Firefly

My 16 year old son has Autism but at this age does much better with lines, wait times etc, but when he was younger it was much more difficult, so I understand where you are coming from. We haven’t disclosed our son’s diagnosis while cruising because we honestly don’t require any accommodations at this point. However, this past February when we were in line to check in for Brilliance in Tampa, we were the first family at the corral for our time slot - we had the second slot, 11am and we were right on time. Back then they strickly enforced check in times then so most other corrals had long lines and unhappy, grumbling people. I was chatting with the port personel lady while waiting for the line ahead to move before they let more people in the building. After interacting with my son, she pulled me aside and asked if he had a disability. I said yes and a few moments later when they let more people onto the building she walked us to a check in person that had no line (probably the key/ suite line) and we zipped through and where walking on the ship a few minutes later. If you have any concerns at all definitely reach out to the port personnel as well as crew once on board. Have a great cruise!

Hopefully your TA can get it all straightened out for you. I definitely understand your frustration.

Update: All is good now. We got our same hump balconies that we originally booked for Voyager. Huge sigh of relief. Now I can get excited about this cruise again.

Our cruise planner finally says Adventure instead of Voyager but now has our rooms listed as GTY. We had booked adjacent hump balconies (our teens are still minors) so I am not happy. Waiting to hear back from my TA…

My families 2 cabins haven’t been moved yet either. My sister works for our TA and checked our groups 8 cabins. 4 of them have been moved (same cabins) 4 have not.

Glad to hear Mark returned your email. He and/or David are usually very quick to reply. Enjoy your cruise and your day at Maya Chan!

I was able to make reservations last month for cruise in December, so not sure what’s up with the website. Strange, but I wouldn’t be too concerned. Hopefully they get it up and running again soon. On my past visits the staff walked around shorty after guests arrived to make appointments for massages. Never had a problem booking one. If you haven’t read Jane’s book on how Maya Chan came to be, “It Helps to be Crazy, the Story of Maya Chan” , I highly recommend it. I have a new appreciation for the business they built and run after reading it.

No. When I log into my cruise planner it still shows Voyager. Maybe tomorrow….

We are still showing Voyager. We booked 2 adjacent hump balconies so fingers and toes crossed we are assigned the same rooms. Our teens are still minors so Royal better not screw this up. Our group has a total of 8 staterooms so it will be interesting to see if we all keep the same staterooms or if someone gets moved around. I doubt C&A status means much in these situations but will be interesting since we are Diamond and 3 of the staterooms are first time with Royal.

Although our first two cruises where on Oasis class ships, we prefer Voyager class as well as Radiance class ships. Most of my nights at sea have been on Mariner- we absolutely love that ship!

My boys were able to get beverages (soda, virgin lava flows etc) using the Diamond drink vouchers. They haven’t quite reached 80 points so they are Diamond via me.

We enjoy our days in St. Thomas with thses guys, https://www.stthomasadventures.com/st-thomas-adventures You can choose to snorkle, hike, or sightsee…. Everthing is up to you. Worth the $ for a private tour.

My family loves playing games so we always bring chess as well as a few board/card games. We can usually find a quiet place such as Schooner Bar (when there isn’t trivia going on) or Viking Crown and will sit there for hours playing. We also spend a lot of time on our balcony if the sun isn’t shining down on it too strongly.

They refunded our Coco Cay Waterpark tickets and 2 days of internet that I had purchased. (We were in Quarantine for days 3 & 4 of a 4 night cruise.) This was actually all done within a few hours of moving into quarantine.

Interesting reading other experiences after testing positive on a ship. Our experience on Indy was handled very well. After notifying medical that all 3 of us were experiencing symptoms they did a PCR test on all of us. When we all tested positive they escorted us to medical for a check up and then placed us in our new rooms. They had originally said we could stay in our original stateroom but I requested to be moved because we were in an interior room. They moved us to 2 connecting ocean view rooms for the final two days of the cruise. I would have lost my mind stuck in that tiny room with 2 teenage boys!! We had great communication with medical, guest services and room service. A doctor even stopped by yesterday afternoon to check in on us. We disembarked this morning and within an hour our contact on the ship even called me to confirm I received the email she sent containing copies of our positive test results that I requested. It was a disappointing way to end vacation, but for us, it was handled very well. We were on the 8 night Mariner ABC cruise last week so that is definitely we’re we picked up the crud. It was pretty mild for all of us - like a bad cold with a light fever for less than 24 hours. I am almost feeling back to normal this evening.

Hope she feels better soon and you can avoid testing positive as well. My family all tested positive after disembarking Mariner on Sunday. Hubby tested positive Tuesday and my boys and I yesterday. Unfortunately, my kids and I are on a SBS on Independence and have been in the red zone since testing positive yesterday.

We are on Mariner right now and we were just in Curaçao 2 days ago. We had an amazing tour with Joey from Gone Caribe. https://www.gonecaribe.com/build-your-own-trip We saw flamingos, Visited Shete Boka National Park, swam with turtles and snorkeled at the most beautiful beach. Our boys (14 & 16) loved it as much as we did. Highly recommend a tour with Gone Caribe. Worth every dollar.

I’ve experienced it in the past for 3-5 days after a cruise, so have my kids. I feel it most when I close my eyes or while taking a shower. Feels like I’m back on the ship. Hope yours goes away soon, it’s so annoying.

6 weeks from today we make the drive down to FL to sail a Mariner 8 night to the ABC islands. It will be our first southern itinerary (been cancelled twice due to covid shutdown). I love sitting on the balcony watching the water, relaxing with my family playing card games and visiting new places. Super excited that this cruise will elevate us to Diamond status.

I wish we could do the B2B, esp for the current prices. Our two teenage sons will be sailing with us in an adjacent balcony so talking my hubby into 2 cabins for both cruises wasn’t going to happen. I was just thrilled that he said “book it” when I showed him the prices for Christmas. We haven’t splurged on suites yet, but once it’s just hubby and I cruising without the boys in tow we might. We’ve done 2 early December cruises in the past and love sailing with the Christmas decorations on the ship.

Strange. I cruised 3x on Mariner in the fall and it was open for dinner and those where pretty low occupancy cruises. My cruise on her next week shows open for all three meals on the app.

Booked this cruise yesterday because of the incredible price and the eastern Caribbean itinerary. This will be our first Christmas at sea as well because we usually refuse to pay the normal crazy holiday rates.

Happed to us on our Feb 5 Brilliance sailing. We had booked 2 cabins side by side oceanview on deck 3, and got upgraded to side by side balconies on deck 7.

No problems taking a white noise machine. My husband can’t sleep without one so ours goes on every cruise.

No issues packing knitting needles, I have packed mine several times with no issues.