Qchell

I saw where someone said that a photocopy of the BC would be sufficient. I would caution against that. I have seen where folks said they had no issues using a photocopy and others that weren't able to cruise because they did not have the original. If you don't get the passport back in time, I would make sure you have an actual state issued BC. If you don't know if hers is, you can always request a new one directly from her state of birth. I had to get a new one from FL a number of years ago and I think it cost about $15 and took about two weeks to get.

I would strongly suggest you visit Carnival's website before your next cruise. If you go to the top of the page there is a link to their Covid policies. It is labeled "Have fun. Be Safe." The protocols for boarding and the requirements for the various ports have changed constantly from the restart and are still changing regularly. The most up-to-date information can be found on the website at the time of your cruise. I would be careful asking what the current policies are on any social forum as the information you receive could be dead on today, and completely wrong tomorrow. If you read the website and are still uncertain, call Carnival for the current policy. I would hate for anyone's cruise to be ruined because they were unknowingly following last week's policy.

We cruised a few months ago and I honestly prefer having the keys in our mailbox. We finally smartened up during the pandemic and got our passports. We boarded with nothing more than our boarding pass, passport, and phone (Verifly app) in our hands. We barely had to stop at each station as we worked our way through the check-in process. The longest pause (other than security - which was still fairly quick) was at the passport station as we did not realize we had needed to sign our passports. While I never had issues with the amount of time it took before they started leaving your keys with your room, it is even better now. I also had no problems purchasing a drink with the boarding pass, a quick scan and I had my drink in hand! It also worked perfectly for the muster drill (which is SOO much nicer now). They gave us the demo, scanned our boarding pass, and we were back to the fun!

Thank you for sharing that!! John Heald had mentioned a few weeks ago that the ships would have Halloween activities all month and more info would be coming. I haven't seen anything yet. We are sailing in October for the first time (our cruises are usually mid-winter or spring) and I was very excited to learn that they would be celebrating Halloween all month.

Go to the Carnival website and click on the Have Fun, Be Safe link. Under FAQ's, about half way down the page, you will see a section about self tests. It has links that you can order your test to be mailed to your house. (Do not open the test until you are told to.) It's really easy, no appointment necessary. Sit down in front of the computer when you are ready to do your test, log in, a proctor comes up, verifies you (need ID) and your test. Walks you through the test. Leave it on your desk for 15 minutes and go about whatever else you need to do. Come back when the time is up, the proctor logs back in, verifies the result and emails it to you. All done! If you have not used it, I highly recommend the Verifly app. You upload vaccination and test results while you are at home. A green box shows up around your picture once you are good to go and then you will spend less than a minute at the station that verifies your test/vaccination status. (I do recommend paper backups just in case the app is having issues.) The testing is an extra step, but it can be done fairly easily with the right tools.

The other cruise lines may also sit back and let RC give it a try for a little bit to see how things are working out. The biggest question I have wondered about is how many people over the past 6 months have had to cancel their cruise because of a positive test. If very few have had to, maybe the testing requirement doesn't really matter much. If a decent amount have, maybe the cruise lines due need to keep it around for a little while. Personally I did not find the testing to be all that disruptive to my vacation. The test came to my mailbox. I was able to log in at my leisure, no appointment needed, took the test, waited the 15 min, got back in front of the computer, the proctor confirmed my results and emailed them to me, I uploaded the results to Verifly, and a green box lit up around my picture. My DH and I then spent about a minute at the station to verify testing and vaccination status. It was also nice to know that we did not have Covid. 🙂

I was listening to a podcast just this morning by a gentleman who sails exclusively with RCL. It was a replay of a live Q&A he had recently done. I cannot tell you the amount of times he emphasized that RCL does not enforce the dress code in response to various questions. So I have a feeling that you may have lucked out on your previous cruise and people just followed the dress code. We tend to sail almost exclusively when school is in session specifically to avoid the children and spend time in locations where there are little to no children (Serenity deck, Cloud 9 Spa, nicer bars, etc.). We always enjoy our cruises greatly! If you try Carnival again I hope you have a far better experience. P.S. I totally agree that Verifly app made things so much smoother. We spent maybe a minute at the station to verify vaccination and testing status and we were on our way!

We applied for ours just before Christmas and had them back in less than 30 days and it said 8-11 weeks at that time. With so many people traveling right now, and I am sure applying, it could take longer than ours did. Do be aware that they will take your actual birth certificate with the application. (They do mail it back to you.) So if you are applying close to your cruise date you may want to contact the vital records department where you were born and get a back up certified birth certificate just in case. P.S. We've cruised for over a decade just on birth certificates, took our first cruise a last month with a passport, it was SO much nicer!