Royal Caribbean Cruise To Nowhere Singapore Review Blog 2021 – Check In, Swab Test, Balcony Room

9140. That’s the number of our balcony room.

There are 3 reasons why I chose the balcony room. 🤭

1. I have never cruised in a balcony room before. Always in a windowless enclosure.
2. The promotion at 50% discount is just too good and justifies the upgrade on a budget.
3. In case, we need to quarntine for a week or eat our meals in the room due to dine-in restrictions.

Dine in restrictions? Cannot eat in the restaurants? Eat in our room? It NEARLY happened! 😰

• Our cruise sails from 19 July to 22 July 2021.
• Singapore to tighten Covid-19 measures from 19 July 2021 after the KTV Lounge cases – https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/singapores-covid-19-measures-from-july-19-7-things-you-need-to-know
• Singapore bans dine-in from 22 July 2021, social group limit back to 2 – https://sg.news.yahoo.com/covid-dine-in-ban-22-july-social-group-limit-2-072515762.html

Close shave! We booked the cruise in April when things were getting better. Anyway, we don’t have to dine in our balcony room… But our cruise dining was affected. 😐

• Most of the good restaurants were closed.
• We had to split the family to 2 pax per table when dining in because one of us was not completely vaccinated.
• We had to sanitize out hands before entering a restaurant… Which is a good thing. 👍

Entertaininment was affected too.

• The seating capacity was restricted to 50 pax only, so we might miss a lot of shows if we didn’t queue up an hour earlier.
• The biggest show was reserved for Suite room guests only. Balcony room guests and others will have to miss it.
• We were happy to get into the Beatlemania concert, but we were not allowed to sing along, scream and about. Imagine a quiet Beatles concert.

Hey, I am not complaining. We don’t mind missing the shows because there were lots of other things to do.

• For the first time in my life, I went surfing at the Flowrider.
• Then I reached the top in rock climbing.
• We drove the bumper cars, took dancing lessons, and did a few small activities here and there.

The ship was operating on half a capacity of guests. So it feels we have a lot of space to ourselves.

There was one only thing I regretted or rather found out too late.

• The free unlimited pizza was unexpectedly great. Warm, tasty, and crispy. I tried it only on the final night otherwise I would snack on it every night. 😋

The best part of the cruise is the BALCONY of the balcony room.

• I can sit or sleep there for hours listening to the crashing of the sea waves as the ship sailed.
• Sometimes the ship stopped moving and it was total peacefulness because there were no neighbors on the left and right due to the one-room social distancing.
• That’s our private deck to view the sunrise and take pictures of the stars at night.

Thats the kind of holiday I want. No internet. Just 3 days to refresh my mind.

About the Booking in the Beginning

How early can you check in for Royal Caribbean Cruise? How do I check-in for my Royal Caribbean Cruise?

What cruise?

THE CRUISE

On 18th April 2021, we booked a 3 Night Ocean Getaway Cruise onboard the Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas. 

The deal was about $300 off the usual price. The boat will have about half its usual capacity. 

So will it be half the fun or double the fun? Let’s find out… See part 2 of this blog. 

Update 14 July 2021 – We received an email “Due to the Singapore Government restrictions, our live performance theatre capacity remains at 50 guests per show… As a result of the significant reduction in approved capacity, we are only able to offer show tickets to guests booked as part of our Royal Suite Class program in Junior Suites and above… you will not able to attend the live performances in the Royal Theatre and Two70 Lounge… Should you wish to cancel or transfer your upcoming reservation, please call us… We can assist you with transferring your reservation to a new date or if you prefer to cancel, we will provide you with a 100% refund of your cruise fare paid within 45 days…” We are not in the Royal Suite Class program, but we are going ahead as planned. 😄

The sail date is 19 July 2021. 15 days to go! 

That’s our room number… 🎉 9140 🎉… buy 4D!

Can we check in early online?

CHECK-IN ONLINE

On 20 April 2021, we were emailed an invitation to check-in. That is 3 months before the sail date.

We are required to check-in up to 3 days before departure.  Let’s do it today.

How?

THE APP

We have to download an app. Royal Caribbean International… https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rccl.royalcaribbean

I installed the app on my Samsung Galaxy S10 and created an account with the same email I used to book the cruise. 

The app then searched for my cruise reservations and found my booking. 

I see a top view of a ship that turns 90 degrees as I scroll to the Daily Planner and Calendar in the app.

There is a list of activities, but most activities are reflected as not available. Why? Could it be the covid restriction or maybe we have not checked in yet? 

So from within the app, I checked myself in.

Checking in was quick and requires my passport details as well as a photo of my face taken using the app. 

We can also choose the time to board the boat. We scheduled ourselves to arrive early at the earliest time slot, 3.30 pm because we must go through a wellness check before boarding. 

Are we supposed to do a covid test before the trip?

SWAB TEST

They call it the rtPCR test. 

What does rt-PCR stand for? Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.

PCR swab tests directly detect the presence of the COVID-19 antigen in an individual… https://www.rafflesmedicalgroup.com/covid-19/covid-19-tests/

The test arrangement is not done by Royal Caribbean. We have to do it ourselves.

Registration is done at the Eurofins website, https://www.eurofins.com/, and the test will be conducted by Fullerton Health Group. 

The test will be at Raffle City Shopping Center Kopitiam on 17 July 2021, 11.30 am Saturday. https://trustoneapp.com/webadmin/login.html

See how painful my swab test experience is… https://adrianvideoimage.com/whats-the-swab-test-pain-level/

Remember to print the test certificate and bring it together with my travel document.  A quick check on the price of the pre-departure covid swab test in Singapore tells me it is about S$160… https://minmed.sg/pre-departure-covid-19-pcr-swab-test/

Is this cost covered in our cruise fare?

Until then, what is next?

BOARDING DOCUMENTS

We must bring along the covid test negative results to the cruise together with our travel documents. 

We must carry a Tracelet and the C pass at all times onboard. Those will be issued to us aboard.

Will there be free internet access?

INTERNET

Once onboard, we have to connect to the ship’s Wi-Fi to access the internet with VOOM. 

Only the Royal Caribbean app will work. We have to pay for the rest of the internet. S$25 per day.

Should I pay for an internet package or take a break from the grid? 

What other things should I pay for?

PAYABLE EXTRAS

Beverage, Foods, Photo, Refreshment, Internet, Gifts, and Specialty restaurants. 

No need for any of the above I guess. 

What is free on Quantum Of The Seas?

What restaurants are free on the quantum of the seas?

Find out in the next blog post.

ADRIAN LEE

Royal Caribbean Cruise To Nowhere Singapore Review Blog

Itenary | Route | Promotion 2021