GregGGG

Great summary indeed! And wow! Royal Flush and no tshirt haha... It did seem like to be a fairly large event in years passed. I won the satellite in Fall of 19' and they obviously had to cancel in 2020 and 2021, so this tournament has been outstanding for almost 3 years. @WAAAYTOOOThank you for the good luck! 

Great summary.  This was EXACTLY my experience back in 2008 on Freedom (minus the royal flush...) when my dad had won a preliminary tournament and brought me.  The big upside is the cash games are way better as there are significantly more poker players on the cruise.  There are multiple tables going most of the time and the open time frame is much larger, although the conference room doesn't have the best ambiance.

I didn't realize they were even still holding the RPT.  MANY years ago we participated.  Dan won one of the preliminary rounds on one of the ships (can't even remember which one it was) and he advanced to the final.  That year it was held on Liberty, which at the time, was the largest ship in the fleet.
Truthfully, it was one of my least favorite cruises b/c everything was geared towards the tournament - which makes complete sense, but made it somewhat less convenient for the non-poker passengers.  They had the tournament set up in the conference room (deck 2 or 3 cannot recall which it was) and there were some cash games that were held in there once the preliminary rounds dwindled down.  Evening dining was kinda weird.  They encouraged the tournament players to dine together but it wasn't mandatory.  Dan went out in the first round which was a blessing b/c then we could enjoy ourselves.  The further you advanced in the tournament the more structured your time became.  We were free to do whatever we wanted after he was out of the tournament.  While I was not involved in the tournament at all, I did play some cash games.  One particular night we were playing [poker] in the casino and I got my one and only "natural" Royal Flush.  Haven't had one since.  Kind of a letdown though...only me and one other guy in the hand.  I think I won a whopping $80.  Royal didn't even bother to give me a T-shirt or anything !  LOL
It was fun but very structured (until you're out, of course !!).  Dan has never bothered to participate in the RPT since.  Poker is a loser w/Club Royale b/c you don't get any casino credit for playing....and the rake is waaaytooo high.
Congratulations if you are going, @GregGGGand good luck !

They're back to normal for both programs.
AO Babies is the nursery (6-36 months kids) and that's operating like it did pre-2020.
AO Junior is the new name of the 3-5 year old group and that's also back to normal.
Not sure what questions you have specifically, but you can expect both to be available on your cruise.

It seems like your partial to one side when removing post, that much is obvious.

I've gotten confirmation and it's official: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022/07/29/royal-caribbean-will-allow-unvaccinated-passengers-cruise-ships-early-august

Just spoke to RCL - their events call line for a cruise I have booked in December. She said that there will be an announcement coming soon (when pressed she said it could be in the next few days) with a change to the policy.  Very interesting and hopeful for big changes! Let the Healthy Unvaxxed sail! 

I’m pretty sure the only thing that matters is the percentage of unvaccinated people onboard. 

Yeah I think that’s all it is, they are getting way more requests than they can handle. It would be nice if you could call to book the cruise and find out right then if there is room for unvaccinated. It doesn’t feel great to tie up money on a booked cruise without knowing if you can actually go. Hopefully Virgin does let you know before hand. I’m calling today so I’ll report back.

Woot! I just got the email about my vaccine exemption, it was denied. This is such a load off, lol. I've cancelled the packages I bought and am on the phone now to cancel and get my money and FCCs back, after three years!! As soon as that's done I'll be on the phone to Virgin. 🙂

The lady on the phone also told me that the requirements for vaccine and testing are going to be at least through Sept, and that it might change after that.

I've been watching videos all week long, it's very intriguing. I've never done a premium line, so it seems really neat that a ton of stuff is included, which makes sense given the cost. 🙂 The Videos are all really good though, great reviews.

No, I haven’t called them. I’m waiting on my TA to confirm for sure that we won’t have to test.  I’ll let you know what I find out.
I really know nothing about Virgin.  I have some research to do.

We are also looking at Virgin.  We still haven’t confirmed whether or not we (as unvaxxed) would have to test.  @michellesays we don’t but I thought unvaxxed still have to test.  If we don’t have to test we will be booking Virgin ASAP.  I just wish they didn’t just do 4/5 nights out of Miami.  Guess we’ll have to do a B2B !

Update: I called RC today since we're just over two weeks out. They said they would be finalizing all exemptions this week and I should hear something for sure by the end of the week. Either way it'll be nice to finally have this three year long chapter of my life closed. I talked to my Mom and we agreed that (much as we hate cruising without the kiddos) if the exemption doesn't get accepted we'll be calling to find a Virgin cruise with unvaccinated space and we'll be trying them out for a five day in August. I'm pretty excited to soon be back on a ship one way or another. 🙂

Can someone please provide some guidance for how you can successfully get a religious ex emption ? Thank you and very much appreciated!