gatour

Was it you or the primary passenger who contacted the PVP to  request the change?

9 minutes ago, rdtpm64 said:

Debating getting VOOM surf for 1 device, but I have a couple of questions.

 

1) I really only need to it check in for my flight the day before getting off the ship, although being able to get updates from home would be nice.  Can I buy it for 24 hrs only, or do I have to buy it for the extent of the cruise?

2)  If I buy it for 2 devices, can my friend in the cabin next door use her phone for the 2nd device, or does it have to be in the same cabin?

In answer to your second question.  You can buy a 2 device package.  They don't care it the two devices are being used by people booked in the same cabin.  For example, several years we went on cruise with in-laws.  One of the nieces need access to the internet for school work.  I told the parents I will purchase a three device package, splitting it three ways.  Cheaper for them.  They paid me back in wine on board ship.

Keep in mind that the packages are for concurrent active connections.

Outside of the above scenario.  I usually buy the two device package even though I bring along a laptop, tablet, cell phone and my wife brings along a her tablet and cellphone.  We just make sure that each of us has only one of our personal device attached at any one time.

Let's see.  Countries have been denying ships from docking for months and months.  How did you think you this would suddenly change.

My wife and I have stopped cruising and won't start again until things settle around.

While we like sea days, I kind of like a bit of order (I am the travel planner in the family).  My wife likes activities and from I have seen some of things that she likes and even ones I like have been reduced or eliminated

Let me see.  Infected crew member from other that are not infected on ships that are more less dedicated for this purpose.  How is that bad thing?  The alternative is to keep on the ships that are now in general service and possibly infecting many more people (both crew and customers).

The alternate is to have them disembark the ship and place in hotels as they can't simply fly home.  The affect is the same.

Wondering if onboard staff is subject to HIPPA rules vs on-shore staff.

Yes, the Marriage License is sufficient along with the passport.

Even before covid these cards were hit or miss no matter the length of the cruise on the exact same ship, same intenary and even the same length of the cruise

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

Liberty sails from Galveston so it was on Galveston time. It seems mexico and roatan are on eastern time. People kept asking if they lost a hour. Phones and devices automatically reset for local time, and we were on Galveston time. 

But you can temporary disable this function on your phones and devices.

My recommendation is to figure out if the ship time corresponds to local time or initial embarkation time where you check in.

Some cruise lines are consistent on most of their ships where they will adjust their clocks as they cross time zones.  RCCL leaves it to the discretion of the current Captain.  

9 hours ago, ticketsunlimited said:

The classic JIMBO was the wasting fuel comment.  I never laughed so hard.  Was the captain supposed to drop anchor in the middle of the ocean and sit there and sulk the rest of the day?

Maybe you forgot they are essentially on a ship that "cruises"  that means that they tend to move.

Actually with  modern cruise ships the captain can essentially "drop the anchor". In the mdiddle of the ocean, theey shut down the diesel generators that drive the propulsion system.  They enter into  to the transponder  system that they are dead in the water but no emergency,  So other ships know to give a wide berth.

Back in the day ships would sail around in circles, but nowadays that is no longer required.  Thus no need to burn fuel sailing around in circles.

9 hours ago, ticketsunlimited said:

The classic JIMBO was the wasting fuel comment.  I never laughed so hard.  Was the captain supposed to drop anchor in the middle of the ocean and sit there and sulk the rest of the day?

Maybe you forgot they are essentially on a ship that "cruises"  that means that they tend to move.

Actually with  modern cruise ships the captain can essentially "drop the anchor". In the mdiddle of the ocean, theey shut down the diesel generators that drive the propulsion system.  They enter into  to the transponder  system that they are dead in the water but no emergency,  So other ships know to give a wide berth.

Back in the day ships would sail around in circles, but nowadays that is no longer required.  Thus no need to burn fuel sailing around in circles.

Back to the original topic.

Also ast week Aruba and Curacaos denied one of RCCL ships when some crew and passengers tested positive for covid.  RCCL issued OBC equal for two days of the fare paid.  The were also given 50% credit on a future cruise based on what they paid for the current cruise.

Mind you this kind of special, generally if you miss a port of call due to weather the only refund  you would is is the port fee

12 minutes ago, GEORGIEGIRL said:

I hate to sound like I'm a conspiracy theorist. I might offer that they make money docking in "CoCo Cay" when people get off and disembark and spend their money with RCCL. In Nassau people disembark the ship and the money stays on the island, not RCCL's pocket.

 

Please don't hate... I'm Diamond Plus and LOVE RCCL. I'm just offering another possible reason.

The OP mentioned that the substitute port will be Nassau and NOT Coca Cay.  So your conspiracy theory is invalid 

1 hour ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

Glad to hear you were able to find people to help you. I have always carried a set of jumper cables in my vehicles. I have used them a lot more to help someone else than I have used them to help myself.

I am like you, use my jumper cables more to help other people.  It is a nice feeling to help someone else in there time of need.

International rights have always been hit or miss.  Bla  ming this on the NFL may a bit much and I am not an NFL fan.

ESPN may have just purchased the rights for the bowl games to be broadcast in the US and not overseas.  Once a ship goes beyond a certain point then the broadcast would be consider overseas and not legally eligible for being shown onboard the ship

However the NFL channel may have been, thus the switchover.

36 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

I think I rather lose 2 or 3 hours all in one day on the crossing.

There is actually a 5 hour time difference between the east coast of the US and England.

So if you are going eastbound,  If you wake up at 8am eastern time  partway during the cruise and they adjusted the clocks over night it is now 1pm ship time (UK time)

Also keep in mind BCL had a deal with one or two hotels on the island where people can take the ship to Grand Bahama, stay at one of the hotels for a few days and then take the ship back on a later sailing I won't be surprised if one of the hotels are rebranded as a Margaritaville Hotel.

2 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

I don't know. They didn't ask him but billed him. Normally when they answer the phones you can pay over the phone but that option is gone for now and the email response hasn't come after more than a week. We are cruising again in March, maybe he can resolve it at check in if collections doesn't come after him. 

Why wait until March to take care of this.  Your friend has until 1 Jan to take care of this.  That is 2 and 1/2 weeks away and based on some of the other post your friend may have been identified a week ago.

Once every so often I have had non cruise billing issues, and I just contact the company in question to figure out how to make things correct.  Conversely there have been one or two times when my payment has crossed in the mail when the company had sent me a reminder notice.  I pay the "reminder" notice.  After a couple of months I get a refund check from the company due to the double payment that I made.

The original two ships were name Carnivale and Mardi Gras. Then came along Tropicale as a new build.  And then the Holiday class which included Celebration and Jubilee and non of these ships included Carnival in the name.  Over the years the cruise lines started to include the name of the cruise line in the name to avoid confusion, due to overlap in ship names.

As an example Carnival Magic vs Disney Magic.

Princess has for long time to include "Princess" in the name of the ship.  RCCL uses "of the Seas" to differentiate there ships from other lines

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

They would have been better off just selling it in segments so it would be a better fit for their customers. 274 days takes a lot of commitment.

World Cruise sounds good on paper, but  when you add in all the other costs involved on doing a cruise like this, So many unknown costs involved.

 

I know some people on here have mentioned they like this segment and this segment but not interested in this segment.

 

Does anyone think that Royal would really have a hard time selling out on any of the segments? Or do you think there would be enough interest in all of them to fill the ship?

 

And they did just that.  You have an option of booking the entire cruise or booking one or more segments.  This is very common for world cruises on on the other cruise lines.

It definitely takes research and planning to do a world cruise but it is doable, witness how other cruise lines offer world cruises on a regular basis.

7 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

I just purchased this off Amazon and used it on Serenade.  It was great.  It simultaneously charge two phones, two iPads, an apple watch, a usb power charger and a Gopro battery charger all at once.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093GBM9KF?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

 

 

Well I can't attest the use of this device on a cruise ship, just be aware if you use it at home, you can trip a circuit breaker.

Several years ago my wife bought a similar device to charge her devices.  Every few days the circuit breaker would trip.  Took me a couple of weeks to figure out what was going on.  She would plug in her phone, tablet and one other thing into the usb ports.  Her laptop was plugged into normal outlet on the same circuit.  Then every few days she would use her hair dryer.  This would trip the circuit breaker.  Simple to reset, but I had to instruct her not to have all these devices plugged in at one time. 

Now back to the original question.  I put my phone in airplane mode and it will more than last the night.  Between the two US electrical outlets, and the Euro outlet (I bring an Euro to US adapter)  I can balance recharging my wife's devices, my devices, plus the battery pack.  I also know where to look for the European outlets in the public areas so carry along my adapter if I think it may be needed.

On 7/20/2021 at 4:03 AM, ReneeFLL said:

From Royals website. It needs to be in your carry-on.

“Guests may also bring non-alcoholic beverages as carry-on items on boarding day. Non-alcoholic beverages may not exceed 12 standard (17 oz.) cans, bottles or cartons per stateroom. Milk and distilled water brought on for infant, medical, or dietary use are permitted.”

 

Unless something has changed in the last 2+ years, if you contact RCCL special needs department, you can get distilled water for free delivered, unlike other cruise lines.

I know the OP was posting about bringing bottled water onboard, but just wanted to make the clarification that there is no need to drag distilled water on board.

2 hours ago, Blizzard54 said:

Only ships sailing from Florida need test cruises.  There is a provision that says that if 95% of passengers and 100% of the crew are vaccinated they do not need to do a test cruise.  Florida has laws in place that do not allow the cruise lines to comply with that provision.   

For Florida the applicable laws/rules are in litigation in regards to which takes precedence.  

3 hours ago, dwp10mm said:

I order the 4 device package for my family.  The price is per one adult per day.  But you get 4 unique codes to use across each device.  The planner is always confusing for that one.  But buy the package for one person only.

I don't quite understand the :four unique codes".

For true internet access for various devices (smart phones, tablets, laptops)...

Historically i have bought a two device package under my name for me and my wife.  We would get one password.  Me and my wife just made sure that we each had only one of our devices connected at anyoone time.  I.E.  if if was using my cell phone, and wanted to use my laptop to connect, I made sure to disconnet my cell phone from the RCCL wifi and then connect using my laptop.

My wife did the same for her devices.

A few years ago we did a family trip with some of my in-laws.  One of the children needed to make a daily trip report to her classmates to have an excused absence.  I offered to her parents to buy a three device package with the understanding that they would pay me the difference between the two device package and the three device.  For them it was cheaper for them to do this than buy there own one device package for their daughter.

Once we got on-board, I gave the parents the one and only code I had received.  Everyone was happy.

As a side note the parents, paid me back by buying me a few glasses of wine during the cruise.  WIN/WIN for everyone infolved.

7 hours ago, HMR74 said:

 

 

 

This discussion/bickering  is becoming irrelevant. The CDC clearly wants to do a job on cruise lines. It could be, as pointed out herein to make them fly the flag of the US, albeit it cruises will skyrocket in price.

 

What difference will our discussions make?

 

Or, It could be that those wanting a "new green deal" are starting with cruise lines.

 

But the clock is running down regardless of what we, potential cruisers,  feel about any part of this and it's a shame.

 

So, following the dark humor in the above movie clip, we probably will not have to worry about the restrictions. Those will drive the cruise line industry into extinction. And then the playbook will be used elsewhere.

What's  the over under on number of months left for cruise industry before it runs out  of cash and places to get cash? ?  If the CDC prolongs this much further, who is going to lend them more money? Who will want to buy newly issued stock at a high price? What about the supply chain just wilting?

 

Sadly, There has to be a time date on all of this.

Why would CDC want to drive cruise lines out of business?  The reason why the cruise lines are being "picked on" by the CDC is they has legal authority over the cruise lines, unlike the airline, hotel, amusement parks etc.  They can only offer suggestions to them.  So they can't use the same tactics to do a "new green deal". 

I do think the CDC was remiss in waiting so long to get more direct information to the cruise lines about what procedures/policies they need to implement to start sailing again

2 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Probably similiar to what Disney used to do , 3 or 4 day land vacation, either before or after a 3 or 4 day cruise.

 

Not really an earth shaking idea. Disney has already been done it.

Actually Carnival did it 20+ years ago.  They bailed out after a few years

17 hours ago, Xkontour98 said:

Why is that? Is there any significant difference between it and Navigator or Mariner? 

I like the Freedom class over Voyager class ships because of the extra sizer of the Royal Promenade.  On Voyager class ship it seemed a bit claustrophobic.