AlohaLivin

Great, glad that fixed the issue

I only referred to the large metro area in which I live.

Please note that I did not say the orange status was new or not new. I simply added the fact that there were several ships that were in orange in addition to the information regarding the uptick in cases in our area. My information was not inaccurate. It appears that you misread my post.

Maybe it was just a couple of nights I tried their blender was down or something, I normally don’t ask for frozen ones but did this last cruise. I don’t honestly recall what I ordered on our S2S symphony - allure post Covid (Nov).

Wasn’t trying to impress you. I was just adding that onto the other information in reply to the OP. You do you.

Post - last time mid April on Symphony

I don’t know if it was just bad luck for us, but most of the suite’s lounge bartenders tell us they can’t do frozen drinks. Maybe that changed very recently?

I am afraid that you are right. My PCP stated there had been quite an uptick in cases recently in their large primary care practice and a few ships are in the orange. Hopefully the rate will go back to a decline before long.

Ah okay, I didn’t realize it was fully referring to an unvaccinated situation (the cruise lines we sail on have all been requiring vaccinations except for younger children who do have to have several tests); I read it as the cost was the reason the poster didn’t want to get tested unrelated to cruising vaccinated or unvaccinated.

Sorry, but I am confused. You can get testing free in the U.S. Also why would you be taking 3 tests for one cruise vs. 1 test? Are you referring to test requirements from another country?

Correct. Highly…

As you say, very few people have a short trip. You would think in Georgia, a bordering state, that we could drive to the port. And I guess that we could, but Miami is about a 12-hour drive for us if we stop only briefly (or Orlando/ Tampa is about 8 hours). But on the positive side it is possible to drive to the port if needed (very difficult to do from Indiana, Montana, or Illinois however) and it doesn’t require going through customs, etc.

Do you mean the certificates when you meet a certain level during a single cruise? I have heard some people get those the last day, but they didn’t do that for me and I ended up only seeing it online. If you mean the yearly tier cruise, that I believe posts to your account on or around May 1 (could be a lag, others with more experience with Prime, etc may be able to address that)

@Tania I agree with the info above, definitely call them. We upgraded from a free oceanview to a balcony for only $88 when we booked the cruise. We have only saliled in suites, so I will try for the Royalup when we get to that time, but I thought that was a pretty amazing deal and will be happy with it alone given that rock bottom price!

We’re you prime the previous year?

I know! Crazy good! We have never sailed during Christmas, we are so looking forward to this. Welcome

Sounds as if we need to try it! We probably need to do that before we retire though because the sailing in suites thing we have going now may die a slow death in retirement

I liked smoking too, that was why it took me so long to quit. But I got scared of what it was doing to me, not sure how that finally seeped in. Eric and I actually met at a quit smoking event - we started back soon after. But I quit maybe 6 years later and used the very early vape (it was actually a bit like main lining ) and then had to break myself from that (even though I had been vaping 0 nic for a while). It didn’t take but about a week for me to stop wheezing at night. I am glad that I did it, but i’m rare occasions will have these moments where I think “I want a cigarette” so I tell myself “heck not you don’t!” Eric still smokes - I’ve tried being super nice, I’ve tried being mean, I’ve tried being sad, nothing works. I do hope he will stop, I have already been widowed once and it is horrible beyond words. Plus, I hate sometimes avoiding hugging him just after he has smoked

I take a mask to the casino and use it to go into the smoking area. I smoked for years but in the 10+ years since I quit it has become more and more difficult for me to handle.

I kind of feel the same way about it. I haven’t even put Eric‘s card in to get his free play off of it. But it does seem to be rather standard practice (although I have heard many reports of the hosts suggesting it). But I need for Eric to start hitting the machines I do wish there was a bit less of a point difference between prime and signature!

Guuuurrrl… you are so close to Pinnacle (I’m a little jealous, but love ya anyway ). Course you know how I feel about the fact you’re not cruising, so you may end up with a jab from me in the middle of the night (just kidding ), but you know I went you both back on are ship! As for our agreement on optimizing - I know there is a general consensus on the various boards that you can play with your spouses card. It would definitely be more useful for 2 of us to be prime than one - I have read many places at the casino doesn’t care, I have read a rare post that suggests I do. We weren’t big drinkers, and we will have the D+ Vouchers, so 2 primes in terms of drinks wouldn’t matter a bit - another free cruise would however. Dunno. @AGSLC5 thanks. Bummer, but I guessed that was the answer.

If I’m missing this answer somewhere, I apologize ahead of time. But… once you have matched status, how does that status help for obtaining additional status on the 2nd line or does it? Example - if we are D+ on Royal, that matches to Elite on Celebrity. But then say we wished to sail fairly often on Celebrity after the match, do the points for us start at 300 (the pts needed to qualify for Elite) or do they begin at 0 snd we have to earned our way from 0 to a status higher than Elite? After we married we cruised with Norwegian and enjoyed it. My parents cruised more own Holland America and princess back in the 80s and 90’s, but that first Haven sailing to Alaska was so amazing that was our preferred line for a while. But then we moved over to Royal. Since we’re about 3 years from retirement, I’m trying to figure out what is the best way for us to travel at the highest possible levels in terms of both quality and quality (as I say to DH, OPTIMIZE is my word of the year, this year and most years ). Because we have only sailed in full suites, we might have benefited from beginning with celebrity. But that is not what has happened. Since it is a long way from, D+ to Pinnacle, this is the time for us to take a look around a bit @WAAAYTOOO do you know? I think the news may be bad

These are all great ideas, thank you! It has been difficult coming up with something that would be useful / fun for a wide variety of people (interests, genders, etc) and that would travel well! We love doing this, we too love this tradition @Kathleen- we so enjoy meeting new friends and love expressing that with the small gifts. The personalizing can be difficult for the new friends as until we get onboard we don’t know who we may run across (it is amazing how many conversations and friendships can pop up in the CK or DL!). There are at least a couple of people here at RCB that are due a gift We have been looking at the tags below, I figured they are something almost everyone could use and they are good quality. I have been in the “search” stage of this for a while so appreciate the thoughts from all of you

I never knew that there was a wonder woman duck

We love cruising! And the longer we cruise, the more the reason for cruising becomes in part the many great and long-lasting friendships that we have made onboard during the last 10+ years. Even if we do not get to sail with those friends as often as we like, we will get to retire one day perhaps one day and will have more time and more cruises!. No matter how often we see them, they will always be friends. So, we like to bring small gifts for people who we have met on past cruisers or through roll calls prior posts to a cruise. In the past I have used my Cricut to make cruise-themed luggage tags and also nautical earrings on circuit-cut earring cards (also with cruise themes). For cabin crawls that we have led, we have wrapped bags of peach taffy (a Georgia themed gift) that people usually seem to enjoy. But I need some new ideas (especially since for now I don’t have much time to spend with my Cricut )! Here are some that I have considered: New types of cruise themed luggage tags (ones I could have printed) ‘Light” cards with cute cruise sayings (again, printed) Cruise coffee cups filled with candy wouldn’t be bad, but those would get pretty heavy and I’m usually close to the weight limit on luggage as it is! Can anyone come up with some novel options? Who knows you could be getting one some day!