About per week earlier than our cruise, my journey companion began visiting the web climate websites for the ports we’d go to on our cruise, in order that he might high quality tune his choice of cruise attire. How sizzling was it going to be? Should we take an umbrella? Shall we go away the heavy coats and snow boots within the automotive on the airport?
Minor particulars when in comparison with the planning involving COVID necessities and the price of air journey. Living in a smaller city, it causes me nice stress to need to discover a testing heart that may get my outcomes again in time to fulfill the requirement for the cruise line and generally for an embarkation port which may be outdoors the nation.
Is 48 hours the identical as two days? Is 72 hours the identical as three days? Fortunately, Royal Caribbean has a pleasant timeline on their Healthy Sail Center web page, the place they spell every little thing out. Be certain that you just learn every little thing on the FAQ web page rigorously — and possibly undergo it greater than as soon as. Some assessments should not accepted.
If you have got bother discovering a testing heart in your hometown or throughout the acceptable timeframe, chances are you’ll choose to get a take a look at on the port. Scheduling is completed by way of the Royal Caribbean Healthy Sail Center web page and also you do must e book prematurely. The disadvantage of doing this testing can be the unlucky outcomes that say you might be optimistic. In that case, you’ll not be permitted to board the ship.
According to an area pharmacist, sure testing is taking longer and he suggested me to not use his pharmacy if I wanted the outcomes for journey. He indicated that fewer persons are being examined, so that they solely ship assessments out to the lab on a number of days every week. That would delay the outcomes.
Flights
With all the chances of a delayed flight, we all the time choose to fly in a day early. What a good move that was for us. Our preliminary flight went to Chicago, the place we had a 4-hour layover, so seemingly loads of time to make our connection to Fort Lauderdale. As luck would have it, our first flight bought out to the runway, the pilot requested the flight attendants to take their seats, after which the aircraft got here to a halt. We had been considering, “thank goodness, we have that 4-hour layover.” The pilot introduced that there was a mechanical situation, so again to the terminal we went.
When the aircraft was lastly repaired, we headed out to get de-iced once more and eventually left on the time we should always have been boarding our subsequent flight. We discovered a flight in Chicago that added a second connection, however bought us to Fort Lauderdale by 6 pm, as an alternative of 1 pm as beforehand scheduled. Had this been crusing day, the ship would have sailed with out us.
Not solely did we arrive late, however our baggage additionally was elsewhere. Our first port was Labadee and the airline actually wouldn’t ship our luggage there. When we noticed the tracker indicated that it had arrived round midnight in Ft. Lauderdale, we determined that it will be greatest for us to go again to the airport at 5 am and retrieve it earlier than it was positioned on a supply truck, which doubtless by no means would have reached us earlier than we bought on the ship.
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Other Preparations
We used the Royal Caribbean app to submit a few of our data, and at first couldn’t verify in or do any pre-planning. We tried the web site for doing our check-in and when that didn’t work, we known as the assistance heart. They thought that they figured it out and will see every little thing on their finish, however we nonetheless weren’t capable of verify in.
We tried on two completely different telephones, two completely different computer systems, and 4 completely different browsers. It was irritating to be advised that it was consumer error. Finally, sooner or later, we opened the app and it labored as did the web site. Once it lastly labored, we did our check-in with no downside. We hoped that every little thing labored on the pier. Technology is nice when it really works!
From our resort in Dania Beach, we used Lyft to get to the port. Our driver adopted his inaccurate mapping program, which added further time to the journey time. He didn’t heed our recommendation to get off on the exit that was clearly marked because the exit to the port. Our previous day and this morning had been hectic sufficient. We didn’t want any additional stress.
When we lastly reached the port, we gave our baggage to the porter and headed to the terminal. As quickly as we stepped by way of the terminal doorways, our unfavorable COVID assessments had been scrutinized. Once previous the primary gatekeeper, we went by way of safety. Unlike previously when the brokers stood behind the counter, we discovered them standing with tablets in hand at cordoned areas. The agent requested a number of questions after which directed us to the ship. We had no key playing cards, however the agent stated that we’d discover them outdoors our cabin.
It took us solely 11 minutes to stroll from that first terminal door to The Promenade on Wonder of the Seas. It was undoubtedly one of many quickest, if not the quickest check-in that we had ever skilled. What a reduction it was to lastly be on the world’s present largest cruise ship.
Because the ship is so giant, we had a plan in place. Having been on different Oasis Class ships, I used to be acquainted with the format and a lot of the neighborhoods on the ship. But, Wonder of the Seas isn’t an similar twin sister to others within the household; she upped the sport with an eighth neighborhood, a brand new specialty restaurant, and a few new areas for the youngsters.
Those had been the primary issues that we needed to take a look at. But first, it was effectively previous lunchtime and we wanted to construct up our vitality shops, so we headed to the acquainted Park Café in Central Park for my favourite sandwich.
Note: This article was written in spring 2022, so many well being and security protocols have been modified since then.
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