CruisingHogFan

I’ve had it happen in little as one day and up to 30 days.

I think up to 30 days is the policy 

4 hours ago, 2chiefs said:

They have a nice hot tub at Margaritaville right there at the port!! 🙂 

Not anymore….

1 hour ago, sadiwest said:

Yeah opening myself up to a lambasting either way so...

 

Dh tested positive...two home tests and a clinic.    Clinic told him to quarantine for 72 hours then mask up in public for x number of days. I dont remember how many. 

 

We really pondered and stressed. In the end we excluded dd's friend from the equation and ruled out dh lying on his questionnaire.  Yes there is one and it asks if you've had symptoms in the most recent so many days.

 

Taking everything into account, including dd and my health, as well as there being no available cruises prior to the school year (including if we flew to a port) that we could switch to....   we landed on what seemed like the best option.

 

We decided dd and I would go tomorrow.  I booked a flight and car service for dh to meet us at a port knowing he'd miss the embarkation tomorrow.  He'd be meeting us after the quarantine period and masking up as directed.  

 

In the end we couldn't go all of us tomorrow and feel good about it.  As an aside, dd's friend is able to join us given that dh won't be joining us for the first couple days.  Additionally, dh is taking the anti viral as prescribed.   

 

No trip will be 100% guaranteed illness free. We're doing the best we can. This was an extraordinarily stressful day and decision, and I know that no matter what, there are people who will disagree with what we decided to do. 

 

 

I hate you are going through this! Did you buy insurance? If so I probably would cancel the entire trip and get my money back. 
 

Like others have stated you were given bad information and it won’t matter it you have it in writing or not. Your husband will not be allowed to get on the ship in Florida.
 

Also, if he’s positive there is a very good chance you will also be soon and will have to quarantine on the ship (unless you had it first and gave it to him?). Not a fun vacation!

You mentioned your daughter’s friend now going. Did that friend replace your husband’s name or an additional passenger?
 

46 minutes ago, NateUpNorth said:

Lots of Pinnacle's shook hands with Michael Bayley and will now name drop relentlessly on Cruise Critic....... "well when I spoke with Michael Bayley"........... 🤣

 
The best one is you young man from Texas that posted a picture of his wife about how she received the “side eye” all week and everyone should be jealous that Michael Bayley personally invited them to next years cruise. 🙄

11 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

About $8 + 18%, Freestyle machine or from the gun. Could not get canned soda on Quantum or Ovation. I was able to get two cans of Coke Zero  with one voucher on Quantum but not on Ovation. 

That’s odd. We have never had an issue getting a can when we asked.

2 minutes ago, Ashland said:

I received a survey from RCI about Icon. I'm not sailing until May 2024 so I didn't have much to say. 🤣

It was very interesting. I checked a lot of “never experienced” boxes. Haha

2 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

What is the supper club? 

 

I'm waiting for black friday unless there is a special sale. I'll go without at these prices.

Everything is continuing to go up. I wished I would have booked everything a few months ago but had a few other cruises I was planning at the time

Even if there is a bigger Black Friday sale it will probably still be more expensive since the base prices will be higher….

Anyone seen anything about booking dining reservations for the new speciality restaurants for Icon in the cruise planner?

We are on the fence doing the 3 day vs just booking a few individually since it doesn’t seem like the supper club will be included in the packages 

11 minutes ago, TRAVELBUGCRUISER said:

Hi Everyone,

 

I've seen posts where people have confirmed success with one person booking the Deluxe Beverage Package and calling to have the other person in the same guest room just have to order the Refreshments Package. I'm not seeing a price for what the two of these would cost as the only selection is for me to choose both people in the stateroom. Right now the deal is BOGO which I am guessing would come out to be near the same cost as a regular DBP and Refreshment Package. Can anyone confirm this with what the regular price of this would be, if not I will call tomorrow or perhaps just take advantage of the BOGO.

 

Thank you

BOGO is just a marketing term. The package is the same price per package no matter if you buy 1 or 2 packages 

38 minutes ago, Beeline Cruiser said:

 

Whoopsie!! And YES Royal needs to stop with all these cuts! And yes I get that loyals like ANY change! Is powdered coffee bleach next, SERIOUSLY??

Everyone get read for another 14 pages of comments now that Bee has entered the conversation… 😂🙄

44 minutes ago, Tatka said:

 

$1.99 seems really low ... We live in New England and I do not remember such prices.

Fresh? Not frozen?

Fresh, I buy them sometimes when I grilling steak. They are small rock lobster tails just like what is on the ship in the MDR. Not impressive.

Hook and some of the other specialty restaurants has the larger Maine Lobster.

The lobster tails are small and not that great. You can go to Sam’s club and buy the same fresh lobster tail for $1.99.

Personally I wish they would replaced lobster something better on every cruise.

13 minutes ago, molly361 said:

That's correct.  It's because the cabin that you want is a cabin for 3 which is a different and more expensive category than a cabin for 2.  If you were able to call and get it released for 2 people it will still be more than picking a cabin that only holds 2

We have actually started booking 2 cabins for the 3 of us (2 adults and 1 teenager) on our next sailings. Came out cheaper than 1 cabin for 3 plus additional savings in only having to buy 1 deluxe drink package.

7 hours ago, molly361 said:

You could try calling - Or maybe book a phantom child under kids sail free and that child would be a now show and you would get your port charges back

The cabin will be more expensive for 3 vs. 2 even with a kids sail free promo

28 minutes ago, Polition67 said:

I can totally believe how entitled some guests are. We were on independence in feb and one woman was crying and literally stamping her feel because she wanted a specific seat in the theatre to see grease, the staff relented and asked others to move to accommodate her she then proceeded to talk to people around her for the whole show going on and on about her pinnacle status 😑

I have a lot of stories from the diamond lounge! It’s amazing how some act but I’ve also met a lot of nice people. 

My favorite recent encounter is a man with his “pin” proudly on his shirt cutting in front of the elevator line and stating he is able to get on first. Didn’t end well for him. Hopefully the next group also didn’t allow him on the elevator as we wanted some space. You know social distancing! Haha

We just got off Allure. It was pretty normal for the most part. Encountered a few more entitled guests and back to back cruisesr than a normal cruise.

I talked to a lot of the staff and almost all of them were not looking forward to the President’s cruise. You can tell they were stressing over how the ship will be full of entitled/ demanding guests. If you look on another platform you will see post after post of complaints. I feel sorry for the staff!

We cruise Royal a few times a year but you couldn’t pay me to get on that cruise even with all the benefits! 

If you are really that upset over this maybe you choose a different cruise line or vacation…. 

I’m so glad I changed my dates on allure  when I leaned my booking was the president’s cruise. The “other platform” has been nothing but gripping an complaining over the dumbest stuff all week in that sailing.

9 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

AT&T included texts means SMS texts. Texts sent with iMessage, WhatsApp, Messenger, etc do use data. If you don't send or recieve photos or videos with those the data use from those will be small. 

We get the $60 AT&T cell plan for our daughter as she only needs to be able to call/text us on the ship. We get the ship package since we want data and this combo saves money. iMessage still works fine between all of us. You just have to make sure to turn off data on the phone using AT&T and keep the other phones in airplane mode so it only uses data. No issues 

57 minutes ago, 95south said:

The price of the drink packages now are nothing more than eye watering. The prices have almost doubled since 2019 along with having to basically purchase 2 drink packages for a stateroom with 2 adults. $100 usd a day and with added gratuity of 18% So $118.00 a day or $236.00 a day for x2 adults for the unlimited? Worth is? I guess if you plan on drinking constantly and not stopping, then yes. But for 90% it's nowhere near worth it. 

At $100 day it still works out to less than 7 alcoholic drinks per day. We get the free C&A drinks and still are able to come out way ahead and never are constantly drinking/drunk.

Add in 4-5 bottles of water, soda, coffee drinks per day then it really saves up!! Plus the convenience factor of no receipts.

I guess if you plan to only have a few drinks per day with none of the other stuff it wouldn’t make sense but that isn’t 90% of cruisers…..

The only issue I have with Allianz annual is the medical and emergency transportation is really low compared to their individual plans.
 

I can buy 4 individual plans per year for what an annual cost and have better way better coverage.

That’s one of the main reasons I don’t want to do unlimited. Too much time and food for lunch. We probably will just book 3-4 specialty restaurants for dinner including the supper club and do the other nights in the main dinning room. 
 

Does Royal care if you have a traditional time and only show up 3-4 nights or is it better to do my time?  
 

We have been cruising for 20 years on Royal and just now starting to try the specialty restaurants. Haha

4 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Yes you call and have them cancel and rebook at lower price, probably no guarantee they can save your reserved time.   

 

Has UDP gone up that much that it is now cheaper to book individually?    

Remember UDP gives you lunch on sea days as well as credit towards snacks, Wings, etc  at places like Playmakers.

Depends on sailing if cheaper or not. We wouldn’t eat in the specialty restaurants for lunch as we are always on the go or at the pool during the day and plenty of included snacks.

I thought I read somewhere on here (can’t find it) that if you call you can get a refund without losing your spot (not a rebook but just a reprice) vs having to cancel and rebook online

We have never purchased any of the specialty restaurants. I’m looking a booking  separately each night so I can pick my times now vs the unlimited plan. It’s also a little less expensive this way.

If I book them individually and the prices for down can you call for the price drop? I wouldn’t want to cancel and try to rebook through the online planner with the risk of losing my preferred time.

Like others have said the Black Friday sales might start early but I wouldn’t count on your sailing being included. Most of the time Royal isn’t going to discount that close to sailing .

I’ve had 3 price drops for about $700 for next March on Oasis since booking. 
 

Icon for next June has more than doubled lol