redraider629

I wonder what is happening with Independence? They completed their test cruise, and scheduled to leave this weekend, and yet no news about a conditional approval. I could have missed it though.

We are taking our kids on a cruise in September, and we have been asked if we feel safe on a cruise. To be honest, I feel more safe on a cruise ship than I do sending the kids to school. With the health protocols that are in place, I feel like cruising is safer than a lot of activities we do on land.

We stayed in interior cabins on our first cruise, and have balconies booked for the next 3. So it appears that we will never stay in an interior cabin again, lol. I didn't mind the darkness, but could not stand not being able to wake up and see where we were from our room.

From what I understand is those of us with unvaccinated children cannot get off to do independent excursions. If we book an excursion through Royal they will let us off. At least that is what I understood, hopefully they did not change it. When are you sailing? We will be on Independence on September 19th.

I am sailing on Independence of the Seas on September 19th and our check-in just opened this morning. Perhaps yours will soon as well.

Our first time on a Royal was also our first time to ever crusie. It was Liberty of the Seas in 2019, we were immediately hooked on cruising and Royal. We now have 3 cruises upcoming after that initial cruise.

Yes, they still had Ice Shows when the grop did not use Studio B. We just could not ice skate during the day, which my daughter was very disappointed in. About the quest game, I did not realize that was something they offered when we were on, so did not really look for it. Thinking back though, I don't remember seeing it; but again, I was not really looking, and just might not be remembering well. Sorry that is not too helpful.

We were on the Liberty in 2019 on the Texas Country Music Cruise. Like you, we found out from a Facebook group, or maybe when we joined the Cruise Critic Roll Call. I am not a country fan at all, so was not really excited about this. Not having access to some of the areas of the ship was a big bummer. The participants of the TCM cruise were not bad at all, just some of the things we wanted to do we could not. Needless to say, when we booked the follow up cruise that was supposed to happen in 2020, and then when we moved that one to this year we made sure we were not on the same cruise as the TCMC. Hope it works out for you!

Big if true!

We originally booked our sailing on our last cruise at Nextcruise, but they moved it to our travel agent after it was booked. So I guess it technically was booked directly with RC, but we have been using a travel agent for this cruise.

We were on Liberty in September and were also switched to Independence. Our room was also switched to a less ideal room for our family of 6. We eventually sent a message to Michael Bailey on Facebook, and he responded by having someone contact us. They were able to get us into rooms that worked better for us. I would keep trying to go higher up if you can't get help getting the room switched. Hopefully they can make it happen for you easily without having to go higher up in the command chain. Good luck! We too were bummed out by the itinerary change, as we went to Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Roatan last time and were looking forward to going to the other places. However, at this point I just want to get on a ship ?

I think you are spot on with them being careful in this situation. I heard that they all just received their second shot, or was about to receive it, but was not fully covered yet. It seems an exposure before fully vacccinated.

We have 2 booked. 8 night on Independence of the Seas out of Galveston in September, which was originally supposed to be a 7 night on Liberty. We just booked a 4 night on Freedom of the Seas out of Miami in April, the week after Easter. After these 2 we will complete the Freedom class trifecta.

I bet Explorer is going to Indy. The person at Royal told me our cruise scheduled to leave on September 19th will be the last transferred to Independence. Yet, the Royal Caribbean press says Indy passengers booked through late October will be transferred to Odyssey. I guess that is for the Explorer people.

Hopefully that happens, our reservation is showing up as cancelled on the cruise planner. Update: I was also told by Royal that our sailing is being transferred to indy as well. Plus we get an extra day! Yay!

That is great! We are on Liberty in September and we're wondering how that would work.

I am assuming they are replacing Liberty with Independence, just the way the dates line up. I wonder what they will do with those of us who are booked on Liberty if Indy does replace it? Will they shift our sailing to Independence? Or will we need to rebook? Hoping the first option!

I thought the exact same thing when I saw his post. It was completely tone deaf.

With the test cruises pushed out that far making it likely that other test cruises will be late summer as well, and no telling how long it will take to get approval after test cruise, I am losing more and more hope that we will get to go on our Liberty sailing in September.

Thank you all for the reponses. There are 6 of us, so not sure we want to do the key. We have a rolling carry on, so we will just lug it around for a bit.

Hello all, we will have a carry on bag with our sodas in it, that is a little on the heavy side. We really don't want to lug that thing around until our rooms are ready. My question is, can we leave it outside our room until it is ready once we get on board?

We got ours in July for $44 on our Liberty cruise. Not sure the price will go lower.

It looks like the Sky Bar will be open until 11 each night. We are on that same cruise. Can't wait!

Keeping my fingers crossed for you. We are getting on Liberty the day you will be getting off. Have a blast!

I am a clergy person. I get 30 days off, plus 4 Sundays. I also get a week off for Spiritual Retreat. I don't think I will be able to count our cruise as a spiritual retreat ?