12thman

Link to requirement. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/do-i-need-a-covid-vaccine-to-cruise-what-counts-as-proof

26 minutes ago, Pattycruise said:

Just got off of Freedom.  This is the Diamond Plus perks.  However I did not seek out the onboard price so I’ve no idea if this was a better deal. Somehow I doubt it!

Does this change from ship to ship sailing to sailing? Those perks seem nice.

My feelings are that if you are having anxiety about going look at your options and go later. Why stress yourself? It's supposed to be a relaxing time. I've seen numerous people at work get covid from the early days to now and everyone I've talked to said it was terrible to mild. But where else can you take a vacation and they take care of you like royal does? All inclusive vacation doesn't test you, give you medicine, give you a private jet ride home. Only royal is doing all this. 

We are on Wonder inaugural cruise and unless royal cancels this we will go. Hopefully it will be better than our Alaska cruise this past summer. 

9 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Thanks so much!!

You are welcome. 

1 hour ago, SpeedNoodles said:

If you have it handy, sure. I've sent two messages through their contact form - the first time they said "we're backed up, wait 7 days".  I haven't gotten a response yet for the second, but I just sent it.

+1866-955-1173 haven't called them but hopefully they can assist. 

1 hour ago, SpeedNoodles said:

What the heck?  I still haven't gotten the ones I ordered on the 31st. 

You need the customer service number? It's difficult to find on the website. 

Ordered mine through eMed on January 3rd received January 6th. Lot is 2021-12-29 expiration 2022-12-02.

No! No! Please don't have azipod issues. Hopefully it has dry dock before next summer if it does. Already went through this with Allure.

@Lovetocruise2002what price adjustments? You watch the prices and call Air2Sea and let them know? 

2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

They will let you book a few days earlier, but you will have to call them.  We are hopefully sailing from Southampton this coming July and we booked with Air2Sea to arrive 5 days earlier.  It was no trouble but I had to call them.

Do you find better fares through them? When we quoted for our trip it was higher than doing it myself. 

When I tried to book our flight to Fort Lauderdale from Seattle tried to use them through our TA and they couldn't book Alaska first class? Strange so I did it myself directly.  The only draw back I see to have airfare added to final payment is the big bill that comes due if you haven't been making payments. 

Has anyone tried Virgin Atlantic to Europe? We're looking at that for 2023.

We like handing the envelope in person, nothing like seeing his/her reaction. It makes us happy that they are so appreciative of whatever amount they are getting. I've also had the person be even more appreciative when I ask for their name so I can mention it in the survey. That seems to mean more to those who are making a career of it.

3 hours ago, BarbieBell said:

We have stayed at the Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in a king, club level room and it was wonderful. Luxurious room, very quiet and the club provides great complimentary snacks, drinks and hot meals. The hotel is actually attached to the airport and it’s an easy walk thru the mall like indoor walkway to the various airlines check in and baggage drop. I booked through Booking.com and the cost was $338.00 per night.  We left the ship and went straight to the hotel and with its location we didn’t need a taxi to airport for our flight the next day. 

Thank you, did you take a taxi or shuttle from the hotel to the port? If so how much was it? 

If anyone can give me any hotel recommendations for Amsterdam? Not sure the price range but I'm guessing $300-400 per night. Thanks!

6 hours ago, AspiringCruisePlanner said:

Become an airline employee or recruit your parents or kids to become one! Royal offers around a 25% discount on top of the regular 30% discount for all categories, including suites. Cruises within 3 months are often 50% off the price available to the public.

Yup! miss those perks! Discounts for cruises, hotels and tax only flight! Plus jump seat when everything is sold out.

Book early and have a MEI TA watch for price reduction. I've had a few happy emails saying my cruise went down. But booking early seems the best. We booked a cruise star class for 2023 as soon as it came out. Last checked and the same suite is $9,000 more!! 

1 hour ago, AshleyDillo said:

They don't do anything on the island, but on the ships they do celebrate it.

They also will be more than happy to take your money for reserved seating in the Promenade and special specialty dining menu events as well.

It's a lively environment and was a lot of fun when we did it on the Freedom Group Cruise in 2019, but I don't think it's worth the price premium they charge for the week.

Good to know. Thanks!

6 minutes ago, Matt said:

Nope. Fireworks are reserved for special events with executives, such as when a new ship launches.

For New Years do they do anything? This doesn't include Christmas but the sailing is more expensive then the week prior. 

I've never done a holiday sailing, the cruise I'm looking at stops at Cococay does Royal have a fireworks show for New Years?

12 hours ago, adever7137 said:

Thank you for the tips. Our budget is around 150 to 250 a night for a hotel.  We may not do much in Seattle because of the older adults in our group. The Hubbard Glacier is on my bucket list, but for this trip since it was a FCC because our 12 day caribbean was canceled we tried to not go over that.   Hopefully the longer cruises will return sooner than later

This first one is directly across the Seattle Center, that's where the Space Needle is located. To get to the port you'll need to book a shuttle. https://www.staypineapple.com/hotel-five-seattle-wa?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=GMB&utm_term=hf

Next this one I've not stayed at but it's closer to the port https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/seahwhw-homewood-suites-seattle-downtown/?cid=&WT.mc_id=

Another option is to check out some air bnb's city of Seattle limits them and I've never used that service anywhere.  Another option is Trip Advisor. Hope that helps. I'm sure you'll enjoy the cruise especially if it's your first. 

18 hours ago, adever7137 said:

We are booked in August 2022 on the Ovation of the Seas! We are all super excited to go! First time going to Alaska, and looking for some ideas for places to stay in Seattle and things to do.  We will have 1 full day in Seattle and we are taking my In-Laws who are older with mobility issues.  So it would either need to be within walking distance or a shuttle.   If anyone has any ideas it would be great! I feel like I'm going crazy planning all of it!

 

What's your budget for hotel? Seattle is very expensive in the downtown core. I live here and did the Ovation this past summer and was very disappointed with the ship and the itinerary, so much so we moved our two Alaska sailings from Seattle to Vancouver B.C. it's more expensive for me to travel to B.C. but the itinerary has Hubbard Glacier!!! That's what you see in Matt's video with all the ice surrounding the ship. Your not going to get that out of Seattle. Our first cruise with Royal was on Allure in a crown loft and we are hooked on the newest and best ships Royal has to offer except when it comes to Alaska. Alaska is different because you want to see outside as much as possible. The ship's entertainment was good on Ovation but I'm not going to miss it. We've never sailed on a older, smaller ship but we are very excited to be this time because of the itinerary. For us the itinerary is THE most important aspect of cruising Alaska. 

If you let me know what you budget is I'll give a few suggestions. Just beware Seattle has decided to cut the funding of police here and it had a huge effect on the number of police officers that have left and crime has soared. They don't respond right away unless it's life or death situation. If you get robbed expect to wait a long time for an officer to come and take your report. Seattle like many cities has a large homeless population and many live by tourists areas because they can panhandle and the city is very liberal and let's homeless camps pop up where ever. Even right across from the court house. The camp became such a problem that court employees had to be escorted from their cars to inside. There's many beautiful and wonderful places to see in Seattle just be careful. 

With this new requirement would one be able to cancel their cruise for a full refund?

On 12/12/2021 at 5:06 PM, Dan Curtis said:

We are doing the taste of San Juan, we have did the Bacardi rum tour in the past, very good, not great.

We are looking at that as well.

Came across this video of the construction at various stages. Interesting to watch.

1 hour ago, SPS said:

We've had two post-cruise excursions in San Juan.

The first was an Old San Juan tour that was interesting, but, a seemed a bit disorganized. Could have been done better. It may have been better to get over there on our own to better explore it.

FYI: Visiting ships dock on the Old San Juan side while Embarking/Disembarking ships dock at the terminal across the bay.

The second was a visit to the El Yunque National Forest that was a very good tour. The walk up the Yahaku Tower provides awesome views over the forest and all the way down to Fortuna Beach. Some beautiful waterfalls. A stop along a rocky river was also fun as our guide brought day old bread from a local bakery for everyone to feed the fish. A lunch stop at La Muralla on the way back down was delicious. (Not included in the tour cost, but very reasonable).

Thanks!