Morganno

If you've got a PDF, there's no need to print, just take a screen shot, and save it as a JPG.  That'll work on a phone or a computer.  Might need to crop out the rest of the screen depending on exactly what software you use.

You are still testing positive with an antigen test?

The first thing I did coming off the ship was a telehealth appointment to get Paxlovid. There are some medications that can't be mixed with it unfortunately. I think it helped me and would make the same decision again. I hope you feel better soon. 
As for where I think I slipped up, I think it was at dinner in the main dining room. I started out masked walking around, and stayed masked at trivia and a show in the theater.  I was not 100% on that though and I should have been. If I cruise again, I will definitely choose a ship with an outside Windjammer and go at least crowded times. 
 

Unfortunately things seem to be going backwards in Pa. Two school districts outside of Phila just reinstated mask policies. Our county now has high transmission rates according to CDC. We were at low three weeks ago. 
Wife is on Plaxovid so hopefully that helps. Thanks for everyone asking about her. 

I have booked with Royal Caribbean directly in the UK. I have booked my flights with the airline separately.
Air2Sea has never given the best price or options. And as i say I fly into airport 3 days before cruise day.
The arrival area is far from exclusive to those arriving I have watched videos of Marco Polo airport and seen other operators direct people to bus pick up point where coaches are waiting. This is done much in the same way as most European holidays I have taken.
Because we don't want to carry our cruise luggage all around the lagoon in the days prior we will take advantage of the left luggage facility in the arrivals area. 
This FAQ explains that transfers are available to anyone.
UK - https://www.royalcaribbean.com/gbr/en/faq/questions/port-arrival-travel-options
USA - https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/port-arrival-travel-options
As I said their booking system demanded a flight number arriving: 'the day of departure ' before it would add transfers to booking.

The drink package pricing should not change.

Had to do this to get my drinks package for my July 2022 sailing they had discounted drinks on select European 2022 sailings. Took 3 goes before I found someone that knew the codes to get this deal. The other two even denied such a deal existed. 😂 If you don't get anywhere try again. 

This is old advice but I'll repeat it here anyway......
When dealing with an issue where I made my reservations through the website myself, rather than with a TA...I expect to spend quite a bit of time on hold while the agent checks with their 'colleague' or supervisor. So I schedule my call accordingly...and use speakerphone. 
But the best advice I have (which, by the way, I learned on these forums...thanks, guys!) is to always call back and speak to another agent when I don't get the answer I want. It is time-consuming and can be frustrating but usually I end up satisfied with the result. Good luck...and I hope you can get the result you want!

Hi there,
We booked direct with RCI (bad experience with our two previous TA's so decided to go direct) and I want to upgrade from inside to Balcony as a surprise for my wife. We agreed an inside to save money but I have some savings squirreled away and want to surprise her when boarding. 
I don't see any buttons on my reservation to upgrade.
Also is there a good time to hit the upgrade button (if there was one.) ?
I understand there is a Royal Up bidding programme but would like to guarantee and pick my own cabin spot. 
 
Many thanks for any assistance fellow cruisers. 

You get on Allure of the seas 3rd July 6 nights balcony for 3 for 530$ pp
cheapest cruise in Europe on a similar ship in the summer is around 1300$ pp
If it’s supply and demande then they need to start supplying more ships to Europe as nearly 3300$ usd balcony for 3 for a 6 night cruise is too expensive…..

I'd say go on a European cruise where she would be treated like an adult at 18 😉

I'd say go on a European cruise where she would be treated like an adult at 18 😉

driving means multiple stops at roadside facilities. I'd rather fly for a day that visit these lol joking aside longest drive i've ever done was 8 hours and never again..... 

Tie a rope and chain to your Invicta and use it for a boat anchor!

They do have a whole section dedicated to passengers booked in Grand Suites and higher.  Even though this is an Oasis Class ship when you look at the deck plans you will notice from deck 6 through deck 14 there are no Grand Suites, no Owner Suites on any of those floors like you would find on every other Oasis Class ship.  Outside of Junior Suites the only suites you will find on decks 8-14  are Aqua Theater Suites, all other suites from Grand and higher are located on decks 17 and 18 on Wonder of the Seas.
I would suggest people look at the deck plans for Spectrum of the Seas (a Quantum Plus Class Ship) and compare her deck plans to Odyssey of the Seas another Quantum Plus Class Ship, the one thing you will notice is the placement of Grand suites (not the lofts the suite only) and the Owner Suites on Spectrum are all located on decks 15 and 16.  Again there are far fewer Grand and Owner suites on Spectrum than there are on any other Quantum class ship.
Keep in mind both of these ships were built for the Chinese market Spectrum went directly to China via the Suez Canal.   Wonder was supposed to go directly to China but for now China is not allowing cruising to resume.  Now because of everything going on the ship is coming to both North America and Europe, who knows when she will make her way over to China.  The deck plan layout is the reason I don't think Wonder will stay in the US/Europe, I think the moment China reopens and allows cruising to resume within a few months Royal will send her to China, she doesn't have enough suites to remain in the US/European market.

Every cruiser has they’re own itinerary 😊I’m not here for the ports that’s for sure lol 
 
weathers been decent though. 

From reading a thread over on CC, it seems very likely that a positive test result would result in being stuck in Barcelona for at least 10 days in hotel quarantine. It's on the Royal Caribbean board; look for the thread called "Denied boarding for Harmony of the Seas from Barcelona- due to Covid positive result at the terminal". It appears that under Spanish law you cannot simply head home, so my previous comment about Royal perhaps just getting you straight back home is probably completely wrong. 😞

First off let me include my gratitude for all the wonderful updates you have provided to us with future sail dates. It helps ease some of the stress of the unknown. I have some follow up questions of my own.
1. For daily temperature checks, I was under the impression this was for only non-vaccinated guests. Are you confirming that all guests regardless of vaccination status had to have daily temperature checks?
2. For testing it is my understanding that no test has to be taken before arriving to the terminal. That the only test you had to take or show evidence of is the negative result taken at the terminal. Basically asking do I need a negative test before arriving to the terminal?
3. I was wondering if you took home copies of the Cruise Compass? If it would be possible to share in this forum we would all be appreciative of this to see what activities are being offered. I think I saw on the August 15th cruise there was no musical. But have seen crew hired for a Grease musical that may not have started yet.
4. The other thing that I found surprising on the August 15th cruise compass I saw was that there was live music, but a disclaimer that there was no dancing. That you had to listen to the music and remain seated in your chair. Can you confirm if anyone was up dancing, or was it only chair swaying during the music.
5. Can you advise which excursion you went on where you didn’t go into the church, and not required to “cover up” was that the one in Florence. As that disclaimer was on the tour we booked as well, and we assumed it was because we were going into the Duomo.
Thank you again in advance for the wonderful help.

We just docked back in Barcelona and I figured I’d jump on and share our experience with everyone. Would love to answer questions as I’m sure many of you had questions similar to what we had.
Overall, we had an incredible time and have almost nothing but good to say about our first “post-covid” cruise.
On our ship, that carries over 6000 passengers, had 900 on board. We heard we picked up 300 more in Rome, but can’t confirm that. We hear there’s 600 on the 8/29 sailing. The ship was unbelievably empty. We bid the lowest amount on a RoyalUp suite and won. So, we were spoiled with a bigger room and incredibly empty ship. Everyone paid so much attention to you. No lines at slides, empty mini golf, empty rock wall and flow rider… you could do anything you wanted. Shows were well attended, but still so much seating available.
One of the only complaints we had, sorry had to add it in, was the push for specialty dining. The first two days, literally every crew member that saw you, would give you a 5 minute spiel about the packages. It became very annoying. After day 2, we only heard it here and there.
Excursions had to be through Royal Caribbean, but they all went smoothly. Not my style of tours, but we were happy to see all of the sites. The tours were even smaller groups and some people didn’t even get off the ship. Shopping was usually cut out, as we weren’t able to go out on our own. We still managed to get some good souvenirs. Heads up on the churches… you don’t go inside. So ignore the “wear pants and sleeves” rule, or at least ask about it.
Testing went well. We had a test at the beginning and the end. A couple passengers did test positive and were immediately removed from line and weren’t allowed on the ship. You get your results before they even let you on. Nerve racking, but once you get the results, it felt so good to just get on board.
The new muster drill is AMAZING! You just watch a couple safety videos on the RC app and you get it checked off near the entrance of the ship. Takes 2 minutes.
Everything on the ship was open. Masks were required at all indoor spaces, so if you just hang out outside, problem solved. The staff was not even super strict about pointing out if a mask falls below your nose, etc. We even took our masks off at most tours, because it seems Italy is only “requiring” it for cruise passengers. In Florence, it blew me away how many tourists there were and we were the only group with masks.
Play bingo and go to the contests and auctions, because there’s no competition on the ship. Attend the casino drawings and raffles. We won more stuff on this cruise because our chances were so much higher. We even won a $1200 painting (3 groups at the raffle)
As always, food was amazing, shows were awesome, crew was all smiles, and everything felt very normal for cruising. Can’t wait for masks to become non-existent.
Let me know what else you want to know? For those holding out… just go. It will be worth it to be on an empty ship.

I moved the link that appears at the end of this post to here. It was in the Bahamas thread. We've had a spirited discussion here about vaccines in general so, I wanted to comment on the CDC's announcement and my take-aways.
The CDC has conducted a study on what it calls "breakthrough infections." These are infections that occur after a person has been vaccinated. The study results are below. Since the study and starting now, the CDC will only report break through infections that result in hospitalizations or death. There's a good reason for that. If you look at the study numbers that considered all breakthrough infections reported by states, that it happens at all is rare. When it does happen, the numbers are miniscule:

The CDC goes on to recommend this:
Vaccine breakthrough cases occur in only a small percentage of vaccinated persons. To date, no unexpected patterns have been identified in the case demographics or vaccine characteristics among people with reported vaccine breakthrough infections. COVID-19 vaccines are effective. CDC recommends that all eligible people get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as one is available to them. This is good news. 93% of breakthrough infections did not result in hospitalizations. Only 1% resulted in death and of that 1% (88) 11 of those deaths were caused by other factors even though that patient had COVID. IOW, less than 1% of breakthrough infections resulted in death attributed to COVID.
If that is the case in the general population where about 50% of Americans mask and/or distance, how can a cruise ship environment be unsafe in terms of being spreaders of infectious disease when everyone sailing will be vaccinated and I suspect masked in any setting where physical distancing might be compromised? Keep following this line of thought. 
The good news about breakthrough infections should be followed by specific steps that Americans can take to resume normal activity if they are vaccinated don't ya think? But .....noooooooo. Then they go on to recommend this non-sensical low risk, out of an abundance of caution advice:
CDC recommends that fully vaccinated people continue tp take steps to protect themselves and others in many situations, like wearing a mask, maintaining an appropriate social distance from others, avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces, and washing their hands often. One other unsubstantiated boogey man the CDC reports and shouldn't becasue there's no data to support the allegation is that the numbers reported are probably undercounts. Really? Shut the door. No proof of that at all!
IOW, you still need to be scared of COVID.
I want to scream ....... "masks in many situations"? Does the CDC mean outdoors, indoors, gyms, bars, baseball stadiums, cruise ships? Where? Wash your hands? Generally a good idea but in the case of SARS2, which is what we're talking about here, your hands are not fomites that facilitate transmission of this bug. 
OK, look, it's America right? We can look at the data and make good choices, do our own risk analysis and determine what we are comfortable with, right? That would work except we have the CDC making policy, shutting down the cruise industry while state governments, some of them, continue to mandate all sorts of behaviors for residents and businesses. Over-reach. Big time! 
Anyway, stepping off my soap box. This is really good news and should have a significant impact on what we all want to have happen: start cruising from US ports again.
https://www.cdc.v/vaccines/covid-19/health-departments/breakthrough-cases.html

This is a great resume about vaccinations and sailings but did you know in Europe and Asia cruise lines have been sailing with unvaccinated guests for many months now?
Royal Caribbean has now passed more than 100 000 passengers in its cruises from Singapore and MSC and TUI have been sailing from Europe for many months with only one or two family break outs which were swiftly contained.
RC is sailing from Cyprus this summer on Jewel and kids are allowed on already with a negative PCR test. I fully expect there to be the usual temp checks testing and social distancing rules in place and I don't see any problems arising on their sailings. I think the American cruise industry is doing too much hand wringing about all of this and hope this bill to limit the CDC in cruise ship protocols works as they really have went far beyond their remit as far as cruising is concerned. 

I'm so enjoying Matt being speechless. Amazing if I was watching live I would definitely have chipped in the odd 5 bucks lol

I'm pretty sure, yes.

How does that affect unvaccinated children?

Nowere as far as I know I just thought about the cruise crew who comes from different countries , some get the Russian vaccine , some the Chinese , some get the Indian one and some can not get any. I wonder how the cruise companies will be able to admit the vaccine to their crew. Thinking about it even the AZ which is widely admited in Europe is not yet FDA approved...