MelKaps

Cruise compasses, boarding + departure info and show times attached as PDF files for easier reading.
@MelKaps and @wnoble1967, tagging you in this post so you can get an idea of what to expect. I hope you find them helpful.
Day 1 Compass - Barcelona.pdf Day 2 Compass - Palma de Mallorca.pdf Day 3 Compass - At Sea.pdf Day 4 Compass - La Spezia.pdf Day 5 Compass - Civitavecchia.pdf Day 6 Compass - Naples.pdf Day 7 Compass - At Sea.pdf Departure info.pdf Show times.pdf Welcome aboard info.pdf

I am sailing on Harmony in a couple of weeks and I filled it out for each guest, but made sure to also list each of us as family members traveling together. 
 
However, I am confused since Italy wants you to list them as the final destination even though we disembark in Spain. It seems very confusing especially since we have three ports of call in Italy.

Just got home from the Allure of the seas Aug 22, 2021 cruise. So first I have to say, that I felt safer on the ship then I do at my work(I work in a hospital). Everywhere you look and turn are hand sanitizing stations and hand washing stations. They clean your stateroom twice a day, all theaters are fogged after each show, masks are required for everyone indoors and pools and hot tubs have a capacity limit as well as elevators which are also cleaned ALL DAY LONG! The care that is put into making sure we are safe is above no other. The buffet was weird to not serve yourself but was still kind of normal feeling (as much as it could be), you cant even get your own drinks for the refillable cups, they have someone there at all times to serve you. we were at about 30% capacity (1684 passengers and 1800 staff). We have already booked for our next cruise to cozumel in March 2022. We did have to present our negative covid test and vaccine record 3 times prior to boarding the ship but we gladly did so. We have no doubt Royal is going way above what the CDC says they need to do.

I'm willing to bet that there are still at least 200 who will push in front of you at the Windjammer buffet and/or rush onto the elevator without letting others off first.

I like Rice Krispy Treats!

Yep, no problem!
La Spezia - we booked the Best of Florence and Pisa. We absolutely loved this, as we'd never been to Florence. We didn't get to go into any of the churches, but we saw enough that we know we'd like to go back some time and spend some more time on our own. We saw many statues, including "a" statue of David. It's not "the" statue, but we saw a lot of structures that we loved. Pisa was exactly as we expected. We spent about 90 minutes there, which was enough for us to see the leaning tower and the buildings around it. I personally do not like guided tours, because they move so slow, but you're going to get that with all Royal Caribbean excursions in Italy.
Rome - We did the Gladiator tour, as we'd both been to Rome already. I had not been inside the Coliseum, so this is exactly what I wanted to do. We explored the Forum as well, so we saw a lot of Rome. We had already been to the Vatican, etc, so that played a big part in our tour. We loved going into the Coliseum for sure. (Vaccine proof required)
Naples - Capri, Sorrento, and Pompeii by Land and Sea - Capri was possibly our favorite spot in the Italy stops. That place is incredible. Again, another guided tour, but we spent a lot of time getting snacks and doing some shopping, which we didn't get with the others. I had been to Pompeii before, and did it without a tour guide. We didn't get much time in Pompeii at all, so that was disappointing based on what I know is there. We still loved this tour. (Vaccine proof required)
One thing to note about the tours is that they sold water at the beginning of all of them. We did get a bottle of water in our Naples excursion, for free. We just filled water bottles before we left the ship and took them with us, to avoid dragging around their giant bottle of water that cost $4.50.
 

We just docked back in Barcelona and I figured I’d jump on and share our experience with everyone. Would love to answer questions as I’m sure many of you had questions similar to what we had.
Overall, we had an incredible time and have almost nothing but good to say about our first “post-covid” cruise.
On our ship, that carries over 6000 passengers, had 900 on board. We heard we picked up 300 more in Rome, but can’t confirm that. We hear there’s 600 on the 8/29 sailing. The ship was unbelievably empty. We bid the lowest amount on a RoyalUp suite and won. So, we were spoiled with a bigger room and incredibly empty ship. Everyone paid so much attention to you. No lines at slides, empty mini golf, empty rock wall and flow rider… you could do anything you wanted. Shows were well attended, but still so much seating available.
One of the only complaints we had, sorry had to add it in, was the push for specialty dining. The first two days, literally every crew member that saw you, would give you a 5 minute spiel about the packages. It became very annoying. After day 2, we only heard it here and there.
Excursions had to be through Royal Caribbean, but they all went smoothly. Not my style of tours, but we were happy to see all of the sites. The tours were even smaller groups and some people didn’t even get off the ship. Shopping was usually cut out, as we weren’t able to go out on our own. We still managed to get some good souvenirs. Heads up on the churches… you don’t go inside. So ignore the “wear pants and sleeves” rule, or at least ask about it.
Testing went well. We had a test at the beginning and the end. A couple passengers did test positive and were immediately removed from line and weren’t allowed on the ship. You get your results before they even let you on. Nerve racking, but once you get the results, it felt so good to just get on board.
The new muster drill is AMAZING! You just watch a couple safety videos on the RC app and you get it checked off near the entrance of the ship. Takes 2 minutes.
Everything on the ship was open. Masks were required at all indoor spaces, so if you just hang out outside, problem solved. The staff was not even super strict about pointing out if a mask falls below your nose, etc. We even took our masks off at most tours, because it seems Italy is only “requiring” it for cruise passengers. In Florence, it blew me away how many tourists there were and we were the only group with masks.
Play bingo and go to the contests and auctions, because there’s no competition on the ship. Attend the casino drawings and raffles. We won more stuff on this cruise because our chances were so much higher. We even won a $1200 painting (3 groups at the raffle)
As always, food was amazing, shows were awesome, crew was all smiles, and everything felt very normal for cruising. Can’t wait for masks to become non-existent.
Let me know what else you want to know? For those holding out… just go. It will be worth it to be on an empty ship.

Looks like this perhaps won't be an issue for vaccinated travelers: 
From the NYT: "If enforced, the new restrictions would only apply to unvaccinated travelers — the European Council already recommends that all visitors who have been fully inoculated with an E.U.-approved vaccine be allowed to travel. That includes the three vaccines available in the United States."
 
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/world/eu-us-tourists-restrictions.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20210830&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta&regi_id=60496791&segment_id=67619&user_id=e4b7b71302689eb6766109025cba4e41

Same here! Traveling in October on Harmony to Italy and have been waiting for 2 years now for this trip. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/world/europe/eu-us-travel-restrictions.html
https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/eu-to-reimpose-entry-ban-on-travellers-from-us-5-other-third-countries-on-monday-sources-say/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexledsom/2021/08/28/us-to-be-removed-from-eu-safe-travel-list/?sh=3130f51e4dfa

 

That's because Cats have 9 lives!!

I was originally booked on Odyssey on October 10 this year, but with cancellations and the pandemic, I booked Harmony of the Seas out of Barcelona on October 10, 2021. Honeymoon here I come! ?

I was originally booked on Odyssey on October 10 this year, but with cancellations and the pandemic, I booked Harmony of the Seas out of Barcelona on October 10, 2021. Honeymoon here I come! ?

I was originally booked on Odyssey on October 10 this year, but with cancellations and the pandemic, I booked Harmony of the Seas out of Barcelona on October 10, 2021. Honeymoon here I come! ?

I agree totally

So I need to save all my vouchers for chocolate martinis and not blow them on a $9 glass of wine ?

Are the five Diamond plus drinks reloaded onto card at 12:00am allowing one to keep it going late night using the following days vouchers?
Asking for a friend. 

No, it happens overnight, after all possible locations that could sell you a beverage have closed.

Landed safely back in Miami.
 
Check out my journey flying back to America to join a cruise ship.
 
 

I hope this will carry over to the other ships sailing this summer. From someone who doesn't purchase the drink package, it would be nice to redeem a free drink earlier in the day instead of waiting until ~4:30pm.

I hope this will carry over to the other ships sailing this summer. From someone who doesn't purchase the drink package, it would be nice to redeem a free drink earlier in the day instead of waiting until ~4:30pm.

I am happy to announce that I will be joining the brand new Odyssey Of The Seas this week.
 
I look forward for the opportunity to go back to work, and once again help create vacation memories for Royal Caribbean passengers (you guys)!
 
Watch out for my upcoming videos on YouTube.
 
Chris Wong

I think there is probably going to be a recency bias in most people's votes. After 8 months of no cruising, I would have seriously considered going on a cruise in October 2020 with the kinds of mitigation measures that were imposed for pax on Singapore sailings. From the start of lock-downs, I have been opposed to those on the basis of questionable PH benefits at enormous economic and social costs. Even with a lack of data, we knew enough to avoid shuttering everything. The vulnerable needed to be protected, the rest, well, sensible mitigation measures would have been fine while carrying on with our daily lives. Hindsight has proven we went too far trying to mitigate with isolation strategies.
Now, we have a huge amount of data to suggest that with vaccinations the risks that were present before vaccines - risks I might have been willing to take to get back to cruising then - I'm not willing to take now given the alternative of getting vaccinated. So, I marked no, I wouldn't put up with those restriction now, I might have back then.     

No.  For me and realize many will disagree and think I am crazy, I want to go on a cruise as I did before this mess happened. I always felt th ships were cleaner than most hotels and amusement parks but what do I know. My family has been through Covid and ready to move past all this nonsense. I also never want to words social distance gain. Get me on a ship with a drink of the day. 

I can see myself bouncing off that pole in the middle of the night on a potty break.  Maybe it's for pole dancing.