CruiseGus

The sooner the better

My take is a little different, when the fire doors to the stairs are open, that deck is open. Different decks have been that way a different times on my last recent few cruises. Was B2B in Jan and forgot something in cabin so I opened and closed fire door, went to cabin, almost all cards out, doors no opened for 30 more minutes, crew must have been doing something still on that deck

I find 50/50 to be overly generous. Most at least business casual, ie collared shirt and pants. The really dressed up, even suits has been on the decline. Just my observances, no judgement

Limit 500 per day on slot machine Xfer, forget the limit amount per cruise, but their is one Cashing out at the casino cage if not prime invokes 5% fee. Recently if you don't put at least ~40% of your onboard account xfer to slot machine at risk, the computer controlling xfers locks you from more xfer for 48 hours. Had that happen 2 now. Not real experianced, but casino host has told me on the first ship it was update to casino software. Didn't ask why on 2nd ship, but plan to try again on another ship to verify soon. Lesson for me take OBC from slot at max, $500 early in cruise so it times out before end of cruise YMMV Btw, I have started to play a little but my risk tolerance is pretty low. Am teaching myself its purchased entertainment, just like a move or a theater show, just the amount of time purchased may be variable.

At home i pay the Electric Bill I will drive my car with the AC on and window down though at times Even more often, AC on and moon roof open, pretty common BTW for those that want the answer, it is specific to ships and mostly the newer ones are like that

Both Explorer cruises 23 Jan and 30 Jan were at around 35% capacity for your reference. No Ports of Call missed, all shows ran. Windjammer open for Dinner every night

Thanks so much @twangster I was kind of hoping it was that way.

I know that when you cross the 340 point level the Single Supplement cruise fare reduced to 150% from 200%, I also know you can reprice cruises to apply that, hopefully it results in a lower price. My question is does anyone know if it is based on your actual individual points? Since one of us lags behind the other in individual points, but we both assume the level of the highest point total, will they use the actual point total of the lower individual to see if they qualify for the 150% supplement instead of them following with their significant other to receive that benefit? Odd question i know.

Looking to be great news for our good friends to the North

Right now, with My Time Dinning not starting until 1 hr 15 or 30 minutes after Early Traditional seating(on my last 5 cruises since Aug) you odds of changing to My Time are real good. It is going the other way from My Time to Early Traditional that has been problematic for us. Some will also depend on how fast they start ramping up Capacity now.

This OR consider you need a new travel agent. Problem is OP has not given enough info, what ship, when sailing, what was your original deck? Last 2 months on all of my cruises, Decks 2 and 3 are blocked off as possible Quarentine/Isolation cabins. Decks 7 or 8 Forward seem to be blocked off for incoming crew quarentines. I have had neighbors next door on at least one if not both sides on my last 3 cruises, so i have to think there is more to some of these stories that what we are being told. Bottom line get a good TA.

Although I reconize food is very subjective, I am on Explorer right now, 2nd week, and I find the food to be very good. I see a lot of the same things at Breakfast every day, but how varied can you be? Lunch has had a good variety to go along with the common always there burgers, dogs, etc. Some days a pasta bar and other a salad bar. Although I eat in MDR ech evening almost nightly like to make my inspection tour of Windjammer and I find a dfferent theme each night with what I consider decent variety, once or twice I've told my wife, who occationaly accomanies me on my tour, I almost wish I'd have had dinner in Windjammer instead of MDR. Again yes there are things that they can run out of and it can be noticed, for a couple of days on recent cruises, no Bananas, limited vegtables, but they are trying.

thanks Matt, but I started reading my reference and changed it to Royal's FAQ which is probaly the most accurate info!

Sorry Matt (if you feel you must remove this post i'll understand) Offered as a Subject for a Blog article. @jbrinkm if you go here, new information, better than my old stuff https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/can-limits-be-placed-on-arcade-spending#:~:text=Can limits be placed by parents or guardians on arcade spending%3F&text=The system is automatically set,onboard to adjust the limit. I no longer have skin in that game, until my granddaughter start to acompany us. Just remenber it was a problem for others. In the past I totally blocked my childern from spending and made it clear what would happen if the went to the arcade, that worked for me, Yes i got them a soda package.

walk off was right after 7:30 on the 30th. Personaly i would not book a flight prior to 11am, unless your willing to deal with the consequeces. Day 6 and all five of our ports have been made also expect to hit St Kitts tomorrow. Everything running smooth, food in MDR is excellent (my opinion) good weather. Great crew!!!

I was under the impresion you can set a limit on them for everywhere but in the arcade, as the limit is not able to be applied to the machines there. Plenty of discussion of this pre-covid on many boards

Day 8 - Debarcation - or in our case B2B consecutive cruisers. WHAT A MESS !! done 4 b2b in our cruise lives and the most anoying was in Galveston due to a 4 hour for delay (yes we switched cabins, so that made it worse, and we will never do that again) but after the delay the LA left us standing at CBP and walked off, while they started boarding the newly arriving guests. So that makes this the 2nd worst only. What happened: They collected old sea pass card and dinged us out, the brought cards back to us. So far so good. CBP Officer showed up and we all filed past him to look at passports and Vax Cards. Yup smooth to this point also. Sat back down and came around with the tablets, just like the did when we checking in at the terminal the Sunday before, asked health questions and verified that our Vax cards had been up loaded and passport info was correct (of course we had checked into our 2nd cruise and uploaded the info 30 days ago just like for the first week - some folks did not do this, so they had to take there pictures and i don't know what else). Then it seemed like that process finaly ended. Next the LA started to suffle through a big stack of sea pass card find one and appeard to be manualy checking them off a sheet of paper, she would then grag he microphone and walk to the center of the room call the name, walk over to them and hand them the cards. Walk back to the sheet of paper look at it and shuffle through this stack of card again to find them then mark something on the paper and walk out to middle of room call name and walk over to them and hand out cards. That seemed pretty slow, to make it even worse in my opinion is the whole time 2 and at time 3 upper level managers (you know those with white shirts and shoulder boards with 2 or 3 gold stripes on them just stood there and watched. Then they finaly after handing out about 20 sets of cards the told them they could go to the entrance and get dinged in (not like when we orignaly board where after the tablet we just walked on board).. To make things worse when some of those people went up to get dinged in there card either did not match the picture or there was no picture showing and they stopped the process and took a picture again. What a mess, although we were toward the end in no way were we the last folks, and we left not 15 minutes before the new guest started waliking on board. Not the eperience i had last time i did a B2B out of San Juan. Probaly the most aggervating part to me was the managers just standing there doing nothing when they could have been handing out card while the LA checked them off, that would have increased the troughput by at least half Anyway, I had a few drinks and am enjoying my 2nd week now.

No Not true. I belive the only people Royal tested on ship were the B2B, consecutive cruisers and maybe some unvaxed childeren (but since i don't have any i don't know for sure) USA Citizens - If you fly home the same day you depart the ship and are vaxcinated you can just go to the airport. Anyone staying in PR past that day has to get a test withing 48 hours of departure on there own dime, and fill out the Travel Safe web form again for a QR code. Aleast that what the paperwork says.

Also remember it is surf only not the faster Surf and Stream

So if you would have bought it as soon as it showed up around 11am on Day 5 you would have had the rest of the day and Day 6 & 7 to use it.

Day 7 - - Sea Day and TEST Day for our B2B. Strange, semi organized, major problem was probaly those that showed up for their test and hadn't followed instruction which slowed some things down. Lets all get into a line close togeather with no social distance to see who can stay on board the next week. Oh well we live through it and miraculously both tested Negative again. I will now have one more report on what turn around for the B2B is like sometime tomorrow.

Day 6 - Bonaire - - this is the only port we have been to that they are actualy checking your Vaccine Cards after you depart the ship as you walk out of the port. We did a wonderful Catamaran Sail and Snorkle with Woodwind. It was wonderful with 3 excellent stops and even to the crew's surprise we were surounded by a 15-20 minute Dolphin show with more than a dozen visable at anyone time. Our weather this week has been great with brief 5-10 minute showers in the morning on both sea days. which is natures way of making sure the loungers right by the pools open up again. Liquid sunshine, otherwise weather has been great, really warm as we're in Southern Caribbean. Shows have been OK in my opnion, the ice show of course and we liked the Duo Quintessence which is an aerial and acrobatic couple. Show though in my opion are like food, each of us like different flavors and variety. What I can say is NO shows or activities have been cancelled this week We have been to St Maarten some many times that at the moment I could not sugest anything, there is plenty of info out there on that island.

I agree with your statement. To bad all the policies are not clear and enforced the same at all ports. In the ever evolving enviorment things are very strange and flexability along with good travel insurance is a must.

Day 2 - - St Maarten - we along with Anthem both docked and later in the day Rahapsody also docked. We did not withness any transfers but didn't spen much time looking either. Day 3 - - Was a Sea Day. Day 4 - - Aruba - we personaly did a fantastic private tour with "Trikes Aruba" Day 5 - - Curacao - So NO shows cancelled yet. All Ports so far, Vacinated could go on shore and explore on your own. UnVaxed must take a ships tour. Looks like this is regulated by aggreement with the ports more by Royal controlling you getting off the ship, than by the ports checking for your Vax card. Day 6 - - will be Bonaire and I don't expect anything to be different there.

Welcome to the forum. Seems you provide a good example for all of us at this time of COVID. Though I completely understand Royal's position here, probaly the reason they ask that question on you pre-boarding health survey along with all the other question about being sick. DO NOT PLAN On Boarding a cruise if you report that you have been IN CONTACT with a POSATIVE person WITHIN 14 DAYS of filling out YOUR HEALTH QUESTIONARE. another one sailing B2B if you LINK RESERVATIONS and someone in your linked group BECOMES POSATIVE during the first week, DO NOT be surprised if YOU ARE ASKED TO LEAVE THE SHIP. maybe these are exclusive to San Juan, but I'm sure they can happen anywhere.