CrznTxn

We asked the personnel at the pier in Seattle that question on why we had to show it to three different people (yes it was three different people who could literally see each other). They told us they are from three different agencies so they must check themselves. Maybe one of the day these folks will get together and we can have one checkpoint again. Until then I supposed it is good that people have jobs. Either way it was really fast from the bus drop off to onboard the ship (15 minutes).

Hang in there and hope you get it.

If the movies that you GOT TO see are in the theater then I would suggest going there to view them. Nothing beats the big screen and sound system for the movies. Otherwise the suite is a good place to see them. As far as the 6:45pm reservation I will defer to our other members who regularly sail out of NY. To me that is a little short on time and would move it a little later.

You need to each create a Navica account and you can do that at any time, preferably before you call for the test. There are numerous You Tube videos on how to take the test, one of the best is La Lida Loco. He actually messes up and has to retake it. Shows you what to avoid. You will have to take the test individually and not together as the results are your own and go to your app. It is very easy and I suggest you do it early in the morning to avoid any waiting for the proctor who watches you do the nose rooter. We have a dozen tests at home to cover most of our upcoming cruises.

If you play the casinos enough you achieve Prime status which gives you free drinks while you play. My wife has that and it also gives us a lot of free cruise offers in the future. The points are cumulative so she did not have to gain the level all at once. We have a strict budget for the casino and sometimes it goes quickly and sometimes gives a return but I always expect to spend it. The amount is never more than what we would have spent on the cruise fare so we figure with the perks it is a good deal. Cannot say which machines are best but we NEVER play the coin pusher or the "key poke" machine. Never enough return and few if any points.

Reserving the entertainment onboard is quick and easy and they gave us a flyer in our cabin that listed all the shows and headliner events for each day. We reviewed them with our friends and made the reservations and/or reminders on the app when we were logged into the ships WiFi. Very easy and with the reduced capacity there was not a show where we were turned away. It could be also that we did it early. They were checking that we had reservations but I also think they let everyone in once those with reservations were in. Dining reservations were also easy in the app. Only complaint is you have to go through several steps to make your reservations. They could have made it easier with a few less steps I felt were unnecessary but it sure beats the long lines of earlier cruises.

On our recent Ovation cruise out of Seattle, our flight (day of sailing) out of Dallas/Ft Worth appeared to be over half full of cruisers easily identifiable by their t-shirts and cruise themed dress. Not all on Royal, some Celebrity but if there had been a delay or cancellation in the flight I think the news would have reported a hijacking of another plane forced to fly to the Northwest.

The crew will be painting on her if they do not do it in Cadiz. The crew on Ovation was busy painting areas on our entire trip a week ago and we have pretty well seen it on every sailing we have had including exterior painting at some ports.

Two 750ml bottles of wine per cabin and we bring a case of water with our bag tag taped to it and they deliver it to our cabin. I have also seen folks bring a 12 pack of soft drinks with them on board. Snacks, yes. Have not tried fruit or other edibles.

The only person we saw fully formal on our cruise a week ago was a gentleman in full military dress. He got a lot of great comments and pictures with him. Other than that it was mainly a jacket with polo or most just wore a tie.

If you get there and the beds are not configured as you requested do not get upset. That happen on our cruise this past week to our friends who sailed with us. They told the steward and he had it changed very quickly. The stewards on board the Royal ships have been fantastic to us. They even gave our friends tips on how to help with their slight seasickness (green apples) and some other tips.

No masks on either. The track is outside where masks are not required and the gym is for vaccinated guests only so again no masks required, your option. Have not had one on in either location.

We used a laptop with an external camera. Gave a little more viewing area for the proctor to see the test and the subject. We could have used the built-in camera but we have the external camera for work.

My oldest son and his wife received free interior rooms each for a sailing later this month and they have only received discounts before. Since they both received an offer Royal lets you combine them and they were able to upgrade to an oceanview. So now we have the grandkids for a week.

We put in a Royal-up bid on a Jr Suite on our Adventure cruise which we received. The extra room was nice but the cost and the fact that we were almost never in the room did not seem to justify the room. Plus we flew in and so the reduced luggage did not even come close to utilizing the walk-in closet. The smaller showers are not an issue to us so we are sticking to our balconies unless Casino Royale gives us another Jr Suite like we have later this month, but I really do not see that happening again.

Our Bahamas cruise on Adventure requested reservations which were available on the app prior to sailing. Only after the ones signed up were present were others allowed in and it was size limited due to a smaller gym. On our just completed cruise on Ovation there were no reservations. The gym manager laughed and said due to reduced capacity the gym capacity was not an issue. Each morning that was true, the stretch class had more people in it than the rest of the gym and it is a very good size.

When we boarded Ovation last week they preferred the printed copy of our test results and we were from the pier to onboard in about 20 minutes. It is easier for them to review and we had all our documents (set sail pass, COVID test result and passport) together as each person (three different stops) wanted to see two out of the three and different each time. Love the eMuster and it was the first thing we did once we boarded. Was tougher on our previous cruise as we were the last on-board and were scrambling to get everything done. Looking forward to our next one later this month.

I sure hope so, I have it booked and paid for on the next to last day this next week. It showed booked out a week ago.

We moved to the proctored test over the CVS due to the lack of availability at our local CVS's. The other two in our party leaving Friday live further north from us and in their area the tests are available but we did not want to drive 45 minutes each way. Have watched Matt's video as well as many others and feel this is the way for us as we have multiple cruises coming up in the next months. The CVS schedule around us disappears within minutes of posting and the local "drive thru" pay as you go sites are packed and charge a small fortune. Plus they did not want to talk to us when they found out it was for vacation travel.

Keep watching the website for price reductions for the UBP/UDP. They go up and down about every two weeks and you can score a good price then. Remember you can always cancel your cruise planner purchases and repurchase without penalty. That's half the fun after booking the cruise!

Chris, great video. Also watched your latest video where you got to visit CoCo Cay. Congratulations on getting off and visiting the island. Also wanted to give a shout out to Mehi. Please tell him the Hall's from Liberty (the butterfly lady) say hi and hope to see him on a future cruise.

Moved to a "Spacious" on an earlier cruise and really did not see the difference other than it was in a better place on the ship than our other room. Did not really notice the additional space but honestly we are rarely in the room.

With the media circus blaming the worst COVID-19 infections on cruise ships a lot of people have cancelled or will not book cruises at the moment. That is why you see 1,000 or less on ships that can carry 6 times that number. Only the faithful and knowledgeable cruisers have been willing to put their trust in the cruise line and sail. I can say that I have stayed on cruise ships and in large hotels/resorts and would rather spend my time on a ship for the cleanliness and care put on the ship. Crews are vaccinated, tested regularly and live in a controlled environment and I cannot honestly say that about the hotels I have stayed in recently.

Recently it has been hit and miss with check-in starts. The wife received an email stating one of our upcoming cruises was ready for check-in but when we went there it was not. Thing are very fluid at the moment and we figure we would go with the flow. Only get worried if you cannot check-in less than 30 days before your cruise date.

@skittermagoo, yes we change and modify reservations directly with RCCL many times. Call them early in the morning for shorter waits and they can take care of it for you. Agree with @barbeyg, have the deck plans up on your device to see where the room is located. My wife calls in to RCCL and I have my laptop up with the plans and she reads off the cabin numbers the agent gives. You do not have to go with their first pick. If you have an idea where you want to try to be let them know and they will tell you what they have. We have gotten some great cabins that way.