MandyGirl

Just watched our wedding video .... 21st anniversary. So many wonderful memories of S/S Norway. We always watch a DVD someone made us with an entire section devoted to the ship. So with I could find a door number to purchase.

10 hours ago, steamboats said:

 

Blue Lagoon and Sky Lagoon are two different things ;-). Sky Lagoon is in Reykjavik while the Blue Lagoon is closer to the airport (and the volcano).

 

Tried the volcano last year but it was quiet that day.

 

steamboats

Ahhh I read too fast - definitely know those are two totally different places LOL. No coffee when responding this morning yet. So sorry for the confusion. Blue Lagoon is the excursion that was offered for Saturday that we are doing from the ship.

4 hours ago, steamboats said:

 

Actually we´re doing the Sky Lagoon on Saturday but in the morning as the christening starts by 5 pm (local time, 7 pm Dutch/German time).

 

steamboats

We are booked for Blue Lagoon on Saturday as well. Booked a volcano eruption sightseeing flight for later on Thursday this week - hoping weather holds out. See you onboard embarkation day Friday!!!

I’m the terminal waiting to board Odyssey with a fully Vaxed 11 year old:

They still pulled us out of the 10:30 checkin line to go get at end of “family line”. Got sticker kid is Vax after showing everything. Still routed to PCR testing area. Nobody seemed to know what to do with us - we obviously did not have a PCR test scheduled nor needed one. (Past security scanning bags) Finally someone said the employee for that area wasn’t there and we were supposed to go back over to where everyone was doing the iPad checkin. Tenth Cruise since the restart but only second Royal and first at Port Everglades so it can definitely vary. Was just kinda weird to me that they have areas for Vax vs not Vax on ship but first thing they do at port is local port employees pull us out of normal Line to put us in line with families who may have unvaccinated children. Hadn’t done it that way on other lines. 

5 hours ago, Presbycruiser67 said:

I guess we should all just stay in our homes and have no contact with anyone in order to be "protected."  If being fully.vaccinated.and wearing masks on ships that are half full is too "risky" then why bother with precautions?  I am vaccinated.and boosted so I am.really done with these.doomsday.warnings.

 

Really sick of the grannies and fusspots in.the CDC and government.

Plus the media never mentions the CDC has the entire US as level 4 as well... dark red in map matches key below map

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/map-and-travel-notices.html

Just have your agent keep monitoring like normal or yourself if booked direct. Also don’t forget the CDC also has the entire US also at a Level 4 as well (the media usually never mentions that little tidbit)

Map of US in dark red like Level 4 in key  -
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/map-and-travel-notices.html

Thank you for the updates. I’m embarking with my vaccinated 11 year old next weekend when you disembark #2. Fortunately we have several cruises under our belts during this pandemic and have an idea what to expect, but first time ever on this class of ship so I’m excited to test it out. Thank you again for this thread!

I would have your agent look for 2-person rooms that allow a crib if child is under 3 at age of travel. They use a pack and play but I would think your agent is already doing that (?) unless lifeboat capacity is truly reached (and calling RCCL they can see that data if so).

16 minutes ago, AdoraBelle said:

 

Thanks a lot for the very specific and recent info. 🙂

 

We’ll also be Haven. Did you get Haven staff to escort you off early? Our flight isn’t until after noon but Hubs is always happy to get to the airport and wait around. 🙂 (Says he’d rather that than be late.)

 

Our flight there lands at 8:35 so I expect us to roll up around 10, although I can’t recall how slow luggage is at MSY, haven’t been there since 2014 or so. 

Luggage was fairly slow even we arrived from our connection in Miami on Friday morning but not horrendous. We did get escorted down service elevator within Haven shooting us out in theatre with someone swiping our keycard to walk out right there. We were not first off but it was smooth getting off. Customs barely glanced at passports 

41 minutes ago, AdoraBelle said:

Thanks for the review.

 

Anyone have any car service or shuttle recommendations for MSY <> cruise port? Any other tips for minimizing the chaos? Right now I suppose my plan is to go with a taxi (not Uber or Lyft ... if those are even present in NOLA?) in hopes they’re experienced with the port situation.

Our family of four did Uber the port from our hotel downtown last Sunday. This morning were off the ship by 7am, pulling into rental car facility at MSY at 7:35 with our Uber ride, and in rental car on the road home to Texas by 8am. Our driver did tell us it would be chaos by 7:30 at the port and we arrived last Sunday about 9:45 (yes chaos then with people still being picked up). We were Haven this week so planned to arrive early to enjoy that benefit hence arriving so early. Boarding started promptly at 11am last Sunday. 

I’ll add that we actually left home January 29 for this 47-night trip so I had the CC M&G marked in my spreadsheet for this cruise. (We had a Cape Horn cruise on Princess prior to Breakaway March 10 so flew to New Orleans from Santiago on March 7-8). We didn’t receive a card in the cabin for the Monday CC event and I had not even looked at the Freestyle Daily - just went according to our rollcall post that I had marked on my spreadsheet for the trip. 

Feels good to be home now 🙂

1 hour ago, senoragilbert said:

Can you please explain how NCL messed up? They switched our venue to the Spiegel Tent, 11am, but I see on the daily that there’s an event there at noon. My contact has been very curt to say the least so if I need to push with her I just need to know what happened so I can get her attention. 

Someone else had posted they messed up (not me) so could you possibly be referring the posts 204 or 210 made by others instead maybe?

The weird thing is our rollcall thread posted 11am Monday La Cucina which is where it was held as posted. We had not many there. I was the weird one who had signed up on the spreadsheet for one person then had 2 others with me plus my parents entering later to not interrupt. So my 1 actually became 5. So instead of being less than our indicated number on the rollcall spreadsheet we were actually more... and the event did take place at the date/place our rollcall thread on CC posted. 

Later in the week a card arrived to do it Saturday 11am which I could not make that one. 

Hopefully weather will be better today - they were expecting weather last night and secured all of our balcony furniture when leaving Costa Maya  as well as the aft balcony nextdoor. Said they would re-evaluate today. Yesterday didn’t seem bad at all IMHO - we ave ate dinner outside for Moderno and it was still pretty calm outside when the medical evacuation was in progress to Cancun later in the evening (which I hope he gets better quickly). 

7 hours ago, tomservo said:

Check out post 204 - apparently NCL messed up and they’re going to re-do it. 

Yep- received the card for the new one but conflicts with something else I already have for Saturday. I marked my calendar from the rollcall thread for the Monday CC greet and it was definitely communicated there.  I just watched that thread for any changes and everything seemed like Monday was a go - had the normal setup as well.

On 3/11/2019 at 11:55 AM, Gatorj said:

So, I do have a little vent, so if you don’t appreciate what I have to say, skip this section and move along.

There were 12 people at the meet and greet. 12. NCL has a very nice food and beverage setup and there were 9 officers. It was embarrassing. I know we had 30-40 on the meet and greet signup, so....if you’re not going to show, don’t sign up.

Hopping off the soap box now.

So we were the opposite... I was the only one who signed up but brought two extras from my family. So we were three of those 12. Plus my parents were a little late and stood outside to not interrupt and listened just off to the left, enter right as the officers left. They weren't signed up either.  Definitely the smallest I have ever attended of being on CruiseCritic for 19 years...

1 minute ago, KimCHouston said:

I’m on the 49 night Royal cruise and when I go to Personalizer it doesn’t show anything about MedallionNet. May I ask how much are they selling the 14 night MedallionNet for?  Thanks!

It was showing $99. It did not show the 14 until clicking through some, and was listed just above the Minute options.

We are booked on the 33-night Royal leaving next weekend. However, they are only selling the 14-night Medallion in the Cruise Personalizer online.  Do they offer extensions normally for the longer cruises (such as once onboard to extend to) or do you have to purchase multiple packages? I need to be connected / available for work and check in. (Or can I just hope it is titled 14 nights but actually sold for the duration of the cruise booked?)

On 1/8/2019 at 5:29 PM, RSF Cruiser said:

On a related note, I took ukulele lessons on board, and the photographers took a picture of the ukulele players at the show. That photo was $25, and I was told it's because it had people in it who had not purchased the package. Well, for $25, I decided the photos taken with personal cameras would do...

 

 

So does that mean any picture like formal night with the Captain or an Officer is excluded as well? 

Our Feb 2 itinerary in Cruise Personalizer is showing 5:00 for our's. Like someone else said above, I think it can vary by itinerary.

Planing to use our’s well from Royal Princess starting Feb 2

We cancelled our “Best of Fortaleza” excursion on Royal princess for Feb 12 to be on the safe side. I couldn’t remember how long we had for the cancellation policy so just went ahead and did it just in case for our family of four. 

We have Petropolis booked for Rio and I am curious any issues there - haven’t searched deep but I haven’t come across front page stuff yet 

I wonder how cabana numbers are assigned and if we are able to request a specific number (and through whom). We are traveling with friends and the two chairs would be handy - but I noticed above #2 does not have them so that leaves the full cabanas with window chairs as #1, 5 and 6. 

Thanks for the info! Finally coming across this thread and we have a cabana booked for 12/6 cruise. I originally booked the split cabana for hubby and I, but figured we have friends onboard we would most likely be seeing come by, so switched to the full cabana. OBC from X came in handy for sure with this! And since we are in an ocean view room (not balcony this time) figure this is a good relaxation day. 

That's about it for the ship, so I am going to circle back to embarkation and let you know what happened when we went to guest services to fix the card mix up! Of course, like all guest services, there was a line up. It took about 10 minutes in line to get to an agent and then another 10 minutes explaining what had happened, explaining who was who, which picture should go with which card, etc, etc etc. Finally, it got sorted out and new cards were issued for all of us. Off I went to test out the drink package. I ordered my mudslide, handed over my card, and was told "This card is for a minor!" WHAAATTTTT????? Back we went to guest services - only this time, the line was even longer. Another 30 minutes at guest services where they confirmed that my picture and name were correct, but my DD's date of birth was linked to my card. They fixed it, printed us yet another set of cards, and sent us on our way. Back to the bar I went. So ready for that mudslide. Handed over my card, the bartender swipes it, all is good. YAY. Or so I thought......Several drinks later, I checked on my onboard account only to find that I had been charged for all the drinks. I asked the bartender and he told me that my card had a soda package. I then gave him my 11 year old's card. Yup, you've guessed it....she had the all inclusive beverage package....guess where our next stop was???? If you think we have had it easy with guest services prior to this, you would be right. This turned out to be a real problem as it wasn't simply a case of switching the packages. Phone calls needed to be made, permission needed to be granted, emails to corporate and finance needed to be composed....at one point I offered to just change my name to my daughter's!!! It took us almost an hour to get the drink package sorted but, thankfully, this was the end of our troubles and it was smooth sailing from there.....

 

 

More tomorrow....

The drink packages are tied to passengers one and two on the reservation how they are listed. Usually an agent can rearrange names if one is going to a different person, but the finance piece comes in because of the service charge / gratuities on the package you are paying for an adult package versus a soda package since a higher cost between the two packages Definitely easier to fix it prior to a cruise with the way computers area. No fun to have to deal with that onboard. :(