Swar

I've had this happen. Sometimes, the balconies are gone and they put me in a OV or interior. This happens a lot on the Serenade. Most other ships, I am fine. I also try to combine my wife's offer with mine to get a Jr. Suite - that works half the time. Many times we end up with two rooms - one a balcony and the other an OV. Five of our cruises we brought 2 other people along and they paid their own taxes and gratuity. Up until the day the offer expires, they will work with you on various options. After expiration, you can still work with Customer Service Onboard to upgrade. RoyalUp is a path to a better room also.

On debarkation day, they usually sail under the Skyway NLT 5 A.M. or so. Unless there is fog. I came under the bridge @ 10 A.M. once. Was cool for me, I live there. Bad for flights. lol

My wife and I each get a separate Club Royale room on many cruises. We technically put one of us in each room. Then we can add another person to each room. We link our credit card to ourselves and the other friends/relatives link their credit card. Once onboard, we go to guest services and get a "room key only" Seapass for each room (so my wife and I are in the same room). We lose the double points, but get to welcome new cruisers to our world. RCL could care less, so far. It is a bit of a pain if one room is Sea Class or above and the other one is not. My wife and I used Coastal Kitchen together and did not bring in the balcony relatives. Technically, I should have only brought my SIL with me. No issue though.

It was open for Breakfast last week - Symphony OTS.

I am so thankful that I am out of the drink package mess. I have 4 drinks a day (soon to be 5) and free casino drinks through 1 April 2024. On last week's cruise, I had between 1-4 drinks left over, each day, and that was with supporting a non-diamond  SIL. If you are going to do more than 2 cruises a year, try the gambling.

P.S. we get specialty coffee on the debarkation day, sometimes mimosas as we head off the ship. During the cruise, we get specialty coffee in the Diamond Lounge.

We liked the Beach Club both times. The frigging flies/no see ums sucked though.

12 hours ago, TheRick said:

So if you test positive, you are going to fly across the country and potentially infect an entire plane full of people?

I would continue my journey. Just as i would with a common cold or any other treatable, low level not very dangerous annoyance. Now, put a smoker beside me in the casino and I would have a problem. Not from the cancer, but the smell.

We never drank the wine or champagne, so stopped bringing it onboard. We get 1-2 bottles of wine as Diamond members per cruise. I go to Vintages and give it to a random group that is drinking that color wine. We sometimes bring in 2 twelve packs of soda. Each person carries a pack on. The Tampa security did count cans one time, but I showed them that we had 2 rooms.

If you are on a B2B: you can buy alcohol onshore/on ship the last full late afternoon/evening of the first cruise and they basically let you have it. Also, if you bought booze onboard on any date, it is usually brought to you the night before the end of the first cruise.

I like it when RCL flexes it's muscles. I wish they would do it more to the COVID restricted Islands that keep me testing and wearing masks.

RCL seems pretty well managed to me. 26 ships, withstanding over a billion dollars in losses with COVID no sailings, while providing an incredible product (and I get 4 free drinks a day). 

P.S. I own no RCL stock, I have no relatives working for or invested in RCL. I just like them in general.

I like my Diamond perks and do not begrudge Suite guests at all. I have gone from Gold to Diamond in 6 months or so. I got Signature pretty quick also. The policies are very clear and fair. 16 cruises since October 2021 and happy as can be.

P.S. Sitting in a free Sea Class Suite, in St. Thomas, at this moment.

5 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

There are many reasons to be coughing up a lung (as unpleasant as it is to be around) that wouldn't mean she's infectious with anything.

Point is that is not my business to know what her issue is. It is between her and her doctor. 

Just let everyone cruise. I really do not care if COVID positive peeps are on the ship or not - hint hint they are already on every cruise. As long as the bars are open...  

People with colds and other communicable diseases have always been allowed to cruise. A woman ,in the casino, was coughing up a lung for hours the other day. Didn't slow me down at all.

Pompeii! Only place like it in the world. Capri - another beachy place.

I am glad for the diverse opinions on this forum. We did Wonderland once and absolutely hated it. Too fru fru and not filling. I like my steak and pasta. We are giving my foodie DIL free rein to plan every meal (UDP) on our 7 day Harmony trip. Lord knows we will end up at Wonderland at least once. lol

P.S. I'll just have to lay on an after dinner Chops for me and the wife. 

Welcome new cruiser! I'm pretty sure they need a credit card and that they may put some type of nominal hold on it less @$100-$200. if you start using your Seapass Daily, you can pay at customer service and it will keep the holds down to a minimum. I have never had a problem with the holds and timeliness of releases. This is a great group. Muck around the site and ask any question. Some smarta**  always knows an answer.

P.S. If you happen to need cash while cruising. You can transfer money on a slot machine to your room and cash it out immediately - no fees. You also have some freeplay money waiting for you if you log on to a slot machine on one of the first two days of every cruise.

The 100% vaxx statement, in the Policy, is in direct contravention to what MB has been saying for over a week. He needs to officially inform his staff about his changes. lol

I was not being serious. Was just browsing the FAQs on RCL site. They still say ALL 12 and above have to be vaxxed except religious/medical exemptions. They need to get their stuff together.

The vax upload section is gone from my 13 Aug Symphony sailing. Maybe it's a good sign that vax proof is gone. Hope so.

If you tether your phone to a computer, you can both be on at the same time. This is good for the room and maybe at a table by the pool or in the Solarium.

1 hour ago, Summer Bee Sweet said:

@SwarI’m also on Serenade October 15 solo. Sailing Brilliance Dec 1 too with a group for my 50th. We are doing the Cozumel Bar Hop

@WackyCactus I always find myself to be more sociable when I have an interior. If my cabin is too nice I tend to stay in the room more and socially isolate on the balcony with a good book

Should be fun cruises. Will be my first time on Serenade. Not sure if I'm solo or not. W knows about the 1 December Brilliance, but not sure she is tracking the Serenade. lol I do give her access to the cruise spreadsheet.

I do mainly Club Royale cruises, so I always try to add on friends and family, but people actually work and stuff. ugh

I've done a couple of solo cruises - my wife had other commitments. I did get bored sometimes, but liked the change of pace. Being totally free was neat, but not the way I would choose to cruise more than a couple of times a year. 

I like the Diamond lounges in general. I really like the views from the Freedom class ships in particular. Rarely went to the Wonder DL. Too small, too crowded, buried with no windows.

OnPoint was @$15. Very easy. Up to 4 peeps can use their own test at a time. Very little actual supervision though. If I wanted to get a clean sheet and had COVID - they are the bomb. Even better than Photoshop. lol

Mostly joking about doing a fake proctored test, but not about how lax they are in conducting tests. Based on doing three separate tests with them.

36 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

The staff at Playmakers on Indy was amazing. They held my #1 Playmakers spot for a while but now that belongs to the one on Mariner. They were fantastic to me on the group cruise and never batted an eye at my last minute closing time to go order requests, which they happily delivered next door to the pub!

I have to hit the Mariner again. We had a not so good time overall. First time and only time I have ever heard a crew member complain about management (X3). Hope things have improved. 

59 minutes ago, twangster said:

The PVSA exists for very good reasons.  It impacts nearly every commercial vessel anywhere in the US from water taxis to duck boats to ferry service.  The rules of the PVSA that impact the foreign flagged cruise industry are pretty minor in the big picture of the PVSA.  Repealing the PVSA just so a handful of cruisers could sail on a few specific itineraries would have a pretty significant impact on the country and tens of thousands of jobs outside of the cruise industry.  

just modify it as they do with many laws every year