MaryCS62

It is mostly going to be continental style offerings. No guarantees that any egg based items they may have will be gluten-free. Sometimes they have smoked salmon available or cured meats and cheeses in the lounges at breakfast, but you are likely to have better luck going to Coastal Kitchen for breakfast. Coastal Kitchen on Anthem is right next to the Windjammer which usually has gluten-free items so it should be relatively easy for them to make sure your daughter has something that will work for her.

I've never smoked in my life and I am very concerned the new smoke free casino may be too hard to resist.  I'm running out to buy cigarettes. 
If I get addicted by my cruise I won't be able to use the casino.  Think of the money I'll save.

Suites get free room service and also can order from the MDR menu for room service. So definitely order a hot breakfast if you want.

Good to know some of this. We just Royal Up'd from a junior Suite to a 2BR Grand Suite for this Sunday (Anthem) (😄😄😄 - so excited!) so don't know any of this. Breakfast is just continental, right? No hot food, I guess, and has anyone ever seen gluten free options? How about happy hour foods? Not really worried about drinks, since we have the DBP, but am afraid of being spoiled, and not wanting to go back.

re: toddler  RC will never frown at your choices.  However, please keep in mind the people who have shelled out extra money to eat in specialty restaurants.  I'm sure you would take your angel out of the restaurant at the first sign of fussing. 
Unfortunately for us, the last time we ate at Chops a couple was there with their toddler to "celebrate his 1 year birthday" at 8 pm after a long port day.  That child screamed, cried, and threw food the entire time we were trying to enjoy our meal.  It was hell.  The wait staff kept offering to box up their food, or switch to room service but the couple would not hear of it.  
Again, I am sure this would never be you.  But it might be easier to plan on the nursery so you don't have to be on guard and prepared to leave, and you can enjoy your meal while allowing others to do the same.  On the other hand, same cruise we shared a MDR table with a young couple and their 8 month old, who was an absolute delight.  If your toddler is one who happily amuses themselves with the toys you bring along, and enjoys the parade of food coming to the table, while quietly babbling to themselves, specialty dining should be no obstacle.  Only you know your child well enough to make the call.  

I saw PCR for unvaxxed children a while ago.  I would recommend that 13-14 days prior to your cruise, at midnight, you look at the CVS website (hope you have some near you), filter for PCR tests only & click on the date that is 2-3 days prior to your cruise (3 is better, so that you have a good shot at getting the results in time), and schedule it as soon as possible.  My CVS is doing 13 days out, so very early Christmas morning DH & DD were on the site trying to get our tests for 1/7.  DH got for himself & older DD antigen tests for 1/7 am, other DD & I had to wait to get Saturday, since my CVS only had appointments til 130pm on the Friday, and we would both be working.

1700 /1.1 Million = 0.15% positive (excellent by any standard), 41/ 1.1 million = 0.004%  cruisers went to hospital. 41/1700 = 2.4% of positive people needing hospitalization
 

1700 /1.1 Million = 0.15% positive (excellent by any standard), 41/ 1.1 million = 0.004%  cruisers went to hospital. 41/1700 = 2.4% of positive people needing hospitalization
 

As long as we all test negative, I plan on going.  I'm one who would happily stay on the ship for 11 days.  Do hope they stop at ports though -- DH & DD have a rum tour scheduled they don't want to miss, and if people get off the ship, that just means an even emptier ship for me!

Here is the perfect mask.  I got these for hubby and friend on our October cruise. I found them on Amazon.

As long as we all test negative, I plan on going.  I'm one who would happily stay on the ship for 11 days.  Do hope they stop at ports though -- DH & DD have a rum tour scheduled they don't want to miss, and if people get off the ship, that just means an even emptier ship for me!

We plan to be on our 1/9 Anthem sailing. If ports get skipped it'll probably save me money, keeps the wife out of the shops 🙂 Plus the NH weather stinks.

My DH wears slacks (not jeans, either dockers style or dress slacks), polo shirt or short sleeve button up for casual with deck shoes, dress slacks with dress shirt & blazer + dress shoes. for formal or specialty dining.  We're going on an 11 day (fingers crossed), and he'll probably have 1 pair dress slacks, 3 pr dockers, & will probably wear jeans onboard (it's January).  He's not big on dressing up, but won't wear shorts to dinner when we cruise.  DD's & I will have dressy slacks or sundresses for dinner, I have a jacket or bolero sweater to go over mine.

Kind of hard to tell if you only put in one bid on one room upgrade.  Won't be able to tell until days before the cruise when they accept or deny the bid.  But, best of luck!👍

We only made 1 bid -- only interested in the 2BR Grand suite for our 1/9 cruise -- still says pending, so maybe a good thing ....???

Unfortunately, we had the opportunity to do this yesterday. Christmas Eve, we found out that 31 year old DD (disabled) was exposed on 12/22 @ her adult day program.  12/27, she started showing mild symptoms -- runny nose, mild cough, lethargy.  Could not find anywhere to test her, but yesterday our tests came from Optum.  We had gotten 3 x 3 packs (9 total) for 4 of us as back up, so decided to test her, and decided to do it as a  proctored test so we would know what to do when it counted for the cruise (in case CVS cancels on us).  
I set up a Navica account for myself, then added her as a managed account.  There's no way she could do it herself, so it had to be that way.  We were seen within a few minutes, and unfortunately, it was positive.  I just don't know how long she will stay positive, so don't know if we can go on our 1/9 cruise as planned. 

Unfortunately, we had the opportunity to do this yesterday. Christmas Eve, we found out that 31 year old DD (disabled) was exposed on 12/22 @ her adult day program.  12/27, she started showing mild symptoms -- runny nose, mild cough, lethargy.  Could not find anywhere to test her, but yesterday our tests came from Optum.  We had gotten 3 x 3 packs (9 total) for 4 of us as back up, so decided to test her, and decided to do it as a  proctored test so we would know what to do when it counted for the cruise (in case CVS cancels on us).  
I set up a Navica account for myself, then added her as a managed account.  There's no way she could do it herself, so it had to be that way.  We were seen within a few minutes, and unfortunately, it was positive.  I just don't know how long she will stay positive, so don't know if we can go on our 1/9 cruise as planned. 

We only made 1 bid -- only interested in the 2BR Grand suite for our 1/9 cruise -- still says pending, so maybe a good thing ....???

There absolutely is a safe enough.  Zero cases will never work as a target.  As long as there are cases on land there will be cases on ships.  At some point our society has to find the equilibrium where the level of impact is good enough compared to the impact on our lives.  We reached that equilibrium with the flu.  We need to find it for COVID.  Then it will be good enough.  
Protocols have worked pretty darn good during and before delta.  Not perfect as there were some cases on board during the peak of delta, but nothing like on land, so clearly the protocols were very effective against that variant.
Different variants will require adapting.  Had they not adapted the protocols, how many more cases would there have been?  100 cases on board instead of 50?  We'll never know.  The presence of some cases does not mean the protocols didn't work at all.  That is not proof that mask don't work.
This will continue to be an evolving process.  As new variants with different characteristics are introduced it will require new actions and protocols.
For example, perhaps the lesson learned over the past 2 to 4 weeks is that maybe they should have cancelled guest reservations as unpopular as that would have been.   Perhaps had they cancelled 10% of reservations there would have been 25 cases on board instead of 50.  We'll never know, but it stands to reason if they had cancelled 50% of reservations there likely would have been dramatically fewer cases.  Cancelling 50% is excessive.  Cancelling 0% possibly too much of an under-reaction.  Somewhere in between is a magic number that would be better while not being excessive.
One thing is for sure.  If the next variants spreads easily like Omicron and kills like Delta it will require more stringent protocols.  If the next variant is weaker than Omicron then society and governments need to avoid overreacting.  
It's also entirely possible the only reason they realized the number of cases that they did recently was because of the new first time cruises that refuse to follow protocols.  We've all seen them.  Weekend cruisers have lower protocols acceptance rates.  Holiday cruises saw more reports of "those" people who refused to follow protocols.  Unmasked kids running around.  Perhaps the entire recent outbreaks are due to those folks and the solution is mask police who kick people off ships or lock them in their cabins with a guard at the door.  

Personally I'd be happy for people who refuse to follow the protocols they agreed to when booking the cruise to be removed from the ship. Why should they be allowed to potentially impact others on the ship?

I don't recall the HSP ever made a claim to control COVID.
They claim to make sailing safer.  Not 100% safe without any risk, simply safe enough to allow cruising to occur.  They never claimed there would be zero cases.
Indeed the positivity rate is dramatically lower on ships compared to land, Florida in particular where most ships are boarding right now.  
It stands to reason with Florida nearing the highest peak of anytime during the pandemic, that ships would also realize a higher number of cases.  That is completely logical since the cases are being brought on board from land.  The HSP never said that ships would be capable of killing any virus carried onto a ship. The protocols are designed to detect, isolate and diminish but not eliminate spread.
It stands to reason with more cases being brought on board, there will be more cases on board.  Duh!

Crew are tested regularly, and probably most of the positive cases are identified that way.
If a passenger feels ill, they are to call the medical unit on board and they will be scheduled to go down to the medical facility to test.  If positive, they would only test people with whom that person has had close contact.
"All" of the positive covid tests have equaled about 1% or less of the ships total population (crew and passengers).  
As usual, the cruise lines are being held to a standard that is not recognized on land.

I haven't cruised yet, but I imagine it is the same as having any other non vaccinated child in your party.  Under 12 unvaccinated must get tested (PCR), under 2 don't have to wear a mask, and if there are any unvaccinated in the party, all are considered unvaccinated in those instances and may leave the ship only on sponsored excursions. 

Totally not the case on Odyssey right now, corporate must have made a call. I have never witnessed so much security posted within the ship. All crew seems to be addressing masks, and most are compliant. 
We were at Sorrentos sitting at a table having some tea, masks off of course. Mr. Cabash stands up without mask on and while reaching into his back pocket to get it to put on a staff member was on him, made me chuckle. Very serious right now and they are being worn correctly, you don't see a nose! I haven't used lipstick thus entire sailing:)
They let us know all movies are complementary too if you want to stay in your cabin. I'm typing this from my balcony. I must say I feel the ship is handling this well. While disappointing I feel safe and still enjoying. 
Going to a Tap show they added to the schedule at 1500. Yes. Added. Nice.

So, DH & I decided to order -- I went all the way through to filling out my name & address, & I got a pop up stating that they didn't ship near my address (or something like that), which is puzzling, as it is the single family home (street address, not a po box) that we have lived in for almost 32 years, in NJ.  Any idea what's up with that?