whitsmom

We are flying into Amsterdam in August for our British Isles cruise (Jewel).  We decided to fly on Wednesday evening (we can test here Wednesday morning) and that will work for both arriving in Amsterdam and for the cruise.  We will try to book an appointment for that date as soon as it will be available or may even get the proctored test.  I am hoping that the protocols will be lifted by then but I booked our flights yesterday using the current protocols.

Over in the United Kingdom I believe it's Mars rather than Milky Way.

Adding to your departure date wish, I would like to be able to ask it to show me cruises departing within a specific date range, e.g. 16 October to 16 November, instead of both the entire months of October and November. You used to be able to do that in the past, but they took it away during one of their "enhancements". 😞

You can do this now in a tricky way which is how I found all the cruises going to the ABC islands.. Some cruises only go to A and C but I wanted all three so I searched for Bonaire as a port destination and got all the results that included it! 
You can do this by going to the hamburger drop down menu in the upper left > Cruise Destinations > Cruise ports. This brings you to a full list of the ports RC sails to. Find the port that interests you, click on it and scroll down to the list of itineraries available that include the port. Use the blue on white navigation to scroll to the end of this list and click "View all itineraries in this category" Boom! 
 
 

I got my "Key" email also.  I was too looking forward to the Chops lunch, however, with having 2 grands with us this trip I am sure that the room service will be used to its fullest potential 😇

I got my "Key" email also.  I was too looking forward to the Chops lunch, however, with having 2 grands with us this trip I am sure that the room service will be used to its fullest potential 😇

Ships that have forward access to the helipad are best for night gazing since the bridge requires it dark at night to keep watch.  
The milky way season is coming to an end, it's better in the summer months.  This time of year the view shifts South and over the winter the southern hemisphere has better visibility of the Milky Way.
Cloud cover is often an issue and/or a full moon which can light up the sky.  For this photo it was cloudy and stormy on the horizon but the clouds broke enough to capture the Milky Way.  


The Milky Way isn't this apparent to the naked eye but a 10 to 15 second exposure with a good camera will capture it.  You have to get lucky.  New moon, no clouds, right heading, low wind so the ship isn't rocking much.  
This aft balcony on Odyssey was pretty good for night sky viewing.  The lights of South Florida and the afterglow of the sun setting earlier illuminated the clouds on the horizon.  

On some nights my neighbors left the balcony light on or had the curtains open and light on in the cabin, both of which made it pretty hard to realize good night vision.  But I got lucky since it was cloudy for most of the cruise.

I got my "Key" email also.  I was too looking forward to the Chops lunch, however, with having 2 grands with us this trip I am sure that the room service will be used to its fullest potential 😇

I just thought I’d share my royal up experience.  It’s thanks to what I read on this blog that I made a bid at all. We made a booking on Harmony of the Seas about 3 weeks ago.  Sailing a 7 nt med cruise from Barcelona.  Paid approx £550 per passenger for a guarantee sea view balcony ( as opposed to £900 per passenger to choose a cabin).   We haven’t sailed RC for many yrs, but elite plus on celebrity so we’re matched to Diamond on RC.  A few days after booking we had the a royal up email offering us Sky class suite upgrades.   I didn’t see much Benefit form going for a junior suite as not sky class…again learned from the blog thanks.
I bid £500 x 2 on a Grand Suite.   The bid went to pending 2 days ago and no longer able to be changed or cancelled.   Again on the basis of the blog, I took this as a positive sign and crossed my fingers.
Today the cabin on deck 8 which had been allocated under the sea view balcony guarantee changed…to a grand suite on deck 11.  We are delighted!  I priced a grand suite on this cruise two days ago…£7000 for two passengers!   It ended up costing is £2100.   
 
Huge thanks for the blog and all the advice.  I know this upgrade was only  possible because of the reduced occupancy on sailings at the moment, but it is a really awesome way to get back on the water.

You can use http://www.royalcaribbean.com/royalgifts/ to purchase for sailings through the end of the year.  Doesn't want to work in Chrome for some reason.
So if it never comes up in the Cruise Planner try this as a backup option!

We have stayed at each of these two hotels multiple times while cruising from/to Amsterdam.  Both are very conveniently located and are great if you do not have any mobility issues.  You can walk to the ship or take the tram that runs along the waterfront.  You can take trains and trams anywhere from this area, and if you don't mind walking, you can tour the main parts of town on foot.
Hotel ibis Amsterdam Centre : https://all.accor.com/hotel/1556/index.en.shtml
DoubleTree by Hilton Amsterdam Centraal Station : https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/amscsdi-doubletree-amsterdam-centraal-station/

Ohhhh I had my eye on that British Isles on jewel. That’s a 12 nighter right? Right after that is the 9 night Norwegian Fjords and then a 10 night repositioning Amsterdam to Barcelona. Now THAT would be an awesome b2b2b. I had those written down for a possible 2023. Not all 3 but possibly 2 of them as a b2b. I’ll be waiting for your live blog! 
 
We’re looking to do a British isles in the month of July and try to tie it in with The British Open. That would probably require Anthem out of Southampton. So that would leave Jewel for fjords and repo. A girl can dream! The Baltic’s is also on the radar. 

We are on the same 8-19-22 cruise!

Me three.  We are on the 9-4-22 TA (Voyager) from Copenhagen to Boston.  We are also on the 8-19-22 Jewel British Isles cruise which is RT Amsterdam.  So we will end the Jewel cruise in Amsterdam on 8-31-22 and have 5 days to get to Copenhagen for the Voyager TA.
So we need recommendations for both Amsterdam and Copenhagen plus ideas for getting from Amsterdam to Copenhagen.

I am from Vancouver area and just got off Ovation last Friday in Seattle. Royal gave us a PCR test at 9:15AM on Thursday. We had the results delivered to our stateroom by 6PM. It was complimentary and very efficient. I commented on it on the post cruise survey and gave them props and requested kindly that they continue to provide the service complimentary for as long as it is needed.

I still do my own planning.  I just don’t want to do the leg work anymore.  Happy to email my TA, tell her what I want & let her arrange it all.

I believe you can go down to guest service and schedule an appointment. It depends on your situation: such as if Canada requires a test date 3 days beforehand, then they will test you maybe the second to last day of cruise. The test will be free, they offer this to international guest, B2B and S2S. They list this info under protocols.

My normal goto is xe.com plus they also have an app.

We are flying into Amsterdam in August for our British Isles cruise (Jewel).  We decided to fly on Wednesday evening (we can test here Wednesday morning) and that will work for both arriving in Amsterdam and for the cruise.  We will try to book an appointment for that date as soon as it will be available or may even get the proctored test.  I am hoping that the protocols will be lifted by then but I booked our flights yesterday using the current protocols.

"ship" is not how I first read that word and I was trying to figure out why you were critical of his math

Extracted from roundup:
" While speaking at the Seatrade Global 2021 conference earlier today, Royal Caribbean Group Chairman Richard Fain was asked his thoughts on getting back to full capacity as early as next year.
"In terms of numbers next year, I definitely think so," Mr. Fain responded.
"In our core markets, we expect to be essentially there by the end of this year."
 
Mr. Fain did not elaborate what "core markets" exactly means.  "
 
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Doesn't it mean the participants of this blog site?

They aren't offering the embarkation day lunch at Chops, so they've been sending people emails that it's replaced with room service.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/10/01/spotted-the-key-will-restart-being-offered-symphony-of-the-seas?fbclid=IwAR1rnMV0aWBi9wRBqzxBIPgJbbh-UpVH6WRorTmPxGoH2dAp4BD1VUThqQc

We just had an aft on the Adventure of the Seas, it was magnificent. If there is an aft, I tend to choose them. Some vibration ever so slight when docking. Amazing views!

We’ve got a corner aft JS on Radiance for Alaska next year. I’ve been told I got a GREAT cabin! Yes this particular balcony is HUGE

I really hope that will be on our Harmony "Key" (fingers crossed).  I know that July is a long way away so it will be anybodies guess what it will be then.