dmrichards26

@xpcdoojk - While you're onboard for so long...

Would be very curious and appreciative if you can probe the staff for any info to confirm the rumored 2024 drydock for Voyager or get any details on what upgrades they might be doing!

I don't think it's been confirmed anywhere, but she has a gap in her schedule between the October 14th 9-night sailing and the November 10th 16-night transatlantic sailing back to the US.

The TA cruise leaves from Barcelona, Spain and Cadiz, Spain is a very popular port for shipbuilding and drydocks.

2 minutes ago, celoplyr said:

I was even getting my uncle to come along, so my mom could see him for their birthdays (he was going to be 80!)

Same here - we also talked family members into booking this cruise with us, so Royal has really put us in an awkward position.

Same thing here. We got the same message and itinerary change for our April 6th 2024 sailing.

Like you said, calling this an "adjustment" seems ingenuine at best. This was advertised as a "Panama Canal Cruise" and it no longer goes through the Panama Canal.

Very frustrating since we just booked flights last month.

2 minutes ago, jilluh said:

If you're in a room solo, do you pay for 2 people or just 1?

 

 

The RoyalUp system is based around paying for two passengers.

Whether you have 1, 2, 3, or 4 people on your reservation, you will pay 2x your per-person bid.

Leaving on Anthem a week from Today.

• Labadee replaced with Puerto Plata
• San Juan replaced with St. Thomas

Unfortunately some of these decisions aren't even up to Royal. With so many countries on Mediterranean itineraries, a lot of this comes down to the individual country's current policies.

As adult vaccinated passengers, on our July 2021 cruise on Jewel OTS (to Greece, homeporting from Cyprus), we were able to visit all ports of call without scheduled excursions. Children, on the other hand (who at the time were not eligible for vaccines) were only allowed to leave the ship on scheduled excursions, and were supposed to return directly to the ship (although enforcement was fairly non-existent). 

These rules change by the country, and by the month, unfortunately. 

37 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

Last summer, we were informed several weeks beforehand that we would need ship-sponsored shore excursions to go ashore in Italy.

Royal did at least confirm the final policies by email a couple weeks before sailing, as Fiona mentioned here.

30 minutes ago, cruz_happy said:

Did you have to take a Covid test prior to admittance back into the USA since stopped at the Bahamas?  

The requirement to have a negative COVID test for re-entry to the US applies to flights only. Ports of entry for land and sea are not included.

US citizens can just get off the ship at US homeport and go on their merry way. No test required.

On 1/24/2022 at 12:46 PM, BND said:

Haiti was hit by two earthquakes this morning.  It's always something.

It appears that this may have derailed the plans to reopen Labadee this month.

We just received the following message on our Anthem February 11th sailing, previous scheduled for Labadee:

15 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

The parking is still $25/day.     The Port Authority was going to increase to $30 but has not yet done that.   

Ah, that makes a lot of sense! I knew I saw it was supposed to be $30 this year.

I suppose $25 is a little better. $250 for the length of the cruise instead of $300.

I'm curious about the Park n Stay offers though. I will checkout the doubletree you mentioned!

Hi All - 

Starting to line things up for our February 11th Sailing on Anthem out of Port Liberty.

I know the official port parking is convenient, but at $30/day for a 10 day cruise, we'd be looking at a $300 bill. Not outrageous, but we could put $300 to much better use on excursions, RoyalUp bid, etc.

I know there used to be a nearby lot operated by "Bayonne Cruise Parking", but it appears that has gone out of business over the course of the pandemic.

Curious if anyone else has any tips for discounted parking near the cruise port?

Thanks in advance!

3 hours ago, 3kidsncats said:

We had gotten a Royal Up to a JS...

If you don't mind me asking, what was your winning bid on the JS?

We have several suite bids in for our Anthem 2/11 sailing, and curious what kind of bids are being accepted with capacity hovering around 50%.

Some confidence-inspiring news, and some pictures of the Jewel at her new homeport!

https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/jewel-readies-trial-cruise-from-cyprus

Good News!

Jewel of the seas is en-route from her completed Dry-dock in Cadiz to her new homeport in Limassol, Cyprus!

Arrival ETA is 2021-05-24 07:00

Obviously not a guarantee, but I would say that bodes well that the Cyprus cruises will sail!

Interestingly, the First Deck Officer, Maki Canecco, confirmed that the ship is indeed sailing at reduced capacity.

"...passenger travel with this ship in the first half of July from Cyprus, although with reduced capacity due to the pandemic situation."

per https://www.diariodecadiz.es/noticias-provincia-cadiz/Jewel-the-Seas-abandona-astillero-Navantia-Cadiz_0_1574842893.html