gatour

21 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Actually, capacity control is not all that difficult under current conditions when the lines re-start sailings. A lot of people have cancelled their cruises (we've cancelled 5 so far through July), and if the lines close their re-start sailings to any new bookings then the capacity on the ships will be whomever had already booked prior to the halt and didn't cancel.

This was my thoughts when I first read the original post.  Plus I don't think there will be a mad rush of people wanting to book last minute cruises.

5 minutes ago, 20165 said:

umm, the one that is outlined on RCLs website, hence the reason i said i read through the contract on RCL...

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/plan-a-cruise/transportation

 

I read through the policy for Florida residents, not knowing what state you live in.  It looks like if you can cancel for any reason right up to departure and get 75% of your fare "refunded" as FCC...

Any Reason” Cruise Credits…............................equal to 75% of the non-refundable pre-paid Cruise Vacation Cost In the event that you choose to cancel for a reason not authorized above or for a reason that is otherwise restricted, at any time up until departure, and you have purchased the Royal Caribbean Travel Protection Program, Royal Caribbean International will provide you a cruise credit equal to 75% of the non-refundable value (excluding AIR2SEA) of your Cruise Vacation prepaid to Royal Caribbean International, for your use toward a future cruise. T

36 minutes ago, fairweather said:

Urgent care units do routine exams for school sports participants all the time. This is not an urgent situation.

 

These facilities offer easy access while providing routine care for those who don't want to wait for an appointment with a regular doctor's office. Most primary care doctors now function more as gatekeepers for the insurance companies, deciding when you need to see a specialist. Their nurse practitioners do most of the exams.

 

Most urgent care facilities would be more than happy to provide the service I outlined which would greatly increase their profits. A majority of these places are personally owned by physicians who don't make all that much money as primary care doctors any longer, so they went out on their own and set up these new alternative care units.

 

Depending on where you live you are so wrong.

Where I live in Florida most of the urgent care units are owned by Hospitals and not privately owned by physicians.  The hospitals are either non-profit (Baptist/St Vincent(Ascension) or privately owned by large national chains (HCA).

In fact many primary care physicians have moved out of having their own practices and joined practices owned by above hospitals. 

In regards to primary doctors being "gate keepers" that ended years ago.  I don't have to see my primary care doctor to visit a dermatologist, podiatrist etc.  I just need to go to my insurance company's website, do a look up for a particular specialist and call for an appointment. 

41 minutes ago, steveru621 said:

 

How long is OK?  Should RCI raise their cruise prices to keep dozens of people on the payroll just in case there is a worldwide pandemic?

 

I'm not trying to dismiss your feelings, but I'm not sure what passengers would find acceptable.

As a corollary, the state of Florida is way behind in processing unemployment claims.  On Monday the Governor and the head of the Unemployment department said everything thing was hunky-dory since they threw 75 more servers at the problem.  I am think they got them from a different department.  Guess what everything is still not hunky dory, people are still getting kicked out of the system and waiting inordinate amount of time to talk to a real person.

To the poster that steveru621 was responding to...as a tax payer would want your tax dollars pay for servers to sit idle and state employees sit around twiddling their thumbs just in case there is a spike in unemployment claims?

Companies operate the same way.  You get a spike and the normal processes slow down as they work through the additional volume.

On 4/5/2020 at 8:29 AM, teaysvalley said:

Not true.  The US State Department has been repatriating Americans stuck in foreign countries.  I read 40,000 plus so far.

The Coast Guard said this  the highlighting is mine...

"Over the weekend, the Coast Guard issued new rules directing all cruise ships to remain at sea where they may be sequestered “indefinitely” during the outbreak and be prepared to send any severely ill passengers to the countries where the vessels are registered."

Notice how it said "any severely ill passengers"   Didn't differentiate between US citizens vs non-US citizens.

1 hour ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

With all the trouble Iran causes in the shipping lanes through the Straight of Hormuz and inside the gulf, I don't see that happening. They've proven to have little regard for international waters, especially when it comes to Western nations. Add to that Somalia & Yemen at the entrance to the Red Sea. A lot would have to be done to guarantee the safety of passengers, not to mention all the PR work that would have to be done to give the average tourist peace of mind to cruise to that area. I have a hard time believing it'd happen, and I definitely don't think it could happen by next year.

I guess you don't know  that Royal Carribean has been doing cruises in the Arabian Gulf for several years now.

4 hours ago, MommytoAsquared said:

Carnival will stay AFLOAT - Love it!

None of the stock buy will help Carnival's cash position.  As near as I can tell, it was a more or less an "open market" buy instead of Carnival issuing new stock.  Saudi is betting that Carnival will survive and their stock will appreciate in value.

Is this issuance of new stock?  If it bought existing stock then it really doesn't help Carnival's cash position as the proceeds went to the entities that owned the stock.

Doing a bit more looking around, it looks like the bought existing stock, so the Saudi's are betting that Carnival will survive and the stock price will rebound.

14 hours ago, time4u2go said:

Royal's headquarters is in Florida so that could prove to be a challenge.

Why?  The CEO of Bank of America say 72% of its work force is working from home.  The bank seems to be open.  And if you notice RCCL is more or less open with decisions being made etc.

20 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

I can't even believe with where we are today that people are still throwing good money after bad on upgrades that won't happen. If after reading the thread about slow refunds doesn't jolt you into reality I don't know what will.  If unemployment, a government agency can process an excessive amount of unemployment claims in a week why can't Royal Caribbean process a refund in less tha in 30 days? It's because they don't have the money. 

I just watch the tail in of report with the Governor of Florida asking questions to the head of the unemployment agencies.  They are behind even with after throwing more servers at them over the weekend.

20 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

I can't even believe with where we are today that people are still throwing good money after bad on upgrades that won't happen. If after reading the thread about slow refunds doesn't jolt you into reality I don't know what will.  If unemployment, a government agency can process an excessive amount of unemployment claims in a week why can't Royal Caribbean process a refund in less tha in 30 days? It's because they don't have the money. 

I just watch the tail in of report with the Governor of Florida asking questions to the head of the unemployment agencies.  They are behind even with after throwing more servers at them over the weekend.

When things start back up I wonder if Med cruises will be slower to respond.  I don't know the percentages of US passengers on Med cruises, but I am guessing it is a fair amount.  US citizens might be hestitent to take Med cruises.  Not so much because of flights in regards to catching it, if it is still around, but being "trapped" overseas because countries go back on lock down.

13 hours ago, matymil said:

I have a couple of friends that are travel agents..aside from the people working on the front lines with the virus, its probably the worst possible job to have right now. My one friend still has to work and take an almost 50% pay cut and that's not uncommon, a lot of agents are losing their jobs. Both of my agent friends have been working over 12 hour days for weeks. Unless its extreme negligence, id stay with the agent for the time being out of loyalty. 

At least your friend still has a job.  Even by your own posting a lot of agents are losing their jobs.  Think of the restaurant workers, etc who have lost their jobs.

54 minutes ago, Roger88 said:

According to international laws, if you passports has less than 6 months till expiration - you cannot travel and you can be denied a visa. If I were you, I would change my passport a year prior to any cruise\tour\travel. Why risk it? It doesnt cost much and currently all these passports are issued for 10 years. 10 years living without a headache.

It depends on the country and the mode of transport.  If was doing a cruise  within 6 months of expiration, but not planning any international travel until 6 months and beyond, I would wait until the cruise was over.

40 minutes ago, RETNAVY1996 said:

This is one of those threads where I wish Travel Agents could say they were TA’s.  Would be real interesting comparing statements by TA’s and non-TA’s.  I know for a fact at least one of the people answering that it’s fine for the TA to keep the money is.

TA can say they are TAs here.  They just can't give their agency name or any other information that people can use to contact them.

ourusualbeach is a TA and has given valuable information.  There is at least one other that have also identified as a TA.  I imagine there are others.

On 4/3/2020 at 1:53 PM, ON cruiser said:

Responding to gatour above, I was mainly discussing that the cruise lines should be cancelling cruises which clearly have no hope of going. To that point I relied on post # 5 above to the effect that some other (non-CCL) companies had done exactly that.

 

HAL and Seabourn, amongst the CCL companies, have so far not done so--many have speculated that is because they prefer the customer to initiate the cancellation. In that case, the cruise line seems to take the position that the customer is only eligible for FCC and not a refund. Yet, if it is the cruise line that initiates the cancellation of the cruise then a refund is ordinarily offered, along with, perhaps, the option of FCC.  That may be why the delay in some of the lines cancelling what they know must be cancelled, while others have acknowledged this reality more promptly.

 

From what you note, however, the length of time to process a refund is equally long amongst all the cruise lines--albeit on another thread, one poster noted that Disney processed their refund very efficiently.  Again, for those who made final payment on a cruise that is now impossible due to government regulations/orders, and who face a lengthy (and uncertain) wait for a refund, assuming that is what one wants, consider talking to your credit card issuer, if you paid for the cruise by credit card.

In regards to RCCL.  The new policy in issuing refunds for cancelled cruises, is that refund process doesn't start until the actual SAIL date of the cancelled cruise.  If you idea was that if they cancelled cruises 60 days out will "speed" up getting refunds it will not in regards to RCCL.

Is it "right"?  Not for me to say.  It is what it is.

If this is a bucket list type cruise, go in the Spring.  That way you avoid the chance of the trip being changed due to a hurricane.

1 hour ago, suizas said:

wow.  tendering between ships.... this is really something!

 

While on the Pacific side of the Canal, the Zaandam transferred some of its passengers to Rotterdam by tendering. Before transiting the Canal and docking in Ft Lauderdale a few days ago.

In this case RCCL should give and extend the credit to2021.

I would say deck 10 or 11.  cabins xx243-xx251 or xx643-xx651.  I like the cabins more to the aft of Central Park as a better chance to a breeze.

I have sailed on four classes ships.

8 hours ago, datolim said:

Seriously, would you or anyone else have the guts to do this.

Yes, I have except it wasn't a book, it was magazines.  I have done it numerous times on various cruise lines.

In regards to paying $25 for lessons.  Considering drinks are around $12, between the two drinks and the $25 of free play, you are getting a $48 value for $25.  Sounds like a good deal esp. if you were planning on playing games anyway.

22 hours ago, NavyCruiser said:

Thinking of using our combined $2400 to buy 100 shares of RCL stock at around $22 & 100 shares of CCL stock at $8, around $3000 total.

 

So that considered re-investing into the economy...?

No.

The intent is for people to buy hard goods or services.  For example we are using our money plus some savings to have the exterior of the house repainted.  The painting company owner gets money, the actual painters are paid,  the store that the painting company buys its paint from gets money, their employees get paid.  They then can go out buy grocery/dinners etc.  It is called a multiplier.

If you buy stock, you are buying from an individual or trading company who will use the funds to buy other stock, which doesn't provide the intended stimulus.

10 hours ago, sgmn said:

 Our house was halfway through renovation, so trying to make a feature of the scaffolding in the kitchen/dinning room 😂luckily we still have cooker and sink so getting creative in kitchen and doing some actual cake baking for once. Thanks to everyone on these boards who work in hospitals or care homes or essential services. ❤️ We did our 'clap for carers' last night in UK 

Had to chuckle about the "cake baking".  Besides the run on toilet paper here, there was a run on flour and sugar.  Sounds like everyone wanted unleash their inner baker.  😀

9 minutes ago, eel said:

I think the Cruise Line Lobby may have enough sway to get the cruise to nowhere regulation lifted temporarily. Even though no bailout, it is in our country’s best interest for the industry to survive.

I did some research.  I found this document.

https://www.f-cca.com/downloads/2018-Cruise-Industry-Overview-and-Statistics.pdf

It says in 2016, the cruise industry had a total economic of $126 billion impact GLOBALLY.

This is a drop in the bucket even compared to just the US travel industry.  Forty years ago , before the launch of what I call the start of the modern cruise industry, the country was doing just fine, so I don't get the "best interest" comment.

I love cruising but in the grand scheme of things the cruise industry is just a minor cog in the entire US GDP.

Would they allow cruises to nowhere, possibly.  The reason why we don't have them now, is are a reinterpretation of reg's and laws.  They can be reinterpreted again, or even granted temporary legality by a new law.

22 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

 

It doesn't say anything about bringing new crew on:

 

Thanks John, that was an interesting link.

I imagine at this point they are going into a minimum manning mode. Keeping the enough engineering staff onboard to keep the lights on.  Enough kitchen staff to feed the remaining crew.  Laundry personal.  Things like that.

Not a real need to keep all of the room stewards, bar staff, waitstaff on board nor replace them.