Sobro

I think the rule is that linked C&A accounts must share the same home address. 

Please be more specific. What comes up?

On Explorer at the beginning of the month the pub was out of several selections. I ended up drinking beer onshore and whiskey sours aboard. 

There is a maritime museum just up the hill from the Canal where the boats used to sell produce next to downtown Willemstad. And I second the synagogue tour, it was neat. There is a semisubmersible tour that includes a trip to the distillery that we did last month.

Aruba Trikes is a must, but they changed the tour from going to the Park with the giant rock to going to the glassblowing place.

A snorkeling excursion in Aruba is always good, too. 

At least the Cruise Planner now shows you already purchased excursions and the price you paid. Makes it much easier to cancel and rebook.

Even at very low capacity the first week of this month, Explorer prices trended higher than what I paid 2 or 3 months in advance. 

I would accept testing pre- cruise over the masking requirements. We just finished two weeks at sea on Feb 6 and spending a couple of hours total taking three tests was much less onerous than wearing a mask everywhere indoors.

Test 1 to enter Puerto Rico.

Test 2 to board NCL Epic

Test 3 to board Explorer

11 hours ago, vacationlover_mn said:

I have not requested Indian yet, but would love to try… one question- is it hot-spicy usually?  I love non-hot Indian food!

No I haven't had any hot spicy Indian food aboard a Royal ship. It usually has good flavor, though, so that makes up for it somewhat. I do prefer my Indian food one notch below native spicy so my mild might be another's spicy.

We had a solid signal two weeks ago from our aft balcony. Had surf and stream but we didn't try to watch live TV. All of my usual sites loaded as expected on a Royal ship.

As stated above, pool deck also had a good signal, as well as outdoors on deck 4. I never experienced a loss of wifi that week but the system wasn't taxed due to the low passenger number. 

MDR food is subjective and also depends on the kitchen. I've had the same dish that was good on one sailing and horrible on another. Just ask for Indian food at every dinner and you probably won't be disappointed. 

No, all doors were open,

Scheduled at 1PM, and with a JS officially could check-in at noon. But with 25% of capacity actually sailing, they weren't looking at check-in times.

Yes, I  got a GTY balcony under the Windjammer once and found an available cabin in the same category elsewhere and just called and switched. I didn't mention the GTY. 

We sneaked down the hall to our aft Junior Suite at 1:40 PM and they made the cabin announcement at 1:50 PM. 

We sailed on Jan 30.

BTW, they opened up check-in at 12:10 PM and porters set up baggage receiving at 10 AM.

17 hours ago, dleahy4444 said:

I think I am going to try to change once on board. I called again and the representative I spoke to said the gray area was storage space, but then I found a review for the Odyssey on CC written by someone who stayed in my exact stateroom 13652 who said that there was a lot of noise from 4am to 5:30, prepping for the CK probably as they serve breakfast. Our Royal UP bid was low so if we lose that $ by downgrading to a regular OV balcony in a better location, it will be the price of a lesson learned.  Did you win it via Royal UP? If not maybe you can still change it if you call. 

It's highly unlikely to be able to change cabins once onboard unless there are major problems with the cabin. GS posts a notice about no onboard upgrades on day 1 even though they do have a few empty upgrades, and I'm sure they won’t move you to the same category either. 

They have lifeboat rosters already set when you board and won’t change them for you.

In San Juan the porters set up bag receiving at 10 AM.

Mmmmmm, escargot.

GranysT, be advised that the daily newsletter, the Cruise Compass, is also on the app and your ship may not be delivering a paper copy to your cabin. Ask your cabin steward for a daily paper copy. 

On Explorer last week both coffee and food were served by crew in DL. 

Yes you can register at TravelSafe any time and upload your Vax cards.

I wouldn't try to register a trip with them until very close to sailing since PR may change protocols again. 

And if negative test is required by Royal to sail I`d wait until negative results before actually going back into TravelSafe. 

We sailed Norwegian Epic week 1 and Explorer week 2 but TravelSafe registration didn't have a provision for that so I lied and told them I was on Explorer both weeks.

Print the QR code from TravelSafe. That's what we did for our Jan 23 cruise. 

I first registered with TravelSafe and uploaded vax card scans a few weeks ahead of flying. We tested preflight to San Juan, uploaded test results, received the QR code on their web site,and printed the page. It's huge but works just fine.

You pick up your luggage then go to the exit where they scan your printed code. Very quick and easy.

Each traveler must have their own TravelSafe account, BTW. 

Mine was free last week on Explorer.  Well, I was the only rider for 45 minutes of the morning one hour session 😉

16 hours ago, Ptroxx said:

Explorer last week.  1300 pax about 40%

was like sailing on an empty ship.   Was great for us.  Not RC I imagine.  

They were giving 30- and 40% specialty dining discounts just by asking, even for prior reservations. Casino was a ghost town, but I did step away from blackjack with $15 profit. Hard to believe they didn't ever drop the minimums from $10 to $6.

Regarding the actual topic we did EMed tests aboard Epic last Saturday in order to board RCI Explorer on Sunday.

I upgraded "Free" internet to unlimited and had no problems completing the tests. We did lose connection at the scan your test card step for the first one but reconnected quickly and continued on.

NCL gives a $125 credit towards upgrade purchase on 7 night sailings if you don't login and use your free plan.

Not recent, but around Day 7 of an 11 Day cruise in 2019 they sent specialty dining staff to look for customers in the Windjammer at lunch time. We got a discount offer at Chops, maybe $10 off per person. 

You might be able to negotiate with them for a small reduction.  We aren't wine lovers and got Chef's Table $20 off pp when we asked for a price excluding the pairings.

Thanks for coming back to this thread. We are on Norwegian Epic right now and I decided to get a St Lucia NCL excursion because we board Explorer this Sunday and have an RCI excursion there but they had been skipping the island.

Emerald pins are prettier than the others. I should pick up a replacement for a lost one next month.