ARandomTraveler

How big is this water park? Are there lots of inner tube rides or is it just a few inner tube rides and a bunch of slides and pools? Are the rides/slides fun for "older" kids and middle aged adults, or is it more fun for families who have kids under the age of 15? Are the lines long like Disney where you may only be able to try 4 or 5 things in a day, or can a person expect to access all the rides/slides they want to ride during their stay? At $133/person, the price has never gone up or down during any of my cruise planner sales, so I assume that price is what it is. Is it worth it? How does it compare to the Disney World water parks in terms of size and rides? We've been to Blizzard Beach and had fun but weren't that impressed and wouldn't go again, so if it's similar to that, I'll avoid. But if it's better, I might try it because my kid mentioned it in a way that made me realize I may have written it off without fully considering that she might find it fun.

Is Italy allowing US residents to fly into Italy without testing? I'm flying there in a couple weeks and was told last week that I still needed a covid test. I've been looking online for the last 15 min trying to figure out the most updated info through my airline and it keeps sending me to a site written in Italian. Edit: Finally found the info. Not sure why I was told I needed a covid test last week because it appears covid testing hasn't been required since the end of June. https://www.esteri.it/en/ministero/normativaonline/focus-cittadini-italiani-in-rientro-dall-estero-e-cittadini-stranieri-in-italia/

Can you get independent travel insurance (meaning, not through Royal Caribbean) for everyone except your mom, and then get the royal Caribbean insurance for your mom only? I always buy independent insurance, but from what I hear, royal's insurance doesn't discriminate based on age like independent insurance does.

That would have been the first thing I thought of, and it would have immediately nixed the idea of sharing a room, or even a wall. But that's just me. I realize a lot of people don't share those activities with their significant others very often, and could go a week without worrying about it.

Not to mention the sound barrier at night. Who wants to risk sharing bedroom activity sounds with your family? Yuck.

I would book it, and pay the $200 for refundable. Don't look at it as paying $200 to get back $400, look at it as paying $400 to get your cash back. You're paying for flexibility and options. I don't think of the refundable option as being more money, I look at it as the regular price, and I think of the non-refundable option as a special discount with penalties attached to it. If RC listed the refundable price as the main price, and then listed the non-refundable as the discount option you could select at the end after reading the terms and conditions, I think less people would probably book non refundable. They're smart in doing it the opposite way, because most people look at the refundable option as an up-charge and don't want to pay it, and RC is getting to keep a lot more money that way. Also, is $200 really life changing money in the scheme of things?

Here's an article about hair dryers (similar to straighteners because they're heat producing), and explains watts and volts and plugs etc. I came across it while trying to figure out if my Dyson hair dryer would function in Europe. https://www.rvandplaya.com/how-many-amps-does-a-hair-dryer-use/

I see your point, but also, people are willing to pay full price to board a full ship knowing full well they might catch covid and end up on deck 3 eating room service out of a soup cup. There used to be a policy about being refunded if that happened to you, or getting on board credit or some such things, but those concessions have slowly been whittled away, and people are still booking cruises. Personally, I bought private insurance that covers all possible scenarios that I might care about in the event covid affects my trip. I'm also willing to risk losing part of my vacation, and part of my money, for anything that isn't covered. I just don't understand going on these vacations and then being surprised that covid might alter plans and then expect to get paid money when there's no written policy saying they'd get anything for the inconvenience, and they also didn't buy insurance. That being said, I don't completely fault the OP for making an attempt to see if they can use someone else's circumstance as a way to argue their own case and get more money. However, I think it's a bit entitled and a waste of time.

I saw that they mentioned that after my post, I'm not sure why they didn't mention it in their original post as it seems pretty pertinent to the situation. In that case I would have been pretty adamant that I get very clear written documentation of who was going to be compensated, and how that would be handled, before leaving the ship. Just because an employee says one thing doesn't make it true, and there's no proof the employee even said it, since it was never put into writing. That's just common sense. I think that everyone is taking a risk cruising during covid times, knowing full well that vacations might be altered or ruined if someone catches covid. The fact that people go into it without travel insurance that will cover any disappointments and then complain about it later seems entitled to me. Why book a cruise that offered no written assurance before booking that you'd be refunded if that was going to be important? And why leave the ship with a piece of paper that wasn't clear and that didn't list names of guests it applied to? I would accept that only if I didn't care about the refund, which this poster clearly does care about. Sounds like this person probably wasn't fully prepared to take a vacation during covid times.

Why would they refund part of everyone else's cruise fare just because one person was quarantined? That doesn't even make sense. If someone told me that was the case, I guess I'd hope for some additional refund as a surprise but would never expect to actually receive it. But if I cared about making sure I did, I would get it in writing immediately. Now that you're off the ship and the only thing you have in writing appears to make sense only for the person who was quarantined and lost part of their vacation, I wouldn't even bother trying to take this up with RC, let it go, you're not owed anything and shouldn't expect it, given you got the vacation you paid for. PS - there is insurance that provides you money if you or one of your traveling party is quarantined during the vacation. If having one of your party quarantined was going to ruin the vacation for the rest of you, you probably should have bought the insurance.

This isn't true. I've gotten 5 price drops and I booked after March. My final payment date isn't until the end of this month. Call again tomorrow.

Can't you just get a price drop if you're before final payment?

I'm sorry but, a 29 year old is "young enough to sleep anywhere?" 😂 He's a grown a$$ man. If my parents invited me on a family vacation at 29 and told me I was sleeping on a couch I would have paid for myself to have my own room. That sentence made me laugh when I read it because I was expecting to see the "kids" ages be much, much younger than they were 😂.

I hope not, I love sailing out of Puerto Rico in summertime.

I paid $207.99 for 7-night thanksgiving cruise. $306 is a lot for just 2 extra nights. I would think there'd be less people booking the specialty restaurants on holiday cruises because more people are traveling in big groups who want to eat together, and that would require everyone in the group to buy the dining package. I can see that making it so less people buy UDP for holiday cruises. But who knows. I've never done either (holiday cruise or UDP)so we'll see.

My insurance policy has a section about this type of thing and I believe you just need a newspaper article showing the fires and air quality dated on the date you interrupted. You can look for that online with a local Alaska newspaper. Read through the policy to make sure, cause they're all different, but that might be all you need.

Can you make reservations at 2 places in the same day? Like a 5:30pm dinner and an 8:30pm dinner somewhere else?

People have also said you can do it before you board, as long as you're in the terminal, like when you're in line waiting to check in, and close enough to the ship to connect to their Wi-Fi.

Yes we were able to do that

I have aluminum luggage, I've never had it damaged on a cruise ship but every time I travel by air there's a brand new dent in it. It's like the baggage handlers see my luggage coming and purposely throw it to see if they can dent it. This is the downside of aluminum luggage (it's also very heavy). The plus side is that no matter how hard they throw it or how big the dent is on the outside, the contents on the inside are completely unscathed. If you want to make sure the contents inside the luggage won't break and won't get wet, go aluminum, just know the outside of your $1,000+ luggage will look like crap after the first use, and it weighs about 17lbs unpacked.

That's a tough one cause they're kids, but also, everyone knows this is a risk when we book cruises right now. Whoever gets sick gets left behind, or everyone agrees that nobody will go. That should have been discussed and understood when you booked.

I'm surprised so many people are booking cruises without buying travel insurance that covers this exact thing. My travel insurance gives me 100% cash back if me or anyone in my travel party tests positive for covid and can't sail. It cost me under $200 and the peace of mind is worth it.

Good idea. My travel insurance contains a clause that refunds everyone's money 100% in this circumstance. The other idea of having the mom stay behind with the baby is a good idea. I can't believe she's not insisting her family go without her. I would.

That association is headquartered right up the street from my house. Might be why I'm such a beer snob 🤔

No real craft beer enthusiast is eating at a TGIFridays (I joke, I joke...kinda) 😂