twangster

I took a picture of my Cucumber Martini from the Champagne Bar on Allure in July... Right after I spilled it on my shorts. Darn martini glasses. The Captain made the ship lurch. #awkward #cutoff #NoIDidn'tPeeMyPants

On the Allure test sailing I went to the Champagne Bar and asked for one. It's not on the menu. The one bartender looked confused but another bartender heard and stepped in. He said "You must be a legacy cruiser" in a fun tone. He offered to make me one.

Woohoo! Great ship, think you'll love it.

Reduced single supplements are dynamic as they are capacity controlled. They allocate X and once X are sold in a category they are gone. Sometimes X = 1, sometimes X = 2, sometimes X might equal something else. It isn't published. If you see something don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. Someone else like me might swoop in and take it from you.

Originally I was very keen on the UPS for the forward views and booked it when it first released. As it turned out they later chartered the ship and cancelled the cruise. For my next Oasis SC booking I had a choice between the GPS and UPS. In the interim between bookings I had lost some zest for the UPS for the reasons in this thread. I jumped into the GPS and the UPS remains available months later. I like the idea and location of the UPS for the views but I don't think they did a very good job with the space, like someone who had never cruised before designed it. Personally I think they should drop the UPS to Sky Class and reduce the price below loft suites.

PEV was very smooth boarding Odyssey last week. I had 12 noon which was the earliest I ever saw. I drove to the port and despite going slow on the interstate I arrived early. The suites/pinnacle door was working normally and I was checked in and upstairs at 11:41am. I waited maybe 20 minutes before boarding started. For my cruise it seemed like it worked because people didn't come early in masses. On a different date that could be very different if masses ignore the appointment times. The parking lot and arrivals loop at terminal 18 was empty when I got there. it was kind of eerie actually, like am I at the right terminal? I can see the ship but where are the people?

I'm really not sure what they'll do and I'm afraid to guess.

Congratulations! That's a huge accomplishment. Cheers!

Allure did receive some minor updates such as new pool deck chairs and handwashing stations in the Windjammer. I was on the last Allure sailing when the shutdown occurred in 2020 and the first sailing fo the restart on the test sailing in July 2021. In my opinion she is a great ship. She missed out on the water slides and new restaurants like Playmakers but even without these updates she is still a great ship. I have future cruises booked on her despite knowing she missed her amplification.

A recent sail away party on Mardi Gras was very much Royal like in terms of energy and spirit. My Mardi Gras sailing was 60% capacity. Someone who stayed on for the B2B reported the next sailing had a completely different vibe to the sail away party. It was much more of a party crowd. He also reported a number of fights and drunken guests "moments" which we didn't see on the first sailing (including vomit more than once). Royal at the moment is operating with around 30%-40% capacity. Right now the lower capacity can impact the vibe and spirit of the ship for events like sail away parties. Take away the drunken buffoonery that was always less common on Royal and that too can change the guest experience. That's a change for the better for me and why I started sailing Royal more in the first place but for a younger crowd there may be an appeal for some of that.... that's personal like food and entertainment. For Mardi Gras it goes to show that the guests themselves create the vibe felt on the ship. At my age I'm totally over the college frat party drink till you puke approach to cruising. That's not "fun" to me or required to have "fun". I sailed Mardi Gras when I did because of reduced capacity. I can't imagine what that ship will be like at capacity. It has nearly identical maximum capacity to Oasis class but is 2/3 the size. I met several frequent cruisers who were sampling Mardi Gras while their primary cruise line was someone else. Everyone of them had the same conclusion. Beautiful ship, can't imagine what it will be like at full capacity.

Prepare to be underwhelmed.

I know a couple who will sometimes put the husband as a 3rd in a friends cabin and book the wife in a suite. Once on board they get an extra key from guest services. In their case they designated the wife as the ladder climber. It doesn't matter who you pick, but if one or the other has more points already, might as well designate them as the ladder climber. When they don't know a friend on board they get whatever is cheapest for him. Interior, OV, balcony, what ever, it doesn't matter. The wife gets the extra points, they both climb higher, faster.

I might have a couple Harmony 2022 cruises. And i might add another soon.

I've yet to see a snorkel excursion that forces you to snorkel. Stay on the excursion boat, wade without snorkeling if a beach stop is included, read a book, drink rum punch, what ever. A snorkel excursion on a catamaran or large enough boat to have some shade can be quite enjoyable without getting in the water if she enjoys sailboats or excursion boats.

Odyssey will use terminal 18. There will be signs once you get through past the security checkpoint. In the Uber app you are best to enter a destination like "Port Everglades Terminal 18", otherwise drivers get suspicious of cancelled rides and chargebacks for not dropping off at the right location. However I'd follow the instructions in the email for testing purposes.

It's always interesting to look back and see what they said versus what actually occurred. That's from 2020. It's almost like their timing is unfortunate. If they do reopen the factory by the time they are spitting out tests delta could be over.

Based on the URLs to the revised expiration dates we are getting close to the end of the products that were made. I wonder how many more are in the warehouse? Once they are gone, they are gone. They aren't making these anymore. Royal may find themselves promoting a solution that evaporates before our eyes right when we need it most. Glad I bought mine when I did.

Seems like no one was buying these tests before the summer so they stopped making them and shuttered the facilities where they were made. https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-19-rapid-test-manufacturer-trashed-millions-of-products-report-2021-8 There will be no new ones made. The ones being shipped now are the most current we will ever get.

Completely irrelevant. The onus is on Navica to provide the service. Once Royal offers testing at the port they are responsible for it. The CDC will hold them accountable.

It seems Optum is equally sleazy. Frequent flyers have been trying to use the same tests for international travel. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/33468753-post110.html This user eventually received a full refund from Optum after they received tests with just 2 1/2 months of expiration with an apology acknowledging the uncertainty in expiry dates. It seems like Abbott manufactured a bunch of these earlier this year but didn't sell a lot of them so the stockpile in the warehouse grew. Along comes the delta variant and suddenly their tests are in demand so Abbott is shipping old product to their partners.

Not expecting any action over the weekend.

Because eMed is stating the expiration date of the test they are selling has been extended 12 months. They have not been. The expiration dates for current tests being sold by eMed currently have been extended by 3 months according to Abbott. The tests being sold now by eMed originally had an 8 month expiration from date of manufacturer. For these tests, the FDA has authorized a 3 month extension taking the expiration to 11 months from the date of manufacture. Abbott had received an FDA authorization to extend the expiration of select test kits that originally had a 6 month expiration date. The FDA approved these "select" tests with a 6 month expiration to be extended to 12 months. This 6 month extension is being improperly offered by eMed as a 12 month extension but it does not apply to all Abbott Binax tests. It only applied to the ones that originally had a 6 month expiration date and eMed is not selling those right now. eMed is to blame for the misleading marketing and incorrectly stating there is a 12 month extension. For tests being currently sold by eMed there is a 3 month extension. It's not clear what Optum is doing or what expiration dates their tests are shipping with currently.

Like I said, kind of sleazy on eMed's part. Contact them to complain. I did.

They are good for those Nov. and Dec. cruises. Who knows what January will mean. Might not even need tests then. I too was surprised by the shorter than expected expiration date but I'll have no problem using mine up before January 5. Kind of sleazy on eMed's part but they are not the first american company to capitalize on the virus and make bank from it.

To assemble or contract a team of health care qualified individuals to mass test a thousand or several thousand plus guests in a 3 or 4 hour window at a cruise terminal is a very different model than a $25 home test over video. It doesn't scale in cruise terminals that were never built with this in mind. You can't just hand out 1,000 or more self tests and tell every guest to use their cell phone to do a proctored test with Navica. Then there is the matter of setting up several sets of lab testing equipment stations remotely in the terminal, in a lab environment with isolation and all that goes along with this type of setup. That can't be cheap. Cruise lines are not making money right now. They are simply losing less. Add the costs to contract a healthcare workforce which are already in short supply and pay them more to work on weekends then setup laboratory testing in the terminals for mass testing in each and every terminal and the cruise lines just might as well shutdown again.