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We've been planning our family cruise since 2019 and with COVID it has had many changes.  The first thing i told the other families involved was that "ports are not guaranteed" and can be changed at any time, even on the ship.  I'm sure that the cruise lines are doing the best they can with the ever changing environment and they are in a non win situation.  If they cancel it, people are mad, if they change it, people are mad.  
 
We even had a November 2021 cruise where both the ship and the ports changed.  Sure it was disappointing, but until everything is back to normal, there was no need to fret over it.  I'm sure we will still have a great trip.

I have had itineraries, FCC, payments, and other things work to my favor and disfavor in this restart. Here is my take on it.

We passengers recognize these are untypical times.
Royal is not perfect. Nor is Royal expected to be in these untypical times.

Untypical times require untypical understanding and expectations.

Passengers are willing to suspend typical expectations.
Royal recognizes these untypical times and are giving passengers untypical exceptions.

Passengers expect and understand there may be dynamic changes to our planned cruises.
Royal appreciates passengers' understanding.

If Royal is making mistakes and not aware, I am sure Royal wants to know, so they can fix them.
Passengers expect untypical explanations for untypical mistakes or changes. 

Royal should recognize typical answers like, 'Port Planning' or 'It is in the contract' are insufficient answer in these untypical times.
Pre-NSO/CSO boilerplate form letters do not address today's untypical scenarios.
It is a mismatch when passengers Apple problems receive Orange answers.

Expect the unexpected needs to be balance with
Untypical times require untypical explanations.

Untypical transparency would confirm Royal is aware of the problems, recognizes them, and is asking for passengers understanding, while working on solutions.
It reassures passengers their untypical concerns are fully in Royal's thoughts.
 
It's a PR thing.

Time for a clean start...

 
 
 

Landed safely back in Miami.
 
Check out my journey flying back to America to join a cruise ship.
 
 

Here's how my day went in hotel quarantine.
 
I cannot wait to join the ship tomorrow!
 
 

Here is my Day 1 of cruise ship quarantine vlogs.
 
I'll be posting more vlogs once I arrive back in Fort Lauderdale, so I can use my phone data to upload. The internet onboard is not strong enough for me to upload on YouTube.
 
 

Glad to see you are doing well. With the reports of positive crew members I feared the worst for you.

Chris, first off, amazing video. Thanks for posting. Second , please convey to fellow crew members how much we miss them and how much they/you enrich our cruise experience. Be well. 

Please know and let your shipmates know the latest news hasn't deterred many of us.  Still super excited about trying this new ship when the time works itself out.   

Round and round she goes, when she starts nobody knows!
 

Here we go again!

We can keep on jinxing this all the way to November 15th, right @Cruising With JT

Our very first (and second) rooms on the Oasis class were in a Boardwalk balcony.  We loved those rooms.  Some are concerned about privacy since you can see straight across to your Boardwalk neighbors but that never concerned us.  We were always looking either down or out the aft (something just doesn't sound right about that last part...LOL).  The balconies on those rooms are very small but they're adequate for people watching and getting some fresh air.
We always tried to stay as far aft as we could so that we had the best chance of having some ocean views.  Unfortunately, since you are on Oasis, you will have the great purple monstrosity to deal with which obstructs your view to the ocean....but being further aft will help with that.  It's a long walk all the way to the back but that's the trade-off for having the better view (IMO).
Of course, there's nothing like an oceanview balcony....but there's nothing particularly unique about it like there is with the BW or CP balcony.  If you do decide to go with the OV balcony, I recommend staying closer to midship as you don't have to deal with the walk.
You really can't go wrong either way !  That's the good part.

Personally, I'm a OV Balcony or better kinda guy, wife too. That said, I'd like to experience both of these cabins, mainly for people watching. A Boardwalk with obstructed ocean view seems like a good compromise for me (I'd say & us but not sure the wife would want it over OV ?).
Either way, so much to do on Oasis screw the cabin! LOL

We had a Central Park balcony and enjoyed it. We had our 2 girls with us so it gave us another sitting area. Only downside is you feel kind of close to your neighbors across the way. Didn’t enjoy the guy in his tighty whities each morning drinking his coffee lol
Be sure to close your curtains when you’re changing 
 

Got my invoice. Said I now owe $235 which didn't seem right if the only things that can go up are fees and taxes. Called RC and now I'm getting refunded $140. God me give strength lol. I just want to get on this cruise and never do this again. 

You have a year...well 9 months.....when they do the L&S as I understand, they just book the next cruise (to secure the room) then they have manual back office reconciliation to get it back to the price you paid.  If you don't see it updated after a couple weeks, that is when I would call....and the hold times will also have died down by then.

I stayed there, and it was okay.  Not bad, not great. For the money, I think you're better off at Double Tree Biscayne Bay.
DoubleTree by Hilton Grand Hotel Biscayne Bay Hotel Review Holiday Inn Port Of Miami-Downtown Hotel Review If you're looking for a good economical hotel, I much preferred the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Miami Airport East. It's maybe a 15 minute cab ride to PortMiami

WOW is my choice too!  

Hello and welcome to the message board!!  So sorry for this aggravation...I know first hand because I also never got my travel insurance refunded for my very first cruise cancellation!!  I did take it all the way to the insurance company platform with no luck.  ?   My cruise has 30 family/friends (I do all the booking, etc) and every single one of us lost that money.  Royal explained to me that it is not their problem because the travel insurance (although purchased through Royal) is actually a third-party company so Royal stays out of it. 
An even bigger issue I ran into was when we rebooked using the FCC's from that original cruise and once again purchased the travel insurance.  This time we ended up L&S that cruise to next April...and Royal didn't want to honor the price we had paid for the new travel insurance (it was really cheap!!).  I spoke to several agents at Royal and no one would agree that my entire lifted and shifted pricing should be honored.  So I cancelled the insurance for all 30 of us!!  Then an Angel answered the phone when I called recently for something to do with the cruise and she asked me if I wanted travel insurance for all of us.  I told her no and explained why and her response was:  "Oh...no...your insurance should have been price protected when you shifted"!!!  I was shocked but she worked on it and we now all have travel insurance at very low prices.  Of course, the original travel insurance from the original cruise is still history (my family of 13 lost over $700).
Sorry for writing so much.  Your post brought back my bad feelings and I just had to vent once more!!  
 

To WAAAYTOOO:     Welcome back to the boards!  Missed reading all your posts and great info!

yes, on doing the dinner at 150 Central Park. We did the Roasted Tenderloin of Beef for Two. along with a Caesar Salad all served table side.

Am not sure but thought they could use employees, or relatives of employees.  Or friends.  Anyway, if someone gets a call to be on a test cruise I hope they post it.  Would love to be on one myself.     I also think they may take test passengers that live fairly close.  Otherwise I expect they would have to pay the flights for people to get to the cruise  terminal.  I live in Montana, so no easy or direct flights to anywhere!

Seems to me you were the instigator...  ? 

I think it started with Josh and @12thman upped the ante, lol.