WAAAYTOOO

Thanks !!!!

Hey, Drew. Yes ! We were in 8724. Here is the link to that non-live Blog Sorry. I don't know how to make it just a link. UGH Anyway...8724 is awesome ! I loved that suite so much. Yes, there is noise bleed from 270....so just be prepared for that. There was noise bleed up on deck 10 as well but it wasn't as bad as it was on 8.

While it's great news that the potential "victim" had a false positive, I agree with @LogicallyLazythat there needs to be some mechanism in place to overturn the false positives. Think how this disrupted the entire cruise for him and the rest of the pax...and I believe that they have cancelled the following cruise. It's really good to know that the protocols are working. That's the victory here. The lessons learned need to focus on how to preclude the Charlie Foxtrot that was created by the false positive.

I realize that the upgrade did not happen, but what was/is scheduled to replace the Samba Grill ? When the Allure was brand new the Samba Grill was pretty fun. They had the place all dressed up with table cloths and they had live entertainment. When we went back a few years later, it was pathetic. The food was ok but it was dreary and none of the fun entertainment or dressed-up tables. We never went back. Just interested to see what was going to (or will, eventually) replace it. Hooked would be awesome !

Hmmm... well, as I said, in my case, the OBC was still there when I cancelled my purchases and repurchased. Maybe wait until the “sale” price comes back and try cancelling and rebooking, using the OBC. It worked for me !

Yippee and congratulations ! About a month ago I had some mysterious $100 OBCs appear on a couple of my future bookings. I have never figured out where they came from. I went ahead and used them figuring the worst that could happen would be that they would be revoked and I would be back where I started. To my great surprise, not only were they not revoked, but when there was a subsequent price drop on the items that I had purchased in the CP and I cancelled to rebuy at the lower price, the mystery OBC remained and I was able to reuse it on the lower price ! There were 3 such mystery OBCs and so far, all 3 of them are still applied. No idea about where they came from. My advice - use it while you can !

The CDC has required that all of the cruise lines cease advertising and selling cruises greater than 7 nights in length. Since this is an 8 night cruise, they have removed it from the website. It has NOT been cancelled [yet] and I am able to book cruise planner purchases if I were to want to do that....but they are not booking any new pax on this cruise right now. If the >7 night ban remains, it is possible that Royal may choose to shorten this cruise to 7 nights (and increase the length of the corresponding 6 night cruise that follows to 7 nights). IF they do that, they will have to amend the itinerary to account for that day reduction. It is also possible that with the vaccines coming soon, the CDC will revoke their prohibition of the longer cruises. Nobody knows what will happen at this point. For now, it survives but is in suspended animation.

I see @annette!

That is awesome ! So, you are Singapore residents, then ? I was wondering how it would work if you were US residents living in Singapore....if they would allow you to cruise in that situation. I will add my caution to @Lovetocruise2002regarding the noise bleed from 270 on deck 8. It is only really bad during 270 performances, but it is VERY loud when it occurs. You can still hear it on deck 10 but it's not nearly as loud. Since I have not been in any of the "middle" GLS on deck 10 I cannot say for sure if there is a size difference between those and the GLS suites on deck 8. If there is, I doubt it is significant. All I can tell you for sure is that the middle GLS on deck 8 are incredible. I highly recommend them. Please report back on your impressions of the 2 suites. I am very interested in your review of the OLS. I have been tempted to book it in the past but then my fear of those corner suites held me back. Perhaps I am worried about nothing !

WOW ! I had no idea that they no longer checked IDs at the commissary. I guess they're still checked at the register though, right ?

Oh, I forgot to mention....our rental house is haunted !! The toilet water line makes a noise that is something like a cross between a banshee and a love-sick moose. The freezer/ice maker makes a haunting groan that crescendos to a howl at all hours. Dan has finally just turned the ice maker off at night. It's terrifying to have that racket wake you up in the middle of the night. Gases ? Compressor ? Nope. Ghosts.

^^ This is the tell.

So we are completely moved into our temporary home for now. Still plenty of unpacked boxes but they will remain that way until we move into the new house. Every now and then I will have to go searching for something I need but we actually did a pretty good job of segregating everything we wanted to remain boxed. It makes me realize how much of this stuff I really do NOT need....even after we pared down substantially before we left. We are in an over 55 development (as we will be, in the new house, too) and so there are some amenities here. We stumbled upon a great deal for a golf cart (don't make fun !) and we've had a blast just puttering around. Dan is going to the pool regularly and we are playing poker at the Clubhouse on Friday and Saturday nights. Nothing very exciting. The whole event is over by 9:00 but it's something to do. They have bingo (yes, I love bingo) every Wednesday night but I haven't gotten up there yet. I will try it this Wednesday. I prefer playing bingo with electronic machines but I think the bingo here at the community is paper only. UGH. If they have one of those hand crank bingo barrels I will probably just pretend that I made a wrong turn and skeedaddle out of there. LOL So, we are very happy to be in Florida. The weather has been incredible so far and we don't miss a single thing about northern Virginia. The new/old job has been slow in getting started but that is just fine by me. I have a call on Wednesday to make the final arrangements (I think) and should begin working soon. Our "office", which is really the breakfast nook, looks out onto a "lake" (really an irrigation pond) and Dan loves watching the birds. There are all manner of storkish and craneish birds poking about all over the place. They are, of course, completely used to people being around, so they are "tame" and will let you walk right up to them. I'm sure they're also used to being fed ! They make an alarming sound when you're not expecting to hear it. Dan loves talking to them. Haven't seen a gator yet ! I think it's a myth.

Honestly, I have never been in the OLS on a Q class ship so I can’t say with certainty whether it is remarkably better than the smaller corner GLS or not. Judging just from the photographs I have seen of the OLS I would say that the increase in square footage in the OLS would not make up for the deficiencies in the layout. The geometry of the ship design is its biggest enemy. The sharp angle of the corner just cuts off too much real estate. Personally, I would not book the OLS based on my poor experience with its smaller cousin, the GLS. The design and layout itself is just inferior.

YIPPEE !!! Have a GREAT time !!

It's a game of chicken AND Russian roulette.

The only indication we have of what the casino situation is likely to be is the recent shorty cruise of Quantum out of Singapore. We had a glimpse of what those new protocols might be. Apparently they are blocking off slot machines to permit social distancing and limiting the table players to 3 persons at a time. Of course, there is likely to be constant sanitizing going on. We do not play slots so I have little interest (as a player, I mean) in slot protocols but I do have an interest in table games. 3 persons per table is going to be a big bummer as many of the table games were already difficult to get onto. Of course, at the beginning, the occupancy of the cruise, overall, will be reduced so this will help somewhat, but I foresee a problem with table games access. I sure hope I am wrong.

Yes. If there are medical or personal reasons why one of the pax does not drink alcohol, they have been allowing the non-alcohol drinker to purchase the refreshments package in lieu of the DBP.

Yes, it is still there under "ships" on the home page, but it's not even listed as an option if you go "Find a Cruise" and then choose "Ships" (over on the right hand side of the page...not at the top).

Yeah, you're right. If you go to "Find a Cruise" then click on "Ships", Grandeur isn't even in the list to choose from.

I had B2B Symphony cruises in Feb. One was a casino comp and the other was a regular priced cruise. @michelleis going to L&S the regular priced cruise to butt up against one I already have in Feb 2022 to give us a new B2B. I called on the casino comp and they would not move it (price protect) so I just cancelled it for a cash refund. It's so weird with the casino comps. Sometimes they will allow you to move them forward and sometimes they won't. Today they wouldn't. I should have known that they were never going to let me cruise in a JS for $258 PP on Symphony ! It seems so short-sighted to me though... it seems that they would rather have me move my casino comp forward and keep my money than to deny me that opportunity and have to refund everything. Whatever. Too bad that I lost that great casino deal...there was $150 free play on that one, too ! Dang...

This is excellent news ! Star Class confirmed !

This is a snipped photo from Matt's blog on the first Quantum sailing. It appears that they are expecting Star Class guest from the banners. Surely they would remove the SC banners if there was no SC.

I wouldn't have wanted to be that Concierge. Boy what a Charlie Foxtrot. Royal needs to fix this problem before they start cruising again. I can't imagine paying SC prices and then not getting SC service.

WOW ! What a great example of good ol' capitalism and healthy competition. This is great news !!