leesam82

9 hours ago, levib2 said:

Got negative tests yesterday from Walgreen in less than an hour.  Although I was enthusiastic about getting back to cruising, I really couldn't get fully excited until our results came in.  Elated after receiving results.

Has anyone else felt that way?

 

 

Totally can understand your feelings. For me I coudn't totally be elated till i had my kids results that allowed us to get on board. That's when I finally was able to relax. 

I usually go business casual with a little more emphasis on the casual for dinners at the specialty dining. 

I will wear a nice pair of slacks and a matching polo shirt. or a matching button down shirt without a tie. 

Even for formal nights I don't reually go to a tie. It also depends on the group I am with. If the group really wants to dress up then I will put on a suit but for the most part mostly business casual.  

With our kids we put them in nice pair jeans and a polo shirt. They are 5 &7 and will run around as long as they aren't creating too much trouble i think its ok. 

Hello All 

I am going to be using a travel agent for the first time for an upcoming sailing. Because this is the first time for me I had some questions to ask those who are more experienced. 

1) I know everyone on the message boards have espoused the advantages of using a TA. Overall I was under the impression that TAs can find better rates than if I were to just look online. Is that the case majority of the time? Are there any reasons not to utilize a TA? 

2) Everyone talks about transferring a booking to a TA. Can some one explain to me what that means exactly? Secondly can you transfer a booking from casino royale? 

3) If i transfer a casino royale booking to a TA would the TA be able to reprice for me through Casino royale? or would it go through the regular RCL bookings process. 

Thanks Again 

That is something to think about. But their website does say any sailing booked before january 2022 But I can see how standard cancelation policies also apply because I know there are cruisers that will be book for 2023 cruises prior to that January 2022 deadline. I will be call royal again for clarification. 

Update: 

Again I know that depending on the customer service agent this answer may be different. I will call back again and ask the same question. 

I have sailing that I plan on booking before the January 31 2022 CWC deadline. This sailing is in June 2022 which is after the may 31 2022 deadline to rebook a cruise using your FCC. I wanted to ask what occurs if I had to cancel after this May 31st deadline but prior to the Jun sailing? Would i forfeit my FCC? 

The agent told me that If I canceled prior to the the 48 hours of sailing that we would get a FCC that would need to be used for a sailing before the end of 2022. 

I just wanted to ask the many Royal Lovers if they think this is a valid explanation. I am just want to make sure I have a contingency just incase. 

Thanks!

I did notice that. 

This brings up a question that my have been answered.I will probably book another sailing prior to the January 31st date. But it sails after the May 31st 2022 which is the expiry of the the future cruise credit. Does this mean Cruise with confidence does not apply? Any thoughts on this particular situation? I am planning on calling royal with this specific situation in mind. 

47 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

Capacity is barely increasing and not consistent from sailing to sailing so I wouldn't expect it to happen no earlier than March 22'

I know on the financial call earlier, they told shareholders that they project to be at full capacity summer of 2022. I think RCL will probably hit this projection. I am thinking that as there will be even more vaccinated guests on board at younger ages, I would predict a cautious increase in capacity of ships in december and january, with a faster increase in capacity come the spring of 22. But sailing at reduced capacity actually has been a delight for me, so I wouldn't mind going on another sailing at reduced capacity. 

Personally for me any public wifi I deem as not secure. I just don't use public wifi for anything deemed sensitive. But that just my personal opinion

Hello, 

In my recent experience traveling with my children, the turnaround time is really determined by where you are and the type of test being used. 

Regular PCR tests take the longest as the test protocol takes about nearly 8 hours to run. 

RT-PCR or reverse transcriptase PCR testing takes a shorter period of time to run. 

Above are examples of NAAT or Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests. Which all are accepted by RCL. 

Walgreen uses the Abbott's NAAT test called ID NOw. which they say is run in 1 hour. 

There are other companies and labs that develop their own NAAT. 

RCL also accepts antigen tests such as Abbott's Binaxnow (again this must be supervised). This is a later flow test (which is basically like a pregnancy test). Two lines means positive and single line is negative.  

I personally on my most recent sailing used a website called curative.com which uses RT PCR. We actually didn't have to pay for the testing. Went in after work at around 330pm and had results for the whole family by 6 am the following day. I had multiple positive experiences with curative not for just cruising but also for my kids who had to provide a negative test to return back to school after a possible exposure to covid. I hope this helps 

3 hours ago, levib2 said:

Thanks so much for all your help with this...One more thing please....

If I set my phone to Wifi calling as suggested, does this mean I can  call from the ship to the US without fear of any extra charges?

 

 

If you are unsure about wifi calling use services like google voice or other VOip such as line, whatsapp, kakotalk. They all you to call any phone # over the wifi. The only caviat is if you are a US user for google voice, you will be charged a low international rate to call phone #'s outside of your home country. I personally use google voice alot while I am traveling internationally.  

33 minutes ago, twangster said:

Like so many things in cruising making something included doesn't eliminate the costs associated with the service.  The technology, software and hardware required to make chat work cost them real money.  

I have no use for chat on board.  Many people dislike carrying a device with the on board.  They don't need or want it either.

If they aren't going to charge to recoup the costs then everyone will have pay higher base fares to include it on a complimentary basis.  I do NOT want to pay more for my cruise so someone else can use something I have no use for.  

I have no issue with them charging for chat.  Royal is not all inclusive.  Drinks, wifi, specialty dining all costs extra.  Those that want those things have the choice to pay for them, as it should be.  

Although I can understand charging for the chat feature, I think some guests had a hard time with idea of paying for something that they had not previously paid for.  This was the same when the north star on my anthem ots sailing was a paid experience on sea days. 

For myself because I do try to disconnect from the outside world I don't purchase the voom internet for my device. However I would utilize the in app chat feature. The only thing I found annoying about purchasing the feature is that you are forced to pay the full purchase price for feature no matter what time in the sailing you purchase it. So if you bought it day one you pay the full price and if you bought on the last day of your sailing you will still pay the full price. I think RCL would be better served to either prorate the price so that you start paying for the service when it is activated. If RCL really does want guests to buy day one, then offer some incentives through the cruise planner or the app such as discounted rates if you purchase for the full cruise. 

I have tmobile but I have not used it on a cruise. As twangster stated you can check if the ship is covered by the tmobile ship plan. 

https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/roaming. 

I personally used the international roaming while docked a lot. Cococay and Nassau I had no problems with the Data at reduced speeds as it allowed me to make VOIP calls using services such as line, whatsapp, google voice, etc. If you are looking to stream netflix that won't work. 

11 hours ago, Dozerhand said:

I bought one for my wife to use on an upcoming cruise only to find out later that the "Certificate" they sent me is only good for purchases on a new cruise, not for any activities or shops on the ship. Why would you buy a Gift card, which has to be registered to a cruise number before use, before signing up for the cruise?  

Yah the RCL gift cards can only be used towards cruise fare. One tip I did to save additional money is I used a credit card with either points or cash back to purchase those gift cards and I purchase it through one of those deal websites that give you additional cashback or points to use. So on my recent cruise i purchased $1000 in gift cards to go towards the cruise fare. I received 2% cash back on my purchase and then another 7% back through the deal website i went through. So i wound up getting $1000 gift card for $910.  

I really do hate reading the fine print, but its a must nowadays because companies don't care if you didn't see the fine print. 

20 hours ago, WannaCruise said:

How many in the pool at once?  How long do you get in the pool?  Does this form a long line?  We are booked on the holiday cruise so can see the pool being a bit of an issue (but at the same time, glad they keep some kind of capacity for our own safety).

I think the number was 10 or 12 guests in the pool at any given time. The only time i really had to wait was at the indoor pool on a sea day returning to Bayonne and it was really cold outside. The lines are never more than a few guests long every time my family and I were at the pool. 

6 hours ago, WannaCruise said:

Thanks for posting your experience and giving heads up and tips to others.  We have Anthem booked over xmas (hopefully going as it depends on what happens with this variant).  We are all vaccinated but will want to join in the activities...ifly, north star, bumper cars, etc.  If we have to pay for ifly and north star then we will but obviously complimentary is more preferred.

Did you find it hard to get reservations for bumper cars?

Do all shows and activities require reservations? I'm thinking of things like the game shows as Anthem seems to have a lot of those offered, which are fun to attend.

We're planning on loading the app on our kids phones just in case the linking doesn't work from DH or mine.  

Glad you were able to get an accessible cabin for the member that needed it.  My mom was in a wheelchair so I can appreciate how important it is to be able to get to venues wherever you are going.

Great to hear you still had a good time and so nice you were able to travel with multiple generations.

It was little hard to find a reservation time for bumper cars. Our first two choices were taken but we were able to get our third choice. My suggestion would be to try and book as early as possible. 

Not all shows/activities required reservations. For example the towel folding demo and the game shows at the music hall did not have any reservation required. The reservations for shows seem to be limited to more of the headliners and the bigger shows. For activities the only reservations that i saw were for the north star, bumper cars,flowrider & ifly. Activities such as rock climbing did not require a reservation but many times were canceled due to high winds. 

Also on my sailing RCL was charging the $1.99/per day/ per passenger to utilize the app's chat feature.  The thing that was annoying about this is that you needed to purchase it for the whole cruise. You could purchase it in the middle of the cruise but you would still be charged for the whole cruise. 

2 hours ago, cruiserccl said:

Glad you had a great time and thank you for posting your experience. For new to Royal cruisers like myself, posts like yours are very valuable.

I did have a question about what you said about booking a showtime but people were still being turned away. Am I wrong in assuming that they only provide a set number of reservations for the capacity? Do you know why they were turned away? Were there certain seats that became closed off? Just wondering why they were able to book, but weren't given a seat.

I thought  that this would be the case when i first boarded. However because the app does not distinguish between the family floor (the upper level of the royal theater) and the lower floor (the vaccinated guest only level), there is not a good way to keep track of how many seats are available in each section. That is why many families were turned away or asked to split their group up.  What they should do is what they did to the north start have the show time split into two groups vaccinated and the everyone group. This way there is a more accurate count on how many people are sitting in their respective sections. 

1 hour ago, MattG said:

 

Thank you for all of this. We’re hoping for the best, and preparing for the worst

 

The extra details (V* vs E times at North Star, 8am release times for activities) is super helpful. We have an 11:30am check-in time, and have a 3-ish hour drive to get there. We’re preparing for the extra 45 minutes waiting for the test. 
 

We’re hoping the novelty of the ship, plus pools, plus people-watching for climbing/Ripcord/Flowrider, plus SeaPlex, plus Adventure Ocean is enough to keep us busy for a week. “We Will Rock You” and Spectra’s Cabaret would be a bonus, in addition to any kids activities added mid-trip. 
 

We’re already looking at doing the same trip but on Oasis in October, and am super jealous of the AquaTheater, Boardwalk, Splashaway Bay, Studio B (show and open ice skating), and amplified Adventure Ocean. Something to look forward to!

I highly recommend we will rock you it actually kept both of my kids entertained. Spectra's cabaret was a big miss with the younger one as he didn't care for the visual effects. Even though there were not a ton of organized activities both of my kids did have a lot of fun. On warmer sea days we did the outdoor pool and colder sea days the indoor. 

One thing I did forget to mention is that the pools have a capacity limit that is enforced by the life guards just keep that in mind when your family is heading to the pool. 

~2800 passengers and ~1500 crew on Anthem of the seas sailing November 21st 

Just got off the Sailing of the Anthem OTS. I can confirm that there is no roller skating at the sea plex. I was told its due to covid protocols. Bumper cars is sill available. My kids who are 5 & 7 really enjoyed that. However make sure to book as early as possible. Unfortunately it is true that I did not see too many kid's activities. Also be aware that the north star now has vaccinated only times and that you will have to  book a time that is for everyone. This was one of the most annoying things as there were already limited complimentary times available, but then to also try to find on that was open to everyone was nearly impossible. The tip I got from the staff at the north star was to get up before 8 am on a port day and book through the app. As they release both complementary northstar ride for both vaccinated only and everyone at 8 am. Majority of the kids activities where more of the demo type activities. The sea plex staff still did a good job on trying to organize soccer goal competitions for different age groups as well as basketball shooting competitions. 

My only tip would be to get to the port early for testing. Also make sure to bring a snack and something to keep the kids entertained as test results won't be available for about 30 to 45 minutes at best. 

I will agree with pretty much everyone's reply. I just got off the Anthem OTS. My family and I felt very safe with the protocols. Cruising is different, but I will say that it is still fun. There are some few annoying portocol issues that RCL still needs to improve upon. As a parent that had to get my kids tested prior to boarding I would say that If RCL could play something entertaining on the screen that would of helped. I would also say that due to the wait for test results, I would come prepared with things to do and snacks to eat while waiting. At Bayonne, there were alot of hangry children including my own. I think next time I will make sure that our carry on has a snack  and something to keep the kiddos occupied while waiting. 

RCL also has really kept their ships clean. Every time I take the stairs I have seen the staff wiping down the railings.

The only time I felt uncomfortable was when a group decided that they just had to get on a pretty full elevator. I didn't mind the influx of people, but what I did mind was that the group decided to take off their mask as soon as their whole group entered the elevator. This really isn't an RCL issue, its more of a people issue. 

I uploaded our cards closer to the actual sail date and I wanted to say it only took about 1 or two days. 

Hello All 

I wanted to just share my experience as my just returned the Anthem OTS sailing from Bayonne with a multi generational family group with one family member in a wheel chair and unvaccinated kids. 

The first thing I suggest is even if you have a set embarkation time is give yourself 30 minutes to an hour leeway. This is really for unplanned things that occur on any family trip (eg grandparents or kids needing to stop to use the restroom etc). To build upon this if you have unvaccinated kids build in at least 45 minutes as test results will not come out for about 30-45 minutes. You will not be allowed to board till the kiddos test negative. Plan on bringing a snack or drinks in your carry on.  I saw many hangry children including my own as the Bayonne cruise terminal only had a single snack machine available.  Also be aware that as you are waiting for your test results, you will need to be escorted to the restroom if you need to use it as the only restrooms available are in the general embarkation area.  Another thing I saw many parents complain about is that the service inside cruise terminal maybe spotty. I have T-moblie and I was not able to get cell phone service where I was sitting. This was a issue because my kids test results are sent via text msg and email. Luckily I was able to walk around the waiting area, found a spot with good reception forwarded the results to my wife who had another carrier with better reception.  I saw other families distraught as some had to repeat testing as the first set of results were invalid meaning they had to wait even longer to board the ship. Also keep in mind that only parents are allowed to wait with their children in the waiting area. So those traveling in a larger group should have grandparents or other travelers without kids get on board first. My embarkation time was at 1pm. I got to the terminal around 12:30 unloaded and parked. I waiting in the testing line with the kids from about 12:45 till they were finally tested at around 2 ish. We got test results in about an hour later and boarded little after 3pm. I would say that if you want to board at your embarkation time to plan for at least 1 to 2 hours of waiting around. 

The second thing I noticed on board is to plan a head as much as you can. I know this is annoying as you want to just be able to not plan when you are on vacation, but if you wanted to participate in the activities that require a reservation, plan it out as early as possible. My older one wanted to do the complimentary Ifly. However by the time I got on board and got the app working, every complimentary ifly was booked. I think next time I may try to get those that went on board first to try and book for my kids. Reservations right now for shows and activities are must. I did not mind going through the app to make reservations, but I don't think the app was designed in the most user friendly manner and there were many glitches with the app while I was on board. There were also some times onboard where I made a reservation for the whole party as all the staterooms were linked but there were other times where I could not make a reservation for some members of the party. Also I would state for parents with unvaccinated children that you maybe asked to split your part as the unvaccinated area became full. This occurred a few times on my cruise so I sent some vaccinated members of the party down to the lower level of the royal theater and stayed with the kids upstairs. I think if the app was better equipped i.e stating how many guests are vaccinated/unvaccinated, perhaps RCL could done a better job of ensuring that if you had a reservation that you could enter the show. I did see some very angry family as they were turned away even though they did have a reservation for the showtime due to capacity and seating. Maybe what they need to is actually have the ability to pick seats in the app itself and have assigned seating.  

Another takeaway came from the perspective of my disabled family member who travelled in his electric wheelchair. Overall there were always wheelchair spots available and accessibility with in the ship was never a problem. Also having the accessible stateroom allowed him plenty of space to maneuver his wheelchair around the room. The only times where accessibility was a small issue was during my time dining for breakfast at the main dining room. The tables that were available for the large party where more towards the interior of the MDR which was alittle annoying as the wheelchair did have a hard time getting to the table we were given for breakfast. But almost all the time the waiters helped moved chairs and even tables out of the way to ensure a clear path to where we were sitting. 

Overall this was another great cruise that was fun for my multigenerational family. I think with all the things I observed I will have a different approach the next time I sail out of Bayonne. I am already planning an even larger family trip on the Oasis. I hope this helps out parents and others on future sailings. 

Just got off the Anthem OTS at Bayonne today. It was $25/per day. I did not use the porter for disembarkation as the garage is so close to the exit from customs. 

Hello 

I just returned from the Anthem OTS sailing out of Bayonne today. I will say that when you are sailing out you should be layered. Personally for me what I did is have a tshirt, sweatshirt and then a lighter jacket. This worked out great as I was able to layer back up again for disembarkation. 

On 11/19/2021 at 11:20 AM, Jolly Ogre said:

Are we sure that the Walgreen's Rapid ID Now is ok. It clearly states that only rapid antigen or PCR tests are valid for boarding.

Yes the Rapid ID Now test is acceptable as it is a NAAT (nucleic acid amplification test) which is also allowed by RCL. 

hope this helps