Post allure august 8-15

[PTC DAWG]

34 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Somehow the second screen grab did not populate the original post.

 

I thoroughly expect the "vax-only" policy to be implemented fleet wide, as the variants continue to expand on both eastern and western routes. All it would take is Cozumel to implement the same policies as the USVI and the mixed vax/no vax ship will have sailed. (pun thoroughly intended)

I agree, sailing on Allure this Sept, Eastern Route.....who knows what will happen...although what they are doing seems to be working.  Fully vaxed is fine by me....the Celebrity I went on recently went off without a hitch...but it was 95% vaccinated...a little different...I'm not sure there were any unvaccinated adults on board.  

[orville99]

13 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I agree, sailing on Allure this Sept, Eastern Route.....who knows what will happen...although what they are doing seems to be working.  Fully vaxed is fine by me....the Celebrity I went on recently went off without a hitch...but it was 95% vaccinated...a little different...I'm not sure there were any unvaccinated adults on board.  

We have a Western/Eastern B2B booked on Allure in October, and I expect both legs to be vax-only by the time we sail.

[Ocean Boy]

50 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Somehow the second screen grab did not populate the original post.

 

I thoroughly expect the "vax-only" policy to be implemented fleet wide, as the variants continue to expand on both eastern and western routes. All it would take is Cozumel to implement the same policies as the USVI and the mixed vax/no vax ship will have sailed. (pun thoroughly intended)

I hope you are right. 

[orville99]

Just now, Ocean Boy said:

I hope you are right. 

I just don't see any other viable pathway forward for the cruise lines.

[Ocean Boy]

2 minutes ago, orville99 said:

I just don't see any other viable pathway forward for the cruise lines.

I agree. If they don't want to risk another shutdown, no place to port, or massive cancellations, they had better pull the trigger sooner than later.

[PTC DAWG]

27 minutes ago, Majorleague said:

Hello all, we were on this cruise as well so I thought I would post my experience since everyone has a different view on things. Family of 5, fully vaxed, active in our 50’s and kids in early 20’s. The Boardwalk was weird to see. Like an old, abandoned amusement park. Sad not to see kids on the carousel. Central Park being empty was something I liked. I generally go there for some downtime to escape the crowds, so that being empty was fine by me. I realize the crew needs the masks but it takes away their personality a bit and makes the language barrier tougher in some instances. I am a promenade people watcher and found that sitting anywhere with a bottle of water and no mask left me unbothered. In an empty elevator or empty hallway, many had no mask. When others got closer, masks came on. When I looked in Boleros and Dazzles they seemed fairly unoccupied. The casino was jumping every night (no mask needed). The pool area is where I typically enjoy meeting new people and this was no different. Nice not to have to fight for a chair, although the hogs are still doing their all-day entitlement thing. We are beach people so the masks were not an issue when we exited the ship. In summary, I was very worried the masks would make me nuts for a week but luckily it didn’t. Keep in mind that on a cruise we are generally into the Schooner Bar, casino, central park, the pub, and going to the beach. Now, if you mask me up in the casino, sitting poolside, or the Schooler Bar, that is a game changer for sure.

Thanks for posting your opinions....we have about the same age groups sailing soon on Allure.  

[orville99]

6 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I agree. If they don't want to risk another shutdown, no place to port, or massive cancellations, they had better pull the trigger sooner than later.

The logistics don’t work any other way. We are on a western on 10/10. Then we stay on for the eastern the following week. Currently first leg is vax optional, but the second leg is vax mandated. Given RCL’s unique skill in connecting the dots for B2B cruisers, an unvaccinated party could board for the first leg and be refused boarding on the second leg. Ain’t gonna work out well.

[sdrocks]

21 hours ago, rtazz17 said:

We were  on last weeks cruise on allure.. We have cruised for years. I wont say I regret going but its near that. By mid week I had enough of everything. Not being able to get coffee or touch anything pretty much. Wash your hands 5 times to get a coffee,lol. If your familiar with what normally is available,activities etc,there was hardly any. You dont think you will miss a lot of it until its not there. Cruising at 1/3 capacity the ship was a ghost ship. If you hate people you will enjoy it. Board walk(ghost town),we were the only ones on boardwalk at 9pm several nights,central park(ghost town). Yeah sounds great untill you realize what makes things fun is the energy of the people there. Never get to see any of staffs faces,no big deal right? No it gets old. Im not saying some might not enjoy it but there wasnt much to do. St thomas you were walking streets in masks in 90 degree weather. I guess it is what it is. I thought it would be better but it wasnt. First couple days were ok but I literally wore a mask more in 7 days then I did in 16 months. Hours daily. If you think you can hold a drink in your hand and walk around the promanade mask less think again,not happening. At the end of the week I was very much looking forward to going home. Knowing what I know I wont do it again. Yes this is how it probably has to be right now for cruising to survive. Just posting our experience. I fooled myself into thinking it would be fun,but I think I knewin the back of my head it probably wasnt going to be.If you are genuinely afraid of covid you will enjoy it. Because its like the protocols we lived with in march of 2020. 

 

Please dont jump all over me in this post. Just my opinion your mileage may vary.

 

I am a firefighter/paramedic 20years on job. Well aware of all the facts of covid. Treated patients since the beginning of covid. So please dont advise me on what you think the facts are. Im well aware. 
We are in our 40s with two older teenagers for reference. Maybe older crowd would enjoy more? Idk. But we arent hermits and this is what it seemed like.   
 

on a better note we did enjoy florida. Guess being with people and seeing faces is what we enjoy. Retiring there in 7 years. 

Thanks for this.  Wanted to hear what kind of experience really was.  Now I know for sure won't cruise

like this.  Will not cruise if it isn't completely open and free to do what we want. Wasted money at this point.

[CruisingSince1982]

I understand not liking an empty ship, but there are so many "vaccinated only" areas, that it shouldn't have required you to wear a mask for so long. Unless you aren't vaccinated. 

[CruisingSince1982]

We are cruising at the end of December. If the appeals court rules in favor of NCL, I fully expect our (and all other) sailing to be vax only. Also I think these "first" sailings, with such a low capacity, doesn't make for a fun atmosphere. I'm hoping for a much higher capacity when we go in 4 months. We know which bars and clubs are vax only, and that's where we will be. 

[ADunk]

27 minutes ago, CruisingSince1982 said:

We are cruising at the end of December. If the appeals court rules in favor of NCL, I fully expect our (and all other) sailing to be vax only. Also I think these "first" sailings, with such a low capacity, doesn't make for a fun atmosphere. I'm hoping for a much higher capacity when we go in 4 months. We know which bars and clubs are vax only, and that's where we will be. 

We sail in 26 days (whos counting, right?) and I am curious to see if the NCL Gem sailing is successful if RCI will follow suit. We are fully vaxxed ready to roll. 

[lovesthebeach2]

1 hour ago, orville99 said:

The logistics don’t work any other way. We are on a western on 10/10. Then we stay on for the eastern the following week. Currently first leg is vax optional, but the second leg is vax mandated. Given RCL’s unique skill in connecting the dots for B2B cruisers, an unvaccinated party could board for the first leg and be refused boarding on the second leg. Ain’t gonna work out well.

I was hoping that now that Norwegian is cruising 100% vax from Florida, without penalty from that ridiculous law, that other cruise lines will soon follow suit.

[rcixfan5]

1 hour ago, CruisingSince1982 said:

I understand not liking an empty ship, but there are so many "vaccinated only" areas, that it shouldn't have required you to wear a mask for so long. Unless you aren't vaccinated. 

 

Depends on the venue.  I’ve been on both 8/8 and 8/15 sailings and only seen schooner open once.  They are reduced hours also for venues.  

 

I have ave been happy with entertainment, assuming you can get tickets for V showtimes.  You mask going to show but remove once seated for the show.   

 

There are certainly times that vac and unvac are being treated the same.  Biggest is fitness center from 6am-7:30am, when everyone must mask.  Then fitness closed from 7:30am to 8am for cleaning.  On 8/8 cruise since all guests over 12 were vac, it wasn’t this way.   No mask was needed because no unvac adults.   

[orville99]

21 hours ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

I was hoping that now that Norwegian is cruising 100% vax from Florida, without penalty from that ridiculous law, that other cruise lines will soon follow suit.

One other thing to consider going forward is that once the FDA clears vaccinations (Pfizer and/or Moderna) for the 5-11 YO group - probably within the next two weeks - vaccination will become required for that group as well. Based on previous policy decisions look for policy to change one-two months following the authorization date.

 

Hypothetically for example, if authorization occurs on 9/1, it would take the month of September for any 5-11 YO to get both doses, and if you add another month for the process to filter through, you could see the policy shift for all cruises sailing after 11/1.

 

Now I'm waiting for the cruise lines to add a booster requirement to the mix...

[lovesthebeach2]

16 minutes ago, orville99 said:

One other thing to consider going forward is that once the FDA clears vaccinations (Pfizer and/or Moderna) for the 5-11 YO group - probably within the next two weeks - vaccination will become required for that group as well. Based on previous policy decisions look for policy to change one-two months following the authorization date.

 

Hypothetically for example, if authorization occurs on 9/1, it would take the month of September for any 5-11 YO to get both doses, and if you add another month for the process to filter through, you could see the policy shift for all cruises sailing after 11/1.

 

Now I'm waiting for the cruise lines to add a booster requirement to the mix...

After reading this mornings orlando sentinel, it looks like pretty soon we will be able to get a booster and I thought the same thing…..they will soon require us to be boosted.

[orville99]

17 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

After reading this mornings orlando sentinel, it looks like pretty soon we will be able to get a booster and I thought the same thing…..they will soon require us to be boosted.

Agree, and that makes timing cruises really problematic. I can see the scenario where they keep the 14 days from your last dose policy in place which would mean you would need to make sure you had at least two weeks between the date of a booster shot and your sail date.

[orville99]

23 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

After reading this ...

BTW, did you get a response from Dexter yet?

[PTC DAWG]

23 hours ago, sdrocks said:

Thanks for this.  Wanted to hear what kind of experience really was.  Now I know for sure won't cruise

like this.  Will not cruise if it isn't completely open and free to do what we want. Wasted money at this point.

Honestly, there are two different takes on the thread regarding this sailing...FWIW...

[lovesthebeach2]

1 hour ago, orville99 said:

BTW, did you get a response from Dexter yet?

No I haven’t. And our friends that were going with also just got upgraded to a grand suite. Neither of us heard from him. 
 

have you heard back from him?

Edited August 18, 2021 by lovesthebeach2

[orville99]

37 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

No I haven’t. And our friends that were going with also just got upgraded to a grand suite. Neither of us heard from him. 
 

have you heard back from him?

We heard back this morning. Hopefully he will get to yours today.

[BecciBoo]

2 hours ago, orville99 said:

Now I'm waiting for the cruise lines to add a booster requirement to the mix...

Fine by me, I'm ready to get it!

[orville99]

57 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

Fine by me, I'm ready to get it!

Us too. We will hold off on our flu shots until after we get the Moderna booster, but we will get the Moderna booster as soon as it is offered to us.

[cruiselvr04]

Interesting to read your take on the cruise. Thank you.  I can see how a empty ship would lack the usual energy.  

 

We are going in November and we expect it will be different.  We like evening entertainment, schooner bar later at night, dining with others so of course we’re wondering what it will be like.  Daytime for us is the solarium, reading a book and napping.

 

Because we know it will different we booked a suite to give us more room and balcony space.  We also do not plan on getting off the ship which will be a first time for us.  We honestly just want to get away with a little pampering, rest and relaxing.  Nothing to do in the evening would be our biggest disappointment.  We hate vacations where evenings are in a hotel room watching a movie as we can do that at home.

 

TBD.

[dappledumpling]

Everyone cruises for different reasons.. My wife and I were also on that cruise and thought it was one of our better cruises.  We went for pure relaxation and found it.. no fighting for elevators (she is in a wheelchair so normally an issue) Always found a bar open for cocktails when I was  wanting one. Crew  was fantastic and felt I wore a mask alot less than my normal life.. We hung out in casino, schooners bar and the pub.. all are no mask required... Looking forward to going a again in 2 months...  If you expect the cruise to be the same as pre covid now is not the time to go.. I would wait.

 

Personally I needed a break and it was a much needed one..

 

 

[CannonG]

My wife and I were also on this sailing. We had the best time. The lack of people was so refreshing. It really felt like we were on a private yacht. We played mini golf at 5p on a sea day and we were the only one on the course. It was awesome.