WAAAYTOOO

This a giant pet peeve of mine. It happens all the time and it's incredibly dumb. 

Because of being proactive we were on the ship in less than 15 minutes.  With all of the people trying to get there TA they were not enforcing your check in times. That may be different with the new ease of obtaining the TA.  One other thing is there was a COVID outbreak on our ship.  When we reached Charleston 2 people were transported to the hospital by ambulance.  We watched and they seemed to be older but not severe.  When we got home 2 days later one of our traveling companions tested positive.  We tested negative but will test again today.  Several people on board were coughing and not seeking medical diagnosis so I think this may have made the outbreak worse.  If you feel bad or are coughing please be considerate and get tested by the medical staff!
 

In the US there are a lot of new to Royal or new to cruise booking right now.  It seems they don't know any better so they are paying our crazy specialty dining prices up here.  Royal. as a business, will gladly raise prices if people are still willing to pay it and it seems they are.  I'm not, but that's me. 
 I hope you folks down under don't have the same problem.  

Over $1750 Canadian for our 8 night cruise in October. Definitely not a sale price. Seems as if they're trying to recoup all the lost revenue at once.

We had to cancel our Alaska (land tour started Tuesday, board tomorrow) and as each day goes by, I’m less upset about it. Moved the booking to Harmony this Sunday. 
 
Too many hoops to keep jumping through and getting stuck in Canada should one of us test positive at the end. We will rebook when all this testing is done. 

Yeah, I know Kiwis and Aussies are know for their drinking... but even in my scarfie days I would have found that difficult... for 11 days in a row (From Thursday to Saturday no issue.... 🙂 )

I think they might be in trouble.... Kiwis and Aussies are pretty price conscious on the whole due to the bargains for holiday travel we have on our door steps (Pacific Islands, South East Aisa… our own countries etc.

its different now, you have to have have INTL travel scheduled, and you can only start calling to book your appointment 14 days before the date of travel.  Once you are within the 14 day call-in window, they will assign you an appointment within 5 days business days of your trip.  At the appointment they process everything and hand you the passport.  Some people have appointments the day they are leaving for the INTL departing flight.  
its really a horrible process frankly, you can't book or even search for appointment availability online. You have to call the 800 number.  Appointments are gone with in seconds of someone else cancelling it, so you have to call the 800 number multiple times a day.  and of course most people don't live in the city where they can get an appointment.  
 

@Reigert2008 To locate your muster station. Use the APP, click the Safety icon in the lower left. It'll show your muster station, note just below that you should see I ship icon with Find on Deck beside it.
 
 
 

What worries me is if there is an emergency on board what are the chances these people are going to be able to follow the instructions of the crew. In the case of an emergency the last thing the crew need to be dealing with is passengers who haven’t bothered to do their muster drill and/or passengers who can’t follow instructions. It puts the crew and follow passengers in danger at a time when time and coolness of action could really count

I need to go back to bed

We told him they were vaxxed and it didn't matter.  All families with children under 12 had to wait on one line to get into the terminal, regardless of vaxx status, and everyone else got on the other line.  Sky, Sea, and Star class did not matter either. 

Unless things have changed, when we took the Anthem out of Liberty, just as the pandemic was kicking in, Star was not called, the Genie came to the entrance, after we texted him to let him know that we were there and we met him at the purple Star banner at the entrance to the terminal and he ecorted us to our suite.  

It is star, Sky, Keys and Pinnacles who get called first.
Either they didn't have a suite entrance, or you ended up in the wrong line. Even with vaxxed/unvaxxed children, staying in Sky class gets you priority boarding. This sounds like it was a bad process all around. 

Yes, it counts as a PCR. This can be found in testing details on Royal’ site.

Pre-pandemic, I couldn't care less about boarding times.  If people got there early, good for them and let them on.  However, this time I was given several reminders about arriving no earlier than my boarding time, and that I wouldn't be let on if I arrived  earlier.  I felt like I was being punished for having children; bullhorn man was telling families without children to go on a separate, much shorter line and we had to wait on the "people with children" line.  Both of my children are fully vaccinated; we had their vaxx cards as well as their negative test results, plus we were sky class (I don't know if that makes a difference, but it didn't to the staff at Cape Liberty), but we still had to wait.
Anyway, it ended up being a minor annoyance, but I wanted to get on the ship ASAP since you can't start booking shows and events until you are officially on the ship. I just know for my next cruise not to expect a supereasy check in due to me bringing my offspring.

It's no better in the US market !  For the past 8 years or so we have always purchased both the UDP and the DBP but they have priced me out for 2023 and 2024 cruises.  I normally purchase both the UDP and DBP at the time of booking (if those are available...sometimes they aren't available yet) and I have -0- packages purchased for 2023 or 2024.

Just saved $25 on internet for my son on our little 4 night next week.  

On my July 2022 sailing on Mariner (for the Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruise), I saw half day passes are being offered again for Thrill Waterpark.

Yes, there is a bidet !  😂

Yay !

A lot of people are really concerned about the monkey pox. In fact, there are some people who have the monkey pox but don't display any of the symptoms. These folks are said to be achimptomatic. 😎

The Leupold I bought for my Alaska cruise in 2013 are wonderful.  And they have, indeed, held up well.  A nice thing about more expensive binoculars (these were in the $300 range back then) is the stability control they provide.  When the view isn't shaking, it's much easier to zoom in.  

No updates today. I'm just completely unmotivated to think about anything else but our upcoming vacation!

Ha! Ha! They were just kidding. I got another email today and pre-cruisetour testing (embarking in Seward) is back on again.