sushitex

We sailed on the Brilliance of the Seas, also in May - that's a sister ship to the Radiance. We were the closest to the glacier than the ship had been in two years, according to the captain's announcement. This was in Tracy Arm. I chose the Brilliance specifically because of the Radiance-class ships' enormous picture windows, which served us well during this cruise.

Yeah, for awhile, Royal could do no wrong for us...we cruised like crazy during the restart, due to the offers we had been sent during the shutdown. We also took advantage of their double points promotion and now we've been Diamond Plus for awhile. We love the C&A perks, much better than what we receive as Platinum members with Carnival. Those perks are what keeps us cruising with Royal - free drink vouchers, free laundry, free photos, B1G1 free specialty dinners...we are just hoping the flush of new cruisers will settle down so that there may be eventually more casino spots available.

Well over a year ago, our offers from Royal at first dried up completely, but after playing while onboard recently, we are back to getting $100 off discount offers. Our solution to this dearth of offers is to play onboard enough to get an instant reward certificate, then book it ASAP. A lot of people in my Royal Casino FB groups, even signatures and masters (we're Prime) have gone the "instant reward" route to get cruises, because their offers dried up/disappeared as well.

Oops, maybe the rep was referring to 3 each for us, since we’re Diamond +. Thanks for posting the updated list- I hadn’t seen it yet.

Getting those extra bottles of water will make a few less trips to the casino bar, where Prime members can get them for free. With the 5 daily drink vouchers and the free sodas from being Prime, and the extra 6 pack from the amenities list, we’re not going to miss the 2 cans of soda too badly, lol.

I just called C&A because we needed to ensure we will be getting the 6-pack of Coke Zero instead of the Diet Coke, and changed our second amenity to the tote bag. Does anyone here have the tote bag ( can you post a photo, please?) or knows if it will be totally new? We have tote bags won as trivia prizes, don’t know if they are the same thing. Funny -we’re scheduled for a B2B on the Allure starting this Sunday. We may have the old amenities (2 sodas) as part of the welcome gifts for the first cruise, and more water for the one starting March 12. BTW, the rep I spoke with said that each C& A member will receive 3 bottles of water, so I expect to see 6 on March 12. Not a problem for me- I guzzle a lot of water at night, lol.

Last August, we experienced 1-cleaning-a-day for the first time, on a Carnival ship. I didn’t notice any difference in our room as for it being less clean. The room steward gave us a choice between morning and evening cleanings, and because of our breakfast, daily walk and shower schedules, and the fact that I wanted a bucket of ice at night, we chose evenings. The only thing that didn’t work well was that I noticed that, as the week went on, the ice was already melting by the time we returned to the room after dinner or a show. So I think he decided to clean our room sometime in the afternoon. 😒 I am still going to ask for evening service and ice as well on the Royal ships; I just hope that their stewards pay more attention to my requests.

I have yet to sail in the Allure, but we have done several B2B cruises on the Adventure, Liberty and Grandeur, all out of Galveston. As soon as the guest count goes to 0, they can start processing the Back-2-Backers. It usually happens @ 10:00 -10:15. With the new terminal, even this process has been streamlined and shortened to 10 minutes or less, whatever it takes to disembark, go back to the customs camera, and scan the new Seapass card to get back on the ship.

While we aren’t booked on the Allure until February 12th, we’ve munched on tacos and burritos from El Loco Fresh on the Freedom. My favorite is the pork carnitas taco and dh likes the beef burrito. I’m looking forward to enjoying this food again in a few months.

Hubby and I are both Prime in Club Royale and a few months ago, earned instant rewards certificates for interior cabins using the ships' current casino promotion. He convinced me to have us each book our own comped room, side-by-side, for the same cruise. With Club Royale, booking this way gives us the benefit of earning double points per night, without the cost of sailing solo. We cruised as solos for a couple of cruises, and our favorite, of course, was when we booked connecting rooms: 2 bathrooms, 2 tv's, double the storage space, but no having to use the hallway to get to the other room. We also had a change in plans for 2 of these cruises and gave one room to our daughter one time, and just last week on the Liberty, gave "my" room to our son. We always get a second room key when booking 2 rooms, so I just used that key for access to hubby's room. The only extra fees we had to pay, since they were comped rooms, were the port taxes and fees for ourselves (of course) and for our son and daughter when they sailed with us. Since each certificate is good for 2 people, they were our guests. Completely legal and do-able, yay! The only hitch is when more than 1 person is in the room, you lose your solo status, but I truly didn't mind - my son and daughter sailed with us on a cruise 🙂 .

Good luck and Bon Voyage!

Sea Dog, thanks for posting about your Liberty experience. Hubby and I just stepped off the ship on October 16th - we have sailed on her probably for 13 or 14 cruises, but the October 9th cruise was poignant because it was likely our last cruise on her for who knows how long. As most of us know, she’s moving her home port to Ft. Lauderdale at the end of the month, and as Texans, we mostly sail from Galveston. Liberty was our first Royal Caribbean ship - she opened our eyes to the fact that other cruise lines exist besides NCL and Carnival, lol.

Indeed, water IS your friend. My story goes like this: We were staying at home in February 2021 (like most of us here) and hubby and I had received our second in the Moderna series of COVID vaccines. In January, we had received the first, and other than a sore arm, no issues. Different tale this time - after retiring for the night in February, I woke up first with chills, but managed to go back to sleep. Then a few hours later, I had the feverish feeling. I went back to sleep for a few more hours, then woke up again, this time needing a potty break. I should have stayed put, because my head was throbbing. Hubby was already awake but had taken the dog out for his morning walk. I made it to the bathroom, did my business, and the next thing I knew was hubby propping me up against the bathroom vanity, and then I passed out again. When I woke up, we decided to go to an urgent care center. They did a chest x-ray, a CAT scan, and gave me a saline solution - and by that time, I was feeling much better. I did suffer a couple of very minor cuts on my scalp, but no concussions, thank goodness. I think I hit the doorframe of the bathroom door on my way to the floor. And yes, I definitely did not drink much water that evening, dummy that I was. Was it the vaccine? I'll never know for sure, but I now know enough to drink PLENTY of water when dealing with booster shots, getting COVID itself, or any "bug" in general. Case in point: We finally got the bivalent booster shot 2 days ago, and you bet I was drinking water like a dehydrated camel on Wednesday evening. I did wake up in the night for bathroom breaks, but at least I didn't feel dizzy or pass out.

On the newer and/or amped ships, that is. On the Liberty, Adventure (I think), Enchantment and Grandeur, there are Purell dispensers nearby and/or a crewmember spraying Purell directly into your hands, usually while singing "Washy-washy!" and sometimes wearing very colorful outfits, lol. I can't recall her name right now, but there's that famous lady from Jamaica who comes to mind right now. Wish I had a photo of her in her Minnie Mouse getup - very cute! I think I saw her on the Liberty a few months ago.

I'm fairly certain that the Covid I tested positive for on June 24 (after returning from a cruise) was B.A.5, but Walgreen's didn't let me know, lol. - just that the NAAT test was positive. As I wrote in an earlier post, I asked my doctor if/when I should get my second booster shot (I'm overdue.) He said, because I had just recovered from Covid, that I could wait 3 months due to the antibodies I had just gained.

Hubby and I were on a cruise that ended on June19th. In anticipation of our June 20th cruise on a different ship, we took antigen tests on the first ship and both tested negative. However, during the course of the second cruise, I honestly thought I was catching a cold and then we tested again - I was positive, hubby still negative. A few weeks after being at home and testing negative (twice) I happened to ask my doctor if/when he thought that I should get my second booster shot. We are actually overdue, but we had been away from home for quite some time (cruising!) and I wanted his opinion. He stated that I should be okay until 3 months from then because I should have developed some antibodies (or immunity) to get me through to that point in time. I'm hoping that by October, the newer, "up-to-date" Omicron-targeted vaccinations will be available - I'd prefer to have one of those as my booster shot.

Hubby and I have been retired since 2018 and 2017, respectively. We sailed with Royal Caribbean for the first time just over 3 years ago, and discovered after that first cruise that the casino offers comped and discounted cruises to its Prime members. Hubby and I have made good use of those casino offers and most of the time, we stay with the interior cabins. It is absolutely true for us that, most of the time, we hang out in the Schooner Bar or wherever trivia and other games are offered, or go see shows, or stroll around on the decks doing our morning walks or just use our binoculars for "ship spotting." Oh, and "donate" to the casino, of course. In other words, whether we have an inside or balcony cabin, or junior suite, we still are "out and about" far more than we are inside the cabin. Because of the casino cruise offers, and the fact that many of those cruises earned us double points, we were able to cruise quite often since last September, and in the late winter, we reached Diamond+ C&A level. So, we vote "more cruises, interior cabins" because this is what we have been doing since the cruise restart.

It was recommended to me by a fellow cruiser to tour Butchart Gardens (near Victoria, B.C.) so that's what we did during our late May cruise on the Quantum. Yes, we didn't get off the ship until @ 5 pm, but we packed some prepackaged snacks. A good thing we did - none of the restaurants at the Gardens were still open. The Gardens, however, were truly magnificent and there was still plenty of sunlight. The tour also included a stop at the Butterfly Museum. Nice, but the Gardens are the real show. My son-in-law who is into biology, botany and loves to plant things, would have been ecstatic had he been there. Don't miss the Sunken Gardens and Japanese Gardens if you go - spectacular! https://www.butchartgardens.com/

That’s exactly what I did with Splendor - packed up cards, coins ( chips) and copy of instructions in a big slider Ziplock bag. We were on the Grandeur and found some bigger coffee tables and chairs to sit on in one of the decks near the Centrum - think it was deck 6, because the Freestyle machine and the Schooner Bar were both nearby.

We learned how to play Splendor on a cruise ship a few months before Covid, then bought the game and started playing it at home during the cruise shutdown. Last week, our daughter joined us on a cruise and because she also enjoys Splendor, we were able to play the game again while cruising. Our other favorite board games at home are Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan, but we never even considered bringing either game along on a cruise. I made a point of packing up all the Splendor cards, coins, and instructions to bring along, because we enjoy the game THAT MUCH, lol.

Like others have written here, yes, there was more rust that I expected on the Enchantment while we were on her for 21 nights this past April and May. We overlooked that, but it was hard to get over the staff shortages and crowding in places such as the Windjammer during 2 of our 3 cruises on her. During one sea day, for example, we decided to eat lunch there instead of the MDR because the line for the MDR was also long. No empty tables at all inside the Windjammer; we ended up sharing a table with another couple on the pool deck. Some of the wait staff in the MDR also had to double up as bar waiters, so getting a glass of tea refilled often took awhile. We also learned to try to find a seat at least 30 minutes in advance if we wanted to play trivia in the Schooner Bar. I sincerely hope, for the current crew’s sake and sanity, that Royal has been able to hire enough staff to address the service issues by now ( or will soon.)

We are sailing next week as well, to Alaska and Canada. I would think it would be more convenient to have the app on your smartphone or tablet than using the website, but I don’t know if it really matters. You should be able to download the app now and complete the forms for each member of your household up until 72 hours before the time that of embarkation. Once you are within 72 hours, I understand that you can finish putting in details such as the name of your ship. Once that is submitted, you are supposed to receive a QR code. I am going through the same process as you. People in some of my FB groups have been very helpful with pointers. Good luck!

Hmm, that Truffled Grilled Cheese sandwich on the Enchantment must have been made by the same person who made mine when we were there during last week's cruise. Too true: NO CHEESE in the sandwich! I ended up ordering a cheeseburger to supplement that entree (this time, there was cheese, lol.) Strangely enough, I ordered the same entree several months ago on either the Adventure or the Liberty, and there was plenty of cheese. It was delicious. What's worse is that we went to said lunch in the MDR to avoid the large crowds that we had experienced in the WJ the day before. We literally walked through the entire area and found no empty tables, so we ended up taking our plates outside to eat in the pool deck. Well, I had brought pizza with me from the Park Cafe, and that was a wise choice, in my opinion.