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Off to to start the cruise ship arc! Can't believe we're finally doing this

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say that the article you read was poorly written. They are not considering a surcharge (for now), and they have always allowed smokers in - the reasons are contained in the article. Royal Caribbean CEO talks fuel surcharge, Icon reveal, smoking in the casino & more | Royal Caribbean Blog

A person claiming to be a port employee in Fort Lauderdale posted the following in our Facebook group:

Want to add some positivity. I applied for religious exemption on 6/19 for a cruise on 7/8 and IT GOT APPROVED TODAY! I submitted through [email protected] with everything requested. I called them directly today for an update since we are 7 days out and you can get right through (866) 592-7225 she told me with the holiday weekend I probably wouldn’t hear back until next week and couldn’t guarantee a day to receive a result. Got an email 4 hours later with approval!

I dress for no one. Not at work (OK, maybe for customers), not at home, and not on a cruise. With one massive exception. I dress for my soulmate. Since I really can’t see what I am wearing, and I really could care less about what anyone else thinks, I dress for only one person ... the woman I fell in love with 43 years ago and the woman I want to make happy every single day of my life. I also do not care what other people wear … I am looking at my soulmate, everyone else is the equivalent of “visual background noise” … Sorry if some of you are upset. These genuine requests for what is normal and tolerated in the MDR and on Formal nights are sincere questions (and good ones). My advice is ... Ask your soulmate(s). Ask the person(s) who you are devoted to. Ask the only person(s) on the earth that matters. You and they will be much happier as a result. On a cruise (and many times at home), I wear what my soulmate wants. She also asks me what I prefer that she wears, and I am honest and very appreciative when she responds. When we do this, almost always she says I “look sexy”, and I feel great (I also laugh a little ... OK, maybe a lot). I think she is the most beautiful woman on the ship, and I would wear anything to make her happy. I hope everyone can have this feeling when they go cruising. Curt from Canada.

Boots and Lloyds pharmacy, £30 in store, Boots e-mail the sertificate, Lloyds print it for you in store. We have used Boots for a sailing from the UK, have seen reports of others using Lloyds.

Nice pants and a collared shirt. I never wear a jacket. I'm on vacay. If I wanted to dress like I was at work I'd stay at work

We vary quite a bit but usually I will usually do a suit or the tux for formal night. I’ll add that my tux is pretty subtle and could be assumed to be just a black suit. On the occasion that we truly stay casual, we try to find a dining option that is a little less main stream.

This is the new cup, on Oasis.

Semi Formal for us - Jacket, no tie

Our ‘suite spot’ is JS to CLS. We sail JS on older ships without a Coastal Kitchen, and full suites on ships with more suite amenities. The days of a balcony cabin are behind us, if hubby has his way.

You don't need to worry about boosters for US sailings

Many people including myself prefer the new approach of any drink, at any bar, at any time of day, including the private destinations. The nightly happy hour event had to change. It wasn't scalable with the growing number of Diamonds and during a pandemic it is a super spreader event. Yes, the virus is still with us and impacting cruising. Personally I love the new approach. Diamond is not being cancelled. It is still one of the best loyalty levels on any cruise line. The any time, any drink four voucher drinks made it even better. If you have grown weary there is nothing wrong sailing with other lines. NCL doesn't provide a nightly open bar for loyalty tiers. Carnival doesn't provide a nightly open bar for loyalty tiers. MSC doesn't provide a nightly open bar for loyalty tiers. Despite that if the grass is greener somewhere else for you, by all means go there. It's always good to try something different if for no reason than to remind yourself why Royal is still the best.

The four use any time for whatever you want drink vouchers per day is worth far more than the limited-selection happy hour drinks ever were.

Bring your own... I do.

Tampa has small terminals and the luggage offloading process really requires guests to pay attention and follow the times that luggage tag numbers are called. Avoid putting your luggage out the night before for the fastest debarking process. The biggest factor will be the ship arriving on time. Tampa Bay looks big and broad. It has the appearance of a big body of water but it is shallow. There are narrow shipping channels that ships must stay within and their transit through the channels is impacted by other shipping. Some of the channels are not very wide and in places two ships can't pass each other so movement is carefully choreographed between the local pilots. Other forms of shipping use the same channels, cargo, container and tankers. Certain times of year are prone to fog. During inclement weather or fog they won't let ships navigate some parts of the Bay including at times the transit under the bridge. That all sounds a lot worse than it actually is. It is a nice port to sail from and the transit through the Bay and under the bridge can be very enjoyable. On the way back to port much of that occurs in the dark. It usually goes pretty smoothly and the local pilots are pros at this. However when weather is off or another ship is delayed or has an issue it can impact all other ships in ways you don't tend to experience in other ports. In February a few years ago the fog was bad. We were held outside of the Bay all day waiting for the fog to dissipate. When it finally did there was a cruise ship that was stuck in port just as we were stuck out of the port. We then had to wait for that ship to transit the shipping channels on it's way out before were allowed to start our way in as two ships can't use the channels at the same time. We finally docked at 6pm. As it turns out I had a 7pm flight and thought I was going to be sitting in the airport all day. Instead I just made my flight. At check in they warned my my luggage might not make the plane but it did. I got to the gate as the flight was boarding. It was a lot of stress and go, go, go race for a taxi. But I made it. Everyone else who had earlier flight times had to spend an extra day in Tampa and fly out the next day. Other cruises from Tampa have gone perfectly on schedule. If it's your only option it is doable if everything goes right. Just be prepared for an extra day in Tampa in case it doesn't go as planned.

Do i have to pay $35 for a snorkel excursion at Coco Cay, or can I just bring my own snorkel/mask/fins and go have fun on my own?

1.5, I wear a suit one night and slacks, coat and tie the other. My wedding tuxedo, which I felt obligated to wear a few times to amortize the cost, now sits in my closet at home. My wife dresses in a nice outfit, but not a gown. She has a fancy blouse, fancy pants or skirt, and the pearl necklace she bought from Royal on a previous cruise. She leaves diamonds, etc. at home.

Nope. The new under construction area will be an adults-only area, but no mention at all about an area or benefit for suite guests.

Not into formal wear unless I am going to a wedding type event. Typically most nights on the cruise I will wear either capris or summery palazzo pants with a slightly dressier top. My husband will wear a nice polo shirt and “dressy” shorts. He is not a slacks type of person.

Hubby: black pants long sleeve button down shirt & tie, no jacket. Me: nice dress (not a cocktail dress) & heels. For our upcoming 8 day ABC, I think we’re going to skip formal night entirely. Neither of us care to dress up. Won’t do the picture unless it includes extended family which this cruise won’t. More suitcase room without the dress up stuff especially the shoes!

I'm not aware of Royal making any announcements or intentions regarding suite only areas on CocoCay. Royal is working on an adult only area but suites can include children so I wouldn't expect suite guests to be offered anything in the new adult only areas otherwise they alienate suite guests with children. It is odd that Royal continues to embrace a suites/pinnacle beach at Labadee but nothing on CocoCay. Just one of those inconsistencies we love about Royal.

Pants & a nice short sleeve shirt, same as most non-formal nights.

Hubby in suit/tie, me in black dress/heels.

I wear a nice per of shirts and a button down shirt. During the first cruises I brought also a sport jacket and tie but have up on it very quickly to make space for extra t-shirts and shorts.

Thank you for the heads up! I will bring my insulated cup from home. Is the new cup something like this:

The bets are somehow recorded, the process I’ve yet to figure out as it appears to vary. I’ve watched the pit boss come by, holding a tablet and marking in the bet….and you are already swiped in when you sit and counted out/logged out when leaving the table. I’ve read where people say that’s how they can calculate your hand $ played…starting money vs. leaving money….but to me there are other factors that can impact that play time….# of players come to mind, as does speed of the dealer, then there is the player who raises/lowers their bets. Some tables I never see the pit boss come around. Some nights they are around early but after midnight they don’t come around at all (unless doing a verification). If the pit boss is noting your $10 bet only than all those $50 bets appear to be “useless” when it comes to points…..I’d hope I’m wrong. Like I said, still trying to figure out the process.

Ahhhhhhh, they pull the floating pier up against the starboard side, eh?

Well, I get it now. We finally were able to stay in a Crown Loft Suite and no idea how were going to go back now. It truly is something else. Every day we learn more and more benefits of our CLS-- looks like we'll have to do it again

The cups use a RFID chip for verification. I wouldn't be shocked if Royal's cups are stuck on an ocean freighter somewhere waiting to be unloaded.

Not sure if it is an out of stock issue. Our last cruise on Liberty from Galveston had the same cups. Looks like the way of the future.

Cruise port information is especially bad in my opinion. Cabin room information is bad, they could do so much with the website that they just aren't. Love ya Royal but website design is not your strong suit.

Just venting about a minor irritation. I know there are other sites that let you narrow down your exact travel window, but I'd prefer to do it on RC's official website. I actually find the whole "search for a cruise" process really clunky and frustrating on RC's site (I know, I know, Royal IT...). What if I'm considering different room types? Go back and start over. What if I'm considering 1 vs 2 rooms. Go back and start over. Why do I often have to click twice on the page where you choose the floor for your room (once for floor and then "select")? And why can't the number of days selection be part of the other choices? Do many people really just choose a 3-5 day cruise with no other considerations? Ugh.

It’s actually the best diamond lounge currently in existence. 2 stories overlooking aft of ship.

It’s a nice lounge with a view of the boardwalk and aqua theatre

It's on Deck 11 rear - An odd place but it overlooks the Boardwalk.

On the other hand, if I ask for a drink that the recipe calls for 1 oz of this, 1 oz of that, and 1 oz of the other thing (and a mixer, of course), they only charge you the 10, 11, 12, or $13.00 for it. So, if I ask for 2 shots of Fireball, for example, why wouldn't they just go ahead and serve up the 2 shots?

Technically you can. First go pick your months and do that search. For instance, I want to look for cruises in March 2023. You end up with a URL like this which has a min date of March 1 and a max date of March 31 https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruises/?dates_minDate=03%2F01%2F2023&dates_maxDate=03%2F31%2F2023&durationCode_6to8=true&featured=true If I wanted to look for cruises that depart, say between March 16 to March 20, I just change the middle numbers https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruises/?dates_minDate=03%2F16%2F2023&dates_maxDate=03%2F20%2F2023&durationCode_6to8=true&featured=true Of course you can tweak that too to do like March 15 to April 15 or December 15 into the new year through January 15.

I'm with you on this!

As has been said above, being diamond (or D+) is, in my opinion, more valuable now than ever. The value of your Diamond vouchers is $364 on a 7 day trip and includes selection AND flexibility that was missing under the prior "happy hour"concept.

You still get the 4 free drinks per day. I like that I can use them how I want, not restricted to happy hour.

Not at all. With the new vouchers, there's no restrictions on the type of drinks you can use. And you can use it all day/night and at CocoCay or Labadee. That's an enhancement to the program.

We've enjoyed our Diamond status. As the economy slows and the staffing issues ease I think things will work themselves out.

Sorry you had a bad experience. I work at a Walgreens that provides PCR testing though labcorp and the rapid ID now NAAT test. There was a computer glitch a week or so a go when automated emails were not being sent correctly. Like the previous poster said, if you ever take a rapid test at a pharmacy and they tell you you should receive your results in 2 hours and you don't get them in the time frame, call them. They can attempt to resend or they can be printed at any store and picked up. The ID now testing machine sends the emails automatically once it is completed. So as long as the sample is run though the machine there should be a result. The Labcop PCR tests all depended on the lab, which is usually in a different state (Virginia flies their tests to NC) . I would never recommend getting one, unless required. They take so long and the pharmacy has no say in when you get your results back, they are just a collection site. The issues that we usually run into at our pharmacy are email addresses not entered in correctly or names or dates of birth are not correct and people signing up for PCR tests and they need their results in a time frame that may not occur.

A big pet peeve of mine as a frequent solo traveler is that Celebrity hasn't been very welcoming to solo travelers. Today they have announced they are taking step to change that. What is yet to be determined is if they are carrying this through new love of solo cruisers with the Always Included, Indulge and Elevate plans which have to date required solo travelers to pay double the price for those plans based on double occupancy yet receive only benefits for one person. I haven't looked into solo cruise fare discounts to see how effective this will be but it is welcome news for solo cruisers who wish to sail with Celebrity.

If your child has their own C&A number, they should have the points. My girls who are almost 14 and 16, I call C&A from time to time just to check their point balance to make sure it is correct. I agree with the other posts, definitely call C&A to find out what is happening. They should have points for every cruise they have sailed on.

The kid obviously should have all the points that were actually accrued as a passenger. Hopefully just some glitch in the transition in the system from connected minor to standalone C&A account

Your assumption is right. If your kid doesn't have any points to their account, I suggest talking to the Loyalty Ambassador on your next cruise to rectify their account. Or you can call Crown and Anchor phone number

Wife and I will be onboard as the 2nd half of a B2B.