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We just returned from Adventure of the Seas on Saturday, August 27, 2022. We have discussed our trip and both agree salt air makes clothing shrink! Bill

RC website shows that the All Access Ship Tour is still unavailable due to COVID, however, it just appeared on my planner and I booked it for my sailing on Freedom on 9/19/2022. Pretty excited to see it back!

Post cruise roundup: After we disembarked, we headed to the Kennedy Space Center. Five hours was not nearly enough. We flew from Orlando to Salt Lake City and then onto Sacramento arriving at 11:30 California time. By the time we arrived at my parents house we were up for 22 hours. The next day we drove home. About halfway home I started feeling sick. Turns out five of the 10 of our party have Covid, including me and my wife. As we pulled in our driveway, I had a feeling like I might have Schrodinger’s dog. Because at that moment, our dog was ecstatic to see us while simultaneously pissed off that we abandoned him for 12 days. There is only 69 days until our next cruise on the Navigator of the Seas. This will only be four days, but we are going to cruise with my daughter, son in law, our 7 year old granddaughter, our almost 3 year old grandson, and in November, our youngest granddaughter who will 10 months old. If we end up being allowed to cruise, I’ll be back in November for another live blog. This cruise will truly be a cheapskate cruise, no drink package because we will be taking care of the grandkids most of the time, no 30 year anniversary jewelry, and hopefully no expensive laundry service on the ship. Thank you for following along and for those who left me encouraging replies.

Rule of thumb - what shows up as $xxx per person INCLUDES all the discounts available based on your search criteria. It does not include taxes and fees. In your case this means it was $450 per person AFTER including the 30% off and KSF. That would be $1800 plus the taxes/fees of $120.43 per person (including the free kids). The total makes perfect sense to me.

If by evacuation you mean a helicopter flight due to a medical emergency - my husband was airlifted last year and transported from our local hospital emergency room to a hospital that was less than 75 miles away and the amount charged was a little over $76,000.

100%. Even clothes you leave in the cabin and don't wear shrink! Despite the walls being lined with something to block out the wi-fi the salt air gets through!

For those that want to stay connected to the world this is huge news. Statlink Internet to all ships in the coming months. It's gotta be better than Voom. Oasis this past cruise was extremely bad Internet, Adventure was honestly useless. Here is the article. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/

Ft. Lauderdale Airport is across the highway from Port Everglades... we said goodbye to Allure back in 2019 before boarding our return flight...

Thank you for joining the boards... Your rant concerning a post from almost year ago, during the start up from Covid, misses the mark on so many levels.. First, read the Cruise Contract that every cruiser signs when they book. During the first 8-10 months of the restart the situation with cruising was fluid. Ports were canceled because of positivity percentages, Port protocols, etc... Is it disappointing if a Port call is changed or canceled ...Yes. Royal Caribbean did a fine job of compensating those of us whose itineraries were changed mid cruise. "Cruise with Confidence "during this period allowed those with changes to their Itinerary to cancel and re-book WITHOUT penalty.. This is A Royal Caribbean Fan site. With your one post I doubt we will hear from you again...That is too bad because there are a lot of experienced and knowledgeable members who post here. I've learned a lot from them and I'm very appreciative. l

I can’t believe it’s Day 3 already! Backing up to Day 1 which is already a blur): I was happy with the hotel. With the kitchenette we were able to pick up a few items from the huge market right across the street to make for breakfast in the room on Day 1, which made for an easier start to the day and allowed the husband and kids to sleep in a little extra. We had a 10:30 am boarding time. We ordered the transfer to arrive at the hotel at 10 am. The driver arrived a few mins early and was waiting in the lobby for us when we came down to check out. He had the car seat and booster seat as requested. The trip to the port was supposed to take 12-15 mins but ended up taking around 20 due to traffic near the port. We arrived at 10:25 am. After security and checking in, we were on the ship just before 11. One note on checking in - the woman who checked our documents insisted that our <2 year old needed to have taken a COVID test. Thankfully I was confident that he didn’t or else she might have sent me into a temporary panic. But instead we were firm and eventually she checked with a co-worker to confirm he in fact did not need to have taken a test. Once on board we grabbed a table at Cafe Promenade. It was nearly empty at the time and we settled in while I connected to our Voom plan (which was quick and simple), booked our show times, and put together a list of times we would want to book the nursery for in the evenings. Next we went to Adventure Ocean to check in and make the nursery reservations for the week. They had all of the times we wanted free and even had times open for Day 1 had we wanted. Since people had boarded at Rome this wasn’t a given even with our early boarding time. Note that on both the Barcelona and Rome embarkation days Adventure Ocean doesn’t open until 7 pm. Then it was to the Windjammer for lunch and to the rooms once they opened at 1 pm. We hung around for a while to try to catch our attendant to ask him to open the balconies between our rooms. We ended up calling housekeeping when we still hadn’t seen him by the time we were about to leave for dinner. In the interim my husband took my 6 year old down the Ultimate Abyss which he loved and insisted on going a second time. Due to my son’s age or size my husband had to go down with him, although in separate mats. I waited at Playmakers near the landing area with the little and ordered our first cocktails of the cruise. One thing about this area that I hadn’t known about beforehand is that there is a climbing structure near Playmakers/Johnny Rockets which is a good distraction for kids for awhile. I’d estimate the ideal ages for it are around 3-8. We had the 6pm seating in the MDR. We had confirmed earlier in the day that our family of 4 was sat at our own table. Looking around, most of the tables were smaller so I think most families we sat by themselves by default. The dining room was also half empty the whole time (we were on Deck 3). Food and service were good. After dinner we saw InTENse in the AquaTheater. We had reservations and arrived around 30 mins early which was not necessary as there were plenty of seats free. The kids and husband were captivated, although Monster fell asleep halfway through despite the noise. It was excellent and I highly recommend for families with kids. If you sit in the front two rows or dead center you will get wet! We realized after changing into PJs that we hadn’t sorted milk for Monster. Husband found some at Starbucks but we were informed we could order it from room service for free, although I’m not sure if they meant that the service charge would be waived. And that was the end of Day 1! Except not for me as I stayed up another 4 hours handing work (hence this post being delayed 2 days). It looks like I’ll have to put in several hours of work a day throughout because things are so busy and the team is leaner than usual at the moment.

I have it booked for Mariner, which I'm on right now. I'll have a full review later this week.

Thanks for your very descriptive review. And for confirming what I have always suspected of the Royal-Up program. Given how close to sailing these rooms are assigned, it always seemed likely you were being assigned undesirable/unwanted rooms.

I just got back from a trip to Las Vegas and discovered the same thing about desert air.

We will be sailing with Jay this Saturday. The communication to this point has been great. Looking forward to meeting him!

You should have almost until boarding day to update it. Even if you don't you can still board, it just takes longer for them to scan passports and whatnot.

A Fall Foliage cruise and considering giving up one of the fleet wide top coveted cabins for??? Free draft beer? A gold colored Seapass? An armoire? Free copy and fax service? A doorbell? <puzzled look> The best cabins are NOT the ones that are the most expensive.

We're booked on this cruise, originally on Voyager but successfully switched over to Adventure. We actually have a somewhat better cabin than we had...our first Christmas cruise!

THE GENIE IS OUT OF THE BOTTLE! We have been assigned Royal Genie Jay for our upcoming sailing! Jay is already proving to be the perfect communicator for me as I am quite detail-oriented...and love smiley faces - which he adds to everything! I sent him a pretty detailed email with nuggets of info about our family, our preferred dining time & venues, along with the celebrations, excursions, and other misc things we've reserved for our trip. We're leaving the show schedule to him to manage except for seeing Mamma Mia! the first night it's available just in case we want to sneak a second showing in while on board for Mom. I have full confidence that he is a fantastic match for our family and will ensure we have a fantastic trip! We heard he collects magnets so we have some special places from up in our neck of the woods that are a bit touristy and could yield some good magnets. I'm hopeful he hasn't received them yet - which is always a risk. We were also thinking of getting some monogrammed M&Ms for him. Just no special language translations this time. We tried that last time and mis-translated a word. The saying ended up reading "Royal Genie - Shocking!". At least she thought it was funny! This is now a running joke in our home. Shocking!

I go to place like party city and buy a bunch of those glow in the dark necklaces. Put one on bathroom door handle at night. One inside bathroom as nightlight etc. Just enough light to not wake people up.

Pretty calm here.

If we keep our noses clean until Wednesday our little band of misfits will be headed to Suite 1740, The Royal Loft on Allure this Saturday - the very place this Star Class nonsense began! Four years ago we sailed in this suite and experienced Star Class for the first time. I truly believe they put something in the endless parade of snacks and drinks that attacks whatever lobe of the brain might contain common sense. Because from that time forward our cruise planning goes something like this: “ Look, we can snag a great balcony room on an Oasis Class for a week for under $2500! Nah, let’s go ahead and fork out the $1.2 mil for the Royal Loft so we get free laundry!!” It’s a disease. And I’m not sure there’s a cure. This trip will be our core group of regulars: my bride Stacy who will be celebrating the end of 30 years of service as a Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse, daughter Taylor who will be celebrating birthday #23 and the end of her preschool teaching career, and daughter Kaitlyn who will be celebrating introducing her boyfriend to cruising Star Class. I think in last years blog from this same room I referred to her “new boyfriend” who didn’t make that trip. Now he’s THE boyfriend who will be joining us. Welcome aboard Victor! Rounding out the group is yours truly, Jim, who will be celebrating still waking up each morning! It’s important to note, as I’m sure I’ll refer to it later, that it was very doubtful that this cruise would actually take place. We booked it over a year and a half ago. Then in April of this year the one formerly known as Nurse Ratchet hatched the brilliant idea to buy a local market and convert it into a restaurant. So, with a partner, we purchased the property and the dream to build Just a Small Town Grill (thanks Journey) began. It was at that point we accepted the probability that opening a new restaurant and taking a cruise around the same time probably wouldn’t happen. We have spent nearly 5 months planning to cancel this one. But thanks to County Building officials it now appears that we can squeeze this one in while we wait for them to waddle through the governmental red tape and approve a Land Use Permit. I gripe daily about the hoops they are making us jump through but inside I’m a little grateful for their incompetence and other nonsense! I’ll write more tomorrow about our plans, travel, Genie Jay and other details. Hope you all come along for the ride!

My first day in Prague OK if you've been to Prague and you love it so my colon please don't read any further:). I had breakfast at the hotel and it was pretty good mixture between American breakfast European breakfast and a British breakfast. If you don't understand that statement American see bacon and eggs for breakfast. A European breakfast is more cheeses and fruits in little slices of meat. British breakfast it's usually running your eggs and pork and beans. My hotel is right near the center of the older town so it's great for walking. I took off walking looking at things heading towards the Old Town square. As I got near it and in it I just kept thinking big tourist town. The person at the hotel said I could have taken another route but that was newer town with the lots of shopping. I got down into the Old Town square and sat down to get a drink and watch people right in front of the Prague Astronomical Clock. I knew at this location I was going to pay a high price for a drink, but for a very inexpensive town I ended up paying $10 for a single drink. The person taking my order didn't speak hardly any English but I was able to figure out their drink selection wasn't great and I ended up ordering a drink. I ended up enjoying my drink and watching all these people stand around waiting for this clock to go off on the top of the hour. The closer it got to the hour the more crowded the place got. And then finally the top of the hour the clocks struck... hundreds of people watching... And two windows opened and different figurines of priests spun in a circle. I had my camera ready waiting for that really great picture of what's going to happen... And I never took a picture. That was pretty much it. Prague great tourist attraction was a big dud. I got up and started heading towards The Charles bridge. The area was actually really neat, the streets and the buildings is kind of what you see in Harry Potter. The buildings were all different looking colors shapes they're all tall very narrow streets and a lot of people. I got over to the Charles bridge and it was a neat bridge, very old, with different statues spaced out over it. I made the mistake and looked at the water... very dirty. The bridge was simi crowded with people selling items and people taking pictures. After I got 2/3 of the way past the bridge I got to this one plaque that was a picture of a person with the dog and on the other side a crowd of people hanging a man upside down over the edge of a bridge. Part of the plague is a bright gold color from people touching it for good luck. While I was standing there looking at it, a young man told me that you're supposed to touch the crotch of the man hanging upside down for the best luck. Well I had to, so I touched the crotch and instantly felt good luck coming my way. Let's see if it happens. After getting off the bridge I wandered over to a spot that was hidden, you had to know where you were going. I followed my map and got to this little bitty Street, back of nowhere and there was a bunch of people standing by this wall. I started looking at this wall and it was the first time in a long time as actually felt touched by something; I was impressed and actually felt something. I looked at this wall and it made me feel like I was a part of something really big. This was the Lennon Wall. It's based off of John Lennon's death and all these people have come to express their feelings in poetry and art. In my opinion if you come to Prague the Lennon Wall is the number one thing to see. From the linen wall I ordered my bolt car. It cost me $4 to travel about a 15 minute ride. I ended up going to the train restaurant. Before I explain anything I know this it's just a big tourist trap but they do it right. I got there and got seated and you pay a tourist price for a meal. It was actually a very very good hamburger that I got based off the recommendation of the waitress. If you go there don't get the Raspberry lemonade, it was pretty bad. Next to your table our train tracks and your drinks are brought up next to you by a train and you pull them off the train and the train goes on its way. Little bit later here comes the train again and it had my hamburger and fries. It was worth the $18 for the mail just for the enjoyment, it being a different restaurant, and just watching the kids get so excited to see the train come to their table. After a pretty good meal I had 15 minute walk back to my hotel. That was the end of my day in Prague. I've ended it by fighting with that jet lag guy. After sleeping a couple of hours I did walk back to the train restaurant to get my sweater that I had forgot. The very nice waitress seen me walk in, remembered me and brought me my sweater folded U nice and neat. Here are a few pictures from my day.

When we cruise out of Miami we stay in Fort Lauderdale. Hilton Garden Inn Fort Lauderdale has an airport shuttle and cruise port (Port Everglades) shuttle from the hotel. Restaurants within walking distance. Big “town center” area with lots to choose from.

As far as seaport closest to airport - hands down, its Fort Lauderdale. You can almost see the cruise ships from the airport!

Your moose encounter beats mine. That's amazing. We stayed one night in the front of the park after two nights in the back. We took the shuttle into Glitter Gulch (I think that's what they call the town part with the lodges, stores, restaurants, etc.) and while talking to another couple on the way, our driver slammed on the brakes. By the time we could look up a mama moose and her baby were running away from us across the busy road. It's a shame about the road being washed out. We enjoyed the bus ride, as long as it was. Saw tons of animals including a mama grizzly and her two cubs. On our way back out, in the early AM, we had an entire bus to ourselves plus one lodge employee who was hitching a ride into town for supplies, but he went to sleep in the back so it was just us and the driver. He was nice enough to ask us if we wanted to skip any stops and/or spend extra time at others to just let him know. We wound up with four free Denali travel mugs and that's what I bring on every cruise now for my extra large cappuccinos to go from the DL/SL.

We booked the Holiday Inn Seawall because it had a shuttle to the port. Not a great, but not a terrible hotel. Old, kind of run down, but clean.

While not "on Island" we like the Hilton Nasa Clear Lake. It's a nice property, very close to the Kemah boardwalk for some pre cruise activities, and not much more than a 30 minute drive to the pier.

"Deployment of the Starlink technology across the fleet will begin immediately, leveraging the insights obtained from the trial onboard Freedom of the Seas, which has received a tremendous amount of positive feedback from guests and crew. The installation is slated to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2023."

Absolutely Agree. I compared the RCCL policy, the Allianz Premier vs Basic, and the Travel Insured policies - side by side - before making our decision. One may also want to consider their current health insurance and what it might cover in a foreign country. I was arranging a church trip to Israel before covid hit and found that my health insurance had "Preferred Providers" in Israel. I was very surprised.

We live an hour from Galveston. I'm IHG and a HIVC owner, so we stay mostly out at one of the timeshares. I would not recommend the Holiday Inn Resort next to the San Luis Hotel. It is old and needs serious updating/remodeling. I haven't stayed at the Holiday Inn Express @ 3228 Seawall, but it is next door to a great option for dinner, The Spot. It is very kid-friendly and has tons of outdoor seating, both covered and not, with great views of the Gulf. It is actually several different restaurant concepts in one area, kinda under one roof, but not really. They are known for their burgers and they are good in my opinion. They also have seafood and other stuff, but it might not all be available in the same area. If you go there, look at the menus before you choose which place to order from. We have the Holiday Inn Express booked for our Thanksgiving cruise because I could use points. I would recommend Uber or Lyft if you want to venture out and for the morning of departure.

It's a busy road but there are sidewalks most of the way. There is a nice new waterfront park for the first part of the walk near the hotel that you might enjoy watching folks fish and launch small boats on the backwaters, then keep walking to the beach if you are ambitious enough. It's almost 2 miles from the hotel to the beach but plenty of businesses along the way for rest breaks.

We usually stay only in Marriotts as well. That is where all my points are. My order of preference On Island I like the townplace suites and Courtyard these are basically on the same property on Sea Wall BLVD at just past 89th street. Always quiet. On Island but not a Marriott but next door to the older cruise port so not as convenient going on Allure out of the new port is the Harbor House. This is an awesome place if you can get in as it is on pier 21 with a few very good restaurants and very close to the strand Off island Springhill suites Texas City Springhill suites NASA/Seabrook

We just stayed at Springhill Suites on Galveston Island. It was a good, clean hotel with a good breakfast included, however it is most definitely not within walking distance of much, especially if you have kids. There is a Target on the other side of I-45, but my wife said she wouldn’t feel comfortable walking there and back alone. Taxi to the ship was $16 before tip.

@USCG Teacher I like you have lots of points and status from when I still worked and traveled for business. I use IHG and Marriott Hotels exclusively. I have stayed at the Holiday Inn Express on the Island and found it not very convenient but at least it was points. I have also stayed at Holiday Inn Express Houston Space Ctr - Clear Lake, 900 Rogers Court Webster, TX 77598, recently (within 6 months) twice. It sits on the back side of a shopping center and there are a lot of eating establishment on the front side of the shopping center, most i would consider to be in walking distance if that is important to you. The other big advantage at least to me is it is new (well 3 or 4 years old). The only negative i had was on both stays they were very amendment about check in not being till 3 pm. (personally I rarely have run into that problem, as most hotels i have always been able to early check in around 1 pm. I would much rather early check in as an option than the now commonly offered late check out, heck some stays I'm gone well before the free breakfast starts)

I booked the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Galveston Beach for my November cruise. Haven't stayed there, but looks good based on various reviews.

It's not only about the price of the policy, it's about what it covers. Allianz has more customizable plans than what Royal offers.

i think it also may have to do with the capacity and your party size. for instance, we were a party of two and able to go at like 5:45 for dinner the first two or three nights and then once the sky and star class suite guests decided how frequently/often they would come for dinner, we were able to shift back to a 6pm i think midway through. but again, we went into it with the clear understanding that we'd gratefully flex to daily capacity in CK + the other suite guests to have dinner there, and were always happy when they could accommodate us.

You will need to apply 2 for Bermuda Authorization and for BTB cruises, Royal provided testing onboard to meet Bermuda requirements. Letter delivered to stateroom with details to set up appointment for test. Enjoy your cruise.

It's pretty much broken down there for you. Your savings lines are 1940 and 150 or 2090. Subtract from that 2*584 for kids sail free and that leaves you with 922. Two adult fares are 1361 each or 2722. 922/2722=33.87% which is greater than your 30% off. Going from your $450 per person that would be $1800 total. You have 1361+1361+584+584=3890-1940-150=1800. I can see you were hoping for $450 for each adult, nothing for the kids and then 30% off the $900 for a total of $630, but that isn't how it works. The $450 is already net of the discounts.

Usually they default to using your voucher unless you tell them otherwise. You can order all of your free drinks at once if you like.

Just got off Radisnce last Friday. I checked in the day it opened and provided all the information except pictures. I added the pictures two days before embarkation, right after our COVID tests were negative. When we got to the ship we were told there no pictures and they took new ones. So my conclusion is the app will let you enter information almost right up to boarding but there is no guarantee it will be transferred to the database used on embarkation day so enter the information as soon as possible.

What an amazing recap. I wasn’t planning on going to Greece anytime soon, but I hate to not use your experience!! LOL

I’ve seen balcony rooms $500 cheaper than inside staterooms before. It’s all supply & demand

As many times as you can get get reservations or get seated for...Hooked does have a turf and turf option on the menu so you won't starve there. You will be hard pressed to hit that spending limit. Izumi has a 34.99 option that includes 1 small plate, 2 large plates and a dessert. It's a LOT of food for one person! Playmakers is very reasonably priced too..so $20/person goes really far. Shorts are fine for lunch, just no swimwear.

From what I understand Royal’s insurance covers the cruise only. We use Allianz and have a yearly policy. Covers ANY trip greater than 100 miles from home.

I've thought the exact same thing....it seems scripted. There is little I hate more than being asked to give favorable reviews. I get why they ask but there needs to be a better way to review without feeling like someone's job depends on it.

Some thoughts after our first night onboard: Once the rooms were open yesterday, the crowds thinned out and things seemed less crowded. I was worried that we had been spoiled by doing a few cruises at reduced capacity, but last night and this morning things don’t feel congested. I wonder if it’s because the ship is completely open…both sides of the Windjammer, all three Main Dining room decks, no closed off seating, etc. There aren’t even many pool chairs “saved”. We walked into the Solarium right now and were able to find some of the cushy seats on the side by the windows. The only shows that appear to need reservations are the ice shows. Last night’s early comedian show had plenty of seating even though we walked in exactly at 7:00. The comedian, Heath Harmison, was good and teased his 18+ show coming on the last night. Something we’ve not seen before was a kind of “preview” of upcoming shows before the comedian came out….the cruise directer introduced a dance couple who did one routine and a couple who did an aerial routine (both were amazing). We did 80s music trivia last night in the Schooner Bar and came in second with 18/20 correct. It took a couple songs before my wife stopped saying the titles loud enough for the tables around us to hear The cruise director is Kate and the activities director is Kat, and our initial impression is they are high energy and fun. By the way, I’m taking liberties with the spelling of their names…they may use Cs. Sea day today and Cozumel tomorrow. We are booked at Mr. Sanchos, so I’ll let everyone know what it was like for us. Have a great day!!!

Cruising during hurricane season is mostly a non-issue other than possible changes to the itinerary. The ships simply sail away from developing storm systems to adjust.

As far as the Beach Club Cabanas go(not beach club admission), only one person purchases the reservation. You don't specify who else is in the party until you are onboard. You can make the reservation at the better price under your spouse/significant other's name then cancel the original reservation. That way you don't lose the reservation and no long waits on the phone.