xSAILEDx Odyssey of the Seas - September 5th, 2021

[MLH]

Just off allure.  Now I am ready to compare and contrast the cruises.  So excited to be on a brand new ship.  We honeymooned in 1993 on the Monarch of the Seas 13th voyage.  This will have that record beat.  I am up for a meet up on the ship. 

[CruisingSteve]

On 8/22/2021 at 10:33 AM, Josh C said:

@Matt Pre-Cruise Meetup? 

I'm driving down Saturday night from Tampa and staying the night in Plantation far away from the tourist areas lol. Probably won't meetup

[CruisingSteve]

For anyone driving there, the ship will be at Terminal 18. There is a parking lot out front but if you prefer a garage, it's a 10 minute walk. Both are $15/day

[CruizIan]

We are now staying at the Bahia Mar getting in Friday afternoon. Anyone in the area we would love to connect!

[Matt]

We'll be staying in Boca Raton the night before the cruise. Helps break up the drive down for us, and something to do in the morning when I'm too excited than stay in hotel room.

[Matt]

[Matt]

[PG Cruiser]

47 minutes ago, Matt said:

I'm sailing on Allure this Sunday... I'll pretend this is my countdown too

[Matt]

[CruisingSteve]

 

[CruisingSteve]

If you guys haven't noticed, a bunch of the activities have showed up in the app but not everything is there. Nothing is showing up for events in the theater and the BOOKS show in 270 isn't showing up either. There might be other things missing that I didn't catch but a lot is there

[CruisingSteve]

Since meeting up before the cruise seems unlikely, how do you guys feel about meeting one night on the ship around 10pm at the Schooner Bar or Crown and Compass?

[JC Pats]

3 hours ago, CruisingSteve said:

Since meeting up before the cruise seems unlikely, how do you guys feel about meeting one night on the ship around 10pm at the Schooner Bar or Crown and Compass?

almost a guarantee I’ll be at the pub every night unless the pub singer is fluent in Rocky Top….. 

[Matt]

1 hour ago, JC Pats said:

almost a guarantee I’ll be at the pub every night unless the pub singer is fluent in Rocky Top….. 

Ditto

[MLH]

Anyone do any Royal Ups and heard anything.  Mine still showing pending.  

 

[CruisingSteve]

8 hours ago, MLH said:

Anyone do any Royal Ups and heard anything.  Mine still showing pending.  

 

Mine was pending Wednesday. I just cancelled it so I could print my luggage tags and attach them to the bag. If Royal doesn't want my money, I'll stay where I'm at

[CruisingSteve]

[monorailmedic]

Sooo, time to make sure I have enough laundry done to pack?  Eh, I'll worry about it tomorrow.

Weather is looking decent for Coco Cay, but other days are questionable.  Remember kids, rain is nature's sunscreen.

[twangster]

4 minutes ago, monorailmedic said:

Sooo, time to make sure I have enough laundry done to pack?  Eh, I'll worry about it tomorrow.

Weather is looking decent for Coco Cay, but other days are questionable.  Remember kids, rain is nature's sunscreen.

It won't be raining in the pub...

[Matt]

Wife and I took our Covid tests today at CVS. Negative results for both, we're a go.

Interestingly, CVS called me two hours early to ask if I wanted to come in early because the schedule was wide open. Hopefully a sign maybe demand is starting to go down for appointments?

[twangster]

Walgreens for me today.

[twangster]

4 hours ago, Matt said:

Wife and I took our Covid tests today at CVS. Negative results for both, we're a go.

Interestingly, CVS called me two hours early to ask if I wanted to come in early because the schedule was wide open. Hopefully a sign maybe demand is starting to go down for appointments?

The CVS near me only offer PCR testing but the results came back pretty fast.

Tested 9-2-21 ~ 10:30am

Results 9-3-21 ~ 5:30pm. 

Next day basically which is pretty good for a full PCR test so maybe the demand is lessening. 

[CruisingSteve]

I went to CVS yesterday, got a call from them 15 minutes after I left that I was negative. The lady giving the tests mentioned a lot of people are coming in for tests for cruises
Now I'm off to start packing a few things then finish up in the morning

[JC Pats]

So on a more enjoyable topic.. lol - I saw on the FB page someone got a RoyalUp to a JS tonight - so I checked mine.. My Spacious Balcony is now not available (someone else said they got one) and my JS went from expired to pending and I could modify it (I raised the bid $10 pp) I was not able to modify it previously (although likely it was user error) - We'll see what happens.. 

[MLH]

39 minutes ago, JC Pats said:

So on a more enjoyable topic.. lol - I saw on the FB page someone got a RoyalUp to a JS tonight - so I checked mine.. My Spacious Balcony is now not available (someone else said they got one) and my JS went from expired to pending and I could modify it (I raised the bid $10 pp) I was not able to modify it previously (although likely it was user error) - We'll see what happens.. 

Good Luck!  Mine are all still pending. For the Royal Loft, Owners Loft and Grand Loft.  We are in a 2 bedroom grand suite.  Not holding out much hope.  

[Atricks]

We got notified we got our royalup and 5:08pm today, although it was just interior to balcony.  (min bid)   We did the CVS PCR yes (Our antigen test got cancelled on us) 2 out of 3 results back (negative), still waiting on the last one.  Ironically the first of us that got tested is the one that hasn't gotten the results back.

 

[MLH]

37 minutes ago, Atricks said:

We got notified we got our royalup and 5:08pm today, although it was just interior to balcony.  (min bid)   We did the CVS PCR yes (Our antigen test got cancelled on us) 2 out of 3 results back (negative), still waiting on the last one.  Ironically the first of us that got tested is the one that hasn't gotten the results back.

 

Did you get the email to register for the portal?  Is the third a minor? I had an issue because they added a new portal for me and the results wouldnt show.  I had to call and they faxed them to me on an app on my phone since I could not access them.

[Atricks]

2 minutes ago, MLH said:

Did you get the email to register for the portal?  Is the third a minor?

Third is a minor, the results for her is one that came back.  It's me who hasn't.  And yes, the portal registraion was already done.

 

[MLH]

4 minutes ago, Atricks said:

Third is a minor, the results for her is one that came back.  It's me who hasn't.  And yes, the portal registraion was already done.

 

If they dont come in tommorrow, Call  1-866-389-2727  Press the buttons like it is not for covid and when it asks why you are calling say internet/it issue and they will connect you with a rep that can send them to you.  Download an app called Faxburner and that will give you a temp fax number for them to come to your phone

[Atricks]

12 minutes ago, MLH said:

If they dont come in tommorrow, Call  1-866-389-2727  Press the buttons like it is not for covid and when it asks why you are calling say internet/it issue and they will connect you with a rep that can send them to you.  Download an app called Faxburner and that will give you a temp fax number for them to come to your phone

Ok thanks, I'll give that a shot tomorrow afternoon if nothing else.  It's still not on the portal, and no texts received on it either.   Was store #2806 if that matters (orlando area)

[monorailmedic]

7 hours ago, Matt said:

Interestingly, CVS called me two hours early to ask if I wanted to come in early because the schedule was wide open.

I got a text with the same thing a couple weeks ago (before my Meraviglia sailing).  I get the impression their system allots 30 min per COVID test, even though it takes WAY less time, so as long as they don't have a bunch of other non-test appointments, they can process them much more quickly.  I didn't get that notification today, and this CVS actually tested us in our cars.

[monorailmedic]

1 hour ago, JC Pats said:

So on a more enjoyable topic.. lol - I saw on the FB page someone got a RoyalUp to a JS tonight - so I checked mine.. My Spacious Balcony is now not available (someone else said they got one) and my JS went from expired to pending and I could modify it (I raised the bid $10 pp) I was not able to modify it previously (although likely it was user error) - We'll see what happens.. 

All my suite bid expired a couple weeks ago (my bids weren't nuts, but much higher than the min bid) and the only remaining one was for a spacious OV balcony (min on that, was like $20 or something).  Got that upgrade today, which I'll take, but I really thought I had a chance at those others.  Oh well, outbid by the likes of you

[JC Pats]

[CruisingSteve]

36 minutes ago, JC Pats said:

It's come down to counting the number of hours before you board, not days

[CruizIan]

Living proof of why we leave one if not two days early. We were in airports from 8am-11:30pm last night with cancellations and rescheduled but we’re so happy to finally arrive in FLL. I received my negative results sometime while we were in the air. Having an issue with my wife’s results not coming so about to head out and get a rapid PCR locally. Can’t chance it. In our Uber last night we passed a Princess ship and I definitely started to get in my feelings after almost two years since we have cruised let alone seen a ship in person. 
 

I hope everyone has save travels to the port and negative results!

[MLH]

30 minutes ago, CruizIan said:

Living proof of why we leave one if not two days early. We were in airports from 8am-11:30pm last night with cancellations and rescheduled but we’re so happy to finally arrive in FLL. I received my negative results sometime while we were in the air. Having an issue with my wife’s results not coming so about to head out and get a rapid PCR locally. Can’t chance it. In our Uber last night we passed a Princess ship and I definitely started to get in my feelings after almost two years since we have cruised let alone seen a ship in person. 
 

I hope everyone has save travels to the port and negative results!

Where were you flying out of?  Was your test at CVS?

[CruizIan]

34 minutes ago, MLH said:

Where were you flying out of?  Was your test at CVS?

So we flew out of Pensacola funny enough. We started in Florida, and our first flight was cancelled to Charlotte. Ended up going through Dallas to Miami and Uber to FLL. I did my test at CVS and got the results back yesterday evening so just over 24 hours. My wife went to Walgreens by her work and it doesn’t even show that they have received her sample from what we can tell.

We found a place in Pompano Beach that will get you results before midnight same day if you test before 2pm for $89

Not taking any chances.

 

[Matt]

10 minutes ago, CruizIan said:

Not taking any chances.

I would do the same thing. Better to pay a little extra for piece of mind

[Matt]

[CruisingSteve]

21 minutes ago, Matt said:

I would do the same thing. Better to pay a little extra for piece of mind

My parents are going on a cruise in 3 weeks, I told them to order the kit and do it at home. It seems to be getting more difficult to find a testing location now. I wish the cruise lines came out and said "If you can't find a place to do it, we will do it at the port for a fee"