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I didn’t even realize there was such a thing as an inflatable butt. …of course, I have no need for such enhancement as I have a natural inflate-ation. Lol

It’s been 3 years since we last sailed (Liberty of the Seas Spring Break 2019]. What a great feeling it is to see Cruise Docs and luggage tags in my inbox. JOY!

Every protocol that has been implemented chips away at the ability to enjoy a vacation. Every protocol impacts the travel industry. Some more than others and some in ways that aren't as easy to quantify. The removal of the testing requirement for inbound international flights has created significant impact on the travel industry. Just because planes were full before they removed testing doesn't mean there was no impact from the testing requirement for international flights. Other protocols like pre-cruise testing impact the travel industry. Vaccination requirements impact the travel industry. There are people now that are not cruising because of these protocols. At the moment there are many new to cruise booking travel that is largely rebound or pent up demand from having minimal travel for two years. There will soon come a time when that pent up demand has been satisfied. The state of the economy and inflation may soon put the brakes on travel demand. When that occurs the industry will need the folks who are currently avoiding travel due to protocols. Just because ships are full doesn't mean that there is no impact from the current protocols.

Sorry about that, it was a rough night

This was probably 15-20 years ago. My sister and brother in law took all 15 members of our family on a cruise (my parents, 5 members of my family, my sister’s family of 5, and my brother’s family of 3). We were all meeting up for dinner and I see my brother with his ponytail and my sister in law with her blond hair with their backs turned toward us. I sneaked up behind my brother and kicked at the back of his knee bring him toward the ground. That is when I noticed it was not my brother, but someone who looked very similar from behind. My brother in law who was with me beelined to the nearest shop and pretended like he was window shopping and didn’t know me at all. I apologized profusely but throughout the rest of the cruise the guy side eyed me every time he saw me.

Okay, the crew went to laser tag, offered once today from 1600 to 2100. They went there and I stayed to pack. Luggage is now outside the door. This journey has come to an end. What? My phone is ringing, it's Dudley checking on us. The suites lounge was packed tonight and lots of coughing and sugared up kids, running the room. We stayed for just a few minutes but had to wave goodbye as he was busting his butt for the room. He called to remind us he could walk us off tomorrow, so very sweet but we told him our plans to go it alone. Dudley is genie worthy and I'm writing to Royal to let them know. Thanks so much for following, when I get home with good internet I'll try to add more pics, bye bye for now.

I have a twofer of the same lady. I was sailing freedom out of Miami this past Feb on a 2n cruise. Since I was solo, they allowed me to use the suite/pinnacle line to board. The lady in front me had on some sort of inflatable butt, her daughter kindly pointed out that one "cheek" was bigger than the other. She of course turned bright red and looked around to see if anyone heard her. I pretended to not hear anything but couldn't help but laugh when she walked the other way. Later on the pool deck I saw that same lady in a bikini, I guess the daughter was on "booty" duty because every so often I would hear "its falling out mom!"

Agreed! Just got mine yesterday for my 7/17 sailing!

In 2017, we were on Freedom. We were lined up in the first night MDR "cattle call" (waiting to get into the MDR). I hate being in this line ... I have no idea what we were doing. Sardines have more room in their can. A tall gentleman two or three couples in front of us turned around to look at the length of the line and the "crush" of it. In a loud and booming voice he said: "These poor people ... they have not eaten in 20 minutes". That was funny enough for my soulmate and I (I certainly laughed out loud). Funnier still, 80% of the people did not get the joke. We have not stood in that line since. Curt from Canada

Perfect day, perfect day! To combat the Symphony joining us on the Island I booked the Beach Club, wowza! We skipped breakfast and debarked as soon as allowed, we were on the beach set up and in the pool and running back and forth like kids for at least an hour. I never felt there were to many people, it was a great choice. A beautiful sunny day, and believe it or not you guessed it, chair hogs. The in the pool resin type chairs were littered with shirts and water proof bags no bodies though. Gees. No kooth! The place was fairly empty until the Symphony arrived. Lunch was a lobster fest for my crew, I had the salad and grouper. The food was elevated and tasty, what was not good were our lunch companions, they surround the outdoor dining area with hibiscus in planters, flying insects love these. You know what else they love? Lobster and grouper! The insects were swarming tables, it was kind of disgusting and gross. Our server said you can't get away from them especially this time of year, ewwww. We asked for extra napkins and slightly covered our food while eating. Not that enjoyable due to that little fact. The cabanas beach and overwater were all booked, I was surprised how many people pile in and party hard. The crazy thing was though most of the people all over the beach including the cabanas left early, maybe to hot? If it was me at those prices you'd have to pry my butt out if there with a shoe horn. So it's even less people early and later in the day. Just perfect! Ugh as I'm typing this the golf balls are going crazy overhead tonight!

I'm posting this in the Rumors section b/c I have not seen it but one place, so far. La Vida Loca is reporting that Celebrity will be lifting the vaccination requirement for passengers under 17 years old, for cruises from Europe. Granted, this is a subset of a subset of a subset of cruisers, but to my knowledge this is the first time I have read of any vaccination requirement being lifted anywhere. Testing requirements ? Yes...but not vaxxes as far as I know. Anybody else hear this anywhere officially ? Could there be a crack ?

Our next cruise we of course printed the luggage tags on T-minus 30. A couple going with us who are not avid cruisers just didn't seem to understand the adrenaline rush that day 30 milestone brings to regular cruisers.

Days Eleven: Willow Today was our last day here so I woke up early to play with my cousins. We played a couple board games then had breakfast. It was time for our final excursion: sled dogs! We got to play with all of their 62 dogs. Lots of them enjoyed getting up on their hind two legs and dancing with us. There was this dog named Patsy who’s the great x22 granddaughter of Balto and Togo. She was the sweetest out of all of them. If you ever go, be sure to look out for Tenzing, he bites anything hanging off of you and almost stole my scarf. After we played with them for a bit, it was time to mush! Since it’s summer, we weren’t on sleds and instead had the dogs hooked up to a UTV. I got to stand in the back the whole time. It was really cool to see these dogs run and funny thinking my own dog was sleeping at home. Once we were done mushing, we played with the puppies! They were adorable, but one of them tried to eat my hair. I even got to hold one. We got hamburgers or hotdogs, chips, and cookies included with the whole experience for lunch. It was amazing and if you’re ever in Willow, you should definitely give Snowhook Adventure Guides of Alaska a try. Once we got back to my cousin’s house we played on their trampoline for a little bit. Then we tried out their ATVs. I didn’t drive, but it was pretty cool to ride with my dad. I think I’ve been on every mode of transportation this trip. It was time for the inevitable packing. Somehow we made it all fit, even with our souvenirs. We played a couple more board games then said bye. Before we left I made sure to get myself a sled dog. Plush of course. Then we were on our flight and headed back home. Shortly after we took off, my mom opened the window shade one last time and above the clouds, we saw for our first time Denali. We are now members of the 30% club, meaning only 30% of visitors to that area actually get to the see the mountain. Clearly it's a very elusive and exclusive mountain. So I started this blog to find out what there was in Alaska for teenagers. In Optix, they go with the flow and do whatever everyone wants to do. You can almost always look for something fun to do there when they’re open of course. There’s also tons of activities onboard and off board for anyone. I’d definitely do it again. And a big thanks to everyone who made this blog happen. My mom for having the idea, my dad for posting it, my brother for pictures, my family and friends for encouragement, and most of all to you, my reader, cause without you, none of this would really matter so thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Thanks for tuning in to my Alaska Adventure!

Voyager of the Seas, July 3rd sailing from Stockholm. Booked via TA. Originally in "Ultra Spacious Ocean View", Category 1K. We didn't receive any email from RoyalUp, but went to bid anyway about two months before the sail date. Bid 555 EUR per guest for Grand Suite - 2 Bedroom. Total 1110 EUR (roughly 1165 USD) "Your stateroom has been upgraded." -email received on 10th of June. Reasons for bidding that amount: 1. It was a bit over the minimum to get into "Fair bid" territory, and I threw it just a bit over the threshold due to someone else probably bidding exactly at the threshold. 2. We really wanted this particular suite and none of the others, and there was a limited supply of 2 bedroom grand suites. 3. We could easily afford this amount as got some nice price reductions and deals on the original cruise fare (--> we stayed within our original travel budget even with this upgrade). The sailing is probably not even close to being fully booked. Maybe closer to 50% than 90%. At least there are hundreds of staterooms still available and we are only a few weeks away. I hope this information helps someone else wondering what to bid.

Just got off the Oasis yesterday after boarding on June 10th. We were hearing that the ship was around 90ish percent full. I can honestly say that the staffing may not be 100%, but we had no issues. Had My Time Dining at 7pm and was seated immediately every night. Dinner took around 1.25 hours on average, but could have been faster if needed and you asked. Always found seats in the buffet and only had to wait about 8 minutes one day to make sure we washed our hands. Overall they seem to be getting things done. I will say the line was longer for MTD if you did not have reservations.

Once again wanted to say thanks to @wordell1 and @FionaMG for providing their first hand experiences. I initially called RC to ask them for more clarity while posting to this forum at the same time as a backup. RC was supposed to call me the next day with an answer but I haven't heard another word from them. I'm very grateful that this forum has such a helpful community of folks because otherwise I'd still be in the dark.

Surprise you must vacate your stateroom by 0800, Dudley saves the day. We met him at Schooner Bar which was packed with all cabin types. He told everyone to remain seated except suites and pins. Son of a gun if he didn't wisk us off the ship in minutes. I'll leave with some nice memories and am glad we did it but please beware the Mariner was a shock. Maybe include internet? Maybe allow more then one towel per person and maybe don't make me hunt down a garbage can because you say no. Probably our worst Royal sailing to date as far as ship, but Dudley and that itinerary just wonderful! Parked next to the Mouse this morning.

I am thinking Symphony, Anthem or Odyssey because there is more space and more to do on those sea days. It's also a boon that they will end up either in FLL or MIA, that saves on round trip airfare.

My thoughts are larger the better. I would also pick a suite. I think on a transatlantic having more ship space would be a must for me.

Not to debate this with you because it would be a political debate. But, my antidotal evidence is that there are still a lot of people that haven't been jabbed, will never be jabbed and refuse to cruise/travel because of the jab. So, I believe that if the jab mandate goes away, business would be even better for the cruise/travel industry. Going from zero passenger count to what it is today isn't remarkable. Bookings were going up from day one, when it was required to wear a mask 100% of the time, excluding in your own stateroom and actually eating/drinking, and you had to be jabbed. People were just happy to be out and about. I think people would have cruised if you told them they had to wear "Depends" over their head and give urine specimens ever 3 hours. JMHO

Since the Statue of Limatations has ran its time I'll tell my now funny story. We were booked on a 15 night Acapulco, Mexico to Hawaii returning to SanDiego. This was 2007 on the Legend and RCCL didn't have much of a cruise port in Acapulco. We meet at a large hotel conference center where everyone was checked in and then bused to the ship. When we got to the ship we were sent to a large aluminum warehouse type of building. Keep in mind it was mid-summer in sunny Mexico and was hotter than the hinges of hell. More and more people kept entering the already crowded warehouse. There were gates at the gangway door which led to the ship. I was sweating profusely by this time and my wife who had health problems was on the verge of passing out. The crowd was starting the shout "Let us On" but with no results. A long came a security guard seeking entrance through the gate so he could go to his station. The guard on the ship side of the gate unlocked the gate and slid the gate to the side so the guard could enter. I looked at the group of fellows next to me and said I'm game if you're game it's time to board! With that the gates were pushed to the side and at least 500 cruise passengers headed on to the ship. I felt so bad by the time we crashed the gate that the thought of a Mexican jail was actual an improvement over the current situation. I am now 72 years old and still think back with glee at my last act of civil disobedience! I'm not sorry I did it and if I had it to do over I would do the same thing. Upon return my wife wrote the President of RCCL regarding the event and how terrible it was. Much to my surprise RCCL actually called her to acknowledge things went terrible wrong. They apologized and gave us a 10% discount toward our next cruise. Sorry this was so long. Bill

M poor grandson spent about 6 hours in the wave pool at CocoCay and running to the Snack Shack. As we were leaving, he looks at me, turns green & says “I don’t feel good”. God love the girl at the towel station “right over by that bush sweetheart, we’ll clean it up”. Then she took him to the bar & got him a can of ginger ale. What a great employee.

Thanks all US doesnt have any rules, so I could have flown home immediately. I chose to quarantine for 5 days, per the CDC advice, out of respect for other people on the plane to not fly with full blown Covid. We got home late last night and I could not have imagined flying 5+ hours with how I felt the back on Monday. Feeling much better now.

I’m tempting fate by starting this blog a whole two days early. Eep! We’ve been trying to cruise some form of this itinerary for years and it has just never worked out. Then finally in 2020 we were booked. Hooray! Wait, what? Global pandemic? Doh! There was no lift and shift option, since Royal didn’t offer anything like this in 2021, so we took our FCC and stayed home. As soon as the summer 2022 schedule came out I booked, deciding to worry about how it might fit in our plans later Turned out to be a little bit stressful, since we will be moving less than 4 weeks after we get home from this trip, but that’s Future KristiZ’s problem. Good luck to her! Ha! It is myself, MisterZ, and MomMe again on this cruise. The conversation might have gone something like this: “Hey Ma! We’re cruising the Arctic next year!” “Oh, how fun for you two!” “No, WE’RE cruising the Arctic. All three of us.” “Well ok then! Guess I better find some sweaters.” I appreciate her ability to roll with it We’re on Jewel of the Seas in an aft corner 2-bedroom Owner’s Suite, #9656. Should be perfect for all the Norwegian scenery. Itinerary: June 20 - Amsterdam June 21 - At Sea June 22 - Molde June 23 - At Sea June 24 - Tromso June 25 - Honningsvag June 26 - At Sea June 27 - Alesund June 28 - Flam June 29 - Haugesund June 30 - Kristiansand July 1 - At Sea July 2 - Amsterdam June 29 was supposed to be a sea day, but about 30 days before departure Haugesund was added. First time I’ve had a port added without any other port changing. Who knew? It was already a pretty busy itinerary, now more so. I will hopefully be able to include some photos from MisterZ’s much better camera as we go along. And please ask whatever questions you have about Jewel, Norway, or anything else and I’ll do my best to get them answered.

I'm also near Denver. Heat you're used to. Yes it'll be humid, but you'll always have a breeze so it's not so bad. I would not let that be of much concern. Just pack yourself a small bottle of laundry detergent if you out-sweat your shirts and you can do a little laundry in the cabin bathroom.

Flight logistics for this cruise were tough. Since we’re coming from Managua, Nicaragua our options are a bit limited. I also wanted to avoid the “test to fly to the US” hassle if we were just going to transit through, so flying through Panama City was the choice. I also didn’t want to fly for 18-24 hours. There is one flight per day from Managua to Panama City, and then one nonstop flight from Panama to Amsterdam. Sounds great, right? Except the Managua flight got into Panama 5 minutes after the Amsterdam flight left. And the two airlines involved don’t play nicely together, so buying a through ticket wasn’t possible anyway. Overnight in Panama was our only option. And then flight schedules changed about 6 weeks before our trip. Turns out we would have had a very manageable 3 hours to make the connection in Panama, but now it was too late. Changing either flight by a day would have tripled our cost. Overnight in Panama remained our best option. We flew to Panama yesterday, and spent the night at the Crowne Plaza Airport hotel. It was… serviceable. And that’s pretty much all I’ll say about that. Oh, except the dinner buffet (the only choice) was actually pretty tasty. So that was nice. We are currently sitting in the KLM lounge waiting for our Amsterdam flight to board. MomMe, flying out of Jacksonville via Atlanta, is already on her way to Amsterdam. We will meet her at the hotel, as she gets in about 6 hours before we do. We got the email from the Suite Concierge about 6 days out. I’ll see if I can drum up a copy later.

For me, it's also like I don't understand how/why some people don't like beer.

We had that on our way to Vancouver through LAX. The LAX flight was oversold, and they asked for volunteers. We asked if they could move us to the direct flight to Vancouver and they did that. Saved us 3 hours in travel time. No money offered, but seeing as the direct flight was originally 2x the price as the one we booked, I call that a win.

I’m on Oasis now. I have the scheduled 5:30 seating. At dinner last night, first night on the ship, they announced if you weren’t seated by 5:45 for dinner your table would be given away. They also said the dining room opens at 5:15, I imagine to expedite service. When we left the dining room, I’m not sure what time, there were 2 long lines waiting for entry. Staff was attentive and did not seem lacking. I was on this ship May 1 and it felt less crowded and service sucked as did the food. So far, so good. I did see new staff being given orientation today.

La Vida Loca has just confirmed that this is the case. Any medical or religious exemptions now require NO documentation. Eligibility to cruise with an exemption is still entirely up to Carnival to determine (they must still comply with the 90% vaxxed rules) so you must pay your cruise fare in total before you find out if you will even be allowed to cruise unvaxxed and you will still be required to test so that leaves us out BUT I do see cracks in the dam. This new rule applies to any cruise, including the Caribbean. Yay ! Moving in the right direction.

For all the goofy stuff they confiscate, I'm impressed that those go through.

I agree about the suite perks on this class. This is room for improvement.

Just clarify from experience and as a scientist who works on diagnostic tests, the posters are correct in the three choices 1) regular PCR which sent out to a third party medical lab 2) rapid PCR also known as a Naat. Depending on the machine that is being run you can have results in like 45 mins. The interest thing about the machine that run naat test is they are a hybrid of PCR and an antigen test depending on the brand of equipment 3) the regular antigen test ( many Walgreens have now stopped offering this) The problem arises actually after the test as there is red tape and other hurdles that need to be addressed. My advice is that if you took an Naat from Walgreens and you know that you have the correct email with them ( check that you have a confirmation for the test) then I would call and ask for a print out. I would also caution those using Walgreens regular PCR tests as their needs to be a thrid party medical lab. So even though the PCR process only takes about 4 to 8 hrs depending on the PCR method, you may not get results in 24 hours. much of is has to do with the fact that medical labs do what is called sample batching. Meaning they aren't going to waste reagents to run only a few samples. They will wait to have a full load before running. Another issue is the transit time from collection site to the lab as there can be logistical issues. The sample could have been misplaced and then run later or there could be a delay in delivery of the sample. My last bit of advice would be if you are expecting results with in a certain be time frame and you don't get one, call back and ask.

Well, @Mattdoes, anyway!

@Lovetocruise2002@GregD stick with the aft for sure. I promise you especially for 9 nights. This is quite short of a suite. Even the cabin attendant, not a suite guy....did you see my towel animal story? We never saw him and honestly I felt our gratuity 17.50 was a rip off. He had so many cabins, not fair to either of us. Dudley in concierge was the only resemblance to a suite experience, the suite amenities are non existent on this ship. This itinerary was the best, this ship and cabin are a one and done for us. The wifi was hit or miss. OMG the activities were a miss and the entertainment was lacking well, entertainment. Views A+ and people watching is great, other then that it's still to expensive.

Transatlantic sailings are sea day intensive. I would always go with the bigger ship for that reason. More to do.

Legend of the Seas check-in in Shanghai 2009. Luggage drop-off was located in the terminal to be dropped AFTER check-in. Fights broke out, employees were terminated, and once onboard the staff/crew were so apologetic as they kept reminding us that we were in good hands "NOW."

The coffee machine will make hot espresso, lattes and cappuccinos. You have to add your own sweeteners. The coffee card would gives you, in addition, access to iced specialty coffee drinks, frozen blended coffee drinks and also flavorings for coffee and chai tea lattes.

But bookings are already up even within the current regulatory environment. I don't think the vaccine requirement is hurting the cruise lines at all.

From Google - "The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest federal nutrition assistance program. SNAP provides benefits to eligible low-income individuals and families via an Electronic Benefits Transfer card. This card can be used like a debit card to purchase eligible food in authorized retail food stores." Formerly food stamps, also known in same areas as EBT

Dude walking around with a Flava Flav clock hanging from his neck, a drink in his hand (one of many, I assume), and kept going up to people asking them if they knew what time it was. He then jumped in the pool fully clothed, still wearing said clock. I laughed.

With the questionable state of the world economy my opinion is that no option will be left off the table to keep bookings up. This would definitely apply to finding work-arounds to get unvaccinated back onboard to keep profits up, nothing drives policy change more than the mighty dollar.

Look beyond Aviation. Hotels and cruises in Europe for example. On lines like Royal a generous portion of a Europe cruise would typically have a sizable US based guest contingency. Europe bookings have been soft this year. The discontinuous and highly variable protocols within the EU contributed to that but also the US international flight testing was the final straw that caused a lot of Americans to not do Europe this summer. It's probably a good thing demand is off. Had Americans tried to vacation in Europe in pre-pandemic numbers the airlines would have been crushed a lot worse than they were.

Make sure you take a tour of the arcade before buying credits. They haven't been the same since covid.

August 8th, Independence OTS

It doesn't need to be a political debate. I agree that there are many that have not and will not receive vaccines. I agree dropping the mandate would increase the pool from which to draw customers for all industries. However the data is pretty concrete, a large majority of ships are sailing at capacity; will it sustain at those levels remains to be seen. For now, the requirements are not hurting.

Are you sure this was not famed RCBlog Illuminati “cooking yo”?

Thanks both, appreciated.

"Sneaking over to Celebrity" Traitor!

Please add: Oct 27, 2023 - Odyssey of the Seas (Transatlantic 15 day)