MidwestIA

Not scientifically backed nor does that make any sense. Im sick of these no science rules. 

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.

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.

I think it might be a little early to be throwing in the towel on the reservation.  More and more Caribbean nations are lifting vaccine mandates which certainly play a role in the decision making of the cruise protocols.  December is a ways out, so a lot could change. 
I don't think it would be a bad idea to look for alternatives if you were looking forward to a vacation this December and you can't cruise, but I wouldn't cancel the reservation yet.  The refund for your deposit you would receive if you cancel right now is a future cruise credit and expires 12 months from issue date.  So it's not like you can plan a vacation for the end of next year even.  Like @WAAAYTOOO mentioned, once protocols for your sailing are released for your sailing (assuming they get extended), you can request a cash refund for your deposit rather than a future cruise credit.

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!

Good grief! That stinks! We are taking this cruise on the 13th and I was afraid of this kind of weather. I’m just glad we don’t have to worry about a hurricane and hoping for the best. ? Sorry it ruined your views!
My family and I went to Mt Rushmore last year and we couldn’t see it for the first two days due to fog. 
 

iFly employees are not Royal crew, they work for iFly.  
iFly has venues all across the country.  A select handful of iFly employees work on the ships.  
iflyworld.com
I would write them and note your experience.  They won't likely do or offer anything but at least you'll help other guests from facing the same experience.

I had a 1:20PM reservation for the iFly on the Ovation last week.  When I checked "My Calendar" on the stateroom TV, the entry simply said "iFly 1:20PM-2:20PM".  That led me to believe that I can go at any time within that time frame for my turn on the iFly. There was no mention of me having to be there 15 minutes before my appointment.  The lady who booked my reservation on Day 1 said nothing about it.  So I arrived at the sign in desk at 1:30PM (10 minutes late).  The guy at the desk ask for my reserved time. When I said "1:20PM", he began to show some attitude and told me that  I was late, that I should have been there 15 minutes ahead of the time.  I said that I did not get any such instructions.   I asked, "Have I lost my reservation?", he said I have.  Then I asked, "Can I get another reservation?"   Without checking or even looking at the screen, he coldly replied, "No you can't, we're booked till the end of the cruise."  
When I tried to make a reservation on the Royal IQ app for that same day, I saw three time slots available.  I was able to book the 3:00PM time slot.  I went back as soon as I can to make sure my app reservation went through. Another guy was there and assured me I got the reservation.
I wanted so much to complain about this to the Sports Manager on board but I just let it go.  But I feel like that guy has no place in a job that has direct interaction with guests on a cruise ship. It was not even a busy day for them, I was the only one there.  He needs to learn something from the Disney playbook where even the most ridiculous requests from guests get the reply, "Let me see what we can do about that or let me see how we can make your day more magical."
I'm so glad I did not let this incident make me give up on going on the iFly.  It turned out to be one of the highlights of the cruise for me.

Good grief! That stinks! We are taking this cruise on the 13th and I was afraid of this kind of weather. I’m just glad we don’t have to worry about a hurricane and hoping for the best. ? Sorry it ruined your views!
My family and I went to Mt Rushmore last year and we couldn’t see it for the first two days due to fog. 
 

Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier
This is the “best” view of this supposed highlight of the cruise!

Seriously, we didn’t even make it there.  The captain made an announcement that we were turning back because it was unsafe to proceed because of the fog.
Now every time the horn sounds, I get annoyingly reminded of the fog that “ruined” my day.

Too many variable in cruising.  A 14 night sailing is very different than a 3 night sailing over a weekend.  A ship based in Southhampton will have different consumption trends than a smaller, older ship in Baltimore.  
Fixing on one set price would benefit some and penalize others.  Sales would plummet on 9 night or longer cruises.  
Royal has at any given moment over 70,000 guests on board their ships every day of the year.  They've been selling drinks for years.  They know our drinking habits better than we do.
Adjusting prices to suit cruise length, time of year, region and a number of other factors is smart business based on analytics. 

Take a read through the live blogs.  There have been some great posts like Ovation goes north, by  @twangster and Ovation to Alaska by @SpeedNoodles.  ?  if you go, try your hand at a blog especially if you do excursions.  We are planning hitting up Alaska in '21 ... but aiming for end of May / June range possibly.

Finally the 2019 Alaska cruise season is beginning and so has the single digit dance!
Looking back I always put off an Alaska cruise despite all the good things I heard over and again.  Now I can't get enough.  This will be my fourth cruise to Alaska and hopefully it will not be my last.   Why did I wait so long to cruise to Alaska?  
Itinerary
Day              Port of Call                                        Arrive       Depart
1                   Vancouver                                                            5pm
2                   At Sea
3                   At Sea
4                   Icy Strait Point (ISP)                           9am        8pm
5                   Sitka                                                      7am        6pm
6                   Hubbard Glacier                                  8am        11am
7                   Juneau                                                  7am        9pm
8                   Skagway                                               7am        8:30pm
9                   Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier     7am        12pm
10                 At Sea
11                 At Sea
12                 Seattle                                                  6am

source: CruiseCharts.com
The Ship
This is a special cruise in many ways.  This will be Ovation's first cruise to Alaska and the first time a Quantum class ship visits Alaska.  It will be the largest cruise ship ever to visit Alaska edging out the NCL Bliss by a small margin.  It's a repositioning itinerary unique for this season, starting in Vancouver and ending in Seattle.  There are two glaciers on the itinerary, Hubbard and Dawes.  The itinerary includes two ports not normally on Royal itineraries from the South - Sitka and Icy Straight Point.   It's eleven nights compared to the normal 7 night Alaska cruise.  This will be the earliest in the Alaska cruise season for me, beating out my previous early Alaska season cruise by several weeks.  
Hubbard Glacier is pretty far North and it's not normally on Seattle based itineraries.  Sitka is infrequently on Royal itineraries.  Icy Strait Point is a favorite port for me and usually only found on Royal's North or South one-way Alaska itineraries.   
When considering any Alaska cruise paying attention to the times in port is important and Royal has planned some awesome times in each port on this itinerary.
Ovation is a "cold weather" ship which should pair very well with Alaska.  The ample sized indoor pool will be great for families leaving the beautiful Solarium for adults to enjoy the sweeping views forward as we sail the Alaskan inside passages.  Combined with the sweeping views aft from Two70° and this is shaping up to be a fantastic Alaska cruise experience.
Pre-Cruise Plans
I fly to Vancouver with a connection in Salt Lake City arriving noon the day before the cruise departs Vancouver.
I found a nice but inexpensive hotel near the airport with a free airport shuttle.  Vancouver features a train system that will allow me to reach downtown pretty easily while saving substantially by not staying downtown.  
Once settled I plan to visit downtown and may even head out to the Lion's Gate Bridge Sunday evening to watch Ovation arrive being the largest cruise ship ever to visit Vancouver harbor. 
Cabin
I normally scale back my cabin to Alaska so I can splurge on excursions but Ovation changes the math.  Quantum class ships have a much higher balcony cabin count relative to interior or ocean view cabins.  Because of the balcony cabin ratio on Ovation the marginal price difference to book a balcony was small enough to motivate me to spend a few extra hundred dollars and book a balcony plus it's eleven nights.  In years past an interior cabin was less than half the price of a balcony so the savings basically paid for the excursions.
Consequently this year I am in a 2D ocean view balcony on deck 11 forward port side.  On these ships I like being close to the pool deck so I can take the stairs and my cabin is a few steps to the elevator lobby.
Specialty Dining
None planned.  My travel agent did throw in one specialty dinner so I'll probably visit Jamie's based on an Anthem cruise where I really enjoyed Jamie's over all the other options. 
Excursions
To experience Alaska you need to get out of the ports and see Alaska.  To this end I always plan a healthy Alaska excursion budget and this year's excursion budget approaches $900 per person.
When I booked this cruise I grabbed a bunch of Royal excursions as place holders while I looked at all options.  Several cruise planner sales occurred and I was able to save hundreds by cancelling and rebooking my excursions.  With those price drops I couldn't find many cheaper options and all things being equal I always prefer booking excursion through Royal in case of itinerary changes.  I did find one Viator excursion in Sitka that looked interesting so I booked it outside of Royal.
Icy Strait Point (ISP)
With Royal gaining access to Glacier Bay in future years I thought a fly over Glacier Bay National Park would be a great way to look forward to a future visit by ship.

Going on a bear hunt to shoot pictures has always appealed to me in ISP so these are my two excursions for this day leaving lots of time to explore ISP on my own.

Sitka
The raptor center in Sitka sounded like a great way to see some birds including (hopefully) some Eagles.  Throw in a nature walk and it sounded like a winner.

Having hopefully seen bears by this point, I thought beers and bears sounded pretty good so I found this Viator option in Sitka. 

Juneau
Visiting Juneau I have always watched the float planes coming and going but always found something else to do.  So this year I am going to continue my small plane obsession and see some glaciers from the air in a SeaPlane.

Skagway
Glass blowing has always fascinated me and having done many of the other must do Skagway activities this year is going to blow.  I figure what better way to find a keepsake memento from an Alaska cruise than on a glassblowing activity leaving me a lot of daylight to explore Skagway on my own.

Internet
I bought Voom Surf and Stream on sale for $11.99 per day.  Given the 11 night duration this was more economical compared to buying it on board with my Crown and Anchor discount and waiting until day two. 
While Ovation uses the newest O3b satellite platform I'm not sure that is going to help North in Alaska where O3b has "limited services".


source: www.ses.com/our-coverage
A Royal O3b enabled ship has never ventured this far North into the limited services area so I'm not sure what to expect from Voom.  If the ship switches to conventional satellite internet I know from past experiences that can be hit or miss at times while cruising Alaska.  Consequently this may not be a live blog and I might have to finish and post pictures once home.
With that the count down continues...  more to come.

We arrive between 9:30 and 10, typically. We are diamond plus so we usually don't have to wait very long after security to board the ship. Two years ago when we sailed on the Allure, we arrived later than we ever have and walked straight onto the ship after security at 10:30 because they were already boarding our group.

I've sailed a number of times now since The Key program has been available.  Only once have I purchased it when I did the review on the initial Key cruise on Oasis in November.  
I've cruised six times without buying The Key as a D+ with the Key available for purchase.
I've experienced zero impact to my D+ benefits.
As far as I am concerned I am glad Royal has a developed a new source of revenue that doesn't require me to buy into it or have any impact to me.  This means they can keep the cost of cruising low for the rest of us without cutting service levels.  I have no problem with that.
The most impact was one sailing when Key guest were called to board after suites but before D+.  This "delayed" the D+ call by 47 seconds.  Yep, I boarded 47 seconds later that I would have otherwise.  No big deal.  No impact.  

Wash your hands...a lot! 

This morning's update:

Royal can't change the weather.  The port is operated by the local port authority and under command of the US Coast Guard.  If the port authority and/or USGC close the port due to fog then all ships, cargo, tanker or cruise ship can't use the port until it is re-opened. 
What do they do?
If they can predict a fog condition they sometimes speed up and cruise at full speed on their return to Galveston in an attempt to beat the fog.
They will listen to the USCG and follow instructions provided to them by the local port pilots and USCG.
If they are in port when USGC closes the port, they can't leave and will remain tied up at the pier.  If they are returning to the port when the port closes, they will get as close as they can and hang around waiting for the USCG to re-open the port.  
Understand Royal is not in charge or in a position to force a decision.  They must wait for instructions and based on what they are told they will decide how to proceed.  Typically the port will suggest something like "We anticipate the port re-opening in 3 hours" but that is not a guarantee or promise because they have to wait to see how conditions change.  Based on estimated times Royal will devise a plan based on those estimates.  
As much as it is out of your control, it is also out of the cruise line's control.
How long will the delay be?
That is like asking how long will it be cloudy, or sunny, or raining, or snowing.  They can use computers to model fog conditions but in the end mother nature dictates how long fog hangs around.  It all depends.  As soon as it's deemed to be safe, the port will re-open and pilots will board ships to assist them into the port.  It all depends.  Royal has no choice but to wait and follow instructions from the port, pilots and/or USCG.
My stories:
My first cruise from Galveston in 2013 occurred as a tropical storm passed by.  Cruise ships were delayed by a few hours but eventually returned to port.  We were advised to delay our arrival to the port to embark.  As we prepared to leave that day a tanker ran aground in the channel in the crappy weather and closed the port.  We spent the night tied up at the pier in Galveston.  We set sail in the morning and they reversed the order of our ports of call so that we could still make them all.  
I just experienced a 10 hour delay in Tampa returning on Brilliance due to fog - it was that bad.  We circled around just outside of the port waiting for the port to re-open.  Basically we had an extra sea day and arrived at the terminal at 5:00pm instead of 7:30am.  Next cruise guests were told not to come to the port until 7pm.  We were kept fed like any other day and they planned activities and entertainment to keep us occupied.  They carry extra food and beverage for just such an event.  
I follow James Van Fleet on twitter.  He is Royal's Chief Meteorologist and will sometimes tweet about fog delays.  
It's not unusual for Royal to expedite their return to Galveston in an attempt to beat the fog and get back into the port before they close it.  This when they can predict fog conditions.   
Here are some tweets from @JamesVanFleet over the past few weeks for Liberty/Galveston:
(Not for your cruise but roughly two weeks ago)

 

I put bids on two suites and a ocean view balcony room for our upcoming cruise on Feb 17th. I bid a little over the minimum on all three rooms in November. On Feb 1st, I was notified that my RoyalUp bid was accepted for the balcony room. The immediately took payment from the card I used to make the bid and our stateroom was reassigned immediately as well.