colesc15

15 minutes ago, JessyCruises said:

Turnover day went very smoothly.  All the B2Bers had to meet in the Music Hall.  There were several contractors that were staying onboard.  They were gathered on the 1st floor.  The guests were gathererd on the top floor.  They took photos of our vaccine cards again and took our pictures. I do not think they looked at our passports.  We were then escorted off the ship, when through the facial recognition scan, and then were escorted back on board.  Easy peasy!

 

We did not go to the B2Ber lunch as we are on the Ultimate Dining package this week and wanted to use it to its full advantage.

 

We went to Giovanni's Italian Kitchen for lunch.  I had the Nonna's Soup for an appetizer and Paul had the Meatball Gigante.  I had the Carbonara for my entree and Paul had the Chicken Parm.  He was not a fan of the parm - said it was kind of tough.  He said he should have gone with his first instinct and gotten the pizza, but he thought it would have been too much food for one person.  He said he is definitely getting pizza next time!  He quite enjoyed the meatball but it really was HUGE as the name implies (see room key in photo for perspective). My soup was delicious.  The Carbonara was a little underseasoned, but nothing a little S&P could not fix.  Not the greatest view in the world, but overall a nice mean and looking forward to trying it again for dinner.  Any recommendations are welcome 🙂

 

 

I can't wait to hear all about the dining package. Was curious what's available on boarding day with the package and this will certainly do as I assume Chops is only for The Key 

I'm guessing, for example, on embarkation day or any day, you go to whatever restaurant and once seated, tell your waiter you have the dining package and beverage package? 

33 minutes ago, BNBR said:

 

As another poster said, we also sailed in 2019 and you could use it for lunch at Jamie's or anything that was open.  There was no restriction.  It also said it's good for sea day lunches on the marketing material, but we used it at Johnny Rockets during a port day without issue as well.  At no point was there ever any pushback at any restaurant, Playmakers, etc.  Walk in when they were open, enjoy the food, no bill.  I sure hope that hasn't changed.

 

For your reservations, you could do it at any of the specialty restaurants.  Just have a list of your choices, walk up, and they'll punch them all in on the computer and get you setup.  On that sailing, there were multiple stations in the Promenade setup just for dining reservations.  But post pandemic, who knows if they are still there.  We'll find out next week.  There is no way to book via the app for unlimited dining, at least not back then and I still don't see it on the app now.

Looking forward to you reporting back 

Royal has no issue with us in a port hopping in a taxi and heading to a private beach club for the day, correct? I didn't miss any protocol about that? Lol. Specifically on Odyssey in a few weeks and referring to cozumel. I didn't see anything about having to only do Ship sponsored stuff in ports. 

Just to be sure.. We're on Royal next month on Odyssey.. We aren't breaking any covid protocol but taking a taxi to Nachi for the day, right? That's allowed? 

The age ol question.. I'm cruise rusty though so I can't remember.. Is a 10:15am FLL flight from Odyssey cutting it too close with current cruises? Leaving next month and debating changing to the early flight to get home earlier. 

Ugh these pictures make me SO excited for Odyssey beginning of October. We're in the same boat, it's been far too long. And a ship not packed sounds phenomenal since I'm not a people person lol 

Are you able to use the package on boarding day for lunch or no? 

Also, what's the easiest way to set the rest of your reservations for the rest of the week? By going to one specialty restaurant and having them do all? Guessing you can't via the app. 

Just got caught up and I love it. I can't wait to hear about the dining package next week and if its difficult getting a reservation or not. On odyssey in about a month!

55 minutes ago, MikeBayAreaCa said:

Yes it is.  We’ve always tipped extra when we did one specialty restaurant per cruise, but it could get very expensive if you tip extra with the UDP.

 

The question is how much.  I always pay at least 20%, but If I did that with the UDP the tips will end up costing more than the package.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exactly. Normally if we do chops one night, we'd tip anywhere from $20 to $50 for that one meal. If we did that each night with the package, that ends up being as much as the package. I feel silly not tipping though

Do people generally tip in cash each night then? Normally we tip the few nights we do specialty dining but if you're using the package, that's an added cost by tipping extra each night. Curious. 

We're considering the UDP for the first time on our Odyssey cruise next month. Trying to understand.. It's a 6 night cruise.. are we able to eat at Chops for more than 1 of the nights? I'm assuming if we ate at say, Giovanni's one night, and later that night were hungry for some wings at Playmakers, since we already ate at Giovannis that night under the package, we'd have to pay the entire bill at Playmakers? I appreciate someone answering 🙂

Haven't seen much regarding the ships first sailing or two since they started. Has anyone had an first hand experience or heard much?? 

Loving this report! We've never been to coco cay and will be in about 2 months. Trying to determine if the beach club is worth it. If you're in the free portion of the island, is there servers walking around to order drinks from the beach or do you have to walk to the closest bar? 

If you're in the free beach portion of coco cay, are there drink servers walking around similar to the pool deck or is it only in the beach club that you'd get waited on? Just trying to weigh if beach club is worth it or not with having the drink package. 

When royal released the Nassau cruises, I called and the rep put a courtesy hold on a room for me and told me it would expire Thursday at 8. She sent me the invoice showing the pricing. I got another invoice this morning showing the room with zero paid for the deposit. Is this just royals system sucking and not releasing the cabin yet? I'm assuming that's the case but wanted to make sure I didn't need to do anything. I opted not to book it. 

It varies based on the length of your stay in Nassau but sounds like around $60 per person 

Yeah the royal agent gave me that website. Basically you have to register, then get the negative covid test a few days before entering the Bahamas. After the cruise, the Bahamas doesn't require one but to fly back to the US you need a negative test but I'm not sure how that'll happen. I've seen reports royal will do antigen testing at the end of the cruise but haven't seen that confirmed by anyone at royal or in their faqs 

2 minutes ago, dswallow said:

 

You will obtain a Bahamas Health Visa to enter the country. This will cost you $60 per person. It includes quarantine insurance for up to 14 days at $500/day and $50,000 of medical and $50,000 of evacuation coverage. RCCL will test you on the last day of the cruise using an Antigen test, which is what you need to board your flight back to the US. If you test positive, you'll have the coverage provided by the Bahamas Health Visa to cover your extended period of quarantine in The Bahamas, and further testing.

Great to hear. I wish the worker at Royal knew that portion about the testing. 

Just now, HBCcruiser said:

 

Just saw this on the RoyalCruise Blog (twitter): https://twitter.com/theRCLblog/status/1374764901839822852?s=20. Confirmed: Royal Caribbean will offer complimentary Covid-19 test onboard at end of #AdventureoftheSeas cruises for Americans to fly home

I saw that too, but it's not a verified Twitter page so is that a legitimate royal Caribbean blog or just a personal account that tweets royal Caribbean News? 

So after speaking with royal, you have to apply for a health visa with the Bahamas to enter Nassau. After the cruise, she claims you have to get tested after the cruise in Nassau so you can board your flight back to the US. That sounds like a nightmare since that'll apply to all cruise passengers. The rcl blog says royal will test on the ship so you can fly but the csr said no. 

I wasn't able to find anything on it

Can't figure out a way to pay the deposit with my FCC. Is that not allowed? 

One thing I couldn't find anywhere, is royal doing anything about the needing a negative test to board a flight back to the US? I'm assuming they have a plan because otherwise everyone getting off the ship in Nassau at the end is going to be scrambling to get a 24 hour covid test so they can board the flight back to the US? 

Anyone have any idea about getting a negative covid test to return back to the US? I didn't see that in any of the faqs, but I would assume royal has something in place since everyone getting off the ship would be in the same situation needing one to fly back?