teddy

I’ve never had my bag checked for sunblock. I have been on excursions where everyone is reminded to do their part in protecting the marine environment by using proper sunblock.

Some reading. https://savethereef.org/about-reef-save-sunscreen.html

Pre Covid in St Maarten, we did the America’s Cup Regatta that we booked on our own cheaper than through the Cruise Planner. About half of the people that were on our boat booked through Royal (and paid more). For our January cruise that goes to St Maarten, we’ve already reserved a spot on a non-Royal excursion. The company has already reached out to us to see which ship we’ll be on. I think most “reputable” third party excursions are aware of the bad reputation they’d get if any of their guests missed their all aboard time.

The few times we’ve taken Uber/Lyft to Port Everglades, the driver has asked which ship while enroute (before we got the the Federal security gate). If they don’t ask, just let them know.

I suspect that the three experiences seen here are not representative of most Royal Caribbean cruises.....or any cruise line. Things happen. It's why we have insurance. In spite of our bad experience with the transportation company in Nassau in September, we could not wait for November to arrive so we could go on our next cruise....and now we cannot wait for January to go on our next one. Yup. We never thought about travel insurance until we started reading about it right here. All the things we had read coalesced when we saw someone medevac'd from Labadee. No reason things shouldn't go smoothly. I'm certainly no Pollyanna either, not by a long shot. I've been called a lot of things in my adult life, some good and some horrible, but the one I prefer is "realist" People are human no matter what we expect out of them. Travel enough, and there is a good chance you (or your luggage) will interact with someone having a bad day or so much in a hurry that they aren't as careful as they should be.

The damaged bag prompted us to walk off with our luggage when disembarking from Freedom earlier this month. This was the first time we've not put them in the hall the night before, and based on how simple it was, we're going to keep doing it.

Seasoned travelers won't find any Earth shattering info here, but we only started being able to travel in 2019. We never would have even thought about third party insurance if not for this site. Back in September, we cruised out of Nassau on Adventure. We bought the ship to airport shuttle from Royal and on the way to the airport, my wife's suitcase got crushed. It was very noticeable, to the point that it wouldn't stand up on its own....although when we grabbed our bags at the airport, hers was strategically wedged in between others so it was upright. It would stay closed, but it will never roll again. It was kind of a bummer since it's only been used twice. The transportation company was not Royal Caribbean, however they gave us an RCG claim form to fill out. After a couple months of no response despite sending all asked for documentation and repeated emails/phone calls/social media messages, we submitted a claim through our third party travel insurance (Allianz). They asked for pictures of the damaged bag, a copy of the claim form we sent RCG, and something that showed replacement cost (we sent a screenshot of a current Kohl's page that showed the replacement cost). After two emails apologizing for any delays due to high claims volume, we received a check for full replacement cost a couple weeks later. While it's not an expensive piece of luggage, it still sucked to have to buy a new one.

Michelle [email protected]

We ran into something similar trying to book the Coco Beach Club. Turns out there was only one spot left but we were trying to buy two passes. Maybe something similar.....maybe there are less spots than people you are trying to book? We called Royal Caribbean to find out.

My wife and I are putting up rookie numbers with only two cruises since the restart…but we felt very safe on board and have had an awesome time. Next one is in January and it can’t come fast enough

Here's what we just bought for our January 30 sailing on Oasis: Coco Beach Club Day Pass $78.99 pp. Coke package at $6.49. VOOM Surf for two at $20.39. Cruise itself is up higher, but that's okay. We are pleased with what we paid originally.

That's amazing. Thank you for sharing.

My first experience with a paper straw was drinking a milk shake at Johnny Rockets on Freedom earlier this month. While not horrible, it definitely got soggy.

My wife still brings up (and laughs) at how I tried to get mine off and only made it tighter and tighter.

I wouldn’t have thought this was the case. I wish I was fluent in another language

That’s really cool. Thanks for posting When I was 16 and 17 My plan was to enlist for subs but when I turned 18 the Marine recruiter got to me first.

I had forgotten that this was even a thing. It’s too bad since we have a Neighborhood Balcony Guarantee for the Oasis sailing we just changed to

Oh. Sorry.

To piggyback on this.... https://www.visitbarbados.org/covid-19-travel-guidelines-2021

Can you talk to the desk person and see if they can help you? The hotel must have a dryer, even if it’s not for public use. Maybe offer to toss them a $20?

Changeroo for January 30, 2022 Canceled Grandeur of the Seas Added Oasis of the Seas.....same date.

We did it as well and had a ball. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Yuck. In retrospect, having a crew member pour our coffee wasn't so bad.

Update: After talking about things some more, we decided to bail now. We're not adverse to testing at all, however the requirements stated by the Barbados government along with the current need to book a shore excursion to go off the ship made us decide to cruise elsewhere in January. Barbados isn't going anywhere. We will try again when things aren't as cumbersome. FWIW, we changed to the same time frame on Oasis. We've never been on an Oasis class ship, and we've been to the ports already, so if we can't go ashore without an excursion, we will have plenty to do onboard.