tonyfsu21

The mask mandate really makes cruising more of a hassle but the pros outweigh the cons. IMHO this will never go away and as much as I want to tape the mouth shut of the next person that says “the new norm” it’s seems to be a true statement. Thankfully we live in Florida….. and yeah.

I really think it’s a great thing! Most of the time it was seamless and they saw I had a diamond beverage and used it. The only issue I had was at the Coco Beach Club they charged me w/o looking to see that I had available drinks.

Confirmed, Nadia

So the vaccinated need to pass through the unvaccinated pool area to get to the lime & coconut or the ice cream machine? This is madness.

Makes zero sense. The pool area is totally fine to take your mask off and not social distance get the AT is off limits? You have to wonder who is the final person that puts that pen to paper and signs off on this? Did they even read it??? What an absolute mess.

You should certainly wait this out. I’ve seen the rules change 10 times in the past few months. There has to be some way around this issue.

What am I missing here? Masks are already required indoors on RC. You can only take them off while dining, outdoors on in your stateroom.

I can’t think of a good enough reason to put anything in this tip box other then maybe it’s a person who is difficult to get to? Meaning that maybe someone wants to tip the crew member that was at the flow rider because they had a great time and for some reason this person was off shift and couldn’t be located? I suppose if you had the crew members name you could put some tip money in an envelope with a name on it and drop it in this box? I still don’t trust it but we normally tip the bartenders and service at speciality dining via the bill or leave an envelope in the stateroom for the cabin steward. When we sail in a suite I personally hand the concierge or genie the envelope which almost certainly guarantees they get to keep the money. I suppose this is a good question to ask the gentlemen “Chris” who works on Odyssey and posts on this forum. I wonder if all tip money regardless of where it comes from must be pooled and split within the department? If this is the case, I do t think that’s right at all.

Always pack extra clothes (hurricane or no hurricane) it’s just a good practice just in case. Recall the CCL ship that was drifting for days off the Yucatán many years ago? With that being said, after almost 45 years in SoFL I would say if we make it through August unscathed then Sept is normally more mild in regards to major Hurricanes so I wouldn’t be too concerned.

Yep, I remember the review box at guest services. Not familiar at all with a tip box though.

This is the first I’ve heard of this box. We get the tip envelopes in the room and put cash in them and then hand them directly to the recipient. I personally don’t think I would trust that anything put in this box actually makes it directly to the employee w/o being filtered through some kind of group collection system before being dispersed across an entire dept.

Please let me know if your get 10 in the cabana because we have 10 and I was going to be forced into booking 2 during Thanksgiving cruise this year.

We were told 8 last weekend.

With UDP do you get control over dining times or is that picked for you? We never looked into the UDP because the kids like to eat early 5:30pm and also it very specific venues like Giovannis table. From what I understand you don’t get to pick and choose?

Sorry I read your thread wrong. Under most circumstances you don’t wait on an email. Someone posted the link a few days ago where you enter last name and reservation number and see if there’s anything available for you to bid on. The link has not worked though as RC may have wised up and locked it so that only people who are invited to bid can bid (no idea on criteria).

I have won Royal Up just about every time I’ve bid and it’s been roughly 3-4 days prior to sailing that my credit card is charged for the win.

From what I experienced, the casino was vaccinated only. For the theatre shows they made the mezzanine an area for unvaccinated guests and the lower floors were vaccinated only. I’m sure there were more places but those two caught my attention. Traveling with 2 young kids we never felt restricted in any way in that regard.

We got back from our weekend sailing on Freedom and it was quite the experience. We had great weather (it’s been raining like crazy in SoFL) at Coco Cay and Nassau. Being on the Freedom with only 1000 passengers is odd and I think we prefer the action of a packed ship but this was certainly interesting and had many positives. We opted for the Coco Beach Club and it was overall a good experience. The elevated dining experience had some nice choices like grilled Caribbean lobster which was prepared and presented very nicely. There was literally nobody at the beach club (see pics). My only complaint is that there’s not enough shade by the pool and it’s odd that upon arrival the host doesn’t bring over a bucket or pitcher of cold water to wherever you are seated. Minimal gripe but still it’s hot as h*ll (keep in mind I’m born and raised in SoFL and I still think it’s hot!). Onboard Freedom there was little to no action which is to be expected. It was nice to go to the suite lounge and have the entire place to yourself for a change. I know this type of reduced capacity cruising won’t last forever so we just rolled with it. IMHO my family and I felt very safe with young children in regards to RC’s COVID safety protocol. They did a great job and the ship and stateroom were extremely clean. The kids literally wanted to eat at Giovannis Kitchen every single night so we did (the pizza!) and it did not disappoint. We are looking forward to things hopefully getting back to normal and more cruises in our future!

Agree, it’s certainly weird seeing a quiet promenade at night and empty roulette & blackjack tables but I figure it’s really a unique experience so trying to enjoy this while it lasts.

Last night the cruise director told us there were 1000 passengers onboard freedom and nearly 1100 crew. You can certainly notice the extra attentive service.

Your issue is going to be “free” anything in South Florida especially rapid Covid testing. With the uptick in delta cases on SoFL you would have more luck searching for the most expensive rapid Covid testing to avoid the mass of people in need of this test (especially if this is time sensitive like before a cruise). The headline from our local news this afternoon read “FL breaks 1 day record of Covid cases”……

We had great weather today at Coco Cay & saw an empty Allure dock late afternoon to shift crew. What an experience at Coco Cay with only roughly 1/2 of Freedom passengers on the island.

Worried about the same thing here with 2 young kids. If you watch Shannon Ford vlog on Freedom from a few weeks ago it actually shows her son getting the test and they barely put the swab in his nose. I am sailing on Friday & hopeful this is the case because my kids will refuse and we will end up driving home instead of cruising.

Rear facing extended balcony. I bid just under the maximum on the Royal and owners suite and ended up with the owners suite.

So the page came back and I won my bid once again for Owners Suite on Freedom!