Lsebastian7704

The only thing I look forward to on disembarkation day is walking by the “Table of Shame”.  For those of you who have not seen it or do not know what it is, the table of shame is usually one of the last things you pass before picking up your luggage.  What looks like a few port employees having the worlds worst yard sale is really just the place for you to pickup anything that was confiscated from you on embarkation day.
I love to look at what is there and would love to see if we could get members of this group to snap photos and post them here for us all to enjoy.
We sailed Odyssey on the NYE cruise and the table of shame was top-notch.  I saw a full size stand up fan, the kind with the round base that oscillates, a space heater and several irons.  I’m kicking myself for not snapping a photo to kick this thread off properly.

I’ve no idea if it’s slow sales or Omicron. I asked at Diamond Club and again at Guest Services as to passenger count, “about1600” and “1602” respectively.  I see all crew in the dining room snd next cruise  wearing N95 with their regular Royal mask over it. I honestly didn’t note/look at other venues.  I imagine the Royal mask is because it looks nicer than the N95.  They must be awfully hot in those masks.
at the comedian last night he asked how many were each C&A level and there were only 2 Diamond and Diamond plus, one pinnacle the rest were between gold, emerald, platinum. A WHOLE BUNCH OF FIRST TIME CRUISERS!!-interesting.
pool still had vacant loungers at 9:30, solarium was empty until about 11-even then still seats to be found. Mind you cloudy and chance of rain -and it did later!
casino has a “decent crowd”  my game of choice is 3 card poker, no seats at the one table, 4 seats open at the other. No smoking at all. 2of 6 poker slots not working ,  looks like a lot of other machines not working (not purposely put out of service because there are plenty of side by side machines!)
5 at most in elevators unless all of the same party than more allowed.  People seem mindful of this.
drinks are great, food is hot, life is good on the ship!

Check your credit card activity.   My card was charged for royal up a couple of days before I got the email notification 

One bid showing as pending but removing the option to modify the bid is usually a really strong indicator that you are likely to win the bid, but not a guarantee. Best of luck to both of you! 

First, let me say I understand a lot of frustration in and with the cruise industry due to COVID. Its supposed to be a great vacation and customers pay a good price for the experience.  The media likes to dwell on cancelled ports and sick passengers and empty ships sitting at anchor. All the misery and misfortune in the headlines sells. No one wants to go on vacation and be limited to mask wearing, subjected to nasal swabs, flight disruption, port dismissal etc.
On the other hand, trying to take a purely scientific view point ...
Though ships have been called a Petri dish (generally with negative connotations), at the same time they are a somewhat unique controlled population sampling. Here you have literally thousands of people that are vaccinated and following masking protocols etc. Its not perfect but when you look at infection rates, those aboard ship are less than one percent compared to over 30% on land.
To me this is a perfect example of how an experiment works. You have two populations, one with generally well kept protocols and controls, and the other, not so much. The difference in infection rates is dramatic. It just shows vaccines, masking and isolation of known cases works.
Ships have other issues such as limited space for isolation and medical facilities. Their systems are not perfect but the numbers show they do work.
 
 

At one point, the answer depended on the ship, but it didn't matter.  On ships where the max was $12, most drinks cost $12.  On ships where the max was $13, most drinks cost $13.  I think all ships have standardized at $13 now.  One other benefit of the package, if the drink price rises to $14 by the time you cruise, your package would also change to cover up to $14.  The bartenders don't have time to look up when you bought the package to see what it covers!  So you're safe from increases in prices.  Same thing with pre-paid gratuitites.  I think they are currently $13.50/person/day and if you pre-pay them, it won't matter if they go up.  If you wait until the cruise to pay, they'll charge the current rate.

plus there are very few drinks that are over the 13 dollar limit
 

You will pay the difference with the Deluxe Beverage Package and the limit is $13, at least it was on the last cruise I went on (Pre Pandemic).  I just checked and that should still be correct as of today.

You will only pay the difference over $13 with the package.