ccndfw

8 minutes ago, handbellplayer said:

I am vaccinated and not the least bit afraid of getting sick.  I am afraid that an outbreak would negatively affect my cruising experience due to a shortened cruise, mandatory masking, closed venues, etc.

They had almost 18 months to come up with new policies… there is a lot more known about Covid than there was in the beginning.  I seriously doubt they will quarantine a whole ship and keep them stuck at sea again.  They have to make money and its not profitable to create another nightmare sailing experience.  Find out what their plans are for these types of worst case scenarios and then decide how it would impact you. These initial cruises are not going to be 100% perfect and anyone not having patience or flexibility should probably stay home.

1 minute ago, Ocean Boy said:

If they are going to change it don't you think that they had better do it soon?

You know how it works there… Everyone’s on island time and nothing happens in a hurry!

1 minute ago, Sunshine3601 said:

so you are okay with a cruise possibly being cut short because a % of unvaccinated passengers get or have covid onboard?    that is our concern, not catching covid, but being sent back home after paying all the money to get on the ship (flights, transportation, hotel, etc)  and have only 3 or 4 days on a ship that was supposed to be 7 or 14 days. 

Most people haven’t read the terms of their agreement to sail, but unless something has changed in recent years,  cruise ships always have the right to change the itinerary.  I know people that went on a cruise and there was horrible weather and they only had one port stop and not the four on their original itinerary.    I was also stuck waiting to embark for six hours while the ship was being cleaned due to the Norovirus outbreak on the previous sailing.  This is all part of the risk you take with cruising… none of the port stops are guaranteed.  

4 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

So how does RCI reconcile the Bahamian vaccination mandate with Florida's mandate to not allow proof of vaccination to be required?

I’m sure the Bahamas wants their tourism dollars back and they probably will change their policy. I would guess the other cruise lines will probably follow RCI as well. 

Exactly what we are doing as well.

3 minutes ago, BSocial said:

It depends.  My next cruise is a short one in October.  I have ‘cancel for any reason’ insurance so have the ability to watch how the sailings and protocols evolve before making a decision.   I’m looking forward to getting out on the ocean for a much wanted getaway, surrounded by blue seas.    
 

Honestly,  think about it -  people going on non-cruise vacations have no idea who around them are vaccinated, or the percentages of vaccinated people.   So right now I will not cancel.  
 

(I am vaccinated so can sail whether required or not)

7 hours ago, Mariketa said:

This is why the requirement to be vaccinated on a ship is so ridiculous. They had a captive audience, of course the outbreak looked terrible. Let them test and track all the Disney goers, casino players, etc. There is zero reason to test and track only one business. So many hundreds of thousands of people touching ride rails and gaming machines each day, but let’s treat cruises differently because there’s just one way out and we love to flex our governmental might. 😂

I’ve been wondering this for months.  I realize it’s a little different on a cruise ship because you have so many people in closer proximity, but why are they still singling out a single industry.  Me and my traveling companion got covid last year after visiting a casino, even while being super careful and wearing masks and gloves during our trip.  If it was that easy for us to get it when I’m a self proclaimed germ-a-phobe, I’m sure other people did too.   

44 minutes ago, Demongear said:

Here is an outside the box idea on how to satisfy everybody. Royal has multiple ships doing the same durations and similar itineraries, ie: 3&4 night Bahamas out of PC and Miami. Make 1 ship that proof of vaccinations are required and 1 ship where they are not. Then people can make a choice just like we make a choice in what cruise to book. It could also set a delta for the cruise industry as to what the numbers of infection flare-ups are for on each type of cruise. 

It’s impossible to make everyone happy and they won’t bother trying.  Things are not going to go 100% perfect when they start sailing again and anyone lacking patience or expecting a perfect vacation should probably stay home.  It’s pretty simple… if you feel safe and that it will still be an enjoyable cruise, then go.  If not, stay home or do something else.  

12 hours ago, Blauelini said:

No worries, by September at the latest RCCL will have  Covid outbreak on one of their ships due to this policy. Media will pounce,  images of people in biohazard suits escorting people off the ship will be broadcast nationwide. RCCL will change their policy overnight for fear of being being shutdown by the CDC.

A bit dramatic… A lot has happened in the past 18 months and now they know a lot more about covid and there really should be no reason to quarantine an entire ship… anyone vaccinated should be able to come and go on the ship as they please.  The real question is, how will they actually handle this?  They need to publish their plan and let people decide based on that info.  

So curious how tours / excursions will be handled… any updates on this?  At one point, they were saying you could only go on ship excursions. Is that still the case? I can’t imagine not being able to go shopping or take a cab to the beach…. I would think there’s still lots of risks for unvaccinated individuals and hopefully, they would take any necessary precautions to reduce their chance of getting covid.  

3 hours ago, sept10dsm said:

Thank you but more and more the science is saying the recovered do have immunity.  It may keep the recovered from sailing.  

Exactly.  Recently read about a study that indicates natural immunity from having the virus could last for a lifetime. Obviously, hard to know that for sure given we are only about 18 months in now, but there are people that don’t want it because of these new studies.  
 

Reading thru all these posts and can understand people not wanting their cruise to have to go into quarantine based on an outbreak… I share the same concern and I would hope the cruise lines would have a better plan to address outbreaks, especially given there’s always a chance of a new variant that may be more resistant to the vaccine.  That’s my bigger concern and I am curious if anyone has seen the cruise line plans to address any possible outbreak scenario.  I certainly wouldn’t want to leave for a one week trip and end up being stuck for weeks / months due to something like this.  

We disembarked in early Feb and based on all the symptoms I’ve read about, I really think we might have had this as well.  Since they weren’t yet testing for this, it isn’t confirmed, but definitely was unlike anything we had before.  Has anyone that was on an earlier cruise had similar concerns?  

1 hour ago, chrysalis said:

We were on the ship at the same time....and there were hazmat suits in the cabin across from us...were hoping at the time that it was "just" Norwalk. We have been self-isolating since returning home, and are now entering day 11 of that.

What deck / cabin were you in?

36 minutes ago, SharkieRools said:

How does that work? 

Basically, when you sit down, you must first scan your medallion before you insert any physical cash ($20 bill, etc) into the slot machine.  If you insert any physical bills without scanning your medallion, if you decide to cash out any winnings, it will likely go to the medallion closest to the slot machine which might not be yours.  It happened to us... when someone else’s $$$ was deposited into our ship bank account.  

We just had our first Ocean Medallion experience and while overall, it was good, we didn’t like having the heavy medallion around our neck... wristband definitely worked better.  A few issues encountered at the casino.... if you put cash in the machine, you must scan your medallion first otherwise when you cash out, it won’t put the cash on your card, but will instead put it on the card of the person sitting closest to you.  Also, even when playing with your medallion, we experienced an issue where the machine said processing and showed that we had cashed out, but our bank balance was zero so watch your casino account closely!  Seems there are a few glitches!

We were on this cruise as well...  it was not one of our favorites.  Our biggest issue is that we had plumbing problems and our toilet would start trying to flush itself and would overflow.  It did this four times which resulted in our bathroom being a big mess.  In addition, the AC stopped working and our room was super hot.  We thought the entertainment was very boring, casino was super smoky and didn’t pay well, food was ok,  our waitstaff was excellent while our cabin steward was often nowhere to be seen and wouldn’t always clean our room in the morning... we left at 830 one morning and came back 4 hours later and our room was still not touched.  We also had some food in the refrigerator that he removed to make room for the ice bucket that we never used.  One of our neighbors smoked on the balcony and no one ever did anything about it.  We were also super disappointed that the casino opted to move a nonsmoking night from our formal night to when the super bowl was taking place.  Drinks we had also didn’t seem to taste very well.  We also aren’t sure why they cut St Thomas so short.  Seems we could have stayed longer and had a sea day between St Thomas and Grand Turk.   We love cruising so will try again, but this cruise was definitely lacking in excitement.  

On the Crown now... there was two different comedians, Rick Steel, a vocal impressionist, Magic to Do, Blame it on the Boogie.  I think one or two more I cannot remember... 

We are currently on the Crown Princess on the Aloha Deck and our A/C was working fine for the first two days, however, now with it turned all the way down, it’s not getting any cooler in the room.  I’ve called 4 times and gone by the main service desk once and I was told a ticket was opened and closed still with no improvement.  It’s hot in the hallway and was hot on deck 15 in the buffet area too.  We found deck 7 to actually be cold so obviously not a ship wide incident.  Has anyone else experienced this before?  We are miserable and frustrated that this seems to be going nowhere.  Thoughts on best way to get action?

Has anyone heard how the current cruise Is going?  Are they missing any stops?  

Paper straws don’t work for a frozen drink and I find some of them leave a strange taste as well... I’ll be bringing my own plastic straws.  If disposed of properly, they don’t end up in the ocean and I’m sure a majority of those 13B currently there are not from cruise ships.

That’s disappointing!  Seriously thinking about cancelling my cruise now.  As much as I enjoy my vacation time, too many sea days can get a bit boring.  I just checked the weather in St Kitts and was a bit windy, but I doubt that alone would be enough to cancel today. I’m sure they were just trying to make sure they made it back to FLL in time for the next cruise.  

Are they on the 10 day cruise?  Or longer?  What other ports did they miss?

We received an email about an itinerary change for the Crown Princess due to a mechanical issue that prevents the ship from going full speed.  I was disappointed to see the port times being reduced and would like to hear from someone that has recently been on the Crown as to whether or not the port times were further reduced once on board.  My thought was that due to these issues, they could miss a port or further delay port arrival and I’m curious to know if anyone has experienced that.  

What is the typical menu for this?  

We are arriving back in FLL on a Wednesday and trying to decide if we can make a 10am flight.  Has anyone done this?  What is the earliest time you can disembark the ship?

We board the Ruby Princess soon and were wondering if a ship tour is available or a behind the scenes tour?  We heard others say it’s worthwhile. How would you book this and what is included?