MidwestIA

@FionaMG You’re right! We did a few cruises in the early part of this year and my husband confirmed that he didn’t see fast vs “not” on them- I always just used the “not” previously so I guess that’s what I remembered! So we both used 6 days of D+ internet because we brought our 4 littles who don’t use the benefit but are also D+. The credits have always been loaded for us, luckily so we’ve never visited the Voom desk or had to call guest services. We also don’t buy voom plans until after our credits are maxed if we are on longer cruises.

You don't need to go to the Voom desk to use your D+ benefits. It's loaded to your account so you just log in with the stateroom/name/DOB and choose to use the credit on your account. When that runs out, sign in with your wife's info and use her credit. We never go to guest services or the Voom desk to use our D+ credits. I usually use the credit for the slower internet for two days and my husband uses the faster option for one day. If we bring our kids, they are D+, we use their credits by logging in with their info.

Same! And participation in even formal night seems to decline every year.

My mom did the same thing, left her passport in her car at the airport and didn't realize until the night before the cruise began. We considered flying down to get her the passport but we ended up just emailing her a copy of her birth certificate. She brought the copy of the birth certificate and her id to the port and they let her on for her 7 night Allure vacation! It was all very stressful and dramatic but Royal didn't even hiccup about the copy.

We had the presidential suite in Oct 2022 on the Liberty. 5 adults, 2 kids over 12 and 7 kids under 12, all for $11K. It worked really well for us!

We had 14 in the presidential/villa suite on Liberty

My family member paid $125K for the ultimate family suite (three guests) and Star class did not impress. No need to overspend to feel "high end".

My littles loved the Icon. The kiddie pool/splashpad has a great place on the back of the ship with places for the parents to sit in or out of water but still in with the kids if they are swimming or splashing. The area was pretty big and never felt crowded on our sailing even with all of the people on that ship. There was fantastic shade even in the heat of the day back there, too. The arcade had a machine that basically just dispenses rubber ducks, so we did that in the same area as the kid pool. The soft serve ice cream is right there, also. We spent a lot of time in that area of the ship. My kids also liked the neat milkshake place, though it was a bit of a disappointment for the adults and very expensive. In general, the Icon was full of things for little kids and our older kids.

Royal Caribbean sent emails prior to sailing about requiring the minor consent form regardless of how we plan on checking in, we had the same situation with minor children booked in grandma's room. The travel agent told us it was required even if we checked in together, after speaking with RC. We did not need them at the port, we checked in together. We have let our parents take the grandkids on sailings without us and RC didn't ask for the consent form when the kids and grandparents had the same last name.

Oh, bummer! I must have seen something outdated. I see that they dropped it fleet wide now. Thanks for the info!

Hi! We are sailing on the Voyager in December with the whole family and my 7 yr old (boy) asks the same question constantly: will he get his 5 Johnny Rockets shakes? I think I saw that they replaced Johnny Rockets on the Voyager and the place to get milkshakes would be B&J's, has anyone successfully redeemed their diamond drink vouchers there? We have used the drink vouchers very successfully at Starbucks on every Oasis class ship, much to my kids' collective delight. They did not work on The Icon at Starbucks, but they worked at The Pearl Cafe. I know the official answer is "no" on using the vouchers at Starbucks. I don't know why it works, my kids just make it happen and it is their favorite part of cruising (other than the Shirley temple drink they order at dinner). Just hoping somebody has been on the Voyager and tried the same or if I need to set expectations for shake allotments!

That is exactly what I was thinking we would do! Though, the teens aren't really keen on getting their pictures taken with any of us

They have no expectation for getting any suite perks. I probably wasn’t clear, I was just talking about boarding.

We have the 4 bedroom villa booked on the Liberty, 13 guests booked for this room. There are three other guests in our party but they are booked in a near-by interior stateroom. It’s my SIL’s husband and their teen sons. My MIL is adamant that RC will be allowing them to board with us when we all get to the port. They are Diamond and we have the same check-in time. I’ve done my best to set expectations regarding receiving suite perks as a non-suite guest (as in, they don’t get suite perks) to the entire family but I was wondering if anybody had any first hand experience with this? The boys will be on the ship quickly either way, I’m sure of it. It’s just my MIL that is in a state about our group not being together for everything. We fully plan on taking advantage of the rest of the suite perks we purchased either way, the boys are going to be fine lol

Found this tonight on the Grand Cayman visitcaymanislands.com: Effective August 24, 2022, all travelers—vaccinated and unvaccinated—are permitted to enter the Cayman Islands without the need of any additional documents or health-related steps due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Travelers are NOT required to: Apply for a Travel Declaration or Travel Request via Travel Cayman Present a negative COVID-19 test Show proof of vaccination Wear masks If you are traveling to the Cayman Islands before August 24th, please visit www.exploregov.ky/travel for exisiting protocols. Guess we will be booking excursions on our October Galveston cruise!

The ultra spacious interior/oceanview/balcony room has two bunks and a pretty large stateroom that holds "upto 6" with the couch that sleeps more, which is great for families. They are pricier than the regular stateroom, but they aren't suite expensive. We have that category room booked for two upcoming cruises with our three "littles" on the allure and the wonder.

We plan to do the exact same on the Liberty (Oct 23rd) when we port in Grand Cayman! Happy to stay on board and play in the water park and eat until we nap lol Just happy to cruise again!

We are booked on the Liberty out of Galveston in October, in the 4 bedroom villa (presidential suite). Pricing is not at all like oasis class in the Florida ports, I know, but it was $9,900 for 7 adults and 6 kids. We booked with “kids sail free”. We actually have 8 kids (two are over 12) and my in-laws and SIL are staying in the suite with us because we were able to get this particular suite. Otherwise, we would have been paying more to get rooms that could have fit the 10 of us into two rooms and my in-laws always stay in suites. If they had booked the grand suite for themselves and we were able to find rooms that fit 5 next to each other (ya right), it would have been more expensive. The $9,900 felt like an economical vacation with that many people/kids.

Thank you! Unfortunately I’m in Iowa so this chain doesn’t exist near me. Guess I’ll have to call RC and see what they recommend in options.

I haven’t found anything that says they’ll do PCR or NAAT testing for kids under 3. Just at-home tests which isn’t allowed for unvaccinated guests.

Has anyone had their 2 yr old get their pre cruise testing done at Walgreens or CVS? If not, and you got a 2 yr old tested, where did you go? I am looking at the pharmacy websites (and local pharmacy websites) and their PCR tests are all “rated” for 3+. The at-home tests are only accepted for vaccinated, so I’m kind of worried about how I’m to get my 2 yr old the accepted test before embarkation day. (With my first child, I would never have considered getting a PCR test done because he just wouldn’t have been able to stand it at 2. My second kid, however, acts like shoving things into her nasal cavity a sport so she’d take a test like a champ to go on vacation).

That is exactly why we booked the liberty out of Galveston. We live in Iowa so we would drive. If we test positive we can just drive home (disappointing but better than airplanes)

We went ahead and booked ourselves and our 8 kids in the presidential suite on the liberty in October. The hope is that they change the percentage for vaxxed and approve our exemption requests (4 of us are over 12). We booked in October hoping there would be less kids booked, therefor more room for exemptions. Wish RC would be more transparent about that while booking but we booked anyway. My husband’s parents are in the room with us and they are vaxxed. We will either get to cruise with RC in October or we will get a refund, I’m just done waiting to cruise. If they don’t approve us we are immediately booking Princess on a sailing that has room for our medical/religious status. We tested to go to Beaches in 2021 and it was a beautiful vacation so we are fine testing this time. We already canceled other sailings and booked Hawaii and another Disney trip in the winter. We decided to avoid international flights for the same reasons everybody else on this thread have. Fingers crossed!

My MIL has a cruise booked for Galveston in Oct and she just reserved a preferred parking spot in the port parking ramp. Refund policy is she has until 24 hours before reservation to cancel and receive refund.

Also, I am not asking about vouchers to try and get more alcohol lol My kids would like shirley temples on vacation