JasonOasis

Exactly on my Symphony cruise at the end of October I was talking with the crew at several bars we frequented and they all said the same thing. They are happy to be back at work but they don't understand why they aren't allowed to go ashore even though 100% of the crew is fully vaccinated. I'm happy for the crew because they work their tails off and need their shore leave.

Exactly this whole Omicron variant is being blown out of proportion first by the WHO now by governments all across the world looking to scare people. They are still trying to use this virus as a means to control peoples lives regardless of vaccination status

I've noticed the price of cruises are higher during this sale than before the sale began. The second week of November I booked a crown loft on Allure OTS in July one their 8 night Southern Caribbean cruises. I actually paid less for the cruise I booked then nearly $1,000 dollars less than what Royal is charging now. The DBP we booked for our Wonder OTS cruise was $1,098 dollars for 2 people that was $200 dollars cheaper than what they were asking for 4 weeks ago but it is still over $100 dollars more than what we paid for the same package for our Symphony OTS cruise this past October 30th.

So the airline lost your luggage but because you are diamond plus you believe Royal owes you some type of compensation? That isn't how this works. The DOT does have rules in place covering delayed or lost luggage and your varies because there is a difference between delay luggage and lost luggage. My question is has the airline found your luggage and returned it to you? If they have found your luggage you can file a claim for delayed luggage delivery and the airline has to reimburse you for reasonable verifiable purchases you had to make as a result (meaning you must have the original receipts for anything purchased like clothes, underwear, toiletries, shoes ECT). If the airline truly lost your luggage you still have to file a claim and they must reimburse you for the contents of your luggage minus depreciation. The maximum amount of compensation set by the DOT per lost bag is $3,800 dollars. https://www.transportation.gov/lost-delayed-or-damaged-baggage I'm sorry your cruise was ruined but Royal Caribbean does not owe you a dime.

Here are some answers to your questions although some of the answers you make not like The first link Royal does offer Kosher food onboard all its ships for lunch and dinner only however it looks like for all sailing except those out of Israel your food would be pre-cooked, pre-packaged and frozen before the cruise and served to you in its original sealed packaging while onboard. It appears as though nothing is prepared or cooked onboard during the cruise to prevent non-kosher ingredients from interacting with kosher meals. If you want kosher meals you will need to contact Royal and the link below provides the timeframe necessary. Do not wait until the last minute they may not be able to accommodate you if you do. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/aus/en/faq/questions/can-we-offer-kosher-meals?country=AUS As far as Perfect Day at Coco Cay I don't believe guest are allowed to bring any personal food items off the ship. The second link states kosher meals are not available on Coco Cay but request can be accommodated while onboard the ship. I'm thinking this means you can have your kosher meal served to you onboard the ship but you can not take it off the ship. Keep in mind when it comes to taking food (any type of food) off the ship although Coco Cay is Royal's private island it is still a part of the Bahamas ecosystem. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/aus/en/faq/questions/is-kosher-food-available-at-perfect-day-at-cococay?country=AUS

I agree the 30% off is a sale Royal runs a couple times per year. I am hoping for 40% - 50% off the DBP.

Don't cancel your cruise out of frustration, just simplify things to make it easier. I have a question that may make things less frustrating. 1) How many days prior to embarkation day do you plan on arriving in the U.S.? If you are arriving in the U.S. 2 days or less prior to embarkation day then you only need one COVID test. The test you use to enter the US would still be good on embarkation day if you arrive in the U.S. 2 days or less to embarkation day. If you plan on spending more time in the U.S. 3 or more day before embarkation then you will need 2 COVID test to board the ship. Lets say you plan on spending 4 days relaxing in Miami prior to embarkation day, you would need a test to enter the U.S. and then 2 days prior to embarkation you would then need a a second test to board the ship. There are a ton of COVID testing facilities in Miami that you can go to, or you can buy an at home COVID test through Royal's website. So its not complicated at all the numbers of test you need ALL depends how early you arrive in the US before embarkation day.

I did the same thing for my Symphony OTS cruise but I didn't need the at home test at all. As long as your test was administered 2 days (they don't care about the hours) prior to sailing.

Royal will not deliver soda or hard liquor to your room even on arrival day. I know if you ordered water that will be in your cabin and I believe you can have a bottle of wine waiting in your room or Royal does allow guest to bring on their own bottle of wine they can enjoy in their room on embarkation day only. I believe (not sure if this is still correct since COVID) each stateroom is allow to bring on up to 2 bottles of wine as long as someone in the room is of legal drinking age. If you need a corkscrew all you have to do is ask your stateroom attendant.

I agree with you on Samba Grill I think that restaurant can be skipped but I absolutely love the others including Chops, and Giovanni. Can't wait to get back on Allure July 2022 even though she isn't Amplified yet, she will be doing 8 night cruises to the Southern Caribbean will be a lot of fun.

I disagree, I think a lot of the lines people have experienced getting into Windjammers have more to do with social distancing and not having all the tables available for use. As the recover continues and capacity increases social distancing will naturally fall away and all the tables will be open for use, I think once that happens things will move more smoothly. On my cruise once I got into Windjammers there were no lines at all at any of the buffet stations. I get the all you can eat buffet is as much a part of cruising as anything else. Windjammers is still an all you can eat venue. People can go back to the buffet as many times as they like, but now it is a much more cleaner/sanitized venue than it was pre-pandemic. I think there may be some who are concerned that this could be the first step in doing away with buffets on cruise ships I don't see that happening at all, but I do like the idea of an all you can eat buffet where the crew member serve the passengers instead of letting everyone touch everything.

Passenger in Sky Class at Terminal A can use the suite entrance but again show up at your scheduled check-in time or check on the app to see if they have an earlier check-in time available.

I sailed on Symphony on October 30th, it was smooth sailing for us from the time we arrived at the pier to getting onboard but we showed up at our scheduled check-in time. Now having said that I did notice there was a line off to the side and I was told the people in that line were those who showed up early before their schedule time. If you show up early they will NOT let you inside the terminal you will have to wait outside the terminal in that line until your scheduled check-in time.

I wouldn't complain about BOGO 70% off but I don't see Royal or Carnival following NCL down this path. In my opinion NCL has really backed themselves into a corner with their extreme COVID protocols. I've taken enough NCL cruises to know they are a family cruise line and welcome families with children of all ages onboard their cruises. But their policy requiring all passengers including children be fully vaccinated is ridiculous and it has probably cause people to turn away from NCL and perhaps book instead with Royal or Carnival. Here in the US we are not seeing a lot of parents rush out to get their children vaccinated even though the parents themselves in many cases are fully vaccinated. NCL's vaccination policy in my opinion is hurting them. One thing both Royal and Carnival have states is they are seeing strong demand, strong future bookings for most if not all of 2022. NCL seems to be stalling out so to entice more people to cruise with them they now have to offer BOGO 70% off. NCL is trying to be the Delta Airlines of the cruise industry, meaning last year in August of 2020 both American and United stop blocking middle seats by November of 2020 Southwest, jetBlue and every other US carrier except Delta had ended the process of blocking middle seats it was costing each airline millions and there was no benefit at all. Delta's pitch was they cared more about your safety than any other carrier and would block middle seats until the pandemic was over. Delta finally gave up on blocking middle seats in the spring of 2021, but Delta in their Q1 2021 earning report finally admitted why they were ending the process and it was because blocking seat had become unsustainable financially. We are still in the pandemic but Delta isn't blocking middle seats. If NCL thinks they can keep their vaccinate mandate for children in place until the end of the pandemic they will only hurt themselves and continue to loose millions of dollars each month because families with unvaccinated children (even if the parents are fully vaccinated) can not cruise with NCL and offering BOGO 70% off isn't going to force parents to get their children vaccinated any quicker.

I don' know if this question should have it's own thread or not so I'm just going to post it here. On the main page on this site Royal has finally admitted what many of us already knew about Wonder of the Seas that it has less suites than any other Oasis Class ship. Their reasoning for less suite is interesting, they wanted a more exclusive area for suite guest which required space and to allow suite guest to have more space they limited the number of suites. Royal also admitted they are seeing increased demand for suites and are selling out their Royal Suite Class. My question is this with Royal committed to building a 6th Oasis Class ship if the ship is to be based in the US and European markets two markets where demand for suites continues to rise at unprecedented rates, is there a way for Royal to address the lack of sufficient suites found on Wonder of the Seas while also providing an exclusive upscale area for suite guest that still provides enough space for suite guest to spread out?

I get what you're saying but how many times have you seen a individual in Windjammers grab the top plate only to grab the next plate underneath only to put the first plate back. The same with silverware people grab 2 sets of silverware only to put one back. Even with mandatory hand washing I think this is Royal is concerned about having multiple people touch but not take the plate on top then someone who isn't a germaphobe take the top plate. I did think it was strange with the salad bowls that I could just grab a bowl of salad that they didn't have someone handing me the bowl.

I'm not a fan of self serve buffets, it was the one thing that really worked my nerves on cruise ships when people would just walk in the buffet while completely ignoring the crews request to wash their hands. I hope Royal NEVER goes back to self serve buffets, I enjoyed having the crew serve me. I also noticed a lot less food being wasted as servers cleaned the tables after people were done eating. There were a lot more empty plates with no food remaining than I've ever seen on any cruise I've been on in the past. If Royal Caribbeans employee cost are the same in Windjammers as they were before the pandemic, then I think Royal should keep thing like they are now because they have to be saving at least 15%-30% in food cost on both breakfast and lunch, simply because they are not wasting tons of food over people eating with their eyes and not their stomach.

Before my last cruise which set sail on October 30 and returned on November 6th I would have said go for it. Even though Symphony of the Seas arrived back at PortMiami around 4am they did not open the doors until 7am, which was a bit shocking to me because I'm use to them opening the doors at 6am. I booked a 9:45am departure out of MIA thinking the doors would still open at 6am because that is what was on all the documentation I had. It wasn't until day 6 of the cruise when they started talking about arrival procedures that I realized Royal had changed the door open time to 7am. In fact this was the first time I was made aware of the fact that door open time had been moved back 1 hour even though all my documentation I had received prior to sailing showed 6am. Because MIA is so close to PortMiami we still made our 9:45am departure with time to spare but Port Canaveral is at least an hour away from MCO. If your documentation is showing a 7am arrival it doesn't mean that is when Royal will open the doors. Even if CBP officers are in place like they were at PortMiami and the ship has been cleared by local authorities Royal still wouldn't let anyone off and there were quite a few people on my cruise with 8am, 8:30am departures out of MIA because we all thought the doors would open at 6am. If I were you I would choose a later flight just to be safe and reduce stress. Also one last thing prior to COVID when getting off the ship we are all use to seeing cabs everywhere buses all sorts of ground transportation options even when you are part of the first group of people getting off. We were not the first ones off the ship but by the time we did get off and out to the taxi stand there were no cabs, there were no buses, no vans, nothing at Terminal A and the first people who got off were still waiting for cabs to get them to the airport. Although the cruise industry is back, it is not back to how it was pre-COVID so even if Royal opens the doors on your cruise at 7am there may or may not be ground transportation including taxis waiting to pick people up like they were before COVID. It is really going to take time to get everything back to normal please give yourself more time.

You are absolutely correct and I was thinking about this just yesterday with the US borders now reopen there could potentially be thousands of international guest traveling to the US to take a cruise between now and who knows when entry restrictions around the world will be relaxed. There is simply no way Royal or any other major cruise line can cover the cost of testing for every passenger who would need to present a negative test to re-enter their country, this includes American's coming home from Barbados. Paying for testing to get home after international travel is something we all are going to have to get use too.

Just go off Symphony there were no WOW bands and we were in a crown loft. We asked the suite concierge and he stated he didn't know if or when they would be coming back. However I was surprised to see that our cell phones when connected to the ships WiFi could be used as our key to open our stateroom door but we still needed our sea pass for everything else.

I've noticed a lot of veteran cruisers volunteering for the Quest. My husband always volunteers for The Quest, I've done The Quest 6 times and we've been cruising with Royal since 2009 takin gat least 3 cruises each year. The way I see it is like this who cares if I make a fool out of myself, I'm on vacation and chances are I won't see any of these people again once the cruise ends so why not let loose and have some ridiculous fun. I can't wait for Royal to bring back The Quest.

Only have 1 drink a day...... I'm on vacation one drink per day is what I do when I'm not on vacation Also the arcade never played an arcade game on a cruise.

Quantum Class doesn't make great use of outside spaces, it is more of an inside class of ship. Even before COVID there was a slight shift in the industry to have more outside spaces bring people closer to the ocean or encouraging them to spend more time outside. I think we are going to see a clean sheet design with a focus on more entertainment, activities, and dinning outside to bring more people out of the ship than what you see on Quantum Class ships. I think we might see Royal make better use of deck 5 on Icon than we've seen on any other Royal Caribbean ship. After all with a name like Icon, the ship will have to be Iconic in every way. I'm thinking more of a game changer like Oasis was in 2009, whereas Quantum even though it is a great class of ship is more of the run of the mill ship that we've seen across the industry throughout this past decade. I think Royal will push the envelop with Icon with a clean sheet design.

I just got off Symphony I noticed in the daily planner starting on day 3 through day 5 there was a note on the front page advising customers who needed a COVID test to schedule one by calling medial. If I'm not mistaken I think I it was also notated in the daily planner that there would be a nominal charge for the test but I did cross paths with a couple from Canada who weren't charged at all for the onboard test.

Yes I've noticed, our cruise is coming to an end tomorrow morning and I still haven't seen the cruise director in person at all at any of the shows on just in passing. My husband asked the concierge if the cruise director was actually onboard or if they simply prerecorded his voice. LOL