Kendall R

It is no longer required to enter Canada. 🙂

Oh ok, great. The last time I flew into Ontario I had to use it so I thought it was actually still a thing. I'm glad to hear it is no longer necessary.

I’m happy I ran across this post. I will be sailing from Seattle to Alaska later on in the year and it never occurred to me that I would need ArriveCAN for my cruise. At the very least, that would’ve been a major inconvenience.

Does anyone have an experience with losing the ticket for the Port Everglades terminal parking? I just set sail aboard the Symphony of the Seas and I can’t seem to locate or remember what I did with the ticket. Parking is $20 per day… I assume there will be some sort of fine when I return on top of the daily parking rate. It’s not like me to be this careless but was kind of excited to be getting on the ship. I hope I didn’t drop it somewhere back at the port.

I too received this email for my bid on the Grand Suite. But if they wait until after you board before letting you know whether or not you've won the Royal Up, then how do you cancel perks you paid in advance for that you'd no longer need if you were in a suite? For example I purchased The Key for my Wonder OTS sailing next week being it was only a few $$ more than buying standalone VOOM. But if I'm in a Grand Suite, I no longer need to pay for VOOM as it comes free for that class of suite as well as most of the other perks of The Key. I doubt they'd let me cancel my Key purchase after boarding? When I made the Royal Up bid I remember reading that they'd inform you at least 2 hours prior to boarding whether or not your bid was accepted.

As much as drinks cost now it doesn't take many of them to run up a big bar tab. We chose to skip the drink package on our last cruise aboard the Mardi Gras and ran up a $1400 alcohol bill not counting cash tips. Peace of mind is the most important thing to me so I won't be doing that again. Plus I enjoy experimenting and trying new things, something I didn't do much of when I had to come off the hip for each drink.

I'm holding out on seeing the rest of what the ship has to offer as well. I think people are passing judgement on the Icon Class a bit too soon; writing it off as strictly for families. The way I look at it, if all the kids are in Surfside or the Water Park then the rest of the ship will be ours! haha! Some people are taking issue with so much premium real estate being set aside for families and kids but in my experience with the Oasis Class ships, The Boardwalk & Aquatheatre area at the back of the ship is never really crowded unless a show is going on in the evening. I don't see the loss in turning a relatively dead part of the ship into a family area. Losing the Solarium stinks, but being they really never enforced the age requirement (in my experiences on the ships) I think the new and improved Aquatheatre will be a nice trade off.

So is this where the pool of upgrades come from? When I was booking my cruise the only suite they had available was the Crown Loft Suite. I thought it was a bit odd to receive a Royal Up offer a few days ago to move up to either a Grand Suite or Owner's Suite when I didn't even have the ability to select one of those suites when I booked my cruise.

So, I called the iHealth hotline to see if I could purchase an appointment with a telehealth proctor and I got an automated response saying that they are no longer accepting appointments and that it is unknown at this time when seats will be available. It also said to make arrangements with my airline as soon as possible to explore other options or something to that effect. What a load of crap! I guess I should be thankful I'm finding this out now as opposed to closer to my embarkation date next month. I guess I will be purchasing the eMed test kits after all 😞

Is anyone else having an issue with trying to schedule proctored service with iHealth? I was intending on using my free government tests for my upcoming cruise, but I'm getting a bit nervous due to the service now showing up as "sold out" on their website. Its not allowing me to purchase a future appointment date for a proctored test. I'd hate to spend $150 on new tests from elsewhere if I don't have to. I'm so nervous about this testing stuff going wrong that its hard to get into the cruising spirit. Thanks in advance for any help on this.