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If you're properly camouflaged, how can they even tell you are there?

One week! Finally saw my coworker/friend who's joining me. We've done video calls throughout but I haven't seen her in person since pre pandemic - even though we've been back to the office since October. Ooops. Great to see her in person - neither of us are huggers but couldn't help it. Very few coworkers become true friends, at least for me. I forgot how much fun a cruise when you're seeing it through someone else's eyes. Her excitement is contagious. I originally wasn't thrilled with the itinerary (still not my fav) but she's got me looking forward to actually doing things on the ship. Once we make the dinner rez I'm pretty much open to whatever as long as I have time to just chill and read a book. I do all the planning pre cruise so I can go with the flow during the cruise. This week I'll be trying to pack when I can, it's a busy week already and I have a few tasks before the weekend besides actually working.

Wow, glad I caught this? I was scheduled for a test with Onpoint Wednesday 7:00 AM. I just got off an online chat with them. She checked my appointment and advised that the "room" where my test was schedule has been closed due to a decline in their business. She advised me to reschedule. I asked why I was not advised of this AND what I am I to do if on Wed. AM I discover that the new "room" I have been scheduled in is closed. She replied that when I reschedule, make sure that they have me in room #56 or higher. This suggests that if you schedule a test with them, they COULD put you in a room that is not even working now. I asked her a second time what I am to do if between now and Wed. AM they decide to close the new room (with a number higher than 56) I am scheduled in. I explained that if I do not have a negative test result by about noon Wednesday I would need to cancel flights to Seattle and the cruise. She said they would refund my money! I explained that I am not worried about the cost of the test but rather the fact that I miss out on my cruise AND have the costs associated with canceling my trip. Her reply was that I should probably go to another provider and get a refund from Onpoint. So, I just rescheduled with Rapid Test & Trace. Had a short chat with them and the difference between them and Onpoint was night and day. BTW, when I was on the chat with Onpoint I called a customer service no. she had given me and you can guess the results. Only option was to leave a message. That would not have helped much if I had called that number Wednesday AM needing their help NOW. As a backup to RT&T, I will be booking tests with a local walk-in medical type office that charges $20 per test. Will cancel that appt. if RT&T goes well.

You don't but it can actually be faster at check in to have all of the printed documents in hand rather than having to swipe through your phone. Plus it means you have a back up if the technology decides to have a tantrum precisely when you need it to be on its best behaviour.

I find it disheartening that people are able to find these sites to complain about their cruise but they can’t find them before they cruise to research and find information that would help them enjoy their cruise.

No. it's not a requirement. That being said, I think it's easier to print out my SetSail pass and have it ready to present to the check in agent.

I'm on pace to hit Pinnacle in 2042

Take this with a grain of salt, but this newspaper is very cozy with the government. From a couple of days ago

To entice you to come back for another cruise

We use the app, and also have paper copies of all documents just in case - we tend to try and cover all bases. Nothing quite like the phone either dying and or no internet.

At least it wasn't ALL CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its really frustrating when you've been in line for 20 minutes, get to the check point and the family of six in from of you start searching through their bags looking for their documents. They should shuffle them to the side and continue processing the line.

I use the app but I also have a printed copy in my bag just in case.

But seriously, I'm in the same boat as you. Unless it turns out I'm some billionaire's secret heir, Diamond Plus is the best I'll ever hope to realistically achieve.

We ended up doing ours thru the county for free. I was worried doing it this way initially because they say results would be in 1-3 days Thankfully we got our results early this morning and are now at the airport headed to Seattle to board the ship tomorrow Hopefully next cruise we take we will not need to test and be rid of one stress!

I saw a new class of trainees on my boarding of Adventure on Sept 15. Some staff admit to being new, or just back from vacation. Others are in their final month-meaning expect more newbies or possibly overworked staff. it must be difficult to still get everything up and running when they had staffing issues and contract extensions to try to deal with that. They are doing their best.

Do everyone in line behind you a favor, and print your set sail pass

I will disagree that Pinnacle is easy to achieve, at least for us. We are Diamond Plus, 204 points. We need 496 more points to achieve Pinnacle. No way we will be ever able to do that. We do not have the $$ to cruise that much even with double points for suites. We would need ~36 (7) night cruises in a suite.

I was on Adventure in May 2022, little 4 night to Halifax. The crew were amazing, the food was fantastic. Loved every show. The casino was tight (space wise and money wise) and it was smokey. My dining room was deck 3 and it was not smokey, nor was the promenade. I’m on Adventure at this moment, 9 night and I’ve noticed how “NOT smokey” the casino is. It’s not really crowded in there either it’s still tight (both the tables/money and the space) and the casino host said the casino was busier on the Bermuda portion of Adventure sailings. Perhaps it’s the itinerary that has more, or less, smokers .

A lot of it depends on timing, and if space is available, if you have a TA check with them and let them do the leg work. If you book this trip yourself for the point they have a toll free number and you call them (points line) and they will call a number to RC to see if any upgrades are available and if this can be done. We have found sometimes it works and sometimes it really doesn't. We usually use points to help pay off the cruise, I think a long time ago we tried to upgrade and none were to be found. Good luck and let us know if this works or not. Thank you

We loved Adventure when we sailed her in late July. The cabins have some wear and tear but ship itself is in great shape. We had a BLAST, whole family did.

I found Adventure delightful on my previous cruise on it and have another trip lined up next Spring. Here’s hoping!

I am not discounting anyone's experience with regards to a particular cruise on a particular ship. It would be helpful to know what were the problems leading to such dissatisfaction. I was on the August 18th, 2022 sailing on the Adventure of the Seas out of Cape Liberty and was one of our best and fav cruises. I have also seen were two people were on the same cruise and one had a great cruise and the other person had a terrible cruise. Perhaps attitude and/or expectations may play a part. Bill

We are not discounting your experience, but we just want to know what happened to make it the worst cruise ever in case it's something we can all learn from. I think you'll find as you hang around more that this message board is generally full of people trying to help others learn and have great experiences, so any info you can share is a good thing! Yes! I want to know as much as possible about everyone's experience as I try to plan my next several cruises. That's why I spend way too much time on these boards looking at almost every post!

I respect that people may have the "worst cruise" ever, but what thing or things made it so.

The 11/1 cruise? Could be they are arriving later in the day as that lines up with their repositioning from Galveston (the last Liberty Galveston cruise gets back on the 30th, so that sounds about right (2 days) to get to Fort Lauderdale)

I had to upload the vaccine certificate listing all the doses we had and what dates. Royal must check them and a few hours later I got an email saying we were officially ready to board

Figured I'd post a sort of epilogue to this thread. Princess' customer service handling has continued to leave me very unimpressed. The letters we got from the ship about our FCC stated its should be issued in 30 days. Well, 30 calendar days went by and nothing. I said, "Hm, maybe it's business days. I'll give it until Sept 12". Guess what still wasn't there on Sept 12? I called their customer service line and, thankfully, got a very pleasant and patient rep who went by "Doc". He looked up our booking, and gave me some incredibly aggravating news: The person from the ship who was supposed to report to corporate that we had been quarantined due to Covid never bothered to do that!!! He calmly put up with my anger and frustration, and once I calmed back down and was able to listen again he proceeded to enter the needed information himself. He also gave me Princess' customer relations email address and told me to go ahead and send an email that was as angry and forceful as I wanted it to be; also said to make sure to include photos of the letters we were issued so there was undeniable proof that this was Princess' cock-up. The ball is now officially rolling, and the FCC should finally be issued in another couple of weeks. (but hopefully sooner) Meanwhile, Cathy and I had picked out 11 different sailings that would basically give us a free or minimal-cost cruise with the FCC. We have booked a 10-night Southern Caribbean sailing out of FLL in early February on Enchanted Princess (younger sister of Regal Princess). The FCC was so much that after my TA's group rate, we were able to get a mid-forward mini-suite that will only cost us the $200 deposit plus another $300-400 total. Obviously, we also have to pay for airfare and a hotel, but now we have a nice mid-winter trip to look forward to. It'll be our first time cruising in off-peak season, and first time enjoying the warm Caribbean while the north is freezing. I'm praying this works out to be a much better trip than the last one, and that with another 8 months of experience under the crew's belts we'll find the on-board experience and food will be better. If not, that will be our last Princess sailing and we'll be squarely back with Royal and Celebrity. Which would be ironic, because we'd be higher in Princess' loyalty program than we are with Royal right now. (qualify for Ruby status after 3 sailings, and our med cruise counted as a B2B)

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I keep the set sail pass in my apple wallet and I carry a Manila folder of all my documents.

i'm a big fan of having the paper copy AND using the app. i do this when i travel with any kind of boarding pass, etc. something to be said about having the backup option.

Chewing gum in Singapore

First of all congratulations on your engagement and upcoming wedding. I would let your state room attendant and dining room staff know that it is you honeymoon. While I wouldn't expect anything I think you will find they will try and make you cruise as special as possible. I would also consider booking a speciality restaurant one night (maybe formal night) and dress up to the nines. Again make sure to let them know you are celebrating your honeymoon etc. There are a couple of gift packages you can add under the gifts section in the cruise planner. I brought the anniversary one for our anniversary cruise which was a nice surprise for my wife when we first arrived in our room Meeting people isn't too hard on a cruise. Everyone is sharing the same experience so it is rather easy to strike up a conversation at a bar, i lines waiting for things etc etc. If you are happy to be seated with others the main dining room is also a good way to meet people. Have an absolutely amazing cruise and again congratulations

I always use my points as cruise discount. On my last cruise, after booking I bought a 500$ discount. It was applied two days later.

We print them. Always found it easier to have set sail pass on paper tucked inside my passport. If you only want to use your phone, screen shot your set sail pass so you don't have to worry about loading the app via cellular/wifi and whatnot, can just have the screen shot loaded. Can also add them to your Apple wallet if an iPhone user.

Good for Celebrity and Norwegian. Testing will be harder to find and more expensive as it becomes less available. Of course it’s a lucrative deal for the government to keep charging.

We were on Majesty in 2018. They had a haunted house and this little demon followed me through it, guess she thought she was scary. Finally gave her a hug and a kiss & told her to go bug someone else. Not sure it was the reaction she was looking for.

I'm walking away from $800 in Princess FCC. It expires at the end of this month and Princess doesn't sail from Florida until October. With so few ships I could only use the FCC by flying somewhere I and I didn't want to pay for flights or do Alaska again this year. Some of their itineraries are nice in other regions but no options from North America while my FCC is valid and there hasn't been for over 6 months. There was a one-way involving Quebec this summer to Florida but I didn't want to pay $1,000 in airfare to fly to Canada so I could use my $800 FCC and pay another $1,000 in cruise fare on top of it. They've had nothing round trip available from Florida all summer. A deliberate move I think. Oh well. I earned it when they removed 2 of 4 ports of call to Alaska in 2021 so it was paper money with no value to me.

On our March trip from San Juan we used RCCL transfers. We were met by a representative in the luggage claim area. She stayed with us until our porter collected our luggage and took us to the pick up area. She also stayed with us until our coach came to pick us up. The representative had an RCCL sign which she held up so it was easy to see. Just a suggestion, we compare RCCL transfers and compare to Uber or Lyft. Many times Uber or Lyft are quicker and cheaper than RCCL transfers. Enjoy your cruise! Bill

Got a transfer in Orlando back in 2015 and they were waiting for us at the baggage claim with a sign and everything. Felt very fancy (if we weren't so rushed T_T)

I'm curious why all the hate for Nassau? Dispite having sailed 15+times out of Florida we have never had Nassau as a port stop (we did stop briefly once for a medical emergency). It looks like a beautiful island but I am well aware of the fact seasoned cruisers do not like this port. Is it because it is a frequent stop for short cruises? Is it pushy vendors? Less than desireable port area?

When we landed in Amsterdam , there was no one! We did have instructions to go to the lounge at Arrival Gate 4 ; there was no lounge! We walked all over Schiphol looking for someone holding a sign. Just by luck found the person he was walking with sign with our name on it along with someone else. Never found that person. The next day our traveling companions had the same problem; never found anyone , had to take a taxi to the hotel.

I'll be the dissenting opinion as a WJ enthusiast... I don't find it unbearably crowded either early for breakfast or at all for dinner (I just try not to go as soon as it opens). Lunch is usually pretty crowded. Everyone has their tolerances and preferences though and I fully realize many people don't even like buffets to begin with so not trying to talk any\one into going to the WJ. From a selfish perspective, I'd prefer they not, lol. I also realize my wife and I wake up extremely early and going to breakfast when we do also doesn't suit many others.

I’m working on explaining to Jay the difference between singular and plural. As in “shot” vs “shots.” Glad I’m not driving this week. And Putu and Benjamin are very good at the animals!

You can see the full menu by checking out the current cruise. With the app open, click on the head+shoulders icon towards top right. Then, just below the name of your sailing, you should see "Select a different sailing". Click on that and then scroll all the way down to the bottom where it says "Get more details on ships we support". Click on that and choose Anthem from the list. Then choose the sailing at the top, which will be the current sailing, and you'll be able to view the full menus. Note that Anthem is currently sailing in Europe, so there are some additional market-targeted dishes on there at the moment, e.g. pies and curries, that will disappear once she returns Stateside.

Some of expressions of Jay’s thoughtfulness and Stacy’s much deserved acknowledgment of 30 years of nursing.

I like outside insurance because I can just get the medical and increase coverage. Apparently medical offered by cruise lines aren’t enough for most emergencies. It comes out cheaper because I don’t get trip insurance.

Whatever port on disembarkation day. Hate it.?

There are various cities with "park and cruise" options - your night's stay at the hotel provides free parking. Not sure if it is available where you are traveling. Might be worth checking online.

I generally stay in an airport hotel and take the free hotel shuttle from the airport to the hotel. In the morning I use a ride share to reach the port.