Leikela

Terminal check in in 4 hours!!! Last min packing happening now while the kids are in school..haha they both refused breakfast this morning, telling me that they are saving space for their massive lunch Final schedule was confirmed with our Genie yesterday at 230pm that's living life dangerously for me hahah embarkation lunch will be at Coastal Kitchen today...n dinner at Chops..the temptation to get a steak will be very real at CK later but 2 steaks in 1 day...do I dare? Haha.. I will probably post mainly photos as we go along (promised the kids my full attention) and round up the night with a write up if I'm not in a food coma yet

Thanks @ReanReally yeah we mentioned to our Genie that we managed to secure a 1230pm slot when the earliest slot used to be 2pm. She confirmed that check in starts at 2pm so turning up at 1230pm would work just fine so that we could get the Antigen Rapid test done and then wait the hour for check-in.. Oh awesome lobster at Coastal Kitchen.. now that you have mentioned, I had better go check the menus and make sure that we are booked on the night where lobsters are on the menu ? PCR swab test went off without a hitch, and we got our results via the app on the 6th hour mark. Everyone is cleared and "Allowed to Travel" And now to start packing...48 more hours to go

We definitely want to try out the Chef's table.. it is currently available for purchase on Cruise Planner but our Genie informed us that they don't have any news of it being back on. Asked that she schedule us for a session should things change..I can't imagine them selling it on cruise planner but have no intentions to offer it esp this close to departure? In other food news, we have confirmation that the Seafood Tower is not on the menu anymore..*cries* And Wonderland is now available again..it was closed for the last few months I believe..think it just didn't make sense to keep that many speciality restaurants open for the limited capacity. However once in Wonderland is enough for us and the kids have decided that we are not repeating Wonderland. We were also told previously that takeaway was the only option for embarkation lunch but this has since change so we have a reservation at Coastal Kitchen for that..? It's Swab test day today for us..adults are feeling alittle paranoid abt the results..kids are just looking forward to it..how strange haha and DD8 has been counting down everyday for the last week...we have 'finalised' all our request with Eli and all we lack now is the proposed schedule and a negative test result and we are all set... 72 hours....here we go...

We have always book UDP with our kids..so we make the booking for all pax in the booking including the kids so that they know we are a table of 4 and would have secured our day 1 courtesy booking based on a table of 4 (I'm insecure like that haha) Once onboard, we will get a refund processed for the kids booking. They will essentially reverse the charges and only charge them $10 each. The kids will then have access to the kids menu at the speciality restaurants. The only tricky part for us is my kids absolutely do not like eating kids menu anywhere and would always throw us 'the why are u torturing us with the kids menu look'..once we tried to just keep them on the UDP and didn't head to customer service to reverse charges but the restaurant staff were so proactive that they told us they had already reversed the charges so we were kinda stuck with having them on the kids menu..lol..needless to say kids were not happy..

16 days to go! 13 to our pre cruise swab test and the kids have started their countdown! We have relinquished all planning to our Genie and I am trying to be as zen as possible. I keep repeating.."I only have to deal with our packing list, I only have to deal with our packing list" Our Genie has shared that there might be some changes to restaurant ops so there may be hope yet for restaurant lunch dining on embarkation day..we will wait for more news While booking for my spa session, I also noticed that Chef's table is available for booking so I'm hoping that this means Chef's table might be available for our sail date. *crossing fingers* Wondering if anyone might be able to share their experience if Chef's table would be worth our while if it becomes available or if we should stick to CK?

Yup same here..the seafood tower is missing from my Chopes menu on Quantum too..I have been meaning to ask my Genie about it but I keep forgetting...no seafood tower = more meals at CK for me...

Ah thanks! Good to know..anyway we still have time, given all the changes..who knows if we might even get more updates to take effect in early Sep.. I believe wonderland may still be closed..it is not listed in the restaurant opening hours she provided me That is true..just glad to be able to go on some semblance of a cruise holiday..its been too long..

I received a reply from Eli today and there are quite a few activities which are unavailable at this point in time.. Some of the things that we were thinking of doing eg. Chef's table, vintage wine tasting, bridge tour, bingo etc will not be available ? So we will have to see what else there is for us to do and have them prebooked where possible. The ifly and northstar is foc for suite guests for the 1st round and a special 1hr flow rider session will be arranged for star guests on Day 3. Shows are still pending because the ops team is still sorting out the schedules with all the recent changes in restrictions.. Restaurants are not opened for lunch on embarkation day and only takeaways are available so I'm checking if that means in suite dining is also a no go and we have to pick up our own takeaways I have a feeling we probably won't see a schedule until very very close to sail date..which is of course no fault of the Genie but just the way things are now..hahah can u tell its bugging the Planner in me ?

@LogicallyLazy yay that's great to know..I'm super type A too haha..now I'm just sitting on edge waiting for a reply.. I know they must really be quite busy now with the recent lift in restrictions and making changes to everyone's plan but how long did it typically take for her to get back to your emails? I'm just hoping the handover email didn't get lost in transit..haha

So we were reassigned a Genie due to the change in room...and we got Elli Wong for our new suite room.. @LogicallyLazyI believe you also worked with Elli in your trip.. Tao has basically handed us over to Elli and we are waiting on her replies to our 1st email... Hopefully we will hear back soon...

3 weeks to our Cruise and I have been checking my inbox every hour haha..finally the email from our Genie was sitting in my inbox this morning.. So we were assigned to Tao..not sure if anyone has worked with him/her..although I noticed the subject of the email has my old Suite number in Deck 8 (I just requested for a change to Deck 10) yesterday morning. So not sure if we will be reassigned a Genie based on that. Nevertheless, my long email of questions and requests has gone out. I feel alittle bad but hoping that this email would be able to sort out most doubts lol Attaching the welcome note which addresses some of the changes like the Genie and Loft attendant not being able to enter your suite when you are in there.. Also received a list of Suite benefits which are pretty standard.. Now we are just waiting for the menus and activities which are available for booking.. Also checking if kids club is open at this point..not sure how they would be able to be operational with the current group of 5 restrictions..might be a tad complicated so we shall see if the husband n I will get to enjoy a spa session or not ?

Looks like our decision to stay on this cruise might be paying off... Announcements were made last night on restaurants in Singapore being allowed to resume operations from 18 Aug and dine in is allowed for those who are vax, in groups of up to 5. So based on earlier experiences, RC typically follows the local rule and that would likely mean they too would open their restaurants and apply the same rules..at the very least, they have up the cruise capacity from 25% to 50% again. So hopefully economies of scale would allow them to open up their menus again.. Waiting to see if RC makes an update soon or if we hear anything more... Still no sound from our Genie.. 26 days out but I reckon any day now after this round of announcements dropped last evening?

Excited for u!! We are heading on the Quatum..star class Grand Loft as well in 30 days ? I would hope to have some answers for u when we get back but service may differ for ours because of covid n the current restrictions in Singapore so hopefully some of the other experts will be able to share some answers with u..I'm curious too..good questions esp on the bar orders .. Btw Apr 2023...BNE to Hawaii..hahaha u are giving me ideas...how very tempting!!!

So I think we have more or less decided to stay on our cruise..? There is a real chance that restrictions might be eased by the time our cruise rolls around and if not for everyone then at least for those who are vaccinated.. We are currently 36 days out, no contact from our Genie yet but I suspect we may hear from him or her prob alittle later than usual as everyone waits to see what we can and can't do closer to deoarture. Glad we have a Genie this time to cater to all the last min changes/bookings..which I'm pretty sure that will be in this current situation In other news, I have placed my Royal Upgrade bids..and the temptation is there to revise it everyday..?

Agree, my main hesitation is that while the speciality restaurants are still available for Star Class to order from, I understand that it will be a limited menu. Then again I have read from other cruisers experience during the recent similar May/June experience that they are willing to accommodate special orders from SC guests..I suppose it may come down to the Genie n ur request too.. Also while bars are closed for 'drink in, I heard that u are still allowed to order and take away and they do deliver the drink orders to SC suites..so not that bad? Hahah do I sound like I'm abt to justify my choice of remaining on this trip Then again, who knows they just might auto cancel my booking and the choice would be out of my hands. Because the restrictions is 25% capacity and 2 per room (for now) except for people living in the same household. I heard that they would auto cancel bookings that have more than 4 pax. System probably isn't smart enough to differentiate between families with young kids or a party of 4. @WAAAYTOOO yeah I was looking at alternatives.. with early Nov being a possible time but then again there is no guarantee that we will not be back in this vicious loop..:( I'm ok with eating in suite, just bugged out by the limited menu.. Aww it sux that u had to cancel ur SC trip too..sigh

So conflicted...on 1 hand I suppose if u had to be travelling in these 'conditions', Star class would at least make things alittle more 'normal'...on the other hand, is it really worthwhile? ? Poll time...would you guys continue on if u were me?

Yeah I was reading through the experiences in May and Jun, to figure out the impact. I saw our most likely case scenario would likely be that dine in is still disallowed but able to move abt in groups of 5.. It wld be a downer to move in grps of 2..since there are 4 of us..now I'm trying to figure out if we are OK dealing with limited menu..no issues with dining in since we have a suite but will a scaled down menu take the fun out of all of it? Sigh...alternatively we have to rebook to nxt year? Since we are already booked for genting dream cruises in Dec..:(

We received our Royal Upgrade invite this morning..sharing the email screenshot to show the entry bid from GLS to OLS and RLS. I was about to place my bids but we just received news of tighter Covid restrictions in our country again which will take place until Aug 18 for now. The last time this happened in May, I cancelled my Jun cruise and rebook for Sep. Given I was in the Grand suite in June and in the Grand Loft Suite this time, it may not be too bad to continue on with the cruise but I don't know.. On 1 hand, we might now have a better chance of scoring an upgrade because of cancellations and further reduced capacities. On the other hand, if we do decide to cancel, I'm not sure that they will refund our bid amount if it is already processed? We will definitely still get our original cruise payment as FCC but can't be sure about the bid amount so I'm just waiting and trying to see if I can find out more about the experiences of other fellow Suite cruisers who traveled the Quantum in May/June. I really want to make a case for just going in Sep, I just need a break already...

Same here..we will be on Star Class next month with our kids 8 and 9 yo. They have been on cruises before but first time on Star class. They typically go to the kids club at least once while daddy and mummy head to the spa. But with covid, we know there are capacity restrictions on kids club numbers so waiting to see what those are and if we will get first dibs through our Genie...we will report back on any special kids experiences ?

Woo Congrats on that upgrade!!! We are also booked on the Quantum in Sep and staying in the GLS but will definitely still try my hand at the Royal Upgrade... Thanks for the info too! Good to know about the possibility of last min changed and that the iFLY is foc for the first round?

Oh thanks that's really good to know. I forsee deciding at least a couple of hours before so this is perfect! Haha and your pic just made me really hungry..I think I need a steak this weekend..

Thanks! More reading material yay! Yes, I was thinking of providing a list of must dos and what we would like to eat and how many times etc..and then leaving the genie to schedule them. For once, perhaps I can get a sense of what my husband goes through before a trip.. Actually my main concern or area of interest now is really how flexible the meal arrangements can be. We will likely book all or if not most meals to dine at the restaurants but I suspect we might at the last moment prefer to stay and dine in suite. Wonder how late in these changes can be made

Haha thanks for reading! Yeah I wonder if I'll still micromanage or if I'll finally be able to let loose (I doubt though, the planner in me is itching to give our genie a plan but I need to resist) Right now...I've just finished planning my reply for the questionnaire ? yes I have taken down notes of everyone's answers and am about to send them through..

Royal Genie Questionaire received!! 51 days out! Is it weird that I'm savouring the moment before I hit the "See my questionnaire" button. Worried that it will be gone too soon and it will be awhile until I see another royal genie email in my inbox...?

I have been reading your live blog for genie request inspiration and also to get a gauge on what to expect ? so far no news from my genie yet...and we are 53 days out.. tick tock tick tock ?