SailorMarg

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

2018 had several Visa parties, 2019 had one, 2022 had a couple. Well worth having

 

You don't have to book the cruise with the card to get the invites or swag.

Great information.  This is what I was looking for. Thank you. How do they know who has a RCCL Visa if it’s not used to pay for the cruise or as your onboard account credit card?

We are booked on the 2023 President’s Cruise aboard Allure.  We will be Diamond+ by then.  My question is for those that have sailed on a President’s Cruise as a RCCL Visa cardmember.  Were there functions/perks that were made available to Visa cardmembers that were not open to Diamond+ passengers?  We will probably only do this one President’s Cruise, unless it really blows us away, so I’d like to have the option of as many events as possible.  Applying for a RCCL Visa and using it to pay for the cruise would take little to no effort so it would be worth it if doing so opened up some event that being Diamond+ did not.  We currently use a credit card that pays 3.5 points for travel so I wouldn't use anything but that card with regularity.  Extra points for any images of President’s Cruise daily planners with events listed or flyers for Visa or Diamond+ events.

Since the Galveston Voyager cruises are now showing up on RCCL site I checked my two “new” Voyager cruises, both are in very particular cabins.  One cruise is booked in an Oceanview Panoramic suite of which there are only two and the other cruise is booked in the Royal Suite of which there is only one.  Glad to see neither is showing as available to book on my cruises.  Now to wait for the email confirming.

On 7/16/2022 at 10:05 PM, Brentt_M said:

Dinner at the Pinnacle grill was pretty good overall.  Service was very solid.  All of the food except my ribeye was excellent, but the ribeye was pretty average.  Clothesline bacon was an absolute hit.  Also gave my mom a nice chocolate birthday cake at the end.

We were on the sailing just previous to yours and also had our first night’s meal in the Pinnacle Grill.  We were extremely underwhelmed.  From the microwaved onions rings atop our overcooked and grisly ribeye steak all the way to our watery Caesar salad which they really shouldn’t call a Caesar salad because what they dressed it with was more an extremely watered down ranch, at best.  The lobster bisque was nearly tasteless. We had this same meal in January aboard the Zuiderdam on a 14 night Panama Canal cruise and everything was excellent.  Our meals continued to be equally underwhelming in the Main Dining Room later in our cruise.  Tamarind saved the cruise from being a complete dining wash out.  Whoever is currently the Executive Chef aboard the Eurodam is not doing their job very well.  I’ll be curious how you find the rest of the dining aboard.

I know that ride shares need to drop off in the parking lot which is some distance from the terminal.  Is the same true for taxis?  We will be leaving our downtown hotel this morning and taking a taxi to the pier and wanted to know if the taxi can drive up to the terminal for drop off.

Self edited.

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On 6/11/2022 at 1:59 PM, SailorMarg said:

What would you recommend is the ideal number of days prior to embarkation to make your first call for upsell opportunities?

I called the day after I asked this question (28 days before sailing) and they had offers available (July 9th Alaska) that had not been sent out yet.  I upgraded from Spa Balcony (VQ) to Signature Suite (SS).  The upgrade to Neptune was doable but I’m one of those in the minority that doesn’t really see the value of a Neptune suite.  We spoiled ourselves with a Neptune Suite during a 14 night Panama Canal transit cruise earlier this year and found we never used the Neptune Lounge as being in a windowless room while at sea didn't appeal to us.  We rarely eat breakfast so the Pinnacle Grill breakfast didn't have great value to us. We are not snackers so the tid-bits in the Lounge weren’t tempting.  I prefer the lattes at the Exploration Cafe over the cappuccino from the machine in the Neptune Lounge. Laundry can be purchased very reasonably.  So other than the Neptune Lounge Concierge helping us with relocating to a different Neptune Suite after finding ours was not able to be cooled sufficiently, we didn’t make much use of the Neptune perks.  The Signature Suite cabins are plenty roomy with the size difference between it and a Neptune Suite basically the width of the dressing room area that also adds the same width between the foot of the bed and the seating area and then the balcony. Exact same bathroom.  So, we are very happy with our Signature Suite upsell.  We greatly overpaid for our Spa Balcony (VQ) a long time ago so it was nice to apply that to the Signature Suite and with the upsell charge come out about $2500 less than for what a Signature Suite (SS) is currently selling.

What would you recommend is the ideal number of days prior to embarkation to make your first call for upsell opportunities?

I’d have a real problem with this if I was a shareholder.  Basically shutting down sales for two days. Clearly I understand there are alternate ways to book a cruise, but to have one of the major ways completely unavailable for DAYS and not make any statement about it is really bad business. I’ve considered buying shares in the past but stuff like this always stops me from pulling the trigger.  Might we be hit with some big surprise, and not a good one, when they come back online for direct sales?

I have read that it is possible to make your unlimited dining package reservations on the App once signed onto the ship’s wifi.  How exactly does one go about doing this?  I am very familiar with the App but not with the UDP.  My guess is that there will be a button for “Reservations” on each venue in the Dining area of the App once signed into the ship’s wifi.  If not, then what?  And once making the reservation, if I can figure that part out, how does the system know it’s under the UDP?  We also want to sign up for the Chef’s Table with the reduced rate that is included with the UDP.  My hope is that I can do much of this without having to seek out a dining podium or a restaurant maitre’d upon boarding to make the UDP reservations. Any insight into the process using the App would be much appreciated.

I understand this is a change in policy starting this week.  Only those of drinking age will be permitted in the Suite Lounge in the evenings.  I hope people don’t put the concierges in the position of enforcing this new policy and instead go to management if they disagree with it.  Changes such as this come from listening to feedback.  It is clear what feedback Royal is getting.  https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-dining/suite-lounge

3 hours ago, Boatdrill said:

Can't wait to see what the NA does on Jan 23, a cruise that's offered in exchange for the Jan 29 cancelled sailing.

Pretty sure that was a typo and was meant to list Rotterdam.  Just a guess though.

I’m onboard Zuiderdam at the moment.  Neither my husband nor myself can load it on our IPads with Safari running.  Weird.  Thanks for letting me know that’s its not a problem across the board.

Is anybody else able to load it?

7 hours ago, 0106 said:

Hello Sailor Marg-  

Are you enjoying the cruise?  Has Covid testing and port changes negatively impacted your experience?  Scheduled for 2/13 Panama Canal and considering my options.  Thanks for any insights you can provide.

We are thoroughly enjoying the cruise!  We booked this cruise originally as an onboard experience.  We don't find the short visits in port, or the excursions, to hold much value for us.  We travel to locations we want to experience for longer visits. So port changes matter little to us.  We use cruising as a wonderful way to spend quality time together, moving through our days together, something that rarely happens at home on our ranch.  This particular cruise is about that, and of course the very exciting full transit of the Panama Canal.

We rented a Retreat Cabana when we originally booked this cruise over a year ago.  It is there that we spend our late mornings and early afternoons.  The service could not be any better. If you find it in your budget, I highly recommend this for a great outside space with a lot of distance between yourself and other cruisers.

Our main dining room experience has been exemplary.  Lots of empty tables around us to provide a sense of distance from other diners.  That’s nice.  And the service has been outstanding.

The entertainment venues have carried on as anticipated.  No apparent changes in schedule in any of the music venues, theatre, or bars that I’ve noticed.  We do very little of that, but on occasion will listen to a music set after dinner.

We have maintained the same steward, dining crew, and cabana crew so at least these crew members have remained healthy.  All crew wear N95s…great for them!

We have probably only shared an elevator once or twice the entire cruise.  There’s just not that many people.  Elevators are empty when they arrive with nobody waiting with us.

SO to answer your question, I don't feel our particular experience has been negatively impacted for the reasons above.  Hope this helps.

3 hours ago, zelker said:

Do you want the name of our wonderful tour guide in Puerto Limon?  Or are you restricted to only HAL tours?

 

I would love the name of your tour guide in Puerto Limón.  Thanks in advance.

19 minutes ago, NMCruiser123 said:

So close but yet so far!

Glad to see you have a view of some land!

I am also aboard and as soon as I looked outside this morning my heart sank for you.  Your situation was the first thing on my mind when I looked out. I understood you are on the starboard side of the ship and as we are on the port side, and currently facing the port, I knew you would not be.  I can only imagine how important that would have been for you and I am so sorry.  I wish HAL would be more concerned about the mental health of those in isolation.  I’m not suggesting that they would make docking decisions based on this, but all in all, it doesn't seem like they are addressing the mental health needs much at all.  But, yay on the dumb bells!  I imagine this is a learning curve for HAL and we can hope they will get better.  Know that you have a lot of us onboard holding you in our hearts and sending good thoughts your way.

3 minutes ago, br111 said:

Ahhh - thanks. I saw conflicting info for your itinerary when I was looking online. When do you actually transit? (Wondering how far in advance they're testing.) Thanks again for this first-hand info!

 

We are scheduled to transit in 7 days on January 12!  I thought today’s testing seemed incredibly early for that.  I’m half thinking we may have another round of testing before the 12th?  We shall see and I will update here should that happen.  

12 minutes ago, br111 said:

Wow... Thanks for posting... This seems to be a rare case in which EVERYONE on board a ship is tested. Not that we'll probably ever know, but it would be very interesting to find out how many test positive, given that this could easily pick up a large number of asymptomatic passengers that would be missed by the usual "test only if there are symptoms" policy.

 

Please let us know if there is any intel on the overall numbers on board!

 

I see you're doing a full transit of the canal - do you by chance have any idea if this would be required for a partial transit? (Asking because we're booked on the Jan. 26 Eurodam which includes a partial transit from the Caribbean side).

I really don’t know what is required for partial transits and I’m not sure this testing for full transit was known very much prior to the notification.  Seems like it’s a very fluid situation with changes daily.  But, partial transits usually have port stops within Panama whereas our full transit does not so that would lead me to believe that recent testing would be required by Panama before allowing passengers to disembark within their Country if they required it for a ship in transit.  But that’s only a guess.

2 hours ago, tuolumne couple said:

hi there, so glad you are on your cruise, and hope you are having fun. This is off topic, but can you tell me how Happy Hour is going on the Zuiderdam? Are they still doing one drink reg. price the 2nd drink a dollar? I forget, it has been a few years since we cruised, but we are heading out to sea next month on this same vessel. If you could let me know, I would love it 🙂

 

So sorry I can’t help you.  We may have one drink every couple days in the afternoon while enjoying the sun, then a glass of wine with dinner.  Other than that, we aren't ordering drinks so I wouldn’t know.  But I have not seen anything such as what you mention advertised.

We have now waited the 30 minutes in our cabin post testing with no telephone call. We were told if no call within those 30 minutes we were free to go about our business. Testing was pretty straight forward. A short line outside one of the meeting rooms where they have a table setup with a lap top and they give you a numbered sticker on your key card and a second numbered sticker for the person at the testing table inside the meeting room. Once at the testing table you were given a swab and asked to swab both nostrils. They make certain that you do a thorough job  . You then place the swab in a tube that they then close and attach your numbered sticker. You then leave the meeting room to go wait in your cabin for 30 minutes.  Easy Peasy.  Very organized and efficient.  Other than this little blip it’s been a wonderful Sea Day as it’s been a wonderful cruise.  Only 900 passengers.  We rarely ever pass anyone in the hallways and have almost never shared an elevator.  

NOTE: Just reread notice. It states that a “screening” test is required, not a “negative” test. We shall see.

Received notice this morning via printed sheet in our “mailbox” outside the door.  They will call passengers by floor to a meeting room where we will self swab for a Covid test.  Then we are to go back to our cabins for 30 minutes while we wait for a phone call with results.  No word on what will happen to those that test positive, or for that matter, to any of us if anyone tests positive.  Will the ship be denied transit if *anyone* tests positive?  Will update as I go though the process.