AdoraBelle

24 minutes ago, ghstudio said:

Unfortunately, vaccine cards are available on-line so, as always, there will be some who view this like buying a fake service dog certificate. 

Or to put another way: lots of our fellow humans are comfortable with committing fraud.

Congrats to those of you on that first Edge sailing. I opted to just take my money out of FL for now, but it does mean I don’t cruise till August. (And only then if NCL can get their staffing act together.)

Enjoy the win.

3 minutes ago, richstowe said:

Unintentionally hilarious . You threaten large fines for a bill you put it then get one minion to insist nothing stands in the way of cruising while another stooge insists that it's the CDC's responsibility to help the industry avoid these fines .

Goodness gracious .

Trying to walk the thinnest of lines between nailing down the anti-vax vote and, you know, actually supporting businesses and tourism.

1 minute ago, cscurlock said:

Looks like an exemption is being drafted for vaccinated cruising.

 

In the clip, the Celebrity Cruises executive is heard outlining how DeSantis is working with the largest cruise lines — Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line — to find a workaround. When the governor came out with his prohibition against vaccine verifications, “he was talking about restaurants, bars, hotels, Disney, places that weren’t cruise ships — because at the time, cruise ships weren’t open yet,” explained Ritzenthaler. “And we’re ironing out a statement that will articulate how cruising will be different than [being] in the state.”

Apparently, the revised messaging would assert that the cruise terminal will be in Florida, while “as soon as you pass through and step on the ship, you’re no longer considered to be local. You’re now in international waters,” said Ritzenthaler, who noted that DeSantis will still be able to say “that people in Florida will not have to show vaccination proof to go to bars

Yeah, I linked it two posts up. 🙂

I assume people are going to keep bickering here though. 🙂

https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2021/05/30/florida-governor-ron-desantis-cruise-line-exemption-vaccine-passport-ban/?sh=62a45f395ed5
 

“On a call with travel agents last Thursday, Dondra Ritzenthaler, senior VP of sales, trade support and service at Celebrity Cruises, discussed “the elephant in the room,” according a scoop in the unofficial Royal Caribbean Blog, which is not affiliated with the cruise line. The blog’s founder, Matt Hochberg, was not on the call but obtained an audio recording, which he shared with Forbes.

In the clip, the Celebrity Cruises executive is heard outlining how DeSantis is working with the largest cruise lines — Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line — to find a workaround. When the governor came out with his prohibition against vaccine verifications, “he was talking about restaurants, bars, hotels, Disney, places that weren’t cruise ships — because at the time, cruise ships weren’t open yet,” explained Ritzenthaler. “And we’re ironing out a statement that will articulate how cruising will be different than [being] in the state.”

Apparently, the revised messaging would assert that the cruise terminal will be in Florida, while “as soon as you pass through and step on the ship, you’re no longer considered to be local. You’re now in international waters,” said Ritzenthaler, who noted that DeSantis will still be able to say “that people in Florida will not have to show vaccination proof to go to bars and restaurants and Walmart and Target, but how cruising is a little bit different.”

Meanwhile:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2021/05/30/florida-governor-ron-desantis-cruise-line-exemption-vaccine-passport-ban/?sh=62a45f395ed5

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Is Crafting An Exemption For Cruise Lines To His ‘Vaccine Passport’ Ban

I guess he remembered he likes money.

Have an offer for a four month free trial. Somehow had never heard of it.

1 hour ago, coastcat said:

Yes. They'll blare a loud ship-wide alarm at 3am to make sure everyone's awake and ready to depart.

After the alarm, don’t forget to line up outside your cabin door for the mandatory deep nasal swab!

Lots of drama has happened since I made this post, of the re-arranged and canceled cruises variety. It's made me wonder if I picked the wrong moment to get back into the game, but so far my cruise still seems to exist.

I do think it's underbooked (so far), based on booking sites that let you see a wider range of available rooms. I have a hunch that it will start to book up if cruises out of Florida start happening and people become more confident. (I'm not mentioning Florida beyond that, because that's obviously a conversational landmine.) In the meantime, I feel bad for the people who have gotten screwed over by NCL. Hopefully I won't become one of them. 

Because of the drama this past week, I haven't really done any more research or planning--when I come to the boards, I get sucked into the Joy/Gem threads instead. I'm still mostly thinking about clothing. I have such a hard time packing light, even for hot climates, and at the same time I hate having more stuff than I can move around by myself (solo). I'm not a fashionista by any stretch, I just hate re-wearing clothes, especially once they have absorbed restaurant odors. I'm hoping I can pick up some super lightweight travel/rain jackets from some place like North Face.

I haven't done much port research yet either, other than a few videos. I'm pretty sure I've seen three distinct itineraries so far for my sailing:

1) The one at the time of booking, which included Victoria, which we knew wasn't going to happen
2 )The one I received in email which includes the line "HOLKHAM BAY GLACIER FJORD"

3) The one that appears on NCL's site now, which does not include the Holkam Bay line OR Victoria, but does include the line: "Endicott Arm & Dawes Glacier"

So I don't even know for sure where we're going or when. Which is basically fine with me for the moment.

4 hours ago, coastcat said:

I have copies of Snuff, Raising Steam, and The Shepherd’s Crown but can’t quite bring myself to read them yet, knowing there will be no more. 

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to read Shepherd’s Crown. 😞 (Re-listening to Night Watch on audiobook this week though.)

Almost the entire 12th floor of the solo studio area is unbooked for my Alaska sailing. I'm probably going to end up regretting not waiting for price drops. Although we're still > 2 months out. 

2 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Alaska is WAY high on Celebrity and NCL.

But those prices aren't necessarily being snapped up. It's been a few days since I looked at one of the 'forbidden' travel sites, but it was showing massive availability on my Alaska sailing. 

3 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Well $25,000+ in cruise fare unused from last March thru June plus a 25% FCC bonus and several 25-50% off bonus perk bookings seems like a great return to me.  Re booking several cruises (ok, maybe more than several) using that same FCC and bonus certs has been a huge return for me. I made sure to book cruises starting late this fall all the way thru the end of 2023.

Interesting. Other people describe having to try to re-use the same 10% off coupon over and over. 

25 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

The cynic in me believes that the OP simply wants fewer people to book so that it's easier for him to score a last minute deal....

I mean, I don't know if you've noticed, but the forums here aren't exactly overrun with posters anymore. I think OP would need a solid social media platform elsewhere to make a dent. 🙂

It also sounds like the bookings on the solid-seeming Alaska cruises have been pretty soft so far anyway. 

I do think that people who optimistically kept making cruise reservations while there were still 1000 people dying a day in the US from COVID19 were ... unreasonably optimistic, and probably should have realized they were just loaning cash to the cruise lines. 

I think the thing with various lines trying to home port out of non-FL ports and then cancelling those cruises was super rude, but also totally on brand for the cruise industry. The billion dollar corporation doesn't love you back.

I think cruise lines ARE going to have staffing issues. Where are those crew members going to come from? Will they still want to work in this industry after the way they were treated during the pandemic? Who is handling the logistics and vaccinations?  How about supply chain and provisioning issues?

Can't disagree with OP that anti-vax sentiments in the US are truly depressing. 

All that said, I do think a few cruises are going to manage to get off the ground in July and August. Hopefully mine in mid Aug will be one. If not, well, I was obviously too optimistic also. 

17 minutes ago, Jonslola said:

Thanks for sharing, great news! That means the excursions will start showing up for my cruise in August, woo hoo!

Hmm, they've been there for me, but I don't know Alaska and I don't know if I should be seeing more excursions than a couple of 'lumberjack shows'. 🙂

10 minutes ago, SSFun said:

I would also  agree with @AdoraBelle, they did begin to  use a lot more chlorine in the last few years. It bothered my eyes as well.

Interesting, I wasn’t sure if they were using more or I just got more sensitive to it. (Doesn’t take much to set off a headache these days.)

Not sure. US is in a much better place now, but still at 20k ish new cases per day. I’m also completely ignorant on how international travelers are handled (for example, can someone fly in from the UK and take this cruise?). 

13 minutes ago, khuselid said:

Since O requires ALL to be vaccinated, why the mask requirement? CDC says we can be indoors without masks if we are all vaccinated. So just wondering what you know? We have a cruise scheduled for Nov. 7 and final payment is coming due. We don't want to cruise with masks. I know none of you has a crystal ball, but I am wondering if anyone has heard anything regarding this issue. I imagine, if things keep getting better that things will change by November. I am also wondering what going onshore will look like.

 

I do wish we could defer final payment for a couple of months until things become clearer. 

Things are changing very fast right now. I would be shocked if that’s still true by November. Pretty sure it’s already changed on NCL. Might just not have updated the O website yet. Lots of scrambling going on.

I used to be a thermal suite evangelist, but as some point the chlorine (or whatever chemicals they use in the water features) started really bothering my eyes and giving me headaches. It does hang in the air. Just a counterpoint for those who are sensitive to such things. 

5 minutes ago, winterbliss said:

How about someone is choking in front of you on the ship...will you render aid only if you can be assured that he or she is vaccinated? 

It sounds more and more like medical apartheid, if there's such a thing....

Wow. That was an impressive leap.

43 minutes ago, SplashOfWater said:

I LOVED the fried plantains! So sad when they replaced Flamingo Grill with Margaritaville. 

I live in an area with no good Cuban or similar restaurants. My first cruise ever was on the Getaway and I was SO excited when I found FG. I guess it was my first meal on a cruise ship ever, come to think of it.

So sad we lost that one to a crappy a la carte chain restaurant.

Wonder if they're hoping to be able to do Caribbean for winter ...

RIP Flamingo Grill. 

2 minutes ago, Cruzinnana47 said:

Good news for certain, but for me personally....not quite comfortable with the buffet area yet.  Seeing how some people "grab" items and then return them to serving areas when they change their mind, I was always a little put off, now more so.  If we were to be served items from crew members through the line, I'm ok with that.

My only counterpoints would be that covid19 is generally not spread through food or incidental surface contact (even if not taking into the account that everyone 'should' be vaccinated), and that I doubt NCL is going be able to round up enough staff in the short term for service from each buffet station. 

Actually interested to see how this plays out--I like the buffet because I travel solo and don't like sitting around in restaurants for 90 minutes. 

I do understand that norovirus is real, and that some people are grossed out by buffets. (Or object to them for other reasons, such as waste and gluttony.) But it's not really a covid thing. 

1 hour ago, spanishguy1970 said:

I just think is time for NCL to sweeten the pot for loyal customers. IMO.

I've literally never seen them do that once in six years of sailing. 🙂