Jax

Surprisingly, the rate of positive cases linked to travel remains low, at least in Alberta. Not sure about the rest of Canada as it isn’t reported like it is in Alberta. Under the Calgary quarantine pilot, its 1.11% and out of all Alberta’s active cases (5706) there are only 159 that are linked to travel. So I may be willing to assume that risk if I could return without being detained in a government facility. Lol ?

I can’t believe it’s been a year since I was following along on your live blog. Happy anniversary ? and I am sending good vibes for your future cruises. I can’t wait to follow along on your cruising adventures; there are always so many good laughs along the way!

Our next cruise isn’t until Easter 2022 so I am really hoping we are through most of this stuff by then; not just cruise restrictions but the travel and quarantine related restrictions we current face in ?? as well as the uncertainty of our vaccine rollout schedule. Masks to a limited degree aren’t a red line for me, but depending on the cruise mask policy at the time, may be a deciding factor for us as hubby and son may not be as accommodating as me. LOL I am not too worried about limited spots for dining, entertainment and activities as I am hoping the star class benefits will be that much more valuable.

I have a solution. Both countries have something the other one wants.......lets negotiate cruising for a signature on a certain permit. LOL

This is happening March 1 right??

Agreed, medical masks are required in our hospital too but in instances where non medical masks are required we have not had any problems with compliance with the mingle mask. As it relates to cruising, I found this list of non permitted face masks/coverings on Royals site. Time will tell if this policy changes. “Note that neck gaiters, open chin bandanas and scarves, and face masks with valves do not meet health authority guidelines and will not be permitted”.

We love the mingle mask. Who knows if they will meet cruise mask guidelines but they meet the guidelines in Alberta. These have been a life saver for my son attending in person school; he suffers from severe asthma and he uses these when his asthma is particularly bad. https://theminglemask.com/

I had heard something like this may be coming but hoped the test results from the pilot would have had a greater impact on this decision. I can’t speak to the rest of Canada, but travel related cases remain a relatively small number of Alberta’s overall cases. Current pilot program numbers As of January 21, 2021 - 42,344 participants Testing results: first test at port of entry 1.49%, Second test .76%, Total 1.15% (it’s possible the higher positivity rate on the initial test may have influenced the 3 day hotel policy ?, buts that pure speculation on my part) Variant cases: 20 UK, 5 South Africa (not sure what percentages of variant cases participated in pilot) As of this week, all but one was traced back to travel.

New changes announced today requiring participants to remain in quarantine until receiving 2nd negative Covid test due to concerns with variant cases. ? Travel notices: As of January 25, border pilot participants must now remain in quarantine until receiving a negative result from their second test on day 7 or 8 (counting arrival day as day 1). Travellers currently in the program must immediately return to quarantine if they haven’t taken their second test and received the negative result yet. Participants cannot return to childcare, out of school care, schools, post-secondary institutions, and workplaces outside of their home for 14 days.

We cruised out of Port Canaveral several times with DCL and spent time at Disney World pre and post cruise for all our cruises. We stayed onsite at a Disney resort and drove to the port the day of our cruise. Twice we took our rental car and paid for port parking and once we arranged an Uber. I know paying for a rental car plus port parking may not make sense financially, but we did this on our 4 night cruises, as we wanted the convenience of having our rental available when we disembarked. Kennedy Space Centre is a great place to visit; we visited on the day of debarkation. We never had issues with traffic driving from Disney World to the Port and arrived in plenty of time. Because it was only 60 minutes I never explored hotels near the port so I have no intel on budget friendly hotels in the area.

Just another reason to add Banff to your back up plans. ? No talk of restricting travel here.

We were on deck 10 aft on Anthem and noticed rumblings when arriving/departing a port. The benefits of an aft deck far outweighed the rumblings and we would definitely do it again. No smells from the stacks.

Anthem because it was our first and only with Royal so far! Loved the aft deck and activities like flow rider and I fly. Honestly, I think Oasis will take top spot; deck 17, proximity to CK, the aqua theatre, Portside BBQ and everything else! Since April 2021 is a bust, only 459 days to go. ?

No. I compressed the picture, uploaded it as my profile picture, hit continue, adjusted sizing, press save, and image saves as a white blank image. I tried on both my iPad and IMac thinking this may have something to do with it. I am stumped ?

This right here may be the single best advice! I may have fell into this trap a bit. The other bit of advice is to be sure to communicate how the genie can make your cruise fantastic; don’t assume the genie questionnaire will accomplish this. I was so busy waiting for the genie to deliver the magic I put on our questionnaire that it led to some disappointment when some of the bigger requests never happened. I still remember sitting in our hotel post cruise wondering what happened to my birthday cake. ? LOL

Welcome! We sailed our first time with Royal Christmas 2019 and it was star class. Here is a link to my blog which may answer some of your questions as a newbie to Royal and star class. ? ? https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/16651-first-time-star-class-8-night-holiday-bahamas-cruise-anthem-122019/

I would avoid the “brush” treatment that sometimes is part of a massage treatment. I found it painful and it was not a good look for my spray tan. ?

+1 to this!

+1 to this advice. We have never done the couples massage but I have tried a variety of massage services; all of which I loved. Watch for embarkation day spa promotions; I have jumped on these. Surprisingly, one of my best treatments at sea was a head/foot massage I won playing BINGO. Heavenly ?

This may help. http://www.cruiseliberty.com/directions_parking.html

If you haven’t I would read the reviews on these hotels and pay particular attention to the reliability of the shuttle service, parking and cleanliness of the properties. I did a quick look on Trip Advisor and some recent reviews on the Country Inn & Suites and Renaissance are not the best. I am not comfortable posting what was found in a coffee maker at the Country Inn....but you should definitely look into this more.

No worries...I will stick it out with my initial.

So happy I saw this thread because I can’t upload a profile pic either ... it says file size too big ?regardless of the pictures I try to upload. Any tips are appreciated. Lol

I imagine your “plans” may look like something like this when replaced by your cruises on the left. Haha

This made me laugh....remembering the time I messaged you asking if I was crazy to put a deposit down on another cruise in the midst of the pandemic. What is now known as my Plan B. Your response was priceless: “not at all, do you know who you are asking ?”. We all need enablers; glad to have you as mine.