dr martini

they have to be getting a ton of feedback on this, both from the islands and from frustrated guests.  very few open excursions to book on these expensive spring break cruises = a lot of not happy families, seeing that all over on our upcoming in various roll calls, fb groups etc

With a name like "Otto Bang" they should have seen that coming.

Hi there! My husband, daughter (9) and I will be taking our first 4 night cruise on Mariner of the Seas out of Port Canaveral at the end of April. We are cruising to Nassau, Grand Bahama Island and Coco Cay.
Since this is our first time ever on a cruise, I'm looking for ANY tips you would be so kind to share.
We opted out of the speciality dining and drink packages. 
We opted out of prepay gratuity. How does gratuity work, is it standard 18% on everything. A friend who just got back said its automatically charged to your room for literally everything.
We have not booked any excursions yet, looking for recommendations as to what is worth is at Cocoa Cay. Looking into this one, any reviews would be great. Blue Lagoon Island VIP Swim with Dolphins and Beach Day

I'd assume that if the app works on the device, that the chat feature would work when connected to the ship wifi.  I suspect that your bigger issue would be that the app stops working and becomes unsupported on the iPod.  We used to have an extra phone that we only used on Wifi at Disney and at some point we had to stop using it since the app required a certain level of iOS and the device could not install that version.
 
I looked at the app in the App Store and it looks like the App requires iOS 13.0 or later on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

around the ship and on the pool deck, no.  in your cabin, sure.  on the beach?  again i would say no.  there is music on parts of pdcc and the people who want that vibe will go there.  the people who want to hear just the waves and the wind will scatter along the edges.  don't be the blaring music guy.  bring airpods if you must, but even then you're robbing yourself a lot of the experience (and you might not hear the bar staff coming by for the next round!)
 

Noticed this as well. Nice touch (see what I did there)

Read the room, don't be selfish, and have a plan B.
All very helpful advice! Thanks y'all!
 
So from what I've learned, my plan is to bring my speaker and play it as loud as possible, at all times, everywhere, always. Cool? Cool.
 
Jk jk jk 🙂

around the ship and on the pool deck, no.  in your cabin, sure.  on the beach?  again i would say no.  there is music on parts of pdcc and the people who want that vibe will go there.  the people who want to hear just the waves and the wind will scatter along the edges.  don't be the blaring music guy.  bring airpods if you must, but even then you're robbing yourself a lot of the experience (and you might not hear the bar staff coming by for the next round!)
 

I'm not sure what the music is like on coco cay, but could you not bring headphones? You can enjoy your music and not worry about it. 

I would say park cafe because it caters to just about everyone for breakfast & lunch w/o the chaos of windjammer or MDR. I know there are others like the solarium bistro but the bistro does not have the famous Kimmelwik sandwich! We also really enjoyed El Loco Fresh which was a great complimentary venue. I have to say the breakfast burritos were actually decent and I was not expecting that. 

I really liked El Loco Fresh, Park Cafe and Solarium Bistro for breakfast. 
 

Hi am currently on the Symphony of the Saes with an unvaccinated 8 year old from the Uk. We too was meant to have the same email but it didn’t arrive.If you haven’t I would download the Royal Carribean App as I check in passport ,COVID Vaccination proof and time of arrival which I choose for 11am on the app as I knew my child would need an Antigen Teast before boarding .Soon as we were at the Entrance to board we’re told a member of staff we had an unvaccinated child so was took to another queue with unvaccinated children and took through for the test ,and then you sit and wait for results via email you receive ,which is then shown to a member of staff which then take you through to boarding gate no queuing eiether as you and straight on the ship , you have to see show marked with the letter E and sit away from vaccinated guest some bars are unvaccinated  and the nicer ones are vaccinated but my children don’t want to attend Ocean ADventure it Teens club so we’re pretty limited which am not used to on a cruse.Bingo is on today which I wanted to do at 4pm today vaccinated only so unfortunately I can’t do but other than that am still getting used to it.Book your shows as soon as you get on board they fill fast ,we wanted too see Hiro on the night we got on the ship it had filled up by Noon so doing it tonight and it’s formal night to and Valentines Day to ,enjoy your cruse we are .

6 tests over 3 states & 4 households all negative!! Harmony here we come😁

Yes, this is acceptable. PCR is one type of NAAT test (the most common).

We are leaving on the Independence of the Seas March 21, 2022, and I am looking into our testing arrangements. Florida is ... a struggle as far as this is concerned, and complicating matters is that we leave on a Monday, so we have to take the tests no earlier than Saturday.
It appears I can get no-cost testing at Walgreens, but the testing is listed as this:
RAPID NAAT TEST
Results within 2 hours
Meets most pre-travel requirements
The RC site only lists PCR and rapid antigen testing - not rapid NAAT. Will this still be valid? I would go for the PCR, but it says results within 48 hours, and that's putting us perilously close.

You can never be sure which direction the ship will face in port so what you see from any given stateroom will depend on that.
As for the glaciers, the ship will approach to the closest point that is both legal and safe for that day's conditions then VERY slowly pivot in place. It doesn't matter where you are on the ship - you will get the same general views. I highly recommend viewing the glaciers from on deck or from an indoor venue with large windows - not from your own stateroom.

I've been curb to ship in less than 10 minutes for my last 4 or 5 sailings.

if you aren't a regular boater or ship rider i would give you the same advice i give everyone else - just take the dramamine.  there are both drowsy and non drowsy versions, or just take ginger supplements if you want to go natural.  there are literally no side effects.  just take them everyday and enjoy your trip.  even if it's just the placebo effect, hey you're still feeling better!  

if you aren't a regular boater or ship rider i would give you the same advice i give everyone else - just take the dramamine.  there are both drowsy and non drowsy versions, or just take ginger supplements if you want to go natural.  there are literally no side effects.  just take them everyday and enjoy your trip.  even if it's just the placebo effect, hey you're still feeling better!  

It’s funny how much this topic gets bandied about and how few people (some do!) just own up to it.  Haha i don’t care and I’m not too proud to say I’m a German Irish catholic, I’m not driving the boat and i am going to have some drinks through the day and enjoy it!  We have no problem justifying the  dbx, esp when so many of the cocktails are $10-$12-$14+ I don’t keep a full bar stocked at home of exotic things I’ll use once every five years, I’m on vacation to try things and splurge!  It’s great.  Especially after taking princess a few times and having a huge bill at the end.
Especially on a cruise with a couple sea days and/or private island stops, Bloody Mary or mimosa or two on the balcony with fruit and toast, coffee or juice, couple bottles of water, then a few beers and cocktails with lunch and through the afternoon, another cocktail or two somewhere before dinner, through dinner, (the dbx discount on wine bottles is also great) then a few more beers or cocktails after dinner and bottles of water again on the way back to the room.  Hitting 10-15 chargeable drinks is not hard at all.  We’ll be diamond soon, but I’ll still be getting dbx on any cruise with sea days or perfect day stops, maybe in a later life when we can take 14 day and transatlantic type voyages I’ll hold off but until then, i have enjoyed @Matt’s advice, love having it paid for on my card and cleared my account months ago, just another part of the whole puzzle that I’m looking forward to!

if you aren't a regular boater or ship rider i would give you the same advice i give everyone else - just take the dramamine.  there are both drowsy and non drowsy versions, or just take ginger supplements if you want to go natural.  there are literally no side effects.  just take them everyday and enjoy your trip.  even if it's just the placebo effect, hey you're still feeling better!  

That’s great.  Wonder if or when they might consider antibodies in lieu of vaccine.

Just got a protocol update.  Certificate of recovery is permitted finally 
 

There is no way that the requirement for vaccinations will be dropped by April 18.

On Wonder, no limit anymore on AO