Reigert2008

4 minutes ago, LCinPDX said:

Hello!  We booked a cruise for July 2022 to the Eastern Caribbean out of Miami.  I booked on the Royal website right after Thanksgiving during their Black Friday sale. I checked prices again on December 16th and they went down.  I called Royal and they credited me about $400 for the two balcony cabins we had reserved.  I looked at the prices again and they have gone down about another $400.  I called and the representative could not find the price that I had found on their site (after being on hold for about a half hour and her checking twice).  She said the prices that she was showing were the same as the price I currently have.  I thought it was an error on my part.  I closed the browser and looked again.  The prices are still lower.  I am confused and wonder if this has happened to anyone else.  Should I try again and perhaps have more luck with another representative?  Math was never my strong point, but....

Here are the numbers:  

11/28--2 ocean view connecting cabins @ $4948 ea

12/16--Reduced to $4691.12 ea

12/27--Current price online $4488.12 ea

Certainly feel free to call and check again.  You never know what the other end of the phone is seeing on their side.  In the future, consider using a good travel agent, as they can do a lot of this for you saving you both time and money.

12 minutes ago, TBruce77 said:

We just got a notice, our arrival was 1:30 to 2 and now they are saying arrive 1 hour late, to avoid crowding and allow time for on-board cleaning in between guests.

Can anyone suggest what to do, can we still arrive at the port and hang out in the area, are there places to sit/eat/etc? Our flight is expected to arrive around 10, grab luggage, get a cab etc, probably out by 11, it's 1hr ride so we'd be there around 12. It's too short to go somewhere else plus we'll have our luggage, can't go to NASA or something to kill time.

What do other cruiser do in between airport and embarkation.

 I assume best way to get to port is by cab, right to Terminal 1?

I’m assuming you are going to Port Canaveral, via MCO, since you mentioned NASA.  They really do enforce the times, so if I were you I’d wait at MCO and grab a snack or browse the stores outside security after getting your bags and then get the cab for the ride to the port. No sense waiting outside in the elements when you can take your time at the airport before the cab/Lyft/Uber.
 

It’s such a short amount of time, it may not matter if your flight(s) have any type of delay.  

I was having trouble with it as well for an upcoming cruise, but now was able to get it assigned and got an 11:30 AM time!  

1 hour ago, Pattycruise said:

I’m within 30 days of my cruise.

It appears I lose my deposit if I cancel under cruise with confidence.  Am I correct or reading it wrong?  Has anyone cancelled under CWC within 30 days and if so, what was your experience?

Thank you

this would be a great question for a good travel agent.  If you’re not using one, I’d consider it for future bookings.

18 minutes ago, D Alt said:

To my surprise when I checked my cruise planner for my May trip, I found an extra $25 in my onboard credit.  It went from 50 to 75. I am not sure where this money is coming from. There was no cancellation of any purchases. I'm afraid to inquire about this and have them realize it was a mistake. LOL 

Is it a glitch or is there an explanation for this? 

Just checked both my upcoming cruises and in November I now have a $25 OBC.  No idea why.

12 minutes ago, Kathleen said:

I’m on the 1/9/22 Oasis cruise and like you, I have been checking  frequently for available suites as sailing nears. When I checked this afternoon it was the first time I noticed it was no longer on the website. I just figured (Hoping) it was an IT glitch or no longer appeared because they were limiting capacity. I’m not letting myself think it is anything more sinister than that!!! We’ve waited too long.   

I’m still thinking it’s capacity, since these two cruise show up currently. I’d also think a lot of people would be commenting if they had cancelations.  I was watching Baltimore since it’s relatively drivable from home

44 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Interesting.  I hadn't even noticed that.

I just noticed it as well. I’d been tracking a cruise from Baltimore leaving 12/31 as a possible last minute deal, thinking the price could drop after the newer mask policy.  When I started tracking (before the policy change) it Was about $750 person for an inside GTY, yesterday or this morning it was $950 and just moments ago,  or on the site.  I’m thinking it hit capacity, since the price had increased before disappearing.

4 minutes ago, SPS said:

Home test kits from eMed are currently experiencing shipping delays due to the holidays and limited capacities with FedEx. (Could increased demand also be a factor?) So, you may want to keep this in mind if you need test kits soon.

Thanks for sharing!  This will help those of us who may need to order in the next few weeks and allow for planning.

25 minutes ago, Ms white said:

Currently on second night on board Oasis of the Seas Holiday cruise and they suddenly inexplicably with no warning banned smoking in the casino!  I’m told by guest services this is fleet wide through at least Jan 5th. Would NEVER EVER have boarded this ship if I had known this was even a remote possibility. Be warned if you like to smoke while you gamble that is currently no longer allowed! WORST CRUISE EVER!!

Hopefully things turn around for you. I’m sure it’s frustrating when changes occur at the last minute.  I’m not sure this would qualify as “WORST CRUISE EVER”, but to each their own.  
 

stay safe

38 minutes ago, D Alt said:

Good!

I agree.  I hope this is the start of banning indoor smoking completely.  We go to a land based casino in Ohio that is smoke free and it is doing well, so i don't think smokers would avoid the casino on the ship.  

1 hour ago, novicecruiser123 said:

size: maybe 10 MB per document. Timeliness is important - wouldn't want to wait more than 10 minutes for something to finish sending. Would be cruising in the Caribbean but open to location - I did wonder if some itineraries (western vs eastern?) offer better reliability for internet than others.

If it were me, I would probably do a cruise or two and use the internet a bit, but not for work, to see how the service really is.  Of course, each persons job is different and has different requirements, so YMMV.  For me I know there are certain things that I absolutely could not do on a cruise, since it could be time sensitive and internet could be unreliable.  I also know that there are other types of my work that I could easily do from a cruise without issue.  For me, as I’ve been talking to my co-workers about trying to work from a cruise, the expectation is that it’s a “best effort” and I could be not able to work.

if they only way I could go on a vacation required me to be available for a lot of the time during the days,I’m would consider doing a different type vacation where I’d be able to control more of the variables, like a house rental in a neat location or something.
 

on s you’ve done a cruise or two, then you may be able to make the call for yourself.  I’ve done many cruises and am just now really thinking about working from the ship?  You could also find a cruise where you minimize your days away from work, such as a 5 night cruise that leaves 9th Friday, where  you have two weekend days built in. This is just an example and Royal may not have one that fits that.  

when I was in school one night a week, we used to vacation from Friday to Wednesday since class was on Thursday, but that was before we discovered cruising!
 

good luck!

39 minutes ago, twangster said:

Depends.

Consumer SSL VPNs are often blocked while if that same provider also has an IPSEC solution it may work.

Corporate VPN like Cisco, Fortinet, Juniper, etc have always worked for me but it is possible that your company uses some sort of VPN configuration that isn't compatible with satellite latency.  Some SonicWall firewalls use OpenSSL which has been problematic IME.  

Thanks!  I’ve only had issues with my personal VPN being blocked, and figured the corporate level ones should work.  I was thinking I could just use my personal machine and remotely connect to my work machines, but it’d probably be a better experience for me to lug the work laptop along as well

31 minutes ago, Traveler said:

F5 and Cisco works for me almost most of the times . Never tried public one.

Thanks!

37 minutes ago, twangster said:

Large is a little ambiguous.  How large?  

The Voom Surf and stream provides 4 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up.  

I have worked from ships for years and made it work.  It is not as reliable as home service.  A heavy rain cloud can block the satellite signal.  Sometimes satellite internet isn't ideal every second of the day.  

Most email platforms don't allow very large files but maybe his company has some unique need where they have configured their email platform to exceed what "most" people normally send with email.  

Without knowing what he consider "large" it's hard to give more feedback.

Hijacking this, since I just thought of it.  Do you know if VPNs are allowed on Voom? I’ve been thinking of taking a solo cruise and trying to work remotely, but sometimes (rarely) even the hotel network will block a vpn connection.  
 

thanks!

19 hours ago, ChuckyBost said:

No enforcement on odyssey. Started with 2 and end with 15 people. I walk away when people doesn't follow the rule. 

that's what I think as well.  It would not be a good use of staff to have someone standing there all day counting people in and out of the hot tub.  Royal can only do so much without closing things down and it does start to fall back on personal responsibility for people to follow the posted signs.  I think some people want to cause an issue, in order to try and get some sort of compensation from Royal.  

If any area was too full due to policy or our comfort level, we just moved on.  There's so much you can do that  focusing on one thing is a waste of the vacation.

1 hour ago, Clint said:

Can you still get off ship at all the ports in carribean 

There is not a single answer for this.  Your best bet is to look at the Healthy Sail Center for details that may pertain to you.  

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/the-healthy-sail-center

Listening to @Matt's podcast from yesterday and he mentioned having a way to find your luggage in the terminal.  We use decorative spandex luggage covers similar to the ones at the link below.  Not only can you easily find your luggage in the hallway of the ship, the terminal, and at baggage claim, but they also have protected our luggage from getting stains and such on them.  We started using them with our current luggage when we first got the set and on our first trip, the cover received a big mark on it (like it had rubbed against something), but our bag still looked new.  We're now on our second set of covers, but the luggage still looks like new after 4 years and many flights.  

https://amzn.to/3F436eP  - link to Amazon, I shortened it with Bitly

7 minutes ago, joshvc said:

We sail Sunday, so I don't have the experience yet, but our plan is this:

• Already loaded passports & vax cards in the app.
• Friday morning COVID antigen tests near home
• Print out negative test results- I've read here that shuffling back & forth betweeen the Royal app and your test results on your phone is a pain
• Friday afternoon flight to San Juan. Have to fill out Puerto Rico's TravelSafe questionnaire on the way, probably in the airport.
• Saturday, fill out Royal's healthy sail questions in the app, then just a tourist day in San Juan, will pick up some wine to carry onto the ship
• Sunday we'll leave the hotel about an hour before our check-in appointment, hoping we can get in a little early but not standing around for too long if we can't.

I'll try to report back Monday or so with how things went.

Print out EVERYTHING!  Your set sail pass, the covid test, etc..  it is far easier to flip through a stack of papers than apps on the phone.

This is what we did, but you will not be able to board early.  Royal is really enforcing the check in times at all ports.  We arrived at the port about 15 minutes before our check in time, dropped off our luggage with the porters and breezed right in.  Any earlier than that you will be standing around waiting.  We stayed at the Sheraton in Old San Juan and much like the rest of the island, it's a quick ride to get to the port.

There were many people who where way too early for thier time and it causes a lot of confusion with the lines and getting people through.  We like to board as early as possible, so keep checking for an earlier check in time.  

I’d recommend interviewing several agents to find one that meets your needs.  I’d also reach out to a local spot that you already deal with to see if they have any travel agent recommendations.

In my opinion you should eat in the MDR on day 1 if you plan to eat there most nights.  Night 1 gives your staff the ability to meet you and you can let them know your plans for the week and if you will miss any nights. You can also let them know that you want to see the bridge and they could “box up” any courses should the time come.

however you also need to determine which is more important and do the vacation how you want.  
 

Maybe you step into the MDR and do an appetizer and entrée, taking dessert to go?  

good luck!

In the future, I’d recommend Using a good travel agent for your bookings.

In reality, how close to a cruise could you really book? I always thought it was three days before boarding, but even now it looks like I could book the Hamonynfor December 5th.  Of course, I chickened out and with having to fly to the port, and my wife not being able to go, I decided to not deal with it. But earlier this week the price was tracking at about $800 with gratuities and insurance for a 7 night cruise in an inside GTY cabin.

I’m kinda mad at myself for not pulling the trigger, but maybe next time!

2 hours ago, Tim B said:

But the only thing I have seen for the return trip back to the the US is signing up for the SARA Alert Program. Is this correct?

We did nothing to signup for the Sara Alert program, we were auto enrolled.  I had read about it on some site that I cannot find now and assumed that we woudl have a QR code or something to scan to signup when exiting the ship (much like at the airport in Puerto Rico), but nothing was ever said.  We just started receiving the emails 2 days after our cruise when we were already back in KY

53 minutes ago, The Fox said:

 

Thank you so much. I will have to try this.

You know what works even better than moleskin?  a Compeed patch.  We've been using these for years and have had great success.


https://www.compeedusa.com/products/


We get them at Walgreens / Walmart / Target 

3 minutes ago, deep1 said:

Fluidity... . One person in a group designated before hand to deal with all the "details" . Someone who can tell teens who havn't cruised before that a few things need doing. Muster being one of them. More sense to say 'station E2 Deck5 cafe promenade". Instead of "I dunno, its some where on this 1/4 mile by 18 story 200 foot wide  chunk of steel we are floating on... " 

 

That makes sense. The only thing my brain came up with was changing my room reservation to get a different muster station, but I thought that was crazy talk.