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They frown upon bears in the suite. No pets allowed unless registered service animals. A lot of what you are asking about can vary by genie and ship. Some ships have strict rules about how far a genie can go and seating for non-Star guests is unlikely to be allowed but you can always ask.

“The Starry Neighbor (Neighbour?) Chronicles: Pining for the Fjords” – Anthem of the Seas, July 8th-15th, 2022 PININ' for the FJORDS?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that? This cruise…long awaited, cancelled, booked again, wasn’t sure if was going to happen, now it looks like it might. That’s definitely the definition of “pining”! We started this journey pre-pandemic when @Matt announced the Anthem Group Cruise to Norway for July 2021. We had never entertained sailing to the Fjords prior to that but could not pass on the opportunity to sail with friends and sail an itinerary that is out of the norm for us. We all know what happened after that. Pandemic came, GC was cancelled, goodbye Norway sailing. When European sailings were released for Summer 2022, we discussed in detail what we would want to do. At the time (it was December 2020), we were still in the height of the pandemic, and it seemed crazy to even thinking about travelling internationally. It was a toss up between a Greek Isle sailing or try again for Norway. We let the kids decide. One kid loves nature and the other loves big cities, neither one has even been to Europe. It was an easy decision to try again for Norway, which would have us sailing out of Southampton. That checks off nature (the Fjords) for one, and the big city (London) for the other. After we decided on the itinerary, the next part was deciding how big we would go for this sailing. I promise that I have always had in my mind that we would do a smaller, older ship for Europe. It was beyond my control that the only ship offering this sailing (in July 2022 which we needed) is Anthem of the Seas. It is also beyond my control that Anthem’s only suites with aft views (which I really wanted for the Fjords) are the Star Class lofts. I was good, I held several cabin categories and waited for Hubby to come home. Then I sent a message to @GregD telling him of our plans. We (Hubby, @GregD, The Boss, and I) were supposed to sail the original Odyssey Inaugural together in November 2020 along with a ton of other blog/Insider friends, so we were sharing our misery together over that lost sailing. The conversation went like this: Me: I am pretty sure the GC to Norway is not going to happen so this is the replacement in 2022. Prices are way better than 2021. I am thinking of Star, and I want those aft views of the Fjords. Greg: Yeah, star class would be awesome on Quantum class ships with all those activities. Me: We’ve been on Anthem twice already. Hubby really wants to try SC on Anthem. (See my justification there ) Me: YOLO Book It! for you and fam? LOL Greg: I will talk to the boss. The Boss: Norway is a must do, and if we are looking at a third cruise being cancelled, STAR CLASS IS A REQUIREMENT!! Me: Woohoo! @WAAAYTOOO said to stay away from the corner lofts, they are way smaller. Greg: Yup. Greg: So, I did a thing… (sends email to TA to inquire) Me: Let me know how it plays out. ---Day after--- Greg: STAR CLASS NEIGHBORS! And so, the “Starry Neighbor (Neighbours?) Chronicles” begins!

A lot depends on how many “extra” people we’re talking about. Of course, @Mattis correct…the official answer is “no”, but if you are just looking to have 1-2 people join you for a show, my guess is that you will be accommodated. More than that ? It would put the Genie in a very uncomfortable position of having to really bend the rules. Don’t be “that guy”. From my experience, when you ask the Genie this question, he/she will recite you official policy and tell you that only Star Class passengers will be entitled to SC amenities. They will never put anything in writing or even over the phone, that contradicts official policy. But when you speak with them personally, they will let you know what they can and cannot do for you and the other passengers. My experience has been that the reserved seating for an extra person or 2 has never been a problem. Regarding food and drinks in the suite - this will not be a problem. More likely than not, you will have waaay more food and beverages in your suite than you and 25 people could ever consume. We have yet to be in SC when we did not have to tell them to STOP with the food and drinks ! It just keeps coming and coming and coming ! They do not care who comes to your suite nor what they eat or drink. I have had as many as 35 people in the suite for which food and beverages were provided. You do NOT need to worry about this one… I agree with @twangster. Leave the bears at home. They will be constantly trying to climb on the railings of the balcony and are likely to scare your neighbors. . …and the tip you would have to give your suite attendants for cleaning up after them would be prohibitive.

We ate dinner at Chops as we sailed out of Tromso. I have to say this Chops experience was just decent. Not bad, but not excellent — either in food or in service.

The problem is where do you draw the line that X is too many? 2? 4? 8? Whatever number you come up with, there's going to be someone that says "C'mon, what's one more person going to hurt anything?" This is no different that first class on an airplane. Doesn't matter who you know in the first class cabin. If you didnt buy a seat there, you dont get their benefits.

This is why the genie can't reserve front row seats for bears. They block the view for everyone in the rows behind them!

The answer is it depends. Officially, the answer is no. Star Class benefits are only for Star Class guests. Have I been able to get a +1 with us? Yes. But it's not the policy and you can't bet on it.

@smokeybandit Here you go! Chops breakfast menu for suite guests on the Mariner of the Seas last week.

Day 5 - Tromso This is one of the larger cities in northern Norway, about 80,000 people. They are also going from 50 cruise ships docking in 2019 to nearly 500 expected in 2022. Crazy! A lot is due to uncertainty in the Baltics, so many lines are looking for alternate ports. Also, Norway opened up a bit faster than many other countries in the region. They have a huge tunnel system for getting between the sections of town scattered on different island. I’ve never been in a tunnel system so expansive that it needed traffic circles We did the Highlights of Tromso tour. We saw part of the Tromso Museum, specifically the portion dedicated to the Sami people who were the indigenous reindeer herders that occupied northern Scandinavia starting about 2000 years ago. Our guide did an excellent job of talking us through this section. Next we took a cable car to the top of the hill outside of town. A four minute ride and then some amazing views. The weather was excellent again today! We also had a tasty local waffle with jam and brown cheese. Last we visited the Arctic Cathedral. There was a concert going on at the time so we didn’t get too many pictures on the inside. Here’s a decent shot of the Cathedral as we were sailing away: One of the other tour buses broke down, so we got to see what a heavy duty Norwegian tow truck looks like: Shots of town during arrival and sailaway, in no particular order: And some scenery as we headed north:

This is what I want to do as my retirement cruise a few years from now.

Side note for what it's worth - During the President's Cruise Q&A w/Michael Bailey - Michael Bailey was asked about both the pre-cruise testing and vaccine requirements. He stated he was hopeful the pre-cruise testing requirement would be removed "in a couple of months" as conversations with the CDC were moving in a positive direction. However, he did not exude any confidence that the vaccine mandates would be removed anytime soon due to the requirements of other countries. So we'll see what happens.

Only Quantum class have a galley attached to the pub. It's left over from the relationship with Michael Schwartz. Oasis class had 150 Central Park with Michael Schwartz menus while Quantum class had the gastropub with food from Michael Schwartz. When the relationship ended 150 CP reverted to a similar but Royal menu and the pubs on Quantum class changed over to a Royal menu in the pubs. No other pubs in the fleet have a galley attached to the pubs so they don't have food for purchase including Oasis class. You can however always carry food into the pub. The most common is pizza from Sorrento's or cafe Promenade. I see that often and am guilty of doing it myself. The wings from room service are cheaper than the wings in Playmakers. Both are great, the PM option includes hot wings (spicy hot). The room service version are good but not spicy hot.

For the first time ever, apparently I was offered a GTY room today and didn't even know it. This is a new experience for me and I don't know what triggered it. I called up Casino Royale, asked to book the room they offered me, and when everything was done they said I would not know my room assignment until 24 hours before the cruise. Really? I said no way! So then, they offered my a Junior Suite for an upcharge, and my room assignment would be immediate. The rules and trickeries... They be evolving.

Perspective from the other neighbour (neighbor?) It seems so long ago when COVID wasn’t a thing, but our story started out on Empress. The Boss (Heather) and I were looking for an adults only cruise. There was an 8(9?) night Eastern Caribbean BVI cruise that we had booked. The week we booked happened to include Heathers birthday. I remember reading a @twangster blog that got me interested in that Itinerary. We had one of the aft owners suites booked I think. As time went on Heather was nervous about being on a little ship (she is prone to motion sickness) but we liked the idea of going to places that the bigger ships couldn’t get into I remember when @Matt announced the 2021 group cruise in Norway, and I thought this sounds like a great experience. I brought it up to The Boss who much to my surprise thought the same thing. As she tells it, she never thought about going there, but now that the idea was in her head, why not. We decided that Empress was out and Norway was in, so we jumped ship and the group cruise was booked. That cruise was also our Anniversary, so why not celebrate with friends. We booked one of the short lived spa balcony rooms, because suite prices were stupid money at the time. The Boss figured if she couldn’t get her suite, the spa bonus was a consolation prize and we didn’t need all that space since it was just us adults. At the time, we had a GS Odyssey Inaugural, a GS2BR on Liberty, plus an A2 on Oasis booked, so something had to give. Boy did it give. COVID happened and things started getting cancelled. We were so excited to be on those group cruises so that we could finally meet some of these people that we interact with online. The Boss was fully ready to learn from the Suite Snob master herself. As things were going from bad to worse, I remember getting that message from Sabrina about shifting the Norway cruise to the following summer. I told The Boss about it, and she demanded Star Class. You all have seen how that conversation went. After messaging my TA, and what seemed like eternity later, the switch was made again, and we all became Star Class neighbors, and the chronicles began. We couldn’t just stop there though. We also decided to make this an even bigger vacation. The plan was to do two days in Southampton pre cruise, then 5 days in London after the cruise. If you have read my previous Navigator blog, you saw how we like to surprise our kids. Well, we are at it again. The kids are now coming with us, and they have no idea. They think that they are staying at the grandparents while The Boss and I are on the cruise. They still think we are in a balcony room, so the star class room will also be a surprise to them. The plan of attack for letting them in on this is that my dad will drop us off at the airport. The kids will ride along, since they are going to his house after, and they will get the first surprise in the parking lot when we get there. We will still tell them we are in a standard balcony room until we get to the terminal and find the star class banner with an “oops…did we forget to mention we were star class too?" As we have gotten closer we have been teasing the kids about the things that we are doing. One of the booked excursions ends at the top of a mountain with a snack of waffles. Johnny lamented “but I like waffles.” Lydia was also whining about not going. We told her that she wouldn’t have any fun. The cruise will be mostly scenery and mountains, to which she replied tearfully “I love mountains….” Will the kids end up in therapy from their parents lying to them all the time? Maybe. Is it worth it for the surprises? Definitely.

We had a similar situation this past Christmas on Oasis where another couple joined us without star class or suite benefits. As others have said it depends on a host of factors; how many, whether they have the unlimited dining and refreshment packages, policies can vary from ship to ship and genie to genie so the extent to which they are included in activities and dining may vary. When the genie initially reached out he asked if others were joining us so that allowed me to ask how the process for scheduling dining and entertainment would work for our friends. I didn’t request any star class benefits for our friends and acknowledged up front that I knew they were not entitled to any. Our genie said he would take care of it and he did. He surprised us by including our friends in CK on night 1 (filet night) but at the last moment the food and beverage manager said it wasn’t possible. Which we totally understood because it was a Christmas sailing with reduced capacity limits. He included our friends in our escape room session, BINGO and rising tide bar. Our friends tipped our genie throughout the cruise. Dining was made easier due to the fact they had the unlimited dining package and refreshment package. Dining in your suite will not be a problem.

To me, this is one of the weaknesses of the Star Class program, even the suite program. A lot of people travel with extended family and want to be able to meet up. There really should be some middle ground. As an example, I think that you should be able to add an extra room for kids or extended family and add Start Class benefits to it (at a reasonable cost). Even with an adjoining room, you can't do that now.

So my certification from Matt Hochberg's Travel Agent and Driving School isn't valid?

I’d edit that, but I got such a good chuckle from it!

Meeeeee toooooo. AND your money isn't working for you if you pay it off early. No, I'm not going to get rich with the money in my Savings Account, or in my 401K, or other investments, but it is working. After experiencing the pandemic, I'm especially protective of my money. I doubt that this would happen but could and I don't think any/most cruise lines can withstand another shut down. If it happened again, you may wake up one morning and read the news that Royal, Brand X, MSC, whatever filed for Bankruptcy and your money is gone, unless you have travel insurance that covers that. And many other scenarios that could happen. So, I'll keep my money close to my mattress, thank you very much. Royal and/or my TA send plenty of reminders that "FINAL PAYMENT" is due.

I never pay ANYTHING before it’s due. Money stays in my account til it needs to be paid. I have reminders on my phone, on the paper calendar on the wall and with my TA.

I had the same issue and here is my update 7 business days and still no refund so I spent yesterday morning on the phone trying to get a resolution. The solution was to extend my final payment to two days before the cruise departs this was not acceptable. So I did the only thing I could think of I sent a Facebook message to M. Bailey someone from the executive resolutions called me confirmed the refund has been processed and will be reflected on my CC next week but more importantly the system finally allows me to make the payment to get the balance back to $0, I was also given some onboard credit which was not the reason I contacted them but was a nice gesture. I did make it known that whoever decided this was the way to handle the situation picked the absolute worst way to make things right and they need to find a way to make those back end adjustments without involving the customer, she confirmed the issue is tied to the new cruise planner system they implemented and that IT is aware of it and trying to figure out the issue but they have seen an uptick of funky stuff happening to reservations once you cancel something on the cruise planner. For reference I cruise 7/10 and had originally been paid in full in Jan 3,2022.

Print it. You can also show it in the app (or save it to your Apple wallet if an iPhone user) if you want but many find it quicker and easier to print everything.

You need to get a Covid test before your Royal Caribbean cruise 2 days, not 48 hours, before your cruise

I've been told by some bar staff that they don't like getting $2 bills because they have to get rid of them due to their home countries not accepting them when they go to deposit the money.

I tip my server when he/she delivers my dessert. I want to make sure they get it themselves and not leave it on the table where anyone can just pocket it. I guess I’ve always tried to treat my server with respect, look them in the eye, say their name, and express my thanks for their good service while I hand them the money. Makes it much more personal. It doesn’t take much to please me and on the other hand it takes really bad service for me to be unhappy. Even then, I’ll make the effort. It’s surprising how many times the server, who probably had been having a bad day, wasn’t expecting anything…but lit up like a tree when I tipped.

Thank you so much for the kind words! I had such a great time writing and keeping everyone updated. I'm looking forward to doing it again for our next sailing in January.

I can broaden my horizons and do it with a good Bourbon but when Royal has no bourbon anywhere on the ship. It’s time for management to step up and fix the dang problem.

Cruise lines can accept the "old" test. Cdc actually came out formally with that guidance this week.

I normally leave the tip on the table or hand them off to the staff. I carry a certain amount of $1,5, 10 and 20 bills so I am prepared. If it is a group of us, I tip with a larger bill after each round. I don't like to wait until the end but if you do, write the crew members name down so when you get more envelopes from guest services or concierge, the tip will go to the right person. You can drop off at guest services and they will distribute them to the appropriate person or the concierge. I would not leave anything in the cabin unless it's for the cabin attendant. Lastly, the tipping habit won't be "reported" per se, they might tell crew members if you remove grats but your habit might follow you on each cruise with crew. I.e. when tipped a lot in the suite lounge on Allure and we would see the crew members out and about and they would be extra friendly to us. I was solo and tipped in the Diamond lounge and whenever I saw one of the crew he would do extra stuff like bring me drinks without asking or charging. Of course YMMV but all in all you should get great service regardless.......unless you remove grats, then ........

I'm so glad it helped. You're going to have such a great time. If you really want to go out of Rome, I imagine you could change it pretty easily. Either way, I have no doubt it's going to be a great trip. One thing I highly recommend, wherever you board, is to get in at least a couple days prior to your cruise.

The @Lovetocruise2002pre-cruise plan is as follows: July 3rd: DTW-LHR. Delta, booked through Air2Sea. Hopefully no flight drama and lost luggage like last time. I will not be able to function as well this time if I lose my luggage. July 4th - 8th: Spending a few days in London, England. We have Harry Potter fans here so the girls are really looking forward to that. My 16 year old is just looking forward to "all things British" as she puts it. This will be their first time across the pond and Hubby and I have not been to London since 2004! The excitement is real. July 8th - Blackberry Cars (who has excellent reviews on TripAdvisor and has been extremely pleasant to deal with pre-travel) will pick us up from our London hotel and drive us to Southampton. I will admit, I am way more nervous about testing for this sailing than any other one since the restart, because we are spending those days in London before the cruise. At this point, not much more we can do but hope for the best. I was really hoping that Royal would ditch the testing for Southampton sailings in time for our cruise but no such luck. However, one good thing is that when we got the protocols email a week ago, Royal has now put in writing that they will accept Switch Health test for pre-cruise for Canadians. That will save us some money rather than having to find a place to test in London.

The bottom line is that society must learn how to live with this new virus much like society has learned to live with other viruses. We collectively have taken great strides forward from the days when there were lockdowns and vaccine passports implemented in some form in various cities and countries. Those have all but disappeared and we are free to go watch Top Gun in a packed movie theater sitting beside strangers with no protocols for 3 hours. Yet cruising is still subject to excessive government regulation and the only industry subject to the scrutiny of government oversight related to the virus to this extent.

Day 4 - At Sea I will say that if you tend toward seasickness, an itinerary in the North Sea might not be for you. Last night we had 30 foot swells most of the night. Several passengers actually switched rooms in the middle of the night because their cabins were “too loud, with lots of creaking and popping”, including the one directly below us. Personally I feel it just sounded like a ship at sea, but maybe they were more used to larger ships. Dunno. Morning saw much smoother sailing. There was a Blue Nose ceremony at 10:30am, a champagne toast at 5pm, and a balloon drop at 5:15pm. We also got certificates for crossing the Arctic Circle. There have been lots of activities, including various trivia, bingo, art auctions, and the like. I will send in the Cruise Compasses at the end. I’ve gotten behind already in posting food pictures, so here’s a bunch, in no particular order, to catch up! Lunch at Izumi, but we mostly failed at getting photos. Here’s karaage and potstickers: From the MDR or room service: Pepper Steak Pie: Classic Cheesecake: Seafood cake: Braised Short Ribs: Chicken Schnitzel: Classic chocolate cake: Steak Oscar: Jaffa cake: And here’s a jaunty hippo!

Critical piece of information in the article: Yet, since the phased restart of cruise travel in July 2021, there have been no critical emergency situations where any ship has been overwhelmed with the need to evacuate guests due to a crippling outbreak of COVID-19. Even where higher numbers of cases have been reported on vessels, the cruise line’s emergency measures, including contact tracing, isolation measures, and quarantine, have proven effective, and most passengers who do test positive have been either asymptomatic or experienced only very mild symptoms of discomfort.

My understanding is that Royal partners with legitimate travel companies and allows them to resell their products. I don't think Royal allows individuals to register as a travel provider and gain access to their systems. I've never looked into what their expectations are for a travel company to become a registered travel agency that can resell their products. I suspect you'll find they are looking for bonide travel companies that intend to handle volumes of business, not a handful of bookings spread across a number of years like an individual would for their own needs only. As an individual you would need to find a host agency to work under as you seek to become a travel agent. However most legitimate travel agencies are looking for agents who intend to make a profession as a true travel agent. That's how they make their money. There is no business value for a legitimate travel company to have an agent who just wants to manage their own travel arrangements but nothing beyond that. https://careertrend.com/how-to-become-a-disney-travel-agent-13642081.html From that URL: Warning There are some companies that claim to be legitimate host agencies, but they are really "card mills." This means that they sell travel agent credentials to people who simply use them to try to get discounted travel. Legitimate travel vendors such as Royal Caribbean will not accept bookings from these companies. Choose your host agency carefully.

In my experience it's very similar to a CK breakfast menu minus one or two things.

We got the blanket on our Alaska cruise. For $25.99 I didn't have much hope for it, but it was actually a really nice thick blanket worth every penny.

In case others are interested, I did a bit more sleuthing and hear that most of the time, everyone can get off the ship within 45 minutes of arrival in Bermuda.

I would print as many of your required documents as possible for check in. While they can use your phone, it goes much quicker if they printed copies. Your set sail pass will be used in the same way as your room key until you are able to get to the room to retrieve your room keys.

I read the call transcript. Arnold gave the same answer Royal has given when asked about selling ships. Given the right opportunity, yea, they'd sell. The reality is that "right opportunity" isn't coming. No one is buying cruise ships with any kind of demand at the moment. IMO, their answer is like anyone's answer would they sell their house they're in right now. "Yea, if someone gave me a million dollars, I'd sell my house right now". You're not ruling it out, but it's not going to happen.

I hope that's right. On an MSC cruise last fall there wasn't facial. Port Canaveral has gotten busy with so many ships between Disney, Carnival, NCL, MSC and Royal. I love it! Great variety to choose from and more "new to PCN" ships are coming.

We are end-of-the-cruise tippers…we were under the impression that the CK staff & Concierges get a share of the additional gratuities we pay as Suite guests, however, we decided to tip additional for outstanding service. We tipped our CK waiter, who served us every meal at our request, our stateroom attendant and both Concierges. As far as envelopes, don’t worry because they have extras in the Suite Lounge or, I’m sure at Guest Services. We gave everyone their envelope on the last evening…if you’re not eating at CK on the last evening, you can still swing by there or do so in the morning when they escort you down for disembarkation. We only tip as-you-go in the Specialty Restaurant, if deserving, and to some of the bartenders. But overall, we never feel under pressure to tip and we’re never made to feel pressured. Just do what feels comfortable to you.

Itinerary: The original group cruise visited, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Alesund, and Bergen. At the time, I had nearly all the excursions planned out so when we switched to this one things were easy, we just now had to account on what the kids could tolerate. This cruise visits Kristiansand, Alesund, Flam, and Stavanger. The itinerary originally had Geriengerfjord which is so picturesque and had a really cool excursion to a glacier etc, but that got swapped for Flam. Still deep into a Fjord, and opens up other opportunities for exploring. Kristiansand: We opted for the Old Town Walking tour. This was on our choice on the original cruise. This will give ease us into Norway. Us adults get to see the cultural stuff without completely boring the kids, since it isn’t that long. Sabrina and her family are booked on this one too. Our tour ends around lunch time, and if the kids have run out of fun, we can send them back to the ship, and us adults can adventure some more. Alesund: Bring on the waffles!! This was also on our original cruise. This one just sounds so cool. Experience Norway’s dramatic scenery on a five-hour, fully-guided adventure that includes a ferry boat ride to Sykkylven, a cable car ride to the top of Stranda Mountain, and a picturesque bus ride along Storfjord. The epic journey and Norwegian landscapes begin on a 20-minute ferry cruise from Magerholm across icy-blue waters to the tiny community of Sykkylven, where a fishing and furniture-making industry flourishes. You’ll then hop in a glass-enclosed cable car for a sky-high trip dangling overtop thick pine forest and the snow-ski slopes of Strandafjellet Skisenter. At the mountain summit you’ll enjoy coffee, tea and waffles while overlooking the Sunnmore Alps’ plunging cliffsides and bright-green pastures. A ferry then transports you to Liabygda village, where you’ll relax on a coach drive that leads you along Storfjord. This breathtaking stretch of coastline is home to Europe’s largest glacier and deepest lake — and the surrounding fjord scenery will leave you in awe, as well. I’m hoping this still happens. It no longer appears in the cruise planner, but it has been sold out for a while. Also, when our cruise docs arrived, we dock in Alesund after this tour was supposed to depart. Flam: This will be a cool day. We will ride the Flam Railway, which is a short, but steep line up into the mountains. The stretch of railway is the steepest standard gauge railway in Europe. The change in elevation is 2841 feet, and there are 20 tunnels and one bridge. Our tickets are in the morning. In the afternoon we are also going to the Stegastein viewing platform which extends out from the mountain into the fjord. Flam itself is mainly a tourist destination, and there are some shops etc right there including a bakery that looks amazing. Stavanger: This stop our plans changed. The original cruise had two days in Stavanger followed by a sea day, The first day, we were going to do a walking tour and the second day I was going to hike pulpit rock while The Boss enjoyed the spa. There was a sea day after so I could spend the next day allowing my legs to recover. The new itinerary has one day, and with the kids in tow, we needed to make adjustments. We still kept the walking tour for Heather and the kids, and I was going to do the hike, and hope I don’t die. After some messaging with Sabrina, I found out that they were doing the Lysefjord cruise. We ended up switching Heather and the kids to that so they would have some familiar faces. Later on while checking my travel insurance documentation, one of the exclusions is “injuries obtained while mountain climbing.” Another trip to the cruise planner and now we are all on that cruise. I’ll just get to see pulpit rock from the bottom, and I don’t have to worry about my legs being jello for the rest of the cruise. Oh, did I mention there were waffles on this one too?

It's a (one of many) RC IT glitch. I've seen it multiple times over the years. Definitely makes no sense.

Today would be a good day to announce major protocol changes with all the other stuff in the headlines that would push cruise protocols to the back page.

Even with a GTY, you can call and ask to be moved to another available cabin within your category. Maybe they could move you back to the original cabin. You won't know if you don't try ! Good luck and have a great cruise.

Carnival Cruise Lines just announce effective immediately they are ending their policy that required all unvaccinated guest to either either book a shore excursion through Carnival or remain onboard the ship in ports of call. While Adults traveling on Carnival were required to be vaccinated Carnival did allow unvaccinated children and teenagers to cruise as well but they couldn't get off the ship unless they were on a Carnival sponsored shore excursion. That policy ends NOW, but there are a few exceptions there are some islands in the Caribbean that still require all passengers who disembark be fully vaccinated. The ports of call that still require all passengers be fully vaccinated are San Juan, Bonaire, Grand Cayman, St. Kitts, Tortola, and Gran Turk. This is a small but major step back to normality. I still don't know when the overall vaccine requirement will be dropped but it appears that a majority of islands in the Caribbean have dropped vaccine requirements for passengers to disembark cruise ships.

"“CDC continues to evaluate the latest science and state of the pandemic and is currently reassessing the testing requirement for cruise ships,” Of course that line comes at the end of a statement reaffirming the CDC's position that cruising is a petri dish https://www.cruisehive.com/the-cdc-is-reevaluating-testing-for-cruise-ships/74496

Everglades park was super nice. I would recommend it over the drive to Key West which is my second choice.