Sailfish

Regarding the Morimoto menu in this post. The one pictured is from Tamarind (referenced as the menu on our upcoming cruise aboard the Nieuw Statendam). I am sailing next week and booked the Morimoto pop-up. We also booked Tamarind. I am hoping that the menu for Morimoto isn't the same as Tamarind.  Is there an accurate menu somewhere for Morimoto? Did HAL make a mistake posting the menu for Tamarind?

Thanks. Suzi

We bid on an upgrade about a month ago.  Yesterday we received an email with a counter offer, which we accepted. What happens next? Are you back in the queue for the upgrade? Does this increase your odds?  As it was only $10pp more, we said yes to the new offer. I was just wondering if anyone has had experience with counter offers. This is on an upcoming transatlantic. 

Many thanks. 

Suzi

Thank you for the input. You have all been very helpful. 

Is this something you book on the ship. Or can it be pre-booked before the cruise?

We have a stateroom with no balcony, just a window. Is it possible to have the Ultimate Balcony Dinner set up outside somewhere on the ship? Anywhere would be fine, just not in our cabin. 

Just curious. Thanks.

I am going on the Odyssey Transatlantic in late April and heard that room stewards no longer clean/turn down rooms twice a day like they used to. We just came off of a Celebrity cruise and the twice daily cleaning schedule was the same as before. 

The last time we cruised on Royal in 2022, it was still twice a day. I have read recently that cleaning is only once a day effective in March 2023. I am guessing the cleaning is in the morning, right? I also hear that twice daily cleaning service is still in place for Suites. We will not be in a suite. 

I am mostly curious how the stewards handle 14 day cruises. Hoping they will change sheets every week. Hoping planners will still be delivered at night. Does anyone know of the change? 

Not a big deal, just wrapping my head around all the changes. 

Thanks.

Suzi

I was notified that our bid was accepted. Our boarding pass indicates new assigned cabin. The email we got indicated we would soon be getting an email confirming our bid. We never received that email nor have we been billed. 

How much time elapsed between being notified your bid was accepted and you noticed you were billed. Just curious.

Thanks.

4 minutes ago, cruiselovrs said:

Princess told me that boarding would not start for the Regal until 1 pm.  I did find a place to store luggage right outside the port near the  Fort.

They probably won't board at 11am, but I was told the terminal will be open. We will wait. 

14 hours ago, cruiselovrs said:

Hi Sailfish.  I am doing the exact same thing as you.  Arriving on May 7 on the Odyssey and leaving May 7 on the Regal Princess.   I was wondering if there was a place to store luggage since we will arrive at 8 am  and the Regal Princess will not start the boarding process until 1 pm.  It would be great to store the luggage and then find something to do for 5 hours.  Any thoughts?

We have been to area around the port many times, so we plan get off the Odyssey and make our way to the Regal Princess. Nothing is open early in the morning. The town has a pretty church with a town square. And there is the fort. But I figure it will take us a while to disembark and change terminals. 

Princess told us the terminal for the Regal opens at 11am. So we will try for a later disembarkation.  

We are taking a transatlantic from Florida to Italy on the Odyssey of the seas, then disembarking on May 7th and embarking on the Regal Princess in Civitecchia the same day. We expect to disembark in the morning and head over to the terminal where the Regal Princess is docked. Does anyone know how far apart the terminals are? Anyone ever do this sort of thing in Civitecchia? 

I am hoping to be able to walk, as we will have one piece of luggage each. On a map I have, it shows the ships docked back to back. But I am sure there are separate terminals. 

Thanks in advance,

Suzi

We are scheduled to cruise on the Divina on October 3rd. I have received numerous copies of my boarding documents with strange boarding time info implying that nasal swabs will be administered at check in. I sent a note to my TA and have plans to get a covid test done on Friday afternoon. But I am not totally understanding what's going on. 

Anyone else?

1 hour ago, wgeddings said:

It was really odd to me that the ranking goes green, orange, yellow, red, grey.  So orange means that there were some reported COVID 19 cases but they are below the threshold for CDC investigation.  I would have thought yellow was the 2nd stage but yellow means they had COVID 19 cases ABOVE the threshold.  So orange is not too bad. 

 

Looks like I picked a bad time to start the habit of licking handrails....

I just got off the Millennium on 10 September.  They too have the Orange designation. I have not read the CDC info on the color codes. But we did speak to the captain at a Chef's Table dinner. What he told us it also means there are still people in isolation, onboard the ship, completing the mandatory 2 week quarantine.  This could be covid related, both passengers and crew. But also new crew, who still had time in isolation. The ship did not have any positive cases of covid while we were on it, but did have many replacement crew and even officers completing their 14 day quarantine.  Included was virtual training, regular testing and other protocols. This was a Celebrity cruise and I have no idea about MSC. But my guess is this is also taking place on every ship that's out there. And once everyone is out of quarantine, the CDC reevaluate the ship. If a covid case comes along, the captain said he has to make it known publicly and must start a CDC process for dealing with it.

A week before our cruise, there was someone who had symptoms and tested positive, even though being vaxed. They did contact tracing and the person and their family off loaded at the next port, where they had a place to quarantine arranged. Like I said this was Celebrity. And we were cruising Alaska.  

4 hours ago, jg51 said:

 

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Hello again, "gold1953."

That statement about "Simply Sail" [SS] guests would not have seemed "insulting" to you, if you had understood the phrase, "poor souls," in the way that we meant it.

 

It appears that you must have thought that we were using "poor souls" to mean "financially impoverished people" -- but we didn't mean it that way at all!  Instead, we meant "poor souls" as being synonymous with "unfortunate folks."  (We think that it should have been clear to you that we were not using "poor" to refer to finances, because no one could ever have reached an Elite/Elite+ level if he/she/they were "impoverished.")

 

So, therefore, one may ask, "Why, jg51, would you think of 'Simply Sail' guests as 'unfortunate folks'?"  It is because of two alleged fact (which we have read more than once on this board):

[1] a person who opts for a "Simply Sail" cannot choose a specific stateroom, but must select a "Guarantee" category ... and ...

[2] a SS fare cheats the guest, because it is not equal to the "AI fare minus the cost of the three included elements" -- as it ought to be!  Instead, we have read, the SS fare is considerably higher than "AI minus the three elements."  In other words, the cruise line doesn't want people to choose SS, so it discounts an aggregate of the three elements  (service charge, Internet, and beverage package) for each AI guest.

 

Consider this:

For many months, we have been harshly criticizing "X" (our main line since 2008, and exclusively since 2017) for the AI concept.  We [E+] recently decided to book a SS cruise, expecting to get a decent fare for a specific kind of stateroom [category and deck] that we have always liked.  Online, however, we discovered that we had to go with a "Guarantee" category instead -- and that the fare seemed much higher than we expected.  We abandoned our idea, rather than become another "poor soul" casualty of the AI/SS mess.

.

Our travel agent is able to get us an assigned cabin with the Simply Sail price. We are currently aboard the Millennium,  doing back to back cruises. We got the same cabin for both cruises. Plus shipboard credit, enough to cover gratuities. And as we are Elite Plus, we get the perks. And at least on our cruise, we are getting the same perks as before. But we were told too few higher level CC guests to have Senior Officer party. Only change. 

I just read somewhere that HAL has a new alcohol policy concerning bringing wine on board. I am sorry I don't have a link, perhaps someone can post this. It states that ALL wine brought on board at embarkation or in port will be subject to a corking fee. It used to be one bottle of wine or champagne per passenger at embarkation was free, right? 

I am going on a long cruise in Nov to South America on the Westerdam from Fort Lauderdale to Buenos Aires, so two bottles won't do it. But I was going to bring a bottle of champagne. 

Anyone have more info? 

Suzi

We live in Chonburi Province, South of Pattaya, about two hours on the bay, outside of Bangkok. 

Since April, all travel (by land, air and land border crossings) have been closed. Covid never got so bad in Thailand compared to the rest of Asia, let alone the rest of the world. The kingdom has closed down all tourist travel and though there continues to be talk of allowing tourism, the powers that be always say they are not ready. The discussions revolve around a covid vaccine passport. But still, that alone isn't a guarantee of keeping covid out. 

Vaccinations are behind Europe and the US, with general vaccination not for many months. 

Thailand has a strong economy that does not rely on tourism. Though only a small part of the economy, some areas like Phuket are struggling. Cruise tourism is not perceived well. Mostly the taxi drivers and a few tour guides, also part of the taxi unions, do well. Other businesses not so much. 

There is a lot of culture in Thailand and all sites are maintained mostly for local tourism, and locals do travel all over.  I live near the cruise port, and though we do get ships in from time to time, it's not consistent. Tourism is welcome in Thailand, but not cruise tourism. Unlike many ports of call, one needs time to explore Thailand. It's a very large country with a lot to see and do and two days isn't enough time. 

All that said, tourism will return gradually. I think it will be a while before cruises are allowed back. Probably the last ones to do so. 

Just now, KirkNC said:

Understood, I think it will be soon as the Carnival announcement was yesterday I believe.  Hollands strength has never been communication.

Well, that's another refund I will have to deal with if it is cancelled. I just assume move the booking to another sailing, but when I have done this, it never seems to work out well. I end up having to pay more!  HAL doesn't do a lift and shift like other lines. 

Oh well. 

2 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

Yes it was just for the line not the corporation but where one goes the other usually follows.

HAL still has the Nov 10, 2020 announcement up at their site asking passengers to be patient. I was hoping for something official. 

1 minute ago, KirkNC said:

Carnival lines just announced that they are canceling cruises through the end of January.

I saw that, but I thought it was specific to Carnival Cruises, not the corporattion. 

But I have a hunch it won't go either. I wish HAL would at least communicate this to passengers if that is the case. 

I am aware that HAL has paused bookings on my voyage pending CDC guidance. That they haven't cancelled the booking and is sitting in limbo I guess until they can figure out what to do. 

Till then, I am trying to figure out what My options are. I booked through a TA and have left a message with my agent to see if I can transfer my booking to another date or rebook another voyage in Jan that is 7 days long. I have a hunch my 10 day cruise will not sail as is. 

We aren't new to HAL but don't cruise on their ships often. I was wondering if anyone here knows what options I have right now.  I called HAL but the agent I spoke had no insight on what my options would be. I am paid in full. I realize the cruise line probably is trying to figure out reasonable itineraries to replace my 10 day voyage or working on something with the CDC. Will the Zaandam return to Fort Lauderdale? 

I was just wondering if I will have to cancel and rebook or would HAL move my booking and perks to another ship. My TA will hopefully enlighten me, but till then, I thought I would see what the community here thinks. 

Thanks in advance. 

Suzi

4 hours ago, TeeRick said:

From your description you are getting the Merck Vaccine (called V591) developed by the company Themis (Austria) which they recently acquired.  It is listed as a Phase 1 trial currently.

I dont have that info, but its definitely a long study. We will get the second injection in December, detailed followup for a month, then periodic visits, several months apart. Our first shot was in Oct, the second 8 weeks apart. After the second shot, for two weeks, daily temp checks logged into a diary. Then for the rest of 2021, just periodic check ups. 

Our hope is to have received the real thing so as to get early immunity. But if a vaccine from another study becomes available, we would be informed of our immunity or lack thereof if we want to quit the study, which we can do anytime. 

On 11/9/2020 at 9:34 AM, Oceangoer2 said:

After the vaccine is available, I'd think they wouldn't allow those in the control group who actually rec'd the vaccine to be inoculated again?  So at that point wouldn't they have to tell who rec'd and who had the placebo?

I am in the Merck  vaccine study. When a viable vaccine is approved, we were told that it will be revealed who got the plecibo and who got the real thing so we could get a covid shot. But our study is different from the others. The Merck vaccine doesn't need to be kept frozen. It's the existing measles vaccine with the covid spikes spliced onto it. There are two versions of the Merck shot, one and two vaccines. I am in the two shot group.  So the advantage to the Merck vaccine is that it's easy to transport as it doesn't require a low temp storage. It too is very close. I don't know about the others. At the facility where we go, all of the vaccine studies are being administered, not just Merck. It's a race.  

3 hours ago, KirkNC said:

While I have not been tested I am sure you get documentation of your results.  Those results are required for entry in many countries (and Hawaii) so you would have to have documentation.

 

I suspect the vaccine documentation will be similar to what you get for yellow fever or hepatitis.  We have a little yellow book that documents our vaccinations.

I have been tested several times for medical tests like my Colonoscopy, and after returning from overseas, which was the antibody test. All negative. Those initiated by my medical provider said no news was good news. Obviously, I tested negative to the two nasal swab tests I got, as my procedures went off without issue. But the blood test I had, which was also negative, I did have a record of it through the labs portal. I did not receive anything in writing formally. 

We are currently booked on 2 Jan 2020 southern Caribbean 10 night cruise and I called HAL yesterday after hearing about the hold on cruises 8 day or longer from a friend booked on Princess. I was told that as of right now, our booking has not been cancelled, but no new bookings on the voyage will occur until they work out the issue with the itinerary. 

We would be okay being rebooked on a 5 night back to back. But I was lead to believe, once they figure out what they will do, our agent will be notified with our options, which will be the usual refund or FCC. We will have the option to rebook the shorter alternatives, but it will be classified as a new booking.  

But at the moment, it doesn't look good. So we wait and see. 

Suzi

When I send off a request, I do so via email and attach my statement. I seem to hear back from them in under a week, sometimes the next day. 

But I was always under the impression that my statement must be dated 90 days or less of the sail date to qualify. I have never sent in a statement a year in advance. But from input here, it appears early submissions are being accepted. 

Suzi 

Will Royal Caribbean continue to offer the shareholder benefit? I know they recently had their annual meeting. Just curious.

Thanks,

Suzi

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