TytalusWarden

I had someone ask if switching rooms (but not amending the paperwork prior to boarding the ship) would get double points... I asked them, "If you boarded the ship and let every person on your deck sleep in your junior suite, do you think they should all get double points because you crammed them into your junior suite?"  They finally understood the difference between what the paperwork says and your freedom to let someone sleep in the room after that question, so I post it here in the hopes that the original poster "gets it".

And once it shows up I usually get an email (or my travel agent does) that has a cover sheet telling me it was applied.

16 hours ago, flamingos said:

 

I wonder if that's common - we are planning to use eMed, if tests are still required when we sail from Copenhagen in August. 

The issue I saw one person have is that they printed out the wrong document.  When you use eMed/Navica I believe you get two E-Mails.

One is the Navica E-Mail which states your results, but isn't on official-looking letterhead with a laboratory name and a doctor's signature.

The other has an attached PDF from eMed Labs with the lab director's signature, contact information, your name/DOB/Gender, and type of test with result clearly listed.

16 hours ago, Rosy Season said:

Sorry got the letters mixed up. But I heard that when the 12+ became a requirement it was almost immediately mandated and they just cancelled cruises. 
 

even if you turned 12 the day before the cruise the expectation is that you are fully vaccinated even though it’s not even possible. 

Unless I am mistaken the dosage is the same for teenagers as it is for adults.  Dosage will be different for 5-11, from what I've read, so these doses have to be distributed separately, which will take logistics and time to end up in a pediatrician's office.

Last week on the Harmony of the Seas my family went to Izumi Hibachi.  They quoted me $10 upcharge, $15 if we select 2 proteins.  They said, "Basically you get $35 from the UDP, then you're charged from there."

I went to Guest Services and showed them the various spots on the website that show Izumi Hibachi is explicitly included in the UDP, and Guest Services called the restaurant manager over to discuss it with me.  I showed him the same page, he took a picture of the webpage, and refunded the markups.

I know the UDP explicitly mentions a $10 upcharge when ordering it online, and I would've been fine paying that, but then they charged $15 plus gratuities on the $15 and that got me annoyed enough to hit up Guest Services to complain.

Just now, not-enough-cruising said:

RCI will be linking to the Optum site that we all currently have access to. As of now the smallest order they process is a 2 pack. 

Good point, looks like $70 for 2, $100 for 3.  Guess I'll have to bundle with my family to get the 3-pack for $100.  Still better for us than $150 for 6... 3 of which we wouldn't use.

7 minutes ago, broadwaycam said:

Hope they don't make people buy the six pack.

I'd be fine with $40 each.  They have to buy them, receive them, split the 6-packs (or however they receive them, it'll probably be in bulk) then individually ship them out.  For a solo traveler like myself $40 is more than fine, way better than buying six of them at $150 for a single cruise then having no use for the other 5!

6 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

I don’t think RCI will be selling them at all. I don’t believe they have the credentials to sell a pharmaceutical prescription product. 

2 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

Royal will be partnering with a provider to sell them starting Sept. 8.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/is-there-a-telemedicine-option-for-pre-cruise-covid-19-test 

What @twangster said, they'll be available on the 8th.  Here's hoping it'll be cheaper!  Then again for me, as a solo traveler, anything less than $150 is fine by me, LOL.  It's all savings at that point!

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/is-there-a-telemedicine-option-for-pre-cruise-covid-19-test

RCL will be making a storefront to purchase the exact same test eMed is using, but through RCL.  Presumably they won't require you to purchase 6 of them!  Looks like this'll be available starting September 8th.

38 minutes ago, Anton said:

Yes.  JS gets the extra points.  I was solo in a JS in July for 7 nights and got 42 points.

I was solo in a JS in June/early July for 7 nights and received 42 points as well.  My parents were in a JS together and received 28 points each.

I never had to call, they got it right the first time and it was posted 7-10 days after we left the ship.

On 8/24/2021 at 12:49 PM, colesc15 said:

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 🙂

I'm sure others have answered, but there's two questions you asked and I'll answer both, just in case:

1) On Adventure of the Seas my family booked our 7 nights of dinners at:  Giovanni's, Chops, Chops, Giovanni's, Chops, MDR (Lobster Night), and Chops, in that order.  If you have the UDP then once you are on-board I very, very highly suggest you immediately go to a specialty restaurant (even before going to your stateroom, depending on when you board) and plan out some kind of meal schedule at the specialty restaurants.  We also booked two lunches on the two sea days (one at Chops, one at Giovanni's.)

2) You can eat at any restaurant that is open, presumably any number of times in an evening.  On Adventure of the Seas in June/July I had dinner at Chops one evening with my family, then an hour later went down to Izumi Sushi and ordered an appetizer to go so I could enjoy it on my balcony.  I'll be on the Harmony of the Seas and one of the things I plan on doing is having dinner with my family using UDP, then I want to go to Wonderland specifically for dessert only since I've heard pretty good things about their dessert menu.  If you truly want a second meal (i.e. go to Chops in the early evening, then get something to-go or dine a second time in an evening) you shouldn't have any trouble doing this.

26 minutes ago, Cookmb said:

Correct, I’m not concerned about location on the ship.  If I am understanding this correctly, as long as we are not all online at the same time, we could get by with just one or two lines, and just share the logins.  Is that accurate?

On Adventure a few months ago they had you create a username when you logged in for a cabin for the first time (which they used your name+something else to confirm you are you.)  Once you created a username/password you were able to select how you'd like to purchase your internet access.  One of the selections, if you chose it pre-cruise, was "Pre-purchased Plan - X Devices".  Select that and off you go.

The potential risk in purchasing the internet plan for just one cabin to save money is that someone in either cabin could select the wrong option, thus charging the room for 1 internet connection despite having ample connections available.  This is more user error or lack of reading comprehension, but since it's people in a different room they wouldn't be able to easily notice this error and get it corrected, since they can't see the room charges from their phone app and/or on their TV.

EDIT:  One other potential inconvenience I thought of is if the person(s) in the 2nd cabin have more than the expected # of devices (i.e. two phones + 1 laptop, even though you only expect them to use 2 connections.)  In this instance if they do not go to the logout website that it tells you to go to, and they don't disconnect one device prior to attempting to connect a different device, they could boot one of the first room's devices to connect.  Again, this is mostly a reading comprehension or a lack of understanding issue, and will probably be noticed by whoever gets the boot 😛 .

10 hours ago, *Fudge* said:

The app isn’t working for me, I can’t see anything to make plans and I can’t check in on the app or the website.  Having a nightmare with it 😞 

On Android there's three icons at the top of the app--the third one looks like a person, tap that.  It'll show your profile and which cruise you have selected, tap "Select a different sailing".  It will look up your future sailings, scroll to the bottom and what looks like a greyed out option that says "Get more details on ships we support" is there--tap that.  Select "Anthem of the Seas" and then select this week or next week.

On 8/18/2021 at 6:42 PM, flamingos said:

Piggyback question: the results here are sent as a link, by email, and are on a website.  Do I take a screenshot? Print it out?

After my boarding experience on the Adventure of the Seas in June I will 10000000% guarantee that I have two copies of all of my paperwork, where possible and practical, before stepping foot outside of my house to go on a future cruise.  Not saying it was bad, but it is most definitely tedious, and the overworked hotel Wi-Fi made it near-impossible for me to pull up my SetSail pass, even using Royal's own app.  Ended up delaying my boarding by about 20-30 minutes as I had to go into a specific line for having my SetSail pass looked up and a new barcode printed for me to go to the next line.  Meanwhile everyone else was whizzed right by because they were smart enough to print everything out...  😄 

4 hours ago, VCR said:

I sent an email when this started asking about my daughter who used to get non-alcoholic drinks in the Diamond Lounge.  They finally answered me back saying that she would have 4 non-alcoholic drinks added to her card per day.  I have a feeling they didn't know what they were talking about.  Has anyone had a Diamond kid get the free drinks on their card?

Why would you think they don't know what they are talking about?  If she's a Diamond member (under 18 means she has the same status as you) then she'll receive 4 drinks per day, assuming Royal Caribbean keeps with that policy at the time of your sailing.  The drinks aren't required to be alcoholic, they're just drinks up to $13 each in value.  My Mom used most of hers on Adventure of the Seas for coffee at the barista next to Cafe Promenade.  Occasionally she got a bottle of water.  Zero issues, came off the 4-per-day for Diamond status.  She never ordered an alcoholic beverage the entire cruise and never had a bill at the end for any of the drinks.

I had a few cruise planner items totaling about $300 that I was able to cancel and rebook using the OBC I recently got from a repricing on my October '21 Harmony cruise.  Now I'm back down to a more-reasonable $75 in OBC which I'll be bringing on to the ship to pay for random oddities I might want/need, or to use it in the casino.  🙂 For my upcoming cruise the prices had just dropped back to where they were during the last big sale so it was a no-brainer to cancel and rebook them using OBC.  My credit card will be happy once the $300 is put back on it!

While I appreciate hearing about the conditions at Port Canaveral, did you mean to post this Carnival review in the RCL section?

1 hour ago, crzndeb said:

Thank you. This is one I had looked at, and I think I have seen others mention it on the boards before. I usually get CSA, but I don’t think it covers Covid. One good thing, is I will be in the US (Alaska), except when on the ship, and no flying anywhere.

If you are doing at least two cruises in the next 12 months also look into an annual policy with Allianz.  It could be cheaper than two separate cruise policies (or it might just be 1 big policy for the whole thing, you'll have to see.)

15 hours ago, christinand said:

I think i missed out. Just to be clear even if the price didn’t lower and you are not in the final payment window if there is obc you can get it? I need to be prepared for next time.

As it was explained to me you are basically cancelling your existing booking and re-booking to get the better rate/perks/whatever.  But you have to take the good with the bad--if you booked at a terrible rate, but got $1000 OBC... then next week there's a great rate, but only $50 OBC... if you want the price adjustment on the cruise itself you're going to lose the $1000 OBC.  Whether individuals have made it work in some fashion is up to individual circumstances, as a blanket statement assume your current contract is gone and a new one is being created, and that is how they will perform the adjustments.

Yes, there are caveats to this, and a wall of text could be written with exceptions and individual experiences, but those don't really matter to answer this question.

2 hours ago, robtx100 said:

How much would you bid on the Royal Suite (independence OTS)? Low? Upper End of Low? Fair? 

I go like $5 or $10 over the minimum.  And only if I have any interest.  If I wanted a Royal Suite I would pay for it, rather than gamble and/or hope that I could get it.

I was in the MDR for one evening on the Adventure of the Seas, and I didn't think it was anything particularly special.  The food was good and I had no complaints.  Specialty dining was decent every night I had it, from steaks to appetizers to salads everything was pretty great.

Admittedly I don't have a body of experience across many years to work off of... one pre-COVID cruise, one post-COVID cruise, but I think it's roughly the same, for whatever that is worth.

So far I haven't been on an RCL cruise where I didn't have it.  I've only eaten in the MDR one evening, and that was because there was lobster tails.  😄 

Next year it looks like I'll have a 7-night Alaska cruise where I won't have it, so I suppose in a year I can come back and give my opinion.  😄 

41 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

When you do a mock booking on royal website for 5 guests in 1 cabin does this cabin show as available?  If yes, then you should be ok.

5 people to a OV balcony is going to very tight.  Hopefully 3 of them are small and pack light.

Pretty sure you can't do a booking on the RCL website for 5.  I think it says, "For parties of more than 4 call..."

Just now, lovesthebeach2 said:

Thanks, I guess I get that just from these boards , but I understand why new cruisers especially would like it.

It's the little things that matter--reading on the forums here someone saying, "Buy some magnetic hooks, they are useful!" is different than watching a vlogger toss a magnetic hook on the wall then hang their purse on it.  Sometimes seeing is believing!

6 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

I don’t watch Vloggers so I don’t know what you get from them? Is it just for entertainment purposes or to get information or both? 

Depending on where you are in the cruise world the choice of vlogger will change.

If you're shopping for a cruise and don't know what you're getting for your money then there's plenty of vloggers who post room tours, how-to advice for navigating the various cruise websites, how to determine what a good vs. bad price is, and potential pitfalls or undesirable experiences during the purchasing process.

If it is the first time you're on a cruise and you prefer watching vs. reading for advice then a few cruise vloggers also post pre-cruise rituals, such as what to pack, how to pack, how to plan ahead for on-board activities, etc.

With cruises restarting many future cruisers and potential future cruisers want to know "what's the 'new normal' that people are talking about?"  A vlogger can show live footage of mask wearing, signage, paperwork, overhead announcements, what the dining experience is like, etc.

If you just want to watch other people having fun (like watching a TV show) then there's lots of cruise vloggers who can scratch that itch as well.