GKMCruising

On 9/16/2021 at 10:41 AM, JLMoran said:

With scenario 2, I think what will happen is the same as if you brought a bottle from your cabin to the MDR, or bought it there; they will seal and store the bottle with your cabin number noted, and you can request it from any other venue when you want to have another glass.

@adwo41 See above. I wouldn't know for sure, as I don't drink, but I can't imagine them letting you take the whole bottle back to the room.

48 minutes ago, SeaDog22 said:

Hi, we are sailing next week and we’re wondering if the 50 photos package was worth spending the money on.   Do they really take that many pictures? Aside from formal nights and at the ports, are there other candid photos usually? Thanks

There are.. *if* you seek them out. That said, I personally wouldn't pre-buy a photo package unless it was crazy cheap or I was planning to sail with a big group and take tons of photos. The only sailing I've ever bought the photos on was my honeymoon. 

22 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

7-8 figures

http://www.royalcaribbeanincentives.com/full-ship-charter-faqs/

Oof. That *would* explain the cost I've seen for guest pricing on charters. I get the idea of an "exclusive" experience, but paying $2k+ per person for an inside cabin kinda blows my mind.

23 minutes ago, Jim D said:

Grand Cayman just announced on October 14 that they are extending their cruise ship ban Until February 2022. My question is why have none of itineraries been changed for ships that are selling within the next 3 to 4 weeks and why are they continuing to sell cruises listing Grand Cayman as a destination that is only lying to people who may particularly want to go to that island 

You answered your own question - they *just* announced it on the 14th. Royal simply hasn't had time to update their site, most likely.

2 hours ago, Chili said:

I believe Royal Caribbean are transferring Ovation’s crew to other ships so they can hang on to them.

Can confirm, I just checked in with our waiter from Ovation, she said she's getting a transfer to Allure for at least another week.

16 minutes ago, starbrat said:

My family and I booked Star class for Oasis in April. This will be our first time cruising with Royal as well as Star Class. I recently surprised my brother in law and his family, my mother in law, as well as Hubby’s best friend. I paid everyone’s cruise fair. They all have balcony rooms and will love it! We have a total of 10 (possibly 12 head nurse won’t know if she can get time off till January) 

Here is my question.  I know Star class is unlimited specialty dining. Booking balcony I know my inlaws and family friends will not have it. I am currently looking at the dining packages for everyone. Will the specialty dining rooms have room to accommodate a party of 12? I would love to keep us all together for dinners. 

If we do end up in the MDR will our genie help put us all together? 

I've definitely seen large parties of 8+ in the MDR, so I wouldn't imagine there'd be any issues getting a party of 12 accomodated in there. No clue on specialty restaurants though - some of the venues honestly don't look big enough to have a 12 top table set up, honestly. 

5 minutes ago, twangster said:

I'm thinking more of the crew on their first contract working on a cruise ship.  Oh boy.  

That's one hell of an initiation. Baptism by fire, more or less, though I'm sure they're at least a pleasant bunch.

2 minutes ago, twangster said:

Not sure.  I've guessing some charter group guests might bring their own supplies.  

Don't you know the people working the luggage scanners get a good chuckle out of that charter...

I wonder how often the random ropes used to block off areas on the pool deck go "missing" on that cruise?

Oddly enough, I'm hanging out with friends from college this weekend and he just showed us the following video. Small world.

4 minutes ago, KristiZ said:

If you’re dining together you would combine your total credit. They’re going to assume you’re sharing everything you order. 

I'm assuming the same applies at Playmakers as well - as long as it's all on the same bill I suppose it doesn't really matter which person orders what, the credit is all the same.

39 minutes ago, twangster said:

Plus Royal adopts the port of call rules.  I can't imagine the state of Florida is going to say that unvaccinated can't off the ship 

Yeah, I was *hoping* that would have allowed us out of the tour bubble in Alaska... no such luck. Then again, Alaska and Florida aren't exactly comparable.

16 minutes ago, JSB_Z51 said:

YEEEESSSS! Ramen and some pork buns too!

You mentioned pork buns, and now I really want to see them do a full dim sum restaurant.

Gotta love IT humor.

29 minutes ago, CrimsonCruiser said:

Yuuuus! It was almost never something I did for dinner pre pandemic but I swear 3 separate occasions on our last cruise I was seriously wishing I could go! Glad to see it's coming back around

We didn't typically go for dinner, but it gave another option for grabbing a snack outside of Sorrento's and Cafe Promenade. Will definitely be nice to have it back open again.

14 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

The US doesn't appear to embrace Indian cuisine which is a shame.

Agreed, Indian food is delicious. I had goat curry once at a little mom 'n' pop Indian buffet near me, absolutely incredible.

45 minutes ago, barjpoe said:

We'll be on Allure in a month, and going to try it. Yeah, I can see your point about the salad bar. Take a little, and would like small portions of meat. HaHa! 

That's been my experience the one or two times I've been to a Brazilian steakhouse. They try to fill you up on salad and the "cheap" cuts before they start bringing the good stuff out.

1 hour ago, JSB_Z51 said:

I'd like to see a high quality Brazilian Rodizio.  We live to eat and it's quite possible that we have been known to plan vacations and cruises around restaurant reservations lol.  That said, we often turn regular a la carte meals into family style meals where we all try each other's dishes so I would really love to see a Spanish Tapas experience.   Also Love the OP's idea of Korean BBQ.

Lastly but likely less practical, a dessert venue would great along the lines of Italian and French pastries, espresso, capacinno, and after dinner drinks.  

Getting hungry writing this.

Ooh, yeah, a tapas place would be fantastic. I was also sad when I realized that they took out the noodle restaurant on Ovation and switched it for a fish and chip shop when they moved it to Alaska.

Is there really any question?

4 hours ago, EJK said:

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the trip report - we are sailing on Mariner in November with our kids - so the kid related info was very helpful.  On our last cruise, we enjoyed activities in the evening like trivia and silent disco  - are kids who are not vaccinated allowed in those areas? I know places like schooner bar and casino are off-limits, so I was wondering about this.  Thanks!

I know on our sailing on Ovation, most of the large evening activities such as the theme parties and silent disco were vax only, unfortunately.

2 hours ago, CrznTxn said:

I think I was on that Ovation Alaska cruise. They closed the Solarium pools and whirlpools due to the rock and roll. Was the only time they were empty and I could not get in! We were having a lot of fun watching people walk down the corridors.

I think you were a few weeks later than we were - our sailing was September 10th. But either way, yeah, watching people try to walk a straight line on seas like that is incredibly entertaining. I definitely almost walked into the pool deck door when I was going out to take that picture at night.

From someone on CC:

I was concerned because we have an accessible cabin booked as my mom is mobility impaired. I emailed my TA right away and asked her what the scoop was and if she could help us not get moved to a regular cabin. She said that these changes will not affect those in accessible cabins and as for everyone else they may or may not get moved at all, but if they do it should be to the same type of cabin, just a different local. 

32 minutes ago, Matt said:

I'll just add after having my kids do a covid test at the terminal last week (and same when I had the test for Adventure in Nassau), it is the last thing I want to do if I can avoid it. 

Testing at the terminal is just a lot of wasted time that I could spend enjoying the ship.  I'd much rather take time when I have nothing better to do to get the test done at home than at the terminal.

Just my experience with terminal testing.

Agreed. Having to sit for an hour with my daughter and wait on her test results is time I'd have much rather spent on board.

9 minutes ago, twangster said:

Cruise lines are not going to do terminal tests for everyone.  It costs a fortune and it doesn't scale to thousands of guests. The time doesn't work when you are talking thousands and there isn't enough space in most terminals for thousands and thousands.  

True - for them to do terminal tests they'd basically have to use one that was instant-read, no waiting needed, almost like a pregnancy test.

10 minutes ago, twangster said:

The ultra cheap home tests have high false positive rates too. 

On the one hand, better than high false negatives that would allow cases to get onboard undetected, but also terrible for those who would get turned away for no reason.

2 hours ago, twangster said:

The vision of the current administration is for every home in America to a have pack of tests in the closet.  They want the tests to be down to the $1-$2 mark and have no use for a proctored test.  The goal is so that if little Suzie isn't feeling well the parents test her and can decide if she should go to school that day.  That's the vision or target.

They don't care if 0.1% of the population needs a proctored test to go on a cruise.  That's not the target for the test they envision.  So if Abbott doesn't get the test subsidized by the federal government are they really going to ramp up production?  Time will tell.  

I would *hope* that if the tests are that cheap, we could bypass the proctored test nonsense and simply be trusted to do a home swab ourselves. Royal could then test everyone at the port as well - if you lied on the home swab, you're gonna get caught at the port, and now you're out at least whatever money you spent to get to the port as "punishment", even if they give you a refund on your cruise fare.