F1guynz

I had this on the weekend with the app. What I found is if you click on the checkin button it said come back later, but if i swiped right to left and brought up my profile the option to select a time was available there. Hopefully this works for you to.

Hi, Unfortunately there are no broadway shows on ships in our region (Spectrum, Ovation Quantum), just original Royal Caribbean shows. Below is the link to the entertainment available on Spectrum. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2019/05/14/royal-caribbean-announces-entertainment-spectrum-of-the-seas Spectrum is on our bucket list, enjoy your cruise, I know you will have a fabulous time.

For simplicity I generally use the Australian website. For example, when I used the Hong Kong website to book a cruise to Japan Royal ended up cancelling the cruise and issued a FCC in HK$ for the inconvenience. It was only redeemable on that website and there wasn't another cruise we wanted to book so effectively we lost the FCC. I think if there are no issues it should not matter which one you book with but if there are issues it can be a lot more work. MEI travel will book for Australian passengers so I would suggest using them to purchase a cruise in USD so at least they can work on your behalf if something unforeseen happens.

I always find these things difficult to value as our cruise planner is always in NZ dollars and the ship is always in USD. With the exchange rate and pricing being variable on the ship it is hard to calculate the value, so we tend just to book the 3 or 5 night dining package.

I also wish it had Australia/NZ pricing, but it is useful as a comparison tool.

Hi, this is the link. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/aus/en/faq/topics/crown-and-anchor-society-double-points-offer You could also try contacting them at [email protected] and then Facebook Messenger if no response. Both have worked for me in the past.

We got double points for our cruise in October and will also get double points for our cruise in April next year. We booked on the Australia/NZ website during the protional period. If you access the cruise planner and the options are in USD then you did not book through the Australia website which was a requirement of the promotion. this is what the website says regarding double points but it is not clear what the conditions are if you booked in the Australian market from overseas. if you are eligible the double points will be applied automatically. There was no evidence on our booking that we would get double points but it happed within 14 days just like clockwork.

The main difference is that during happy hour in the Suite Lounge the drinks are unlimited whereas in the Diamond Lounge they count against your daily allocation. Before the daily drink vouchers where introduced I think there was also a difference in the quality of the alcohol served and the drinks menu was more limited.

I agree with @Matt, we are Diamond Plus and am not really bothered by the change. If I really want to go this lounge instead of the Diamond lounge I will book a suite. If it was a choice between this and the 5 drink vouchers, I would far rather have those In reality the people who are most upset are probably cruisers who aren't Diamond Plus yet, the keyboard warriors love something like this to sink their teeth into.

While it is pure speculation, I don't think an Oasis ship would be a particularly good fit for cruising around New Zealand. It seems to be far more suited to 7 nights to the Islands and back as the weather is warmer and more settled to make the most of all the outdoor experiences. Also, as @twangster said earlier it lends itself to a set repeatable itinerary, maybe just alternating between 2 groups of Islands and Lelepa, similar to an East / West Caribbean concept. If it did come to NZ it would not be able to travel to Milford Sound as they want to remove large ships going into that region and that is probably one of the best attractions for cruising in NZ.

I still wonder what they will offer at Lelepa that you can’t get at other Islands. I have already read that is won’t be a Cococay of the South Pacific but certainly Mystery Island seems to be more set up to offer an experience than Lelepa over the next few years. I am slightly biased as we we really enjoyed Mystery Island on our last visit.

I use the link below to see what offers I can submit to RU. I don’t always get the email so once we are 30 days out I use this to submit bids. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/booked/cruise-room-upgrade

I asked on our last cruise as we knew the headline act but they wouldn’t budge on this. They said it would need to go to the Hotel Director for approval. The silly thing is even though there are only two of us they normally put us on a table for four. Possibly if I was Tom Cruise they would have been more accomodating.

I have a friend booked on a Princess cruise and he has received an email with their updated mask policy. ”In response to the increasing Covid cases in Australia caused by the spread of new sub variants we have updated the mark wearing policy for your voyage” ”guests are required to wear masks on board while indoors and we recommend guests wear face masks while outdoors on board where larger numbers of people are congregating” it sounds like P&O Australia (also a Carnival brand) are also implementing this policy. I wonder if Royal will follow suit or whether they will maintain their existing policies. I hope the status quo prevails. Having caught Covid on our last cruise I am still happy to not wear a mask indoors and take my chances. The weird thing is on land you can have Covid and not need to isolate at all but when it comes to cruise ships it is all doom and gloom by the media if there are higher number of cases. Times have moved on from the Diamond and Ruby Princess and for most people Covid is now no worse than a cold outbreak on a ship.

My SIL and MIL are on Quantum at the moment. They are stuck in isolation with Covid but at least they got to enjoy all the port visits first. As they are isolating they are getting free room service, Voom and FCC for each day they have to isolate. The seas are a bit rough but at least they have a balcony for fresh air. They have to wait and disembark separately after all the standard disembark procedures have completed.

Congratulations, it is great for moving through the levels so quickly. We just got our points for for our Ovation and Royal applied the double points correctly so that is pleasing. We got 44 for this cruise and will get 32 for the next one.

We used this on the last cruise and it was very good as it was busy but still just enough seats for everyone. the only thing I don’t like about is in the afternoon the sun quite often comes in through the back windows and makes the big chairs uncomfortable to sit in with the sun directly on you.

Awesome, we didn’t go to the diamond lounge but enjoyed the 4 “free” drinks each day. We didn’t use them all and because of the double points promotion next time we will get 5. now that they charge for ifly and North Star maybe they should offer discounts based on status level.

With Princess 95% of passengers over 12 must be vaccinated so I would suggest I pretty high percentage. We just completed a cruise on Ovation and Anita ended up with mild Covid on the last night so it just happens sometimes regardless of vax status.

Now that cruising has restarted don’t forget that Australian sailings booked last year are eligible for double crown and anchor points.

Our cruise on Ovation has ended so I thought I would give my final thoughts. It was great to be back on Royal after two years of shut down. Apart from the initial confusion during the boarding process they rest of the cruise has been very smooth and felt like any pre-pandemic cruise. The ship had around 3000 guests so was not full. This was great as there was always seats available in the Windjammer and other venues and at no time did the ship fell crowded. The crew is a couple of hundred short of normal so wait times could be a little longer than usual but not as issue for us. The main disappointment I have is that Royal now charge for the North Star and iFly during non port days when previously this was complementary, bumper cars are still included. The crew have worked very hard and some of them will be returning home in the coming months as their contracts end. Due to staff shortages the time between contracts is very short and the ones returning will be back after around 6 to 8 weeks. This is quite hard for some of them as the family time is very short. The cruise following ours is a country and western/rock charter and the ship will be near capacity so that will be more of a challenge for the lovely crew. While one cruise has ended we can now look forward to our next holiday on Quantum early next year knowing what a great experience that will be.

I wear jeans and a collared shirt when ding at Chefs table. Not many people do formal on Australia/NZ cruises. I generally wear the same regardless of what kind of night it is. Used to do formal but don’t bother anymore.

We are doing a cruise to those Australian ports in November next year on Brilliance of the Seas. I did do a blog for one of our 3 night Australian cruises a few years ago. Excited for you getting to tick off another continent, travel is so good for the soul. We are planning our Antarctic adventure some time in 2025/26 which will be our 5th continent. We need to plan a trip to South America or Africa for number 6.

Cruising for passengers feels largely the same as pre-pandemic to me. It has been a fun cruise so far. I think the crew is a little light as some things take a little longer than normal and some of the crew have been asked to take shorter breaks between contracts (6 weeks). Apart from bumper cars at the start of the session there always seem to be tables available in venues and windjammer so I don’t think the ship is sold out even though that is what the website indicated pre-sailing.

I’ve heard nothing either and I noticed a few of the crew have stopped wearing masks now, most still do though.