texascruiser

On 3/8/2023 at 8:47 AM, CruisingNewb said:

The paid for version only gets you about 1 minute longer than the free version.  Is it worth it to pay? Maybe.  Do you have to pay?  NOPE. The free version was great!

Thank you for this! I had booked the paid version for my family of 4. I think I'd rather take my chances and book onboard for free, save that cash for something else

Gone from my sailing as well (Ovation, June 2nd). Doesn't show up in the ports listed, calendar shows a Sea Day that day. Excursions menu still show for the port itself, but there is no ability to book them as the Reserve button is grayed out with a generic note that they are "making changes". Hmm....

Late

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I also don't feel like I need twice-daily "cleaning", but removing dishes, and refreshing towels and straightening the bed linens is what I've grown used to and appreciate, ESPECIALLY as a mom to two kids. They have gotten better with age, but I accept any and all help to keep the room picked up so there is less for me to do on vacation. This is one of the many reasons I prefer cruises for family vacations.

We are also using Alaska Shore Excursions. Have tours for Sitka & Juneau booked, and are just waiting on them to release 2023 schedule for Skagway. Royal did not seem to have a lot of choices that were of interest to us.

We are on this sailing as well. Looking forward to an Oasis-class ship out of Texas!

On 9/20/2022 at 12:04 PM, Rosa said:

We have a group of 10, do they allow more than the 8 listed on the website? Is there an additional fee that is required for additional people? If so, how much extra is it per person?

They do not allow over 8 people in the OTW cabanas. When we did it there are 8 bracelets for the cabana (non-removable once you put them on), and the attendants are strict about enforcement. 

Good to know, I was wondering the same. Sailing on Allure in March 2023 and only 2 Roatan excursions up, nothing for Costa Maya. A bunch available for Cozumel.

What about tipping on tours in Europe? Is it common, and if so, what amounts are typical? 

We have sailed on mainly Caribbean itineraries and tips are requested by tour staff and I make sure to bring cash for them. We usually tip in the range of $20-50.

Would like to know also if he/anyone else had success with using iHealth tests. We have quite a few as we stocked up in January, would be much easier to use them and just buy the proctored test service.

7 minutes ago, Patchy said:

I’d be curious to see the communication that you received if you’re comfortable sharing it.   I hope everything works out for your family.  

No worries, it's pretty standard boilerplate. I just hope they let us know sooner rather than later, since with kids there's always more moving parts to a vacation.

I will be interested to see how this plays out. We are scheduled to sail on Adventure next Monday, 3/14. Got notice yesterday evening that the sailing is not at the 95% threshold, and we needed to confirm vaccination status of our two kids. Our 8 year old is fully vaccinated, our 5 year old gets his 2nd shot today.

We could not have (honestly) vaccinated him sooner....his 5th birthday was exactly 2 weeks ago. He'll have both doses but not be 2 weeks out from the second. 

If we get bumped, I'll detail our experience. Fingers crossed that we don't.

On 1/31/2022 at 3:04 PM, JasonOasis said:

You might be in for a much more complicated pre-cruise requirement on Wonder of the Seas sailing in June sine Wonder will be sailing from Europe. Depending on when you arrive in Europe you will need to test before arriving in Europe and if you arrive in Europe more than 2 days prior to your set sail date you will then need to test again before boarding Wonder of the Seas.  It is unfortunate but unless we see more governments take the same path of the United Kingdom which has ended all pre-arrival testing requirements for fully vaccinated international arrivals then you will still have to jump through testing hoops prior to boarding Wonder of the Seas. Just keep your eyes open as you get closer to your June sailing to see what requirements are in place especially sailing out of Europe.

Yeah, I kind of anticipate that, at least how things stand of today. It doesn't bother me much to test pre-Europe and pre-cruise, I work in diagnostic testing. It's a hoop, we jump through it. We all just got through a bout of Omicron, 3/4 of us were vaccinated and the last one will be in a few weeks. If for some reason we would be denied boarding, we made sure to get travel insurance to help deal with it.

We are fortunate enough to have Star class for our June booking so that will alleviate constraints on show availability to us. It was a bummer to try to watch the Oasis show from Deck 12 in November and see at least 60% of seats in the Aqua Theater sitting empty.

3 hours ago, Jzx1103 said:

People do alot of work to plan their trip, if a positive test keeps stopping them from cruising despite no symptoms, it would eventually cause folks to just plan other kind of trips where they don't have to worry about testing. 

We ended up doing this already - were supposed to be on the 2nd sailing of Wonder over spring break. Initially I was really excited, but jumping through all the testing hoops and then getting on board with the possibility of limited Adventure Ocean, not being able to see shows, etc. We cancelled and are driving to the coast instead. We'll sail on Wonder in June and I hope things will be better by then.

We cruised with an open mind over Thanksgiving, but having our kids so restricted cramped our vacation too - couldn't even go have a few cocktails after dinner in the evening which was a bummer, and if we aren't going to have a reliable child care option, we'd rather know it going into the trip than be surprised.

2 hours ago, VoidoftheSeas said:

• I do agree that they need to verify the requirements for all the ports - but RCL will also be doing this, and they will either set their guidelines to the strictest of those requirements or skip the port. It is highly unlikely that they will need to verify anything at the ports themselves. The ship will essentially declare the status of everyone on board to the port authority, who will decide whether the ship is allowed to port or not.

This seems like the most logical approach for RCCL (we are on the same sailing!) - it would not make sense to have (adult) passengers on board who do not meet the requirements of the countries visited. It would be a logistical nightmare trying to figure out who could get off at which port.

Kids are probably another matter as not all countries have the same availability/approval depending on age group. 

On 1/17/2022 at 7:26 AM, Cruise4TheSoul said:

I was watching a cruise vlogger who is also a travel agent last night and she mentioned that there are rumors that Wonder will not be ready for her inaugural sailing and Spring cruises may be cancelled. We are booked on the March 25th sailing, so needless to say, we were not happy to hear this. Has anyone heard anything about the possibility of March/April cancellations for Wonder?

Who was the vlogger? Would be curious to have a listen and see what she had to say and why.