Social Distancing- The Upside

[LXA350]

Maybe this will save us from any future plans to add additional cabins to existing ships in the fleet at their next dry dock and for Voyager Class those added cabins can be used as spare capacity to move passengers who need to go into isolation due to COVID symptoms or other reasons 😉

[Ocean Boy]

17 hours ago, reallyitsmema said:

Unfortunately, some people just do not understand what social distancing means.  Those same people are also those who do not know how to wear a mask.

 

If cruising does start before our May 2021 sailing, I better start working out on a stair climber now.  Glad we are on deck 10 and not deck 17!

I am a big fan of the stairs. I hope that they don't become too crowded!

[John&LaLa]

19 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

They are unlikely to cancel it and then try to resell it - they will just give folks the option to cancel.

 

Not sure you understand my comment.

 

What if Royal puts Oasis and Freedom ships on some newly created 3 or 4 day sailings

 

[Ocean Boy]

15 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

Most of my cruises appear to be heavily booked.  It's going to be sad to see others get their reservations cancelled.  😉

How do you know how booked your cruise is? Just because few cabins show up on some booking sight means little.

[John&LaLa]

12 minutes ago, molly361 said:

I was wondering if that might be a possibility but still thinking that only the ships that already do the short trips will start out first.

 

I was just thinking of Fain's comments about big ships

[Ocean Boy]

4 hours ago, 123funcruiser said:

 

That will be very easy. If the need arises they will simply cancel the booked itineraries completely cancel everybody and put the ship up for a different (maybe even just slightly different) cruise and sell that as a new cruise at limited capacity.

 

A bit like following the currently sailing ships who have had their scheduled itineraries cancelled and come up with itineraries that they sail now and nobody gets moved shifted from the original cruises to these.

Do you really think RCI would want to process refunds for an entire ship and then hope that the "new" cruise sells?

[ipeeinthepool]

1 minute ago, Ocean Boy said:

How do you know how booked your cruise is? Just because few cabins show up on some booking sight means little.

 

I don't even have to look.  My next cruises are 9 and 12 day trips to the Caribbean in the middle of February followed by a TA that goes to Greenland and Iceland with a westward bound Panama canal cruise in the fall.  These trips are always heavily booked, even in a pandemic.  

[John&LaLa]

1 minute ago, Ocean Boy said:

Do you really think RCI would want to process refunds for an entire ship and then hope that the "new" cruise sells?

 

Well, they didn't 'want' to shut down for 8 months either. 😉

[Ocean Boy]

Just now, John&LaLa said:

 

Well, they didn't 'want' to shut down for 8 months either. 😉

RCI is not a fan of returning money that it already has in its pockets.

[Ocean Boy]

4 minutes ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

I don't even have to look.  My next cruises are 9 and 12 day trips to the Caribbean in the middle of February followed by a TA that goes to Greenland and Iceland with a westward bound Panama canal cruise in the fall.  These trips are always heavily booked, even in a pandemic.  

And you base that statement off of your experience with previous pandemics?

[reallyitsmema]

32 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I am a big fan of the stairs. I hope that they don't become too crowded!

 

We take the stairs a lot too, especially if we are on smaller ships.  I just don't like to take them when I am wearing heels, unless it is only a deck or two.

Edited September 5, 2020 by reallyitsmema
spelling

[Ocean Boy]

1 minute ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

We take the stairs a lot too, especially if we are on smaller ships.  I just don't like to take them when I am wearing heals, unless it is only a deck or two.

Hmmm, it appears that you and I use different type of footwear.😄

[ipeeinthepool]

9 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

And you base that statement off of your experience with previous pandemics?

 

Yep, this has been the case in all of the pandemics as long as I have been cruising.

[Biker19]

26 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

 

What if Royal puts Oasis and Freedom ships on some newly created 3 or 4 day sailings

 

Very unlikely that will happen - Tui  MSC and Costa already do 7 day sailings - both the short cruise and capacity limits are likely to be lifted fairly soon after they start sailing. 

[Ocean Boy]

58 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Not sure you understand my comment.

 

What if Royal puts Oasis and Freedom ships on some newly created 3 or 4 day sailings

 

 

27 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Very unlikely that will happen - Tui  MSC and Costa already do 7 day sailings - both the short cruise and capacity limits are likely to be lifted fairly soon after they start sailing. 

I still find it hard to believe that RCI will want to turn over an O class ship every 3-4 days even at reduced capacity. And since you can't really take advantage of the entertainment in that amount of time I would be happier on a V/F class ship. Although, since I am not getting in any 3 or 4 night cruise I don't personally care what ship they use.

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Not sure you understand my comment.

 

What if Royal puts Oasis and Freedom ships on some newly created 3 or 4 day sailings

 

When would they do that? If in the next 20 months they would have to cancel existing sailings- I just don't see it happening.  Of course,  anything is possible.  

[gatour]

I can seeing Royal sending a ship or two that normally do 3/4 day cruise to test any new procedures.  Then a very short time later the rest will start to move.  The plus for the short cruises is besides the CDC they only have to deal with one other gov't entity.

[molly361]

If they are going to use an Oasis class ship for short trips and they plan on starting November or even December and does not give them a lot of time to get them booked

[Ourusualbeach]

6 hours ago, molly361 said:

I was wondering if that might be a possibility but still thinking that only the ships that already do the short trips will start out first.

Exactly.  If they are starting out with short cruises it will be the ships that are already sailing them.  Besides, it will be a very short window that they sail with the short cruises, 7 day cruises will follow within a month...IMO.  

[LXA350]

21 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Exactly.  If they are starting out with short cruises it will be the ships that are already sailing them.  Besides, it will be a very short window that they sail with the short cruises, 7 day cruises will follow within a month...IMO.  

 

They might also decide to use Oasis Class ships for instance on 3 or 4 night cruises trial wise either to no where or with a stop at Coco Cay. It's likely that the first cruises will see itinararies / ships scheduld to be used not even available to book as of yet.

[Sunshine3601]

MSC has had 3 weeks of successful cruising.  I have watched some of the videos posted by MSC passengers and with the reduced passengers onboard the pool and dining room areas look wonderful to me.      Also, saw how they were spacing out the seats in the theater and casino, looks just fine to me.    No masks required at the pool either.    You have a choice of having a full dinner (or any meal) delivered to your cabin for free if you didn't want to eat in public spaces.    Only need to wear a mask inside the ship when social distancing is not possible.  I hear their ventilation system for cabins is a lot better than RCL ships, not really sure how that will all come into play but I am sure RCL has been on top of it!      

[Ourusualbeach]

9 minutes ago, LXA350 said:

 

They might also decide to use Oasis Class ships for instance on 3 or 4 night cruises trial wise either to no where or with a stop at Coco Cay. It's likely that the first cruises will see itinararies / ships scheduld to be used not even available to book as of yet.

I just don’t see that happening.
 

I’ll stand by my belief that they won’t cancel any cruises only to readjust their itinerary and offer them for sail last minute.  They'll start out with short cruises doing their regularly scheduled runs And add in the longer cruises shortly after several successful sailings.  The only way I can see them doing a couple 3/4 day Oasis class cruises is to offer guests already booked a substantial discount to take a shorter cruise and I don’t even think that will happen.  

I seriously doubt that cruises to nowhere will happen out if North American ports. 
 

If they are running a test on Oasis class it will be for employees only and would jus5 be a one off test and really it doesn’t need to be an a Oasis class ship to run the test.  It would make more sense to run the test on one of the ships that will start sailing first In the short cruises.  

[crazyank]

19 hours ago, vintagegarage said:

Very often, when I am cruising alone, and the buffet only has tables for four, and a man and his wife ask if they can join me after my dinner is half finished while I was enjoying sitting alone, and then they take over the conversation and then they invite another couple friend of theirs to join us pulling over a fifth chair....it happens a lot.. social distancing will be much appreciated..   LOL

Try using the word NO.   We started saying no to requests like that after exactly the same situation you describe happened to us.  One time a couple asked to join us and then called over their three kids and proceeded to jam everybody on a table for four.

[molly361]

23 hours ago, Cruise a holic said:

Sounds like you have dined in Celebrities Blu restaurant!  Tables on top of each other!  LOL

Some of Royal a specialty restaurants have bench seating along the wall in them and then lots of tables for two very close together

[Cruise a holic]

58 minutes ago, molly361 said:

Some of Royal a specialty restaurants have bench seating along the wall in them and then lots of tables for two very close together

I never experienced the Royal Bench seating- lucky me-  On princess we did-