Nate Y

I kind of prefer him playing to the bar than in an elevator. 😅 Maybe I'd think differently if I actually shared an elevator with him, but I'd rather be able to get where I want to go than find out my elevator is already full with three people and a piano.

Maybe I have a soft spot for lounge piano, maybe the tequila made me a soft audience, but I enjoyed listening to Sam the Stowaway on my recent trip on Indy.  Anyone else enjoy his performances?  I'm a little disappointed he doesn't seem to have any online presence.

The 2 blaring things I see screaming out in there are 
 
For cruise ship operators opting into CDC’s COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships, CDC will continue to exercise enforcement discretion regarding the requirements of its January 29, 2021, Mask Order, applicable to operators of, and crew and passengers on board, cruise ships.
and 
 
Vaccination Standard of Excellence: ships with at least 95% passengers and 95% crew who are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines.  
“UP TO DATE” meaning you have to be BOOSTED as many times and the CDC decides they want you to be boosted to be “up to date”
 
If Royal goes along with this, I’ll probably be done cruising until everything goes back to the Pre-Covid experience!  I’ve had 3 Pfizer shots and had covid …… I’m done with the vaccine FOREVER and will never take another shot!  I’m also done booking trips that require masks in vaccinated areas  …… if that comes back again, I’m done as well!
 

I don't have much to compare it to but I cruised last week and thought the food on the Windjammer was average to above-average for buffet fare. Tried corned-beef hash for the first time and loved it.  We closed the Windjammer on disembarkation day, we could hardly stop eating.

They moved our time up on us, which wasn't ideal at first but since our Jetski excursion was cancelled due to low tide and high chop, it worked out anyway.
We gathered past the dock at on the far end of Cocokay and after a short boat ride we arrived at the dock in a simple island in development where we could see some pigs frolicking on the beach.  We sat at a comfortable picnic deck and our guide gave us a clear safety briefing and showed us what can happen if you're careless via the pinky finger he had lost.  We we're told we couldn't take pictures on the beach but they would later bring the pigs up to take pictures with us.
On the beach we were given wooden skewers and bits of apples and were soon standing among about 20 pigs of various ages.  Our task was to lure the pigs to the water and make them swim to bite the apple off the skewer, as apparently they love the apples and need the exercise.  The larger pigs get jealous of the little ones and will try to snatch them, and the little ones are reluctant to get into the water, so we had to try hard to spread the love around evenly.
Unsurprisingly, the pigs didn't hesitate to make a mess of the beach, but I give kudos to the staff who were fast to clean it up.  I expected that aspect to be far worse than it was.
We stayed on the beach maybe a half hour, feeding pigs until we got tired of doing so and having pictures taken by their on site photog.  Someone could probably take fair photos of the beach from the deck if they had a good optical zoom if they wanted.  I was disappointed in the end when we got back to the deck and there was no meeting with the pigs as previously promised.  One of us should have spoke up, but nobody did.
Regardless, we had fun and my pig-loving wife was very happy.  4/5 Stars.  Do suggest.  Any questions feel free to ask.

I don't have much to compare it to but I cruised last week and thought the food on the Windjammer was average to above-average for buffet fare. Tried corned-beef hash for the first time and loved it.  We closed the Windjammer on disembarkation day, we could hardly stop eating.

I'm afraid your travel advisor gave you incorrect information. There's no pattern at all to the drink package prices.
My advice is to book as soon as you know you want the drink package to lock in the price.
If the price goes down later, you can cancel and rebook the drink package with no penalty and then instantly rebook under lower price.
If prices goes up, you already locked in the lower price.
 

Crowd sourcing a name can backfire.
“Boaty McBoatface of the Seas”  anyone? 
 
I don’t see a disclaimer at the bottom where Royal Caribbean reserves the right to reject all suggestions. 
 
oops no spot to make suggestion, bummer
 

I'd be glad to! Be back in about a week!

For background, after I separated from the military, I worked at two Atlantic City casinos on the overnight shift as I worked through college.  Here is my biggest tip, and I cannot stress this enough.  If you are fortunate enough to hit a big jackpot, CLAIM YOUR WINNINGS AND WALK AWAY IMMEDIATELY. I have witnessed more self-destructive decision making after hitting big than I could possibly begin to explain.  Probably most egregious, I saw a 23 year old kid hit the progressive jackpot at a Caribbean Stud Poker table.  Just under $300K.  Immediately they comped the kid a suite, treated him and his friends as huge high rollers, offered him a private table with his own personal cocktail server, top shelf liquor, etc., etc.  Long story short, what started out as, "What the heck, I'm playing with house money, let's go ahead and enjoy this" ended up with him a few grand in the hole by the time the sun came up.  Casinos can be fun and entertaining as long as you play with what you plan to lose, but they're not built on winners.

Bet max on the wackiest machines in the casino that nobody dares play. I’m talking about the hello kitty machines or the Tabasco sauce machines or anything that does not attract people. The casino royale players club program is as disorganized as they come. Nobody (especially the land based reps) knows anything about it and two phone calls will yield opposite answers. With that being said, if you lay some cash on the table and gamble some money you may get some decent comps. Like many other players on this forum, I get some decent suites for what most people pay for balcony staterooms.

My Freedom cruise was doing hot breakfast for no room service charge for everyone. I believe implemented this on some ships that don't have as many breakfast dining options for social distancing reasons -- i.e. to avoid everyone cramming into the Windjammer at the same time. I haven't seen the offer on the Oasis class ships since the restart. It was listed in the Cruise Compass on my Freedom cruise. 

I take it the Mimosas under the American column incur a fee just as the rest of the American breakfast items regardless of my drink package?  Had to ask.

It’s been a while since we participated in a poker tournament but as far as I can recall, buy-in was $100 with some re-buys possible.  As far as competition, there’s just no way to anticipate that.  My experience is that there are usually a couple of good players and a couple of lucky ones to deal with.
These are satellite tournaments for the Royal Poker Tournament that has traditionally been played in early December.  All of the tournament winners come together in Dec for the final tourney.  Dan won one of the satellites a number of years ago and we went to the finals.  It was fun.  He went out in the first round so we got to relax and enjoy the rest of the cruise !
Whether or not they actually give away a free cruise and entry into the final tourney depends on how many people sign up for the satellite tourney.  If they do not get enough participation they will just award cash prizes and nobody from that sailing goes to the finals.

Yes it is still available,  not only that but on Indy the hot breakfast didn't have a charge. I had breakfast delivered 2 mornings to enjoy on my balcony. Regular room service will incur the fee.

My brother and his family rencently went on a cruise. 
my sister-in-law tested positive for covid at the airport. My brother and his 2 daughters tested negative.
They received a call from dept of Health Florida and requested vaccine proof for all familly members.
His wife has to quarantine for 11 days.
10yr old only received  her 1st shot so she counts as not vaxed. They said she has to stay in the U.S to quarantine for 5 days.
16yr old had her 2nd shot in July 2021. She is also to quarantine in the U.S for 5 days as it has been more than 6 months since her 2nd shot.  The agent emailed my brother the cdc guidance concerning the 6 month thing. 
My brother was the only one that was allowed to returned.
If he would have known about the 6 month thing, they would have never left for a cruise vacation.
Good thing we have familly in Lake Placid FL
He also mentioned both Symphony and Rhapsody of the seas were getting ready to dock at CoCo Cay when Freedom was leaving to sail back to Miami 

Order early so they arrive by Christmas.

This is for residents of the US only.  It will be limited to 4 tests per home.  Beyond that not a lot of information available so these probably will not be useful for travel but who knows till they start shipping.  I will be putting in an order even if it's just to have some on hand that can be used for my own information.
 
https://www.covidtests.gov/ 

Actually, I'd view it the opposite. They've now "reset" everything right before your cruise.

I don't see the worrying aspect.
The charter companies cancelled their charters because they never sold out the ships and were having some booked guests cancel.  So they ran away from their charters not because of level of virus on board, but because they couldn't make any money during a pandemic.  That left Royal with an odd 2 night sailing that was in between the two charters.  
Understand when a company charters the full ship, it's on them to sell it.  Royal just performs the cruise, all the work to book guests is on the charter company.  While Royal is willing to operate at reduced capacity, the charter companies don't want to, so they bailed.  
If anything I think it's a good omen for you.  The ship is going out of service for 10 days.  That's 10 days to keep crew away from each other and most important there will be no guests bringing the virus on board for 10 days.  Come the 24th the ship should be in great shape.  Like pre-Omi shape.  The 31st shouldn't be much different.  Plus if Omi is winding down, 10 days from now will be that much further into Omi downturn.  

Some of the February sailing are also marked as SOLD OUT and have been removed from ability to search them.  Haven't looked at any March yet

that's like the Hail Mary of last-second cruise rebookings.  good work! 

Next 3 Symphony are cancelled per passengers onboard that just got announcement from the Captain. Jewel and Serenade have cancellations too. 
 
Hope this all blows over quickly 

41 out of 1.1 million going to the hospital.
 
I wonder what the pre-covid hospitalization for any cause rate was. Probably not much different than that.