Reigert2008

52 minutes ago, teddy said:

We just stayed at Springhill Suites on Galveston Island. 
 

It was a good, clean hotel with a good breakfast included, however it is most definitely not within walking distance of much, especially if you have kids.  
 

There is a Target on the other side of I-45, but my wife said she wouldn’t feel comfortable walking there and back alone. 
 

Taxi to the ship was $16 before tip. 

Question, is it walkable to Sea Wall BLVD from the Springhill suites?  I;m thinking more about sidewalk availability and such.  We are staying at the Springhill for a future cruise and the hotel itself looks great.  Thanks!

Hopefully, someone can answer this.  We would like to visit Hell, to send our post card.  Can you walk from the cruise port?  It looks like you can, but wasn't sure if sidewalks or safety issues would prevent it.  Looks like about 6 miles each way, which wouldn't be out of the ordinary for our "wandering around" for the day.  

Thanks!

I agree, the MDR staff always let us know how important 10s are and on our last cruise was event mentioned that if they get all 10s they get an extra day off.  It’s really uncomfortable for us since they’ve already earned a 10  with the amazing service.  I know they really want everyone to complete the survey and Royal needs to find a better way to incentivize passengers to complete the survey, so the staff aren’t “begging” for scores. It’s a small thing, but t leaves us with a bad taste right at the end of the trip.

42 minutes ago, JoTerricruise said:

Odd question, but my wife is allergic to bromine...anyone know what chemicals RC uses in their hot tubs?

It probably be best to have your travel agent reach out to Royal.  You also may want to contact the special needs department, here’s the link to the form.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/resources/guest-special-needs

good luck!

It’s best for each adult to login separately using the same information they’d use on the Royal Caribbean site.  Of course for children, they may not have personal e-mail yet, so you can see theirs on your device.  
 

also I’d print out all your documentation since it’ll be easier to show that than scroll through phones and worry about dead spots in service.

5 hours ago, pnk said:

We are cruising out of San Juan in November.  After a mixup, we need to reschedule our flights, and there are two options that really aren't ideal.  We prefer the flight that leaves 9am, but is that cutting it too close? Has anyone taken an 9am flight after getting off the ship and been able to make it on time? Thank you for all of your help!

The long standing suggestion is to. It have a before noon.  Its also recommended to be at the airport no less than two hours before your flight, so for a 9 am flight, you really should be at the airport at 7 am.

yes, I understand many people don’t get to the airport that early before a flight, but that is the general recommendation and I follow it.  I’ve also never missed a flight, so YMMV.

9 minutes ago, ksenese said:

According to this, we're 3 days, then they will not let us board tomorrow?  OMG, no.  Actually, only my son's PCR is correct then.

You should call Travel agent or Royal to get a direct answer and explain your situation.  It’ll be much faster and you’ll have an official response.

good luck.

13 hours ago, lapelirroja said:

I found an old RC blog post that says you can prepay your gratuities online. I've searched around in the cruise planner and in the payment area and did not see a place to do this. Does anyone know the exact place this can be done, or do I need to call in (no TA)?

When you book through Royal there’s an option to prepay the gratuities.  Your TA can also add them to your invoice, so I’d contact them to have them added.  If you booked direct with Royal, then you may need to call.

Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center.  I keep an eye on this throughout hurricane center both for “fun” and for vacation hiccups.

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov

1 hour ago, She Sails Away said:

Oh I am. Never again! Last GTY was above the theater. Every night from 1130 to 1230 they apparently crashed machines into each other repeatedly as part of the clean up process.

 

The room was a choose-your-own balcony.

 

I actually have already booked my room-I was honest and just chose an interior to save the money, but wondered if booking for two would be a work-around if you wanted.

I’d suggest moving to a good travel agent. They are skilled in these types of things and can ensure you’re getting the best price for your needs. I’d highly recommend MEI Travel (this blogs sponsor).  On the main page there’s a box to fill out and they will assign you an agent.  Be quick,you only have a short window to make the move (maybe 30 days?)

good luck.

4 hours ago, Sackboy said:

Does anyone have experience with using the onboard internet (especially on Mariner) for stock market work? Not just checking, but buying selling, etc. 

 

if so, which internet package did you go with and how decent is it?  

personally, I wouldn’t rely on ships internet for anything that would be time sensitive, such as trading stocks.   

19 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I personally don't understand why testing days are confusing. Because Royal mentions this in the FAQs.......plus there have been fifty-eleven post about this. The app says it, docs say it, etc. I know starting soon it will be a 3-day testing window but anything under that is fine.

I think people really just want to know the date. Much like the app tells you the date that check in opens, it would be cool if it had a line that said "earliest you can test" and then list the date.  We've gone through this several times and even now i second guess my test day.  It's just an extra step that could be made simpler and no one wants to show up at the port and be told "oops you were a day early on your testing", but people also don't want to travel all the way to the port and then test positive for thier pre-night stay.  

We recently did a quick 3 night cruse that left on a Friday which is far different than our normal cruises, plus we were driving, so we needed to plan ahead so that we had a hotel room for Wednesday night, but couldn;t book until after the test just in case we needed to cancel.  

Royal really needs to put a chart on the site that states if your cruise leaves on <this date> then the earliest you can test is <this date>  They literally could have done this on day one for the whole year and alleviate a lot of confusion for people. 
 

7 hours ago, steverk said:

I think everyone flying this year has received at least one notification that their flight has changed.  I've received dozens.

Generally, they aren't a big deal.  The plane leaves and arrives 10 minutes later and the like.

Unfortunately, this isn't always the case.  On at least 2 occasions, I've had them split my party between 2 different flights.  Since my mother in law is unable to fly alone, this can be a very big problem.

Sometimes they make the change and don't even send the email.

Word to the wise: verify your flights for every person in your party at least once per week leading up to your cruise!

Was this through an airline or through Air2Sea? I’ve never used Air2Sea, so I’m not sure how that works.  If it was through the airline, was the entire party on the same confirmation number?  For Southwest, if you’re not on the same confirmation number then you don’t really count as a “traveling party”, so we’ve started making sure we’re always on the same confirmation number when flying with the  in laws just in case anything we’re to happen.

I think this is all going to lead to confusion for the passengers and maybe the crew.  No vaccination needed from Galveston, but then you can’t get off the ship in Grand Cayman.  It seems like it would have been better to wait until they worked out the details with each stop and then drop it.  While those of us on the board are well versed in the policies, the general public may miss some of the fine details and then be upset when. Of course, it is the passengers responsibility to know the policy, but we know someone will miss it or their “not as good” travel agent will misinform them of the policy.

For those of us in “regular” rooms  , I always recommend to make reservations for anything that will take one. This could be shows, speciality dining, my time dining*, breakfast in the MDR, etc…. I feel I t’s better to have the reservation and not need it than it is to need the reservation and not have it.  Since the restart things are changing and things are different on each ship so some places may not even accept reservations any longer, but if the app will let me make one, I do.

note: you only need my time dining reservations if you are not in the traditional dining options.  Also not everything in the app is a reservation, some items are just reminders.

As all the lines (probably) eventually move towards this method, It'll be interesting to see what happens if someone with COVID needs specialized care and the ship has to return to port or skip a port.  For us, that has been a big reason we have supported having the vaccination requirement.  In our minds, it lessens the chance of our vacation being interrupted.  Not that it's foolproof now, but gives us that warm fuzzy feeling.

I don’t fly with Delta, so I don’t know what happens if you miss your flight.  Is that ticket just gone or do you get a credit?  Will they let you fly later in the day without extra charges?  If it was me, I would weigh all these things and determine if the savings are worth the stress.  We live by the rule of being at the airport 2 hours before the flight for domestic travel and even at our “little” home airport in Louisville, we’ve seen people miss flights by showing up less than 2 hours.  For us, it’s worth it to “sit around” post security and not deal with rushing through.  
 

good luck!

14 minutes ago, Qeytondude said:

Our niece will be going on her first cruise in Sept.  She loves her Monster drinks, and we told her that we haven't seen them on board. But we do recall seeing Red Bull.  Does anyone know the 2022 cost per can on board If she doesn't by any drink package?

Thanks in advance

It’s available in the app, so I looked at one of my upcoming cruises at the pool bar.  It’s $4 a can plus 18%, so $4.72 a can.

it’s included with the Refreshment package and I’ve gotten that package recently for $22.99 per day, so it may be a good investment.

15 minutes ago, Bowen said:

This is super new to me since my son's issue only started a few months ago, but now that our first post COVID cruise in on the horizon, I thought I'd ask for some help. He has a condition known as Angioedema, which for him means his lips (one, both, or even just part of one) will randomly swell. There's no trigger that the doctor has been able to find, it's not an allergy, so there's no way to keep it from happening at the moment. It can look pretty scary when it does happen though, and he does need to take a steroid as soon as he feels it coming on. I'm a little concerned about someone getting nervous on the ship if they see my 12 year old walking around with a swollen lip, and I'm also a little (very mildly) concerned that we could go on a cruise and it could be the first time it goes beyond his lip into an airway or something. I've seen the allergy bracelets, but I was wondering if there is a reusable version of this that I could basically write down my room number, phone number, etc. just in case he's in the kid's club and it gets bad fast. What would be most helpful for a cruise staff to know in this situation?

Maybe a lanyard with a card inside with this information on it? 

He is more than able to get back to the room and take his medication, so this is kind of me cycling through "worst case scenario" in my head. Thankfully he's the kid that most likes to hang out with me, so that's good, but I also don't want to lock him down with me the whole time since he really enjoys having that bit of freedom on board. 

Thanks!

I would work with your TA to note the reservation and I would also contact the Special Needs department (form below).  I'd fill it out as best as possible and there is a box for "other items".  They will contact you at some point, but you can also call them.  Good luck.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/resources/guest-special-needs

24 minutes ago, angela24 said:

just got off the indepedence of the seas and both partys have been charged 99.75 and we do not  what it could be?

We were on the Indy a few weeks ago had this pending as well on our credit card bill.  However, it never "hit the bill" so it was probably a "test charge" for incidentals or whatever like Hotels generally do.  We also did receive a refund of about $5 due to port taxes and fees being lower, so maybe they "charged the card" to make sure the refund would go through.  

Either way, only the refund hit the card.

26 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Boy I get impulsive sometimes and I saw a very different and interesting cabin and just booked it from Royal Caribbean itself. Now I have to transfer the booking to my TA. How do you do that because over never did it before? TA take care of the entire thing?

Anyway booked Oasis May 28th 5 days to Saint John New Brunswick Canada. Shorter than we like but we LOVE New Brunswick Canada. I saw this kinda unique cabin and it was right in the price I was willing to pay so I just did it. It's a Central Park interior cabin with a window to see Central Park of course. It just looks kinda cool and unique and close to the action. 

You just contact your TA and provide them the ship, sailing dat, reservation number, etc. there’s a form they fill out. We use MEI and our TA handles it all after I send the info, so it could be different with your TA.

3 hours ago, AdventureKenandCar said:

(My wife: “What are you going to do with that pin anyway?”

We put them on our pin board.  We're avid Disney Pin collectors and now have a subsection for "cruises of all types" and have some of the Disney ships we've sailed on.  Never thought about Royal pins until we received our Platinum and now Emerald pins.  We're excited to get our Diamond pins in early 2023.

1 hour ago, Lynn McKee said:

I'm having problems finding out how many bags we can EACH  bring and if there is any restrictions on size for checked or carry on. We are cruising Enchantment of the Seas, from Baltimore August 6th and are booked in an owners suite. Thanks in advance for your help  

Lynn McKee 

While there are no stated numbers, I did find this in my cruise documents for a recent cruise. We thought it was funny since we always tease my father in law that he brings too many clothes

for a 7N cruise we each pack in a “carry on” size bag and have no issues.  Last weekend we did a 3N cruise and packed in one carry on bag for the both of us.  

8 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Please let Royal be next! lol

At least for short sailings....

I get the desire for the testing to end, and I keep going back and forth on it.  I understand it adds cost to the trip and in some cases can be significant.  While nothing is foolproof, it does give us a little more confidence when we cruise as opposed to the land based locations.  We will probably continue to test anyway on our own since our fear is being sick in a foreign land and possibly passing things to others.  We also "self quarantine" for about about a week before most cruises since we tend to cruise during cold/flu season and don't want to be sick while on vacation.  

Of course, we are in the camp of still wearing masks (KN95) in nearly all indoor situations and not fraternizing with too many strangers   When we cruise our favorite activity is sitting on the deck staring at the ocean, so we're outside and not with people, so it works for us.

We also just feel safer on a cruise since we don't worry about the other craziness in the world, like the mall shooting in Indiana.  We were recently at the Mall of America over the July 4th holiday and it did cross our mind that someone could do something.