What changes should I expect since Covid 19

[happythoughts]

Haven’t sailed Royal since before the pandemic.  What changes can I expect and anything I need to know? Thinking of sailing Vision of the Seas? For example, I think I read Royal stopped serving  the tutti salad bar in the main dining room at lunch.

[time4u2go]

Lower quality food (in many people's opinion).  Less menu choices for dinner.  Once a day room steward service.

[smokeybandit]

Food is fine. Plenty of choices on the menu.

[neverbeenhere]

Vodka is still Vodka. 
 

app is no longer crap. 
You can message without notifications through the app. 

[happythoughts]

Room service once a day?  Is that morning or evening?

[GTO-Girl]

25 minutes ago, happythoughts said:

Haven’t sailed Royal since before the pandemic.  What changes can I expect and anything I need to know? Thinking of sailing Vision of the Seas? For example, I think I read Royal stopped serving  the tutti salad bar in the main dining room at lunch.

Sadly the tutti salad is gone….😢😢

[smokeybandit]

I wouldn't even focus on what has changed. Change is inevitable. Just enjoy your cruise.

[not-enough-cruising]

17 minutes ago, happythoughts said:

Room service once a day?  Is that morning or evening?

50/50 chance of it being one or the other

[Billy Baltic]

Expect to pay more for less than before and you won’t be disappointed. 

[Anton]

50 minutes ago, happythoughts said:

Room service once a day?  Is that morning or evening?

The cabin attendant is supposed to ask you on boarding day which time you prefer.  I've found that they are not consistent in doing this and like to default to only morning service so they can have less to do at night.  Junior Suites and higher still get service twice a day.

Edited June 6 by Anton

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, happythoughts said:

Haven’t sailed Royal since before the pandemic.  What changes can I expect and anything I need to know? Thinking of sailing Vision of the Seas? For example, I think I read Royal stopped serving  the tutti salad bar in the main dining room at lunch.

Cruising is back to "normal". There is nothing that has to do with COVID any longer. 

 

Yes, there is COVID being shared on every cruise, just like it is shared in your local Costco. 

 

Don't try and do before and after comparisons. It just the evolution of the cruise industry. 

 

The cruise environment continues to evolve, as it has since the start of time. For example, when we started cruising, there were hard, wooden loungers that you had to rent and tip a pool attendant to set up for you. That's been gone for a while... and now 2-times-a-day room cleaning is gone. 

[Jasukkie]

Just like any other crowded place or event where people gather together, some people go home with a souvenir Covid infection. It's very common to see this discussed in social media groups for a given sailing. There are usually a few people onboard wearing masks but the vast majority don't. Hand sanitizer dispensers aren't refilled as well as one might hope. Bring your own, more about GI illnesses than Covid, but better safe than sorry on that stuff.

 

Cruising has become more popular than ever. Things can feel crowded sometimes. I'd say on the whole there are more younger people than ever. Meals have been sped up but as I see it, the service improved with the new menus. I prefer the once a day cleaning and haven't had problems requesting late day service. It eliminates feeling like you have to get up and out of the room in the morning. 

 

If you are Diamond and above, you get free drink vouchers instead of unlimited happy hour in the Diamond Club. This has been a fantastic change!

[firefly333]

Before covid muster you had to meet witha bunch of others. Now it's mostly on the app. You have to click to listen to the 7 loud horn blasts in case of emergency, maybe dont do this while sitting in your hotel lobby lol. Also another little short movie about how to fasten your life best.

 

Then when you go by your muster station, just check in and they check off your name. 

 

As soon as I board, i go to settings, and connect to royal Caribbean onboard so all the activities show. Some stuff doesnt show until you do this. Also I didnt change to airplane mode and a gazillion of data I had saved up on my tracfone disapeared. My fault. App quit working on my tablet so now I have to use my cell phone. Still learning.

 

Now wifi is from musk's starlink. The older ships arent much better but a ship like wonder now has something like a router in each cabin. You can stream wirelessly on wonder if you know how to stream. The older ships still need a hdmi cable. 

 

A lot of the changes are better. 

[time4u2go]

1 hour ago, Billy Baltic said:

Expect to pay more for less than before and you won’t be disappointed. 

Lol so true. 

[broadwaybaby123]

My favorite thing ever came about because of the pandemic....the E-Muster Drill!

 

Download the app, then on the day of your cruise, the drill will unlock. Open it on route to the ship, watch the videos, and report to the Muster Station where they'll verify you watched the videos, scan your phone, and then after a quick bee-boop, you're on your way.

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, broadwaybaby123 said:

My favorite thing ever came about because of the pandemic....the E-Muster Drill!

 

Download the app, then on the day of your cruise, the drill will unlock. Open it on route to the ship, watch the videos, and report to the Muster Station where they'll verify you watched the videos, scan your phone, and then after a quick bee-boop, you're on your way.

Yup and doing B2B and longer last few Cruises only had to show up to Muster on first leg. Morning of Changeover while waiting rest passengers get off they scan our new Card and done. Just walk off, back on and straight back to my Cabin

 

3 hours ago, Billy Baltic said:

Expect to pay more for less than before and you won’t be disappointed. 

Extras yes, Drink packages, Shore Excursions, yes. But long as isnt new Ships like Icon I'm still finding Deals and reductions on multiple Ships and Sailings, just knocked another $1800 off my Mar-Apr 2024 B3B sailings. Also 2 of the 3 were offering Military Discounts

Edited June 6 by ONECRUISER

[OldCaver]

The changes still in place when we cruised after Covid, I love. We pretty much abandoned the MDR except for lunch anyway, so those changes didn't matter. The mustard drill is much easier now, because you don't have to stand in a crowd waiting for a loud blast on the horn right above you. Just watch the video and go visit the dancer/singer/drummer with a clipboard at your mustard station and you're done. Since we're D+, the drinks are super convenient.
Sure, prices are higher, but that's true at home too. Everything is higher.

One great new change is when you enter the Food Jammer, they have sinks to wash your hands in, rather than just the gel squirter.

 

And the boarding procedure, with your selected boarding time, means you don't have to stand in line behind half the passengers. It's so fast and easy now. That's the best change of all.

Put your phone on airplane mode so you don't spend your data, but remember to set your wifi back to normal when you get home, or you may find you've been using cell data instead of your home router when you get back. That's the mistake I made.

[Another_Critic]

46 minutes ago, OldCaver said:

And the boarding procedure, with your selected boarding time, means you don't have to stand in line behind half the passengers. It's so fast and easy now. That's the best change of all.

Except when the line is around the building when I arrive at my assigned time. 😞

 

Many people ignore the time, and it's even encouraged here to ignore the time and show up when you feel like it.

[njkruzer]

20 hours ago, happythoughts said:

Room service once a day?  Is that morning or evening?

I think we were asked our preference. 

[ReneeFLL]

23 hours ago, happythoughts said:

Room service once a day?  Is that morning or evening?

We have always been asked which we prefer.

[island lady]

Lots and lots of cutbacks installed during restart "due to Covid".   Those cutbacks never came back.  Obviously RCI hoping we won't notice they are missing.  😉 🤑  $$$$

 

But one thing that was a vast improvement for me...that I am happy is still there....is the new muster.    Soooo nice not to be packed like a sardine on a hot deck with too many of your new close friends now.  😄 

[nferr]

On 6/5/2024 at 7:48 PM, not-enough-cruising said:

50/50 chance of it being one or the other

 Room attendant asked me what I preferred.

[lovesthebeach2]

On 6/5/2024 at 7:30 PM, happythoughts said:

Room service once a day?  Is that morning or evening?

Your preference….they will ask you which you want.

[Mum2Mercury]

On 6/5/2024 at 7:05 PM, happythoughts said:

I think I read Royal stopped serving  the tutti salad bar in the main dining room at lunch.

- Yes, I did love that Tutti Salad!  Now I make myself a big salad + a bit of chicken or fish from the Windjammer for lunch, but I do miss that old salad.  A personal whine:  They rarely seem to have Honey Mustard dressing, which is my favorite.  

- I've been happy with the food in the MDR, but they have cut back on the quantity of vegetables. 

- The MDR will only give you one lobster tail on lobster night. 

- The MDR offers a Chops steak or a lobster tail (or both) every night as an upcharge.  Personally, I like this option -- it's cheaper than taking the whole family to a specialty restaurant.  - Service in all food venues continues to be excellent.  

On 6/5/2024 at 7:08 PM, time4u2go said:

Lower quality food (in many people's opinion).  Less menu choices for dinner.  Once a day room steward service.

We find the MDR food to be good-if-not-superb.  

Fewer choices (not less) but still enough options.  

On 6/5/2024 at 7:23 PM, neverbeenhere said:

app is no longer crap. 

Agree, though I still want a paper Compass -- you have to ask your cabin steward for that.  

On 6/5/2024 at 7:30 PM, happythoughts said:

Room service once a day?  Is that morning or evening?

I really mind the once-a-day room service; I'd like to have one service + one touch-up to remove wet towels and empty the garbage can.  Let's not forget:  Royal RAISED GRATUITIES while SLASHING SERVICE IN HALF.  I mind that very much.  

I prefer morning service.  I think those who board early /see the cabin steward earlier are more likely to get their choice.  

We're sharing a room with our adult daughter on an upcoming cruise in the fall, and I'm concerned about having the sofa bed opened /put away each day.  

On 6/5/2024 at 10:01 PM, broadwaybaby123 said:

My favorite thing ever came about because of the pandemic....the E-Muster Drill!

It is more convenient.  Watch the video ahead of time, then -- at your convenience -- go to your Muster Station.  A staff member will talk to you a moment, check you off, and you're done!  

 

Other things that've changed: 

- You need to sign up for a check-in time online -- is it 45 days ahead of time?  This is a positive, as it divides the crowds and makes boarding more efficient.  

- Don't know just how far back we're reaching, but people are dressing more casually than they did in the past.  

- With the addition of the big screens by the main pool, that area seems to be louder.  

- In the past suitcases were placed at your door.  Now they seem to line them all up at one end of the hall.  Not the end of the world, but we were rather slow to figure it out and waited around for our suitcase.  

[notscb]

What's changed?

 

People are finally forced to be more clean at the Buffet. "Washy, Washy!"