HeWhoWaits

In Sitka, I recommend a visit to the Alaska Raptor Center. If there are no Royal excursions, arrange private transportation - it's well worth the visit. My parents have been long-time supporters of the ARC and when my father passed in early 2021, a nice chunk of change was donated to the endowment fund there (the fund is now named "The Alaska Raptor Center John H. Ellis Endowment Fund").

All individuals can be checked in on one device.

For now just create the posts in the general roll call board (rather than under a specific ship). @Mattwill surely get around to creating the rest of the ship-specific sub-topics when he has time.

In this context, "arrival time" and "boarding time slot" are the same thing. Different posters use different terminology but we're all talking about when you can board the ship.

The best thing to do is to keep checking. We found out almost a week ago about the change for our July sailing and there are no excursions posted yet for George Town, Grand Cayman.

1. Check in opens at midnight in the time zone of the departure port. 2. Earlier check in ensures availability of all the potential boarding time slots. Later the same day may or may not have the earliest slots available. 3. You can start with as little as selecting the time slot if you use the app then go back later and add the details. More information is required up front if checking in on the website. 4. Checking in has no impact on pending Royal Up offers.

None of us here have any inside information (not even @Matt), but for now my wife's June 18 from Port Canaveral with friends still includes Bonaire in the itinerary.

My wife and her friends are on the same cruise on Mariner with no announced itinerary change.

Can't speak to August, but in July the gardens were spectacular (enough so that we're going again next month). For May visits, the Butchart Gardens-only excursion (not combined with something else) is in the afternoon (we're doing the combined Craigdarroch Castle/Butchart Gardens excursion). We'll also do a little general exploring the city. As much as we love the gardens, if you're only doing one thing I would consider sticking with the general exploration. Getting to Butchart Gardens can be one of the many reasons you'll want to book another Alaska cruise in the future.

16 days from submitting photo of my vaccine card in the app and still "validating." Worst case scenario is they're going to look at the card anyway and it takes a couple extra seconds for them to scan it.

What do you get when a telescope bumps into a microscope? A kaleidoscope.

This would seem to be the part that implies cost of a one-way car rental and associated fuel if that was the best option available.

Wondering what the port fees are for Grand Cayman vs. Bonaire. If higher, we already paid in full so I'd make it an issue if they try to charge us more. If lower, I will fight for some OBC to make up the difference.

Even so, it will be a new port for me. Already been to Bonaire. Since we didn't have any excursions planned (nor did we expect to add any) nothing specific is lost by not going to Bonaire. If we find Grand Cayman to be as you describe there will be plenty to keep us occupied on board.

You are guaranteed no less than a JS. All guarantee staterooms are accounted for in the availability you see when doing a mock booking. We are on Ovation May 20 with a JS Guarantee booking. We had our stateroom assignment in February (very early for learning your stateroom on a guarantee).

Had the same Bonaire -> Grand Cayman change. The affected cruise still shows up in a cruise search as going to Bonaire - website hasn't caught up with the change yet.

I am amused by their statement "feel free to browse all the exciting shore excursion options for your sailing" given that there is nothing to see for George Town yet and the Curacao excursions are no longer available to browse. Also, no mention of what will happen to bookings for Chops Grille Lunch on 7/11 (was a sea day, now a port stop). If it's just refunded, the option to move to a different day will cost an extra $4 per person (at least that was the price last time I checked).

Just received this via email. Kralendijk, Bonaire has been replaced by George Town, Grand Cayman.

Since your wife can't drink, you can use her vouchers as well. The specialty coffee and fresh-squeezed orange juice she would use them on are less expensive than the libations.

Agreed. If something you consider to be a "better" stateroom is available for less than you paid, go for it.

If we want something (anything) we make the purchase the first time we consider the price "reasonable." Then we check the available prices frequently. If a price goes lower, we make the switch. If not, we were already comfortable with what we paid. Some purchases remain at the original price. Others we have cancelled and repurchased as many as five times (the reduction in price has to be "worth the effort").

You can drink it anywhere on board with the possible exceptions of Adventure Ocean, the bridge, and the engine room. I don't recommend trying to drink it in the shower.

Multiple browsers on multiple devices with all caches cleared. Never was able to make the payments online yesterday. Call to Royal with an amazingly short wait time did the trick.

30 days until we board. Looking forward to meeting @CHRIS WONG

Trying to make final payments on two cruises today. Online payment system has rejected multiple cards, all of which have no limit issues. Anybody else having trouble making payments to Royal online today?