Hags1684

So we are booked on Symphony, set to sail on October 2nd. A Covid delayed family vacation from Halloween 2020.  We are a family of 4. We have a 11 and a 9 year old. Obviously as of date they can't be vaccinated. So my question is, I saw recently Carnival is requiring a waiver to be filed what sounds like before check-in to be counted against the 95% vaccinated for their cruises for children and adults who can't or won't get vaccinated. I heard horror stories that people went to check-in and were denied because they had already met the 95% cutoff. Having failed to file the waiver before check-in. So their choice was to sail without their kids or cancel. We originally booked this cruise in January 2020 and the kids were so pumped to get to go. I would feel like a horrible father if they couldn't now go because dad missed an email. i get lots of marketing emails but searching my archive couldn't find anywhere that Royal may be using the same requirements. Any more diligent people out there that might be able to answer this ? Our check-in should be on or near the 4th of July so getting nervous. Thanks for the help in advance. 

On 2/18/2020 at 9:00 PM, Denikaye said:

Me too.  Is this the insurance that I need if we needed to get off the ship somewhere for medical reasons?

 

I don't have the policy in front of me so don't quote me but I believe it covers evacuations

Awesome, Thank you both I will keep a more constant watch and not be worried about doing it multiple times. Again thank you

So we've heard Matt say several times to watch your fare and reprice if it drops. I understand that most of the time this is refunded in OBC or am I wrong ? Also, if I take a reprice and the fare drops again can we get it repriced again or is it a one and done kinda thing? Thanks for the info in advance.

I for the life of me can't remember if I selected the option to add travel insurance when I put down the deposit. So I pull out the invoice and it lists "Vacation protection Plan". Is this the insurance that Royal offers or did I sign up for somthing else ?

5 hours ago, Jim S said:

Booked two RCI cruises recently, Anthem in Nov-20 and Odyssey in Apr-21. Discovered that the prepaid gratuities on each of these cruises was quite a bit more expensive than paying onboard. Needless to say, we will pay onboard. We are from the UK, may be different in USA.

Thanks Jim, I hadn't heard that before. May have to do some research into it before I pay those. Thanks sir.

6 hours ago, Adriana said:

Unless they changed it, you can pay at final payment (or before). ... I am cruising in October, too! Adventure of the Seas to New England & Canada. 

Okay, Ill have to do that. Thanks again. We are headed to the Caribbean with Symphony. Can't wait !

2 hours ago, JasonL said:

Personally I always pay the gratuities far before the cruise to space out the cost of a cruise. I just tell my travel agent to charge it to my card I have on file(then I immediately pay off that charge of course, please don't charge up a bunch of debt because you want vacation you can't afford). Spread out as many expenses as you can before your cruise.

I also really don't like the idea of handing out tips in person at the end of the cruise. Like it or not, it's part of these workers wages and they really depend on that money. If you hand out tips at the end you are probably missing someone that depends on those tips. Instead I will give an extra tip to anyone that i thought was outstanding along the way. 

That's just my opinion

I'm with you I don't like the idea of doing cash tips. To tip everyone involved with services you receive is just a pain. We also make a couple additional cash tips to our room steward and waiters in the MDR

2 hours ago, Adriana said:

Have you done your final payment? If not, you can pay at that time. I am with you, so much easier to prepay everything. 

We have not. We don't cruise until October so have plenty of time to chew away at it. I didn't know it was an option to add at final as this is our first Royal cruise. Thanks for the info. 

We elected to not prepay the tips at booking and are now having regrets. As we add more extras onto our vacation I'm liking the fact that you pay for them right away. I'm wondering if there is a way to pay the tips through the cruise planner or am I going to have to call Royal to prepay those. Just paying what we can now in order to minimize that post cruise sticker shock. Thanks.