MaddyandMax

On 7/19/2022 at 8:22 AM, AspiringCindy said:

I have an excursion for Blue Lagoon that day. Do they ever change the time back to it's original, or are we truly arriving at 12? Also, can I get a refund because now it's not worth it!!

This happened to us in March.  They just adjusted all the times for Blue Lagoon.  You actually only get 4 hours at Blue Lagoon anyways so you'll still get the same amount of time.  They are also very strict about making sure you leave when you are supposed too.

We booked our June 30, 2023 cruise in March while on board.  Even then it was almost completely sold out.  Finding two rooms beside each other on a floor we liked was difficult  (only deck 3 and 4).  But then we came home and our agent had all kinds of rooms.  I think in the summer months a lot of big agent companies buy more rooms than normal.  If you look on other sites you may find more availability.

2 minutes ago, Roybthered said:

Hope there are less children travelling mid Oct when we travel with our granddaughter.

My family group is traveling out of Bayonne with children so you'll at least have us! LOL But only one child out of our group needs to be tested at the pier.

Ugh good catch! LOL  It's been a long day.

Metal Detectors....

We cruised out of Bayonne in March.  Though both my kids are vaccinated, they made us go to the line where unvaxxed kids check in.  I suspect it was because my youngest is 9 but looks younger.  But it worked out in our favour because we were on the ship in 15 min. Once they saw we were all vaccinated and looked at our paper work we were good to go.  It did look well organized.  They had a section curtained off for the testing and a ton of chairs.  We had an 11am check in but there were already a dozen or so families there getting tested.  What seems to be the biggest back up was the mental detectors.  Lot of families with strollers and whatnot that needed to be checked.

3 minutes ago, easyqueasy said:

I believe 11 and under can sail unvaccinated, but need a PCR test. 12 and over needs vaccination or exemption.

This much I know (thankfully LOL). 

But I'm wondering what they do if they are a ton of kids under the age of 12 who are unvaccinated and they are over the 10% threshold.  Now that it appears age 5 and up are included in that 10% threshold.

Does anyone have an literature regarding this 10% rule? I have looked all over Royal's site and can't find anything.

I ask because I am traveling with extended family the beginning of October.  This includes my 10 year old niece who they won't vaccinate for no real reason other than they don't want too.  I'm not starting a debate over vaccines, just stating that is their reasoning (really).  I do not want my own vacation cancelled over this and there is still time to vaccinate.  They said they will if she can't cruise without being vaccinated.  So I'd love something that I can pass on to the about this 10% rule.

Thanks!

I'm with Telus.  DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT use their data when on board. Not if you don't want a bill that could be in the thousands.  The $11 (mine is $7) roaming charge will not cover you when at sea.  Put your phone on airplane mode, turn on wifi and buy the ship wifi if you need to use your phone.

Just thinking of someone trying to use their own data on the boat gives me anxiety LOL

Swim diapers are what they don't want in the pools so if your LO isn't wearing one you are good.  We took our youngest when he had just turned 3.  He was potty trained and no one said a thing or ever asked.

THAT said, we also saw parents taking diapers off of babies so they were just wearing a bathing suit and taking them in the the pool and no one from Royal said a thing... So I suspect you will be completely fine.

Strange. 

I have a cruise booked for the end of June 2023 and I can see drink packages.  That's pretty much all I can see though - maybe 1 or two excursions.  The drink packages on that sailing showed up earlier this month.  Before that I got the generic "check back in later" message. 

Don't think so but it'll depend on the cruise line and where you are sailing.

I haven't been on Allure but I've been on others and was most recently on Anthem in March.  The hours vary day by day depending on the port but on average they opened at 9am.  Closed for 2 hours at lunch, closed for an hour at dinner and then was open until 10pm for free.  Then was open 10pm-Midnight for a fee.  It's possible these parents had toddlers, those hours are different and only for short amounts of time.  As my kids are 9 and 14 I unfortunately don't know the toddler hours.

The only change that I've noticed was our last cruise before covid Adventure Ocean was open until 11pm for free and then until 2am for a fee.

My October Oasis cruise is at US$98 a day...

Following along as my parents are on this cruise 🙂

My family and I have always used a US TA from a big chain.  My parents have used the same specific agent there for over 20 years.  She's always gets us amazing deals.  Plus, if I remember correctly Americans pay less tax than Canadians.  Down side is you must pay in US funds but we all have US credit cards through our bank so no big deal.

We cruised in March and booked another cruise onboard.  The price was just under US$4k on board (2 rooms and 4 people - Oasis June 30, 2023).  Came home and moved the booking to our US TA.  They had a group rate for that cruise because they had bought something like 100 rooms and our rate dropped to US$1,100 a room.  So from US$4k to US$2,200. 

I also just noticed that the drink package with voom deal has disappeared.  You now have to buy them separately.  It was there two days ago...

At least on my October 9 Oasis sailing...

Sigh. 

7 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

Deluxe beverage package in my cruise planner still says "buy one get one 50% off" just like it said yesterday, but the price went up $10  (from $62 to $72) 🙄.

 

Refreshment package went down though. From $30 to $23, which sounds like it's about as low as it goes unless there's a really good sale, so I bought it, but will keep my eyes out for it to go to $19, just in case.

 

Ultimate dining went down from $219 to $207. I'm waiting to see if it goes to $189. If not I guess I'll probably buy it even if it goes back up to $219, but I'm not in a hurry so it's not worth buying yet, even though I know I can cancel and rebook. 

 

Cococay day pass went down by $3 from $101 to $98. Wasn't planning to buy this but it's one of the prices I noticed had changed with today's fake sale. 

 

 

Same for our next sailing on the Oasis.  I am kicking myself.  $98 for a drink package is RIDICULOUS.  How is the sale better than yesterday's sale but the price went from $65 to $72?  Make it make sense Royal.

8 minutes ago, Subman738 said:

I was recently on the Oasis as part of a party of 10. Everyone you wanted to text with needed to sign up for the text feature at 1.99/day per person. For the most part it worked pretty good and helped in making arrangements for meeting at different times. 

 

Did you need to get some kind of permission to text other people in other rooms on the app? We are a group of 16-18 traveling in 5 rooms.  All family.  As you can imagine keep track of a larger group on the app would be helpful! LOL  We are already linked together so we can dine together.

I've cruised 4 times since having my bariatric surgery (4 years post op).  Now obviously I can eat more than a few ounces at this point but I can still only eat 1/3 or 1/4 of a dinner plate.  The kids menu sucks and never changes.

I just let my waiters know the first night I've had surgery and I don't eat a lot.  I forgot to the last cruise and the first night they kept asking me if everything was okay and if I wanted anything else. I had totally forgot that I didn't tell them because I'm so used to it now.  I let them know and it was never a problem.  I've tried to ask for smaller portions.  It never happens lol.  So just eat what you can 🙂

Yes.  you can also use Rexall, Costco, Walmart.  Anywhere that does rapid tests for travel.

We did Wonderland for the first time last month.  For our family of 4 it was $225 (my youngest was a discounted rate).  We did not like it.  I'm sorry for all the Wonderland lovers lol.  It was a very long boring drawn out experience for us.  Too many appetizers that we didn't really like (first for us we are foodies) and my main course, along with my daughters, were served in the main dining room the next night.  I was a bit peeved.  Now, if you could go and just eat the dessert, that may be worth it in my opinion.  It was the only course we really enjoyed.

Yes! Make sure information is correct.  I didn't and by accident put the wrong birth date for my daughter and didn't notice until I was home.  When I went back she said she couldn't change the paperwork and refused to retest my daughter (I would have paid - my mistake).  She ended hand writing the entire form for me and I was so worried but my hands were tied.  We had to leave.

In the end it wasn't even questioned by Royal or really looked at it.  But it was on the proper letterhead and signed by the pharmacist so it would have been accepted regardless.  But it looked different than the rests of the families.

We just did the drive from Toronto area to NY.  We loved the drive.  It's not too stressful once you are past the boarder and the mountains are beautiful.  We also loved parking at the pier.  It was $175 for 7 days but the parking was literally 100 feet from the terminal.  Getting out was a breeze (we walked off with our luggage at 8am).  When we got to the terminal my husband dropped us off and went to park.  He was back with us in less than 10 min (with a bathroom break LOL). 

We usually leave the day before and stay in Stroudsberg PA.  Hotels are cheaper and it's only 1.5 hour drive to the pier in the morning. 

On 4/2/2022 at 10:20 AM, LuCruise said:

We were on your cruise.  We Will Rock You was cancelled the second last sea day due to "technical issues"....but they did add in a show the following day as DD and I went to that showing (second time seeing it that week).  Who knows though...maybe it was the start of it but didn't realize it and then cancelled shows going forward until everyone is well and done quarantine.  (Leads were all there).  And yeah, heard afterwards that the CD did in fact have covid.  (Otherwise didn't really hear of anyone having it)

 

 

We heard from others that the "technical issues" were so the understudies who weren't sick could practice but who really knows. LOL

That's the problem when you don't tell the whole truth... The speculation runs amuck.  Though the people who told us this seems very sure of their information 🤷‍♀️

Either way it was a great cruise.  Still not sure how I feel about the ship. It beautiful - just not sure if I liked the layout. 🙂

13 hours ago, tottenhamfc said:

If your family were compromised, why would they not be preventative for themselves. I am not compromised and I plan to wear masks and social distance as much as possible. At this point we cant expect others to guide us. We have enough information to try and help ourselves.

Not that it is anyone's business or right to question our decisions but my family did take preventative measures.  We always have.  The people in question wore a mask indoors at all times but the rest of us only wore masks in crowded areas and elevators (and our entire outing in Florida).  We would have wore them at all times indoors.  This was a personal decision that was discussed by the entire family and agreed upon before hand.  We are not anti-maskers LOL

The point of my entire post is that Royal should not be lying to passengers.  We are all aware that covid is everywhere and if staff get sick, especially a staff member like the Cruise Director, they should be telling people the truth about the situation.

But back to the original poster who very kindly took the time to tell us about their trip.