Returning to Cruise First-Hand Account

In the 61st edition of Coffee Talk with Vicki Freed this morning, Royal Caribbean shared first-hand experiences from a travel agent guest, Beci Mahnken, who sailed on the first sailing of Adventure of the Seas from Nassau Bahamas.   

Recovery - Just Around Corner

As Beci, and the group of associates traveling with her, began their trip they were filled with weird emotions.  For months, just like us, they were engaged in "removal of dreams" as they processed cancellations.  They were very excited to get back to cruising as it signaled to them that recovery was just around the corner.  Journey with them as they embark on this 7 day voyage from Nassau. 

Bahamas Check-in

The cruise out of the Bahamas was with fully vaccinated crew and guests.  The test before traveling went away, so the only requirement was to complete the Bahamian Health Visa.  Completing this was easier than they had expected.  You fill the visa out on your phone by entering your information and uploading a copy of your vaccination card.  

There's about a 3-4 hour approval process.  

At your designated check-in time you show your vaccination card and passport.  An antigen test (nose swab) is done and you are taken to another room where your passport and documentation is checked.  The waiting time is about 20 minutes in this room.  You watch for your email to be posted which indicates a negative test.  Once this is completed you board a shuttle to the ship.

The main takeaway was that the entire process was seamless / easy with no stress.

Crew Happy to See Them

While the crew were all wearing masks, you could see the smiles through them as they greeted the guests onboard.  With  the limited capacity on the ship, the crew outnumbered passengers.  Walking around the ship they were greeted with "Welcome Home" and "Welcome Onboard".   They too are travel professionals in their own right who's main job is to help make dreams come true.  They missed doing that just like we missed putting our guests on cruises and land vacations.

Staterooms were cleaned twice a day, just as usual.  There was lots of emphasis on cleaning throughout the voyage.  Ships have always put emphasis on keep the ship clean and sanitary even before the pandemic.

Muster 2.0

One of the most noticeable changes in the embarkation process was the new and improved muster drill (safety briefing).   No longer to do you need to put your vacation on pause to gather for the safety briefing.  You simply watch the video on your phone's app or in your stateroom then at your leisure check-in at your assigned muster station.  

There you are given a 1-1 briefing of how to put on your life jackets and you have the ability to have any questions answered.  This is very helpful, especially for first time cruisers.

Once you've checked in, you'll have sticker placed on your card indicating completion of the briefing. We've been told that this modification to the briefing is here to stay even if some of the other protocols go away,

Onboard Experience

Since the ship sailed at 30% capacity it was like having the entire ship to yourself.  There were signs posted around the ship reminding guests about social distancing.  One change were elevators were limited to one group (maximum 4 guests) at a time, so you might have to wait awhile for an elevator.   It did beat being crammed into the elevators though.

Dining

There were a few changes with dining.  You could dine with anyone linked to your reservation.  Paper menus were on the table but if you weren't comfortable with that, there was  a QR code that you could scan to view an online version of the menu.

You are probably wondering about Windjammer (buffet).   The same great selections were available. The only difference was that the crew served you. This was also true at drink stations.  They saw this as  an improvement over having everyone's hands on the serving utensils as was the case in the past.  

Entertainment

The same wonderful shows as expected from Royal Caribbean's production company.  Some rows / seats were blocked off to allow for social distancing.   The same was true in the Casino where some machines were closed and tables had limited seating capacity.

Perfect Day at Coco Cay

All the thrills and chills of Royal Caribbean's private island awaited them as they arrived at Perfect Day at Coco Cay.  They decided to splurge and purchased on of the over water cabanas for the day.

The food was amazing including Filet Mignon, Lobster Tail, Chicken and Grouper.  They ate to their heart's content and enjoyed the cabanas immensely.   They highly recommend Coco Beach Club - it was worth the money to them.

Overall Experience

Experiencing the ship at 30% capacity was amazing! The crew was very friendly and attentive. Everything you expect in a cruise experience was there. They won't hesitate to book their guests on Royal Caribbean ships out of the Bahamas and elsewhere. 

Thank you Vicki and Royal Caribbean for arranging this opportunity to learn about the experience onboard Adventure of the Seas as you return to cruising. It is comforting to see all the attention to detail that has been put into taking care of our guests onboard your ships as you resume operations.

So What are YOU Waiting For?

Contact Me to Get Back to Cruising

Adventure of the Seas - Nassau Voyages

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Returning from Australia Cruise

Majestic Princess Disembarkation

We are just back from our shortened Australia - Asia cruise on Majestic Princess.   Princess Cruises made the decision to cancel the Fremantle (Perth) to Singapore segment of our voyage based on uncertainty around port availability in Southeast Asia region due to the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). 

Since we had booked our flights with Princess Air, they were automatically rebooked by the cruise line.   We got our flight arrangements in our cabin on Feb. 19th.

click to enlarge images

Our new flights were booked on Air New Zealand. We had a 7 AM flight from Perth (PER) Sunday, Feb. 23rd, to Auckland, New Zealand (AUK). We had about a two hour layover in Auckland followed by a direct 14 hour 55 minute flight to Chicago (ORD).

We had the option to stay on board Majestic Princess an extra day (Saturday, Feb 22nd) and then take a taxi at 3:15 AM to the airport. Since it was about a 30 minute taxi ride, we didn't want to risk having anything go wrong and missing our flight, so we opted to stay overnight at Country Comfort Intercity (Perth) hotel. They had a free airport shuttle which operates 24 hours a day, so that was the main deciding factor for us.

On Saturday morning, we disembarked Majestic Princess, handling our own luggage, and then took the Princess shuttle (provided for free) to Perth airport. When we arrived at the airport, we called the hotel to find out where to meet the shuttle. They directed us to Bay N (as in November). We weren't quite sure where that was, so we asked a flight attendant who pointed us in the right direction. We didn't have long to wait for the shuttle.

When we arrived at the hotel, we arranged to be on the 4 AM shuttle to the airport, dropped off our luggage in our room, and headed to Perth city proper by taxi for some sightseeing, including a Swan River Cruise which we booked upon arrival at Barrack Street Jetty (Elizabeth Quay) Perth. We'll write about our river cruise in another article.

Sunday morning, we got to the front desk about 15 minutes early and checked out. There were a couple other couples already waiting for the shuttle with one more also booked. Once they arrived, we headed to the airport which was a short distance away. By 4:15 AM we were checking in at the Air New Zealand desk in Terminal 1 (which is the International Terminal at Perth Airport).

Note: It is important that you know which terminal you are leaving from as they are spread out quite a distance and not easy to get to if you were at the wrong terminal. 

We went to checkin and were asked if we had a visa on our passports for New Zealand. Of course, we said "no" because we had never planned to be flying home from there. Our original plans would have been flying from Singapore to Japan to Dallas Fort Worth to Chicago. It never dawned on us that we'd need a visa, despite the fact that we'd had one last year when we visited there on our previous visit to the region. Princess Cruises had not made any mention of it on our flight change paperwork either. In fact, they simply listed the flight numbers and we needed to look up the itinerary online to even know the details.

The Electronic Travel Authority for New Zealand(eTA), is applicable to citizens from all countries that share a visa waiver agreement with NZ. Starting October 1st, 2019, visitors arriving from any of the 60 visa waiver countries are required to apply for an eTA to enter the island country.

Fortunately, there's an app for that. The Air New Zealand agent gave us an information sheet with step by step instructions to download the app and apply for the transit visa online. Here's the link to get a New Zealand Visa should your travels take you there (and you are staying in country). The cost for the NZeTA was $9 NZD. Within minutes we had applied and gotten the online visa issued and we were then able to checkin for our flights. We were really glad that we'd been close to the airport, so the we had plenty of time before our flight.

This was our first experience flying Air New Zealand. We really enjoyed the flights and service. The crew were extremely friendly. We had free WiFi on the flight to Auckland.  The food was good and the economy seating was decent for the long haul flight. I'd highly recommend them for a trip to Australia / New Zealand.

Ironically, in one of my travel professional publications today, there was a link to an article about an experimental Lie-flat Beds for Economy that Air New Zealand is investigating. Here's a video that shows their plans. We'd definitely pay for that upgrade on a long-haul flight. Hats off to them for their innovation. I look forward to a future flight in one of these #Skynest sleeping pods.

This is the first in a series of blog posts about our shortened Australia - Asia trip.  Despite the fact that we didn't get to Malaysia or Singapore, we will also share some of our past experiences, should your travel include Southeast Asia in the future.  We are starting in reverse order, from our disembarkation from Majestic Princess.   Hopefully, you've followed us live on our social media channels as well.  Don't worry if you didn't, as our anchor post will tie everything together for you.  Just click the image (left) to our diary post.

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Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us every Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat