June May

Since I have some time now, I wanted to give some feedback on the Portrait Session. Originally, we booked this for the March Oasis 2022 sailing. But for those who follow the live blogs, you all know how that story went. Anyway, we rebooked it for this cruise at the Black Friday rate of $174.99. That is the sitting fee, plus it includes 5 digitals on a USB. 
 
The plan has always been to take the 5 digitals and run with it. I have seen @dodgestangpost his pics several times in the past and the look fantastic, but we were pretty skeptical on what they could do.  We have one empty wall in our house that has stayed empty for 10 years now (since we moved in) and the goal was always to fill that wall with the large family portrait. That was the main mission here. But we would use the digitals to make our own canvas back home. 
 
The instructions when purchasing in the cruise planner is to make your appointment with the photographer once on board. We did that first thing last Saturday and no one was around. The next stop was the suite lounge, and Mohamed very quickly secured us a reservation for the next day. Had we had the opportunity to do this on the Oasis sailing back in March, Allan would have made the reservations for us. We wanted this done asap as we seasoned cruisers know that the sea air shrinks our clothes 😉
The next day, we met with the photographer and he suggested we take some in the studio and then head to Central Park. All of us, except for Hubby have long hair. It was a sea day. That was an easy pass. And humidity is bad for curls lol. We took all our portraits in the studio but they can basically go wherever. You can even schedule them on a PDCC day and take beach pics. 
 
Going to be very honest here, our session with the photographer was super quick (maybe 15 mins actual photo time), and we did not feel like the poses were great. It felt like he was rushing. The kids would not stop complaining and eye rolling. Teenagers are most difficult. Leaving there, we did not feel too great about whether or not we could even choose 5. 
 
We had a follow up session with the photographer the next day to view photos. This is where I would suggest to do this earlier on in the sailing because this is the part that is time consuming. They show you the photos in the form of a slide show, then they show you your photos in various layouts for canvas or acrylic products.
 
We were floored. The photos came out great! There was no way we were going to just be able to walk away with only 5. We have not taken family portraits for almost 10 years. Life is busy at home, and there are not many good photographers around that will do the style that Hubby likes. We asked for time to think and consider the prices, and we made another follow up appointment for two days later.
Here is an example of some of the prices: 




 
If you purchase a product from them, then you get the digital packages at 50% off. 
 
Two days later (on the second sea day), after much debating, and giving up my Effy purchase from Cozumel, we decided to go for it and walked away with a canvas of the Parquet collection, as well as 15 digital prints. 5 from the ones included with the original purchase, 5 additional ones that we purchased, and they included the digitals to the 5 canvas selections. We are happy with our decision, although Hubby did grumble slightly. In the end, the decision maker was the fact that we probably would not do this back at home, and we really did like many of the shots. 
 
Is it worth it? That depends on your situation. For us, it was. If you are the type who does this frequently with your family back on land, then no, probably not worth it. We did some research while on board to compare the cost of just purchasing the digitals and doing the canvas on our own at home, it is pretty much the same, except Hubby was saying that if we did it on our own with Shutterfly or something similar, we would not be able to get the sizing or layout that they were offering with the Parquet collection and he really liked that. 
 
We were able to pick up the digitals on USB the day after confirming the order. We picked it up last night between Flight and the comedy show. The canvas product will be shipped back home to Canada. Shipping is included to Canada and the US. Other countries they have additional info but we did not ask. It should also be exempt from duties. Hopefully they are correct on that. They said to expect shipping to take 6-8 weeks. 
 
I know that many of you might be wondering at this point what the final product looks like. Keep in mind that Hubby downloaded the files to his laptop, and sent these to my phone (which I blog from) so the quality is a lot better with the original file (which I do not have). But here you go…
Hello, from the @Lovetocruise2002 family. Come say hello if you see us on board one day. 🙂
 

I never understood why you wouldn't want to get this out of the way to enjoy the rest of your cruise.

So excited to sail with “Hello Clo!” again. We sailed with her back in 2018 on Anthem and she is one of my favourite Cruise Directors. Her, and Jamie Fentiman. Two of the funniest around. 

I can speak to that, Dave - I had my ex's name down as second guest on my 2019 sailing, always intending to no-show him (was taking advantage of the 50% off second guest that was going on when I booked).
I wanted the Deluxe Beverage Package, called Royal to tell them he didn't drink (absolutely true, for medical reasons) so I could just buy a Refreshment package for him.
When I no-showed him, that was refunded, along with the port fees and taxes.  No muss, no fuss. 
Enjoy travelling solo!

I have a friend booked on a Princess cruise and he has received an email with their updated mask policy.
”In response to the increasing Covid cases in Australia caused by the spread of new sub variants we have updated the mark wearing policy for your voyage”
”guests are required to wear masks on board while indoors and we recommend guests wear face masks while outdoors on board where larger numbers of people are congregating”
it sounds like P&O Australia (also a Carnival brand) are also implementing this policy.
I wonder if Royal will follow suit or whether they will maintain their existing policies. I hope the status quo prevails.
Having caught Covid on our last cruise I am still happy to not wear a mask indoors and take my chances. The weird thing is on land you can have Covid and not need to isolate at all but when it comes to cruise ships it is all doom and gloom by the media if there are higher number of cases.
Times have moved on from the Diamond and Ruby Princess and for most people Covid is now no worse than a cold outbreak on a ship.
 

Yep! I'm a solo cruiser in a balcony - I'm earning a whopping 40 points for my 10 night cruise to the South Pacific next week.  Add to that the 12 points I'll get for the cheeky 3 night cruise to nowhere before that, and I'm leaping from Platinum to Diamond!
Never thought that would happen so quickly, but very grateful that it will 😀

Yep! I'm a solo cruiser in a balcony - I'm earning a whopping 40 points for my 10 night cruise to the South Pacific next week.  Add to that the 12 points I'll get for the cheeky 3 night cruise to nowhere before that, and I'm leaping from Platinum to Diamond!
Never thought that would happen so quickly, but very grateful that it will 😀

Let's compare this to how many covid cases there were from the flights coming in and out of Australia.
Oh right, they don't care to track that. It's just about anti-cruise bias.

With Princess 95% of passengers over 12 must be vaccinated so I would suggest I pretty high percentage.
We just completed a cruise on Ovation and Anita ended up with mild Covid on the last night so it just happens sometimes regardless of vax status.

Now that cruising has restarted don’t forget that Australian sailings booked last year are eligible for double crown and anchor points.

 

Our cruise on Ovation has ended so I thought I would give my final thoughts.
It was great to be back on Royal after two years of shut down. Apart from the initial confusion during the boarding process they rest of the cruise has been very smooth and felt like any pre-pandemic cruise. The ship had around 3000 guests so was not full. This was great as there was always seats available in the Windjammer and other venues and at no time did the ship fell crowded. The crew is a couple of hundred short of normal so wait times could be a little longer than usual but not as issue for us.
The main disappointment I have is that Royal now charge for the North Star and iFly during non port days when previously this was complementary, bumper cars are still included.
The crew have worked very hard and some of them will be returning home in the coming months as their contracts end. Due to staff shortages the time between contracts is very short and the ones returning will be back after around 6 to 8 weeks. This is quite hard for some of them as the family time is very short.
The cruise following ours is a country and western/rock charter and the ship will be near capacity so that will be more of a challenge for the lovely crew.
While one cruise has ended we can now look forward to our next holiday on Quantum early next year knowing what a great experience that will be.

BOOKED MY FIRST AUSTRALIA CRUISE AND SOUTH PACIFIC CRUISE!!!! Royal Caribbean Blog will finally have a live blog and content from Australia! 😎
One year away. The excitement is high. Any tips or advice?!
On a side note, this will be my 6th continent. I think it's time to start planning a cruise to Antarctica. 😄
Going to Adelaide, Melbourne, Eden, Kangaroo Island, Noumea, Lifou, Mare, Isle of Pines, and Mystery Island

It was crazy trying to get off this morning. Customs took so long checking through everyone details. Bonus for us was we could skip the long lines to get back on which took us 2min to board

Yes 1pm but they were running late today as Customs wanted to do a full inspection of everyone’s passport and immigration documents. People were still getting off at 12:30. On the plus side our cabin was ready as soon as we got on.
 

A Covid "outbreak" on Coral Princess is big news here today. Like, come on. Covid is all around and has been for ages now. What difference does it make if it's on a cruise ship?

Try the sea bands first before medication, they work very well.  
Amazon.com: Sea-Band Anti-Nausea Acupressure Wristband for Motion Sickness, Assorted Colors, Child, 1 Pair (Colors may vary) : Everything Else

New Caledonia's government has announced that it will officially reopen its maritime borders to cruise ships on Tuesday 5 October. 

Masks will no longer be required in cruise terminals when Royal cruises recommence.
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/20220919_00.aspx
 

All checked in with vaccine certificates approved.
our check in time is 1pm which was the earliest available.
We received an email from Royal and Ovation is now not leaving Sydney until 8pm. The latest arrival time for check in is 6pm for the wellness check.
I guess the Kate check in times are so the ship can be thoroughly cleaned of TP bugs before we board for the first sailing.
 

My only expectation is plenty Of vodka onboard. Otherwise my cruise philosophy is hakuna matata 

Improper expectation is the leading cause of negative reviews.

There 3 year wait is almost over...