FionaMG

Sorry to hear you didn't know about this. Notification went out on the 6th of August so it's unfortunate you didn't receive it. If you booked through a travel agent notification would have gone to them and they should then have forwarded it to you, like mine did. Unfortunately, sometimes communications get lost in cyberspace and it is not uncommon for people to find out such things either on these boards or on other similar ones. I'm glad you're able to take it in your stride; I've seen posts over on another forum from people who are really badly upset. ? I believe this is a requirement of the Italian government but I don't know the exact ins-and-outs. If it's a blanket requirement it would affect NCL too and sooner or later they will have to inform their guests of it. However, there is also the possibility that it has been imposed because Royal are not sailing 100% vaxed, which NCL are, in which case perhaps NCL will not be affected. In any case, as discussed in the posts above, don't book any excursions through the cruise planner at the moment because the prices have been inflated to ridiculous levels. I'm pretty sure you will get much better prices on board given what they've said about offering discounts on board. What you can do for the time being is take a look at the excursion descriptions so that you can book the ones you want as soon as you get on board.

The big thing to remember with this OBC is that, as per the Terms and Conditions, it's non-refundable so it's a case of use it or lose it. With that in mind, you should consider cancelling stuff you've prepaid, like gratuities, specialty dining, drinks packages, internet, etc. as this will then be refunded to your original form of payment. Even if it takes a month or two, at least you'll be recouping your cash. Note that there is a deadline for doing this and it is pretty much imminent so I wouldn't wait around to do it if I were you. In addition to the above and the things you're already thinking of, you could perhaps use some of it at Next Cruise to put down as a deposit for a future cruise or do some shopping at the onboard shops, buying some treats for yourselves (a nice handbag or perfume for your wife, a watch or a wallet for yourself, for example?) or as gifts for folks back home (early Christmas shopping!). I think I've read you may also be able to cash OBC out at the casino for a (small?) charge but I don't play so I need to refer you to @WAAAYTOOO for this one, as I'm pretty sure she will know if that is actually an option. It's so nice to see somebody actually getting to take advantage of this offer with all the ups and downs we've all been through these past months. I'm so pleased for you. ?

Wow, great price drop! It definitely pays to keep checking. How are you going to spend all that obc?

Aaaaah, now I see what they're up to... I don't know about your cruise planner prices but mine - for the same cruise at the end of September - were hiked up by between 30% and 60% a few days ago when the last "sale" ended. Bearing in mind that Royal's definition of "percentage off" means some random amount deducted from some other random and never-disclosed amount, this means that they will now be able to offer a seemingly very generous 50% discount for onboard purchases, but will actually only be bringing the prices back down to normal. If you booked your excursions before that last sale I would bet my bottom dollar that the onboard prices will not be cheaper than what you paid. In any case, if they are, the 48 hours is prior to the excursion date not the cruise start date, so check as soon as you board and that will give you time to cancel and rebook if necessary. As far as I am aware, onboard cancellations of excursions are refunded as onboard credit so you would then be able to use that to rebook at the cheaper prices. I hope you have a great cruise and if you'd care to share your impressions here on the boards those of us sailing after you would be very grateful. ?

This is for Harmony's European sailings. The original protocol allowed vaxed guests to roam freely but then it was changed a week ago to require all guests to use ship excursions. I think it's requirement of the Italian government.

Me too. I'd been refreshing my browser constantly in the hope of seeing the boards come back up. ?

Prices for excursions on my Harmony sailing jumped massively when the most recent "sale" ended. They are now much, much higher than they have ever been (we're talking increases in the region of 30 to 50% or more). Perhaps I'm being unfair, but coming hot on the heels of a change in protocols requiring all passengers, vaccinated or not, to take ship-sponsored excursions in order to go ashore, it smacks to me of price gouging. I hope they will offer some more sensible prices later but if they don't they'll actually lose potential revenue because many European cruisers will simply opt to stay on board. ?

30lb is a lot! No wonder you had to get some new pieces. ?

Jewel only showed up on the app a couple of days before her first sailing out of Cyprus.

I'm sure you're right and I have a dozen or so planned in my mind. ? In fact, the only reason I don't have another already on the books is that the one I have my eye on sails from NJ and I can't bring myself to put money down on it while we Europeans are still not allowed into the US. Now if Royal would only extend the "sail by" date on their CWC by just one measly month that would be all the incentive I'd need to get my credit card out! I do keep checking the price every couple of days, though, in the hope of a massive price drop that might also tempt me. ?

I have to admit - and this is probably sacrilegious - that I don't actually like the custard tarts, although I must be about the only person in the whole country who doesn't and I always recommend them to visitors. That said there is plenty of other great food to be had here. Portuguese cuisine is not widely known but it is very very good. ? Luckily, I have been working at home for nearly a decade now, so the confinement didn't really affect my day-to-day life much and I was able to keep up my normal training routine. Otherwise, believe me, I would have been shopping for a new wardrobe too! ?

I had a couple of spare hours on my hands this afternoon and with just 47 days to go till it's cruise day I thought it would be a good idea just to check that the outfits I was planning on taking are all in decent condition, clean, still fit, etc. Big mistake. I guess all my cruise clothes are fed up of being locked away in the wardrobe for nearly two years as they were all clamouring to be allowed into the suitcase. My cruise is a week long and I have enough outfits in the "maybe" pile for a round-the-world trip! ? Oh well, at least I had fun trying them all on and parading up and down in front of the mirror. And I'm glad to report they do all still fit! ?

Yes, I've done this twice before at times when the app was acting up. Definitely worth a try.

I wonder if that August cruise, which was cancelled but is still showing in your app, is somehow causing interference? Perhaps if you wait until after the 12th of August you might then be able to check in for your September cruise. Also, as @Ampurp85 said, the health protocols are only to be completed 24 hours before embarkation so something is definitely odd if you were able to complete them already. I definitely didn't have to do that when I did our check in.

That is very frustrating. Have you tried to check in using the app? Perhaps that might work for you. You need to look for the check in button at the bottom, like in this screenshot.

Just to add to the previous posters' answers, you can have a look at the menus for the specialty restaurants beforehand in both the cruise planner and the app to get an idea of which ones you would most like to do. Then draw up a plan for your desired restaurants, times and days and take it with you. It will make the whole reservations process much quicker if you have your list to hand. Do have an alternative so you can flexible if a particular restaurant is not available for the day/time you want it. For example, we once wanted a particular restaurant one night when they were not taking reservations because there was an event, so we had to switch. Once your reservations have been made they should show up in the app, which is a helpful reminder if you forget where you've booked for a particular evening. Bear in mind that you can eat at any given restaurant more than once and you can skip others completely if the food they serve is not to your liking. You're not obliged to go to every single one. Sometimes too you may be able to switch your booking at the last minute, if you change your mind about that evening's plans, so it's always worth asking. And, lastly, you can still eat in the main dining room (commonly abbreviated to MDR here on the boards) if you wish, for example if you spot something on the menu that you particularly like. There is no charge for this as it is where the meals included with your cruise fare are served.

Hi @Kamehameah, I'm sure you're much more IT savvy than I am but whenever I do anything on Royal's website I use an incognito browser. You probably tried that already but just in case you didn't. The other potential stumbling block I can see is that you're on the Rome departure. This cruise is doing what's called "interporting" which means there are passengers starting and ending their cruises in two different ports, in this case Rome and Barcelona. When a cruise interports, one departure port is designated as the home, or main, port and for Harmony that is Barcelona. Royal's IT programme does not handle interporting well and this has been known in the past to cause issues for guests who are boarding at the "secondary" port, so it is possible that this is what is causing your problem. I am also sailing on Harmony in September, but from Barcelona, and was able to check in without any issues. Note also that the photos are not necessary to complete check in; if you don't include them the check in staff at port will take them. They often take new photos even for guests who did include them during online check in. I have never bothered to upload photos during check in. I hope you are able to get it all sorted.

And Marseille has been dropped from the itinerary, apparently because of restrictions placed on cruisers by the French government, although I don't know what they are. It's been replaced with 4 extra hours in Palma de Mallorca and an extra sea day. No biggie for me but I can imagine a lot of people will be disappointed. ?

The Anthem TA does appear to have been cancelled. It was on the same list of cancelled sailings as the Harmony one but Royal have not announced any mistake on that one. ? I'm guessing she will sail back across the pond with crew only as she is due to be sailing from New Jersey from November.

That TA is NOT cancelled. It was announced by mistake and Royal's Vicki Freed has since published confirmation that it is still on.

It usually works very smoothly. The European cruise lines, MSC and Costa, sometimes have passengers boarding in each of four or five ports and they have it down to a fine art. The activities being in the "wrong" order is the main oddity. The only other thing that makes you notice it is when, half way through your cruise, you see other passengers luggage out in the hall and you can smile and think to yourself, not me - I've got another 3 days. I have also heard, but have no personal experience, that Royal's cruise planner and app don't handle interporting very well so there may be some difficulties in booking excursions and stuff ahead of time. The really good thing about it is the convenience of the different departure ports for cruisers coming from different places. For us, for example, travelling from southern Portugal, Barcelona is much more convenient than Rome.

Yes, this is typical on the standard 7-night western Med itinerary. It's called interporting and means you have passengers starting and ending their cruises in two different ports. One of the ports is designated as the home port and activities such as the welcome aboard and farewell parties are scheduled around that port. In this particular case, Barcelona is the home port so for you, boarding in Rome, they will be the wrong way round. Note also that in these covid days the procedures are different for those boarding in Barcelona and those boarding in Rome, as these are requirements of the different governments. We are on the same cruise as you but boarding 3 days later, in Barcelona.

I think she was due to reposition anyway because she's not a cold weather ship. The winter cruises out of NJ are on Anthem which will be returning from Europe towards the end of October.

I seem to remember that if you book with Next Cruise they automatically assign your booking to the travel agent who handled the booking for the cruise you are on, so if you're looking to change to a different then you need to tell them not to. As long as you own the booking you can subsequently transfer it to a new agent of your choosing within 60 days of booking, if you wish.

I am definitely not holding my breath for another so-called sale. Since May of last year, when I L&S-ed from Allure to Harmony, the prices on my cruise planner have been systematically alternating back and forth between pretty much the same prices, to within maybe a dollar or two at the most, and certainly nothing that even slightly tempts me to get my credit card out. We would have considered a 3-night dining package if it had ever been offered at a sensible price but it's never, not once, in all of these months budged from $124. For that amount of money, we'll stick to the MDR. Voom has also been notoriously expensive for this sailing. Effectively Royal are pushing us to be "no-spend" cruisers. How can that be to their advantage?