lr657

On 2/11/2023 at 6:10 PM, Jim_Iain said:

 

Thanks for your factual post.    I was of the opinion that is how it would be handled.

It is always disturbing to read some posts speaking of incorrect "facts" or definition.

We were booked on the original September 21st Edge sailing since December. When the extra day was added to the cruise, our price was also increased by several hundred dollars. We had a paid, refundable deposit. The increased cost for the extra day was actually more than the daily rate for the original 12 night cruise. We have several friends who were also booked on the original 12 night cruise, and they also experienced an increase in price. This is correct and factual information .I am not sure of the circumstances of those few that did not receive a price increase, but from the comments of many others also on this cruise, the majority received an increase in price. 

I feel that some increase in cost to cover the extra day would be acceptable, but Celebrity increased the price by more than the cost of the original day rate. Although we did end up rebooking the new 13 night cruise, we feel it was a low move by Celebrity to increase the cost as much as they did. 

8 hours ago, tiffcruisers said:

Thank you all!   Yes, I will call and speak to Celebrity agent when we return home from the Royal cruise. 

 

My info on Elite benefits are from the Celebrity website- so unsure what current situation is as Celebrity 

is on a chopping cycle it seems. From Celebrity website, it claims the following perks. We booked a classic drink package and internet when we booked last year. I was under- maybe false impression- we would be upgraded when we reached Diamond on Royal as it's equal to Elite on Celebrity?

 

Elite

Featured Benefits

• Access to exclusive daily coffee house-style breakfast and Evening Cocktail Hour
• 30% off Wi-Fi package or Wi-Fi upgrade
• 15% off Drink Package or upgrade to Premium pre-cruise
• Complimentary access to Persian Garden (on one port day)
• One complimentary bag of laundry (wash, dry, fold) on every sailing

As Elite on Celebrity, you can get 15% off the price of a drink package or 15% off the price of an upgrade from the Classic to the Premium drink package. The cost to upgrade is $20pp/day plus gratuities, so you would get 15% off of that cost as Elite if you want to upgrade. 

1 minute ago, njkruzer said:

Good to know.

I used the "smart switch" app on my phone to transfer everything over to the tablet. 

We have had Samsung Galaxy phones since the app came out and have been able to install the app on all our phones. Just purchased a Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 and was able to transfer the apps from my phone to the tablet also. The Royal app transferred over and is working fine. 

8 hours ago, saltbeetle said:

Booked this Sydney to Hawaii cruise a while back. Not showing on reservation planner any more. The Honolulu to Vancouver leg is still there.

 

Any reason to worry? Thanks!

The April 15, 2023 Ovation TP from Sydney to Honolulu is still showing on my Cruise Planner. 

We're enjoying your review. Thanks so much for taking the time to write it.

We were also on this cruise, and had a great time. The only negative was that the weather wasn't the best. 

6 hours ago, island lady said:

 

Total of Ds and D+ is over 1500.  😮   DL in the bilge on deck four...is tiny...tiny.   

With the voucher system, there's really no reason to sit in a crowded DL. We enjoyed our happy hour drinks at the Schooner Bar or Rising Tide when we sailed last week. We loved being able to listen to the music on the Promenade while having our drinks. 

This is the information on the Royal Caribbean website. I was told you would need a ship excursion for Barbados, St Lucia, and St Kitts.

Below are our current tour requirements at ports of call, which are subject to change as we continue to evaluate circumstances around the globe.

Vaccinated Guests
Fully vaccinated parties may book a shore excursion or visit most ports freely — with the exception of those listed below, which will require tours for all guests who wish to go ashore in November and December, regardless of their vaccination status.

• St. Lucia
• Barbados
• St. Kitts

At the above destinations, vaccinated guests may depart the ship and visit the enclosed port area on their own. If they wish to visit further into the island, they must have booked a Royal Caribbean shore excursion, or participate in a government approved tour. The government approved tours are unaffiliated with Royal Caribbean.

Looks like the December 13, 2021 Independence has also switched Nassau to a sea day. Received the email earlier without any explanation why. Since they can no longer go to Labadee, Grand Cayman, and Key West, they might be needing to use Nassau for some of the ships that had these ports on their itinerary. 

2 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Odyssey is from Florida, Ovation is from Seattle.

Yes, I realized that after I posted.

5 hours ago, Aquahound said:

 

Just playing devil's advocate here.  I'm booked on Ovation in October and my app says nothing like that.  I see all the health questions that are grayed out for 24 hours before departure, but nowhere on the app.....so far, at least....does it say that I need to be vaccinated and need to show proof.  Even on the Health tab, it addresses app check-in, health questions, and reentry.  Nothing about vaccination.

 

Again, just pointing out what I see.  Of course, I know that I need to be vaccinated because I'm thorough and savvy about the rules.  I did see the requirement on RCI's website.  

I think Ovation is sailing from Florida, and cruises from Florida can't require proof of vaccination.

Edit: my mistake, it's sailing from Seattle.

2 minutes ago, Jasukkie said:

If anything, this is good publicity for Royal. I think most people can see the need for cruise ship passengers to be vaccinated, even if they aren't planning to get on a ship anytime soon. 

 

If there were significant numbers of people who could not cruise because they did not meet protocols then Royal may want to consider how they are reaching people. I am the point person for my group sailing on Ovation next month. I am on top of things and will fully admit it can be confusing. The first question my TA asked when we booked was if we were all vaccinated, but a lot of people book online and never talk to an agent. It's also hard to erase information that may be found on message boards that once was true but is no longer the case. Still, in the end, each passenger has to be responsible for being prepared for their cruise. 

The information regarding the vaccine requirement is on the Royal website. It is also included in the app/online check-in where you have to check that you are vaccinated and can show proof at boarding. The vaccination requirement for the sailings out of Seattle has not changed, it has been required from the start. The recent change was the pre-cruise testing requirement for all passengers, which they seemed to know about. I find it very difficult to believe that they weren't aware of the vaccination requirement. 

Just now, xxHadleyxx said:

Because they're throwing fits and making a big stink on the news, trying to get rewarded with refunds, hotels, etc when this was their own fault.   

If they just quietly threw themselves a pity party, accepted that they'd screwed up and not blamed RCI, I'd agree with you.   Instead they're showing themselves to be looking for a reason to demand compensation, who wants that in a customer?

The protocols are all very clearly stated on the RCI website. I would also think that the same protocols would also be communicated in the cruise documents. Currently except for sailings from Florida, all eligible passengers are required to be vaccinated. I have a feeling that these passengers were well aware of the vaccination requirement, but ignored it thinking they'd be allowed to board anyway.

1 hour ago, mac_tlc said:

I was having a difficult time for about 5 days. It worked maybe 10% of the time. Today when I tried it, I noticed that it redirected me to the UK site (secure.royalcaribbean.co.uk) and it worked every time. Weird. 
 

If they did a system “upgrade” that caused this issue, they need to back it out. 
 

 

mac_tlc

I called 2 days ago and opened a ticket. They said they've had lots of calls about the same problem, and that it would likely take 7-10 days to be fixed. Not sure why it would take that long, but hopefully the issue will be corrected soon. 

1 hour ago, lovelife said:

I've tried three different browsers and cleared the cache.  Can get into only two of 25 bookings - Mariner and one of my two Odysseys.  I just called the Diamond Plus desk and after being on hold 37 minutes while the rep conferred with IT, he said it won't be fixed right away but check next Friday, July 23 and it may be okay.  😵

I finally got tired of going through hoops trying to access our Cruise Planners and decided to call the Diamond Plus desk too. I pretty much had the same experience as you did. The rep spoke with IT who have now received numerous calls and are now realizing that there's a system problem. They opened a ticket and told me that it could take 7-10 days to fix the issue, but to keep checking as it could be fixed sooner. 

48 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I have 2 reservations on Navigator at Christmas.  last night I was able to get into one of them but this morning I can't get into either

 9 cruises for us and haven't been able to access the cruise planner for any of them for days. I've tried clearing cookies, changing browsers, changing devices, and using incognito. Royal might start to notice a significant decrease in profit if IT doesn't fix their cruise planner so cruisers can purchase items. 😁

1 minute ago, Billy Baltic said:

I believe there was a practice of hanging bells around the neck of lepers to warn people to keep their distance. Maybe something like that with a nice RC logo ⚓️

LOL, I think that everyone will be following the same protocols if the ship is under 95% vaccinated. 

They would need a way to easily differentiate who is vaccinated and who isn't. 

40 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

It does not matter if Royal can tell them apart or not. The CDC/CSO regulate these “mixed” cruises as “unvaccinated”, everyone will be masked up. Not worth the $$$

Correct, and exactly what I think will happen. Not my idea of an enjoyable cruise and numerous other options available.

There seems to be 2 of this same thread. Anyway to combine them?

I want to cruise without the current protocols the CDC is requiring for unvaccinated cruises which is basically masking and social distancing. I also don't want to be limited to ship excursions to be able to get off the ship. These measures do not seem to be needed if the ship is 95% vaccinated. I don't care if vaccines are required or not, but if these unvaccinated protocols will be in place due to sailing an unvaccinated cruise, we will not sail on it. 

Statement from Carnival regarding their reasoning for requiring vaccinated adults for Texas sailings. The press release states that they are still working with Florida. Their reason for sailing with a vaccinated cruise to start is to give their passengers a better cruise experience .

"We appreciate the progress and support for our U.S. restart from the CDC and other key federal agencies; however, the current CDC requirements for cruising with a guest base that is unvaccinated will make it very difficult to deliver the experience our guests expect, especially given the large number of families with younger children who sail with us.  As a result, our alternative is to operate our ships from the U.S. during the month of July with vaccinated guests," said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line.

This statement gives me the impression that if the cruise line can't guarantee a 95% vaccinated cruise all passengers will be following the CDC guidelines for unvaccinated cruises. 

6 minutes ago, RoyalC said:

Have not seen it so far but could see some of this on a cruise so I really do not think RCL will make it obvious between those vaccinated vs. those who are not.  In other words no masking, bracelets, etc. Could happen in summer months but they will move quickly toward uniformity.

Could go the other way. If Royal can't tell who is vaccinated and who isn't, everyone may need to mask and follow the other restrictions.

11 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

Mr Fain also specifically mentioned medical contradictions and religious objections so he clearly recognizes that there will be unvaxxed adults in addition to underaged unvaxxed children.

Yes, he did. I still see how people could have been misled though. Children under a specific age and a minimum amount of exempted adults is still a bit different than no vaccination required. Personally I don't care who sails.  If we feel the required protocols will negatively affect our cruise experience we will cancel. That's our choice. At the current time, we  still don't know what the protocols will be. 

24 minutes ago, jrapps said:

I cant believe I am arguing against people I fundamentally believe with but here we go...

 

How many people on this forum actually booked a cruise between May 21st (when that language was added) and June 4th (when it was changed again), and of those who'd cruise is sailing in the next 60-90 days?

 

I'd be willing to bet its a VERY small number here.

 

Let's cut it down further...of those of you who may fall into that category, how many have been here on CC for the last 18+ months and seen the policy and language change over, and over, and over, and over....

 

And of those, who didn't book a refundable deposit because you were so sure that language wasn't going to change again...

 

Sure it sucks that they went back on what they said, but it isn't surprising, and the odds of this change affecting your cruise are very small unless you are sailing in the next few months

 

 

 

So, I did not book any of my cruises recently but do follow the policies and news since I have many cruises currently booked. It's pretty obvious that policies will change as new information is obtained.  I do understand why people are upset about the new policy change as it was stated on their website. Personally my next cruise isn't until the Fall, and as I stated previously I will see what the current protocols are closer to then and cancel if they are the current one's for an unvaccinated cruise.