AlohaLivin

There are also no excursions at all showing for our January 14 cruise. We have been concerned that we would not dock there at all. Another vote for Native Choice - although it was a good bit of a hike from where our ship ported, we had a tour with them that included visiting the ruins and a lunch with a Mayan family. It was one of the best excursions we ever had (the tour guide was a teacher, it was wonderful!).

We asked for them towards the end of our August Explorer cruise and the head waiter brought us a plate nightly from that point on. Some friends we met onboard had a very young child who was happy mouthing the sourdough rolls (it was like some kind of perfect pacifier for that child) and they had a platter of them nightly. They definitely aim to please in the MDR.

Pretty much the same, very bad.

Sorry I missed it 😂

If thinking the bellyflop contest is over it’s usefulness date and may need to be relegated to times passed makes me an old geezer, then oh well I guess that makes me an old geezer (a fairly young one). But, I can’t imagine anyone younger than me thinking it is the best thing ever either. Some things are worth carrying forward and some thing aren’t. It’s a silly thing to to judge someone on either way.

I actually asked the concierge on explorer 2 weeks ago I was just curious what they were doing at this point. There was pretty significant sidestepping of the question, but as best I could tell they are still quarantining covid positive passengers in a specific area of the ship and having them disembark separately from other passengers.

Haha.. so sad (but so true).

Some activities had gotten stale, no doubt. But could they at least bring back the meet and greets? Not like they were spending anything significant on those.

Sounds wonderful! This is such a port-heavy 9 day (plus the prior 5 day as a B2B) that we need a few days just lying around with rum 😂

Great. Thanks so much!

Sounds good. How far away from the port is it?

Did you end up going on the beach express in Antigua? If so, could you tell us which beach it was and if you liked it? Thanks!

@not-enough-cruising I am sure some get through, but agree many don’t. But, we were with the first walk out/suite’s group debarking in Miami recently and as we walked out of the terminal there was a very clear view of the “naughty” table and it was piled to the top with steamers.

The current Concierge for the Suite’s/Concierge Lounge on Explorer is Belkis Agustin and the current Diamond Concierge is Noorina Sreeneebus (there temporarily from the Wonder). These two women are truly astounding and performed near miracles for us on our recent B2B. Does anyone know who might be in the concierge and Diamond lounges on Grandeur in Nov/Dec?

For some vaccinated people the only symptom with the newer variants is a headache, diarrhea, or dulled (not absent) taste (symptoms even those who have it don’t recognize as important until days in). But it certainly has, as you say, little rhyme or reason (which has made it feel a bit like Russian roulette).

Agree with you @BecciBoo. The reserved sections of the venues are not worth it for any cabin type IMHO - we’ve been on large and small ships in the past six months and on all (and all venues) there were plenty of seats available up until very close to showtime. Even the suites/D+/P reserved seating isn’t particularly better than any other place in the theater as I see it (and on most sailings that reserved section was in the balcony area. Plus, that reserved area and is opened to everyone about 15 min before showtime. If you aren’t in a suite/D+/P, it seems the only reason to buy the Key is if it is very, very close to the price of Voom /stream and you intended to get that anyway.

Still $25 each on Grandeur for the first of December 😒

No reservations were needed on our recent Explorer cruise. They were required on our April symphony cruise (but may no longer be there either?)

They were offering them on each of our last few cruises through a Royal (onboard) store. Could be a line, but don’t think you have to go through a timeshare-style routine 😬

You aren’t completely off course. We cruised to Alaska in 2018 and then afterwards spent another 7 days in the Vancouver area. While in Vancouver I had a small rash on my leg, Chalked it up to a southern girl suddenly wearing socks! After returning home I had an earache and went to a local urgent Med (quick dash out from work). She said she was going to test me for strep. I told her I was in my late 50’s and never had strep before (and this wasn’t a severe soreness). She tested me anyway and had the best time giving me my positive strep results (that rash in Vancouver is one that sometimes accompanies strep throat). I said at the time that it was all those Europeans trip germs in Vancouver that finally got me 😳 😂

We disembarked from EX on 8/28 after a B2B. I had a single symptom, seemingly unrelated to Covid, the last day of the cruise (not a typical symptom, but apparently one more common in those vaccinated and boosted per a recent British study). Many days later (still with the single “symptom”) I tested as I always do before visiting elderly relatives and was positive - the faintness of the line made it clear it was waning case. I had gone 2 1/2 years avoiding it, but I guess it was my time. I know of a few crew members who also tested positive during the second leg. Because of how easy it is to get a cold or another virus on a cruise ship we now travel with cold medicine, and so I was more than aware of the high likelihood of getting a virus onboard (especially Covid being so much more contagious than other viruses). I am so thankful that with 4 doses of the vaccine my case was extremely mild.

They used the thick triangle version of French toast in the Coastal kitchen on Symphony and for the chops breakfast on Explorer recently. I asked on Symphony if I could get plain French toast (since their brioche version was super dry), but they did not seem to understand what I wanted (or either could not produce it). I stopped trying to fix the problem and just opted for other options.

We usually do not have any problems with the mattresses on royal, but we are currently on explorer and I feel like I’m sleeping on a hard rock (that’s not in exaggeration). We have a new cruise acquaintance onboard who recently had back surgery and he has had to take a pain pill each morning to cope due to the hard mattress. They no longer have the egg crate variety toppers, but they are putting a comforter as a mattress topper when a topper is requested (at least on Explorer). It isn’t great, but it’s something.

We typically really enjoy coastal kitchen. To be honest when we pay for a full suite we feel that we have already paid for specialty dining (at the coastal kitchen) and we don’t really love paying twice. On back to backs it can be repetitive, but there is usually enough variety that it isn’t a huge problem. Now if when we retire and try a B2B2B2B we may rethink it 😬

Someone said that EMED is the best - I do not agree with that. Emed is fine, we have used it several times, but definitely not better than what we found with Rapid test and trace. With the latter we were able to use our free Covid tests the US govt sent to us, the communication from the assistant was much better, and we were able to do 2 tests at the same time with the same assistant. Plus, when I had a question beforehand, their customer service was fast and helpful. The rep also said that I could get a refund should we have needed to cancel. So definitely another vote for RT&T!