Bfsroyal

Having done quite a few repositioning cruises with Royal (mainly transatlantic / never transpacific). I actually feel they tend to up the entertainment. Every day there will be a full schedule of events as a normal cruise. There of course is sometimes where there hasn’t been something on that we were interested in - so we grab breakfast / lunch / snack or have a coffee during those times. Some things that generally happen - that don’t always make a standard cruise with port intensive schedules - are progressive trivia, learn a dance (such as thriller) throughout the cruise to then perform in the theatre or flash mob, crew talent shows, passenger talent shows, karaoke progressive round ending with theatre final, sometimes additional performances (with different content) from guest acts, sometimes additional performances from orchestra, ceremonies (crossing datelines, crossing equators), one off performances by the cast of the main shows. A perk - on the transatlantic cruises I’ve done - is they tend to be about 70% capacity or less and usually there will be very few children. We do like the longer cruises as you really get to spend more time talking and meeting the crew. I saw the price of the cruise you are referencing a few days ago - at those prices I would be on it but my partner has already used his annual holiday allowance for our booked cruises this year. Even suites are a ridiculously low and tempting price for the sailing.

Today my other half had two missed calls from Royal for our Enchantment of the Seas sailing leaving 6th November from Athens. He rang back and so Royal are trying to free up some rooms for the sailing - presumably due to overbooking - maybe for other reasons. We are a party of 6 in 3 interiors (around 145sq ft) - not connecting - but near each other. They were looking to see if we would be willing to move to 2 junior suites (245 sq ft) with a refund of one room. It wasn’t quite right for us. Anyone else had these calls and was there any unwanted surprises come boarding as presumably they are trying to find additional capacity.

Yes that would be correct, all three (including the latest one just posted) would be in relation to the transatlantic.

Now another email: We can’t wait to welcome you onboard Anthem of the Seas’ transatlantic sailing on Monday! Last night, we sent you the updated testing protocols for your voyage and we wanted to add some further clarity about the timing of your test. All guests ages 5 and older must present a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 2 days prior to sailing. This means the earliest you can take your test is any time on Saturday 15 October. Guests ages 4 and younger are exempt from this test. Guests can take advantage of in-person or telehealth tests. Unsupervised testing will not be accepted. Proof of a negative test can be the printed or digital results. To learn more about our accepted tests, visit our FAQ.

I also received this email last night. But have just now received one saying; We’re looking forward to welcoming you onboard in a few days! As a reminder, all guests ages 12 and older will need to provide a negative COVID-19 test result upon arrival to the terminal. Guests who are up-to-date must test within the 3 days prior to our boarding day. Guests who are unvaccinated or not up-to-date will need to complete either an antigen test in 24 hours prior to boarding or a PCR test 72 hours prior to boarding. At home, unsupervised lateral flow tests - such as those provided by the NHS or other healthcare providers are now accepted for your sailing! Learn more about our requirements at www.RoyalCaribbean.com/health.

As others have mentioned the venue will appear on the statement. Therefore avoid the bionic bar! These shouldn’t be accessible to others outside of your stateroom. However can be accessed via your stateroom tv, your stateroom occupants app and the final statement will be left outside your room or posted under the door on the final night. A cocktail is usually about $13. A non-alcoholic one $7. A beer $6-8. A coke $4. If you buy any alcoholic drinks individually. You you can pretend you were buying two non-alcoholic beverages - give or take a $. However whilst ships are massive you occasionally end up seeing the same people again and again around the ship - waiting until the parents have gone to bed before visiting the bar will likely be a wise move. You can bring on two bottles of wine per stateroom. However these should be kept in your carry-on luggage. If you are arriving together this obviously might lead to presentation at security to verify they are wine. If kept in your hold luggage this will be kept by security and would require a visit to security on deck 2 to again verify the contents and if your father finds out your bags have gone missing might want to tag along. As stated losing the parents in port at the end of the day, or heading out for a second time may be the easiest and cheapest way to access alcohol without being spotted or having a trace on the account. Any alcohol bought in port will (most likely) be confiscated on return to the ship to be returned or collected at the end of the voyage. I once presented alcohol - 2x full size rum bottles - to ship security in port expecting it to be kept until the end of the cruise but they let us keep it in our room.

I’m just back from Voyager last week and Millennium in November. Both were excellent as far as food and service are concerned. Celebrity buffet was better - loved the breakfast eggs Benedict station. Main dining was excellent on both - celebrity more refined - but sometimes the menu descriptions, your expectation from that description, and the dish are different. Having said that Millennium was only on about 25% of capacity and voyager 50%. I would say that voyager whilst looking good is maybe not as shiny and revamped as recently as Millennium. Millennium was just a little bit fancier than Royal. We have booked another sailing in Asia on Millennium for 2024 so have no issue going back. I would more likely take into consideration the itinerary, status and the cost between the two. Celebrity only do the nightly drinks between 5-8pm, where Royal is currently 4 drinks anytime if diamond. These things could make or break it in the overall cost of the cruise. We are happy to sail Celebrity if the price is similar to Royal ( taking the complete package prices into consideration - which doesn’t often happen) or if the itinerary isn’t covered by Royal - some Asia and South America cruises for example.

Just used it on disembarkation. Arriving about every 5-10 minutes. The drop off location which I presume is also the pick up location is next to the metro station down at the Copenhagen International School side. The drop off point is marked with a yellow x on the map

Sorry apologies for any confusion. Uber isn’t available in Copenhagen - but all the other ports of call along the journey. Taxis in Copenhagen seem expensive based on the distance travelled. Our journey from the airport for 6 to the port area hotel was around £70. A smaller taxi for up to 4. I think would be about £35. This obviously worked well for convenience for 6 with luggage. If two or less and if staying near the train station then the train I think is very efficient and more cost effective. Their public transport network is very good. If not using the Copenhagen pass then a single ticket lasts for one hour across the public network including water buses, buses and metro.

As far as ports go in all ports of call Uber is available and is substantially cheaper if 2 or more people than the shuttle buses. To get into town in Tallinn €3-4, Stockholm €11 and Helsinki €9.

In terms of cell reception this has been available most of the cruise even at sea. My provider does free calls texts and internet across all the destinations. I have my mobile data off when sailing though just in case. One of our travel companions phones managed to go onto cellular at sea in port whilst on the ship in Copenhagen. But we haven’t seen it since. We haven’t felt the need for internet package.

We asked if we could show up at 6pm on one day only for our 5:30pm slot and this was ok. We were the only table our waiters had out of three when we showed up. Another table in our section came at 7pm. There seems to be some flexibility but would ask prior as not to cause annoyance. In fact our waiter came and chatted with us for about 10 minutes that night as we were the only table he had for that sitting. Our MDR waiters have been excellent. We had one disappear mid week (presumably with covid - it was just mentioned he was feeling unwell). I think we can go to guest services and give a specific employee tip for him to be passed on.

We were told by our hotel about the free shuttle from Orientkaj Metro it is also right next to the water bus stop. I’m not sure what time it starts from or if it is on always when a cruise is departing or arriving. We are planning to use it to go back to our hotel on disembarkation if operating then and will try to get more info. It was apparently going every 10 minutes. We saw it at around 10:40am. It is a large bus like the ones used at airports for remote stands. It had a sign in the back window denoting it as free shuttle. The journey time is about 5 minutes.

We had 11:30am arrival time - we checked in as soon as it opened and that was the earliest available. We were at a hotel in the port and left early to get there. There is a free shuttle bus from the metro station near the port that leaves every 10 mins. We arrived probably at the terminal for 10:40am. My partner is always early. We expected to wait outside, but the terminal was already open and there was a long queue inside that moved very quickly - we had all our docs checked and it was straight on to the ship. There was already quite a few guests on board eating in the windjammer at maybe 11am so they must have been letting people on from around 10:30am. We were quite surprised by the rooms being ready so early as usually it’s 1:30pm or later.

Just an update for this weeks Cruise. Not exact numbers but we were speaking to one of the staff who told us it was 1700 on this weeks sailing. It feels quite busy as with the cold weather most people aren’t on deck and hanging out in the venues inside. Most of the earlier issues mentioned in this post seems to have been resolved with an abundance of butter. Rooms were ready around 12:00 noon on our sailing - much earlier than on other sailings. All staff we have encountered seem on point and know what they are doing. The top tier event was just held with 655 C&A members on board including 8 pinnacles. I didn’t quite memorise the remaining numbers but think it was 110 diamond and 90 diamond + on board.