AOS out Nassau now requiring indoor masking

[3kidsncats]

Just got the email 😜

[mlm05001]

Yes, got that email. We literally just landed in Nassau a few hours ago. Boarding Saturday.  I wish they had sent it at the beginning of the month. I’m disappointed. 

[spammie]

On August 28th.  Can we can get a refund or just FCC?  This was the ONLY reason we are flying to Nassau for a cruise!  Beyond pissed off!

[kearney]

We are outa here.... no way I am paying $$ and flying to Nassau for this... AA problems just icing on the cake...not sure I will go through with final payment for Nov cruise

[mabt]

I would have liked to know 6 hours ago, personally.  I just went to considerable lengths this morning to get a third mRNA dose so we could sail.  Would not have done that if I'd known the masking requirement was coming.

[jasongoldberg]

11 minutes ago, mlm05001 said:

Yes, got that email. We literally just landed in Nassau a few hours ago. Boarding Saturday.  I wish they had sent it at the beginning of the month. I’m disappointed. 

Maybe I’m losing it …. Didn’t they change the 3 day pre cruise test to antigen OR PCR?  This latest email says PCR ONLY. 

[mlm05001]

4 minutes ago, jasongoldberg said:

Maybe I’m losing it …. Didn’t they change the 3 day pre cruise test to antigen OR PCR?  This latest email says PCR ONLY. 

Our hotel we are at in Nassau does rapid. I believe that is acceptable. We are not happy about this new mask mandate. This is the reason we booked this cruise. 

[mabt]

4 minutes ago, jasongoldberg said:

Maybe I’m losing it …. Didn’t they change the 3 day pre cruise test to antigen OR PCR?  This latest email says PCR ONLY. 

 

Good question.  Website FAQ still says "PCR or antigen".  So is the new language in the email a mistake, or is the website now out of date?

[mauraoel]

7 minutes ago, jasongoldberg said:

Maybe I’m losing it …. Didn’t they change the 3 day pre cruise test to antigen OR PCR?  This latest email says PCR ONLY. 

I think they just didn't update the email from what they sent out last week.  It said the same on our email on Monday and I was complaining that they were trying to confuse my newby.

[jasongoldberg]

Just now, mabt said:

 

Good question.  Website FAQ still says "PCR or antigen".  So is the new language in the email a mistake, or is the website now out of date?

I’m on the phone with them now. They acknowledged the conflict and are on with some supervisory team to check. If PCR I’ll have to cancel. I can’t risk not having the result in time. 

[mabt]

14 minutes ago, spammie said:

On August 28th.  Can we can get a refund or just FCC?  This was the ONLY reason we are flying to Nassau for a cruise!  Beyond pissed off!

 

Email says refund.  I don't think you'll be the only one.

[rbell]

Good job Royal!

[jentravelrn]

Someone care to share the email? On the September 4th sailing.

[jasongoldberg]

So— they said that a PCR is now required within 3 days for all guests. NO antigen tests will be accepted. I recorded the call. 

[kearney]

14 minutes ago, spammie said:

On August 28th.  Can we can get a refund or just FCC?  This was the ONLY reason we are flying to Nassau for a cruise!  Beyond pissed off!

on the phone... getting a refund

[jentravelrn]

Suspect they must have had more positive cases on this week's sailing...

[mabt]

1 minute ago, jentravelrn said:

Someone care to share the email? On the September 4th sailing.

 

Only applies to August sailings, for now.

 

It doesn't say much more than what's been reported here.  Basically, they are moving to the same model for cruises out of Nassau that they have in place for US cruises.  Masks indoors except for a handful of "vaccinated only" venues, listed here.  Bizarrely, a number of venues that are really only appropriate for people who have to be vaccinated anyway (bars, teen club) are designated as "everyone", therefore masks required.

 

Plus, apparently, this PCR test requirement.

[Jerseygirl1416]

6 minutes ago, jasongoldberg said:

So— they said that a PCR is now required within 3 days for all guests. NO antigen tests will be accepted. I recorded the call. 

I’m not shooting the messenger here but how can that be? Where I am on the Jersey Shore it takes 3-5 days, sometimes longer, to get results from the PCR test. Someone didn’t think this through.

[mabt]

8 minutes ago, jasongoldberg said:

So— they said that a PCR is now required within 3 days for all guests. NO antigen tests will be accepted. I recorded the call. 

 

This might be the last straw for us.

 

I suspect they're going to get a flood of cancellations.  I imagine most people who booked Nassau did it specifically to avoid mask requirements.

[smokeybandit]

9 minutes ago, jentravelrn said:

Suspect they must have had more positive cases on this week's sailing...

 

Testing for this week's sailing would be today.  The announcement came out this morning which means the decision was made last night.  

[Crism]

The Royal website shows PCR in one spot and "PCR or Antigen" in another.  So which is it?

Edited August 5, 2021 by Crism

[jentravelrn]

That initially confused me, too. But I thought I had read on the separate Live thread for this week that some were tested yesterday. I gotta go re-read.

[dswallow]

Here's what I posted on both September sailing Facebook roll call groups, since I'm booked on those.

 

A heads-up to everyone booked. Royal Caribbean is changing onboard protocols for the AUGUST sailings to require mask wearing indoors for everyone, except in some designated areas that will be for vaccinated only.

 

Personally I'm finding myself annoyed here. I'm perfectly prepared to do this on the bookings I have out of NJ and MD, but the Nassau departures on Adventure are not supposed to be this way and were expressly sold as mask-free onboard. I've expressed my disappointment with Michael Bayley urging him to be blocking unvaccinated people completely onboard this ship before moving to masking requirements indoors for everyone. Anyone who was onboard on earlier sailings knows exactly how wide open the ship is with so few people onboard.

 

I doubt I'm quite annoyed enough to cancel. Close, perhaps, though. But if I do, I'm going to be actively reporting every single under-12 person I see wandering maskless or mask-under-nose (well, not just under 12 people failing to wear masks properly, but I mention under 12 simply for all the kids we always saw onboard in June who weren't vaccinated but weren't wearing masks at all or properly and the crew was ignoring it). I was nice about it before, but if Royal Caribbean wants masks, then they're gonna be forced to enforce it properly, at least.

 

(And I should expressly applaud the parents whose kids had to travel with masks, and who made sure their kids wore their masks properly, and often also wore masks themselves so their own kids didn't feel out of place because they needed to wear them. You parents were awesome!)

 

 

If you go to the "Mentions" part of Michael Bayley's page on Facebook you can send him a note on Facebook. You can also email him at mbayley@rccl.com, though the emails go through an executive team dedicated to answering them or forwarding them on. He seems to generally be the person always answering Facebook messages so far. I'd do both.
⁠
⁠https://www.facebook.com/MichaelBayleyRoyalCaribbean/mentions⁠

 

 

 

Here are the venues on Adventure of the Seas being limited to vaccinated passengers only...

 

[3kidsncats]

46 minutes ago, spammie said:

On August 28th.  Can we can get a refund or just FCC?  This was the ONLY reason we are flying to Nassau for a cruise!  Beyond pissed off!

I believe you can get a refund, but it will possibly depend if it was booked with fcc, etc

 

[3kidsncats]

47 minutes ago, jasongoldberg said:

Maybe I’m losing it …. Didn’t they change the 3 day pre cruise test to antigen OR PCR?  This latest email says PCR ONLY. 

Yep, new requirement.  Right after I had scheduled us for an antigen test a half hour away.  Went to schedule a local cvs for PCR and in that few minutes, all the local cvs stopped offering any testing