Mariketa

I once brought baggies of protein powder on a cruise, little snack bags, one for each shake. I wrote "NOT DRUGS" on each one, just to be funny. I don't think anyone noticed. :(

On 7/2/2022 at 11:26 AM, PC Skier said:

The covid tests for 4 people is going to cost us as much as taking  a 5th person on our cruise. You can get on a plane, train, bus and probably a spaceship without taking a covid test. 

I agree, it's ridiculous. 

45 minutes ago, Luckiestmanonearth said:

Covid has not gone away.  It is spiking in many places now. 

 

Well I will definitely not be cruising on Norwegian.  Don’t want to sail around in a Petri dish 

You probably have a few more months of testing on some lines, but I doubt it'll last much longer than that, and I doubt vaccines will be required past this year. At least that gives you some time to adjust.

2 hours ago, Cruise-mom said:

We sail from Barcelona on July 31st..1 day difference! €200 for tests that aren't needed for others embarking on the same cruise in Rome 2 days later 😣

Science!

19 hours ago, heyyvictorr said:

APPRECIATE the knowledge! Have you already cruised or are in the process? We don't go until November, just trying to get a grasp on how they handle unvaccinated before we start booking flights.

 

We're waiting now on whether or not the exemption is approved, so I'll update once I have more information. They were very clear though that we should not book any flights or anything until it was approved. We live close to a port and will only be sailing out of there until there are no mandates (testing or otherwise) any longer, so flights and hotels aren't a factor, fortunately. I don't think you can request an exemption at all until the protocols are released for your cruise date. Maybe the mandates will be all gone by then, fingers crossed!

On 5/9/2022 at 12:39 PM, heyyvictorr said:

Did you have to give the doctors note for a religious exemption?

I'm not the OP,  but doing this right now and I can say that no, you do not provide a doctor's note. It also does not have to be (at least in the US) anything actually affiliated with a specific religion. Religion is defined as a set of moral values you as a person live your life by. So if you were a vegan and did not want to eat meat, you could claim a religious exemption even if you were not a recognized religion. You could get a religious exemption as an Athiest, Agnostic, etc. You simply need to let the cruise company know that taking a COVID vaccine goes against your religious beliefs and then you'll likely need to list why, to keep the cruise lines in compliance with the CDC.

On 5/7/2022 at 2:07 PM, molly361 said:

I don't follow all their protocols.  Are they mandating the pre cruise testing?  

No, everything the cruise lines are doing now they are doing voluntarily. They have a choice, they are choosing to make you go through this.

On 5/7/2022 at 8:32 AM, Jimbo said:

Anyone notice a trend here? when protocols get laxed on the ships.  Covid positives  cases onboard seem to go back up.

If you test everyone all the time you are going to find cases, that's how it works. The testing is a great gig for those making them.

On 5/6/2022 at 9:12 PM, cruiselvr04 said:

I can understand why people are hesitant to report to medical but I think you'd better think carefully about that.  Did you take your own test in your cabin and are negative?  You must consider your room steward even if you don't leave your cabin if you're positive.  Its a red flag if you don't leave for 3 days.  Are you out wandering around?  Really?  Just spreading it?  I might test myself first but if I'm positive I'm going to report for the sake of others including the crew.  If I'm negative I'm still going to be very careful since I have symptoms, wear a mask, social distance and if I had fever I'd stay in my cabin and retest the next day.  I would never say " Don't go to medical". 

If the room steward is vaccinated then he or she will be fine, no big. No other service industry is treating COVID like this still, only the cruise lines.

On 5/6/2022 at 6:47 PM, Crism said:

This is exactly why you never, ever go to the doctor on a cruise ship. Even prior to the last 2 years!

100%. My mom had her gall bladder out in the "before times" and once had an attack on a cruise ship. She had to go down to the doctor to get Imodium because she forgot to bring it and they don't sell it in the shops. They wanted to quarantine her. No way. The only way I'd ever go to a ship's doctor would be if they carried my unconscious body in there. :)

On 5/6/2022 at 3:32 PM, YankeesFan4Life said:

So we’re sailing along, hit up Coco Cay, Nassau, sea day yesterday. Sitting at the comedy club at 11pm, wife leans over to me and says, “I’m going to the doctor”. Granted she had been battling a minor cold for a couple days, I had just gotten over a sinus infection, was put on z-pack on Thursday last week so finished on board, always had a negative test. We both tested negative on Friday morning.  
I finish up the comedy show, back to the room, she’s still down in medical waiting 45 minutes for a pcr test. Comes back positive. They put her in “the red zone” and I had to pack her stuff and a staff member picked it up from me at about 12:30am. 
 

Since we were already on the back end of the trip, Royal will not fly us home from Haiti (docked in Labadee today). Only options were to have her stay in a hotel in Florida to finish her 5 day quarantine or rent a car and drive back up north, we decided on the latter. Had to cancel flights, book a rental car, cancel transportation etc. 

Royal is giving us private transportation to MCO and reimbursing up to $150/day for the rental, $250/night in hotel and $100pp/pd for food. 
That’s the good news. Bad news is they’re treating her like a dog, coffee in a cardboard soup container, and crappy food from room service. Asked for tea in a mental carafe and a mug, they said that’s not protocol. She still hasn’t gotten her tea an hour later!!!! Fuming and beyond pissed at how they are handling the situation, they need to be doing better, we think there is a major outbreak on this ship!  Good news, I tested negative so I’m free to roam the ship but couldn’t get off in Labadee today. 

I'm sorry that this happened on the trip. Zero chance I'm spending any money while these mandates are still in play, thanks for letting us know.

We were in line to board the ship (before checking in) when my mom realized she didn't have her passport, a cruise that started and ended in Miami. She was able to call my dad, have him send her a picture of her birth certificate, and show that to RC. They printed it out and gave her a copy as well, she had to show it when we got off in Miami to leave the cruise.

I hope I can post this here, if not, please remove (and sorry about that).

Masks are no longer required for children on board. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/will-i-have-to-wear-a-face-mask-onboard-my-cruise

On 9/13/2021 at 5:41 PM, cb at sea said:

Honestly...is a cruise vacation WORTH this headache?  I mean, I love cruising...but not at this level of insanity.

 

Nope

I’m going to arrive from the airport and head on over, taking a deep breath as I wave to the porters, but ultimately decide to carry my own luggage.

We’re going to stop at the bar and grab a glass of bubbly before walking around for a bit to get the lay off the land. Once my room is ready I’ll head there to unpack.

We’ll  put on on swim suits and hit the pool for a bit, maybe relaxing, maybe swimming, definitely with another glass of bubbly from a passing employee.

Once we’re a little golden we’ll head back to the room and see what’s on the menu for dinner. There are so many choices!
 

Dinner decided, we’ll continue to look around at all the things we’ve missed, and we’ll chat up the other folks we pass along the way. 
 

Dinner will consist of all my favorite things. Dessert will be a must have. 

After that we’ll take a walk outside to let our food settle, oohing and aaahing at the scenery surrounding us. 
 

It’s getting later, time to gamble! I only bring a set amount of money with me so I don’t break the bank, but I never come home with winnings, ever. 😀 My friends at the next machine cheer when I win and commiserate when I lose. I don’t know them, but it doesn’t matter, we’re all friends here!

After gambling in the casino it’s time to see a show! Even if we’ve seen it before, we’ll see it again! We’ll laugh and cheer along with the crowd, letting the buzzing joy permeate our souls.

 We might gamble a little more on the way back to the room, but we’ll crash out when we get back there, ready to start the next day early! We just know it's going to be awesome, seeing new things, and meeting exotic people from exotic places.

Yes! it’s going to be an amazing week when we go back to Vegas, and absolutely no one will get tested for Covid or require proof of vaccination.

3 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Very tough to let the Diamond Princess story go, right?

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. 😂

1 minute ago, boscobeans said:

The QR coded Excelsior Passport issued in New York avoids all this stuff.

If the cruise agency requests and uses the the download all it does when the Passport is scanned is tell when the person was fully vaccinated. 

Name and Date of Birth along with the type and date of vaccination.. NO OTHER NEDICAL RECORDS.

A government  PHOTO id is required to complete the approval.

I want to believe it, but...I just don't. Apps aren't secure, and I think a lot of times it's willfully not secure and willfully taking information it says it won't take. This happens all the time. 

I bet it'll be like the sky dive thing on RCL, free for the first time, then after that something like $10 or $15. 

1 hour ago, ace2542 said:

I thought vaccine passport has been scrapped?

 

And how will the American check in staff at Bayonne for instance know that the App is not a fake? I am sure there will be fake apps you can download or create? Not that I know much about I Phones and that kind of thing.

It would be very easy to screenshot a QR code or proof of vaccine text. That's how I check in to my flights all the time, screenshot. You never know what an app is going to do inside an airport as far as working or not, I don't risk actually having to pull it up in real time. 

1 hour ago, NightOne said:

 

I think anyone caught with or selling fake vaccine cards should face 5 years in Federal prison. 😉

Same for people with fake support animals. We need to check their cards as well. Prison if that vest on your dog isn't legit. 🙂 I'm half joking about this after having a dog at an airport go after one of my kids.

I can't see people actually releasing medical records to a cruise line. I could see them giving a copy of a vaccine card, but a release of medical records....that sounds weird. Hopefully it'll just be a question about whether or not the person sailing has been vaccinated or has had COVID. If you're at risk for COVID and you choose to spend thousands on a trip knowing you could be ejected from the ship if you have COVID, that would be a big deterrent to lie. But then again, vaccines aren't 100%, so for sure there is going to be COVID on ships. I'm very interested to see how this all gets handled in the end. Aren't we all. 🙂

12 hours ago, Goodtime Cruizin said:

I predict by the time the first cruise leaves a US, RCG will not ask if you're vaccinated or request proof of vaccines....and there will not be a mandate for masks & social distancing.  Watch this happen.  

This. When they start locking down Magic Kingdom to PCR test everyone who's touched the stuff in ride queues each day, THEN I can see them PCR testing and requiring all this nonsense for cruises. It's ridiculous.

11 hours ago, yogimax said:

No, Memorial Day is to remember the sacrifice of those who have died.  Many find it offensive to say "Happy Memorial Day."

I knew someone would say this, and yet I do not care. There is never, ever a bad or wrong day to honor heroes. If someone finds it offensive, I think that's their problem.

It's a good day! The UK govt has scrapped its vaccine passport plans. Science is showing that vaccinated antibodies and infection based antibodies can be long lasting (decades or longer), and it all feels like the world is getting back to normal! Happy Memorial Day. Thank every one of you who served for your service (I know it's not the day to thank, but it's just so important) and a greater thanks to those you have loved who have been lost.

30 minutes ago, bdever said:

September is California’s summer. I’m surprised you thought it humid. It’s humid like 3 days out of the year here. You must have visited on one of those rare humid days. Where do you live?

Oh sorry, Disney World, not land. 😀