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Please help me with this!


DatawCruiser
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I am on the 2/3/2022 Splendor cruise in a PHC Suite.  I have another 8 days until final payment.  I am having a hard time justifying this cruise, primarily because of the masking requirement.  I have cruised on Regent before and actually cancelled a previous Mediterranean cruise in September because I thought things would have settled down by next February.  My issue is with the all encompassing mask requirement onboard.  I am not willing to pay the premium prices for Regent if I have to wear a face covering on a 100% vaccinated guest and crew population. I understand there is a risk of excursions causing the possibility of a breakthrough infection.  But I take that risk every time I go grocery shopping even though I mask up for that (because there are no vaccination guarantees  for grocery shopping in SC).  I am on the fence as to whether to cancel.  Any thoughts?

 

Thanks.  Be gentle.

 

Andy

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I am going to respond not so much from a cruising perspective but from the general mask mandate issue. I am double vaccinated with Moderna and am 69 and my wife is 74. I obviously wear a mask when I am indoors following Illinois law which for me is only shopping, dining, & medical appointments. The other day I had a medical appointment to discuss an upcoming surgery and ended up wearing the mask for a little over 5 hours in a row at the medical facility. I felt like I couldn't breathe after a while and just wanted to escape where I was at.

 

It may have been the stress of the surgical consultation but I had never wore a mask for longer than it took it pick up groceries or get seated at a restaurant. I can't imagine any relaxing vacation or doing anything if I had to wear a mask more than a short period at a time. Plus I wear glasses and I see then don't see with every breath which drives me crazy because of the lens fogging up.

 

Frankly, I don't leave the house much anymore if I have to go in somewhere. I am good for a hour or so masked but soon I just get this feeling like I just want to rip the mask off and scream!

 

I don't know if this note was helpful but for me a mask and a relaxed vacation just don't go together especially when my wife and I have followed the rules and are fully vaccinated. We plan to get our boosters as soon as the Moderna one is approved for Senior Citizens.

 

Edited by Onkel_Ken
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I’m fully vaccinated and have been to Hawaii twice this year - direct flights from Newark, NJ to Honolulu.  Spent more than 12 hours with the mask on except for a quick meal on the flight and drinking water.  Did I like it no, but since I have done it multiple times now,  I’m doing better with it.  Keep in mind lots of people that work in hospitals have been wearing masks all day - they got use to it.  
 

I also have glasses and that is a pain because of the fog,  but that requires finding the right mask to avoid that problem.  
 

Will the cruise be the same, probably not,  you may need to spend a bit more time with the person you are cruising with.  If the perfect cruise is hanging at the bar and meeting everyone,  that may cause you concern.  Good luck. 

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This is a personal decision for you. Our desire to travel outranked the masking requirements. We have been on Splendor since September 11. Enjoying ourselves tremendously, even with masks. On the ship, masks are worn in the hallways and in and out of bars and dining rooms. At La Veranda, buffet items are served to you. You must have a mask on while choosing what you want. I keep forgetting that, a gentle reminder sends me back to the table for my mask. If you feel the mask requirement (could change by your cruise) would not allow you to enjoy the cruise, then maybe waiting until it permanently goes away might be best.

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It will depend on your individual tolerance of mask wearing. We've just been on a river cruise, where mask wearing was mandatory inside the ship, except for own cabin or whilst eating or drinking. It wasn't a big deal for us, as we are French resident and masks have been part of our lives for some time. It wouldn't be enough to make us cancel a trip, yes it's nicer without them, but not a deal breaker. We expect to need them for our upcoming ocean trip in February, when using public areas, but hopefully not outside on deck.

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To be honest, like with a lot of these posts, I'm not sure what you're seeking. 

 

You don't have to like wearing masks or going on cruises where they're a requirement. That's a perfectly valid reason not to go on cruises - I don't like wearing masks either. 

 

And as much as anyone gripes on here, I'm not sure most complainers can do anything to change mask requirements 

 

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1 hour ago, DatawCruiser said:

Thanks everyone for your input.  I'm going to cancel and wait a year until my next cruise.  Hopefully this will be a non-issue then.

We are in the same situation as you.  Our final payment is due in a couple of weeks, and we will cancel since we will not spend thousands of dollars to be on a cruise with constant mask wearing and dealing with self-appointed mask police.  And yes, we are vaccinated.  We will not go unless it will be the usual Regent experience we are paying so much money for.

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I don't have any moral or political issues with required masks, but I do have physical issues that makes them particularly unpleasant. Not impossible but unpleasant. So perhaps my perspective will help.
I'm sure that Regent would love to drop the mask requirement: nobody likes them.  (Well, there may be a few individuals on the planet for whom they are a sexual fetish, but other than them ...) Whether Regent will be able to drop that requirement by February is unknown. So if I were in your situation I would assume the worst and ask whether the unpleasantness of masks is worth it to be on a cruise again.
From the original post, I suspect the answer for Andy is "no" but I think my own answer would be "yes".
One reason why our first cruise since before the pandemic is in July is that we hope that by then things like mask requirements and other uncertainties will be resolved.

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What a shame to cancel a vacation/cruise just because of a mask requirement.  We have cancelled 4 cruises due to the pandemic and we can't wait till be can again travel.   We plan to start cruises with the Regent Splendor in January and again in April.  And 2 others during the year.  After 18 months of being at home do to Covid, we have reorganized the house, got rid of tons of stuff,  painted inside and outside, removed old furniture and bought new, our gardens never looked better & and the lawn looks gold course green.  There is nothing left for us to do but travel!  Think positive. As the saying goes: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. 

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28 minutes ago, alidor said:

That’s a shame that masks are preventing you from travellng.  Enjoy your time at home rather than on a cruise ship…

 

Cruise ships aren't the only vacation option, but most options will probably require some masks.  I'm with Irish above we chose to go to Hawaii.  Direct flight from CLT with flat beds.  You basically need to be vaccinated to go to Hawaii.  You can go if you are un vaccinated but you can't go to restaurants, bars etc and need to get tested. 

 

If wearing a mask in a big drawback I would guess they aren't going away for a while and it looks like Data ultimately agreed.  That's there choice. .  There are just too many uncertainties around cruising for us at this point so we are looking at 2023.

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Currently on Splendor, and masks are generally required in public spaces inside the ship unless you are eating or drinking. Masks are also required on excursion buses. Honestly, not really hard to deal with since I am eating and/or drinking pretty much all the time. Current rules are subject to change if conditions in the countries will allow it. I thought it would be a problem, but really isn’t. The 8 hour flights is where the masking policy is a pain.

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15 minutes ago, wcsdkqh said:

Currently on Splendor, and masks are generally required in public spaces inside the ship unless you are eating or drinking. Masks are also required on excursion buses. Honestly, not really hard to deal with since I am eating and/or drinking pretty much all the time. Current rules are subject to change if conditions in the countries will allow it. I thought it would be a problem, but really isn’t. The 8 hour flights is where the masking policy is a pain.

WCSD...Can you tell me if the mask wearing is something that Regent is requiring (on their own) or is it being done due to local country (territorial waters) requirements where the ship is located?  Perhaps Regent is also just being "super cautious" at the moment for these first sailings until they see how "things go" and then might relax a bit themselves as time goes on? I can't imagine that with 100% vaccination onboard that there would be any sort of "ship-wide contagion breaking out, and at worst, perhaps a couple rather mild "sniffles & sneezes".  What's your on-the-scene impression? Regards

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8 minutes ago, wcsdkqh said:

Currently on Splendor, and masks are generally required in public spaces inside the ship unless you are eating or drinking. Masks are also required on excursion buses. Honestly, not really hard to deal with since I am eating and/or drinking pretty much all the time. Current rules are subject to change if conditions in the countries will allow it. I thought it would be a problem, but really isn’t. The 8 hour flights is where the masking policy is a pain.

My sentiments exactly!  We have to decide about our July cruise in February, and the big decision won't be whether the ship requires masks (see above about eating and drinking), but the airlines.  Wearing a mask for 8 or more hours is the biggie for us, and we'll have to decide.  Somehow with flatbed seats I imagine it might be easier, don't know.

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2 minutes ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

My sentiments exactly!  We have to decide about our July cruise in February, and the big decision won't be whether the ship requires masks (see above about eating and drinking), but the airlines.  Wearing a mask for 8 or more hours is the biggie for us, and we'll have to decide.  Somehow with flatbed seats I imagine it might be easier, don't know.

 

I hear ya.  We're not big fans of masks either but we haven't been anywhere significant in 2 1/2 years so we will endure it.  We've also been to Hawaii 4 times, not our top pick but WE ARE GOING YAHOO.  So we will wear the damn masks.

 

 

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Everyone is commenting that they don't like masks. 

 

Is that really necessary? 😂  Surely that's implied? Otherwise, pre-pandemic, you'd have seen everyone wearing masks all the time. Yet nobody I know was wearing masks regularly before the pandemic was a thing haha.

 

Nobody likes wearing masks (although I'm aware exceptions exist). Wearing a mask on a cruise sounds like a hassle to me - wearing a mask on an excursion bus doesn't sound fun to me. But without being morbid, you have to weigh up how much time you have to fully enjoy cruising versus waiting for mask requirements to be removed. Our bodies are decaying over time and there may come a point where you're not able to cruise to the same extent you are today. 

 

For example, there are a fair few 70-somethings and a few 80-somethings on here. Without being overly cruel, is it really worth waiting a year or more just to not wear a mask? I guess my rambling point is that the older you are, the less likely I'd recommend putting off going on cruises.

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52 minutes ago, pingpong1 said:

WCSD...Can you tell me if the mask wearing is something that Regent is requiring (on their own) or is it being done due to local country (territorial waters) requirements where the ship is located?  Perhaps Regent is also just being "super cautious" at the moment for these first sailings until they see how "things go" and then might relax a bit themselves as time goes on? I can't imagine that with 100% vaccination onboard that there would be any sort of "ship-wide contagion breaking out, and at worst, perhaps a couple rather mild "sniffles & sneezes".  What's your on-the-scene impression? Regards

I can imagine that Regent is aware that there will always be someone who will have a forged vaccination document. It only takes one to ruin it for everyone. As much as I am not looking forward to having to wear a mask while roaming around, I will do so and enjoy our December cruise as much as humanly possible. 

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Our first Regent cruise is in March 2022. We did just complete a Celebrity 12 day cruise in the Caribbean. We booked it at the last minute as we just wanted to go somewhere. Vaccinations and pretesting were required. There were, however, no masks required while sailing. The cruise was at about 45% capacity, so there was no issue with congested spaces.

I think we will make our final payment for the Regent cruise and take our chances. Hopefully, the regulation will be history by then. 

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Luxury cruise passengers are generally an orderly group 😏 but who's job is it to enforce these mask mandates?    It doesn't seem fair to waiters, bartenders, maitre ds etc to reprimand people not wearing masks especially being their job performance will be evaluated by the review that person gives. 

 

I was in a restaurant the other day and they let in two guys, one with the mask completely under his nose and the other wearing a cloth mask that hadn't been washed in a very very long time.   They later tell someone without a mask he can't come in so he walks away.  

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16 minutes ago, RetiredandTravel said:

Luxury cruise passengers are generally an orderly group 😏 but who's job is it to enforce these mask mandates?    It doesn't seem fair to waiters, bartenders, maitre ds etc to reprimand people not wearing masks especially being their job performance will be evaluated by the review that person gives. 

 

I was in a restaurant the other day and they let in two guys, one with the mask completely under his nose and the other wearing a cloth mask that hadn't been washed in a very very long time.   They later tell someone without a mask he can't come in so he walks away.  

I suspect it will be more of a polite request rather than people forcibly enforcing things. 

 

If you want to be rude about it, I suspect nobody will be able to stop you really. It's the same with lockdowns in my country - if people wanted, they probably could disobey it and some definitely did. However, most people chose to follow it anyway despite the police not really being able to strictly enforce things. 

 

It will probably be the same for masks. People tend to follow rules even if they disagree with them. 😉

 

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We were on Silversea Galapagos last month--yes, a different cruise line but same mask requirements.  Only supposed to take it off when eating or drinking or in your suite.  My husband is the worst in the world about forgetting his mask.  I have to remind him constantly, but honestly, it was no big deal.  

 

Mind you, I have been wearing a mask 10-12 hours or more every day at work since March 2020. 

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For me, it boils down to following rules, it this case, for the well being of yourself and others.   Masks have become a political flash point.  There doesn’t seem to be the same kind of pushback on following the rules of the road or the rules for public decency.  Businesses have always had dress codes for employees and patrons.  How is this different? I’m sure if someone showed up in his underwear at compass rose there would be a collective outcry and he would be summarily escorted out and to his cabin.  If he continued to disregard the dress code, management would have words and possible sanctions against him.  So, if you don’t like the current policies it is totally your choice to take your money elsewhere.  Rules are rules, no matter how obnoxious they are to you.  

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We are booked on the Feb 3 Splendor cruise also. I’m hoping by then masks won’t be required, but if they are I can endure them if necessary to be on a Regent cruise. Like someone else said, we are eating and drinking much of the time anyway. It won’t be pleasant on a bus, but it will be worth it to me. I agree with another person about not having a lot of years to sit around and wait. I’ve got to go while I can!

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I have not read any posts from anyone on this forum who has said they were going to "refuse to wear a mask", when or where required to by Regent.  All that some folks have said, which is certainly their right to say, is that until masks are no longer mandatory on board (or on sponsored excursions)....that they will delay their cruising plans until masks are no longer required.  That should not be construed by anyone as being unruly, immoral, stubborn, non-conformist (or whatever other adjective one might choose).  Regards.

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