MattG

August 2021: Booked Anthem for December 2021 sailing September 2021: Purchased DBP in Pre-Cruise Planner for $50/day October 2021: DBP floated between $50/day and $62/day November 2021: Black Friday Sale had DBP at $50/day, but also had DBP+1 VOOM Surf & Stream for $59/day. Ended up canceling original DBP and buying the DBP+VOOM Bundle. December 2021: Cruise!

This is accurate. You cannot leave the ship when in port unless on an excursion - Coco Cay is an exception, everyone is free to come and go. If you want to explore a port of call, you can drop your child off at Royal Babies and Tots.

I was wondering why Enchantment was in port two days in a row on my commute! Glad to see her, though I miss seeing Grandeur in her place.

Was just on Quantum’s sister ship, Anthem. I will second the votes for the indoor pool as well as Two70 - in Two70 there’s been seating right up next to the aft windows.

I know it’s Christmas Eve so things are thrown off, but i did one of the Binax eMed tests this morning (0815 Eastern) and waited about 3 minutes for the initial proctor, and 1 minute for the follow up.

On a 7-night cruise, formal nights are typically Nights 2 and 6, I believe. Fully vaccinated children are not subject to any restrictions, as far as I know. You can MTD with them without issue. Semi-related, because kids: If they participate in Adventure Ocean, they will interact with other children who may be unvaccinated. Everyone in AO over 2 years old must be masked at all times.

Following! We are on Oasis in October, and strongly considering UDP.

There's one of these on Anthem, outside Deck 4/5 on the port side. An enclosed glass area just for smokers. There's another smoking area on Anthem next to the hot tubs right at the entrance to the indoor pool, and it's a constant wall of smoke when you enter/exit. It was a real pain every time we went in and out.

You know, I noticed this too on Anthem. The Esplanade isn’t very large, it’s only a few shops in length from the pub to the steps near Boleros, plus it has a kiosk/retail island in the middle. The pub/music hall really does break up what could be an epic shopping space. Don’t get me wrong, I love the pub and the music hall, it’s just an…interest architectural choice.

I can think of a few explicables…

A fellow nerd emerges I'd love to know if this works. My concern is how much the watch prioritizes its comms to the phone and ignores inputs from other interfaces unless the phone is disconnected. The WiFi on the ship is also very spotty, not nearly reliable enough to trust for Siri when it comes to non-local commands/transcription. As much as it sucks to lug your phone around sometimes, keeping the phone as the "WiFi-enabled device" and then peering the watch from the phone worked perfect for me. For things like the pool or hot tub, I left my phone in a draw-string bag on a nearby chair, and the watch never lost connection. The only times I was truly out of range is in the ocean at Coco Cay, or if I ran to the bar for a drink.

Same here! We were a party of six, and it took a bit longer to get an elevator, but we always found an empty one. Very rarely did someone join our elevator party, they mostly went "I'll just grab another, no worries!" Team Anthem!

Nobody knows.

Don’t worry about the watch. Disable cellular on it (and your iPhone) once you get on board. The watch’s default behavior is to tether to the phone. There’s no way to utilize the on-board WiFi on the watch since it’s behind a captive portal. When out of range from your phone, the watch will just be a watch with all info from the last time it saw the phone. When it gets back in range, you may get a minor flood of notifications.

Holy hell it’s like a “Best Of…”, and it’s only Day 1!

Not gonna lie, I peeped at the MDR menu in the Royal app on your cruise, and there are things I wish we had on the 7-day itinerary menu! Wish I could have tried the Coq au Vin, Beef Duo, Bay Scallop Gratin, Shrimp and Lobster Bisque, Beef Bourguignon, etc.

Who’s the third? @Lovetocruise2002 on Allure, @Jax on Oasis, and…?

Add to this, “waiting for in-terminal COVID test results for your kids” - the ship is RIGHT THERE! LETS GOOOOO (to the bar)!

We got off Anthem last week, and there was zero social distancing in AO, only masking. We had no objection to this. There were still capacity limits, and I personally believe that's driven by staffing shortages.

You can't, to be honest. The spaces aren't set up for that, and it would stretch staffing real thin (it's already thin to begin with). The only way it becomes vaccinated is if the entire ship is vaccinated

We didn’t have to fill out any forms, or really do any kind of passport control. When we got off the ship, and got back into the terminal, we were routed down the same corridor that suite guests use during embarkation, turned right, and we’re at our luggage pick up. We snagged a porter, and got all of our bags. We were then directed to a line that had a camera on a stick. Each person had to stop and smile for the camera for a moment, and that was the extent of our customs experience. We then went to our car and drove home.

Okay, i'm so glad you posted this. We did Chef's Table on Anthem last week, and had the same dishes, but a dramatically different preparation. Our scallop carpaccio was only 6-8 slices of scallop, versus an entire plate on yours! Our lobster salad was unimpressive, while yours looks decadent This really makes me think that while the Chef's Table menu is fixed across the fleet, the chef's are open to interpret preparation on an individual basis. This really underscores Chef's Table on one ship may be different than on another, even with the same menu. Ours was 14 people in a private room in Chops. I agree, the company you make at Chef's Table is the best part of the meal! Here's our Chef's Table experience from last week:

A clarifying point - I think there's a difference between the pre-cruise check-in process and the on-board experience: The pre-cruise check-in process still differentiates vaccinated and unvaccinated, as it influences who has to upload vaccine info, and who needs a pre-boarding test. This is still in effect. This would also influence MDR seating assignments. The on-board experience does NOT differentiate between vaccinated and unvaccinated - this is enforced on-board via wristbands. This would influence V* vs E* activities. For example, I never received a warning when I tried to book myself and an unvaccinated traveler in V*-only activity (North Star). I didn't follow through to the end of the booking, but there was never an "ineligible" flag. I DID recieve an "ineligible" flag when I tired to book bumper cars a second time, or sign up someone for iFly/North Star/bumper cars that didn't qualify due to age. This tells me the Royal app has the capability for ineligibility, but they're not enforcing it from the perspective of vaccination status.

The Facebook team's response matches my experience last week. As for the on-site test, you did the right thing. When you enter the port, you should be able to show everyone's vax card, get a bracelet, and bypass testing entirely. You may want to mention you made the appointment but will be skipping it, just on the off-chance they get to the end of the day and notice a no-show test appointment for a guest already onboard and someone hits the panic button.

There’s no separation of vax’d and unvax’d kids in AO. Everyone plays together.