smokeybandit

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

3 day cruises prove nothing, why bother. Why not a day trip on a cruiseship, then it would be just about like getting on an airplane.

 

No chance of covid cases doing it that way.

 

This whole deal about getting back to cruising again is turning into a real  joke, when will this all END !!

If you look at what has to happen for a successful test cruise, it's all a joke. Nothing on the checklist couldn't be done with just the crew participating.

5 minutes ago, Tiffany102282 said:

I called Royal today and was told that vaccines would be required for our November Allure cruise out of Florida.  I asked about a refund for those in our party who were not getting the vaccine.  No refunds will be given only FCC.  This is beyond frustrating.   Granted we canceled before cruises were all stopped last year so no refund option then either.  So for those who have FCC but not getting vaccinated you will be out the money.  Maybe they will update their policy at some point.

November is after the CSO ends. I wouldn't worry about that yet.

15 hours ago, livingonthebeach said:

 

Someone asked him on that same FB page how they would handle a future situation should a passenger test positive for Covid.  Here is the exchange: 

The response is unintentionally funny. If you get covid, you just quarantine. But if you get sick, you get medical treatment.

1 hour ago, WxNerd said:

This is also the updated FAQ from RCIs FAQ page. It used to mention PCR tests, but doesn’t any longer, only rapid tests. 

It said PCR test right in the text.

Just it's a rapid PCR (60 minutes), not a standard PCR (6 hours)

12 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

The Odyssey is trying to quell a COVID outbreak onboard right now.

There is no covid outbreak on board. There never was.  4 new crew members got on board after testing negative, went into the mandatory quarantine period, then tested positive.

1 hour ago, sfaaa said:

Upgrade if you want better food.

Tried that one cruise. Still wasn't impressed. Again not at all bad and I've enjoyed it, just never felt the food was the highlight of a trip.

The one thing I've never been impressed with on an RC cruise is the food. I mean it's never bad, just I've never left the dining room saying "I can't wait until I have that again"

2 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Though the Dr Fauci Goal is 75% of all ages inc all kids. It's said we are near/at Herd Immunity with all Vaccinated and those with Natural Immunity...

Fauci has said a couple different numbers in regards to herd immunity. Like any other thing, he keeps changing his mind.

9 minutes ago, jrapps said:

The reason I think this is not a non-story...it is obvious that Royal wants Odyssey to be one of the first (if not THE first) royal ship out of the gate. Heck, there is every indication that they are at least planning in some capacity for the first sailing on that ship to be July 3rd, that is a mere 40 days from now.

 

To get approval from the CDC to sail (real of simulated cruises) you ship needs to be Green status. Here is the criteria for Green:

• No confirmed cases of COVID-19 or COVID-19-like illness for 14 days, as determined by a qualified medical professional.
• If the ship received ship-to-ship transfers within the past 14 days, crew must have come from a ship that was not Red.
• If land-based crew embarked, they were immediately quarantined (unless fully vaccinated or recovered in past 90 days) upon embarking the ship.

There is no way, with confirmed positive cases on the ship, that they are going to take ANY chances here. They want Green status. You don't let any positive cases run wild on that ship (or even quarantined to cabins) If you leave them on the ship, you have to wait for them to no longer test positive, and then restart a 14-day clock.

 

I think stopping now, and offboarding them, make sure your ship is 100% Covid-free before you start a trans-Atlantic sailing is by far the smart move here.

I mean the media coverage should be a non-story

It's sad people believe in ZeroCovid

Just now, 100viper said:

RCL also claimed their crew was vaccinated when closing in on their Israel season, even though the crew claimed they weren’t vaccinated. 

When did RC claim that?

Based on this one can surmise they were newly picked up crew members who were in standard pre-cruise quarantine anyway.  RC claims there are only 2, not 5.

https://www.diariodemallorca.es/mallorca/2021/05/24/megracrucero-odyssey-of-the-seas-52189001.html

This should be an absolute non-story

5 asymptomatic cases and they're being sent to the hospital with a military escort?

That's insane. Are we sure this isn't just some exercise?

11 minutes ago, harkinmr said:

You know, for someone who thinks and says emphatically that it is a major inconvenience for cruise lines to meet the requirements of the CSO, they sure are doing so at a rapid clip. 

Seeing as it has taken 7 months for any cruise line to even get a shore agreement in place, I'm not sure I'd call that rapid.

Just now, jrapps said:

The NY Yankees would disagree with that percentage

But the CDC wouldn't, since that's where the percentage came from through their breakthrough case surveillance program.

23 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

There are many medical sites that say vaccinated people can still get covid.  Most of the cases do not get severely sick and most dont require hospitalization.  So all the more reason to be vaccinated.   It has been said on many news tv channels too.  I cannot believe you havent heard that.   You can google it.

Yet you have  a 0.01% chance of getting covid after vaccination. But yes, it's possible.

36 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

if this was a real issue then why didn’t the state legislature include these diseases in the law? 
I can answer that for you, they didn’t include them because it’s a nonsense argument. This just proves the political basis for this “law”.

If Governor DeSantis cared about your privacy he would have banned asking for proof of any and all vaccines. 

I'm not aware of any business that asks for proof of any vaccine to enter.

2 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

In reality there aren’t 2 paths. 
 

RCG has made it clear they do not have any plans that exclude children, so the “test cruises” route is the only route they can take. 

RC has already said they think the number of kids will be less than the 5% unvaccinated threshold. And this was before Pfizer included 12-15 yr olds

3 minutes ago, BOOKBOOKBOOK said:

It's possible that Royal is pursuing both routes for US restart. Perhaps the test cruise timeline will be such that these cruises will be ready by August (or some month later than the cruises with 95%/98% vaccination for passengers/crew). The most recent earnings call suggested that the company would pursue both paths outlined by the CSO anyway. It's good news that the ball is starting to roll, and maybe the test cruises will be ready for paid passenger sailings in July.

I would imagine all the cruise lines will pursue both paths in parallel.

Just now, cruiserking said:

I wish that was the case but, the CDC has already said that test cruises are on a per ship basis, which is real drag. It would be awesome if they changed to one test for the whole fleet. Changes are coming fast now so who knows. 

 

Jonathan

Right, the CDC has said a lot of things so far that they've changed their minds on.  Since the whole concept of a test cruise is woefully obsolete, I can't imagine cruise lines are too thrilled about doing one for every ship when it'll be extremely redundant to do so.

Test cruises are on a per-ship basis, so test cruises can occur at the same time as the 95% cruises.

Plus my uneducated guess is that there will be an attempt to have successful test cruises apply to the entire fleet, not just the sheet.

6 minutes ago, zekekelso said:

The cruise industry shutdown was a world wide thing, not a US thing. If it were due to CDC overreaction, we’d have seen tons of cruises, just not in the US. 

The initial shutdown didn't nearly destroy the cruise industry. The CDC's refusal to follow the science to allow cruising to start again did.

12 hours ago, zekekelso said:

Covid outbreaks nearly destroyed the industry.

The CDC nearly destroyed the industry, not covid

It'd be very unfair to kids to make them mask up the entire cruise, so I'd sure hope some new guidance is coming.

39 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

$249 for two flights that take less than an hour each way does not strike me as some sort of bargain.

Actually it is quite a bargain. Unless you're flying to some nondescript place in the middle of the week, flights are expensive right now since demand is increasing again