cruisebot21

56 minutes ago, Mikew0805 said:

 I would LOVE someone to have the jewels to tell me in person what I should be willing to eat because someone else decided it was reasonable for other people. 

I’m pretty sure you just described how restaurants work…

22 hours ago, Joseph2017China said:

 

It was funny, because at the airport, immigration took the passport, and looked at Covid Card, but never arrive can, and not once was I ever asked to show it. It's free, I know, and it really takes no time to use, but I just thought it was another government rule (Canada).  

When CBSA swipes your passport,  the trip info you entered on the ArriveCAN app shows up on their monitor - no need to show your phone 

As long as they have staff to operate it, it’s done in Studio B a couple times during the week

Yes - reservations are needed, but there is a stand-by line as well

There is no charge

Participants need to wear close toed shoes - we saw lots of people wearing sandals turned away 

Book your shows as soon as you get on board!

Switch your phone to the ships wifi and book via the RCL app when you board 

Book Aqua 80 for the first  or second night - if weather is bad / seas are rough, it will be canceled and rescheduled for later in the week.  If you initially book for late in the week and it’s cancelled, you’ll miss it.

Just to provide a bit of closure - after hanging out at home since the 23rd, I’m now symptom free and tested negative with a rapid test yesterday.  
 

Still some lingering effects - mostly a bit of fatigue and some minor sinus congestion

Stay safe out there! 

When the ship security officer followed up with me, any area that I was in for 15min or longer seemed to be of interest.

Walking through a venue wasn’t an issue.

20 min in a hot tub was.

of course, that could change at any point

9 hours ago, OACAggie said:

We just got off Anthem yesterday and my wife tested positive at the pre-departure test. My 2 boys and myself were negative. I can say that our experience was identical to @cruisebot21until getting off the ship. We drove, so we were just shuttled to our vehicle in the parking garage…we didn’t get the fancy plane ride! We did not even speak with a US customs officer when we got off the ship. We had 2 balcony rooms. I stayed quarantined in our original cabins with the boys when my wife went to the “Red Zone”. Crossing border was not a problem, just took sometime for Health officer to visit us and give us the tests to take home. 
We still completed ArriveCAN, which was never looked at. 
It kinda puts a damper on the cruise the way it ended, but we still enjoyed it up until that part. 
My wife said she was told 15 tested positive THAT day. I can agree that Royal is stopping the international testing to keep positive tests results low. I am sure there are many US citizens that are walking off ships that are positive and not reported because they are not tested. We are all double vaxxed, weren’t able to get booster before going. My wife is crazy careful and a germaphobe, so it’s crazy she got it. We wore masked at all times indoors even in vaccinated areas except when seated to eat. I was a little disappointed that there was no enforcement of mask wearing in vaccinated areas after the letter came out saying masks in all indoor areas. It was nice with only 2700 on the ship though. 

Glad to hear you got back safely and can quarantine at home as well.

We were super careful as well and followed the same protocols you did.  Still surprised we got it (wife has the same mild symptoms since late 24th and tested positive with a rapid antigen test yesterday night)

6 minutes ago, PC168 said:

I am so sorry to hear that. Our cruise starting Jan. 2, this is something we need to consider that. Not everyone like OP was so lucky flew home on a private jet.

I posted earlier that my experience was probably different from that of covid cases  going forward.

I’m starting to think that I was the last case processed this way before new local quarantine procedures came into effect along with new preflight tests post cruise starting early Jan?

2 hours ago, jerseygirl3 said:

I don’t think I saw where you mentioned that in your original plans that it was Royal’s offer. Were there any other positives on your sailing?  Were they also flown home via private jet?  If not, I would hope they didn’t fly home commercial. 

no prob - I write a lot and it may be lost in there somewhere.  
Given the number of biohazard bags of used food containers, there were at least 35 other occupied cabins in my isolation area.

I’m not sure if anyone else was repatriated the same way.  They wouldn’t have been allowed to board a commercial flight to Canada with a positive test though.  Other countries may vary 🙂

21 minutes ago, CKCruising said:

I wish my experience was like the OPs.  It was the exact opposite.  Just off the Allure, my son tested positive on the last day.  Because he was a minor (17), one of us had to join him in the quarantine room, the other could stay locked in the original room.

On the last morning, we waited with no information until everyone was off the ship and the we debarked separately and met at a car. we were driven to a hotel by the Miami airport (we debarked in FLL).  We were given an envelope with two menus and a phone number written on it for the "Care Team".  The phones in the room couldn't connect to the number (the front desk made kept saying it was my issue - it wasn't).  We had to turn on one of our cell phones.  We phoned the number at least 1/2 a dozen times and left at least 3 messages.  By 5pm we didn't hear anything from Royal.

The hotel could only tell me that we had a reservation for 10 days and we were not allowed to leave the rooms (we had one room for my son and the other for us because there was only one king bed), although the CDC guidelines say with close contact/fully vaccinated/no symptoms do not have to quarantine.  They did say we could check out.

Crap - I’m really sorry to hear this.  Are they getting new testing / flights arranged?  If we quarantined in Miami, that was part of the process

16 minutes ago, Maitaivegas said:

Hi, I’m on the Symphony 1/29- can you share your quiet spots please ?

I need to get away from noise sometimes due to my social anxiety issues.

Thank You

I think there are some alcoves with chairs along the deck 5 running track?

1 minute ago, Jimbo said:

so you did this with taking no luggage with you? , how did you pull that off?

I took a taxi earlier and dropped all luggage off to the port alone - drove up, left it with a porter, and drove away - kids thought it was still at the hotel for later pickup.

25 minutes ago, vacationlover_mn said:

Thanks so much for your review!  Wishing you a speedy recovery!

 
Thanks! I see you’re in MN - we are just across the border to your north 🙂

We used to drive down to shop and go to the zoo 3-4 times a year, but haven’t been able to go since this whole thing started - we really miss it!

3 minutes ago, kandj05 said:

I am glad to hear that The Symphony had their stuff together for you and your family.  I tested positive on the Jewel on Dec 17th.  It did not go nearly as well as your experience did.  The process from testing to getting me in the isolated room was the best part.  Communication was horrible, at best.  Did they take you to Holiday Inn?  

Sorry to hear that you didn’t have the same experience. We were actually flown back to Canada and I’m doing the mandated quarantine at home.

Ha - I forgot to mention - we surprised the kids with this Symphony cruise.  We didn’t get a chance to go to Jamie’s Italian last time in 2019 and Freedom has the new Giovanni’s.

After we got off our 4-day Freedom cruise, we stayed downtown and kids thought we were flying back home the next evening, the whole time lamenting we couldn’t do a 7-day cruise this time.

The next morning I faked making couple phone calls / emails ‘executive style’ to arrange a pass for us to have lunch at Jamie’s via the suite concierge 

We joined the mass of people and went through the check in process - assuring the kids we needed to check in for the ships records, but we only had 2-3hrs to dine and get off before the ship sailed sailed - kind of like a travel agent tour

We got all the way through check in, onto the ship, made reservations via the app and even walked around visiting spots they remembered from last time- the whole time they were unaware were actually setting sail. We even walked over to Jamie’s to check out the menu - due to our later boarding, it was setting up for evening service 

They found out when we checked in at our muster station and the girl let it slip our cards would be on our stateroom door.

They looked at each other  ‘stateroom door?!?’
The kids were completely surprised and had tears of joy as we walked up and checked out the room.

We did have lunch at Jamie’s the next day and we all loved it 😉

And that’s how we surprised our kids with a cruise.

34 minutes ago, Stuart Suss said:

CruiseBot21, you were treated very well by Royal.

 

Please inform us whether you are a high dollar, suite-occupying passenger, with a lot of Crown and Anchor loyalty points, and whether normal passengers can expect to be treated as well as you were.

No high flier here!  Nowhere near diamond 🙂

The past two times on Symphony we’ve been in 1A - ultra spacious balcony - basically a jr suite where the walk-in closet is now a pair of bunk beds.

The previous week we were on a 4-day Freedom of the seas cruise in the VP Panoramic suite - no balcony, but fantastic views and a bunk bed alcove here as well! ( First suite experience and really liked the room)

We have just started cruising again these past few years. We used to live in Calgary and would go to Maui on a sort of regular basis as it was a direct flight.   Now, we find the kiddos at a perfect age to get them interested in exploring more places - cruises are perfect for them and they really enjoy the experience.   
 

And yes, Royal treated us very well!

38 minutes ago, melbur said:

So refreshing to hear a straight forward and accurate account. Those days are about to over for Cdns though. Wishing you and your family well.

 Thanks - It does indeed look like the lack of onboard pre-travel testing will impact flights home in the future.

Being from an area with unpredictable, snowy, and cold weather, we usually fly in a couple days before - now we’ll probably have to fly home a day after as well, to do shore side testing.

Still going to do it though!

3 hours ago, Mapleleafforever said:

You are SOOOOOOOO lucky this happened when it did.....I believe anyway. Is it true that Royal will no longer be providing such a service very soon?

My understanding is that we got the plane as policy was changed when we were out floating around on Freedom.  Current policy gave the choice of group or individual quarantine - that may change if more people test positive as well, but I’m just speculating.
 

They may have also looked at the cost of quarantine along with last minute ticket costs and found their contract with an unstaffed med jet wasn’t that much different - particularly if that jet needed to be in the north east soon and was a sort of dead head flight anyway.

23 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

I'm curious what type of stateroom you (before quarantine) and your family had?

 

It seems like you were treated better than Star class.  😄

Ha!  I was joking with the wife that it was a Star Ocean View!
We were in an Ultra Spacious Balcony on Symphony - The kids love the bunks in the alcove and when the curtain is pulled for the night, we can still watch a movie with out waking them. The wider balcony with 3 chairs is nice as well

24 minutes ago, jerseygirl3 said:

Are you seriously expecting Royal to pay for 2 hotel rooms and allow you all to quarantine and to travel home afterwards together so as not to burden your wife with luggage and 2 kids?  You chose to sail during  pandemic. Royal is being incredibly generous in dealing with your illness. To expect more is beyond.  

Umm - that was THEIR offer, not a request or demand on my part.  They came to me with a couple different options and this was one of them for the initial proposed quarantine.  In regards to the hotel, it is a popular one we’ve stayed at and has a number of room with two twins each. Not going to name it so as not to stigmatize 

Like I’ve said, they were balance of compassionate and professional and in my mind went way above the minimum required under the circumstances.

Anyway, have the day you deserve 😉

Some photos:

Getting there:

So on departure day, I was scheduled to be met at 9:15 or so.  At about 8, I got a call from room service offering up a few options - she was concerned I hadn’t called and wanted to make sure I had something.
Got an omelette , a fruit plate, and a few waters and had it delivered within 10 minutes with well wishes from both her and the crew dropping off.

I ate as I viewed the action from my window.  Tyvek suited crew escorted one group at a time off the gangway, a customs agent looked at passports from a distance and then groups were taken away by hired cars to the quarantine hotel (I assume)

Most people seemed ok with the process, but a few passengers were waving around wildly and yelling - I felt terrible for the staff as they continued to perform flawlessly 

There seemed to be more cases as I wasn't fetched until closer to 10:30 - well after the Captains last call to get off the boat!  I did get to hear him call one last family by name to please leave 🙂

when I was my turn - everything went as previously laid out and in. On time my family was in a luxury sprinter limo on the way to the private airport between Miami and Fort Lauderdale 

We passed through the gates at the airport and went out on to the tarmac jumped on board and were away.

After a short refuelling stop and break, we arrived home and were met at the plane by CBSA officers and given 2 home test kits for each of us.  Street side, RCCL even had a pair of minivans waiting to drive us home from the airport

I’m now safely at home with the family and living like a bachelor in the basement while wifey hold down the fort with the kids upstairs.

I’ll post some final thoughts later, but in the end, we are home, safe, and eternally thankful for everything Royal Caribbean did for us.

As for the cruise? It’s always what you make of it - we got to see a great version of Hiro while the ship was still docked and got to see iskate 2.0 which is something we missed last time on Symphony - although somewhat curtailed for me, we had a great time overall and look forward to our next adventures!

11 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Well it sure wouldn't have looked good if the one ship said it couldn't dock and then an hour later the other ship docked would it? Mariner took one for the team. 🙂

No conspiracy here - waves were 4-5ft and washing over the pier 🙂

Pt4
 

Late that morning (still day 4) I got a call from the manager of guest services requesting copies of my passport and vaccine docs and was told they were working on things in the background

6-7 hours later, I was told the process for disembarking the next morning: 

- Positive cases and close contacts of cases would be last off the ship

- I had a scheduled time where workers would come to my cabin, take my luggage and escort me off. Basically the same  process as moving me before.

- Disembarking would be directly onto the working dock via gangway on deck 2 - just like a port stop.  No fancy Terminal A for us!

-  Immigration would take place on the dock before being whisked away via car service.

*** This is where my experience is going to differ from those going forward ***

- My family would also be escorted off at the same time and meet me on the dock.

- Private transportation would take us to the airport

- Med Jet will be waiting to fly us directly home.

Yeah, RCCL really stepped up.

7 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I wonder if you were moved because the rest of your family was negative? If a couple were both positive could they stay in their balcony cabin or maybe they would be moved so staff could start cleaning the original cabin for the next week's guests.

No - Anyone positive was getting moved. They could only stay in the original cabin because they were negative.  If they wanted to, they could have moved with me to deck 3.

I know some are strategizing that they will spring for a balcony in the event of quarantine - too bad, you’re  going to a separate blocked off section of the ship if positive.  I’m sure some were upset, but it’s the best plan to reduce further spread.