Traveler

First test results came out we are OK to go ? Already sent the results PDF to the airline and they clear us out. two more tests to go ... Meanwhile got the concierge letter and few points I can see: 1. The soft drinks (beside tea and coffee) during the day are suspended and available only during happy hours. 2. SKY class can come up to 1 hour before or after the check in time. Here is the letter: "Dear Sky Class guests,We are name Ken and Norman, and we can’t wait to welcome you onboard Symphony of the Seas on Saturday September 04th 2021. I hope you’re ready for a wonderful cruise vacation with us. We’re delighted you’ll be joining us as we get back to our home at sea. Your health & safety are our top priority, so as we begin to set sail, we have new health protocols that are part of our healthy return to service. Please visit https://www.royalcaribbean.com/gbr/en/healthy-sail-center/before-you-board-your-cruise for more information on the preventive measures that we will be taking onboard to ensure you have a safe and healthy experience with us. As we return to service, some benefits and services have been temporarily adjusted. To follow new health protocols and better manage the flow of guests in terminals, the check-in process will be different. All guests will be required to select an arrival time in advance via the Royal Caribbean app. However, Sky Suite guests can enjoy Flexible Arrival — a new program allowing the freedom to check in up to one hour before or after your scheduled check-in time while the terminal is open. We recommend that you plan your days and make reservations for your dining, onboard activities, shore excursions and Vitality Spa services. You may do so using your Cruise Planner or Royal App. Please note that show reservations will be available for booking once onboard. If you require any assistance, we will be happy to help you. Our desk is in the Suite Lounge, located on Deck 17 aft. My hours are: 8:00 am until 11:30 pm, and 4:30 pm until 8:00 pm. I am also reachable via email, or by dialing my phone from your Suite or any house phone. As a Sky Suite guest, you have access to exclusive amenities and services, available just for you: · The Concierge Lounge is for the exclusive benefit of our Suite guests, accessible with your Sky Class SeaPass card. · Make sure to pack a smart casual outfit, as that’s our dress code in the lounge at all times. · In the Lounge, coffee and tea are available throughout the day. Each evening, between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm, hors d'oeuvres, petit fours and complimentary wine, spirits, beer, and soft drinks are available for our Suite guests. · Guests under 21 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. · As a Sky Suite guest, you may enjoy the exclusive suites-only restaurant, Coastal Kitchen, for the hours of operation, please refer to the Cruise Compass or reach out to me for assistance. Reservations are required for dinner. · Your suite is supplied with luxurious bath amenities, a Lavazza espresso coffee machine, comfortable bathrobes for your use onboard, and equipped with a luxurious pillow-top mattress, all for your comfort and enjoyment. · Sky guests have access to complimentary VOOM Surf and Stream, for one device per person for the entire sailing. Detailed instructions on how to connect your device are attached to this email and will be in your suite upon arrival. · Enjoy the exclusive Suite Sun Deck, on Deck 17 aft; lounge chairs are available to suite guests on a first come, first served basis. · Sky guests receive early seating in our theaters up to 45 minutes prior to curtain. Reservations are available once you arrive onboard, which I will be happy to assist you with. · To organize your Priority Departure, please meet with me to discuss details once onboard. Thank you again and please let me know of any questions you may have. Your Concierges. Best Regards "

What do you know , royal up is working (at least for the first leg) Bye bye GS hello crown & loft .

NoRegarding Rome it's really depends what you want to do. If you want to tour it by yourself you have three option : 1. Take a bus or train from RCL 2. Take a bus from the port (there will be plenty of them) . 3. Take a train by your own from the train station which you can travel to using a 1.5 Euro shuttle bus. That will be the cheapest but will take you to the main train station and not to the Vatican. In Rome you can buy ticket for the hop on hop off buss , but you can always walk from the Vatican to the center (not short but not that long).

Another part of the planning for the cruise. This time preparation for Hooked ?

Preparations during C19 times . Two days only until our journey starts here is the testing plans : 1. First PCR test was done today - this is for the flight/US entry requirements and we did it just incase the last minute test will not work , we done it in one of the local "CVC like" here , cost - 24$ , results in 36 hours. Here, PCR tests do not cost money but they are not valid for travel to avoid the load on the country testing facilities so you need to go use a private testing company for travel. 2. PCR test in the airport on the same day of the flight , this test we are doing to cover the 3 days rule of RCI , the cruise on Saturday and the test will be done on Wednesday. cost is 40$ for 4 hour result (12 $ for 14 hour results). 3. Antigen test in Orlando airport on Thursday , this is optional and cost 65$ , we consider to do it just incase for some reason RCI will refuse to accept an official PCR test from a foreign country. Maybe we will take it after we will land. alternate we might order the self testing kit to the hotel. During boarding I will first try to give them the Wednesday test just to check if they have any problem with it. Beside the test we already purchase three month ago a travel insurance that includes C19 protection (including paying for hotel if we need to be quarantine) it cost almost twice than what we used to pay , but its crazy days and we want to cruise ? . Now we just need all the tests will come negative.

Thanks , I did got the survey for the 4-Sep leg so after got this email I went to the link and change the information for the 11-Sep one. Hope your it will do the trick.

Not sure how the duplicate contend pop up here anyway since I can't delete a post here is another sunset ?

You can follow in this CDC link : https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/from-other-countries.html

Few minutes ago I got interesting email from RCI , in this email which they sent both of us they want us to schedule a PCR test for the 11-Sep cruise. Now both of us vaccinated (anyway its not allowed to cruise to the Bahamas if not) and last time I have checked not me nor my spouse are in the age range of 2-12 YO , not that I mind to reduce few years of my current age. I wonder if it is for the B2B (which i not making any sense) or because they have not sent us the vaccine survey for this cruise so they consider us not vaccinated , can it be that Royal know about a secret son/daughter we have which is less than 12 years old ? . I should check again if my spouse not going to surprise me during this cruise ?. For sure , the Royal IT wants to make sure my life will be interesting. Anyway , here is the email I got , at least it might help people that need it :

I think maybe it because people confuse this site to be an official RCL site and want to raise a concern or complain not any bad intentions. I do understand any challenges to get straight answers from RCL agents ...

By the way , I want to reserve the CK for few days, how do I contact the concierge ? Should I get some email ?

I also found out that in the application set sail you do not see the Casino status but it does not mean you lost it, it's just mean RCL IT has done it again ?

Although it's our first time In GS we decided to try the royal up for almost all the possibilities (not biding on the Royal suite and Vila). Just saw that all my bids expired beside the pending crown loft suite , still full week to go. Anyway it encouraged me to bring up the bids on the second leg of the B2B , who knows, with all the cancelations maybe it's a good chance to try something else

I am back , sorry for not updating before but crazy days , lots of work to finish before the vacation (no that I will not be connect and have to join some meetings but still ) and some uncertainties during those crazy days. Still not sure if all the starts will aligned and we will be able to board the cruise , hope no issues with flight , C19 tests , hurricanes and other stuff , too many things so I decide not to think about it too much. On the other hand we still do all the required preparation , for example my spouse already prepared for the Caribbean: For the vacation prof I twit RCL asking regarding the PDF which is the only document we are getting here and here is the answer : "Hi there. Digital or alternate copies aren't accepted unless it's the standard way of getting the vaccine proof for that country guests are in, so you'll be fine." so I guess its also good answer for whoever travel from Canada to catch a US cruise. You can imagine my feeling when getting the B2B new protocol email , why of course change it one week when we are finally going on our first B2B ? , good that they fixed it and sent another email quickly, Plans for the first cruise : SAT 04 SEP MIAMI, FLORIDASUN 05 SEP CRUISING MON 06 SEP COZUMEL, MEXICO - Stay on the ship as Mexico is in the red list of our health department 07 SEP ROATAN, HONDURAS - Beach day , we love the clear water Rotan has . WED 08 SEP PUERTO COSTA MAYA, MEXICO - Maybe tour in the port shops THU 09 SEP CRUISING FRI 10 SEP PERFECT DAY COCOCAY, BAHAMAS - First time at COCOAY so planning to tour the it and we also booked jet sky there. SAT 11 SEP MIAMI, FLORIDA

Per RCL page it should be fine " Acceptable Proof of Vaccination In order to present proof of vaccination for our cruises, the guest must show eligible documentation on boarding day at the terminal in the form of the vaccination record issued by either (1) the country’s health authority that administered the vaccination (e.g., U.S. CDC's Vaccination Record Card) (2) electronic vaccination records where country policy requires the use of electronic documentation via app or health agency site (e.g. UK NHS App, NHS Certificate, Israel Green Pass, EU Digital COVID Certificate), or (3) a letter from the guest's medical provider that administered the vaccination, which meets the following criteria: The Proof of Vaccination must include the name of the vaccinated person matching the registered cruise guest with date of birth (DoB), the dates of the completed vaccination cycle, the administering physical or medical services provider, and the manufacturer of the vaccine issued. The full vaccination cycle must be completed at least 14 days before your sail date (e.g., received the second dose in a two-dose series such as Pfizer or Moderna or a single dose of J&J). The vaccine is recognized and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) and/or the World Health Organization (WHO)." " In that case the PDF is official from the health authority .. I am going first to present the PDF , if that will not work I will show them my electronic documentation from the app as they list the app we use here in one of the examples they gave.

Here is how it all started. It was duribg February 2020 what turned to be my last business trip (for now anyway). C19 was something in China with very few cases in north America and Europe (mainly Italy) but we knew it's coming (N Stark was warning us). I was "enjoying" Toronto February weather doing customer meetings during the day and searching the different stores for N95 masks during the evening trying not to freeze. Nothing like cold weather to plan for the next cruise , we had already a cruise planned for April 2020, 11 days in the Mediterranean but I was already sceptic it will happen. After browsing the site I found an Oasis cruise from NJ during September. Did some calls and reserved it thinking by September the C19 will be already a fading memory, little I knew (well like most of us). Nothing like playing where is my car in -20c Few month after and few cancelations I knew this cruise would take place so I just did the L&S for next year. After few months more I checked if I still have my annual cruise from spending time (and contributing to RCL revenue) in the ships casinos, I went to the site and to my surprise not just that I saw it was there but also a list of many other offers. That was first time for me as until now I never got any offer and when asking the RCL representative for the reasonhe he explained me that they can't have marketing offer for someone not living in the US. Guess there was some good things about the C19 situation. I saw two offers for JS during September and jumped on it , calling RCL and asked to book our first B2B cruise. The representative checked it and told me sorry , no JS cabins left for this offer but he can book a balcony for us. I said ok let's do it and he started to work on it. After ten minutes he came back to me and said it's approved and he just need my CC to book it, at that point the call was disconnected. I was freaking out , finally booked a B2B and now this ... I didn't give up and called again waiting 15 minutes more to get a new representative asking him to check if he can retrieve the reservation which was under process, he checked and didn't found anything, told me that we need to start again. I gave him the offers numbers again asking him to check the JS availability, he came back to me saying no JS only balcony but do I want him to check for grand suite ? I said yes and after few minutes he told me that are available for both cruise and the extra cost will be 450 $ asking if I wanted it. I thought about and told him I need few days to think about it and I would call them back .... No not really ? , I just couldn't say it faster "book it" ! Praying the call will not disconnected again, it wasn't , a YOLO moment and we had our first B2B booked .

You are right , This point we still considering if to take it and how to reduce the risks (using the early hours options from the hotel , using mask even if not requested , and limit the visit time). Also waiting to see the results of the booster shot in preventing infection in the next two weeks as more and more data are coming.

Yap , I will give it a try although almost forgotten how to write a cruise blog. First why did I choose this name ? I guess it's quite obvious no one really knows what will happen during this crazy times so it's hard to plan. What we are planning is to be as flexible as we can and have lots of plan B/C/D and even E if needed mainly to try and have fun with whatever will be. Regarding the name , I wanted to call it "cruise to the unknown" but that unfortunately already taken here (remember the days people were cruising and written blogs about it ?). Why started now ? Two weeks looked like a good time to start and beside while writing this first post I am seating at one of my favorites beach near my home and what is better place to start writing a cruise blog if not here ? What is the plan , in high level 1. Try avoiding cathing COVID-19 in the next few weeks . Take a c19 test 3 days before the cruise. 2. Fly to Orlando (cheaper ticket than Miami) 3 Visit Universal park 4 Drive to Miami and get on Symphony. Convincing the check in people to accept our vaccination paper (the vaccine card here is a pdf file which we need to print but it contains all the information RCL asking for) . Both of us already got the third Pfizer booster shot this week so I hope no issues. 5. Do our first B2B , first time in grand suite. 6. Fly to the West coast to meet some family ( stopping in Vegas for few days) 7. Fly back home More information to follow , for now going to seat back relax and enjoy the breeze and sunset here

I guess most people are doing the pre cruise while in home were they are mostly on a non vacation environment . Then you have Fe day before cruising which is done in less safer environment were people can be infected before boarding .

Currently not changing any plans , we do not know when the C19 will go away (if ever) so for now we need to learn how to coexist with it.

Thanks , I guess its sold out for the August dates , that's why its not appearing

Good question, did SYO test cruise happened at all ? Can not find anything about it . What I can see is that that no ability to book it before September.

No protocol was sent yet , just the survey if we are vaccinated or not . I even sent a query to check if RCL will acknowledge our Pfizer vaccine documents as our official certificate comes as a PDF. No answer yet. I think anyway RCL have not decided on the protocols yet , waiting to see the new numbers now with the delta is around. Hope for the best.

I am planning to blog it , so many things need to happen for us to be able to take the cruise as we are flying over to the US , hopefully no new rules and things will improve soon everywhere. It's going to be our first B2B and we can't wait for it to start