cmcclelland

I'm on this one, too - 1st one going solo 

Looks like a pretty cool itinerary;  Very excited to cruise to St. Croix!!  

Testing yourself before a cruise with the same urgency as the OP does after his cruise will take away ALL the stress that someone tests positive before the cruise.
100% free, self administered, and non-reported tests are available at COVID.gov/tests  These non-proctored tests are not accepted to board a cruise ship, but feel free to use them as a pre-test.
 
If Royal was really concerned about the many, many people who are claiming they come home COVID positive, they would require mandatory rapid testing of every passenger at the port of time of embarkation and do away with the Pre Cruise Testing On Your Own. I'd like to think Royal would enact such a system just to protect the crew members.
 
 

Totally agree. And also not trying to be a suck up, but it's still true!

Not to be a matt suck up but when looking at cruise ship content on YouTube , his is heads and tails superior to anything else out there. Matt’s are polished and efficient and not annoying like some of these vlogers. Also kudos to some of the staff writers like Jenna who add helpful articles as well. 

Sailing on Celebrity Equinox out of Fort Lauderdale on a 12n S. Caribbean Itinerary as I write this. This isn't going to be a cruise review. See the subject line.
We live in Fort Lauderdale. We're lucky and have friends that will drive us to the port (Terminal 25). You can park steps away from the Terminal 25. Convenient but expensive ($10/day). Come a day or 2 early, park in your accommodation's lot and take a shuttle or Uber/Lyft. That's going to be cheaper unless your cruise is 5d or less.
Don't bother arriving before your scheduled boarding time. Boarding times are enforced by terminal staff (not Celebrity employees). The boarding process is organized, plenty of staff to guide you (and herd the guests). They are good at what they do. Follow instructions.
Have hard copies of you boarding pass, vax card and test results. Organize them for easy access and display to staff when they ask for them. Don't count on finding that stuff on your phone! Guests behind you will appreciate that. 
Check in is entirely digital. It helps if you do everything you're asked to do before boarding ..... Celebrity will send you lots of emails to insure you know what to do. Do it. Other guests wanting to board expeditiously will appreciate that you were prepared.
Terminal staff use tablets and scan documents. Your Sea Pass card (room key) will be in the holder at your cabin.
Avoid the elevator (1 of 4 blocks of 4 cars) adjacent to where the gangway brings you to the ship's entry way on deck 5. Go all the way forward or aft and use those elevators. Avoids all the guests standing around the entry way wondering where to go.
You'll have local network (4 or 5g) connection on your phone until your around 6 miles off shore. To connect to the ship's wifi to use the Celebrity App aboard, select wifi in your settings and click on the Celebrity Equinox Wifi link. Follow the on screen instructions to connect (You can select your internet package here) to set up your account and pass word. Once you've done that and had a look at the Celebrity App, you can use your connection to the 4g/5g local area network to make phone calls, texts etc. 
Don't forget to put your phone in Airplane Mode as you sail out of the port and leave the range of the local area network. If you don't you'll connect to Cellular at Sea for phone and texts. Unless you have a huge bank account, you'll want to avoid connecting to it. After switching on the airplane mode, go back to settings and turn your wifi back on. Connect to the Equinox wifi and sign back in. 
The ship's Wifi is OK for most things you will want to do on the internet. You can't stream with the standard package. I don't think it is worth it to buy the streaming upgrade. It's not cheap. (pricing and that option will appear when you set up your onboard wifi account I described above).
I learned that just recently, crew from countries previously denied access to the US because of the vaccinations they received in their home countries were not approved by the US CDC. That's been resolved. Accordingly, crew staffing has improved dramatically and Equinox was being staffed for a full passenger load (about 2800 guests).
Before the sail date, there were 2200 guests who had booked this sailing. within the last three weeks before the sailing there were in the neighborhood of 400 cancellations (Fears of Omicron?). The ship sailed with roughly 1800 passengers and a full compliment of around 1260 crew members.
Circulating wait staff in the restaurants bars and lounges were notably more numerous than when we sailed Apex in July, Equinox in August and Millennium in November. We've sailed aboard Equinox maybe 6 or more times. Staff friendliness, engagement and service were outstanding as usual .... partly because of increased numbers of crew but mostly because Celebrity in general and Equinox in particular pride themselves in delivering excellence.  
Hope you learned something new here. I'll post again if anything new comes to me.

interesting.  everything on Royal's website in October on Serenade is showing Bahamas stops (the 5-nighters to Nassau & Coco Cay, the 4 nighters to just Coco Cay).  

Then in November, everything shows Mexican stops, until Nov 27th, where it switches back to the Bahamas.  I have a Nov 8th sailing on Serenade so mine is still showing Cozumel / Costa Maya for now.  No changes.  I just booked it this week.
Our Nov 3rd sailing on Oasis was swapped from Labadee to Cozumel due to geo-political reasons, so I wonder if early and Mid November they are just maxxed out at Nassau and Coco Cay and can't re-direct any more vessels there?  I like Matt's theory, but maybe they can't do Bahamas with every ship & have to pick their battles.  🤔

While not confirmed, I think this is about ensuring the ship has a Bahamas visit so Royal Caribbean can require adults to be fully vaccinated because of the Bahamas' mandate for it.
That's just a guess, no firm evidence to back that up.

As you may or may not know, I'm going on Mariner of the Seas October 8th for a 3-night cruise.
But I'm not doing a live blog!

There will be a live blog on RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com, but Jenna will be writing the live blog from her Ovation of the Seas cruise to Alaska. Let's be honest, a live blog to Alaska is going to be a lot more interesting than yet another short Bahamas cruise live blog (YASBCLB).
Originally, I decided not to do a live blog at all, but I figure I can at least share some basic info here of things that truly stand out, especially since this will be my first cruise with my unvaccinated children since the Delta variant became a thing.
I know a lot of people are curious what it's like to cruise with unvaccinated kids right now (myself included), so I can share thoughts here before writing something more in-depth later.
So I'm not promising the best live blog ever, but there will be photos, anecdotes, and a few @Lovetocruise2002 references.
We're sailing on Mariner of the Seas and staying in connecting balcony cabins. Visiting Nassau and Perfect Day at CocoCay.
Cruise departs on Friday, but I've got kids' antigen tests scheduled for Tuesday, and my wife and I will be taking the at home tests on Wednesday or Thursday.
Set your expectations low, and get ready for YASBCLB!

Status only, they do not accept documents ahead of time.  
You must travel with the original forms provided when vaccinated and present those at the pier upon check in.

CDC mission statement - keeping everyone safe to cruise again by banning cruising forever ... 

The CDC relevancy is slipping away. Gotta heap on and control the cruise lines. Forget those overbooked airlines. ?

I am very upset with the way things are being handled. Received an email today that we would have to cancel 2 days before we are scheduled to sail ,due to no record of Covid testing. For your information I work in the medical field and you can not get the COVID testing unless you have symptoms or have been exposed, but we have been vaccinated like one of your earlier email suggested. But you wait till 2 days before we sail to send an email, so you have lost us as customers and will not recommend your company to anyone we know. Thanks for ruining my vacation time.
sincerely disappointed
Nora

If I get stuck in a quarantine situation, I want to be able to get home.  BlueGeo will only evacuate if "Medically necessary", and being quarantined does not require evacuation back to the US.  MedJet will cover evacuation in almost any situation.  This is not an ad for either, just something to think about.

It’s official! The Volunteers of the Seas sweepstakes opens this Friday, August 6. Stay tuned here for more information on how to enter and your chance to join us on a Simulated Voyage. Ready to set sail? -- No purchase necessary. Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. /D.C. Excluding MT, age 18+ (19+ in AL and NE, 21+ in MS). Void in MT, outside the 50 U.S. /DC, and where prohibited. Starts 12:00:01 AM ET on August 6, 2021; ends 12:00:01 AM ET on August 7, 2021. Total ARV for all 1,125 Grand Prize(s): $731,250. For full Official Rules see bio. Prize excludes transportation to and from the vessel and hotel accommodations. Sponsor: Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

hope this all changes by Nov - we have a b2b in early Nov - 1st leg is 4 night - 2nd leg is 5 night - duh??  how will they handle? sign up to be tested onboard? or require us to debark completely for terminal testing??  yikes ... 
 

There are people who TRY to get this kind of room so I would definitely give it a try.  Your balcony will be very large...nice catch !

Thank you!!

Wake view aft cabins are generally in high demand but they are not as private as a side facing balcony on this class.
If privacy is important do some research, otherwise give it a try and you might find it's something you'll want to do again.    

It looks like 6710 is located on the big "bump" at the back of the ship. The obstruction is probably the the steel structure partially blocking the view of the ocean. You'll see a blocked view of the ocean, but you'll have a much bigger balcony.
I found a photo on cruisedeckplans.com It's not the exactly the same room, but you can judge it for yourself. 

There are people who got their Indy invites already so I think Mariner will go out next week. Since RCG has decided to continue to adhere to the CDC's CSO and such, the test cruises will continue.
I personally believe we need to accept that the CSO isn't going anywhere until maybe Nov. I am not going to bring up the reasons, at this point we all know why.

One more sleep!

I have a friend who's wife is a travel agent living in South Florida and they received their invitation for Symphony a couple of weeks ago.  My last hope would be Mariner I guess.