Blizzard54

There was no mention of it in the releases.   I expect they will continue to mask for the time being.

I expect they may be holding off processing March Royal-up's to see what the effect of lifting mandatory mask from sailings has on last minute bookings.   (Or possibility last minute cancelations)

I found some more information on what Splashaway Cafe is.

SPLISH SPLASH SNACKTIME

Treat your little ones to a tasty snack-a-thon made just for them. Located right near the kids’ pool area, Splashaway Café is the perfect flip-flop-friendly spot to fuel up in between epic adventures onboard.

I just did a check using the app and looked at the current sailing out of Singapore.

In looking at dining options it does not show the Noodle Shop.

The deck plans show Splashaway Cafe in that location.

The dining options does not mention Splashaway Cafe...

A little confusing. 

2 hours ago, ChanaC said:

Chiming in to say that I am wondering about this too. On the Quantum "things to do" page, it's not listed under dining. But then again, neither is the Solarium Bistro, so it just might not be updated. I do hope they keep the noodle shop. Eating a nice hot bowl of noodle soup while looking out over a chilly bay after a cold and rainy day exploring would be delightful. 

I am rather hoping that our days of exploring are not cold and rainy.  It would be nice if the Noodle shop was this there.

Based on where it will be located, there probably will not be any previews of what is going on.  That area will be easily blocked off if it is not already.   It has been mentioned that it is to be adults only.  I hope they do not charge admission to the area, but I would not be surprised if they do.   I would expect there to be Cabanas and Day Beds for a fee.

As I recall, when it was announced that the Quantum was coming to Seattle in 2021 It was mentioned that the Noodle Shop would be changed.  So many projects were put on hold with Covid, it may have been put off when the 2021 season was cancelled.  As it stands now the ship is coming to Seattle in May off 2022 so there will be some information known before too long.  At this point it is still showing on the deck plans for 2023.  We are booked to sail on it this May so I will have a better idea then.   

As a side note.  When the Ovation first came to Seattle in 2019, the space was converted to what is now Fish and Ships.  The conversion was done during the Trans-Pacific voyage.

Do not worry about late arriving in port.  The distance from Victoria to Seattle is about 80 miles.

As mentioned, it should be no problem if you do self-assist and take Taxi/Uber/lift to King Street.

4 hours ago, cdraven said:

The Westlake Station, 4th Ave, Pine St, Seattle, WA 98101 is about a 13 minute walk, light rail station will get you to International District/Chinatown station, next to Amtrak Union Station. Be safe plan a hour for overall 

 

That would be from pier 66.  Ovation will be at pier 91.  Lightrail not an option from there.  

1 hour ago, matthewthamm said:

The QuickShuttle sounds like a good idea.  However, I am coming from the other end of the state. Kelso.  So I am looking to take the Amtrak.  Have not seen any change in the border crossing yet.  Might end up bussing from Seattle Train (currently the last train station heading north) to Vancouver, which is not desired.  But we have a few months as we, too, are on the first one of the season.  

Quickshuttle's downtown stop is at the Convention Center. Amtrak may have busses from the King Street Station.   Another option could be to pick up Quickshuttle from Seatac.  The lightrail has stops at King Street and the Airport.

We have used Quickshuttle quite a few times over the years.  We usually get on in Downtown Seattle.  They cut back the service every year.  They increase the number of buses as soon as the first ship is due in.   At one time the Tulalip, like Bellingham, was available.  They only stopped if someone had reservations.  The travel time was about the same as the train.  A benefit was that it took you to Canada Place instead of the train station.      

Yes, the one- night sailings we to prepare to move the ship at the beginning or end of the season but Royal has always just had the first or last cruise of the Alaska season start in one city and end in the other, so they did not need a one-night repo. 

You may be correct that they may keep the Vancouver start so as to not have those already book need to change their plans.  

I have kept track of those repos for many years and taken a number of them.  Royal has never done a 1-night repo.  Once in 2011 they did a 2-night from Vancouver followed by a few 3/4's our of Seattle at the end of the Alaska season.   On the other hand, others like Princess, NCL and HAL have occasionally done 1-nighters.   

Ovation has been coming into port in Seattle about once a month for provisions.  I am a little surprised that they have not changed her restart to Seattle in May.  With Hawaii cancelled she really does not need to go to Vancouver.  When she goes that they need to lower the stacks and carefully time going under the Lyons Gate Bridge at slack low tide.   

John Blair has been around at least 25 years.

20 hours ago, twangster said:

I am booked on two in May that were originally a side to side with a night in between.  Serenade first then Quantum on the original repo cruise that was supposed to be Vancouver to Seattle.  My airfare was booked to Vancouver and returning from Seattle after Quantum.

 

When Royal moved Quantum to Seattle it required a new flight from Vancouver to Seattle.  That day in between is proving to be valuable now.  Royal has promised to reimburse me for the new flight, Vancouver to Seattle.  

 

So I've got two riding on Canada opening this year and if Canada stays closed then I'm hoping for another ATRA exemption for Seattle based cruises.  

 

I'm also facing a lot of potential testing if both countries still require testing for flights into each country.

 

However I'm not sweating it at this point.  If they cancel and I lose both I'll be disappointed but will book them another year.  The PCR test for Canada should be easy enough, I've already entered Canada three times recently.  If Royal can't give me a test for the flight into the US hopefully antigen still works and I'll use an eMed proctored test kit to fly into the US.

 

A lot of unanswered questions and a lot of potential things to get stressed over but I am not going to stress about it.  It is what it is, it will sort itself out.  More refunds if they cancel, more FCC if I need to back out. 

 

It will all sort itself out.

It is a lot easier to take a bus between Vancouver and Seattle as I believe no test is required. 

As was mentioned, having ships on standby to be used for quarantine was part of the original CSO.  It makes sense.  With new crew members needing to quarantine to 14 days after joining a ship, they only have so many crew cabins available.  On all of the recent sailing we have been on they have mentioned that they have a full crew.  They do not mention how many of them are in quarantine and not available to work. 

I have noticed a lot of reports from several ships that the numbers of expected passengers is often high compared to actually counts at sailing.  In other words, many ships have had a high number of no-shows, last minute cancellations.   After the higher numbers of passengers on holiday sailings, we are hoping the numbers go down.  We are on the 1/17 and 1/24 sailings.  

3 hours ago, cruisegirl1 said:

Didn’t Harmony used to have “Columbus the musical” show. I was on the December 5 sailing and noticed it was not being presented. 
 

Also they had a second ice and diving show. A shorter more casual show with no reservations needed.   I don’t remember the name of the diving show but it had some beach party theme, and the ice show was something like iskate or skate 2.0. I don’t recall seeing supplemental diving or Ice shows also on December 5 cruise. 
 

We had Grease, ice show, diving show, comedy show, headliner shows, (two different ones) 

 

Plus there was live music all around the ship.

 

Lots of wonderful entertainment. 
 

enjoy. 
m

 

Edit to add-there is no way to know what changes could be made if entertainment staff become ill. We are sailing Harmony  on January 2 and January 9, and I can try to come back and update. 
m

Columbus had not finished installing since the start-up.

They started a new dive show the week you were on. The old show was done the previous week.

The other Ice show was canceled the week you were on because 3 skaters were injured.  We saw one of them go down during I-skate the previous week.   He finished the show but was obviously in pain.  Overall, they did a good job in filling in the entertainment schedule.   

We had no problems with S2S cruises in November.  Even going from Royal to Celebrity. 

Although they have announced that it is no longer to get tested to fly home, they have not changed the policy for Back to Bank and Ship to Ship.

At the current time Royal offers testing onboard for anyone needing it to fly or continue on another cruise, no charge.

Since this will be the first season that the Quantum is in Alaska, we do not know how they will be handling the situation.  We will be onboard the cruise before this one and I will try to remember to post what I find out.  I would suggest that you check with the I-fly desk as soon as you board.

As for the Northstar,  when the Ovation first came to Alaska, it was no charge except for the day we were in the glacier when they did have a charge to go up.

On 12/13/2021 at 10:24 AM, jmh2006 said:

I was on that same cruise!  I heard about a kick off in St Kitts.  It always makes me wonder what the heck they did???

Not sure of all the details leading up to it but when security got involved, his attitude with them got him removed and his family chose to leave with him.  The delayed departure was because the family needed to be tested before the locals would allow them to get off.

On 12/10/2021 at 5:14 AM, island lady said:

Was one of the worst B2B procedures I have ever seen here on Harmony last Sunday! 

 

Meeting at the theater at 9:15 as requested, standing in long line to get our new cards, vax bands, was OK at first.   They had to take pictures of our Vax cards, and show passport (make sure you bring those).  Then we sat to wait in theater until we were herded (and I mean that term due to over 300 of us), into the walkway in the terminal.  Then we all stood in line for 20 minutes or more before getting going downstairs into the terminal. 

 

Once into terminal, did the photo recognition, then herded over to stand in another line to get back onto the ship.   That line was over a half hour.  We were supposed to be herded back into theater while they fumigated the Promenade we had passed through.  Apparently they decided to make us wait standing in line in the terminal instead.  

 

Whole thing was over 2 hours, of mostly standing in line.   Pax that have trouble standing for long periods won't be happy.  

It went a lot smoother the week before.  It did take some time to check everyone in.  When we reboarded the ship, we had to wait about 45 minutes in the theater while they fogged the Prominade.  Overall, it was better than some we had done pre-covid.  

On Symphony we had what they called a Pirate Iced Tea.  It seemed to vary based on who made it.