WAAAYTOOO

Yes

No truer words....

Several months ago I had phantom OBC on a couple of my cruises. No idea where it came from, but I used it for drinks or dining packages....all at once. I completely expected it to disappear when I repriced my packages later for a lower rate but to my great astonishment, it did not go away and I reused it again. Since that time, all but 1 of those cruises has fallen away due to cancellation but I still have 1 cruise left that has the phantom OBC on it. So far, so good ! I agree with you though, @ChessE4, I recommend you use it all at once and gobble it up. The worst that can happen is it goes away as mysteriously as it appeared, but you're no worse off if it does.

The truth is, the insurance requirement for unvaxxed pax is more of a negative incentivizer to dissuade unvaxxed pax from cruising than it is a real need to insure them. It may be working to weed out some unvaxxed pax (the truth is, I don't think there are really that many of us !!!!) but for us, the harder they try and push us out, the harder we are pushing back. They may get me in the end, but I won't go down without a fight.

Sorry for the duplication but I thought this information should be posted in this blog....it's a dup from the insurance thread. So I spoke with another Allianz agent and he confirmed that the evacuation coverage IS covered by emergency evacuation section of the policy. He also confirmed that the quarantine requirement would be considered part of the trip interruption coverage. What I still do NOT know is whether I have enough coverage. B/c of the way Royal stated the requirement, it is difficult to determine. They lumped quarantine and evacuation into 1 $$ requirement and they are covered by 2 separate parts of the policy. In total, I have $555,000 worth of coverage (from just 3 sections of the policy !)....so it would seem that I should have it all covered, BUT we only have $5K each under trip interruption, which would be where the quarantine would be. Now, that's $10K worth of hotel and food money if we were to get quarantined, but it falls short of the $50K they are requiring for the combo of quarantine and medical evacuation. My medical evacuation coverage alone is $500K. I can't believe this wouldn't be enough !! So, it's possible that I will have to purchase a rider to increase my trip interruption up to $50K. I have no idea how much that would cost, but if it's reasonable, I will do it. Still waiting on the sales agent to call me. But it seems that I have some breathing room because.... @michelle(God bless her) has confirmed that I have until 28 July to cancel my 21 August SY cruise for a cash refund. So now I have nearly a month to figure out if (1) my insurance coverage is sufficient and (2) whether I can avoid the deep nasal swab testing. Our Genie SHOULD have contacted us by then and I'm going to get him/her involved in vetting some of this, too. This is what Allianz sent me today. It is called an "Embassy Letter".

So I spoke with another Allianz agent and he confirmed that the evacuation coverage IS covered by emergency evacuation section of the policy. He also confirmed that the quarantine requirement would be considered part of the trip interruption coverage. What I still do NOT know is whether I have enough coverage. B/c of the way Royal stated the requirement, it is difficult to determine. They lumped quarantine and evacuation into 1 $$ requirement and they are covered by 2 separate parts of the policy. In total, I have $555,000 worth of coverage (from just 3 sections of the policy !)....so it would seem that I should have it all covered, BUT we only have $5K each under trip interruption, which would be where the quarantine would be. Now, that's $10K worth of hotel and food money if we were to get quarantined, but it falls short of the $50K they are requiring for the combo of quarantine and medical evacuation. My medical evacuation coverage alone is $500K. I can't believe this wouldn't be enough !! So, it's possible that I will have to purchase a rider to increase my trip interruption up to $50K. I have no idea how much that would cost, but if it's reasonable, I will do it. Still waiting on the sales agent to call me. But it seems that I have some breathing room because.... @michelle(God bless her) has confirmed that I have until 28 July to cancel my 21 August SY cruise for a cash refund. So now I have nearly a month to figure out if (1) my insurance coverage is sufficient and (2) whether I can avoid the deep nasal swab testing. Our Genie SHOULD have contacted us by then and I'm going to get him/her involved in vetting some of this, too. This is what Allianz sent me today. It is called an "Embassy Letter".

I have never experienced anything like that but then again, I do not look for it, either.

Thanks. Typical different answers from different agents. They must be trained by the same people that train the Royal CSR's.

I am in the process of vetting this requirement right now. I have an annual travel insurance policy that more than covers the medical evacuation requirement but the policy does not mention the word "quarantine" anywhere. The agent with whom I spoke yesterday was not able to determine whether or not we are covered. The thing that is the most confusing (even to the insurers) is the fact that Royal has lumped "quarantine" and "medical evacuation" into the same $$ coverage requirement. They are 2 completely separate coverage items (according to Allianz). "Quarantine" should be part of the "Trip Interruption" coverage and "Medical Evacuation" is, of course, part of "Emergency Transportation". So this is completely unknown for me at this time. A supervisor is supposed to be calling me to discuss but, of course, this hasn't happened yet. Add to that the turd that@twangsterthrew into the punch bowl this morning by announcing that today is the deadline for cancelling July and August cruises. LOL Now panic has set in. I sure hope you're wrong about this one, buddy. I need more time ! Poor @michelle. She is completely consumed with family matters and I am throwing my own turd at her with this request to find out for SURE if today is my deadline to cancel or forever be f'cked with all of these additional complications. Whether any of this is legal or not, matters not, to me, right now. I will comply if I am able but I don't think I have time if the deadline to cancel is today. I may have to cancel due to an expiring shot clock.

Did they give you an option to move (shift) your cruise and price protect it ?

I concur ! My fault, I'm sure.

Now that's funny !! As far as I can recall, the CK does not serve lamb shank. I certainly could be wrong b/c we don't eat at CK all that much....but Sabrina's correct....the lamb shank that Dan loves has its origins in the MDR. I am not a fan of lamb in any form so I cannot really give you an honest appraisal of it but Dan really loves it. He has only gotten a bad lamb shank once and that was one of the times that we ordered it when we were in one of the specialty restaurants that night. I can't remember which restaurant we were at but he asked for the MDR lamb shank and what they brought him was really horrible. But other than that one time (I'm sure that was some kind of spiteful revenge by the kitchen for ordering something "special". LOL JUST KIDDING !!!) it has always been consistently good, according to Dan-who-will-eat-anything-except-brussel-sprouts. It's a big meal.

I don't think that information is being made public. If it is, I haven't heard.

Oh, you absolutely MUST do a live blog for us on this one. I don't think we've had anyone stay in the UFS yet ! Congratulations.

Welcome to the blog and to sailing with Royal Caribbean. Before the COVID pause in cruising, the Suites Lounges for the Oasis class ships had an open bar from 11AM - 11PM where suite guests and Pinnacle Crown & Anchor members could enjoy a limited selection of beer, wine, water, soda and juices. It is not clear if that same level of service will be available on the ships once cruising resumes. So the answer to your question is....we really do not know right now if this will be the case or not. Whether or not you need a DBP is certainly a personal issue. We do not find it particularly convenient to go back up to the Suites Lounge (SL) to get a drink, if you are in a different part of the ship. We nearly always get the DBP b/c it gets us just about anything to drink that we could possibly want. It includes alcohol, water, soda, specialty coffee, fresh squeezed juice, wine, beer. It is a "convenience" thing for us...plus we know that we have already paid for all of our drinks before we board the ship. No big surprise bills at the end. So if you want to be able to get a drink of your choice at any and anywhere, the DBP may be a good choice for your group.

That isn't a threat to me. I'm gettin' beat up everywhere. I can take it ! LOL

Glad that you will be on the Group cruise but sorry that you are cancelling this one. We are on this cruise plus the one before it. We are in a Star Loft Suite so we would have been SC together ! Tell your mom and dad we said "hi".

You're welcome, Brian

That is a very difficult position to be in and I am so very grateful that I never had to make that choice. Prayers and grace to you. Thank you so very much.

Cabin Crawls are purely a product of the roll calls on Cruise Critic….although, since this blog has begun organizing Roll Calls I guess you could start a Cabin Crawl among the members of this Roll Call. It’s really fun. Basically you just get a bunch of fellow cruisers on your sailing to agree to “show” their cabin to the other members. It is a great way to see other cabin categories and share your cabin experience with others. It is a fair amount of work if you have to organize the crawl yourself. It’s easiest to just join an existing crawl but sometimes you have to start one yourself.

Yes. JS get double points so someone in a JS will get 4 points per night during the double points promo. Solo in a JS is 6 points per night. GS and higher is exactly the same as JS as far as points go.

In other words, the test cruise is a complete waste of time and resources. My guess is that this requirement will be long gone very soon.

Wow....I think with that group I would definitely go with the floating cabana if the price isn't outrageous. I think you will have WAAAY more room on the floating cabana than you would with the beach cabana. I guess the biggest concern with having a 6 year old would be them falling into the water from the cabana but my guess is that the child would be wearing a vest most of the time anyway so maybe it's not that big a deal. ...and just b/c you are on a floating cabana doesn't mean that you can't go to the beach and let the little one play in the sand. The reverse is not true.

Yes, only when you order food and drinks to your suite, though. If you go to a specialty restaurant with non-Star Class guests, they will be charged but if you have food delivered to your suite they will not. You won't know for a while. Once the ships get staffed, word will get out which Genies are on which ships but even then you will not know which Genie you will get until one -is assigned to you. You can request a specific Genie but it's tricky. I've never done this but I think @Lovetocruise2002has. The only Genie-requesting I have ever done is when we were on Anthem for B2B SC. I did ask that we have the same Genie for both legs and it wasn't a problem. We got Yen Lee for both cruises and she was awesome.

Are there any other test cruises under way ?