easyqueasy

34 minutes ago, RedIguana said:

Vaccination Requirement

Guests who are not vaccinated will not be permitted to board a transatlantic sailing departing from Europe to the U.S.

 

 

These are the requirements from last August. There have been no changes.

Yes, it’s changed. It specifically says from Europe to US. Now it’s been changed to generic transatlantic, meaning bidirectional. Even people have been told that when called and have been refunded. 

On 12/29/2022 at 6:10 PM, John&LaLa said:

Now in the case of spouses, we have 'relationship' points. That's how I became Pinnacle with only 400 actual points. Doesn't work that way with kids. I currently have 800+ actual points, but the wife has around 1500. 

 

But my C&A status shows I have those same 1500 points

So if you cruised by yourself and added 100 points, then you and your will show 1600 points? And then if she cruised by herself for 100 points would both of you be at 1700 points? Have you observed that? 

5 hours ago, Corvette80 said:

I am also in the same situation right now. No way I am getting (2) cabins with kids ages 5,7,9. I want RCL, no way I want to take them on Carnival

I booked rooms with the 5+ symbol for the first four passengers and then called to add the fifth child passenger. Has worked for me doing that. Click the refundable fare if you aren’t sure. I was told that you can change from refundable to non-refundable (they remove that fee), but not the other way around. At least that room will be held for you should you need to cancel and rebook with the rep.  Even trip protection was removable the rep said, but they could be wrong.

15 minutes ago, Tiggerontheseas said:

 

Exactly, and that’s the updated protocols in the email being sent out.  As previously mentioned, the vaccination requirements have not changed as far as I can tell.  I am booked on a Transatlantic and being fully vaccinated has always been a requirement for my sailing.  I think the OP may be mistaken about what the vaccine requirements were when it was booked.  The protocols are less stringent now, not more.  Yay!

I disagree. The prior vaccine requirement specifically stated transatlantic sailings from Europe and transpacific sailings. After the transpacific sailing season was over, that was dropped from sailings requiring vaccination, but has recently been added back. After the fall transatlantic sailings were completed, they did not drop that from the list, but instead changed it to just say transatlantic sailings. 

1 hour ago, iuki said:

Thank you for the info.  So, 12 and above is considered to be an adult.  I was just curious how that worked.  When we cruise, we don’t want to share our room with anyone. 😂. So I was asking in case my daughter, granddaughter, and the great-grandkids decided to join us on any cruise in the future.

I believe it’s 12 and under are free (for third and on passengers).

10 minutes ago, BND said:

We haven't done ifly but when we did Northstar they did weigh us.

I’ve heard that on the Northstar, one person even 5 pounds over the weight limit was denied while their spouse was over 100 pounds under got on at the time. You’d think they’d average them as it’ll be under the overall weight limit, but they don’t. I guess it’ll be a goal for that person to make weight next time. 

I don’t know if there’s logic to what they charge for refundable fare. I’ve had it at $2 additional for 4 people to $700 on others. It even changes from one mock booking to the next even if just minutes apart for the same trip. 

They  changed times during the March sailing. 

On 12/3/2022 at 12:40 AM, montlee said:

Another FYI for you with teens, you need tied shoes to do the zip lining.  3/4 of the kids on that ship wore CROCS 😃

Does Symphony not provide shoes if you didn’t have the right shoes? Shoes were provided on the Allure if needed. Your pockets also have to be emptied, so probably best to have someone hold your stuff. 

We had departed out to sea for 2 hours when I tested the speed. Unbelievable the amazing difference from same sailing in March.

If you have the Royal app, choose one of the Navigator sailings and look at the dining menu from there. 

Go with the UDP. It’s great on the Navigator with a Hooked Seafood, Chops and Izumi’s. Jamie’s was ok for me. Playmakers has good food also. April could be spring break, so I don’t think too many college kids will pay for specialty dining, and I doubt parents will bring young children, so reservations shouldn’t be a problem. But just make them all once you get onboard. Enjoy the cruise. 

On 11/24/2022 at 1:30 PM, Scoobydobe7 said:

It is required still in Haiti , Honduras and Columbia...We were asked if we had them last week on Odessey (stopped in Labadee) but did mot have to show them.

Isn’t that requirement for those countries pertain to testing and not vaccination?

This has happened to me before after final payment and then making a cruise planner purchase. They couldn’t fix it the first time I called and they said it’d be fix next week. Next week came and it still wasn’t fixed so they said give it another week, but it was fixed about three days after when I checked online. Hope yours is fixed quickly.

23 minutes ago, topnole said:

So in the spirit of people learning, this is the policy for TA departing from Europe (as of now) as I understand it.  What about TAs to Europe leaving from the US?  Is it the same or is that different?   I read what was posted/link here and it seemed to only specify TAs leaving from Europe.  
 

There were vaccine requirements for both transpacific and transatlantic sailings this fall. After the transpacific sailings were done, Royal took that requirement off it’s website but left transatlantic on since there are more sailings. It’ll probably be gone after the transatlantic sailings this year, hopefully. It was harder on families since they changed  the required age to be vaccinated from 12 years to 5 years at the last moment before the ocean crossings started.  Even the people on the ships don’t know when requirements are changed.  I’ve experienced that several times on the ships. You’d think that’d be communicated fleet wide when policies change. 

That’s a great price for dinner if $30. Dinner is usually the expensive one  of the two (those prices you posted looked reversed) so if pricing error book it quick! It’s delicious, especially with the UDP. It’s $21 US For lunch and $54 for dinner for my next cruise.

Refundable tickets are good depending on your circumstances and costs. I’ve seen it for free (during COVID restarts), but recently it’s been between $12 to $700 extra for the option, so you have you to decide what’s good for you. You can cancel before final payment (more than 90 days or 75 days out depending on length of sailing) and get your full deposit (or full payment if you’ve paid up) back. Another option is to buy travel insurance from Royal or an outside agency. With Royal’s you get full money back if it meets their requirement, or you get 90% of cost to be applied to future cruise if canceled after final payment for other reasons.  The agent I talked to said I can choose to drop travel insurance outside final payment if I wanted, but I don’t know if that’s correct. Also with refundable fare, you can reprice to non-refundable in the future if cheaper, but it does not work the other way. As for changing guest, you can change out a guest if you want to someone else, but one of the two original passengers has to remain. That’s my understanding anyway. 

What has been the standard, if any, following changes from other cruise lines? The text below is from Norwegian:

Destination specific requirements will still need to be met. 
For specific country requirements, please visit Cruise Travel Requirements by Country.

It’s official now effective October 1. No vaccine requirement to enter the country, no ArriveCan, no masking on planes and no test needed to board cruise ships.

1 hour ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

And you can turn the tv screen towards the bed so lots of access room.

53 minutes ago, LATTELOVE said:

Agreed.

As much money we are paying to cruise

on Royal Caribbean specially on holiday cruises, 

something has to change. We have noticed the same

on the past 2 previous cruises. The selection and quality of

the food has gone down.

We were following one of the blogs for NCL Bliss, a few weeks ago.

It opened up our eyes as far as the food goes.  The quality, variety

and presentation of the food on Bliss were superb.  

It's time for Royal Caribbean to stop going on the cheap

and do a remake of their menus. It can be done.

Other cruise lines are doing it and so can they.

 

 

Probably easier for you to jump ship (not being snarky).  We just got off the Allure and the food was fine for us. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Our head waiter said Royal has $28M of food waste per year so I can see why they’re limiting choices.

I withdrew $20 of $100 OBC because I wasn’t sure if I was taking the money out or adding more money to gamble and it worked. Problem is when I went back hours later to withdraw the rest, it didn’t give me the option. Even 24 hours later it still doesn’t work. Am I doing something wrong or is this a one time only deal?

6 night Allure has it.

On right now and it’s bottles.

I’ve, along with lots of other men, dined in the MDR in a t-shirt and shorts on formal nights back in March. So yes, it’s no longer an expectation.