wingatesl

23 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

There are no power outlets anywhere near the bed. Besides the 110v outlet in the bathroom, these are the only outlets in the cabin and they are next to the desk.

Thanks. We will plan accordingly.  

@Ken the cruiser, is there a European power outlet under the bed in the aqua class rooms? We are boarding in 3 weeks and are questioning getting an extra charging adapter to use in that spot. I have seen them many times on royal. This will be our first celebrity trip!

2 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

Wonder what would happen if an unvaccinated guest fibbed and said yes and then got sick while onboard?

Given the fact that regardless of vaccination status, you can both spread it and get sick.... Nothing. 

35 minutes ago, DustFSU said:

Hope made it home safe and really enjoyed reading your review...can't wait to be on the Allure in 13 days.  I thought I saw somewhere the elevators now have a touch screen button system?  Is that true?  Pretty cool new feature because they were 10 years ago when I was on there.

They are touchscreen. During boarding this week, only a few would take you back to deck 5 when they put them in gangway mode though. 
 

still pretty nice upgrade

No checking at port Everglades. Was checked in and in the waiting area by 10:30

I caught you guys coming in. Now get out of there quick so we can board!

33 minutes ago, BND said:

They no longer test for b2b's onboard.  

 

That is the part that bugs me about this. You could b2b 2 or more 3 and 4 day cruises without testing. 

3 minutes ago, cruisingator2 said:

It can be tough. We decided back in March to cruise again (locally) and not worry about the virus. I don’t like testing but we do it. We use the home proctored tests but I will be glad to see it end. We canceled a cruise/land trip to Italy in May as we did not want to deal with all of the testing required  to cruise and fly back to the U.S. Luckily for us United and Celebrity were great to deal with. In the end we did not lose a penny for canceling. 

We haven't done a cruise since the Oasis Return to Sailing cruise out of Cape Liberty last Sept. 

I am confident of 2 things. 

1. I am going to miss the occupancy level of that cruise. 
2. I am going to be happy to get back on a ship. 

We cancelled a EU cruise this year, last week actually. Well, rolled it forward and have 2 coming up.

4 minutes ago, cruisingator2 said:

Agree. Much easier for the smaller lines with fewer ships to move faster. 😉 I’m sure that some of the lines that have ships placed all over the world and still need to figure out which ports/countries still require testing. I think that we will start to hear more next week. 

It is why I am patient, but almost anxious. Everyone knows that it will happen at some point. I am just hoping for it to happen sooner 🙂

4 minutes ago, cruisingator2 said:

LOL…Did you read where I posted a “one” ship cruise line? I’m not stupid. Just reporting that “another” cruise line has removed the testing requirement. Duh me!!!

The smaller cruise lines would be wise to take such a course. If the big three hang on too much longer, I can guarantee there will be people who book other lines and other itineraries. It isn't insignificant either. A 2% attrition from the big lines in a year would mean 10-30% (probably more, was a WAG) increase in revenue for those smaller lines. 

You just said it in fewer words!

I have always scoped out the card room or the library to find a place to make a call. Just be quiet if people are there. Your phone microphone is very sensitive and can hear a whisper. Those rooms are usually empty and the areas of the ship that they are in are usually low on the passenger count as well, so better overall service. Except Oasis class. The best place on those would be sitting on the couches near blaze. 

36 minutes ago, Babr said:

Isn’t that the same thing as RCL paying for quarantine expenses and transportation home?  $250 per night for hotel and $100 for food.

In a roundabout way, yes. The difference is that one (the taxes and premiums) being mandatory, with cruising being optional. 

It is a good example though as you can compare the cruise fares against their P/L and see a similar trend. I bet they are taking it all out of the food and beverage budget. That's why the UBP has gone up so much. 

1 minute ago, topnole said:

Out govt has been paying for it too.  Them and the insurance companies.  

They get their money from taxpayers and premiums. Still coming from us

4 minutes ago, rudeney said:

You have socialized medicine so your government is paying for it.  

 

You have socialized medicine so you are still paying for it. and everyone else too.

1 minute ago, notscb said:

 

Genuinely curious- how does a major cruise line simply change their ports when the shore excursion and tourism infrastructure for 4,000 people doesn't exist at many ports?

Sorry, should have been more exact. the suggestion is that they would change their itineraries to avoid ports that still require testing

5 minutes ago, cwtravel said:

Since The Bahamas no longer requires a negative test it is easy for Virgin to drop the testing requirements. Will be interested to see if Royal/Carnival/NCL start by dropping the pre-cruise testing but still requiring vaccination especially on the 3/4 day cruises to the Bahamas.

We can hope... An extension of that would be seeing the big 3 change their ports to ones that do not require testing, just so they can avoid it. 

Virgin Voyages just dropped testing requirements : Voyage Well | Virgin Voyages

13 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Agree, even I have little Surface Rust

It isn't rust, it is PATINA. At least that is what I continue to tell myself. 

I thought 2022 was all about social media complaints???

46 minutes ago, pcur said:

Yes, there was a thread on the subject.  Plus, if they stop requiring COVID tests pre-cruise, then we can self-test, and not us the proctor.

If they stop requiring tests, why in the world would somebody take one unless they were symptomatic? 

I print them for everyone and then “laminate” them with packing tape. We will usually borrow a stapler from the hotel front desk to attach them or worst case, have a porter do it for us. 

You do have it right. We typically buy 4 devices under my name and log in my in-laws’ devices in addition to ours. 
 

Only reason I can think of for purchasing under multiple people would be if you exceeded the 4 devices. 

Not in the slightest. Just like the captain has never impacted our cruising. Now I guess if we are ever on a ship that runs aground, I can change that statement. 

Can anyone tell me who runs the tour for this dive? We are going to be there for an extended period and I would like to do a second dive with them while we are there. 

42 minutes ago, lauren0309 said:

Good to know. We're sailing out of Bayonne tomorrow with a check in time of 12:30-1:00. Maybe we'll come a little earlier

We got in line about 30-40 minutes early without issue. There was no investigation of what your arrival time is that I could see