Harmony conformed to resume sailing from Barcelona

[CSHS1979]

3 hours ago, ericfromri said:

cruise ship excursions have always been overpriced. i wanna visit the place, not buy it....

 

I've always enjoyed the ship's excursions. Not willing to risk getting back late.

 

It's kinda like insurance. You don't need it until you need it.

[CSHS1979]

1 hour ago, pstone1 said:

It was in 2019 - seems like forever ago now!  That Serenade cruise was definitely one of our favorites!  
 

We also loved Bruges and were pleasantly surprised!  I hope we can find a similar TA itinerary again!

 

Doesn't one Radiance ship do that route or one similar every year. I wish we had stayed on for the first Baltic sailing 

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, CSHS1979 said:

 

I've always enjoyed the ship's excursions. Not willing to risk getting back late.

 

It's kinda like insurance. You don't need it until you need it.

 

We do too. I fall squarely into the "what if [whatever] happens and we miss the boat?" camp! 

 

We do mix it up from time to time with independent excursions but with a single exception (on St. Lucia) they have all been half-day morning excursions, giving us plenty of time to get back on board before sailaway. 

 

Of course, you're paying extra for the safety net, which I'm ok with because I understand it's a personal choice, but what strikes me as a bit unfair in the specific case of unvaccinated passengers being obliged to use cruise line excursions is that Royal appear not to offering more reasonable prices. On Harmony's west Med itinerary, the prices for the 3 or 4 excursions I have been keeping tabs on are anywhere between $5 and $30 more expensive than the prices at which they have been offered at various times over the course of the past year, so there is clearly leeway to offer something cheaper for impacted passengers.

[Olga Largo]

8 hours ago, ericfromri said:

that is the question though.  cruising is important to me so i had the vaccine. i would never even wonder about taking an unvaccinated child or anyone else on a cruise.  just wait till corona is over or till they  can get the vaccine.   you do not have the right to affect someone else's health in a negative way.    the funny thing is you say someone cannot get it for medical reasons but somehow coronavirus wont affect them when they are on the ship    lol   if you hvae that kind of medical condition, the last thing you should be doing is looking at cruising in the next year or two.

Who does guaratee you that the coach driver on your tour is vaccinated?? and if he is so would they make an antigen test before boarding the bus?? and what about the people on the street? I am european and maybe this is my 9TH cruise with same detinations,places that we have visited on our own so many times(not only cruising),in fact we only disimbark La Spezia and Rome and usually hire a private taxi and visit the city on our own,the problem is tours and prices as someone said which are ridicously pricy...what is going to happen with for example USA visitors from estates in which vaccines are not mandatory? and if you have a look at the tours some of them like Rome ones are 6/8 hours.... I don´t want to be around Rome 8 ours with a 6 six year old kid!!!

Of course the very easy thing to sayis.............wait till the corona is over or do not travel with kids or cruise in two years time!!

[Olga Largo]

19 hours ago, drarill said:

Olga, you will only be allowed to use ship sponsored tours because you are traveling with an unvaccinated child. Please, check this thread on the Celebrity boards; an unvaccinated couple was kicked out from the Edge for wondering around on their own on a ship sponsored tour.  BTW, Celebrity and Royal are private companies and they make their own rules.  

 

Thank you sooo much for your advice.

 

Yes I know I have been cruising with Royal sice 1992 but the thing that drives me crazy is how different policies are depending if you are cruising in USA or you are cruising in Europe!

How different the excursions prices are as well!!!

This is going to be I think our second Harmony Mediterranean and we also have already a reservation with the Allure same Mediterranean next year.We only disimbark La Spezia (to go to a shopping centre and a good restaurant) and in Rome for the same reason,if it were my kid´s choice we wouldn´t disimbark any port as all he wants to have is fun at explorers!!!

 

[Olga Largo]

21 hours ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

Hi. We are hopefully on the sailing after yours. I think the restrictions are mostly from the host country. I think the UK sailings the UK gov told the cruise companies what the rules would be for passengers getting on and off. I may be wrong but i understand and share your frustrations.

 

We are a party of 7, two adults 1 child, 1 adult with a child and two adults. All adults vaccinated. We will be travelling together but in different rooms. So the two adults can get off and walk around shore, yet the two rooms with children must go on a rcl excursion, yet we all will be eating and socialising together.......dosnt make sence.

Right,it doesn´t make sense because under my very piont of view it is easier that adults vaccinated get reinfected than children especially very young ones!!

Wishing you all a great cruise,the ship is amazing!

[smplybcause]

22 hours ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

Hi. We are hopefully on the sailing after yours. I think the restrictions are mostly from the host country. I think the UK sailings the UK gov told the cruise companies what the rules would be for passengers getting on and off. I may be wrong but i understand and share your frustrations.

 

We are a party of 7, two adults 1 child, 1 adult with a child and two adults. All adults vaccinated. We will be travelling together but in different rooms. So the two adults can get off and walk around shore, yet the two rooms with children must go on a rcl excursion, yet we all will be eating and socialising together.......dosnt make sence.

 

Considering Royal defines traveling party as more than just guests in one stateroom https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-is-the-definition-of-a-traveling-party#:~:text=The term "traveling party" can,the voyage%2C for any duration considering your reservations are linked in order to dine together I would think Royal would consider all 7 of you one traveling party so no one can go off on their own. No idea if that's for sure, but I'd be worried as that's how it reads to me. 

[FamilyCruiserUK]

9 minutes ago, smplybcause said:

 

Considering Royal defines traveling party as more than just guests in one stateroom https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-is-the-definition-of-a-traveling-party#:~:text=The term "traveling party" can,the voyage%2C for any duration considering your reservations are linked in order to dine together I would think Royal would consider all 7 of you one traveling party so no one can go off on their own. No idea if that's for sure, but I'd be worried as that's how it reads to me. 

Your right that how it reads to me as well

[ericfromri]

2 hours ago, Olga Largo said:

Who does guaratee you that the coach driver on your tour is vaccinated?? and if he is so would they make an antigen test before boarding the bus?? and what about the people on the street? I am european and maybe this is my 9TH cruise with same detinations,places that we have visited on our own so many times(not only cruising),in fact we only disimbark La Spezia and Rome and usually hire a private taxi and visit the city on our own,the problem is tours and prices as someone said which are ridicously pricy...what is going to happen with for example USA visitors from estates in which vaccines are not mandatory? and if you have a look at the tours some of them like Rome ones are 6/8 hours.... I don´t want to be around Rome 8 ours with a 6 six year old kid!!!

Of course the very easy thing to sayis.............wait till the corona is over or do not travel with kids or cruise in two years time!!

like i said, its very easy to be responsible.

[drarill]

3 hours ago, Olga Largo said:

Who does guaratee you that the coach driver on your tour is vaccinated?? and if he is so would they make an antigen test before boarding the bus?? and what about the people on the street? I am european and maybe this is my 9TH cruise with same detinations,places that we have visited on our own so many times(not only cruising),in fact we only disimbark La Spezia and Rome and usually hire a private taxi and visit the city on our own,the problem is tours and prices as someone said which are ridicously pricy...what is going to happen with for example USA visitors from estates in which vaccines are not mandatory? and if you have a look at the tours some of them like Rome ones are 6/8 hours.... I don´t want to be around Rome 8 ours with a 6 six year old kid!!!

Of course the very easy thing to sayis.............wait till the corona is over or do not travel with kids or cruise in two years time!!

We were on Celebrity's Apex maiden voyage a month ago, all our tour guides and drivers were vaccinated. Ninety-five percent of the passengers were also vaccinated and the only moment I didn't feel "safe" was having dinner in  Luminae (suite guests dining room) because there were a couple of unvaccinated children screaming and yelling.

Olga, I'm a mom and we cruised with our kids a couple of times a year since they were two and three years old, believe me, I understand the need of taking a vacation.  Any cruise in normal times has rules, but especially now, cruises need to have very specific rules. I decided to cruise on the Apex not only knowing the rules,  I also knew that they could changed in a matter of minutes.   I watch RTVE news every day and the raise in cases in Spain is worrisome,  and BTW I didn't need to wait until corona is over to travel, I waited until we were vaccinated to do it.  

[steamboats]

12 hours ago, Olga Largo said:

Yes I know I have been cruising with Royal sice 1992 but the thing that drives me crazy is how different policies are depending if you are cruising in USA or you are cruising in Europe!

How different the excursions prices are as well!!!

 

On the Caribbean cruises unvaccinated guests are not allowed to go out on their own either. And it´s not the cruise line but the visited countries which make up the rules.

 

As said before the currently operating cruise lines in the Western Med - AIDA, TUI Cruises, MSC, Costa - all don´t have any individual shore tours. These cruise lines don´t have an "all guests must be vaccinated" policy as you know it´s still not that easy to get fully vaccinated in Europe. So obviously RCI came to an agreement that if they have only fully vaccinated guests those can go ashore on their own. That leaves out the families unfortunately.

 

BTW Malta just announced that by Wednesday you have to be fully vaccinated to visit the country and they set the age up to 12. Here in Europe you will hardly find any kids 12 and up being fully vaccinated unless they do have a severe medical precondition. Here in Germany it´s still not recommended to vaccinate kids under the age of 18.

 

steamboats

[sgmn]

3 minutes ago, steamboats said:

. Here in Germany it´s still not recommended to vaccinate kids under the age of 18.

 

steamboats

Same here in UK, though apparently Pfizer has approved for over 12s there are no plans to rollout vaccination programme for children 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57496074.amp

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 7/10/2021 at 2:28 AM, steamboats said:

 

All TAs have been cancelled which were supposed to start earlier than Oct 31st (and longer than 7 nights) due to the conditional sailing order of the CDC. Harmony´s TA starts Oct 31st.

 

steamboats

🙂 Harmony'd better make that TA trip, since we are supposed to cruise on her in November. 🙂

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 7/10/2021 at 1:25 PM, Olga Largo said:

All parents with kids MUST buy only Royal Caribbean EXCURSIONS in order to be able to disimbark!!!!....The tried to do the same,to FORCE you to buy only Royal Caribbean excursions in USA and UK but at the very end vaccinated and unvaccinated kids could disembark without to be forced to buy a Royal Caribbean excursion!!!

not sure if that's true. I am reading the trip reviews in progress right here on cc, and the Adventure of the Seas passengers report NOT being able to even leave the ship if they have unvaccinated kids in their cabin, without buying an RCI excursion. 

[Jimbo]

8 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

🙂 Harmony'd better make that TA trip, since we are supposed to cruise on her in November. 🙂

It might make the trip, just with no passengers because of the length of the voyage might not be wise for potential covid reasons.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 7/11/2021 at 5:35 AM, sgmn said:

Recently our local large secondary school, age 11 to 18 all had a mass testing.  No-one had the virus and this is at a time when it's rising here. My DIL (to be) is a school teacher and no-one in her school has ever had the virus 

that's very fortunate. Our elementary school (4-12 yo) has had quite a few cases from Oct to May, and a couple of times the whole school was closed for disinfection for a whole week, and there were several class quarantines for 2 weeks due to infections. There are about 600 kids in our school, with about 30% of them doing remote schooling last year. My kid did remote schooling for the entire year, but next month he has to go back to school in person, since the remote option is no longer offered.

 

So, between school where only (some) teachers are vaccinated and 600+ kids are not, and the cruise, where most adults are vaccinated and kids are not - I am not sure which one is safer. I guess it's 50/50.

[Biker19]

59 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I am not sure which one is safer

Listen to RCCL CEO Fain: "You are safer on a cruise than on Main St".

[steamboats]

1 hour ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

🙂 Harmony'd better make that TA trip, since we are supposed to cruise on her in November. 🙂

 

She can still go without pax 😉 - but so far the TA with pax is still on (but no kids allowed).

 

steamboats

[steamboats]

On 7/10/2021 at 7:25 PM, Olga Largo said:

The tried to do the same,to FORCE you to buy only Royal Caribbean excursions in USA and UK but at the very end vaccinated an unvaccinated kids could disimbark without to be forced to buy a Royal Caribbean excursion!!!

 

According to the RCI website on all ships vaccinated guests traveling with unvaccinated guests (children) can only go ashore with an organized shore tour by RCI. This is valid for all Florida departures, for the Alaska cruises and also the Adventure of the Seas out of Nassau. I haven´t seen any guidelines on the US website for the Anthem of the Seas. Must be on the UK website only.

 

So it´s not true that it´s different for the US departures. It´s the same for the Jewel of the Seas out of Cyprus.

 

If you don´t think this is o.k. for your and your kids you still can Lift&Shift to another cruise or cancel.

 

steamboats

[little britain]

Currently Anthem is only offering seacation cruises so no ports, I think the first cruise with ports (UK) starts next cruise.  
The Uk site says : Shore Excursions
At this time we anticipate that you won’t need to book a tour to go ashore at our destinations, we are working closely with each of the ports we visit and will ensure we adhere to the protocols they have defined. 

Edited July 12, 2021 by little britain

[Jimbo]

2 hours ago, steamboats said:

 

 

 

If you don´t think this is o.k. for your and your kids you still can Lift&Shift to another cruise or cancel.

 

steamboats

Where does it say this on the Royal Caribbean web site? Lift & Shift, protect price of your reservation to next year?

[Steeler Nation At Sea]

2 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Where does it say this on the Royal Caribbean web site? Lift & Shift, protect price of your reservation to next year?

For transatlantic cruises from Barcelona, all guests must present proof of full COVID-19 vaccination, with the final dose of their vaccine administered at least 14 days before sailing. Guests without proof of vaccination will not be permitted to sail. 

 

 

Right in their Health Sail page for Barcelona 

[Jimbo]

5 minutes ago, Steeler Nation At Sea said:

For transatlantic cruises from Barcelona, all guests must present proof of full COVID-19 vaccination, with the final dose of their vaccine administered at least 14 days before sailing. Guests without proof of vaccination will not be permitted to sail. 

 

 

Right in their Health Sail page for Barcelona 

Still don't see where it says where you have the Lift and Shift Option to not go on the cruise, and protect your cruise fare price to 2022.

[steamboats]

9 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Still don't see where it says where you have the Lift and Shift Option to not go on the cruise, and protect your cruise fare price to 2022.

 

I didn´t say that the cruise price is protected. But if you are not feeling well to cruise under the given regulations L&S is an option or cancelling. Depending on what law is coming in and when the cruise was booked you might be eligable to cancel without any fees (here in Europe).

 

steamboats

[steamboats]

13 hours ago, little britain said:

Currently Anthem is only offering seacation cruises so no ports, I think the first cruise with ports (UK) starts next cruise.  
The Uk site says : Shore Excursions
At this time we anticipate that you won’t need to book a tour to go ashore at our destinations, we are working closely with each of the ports we visit and will ensure we adhere to the protocols they have defined. 

 

Thanks, found it in the meantime! UK cruises are special as it´s UK passengers only, UK ports only - therefore it´s UK setting up the rules for shore tours.

 

Med cruises are now international with several countries involved. Therefore different rules...

 

steamboats