colsky

Thanks for the useful reply. I agree with you about the YouTubers. This was a well known reviewer, who was giving a helpful tips video, after being on a Sun Princess cruise. It must be because the Sun Princess is new and unknown, but I don't think I've ever watched so many videos and read so many reviews before a holiday!! I have to stop, or they'll be no surprise element left! I sometimes imagine a cruise ship being just full of YouTubers walking around filming, with no "normal" other guests!!

That's useful to know. We're too far out at the moment to book specialty restaurants (booked on Sun Princess in August 😃), but I was slightly concerned when I watched a YouTube reviewer the other day, who said that, if you pre book specialty restaurants on the App, then you have to pay for them at the time (even if they are covered by your Premier Package), and then go to guest services once onboard to have them refunded. That would be annoying for 2 reasons: having to pay for them, then having to take the time to queue up at guest services for the refund. That would be wonderful if what she said wasn't correct!

Thanks, looks good! Does anyone know if the set meal cover charge (we have the premier package) includes the special pizzas, or just the cheaper ones?

Yes, we thought she was good and energetic. But with a couple of annoying catchphrases, which my kids thought were really funny and kept repeating throughout the cruise!

Many thanks for your interesting review and blog. Sorry to hear about your Covid, hope you both recover quickly. We were on this same cruise and, luckily, are all back in England Covid free. One part of your review I don't agree with, and it may be because I'm English! There was cooler weather on the Helsinki day, but most other days the weather was wonderful and warm. Much better than we were expecting. We were in and around the pools every day but one, which was a nice relaxing thing to do after a tiring port visit. It was a benefit of the ship being so empty, with us always able to get sun beds and room in the pools. My kids' favourite part of each day!

We had 11.30 check in time. Arrived at dock at 11.10, breezed through, and on deck by 11.30! They didn't even look at our vaccination or testing papers!! Staff at my time dining desk said this sailing is less than half full! Enjoy your cruise and the sun 🙂☀️

You've got me worried now. We're in Stockholm too and got our (negative, phew!) covid tests from the same place as you. But we never bothered going back to get a printed copy, so we just have them on our phones, which I thought was ok?

You've got me worried now. We're in Stockholm too and got our (negative, phew!) covid tests from the same place as you. But we never bothered going back to get a printed copy, so we just have them on our phones, which I thought was ok?

We're on the 31 July sailing too and getting to Stockholm 2 days before. We're currently picking our pre cruise Stockholm hotel and post cruise Copenhagen hotel. We also need to find somewhere to have our pre cruise Covid tests in Stockholm!

You say just ping off the ship, and off you go. Is this whatever your vaccination status? So can a family that includes unvaccinated under 12's leave the ship independently now?

It will be great to follow your posts on your cruise, as we are sailing on the Voyager from 31 July. I'm interested to know about the leaving the ship policy, particularly in Stockholm. I'm sure I read somewhere that you now no longer have to be on a ship excursion, in order for an unvaccinated child to leave the ship. But, our itinerary still says that families travelling with unvaccinated children must purchase a RCL tour in order to leave the ship at a port of call. We're in the annoying situation that we have a 10 year old who we are trying to get vaccinated before our cruise, but, according to our research and phonecalls with NHS helplines, a 10 year old cannot get proof of vaccination for travel, you have to be at least 12 for that. So we may have a vaccinated child who we can't prove the status of to enable us to leave the ship!

The wording is confusing on the RCL website, but I thought the position was that unvaccinated children have a 1 day window to take this test, and vaccinated guests who are not up to date can't actually go on the cruise. Isn't it the case that anyone 12 and older has to be fully vaccinated, which means up to date.