rfsdvm

wife & I discussed it and have decided to call and cancel...
...funny considering just got email that our Royalup bid for JS was accepted
thinking of doing a driving trip
hoping to be able to get an actual refund instead of FCC, but don't know how realistic that is.
Thanks everyone for updates....we will be with you in spirit

wife & I discussed it and have decided to call and cancel...
...funny considering just got email that our Royalup bid for JS was accepted
thinking of doing a driving trip
hoping to be able to get an actual refund instead of FCC, but don't know how realistic that is.
Thanks everyone for updates....we will be with you in spirit

Wishing for the 'good ole days' when all we worried about was Norovirus, those were the days.

wife & I discussed it and have decided to call and cancel...
...funny considering just got email that our Royalup bid for JS was accepted
thinking of doing a driving trip
hoping to be able to get an actual refund instead of FCC, but don't know how realistic that is.
Thanks everyone for updates....we will be with you in spirit

Do the colors on the dogs tail represent “vaccinated” and Star class? 
I would think the standard wristbands would be chewed off if put on the dogs leg.

While I am staying crazy positive; knowing and seeing and experiencing this I would not sail next week, I personally feel it's way to much money for the weird experience. Again, I personally think you made the correct choice.

did they include in your upgrade  a concierge to lower and raise your mask between bites?😄

did they include in your upgrade  a concierge to lower and raise your mask between bites?😄

It's a shame on two fronts: guests not following the rules and Royal not enforcing the rules. Both are pet peeves of mine, primarily the latter. 

Read on another board that the casino host on Allure said smoking will still be allowed in the casino … in keeping with the best interest of its customers??

I think this is all a bit overblown. All they are doing is adding a few extra rooms where you have to wear your mask INDOORS. One is in a dark theatre, the other is in a smoky casino.  So avoid the casino and sneak a few deep breaths with your mask down while people are watching the show. 
When your job changes the rules, do you also throw a fit? Probably not if you want to keep your job. This is no different. 
I think Royal has been the most understanding and accommodating organization in regards to their customers needs and wants...giving back money, giving you incentives to stay. I mean come on. 
Change is going to happen!! (it's always Last Minute to someone)
And if there is a medical reason you or your loved one can't wear a mask all the time, then get a medical exception. 
Much ado about nothing. 🙄

Royal has cruises departing basically every day.  There is no way to announce new immediate effect policy without impacting some people close in.  It seems to me that they did a great job getting you set up pretty well for the relatively small policy change. 

how does this apply to:
1: smokers...are they allowed to take masks off...specifically in the casino...to smoke?
2:  fitness area...masks required while on treadmills, etc
just curious.

I totally understand why everyone here is upset, but I wish you would just step back and understand why they're doing this. They're fully aware there are people out there like you who would be upset about this. They have plenty of people calling them right now complaining. When they made this decision I'm sure they had a pretty accurate approximation in mind of the revenue they'd lose over the next few weeks by instilling this policy. They know they will lose bookings over this. They've baked that into this decision.
However, their (very) educated decision -- as the people who lead this industry and know more about it than we ever could -- is that this policy will do more to keep cruising (and the public's perception of cruising) safe than the negative effect of people cancelling right now. I understand also that some people here think masks do not work. Unfortunately for those people, RCI listens to their full-time medical staff, who are medically trained doctors whose full-time job is to evaluate the efficacy of masks and other safety measures on cruising. It's a pretty specific job that they dedicate their life to. And those educated individuals (along with other business executives more concerned with finances and long-term viabilty of the company and industry) have determined this policy will help them continue to cruise safety. 
The executives at RCI don't give a crap about politics. They care about what's going to allow them to succeed now and years and decades into the future. That's why these decisions are made. 
That said, I think anyone with a cruise between now and Jan. 5 should absolutely be provided the opportunity to make changes to their itinerary if they don't wish to cruise under this policy. 

Just remember: This isn't about you or your vacation. This industry cannot stomach a huge outbreak right now. It could kill them if they can't continue to prove that cruising is safe. We should understand that they know more about this than we do (these cruise execs have spent their lives focused on this for the past 22 months), and if they think it'll help they're probably right. At least more so than we can claim to know.
They are FULLY aware that people don't like wearing masks and that it drives down demand to make people wear masks any more than they have to. They know this will cause people to cancel. So obviously they feel this is necessary or they wouldn't do it. 

There are two components to consider when it comes to the internet experience on board a ship.
The first is the actual internet connection and on a ship that is a satellite connection.
The second is the WiFi platform on a ship.  That is how your device connects to the ship.
The two are distinctly different but either one can independently play a factor on your internet experience.
I could write 10,000 words on either and still not explain it all.
When it comes to WiFi each device works differently based on the chipset (hardware) and operating system (software).  How an iPhone 7 works is different than an iPhone 8 even if they are both running the same iOS version and they are both different compared to how an Android on a Samsung 7 works versa Android on a Pixel 6.  The software version also makes a difference so two iPhone 11s running different versions will behave differently.
Someone who has an older device and who has never upgraded their phone will have a very different experience compared to another person with newer gear.  All that first person knows is that they couldn't watch a cat video on FaceBook so... "the ship wifi is terrible" meanwhile it's their device at fault.
Cabins are made of steel.  Those steel walls and door that so many use with magnets they bring are pretty much the definition of how to create a terrible wifi experience.  If you goal was to build a room that would reduce signals and minimize radio waves reaching you, a room with steel walls, floor, ceiling and door are exactly what you would use to do it.  Unfortunately that often means less than ideal wifi coverage in a cabin.
If we took 20 devices mounted on a cart then walked down the promenade 100 times how each device would associate and re-associate with the different ship access points they can see along that walk would be different every time for every device.  In some cases devices make bad choices and hold onto a distant access point longer than they should.  In most cases it's the device that decides how and when to associate to different access points when you are moving around.  Blame your device if it retains a connection to a distant access point longer than it should.  Yet people will always blame the ship wifi. 
If you walk into the pub and three people are streaming football games that makes for a pretty noisy RF airspace and it's likely your device will have some issues trying to associate with the best access point.  An hour later if those streamers are all gone and you walk into the pub your device may behave much better.  Yet all people know is a cat video on FaceBook wouldn't load so the ship wifi is terrible.  Meanwhile if they had gone to the solarium instead the cat video would have played purrfectly.  
Sometimes a cat video on FaceBook won't load because FaceBook is having issues yet people will still declare the ship wifi is terrible.  
Most humans consider wifi to binary.  It's there or its not.  Yet there is so much more to it and more times than not it's the device to blame, not the ship wifi.  

Really not a good idea to pass off bogus information like this to new cruisers.
While i have had one that didn't seem to do a whole lot of checking, On my thanksgiving cruise my test was scrutinized to the Nth degree even comparing the name to my passport.
Testing is very simple now, easy to obtain and with many more options.  As stated the previously the Abbott ID Now test from Walgreens will sufice

Princess has the fastest internet using the newer O3b satellite technology.   O3b is a satellite internet provider owned by SES.  It's often referred to as SES/O3b.
Royal's Oasis,  Quantum and Freedom class (plus Enchantment) also use O3b.  The difference is that Royal caps each user to 4Mb down and 2Mb up.  Princess doesn't impose a per user limit so you get what is available at that moment which is typically 10 to 15 times faster than Royal.  The technology and service provider is the same so it's a matter of speed.  Latency with O3b is typically 200-300ms.
Older Royal ships (pre-Freedom, except Enchantment) use the old legacy satellite technology with the same per user cap of 4Mb down and 2Mb up.  Latency on the older technology is typically 600-700ms.  
Carnival varies by ship.  All ships use the older legacy satellites but newer ships don't impose a per user limit.  The newer ships also leverage shore cellular when in select ports but only on the newer ships.  The older ships have abysmal performance (inc. Breeze and older) while the newer ships have a better experience but still pale compared to Princess and Royal's newer ships.
MSC uses the new O3b on newer ships including and since Meraviglia.  Older ships uses the legacy satellite technology from a European satellite internet provider.  MSC limits per users to roughly 6 Mb down and 3 Mb up.  Some MSC plans also have a total transfer cap and once you reach that you have to buy another plan.  It's 1.5GB IIRC.
NCL most plans still go back to the days of bucket of minutes and the need to logout or burn though your bucket of minutes very quickly.  That places them in their own miserable spot on the sea of ship internet.  In this case being in their own league is not a good thing.  
So in summary:
Princess has the fastest and best internet at sea MSC has the next fastest on the newer ships but with a possible total transfer cap.  Older ships are middle of the pack. Royal has the next best internet on newer ships.  Older ships fall back to having 2nd slowest internet at sea. Carnival has faster internet but higher latency on the newer ships rendering a 4th place finish behind Royal's newer ships.  Older ships are dead last in the internet speed race at sea.  They are more of a snail's internet pace.   NCL is on a different playing field.  A playing field covered in mud and hard to draw comparisons.  Having said all that satellite internet on all lines is impacted by rain fade and occasionally from being in a less desirable spot on the sea at times.  If the internet seems dreadfully bad it's possible the ship is passing through a heavy rain cloud.  You might not know this in the casino, or pub, or inside the ship somewhere so at times people declare the internet is terrible when really it's just that moment in time.
Alaska is so far North it's really hard for any ship to have good internet up there.

It all depends on when they open the doors, on my most recent Symphony cruise although we were back in port by 4am and they showed doors opening at 6am they actually didn't open the doors until 7am, they advised passengers of the change in door opening on the last day of the cruise.
Hopefully you are not asking this question because you have a tight connection to a flight out of FLL.  Even though FLL is close to Port Everglades I wouldn't try to catch a flight before 10 am just in case they don't open the doors at the time noted on your cruise documents.
Our cruise returned to Port Miami on November 6th and even with Royal not opening the doors until 7am and my husband and I walking off with our luggage by the time we got outside the terminal there were no cabs and there were quite a few people who were first off the ship trying to catch 8am and 8.30am flights out of MIA standing in the taxi line waiting for cabs. We ended up standing there for quite some time waiting for a cab, so keep that in mind although you may be first off the ship you could still run into the situation where you are waiting 15-20 minutes or more for a cab. If I had to estimate I would say we waited outside Terminal A about 20 minutes for a cab on November 6th because there is still a shortage of cab drivers.