GaNavy

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I hope you get an answer soon! In the meantime, does your trip insurance cover cancellation due to covid?

Good point, but if you're on a 7-day or longer, the laundry service lets you pack less or come home with clean clothes...or maybe both. If you don't drink alcohol (and I don't), four free drinks is also a so-what, whereas having Royal do your laundry (there's no self-service) can get pretty pricey. I'm platinum on Carnival and will be diamond on Royal after my next cruise - both programs are pleasant enough, but neither is generous enough by itself to encourage me choose one over the other. I'm happy to sail either (or Celebrity or Princess or...) based on time, itinerary and cost.

Drinks AND laundry. 👍

I'm baffled by the NY limits on this vax unless there just aren't enough doses. I'm monogamous and married, and my husband and I had no trouble getting the vax here in DC - only had to wait maybe 3 days. There aren't enough doses here either, but the solution has been to use all that we have on first shots for any gay man who wants one - and apparently anyone else who wants one, especially if they have multiple partners - and wait to give second doses until there's more supply. That makes sense to me.

Not quite true that vaccinations don't prevent infections. A study published last week, title: "Effectiveness of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines against Omicron and Delta variants in a matched test-negative case-control study among US veterans" concludes "Among an older, mostly male, population with comorbidities, we found that an mRNA vaccine booster was highly effective against infection, hospitalisation and death. Although the effectiveness of booster vaccination against infection was moderately higher against Delta than against the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant, effectiveness against severe disease and death was similarly high against both variants." Here's a link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35922100/ So yes, vax doesn't provide as much protection against omicron as it does against other variants, and I know this was an older population studied, but to say that vax doesn't protect against infection is a little misleading. I'm fine with vax requirements for cruises - if it's bad for the business model to exclude unvaxed passengers, it may be even worse if serious cases among unvaxed start showing up on ships, especially if some of them are kids. Yes I know that kids aren't as likely to catch covid as adults, but that won't matter if they do, especially given the public relations disaster that would present to the cruise lines.

Will they also turn the Solstice Deck into a suite sun deck? That would be sad indeed for everyone on the TA who might be planning on using it but aren't in suites. Celebrity has beautiful ships, not so crazy about their business model - lots of upcharges, "exclusive" stuff for this and that, cutting up the observation lounge for one big new suite, etc.

You won't really want to do that, and even if you did, RCL's IT department wouldn't be able to process it.

Solo pax still get double points - which is only fair since we often pay 2x to sail... If Royal really wanted to do us a solid, they'd take a cue from Carnival (yes, I said it!) platinum level and add free laundry to the Diamond list.

Having sailed in both, I'd agree that ANY balcony is better than an inside - so no, there are no bad balconies.😉 I hope you have a great cruise!

Stock prices are based on what a buyer and a seller agree on, which may or may not have anything to do with past, present or future performace of the company. All of the cruise lines are saddled with enormous debt from money they borrowed to stay in operation during the shutdown, much of which is coming due soon and will have to be refinanced at higher rates than the original loan. Then there's the cost of newbuilds. They need to sail at full capacity-plus and at the highest prices they can get (seen drink/specialty restaurant prices lately?) so that they have at least half a chance of servicing that debt. And even that is uncertain. Guessing that that's why the stock price isn't going up.

Agreed. A good cuppa depends on both the coffee and the water it's brewed with. I've been told that the difference between gas station Starbucks and "real" Starbucks is that the barista shops all have a system for filtering the water, whereas the gas station will just use what comes from the tap - that's why what you get from the Starbucks store is likely to taste better than what you get from gas station Starbucks.

I haven't sailed on MSC but of the other three, I probably prefer Carnival as long as it's not school vacation so that the ship isn't overrun with kids. Celebrity, Princess, and RCL are all nice, too, for different reasons - Celeb for very modern decor and interesting food choices, Princess for a quality relaxed traditional cruise experience, and Royal for entertainment. I like Carnival for its festive vibe, no reservations required for entertainment, and great free food choices. Drawbacks: Celebrity has lots of upcharges and they promote them relentlessly, Princess can be a little staid, and RCL's Oasis and Quantum classes can be overwhelming with reservations being required basically for everything you want to do. With Carnival...there's the kids, not the drunks, there are no more drunks on Carnival than any of the others. In the end, they're all more similar than different - the ocean is the same for everyone, and they all go to the same ports in the Caribbean. I suggest, though, that you go for a 7-day RCL cruise, it will give you a better idea of what the line is really about than the shorter Indy cruise, which will be more of a party boat just because it's a shorter cruise.

Amen. The AMP has a bad impact on public recreation spaces, especially the gyms. But maybe Royal has decided that gyms don't make money so it doesn't matter - when I was on Anthem this year, I was shocked that there was only a tiny thermal suite and - get this - no locker rooms for the gyms, not even a shower. That's a deal breaker for me - no more Quantum class, or any other ship with so few facilities, for this cruiser. Looking forward to that enormous thalasso pool in the Explorer gym this fall, even if it's the last time....