TXCruiser

https://www.emed.com/

We used the Binax ag tests (through eMed and not RC) because our flight to Spain was at 7 in the am on Friday with our cruise being on Sunday and we wanted to test prior to flying out of town. It was very easy and the nice thing is that we were able to run all the tests in parallel on our phones with the exception of my son who is a minor and couldn’t have his own account. The cost of the online proctor is included and Aetna reimbursed $12 per test so it was pretty cheap all in at $13 per test plus shipping after the partial reimbursement. Hope this helps.

Just a word of advice to be careful. There were 6 of us in our family that went on our Wonder of the Seas cruise from Jul 24-31 and everyone tested positive for COVID on Monday when we returned home except for me (because I had it at the beginning of last month). Everyone besides me in our group was fairly vigilant about KN95 masking as well with the exception of at meals, in our staterooms and excursions where we were outdoors. Besides that, the cruise was fun but exhausting but that was more due to us booking excursions that required meeting between 7:15-8:00 am at every port. Pros: Food at the MDR and Windjammer was great and plentiful (the Indian food station at the Windjammer was surprisingly yummy). All the employees on the ship were incredibly nice and helpful. The ship did not feel crowded even though it was at capacity. There were plenty of activities onboard. Cons: Headliner entertainment was mediocre at best and people started leaving after the first song or two. The escape room was not ready. Our dining reservation at the Chef's Table was canceled because my wife and I were the only two people booked for that time slot. We didn't get our shareholder OBC because we were told it was not valid for our rate. This was told to us by someone at guest services who said she had never seen that before. It would have been nice if the shareholder OBC team had mentioned that ahead of our cruise in an email instead of only making a note in the file that I received after waiting in line at guest services. Our rate was just a lift and shift from last year's cruise that got canceled and was the market price at the time so I'm not sure what happened.

Sorry, didn’t see that there was a similar thread and on top of that I posted in the wrong section! Please ignore

Hello Is the only advantage to booking your next cruise onboard a RC cruise ship the obc or do they offer better rates as well? Thanks!

Ours took a little over 2 weeks to switch to "validated". FWIW, other members mentioned that the status didn't matter and only the actual check in at the terminal mattered with regard to confirming your vaccination status. I assume then that this is a "pre-check" to ferret out any potential issues in lieu of waiting to arrive at the terminal only to discover that you don't meet the reqs.

FWIW, we're going to be staying at the AC Hotel Victoria Suites (a Marriott brand) it looked to be reasonably priced and somewhat near both the port and places to see.

Thanks @OrlandoDad. At 30 min per test I think it's worth the extra sleep to burn a test the day before making sure that my mother in law knows how to login and perform all the steps via a dry run so that she can run hers, my father in law's and my mom's while I do the same for my wife, son and myself. Prepping for a 3 am wake up next month lol. The things we do for cruising...

Ok, I have a question regarding clarification on the 12:01 am start time for the 2 calendar days. Is it anytime at 12:01 am or after based upon the local time of where you are taking the test or 12:01 am based upon the time zone of the ship? We're sailing from Barcelona on the WOtS on a Sunday but flying out from Texas on Friday early am to give us a day buffer in case of some sort of travel delay. I was planning to have all our tests taken on Friday prior to us stepping foot on the plane to avoid having the potential for positive tests somewhere away from home and being stuck in limbo. What I'm not looking forward to is waking up just that much earlier to run the tests (I have little faith in my in-laws or mom being able to run the eMed tests on their own which will mean running everyone's in series instead of in parallel). If the 2 day period started on the ship's local time then I could start administering them to the family anytime between 5pm and before bedtime on Thursday which would be awesome. Otherwise, I'm picturing a horrendously long day where we wake up around 2 am on Friday and then get little to no sleep on the red eye on the overseas leg of our flight . FWIW, airport testing at our airport doesn't open up before our flight leaves so Newark during the layover would have been our only domestic option. TXCruiser

Aha thanks. Yeah, I did see that in the instructions but thought that I had read elsewhere on the forum that folks had been successfully submitting well in advance of that 2-3 week window and that RC was actually having some issues with processing everything inside that advised window. I'll just look for it in the next few weeks and cross my fingers.

Btw, I also had a similar issue with the balance due email. It is interesting that of the 3 reservations in our group that the room for my wife, son and I was the only one that got the email and we were also the only ones that requested the shareholder OBC and also rebooked a few of the excursions when sales came across.

When do people generally receive notification of their shareholder OBCs? I sent in the forms for that about 4 months ago now. I initially never heard anything back then asked for a status update at which point I was asked to resend some info but then never got a response from that. Our cruise is on the 24th of next month. At this point if I had to resend the info all over again with an updated statement I would need to rebuy the shares since I dumped them once the stock started tanking...

For those who have cruised recently, how long does it take RC to validate your uploaded vaccine card info to the app? I uploaded our family's cards 10 days ago and it still says, "we are validating your record". Thanks!

Once again wanted to say thanks to @wordell1 and @FionaMG for providing their first hand experiences. I initially called RC to ask them for more clarity while posting to this forum at the same time as a backup. RC was supposed to call me the next day with an answer but I haven't heard another word from them. I'm very grateful that this forum has such a helpful community of folks because otherwise I'd still be in the dark.

Ok, so the issue finally got resolved after 1 hr and 40 min with me waiting on hold most of the time while the Costco Travel agent was dealing with talking to RC. They didn't really elaborate on what the issue was. I was only told that it was taken care of and they sent me a new email showing that indeed the invoice was paid in full. I'm definitely looking forward to the cruise that is really 2 years in the making if you consider the Spectrum sailing that didn't happen in summer '20. TXCruiser

So we're supposed to set sail on the Wonder of the Seas next month after a year long delay on our summer cruise out from Barcelona. We had originally paid in full for this cruise back in Apr 2021 back when it was supposed to be on the Allure and did a lift and shift to Jul 2022 after the cancellation and as such should have still been paid in full. The ship was subsequently switched for the Wonder but this wouldn't have had any other impacts to us. I just received an email from Costco Travel saying that RC was indicating that we had paid $1400 less than the full amount (which is incorrect) and that if we don't pay the additional amount then our cruise will be cancelled. Has this happened to anyone else? Very frustrated that I'm now going to have to spend possibly hours dealing with this headache. TXCruiser

Thanks for the responses!

Hello, I'm looking for advice of folks that have been on an inside tour of the Forum and Colosseum in Rome with regard to what you can bring in. I was seeing this in the notes of our excursion: For security reasons it is strictly forbidden to enter the Colosseum and Roman Forum with backpacks, suitcases, trolleys and large bags /objects. The potential issue is that my wife is a Type 1 diabetic and has to carry around certain medical items with her in a small shoulder sling bag. The bag has the interior dimensions of probably an ipad mini. Is there anyone that has gone on an excursion that went inside these places that can provide what they've seen on allowing or not allowing things like that? Thanks in advance. TXCruiser

Ah, it looks like it might be a sailing by sailing specific thing. I'm seeing past instances on this blog of people having it on their cruises from prior years. I'm guessing RC rolls out those incentives whenever they are having lower than normal pre-cruise bookings for a particular sailing?

Apologies if this belongs in the dining section but has anyone had any experience with a recent promotion for receiving a 20% OBC when you booked 3 or more dining reservations online? Back in March I booked a third reservation when I saw on the website that you received a 20% OBC of the reservation costs if you booked at least 3 reservations for our upcoming cruise on the Wonder of the Seas. I never received any notification about the credit after the booking and when I called RC today to inquire about it the representative said that neither he nor anyone else had ever heard of something like that before. Is this something that will just automatically show up in our accounts on Day 1 of the cruise? Thanks, TXCruiser

And wow a little uncanny that I apparently chose an unoriginal username. wish i had seen that there was already someone with a nearly identical one!

Too bad I already had a 6 pack of Binax Now AG tests delivered to the house last week for our return flights from our Wonder of the Seas cruise next month

Does anyone know how long the turnaround time is for getting the onboard credit? I submitted a request at the very beginning of the month but haven't gotten anything back other than the automated response that they received my email. It was for a cruise this Summer but I thought that I remembered in another section of the forum that folks had been submitting that far out with success. Thanks!

Fun times with all the uncertainty... And here I was thinking that our vacation to South Africa that ended last week was going to be the most chaotic trip of our recent & upcoming ones.

Jill- Where were you seeing that info for Italy? This is what I found from the US Embassy website for Italy: https://it.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/ Beginning on December 16, 2021 and valid until January 31, 2022, travelers from the United States may enter Italy if they present a negative molecular PCR test result carried out within 72 hours of arrival or a rapid antigen test result carried out within 24 hours of arrival AND one of the following: An Anti-COVID 19 vaccination certificate for an European Medicines Agency (EMA)-recognized vaccine. At present, EMA recognizes the following vaccines: Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, and AstraZeneca. The date of the final vaccine dose must be at least 14 days prior to travel. Travelers vaccinated in the United States can prove this via the “white card” bearing the CDC logo. A medical certificate confirming recovery from COVID dated no more than six months before departure. Thanks, Jeff