JoJo1008

We were on the Regal for the March 24 sailing. Friends that were two decks down from us were told they had to take their magnets down. Our floor had lots of door decorations. I guess not all of the room stewards were enforcing the new rule. I asked ours and he said he hadn't heard anything about it. 

We board the Liberty on Thursday and are excited about visiting that "nothing" town, however, our stop in Bar Harbor could be affected if the government shuts down. Acadia Nat'l Park could be closed and that's the main reason everyone goes to Bar Harbor. We'll be disappointed but I won't let that ruin my cruise. We'll find a lobster roll and a beer and enjoy the scenery. 

36 minutes ago, meadowlander said:

You will have no issues with a flight after noon departing from EWR. The cruise port & airport are about 10 miles apart. Your flight departs on a weekend as well but on a weekday a 12:30 flight would be fine.

 

I was on Liberty's first Bayonne sailing last week & the disembarking was very disorganized. I have no doubt it will be effective by your cruise. Despite the disorganization, self assist passengers began disembarking at 7:45. I think it was supposed to start at 7:30. You will not need to be a self assist passenger with a  12:30 flight. 

 

Facial recognition in the terminal takes seconds. Do have passport ready if you fail facial recognition. I failed once because Royal misspelled my name, presenting my passport allowed me to proceed quickly.

 

Taxi service is not available in front of the terminal as is for Uber/Lyft & car services. For the taxi area, exit the terminal to the right (towards the parking garage), once outside go left, along the side of the terminal. When you get to the road there will be a crosswalk. Go across 2 crosswalks to the taxi area. It is in a paved parking lot. There will be workers to direct, answer questions. It was much better organized than when I last used taxi service in 2021.

 

The shared van I used last week departed as soon as I boarded. You probably will have a longer wait, to get more passengers heading to EWR in your shared vehicle. Contact Archies Cab in Bayonne (201-436-3656), ask if they are allowed to service Cape Liberty on disembarking (they do drop off passengers on boarding day). If so, ask if they can meet you in the car service waiting area in front of the terminal. This area has overhead hanging numbers to identify each pickup zone.

 

 

Thank you for all of the great info. Do you happen to know if Uber/Lyft are plentiful there or is it best to just plan for a cab? There will be four of us so the cost of a cab is not important. 

We'll be taking the Oct 5 fall foliage cruise on the Liberty. The latest non-stop back to San Antonio is at 12:34 and we'd really like to be on it. When is the earliest we could be off the ship (carrying our bags) and how far of a drive is the airport? We all have Global Entry to make it a little quicker through security. Are there lots of cabs available once you're out of the cruise terminal?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

I was on the elevator after dinner last night and a gentleman asked me if I was Pandabear. At first I was confused and he repeated Pandabear from Cruise Critic and then it clicked. My husband doesn’t do social media so he was thoroughly confused. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying your blog. 

35 minutes ago, FrankieJayIII said:

what was the cost?  how did you book it/sign up for it?  did you take any pictures of menu?

I believe the cost is $100. I haven’t checked my balance in a few days. As soon as we got on the ship we went to guest services and called the dine line. They will take your information but you’re not guaranteed a spot. Within a few days we had an invitation in our room giving us the date and time for our Chef’s Table. 

On 4/21/2023 at 8:08 PM, FrankieJayIII said:

hey @PandaBear62  did you happen to try to book the Chef's Table?   Do you know what night they are being held?  What about the wine makers dinner? 

I don’t mean to barge in on Panda’s thread but we’re on right now and we attended the Chef’s Table night before last. We were the second Chef’s Table they’ve held so far. 

The typical smell of manure of white pepper produced with “traditional”methods is due to some of the components of its volatile oil. On a total amount of 22, only few  are directly responsible for strong odors:

The 3-Methylindole reminds of the smell of pig manure,

The 4-methilfenolol – an odor of feces and/or horse sweat, as well as the skatole (whose pungency is increased by the simultaneous presence of p-cresol).

These aromatic compounds are developed by the biochemical processes that occur during fermentation. Not to get too strong or altered aromas, it is necessary to change frenquently the water used for soaking, then quickly dry the product.

July 23 Allure President's cruise sold out

We were on Adventure in January and we ate them every day. 

10 hours ago, jtintex said:

I msg'd them and they said I am part of a "group booking" because I went through a TA and my window is Oct 16-30 but it could happen earlier.

I'm also locked out of my cruise planner and can't cancel the DBPs that they are going to cancel when they move me anyway. 

I was told also that we're part of a group booking but we only have until Oct. 16th to cancel. Hopefully we'll all be reassigned by then. 

I sent mine and my husband's off the first of August. I just got the text that that's been shipped, so two months....a lot faster than I expected. 

8 minutes ago, DoctorWhoGirl said:

What a mess. We have 2 cabins booked next to each other because our kids are in their own cabin. Hopefully they don’t screw that up when they move us. 

We have a hump balcony booked on Brilliance but I'm not holding my breath that we'll get one on the Indy

6 minutes ago, DoctorWhoGirl said:

Same for my 8 night on Brilliance on June 19th - it now shows 7 night western caribbean out of Tampa. My guess is they moved the ship to Tampa on the system before moving our reservations to Indy. Guess we keep watching for more changes.

I just talked to my TA and he said the same thing, they moved the ship but haven't moved us to the Indy yet. 

I just checked my cruise planner and my July 3, 8 night Brilliance cruise out of Miami now shows a 7 night Brilliance cruise July 3 out of Tampa. It's my understanding that Brilliance isn't even sailing out of Tampa anymore, correct? I thought we would be switched to the 8 night on Independence out of Miami. 

1 hour ago, Dwaegon said:

I just spoke to RCCL and they have confirmed that this is the case. Fairly horrible tactics, and I'm in the same boat as yourself when it comes to this. Have set an alarm to check my email every 30mins today just in case.

 

Could it be that they are waiting for enough people to panic and cancel so they can then allocate staterooms more easily after the 28th? If so, that's reprehensible.

I don't know how you booked but my TA said we haven't received a letter yet from Royal because we booked under a group rate. He sent me a letter from Royal that says we have until Oct. 16th to cancel so I at least feel a little better.

8 hours ago, Tljcruiser said:

We also received ours early this morning. We were hump balcony 8th deck on Brilliance and were assigned aft balcony same category same deck on Indy.  We just booked the 6 night prior to our 8 night this week after learning of the ship change and are in a 7th floor aft balcony.  I was happy with the new cabin, but just wanted to be in the same one both legs so called first thing this morning and they switched us over to the 7th floor same cabin. Invoice was not correct though so be sure to be on the look out for that.   

We were also booked in the 8th deck hump balcony on Brilliance (July 3 sailing) but we have not even received the first letter from Royal about the change in ships so I"m not expecting the room assignment any time soon. Our TA said the delay in notification could be because we were booked in a group rate and we have until Oct. 16th to cancel if we don't like the changes. 

12 hours ago, NancyIL said:

Sept. 28 is the deadline (unless extended) to get a  refund  for cancelling a new cruise that was automatically transferred from Brilliance to Indy or Adventure to Jewel.  Cancellations after that date are subject to the Cruise With Confidence policy, which would issue a FCC, unless the deposit is refundable. I agree that  RCI should’ve extended that date - at least  until Sept. 30th. 
 

For those whose cruises were cancelled with no replacement - you have until October 31st to book a new cruise in order to get the additional $100 or $200 OBC from RCI. 

So please correct me if I'm wrong, from what you're saying the deadline for cancelling our cruise that was originally on Brilliance and now on Indy is this coming Monday? I haven't received any email from RCCL and I contacted my travel agent and he was clueless (not surprising). Do I have any recourse if I miss the Monday deadline since I haven't received any correspondence from RCCL?

I called yesterday on the regular line and there was no delay at all.

We have a cruise scheduled leaving Galveston on Dec. 28th. I'm hoping that won't be cancelled. 

Thank you all so much for the info. Now I can stop worrying about my passport and worry if the ship will actually cruise in December. I hope by then everything is opened up, I need a vacation. 

Our passports expire April 2021. We have a cruise scheduled for July 2021 so I figured I would wait until they open up the processing centers and renew them. I'm thinking of planning a cruise for December 28, 2020 (ports will be Mexico and Belize). My question is will my passport be good for the December cruise even if it expires within 6 months? If it's still good I'll wait til we get back and send it off in January. 

49 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

If this is a new policy and we are stuck with this date of may 28 2021 does that mean we have to sail by may 2021?  

That's what they're saying but nobody is sure yet. 

1 hour ago, lurkmaster said:

I went ahead and wrote an email we will see if I get a response. The 800 number eventually just hung up on me so I didn't get to double digits, 7 hours is the trophy i won.

7 hours, you definitely win!!

Thank you! I emailed our TA on March 16th to cancel our reservation. If we can't use the $500 on a July 2021 cruise we're done with Royal.