Traveler

Day 4 St Maarten. Today was our first port day. The day before we got a message in the room about balcony maintenance , guess who forgot about it , guess who in is underwater suddenly notice people working there. Sorry you had to witness that guys , but I am not going to pay for any required psychological therapy, professional risks , . Since as part of the process they also removed the binder it was a good time to check the other cabin balconies. The family suite View from the balcony

The ice ring is very small so I am sure it takes some time to adjust to it . I noticed not like other show they do not change all the team at once but replace few team members every time not sure why. Anyway I think it's quite challenging to participate in this show , this is why it's even more impressive

Day number three the second sea day. Not going to get you bored again with what we eat in the morning or what we did every minute but few observations from this day. Dining room service is excellent just to give you one example, comparing to all the other places when we drink our coffee they already remember the kind of sweet and low that we are using (and the sugar I use ) and bring it already to the table without asking and that's only after one day, those small things that do the change. CK lunch contains many of the evening menu from other days but services much more rapid and in general better than the evening service at least this is what we feel. Everybody show - so by mistake I reserve the ice show time that was for everyone. Even for the everyone show they still separated the crowd and on one section only adults on the other sections adults with children. Although it was already the same crew from the last 3 months there were many many incidence during the ice cream almost every session somebody felt, one time it was so bad that I told that we are going to hear alpha alpha alpha , gladly no one being hurt and all the performer continue as nothing happened. I admire their ability to continue without any fear since such incidents might impact dramatically the self-confidence any veteran performance. Maybe there were some issue with the ice surface. Anyway the show was fun as always. Weather was strange yesterday, mostly sunny but every 30 minutes or so there was one minute of heavy rain. It was fun to watch people behavior once it happened. Some just didn't mind, some just started to run for cover, most funny where people that running from the pool , you already in the pool do you think you are going to get more wet due to the rain ? Due to the high winds the 16 deck was closed during all the day, let's created some chair availability on Deck 15 but still do some free chairs just not on hotspot. Water and juice are now back to sled service in most of the places , this is a blessing change. Tomorrow out first port - St Maarten.

I love the new monster drill and I hope that they will keep the system even after the pandemic will be behind us. I also love the fact that the ship was empty at least during the summer. It felt as if we got special service everywhere. I didn't like the fact that the WJ was close during the evening time but that's already behind us.

Day 3 PCR test update. The link we got in the cruise campus did not work also during the morning. I went to the suite lounge to try and see if there is something to do. The link did not work also to the concierge so I guess it was not a problem with my cell phone or laptop. The concerns did some calls and apparently there is some Excel that he needs to put our names in he located the Excel and asked me a few questions regarding my flight and regarding the date of birth, the passport information you already. He told me that the PCR test was scheduled for Thursday which is the 6th day around 4:00 p.m. he also told me that I supposed to get a letter in the room with some more details so I will wait for it. So my recommendation is to try and close this on the first day using all the concierge or the guest services. We are scheduled to be with group two of the test. For us taking the test on the 6th day is working quite well with our flight schedule but anyone that is going to take a flight not on the same day as departure it's recommended to try and see if you can schedule it to the last day. Since the last days Coco Cay for us I believe it's much better to do it a day before so no need to do it in the middle of the day or even in the morning when we all want to go as early as possible to the island. I'm not sure if there is a difference between ship to ship but this is the current information that I got here. The test is currently complimentary. Even if Royal Caribbean will start to take money for this test I still hope that they will be able to do it on board since it's saving a lot of time and stress from people that need to take it.

They 2 -sea day. We woke up quite early around 6:30 a.m. we went to find something to eat and we found ourselves at the WJ as it's the only place that is open at 7:00 a.m. after breakfast we went to tour the ship as we like to tour it when it's quite empty and you can take a nice pictures , it's also a good time to add to the steps count to clear our calorie conscious. After getting organized and giving some shirts to iron we went to catch one of the morning trivia we did quite all right but not as I would like two teams got 14 answers out to 15 but still I was quite proud to know some of the answers including one that other didn't know. We went to the park Cafe to get some fruits and enjoy the Sun at Central Park. The ship is quite full I think around 5,000 people but I don't have the official number but it looks that still no hair issues and enough space for everyone. For lunch we choose to go to the coastal kitchen which was very good. Service was very fast and excellent I guess it's all about the number of waiters per the number of tables as the CK was quite empty. We both got the salad as the main course and some starter that were very interesting. We went back to the cabin as I really needed to have a good nap. We had reservations fort the 3:00 p.m. Flight show , this is the second time that we see it and we enjoyed it very much. I think this is one of the best productions that Royal Caribbean has. The effects are amazing and there is a storyline that easy to follow, something that I cannot say for most of the other productions, at least regarding the aspect of the storyline. I wish we could see it again. We came 15 minutes before the beginning of the show and found very nice seats near the stage. There was a huge standby line of people who didn't reserved or didn't successfully reserved the show on time I do believe that most of them entered although the theater was quite full. Remember to book all the shows that you want at the moment you board the ship , well maybe after you complete the muster drill. After the show we went to a quick session at the casino and went to get organized for the official night. We decided to go to the main dining room for dinner, we asked to be seated at a table that is served by waiters we knew from our last cruise to the Symphony. Apparently they both recognized us from the last visit and brought us our favorite dish to start with even without asking, that was nice. Dinner went quite quick and we both utilized the the diamond vouchers for couple glasses of wine. After dinner we went to see the comedy show one of the comedian was okay the other one was hilarious, I think this was the first time we went to the comedy show on the ship. For sure we'll try it again. Coming back to the room I found the Cruise compass with the QR code for the testing reservation I tried it several time but it seems that the QR code brought us to a page which didn't have anything there. I tried it both fron my cell phone and from the laptop. Maybe they only open the reservation page during day three. One more visit to the casino before going to bad and try to catch finally a decent sleep. While taking the elevator up to our cabin , we were already six people , on the next floor two ladies came in , one without mask. The first one asked the one without mask how she is feeling today , she replied "better , the stomach nausea was much worse yesterday". Now one can argue if masks makes any difference or not but that's the current rule, there are many rules I do not like in RCL but still I follow them to respect others. As I am not from the mask police I did not say anything , just went out the next floor, flu stomach scares me more than C19 . Tomorrow another sea day

Interesting , I can see they brought up back the Official night, no dress your best.

Day 1 - boarding. So the jet lag keeps up during strange hours, that time it was a bless since I could watch all the ships entertaining the harbor. I was also busy in trying to handle the big security issue that started in the weekend (Log4J vulnerability if anyone really interested) that's after I had to handle another issue while flying. I wonder how it's always happens when I try to take vacation. Our check-in time was 11:30 and with the flexible 1 hour you get when you are in sky class it mean 10:30) quick repacking , cofee from the hotel Starbucks and we started our long 5 minutes journey to the port. This time we were staying at the Intercontinental Miami which I booked as found many recommendations for it in this blog. I must join the recommendations , it's a very nice hotel , located near many restaurants and supermarket and a good choice if you do not have a car. I ordered the regular room but we were upgraded to an harbor view room We got to the port fast although the u turn the Uber had to take , the cost was 9$ plus tip. I suggested to to swim to the ship but it was overruled , something about the luggage will get wet or another excuse. Immediately after boarding we have been directed to our muster station which we planned to do anyway. Apparently many people didn't do it and around 5 PM there were still 300 people that the crew chased to complete the very complicate process... I do hope Royal will not consider to go back to the old way but if it will happen I will ask RCL for the address of all the people that failed the process and send them a sack of onions so they can cry as we will cry going back to the old horrible muster drill. We grabbed some food at the WJ as CK was still closed and I completed all the show booking. Fly is back ! Next we went to the CK to confirm our must day one CK reservation and to drink coffee. The cabin was ready at 1 pm , the luggage already arrived so we could unpack. This time we got one of the crown loft suites which facing the mini golf. I thought I might not like it but the view is nice and the balcony is bigger from the previous CLS we had, anyway as the old phrase says " you do not check the teeth of an horse you got using Royal up". We love the cabin , two bathrooms much like two internet packages helps allot to any couple relationships We enjoyed the balcony for a while before we went to check if anything is new on the ship , I can tell you one very important change was replacing the tune of the piano stairs! Beside that more and less the same. I went to check for the disembarkation PCR test but there were always lines to the concierge , apparently this cruise we have only one concierge comparing to the regular two that you have in Oasis class. Finally when I go to speak to him the first thing he asked me if I'm Canadian, I guess he hears this question a lot from the people of the north. Told him that we are not but we still need to schedule a PCR testing to get back to our country. He told me that on day 3 we will see the QR code on the cruise compass that we will need to scan and schedule a PCR test, no issues at all , he also offered he can guide me to the process. Of course I needed to try and book it earlier so I went to The Cruise compass of one of the previous Symphony of The seas cruise , scan the code and try to see what happens, apparently they were already ready for such attempts so it was not working even when I tried to play with the dates in the URL. Oh well I tried. We went to catch some nap and get ready for the evening . First dinner was in CK , we cannot miss the first night filet mignon ,as always it was perfect especially when you remember to order medium if you want to get medium well and medium medium rare if you want medium. Not sure if we are going to eat in CK every night something is weird in the atmosphere of the CK at Symphony I cannot pinpoint what exactly it is but maybe lack of waiters comparing to the number of tables or something else in the ambience. We'll try to do a few dinner at the main dining room. Yes I know the subject will start a riots , I guess every person see it differently. I proudly say we skiped the dessert. Apparently we were The last ship to leave the harbor today that means we had ability to take very nice pictures of Miami Port during the dark. That was first time for us as usually the ship is leaving around 5:00 p.m. this time we left only around 7:30 p.m. quite late. That's also mean that they could open some of the venues only after 8:00 p.m, like the casinos and the shops. We enjoyed some live music at Park Cafe and the promenade before closing the night trying to recover from the long day. Tomorrow a sea day .

We are on board. We arrived at 10:45 after our Uber driver missed the turn and got is another round in the port. No lines at the suite door , did not notice any big lines on the other side either. The only thing they asked to verify is the testing results as they already verified our vaccine card we uploaded to the app. They started to board around 11:15 , meanwhile people were looking who is the crazy person goes from one window to another raising is cellphone against it. Yes it was me trying to connect to the ship WIFI to start and reserve some shows

Nothing like working at 4:30 am just to watch the parade and make sure everything going as plan. Good morning , it's a cruise day

Shoo , Shoo go away Freedom , make space for a real ship

Flight / test prep. We scheduled the flight to Thursday early morning, that due to time zone difference bringa us to Miami at 8 am. This time we took a direct flight. The plan was again to do the test for the flight at Wednesday and to use the same test for the cruise also. As you know Royal Caribbean change our plan since now they are asking to have the test two days before the cruise which mean that we had or to change our flight plans or to take another test. Changing the flight plan was more complicated so we decided we will take another test at Miami. Now we had the task to find where to take the test. Unfortunately the test that can be done by yourself is not shipped outside of the US so we could not guarantee that it will arrive on time. I checked the option of do some free testing at the CVC or Walgreens but the information I got was regarding if it's possible to do it for international travelers or just for locals seems contradict. For some of the places it's a matter of gambling. So we decided to go with the options that the cost money but much easier and will take less time from our vacation. After checking online I found out that there is a testing place at the airport which allow you to take a rapid antigen test and cost around $79. We booked it for the same time that we are landing. For backup option I did order the the self-guided testing from Royal Caribbean. There is an option to order it from Royal Caribbean or directly from the company that produced them the second option costs less. $150 for 6 test directly or $69 for two tests kits via Royal Caribbean. Royal Caribbean guarantee fast delivery usually two business day it's also gives you a time table to show you when you supposed to get the kits per the day that you order it. We asked to ship those test kits to the hotel in our case there is a FedEx location where you can ship any order before you come to the hotel. So we had plab A and plan B which allowed me to sleep much better. After a quick short flight of 13 hours we landed at Miami airport immigration took 10 minutes, custom was did not woke up so it was very fast. We collected our luggage and went to find the testing location that was around 300 ft walk from us. There wasn't any lines and the test took 5 minutes. The result is being sent after 10 minutes to your email. The location is operate by Nomi helth care. They also offer PCR test and Rapid PCR (that cost almost 230$ but good as a lady minute option). We took a taxi to our hotel and during the ride we got already the result , both negative and ready for the cruise. While arriving to the hotel , waiting for our room to be ready I went to collect our other option from the FedEx office the package we're waiting for us and all arrive as planned , while I was in the office I also printed our results it's around 40 cents to print the result for both of us. Royal Caribbean actually encourage international travelers to use the option and send the package to the hotel so it's also working well even if you cannot ship it to your home address. I preferred the option to take the test in the airport as it's take all the stress out and we could enjoy the rest of our vacation without thinking about testing results or even where to take the test. The free option might also work ,there are few locations in Miami that offer free PCR test but the result can take up to 48 hours they have walkthrough and drive through. Now we could start and enjoy our vacation. Our room has a very nice view of the harbor and we can make sure that Symphony will not live without us. The downside is the noise from the ships that insist to let anyone know that they enter to the harbor ... View from our room Our plan B if Symptoms will not arrive on time

Here we starts our recovery , mmm maybe we need to reconsider the no drinking package .l?!

Yap me again (or should I say is again). Back home (AKA Symphony OTS). Was debating if to do another live blog for the same ship and itinerary and almost decided to drop it this time. Started to see so many questions regarding international cruise participate, testing before and after so I thought I will focus mainly on subjects around it. This time we are going to be in CLS (thanks Royal up) , no drinking/dining packages (we still recovering from our last cruise). Pre cruise we are visiting Miami only , sorry Micky and Harry. Feel free to ask any questions .

Per people that were on the ship on the last few weeks yes but that can change. If all goes well we will be on RCL ship by the end of the week and since we also need the PCR test before flying back I will be able to share if we got it there or not.

People that are flying to the US to take a cruise (or to do anything else) are impacted as they need to do a test no longer then one day before the flight comparing to 3 days until today. Whoever did not planed for it will be impacted. Whoever followed the articles from last week already planned to have the test on time (I have some good examples ) People on cruises ships going out of the US are still not require to take any test before entering back to the US, lets hope it will stay like that. Anyway , during the time of the C19 , whoever plan to travel should be update and read the CDC site and other sites which give the updated information and rules as they might change with short notice. Flexibility is the key here.

You still get the cruise compass everyday which you can take with you .

One of the main different between western Europe and Greek Island cruise is the proximity of the attractions to port. While you need 1.5 hours drive to Rome , 2 hours to Florence and 1 hour boat ride to Capri most of the Greek ports/other ports in that itinerary are quite close (15 minutes tender to Kotor , 10 minutes tender to Mykonos and around 15-20 to Santorini. So its less intensive. Its quite easy to take the tender to Mykonos and just wonder for an hour or so in the village and go back. Adding two links for a live blogs we done in Greece cruise , let me know if you have questions . https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/15034-rhapsody-of-the-seas-24-31-august-2019-greek-island-take-2/#comment-150164 https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/9042-rhapsody-of-the-seas-greek-islands-25-aug-1-sep-semi-live-blog/

Its official now "All air passengers 2 years or older with a flight departing to the US from a foreign country at or after 12:01am EST (5:01am GMT) on December 6, 2021, are required show a negative COVID-19 viral test result taken no more than 1 day before travel, or documentation of having recovered from COVID-19 in the past 90 days, before they board their flight." https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html

It should not be an issue , You can put the page twice take half of it for the front and the other half for the back. the set sail card will be printed anyway. Even if it will not be verify you should not have any issue to check in. the only change will be that they will need to take a picture of your vaccination card, half minute more to the check in process ...

For me , with a different kind of vaccination card (a printed a4 page as I am not a US resident) it took about three weeks. I took a photo of the half page and than as the back I took a photo of the second half. Its now verified without any issue.

WHO organization just announced the new C-19 variant which currently spread very fast in South Africa . This variant is highly suspected to be more contagions than the delta variant (which is 4 times more contagious from the pervious one). Still not clear the vaccine efficiency against this variant. Currently RCL and other cruise line stock are trade 10% to 13% down . Lets hope it will be another false alarm. we will know in about 10 to 14 days.

For now all I can see that the prices only went down to what they were a week ago for preparation for this "sell" some even up in 2 $ . Let's hope it's just the beginning , I will be patient but for now it doesn't look promising.

You still need to in the regular station but on the deck 17 sun deck you can get towels without registration it.

Our Royal bid to an ATS went a 5 days before the cruise while we were on our first B2B part. No one were contacting us so I went to the ask the concierge , which promised to check . Still no one contact us so after few days I went to the second concierge to ask again and that time it worked and Sunil called us to meet him in the SL. Not sure if it was any different if we weren't already on board. I guess you want to at least contract them before arriving the port to schedule boarding time.