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We like the fixed price souvenir shop (not the barter-only vendors on the back road), swimming in the cove, and generally walking around.  We had a fantastic snorkel excursion several years ago.  Generally, it is a relaxing beach day.  Haven't tried the zipline.  That may be on my bucket list.  Would like to try the roller coaster.

3 hours ago, JennP said:

Hi all!

Question - going on a Greece/Croatia cruise from Italy this summer.  Do you need to bring your passport off the ship with each different country port? Or once you’ve shown your passport with RC you’re good to go for the week? Do you keep it in your room or should we keep it on us when in different ports?

Thanks for your help! 

I don't agree with some other cruisers.  Pick-pocketing is a real risk in many ports.  Therefore, we follow Royal's guidance.  I have known people who were robbed.  I once had my passport soaked with seawater on an excursion.  I haven't known anyone who was left behind and needed something the Port Agent couldn't retrieve.  Normally, on a cruise you put all valuables in your stateroom safe.  More and more ports want a photo ID to go with your seapass, but the cruise compass will spell it out.  If you do choose to carry a passport off the ship, consider a super-secure under-the-clothing pouch.  They even have some with wires sewn into the straps so they can't be "clipped and yanked."

While I echo what Twangster said about Royal's value proposition and balance, I believe the itineraries are important. I don't believe I would have ever visited the Canary Islands but for a Royal Caribbean cruise, and while many lines sail the Med, I don't think the price tag would have been in our budget.  Our best cruises occurred before we made Diamond, so the free drinks weren't a factor, but the Crown and Anchor celebrations were a plus -- being welcomed back and treated like VIPs.  Our only explorations (not yet booked) with other cruise lines have involved seeing French Polynesia, which Royal seldom visits.  So it is a combination of the total value plus itineraries.

On 2/1/2022 at 6:56 PM, melmachall said:

How strict are they about pants or shorts in the Main dining room?  (Going on Symphony)

My advice is to be considerate to others.  My son wore shorts when we lost our suitcase, no problem.  Some men wear expensive designer shorts, no problem.  But there are other venues that are casual, so the recommendation is always to pack something appropriate (as you would wear stateside for a nice restaurant).  There is no "enforcement" as noted because everyone's situation is different and different people/cultures have different customs.

but 

Ajaccio (Corsica), Portofino, Palermo, in addition to the ABCs already mentioned...

On our cruise out of Tampa it was 12 noon.

When I used the Royal App to check-in earlier this month, I was prompted to select a check in time.  Not sure what South Carolina has to do with it (or do you mean Southern Caribbean?).

We sailed Grandeur many times out of Baltimore, and seas weren't a problem when we had forward rooms.  There was some noise, however.  So I would check room location with respect to restaurants/kitchens/casino, depending upon the deck.

We break our pre-cruise diet the night before the cruise when we eat out at Coco Beach for a Port Canaveral departure.

Other than that, our first dessert, usually in Windjammer spoils our "healthy" salad lunch on Day 1.

5 hours ago, Jim coeling said:

Thanks all for your comments. I might just have to buy the drink (drunk) package then. 

You might still find it cheaper a la carte if 2-3 drinks per day.  Keep in mind there are various specials throughout the week, free Crown and Anchor drinks, sampling the booze in duty free, or even buying into a "wine tasting activity".  

7 hours ago, Keifermj said:

I have a question about Cruise with Confidence. It is my understanding that you can cancel up to 48 hours before the cruise and receive a credit. However, you have to have a Covid test within 48 hours which would be after the Cruise with Confidence expires. Is this correct?  If so, what is everyone doing to cover yourself if you test positive?  I’m thinking that I should buy travel insurance to cover this gap. Any tips are appreciated!

The primary purpose of travel insurance is to provide protection assuming your cruise does happen.  It is separate from Cruise with Confidence.  You could have an accident enroute, lose luggage, have an accident on the cruise, etc.  If you purchase travel insurance and your trip is cancelled, you can probably transfer the coverage to your "replacement" cruise.  (Allianz allows this.)

23 hours ago, Jenny0609 said:

What do you do with your phone and other items while using water slides etc. onboard? We plan to let our teens have some freedom, but I’m sure one of them doesn’t want to sit in a pool chair babysitting their phones while the other is having fun. My son also carries an epipen at all times and would want to leave that poolside while he swims (it has a small cooling bag it stays in). 

While most people are trusting, there have been occasional thefts on board or at private beaches.  Therefore, I recommend a back-up plan.  We have the phone sized lanyard cases previously described, and we alternate using the water so one of us can "guard" our stuff.  98% of the time you will be OK by "covering up", but be prepared for the 2%, even when on an excursion that offers "lockers".  The ships are generally safe, but can be quirky.  I had a wallet returned to me, but not a baseball cap I left in the MDR.

Have a great cruise!

For future, there are phone sized lanyard holders with double seals. I like keeping some items close to me when walking to excursions. Then I can use backpack as suggested on small boat. When taking sunscreen, use reef safe.

Normal clothes for a nice restaurant.  Outside it can be breezy and under sail.

13 hours ago, AlwaysRollin said:

"they" always tell you it's the smart thing to do to arrive into town the day before your embarkation.  Does anyone ignore this and just arrive on embarkation day (I'm referring to those coming in by air)?

So, on our 3 previous sailings, we always have arrived the day before and gotten a hotel in order to avoid any hangups.  However, due to an issue with my work schedule that I absolutely can't get out of, I have the choice of either arriving around midnight the night before embarkation, or just flying out early the next morning.  We actually haven't booked yet but the sailing is at the end of this month, well within the 45 day check-in window, so I'm assuming we'll get that last place time slot for boarding. For reference, flying from DC to Orlando, its a pretty quick flight and there's one that gets us into MCO by 0930.

We arrived the same day in Europe twice, largely due to my son's school schedule and the high cost of hotel rooms for a party of 3 (Spain insisted on two rooms).  We survived hiccups along the way -- flight cancelled, then train broke down, then planes changed.   I wouldn't do it again to Europe, but with Air2Sea and trip insurance, we really thought it would work.  And it did.  The time of year makes a difference (we did this in summer), and I always had a list of back-up connections.

Going to NZ, we made it appoint to travel a day early, and guess what -- the airlines lost our luggage....That broke my wife's heart.

All you can do is plan with the best information you have, carry insurance, and be determined to ride out the ups and downs.

I think you should try it at least once.  We will try a JS on our next Mediterranean cruise in the fall.  For us, the cost seemed reasonable, but that isn't always the case.  With all of the Covid frustrations, I think it's OK to splurge on a special trip.

2 hours ago, Ditchdoc said:

First, let me say I understand a lot of frustration in and with the cruise industry due to COVID. Its supposed to be a great vacation and customers pay a good price for the experience.  The media likes to dwell on cancelled ports and sick passengers and empty ships sitting at anchor. All the misery and misfortune in the headlines sells. No one wants to go on vacation and be limited to mask wearing, subjected to nasal swabs, flight disruption, port dismissal etc.

On the other hand, trying to take a purely scientific view point ...

Though ships have been called a Petri dish (generally with negative connotations), at the same time they are a somewhat unique controlled population sampling. Here you have literally thousands of people that are vaccinated and following masking protocols etc. Its not perfect but when you look at infection rates, those aboard ship are less than one percent compared to over 30% on land.

To me this is a perfect example of how an experiment works. You have two populations, one with generally well kept protocols and controls, and the other, not so much. The difference in infection rates is dramatic. It just shows vaccines, masking and isolation of known cases works.

Ships have other issues such as limited space for isolation and medical facilities. Their systems are not perfect but the numbers show they do work.

 

 

I hear what you are saying and agree that positivity rates on cruise ships aren't alarming, but we can't make the scientific comparison you suggest because of sampling issues (we didn't randomly assign subjects to each sample, and sample sizes vary, etc.).  I happened to read Virginia stats this morning, and I believe the infection rate among fully vaccinated people was about 1.5%, double that for partially-vaccinated, and 4 times that for unvaccinated.   There are still sampling issues, but these data and those from other states are perhaps more like apple-to-apple comparisons that show the benefit of vaccinations.

Back to cruising, I don't believe it is riskier than land-based vacations, and I believe it is actually safer. I think you brought up a good point.

12 hours ago, oufpat said:

We are new to Royal Caribbean Cruising with our first one scheduled for Feb 3. We've completed our on-line checkin, have a port arrival  time and printed our luggage tags. Do I also need to  print our SetSail Pass prior to boarding, or do we  we access it through our phone at check in?

You might check that your cruise wasn't recently cancelled.  We were cancelled by Royal the day after we received our cruise documents.

18 minutes ago, Matt said:

Serenade too. (January 8 - March 5, 2022)

I really appreciate the update, but where can I confirm?  We talked to our agent yesterday, and it was still on.  Thanks!

Belay that request -- my wife just found the notice others posted.

Another member recently posted his experience on this. 

See (from Saturday) the post:

Getting off ship after cabin isolation

Congratulations on your results! Have a great cruise! I am definitely envious...

Ham and cheese crepes in Villefranche.

3 hours ago, Kaci said:

So I was told to order 2 cases of 6 as we had 6 travelers snd they wanted us to leave room for error. We did not open the second case of emed tests. They are not expired. There are 6 sealed in case left. Just returned from our cruise yesterday. Emed will not return. Is anyone in need of them? I am in FL, and willing to ship.  

Your picture brought to mind a question -- are we allowed to open the cardboard box (but not the enclosed test kits) prior to the proctored test?  Or is the unpacking of the cardboard box something that must be witnessed by the proctor?   The video I watched showed a "kit" already removed from a box.

On 1/2/2022 at 9:06 AM, AspiringCruisePlanner said:

Better check your math before you go spreading this notion. If 1% of people onboard are getting infected onboard in a matter of 4 days. Then that means around 3.3 million people would need to get infected in 4 days in the US to be on pace with that infection rate. Right now it's about 400k infections per day in the US and that's with the omicron spike.  Blown out of proportion? Not really

There are problems in your math, too, so we will need to agree to disagree.  For example, when we compare the incidence of infection to a broader population (to calculate a percentage), we can't use all of the US. Many of us stay at home and don't socialize, so we aren't in the population of land-based persons from which the testing samples are drawn (biased though they may be).  Yet in these samples, the percentage testing positive is very high (as in over 10% for a geographic area).  Admittedly, comparing one biased sample to another is like comparing apples and oranges, but the trend is there -- land-based socializers and workers are getting infected at a high rate (over a 1-week period) relative to cruise ships (over a 1-week period).

Absent a true random sample study that compares cruising to land socializing, we can't make a definitive comparison.  But we do know that millions of Americans are infectious over a two-week period based on government published statistics.  We also know that many of them are unvaccinated and unmasked.  So we choose cruising because, when we socialize, we want to hang out with vaccinated and masked individuals.

Whatever folks choose to do, we hope everyone has a safe and joyful 2022.

The last time we were in Roatan (2019) I wanted to buy some local currency for souvenirs.  I noticed in a "straw market" we walked by that Honduran currency could be purchased for US dollars...