doppelganger2621

Honestly the biggest question to me is—will they change onboard quarantine policies or not? Because it makes little sense to relax these rules without changing the COVID quarantine policies 

Literally no one knows

I haven’t done either but I think Central Park’s tranquility and lighting would be a really cool vibe at night

We nabbed a tree spot at a Chill Island a few weeks ago and it was literally perfect

I didn’t notice at anytime the volume was too loud—even on the pool deck with the live band. 

40 minutes ago, topnole said:

9 of us in our group in May.  No issues with delaminating.   Maybe if they get wet or sunscreen on them?   

I got sunscreen on mine at Cococay and the ink came right off. No issues reboarding though. GS printed me a new one in like 10 seconds

50 minutes ago, orville99 said:

They have both the bar code and the mag stripe, but I believe that they also have the imbedded RFID chip. If I remember correctly from our last Allure cruise in October, the bartenders held them on the chip reader when we purchased drinks - but then I was drinking at the time so my memory may be a bit fuzzy about that.🍹🍹

 

When in doubt, ask GS to punch your cards for lanyards, because they know where the chip (if there is one) is located.

I can only say what I experienced two weeks on ago on Allure. Everytime I got a drink my card was swiped, not inserted in a chip reader

Barcode/Magnetic stripe

6 hours ago, smogfarmgirl said:

That is terrible, horrible news. Going on our first cruise in September, but I run an online business and have to be able to check in with customers, e-mail orders, handle issues while on board. I would never have booked if I knew the internet was unusable. I don’t need to stream video, etc, but need to have a decent WiFi connection for the basics. I don’t have the luxury of a week unplugged. 

I was on Allure last week and I didn’t find it to be that bad. I would definitely spend the money on the Voom Surf + Stream if you must have the internet, but I didn’t find it to be unusable. It will be slower than what you’re accustomed to, and you may find there are certain times/areas of the ship that are better than others. 

35 minutes ago, the_dylaness said:

Uh oh... sounds like a happy daughter and a disappointed, just shy of the limit son. Next time. Thank you!

If they meet the height requirement they weigh with the equipment on. My son is exactly 75 lbs fully clothed but with the equipment on he was 80

Frozen Blue Hawaiian

There should be a card room on board that has board games. We were on Allure and they had monopoly, scrabble, dominoes, cards, chess, and checkers

They make you take everything out of your pockets on the zipline so I can’t imagine they allow GoPros, but maybe I’m wrong. There was no option to get a recording of your zipline.

Hyatt Place Cruise Port had a shuttle but honestly it’s cheaper to Uber. It was $9/pp to use the shuttle but our Uber total was $8

5 hours ago, firefly333 said:

 Arent we supposed to be worried about global warming, not more ice in the water? 

How do you think the water gets more ice in it? It’s because the glaciers are melting and breaking apart—hence the ice is ending up in the water.

On 6/30/2022 at 8:24 AM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I don't know. We were on 8, and after the staff visit to assess - we heard them talking about their symptoms, we didn't see our neighbors for the rest of the cruise. I don't know if they had to move or quarantined in place.

We also didn't ask anyone.

I started feeling kind of "funny" on disembarkation day and developed symptoms the next day, so we didn't experience the reporting and quarantine procedures on the ship itself.

Same exact thing with my wife. Felt a little iffy on disembarkation day (ironically also deck 8 on Allure) traveled home with an N95 mask and tested positive when we got home.

Me and my kids, though, have remained in close contact with her and never tested positive. I’ve slept in the same bed with her every night, sat next to her on the plane on the way home, and obviously we were all sharing a fairly small cabin together. We’ve each tested three times this past week and nothing.

This was our family’s first experience with COVID (we are all, including my 12 and 8 year old, vaxxed and boosted). Wife’s main symptom seems to be a fairly persistent cough, but it never rises to the level of being unable to catch her breath or anything. She also says everything tastes “chemically” right now and says she just feels “run down” but really doesn’t have any other symptoms. I think the length has been the biggest annoyance. 

FWIW my sailing’s facebook did a poll, and of the 400 members, 28% reported one or more persons in their travel party had tested positive in the first five days after disembarking.

Just disregard. We received the same email even though our 8 year old was vaccinated and all information already submitted through the app. I called Royal and they said if they are vaccinated, just show up to the port with vaccination records (and obviously their negative tests like the rest of the party). I think it gets sent to everyone. Our friends in our group with another 8 year old received it. But bottomline you do NOT need to schedule that test through Royal, just have them do the typical test two days before embarkation.

We had no issues at Port Everglades. Because we had a child under 12, they sent us to a separate line where all of our vaccine records were looked over, and then they gave my daughter a green "Vax" sticker--I assume to make the rest of the check-in process easier. 

2 hours ago, jbrinkm said:

We snorkeled from Cabana Beach (part of/right next to Chankanaab) and the snorkeling was pretty good. Many, many different kinds of colorful fish, right by the (rocky) shore. Water was chilly in April - although it was HOT out so felt pretty good - and there was a current so I ended up appreciating my flippers, but I was pretty impressed with the diversity of fish.

We also did this last week on Allure and I was impressed with the snorkeling. My kids had never been before and they though it was AMAZING. But yes, lots of colorful fish, diversity in size, etc just yards from the shore

32 minutes ago, TimeToGetNauti said:

I think this has always been the case.  It was a question when I sailed in May.  I said it was not for travel and did not get charged. 

Walgreens never charged based on answers to questions until today. CVS has had this policy for a bit but Walgreens never charged based on answers

20 minutes ago, poocher said:

Do they still ask if you have been in close contact?  Are testing because of high transmission and inability to properly social distance?  Those two were key in March for free tests.  Do they still ask that?

They ask the close contact one, they don’t ask the high transmission one.

Also they ask about the “symptoms”. If you’re a seasonal allergy sufferer like I am, you can pretty much say you have a runny nose any month of the year lol

38 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

You do understand that the public facing email addresses for execs are routed to an off-shore call center where call center personnel not associated with the Exec use pre-approved canned responses to reply. The execs have no desire to look at thousands of complaints a day. Kinda like emailing the president of the united states, he would never see anything from the public. 

While true, the organization I work for prioritizes customer satisfaction emails sent to our head honcho. If you send an email to a general contact address, yes, that email will get forwarded to me if it regards my area of expertise, but there’s no real followup from anyone to make sure i responded. If someone sends an email to our leadership, then at minimum, her underlings will send me the email and ask personally that I follow up with the customer. I’m under no illusions that she sees the email herself, but she has a staff that makes sure the email goes answered.

Royal is considerably larger than the organization I work for, but I’m sure it’s still a similar process, where emails sent to the executive leadership team have some sort of prioritization or routing system in place to make sure there is a satisfactory response.

1 minute ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

I hear ya. Somewhat ironically, we're about to do 7 nights on Indy after almost nothing but Oasis class for many years. Looking forward to seeing how I feel about it.

Liberty was my first cruise so I have fond memories of the Freedom class—but this was also when Freedom was the “big new thing” and Oasis was just a dream lol. I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts!

50 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Guess we're the only ones who don't like St. Thomas and do like the Harmony itinerary. Never been to St. Croix or Tortola.

 

As mentioned above, perhaps Harmony now and Wonder later when the prices aren't inflated.

 

I think the kids would benefit from Oasis class more than the itinerary... but you know them, I don't. 🤣

I’m the same about Oasis class when it comes to kids. Mine are significantly younger than the OP’s but even as an adult, even if I was just going with my wife I’m not sure I would choose Voyager over an Oasis ship. I like to walk around the ship in the evenings and sea days and loved having all the open air 

At Port Everglades last week we had a 12:00 check-in time. When we arrived at 11:15 they didn’t say anything, just got in line and went on board. Our friend was 12:30 and he went right at 11 and they let him on.

13 minutes ago, ciship said:

I'm confused.  So, are the cabanas inside the Chankanaab park or outside of it?  Also, can you get food and drink at the cabanas?

They are right next to the Adventure Park. In fact the life jackets and such come from there.

Yes, they have a full menu at the cabanas