columbus_cruiser

I was just on Independence and there was no need to sign up. You’d show up and workout. The items were spaced appropriately. 

On Quantum, it was like this:
Call the gym using the room phone.
She can tell you whether you can come immediately because there are spare spots. (max 25 pax I believe it was).
Otherwise, you'd normally ask her when she has available slots, and reserve one of them.  Slots begin on the hour, and last one hour.  I think they will only let you reserve 1 hour per day in advance.

Odyssey October 17 6 night had 1,550, approx 35%

While true, that was 70 years ago now. Other countries get new railways, highways, airports (except Germany, they're not good at airports), etc, done in far less time than in the USA. 

Similar to viewing the seatmap of an airplane flight without having to buy the ticket first...
I'd like to see a map of available cabins on each sailing without having to go through the booking process.  
ie.  I hate selecting "connecting balcony" because it's cheapest, only to click through and discover there's only 1 cabin on Deck 6 remaining and that's it.  🙄  Then I have to back out and pick the next "spacious balcony" category or whatever it is, and repeat the process.  
Even better would to be able to just view Deck plans for a given sailing and "hover" your mouse over the cabin and have a price displayed ... like how on aa.com I can see my Main Cabin Extra seat is $35 right on the seatmap.  

It would be great if Royal would make these things possible.  Have you ever tried using cruiseplum? It has some of those features. I know it will break it down by per day and per person costs for 1-4 people and you can also specify you only want to see Star Class.

I wish that we could search sailings by room category.  I also wish that the default price was the refundable price, or at least they'd state the refundable deposit option was available without having to go as far in the booking process.

Competent IT department (but that is clearly a pipe dream).

It depends.  
£1000 / 14 points = ~£72 per point.
What are the first 14 points costing you on a per point basis?
If you predict cruising more in your future then it's definitely an opportunity to leapfrog that may not come around ever again.  If £1000 will post to a credit card and accumulate interest it's probably a bad investment.  

On the Allure test sailing I went to the Champagne Bar and asked for one.  It's not on the menu. 
The one bartender looked confused but another bartender heard and stepped in.  He said "You must be a legacy cruiser" in a fun tone.  He offered to make me one.  

GO TO COASTAL KITCHEN! lol

I just got a call from Royal.  I am cruising on the Oasis this Sunday 9/12. They told me they had to move my cabin from an ocean view balcony to a Crown Loft Suite!!! At no charge!  Please let me know what perks beyond the amazing suite we can expect. I haven’t had time to do any research.  We will be on deck 17. Wooohoooo!!!

I would imagine this works similar to how it always has - you fill up a cup of coffee/water (or, have someone fill your cup of coffee/water) and you dump it in to your reusable cup. This has always been the rule for health code reasons. 

Still fine tuning our list as we navigate to being pro cruisers but i simply cannot cruise without
 those dollartree battery operated tea lights liquid handsoap suction hooks for the shower Multi-port usb plug Cruise. Binder! (honestly such a life saver before, during and after the cruise!) Some things I'm trying out and may get added:
luggage tag holders mini clock with light (why don't they want me to know what time it is?!! hahaha) cup holder bags

Fellow Ohioan here and INCREDIBLY grateful!!!!! 
 
Edit: Evidently no rapid home tests available near me - but going to keep an eye on this link. Thank you! 
Edit 2: Found one - calling the library shortly to pick up a couple! 
Edit 3: I have two Abbott BinaxNOW Covid-19 Home Tests in my posession! IDC what @Matt says, @DanielB is the board winner today! 

It makes a lot of sense IMO. Will some people look at you funny? Probably. But who cares? They are likely just jealous!

When we were on the Adventure this past June there was a couple who did this everyday. After a momentary what in the world? I quickly morphed into "good for them" They were all smiles enjoying themselves like no ones business. After what we have been through I say do what makes you feel comfortable, as long as we all respect each other (I promise not to wear my thong on the pool deck) do what makes you comfortable, the robes make for an amazing cover up. Weird? Not so much in my humble opinion. Actually looking back and picturing their joy still makes me smile!

Completely irrelevant.  The onus is on Navica to provide the service. 
Once Royal offers testing at the port they are responsible for it.  The CDC will hold them accountable.  

I’m glad I’ve got several of you ahead of me to iron out the kinks in this new requirement. However by the time I sail in late October I’m sure it will change again. 
 
I do feel testing will still be required at least through the holiday season and possibly into early spring. 

Shout out to Sharla @ MEI Travel!
She has rebooked two upcoming cruises for us over the past month and has saved us almost $1000.
Will probably be sending her a message soon to book another one... 🙂  (FCCs needs to be spent, we are trying but she keeps saving us money!)
Paul

If you show up early, your boarding time should be delayed the same amount of time as how early you were based on your scheduled time.
 
Show up 2 hours early? Now you have to wait 2 hours after your boarding time

Yeah, I'd never use a  hotel wi-fi for anything personal anyway.

This is where the self-administered, proctor-supervised, at-home tests will come in handy.  We'll be traveling 2 days prior to our next cruise, so having the self-administered tests that we can do in the hotel will be a relief.

I know these are accepted with Royal for travel and you can buy a 6 pack for $150 +shipping through the website.  The State of Ohio actually offers these free of charge and can be picked up at most of our libraries.  I just went and got 3 to confirm they were the proctored version for our upcoming cruise next month.  I came home and used one to see how they worked and now we have the 2 for our travels next month.  So I would check with your state health departments and see if they offer rapid at home tests, I'm sure if Ohio is using eMed/Abbott then I am sure that many others are as well.
Hope this helps others.  We were just going to go the CVS route but this option is awesome and saves the $150 for the ship.

It’ll be interesting to see what Royal does. Richard Fain said earlier this week that Delta has impacted bookings. You add a more strict indoor mask mandate and take away a Covid test day and I’d imagine there will be more cancellations. There was just a round of cancellations due to St Thomas/Bahamas vaccine requirement. 
 
Fares right now for September and October are absolute rock bottom.  
 
Some ships are practically ghost towns. I think Odyssey just sailed with only 900 passengers.