WAAAYTOOO

The odds are extraordinarily likely that it won't be serious for these two.

@MicDay Thanks!
@JLMoran You don't see a lot of plastic fences around here - I think the Texas sun and heat are too much for them. 
Baby steps... the plumber stopped by and connected the gas line to the grill and to the burner in the firepit. I asked if we needed to do anything special now that the burner is connected when they repair the firepit, and he said no. Then he mentioned that he and the stone guys are usually tripping all over each other when he lays the gas lines but he has not seen them in a while ?  Great. They haven't come to fix the issues like they were supposed to, and DH is waiting on a call back from the PM. 

BOUT TIME!!!  Our cruise low level light has been illuminated way too long!!!  Hopefully the rest of the fleet will soon follow.  

Correct.
Initially it was inserted in the process to give the CDC another choke point where they could halt cruising or drag their feet for months.  If it were not for the Florida lawsuit I am pretty confident that would have been the outcome.  

Here are some stations.

Just what RC posted on their site.  No reason given but I suspect this is the period where they stated if a passenger tested positive for COVID-19 they would make arrangements and pay for their medical evacuation and quarantine so if you booked during that period you had that contractual guarantee.  Now they are changing the contract saying you need insurance.  Again, just a guess.   In any case, I always get travel insurance for my cruises because you never know.

That would chap my hide!  Its never easy finding and getting the same room on a B2B.  We have the same room on our B2B on the Explorer of the Seas and your post made me run and check ours.  Thankfully, we are still showing the same room.  its not something we normally check when we check our cruise planner for sales/prices.

That's only a default time slot for the first night.  I think with some dining packages they auto assigned you to a place the first night.  You've always been able to schedule your specialty dining to whatever times you want with the package once you get on the ship.  With being in a suite you will have a jump start on this as the Concierge can make your reservations for you when you get the welcome email or when you get on the ship.

Were you able to book or change your dining reservations? We have the premium dining package but have an 8:30 time slot. Do you think he will be able to change that to an earlier time? BTW - thanks for all of your videos, they were very helpful. We wound up booking the all inclusive that you went to in Freeport. ?

Not going to lie...  so great to be able to start planning dining and first question was...  What night is the filet served in Coastal Kitchen?
Looks like night one...

 
 

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.

@WAAAYTOOO I had no plans to be vaxxed either but my job required it. It was a weird situation, as I need to work so I can afford to cruise  ?.  I used credits to pay for my flights for Oct. But if cruising wasn't starting, I had back up land plans. This whole thing has been such pain and disappointment. I really hope something works out so you will be able to enjoy Star class and the casino soon.

Me too (looking forward to meeting you).  I was able to make airline reservations waaay back to PR (and also to Barbados for our Feb 22 Grandeur cruise) and I had airline credits to use, otherwise I probably wouldn't have booked out of CONUS either. Who knows if I can even get to either PR or Barbados.  If they require us to be vaxxed then we won't even be able to go.  I've decided to stretch the limits of my patience and just hold off doing ANYthing for now.  I figure I have a 50/50 chance of doing any cruising....either we will or we won't !!   LOL

When in October ?  We are on 10-3 and 10-10 AL

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.

I was horrified when my wife told me that my six-year-old son wasn't actually mine. Apparently I need to pay more attention during school pick-up.

What kind of exercise do lazy people do?
Diddly-squats.

Yesterday I saw a guy spill all his Scrabble letters on the road.
I asked him, "What's the word on the street?"

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.

The test cruises don't even test anything. They just ask you do some mundane things that would happen on a cruise ship anyway. The most difficult criteria to satisfy on a test cruise is a mass quarantine exercise, in which 5% of all the guests (ie, 30 people on the Freedom test cruise) have to do a cabin quarantine exercise.

It reads as though if you booked the cruise between those dates you are exempt from the insurance requirement.
Haven't seen any clarification as to why it's this particular window.

Wow.  Let's dust this one off.  It looks like this cruise actually WILL sail and they did not shortened it....and at this point it doesn't look like they will.  It was in hibernation for a VERY long time and I thought for sure it was doomed.  What they HAVE done, unfortunately, is completely re-do the itinerary which is a much less interesting itin than it was.  We are now going to Nassau, St. Thomas, St Maarten and St. Kitts.  So no more Aruba and Curacao...which completely sucks but I will just be happy to be back on a cruise, so I will make the best of it.
I am very, very disappointed that I will not be cruising with @Lovetocruise2002and her family.  We planned this one together and now we will have to go alone.  I will miss sailing with you, but we have other cruises planned together for later on, so I will just have to look forward to those !!
As most all of you already know, Dan and I are not taking the COVID injections so we will be among the unvaxxed on this cruise.  I think it will be of benefit to present this live blog from the unvaxxed perspective, providing information for any who are interested in what the unvaxxed "rules" and experiences will be.  It is NOT my intention to debate the virtues (or vices, as it were) of the injections.  I will not respond to any discussion relating to the injections or our decision not to receive them.  This is about our cruise experience and how it may differ from cruise experiences we have had in the past. I hope that respondents will respect that and allow this blog to live.  Thank you for that.
Just to be up front about everything, there are still a couple of situations that could derail (I guess I should have said "sink" LOL) this cruise for us.  In addition to not being injected, we also refuse the deep nasal swab...so if we are not able to find a PCR test that will satisfy the pre-boarding requirements, we will not be able to go.  We also need to find out for SURE that they are not mandating the deep nasal swab at the pier or onboard.  Those are questions that our Genie can answer for us (hopefully) so we are moving forward with plans to sail until we have information that would have us do otherwise.  The good news is, if we decide that we cannot cruise due to vaccination requirements/restrictions, we will get a full refund for this cruise...so it's kind of a no-lose situation for us.
Royal has made it clear that there are certain situations/locations where unvaxxed will not be welcome.  We still do not know what those places/activities are but again, our Genie will be able to help us with that information, I'm sure.  Short of not being allowed in the casino (which would also be a deal-breaker for us) we will comply without complaint.  Even if we aren't allowed off the ship at the ports of call (due to ports of entry requirements, for example) that will be a-ok with us.  We likely wouldn't get off at any of the new destinations anyway.  Once I have some intel on what restrictions will be in place, I will be sure and provide that information.
And speaking of Genies, we have not yet been contacted.  It's been so long since we sailed that I cannot remember exactly how far ahead of time they reach out !  I can't remember if it is 30 days or 60 days.  Of course, I suspect there will be many things that are different now from what they were 16 months ago, so nothing will surprise me, truly. Today is 57 days out and we still are not able to check in but I understand that many people are unable to check in for their cruises at 90 days right now.  Won't panic about that.

Nice! And it seems like it was about a week between completion of the test cruise and receipt of the certificate. That's good turn around time after what we've gotten used to with the CDC.
Gives me good hope for the other test cruises RCG needs to get done.