DrD

2 hours ago, cyntil8ing said:

Had we not had passports, my husband and the kids would likely have stayed on board, while I disembarked with Dad. 

Maybe I won't get a passport then 😉

17 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Because THEY. ARE. NOT. NEEDED.  Some people don't like spending money they don't need to.  

 

For the OP... what are you anxious about?  That you won't be allowed to board?  Assuming they are state issued, official birth certificates, you're fine.  

 

If you're anxious about something happening during the cruise and you'll need to fly back from another country, then you might be better with passports.  BUT, keep in mind the lead time to get passports (you don't say when your cruise is).  

Neither is a cruise.  But the OP said she's anxious, so maybe for her it would be worth the money.

Never ever get included air. Ever.  

On 7/30/2021 at 11:58 AM, steamboats said:

 

I´ve never heard that Viking river is doing a daily test. This is done by Viking ocean cruises where they do have PCR machines onboard for daily tests. A river cruise ship usually does not even have a doctor or nurse onboard.

 

steamboats

True but they are never far from a land-based lab.  

On 8/13/2021 at 12:13 PM, mlbcruiser said:

 Avy Cruiser, I think it was the day after we canceled last week that I received an email from Viking. They very highly recommended getting a test for Covid within 72 hours of leaving the US simply because requirements keep changing quickly. Otherwise no, you don’t need a test when leaving the US. You do need one returning to the US, however. Viking requires a saliva test each day you are on their ship.If you are planning to stay on land for a few days after your cruise, since Viking will supply a Covid test to disembark, you must be sure to depart within three calendar days of disembarking. Otherwise you will need to get your own test to fly back to the US. I don’t know if Viking charges for those tests or not. I do know that when we were in Mexico in April, our resort provided a test for free. Perhaps someone else knows that answer or you can call Viking or ask your TA to find out. 

Thinking about the logistics here, it seems difficult to get the results in time.  Example I'm leaving Friday and arriving Saturday, so the soonest I could get tested would be Wednesday, which means a 48 hour turn around to have results before I fly.  Most testing centers advertise 2-4 days turn around time.  

What are people doing?

What about the other direction?  We have a 2-day extension in Budapest next month, will that be an issue?  Arriving on Viking Danube.

4 hours ago, mek said:

Princess sent an e-mail to me this morning outlining their plans; however it was disturbing to me that certain things didin't seem to be required - just highly suggested, like washing hands and using sanitizer.

Suggested, like dressing up on formal night?

Soon there will be threads on "why should I wash my hands, it's my vacation!"

20 minutes ago, rtazz17 said:

the hysteria and misinformation is crazy here. This is not going away in 3,4,5,6 months. The answer is not closing schools etc. Are you prepared to keep closing everything for another 5 months? How many people will lose their jobs and be on the street? How many businesses will go bankrupt? Think of the domino effect. You may lose your house in this domino effect. The real answer is we will need to change the way we interact. We will need to keep distance. Common sense practices. You cant close everything and think this is the answer. Do you ever want to cruise again? Close cruiselines for 3 months see how many are left at the end of that. School closings are the most rediculous of all of this. Kids dont get it and no they are not carriers of it. Data shows that. The inaccurate misinformation posted on here adds to the hysteria. Find the facts. Use common sense. Seek the truth. Touching your face doesnt infect yourself. Data proves that. The entryway is respiratory. Most people can easily fight off this virus. Compromised immune systems may not. (Just like every virus) . Avoid huge crowds. Go ahead and flame me but if 1/2 the things people on this forum think should happen you will end up without a job and a place to live. Nevermind a cruiseline to cruise with. For the record im a career fireman/paramedic dealing with flulike symtoms of strangers 48 hours a week. Not a bit scared of getting this virus. If I do,ill recover. Peace

With all due respect, you are not an infectious disease expert or epidemiologist.  Neither am I, but I can read their recommendations.

According to these experts, the idea is to slow the spread of the virus so that the curve of infections is flatter.  This way a large peak will not exceed the capacity of the health care system.  So the measures are temporary even though the virus will be here for a long time.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.  I am a physician who has also cared for many patients with viral infections, but I know enough to know that I will leave this response to the experts.  

My recent survey asked me specifically if anyone had solicited a good review, and if I had answered yes it wanted to know their position.

I attended a conference once and during a talk about surveys I learned that on a 5-point scale only a 5/5 is associated with brand loyalty and recommending that brand to others. Those who put a 4/5, even though it sounds good to most of us, are actually just as likely to choose a competitor for their next vacation.

This is why managers only want top scores, BUT, it's not clear that top scores that are given out of sympathy or are otherwise solicited mean anything. The studies that got these data only looked at spontaneous scores. But for true scores, anything less than perfect is a fail.

Even though we are super excited for the Symphony transatlantic cruise, I am disappointed that they chose Hairspray for entertainment. In my opinion and for a new ship, select a winner - mama Mia, Chicago, Saturday night fever, grease or the show that they have on anthem. All so much better (in my opinion) than cats or hairspray.

Well those shows must be great because we loved Hairspray, even my teens boys liked it after I forced them to go.

Yeah that's the one I was referring to outside MDR on 5.

See my previous post for details, we boarded before 11am. Easiest ever in 15 or so cruises.

There's a lot of chat here on these boards I have never heard of "points" "genie" "coastal kitchen"? If it was not for these boards how does one discover everything? Secret restaurants and bars just for certain customers? Very confusing ?

All dining venues are described on the RCCL website. Also on the app.

Your daily cruise compass will list all venues as well, along with any restrictions, hours, and notation of additional fee if any.

When we were talking with the Loyalty Ambassador she said there were over 4,000 Spanish as it was the start of their holidays.

 

Thinking about it now, I’m guessing the captain was missing a zero for the number of Spanish cruisers, that would make it 4,000 and something instead of four hundred and something and would make more sense in terms of how many people cheered whenever a question was asked in Spanish [emoji16]

 

 

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Yeah that was my impression, very many people were speaking Spanish. I'd have guessed half or more.

did you use any kind of texting to keep in touch with the family? In La Spazia what was the earliest you could leave the ship, and did you have to take a shuttle to get out of the port. We have a private driver picking us up.

We had Voom and used that to text each other.

One thing I forgot to mention is that although we only had the 2-device package, we were always able to use 3 devices without any signing out.

I did have an international data plan through AT&T and it's possible I was using that without knowing, but it was definitely through ship's wifi as I had my cellular turned off. I have no idea if one can access an international data plan through ship's wifi. I will have to find out as the $10/day that AT&T charges is a lot cheaper than voom.

In La Spezia we did a RCCL tour and went off as a group so I can't answer that, sorry.

Thanks for your review! As you know, we were onboard with you [emoji16] and it’s just so interesting how people can have such different experiences and different opinions on the same things, though we too loved the cruise and had an amazing time [emoji4].

 

They did announce the taxi strike on the morning show a couple of days before Barcelona and they put a piece of paper informing about it in our state room the day before Barcelona with all of the options available, including a free shuttle bus they were providing to Las Ramblas. They also went over all of the options on the morning show the day before Barcelona.

 

The make up of the cruisers was quite interesting! The captain said who were the top six countries onboard. The majority were Americans, with a thousand and something. Second place were Brits, also a thousand and something. Third were Spanish, with four hundred and something. Fourth were Israelis!! (That’s us [emoji28], we were shocked!!) at 395. Fifth were Canadians, with two hundred and something, and sixth were Norwegians, with I don’t remember how many, I think also in the two hundreds.

 

 

 

 

Yes, I think he’s leaving in September. He’s fantastic!!!!!!

 

 

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Thanks, we never watch the morning show (or TV in general.) Maybe we should. We definitely didn't get that paper as I carefully look at everything left in cabin.

I'd have guessed more Spanish based on how many people I heard speaking Spanish, it seemed about half to me. Also all the announcements etc were in English and Spanish.

Love your review!

 

Is Michele still the cruise director?

Yes.

 

is there anyone watching the card room? or is the luggage there unsupervised?

 

.

 

There were staff there.

Hi, my teen boys and I boarded Symphony in Rome (Civatevecchia) 7/26. Here's a brief review, organized by topic rather than chronological.

Executive summary:

Great cruise! Great ship!

Review:

We have cruised many times, our first Oasis class was last year and we really like the bigger ships. We had a JS for the first time. We were on deck 6 port side just forward of the aft lobby (on the first hump)

Cabin was great, the walk in closet was very useful as a private changing area in addition to bathroom. One could be in shower and another changing in closet. The sofa bed was fine, pretty much the same size as single beds.

The ship is beautiful and shiny new. Lots of art and some cool interactive art.

Food as always was amazing. We always do traditional second seating, and as usual this worked out very well. It's nice staying by pool at 7pm when everyone else is at dinner. Also having late seating (8:45) makes it much ore feasible to get a 4th meal in! We usually went to Windjammer at 5:30 for "first dinner" and could still eat second dinner at 8:45 easily. There's not much to eat late but eating dinner at 8:45 meant we were never that hungry before bed (although we did often manage a slice of pizza!)

All the food was great, we didn't have anything we didn't like. We are diverse eaters and had duck, beef, lamb, fish, escargot, and it was all perfect.

Service was outstanding. My assistant waiter constantly refilled my wine glass without me asking, it was actually kind of dangerous (I had the drink package.) They now have bread waiting at table rather than coming around and serving it, which makes much sense to me as it frees them up for other things. Plus if you're hungry you can dig into the bread immediately.

Second seating traditional is also a lot more formal, everyone we could see was dressed at least in jacket and tie and there were several tuxes. Only a few people on another deck (we were right up against railing) could be seen in t shirts and shorts. (My son noticed them and was quite taken aback, good for him.) So if you like dressing consider second seating traditional dining.

It seems to me that the key to a good MDR experience is to show up on time, a table near us was always 10 minutes late and I heard them complain about service and food temperature. There is a rhythm to the service and if you're off by a beat your results may be sub-optimal.

I'm still a huge fan of second seating traditional dining and highly recommend it.

We ate once in coastal kitchen, it was great but not really much better that MDR. We were allowed to eat there because of our JS but our cards did not open door so we had to knock. It felt like a speakeasy.

We ate in Hooked once, also quite good but not sure if it is worth the money. The service was great and the waiter came over and did some tricks/brainteasers with my boys.

We loved El Loco Fresh, a great addition. The burritos were awesome with chunks of beef rather than ground beef.

There were more ice cream machines than on Oasis and never a line.

Windjammer was awesome as always, I don't get people who complain there is "nothing to eat." It does get a bit monotonous for breakfast though but we didn't go there too often for that, we usually just had room service continental or a quick danish from cafe. Service was great with waiters walking around with trays of beverages and offering to get you bar drinks or coffee. Plates were cleared almost instantly.

With this new ship they have taken hand hygiene up a level. Rather than a sanitizer station there are about 10 sinks at the entrance to buffet and you wash your hands with soap and water. All public bathrooms have automatic doors activated by waving your hand by a sensor.

One thing I really liked that was different from last year on Oasis is no more paper receipts for drinks with the drink package. Before you sometimes got them and sometimes not.

We got Wow bands when we checked in, I guess they are included in JS. I wouldn't buy one but I did find them quite useful. It solves the old problem of how to open cabin door with a plate of food and/or a drink. You can use them at bars but they only have so many scanners so unless you want to awkwardly squeeze between people you wind up taking it off and handing to bartender. I found myself just using my seapass card at the bars usually.

Speaking of bar service was great and I never had to wait but a second or so. Once I counted 8 bartenders at the pool bar!

I'm not a big show person but I did really like Hairspray, it seemed Broadway caliber and certainly there was a long, enthusiastic standing ovation at the end of it. Flight was ok but I thought it strange they listed the "first man" this and "first woman that" and when they listed the only non-American (Yuri Gargarin) they said "first human in space." I'm sure it's not deliberate but it was weird. There was a magic show that was good also. The aqua show was great as always. We skipped the ice show.

There is a lot more I could say but I'll keep it brief. There were very few negatives, most of which had to do with passengers rather than RCCL.

Many people talked during shows, why? LOTS of kids, although usually well-behaved.

Ping-pong tables were hogged by a few small groups, I had to basically kick someone off after they finished a game (they were going to play another one) so my son and I could play. I would like a sign or something stating that if people are waiting you get one 21-point game. It was very hard to get a table.

There was a taxi strike in Barcelona and I feel RCCL should have told us ahead of time, as happened on NCL Epic per some folks on our tour. It's possible they did and I missed it but unlikely. Since we did not know we were almost late for our tour.

This was a very European crowd, mostly Spanish (as one would expect.) If you like night life you will be thrilled as the promenade was hopping even at midnight (the latest I stay up.) People were having a blast. I'm not a big nightlife person but luckily we could not hear anything in our cabin despite being fairly close.

Let's see, what else? Deck chairs were few on the one sea day, but we had no problem finding one in our "secret spot" - by mini golf. Embarkation was the smoothest and quickest ever, there is a more full discussion in another thread.

My boys were not interested in teen club so I cannot comment on that.

This was our first Med cruise and it was a very nice change from the Carib. Although we only had one sea day we did not feel too busy. We had 2 all-day tours and 2 shorter ones. I think late seating dinner helps as you can relax on ship for several hours between tour and dinner.

So overall 10/10. I'm pretty easy to please but I do feel that each cruise on RCCL is better than the last, and the trend continues. It seems they put more effort into the newer ships in terms of crew and service in general. Of course they also charge more. It was worth it for me.

We didn’t care for the jogging track on the oasis. A lot of it was under cover with no view. We will no longer cruise on any ship that doesn’t have a promenade deck! Loved loved loved the jewel!

For serious exercise it's much better than the topside track on Freedom class which is small, crowded (with non-exercisers,) windy, and blocked by deck chairs.

And under cover means no sun and much less windy when underway.

For me it's much more usable, if less pleasant.

When I enquired about the "stay awhile" program in Civitavecchia I was told that you had to leave the ship 90 mins before she sailed. As sail away is 8pm that means you could stay till 6.30 pm. Can anyone clarify this for me please as I have arranged pick up to the airport and might have to change my plans.

We got a paper detailing the plan and it specifically said we had to be off by 3pm.

 

 

Yeah, the phone reps are really bad...I called to ask about the Stay Awhile option. He had no idea what I was talking about and then was confused about the interporting, so he just said it wasn’t being offered (it was...).

 

I’m sorry, I can’t help with the dining package because we weren’t interested so I wasn’t paying attention. I know they had guys set up on the first day (in Civi) selling drink packages, so I assume they were selling dining packages as well. But you can post a thread to ask, I’m sure others will be more helpful [emoji4].

 

 

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We did the stay awhile. Details:

 

Leave cabin by 9am

You get a different luggage tag, or you can still keep your luggage and carry off yourself (we did this, too depressing to pack the last night. Much better to pack in am)

You can store carry-ons and luggage (if you didn't put out the night before) in card room on 14

You get a bracelet to wear so they know you are legit

You can use all services except drink package (and voom cut off at noon)

You can stay until 3pm, we left at 2 and walked right off. No customs or anything in port, we just walked right to parking lot and our ride.

We used Civitavecchia Cab Service. They were absolutely fantastic! We chose the shared shuttle option. It was a total of 65 Euros for both of us (DH and I). We ended up having our own private shuttle to the port and then a shared shuttle with two women going to the same hotel as us on the way back. Both drivers arrived early, were very friendly and spoke English.

 

 

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We used Bob’s limo. For our group of 3 it was 139 euro each way. Driver early each time.

What kind of cruise was this? Most people embarked in Barcelona, then 1200 people embarked in Civitavecchia?

 

Having embarked and disembarked in Civitavecchia, it's a huge tent, not a cruise terminal. I can't imagine embarking 6700 people there, let along disembarking that number there.

It's called interporting.

The Western Med itinerary on Symphony can be boarded in Barcelona or Rome (Civitavecchia.) By far the most people board in Barcelona. We boarded in Civ on Thursday 7/26. Obviously you disembark in the same port a week later.

There is now a full terminal building in Civatavecchia.

I also boarded that day and agree 100%. We spent 3 nights in Rome before cruise and 2 nights after. Lots to do!

I also enjoyed staying at pool with drink on Sunday when everyone else went to muster.

We did the stay awhile option and that also was great. We stayed on until 2. I finally got to win a prize in a game show as my boys and I were the only ones playing on last day. We were able to store luggage in card room. When we left we were off in 2 minutes.