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!

1 hour ago, MaryCS62 said:

I haven't cruised yet, but I imagine it is the same as having any other non vaccinated child in your party.  Under 12 unvaccinated must get tested (PCR), under 2 don't have to wear a mask, and if there are any unvaccinated in the party, all are considered unvaccinated in those instances and may leave the ship only on sponsored excursions. 

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. 

45 minutes ago, Sjbravo said:

So have been searching for how many formal nights and when

On a 7-night cruise, formal nights are typically Nights 2 and 6, I believe. 

45 minutes ago, Sjbravo said:

Also not sure if I shoukd call cruiseline about my time dining.  I dont remember booking my time dining with kids but have been seeing posts regarding being unable.. both kids are under 12 but fully vaccinated

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. 

26 minutes ago, tonyfsu21 said:

IMHO it’s time RC starts adding designated smoking lounges completely closed off much like the cigar bars of the past. The smoking area on the pool deck is out of place where it is. At a minimum they should have set it up in a less trafficked area and away from all the kids running around by the pool. The walkers, breathing apparatus and smoke plumes are unpleasant at best. 

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.

2 hours ago, leesam82 said:

I agree with you. Although I wasn't on the odyssey, I was on the Anthem, and for some reason even though I was on Anthem at reduced capacity vs when I was on Allure at full capacity, I don't know why I felt like Anthem's esplanade felt congested. I don't know if its the angle at the pub that cuts into your sight lines. 

 

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. 

2 hours ago, Ms white said:

suddenly inexplicably

I can think of a few explicables…

1 hour ago, Gary Watson said:

 

I'm thinking of trying a hack on my voyage in a week - before boarding, use your phone to get your watch's WiFi address from General/About - should be 12 hex characters.  Get the same thing from your laptop.  Write these down.  Turn off wifi on your laptop, watch, and phone before boarding.  Once aboard, set your laptop's WiFi address to be the same as what you wrote down for the Apple Watch, then use laptop to log into the service on the boat and get past the captive portal.  Turn off your laptop's WiFi.  Turn on your watch's WiFi, and if this hack works, it will be able to access the usual internet-related services.  If you need to use your laptop, turn off the WiFi on your Apple Watch first, then turn on the WiFi on the laptop.  As long as only one of them is on at a time, this might work.  All of this is only necessary because the Apple Watch does not provide a way to get past the login screen - it really ought to be something Royal adds to their App, so you could for example use texting from your watch while on CocoCay without having to lug your phone around.

Note that you need a laptop that is capable of setting any desired WiFi address.  On the Mac you go to Terminal then sudo ifconfig en0 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

Note that rebooting the Mac resets the WiFi (MAC) address back to the HW defaults.

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. 

2 hours ago, BrianB said:

Plus, I saw many instances where people would rather wait for another elevator because of the six people rule

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. 
 

13 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Dinner time! We decided to change things up a bit, tired and don’t really feel like putting ourselves together lol.

Coastal Kitchen with a twist….

Caesar Salad - CK

Crispy Pork Belly - CK

One of my favourite appetizers 

This is from Izumi. Never ordered it, Hubby ate it anyway and he ended up liking it.  Don’t know what it is though. 

Chicken Karage - Izumi

We also didn’t order this. Must be a mix up or part of the SC food coma package

Filet mignon - CK 

This one I ordered!
 

 

Yaki Udon - Izumi 

One of Hubby’s favourites 

Red Velvet Cheesecake - Chops

Now my heart and tummy are happy! 

 

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

1 hour ago, BrianB said:

On the Anthem...day 8 of a 12 day cruise...

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. 

6 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

So, we have 3 SC live blogs going at the same time ?  Woohoo !

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

11 minutes ago, Matt said:

The slowest time moves is....

1. The few hours before check-in time on cruise day while stuck in your hotel room
2. The week before your cruise
3. Any of your kids' recitals/concerts

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

30 minutes ago, IzzyB said:

I was more thinking to allow more capacity they could have vax and unvax sessions for AO.  The vax wouldn't have to social distance and therefore they could increase how many attend that session.

I don't care about the mixing, I just don't like what some have said about how strict they are with social distancing in AO and how hard it is to even get a slot there. 

Honestly this will be our last cruise with RC unless they start mandating vaccines for all those that can.  It makes AO very hard compared to other cruiselines.  My son should be able to get vaccinated early next year and then at that point we can go on other cruiselines which I will do instead.  RC seems to have zero plan to handle the mix of unvaxed and vaxed kids with the social distancing and reduced capacity yet I am hearing my holiday cruise may be at 80% which is NOT what the CEO originally stated.  He said December would be 65%.  So I am all around a little disappointed in all of this.  You can't increase to 80% and still have the same protocols in place.

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. 

12 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I don't know how they could have a vax/unvax section in AO, unfortunately.

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

5 hours ago, D Alt said:

did you have to go through "customs" on the return in Jersey?  I was wondering if i buy some alcohol in Nassau, will i have to declare it. probably only one bottle anyway. 

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. 

1 hour ago, Traveler said:

Chef's table came back to Symphony , still not advertised but we were encounter by someone that offer it for us with 20% discount. Since it was my spouse birthday we jumped on the offer as we both love it. The meeting was in Vintage and after that we were escorted to a table in the solarium. I think the location is much better than the previous one in CK. The table is limited to six people. We two other nice couple and allot of chats and good laugh. As always I think the most important thing in Chef's table is the company.

 

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. 

1 hour ago, Traveler said:

The table is limited to six people. We two other nice couple and allot of chats and good laugh. As always I think the most important thing in Chef's table is the company.

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:

4 minutes ago, Pamp said:

How are they assigning tables in the correct area for traditional seating if they are not marking people.  They do this ahead of time, correct?

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.

21 minutes ago, joshvc said:

Sailing this weekend, so I asked about this via their facebook team yesterday and was told they're not marking people anymore, just bring the vaccination record to the port and they'll handle it there. 

I did go ahead and accept the appointment for the on-site test for the kiddo, but expect to bypass it as he reached 14 days from the 2nd dose yesterday.

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. 

7 hours ago, IzzyB said:

am super curious about AO kids and wondering how they will handle vaxed kids and non-vaxed since the strict rules are not needed for vaxed.

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