Williamsburgcruiser

I believe they are 24/7, but bet staffing has been greatly reduced.

UPDATE.... Testing finally all done. Negative too! Notes... I don't think the proctors really start work until 7am EST. I waited 30 minutes, then started over. Got a proctor right away at 6:30am... got all the way through them trying to scan the QR code on the test, and their cameras wouldn't work. put me on session hold until another proctor could join. Crickets until their system timed out. I tried again after 7am EST, an voila! all worked fine. I will never travel anywhere that requires this testing again.

Trying to test for a bermuda cruise - 2 days out. Got all the way on the emed site to "please hold while we connect you to a telehealth proctor:. How long does it take for the proctor to show up? Been 27 minutes. Thanks!

I'm going to add that I had a very similar experience this year with the OBC rewards. Found that when you are using rewards from 2 separate credit cards - for the same booking - it confuses the staff completely. Add to that shareholder OBC, and time of booking OBC, and they are completely out of their league. In the future, if I am going to redeem points - I'm going to do it completely separately - and definitely a month apart. The hour on the phone to get it fixed was very stressful. Thankfully - I save every receipt that RCI sends me, so I could tell the person EXACTLY what dates each type of OBC got credited to the booking. Good luck!

Opinions please.... I will tip extra when I cruise, if I receive above average service. Would the staff prefer small bills (1s, 5s) or larger (10s, 20s, 50).

I know that Enchantment is a small ship - but they do have shops. I usually buy cosmetics/perfume/liquor on board, as it saves taxes and shipping fees. Sometimes they have nice little sets too, which make great Christmas presents for the kids. Has anyone been recently, is the selection of cosmetics, etc., good?

Have to say that I have done more than one NYE cruise, and would do it again. Just don't sail on NYE, they did formal night, and luggage hadn't arrived in time. We picked another night for our formal. Lots of parties and balloons and a happy time all around.

Went out to order the free tests from the government, to potentially use for our October cruise, and got this: Figured I'd share.

I would definitely call them. I redeemed OBC in mid-July - and 3 days later(!) it was in my cruise planner. That said, 3 weeks ago, I redeemed some more OBC, and still haven't seen it. Figure I'll give them one more week and then I will call. I have called in the past, and they were very good about helping me find the confirmation of the redemption, so they could look it up on their side.

Hi - I'm not sure what discount code would deny the shareholder benefit. We booked onboard, got an OBC of $50 for doing so. Shareholder benefit was still $100 added.. I was pleasantly surprised! I thought it would only be a bump up to the $100 from the $50 - but we got the whole amount. Happy Sailing!

Unless you're going to Bermuda. Doesn't matter the length of the cruise, you must pre-test to get on board the ship. 😭

Just checking if anyone has been to one lately? When we sailed last October, there wasn't one Thanks!

Thank you! When I get the government tests - I'll give Onpoint a try for a "test" (haha) run to make sure it all works the way emed did. $15 is better than buying emed tests for a group.

Unless you're going to Bermuda. Must have a proctored (monitored) test. Anyone have any links to share about turning the free US government provided tests into a monitored test? Please share....

Just another stress factor to add to this trip. Bummer. I know Bermuda is trying to recoup money lost from tourism, but with ships back to full capacity, and Bermuda accepting unvaccinated, the backlog will only grow.

This whole issue is becoming annoying. 1- get rid of the testing. If you are vaccinated, covid should be a bothersome cold. 2- if you want to require people to be vaccinated to get off the ship in your port, fine. Cruise lines know who us and who isn't, so they can police that. Let's be adults. make informed decisions about our travel, and health, and get back to living our lives. My opinion.

The later start times for MTD are probably due to one deck dining is for unvaccinated (families w/kids) and the other deck dining was vaccinated only. That was on Liberty. They didn't start MTD until the early folks started leaving.

Thank you all! I suppose I'd like it if there was an option not to get off the ship - Royal not letting you off the ship - if you did not do the testing, nor got the form. I'd be all on board for that! For any trip! It's confusing - Royal says that non-vaccinated of any age can cruise - but Bermuda says that EVERYONE 12+ must be vaccinated. How's Royal handling that?

I've been keeping my fingers crossed that Bermuda would drop the pre-cruise testing requirements since the cruise lines are doing so. As well as the fully vaccinated status for 12yrs+ If they don't, any chance the cruise lines will drop them as a port? I'd be fine with days at sea. That testing is such an unwanted stress 2 days before.

My fingers have been crossed for months to get rid of the pre cruise testing requirement. I just don't think that Royal will be able to do so until Bermuda gets rid of the testing requirement. Of course I'm all or Royal getting rid of Bermuda as a stop until they get rid of the testing requirement.!

I agree with this completely.... and... if you are a shareholder, I've been lucky that shareholder benefits will increase the OBC up to $100, if what you get booking onboard is not that much. I always book the next year's cruise on the current cruise I'm on. It means a lower deposit, onboard credit, sometimes a "flash" sale, and always the option to get a lower price if there is a sale.

I agree here - you will need to call the cruise rewards desk. BUT! Make sure you have the redemption confirmation number from the royal caribbean site. When I called, the agent walked me through how to see that on the Royal Caribbean site - as it is not the same number as on the BOA site. Good luck!