EJK

I was on the phone with RC a little while ago about linking dining - she gave me the number for the direct group reservation line: try 800-465-3595.

thanks all! I booked it and will send her my reservation info. 

oops - found my answer https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/direct-booking-transfer

I've been anxiously waiting for new summer 2024 itineraries, and now that they are here I am ready to book.  

I emailed and texted my TA this morning with my selection but she has not responded yet (she's a friend, has done one other non-cruise booking for us).  I'm not looking for a different TA, she could be busy today- but I'm just ready to push the button on the two connecting rooms I found.  I don't want to lose them - if I go ahead and book can I transfer it to her later?

I was on the Brilliance of the Seas delayed disembarkation into Tampa yesterday due to the fog.  We had already planned to do self assist disembarkation and we didn't get off the ship until 6:45pm.  The lines of people lined up to board at that time was madness considering 2,000 more people still needed to get off and collect their baggage.  I don't know what Royal told them but they came way too early, understandably they were upset about missing almost a full day but really there was no room for them yet. The construction at the port, darkness, zero crossing guards/crosswalks covered by construction walls, and broken elevators in the parking garage turned me off from ever cruising out of Tampa again, at least until the construction is complete and if there is a better traffic flow.  However, I thought Royal Caribbean and the crew handled the situation incredibly well on board and kept everyone informed - but the situation on the ground - yuck! The crew was amazing and from my view the passengers were understanding.  Interesting turn of events for sure!

We had a wonderful cruise and I hope everyone waiting to board got on safely and was able to enjoy their cruise, even with the severe delay. 

Not yet, but this is what we are planning for our stop in Grand Cayman in November.  We toured Bermuda by public transportation and had a great time.  I've found a couple of you tube videos on the bus (really vans) system in Grand Cayman, found a few articles on the routes and it seems completely doable.  We're thinking of taking the green or yellow line to the turtle center and then stopping at governor's beach on the way back, or skipping the turtle center and just going to the beach.  From what I read so far you can hop on/off anywhere along the rough and it's around 2.50 per person each way, and they take US money so we'll just plan to bring a bunch of small bills.  

Not sure when your cruise is but would love to know what you decided and how it went. 

17 hours ago, asilverman said:

Question about Bermuda 

Our next cruise will get us to diamond.  Cruising to Bermuda for the first time.
 

Anyone have suggestions on must see or do’s?  

We are in port for two days. Do we have to be back on board at a certain time the first night?

Thanks!

We just got back from out Bermuda/Bahamas cruise last weekend and we loved visiting Bermuda.  When staying overnight, you do not have to return at any certain time (the gangway is open all night).  Like others have mentioned, we bought the all day transportation pass, which includes bus and ferry.  We hopped on the #7 bus from Dockside to Horseshoe bay, spent a good amount of time there enjoying the beautiful beach (hint: walk left away from the crowds and you will feel like you have the place to yourself), changed into dry clothes (there are showers/changing rooms available), then we hopped back on the bus to tour the city of Hamilton.  From Hamilton we caught a really enjoyable ferry ride back to dockside.  Shops in Hamilton closed earlier than we expected, we were looking for ice cream around 5:30 and everything seemed to have closed at 5.  Not sure if it was just because it was a Saturday, but just something to be aware of. 

3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Ignore the "not accepted for all travel" message. That's there for places that require a PCR test only.

Ok, thanks.  Now I'm thinking I was reading too much into the "supervised antigen test" requirement,  really that is no different than the rapid antigen or rapid pcr, as long as it's not self-administered. Right?

I'm over thinking it and getting nervous about getting the wrong test and jeopardizing our cruise. 

Hi All, 

We sail away on our long awaited 9 night Bermuda/Bahamas cruise in just 9 days!! 

The last time we cruised, we did a rapid test in one of those booths at CVS and got our results emailed within an hour or two - quick and easy.  Now, Bermuda requires the PCR/NAAT test which takes 1-2 days for results to come in or a "supervised" antigen test.  I already booked our PCR tests, but I hate to wait 1-2 days for results, especially since the test is 2 days before embarkation.  CVS also offers the appointments for rapid antigen tests with a MinuteClinic provider, with results ready during appointment.   I'd rather do that one and get results right away but is this acceptable? 

Here's a screen shot of the acceptable tests from the Bermuda travel authorization:

and here's the test description from CVS:

what concerns me is that is says "not accepted for all travel"

Any advice from anyone who has been to Bermuda recently?

Thank you!!

14 hours ago, Carotthat said:

Additionally, the minors have the same C&A number as you until they become 18 (as the level from the parent).

I don't think this is true.  All of my minor children have had their own unique crown & anchor numbers since their first cruise.

1 hour ago, AspiringCruisePlanner said:

I'd try a different browser.  Coding for webpages works for some browsers and not others.  Form fields are a big one.  What browser are you using?

Genius - this worked! I tried it on my pc using chrome and it worked. Thanks!

1 hour ago, twangster said:

This URL 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/resources/vaccination-form

uses Month / Day / Year

 

As an example, for Dec 15, 1943 that would be

Yup, tried that too. Thanks for trying to help  

1 hour ago, AspiringCruisePlanner said:

I'd try a different browser.  Coding for webpages works for some browsers and not others.  Form fields are a big one.  What browser are you using?

Good idea - I am on a Mac.  Will try pc. 

Twice now I have received an email from Royal Caribbean requesting vaccination status prior to sailing (sail date 6/30).  Both times I tried to fill it out but their date field does not accept any date - even their own prefilled sailing date results in an error message after trying to submit! I tried all types of date formats, nothing works.  It is a no reply email address so responding does nothing.  I am not going to wait on hold for 2 hours for this. 

Any one else get this email and have similar issues?

Glad I found this post - traveling to Bermuda in June, family of six.  There goes $240. 

Following  for more updates -  after our extremely limited (1hour) experience with AO in November, we are really hoping for more normal operations in June. 

27 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

Since I was going to present my physical passport and vaccine card at check-in anyway, I decided to have everything printed so I don't have to have a phone on one hand and documents on the other.  I neatly organized everything in a document holder.

I love this genius idea.  I borrowed this idea and did the same for everyone in my family.  I used three hole punch document holders and kept them in a binder until it was time to check in, then everyone held onto their own through the checkin process.  It was great not having to flip through papers to find everything, all the information was neatly laid out. Will be doing this from now on. 

I think that person was wrong. Hope you have a wonderful time!

I was in a similar situation - cruised the week before Thanksgiving, prepaid for and selected photos, was told they would be emailed within a week. Nothing came.  I had wanted to use some of the photos for Christmas cards.  I emailed RoyalFocus@rccl.com twice explaining the situation and never received any response.  Finally I called Royal Caribbean, selected the option for help with a past cruise, waited a fair length, maybe 30 minutes before I got someone on the line.  She started to tell me they were having technical difficulties and it would come soon, check spam etc but I asked her to verify that they in fact had my order.  She put me on hold and discussed a bit back and forth with another department, only to come back to tell me I didn't purchase any.  I had the email confirmation number of the purchase, which I gave her - she put me on hold again.... finally came back to tell me they found it and she would see to it personally that they send me the link by the end of that week.  I was skeptical, but I got them the very next day. 

Lesson - be persistent and don't let them hang up until they verify all the details. 

Good luck.

41 minutes ago, Reigert2008 said:

YMMV, we were on the first sailing of the Explorer and the table next to us had 3 parties of two sitting together and they did not know each other.  We overheard them all discussing that they didn't know why they were all seated together.  Each party of two were adults and they all happened to be from Texas, but there were many empty tables around where they could have been spread out more.  It was all very weird, especially for the first sailing back.  

We never heard them determine why they were seated together and they stayed there for the whole week.  

 

For the original poster, I would certainly reach out to your travel agent.  They can tell you what size table you are at and put in a request for a table just for your party.  Once on the ship, go to your MDR location and they can show you your table and accommodate changes as needed.

This is true.  Last week on Mariner I overheard a group of 3 seated with another group of 5 who they were not traveling with.  Both parties were surprised and not at all happy.  At least for the first night, they were stuck together. 

Yes.  Last week on our cruise we were traveling with our 3.5 year old nephew.  That age group had almost unlimited access to the kids club compared to our older kids (8-11), which was extremely limited because there were so many more kids in that age group. Have fun!

We just got off Mariner of the Seas two days ago (4 kids ages 13, 10, 8, 8), and there were little to no "family activities" on board except one or two trivia activities in the morning or "take and make" craft types of things.  

We registered for Adventure ocean upon boarding and were given ONE HOUR, yes one little teeny hour to book for AO. We were told to check back frequently, which we did.  Finally on the third day they were no longer taking reservations and opened it up to "first come first served." Be warned though, parents were vicious trying to get their kids in to AO.  I was appalled at their behavior cutting in line, arguing, crowding.  Not worth it.  

We did have an amazing time together on the ship and the staff was amazing as usual, but I felt bad for them having to deal with such self entitled people.  We mostly hung out by the pool and had fun doing all the sports deck stuff like rock wall, water slides, etc.

We two more cruises booked in early 2022 and if things don't change we will cancel.

Are the actual passenger numbers of past cruises posted somewhere? How do we find out other than someone reporting who has been on that sailing? 

7 minutes ago, Jess4214 said:

You're welcome! Another tip that helped us, we were out of Port Miami but I assume it's the same process - When you're at the final part of check-in they handed us a paper to sign up for the debarkation test for the kids on the last day. This is only for 5+ night cruises. Sign up asap so you'll get the earliest time. Because we had Cococay on the last day we wanted to make sure it was taken care so we didn't lose out on any time at Cococay. We signed the kids up while we were waiting for their results and was able to get an appt at 7am for the debarkation covid test and off the ship right when  the gangway went down at 8am.

Awesome - I was wondering when we would get to schedule that test.  Our last day is also CoCo Cay so we definitely want the earliest time possible! Hopefully with our 11:30 boarding time we will be one of the first to sign up.  

And, after 90 minutes on the phone with royal, I learned that the boarding day PCR email has not been sent yet - cruise is in 8 days so I will be on the lookout!

Thanks!! Definitely didn't get that email- representative is working on sending me a new link. Phew!