CruiseRoyalDad

The frustration would be entirely with Royal never the crew members that would be unjust and uncalled for. The crew members are indeed, as you said, enforcing their company's mandate, as ill advised as that mandate may be in some of our opinions. Those anecdotal examples from Chicago presented by other posters are unkind. It would be hard to recollect a time when a crew member on a Royal ship has treated me or my family poorly, they deserve all of the love and respect they give us returned right back to them. They also deserve their jobs not to be held hostage by irrational CDC mandates that have failed to prevent covid on fully vaccinated cruise #1.

I think we agree there. But where our opinions diverge is the line where business are allowed to deny people service and in doing so treat others differently because of a qualified set of characteristics, in this case decisions they make regarding their health.

Got it. That makes sense.

It's a good question. Honestly. Also, can we not forget to include other communicable highly contagious diseases that are a threat to interrupting a cruise vacation. The media as always will love to get a hold of and completely BLOW OUT OF proportion one of those as well. I can see the headline now "Covid not the only threat to the newly restarted Cruise industry...old foes such as NORO rear their ugly heads on the at sea petri dishes". Enter CDC. (End Scene 1).

Hey Matt, do we know what they did with the passengers that test positive until safe return to shore?

True the dynamic of a solo traveler definitely changes the cost. I completely agree with your cost comparison reference. That's why I spreadsheet the "extras" I'm likely to buy and compare against the amenity list for chosen suite class. There are some real "savings" if you approach suite classes from different levels of all inclusive and compare to the pay as you go model. What a lot of people likely never take into account is that total cost scenario. Also, some of the costs IMHO cannot be quantified apples to apples. Here's one, even if I decline to do ANY specialty dining, which I just can't do, but if I did, Coastal Kitchen fills that niche quite well with more intimate take on that main dining menu. If you decline any specialty dining in the standard category it's main dining room all the way. Do we like the main dining room? Yes! Do we LOVE CK? YES!!!

I know this is one of Matt's favorite tips but often the savings is not enough to justify not booking Sky class with some of the accompanying amenities mentioned in this thread here. For example with Drink packages pushing $500 or more a person you can almost cut those out with the availability of the lounge drinks beginning at 11AM and a very generous cocktail hour. You won't have to spend extra on VOOM which most people are going to get nowadays and how much savings in time do you get from not needing to book shows but simply walk-in 15 minutes early to prime reserved seating. Those are just three amenities to look at while comparing four in a GS2 to connecting balcony cabins. Don't get me started on how awesome it is to have a dedicated concierge. Who made the comment about being able to return to suite class without ARMs falling off! I contest that statement and say legs may follow!

While I don't want to acquiesce to the slippery slope of fully vaccinated cruises and further empower the inept CDC, you make a valid point.

says the guy claiming political stunts.

I don't want to sail on a ship that forces passengers (CDC imposed or not) to take an experimental drug aka "vaccine" for a virus that is hugely survivable for healthy individuals. What would be nice is if we let the vaccinated sail vaccinated and be confident in their protection from us who choose to go unvaccinated. Seems like everybody wins. Honestly, what's next? Measles vaccine proof after the first outbreak of measles at sea ala Disneyland? Maybe that comes after another arbitrary no-sail order by the CDC. Read it this way after what they just did they can shutdown our beloved industry unfairly and arbitrarily anytime something like this happens. Vaccinated are by very definition vaccinated against the virus, let everybody that wants to sail and take responsibility for their own medical decisions.

Huge Oasis class fan here but I've only been on the Allure and Symphony which leaves me with some Harmonious questions. Does the Harmony have the Deck 16 piano steps? This one might be a deal breaker if not ?. Also is the splash pad/pool area for the younger for the kids identical to the Symphony? i.e. small waterslides, NO whirlpool and more functional toddler play area? As much as we love the Allure, this was very much a welcome upgrade on the Symphony. Does Harmony CK lounge bar face forward or aft? Is laser tag offered on the Harmony? Finally, when did Harmony last receive any sort of passenger experienced centered refurbishment or upgrade if at all? Thank you!

Hi Sammy that's a Grand Suite 2 bedroom. Sky class suite located on amidships decks with plenty of room for 8 travelers.

All good points. We do tend to travel with a small army though, grandparents are usually in the mix. A1 is not one of the options because your right the GT beats that option every time. A2 would be the splurge. Believe it or not the GTs between June and early August next summer are not available in abundance. I didn't pull the trigger on a reservation quickly enough for our ideal dates. Plus, between coffees, smoothies, and drinks we can usually break even on the drink package though we haven't purchased one since the Anthem summer of 2017 (pre sky class cruising). The sky class benefits, assuming proximity to CK and lounge, really reduce the ability to justify a drink package. That being said the more I look at it, the other star perks really help with ease of traveling considering our raucous audience. Flexibility is key when rolling with the littles and I don't see any greater offer of flexibility than the ability to rub that lamp. I'll do a harder look for GTs before making the jump.

@Lovetocruise2002 Hey different topic stumbled into your live blog on Symphony from 2019 we'd cruised in a loft suite in May just prior to your #17. Jenny and Jackie were absolutely phenomenal in the SL! I did ask Jackie if she would every want to be a Genie and she said no she'd want to keep her sanity (I paraphrase)! We booked Symphony again May 2020 partly because we loved everything about that cruise and in the hopes that that dynamic duo my still be there. Of course that ended up being a covid cancel. The staff can often improve an already great cruise experience.

Yes, yes, and yes. When you come to where the cruise experts hangout expect sage advice! You all have basically put my though process on "paper". Not a hijack @tonyfsu21 but an absolute must mention. We did do the lofts on (seaside view not aft...beautiful worth the slight upcharge) last cruise (Symphony summer 2019). It was absolutely beautiful and sky class is a bargain over star class for sure when you are in striking distance to CK and don't have to necessarily spring for drink package because of the proximity to free drinks from 11AM on and cocktails for a good chunk of evening. As such the lofts are always worth the consideration. Alas we recently added one more child to make us a family of 6! I'm pretty sure we can't jam 6 into a loft suite. A family of 5 required special permission from Royal but with one in crib it was easy. All that to say if we could be on 17 it would be the choice every time. We'd be there @Lovetocruise2002 on #teamdeck17 for ever! While I've tried to implement @Mattconnecting balcony room philosophy. I do find the availability of connecting rooms hard to come by and once we do the 3 and 3 combinations the price for us is close to sky class minus the perks. So to my question its based on not previously done Aqua or star class. I would have jumped on a grand suite 2 bedroom on 8 because we absolutely love deck 8 for the reason mentioned @CGTLH as Central Park feels like the heart of the Oasis Class ships to us. I don' t think GS2 exist on 6,7,8. That would save us some serious money on Star class (Aqua2) while leaving us only a short walk to the elevator and a quick jump to CK on 17. We had this experience previously (family of 5) in GS 1 bedroom (Allure) where we were on 8 and quick trips to CK and lounge were the norm. For us the purchase of couple of specialty dining nights with CK access is really all we need so sky class perks are more than sufficient. But now with a larger family I'm seeing value in the much higher cost despite the long walk to Aqua 2. Not having had experience with that area of the ship or those suites I wasn't sure of preferable deck, though "8" caught my eye. @AshleyDillo I've now seen the youtubes and on 8 the ATS balconies are definitely bigger and have a markedly better view of the theater. Being able to watch shows from the balcony when after 3 oasis class cruises we've still only caught pieces would be great as the rising 1 and 4 year old sleep. The perk of included specialty restaurants with ability to have those in room and included drink package makes the frequent trips to suite lounge less necessary. Plus, as we're always running around with hair on fire trying to alleviate the FOMO being able to make last minute reservations and walk into prime seating at events via the genie would help. I've heard that once you go up in class it's tough to go back and our room progression has proved that. It started with a balcony -> JS -> GS -> L1 -> ??? and we still haven't been able to revert. This scares me a bit. ? I'm holding on to two separate Harmony Aqua 2 reservations in July 2022 trying to work up the courage to drop the deposit! Thank you all! Here's to the hope for HEALTHY, back-to-normal, mask free sailing soon! -Cruise Royal Dad aka BERT (Years long blog and message board consumer brand new contributor)

Question #1 I'm finding that GS 2 bedrooms begin on deck 9 and above is it correct to assume that there are no GS2 configurations below deck 9? Question #2 Also if we have a choice between deck 8-10 in an Aquatheater 2 bedroom what would you experience aqua suite cruisers recommend as far as deck, and why? Thank you!

Glad to see your point of view coming from a supremely experienced cruiser. Doing the same minus the vaccine if forced part. I'll be relegated to the 2nd class citizen that will become of those that will refuse to vaccinate. It's a shame because cruising was a supreme love of our growing family.