Royal Caribbean is giving guests an additional three months of cruises to choose from when using their future cruise credit.

The Cruise with Confidence program allows anyone booked on a Royal Caribbean cruise to cancel their sailing up to 48 hours before their sail date, and that credit can now be used for sailings departing by December 31, 2022.  It was previously held to September 30, 2022.

Essentially, anyone with a future cruise credit can apply it to more sailings than before.

When a guest cancels their cruise past the final payment date, they can get a future cruise credit worth 100% of the cruise fare paid as long as they cancel at least 48 hours before the sail date.

The credit is valid to book by April 30th, 2022 and sail by December 31, 2022, or one year from the original sailing date, whichever is later.

As of now, the Cruise with Confidence program is valid on any cruise booked before October 31, 2021.

Royal Caribbean has steadily extended the Cruise with Confidence program by pushing back the date at which sailings must be booked by.

It was originally introduced right before cruises began shutting down due to Covid-19 as a mechanism to give guests piece of mind they could change their plans after the final payment date.

Without the Cruise with Confidence program, there would be a penalty if you cancelled a cruise after the final payment date.

The additional three months of cruises to choose from follows up on guest feedback that many RoyalCaribbeanBlog readers shared last month when Royal Caribbean extended the program without also extending when you could sail.

Sean McVeigh wrote, "They need to extend the date for cruise rebooking. There are so many of us at this point that have cancelled 5+ cruises and they take so long to get us the cruise credits we end up with more credits than we can use in a year."

Alan DeHaan wanted the same thing, "I have a small amount of FCC I'd love to put on my next cruise but that's next October. Just extend Rebooking."

With the new change, guests now have more cruises to choose from when applying their credits.

Royal Caribbean has released its health protocols for cruises departing the United States for at least the first half of October.

Travel agents received an update from Royal Caribbean with the health rules to protect guests and crew members from Covid, which the cruise line calls "proven protocols".

These protocols apply to any Royal Caribbean cruise ship sailing from a U.S. homeport between October 1-15, 2021.

Here is the list of protocols for early October sailings:

Vaccinations

All guests 12 years and older must bring proof of vaccination, such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) COVID-19 vaccination record card, with the final dose of the vaccine completed at least 14 days before sailing.

Testing

All Guests

Required Pre-Cruise Testing: Guests will need to meet the new requirements recently issued by the U.S. CDC.

Vaccinated guests 12 years and older are required to present a negative COVID-19 Test Result (antigen or PCR) for a test taken no more than 2 days prior to the sailing's departure date and before their arrival to the terminal.

Royal Caribbean recommends guests use the at-home test they recently approved for use and now sell directly to passengers via RoyalCaribbean.com/HomeTestKit

Unvaccinated guests 2 to 11 years old are required to present a negative PCR Test Result for COVID-19 (antigen test are not accepted for children) for a test taken no more than 3 days prior to your sailing's departure date and before your arrival to the terminal.

Proper documentation (printed negative test results or negative test results presented on your phone) from an accredited laboratory (no doctor’s notes) is required to sail. All costs for this test are the guest's responsibility and must be done on their own, not at the terminal.

Kids Age 2-11 Years: Additional Testing

In addition to the pre-cruise test, kids will take one or two more tests. 

At the Terminal:  Unvaccinated guests ages 2 to 11 years are required to take a PCR test for COVID-19 when checking in at the terminal. Registration details for this test will be sent via email in advance. This test is complimentary.

Prior to Disembarking: For sailings 5 nights or longer, unvaccinated guests ages 2 to 11 years are required to take an antigen test onboard within 24 hours before the cruise ends. Registration details will be provided during the cruise. This test is complimentary.

Guests under 2 years of age will not be tested.

Masks

Wearing of masks applies to all guests, except for guests under the age of 2 years old, who do not need to wear a mask.

Masks are NOT required to be worn:

• In open-air areas of the ship, unless you are in a crowded setting
• In the pool or any activity where they may become wet
• At venues designated for vaccinated guests only, such as select bars, lounges, restaurants and shows
• In your stateroom with your traveling party

Masks ARE required to be worn:

• While indoors in public areas of the ship, unless seated and actively eating or drinking
• While visiting public ports of call, where local regulations may require them

Dining

For Main Dining, Royal Caribbean will designate areas for everyone, including parents and unvaccinated children, and areas for vaccinated parties only.

My Time Dining will not be available to parties that include unvaccinated guests. Some specialty restaurants will be open to everyone, while others will be for vaccinated parties only. 

Other venues

The ship’s venues are set up to easily allow for physical distancing and there will be signage to guide passengers.

Theaters and activity venues will offer spaced seating with options for everyone and for vaccinated guests only. 

Cancellation

If booked guests do not wish to follow these protocols and are booked on a cruise sailing in early October, Royal Caribbean will offer a refund or move their sailing into the future when circumstances may have evolved. 

In an effort to make the check-in process easier, Royal Caribbean has added a new feature in its app to scan a copy of a passenger's Covid-19 vaccination card.

Ever since Royal Caribbean restarted cruises, vaccinated guests have had to get their vaccine cards photographed by the terminal staff. 

With this new feature in the app, guests could instead take a photo of their card just like they take a selfie photo to speed up the embarkation process.

RoyalCaribbeanBlog reader twangster spotted the feature for a Freedom of the Seas cruise on October 8, but it is not appearing for all sailings.

When enabled, guests can take a photo of the front and back of the vaccine card, as well as select which vaccine manufacturer they have.

Guests will still need to bring their vaccine card with them, but taking the photo at home will allow the embarkation process to move just a little bit faster since the terminal staff will not have to take time to take photos of everyone's card.

Royal Caribbean has worked steadily to speed up the check-in process in its app by allowing guests to do as much as they can at home to save time at the terminal.

With new features and capabilities coming to Royal Caribbean's app as a result of ensuring health and safety are the top priority. This includes a variety of new changes:

• Enforced check-in times at the cruise terminal
• Muster 2.0 enhanced safety drill
• Digital Key and stateroom controls
• Wellness check and health questionnaires 

Royal Caribbean's app is available on the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store.

At long last, an Oasis Class cruise ship calls the New York area home.

Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas made her official debut when she began sailing from Bayonne, New Jersey on September 5, and is now offering 7-night cruises to The Bahamas.

Royal Caribbean had originally planned to put Oasis of the Seas in Cape Liberty in 2020, but the cruise industry shutdown due to the global health crisis put those plans on hold. Nonetheless, Oasis of the Seas is now cruising from the Northeast for the first time.

Oasis of the Seas will sail from Bayonne through October, and are available immediately to book.

In order to sail on Oasis of the Seas, guests age 12 or older must be fully vaccinated. 

Vaccinated guests must present a negative PCR or antigen test result taken no more than 2 days prior to sailing in order to board. Unvaccinated children ages 2 to 11 must present a negative PCR test result taken no more than 3 days prior to sailing in order to board.

All unvaccinated guests ages 2 to 11 must undergo 2 more Covid-19 tests at the cruise terminal and prior to disembarking.

Read more: Everything you wanted to know about Oasis of the Seas

What makes Oasis of the Seas special?

Oasis of the Seas underwent a massive $165 million renovation in late 2019 that took an already impressive cruise ship and upgraded her with all sorts of new features.

In addition to the features onboard that made Oasis of the Seas a gamechanger when she debuted in 2009, here are some of the major additions:

• Caribbean-style pool deck makeover, complete with Lime & Coconut signature bar. New day beds, casitas and variety of seating were added.
• Ultimate Abyss slide (dry slide)
• The Perfect Storm water slides
• Splashaway Bay aqua park
• Portside BBQ specialty restaurant
• El Loco Fresh complimentary Mexican restaurant
• Playmakers Sports Bar & Arcade
• Sugar Beach candy shop
• Spotlight Karaoke venue
• Music Hall venue
• Bionic Bar
• Revamped Adventure Ocean
• Mission Control: Apollo 18 escape room

Read more: Top 25 free things you can do on Royal Caribbean's Oasis Class cruise ships

In short, the 2019 upgrades to Oasis enhanced the ship to bring it in line with any new cruise ship available to sail on today.

Thank you for joining us for this a look at all the Royal Caribbean news from this week. We had plenty to share, so let us jump right in!

As promised, Royal Caribbean began selling at-home Covid-19 tests this week.

You can purchase a two-pack or three-pack of the tests so that getting the pre-cruise Covid test is easier than trying to get an appointment elsewhere.

Offering the at-home tests coincides with a new change in policy where vaccinated guests must provide a negative Covid-19 test result no more than two days before the cruise departs.

Royal Caribbean recommends purchasing two tests per person just in case you lose or contaminate a part of the test, or have an error during the testing process.

Royal Caribbean News

• Royal Caribbean held a 9/11 tribute on its ships
• Matt was on Odyssey of the Seas this week and live blogged everything he did on this brand new ship
• 10 must have Royal Caribbean tips & tricks for cruising with friends
• Top things I ate on Mariner of the Seas
• Top 10 Odyssey of the Seas hidden secrets

Video: Mariner of the Seas 2021 Cruise Ship Tour

Have you subscribed to the Royal Caribbean Blog YouTube Channel? We share some great videos there regularly, all about taking a Royal Caribbean cruise! This week, we are sharing our latest video: Mariner of the Seas 2021 Cruise Ship Tour

What I wish I did differently on my first cruise

Jenna is back from her first Royal Caribbean cruise and shared some things she would have done differently.

No matter how much you plan for any cruise, there are always going to be a things in retrospect during the course of a cruise that you wish you could change.

Jenna found a few things she later thought she wished she had done instead, so here is what she would have done differently on her first Royal Caribbean cruise.

The most important advice I give my family after they book a cruise

If you are the big cruise fan in your family, no doubt loved ones turn to you for what they should do after booking a cruise.

Every so often, I get a message from a cousin, uncle, or in-law that wants to know what advice I would give them for their sailing.

Here are the important tips and pieces of advice I give my family after they book a cruise.

All across the United States, memorials are being held to remember the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, which includes touching tributes on Royal Caribbean ships.

Saturday marks 20 years since the terrorist attacks, and on Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas, a special event was held for all the passengers to commemorate those who lost their lives on that fateful day.

The terrorist attacks on 9/11 killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and Arlington, Virginia.

On Serenade of the Seas, a flag ceremony was held in the ship's Centrum and was videotaped by RoyalCaribbeanBlog reader Ron Hiller.

A flag procession was held, along with a single guitar player who performed while passengers around the ship stood and remembered those lost during the attacks.

Similar moments of commemoration were held on other ships in Royal Caribbean's fleet, as well as around the world.

President Joe Biden visited the sites of each of the sites where hijacked planes crashed in 2001 to honor the the victims of the devastating assault.

All across the United States, cities and towns held their own tributes. Cruise ship passengers who may have been on vacation took time from the fun to join in their own way of remembering those lost.

The last day of our Odyssey of the Seas cruise concludes with a sea day, and I had a few big things to try.

Any good day starts off with a nice meal, and I went to Solarium Bistro for breakfast.

Solarium Bistro is an underrated spot for any meal on Odyssey of the Seas because I think a lot of people are unaware or forgetful it exists.

They serve a traditional American breakfast, along with pastries, cheeses, eggs and more.

Next up I had to take time to find the man that has sailed the most with Royal Caribbean, Super Mario.

Mario has cruised the most on Royal Caribbean, and has well over 8,000 Crown and Anchor Society points!

He and I sat down for a interview on our YouTube channel, which you can watch here.

At 10am, I had an appointment for a virtual reality experience at Zone Zero.

Zone Zero is a new offering for Royal Caribbean, and currently only available on Odyssey of the Seas. It is a fully immersive virtual reality event. It is complimentary, although beginning next week Royal Caribbean will begin charging $18 per person.

Groups of four guests put on a head-to-toe VR suit and then hop into a virtual reality world.  Royal Caribbean designed a space where you can literally walk around this virtual world, and see your teammates and interact together while engaged in a fight against pirate monkeys and a big bad boss at the end.

Simply put, this was incredible and unlike anything I have done before.  I've played VR games, but this an untethered experience and the closest thing I have seen yet to a Star Trek holodeck. 

Our team had a lot of fun and I would gladly pay $18 per person to do this again.  

Lunch today was back in Playmakers for one more round of bar food. Great as always, and ever since cruises restarted, I have become more of a Playmakers fan.

In the afternoon, we did a few trivia sessions in the Music Hall.  Didn't win, but good fun.

Towards the end of the afternoon, we packed up our belongings so the suitcases could be put into the hallway to be delivered to the cruise terminal the next day.

Dinner was in Wonderland, which is somewhere I have dined a few times, but was new to a few friends onboard.

The premise of Wonderland remains unchanged, where your waiter escorts you down the experience with various foods and drink that look unconventional. Some taste great, others are perhaps just a passing sensation.

Wonderland may never be my favorite specialty restaurant, but it's a fun time and I think a restaurant everyone should try once because it is just so different.

Overall, I really liked Odyssey of the Seas a lot.  More so than the other Quantum Class ships I have been on, because Odyssey has just enough tweaks, enhancements, and add-ons that make it stand out from her sisters.

Odyssey reminds me a lot of when I went on Harmony of the Seas following my Oasis and Allure sailings, where a newer ship stands out from her predecessors because Royal Caribbean takes the opportunity to add so much more the older ships did not have.

I think the SeaPlex overhaul, pool deck makeover, and Izumi split (separate sushi and hibachi locations) make Odyssey easily my favorite Quantum Class ship in the fleet (full disclosure, I have not been on Ovation or Spectrum) that I have been on.

We had a fabulous time on Odyssey, and I hope I get to sail on her again soon.

Thank you for following along this live blog.  Our next live blog will begin in October when Jenna sails to Alaska on Ovation of the Seas!

Going on a Royal Caribbean cruise with friends is a great way to travel with your besties without feeling you have to be attached at the hip the entire time. Because there is so much to do on a ship, it allows different personalities to do what they enjoy, while still being together.

Taking friends on a cruise comes with its own challenges to ensure you all have a great time onboard. The good news with a little bit of planning, you can ensure your friends enjoy the cruise without any hiccups.

Before you book a sailing or get onboard with your matching shirts, be sure to heed this advice for a great start.

Book with the same travel agent

Whether you have two or ten cabins, book everyone under the same travel agent for simplicity.

Not only could you potentially get group benefits from Royal Caribbean if you book enough cabins, but being booked under the same travel agent really makes coordinating onboard plans a lot simpler.

Travel agents make it so much easier to remind your pals it's time to make final payment, or answer any sort of billing questions with the cruise line. You love your friends, but dealing with friends and their financial situation is no fun.

In addition, a travel agent can easily link everyone's reservations together so that dining together is simple.

If there was a need to cancel or change sail dates, having the same agent makes the process much easier.

Talk about priorities

Unlike family, sometimes expressing what you really want to do with friends can be tough since you don't want to offend anyone or come off as appearing to be needy. However, you should have a good idea of what everyone wants from the sailing before you book.

There is a fine line between planning ahead and becoming burdensome with a schedule. Everyone comes in with different ideas about how much they want to to do together, or not.

Before the cruise, have a conversation about what they are looking forward to doing, especially together. It is a good idea to figure out is this a trip where you will all hang out all day, or just meet up for drinks.

Have a communication plan

Onboard a cruise ship, there is no cellular phone service, so you should have a plan on how everyone will chat.

Group chats in apps like Facebook or WhatsApp are very common, but you will all need to get an internet package.

You could use walkie talkies or rely on voicemails in your cabins, but these tend to be more cumbersome.

We recommend using the Royal Caribbean app's free chat feature to communicate with everyone in your friend group. You can even make a group chat so everyone is in the know about what's going on.

The key is to ensure you all agree on something before you get onboard so no one is left in the dark.

Dinners together

One of the best pieces of advice for friends on a cruise is at the very least have dinner together every night.

Everyone finds their own activities to do onboard, but it is a good idea to plan to meet up for dinner each night to have a common time to meet.

Whether the main dining room, Windjammer, or specialty restaurants, have a plan for everyone to enjoy dinner together each evening for a time to reconnect and make plans for the following day.

Matching t-shirts are popular

A recent trend among groups is to get matching shirts for everyone in the group.

This not only makes for great group photos, but you can easily identify everyone. This is helpful with large groups.

There are many places online you can customized shirts, or just pick a design and buy one for everyone.

Avoid overplanning

It can be tempting to try to plan every minute of the cruise, but too much of a good thing applies to a cruise too.

If you try to plan too much, things can get quickly overwhelming for some friends in your group, as well as create rifts among friends.

Leave time for everyone to do their own thing, keeping in mind you could still do things together on the fly.

Read more: 60 BEST Royal Caribbean tips and tricks

Get separate billing

Sharing a cabin with a friend? Set up different billing methods for each person.

You can assign credit cards to specific people in the room at Guest Services, which makes settling the bill later significantly easier.

In addition, it is a good idea to make clear lines of who is picking up what tab. Shore excursions, dinners, and drink orders are all common ways you could pay for someone else, but be certain before the end of the cruise the bills all look good.

If you need to re-arrange any extra costs, a trip to Guest Services could fix that. Alternatively, you could simply send money electronically to friends after the sailing.

Plan a time to meet on embarkation day

The bigger the group, the more likely everyone will arrive at different times at the cruise terminal on embarkation day, so pick a time to meet.

It is a good idea to pick a time in the late afternoon to meet with everyone. Sailaway is a good time that everyone will be onboard and ready for some fun.

Fun things to pack

Here are some good ideas of things to pack to bring on a cruise with friends:

• Door decorations (with magnets, not tape to put it up)
• Drink koozies
• Towel clips

Pre-book for bigger groups

The bigger your group, the more important pre-booking is for certain events and offerings.

Specialty restaurants, shore excursions, the escape room, and pretty much anything with limited capacity is a good idea to pre-book whenever possible.

It is not always possible to pre-book everything, but look for the options in the Cruise Planner.

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Our final port of call brings us to Cozumel for another day of fun in the sun.

Odyssey of the Seas docked quite early (7am), but we decided to walk off the ship 9:30 since a lot of places are closed earlier than that (along with my need to sleep in).

Joining us in port today was Adventure of the Seas and Carnival Vista. It was nice seeing a few ships in port again at the same time.

Our plans today were to visit Nachi Cocom, which has usually been one of the best all-inclusive beach resorts in Cozumel.  I wanted to check it out again now that cruises have restarted.

We took a taxi ($23 one way for 5 people) on the 12 minute ride.

The check-in process was the same as I remember it in the past, where they take a group photo as you walk in and then get escorted to whichever beach palapa you would like.

The weather was great again, with a gentle breeze and clear skies. The ocean was cloudier than I recall seeing, but water temperature was plenty warm.

Your admission ($59) gets you all you can eat and drink during the day.  The menu includes a mix of Mexican and American food.

The alcohol menu has all the usual favorites, with beers, mixed drinks, and everything inbetween. The service is great, with waiters roaming the beach to take orders.

My favorite spot is to sit at the swim-up bar in the pool, which was my home base most of the day.

There were more people at Nachi than I expected in the morning, but after lunch it started to really clear out.

I thought the experience at Nachi was just as good as I recall before the cruise industry shutdown, and was pleased with everything.

We took a taxi back to the ship where I promptly took a much needed nap so that I could recharge my batteries for the evening. I thought it would be a power nap, but it may have gone a little longer than I anticipated.

Once I was awake, we went to the wine bar at Giovanni's Kitchen to check out their menu.  They have a different menu from the restaurant that has a few items you cannot order at the restaurant.

The lasagna bites and mini-meatballs were some of the changes I noticed.  Just like the restaurant, the food was excellent and I think the pizza was even better tonight.

Tomorrow is our final day onboard, and it is a sea day.

The second port of call on our sailing brings us to Costa Maya, Mexico.  

Our arrival time into port was scheduled for later in the morning (11am), so there was basically a built-in option for everyone to sleep in.

As we arrived to Costa Maya, Odyssey of the Seas was greeted by Symphony of the Seas, which was already docked there earlier in the day.

Our plans for the day were to go to Maya Chan Beach Resort, which offers a limited number of day passes each day.

Prior to the cruise industry shutdown, I always went to Maya Chan when visiting Costa Maya because of the great service and food they had.  So with the opportunity to try out Maya Chan again since the shutdown, I wanted to see how things were now.

Maya Chan had been shutdown for 17 months, and had only re-opened the day before we arrived.

Just like in the past, we disembarked the ship and walked down the pier and through the maze that is the Costa Maya cruise port.

Maya Chan is an excursion booked independently and not through the cruise line, so you need to walk out of the cruise port and down the street to find a representative from the resort waiting to check you in.

We hopped in a taxi and took the 20 minute or so ride to the resort.

Upon arrival, things looked exactly as the last time we visited Maya Chan.

Guests get taken to a dedicated palapa for the day, where have a hammock, chairs, and a beach bed to enjoy. 

This is an all-inclusive excursion, which means all the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, food, and beach amenities (snorkeling, kayaks, etc) are included.

Maya Chan is situated right on the beach, and they have a pool too.

Costa Maya regularly deals with a sea grass problem, where the beach can be inundated with the stuff due to seasonal flows. On our visit, there was not much sea grass at all on the beach, but neighboring beaches had a build up which meant there was sometimes an odor in the air (depending on the breeze).

At check-in, the staff offered anyone a full refund if this issue concerned them, but since I was more of a pool person anyway, that did not bother me.

I think the appeal of Maya Chan is the excellent service and food and drink the resort provides. Basically, a fun day to hang out by the beach.

Luckily, the weather was absolutely perfect with mostly clear skies, no rain, and a very strong breeze that never left us feeling overly hot.

Because of our ship's late arrival time, by the time we got situated at Maya Chan, it was time to eat lunch.

They offered a buffet of freshly cooked tacos, including chicken, beef, fish, and pork.  The food is all cooked that morning, including a selection of corn or four tortillas.

The food did not disappoint, and the various toppings you could put on the tacos really made the meal for me.

After lunch, it was pool time, and I walked over to the pool to hop in.  I thought perhaps I might go there for a little bit, but we ended up spending the whole day relaxing in and around the pool.

The staff came by regularly to offer us drinks, and it was exactly as I remembered my previous visits to Maya Chan: a super relaxing day with excellent service.

As with any great shore excursion, the time to head back to the ship comes all too quickly, and we hopped in our taxis to return to the ship.

Back onboard, it was time to shower and get ready for dinner.

Originally, we were booked for dinner at Coastal Kitchen (the suites only restaurant), but the menu did not entice us (it changes daily), so we decided to go to Chops Grille instead.

Chops was able to seat us despite not having a reservation, and we had a great meal. 

What I love about Chops is how consistent it is across the fleet. 

After dinner, it was time to head to Two70 to see one of the signature shows on Odyssey of the Seas, The Book.

The Book is divided up into chapters, where the protagonist in the show explores different chapters of this magical book. Each chapter features a unique style of music and dance.

As with all shows in the Two70 space, The Book relies heavily on visual effects.  While music and choreography are at the heart of any stage performance, the visuals in The Book are equally important.

I liked the style and spacing of the show, and thought it was a fun idea to use book chapters to help organize the show.

While I would have liked to have stayed up after the show for a drink or two, I was wiped out from all the fun that day, so it was bed time.

Tomorrow, we will be in Cozumel.