dodgestang

Ship phot-ogs told us to take our masks off on Adventure every time they took our photo.

2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

The only time we both got a block was when we were B2B SC on Anthem. Our Genie showed up with 2 blocks. We told her that we really only rated getting 1 block but she said to just keep them both, so we did. I later traded one of those Anthem blocks for one I did not have (can’t remember which ship it was).

This is interesting since all four of us, My, Wife, Kid 1 and Kid 2 will all pass 140 on our spring break cruise in April..... as much fun as it would be....I don't really want to get 4 glass blocks for the same vessel on a trip where I am flying to sail

Only go with money you can afford to lose ;).

I get a lot of free cruises.....but the free cruise perks haven't completely offset the 'down side' of gambling because they tweak the odds a little so big hits pay less.  I still have lotsa fun though

I buy all inclusive drink package for 2 adults and refreshment package for 2 kids on every sailing except when we are in star class.  Now that we are Diamond, I only buy the soda package for the kids and the wife and I have diamond drinks, and the kids get their smooth fix as well with the diamond drink vouchers so that saves us money on every sailing.

With that said....I only travel in suites to begin with.....however....if do normally buy drink packages like I do, there is some benefit to be realized long term by reaching the diamond status......but......to see those gains you also have to be planning to sail a lot more in the future.

At least.....that's how I see it

As long as it doesn't become the golden shower room on some sailings....everything is ok

The internet says...... "Elite, Invitation only lounge for casino VIPs"

As someone who travel star frequently I can tell you.......it has to be tiring from a Genie perspective the amount of people that simply ignore the reserved things that they put out there.  I can also imagine it is even MORE frustrating to see them completely ignored on mostly empty ships.  Obviously they are supposed to smile and be nice to everyone....but I can understand when/why cracks start to show.

Well....you could always go for the owner panoramic on 17 ;).

We had that booked for August this year but ultimately moved to Adventure since we knew it would be cancelled.

The rear facing lofts on Anthem are cool enough with their big wide windows......side view on Oasis I can see only getting better as you roll into port and can sit there sipping coffee

Follow up, to my follow up---------- diamond drink vouchers is fleet wide or only certain vessels?

Well....look at it this way......there is now a higher chance of being asked to stay in your room for extended periods while on board should you come into contact with someone who then tests positive for covid.....would you rather spend a day watching tv in an interior....or sitting in the hot tub on your private balcony?

Sub 10 minute wait for boogie and surf and that was only because it was middle of change over.....so people queued up.  30 minutes later they were practically hot lapping (Drag racing term for making a run, running around back to the start line and waiting for only 1 or 2 people and getting right back at it)

Was just in the ADV in the Royal suite which is on the hump deck 10.....we could hear some banging from up above but never enough for us to consider it bothersome.  Was akin to when we lived in an apartment and the upstairs neighbor would occasionally walk heavy to the bathroom

Bear in mind though.....we sailed at about 1/3 capacity....so in 12 months assuming we are back at full ships....there may be more noise that might arise to a bother on my personal scale.

Just sailed on Adventure with two 14yr olds and a 10 yr old.

Got off the ship in Cozumel and did RCCL excursion no problem.

Don't use adventure ocean so can't comment.  Pools, slides, flowrider...all still fun for the kids.

CoCoCay still fun for the kids

Only real 'negative' was some of activities our 10 yr old wanted to do were 'vaccine only' so she couldn't do rock and roll trivia and a few other things.

We just flew in to Nassau and got on ship same day.  We had some headaches with out seat assignment going away when we went to check in that added stress....and the plane left 30 or so minutes late, but we ended up on the plane and on board without any major issues.

Obviously what would make this all better is if RCCL assigned a personal case worked to every cruiser to walk through the evolving landscape.  Someone who would call you every day and confirm you read the email communications, where up to speed on the latest requirements from CDC, RCCL, countries you will be visiting.  Perhaps they can fill out the paperwork for you as well.  Maybe even take the test to make it completely seamless and easy for you to properly enjoy your cruise vacation.  Of course the tens of thousands of passengers who have already successfully navigated these waters without personalized hand holding might be a little jealous....but it's the least we can do to personally absolve you of any personal responsibility in your life.

Follow up question.....

So we are now officially diamond....my 10 and 14 yr old are also now diamond (they have sailed every night with us...so not an inherited thing...although I doubt it would matter for this question).

They drink smoothies all the time on board.  I always get them the refreshment package since you can't get them with the soda package....being diamond now....does that mean they get drink vouchers daily too?  I know it sounds like a weird question since we always seem to focus on the alcohol benefit....I've never seen/heard of how the diamond benefit works for underage cruisers and drinks.

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Can you elaborate on this point?  Did you have seats picked out ahead of time, or was it one of those situations where you could not select seats yet?  And you were not able to check in online prior to the flight?  Or it was not showing that you had checked in?  And what airline was this?  Curious minds need to know for future Air2Sea bookings....

I had confirmed seats for 3 months.  I picked them out with air2sea at the time I booked the air fare and they showed up for 3 months in AA website under the reservation and in their app.  Then on the day of checkin...I suddenly didn't have a seat and just a message "please see gate attendant when you arrive at airport".

The 'equipment' never changed, it was always the same air craft type, we picked the first 5 seat assignments (the other 3 where not booked/assigned at the time we purchased and 'locked' it in.

2 hours ago, CrimsonCruiser said:

Err...whaaa?

Since when is yahoo not a real domain?

Free email = spam. fake, etc.....many discussion forums don't even let you register with a yahoo email address either.  Remember that scene in wedding singer....."Once again, information that would have been useful to me YESTERDAY" 

well 4 is better than 3.  ;).

Sounds like it pretty straight forward then.....will be nice to stop buying drink package

It's hard to say it like this.  Worst cruise I have been on (even worst than the one where I hid from my MIL for 3 days by staying in my cabin ) ....but I mean...it was still a nice cruise....but could have been better...I suppose people will say "it is the best of a bad situation" and I suppose that's relatively accurate.

It was a royal pain in the posterior having to swap mask on and off, go to some shows and you could take it off, then the next day, you can't take it off.  I traveled with a 10 yr old, so kept getting kicked out of places we settled for live music or an activity.  The only thing that was consistent...was the casino was jumping.  Mostly I bet because it was the only place you could consistently relax mask free.

Ship was only about 1/3 full, so most places felt empty and actually a little sad at times.  Pool deck was also jumping (because you could be mask free).  Windjammer was straight forward, stick you plate out, they put food on it....you ask for more because you wanted 2 pieces and you get a dirty look (so typical) and we only went there once for a light snack.

Honestly If Royal had announced just 2 days earlier the whole "Everyone now has to wear a mask" I would have cancelled, but with the amount of notice given, everything was already in motion for the trip....kennels, PTO, testing.....so we sucked it up.  And Royal I bet knew that most people would end with the same conclusion.

The real highlight though was having Air2sea booked 5 first class seats get 'over sold' and have to fly out and back without 'checked in' prior to arriving at airport and standing around in lines to get seat assignments. 

Testing Antigen 2nd round to fly back was a cluster IMO.  They put a QR code in the stateroom, I accessed it, went to a page, it asked me a couple questions and asked how many people in my party....and then said you have an appointment.  So go to the appointment and the people running it are like "You need to download this QR code and app on each person's phone and setup 5 different appointments"...I"m like "i have one phone, one internet package and 3 kids....."....so they huffed/puffed and set it all up while we stood there and ultimately got testing.

Then they email the results.  I wasn't permitted use my yahoo.com email address that everything royal goes to that I can easily access from my phone.  NO I have to use a real domain based email per 'policy'.  Which is something that I can't readily access from my phone for security reasons (and then they didn't say "oh we will send print outs to your room") so I had to stress about that for several hours while trying to hack my personal email account from a cell phone on the worlds WORST internet only to then find out "ohh yeah, we will send the results to your room"

Obviously it all worked out....but the process could have been a lot smoother considering they have been doing it a little while now.

Well just made diamond...so next cruise....well next cruise we are going star class ;)....but cruise after that we were thinking of ditching the booze package....would like to hear feedback from the 3 drink coupon/voucher thingy process with seapass cards.....

1. As smooth as a drink package?  Hand card, get drink.  Or is there added paper work?

2. Account tracking?  Does it show up as a 'bought drink for $xx dollars and then a credit for diamond status?

3. Do Diamond get discount on bottles of wine?

I can come up with one reason. Liability issues.  If the bed is not available for room occupants and they want to take a nap/lay down at anytime during the day they would need to set it up.

14 minutes ago, micahd said:

I should have specified. I’m looking across the whole fleet.

Room category....royal loft/suite is usually the only one of a vessel that will have it.  On some of the newer/larger/amped ones they sometimes add to the next level down room category.  On smaller ships like Grandeur, Explorer, Serenade.....no rooms will have a private balcony whirlpool

Very very few.  ;).

On adventure....the royal suite

On Anthem....the royal loft suite

On Oasis....the owners and the royal

What is the difference between Rapid Diagnostic test and Rapid antigen test?

One of these test I can get close to home....the other is hours away.