TinyPinkBug

Having once been quarantined with a 6 year old who had a stomach bug, TV channels are important.

We are frequent Disney, Royal and Princess cruisers, this will be our first time on NCL. So many questions.

I see they say no bottle water or soda can be brought on board. How picky are they about that? Like if I have a bottle or two in my backpack at boarding, will they really take that single bottle?

Beverage package. Does it include coffee an virgin drinks? I am not a huge drinker, I will have a few at night but not out in the sun while watching my kids. Can I get something like a virgin frozen Pina Colada? My MIL is a big coffee drinker and spends a lot of our trips on the search for the best cup of coffee. How is the coffee in general, is there better coffee available with the package? And do they restock the room coffee make coffee without a charge?

Mini bar. I have a child with very poor impulse control, will the room steward empty the mini bar if we request? Or is there a place in the room to hide the items? We are going on the Getaway and storage looks low and limited.

I assume so, but do they have cartons of chocolate milk on the buffet for breakfast or other meals upon request?

Do they have a complimentary limited breakfast room service menu? Like can we get just a pot of coffee, hot tea and some cereal or muffins delivered without the $7.95 charge?

Kids clubs. How are they? We loved Disney, but hey, it is Disney and no one is going to truely compare. But Royal's kids clubs were the only big disappointment over and over on their ships. They just play a variety of elimination games with slightly different rules, which is great if english is your first language and you are good at those games. But for the 80% of kids who aren't the ones winning over and over, it gets old quick and they don't enjoy it. It was especially frustrating for my child who has autism, these are not inclusive games. What are everyone's experiences?

How is the kids programming now that Nick has been removed??? Happy kids=Happy Mom

Harvest Caye. Anyone have prices or menus? I see reviews that people mostly dislike the high prices. Do they have any type of tram service?

TIA!

We are frequent Disney and Royal cruisers, mother in law is a die hard Princess cruiser. We just booked our first NCL cruise this week, sail in November. So obviously we can't compare for you. But we have been considering NCL for years but have been concerned about the things we hear about NCL, so we are sort of the opposite you. We like Royal, I haven't been on Freedom but I have heard great things. I agree with someone else that Royal's late night food offerings are limited, but at the same time, one of the reasons we haven't sailed NCL is because we have heard over and over that the food on NCL was not good and looking at the menu NCL does seem to serve cheaper food items in their MDR than Royal.

Competence is rarely why Americans don't work on cruise ships and many non-Americans might be offended at that remark.;)

You are right. That was a poor example and poor wording in my part.

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I don't think you wold be in the apple business very long.

 

Mistakes happen, I know I'd hate to be crucified for every one I made. Tough to be disappointed but that's why they have disclaimers about errors.

This doesn't make any sense. They already have an IT dept. They don't need a major investment. Just hire some competent people.

If they had a policy to honor those prices, you bet they would be doing more to prevent the errors, but since the errors basically cost them nothing because they are can just cancel it on you, there is little incentive for Royal Caribbean to fix it. This isn't just a Royal Caribbean problem, BTW.

Hiring competent people costs money, this is why you rarely see Americans working on a cruise ship. Purchasing new software costs money. Buying server space costs money. I don't know how much, but if it wasn't significant I am sure they would have fixed it by now.

Personally, I would like to see law that would require corporations to write passenger contracts to that would give the passenger the same amount of protection as the corporation. For example, if RC can just cancel your reservation due to over booking, price errors, etc, then passengers should have the right to cancel in those same time frames for full refunds. This would have a huge impact on the way the travel industry operates, especially airlines.

I don't think you wold be in the apple business very long.

 

Mistakes happen, I know I'd hate to be crucified for every one I made. Tough to be disappointed but that's why they have disclaimers about errors.

Yes they would, because they would take extra care to make sure that mistake never happened again since the loss would come out of their own pocket. The difference here(and elsewhere) is that Royal Caribbean is a corporation owned by its shareholders who are not exactly decision makers. They pay a president or CEO to make them money. The only reason to care about the customer is only if it has an effect on profits.

If Royal Caribbean had an actual decision making owner, I would bet they would have worked out all their IT problems by now. Instead there is probably some number cruncher reporting to the shareholders and president how it is cheaper to continue with the current IT problems than to fix it appropriately. Or possibly someone sugar coating the IT problem to the powers that be making it seem insignificant.

I don't have a picture. But as others have said the door is near the bathroom. The room steward has a key to unlock the door, then you can open and close it as you need from either side. The balcony can also be opened between the rooms.

I should also add that the door is incredibly thin. I would never pick a connecting room if I wasn't associated with the connecting room. Not only could we hear every word, but I could actually hear my daughter being sick in the other room's bathroom one morning with the door closed and latched.

We always tip even for continental breakfast and I think most people do

We do too. But after this past cruise, I am going to alter how I tip for room service. I used to tip a set amount based on how much I ordered. From now on, I will keep my tip money near the door and determine the amount based on delivery. If they deliver my breakfast 45 minutes before the start of my requested time, and don't bother to go over the order before walking out the door, I am going to pull out much less than those who show up close to the chosen time and take the extra 10 second to make sure it is correct. I think it will result in tipping the same amount overall by the end.

Do we know how much of the $7.95 is a tip? I bet people still tip on top of it, especially as the charge is new.

That's sad...bothered by "free" deliveries.....I and probably most all appreciate their delivery and have always tipped well.

That is the only thing I can think of that would explain the inconsistent service, some deliveries were similar to the great service we have had in the past, while others it was almost like they were trying to mess it up. We also had a quarantined member of our group whom was told to order all her food from room service free of charge. Some of the calls, the attendant told me they didn't have the items on the list provided at medical, she spilled all the liquid out of the soup, sent a bottle of water without a glass or ice. Other calls gladly sent the broth only that I request which was nicely prepared to prevent spilling, brought water with a glass, ice, a straw. I really didn't appreciate the server who would call my room 45 minutes prior to the requested delivery time on the breakfast hanger to let me know the order (that was never correct when this person would deliver) was on its way. Very inconsistent because like I said, other orders were perfect and the server was friendly.

I would more suspect other guests passing staterooms that are open on disembarkation day.

I thought that too at first. But it seems far too common to have that many passengers walking off with someone else's water.

Disney Cruise Line has a similar issue with their laundry bags. We haven't sailed Disney in a few years so I haven't followed their boards in a while, but there were always repeated posts about $10 fees after disembarking and multiple calls to have the charge reversed. I wonder if Carnival or Norwegian have a similar chargeable item that appears after the sailing.

Anyone else wonder if maybe the room stewards are taking the bottles and charging them to the guest? Like if it has become a way for the stewards to get back at guests they didn't like or if they are just taking them to consume? They spend all day talking to each other on their phones, an idea like this from one steward would travel fast.

Continental breakfast is free with the hanger, anything hot incurs a $7.95 service fee. We were on the Allure last week and found some deliveries to be great as expected, and served with a smile and others were all wrong, presented sloppy, and delivered too early. I suspect there are some staff who no longer want to be bothered with the free deliveries when there are orders that include gratuity in the service fee.

I forgot a couple things.

There was a post here before about mattress toppers. The beds in our rooms needed to be replaced. They are firm but even worse, the beds are sagging so bad that you can see it by just looking at the mattresses. One of the mattresses, you could feel a spring poking you! We had two rooms, and interestingly one room had the memory foam mattress toppers on the beds and the other did not. We ended up moving one of them to the other room to deal with the spring problem. Also, we have used the sofa beds in the past and were surprised at the comfort, but not in this room. It actually felt so hard that we wondered if they had put a board in the sofa to deal with sagging. My son ended up sleeping in bed with us because the sofa was so hard. We requested more mattress pads, one for the sofa and another for the bed (the pads are twin size). The room attendant said she would see what she could do, but it took 2-3 days to get another one, and I think a member of group had mentioned it to guest services when they called to ask how our cruise was.

A few more notes.

The solarium cafe is a great place for breakfast because it is so much quieter than Windjammers. We went straight to the solarium upon boarding to find open tables and a short line. The solarium was also open on the morning of disembarkation! We had an amazingly quiet, peaceful last meal on board the ship.

Park Cafe was our other favorite lunch spot, the salads are great. I only wish they offered at least one dressing that wasn't a creamy base besides just oil and vinegar. They should have something like a balsamic vinaigrette there.

I don't know how I missed this in the past and most of this sailing, but they have self serve ice water at the pool bar. The day I finally noticed it, they had one plain and one with oranges floating in it. I have been hauling my butt all the way to Wipe out or Solarium for water all this time wondering why they didn't have water closer to the pools.

The vendors in the covered artisan market in Labadee are very nice. But as soon as you walk near the back door, the outside vendors start trying to lure you to their shops. The outside vendors were so aggressive, we left and made all out purchases in the building. There was a nice wooden toy kids machete in the building for $8, when we looked at a lesser quality wooden machete outside, the guy wanted $30 for it! We just walked away. No one was really walking through the outside vendors while the building was full. I don't know if they realize they are scaring away their customers with their aggressive sales. Oh, and Nellies beach is a nice sandy but crowded beach in Labadee. The beaches on the other side are more rocky and have more waves. My son likes the rocks and waves better while my daughter liked the calmer sandy beach, so it is personal preference.

We did the dolphin encounter at Chankanaab though the ship. The encounter was a bit disappointing since the seas were rough making it hard for my kids and my short self not to float away in our life vests when big waves come in, taller folks didn't seem to be struggling at all. Our group was also too big, we couldn't hear the trainer and one of the dolphins didn't want to cooperate. This was definitely a YMMV activity with a lot of variables. Lockers were provided for free. Picture prices were outrageous. The included food was OK, the included drinks were good and the pool and small beach next to the pool were great! My kids had a blast going up to the swim up bar and ordering a soda, before it got busy. The sea lion show was funny. We didn't get to walk the park much but we had a great time in the area near the swim. We got $20 off during a sale and I think the price we paid was a good deal. I wondered in advance how they handled the transportation since the excursion included park admission. What they did was lined us up and put us in prepaid taxis around 10:30am Then we were told to meet back at either 2:00, 3:00 or 4:00 when we would be put in another prepaid taxi and taken back to port. We were surprised at how time flew and went back at 4:00!

There have been posts about more aggressive up-selling lately. We didn't experience this at all. We were not approached even a single time about purchasing any packages or anything!

Like others have mentioned, we also got coached from our dining room server about how to fill out the survey. It was very uncomfortable. On two separate occasions we were flat out asked by our server how we were going to rate them, and he would not allow us to avoid the question.

Pools were not always opened when listed on the daily schedule! One of the days I spent all day in the cabin with my daughter, I wanted nothing more but to go swim after she had gone to bed. The beach pool was scheduled to be open until 11:00 but when I went up at 9:30 every single pool was closed, although many hot tubs were open. I couldn't see any reason for all the pools be closed, none were emptied for cleaning and this particular evening the ship was very steady. I noticed the pool open at 10pm the following night when the ship was really rocking. We ran into this problem on the Enchantment a few years ago too, that time it was after noon on a sea day and the splash pad and pool were supposed to be opened at 11am but still were not and no one could explain why or was willing to make a call to find out why.

We did the meet and mingle. Out of 85 who registered, only about 20 showed up. Turns out many people in our roll call are reporting that they did not get their invite in their cabin. We got ours. The cruise director, Mitch, was hysterical giving out the prizes. Though, the prizes were more lame than I seen in the past and there was no random RC logo item handed out at the door but we still won a hat, a water bottle and a book since the turnout was so low. What was amazing was out of the 20 pple who showed up there was a lady there who it turns out lives just a couple miles from us in the same small suburb in upstate New York!

Embarkation was a mess! I am not going to go into too much detail because our embarkation was unusual because it was the same day as the ship's yearly Coast Guard inspection and I don't think it was an accurate portrayal of a typical day. The port workers were obviously stressed and there was extremely poor communication on what was happening. Passengers were annoyed and many were ignoring the workers because there were so many worker telling people to do different things. For example, staff insisted we sit EXACTLY were they told us and would not let us go to get my kids their wrist bands or go to the play area. a=/after waiting forever then waiting again in line still being told by the line workers were still couldn't go over to get the bands, we get to the front to embark and the lady at the front of the line told us we had to go back and get the kids bands and wait again. I said oh, no. 4 different workers insisted we were not to go get the bands, I was not going to start the process over again when I could just get them in kids club. We saw some other passengers get told by one employee to get into a certain line only to have another employee yell at them for not waiting. Then there were others who had managed to walk up and bypass the waiting going straight in line because the workers were busy trying to corral other passengers into waiting areas and couldn't keep up with the flow. At one point during check in, they made all the workers immediately stop working and walk away from the computers. I asked the agent if this was usual, he said he had never had this happen before. My husband was mad because he watched 5 other families come and go at the next counter in the time it took our agent to check us in. Half our sea passes were missing and needed to be reprinted, this happened last year as well. There was a message that my husband had been flagged to talk to a supervisor, it took about 10 minutes for the agent to figure out what it meant which was we were supposed to have direct boarding due to 2 disabled members of our group which we never even got instead it took us longer. It took us a half hour standing at the counter to check in! Like I said, I don't think this was a typical experience and wouldn't expect anyone else to have the same experience.

Disembarkation was a breeze, once we realized that the ship was turned around and the exit was through a side door of the dining room. Our bags were easy to find and the line moved along smoothly.

With regard to the towel tracking, did this mean that the crew did not go around taking towels off of chairs that were obviously not in use and just saved for future use ("chair hogs")?

Not that I saw. Personally, I would think twice about leaving an unattended towel for long periods of time if I was going to get charged $25 for it. Especially considering someone else might be looking to replace a $25 towel that they lost. As it was, my sunglasses disappeared by the side of the pool as I swam one day. I can't believe I didn't see someone take them as I was right there in the pool!

This is my second Oasis class cruise, I never experienced a time when we couldn't find an unoccupied chair near where we wanted to be and saw many unclaimed, unoccupied loungers even at noon on a sea day. We did however have a couple times where people were sitting in chairs with out stuff on them while we were in the pools, it was kind of awkward to go over and have to take your cover up off a chair someone was sitting on. We had this happen near the kids pools and again near the flow rider.

I'm one of those OCD people who just asked about this a few days ago thanks for the pics. The beach def looks rocky. Did you enjoy that area of the beach

 

 

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Nellies beach right across the peninsula from this spot was much less rocky but much more crowded. It was a short walk between the two areas.

Kids/family programming. Many great programs to enjoy. The Move It parade is fun, even the 3rd or 4th time around, even though I wish they would integrate some of the newer characters they have on board into the long running parade. Loved How to train your Dragon on Ice! I was excited to see Poppy and Branch from Trolls appear in two meet and greets! I am sure it has been discussed before, but it was great to see the balloon twisters and face painters return to the ship after having been gone for a period last year. They made my daughter a super awesomely impressive balloon dog on our last sea day! The carousel, FlowRider, rock climbing, minigolf and splash pad were all great, my kids especially loved the carousel and FlowRider this cruise. However the family activity schedule was horrible! There would be no kids activities/shows scheduled all morning, then at exactly 12:15 they would schedule 3-4 activities at the exact same time then nothing again until around 5 in the evening when most (not all) families with younger kids were getting ready for the 5:30 dinner seating. For example, one sea day there was nothing scheduled all morning but at exactly 12:15 they scheduled the family talent show, family art or science class, and the single performance of Let You Entertain Me which is the kids aqua theater show all at once. Then another day they scheduled the only 3D showing of the movie Trolls at 4:30, while also scheduling the Trolls meet and greet at exactly 4:30! You had to pick just one! It would have made so much more sense to schedule the meet and greet at 4:00 and had the movie at 4:30 following the meet or even having the meet immediately following the movie. Plus the kids movie easily ran into the 5:30 early seating. We missed a lot of programming we wanted to see because we just couldn't be in two places at once. I didn't keep the daily planner but having to pick and choose kids activities happened many times because of poor scheduling. We ran into this in a previous sailing but not to this extent.

My other beef with kids programming has to do with the kids clubs, AKA Ocean Adventure. Each day they would put out a planner with a list of scheduled activities which would sound great. Unfortunately, they either followed the activities loosely or not at all. When I asked about why they bothered putting out a list of events when they don't follow it, they said they try to but can't always follow it. It was our experience that they rarely followed it. My gripe is that Royal Caribbean has advertises themselves as being an autism friendly certified cruise line, but anyone with experience with autistic kids knows that sticking to the written schedule best as you can is extremely important to these kids, they would be better off just not putting out a schedule if they had no intent on following it. I also think they play way too many elimination games for such a diverse group of kids, I saw kids struggling with the rules because of language barriers. Of course this is a topic that everyone is going to disagree on, kids who are good at these games probably had a blast winning dozens of little Inkies, but kids at the bottom of the age range who have never heard of these games or couldn't understand the rules because of language barriers causing them to get eliminated right away every single game probably hated it. Kids programming is an area where Royal Caribbean could make huge improvements with very little effort and almost no cost.

Who said you shouldn't mention it. If you read your policy before you write your letter, you'll have a better understanding of what to say. The term "trip interruption" should be defined. If not, you've got a better chance of getting coverage. You also have a better chance of getting coverage if you understand what is covered by trip interruption.

 

As to your daughter, I would rather see what she has to say before I comment on your delay in getting her medical attention.

Thanks, that is helpful information. I confess I didn't read the entire policy.

My daughter did NOT want to go to medical! She doesn't like going to the doctor and repeatedly told us she was feeling better. She did seem better as she was symptom free for the most of the second day and she was whining that we wouldn't let her go anywhere, but she woke up on the third day vomiting and was not happy when I dragged her down to medical as soon as they opened.

I don't blame the cruise lines for tracking towels. If guests in my home start taking towels, I'm getting a tracking system [emoji23]

 

 

 

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Me either! In fact I appreciate it since it will probably discourage chair hogs. :D I shared it because I bet inquiring minds want to know!

You need to read the definition of "trip interruption".

Fair enough. Like I said, I am not going to lose any sleep over it, but I am still going to truthfully file a claim and if it is denied I will be just fine with it.

I really thought I was going to get called out on not taking her to medical as soon as she had symptoms, which I confess was wrong on my part. I am surprised to get called out on my mention that my insurance policy said they wouldn't cover it. I bet there are others here who might appreciate me bringing it up.

I feel great thanks for asking. From what you said Royal Caribbean bent over backwards to help you and your family out even though your daughters unfortunate illness was in no way their fault. Some people are just never satisfied regardless of what you try and do to help them. Yes I do think you are being greedy .

So glad I could help make your day a little better. ;p I both agree and disagree with you. I completely agree that Royal Caribbean bent over backwards in an unfortunate situation which just as easily could have happened at home and was in no way their fault. I think the future cruise especially was generous. However, it shouldn't matter how Royal Caribbean treated us in the matter of filing a claim with the completely separate insurance company with which I purchased a $200+ policy which covered trip interruption due to illness. Greed would be asking RC to also provide credit to the adult who had to stay with the quarantined minor or further compensation.

Royal Caribbean is going to give you a credit for the time that your daughter lost due to illness yet you think your insurance should also pay you for the same time. Sounds a little greedy to me.

Yes, thank you. I knew there would be some Royal Caribbean cheerleader criticizing me for something. Do you feel better now? Or is there anything else you would like to add in an attempt to make me feel less than? I only wish I could be so perfect.

And for the record, RC is offering a credit for one day for one person for a future cruise to be used within one year, which I did not ask for. It is very unlikely we will use it. We cruise no more than once a year and not always on the same cruise line. Maybe you are fortunate to cruise several times a year, but we simply cannot. Not only that, but I purchased insurance through a separate company. Any credit RC offers should be separate from what my insurance plan covers, which is reimbursement for 150% of trip interruption of the traveler and companions.

I forgot to mention in the OP that we had a shore excursion scheduled to at meet on the pier just over an hour after she was scheduled to be released from quarantine! The medical staff told me that if I felt like she was not up for it, to call down and they would speak with customer service about getting us a refund for our excursion which I appreciated because it was one less thing to worry about. Fortunately, she was better and we had a great time at our dolphin encounter at Chankanaab. FYI- my kids loved the swim up bar!

Pool towels. Before we sailed, there was a post debating whether or not RC actually tracks pool towels. We completely disconnected on our trip and I don't have the desire to flip through 2 weeks of posts to see if this was settled. But I can tell you with 100% certainty that on the Allure this past week, the pool staff WAS ABSOLUTELY tracking pool towels! The scanner they used had a cord attached to a laptop computer at the desk, they were scanning and adjusting numbers as they checked them out. Not only that, but when I returned 2 of the 4 towels we had out, they told me I had 2 more out. Then another day, my DH had one out and I had one out, when I returned mine, they informed me that we still had one out for our room under my husband's name. So they are tracking them by both room and person. This is our 3rd RC cruise and had never noticed this level of tracking towels before. In the past it looked like they were fake scanning. I know some had claimed they only track them on port days, but they were tracking them through the entire cruise and tracking lasted over the entire cruise since we had a couple towels out for several days. Maybe it is a new system or maybe they are just testing it, I don't know, but they were without a doubt tracking them! It wasn't really an issue since we turned them all in.

Room service. For anyone not following the room service post with its 1.2 billion responses, the Allure does have the new $7.95 service charge, it is listed on the menu. Room service was incredibly inconsistent this sailing! Our first morning, we put out the door hanger out with a 7:00-7:30 delivery time. At 6:15am we were awoken by the phone ringing to let us know our order was on its way, sure enough at 6:25am our order was at the door. It was over a half hour early but at least we had breakfast, right? Not so fast, our order included 2 coffees and 1 tea, they only sent 2 cups! But it turned out it didn't matter because the coffee wasn't coffee, it could better be described as hot water with a hint of coffee flavoring! It wasn't just weak, it was transparent! I have worked in restaurants for years and have seen weak coffee from accidental double brews or grossly inaccurate measurement, but this was a whole extra special kind of weak. And my fruit plate consisted of not a single piece of fruit, but instead was full of CHEESE which wasn't even an option on the breakfast menu! I must say, the cheese was tasty though! Day 2 same order but with a 7:30-8:00 delivery time, I was not getting woken up at 6:15 again. This time the coffee was better, super strong but at least it was coffee. We had enough cups, the fruit platter was actual fruit, the toast was slightly burnt but edible, but my daughter's frosted flakes were bran flakes! Luckily I grabbed an extra box of frosted flakes from the buffet the day before in case someone needed a bedtime snack. Day 3 was another super early delivery, the coffee was mildly flavored water again and this time instead of a fruit plate, they sent 2 fruit yogurts! At that point, we skipped a couple days figuring it wasn't worth bothering. But we did order for day 7, and that order not only was perfect with great coffee, but it was delivered at the requested time, nicely presented and the server took a couple extra seconds to go over the order item by item to make sure it was correct! YAY! I wish I'd had a couple extra dollars out to add to the cash I already had out for a job well done!

As I mentioned, my daughter was quarantined so we were told to order all her food from room service for 24 hours free of charge. The level of service I got from the room service staff was so inconsistent. The first time I called, I explained the situation and asked for some rice, toast, broth and asked what they could send to drink. The server seemed annoyed at having answered my call, she said they couldn't send JUST broth and that it had to be soup, she said they MAKE them send one free bottle of water but that is it. O... K.... Broth was on the list given to us from medical but who am I to argue. The order comes and it is sloppy mess, I was most annoyed that the soup which had spilled all over the tray and just consisted of noodles and chicken by the time we got it. Later when the front desk called to check up on us I asked about getting some ginger ale or some sort of Powerade, they happily sent us a couple complimentary bottles of each and said the ginger ale should be free for quarantine and if not they would remove the charges. Later, I reluctantly placed another order after not having any luck finding her soup on the buffet. This time, room service was exceptional! The server was very polite when I explained I just wanted some broth out of the chicken soup. She delivered a nicely presented order with a bowl of JUST BROTH AND a bowl of soup just in case my daughter wanted to try to eat some noodles, and this time the soup cups had a lid to prevent spilling and wrapped in a napkin to absorb any spillage, she sent extra crackers, a ginger ale, a glass with ice and she even came equipt with a smile. I am amazed at the difference. I can't help but wonder if some of the staff don't feel like guests deserve decent service if we aren't forking over the $7.95 service fee because I had never experienced crappy room service like this in the past. And before anyone pipes in and claims maybe we were flagged as non tippers, I tipped for every delivery. I worked as a server for years and even managed a restaurant in a hotel with room service so I know how it all works and compensate accordingly.

I will try to come back later tonight to post about the kids club and embarkation

We sailed on the Allure last week, we had two connecting ocean view balcony rooms for our party of 5. Let me preface by saying we had a nice vacation! Lots of things went well and as expected, but this is a compilation of things that I feel are worth sharing with fellow cruisers.

Let's just start with the worst part, my 7 year old daughter came down with gastrointestinal illness on day 3. I will confess, we did not take her to medical right away as I should have, one of our traveling companions who is a frequent cruiser thought they would quarantine our entire group for at least 72 hours. My daughter had been swimming in the ocean at Labadee hours before her symptoms started and we thought she may have swallowed some salt water combined with a morning of sun which is rare for us as we live in one of the gloomiest cities in the US. We kept her in bed in the cabin until I finally took her to medical as soon as it opened on day 5. Our trip to medical was quick and easy. They told us if it was gastrointestinal illness, the exam and treatment would be free, anything else we would be charged. She was seen quickly by a very nice doctor who diagnosed her with gastrointestinal illness, they are super efficient because she was then examined by a second doctor who wandered in while the first was getting her meds! I tried to tell the second doctor she had already been examined but he continued anyway! I thought it was funny when he walked out and asked for her paperwork and they told him already being treated! They gave her Zofran, Tylenol, Imodium and pedialyte all at no charge. She was also quarantined to the cabin for 24 hours after her last symptom which was right before we went to medical. As part of quarantine, they provided a list of recommended foods, free rooms service and bottled water, as well as free movies. They also called the room a few times to make sure she was there and ask if there was anything we needed, at one point I asked if she could get some ginger ale or Powerade and they sent couple bottles of each at no charge. It really wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. Dining room staff went above and beyond making sure the person staying back with her was well fed, on lobster night someone delivered my mother in law two lobster tail dinners, then our server insisted we take her two more! So she got to have 4 lobster tails for dinner on our balcony one night! Not a bad deal for her, but good thing we had a balcony because the food smell bothered my daughter. To our surprise, we received a letter on the last day stating my daughter would receive a future cruise credit for her time spent in quarantine, they will send a letter to our travel agent with the credit amount once they determine a value for time lost.

A little about medical. Like I said, they were nice and efficient. I went down the day she got sick looking for sea sick bags when medical was not open. There were sea sick bags on the wall was well as free sea sick tablets! There was also single dose medications like Tylenol in a dispenser for something like 50 cents a dose. They also had a large vending machine with full size drug store items like medications, lotions, lubricants, etc; the prices were a bit higher than drug store pricing. All these things were accessible at all hours including in port.

It is also worth noting that no one else in our party has gotten sick. But while sitting on our balcony we over heard a lady telling her neighbor she had been up sick in the bathroom all night the same night my daughter came down with her illness. We purchased trip insurance from a third party, I called when we got home to see if we could file a claim for trip interruption, but was told that since we did not incur any costs and she never lost access to the room we paid for there was no loss of vacation. I will tell you though, my daughter would greatly disagree that she didn't lose any of her vacation! I would think when paying for a cruise we were also paying for access to all public areas of the ship in addition to the room, but I guess that isn't how the insurance company sees it. I am going to file a claim anyway and see what happens but I am not going to lose any sleep over it.

This took longer than I expected to write, I will come back later because I have lots more to say about pool towels, room service, embarkation and kids programming!

I was on the same cruise as OP and saw that a drink card was offered on Day 6, I believe. 10 drinks for $79ish, if I remember correctly?

Same cruise here as well. We didn't see it until after turn down service on day 6. We were on the lookout for it and were disappointed it appeared so late. Yes, it was $79 for 10 drinks. We felt it was offered too late to purchase.