MidwestIA

4 hours ago, Pooch said:

If they are Diamond, they will board  pretty early in the process even if not exactly with you.  And you can all just wait where the photographers are taking pictures for them so you all “board” together.  OR you can just wait with them and all board together.  I dont think you are looking at a huge time difference either way.

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  

10 minutes ago, Ryan79 said:

There are no “linked” perks. They are still completely separate reservations. Linking allows you to check them in, make meal reservations and book excursions on their behalf. It will NOT give them boarding priority, suite lounge access, or any other perks that are attributed to booking a suite

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. 

6 hours ago, Bowen said:

I will happily stay on the ship, no problem at all.

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. 

8 hours ago, Carotthat said:

Sorry, it was RiteAid via Quest:

https://www.riteaid.com/pharmacy/services/covid-19-testing

 

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. 

19 hours ago, Carotthat said:

Quest via Walgreens does testing for 2y old, as I read.

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). 

18 minutes ago, Bowen said:

I’d be fine testing if I were sailing out of Galveston, my home port, because I wouldn’t incur any cost of having to reschedule flights, etc. If I tested positive. So if RC does open up to testing at the port and letting us know at the start if there is room on board for unvaccinated then I’d book. Basically if they do what Virgin is doing now. I just don’t want to fly my family somewhere and then get a positive asymptomatic test at the port.

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

I'm sure this has been answered elsewhere and I thought I saw a place on the website that listed kid's crown and anchor benefits but I just can't find it now. Do kids that have diamond status (via parent status) also get vouchers loaded onto their seapass card or is that only adult diamond (and above) members? Thanks!

Is the wifi benefit also extended to kids that are diamond? We have two over 12 and 6 more that are kid fare so I wasn't sure how that worked. We usually cruise without children but we are hoping to get to cruise again with CDC changes!

We do full formal. Full glam, I take hours. The rest of our vacations are always road trips with kids and I end up dressing the whole family each day so they don't mess up my travel bags and my hair goes into a hat. Cruises, I unpack and take my time getting ready. Husband goes to the casino while he waits. As soon as the world goes back to normal, I am going to finally get back on a ship and it will be such a luxury!

My husband was 30 before the system severed the parent/child relationship with his parents () and Royal let him keep D+ status even though he’s D level points. I think at the time,  his points were actually Emerald. So now all of our kids (and myself) are D+ even though my husband is at 101 points. 

4 hours ago, twangster said:

Two Quantum, two Radiance class for this year.

They are moving crew between ships but that practice will also result in calls of foul play for the guests of the donor ship on that particular cruise even if guest numbers are lower for that sailing.  Plus the ships don't always port the same week to week so it complicates temporary borrowing of crew and makes crew life very hard on them.   

Not to mention, the staff in question are being moved around like pieces on a chessboard are people, who live on their ship. Just moving them around and switching up everything all over again so somebody doesn't have to wait as long for a drink... probably contributes to the ability to hire more staff. Who wants to be moved to a ship with an outbreak so that the unaffected cruisers get the service they are expecting just to get quarantined and kept there and unable to go back to where you had signed on to be?  

17 hours ago, anxiouscruiser said:

Its totally not possible as We fully did not go anywhere for 10 days before and he had to get a pcr test 3 days before the cruise and an antigen test on embarkation. Also he started getting symptoms on wednesday night which would put the incubation period monday when he spent the entire day at adventure ocean. 

Sure, but all of the kids in adventure ocean had the exact same testing requirements in order to board 90%+ vaccinated ship...

1. Small fan to at least move air- essential

2. Heavy duty baggage tags- first cruise on oasis class ship (allure), my flimsy baggage tags got ripped off after I dropped with the porters and I had to wait until 11 pm for my bag to show up at guest services and I had to carry/roll it myself. Never again!

3. lanyards

4. usb hub

5. pens and markers- have to fill out cards or paperwork in cabin and it wasn't easy to get ahold of writing utensils so now I don't forget.

P.S. Bingo daubers! I got tired of rebuying $$ and now I just keep a 'cruise' bag and those get brought on to every cruise.

36 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I think you are wise to hold off on booking anything further at this time (meaning excursions, airfare, etc).  Once the vax protocols are announced, you should be able to request a full cash refund.  

We had planned to sail with family members (who are vaccinated) so my natural inclination was to wait it out and hope for the best however my husband doesn't have an appetite for the risk of no cash refund. We have multiple 2024 cruises booked and I had planned on going on a booking frenzy for 2023 as soon as they removed the vaccination requirement but as this year goes on, I think it is more likely that we have to continue to book vacations on the islands directly and dream of cruising again. We managed to do a wonderful Turks & Caicos Beaches vacation with our kids and family before they required vaccines and we've got a Sandals trip on Grenada planned as well.  Cruising is more economical for us because we are Diamond Plus and we decide how much extra spending we do so we are really looking forward to being able to do so again!

Hi! We booked a cruise for this December on the Harmony way back in December of 2020 *hoping* that restrictions and the like would be gone in two years. Sadly they seem to be sticking around and we are conflicted about whether we should cancel our Dec cruise now and re-plan our vacation because we aren't vaccinated. Obviously, I am not asking for health advice on this and we have no problem following mandates so if we can't go, we can't go. BUT we have love cruising so I have been holding out hope that we would still be able to go. 

If the vaccine requirements stay in place, we have a trip planned for the ABC islands which would be magical but I have held back on doing some of the more expensive parts of booking until I cancel that cruise. I can transfer my deposit (minus the fees) to a new booking years out, I just haven't yet because I was hoping that the restrictions would leave this year. Would you cancel the cruise now and continue planning a different trip or would you keep the booking until the last minute because the restrictions might be relaxed further?

1 minute ago, FManke said:

So you went from inside to unobstructed balcony for less than $400?

Yes!   

I bid very close to the minimum, but not the minimum dollar. In total, I spent $1800 for my husband and I to have an unobstructed balcony on the Liberty after the RoyalUp was accepted. We originally booked an inside cabin for <$1500. I felt it was a pretty good deal as even with our C&A discount, the balcony was over $2K when we booked.

My last RoyalUp bid was accepted 18 days before sailing, Feb 2019. I am hoping I get another acceptance before we sail on the Ovation on Sept 13th!