October17

Yep, close enough for rescue vessel to transfer a critically ill passenger around midnight. Full speed toward Bermuda the captain said. Hope the passenger will be okay

Thank you for this LIVE. I enjoy your posts, and maybe we will cross paths on the Oasis. I will be traveling solo, well I will have my Kindle and my crochet, and my coloring book 😄

Oh wow, I’m green with envy. I have seen Cats several times, and am looking forward to the Oasis transatlantic in Spring. How many showings did they have on your cruise? What seating do you recommend?

I absolutely love Cats 🥰😍🥰 and have seen it many times. I’m going on the transatlantic on Oasis in Spring, does anyone happen to know if there will be several showings? Fingers crossed I will be able to see Cats 2-3 times on the TA 🙂 I probably won’t be able to book more than once in the app, but I can probably get in queuing 🙂 (sorry aabout resurrecting an old thread)

Yes, their advert is “interesting”…

I just got back on the Odyssey in Limassol, and noticed two military ships in port (there was only one in the morning when I left for town). One had a UN label, and the other a green-white-red (Italy?) flag with some seal in the middle. Staffed by armed people in camouflage, kind of spooky, but the town still feels very safe, nothing unusual

We still have the same number of ports and sea days, but instead of a sea day after Santorini, we had Bodrum. And today is sea day, instead of Haifa. Tomorrow is Limassol instead of Ashdod/Jerusalem. Then we resume the original itinerary with a sea day before Souda, Crete.

We are on the Odyssey, and we were supposed to have two stops in Israel. They changed them to stops in Bodrum, Turkey and Limassol, Cyprus. That also meant the sea days got switched around. So we went directly from Santorini to Bodrum. I’m impressed that Royal managed to scrounge up excursions on such short notice. I’m adding the info letter we received

Greetings from Odyssey, balconies for staterooms 11726 and 11728 are connecting. In addition the 11728 balcony can also be opened to the other side (11328). 11726 can only be opened towards 11728, the other side is a bigger wall. The connecting doors are hinged, and the door is closer to the cabin wall, not the balcony railing, so it feels a bit more closed off than the side cabins with the door further out.

My TA got a response from the ship, and they say the balcony partition can be opened, as info if anyone has the same question in the future

Hi everyone, I have trawled the video and deck plan sites, but cannot find any photos/videos of the non-jr-suite aft balconies (starboard of mid line), i.e. xx728 and xx726. I have these booked on deck 11, but need to decide whether to change to something else if the balcón partitions can’t be opened. Hoping someone will have sailed in either of these cabins, or have pictures where one could see them.. I have found videos of a few other cabins but they all show the “wrong” side of the partition, none seem to show the divider between 729 and 726.

Wonder TA in November

I had the Key, and am not a morning person, so I was having my Key breakfast in MDR on deck 4 at a little after 8 am. They announced that Customs and Border were backed up, and told us to wait. Fortunately I didn’t have any pre-booked transportation, so I continued with a leisurely breakfast and a second cup of coffee. Staff were starting to prepare the MDR for the welcome lunch for the next Key cruisers, and the area was also a meeting point for the staff safety drill. The staff said they had a more extensive safety drill since the ship was transferring to the USA. My srever also mentioned staff having started immigration early in the morning, I think he said 4 am, but that he was one they hadn’t had time to process yet, since he had to go back to work in the MDR, so he would have to go back ang queue again later. I never got any information that immigration was open again, after they told us to wait in the MDR, but new passengers were starting to arrive so I decided to get a move on around 9:45. I walked straight off the ship, and the line in the hallway wasn’t too bad. The luggage hall still had lots of people, and looked disorganized - not clear where the lines were. Fortunately (again!) I had the Key, and my luggage was in the area closest to the checkpoints, with a separate queue, that was only about 1/4 length of the room. The other queue, looked like it ran the length of the room. immigration took a long time, the agent said he had problems with the camera, and had to reeboot his camera/computer when I got to the desk.

Anthem in July this year had special time to the bumper cars for the Key. I THINK it was one time all week, the rest of the time they just stood in line

Cruises in Europe can do at home tests without supervision, and that made me happy (tests are expensive here), but then I saw a separate section for transatlantic cruises. We still need supervised test for TA departing from Europe

My travel agent solved this for us for our recent cruise, so that one name was left, new names added, and the original name we left on was a no-show. Worked for us, but I’m not sure it is in the rules

Yes, Café 270 had sandwiches, including the Kummelweck (also as gluten free!) on our cruise this month 🙂 Thank you so much for your posts

Like: it’s Cats a musical 😍😍😍😍 Do not like: The “new” CGI movie version 😳

We had four cabins and four different reservations, three adult couples and one with 17 & 18 year olds on our Anthem cruise this month. All their reservations were linked to mine, they showed up both in Cruise Planner and the app. I checked in via the website, and was able to finish check in for everyone once I got their photos and passport details.

The Royal website is contradicting itself, and as @d9704011 says, I suspect it is a typo, and 90 is correct. OTOH the EU certificate of recovery is valid 180 days… so who knows… Quotes from the page I linked above (my emphasis): If I’ve recently recovered from COVID-19, - - - Will I still have to take a COVID-19 test before or during my cruise? - - - For Cruises Departing from Europe & Israel - - - A Certificate of Recovery, for a positive COVID-19 case at least 11 days before boarding but no more than 180 days ago, may be provided in lieu of a pre-cruise COVID-19 test result to board the ship if it meets certain requirements. - - - Must confirm the sample collection date of the positive PCR test, which must be a minimum of 11 days and a maximum of 90 days before the departure date of your cruise

This post is just idle rumination, being that I’m bored in isolation from my family at the moment. Funny how being by myself is nice and relaxing when *not* forced… 😕 Since I tested positive today, after our Anthem cruise, I started reading about testing on the Royal website, and found the option of a certificate of recovery instead of a pre-cruise test. With a weird typo / inconsistency for European sailings… it’s either 90 or 180 days. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/if-recovered-from-covid-19-need-to-be-vaccinated-or-take-a-test-to-sail I wonder which time is correct for cruises departing from European ports, not that I would chance it. My next cruise is some 100 days out, so I might, maybe, be able to board without a test. But would not count on it. I just hope I won’t test positive that long after.

We are going on a Norwegian fjords cruise in July, and I am curious about weather on the North Sea, crossing from Southampton so we will have two sea days. Any guesses whether we will be able to relax on deck in swimsuits, or is the weather more shirts and shorts/pants?

Thank you so much for this thread, I'm sad that your trip is ending and will mss reading your lovely posts!