karl_nj

Have you ever sailed Cunard? I'd actually compare the direction that Spectrum (and Wonder) took as closer to NCL Haven or MSC Yacht Club then Cunard. Cunard areas for their "Grill Categories" match up more closely to what is on offer by RCL on their older Oasis/Quantum class vessels. 1) suite restaurant 2) suite lounge 3) small area of reserved deck chairs, spread out in different areas of the ship. Not the "ship within a ship" concept. Everyone likes to talk about this "class system" on Cunard, but I'd say that it's not really any different than what RCL offers these days. Even Carnival's newer ships have various "special areas" for different cabin categories (e.g. Havana cabins). Cunard probably has one of the least impactful "class systems" afloat these days. You don't see suite guests getting ushered in front of you in line while waiting for various ship activities, as I've experienced on RCL with the bumper cars or north star.

I've never used CLEAR in MIA. I did try it last August at LGA and FFL, and I'm not sure it actually saved me any time, it may have actually taken longer. But we already have pre check, and airports weren't as busy last summer.

If you add up all your points, what do you end up with? there was a conversion table used back when the points changed from per cruise to per day, that should have effected your point total. 1 => 8 => GOLD 2 => 15 => GOLD 3 => 22 => GOLD 4 => 29 => GOLD 5 => 38 => PLATINUM 6 => 45 => PLATINUM 7 => 52 => PLATINUM 8 => 69 => EMERALD 9 => 76 => EMERALD 10 => 83 => DIAMOND 11 => 90 => DIAMOND 12 => 97 => DIAMOND 13 => 104 => DIAMOND 14 => 111 => DIAMOND 15 => 118 => DIAMOND so that one cruise should count as 8 points if you add up all your points.

It's assuming travel insurance would cover that scenario. I'm not sure it would in all cases. You would need to get a doctor to say you were not fit for travel. The closest thing to the "pre pandemic" world would be getting denied boarding for checking one of the boxes on the questionnaire, right? How was that handled if the cruise line denied boarding because you showed up to the port and were suspected to have norovirus? Would they give you FCC?

This article is wrong, it's amazing how many news outlets keep writing articles about this without doing any fact checking. Like, perhaps, looking at the Azamara website. Azamara still requires testing out of US Ports. When they announced this, they put the above chart on the website. Take a look at the line for the Port of Miami. This chart didn't exist before they announced this policy, so it's not an issue of it being "out of date". Azamara is just matching what Viking and the NCL Brands did, not matching what Virgin has done. However, Azamara not currently have any ships sailing out of Miami at the moment, so the point is kind of moot.

It looked like a 50/50 mix of boxes from Mike's and Modern. Perhaps the port security folks planned to finally figure out which is best once Anthem went off to sea...

Interesting that they are the first line to announce no more USA pre-cruise testing.

Bah, once you get past the GWB it's smooth sailing—just look for the signs for the NJ Turnpike and you are good! Though if you want to take the Tappanzee, I'd go down the Palisades Pkwy and then get on the Turnpike. It's more direct. The Parkway will take you too far west and then you'll need to double back.

I was on Anthem of the Seas once in Boston, and the port security was confiscating boxes of cannoli's that people were bringing back from various bakeries and claiming that Royal wouldn't let you on the ship with them.

At the moment they are still testing for cruises out of the US, as per their chart: Explore Well At Sea | Azamara It's more of a match to what Viking and NCL have done out of non-US ports, instead of a reaction to the latest CDC news.

And they are still requiring in the US: Miami, Florida Yes https://www.azamara.com/booked-guests/before-you-board/explore-well-at-sea So they just matched what Viking and NCL did weeks ago.

You can try emailing [email protected]. Will go to the executive relations team, someone should get back to you eventually. Provide a phone number, sometimes they will call back instead of emailing.

Well, they haven't made an announcement yet. In fact, I just got an email from them the other day reminding me about the testing requirements before my cruise out of Europe in August. Perhaps they get a commission from emed and want me to order my tests before they decide to cancel the requirement

If you just bought the shares, you could probably send a copy of the trade confirmation.

Voyager and Solstice classes are so very different though, even from a ship hardware POV. Not sure you can really compare the two. I agree about Radiance vs Millenium class and Quantum vs Edge though. Quantum class and Edge class were even built by the same shipyard. But they are still pretty different. The "infinite balcony" cabins on that class are either "love it" or "hate it". What do you and your wife like most about the Quantum class ships?

I think you are likely right about staffing issues and service post COIVD. I've been on 3 cruises since the cruise restart. The first one was on Celebrity Edge in Aug 2021; the service was great on that cruise, but I think that was more due to the fact that there were hardly any passengers onboard then it being on Celebrity vs Royal. The second one was Oasis of the Seas October 2021, the service wasn't as great, because the passenger load was increasing. My most recent cruise was Anthem of the Seas during Christmas Week—you could totally tell the staff was overwhelmed by the passenger volumes. Like you, I still had fun on all three cruises, but I'm certainly going into my next cruise in August, on Wonder of the Seas, with lowered expectations due to the staffing difficulties everyone is having worldwide, in every industry. As a "Fan of Royal Caribbean" I'm glad to see that you realize it's difficult to compare any cruise lines right now, to service received before the cruise lines had to shut down over COVID. I'm also a big proponent of encouraging people to try multiple cruise lines. But I would recommend giving RCL a try again in the future. Maybe in a few years check out one of the Oasis class ships, as they are certainly different than any other cruise ships out there (thought I think MSC is trying to go in that direction with one of their new ship classes.) Or maybe try a Quantum class ship, my favorite RCL ship class. By the time you might be ready to try RCL again, the Icon class should also be sailing, we should find out more about those ships this fall. Looking forward to reading your blog post about your experiences with food on the ship!

I keep hearing about people at work that are catching COVID from, uh, I guess somewhere that doesn't involve a vacation. However, they don't post about it on Facebook, since there isn't a specific Facebook group for people who shopped at Publix some time during the week of June 26th.

Looks like NCL has now dropped pre-cruise testing where no longer required: EU Healthy Gateways Ends Pre-Cruise Testing Requirements For sailings beginning August 1, 2022, vaccinated guests sailing on a cruise originating from any port EXCEPT a U.S. port; Canadian port; or Piraeus, Greece are exempt from all pre-cruise COVID-19 testing requirements.

I'm glad you have had good luck; in my experience not everyone does. Especially in households with those under 18 years of age, since they can't have their own accounts. It's impossible to do 4 tests at once when 2 people are under age 18.

It took me all day to manage to get though 4 online emed tests for my cruise the last week of 2021. Between a covid wave, lots of christmas week travel, and amazon cloud server issues, it certainly was not as easy as you make it sound.

My experience has been that I was charged the adult price at the Steakhouse on both Celebrity Edge and Oasis of the Seas for my 12 year old in 2021. I didn't question it, since she ordered from the adult menu. I'm glad other people were able to get a reduced price for their kids in Specialty Restaurants.

Though keep in mind, at a specialty restaurant, if your 12 year old orders from the adult menu, you are charged the adult price, not the kids price. Which makes sense, as they ate an adult meal.

Viking Ocean had been doing daily onboard COVID Tests, but they just stopped that as the US no longer requires testing fly back. Interestingly, they also just made a change to no longer require COVID tests for boarding, except for sailings out of the US and Canada. I wonder if Royal will do the same, and drop all tests to board except for sailings out of the US/Canada.

I don't think the "taxes" have anything to do with what you paid for the cruise. I just did a mock booking for a cruise in a inside cabin, and the taxes and fees were $387.44. Then I changed it to a balcony cabin, taxes and fees were $387.44. Biggest suite, $387.44. Perhaps they are based per passenger?

Whenever I've done a "one way cruise" i've never parked at the cruise terminal; i've always used an uber or car service. But I live in North Jersey so it's not super far for me to get to any of the NY Area cruise ports. Maybe parking at EWR makes more sense? Then uber over to the cruise port? Then it should be easier to get to your car once you fly back to Newark.