 pm from Bayonne. You would be wise to have phones in airplane mode before then or you’ll likely have very high roaming charges. If the point with the kids is to disconnect you may want to set a milestone like when the ship pulls away from the pier phones go into airplane mode. If one of them discovers they have a cell signal with Cellular@Sea you’ll likely pay more in roaming charges compared to the cost of the cruise. That isn’t Royal but courtesy of your cell company. The Royal app does not require a purchased Voom internet plan for most features. The built in chat function costs $2 per day per device and only works on the ship with other guests on the ship that also purchase the chat function.

One last sleep!!! SO excited for you guys. Have a great trip!!

Okay - I had a little more shopping in me. One of our gifts for Yen arrived and it was a little smaller than I had expected. I was out this afternoon dropping off my multitude of returns, so I swung by the Coach store and got the same thing, just a little bigger. Which means I just added a cute little wristlet to my collection. Oops - I hope she's not reading this. Shhh, don't tell.

If you're willing to chance waiting on board, and are flexible, I know that in the past, when they haven't had enough reservations, some of the specialty restaurants will have people roaming to see if passengers want to book, usually at a reduced price, although I don't know if it is just reduced from on-board pricing (which I believe is more than cruise planner) or even lower than that. We get at least one specialty lunch & dinner from our TA, so we book onboard after deciding when & where to go.

Nope. A reprice keeps the same reservation number so it maintains all your Cruise Planner purchases.

@NancyL2648 Check to make sure…but I believe final payment dates have been changed to 30 days prior to your cruise. So your final payment date should be the end of Dec… Even if you paid in full already, you should still get a refund to your credit card.

Long way off, but good news https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/25894-celebrity-edge-to-head-down-under-for-2023-2024-season.html

Day Four in Nassau was fairly stormy, a novelty for us native San Diegans who rarely see more than 2 consecutive minutes of rain at any time. We were in port this day with Freedom, Disney Magic and Crystal Serenity. We started this morning in the Windjammer (perfectly adequate) and hopped off the ship to do some limited sightseeing following a Nassau walking tour map I had found here. Let me know if anyone wants me to link it again! We saw some cool churches, government architecture and the Fort and Queen’s Staircase, carved by hundreds of slaves out of solid rock. We stopped for some conch fritters and a tasty beer flight at Pirate Republic Brewing back near the port, the fritters were great and the bar had a nice upper viewing deck that kept up protected from a TON of rain!! Queens Staircase (in the background) The old island water tower. I spy the Ultimate Abyss!! Sail away Funny position report with a lot of circling around For dinner we tried Portside BBQ.. I am with everyone else that the sides leave something to be desired. The beans were the best side option for sure, and the Banana Dream was amazing! After dinner we won back all our losses in the casino with a $75 jackpot! heyooo Ended the cruise with the ice show. Very entertaining and better than the Freedom Ice show, I think! The had some great talent. My favorite was the duck number, obviously. This has reminded I never mentioned the Day 3 Aqua show! IT WAS THE BEST SHOW I have ever seen on a cruise! Just fantastic. We came back to the room and had to pack up but it wasn’t sad because cruise number twooo is only a day away!!

The travel sites tend to show you basic economy prices. Air2Sea show regular economy as its baseline.

We received similar on Liberty in our cabin - pre covid. I believe they are also available at in the teen lounge and guest service.

To fly even domestically in Canada you have to be vaccinated.

This is often a Royal PITA on the Royal Prominade

Before covid, despite how much I hate flying, we would fly. We drove twice and it was not that enjoyable. But after dealing with airlines refusing the refunds and constant changes to reservations, I don't trust them. I think it would be much more stressful to deal with either AC or WJ at this point. For this Dec trip, we are driving. But taking a flight from Buffalo on JetBlue is an option. So, it's not so much the safety or regulations to fly, it's the specific airlines I don't trust.

I missed the fact that the OP would be coming from Canada. That evens the odds a bit due to border stuff.

Maybe I'm wrong but I thought: To fly out of Canada (we're in Toronto), you need to be vaccinated To fly to the US, you need a negative covid test

I am not 100% sure but I remember seeing the order form either on the Allure or the Freedom when I sailed post-COVID. I can confirm when I sail next week

Not sure where you're coming from but a friend I know mentioned this as an option. Cruise Shuttle Hotels and transfers are the only options I could think of but I don't think that's really going to save you that much.

Local cellular connection cuts of when you are out of range of a land based tower. Then you will switch to the ships cell tower if your carrier has an agreement with the ship to provide services but they are not cheap from my understanding. You could end up using the ships connection at any point though so if you don't have a plan that includes coverage i would hit airplane mode in the terminal. The Royal App is supposed to work fine without an internet plan while onboard the ship. Just connect to the wifi and you will get a page where you can then just use the app. The app also does most of the booking but the main dining room didn't seem to work very well on Liberty so if you are doing my time dining book the whole week ahead as soon as you hit the ship or talk to the staff for the dining room. Personally for traveling I love my Google Fi service. The only extra cost is phone calls while abroad, data and texting is included for free and while on the ship we used wifi calling and Signal for texting.

If I re book my cruise (same one) with a lower rate, do I lose the dining and beverage deal I got already? Cause the dining deal was a really good one!

It is difficult. For a variety of reasons, we will be cruising in Europe over the holidays. Even though our party is all fully vaccinated, we are limited to cruise line excursions. Few of the excursions are appealing but we will probably choose the best of the worst in some cases and remain on board in others. We choose this trip because it was the best way to visit our adult son who is participating in a fellowship program that prohibits him for leaving the EU for the 12 months of the program. This is his only free time and with covid on the rise in Europe, we feel safest in a “cruise bubble “.

Adventure of the Seas February 23rd 2022 Vision of the Seas November 25th 2022

Love the blog and pics. Agree, taking a break and enjoying the wake view is awesome.

Yes. I am booked on this cruise and have not yet had to make final payment

Yes! under the Best price guarantee, you can get the difference as OBC for your cruise. You will need to have your TA contact Royal or do it yourself if you did not use a TA. Once the OBC is in your cruise planner, you can then cancel and re-buy items to use up the credits. As you cancel items, the money would be refunded to your original form of payment. my in-laws were about to do this on a cruise we did in August.

Folks are either ordering the proctored at-home tests from Florida or finding Urgent Care type places that have the testing. http://www.testfortravel.com is a good place to start to see what the options near you are. Antigen testing is typically the one that has the more availability of a rapid turnaround time. CVS and Walgreens offer testing all over the country. CVS has rapid antigen and Walgreens has rapid antigen or NAAT with a 24-hour turnaround (typically takes no more than a few hours for results). Most Florida airports also have testing in the terminals for when you land.

Playmakers is all new to this class. Perched high in the Sportsplex it offers great views of the game and of the sea.

Definitely on the list! I had an Edge class on my list for the next time we travelled to the US without the kids, but now I think we'll start off 2024 with Edge out of Sydney.

Congratulations! Should be a great cruise and awesome event in Star Class no less. Enjoy!

I've gone to CVS at least 3 times for pre-cruise covid tests. Couldn't be easier. The results get texted, emailed, and stored online at the minuteclinic website. This saved me when I forgot my print out at home and instead showed a digital copy.

http://www.choiceair.com/