bouhunter

41 minutes ago, hollon said:

thank you EVERYONE WHO REPLIED, I decided on the Intercontinental, just hope it's nice for them as it use to be 🙂

Sonesta Opens First Resort in Puerto Rico Caribbean Journal (caribjournal.com)

I see it changed brands and had some major renovations, didn't know that until I googled it just now.  It was beautiful 3 years ago, should be even nicer now 🙂

1 hour ago, LeeW said:

You have three main choices for hotels in San Juan.  Downtown (older buildings with direct access to old city), Condado (just east) and Isla Verde (also called Carolina, just north of airport).  The first has no beaches.  Condado has fair beaches but may have heavy surf.  Isla Verde has an outer reef and several miles of nice beach.  More like a US beach town, with Walgreens, fast food.  All three have great hotels, but with the hurricane a few years back, covid and storms this year you need to look at recent reviews.  

We usually stay at Embassy Suites in Isla Verde pre-cruise because it is close to the Pueblo Market (wine) and has breakfast.  Couple blocks from beach.

Yeah Embassy Suites is nice.  Easy walk to beach and lots of restaurants etc.  Intercontinental in Isla Verda is on the beach and beautiful.  Marriott in Condado area is also very nice.  For a honeymoon I'd choose Intercontinental or Marriott.

Perhaps cruising during a pandemic isn't wise at age 77.

6 hours ago, HicksRA said:

Guess I must be weird.  It’s just a hunk of roast beef on a dry bun. Nothing special about it to me.  

Agree.  It's OK, but that is all.

Everything is changing all the time.  I wouldn't make a final payment if you know you aren't going to cruise and the only reason was to hope for a refund of a NRD.

3 hours ago, flamingos said:

Did you do the Alaska week before the cruise?  I was wondering if that is up and running as normal.

We're flying to Alaska in a couple weeks, will try to remember to post a report when we return 🙂

41 minutes ago, Pandamonia said:

 

Royal wont bat an eye lid? They are losing billions per month. In debt up to their eye balls and there is no end in sight of this virus. They cannot profitably run their business currently so maybe they wont care about 1 or 2 people but when the ships are empty and they stay empty they will care. 

 

Also my GPS location is not tracked on my phone because its turned off when not in use. My phone will not come and lock me up and force me in to quarantine because i was in the same room as someone who caught the virus. I wont have my liberty taken from me for 2 weeks by my vehicle and i wont be paying for the pleasure of it with my own money either!

 

The reason they are "tracking" you is so they can lock you up to protect their business. They dont give a monkey about you or your health. They wont be tracking me because i wont be paying to visit their prison ships!

Well said.  

Obviously the population here is split down the middle.  Some won't cruise with tracelets, masks, and endless ship/port restrictions.  Others will put up with absolutely anything to "get on a ship".

38 minutes ago, Tromler said:

I cant help but laugh at the comments here...if you dont like the requirements, dont cruise, i assure you that RCL wont bat an eye at you canceling your cruise.

 

Its laughable to think they are tracking you for anything malicious.  I assume you dont carry a cell phone at home either right?  Or you dont have OnStar enabled in your auto if equipped...or Alexa enabled on your Amazon devices....and so on and so on.

 

Believe me, you are not important enough for the cruiseline to be "tracking" you for any other purpose...the tracelet serves one purpose at this point in time...nothing more and nothing less.  

 

 

No one said otherwise.    You're implying that people are worried about things they aren't.  You're laughing at something that doesn't exist.  Too funny.  Some just aren't interested in cruising with tracelets and other restrictions and they're doing just as you said, not cruising.  And they couldn't care less whether or not RCCL "bats an eye".  Though I don't think corporations do that anyway.....

19 hours ago, jfio1021 said:

If your professional cruising opinion is chops grille worth it for an extra 55 bucks, are the quality of the steaks that much better than main dining room. Is it not even your favorite speciality restaurant on the oasis class ships? 

55.00 per person?   NO.

If required, enjoy wearing a tracking device on "vacation".  Also enjoy the venue restrictions, port restrictions, and ever present quarantine threat (thanks to the tracelet).

22 minutes ago, bestestboss said:

both our jan 2022 cruises were cancelled- vision 1/3 and radience-1/21 all in an email a few days ago.

now have to cancel air/parking/hotel to see if a credit or refund can be had. 

 fcc is useless with the short window to rebook

going to take a break from cruising now and hopefully things get better.

We were on Radiance Jan 21st also.  Fortunately we're driving to Florida for 3 months so no issues with air tickets.  Since they cancelled, we'll get our non-refundable deposit back 🙂  

We're taking a break too, next cruises are scheduled for January 2023.

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

 

 

Is all this really worth this when you come right down to it now?

 

 

Agreed.  We sailed 6 weeks January-March 2020.  Glad we did because we have no interest in it now and no idea when we will again.  I'm amazed how many people are lining up for all the restrictions, protocols and risks.  More power to them.

21 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

When you sail away from the pier, maybe.

That sums it up nicely.  They cancelled our January Radiance cruise and we're happy.  Now we can get back that non-refundable deposit.

This thread makes me even happier that they cancelled our January Radiance cruise.  We're D+, and we're done with cruising until 2023.  At least.

We were booked on Radiance 9 nights in January.  Gladly taking a refund.

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

RCI will want to keep their cash cows like O class going no matter what - booking those or a short cruise on Mariner/Freedom may be safe. 

At the reduced occupancy they're sailing, there probably are no cash cows.

5 hours ago, dominicr said:

this is exactly my problem with the way cancelations are being done.  I do not have a problem with the cruise lines canceling cruises as that is their decision but the timing of them is very suspect.  They are waiting until people make their final payments then doing the cancellations for the interest free loans.  I’m sure there are people out there who aren’t fortunate enough to have ample money in the bank and zero balances on credit cards.  I’m not here to judge people on their spending habits but people do need vacations and mental breaks to get away.  Putting a couple thousand dollars on a credit card that has a balance and now paying interest on it for several months just isn’t fair to those folks because a big company needs free money.  I’d actually like to see someone file a lawsuit against some of these companies to see what would come out of discovery and if this was planned that way.  If a company takes your money knowing they will not be giving you goods or services then that is the textbook definition of fraud. 

I would hope there aren't many people foolish enough to pay credit card interest rates to purchase a future cruise............

5 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Sure would be nice to actually get the email from RC about my cancelation. 

We just did.  Will gladly take a refund and walk away for now, who knows when cruising will ever be back to normal.

17 minutes ago, Babr said:

 

 

As far as driving home on your own after testing positive, I think the idea is that they can’t be sure you’d go straight home. They need to limit your contact with other people, and the way to do that is quarantine.

 

 

Covid has been raging nationwide and around the world for 18 months.  I think it's just a little late and beyond absurd to try to monitor individual cases regardless where they are or where they came from.  Good grief.

3 hours ago, rtazz17 said:

The only sure bet is that the protocols will change when you go. 

Yep.  And with the current media/government hysteria over covid, things aren't likely to improve over the next 2-3 months.  

The hotels in Doral allow quick access to the turnpike if you're interested in a drive part way down the Keys one day, or for an airboat ride in the Everglades.

We're in northern Michigan too and it's almost cold here this morning...... 🙂

Agree it's saying vaxed guests no subject to same testing requirements.  Of course that could change today or tomorrow or next month......

On 7/29/2021 at 11:16 AM, Cigar King said:

We have missed Grand Cayman quite often due to weather, so even if it's back on that's no guarantee you'll go.  (although at least it's a chance)

Good point.  Any cruise any time, Grand Cayman is a bigger question mark than most Caribbean ports.

16 minutes ago, PS0DSH said:

You’re missing the point. The vaccine is supposed to greatly increase the survivability if you have a breakthrough infection. The survivability in this case is about 1/3 of what it is for those who are non-vaccinated and get infected.  Currently if a non-vaccinated person catches COVID-19, the chance of death is about .75%. For breakthrough cases it’s over three times that high, 2.7%

You're missing the point.  The percentage of fully vaxed being hospitalized or dying is VERY SMALL.  Regardless, that 2.7% is irrelevant.  There are likely tens of thousands of vaxed people in TN who got covid and were asymptomatic and never got tested.

27 minutes ago, PS0DSH said:

Here ya go.  Out of 1000 breakthrough cases, 195 hospitalizations and 27 deaths.  So about 22% of breakthrough cases were severe in nature and 2.7% resulted in deaths

 

https://www.wkrn.com/news/1000-breakthrough-cases-of-covid-19-reported-in-tennessee/

So if 2,642,000 people in TN have been vaxed and 27 died, death rate is .001%.  "Breakthrough" rate overall .03%.  Roughly .01% of the US population dies in auto accidents annually.