Doak

1 hour ago, Marlena said:

Were there lines for specific times?

I hope so too!

yes there were but by the time we reached the door for entry the next time block had cleared out...

Simply not true!  Wife and I went on SOS Oct.30th and it was a breeze.  Much easier than Port Canaveral last week.  We arrived at the terminal parked and were onboard in like 25 mins.  Our arrival time was at 3 pm, but it was super easy and fast.  Hope your experience will echo ours.

We were just on the Symphony last week.  I thought I would put this out here for anyone on the fence about cruising right now.  First off some background, my wife and I are often asked, "do you cruise a lot?"  Well this depends on the person that is asking.  We are 57 yrs. old and on the Indy of the seas tomm..  This cruise will be our 45th and 32nd on Royal.  To some that is a lot... to others who are on cruise #169th, which we saw on Symphony that may not be a lot.

For us we had a blast last week in fact many times it was totally like it was pre pandemic.  Poolside no mask required.  The Schooner, the pub, Boleros and casino no mask also.

Flexibility has to be used also as the entertainment is less.  Gone, for now  are the street festival type parades in the promenade.  If I recall correctly Hairspray was only shown on nights 1 & 2.  They did not do the 70's on the promenade.  Halloween costume contest was in Studio B as they are not allowed to have big public gatherings on the promenade per cruise director Brian.  It was fun and a lot of people were dressed up.

The servers in the MDR did not sing on the final night either.  They also are not allowed to crack a lobster for guest.  They can't cut a child's steak.  

Coco Cay was awesome as usual!

That is about all I can think of right now but like I said for us it was a blast to be cruising again.  Oh yes 1 more thing we met a very nice couple in the MDR at lunch also from Florida.  Well we continued to see them and talked often.  On night 7 they were in the Next Cruise off the promenade.  A few hours later they came up to talk to us.  My wife asked hey which cruise they booked.  They booked the 274 night world cruise. We about fainted!  We spoke for several hours and thought thank goodness we ran into these 2 at lunch on day 2.  They also told us 2 other couples had also booked the world cruise and a 4th had it almost booked as they had not yet paid the $8,000.00 deposit.

Happy Cruising!!

Favorite pub guy Charlie Jourdan.

Favorite schooner guy Billy Pando.  Kelly Goodrich close 2nd.

Favorite band Muzak Express or Centerpiece. As a side note these two bands are from the Philippines. I saw the male singer from Centerpiece in the star lounge one night and spoke with him.

I asked him if they here the music they play on the ships while they were growing up as they play American pop hits from many decades.  He said no and they buy cd's and teach themselves to play the music and songs. Pretty incredible!

They really are weird with their policies.  We had the same experience that WAAAYTOO had. WE got them included aboard Oasis then jumped off and got on Allure same day.  We were charged for the milkshakes on Allure. I went to guest services but to no avail.

I am shocked that RCL is not more uniform ship to ship.

6 hours ago, SweetHomeLady said:

For the first time ever, I will be sailing on Christmas Day.  Have you ever done it, on Celebrity or another line?  Good or bad experiences?

on the discussion page I have a thread titled ok you guys asking same thing and they responded FYI

2 hours ago, Jolly Ogre said:

Well let's put it this way... I am with Florida's largest health care provider system and we here on the Suncoast do not do travel covid tests. We defer to the pharmacies.

Now if your are having symptoms and need to be tested for treatment we will do that all day long and on the weekends.

Where on the Suncoast I retired from Pinellas county lived in Tarpon but now in Vero Beach.

I think I read on RCL website that a physician note was not good enough.  The results  had to be from a lab.

2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

LOL.  It's SY.  Gettin' old.  We will be there IF (big if) they allow us to cruise.  My guess is they won't....so probably won't be going on either one of these.  But I'm still planning on going.  Fingers crossed.

Gettin' old  no WAAAY, see what I did there?  But you were on our last Brilliance sailing out of Tampa couple of years ago. I was looking for you guys but never came across you,lol.

1 hour ago, kadmgs said:

We are on Oasis Dec. 19th. 

Cool beans we will most likely be in the pub or schooner during the evenings.  Maybe we shall meet!

Nothing really wrong with it. I have not stayed on deck 3 on Oasis class however to save bucks we going on Indy of the Seas Nov. 6th and on deck 2 below the MDR in the rear of ship.  

We are ok because we spend all our time out and about and only sleep in the cabin.  You will be ok.

Google the cabin number and you will probably find someone has  a review about a deck 3 cabin. Good Luck.

5 minutes ago, emmef said:

@Doak which ship will you be on?  We'll be on the Harmony.

Oasis Dec.19th for Christmas then Harmony for NY Dec.26th.

This Christmas I gave you my heart,,,,,I kid I kid BUT we have never sailed on Christmas until this one coming up....what can we expect?  Will Royal do extra things?

We loved the food in my opinion it is worth it and no cover charge pre pandemic just the food price of your choosing.

never heard of him

Does the proctor then email the results to us?  What do we have to show the results of the test at the port?

And our at home covid test arrived via fed-x this afternoon so it is starting to get exciting.  Our last cruise was I believe Jan. 5th, 2019 on Allure.  See you soon Symphony!!!!

I had the same thought.  Too small a ship for that amount of time Can you imagine the gratuities alone after 274 nights,, YIKES!

Total Agreement on this!!

NICE

My 2 cents,,,, sorry this happened.  I do not know who you spoke with first of all, and this is by no means an excuse by any means. Any discrimination is wrong.

I have had times where on the phone I simply cannot understand the RCL employee there English is so terrible.  I actually tell them that I have to call back another time.  With that it is possible if they were from a 3rd world type setting which RCL does have that their society has not come around to ours on these matters.  AGAIN not excusing this by any means, and I hope that RCL does something for you here.

I believe twangster did.

Well my wife and I are on SOS Oct 30th so I could always inquire for you if you like.

I doubt that guest relations would relinquish the property to someone else.  I have found through the years that they are slow to communicate with other dept. etc..  But My in laws left behind a camera once and did the lost item report.  It took about 5 months but they did get it in their mailbox so there is hope!

3 hours ago, twangster said:

I vote for "Let's give it a shot".  That would be cool.  

Well IF it does happen I hope you are on the helipad camera in hand!!