CruiseGus

have seen a lot of question about the 10 drink card on this site. So far since start up it has not been spotted yet, that has now changed. Spotted on Explorer of the Seas early on Day 5 after the Solarium pool opened. Just FYI Explorer out of San Juan is running a around 30-35% capacity on this sailing

Day 1 - - Arival at port and Boarding We had a 1 to 1:30 boarding which was the earliest you could pick in the early morning the day boarding opened. Arrived by Taxi at 12:10, dropped luggage and proceded dow terminal to serpenines set up. Suites, Pinnacle, Key to right bypassing the almost empty anyway sepintine. Someone? public health handed out a paper in either english or spanish that outline the entry requirements when you come back to Puerto Rico. Before entering the sepintine they looked at your covid test and vacine card. Walk the whole surpenine even though no one is there filling it. Very short wait if even that at the end of sepentine. Check Set Sail, Vax card and test results again. Through terminal doors and security 3 or 4 scanner's can't remeber for sure. Another 4 stations to check but this time you also had to present your Passport or Licence and Birth certificate. Then maybe 20 stations all with the iPad type device to acctualy check you in for the cruise. Scan one of your Set Sail passes, which bring up your record for that cabin, they then look at all documents that you listed on your checkin. Verified Passport names, Vaccined dates and Date and Negative results of your Covid test. from there you just proceded up the gangway and onto the ship. Maybe 10-15 minutes total from Taxi to Ship. 2nd easiest boarding we've ever done. We were told by other pasenger they opened the doors at Noon. So based on recent experiances if you should up just a little before your schedule time all seems to flow smooth with the new boarding system. So as you can see on the above paper, the one handed out prior to boarding, reading the yellow/orange print as long as you fly out the same day you leave your cruise and your Vaxed PR places no addtional requirements on you. I'm at day 2 when writing this we are in St Maarten and other than the normal boarding day mixups and rearanginging of eating scedule and normal adjustment its been like every other cruise. Top tier event is tonight and i will get their version of passenger count and report that tomorrow.

GS and above suites never have a charge for room service. It is a suite GS+ perk

Flight in info. Landed at SJU, flight was good all conections made (hate concting flights, I'm normally a direct flight guy, but with the lack of crew I was moved. Saw one cancelled flight on the board to SJU, but luckily it was a couple of hours after ours). As you start to just see the baggage keep LEFT, there are NG soliders, some in tyvec coveralls assisting with checking that QR code. Collect your LUGGAGE FIRST, then procede to one of the check out line there a many. Have your QR code and a Photo ID ready, they will read your QR code and then take a picture of your ID for their software to record. We then proceded like usual to get a taxi to our hotel and the first thing we did after check in was our eMed proctored test for boarding. Negative again Yea! Just a quick note on eMed access. On my android devices, both phone and tablet I have been forced to use the Samsung Internet Browser. I have the newest version of Crome on them but it does not work. iPhone of wife no problems (just more ammunition for her in our which is better debate) Will add boarding info tomorrow, we have an earlist boarding time, which is 1 to 1:30 in San Juan. No Suite, No key.

Not doing a live blog, but due to considerable lack of details on sailings leaving from San Juan, I want to leave some information in an easy to find location where someone might look. Flew in 2 days early, so the Covid test required within 48 hours of arriving in San Juan will not also work for boarding the ship. We did our test, an Abbott ID Now at our local Walgreens the day before flying out. Had to fill out a PR Travel Declaration at www.travelsafe.pr.gov you can establish an account and login ahead of time, but you cannot create a trip until you have results of your Covid test (alternately you can take a test within 48 hours of arriving, We decided not to do this for the simple fact we wanted a negative test before we flew down anyway). Once you establish your account, you can enter your vaccine information and the system will save it, then the trip entry is a little easier. At the upper right of the home screen is a dropdown that says Vaccine that is where you can enter your infomation before your trip. See attached file (this is a lot harder from tablet than from a computer). When you do finaly put in your trip report and tell them its a cruise there will be a field at the very bottom for the ship name. Not under the cruise line you select like youd expect. When finished the will give you a QR code, which I saved. They also sent me an email with it also. Next post flying in info

No, just following their guidance to the letter. my wife and I have both had to do this. the Navica app has to match perfect with what ever form of ID you use. I am a Roman numeral II and I have 2 goverment issued ID one with and one with out, the one without worked perfectly when Navica didn't have it, when i used the other one i had to have it added to Navica. Just have the name on navica exactly like on you ID to prevent problems BTW it take 15-20 minutes for the Navica update to be reflected to the Proctor.

LA desk is much better choice, sometime they even have them out sitting in a rack so if the LA isn't there at that moment

I was going to say you most likely had time to get proctored home tests deliverd, But of course you alreay took that step, that would make port testing as your backup plan. after our first experience using local tests in august when it was even still 3 days out, the stress was to much. I imediately ordered test from optum about 5 weeks before our Nov cruise for use on Nov and Dec cruise. Only to recieve kits that expired 3 days before the at least valid to date on their web site and 2 days to early for our Dec cruise. I then was able to still order from eMed before Dec cruise when the newer kits started to show up. Bottom line I will always have on hand enough eMed kits to cover my future cruises, even if i only use them as back up, especialy now that the kit are expiring almost a year from order date.

If this happens and it sound promising, i will be very happy. I'm book on Harmony last week of Febuary and have been looking forward to that sailing specificly because the itinary included both Labadee and Coco Cay. 2 fantastic beach days.

this has been quite frequent since start up. Usually has to do with them wanting more time to clean before boarding, but can be for other reasons also. As @Reigert2008said everyone on that sailing recieved the same email.

I have seen this before recently. do you think it was a fluke or that it is a current policy change due to COVID? Anyone else experiance this? think i will stop and ask either the LA or the Diamond Lounge Concierge when I board Explorer tomarrow

So which test do they give to B2B cruisers, an Antigen test or a Molecular PCR test. Does anyone know?

@Vincent Worried in Council Bluffs! From the opposite side of the state. The Walgreens ID NOW test is acceptable have used it 3 time since start up

YES! many of us are hoping Labadee is back as a stop by late Jan or early Feb of this year. Wonderful relaxing beach day

wife was happy with what was on the wall on allure recently, and she's real picky about that stuff. On other ships i have had to ask for, but did get the Gilcrest products

this has been very typical for at least the last 2 or 3 weeks. By off loading positive crew members they are able to get the positive case count low enough so ports of call will let the cruise ship dock. For whatever reason the ( I think it is because they are tested so frequently) the rate of infection among the crew compared to passengers is more like 10 : 1 or higher.

Not only the above, but these cruise lines know the statistics. so they can reasonably tell you how many will drive, how many will fly. how many take their transport. that's how come they can serve so many meals in the MDR in such a short time span with 6 different entries to chose from and never say we are out of that.

@Zachariusdon't forget to add that with the new protocols you can NO longer join a ship at any port other than the original embarkation port.

@Neesa. Seems to me that @SpeedNoodlesgot caught in some nightmare with processing over the new year holiday. I have no way of knowing but at time systems act funny when a year is closed out. I purposely waited until the Monday after to order from eMed. Mine were here before the end of the week. Also everything that is being reported from both eMad and Optum shows that the supply of old kits is gone and all are now freshly manufactured with an 11 month expiration from mfg. So most around Nov or later now. Order now safe for March of this year

From the Royal link - ie Optum they are providing a Rx in the background that you never actually see, just like CVS and Walgreens do for tests. a test for cruises Also Optum even back in Oct provides a statement / receipt that can be sent to your insurance. eMed I have not seen one but really didn't look. for me its to much hassle to jump through hoops for $30 a test for cruises to seek insurance reimbursment, i just consider it as Cost of Cruise.

Actually, you can go to guest services, hopefully prior to the last evening when the lines get long, and fill out a form that allows them to provide an extra tip to anyone you wish to name. They will then charge that to your sea pass card and ultimately to the credit card you have on file to pay for expenses. You either have a credit card on file or you need cash to pay your bill before you leave the ship. ( I have heard that for those that have neither, they have very high interest rate financing document you have to sign to get off - no you can't stay another week, and wash dishes.) Although I do agree with those that say the best thing to do is bring cash and either hand it out as you go or put it into one of the WOW envelopes at the end, last night putting the persons name on it and then hand that to them or drop off a guest services.

I believe @WAAAYTOOO is correct in at least one of the named individual must remain, that was the way it was on our 2020 cruise. Also @AshleyDillo is also correct for CWC you must cancel the whole booking number ie cabin

Some of the February sailing are also marked as SOLD OUT and have been removed from ability to search them. Haven't looked at any March yet

in addition the post cruise testing opens Royal up to additional cost if they have to pay for a quarantine / isolation hotel.

@CrimsonCruiser I agree with your comment on room service, but also add to that they control breakfast delivery time much like boarding times when the 0600-0630 time slot fills no longer offer it. I say that because in Nov, I ordered breakfast 0600-0630 and it didn't show up till 0715, I had even already decided to leave and go to breakfast but forgot my mask and turned around at the stairway, which was close, just as he was knocking at my door. He said they were slammed that morning. I might also add, allow us to place activities on the calendar that don't required reservations, that way I could live by that calendar for everything I wanted to do. This would be an easy IT fix.(well maybe for a competent IT department)