CruiseBride926

19 minutes ago, Heymarco said:

If child is with you, they treat you pretty badly these days. Think something similar to walking around ship with big bell around your neck, yelling, “unclean, unclean”.

This wasn’t our experience at all. People were as nice as ever to my two children 

49 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Thanks, that is good info.  

Just for clarification, only the children get tested and the adults only present the necessary tests results and the vax card.

Yup! And piggybacking off of the other response I’d maybe take along something to keep them busy just in case they don’t give out coloring stuff. We were the second sailing out of Cape Liberty so there were hardly any children and the wait was still pretty long for results. 

I haven’t sailed since September so things may have changed but at the time we checked in like normal but then joined a line for testing. After testing we were directed to a roped off seating area to wait for results. After we got negative results for the kids we were able to board. We had wristbands to indicate we were vaccinated and the kids were wristbandless. As far as our cabin steward we’d only really run into her in the halls where we were all masked so we would just say hi and move along. The few times she came into the room we masked up but weren’t asked to.

On 1/28/2022 at 7:13 PM, binro01 said:

From the great info in this thread, I see that many are usually notified 2-3 days prior to cruise departure if their bid was accepted. (In general)

What I was wondering, was when have people normally seen their bid that won was locked and not able to be modified. Just trying to get an idea on that time frame.
 

I also have a question for people who were in a Balcony stateroom on an Oasis class ship who had a successful upgrade.

How successful have people been upgrading to a Sky class suite such as a Grand Suite or an Owners Suite. I see a lot of successful upgrades to the Junior suites, but have not seen much in the way of jumping up to a Grand Suite recently. I will not scoff at a cheap upgrade to a Junior suite, but I will not be bidding aggressively on one. The extra space is nice, but it's just space. I'm aggressively bidding on a GS and semi aggressively on an Owners suite. I just don't know how successful I will be since people in the JS will open up a spot in a lower cost cabin to afford Royal even more capital from an upgrade chain domino effect.

Any info will be much appreciated.

We were booked in an ultra spacious balcony for our cruise on Oasis this past September. I’m not sure if it’s because of the reduced capacity but for whatever reason RoyalUp showed a lot more options than normal. We ended up in an Ultimate Panoramic Suite which is Star Class. I don’t remember what we originally paid or what we bid but I do remember that all in we were at just under $5500 for our family of 4 in a Star Class suite. We already warned the kids to not get used to it 😂

We did the pirate ship with my 6 and 3 year old in Nassau and all of us (3 adults included) had a blast. If you’re open to something other than a beach day I highly recommend it.

2 minutes ago, binro01 said:

The selection will not change. They might offer lower min bids.

I’ve actually had rooms added before. Not an entire new selection but I think 2 additional suites that weren’t shown originally.

We sailed in a star class suite for the first time in September. I don’t really have any regrets as far as asking for things but the one thing my husband and I both agreed on is that we maybe let him over schedule us a bit. It was great being able to try all of the restaurants but having reservations for breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily really dictates a lot of the day. As for the kids our genie was amazing with them and loved that he had cupcakes and cookies delivered for them daily. 

For the bigger productions we prefer Royal but for smaller things like trivia and comedy we actually really liked Carnival. 

On 12/26/2021 at 8:33 PM, sammee said:

Hi neighbor, I'm in Whiting area. I was lucky enough to go on Anthem for Nov 28. I guess that was shortly before the scales tipped. You do what's best for you. I probably would have cancelled too once this variant reared it's ugly head. I'm vaccinated too. I had no problem wearing the masks,  but it's just no fun looking over your shoulder as to when and if you'll going to be the next positive case no matter how careful you are. Hoping things get better so you can cruise again. I'm not scheduled for anymore until next October. I have no intention of booking unless it's last minute, good price and less stressful.

Small world. We’re in Whiting too.

We were in a suite overlooking the helipad in September and the only people I ever saw out there seemed to be people that worked on the ship.

They canceled it. I received an email about it last night.

I’m hoping for (but not expecting) kids sail free.

Wonderland. 

We love Chops but Wonderland is more of a unique experience.

On our September cruise we bid on a few suites and most weren’t available. We ended up getting the Ultimate Panoramic suite which was seemingly the first suite of the ones we bid on to sell out.

If this something still offered when my husband retires we will definitely consider. That gives us about 25 years to save up 😂

26 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

The next ship is to be named Horizon of the Seas.  Otherwise it was a strange choice of a word to use.

This was my first thought but it would be an odd choice considering Carnival Horizon is only a few years old

We went last month and not sure if things were stricter then it I will say we felt incredibly safe. I was really nervous before sailing especially because I have 2 young kids who can’t be vaxed yet but Royal really did an incredible job. And the proof is that both kids tested negative onboard and then tested negative again a few days later when my daughter had to be tested to return to school.

4 hours ago, bgoff60 said:

If my kids is under 12, can they get off the ship?  Can they do any excursions?  (Sponsored only??)

Any special requirements to get back on?

How often do they have to test on the ship?

Thanks in advance

We cruised last month and had to do a Royal excursion. We always do anyway so it wasn’t a big deal. As for testing we were on a 7 night and testing was the morning of our last full day. It was incredibly quick and we had results emailed to us in a few hours.

On Oasis last month the woman at the kids club said they had under 30

registered at that point. I think I’d heard there were just under a hundred on board

We’ve sailed Anthem twice and sailed Oasis for the first time last month. Honestly my husband and I both prefer Anthem. Don’t get me wrong they’re both wonderful but on Oasis it almost felt like we spent more time going places rather than being at places if that makes any sense. 

57 minutes ago, Cruise Gopher said:

What type of AMEX card do you have that had this offer?

 

Also, could other people please post which type of AMEX cards you are getting your offers on?

 

This almost makes me want to go apply for a non-co-branded AMEX just to be able to use this. 

We got the $500 back on $1500 offer on our gold card.

Call Casino Royale. We booked onboard the Oasis last month and then received our certificates a couple of days later. Things were hectic when we got home and didn’t get around to calling until we’d been back 2 weeks but they added it without a problem.

Thanks! My April cruise on the Anthem which hasn’t budged from the 60’s is down to $49

2 hours ago, Ashland said:

Kids arriving back into PC flying home US didn't have to have one on the last morning did they?

It was the morning of the last full day not the morning of disembarkation.

We received a call with our negative results within a half an hour and a text/email linking us to our results in about 3 hours.