dswallow

On 9/26/2022 at 3:38 PM, Nessa1dc said:

I received $750 in Free Play for my cruise in February on the Enchantment.  How do they give you the money?  Chips, slots? 

You go to the cashier cage to sign for it. You can choose to add it to your SeaPass card as FreePlay so it's usable in slot machines or to get promo money chips which as you gamble using them get traded out for regular chips.

45 minutes ago, mom2miracles said:

 

Not by the Canadian Government you don't. If testing is required, it would be because of the specific cruise line. You also MUST be vaccinated to enter Canada. If you aren't, you have to do a 14 day mandatory quarantine with testing on days 1 and 8 and can still be fined.  

COVID-19: Cruise ship travel requirements – Travel.gc.ca

1-833-570-2594

The Bridge of the Americas limits the height above the waterline of ships to 190 feet; and at low water exceptions as high as 205 feet can be made. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge has a clearance of 228 feet, which allows an Oasis Class ship to transit after lowing smokestacks. You'd need to slice another 23 feet off an Oasis class ship to get through the Panama Canal -- approximately two decks and maybe part of a third. And that's also assuming the transit through the canal can accommodate the width of Oasis class ships wherever the max width of 198 feet is reached -- I suppose that could be the bridge as opposed to lifeboat-to-lifeboat widths. Which may be passable. 🙂

This is a link to Michael Bayley's post on Facebook addressing the double points and FCCs. It's possible that Cruise Critic will obscure the URL, so just fix it up with the appropriate domain.

https://www.facebook.com/MichaelBayleyRoyalCaribbean/posts/404579781455536

Federal law basically prohibits cruise ships from being used for transportation. They are floating hotels that visit ports and return. Heck, Federal law prohibits them from just going out to sea and returning, really.

The CDC is being blatantly hostile with cruise lines. There's absolutely no basis for it considering every single other industry anywhere is not under those rules, or even under any obligation to test and/or report. And any mention whatsoever of these being voluntary gets a wink-wink nudge-nudge concerning how they'll bring the hammer down in any way possible if they don't "voluntarily" comply.

7 minutes ago, kayjaypea42 said:

I will be going directly home after the cruise.  I thought they changed their policy to NOT offer tests onboard.  Am I wrong?  I would be so so happy to be wrong!!

Onboard testing is now just for those on a B2B. There's supposed to be options in the terminal (at your expense) to get tested for flights home or any other need.

I've found myself several times lately wandering through Windjammer at lunch time and leaving without anything. Very disappointing. There's something extremely diminished about the selection of foods there.

Anyway, every time I also get accosted by someone when leaving asking if I had a problem since they see me drop my empty plate and silverware on a table as I leave, and I tell them I found the selection very disappointing and not worth bothering with. 

I haven't really done much more beyond that. Mostly as I do comprehend that things are going to be different while sailing with 50% capacity or less. Doesn't mean I'm not going to find myself very disappointed about what they serve; I'm just not going to push back too much about it at the moment. 🙂 But I still think they can be doing better day to day; it's mostly like an exact repeating menu day to day -- and a bad one.

That's not to say that I don't sometimes find something. It's just that I never used to be able to not find anything I wanted.

From an email on 12/8/2021 about my Anthem 1/31/2022 sailing:

From an email received 1/24/2022 about my Anthem 1/31/2022 sailing:

6 hours ago, Jimbo said:

I bet that tiny number looks bigger if it turns out to be yourself ?

Quite a few things look bigger to the person looking than they do to others who are looking.

1 hour ago, Tree_skier said:

There are pictures posted on twitter, which I have seen and are available for anyone who wants to look, of people shooting heroin in the middle of the aqua theatre.

I think you may need to review what "shooting heroin" means/entails.

I was once given a number of pages of guest comment excerpts by the folks at Walt Disney World which they had received in regard to Gay Day at Disney. It was quite clear many of the people who had written in were doing so because they'd heard from friends/fellow churchers they could get freebies. Others were laughably uninformed. One that stood out is the letter from someone claiming to have witnessed two men perform fellatio while standing in a waiting line, in front of their children. Seriously? You wait till you get home so you can talk to your pastor and be given the OK to write a letter complaining about it happening? Laughable.

I suspect the person saw two men kissing.

Fellatio does not mean what that person apparently thinks it means.

I saw one video that, during a pan, appeared to be someone lifting a utensil from a bottle to their nose, in the middle of a party at the Aqua Theater. It's not clear at all, and it could have been inhaling poppers, too, though I suspect the utensil use is enough to be convincingly dissuaded from believing it's poppers -- unless there's some variant of poppers that's used that way. But it's most certainly still not shooting heroin. Nor is it something I haven't seen on other sailings myself, that weren't part of a charter, at least once, either.

Part of the problem with the postings here about the Atlantis charter is the scrutiny people are giving it. I can assure you that a similar scrutiny given to things occurring on other sailings would come up with some similar behaviors. Perhaps not all at the same time, of course, but it's hardly uncommon that many of these sorts of things go on.

The other part is that some people are apparently unable to differentiate what sorts of things may be allowable in general on full ship private charter vs a public cruise. There are many other full ship charters that occur each year that involve swingers and nudists, for instance, that have equally "objectionable" behaviors you would not expect on a public sailing. Usually the "objectionable public behaviors" on regular sailings occur in the hot tubs or in some more out-of-the-way deck areas at night, rather in the middle of a dance area.

Anyway, so far nothing appears particular worrisome post-cruise. We'll see as people spend the next few days at home how that pans out. Many reports of COVID come from people posting after their sailing, since there'd would usually be a delay for symptoms to appear, or simply for someone to get tested after an incubation period passes. But at the same time, I still have to compare it to the incidence we see in the general public on land right now, too, and have yet to see anything occur on any of the ships that is worse what's occurring in everyone's home neighborhoods.

 

2 hours ago, Jimbo said:

My opinion, I don't see it that way in less you follow each passenger for the next 3 to 5 days and see if they contract the virus or not and if they do  how many die from complications. Then and only then do we not know  if  or not the protocols helped or not?

 

Protocols may not save everyone from dieing but if it was to happen to you or your loved one you will be grateful those protocols were in place.

Do the same for one or two other sailings, too. And let's actually do the same for grocery shopping, sporting/musical event attendance, a stay in Las Vegas, airline flights, and some restaurants.

We know how many are dying from complications -- a pretty tiny number right now, in total. If some statistically significant number of them had just gotten off a cruise ship in the last week or two, we'd be hearing about it.

So now the conspiracy theory is that they're intentionally not testing and hiding those that may be noticed as needing testing.

The only people ever tested on Royal Caribbean ships since the Nassau departures on Adventure of the Seas are those people asking to be tested, such as those needing a test for entry into their home country (i.e., Canada, UK, et. al). And those identified onboard when someone is discovered to be positive and contact tracing leads to others being tested.

Finally, the crew is tested regularly, at least weekly. Every single one of them. And contact tracing takes place with them as well.

If you're not symptomatic, and you're not identified through contact tracing with someone who tested positive, you're not going to get tested onboard, charter or not. And believe it or not, most people who aren't symptomatic don't go getting tested anywhere, whether they were on a cruise, traveled by air, were at a restaurant, or in a crowd at a stadium.

 

You know passengers are not tested onboard before they leave the ship, right?

That only happened on sailings out of Nassau, and then only really because people on those sailings usually had to fly home and needed a test for that.

If someone is not showing any symptoms, there's really nothing that's going to mean they'll take a COVID test, short of contact tracing with someone who did show symptoms who was tested and came back positive.

So, no, there's not going to be any huge positive number of passenger cases from this or any other US sailing.

Crew are a different matter, because they are being tested at least weekly most everywhere, though in some cases on a rolling basis (i.e., the whole crew on a ship isn't tested on the same day). That's where these latest big outbreaks in the news really come from/are about. Crew. And the crew really is, in passenger areas, doubly masked, with an N95/KN95 mask under their normal cloth one. And those large parties outside? The crew really isn't amidst them at all, while the parties are going on. The charter company staff is there.

So, short of all the crazy speculative fiction going on in places like here, so far, nothing is really particularly problematic.  Yeah, plenty of stuff is going on aboard some people here on in the general public may not particularly like to know about. But that's hardly anybody's problem but the people having opinions about things they're not involved in at all; kinda a common problem among busy-bodies/Americans in general, I suppose.

2 hours ago, The Grumpus said:

I never thought I'd see the day, but here it is.  Pricing out Symphony of the Seas for 04/09/22 and discovered that it would be cheaper to book two connecting balcony cabins (1 single occupancy, 1 double occupancy) than booking a one triple occupancy balcony cabin.  I think Royal Caribbean might be over thinking how they are pricing out triples these days.  I see no disadvantage not to book the two connecting cabins over the single.

 

 

A significant portion is the additional Crown & Anchor Balcony discount being applied, since that's limited to one discount per cabin. Booking two cabins would entail a second person being eligible for a Crown & Anchor discount in order to receive that, which at least for a spouse/significant other, is likely always possible.

This isn't new, though. It happened back in August/September for most all the remaining 2021 sailings where effectively there was no single supplement for anyone; you could book 2 cabins for 2 people for less than 1 cabin for 2 people because of the additional balcony discount applied. It always is good to look at various options when pricing things out.

FWIW, there are NOT 5,500 passengers onboard; a month ago, there were only 4,300. And you can be sure that's lower now with no-shows and people who have chosen to not go or who were not able to get a negative test, or whose flights were not able to get into Miami in time. Even if they cannot cancel or take advantage of cruise with confidence, many did have travel insurance to provide this specific sort of coverage.

BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card Home Test - Letter Granting EUA Revision(s) (January 7, 2022) (emed.com)

9 hours ago, Daghis said:

I feel like I won the lottery.

 

One of my offers (comped JS or balcony on a bunch of sailings) was expiring today, and I really hated letting it go. Then, I saw that I'd had a new offer added. Both offers included sailings out of Cape Liberty.

 

I saw that for the 5-night Canada cruise on Adventure of the Seas that includes Memorial Day for which I had a comped JS offer actually did have one junior suite available. Then, I was able to use the other offer for a second 5-night cruise, this time to Bermuda.

 

Then, using FCCs that have been burning a hole in my pocket, I picked up a (paid-for) junior suite on the 4-night Canada sailing between the two comped sailings, and I was even able to get the same cabin for the first sailing. (The third sailing of this B2B2B is in a different JS.) Oh, and for some reason, the pricing ended up looking like this:

 

 

Hubby's never been to Bermuda, but I did once years ago (Hi, @RFerrington!). Neither of us have been to Halifax, so that'll be new. I grew up in Maine, but I've not seen Bar Harbor since 1980. It'll be neat to go there again.

 

The only money out of pocket for all three sailings are the taxes/fees and prepaid gratuities. So, if these sailings don't happen (or change my mind about them), I don't feel so bad. (I do wonder whether the FCCs would retain their original sailing date or be updated to the 5/31/22 sailing date to which they were applied.)

You're done your B2B2B before the 6/14 Adventure sailing, right? I was considering that, though that it's a 4-night mid-week cruise it'll probably be a pass, it was about the only promo offer that I haven't had some sort of conflict with that wasn't sailing out of Florida or Texas.

17 hours ago, PiperHolliday said:

We were at Spectra when the captain made his announcement, so we didn't hear it. 

 

I had a lot of feelings about Spectra. I really wanted to like it. There was a lot that I did like about it. But alas...it's still a cruise ship show. Please don't shoot me, but I'm always let down by cruise ship shows. I just expect them to be mediocre. The only cruise entertainment that has blown me away is on Virgin. I think a big part of the issue is the audience that just sat there like lumps on a log, not giving any expression or interest to the performers. There's got to be a bit of chemistry and this audience just did not give it. But it takes two, and while the artists and performers were very talented, I feel something was missing from the directing/writing/producing end of the show. It needs to grab and engage and it fell a bit short there. I felt they needed to push it a bit further to hit the mark. But it's still pretty great for a cruise ship. I'll probably forget about it in a couple of weeks, just like most other cruise shows. 

The current production of Spectra's Cabaret is missing a lot of content because they do not yet have a full staff onboard to be able to put on the show in its entirety, such as riggers for the aerial performances. That likely eliminates a lot of the WOW factor at times, too.

3 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

I have never heard of / seen a "Family" Spectra.  I wonder what they do to the show.................

Likely just the terminology carrying over for the mixed unvaccinated/vaccinated show vs vaccinated-only show.

They're rotating bartenders on most ships pretty often right now, so it's unlikely even just a few weeks after your sailing that the bartender you had at a particular venue is still working in that venue. You'll definitely at least need a name and maybe a photo to pass along for someone to find them.

15 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

My wife is a full time wheelchair user. She is unable to stand unaided, let alone walk. As a result, flying is not an option for us as she would be unable to use the tiny toilets on planes, unless you know of any airlines that have fully wheelchair accessible bathrooms on board? That is why we only travel on round trip cruises from the U.K. Cruising during Covid hasn’t appealed to us due to all the on board restrictions and the risk of being confined to a cabin, but are completely impractical for us now due to the very real risk of being offloaded from the ship to a quarantine hotel overseas.

Wheelchair Accessible Airplane Lavatories & Bathrooms - Wheelchair Travel

Thinking about how this was sprung on the cruise lines at the last minute for ships calling in these few days after announcement, think about how it could be addressed and what has to be negotiated and arranged...

If San Juan won't allow anyone to debark at the port without testing negative in the previous 2 days, should they be getting port fees based on the full 100% complement of passengers? Royal Caribbean could provide testing to those wishing to disembark, even at a cost, but they would need staffing aboard to handle that, as well as testing supplies.

So there are things to negotiate that impact both costs for the passenger/cruise line, as well as staffing needs they didn't previously expect to have. Give them a chance.