ChessE4

We checked in at a "normal" time, about 8 AM on the first day, and we secured a 11 AM boarding time. It took me a few tries to get my passport scanned - my wife had to look up instructions on her phone while I used mine. You need to line up the passport page in portrait with with a bar that appears on your phone camera screen (the passport bar code lined up with the phone bar). I found this counter-intuitive -- I initially tried landscape. Uploading vaccine cards is easy. Have a great cruise! We hope to sail next week.

Historically, I have also found the MDR slow, but I generally get wine at a bar while I am waiting for dining to open. I generally take a glass to the table, finish it, and the waiter may ask if I want another. I rarely wait until I arrive at the MDR to order wine.

I think the best quality is friendliness and willingness to communicate. You can't serve customers well if you don't understand them. So we enjoy getting to know our wait staff and allowing them to know us. The rest follows....Now for me, extra water isn't as important as an extra roll or plenty of butter, but good service is always enjoyed!

I can't tell from your question whether we are talking about one reservation or multiple reservations (staterooms). However, when you redeem points for OBC, you choose whether to share it with your spouse or keep it in just your name. Whoever is named is then able to spend the credit (it is assigned to the SeaPass). You can also link multiple rooms to your registered credit card, if you choose to do so, but that poses additional risk to you. The easiest thing to do is keep the OBC in your name/spouse and simply use your SeaPass to make purchases on behalf of others. That way, you control how much you share and limit your risk. Now if you are all in the same room, when you check in online you can authorize anyone in the room to make charges to the stateroom account, which is tied to your credit card. We did this when our son reached high school age. Thus, it all depends on how much credit risk you want to take. Have a great trip!

Yes and no. The last time I sailed (fall 2019), it was a physical card, but the rules were that you put in your ship or sailing, so it was non-transferable. That said, folks have gotten away with leaving the card blank and re-using it on their next cruise. So it depends upon the barristas you encounter and your sense of ethics. Standby for any comments from recent travelers. We sail next week, but I haven't been told the coffee card will be loaded to my SeaPass. I believe it will still be a card that is punched.

Similar to others, for us it is the total value proposition - all the things we like to do with great service, and we more or less just choose from a vacation menu. I will call out two particular items important to me: live music and dancing. Cruising lacks the intensity of a week-long land trip to a foreign country, but it offers variety; you aren't betting all of your vacation dollars on a single experience.

Yes. If it isn't, go to customer service. I was once given a soda package (cup and sticker) instead of a coffee card...Fortunately, I brought my binder with receipts and showed them my coffee purchase.

While we generally prefer amidship locations, we note that noise abatement is more important than the roll of the ship. I recommend checking what is above/near your cabin location. For example, being under a kitchen or the casino is noisy. On Oasis class ships, we've had Boardwalk balconies and enjoyed them, but you have noise from the aqua shows (if you retire early). In the end, it depends upon your preferences and what type of sleeper you are. My wife is more concerned about mattress comfort and my snoring....!

Assuming you have a camera on the phone to show the proctor what you are doing....My son used his Iphone for a recent cruise test.

If everyone has a cell phone, I recommend they all download the Royal App. It makes it easier to upload vaccination cards, scan passports, etc. even if you initially check them by name just to get a time slot.

Emphasis on rebooking each day. I exited checkout and re-entered to book each night.

You might talk to the Loyalty Ambassador on the ship, otherwise, call Crown and Anchor Society after the cruise. When my son got married, he had to call CAS to get his wife credited with his status.

If you wear a fanny pack in port with valuables, I'd suggest sliding it in front for security.

I've read posts that if you miss your scheduled time you are told to wait in line and periodically those in line are processed in as time permits. Royal wants you to sail.

If you aren't too late, you can still make your seating time. We once had an excursion that returned late, I stopped by MDR at 5:30 to say we needed 15 minutes to change clothes, and we were accommodated. Now if you are 45 minutes or more, I don't know if they would seat you. We were at a group table, so folks tended to arrive at different times. We saw people who routinely arrived 30 minutes late.

Check your credit report. See if you got dinged for nonpayment, e.g., a judgment against you or account turned over to a debt collector.

In 2015, Royal lost my wife's suitcase disembarking at Southampton. We filed a claim with Royal first, because their negligence caused the loss. They asked for receipts on lost items and after a lot of hassle gave us $300. My wife contacted a Royal executive who upped the amount to a total of $400. The items lost were worth more than that. We then filed our claim with Allianz, and we received additional $$. Our claim with Royal was started at the port when we discovered our bag wasn't there. Best of luck! PS. We now carry our luggage off the ship to avoid accidental losses.

Pre-Covid, when we took Christmas cruises, Royal gave each guest under 18 a gift from Santa. While we enjoyed the cruises, it just wasn't the same thing as being at home and going to a Christmas Eve service. if you aren't concerned about missing church, it can be a lot of fun. The Royal Singers helped with Christmas carols, etc. What we did as a family was buy each other one cheesy gift from the ship shops - our "good presents" were opened early at home. Have a great cruise!

Your carryon bag would go through the screening equipment like other bags. I don't think a button or safety pin would be considered a prohibited item, but you could double-check the list provided by Royal.

Just remember there is an annual cap on benefits for annual policies. So depending upon how much you travel and how much each trip costs, you may use up benefits before the year is out. The big difference I see in policies is how much you are covered for medical and evacuation. What you actually need should drive your decision-making. We found that even Allianz had different benefit levels with different premiums.

We did both on a recent trip, mostly because we didn't trust the airlines-- a couple in carry-on and a couple in checked bags. Supposedly, cargo holds are now pressure and temperature controlled. (If you think about it, our boxes of test kits were probably shipped to us by air.) My concern now is that I notice the boxes bend a tad with handling, and sometimes the seal becomes unstuck at one edge. I just push it back down.

The cruise insurance should cover cruise issues caused by common carrier delay or cancellation, but the carrier would be responsible for its portion. If you don't insure the air travel, carrier could claim weather or ATC caused your delay, hotel costs, or rerouting costs to the cruise. So I believe in insuring your air travel. Just had a problem with AA who switched planes and then claimed ATC caused our delay! Now waiting on Allianz to reimburse lodging.

Hey, it's not a complete set of "compasses" unless you save multiple languages! Not sure what they print in Alaska, but I have found variations like Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese on other itineraries.

If you have a Travel Agent, the agent should be able to print and mail them to you. We follow the advice of SPS .

We were taken on a boat several miles out, so the spot we were in may have accounted for the cold. Beach water should be OK, as others have noted. On the whole, we enjoyed TG and Xmas cruises to the Caribbean, and our son found a great group of kids on the ship during those times of year.