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RoyalUp on the October 2nd Symphony of the Seas and other tidbits


Yesiamthere

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Part One

I booked this cruise over six months ago.  A free balcony (casino) room was a good way to get back to cruising. Several months after booking the cruise Royal changed a port, and with that change, we became a vaccinated ship, except for those 12 and under.  Then around a month or so before the cruise our required negative covid test went from three days prior to two.  I had read on facebook that a guy initially was denied boarding because the right side of his vaccination card was left blank.  If your’s is blank, just grab a pen and write something that is impossible to read.  Now, only do that, if you were really vaccinated.  Mine is impossible to decipher. Luckily, the denied guy was with a high government official who spent two hours trying to get it all straightened out.  

Keep checking your account (every day) because when they start allowing “time” check-in’s they go fast.  I was able to snag a 1:30, with the earliest being noon.  Closer to sail date, Royal reopened time slots and I moved to a 12:30 slot.  I initially booked the key but cancelled after not seeing the value in it because of all the restrictions.  All previous sailings the key had been cancelled, but to my surprise they did not cancel the key for our sailing.  What they ended up getting (I think) was early boarding, internet, some kind of lunch the first day, time slots for activities and a “to go” bag lunch the last morning with choice time debarking.  Not worth it to me.  

Around a month before sailing I received several emails about bidding on a spacious balcony, junior suite, grande suite, and owner’s suite thru their RoyalUP program, which is actually handled by a third party.  Don’t call Royal with questions because they really don’t have anything to do with who gets what.  The majority of the time you will not get to bid more than two grades over the room you had booked.  So, no Aqua suite genie option for me.  

Everyday I would go online and do a “mock” booking to see just how many rooms were available in each category  We had lots of junior suites, six grande suites (went to seven), and I think five owner suites.  These numbers stayed consistent during the last three weeks before sailing.  I felt like a junior suite winner was a given with just over a minimum bid.  I really wanted either the grande or owner suite so I decided to “up” my bid to $975.00 each for my hubby and myself for the grande suite. Owner suite $1070 each. Now remember my starting point was port charges and taxes  After cancelling the key I had bought internet for the two of us.  I cancelled that when I was pretty sure I had won the grande suite which comes with the internet.  Just over a week before our cruise my junior suite and owner suite said “expired.”  The grande suite still said “pending” and I could no longer modify it.  Four days from cruise I received the email from Royal saying I had won the grande suite.  Some people have the money taken from their credit card before notification.  I received the email first and my credit card did not show the charge for at least ten hours.  Our facebook group was popping with so many getting upgrades…..even to Star Class.  It seemed the junior suite was the easiest to get.  

I’ll post this then start the tidbits part!  
 

 

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I was excited that hubby and I were going to be in the grande suite for close to $2200, which normally goes for $7,000.  It seems really personal to share about how much we paid, but I can’t be the only person that has wondered how much something cost.  Maybe, I’m the only “nosy Josie,” but at least, I’m not a Karen. 🙂

We showed up for our 12:30 boarding time at 12:15 and was third in line at the suite entrance.  The regular line did not look bad either.  We showed our passports, vaccination cards and negative covid test.  We took our covid test at an urgent care on Thursday for our Saturday sailing.  We had our letter in hand before we left the urgent care.  We had to show all again before boarding the elevator to the next floor.  Next floor we had to show all again then off we went to board the ship.  

Captain said ship capacity was just under half.  

We ate lunch in the suite lounge ordering from a menu.  No buffet!  Suite lounge’s happy hour was five to eight.  No beer or wine before that time like on other ships.  Steak night was the first night.  We made suite dinner reservations for two nights, so never had a problem getting a table.  Lounge did fill up with people but easily doable.  I bet precovid that place would have been wall to wall people.  

We had to wear a mask when walking inside the ship.  Did not have to wear it when seated in shows, comedy club, restaurants, Central Park or boardwalk, suite lounge,  or the casino.  Kids were not allowed to even walk through the Casino. 

Speaking of the casino.  I hosted a “slot pull” and 60 people showed, and we all won two dollars!  Actually, I found the casino slot machines not too tight.  Lots of jackpots were given….totally surprised on that!  Symphony has done a really good job separating smokers and non smokers.  Best I’ve experienced.  Lots of people at the table games.  Casino bar was open but no seating around it.  Service was excellent!  Casino was open from eight in the morning to early morning the day at CocoCay, as well as when we were at St. Marten or maybe that was St. Thomas.  One of them!

We did have two headliner shows, both singers.  Comedy guy was funny.  Flight isn’t back yet.  I think Hairspray and ice skating were.  Aqua show was cancelled due to weather but was shown later in the week.  I’ve seen most of the entertainment before or so darn close to it on other ships.  I’m really hoping Royal will make a ship that has completely different neighborhoods.  The same stuff  is both comforting and tiring at the same time.  Odd  

We had the three night dining package so ate at the seafood, 150 and chops.  All good, but service excellent.  We ate at the Windjammer once for breakfast and once for lunch, and both times, service was excellent.  They sat us both times, but saw others sit themselves.  Buffet looking but now you point and they serve.  There’s a neat taco station up on the sports deck that was pretty good!  You were served at the soft ice cream machine, which is so much better.  You served yourself at the soft drink machines, which they only kept one of the two working to keep social distancing.  

Parents of kids complained because very little youth stuff happening.  Adults complained because there was very little partying happening.  Less than half sailing it was never crowed.  Signs in elevators requested only six people at a time.  Most people honored that. One lady with us in the elevator literally freaked out when that seventh person got in the elevator. I was thinking, “Come on lady, if seven people bother you then you should not be cruising.”  I’m here to tell you that people have going down right crazy!  

Last morning we took Royal’s bus to the Miami airport for $16 a person. It was a breeze getting off the ship and going through customs.  The best ever.   We chose not to eat breakfast and we’re at the airport’s admiral club early for our 11:30 flight which was delayed for 30 minutes.  We had an overbooked flight.  We were lucky that our flights were all good.  Apparently, most of our facebook friends got stranded either in Florida or at their connecting flights airport.  One couple couldn’t get out of Florida until Tuesday after getting to the airport on Saturday.  Another couple got the last rental car when they realized they were going to be stuck due to cancelled flights.  Most of them were on Southwest.  On the other side of the fence, a Royal Caribbean blogger, said over 200 people did not make their cruise after us due to flight problems.  It was all just a mess.  

The biggest problem is I just can’t go back. I told my hubby I just can’t. 
 

I’m now a “suite” woman. 
 

 

 

 

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Ashley, Thank you so much.  I’m so new at this!!  That said, should this post, since not live, be somewhere else?  Also, I just finished reading your latest blog on Allure.  You have a wonderful talent for writing.  I’ll be in the eighth floor two bedroom Aqua suite on Allure in February.  So excited.  

Thanks again.  You da bomb….whoops, is the FBI going to come and get me for saying the word Bomb?  🙂

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18 minutes ago, Yesiamthere said:

WAAAYTOOO, I do believe I ended my readings with you moving to Florida and building a house?  How did that end up?

Yes, I am in my new house and soooo happy to be settled in FL.  We still have work going on with the house (post-construction add-ons) but everything is going great.  Thanks for asking 

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