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In 5 1/2 hours we’ll rise and shine and head to the airport. This party is about to finally get started! We spoke on the phone with the Amazing Romina yesterday morning and again this morning. Can’t wait to meet her. Everyone did the Binax proctored at home tests. Taylor was first at around 530 this morning and the rest of us followed throughout the day. 10 negative tests later, the group is good to go. The four of us who took the tests at our house all had the same experience. Log on and we were taking the test within two minutes. Fifteen minutes later we had results. In my opinion, it’s a convenient, easy way to do it. I’ll begin to post daily now. If you have questions I’ll do my best to find answers. I’m looking forward to taking you all with us as we begin what I know will be an amazing week! I can already taste the mushroom soup!

Thanks, you guys! This community is THE BEST!!!!!!!!

Royal is migrating to a new user experience - My Royal Cruises. We are all in the migration as some ships and sail dates have been migrated while others have not. As far as the beverage package - pricing varies with Royal. Cruise length, time of year, how well it's selling and other factors impact pricing. The good news is that if you buy it at a price you like and it later goes on sale, you can refund it and buy it again at the lower price.

I'm hoping it's the same for us. We are currently at the 2 Day mark. We sail Monday on Freedom and all bids show pending. I was hoping to know something today. Really want to surprise Hubby for our anniversary. Send good vibes our way please! Manifesting. 🛳🛳🛳🛳

Just wrapping up our cruise on Odyssey after enjoying our RoyalUp to a grand loft. Gotta say this was thrilling beyond belief. We truly enjoyed every aspect and the suite was awesome. I got many a good nap on the balcony this week. Enjoy and congrats!!

Day 5 was our last sea day and started with our usual breakfast and Starbucks. We didn’t really do much other than enjoy the pools and the most comfortable beds ever for much needed naps I seriously want to buy their mattress and bedding! We went to the ice show, Ice Games (based on monopoly) and we all loved it! Very entertaining! Then we had Chops for dinner. I think I’m all steaked out by now.

I really have no info BUT I would suspect that it has been chartered. A certain lifestyle group charters an O class ship every year in January. In 2022 it is Oasis. I know b/c the 1-16-22 sailing was the middle sailing of a B3B Star Class trio that I had booked. It totally dicked-up my plans (see what I did there ?). So it could be something else but my money is on this explanation.

Yes, that's it. Thank you! Come on cruising gods, give Speedy her upgrade!

Involved taking my then 7 year old to Coco Cay. I brought the snorkel gear then took her t a very shallow piece away from the action. I had a souvenir "Dubloon" tucked in my waist. Tossed it about ten feet in front of her then nudged her in the direction so she could "find it"..... "Daddy!!!!!! I found a pirate coin!!!!!!!" She ran up to each tiki bar showing it off and soon we had several hundred new "friends" in our little quiet spot...

@AshleyDillowow, you saved me so much headache. Like @SpeedNoodles I had just now caught possible fraud and canceled my card and ordered a new one.. When I placed my AX on my Royal Up bids I realized it expired in November and I wanted to change the card before I was unable to do do BUT I never received my replacement card with my new expiration date, so I called. My card while not used yet was sent and activated in September, wait what?? Not by me. AX confirmed my address and said it was sent USPS first class. Okay therein lies the problem. I was able to cancel my card and order a new one, imagine my surprise when they said they were sending it USPS again, ah no thanks! Moral here you guys saved me a lot of heartache, thank you so much. Oh, the new card is being sent FedEx by Monday, in time to modify my RU bids! Thanks Again!! Great Community here!

You have to wait until T-24 hours from your arrival time. If you have a 2pm arrival time then wait until 2pm the day before. The email comes before the actual time it will work in the app. I am cruising tomorrow and received the email a few hours ago. I can't answer the questions in the app until 4pm today because I chose a 4pm arrival time for check in.

Ishtar of the Seas [/thread]

Day 4 dinner was at Izumi. Most everyone knows now that the hibachi side is for vaccinated only. And like I said earlier, my little one couldn’t go to the kids club. So one of us decided we were going to not go and stay with her, but Smitha had better plans. She worked some genie magic and created a plan for all of us to go. I’m keeping that between us but let me just say, she is so great and anyone who gets the chance to have her, you will not be disappointed! Izumi was awesome. My favorite out of all of the specialty dining. We eat at hibachi grills at home frequently and have never had rice as soon as Izumi! DH & I both ordered the same steak and chicken but he got the thick filet and I got the flat ny strip. Not sure what happened but not worth complaining. I just ate some of his. He also ordered some saki and when they bright it to him, they said they were out and if he wanted more he’d have to buy the whole bottle. That was weird. After dinner, we watched the Aqua show from our balcony. I would have liked to watch it from the seats in addition to from the balcony but we barely had time to do the things we have done! So many things, not enough time!

Hi! I think back on almost every circumstance I ever had that was similar (since unfortunately most of us have had our card numbers compromise a few times…) the vendor (whether Amazon or someone else) always reached out about the card being declined and asked for an updated card. I would think there should be someone, somewhere, to contact at RCL to get the card updated as cc issues have become a rather common occurrence in our current society. But if there’s not, surely they will reach out to you! Don’t give up hope we’re all sending super positive vibes your way.

I told my six year old twins that the group almost took over our ship for a second time. Their question: ”Are they Pirates dad?”

Perfect ship for Alaska, we loved it. Always close to a window for the view and as it is port intensive cruise, it is a great ship to have a nice dinner, socialise and re-charge, ready for the next port day. Enjoy, you will love it.

And they say size doesn't matter.

So the CDC now recognizes those who have had mixed vaccines as fully vaccinated for the new travel requirements beginning in November. I wonder how long it will take royal Caribbean to modify its vaccine policy to match the CDC recommendation! This is such good news for us! There are a fair number of us up here who got Astra Zeneca & Moderna (or Pfizer)!! So happy today Quote from CDC site: Interpretation of vaccine records: CDC has not recommended the use of heterologous (i.e., mix-and-match) primary series. However, the use of such strategies (including mixing of mRNA, adenoviral, and mRNA plus adenoviral products) is increasingly common in many countries outside of the United States. Therefore, for the purposes of interpretation of vaccination records, individuals can be considered fully vaccinated ≥2 weeks after receipt of the last dose if they have received any single dose of an FDA approved/authorized or WHO EUL approved single-dose series (i.e., Janssen), or any combination of two doses of an FDA approved/authorized or WHO emergency use listed COVID-19 two-dose series. The recommended interval between the first and second doses of FDA-approved/authorized and WHO-EUL listed vaccines varies by vaccine type. However, for purposes of interpretation of vaccine records, the second dose in a two dose heterologous series must have been received no earlier than 17 days (21 days with a 4 day grace period) after the first dose.

I was hoping that group would charter the 1/6/23 sailing but that is a short 4 night cruise and I can't imagine anyone in that group wants to get the short stick.

I really agree with you about the virtues of the Radiance class. I love the sleek and elegant lines of this class with all of the wood and I think the Solariums on this class are the most comfortable. I really like the Radiance class for leisure cruising. When I want to party, I prefer the bigger ships but Radiance ships are refined and glimpse to an earlier classic time for cruising.

Agreed! Good luck @SpeedNoodles. I swear it's a love/hate thing. I thought for sure we weren't getting the upgrade and have driven my DH nuts for the last week or so.... Now he's driving me NUTS!!

Would never have guessed from your username here

One more week of work until vacation. I had hoped it would be a stress free week but it doesn't look like it. I did buy the drink package after it went up while waiting for my credit card to close for the month. I felt like an idiot when I didn't realize it went up just so they could lower it back to the previous price and call it a sale. So I had to cancel and rebuy. The menus are now available on the app so I have now started planning out what I hope I am able to get with specialty restaurants. I'm actually a little nervous about this so I will probably rush to make my reservations as soon as I board. I have my covid test appointment made at CVS and I have my luggage tags printed and together with my passport and other travel docs. I will begin packing this weekend as I need to figure out how to get everything in 2 suitcases. First time flying with my scuba gear in a while so it may be a challenge. Things are getting real for me as we are now in the single digits. Been so long since I've been on a vacation. Also been stashing away cash for the casino. Last cruise was a nightmare in the casino, this time has to be better.

Oasis although I’m on Symphony in a week. Then on Wonder than odyssey. I’ll come back in a year and tell you! Lol I’m a big Central Park fan and miss it on every ship that doesn’t have it.

Over the moon excited! Upgrade accepted to the Grand Loft Suite!!

I get the email notification the day prior to my cruise letting me know that the Health Questionnaire is open on the app. But, when I click on it I get the message ‘You will receive a notification the day before your cruise…’ Or, I am able to access the questionnaire and answer all of the questions (No…I am not pregnant) but when I click on submit I get the response ‘try submitting your answers again’. So I answer all the questions again (No…I’m still not pregnant) and when I click on submit I get ‘try submitting your answers again’. I sort of get the feeling that there’s some group of IT geeks laughing at me seeing how many times I’ll submit my answers again. Probably trying to get revenge after being victimized so many times during grade school with ‘stop hitting yourself’ incidents. I end up having to answer the questions at the port during check-in. No! I am NOT pregnant! Has anyone else had this issue or is it maybe a specific ship-related thing. All of these happened before boarding the Oasis.

Chicken of the Sea(s) (Its "STAR" tuna)

Titanic of the Seas (There's a book.... I checked)

The Hollidays are in! Can’t wait to meet everyone.

Moonraker of The Seas

Can confirm, I just checked in with our waiter from Ovation, she said she's getting a transfer to Allure for at least another week.

I don’t have any tips or suggestions for you. I just want to commend you on your kind-hearted gesture! Your family is going to have a great vacation with memories to last a lifetime!

I'd point out travel insurance covers many other things besides Covid.

Those 3 night cruises are always high because people really hit the package hard for 3 days. It’s harder to maintain that level of drinking over say a 7 night cruise.

I see what you did there.

To be fair, those with small ships don't say that.

We were on Rhapsody. Loved it.

More sausage to be found on pool deck than boardwalk.

Wow. So they almost gave you the shaft twice. I can't imagine how that feels.

Okay she left the room. If the pub is popular for this group does Royal flip the stools to increase capacity?

Three reasons come to mind. First, individual reservations cost more which means they make more money with them. So they are going to set a limit on how many UDPs they sell. Second, there is a limit to how many total specialty reservations are available each day and it is FAR less than the number of people on the ship. Every purchase of the UDP takes let's say 10 reservations off that total (for a 7 night cruise). Sure the big ships have more specialty restaurants but they still don't have enough capacity for everyone to dine that way for every meal. Finally, they need to hold back a percentage of the reservations for on board purchases (both individual and UDP). A surprising number of people book their cruise but nothing else in advance. I say surprising because it seems like everyone on the forums pre-books everything. That's because the people that research cruises and are active on forums tend to know WAY more than the average cruiser.

Best I can recall I got an email that I responded to via phone. I distinctly remember having the ability to easily correct the situation but the exact details are fuzzy. Sorry for the missing details (or brain cells) I just know they made it easy to resolve.

I've seen some that are not regular sofa beds but a sofa that slides down flat and can sleep one person. Maybe it's one of those.

Shawshank Redemption of the Seas Venom of the Seas Jaws of the Seas The Godfather of the Seas

So far, Oasis has been the only ship in the RCCL fleet on which I've sailed, and I can already tell I'm going to miss Central Park something awful. My balcony overlooking the park was utter bliss, especially when the acoustic guitar players would begin in the evenings. I shared pictures of Central Park with my friends and they were in awe that it was on a ship! All that being said, I'm looking forward to expanding my horizons. Anthem will be up next, along with Independence and Mariner this year, and Serenade next year. It's looking like I'll get a sampling of almost every class and who knows? Maybe my answer will change by next spring!

Crime and Punishment of the Seas War and Peace of the Seas Animal Farm of the Seas The Awakening of the Seas

Still seems way too early. Most of the many I’ve won change status and CC charged roughly 2-4 days before departure.

So excited! Just received (and submitted!) my first RoyalUp offer. I'm currently in an Interior Promenade on Freedom OTS 4 Night 29Nov-3Dec. Submitted close to the minimum bids on Oceanview Balcony (min bid $45; my bid $55) and Spacious Oceanview Balcony (min bid $55; my bid $65). I would be very happy if I won one of them, but not disconsolate if I didn't. I like my current cabin location, so it's win/win, as far as I'm concerned!

CDC:

I have definitely worn nice shorts with a collard shirt in the MDR. I'm on vacay, pants are for work!