Just off Odyssey Xmas cruise... honest review from Diamond plus member with 324 nights.

[hackwid]

I am not going to debate this post with anyone.  This is my opinion based on 324 nights with Royal and also having sailed 4x since the restart on 3 lines.  We were not originally booked on Odyssey for the Xmas cruise.  We were on the Mariner originally.  I watched the rates at the end of November tank for the last 3 cruises on December.  We were able to move to the Odyssey for half the price of what they were selling it at.  So clearly it was a calculated effort by Royal to fill the ships.  We saw the ability to book Odyssey disappear the first week of December.  Clearly they sold at their capacity limits.

Everyone had to test 2 days or less before the sail.  So what we know of Omnicron is that 2 days Is too far out.  How do we know that?  Because several people were already infected when they board which is why we had to go back to Fort Lauderdale at midnight to drop those 9 people off.  Full on hazmat suit crew rolled their saran wrapped luggage off the ship.  It was pretty surreal.

So Royal says - yes we still only take 5% unvac'd.  But, we had 3600 people.  So when you increase capacity that high- you also increase unvac'd amounts.  This is my first gripe about the cruise.  So they took away the areas that vac'd could be without a mask- which is fine.  But, they ended up taking some of that room and giving to unvac'd because they had so many on board.  So for shows the unvac'd had the balcony of the theatre on deck 5 and also they got 25% of the theatre area on deck 4.  So what that meant was vac'd people had to sit closer in the areas left for us.  No distancing.  Now yes we were masked; but, the unvac'd got to spread out.  We did not.  Royal claims that everyone must be masked.  So what does that mean?  Well they have signs and occasionally make an announcement during the Captains report.  But, I saw not one single employee enforce mask wearing. So you had people with them not at all. Under chin. Under nose etc.  Getting on elevator with no mask.  It was very frustrating because everyone knew there was an outbreak and so many just didnt care.  The 70's disco party was played on the tv and half of the guests were completely unmasked on the dance floor.  All dancing close to eachother.

So our stateroom attendent came in the room 2x a day.  He went down with Covid on day 3.  So a new person had to take on additional rooms which meant the quality suffered.  Some nights there was a knock on the door after 9 asking if we needed anything cleaned.  It got to a point where we just had the guy come in once because we felt so bad for how overworked he was.

We did not go in the dining room at all.  We had my time dining scheduled and the line was so long on the first night.  We went and checked out the dining room space and tables were on top of eachother.  We just did not feel safe that close to other people so we went to the windjammer the second they opened and/or did room service.

Here is my honest feeling about capacity.  I have done 3 other cruises before this and capacity was half or less.  I believe that when Royal increased capacity they did not directly address how they would still maintain distancing.  So they cut off tables in bars and there were not enough places for people to be so they stood on top of eachother.  When they made the rates so low it seems like a lot of large groups ended up on board.  Families that were 25 people deep.  There was no concessions made for these larger groups and they just came in a room like they owned the place.  They ignored the 6 person limit on the elevator and honestly just didn't seem to care about protocols.  

We sat at the port in Curacoa for 6 hours.  Why could they not pick up the provisions they needed?  They could have left it on the dock and had no communication directly and just picked the stuff up.  Because of poor planning they were out of cocktail mixers on day 5.  They had to take alcohol from the store- which made them sell out of plain vodka and rum- because they did not properly plan for the amount of people.  Did the crew not get the memo on how many would be on board?

Speaking of the crew- ask yourself this.  If you were crew and had a sore throat would you work thru it or gladly see if you get in quarantine for 10 days?

What about passengers?  Would you willingly want to go to medical and lose your balcony room to be inside on deck 3?

So when you look at the numbers- realize that most of them are crew which the cruiseline has to report and there is an incentive for the crew to get tested.

But, as a passenger unless you have more severe symptoms- why would any willingly get tested?  So I believe the actual number of people infected in 10 fold.

Finally - it became obvious that they were trying to get people to spend more time in their room.  I can understand it.  But, the activities they did offer were subpar.  Having sailed 324 nights on Royal - the blame falls to them on this one.  They increased capacity clearly without a plan.  They didnt compensate for spacing and distancing.  By the end I found a lot of the crew surly, defensive and clearly exhausted.  We tried to keep to ourselves and have a decent attitude.  I wish Royal would learn from this and pull back.  But, we were told the New Years cruise has even more people on it then the Xmas cruise.  That is a receipt for disaster that I wish they learned their lesson from on our cruise.  I know that we will hear reports from these larger Royal ships of higher numbers and it can affect the industry and ports willing to take these ships for awhile. I wish Royal was honest and told these media outlets that they in fact are not enforcing mask wearing.   That their crew was overworked and outnumbered and just did not seem to want to make people comply.  I know this is full of negative things.  While the ship was new and shiny- sadly the actions of the people made it seem like we were on Carnival.

[D4]

I appreciate your observations.

 

It’s terrible that they allowed so many to book these holiday cruises.

 

Cruise lines need to enforce their mask policies.  It’s in their best interest to make cruising safer for everyone… guests and crew.

[time4u2go]

Sounds like the perfect storm arose...increased capacity for the holidays, and a new more contagious variant.

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by time4u2go

[Biker19]

21 minutes ago, hackwid said:

Sadly the actions of the people made it seem like we were on Carnival.

How many nights do you have with them?

[bouhunter]

Thanks for the report.  Makes me happy we shifted all of this winters cruises to 2023.

[luv2ski98]

i just got off the same cruise and what original poster said is true. All events that were attended  by the masses masks were not enforced. The mask policy was randomly enforced in the gym and sea plex.

hard to believe they ran out of mixes for fruity drinks. there were cards on tables to social distance but many did not care and sat anyway.

[Ramona760]

Thank you for your report. If I had not already had a cruise in Dec. with RC, I would have canceled. However we had quite the opposite experience with one big difference. We are in California. We took the Navigator of the Seas Dec. 13 for a short 3 day cruise out of Los Angeles. All entertainment was open, Ship was at maybe 40% capacity. Only unvaxed were children. Mask wearing was never an issue as everyone was compliant which led to a perfectly enjoyable cruise. We are also booked with family in mid January and are hoping for a similar experience. 

[BazingAu]

Thank you for sharing your experience. Since you have so many nights under your belt, do you think you can reach out to the CEO directly? Maybe your opinions will help shed light on what is actually happening on cruises.

 

I think these CEO’s just look at the $$ that the bean counters are showing them (reminds me of the cost-benefit analysis/Ford Pinto) that shows them the potential dollar value of having incrementally more passengers outweigh the risks. And they come up with these “policies” that sounds good on paper but have no way to carry out or enforce. It sounds like the quality of the cruise is declining while also risking exposure to Covid - it’s a lose-lose proposition for cruisers. When capacity was low, and exposure risk was low, it sounded like things were working. But now with higher capacity and fast-spreading variant, they need to fix what isn’t working. I’d like Royal to acknowledge they need to do better to keep passengers and crew safe, even if it risks alienating certain other cruisers in the interim. These are not normal times and it’s absurd that the business folk seem to think that cruisers should absorb all the risks of cruising while Royal reaps all the rewards.

 

[Jarmo]

If passengers didn't disregard the polices there wouldn't be a need for enforcement.  It is disappointing some passengers have such little regard for the crew and other passengers.

[vacationlover_mn]

Thank you for your post!

[rjrpar]

46 minutes ago, hackwid said:

I am not going to debate this post with anyone.  This is my opinion based on 324 nights with Royal and also having sailed 4x since the restart on 3 lines.  We were not originally booked on Odyssey for the Xmas cruise.  We were on the Mariner originally.  I watched the rates at the end of November tank for the last 3 cruises on December.  We were able to move to the Odyssey for half the price of what they were selling it at.  So clearly it was a calculated effort by Royal to fill the ships.  We saw the ability to book Odyssey disappear the first week of December.  Clearly they sold at their capacity limits.

Everyone had to test 2 days or less before the sail.  So what we know of Omnicron is that 2 days Is too far out.  How do we know that?  Because several people were already infected when they board which is why we had to go back to Fort Lauderdale at midnight to drop those 9 people off.  Full on hazmat suit crew rolled their saran wrapped luggage off the ship.  It was pretty surreal.

So Royal says - yes we still only take 5% unvac'd.  But, we had 3600 people.  So when you increase capacity that high- you also increase unvac'd amounts.  This is my first gripe about the cruise.  So they took away the areas that vac'd could be without a mask- which is fine.  But, they ended up taking some of that room and giving to unvac'd because they had so many on board.  So for shows the unvac'd had the balcony of the theatre on deck 5 and also they got 25% of the theatre area on deck 4.  So what that meant was vac'd people had to sit closer in the areas left for us.  No distancing.  Now yes we were masked; but, the unvac'd got to spread out.  We did not.  Royal claims that everyone must be masked.  So what does that mean?  Well they have signs and occasionally make an announcement during the Captains report.  But, I saw not one single employee enforce mask wearing. So you had people with them not at all. Under chin. Under nose etc.  Getting on elevator with no mask.  It was very frustrating because everyone knew there was an outbreak and so many just didnt care.  The 70's disco party was played on the tv and half of the guests were completely unmasked on the dance floor.  All dancing close to eachother.

So our stateroom attendent came in the room 2x a day.  He went down with Covid on day 3.  So a new person had to take on additional rooms which meant the quality suffered.  Some nights there was a knock on the door after 9 asking if we needed anything cleaned.  It got to a point where we just had the guy come in once because we felt so bad for how overworked he was.

We did not go in the dining room at all.  We had my time dining scheduled and the line was so long on the first night.  We went and checked out the dining room space and tables were on top of eachother.  We just did not feel safe that close to other people so we went to the windjammer the second they opened and/or did room service.

Here is my honest feeling about capacity.  I have done 3 other cruises before this and capacity was half or less.  I believe that when Royal increased capacity they did not directly address how they would still maintain distancing.  So they cut off tables in bars and there were not enough places for people to be so they stood on top of eachother.  When they made the rates so low it seems like a lot of large groups ended up on board.  Families that were 25 people deep.  There was no concessions made for these larger groups and they just came in a room like they owned the place.  They ignored the 6 person limit on the elevator and honestly just didn't seem to care about protocols.  

We sat at the port in Curacoa for 6 hours.  Why could they not pick up the provisions they needed?  They could have left it on the dock and had no communication directly and just picked the stuff up.  Because of poor planning they were out of cocktail mixers on day 5.  They had to take alcohol from the store- which made them sell out of plain vodka and rum- because they did not properly plan for the amount of people.  Did the crew not get the memo on how many would be on board?

Speaking of the crew- ask yourself this.  If you were crew and had a sore throat would you work thru it or gladly see if you get in quarantine for 10 days?

What about passengers?  Would you willingly want to go to medical and lose your balcony room to be inside on deck 3?

So when you look at the numbers- realize that most of them are crew which the cruiseline has to report and there is an incentive for the crew to get tested.

But, as a passenger unless you have more severe symptoms- why would any willingly get tested?  So I believe the actual number of people infected in 10 fold.

Finally - it became obvious that they were trying to get people to spend more time in their room.  I can understand it.  But, the activities they did offer were subpar.  Having sailed 324 nights on Royal - the blame falls to them on this one.  They increased capacity clearly without a plan.  They didnt compensate for spacing and distancing.  By the end I found a lot of the crew surly, defensive and clearly exhausted.  We tried to keep to ourselves and have a decent attitude.  I wish Royal would learn from this and pull back.  But, we were told the New Years cruise has even more people on it then the Xmas cruise.  That is a receipt for disaster that I wish they learned their lesson from on our cruise.  I know that we will hear reports from these larger Royal ships of higher numbers and it can affect the industry and ports willing to take these ships for awhile. I wish Royal was honest and told these media outlets that they in fact are not enforcing mask wearing.   That their crew was overworked and outnumbered and just did not seem to want to make people comply.  I know this is full of negative things.  While the ship was new and shiny- sadly the actions of the people made it seem like we were on Carnival.

Maybe people on all the mass cruise lines are very much alike. Sorry, but your last comment sounds awful

[denas]

4 minutes ago, Jarmo said:

If passengers didn't disregard the polices there wouldn't be a need for enforcement.  It is disappointing some passengers have such little regard for the crew and other passengers.

  Well they have a policy about towels on chairs they have never enforced. Why would anyone expect them to enforce a mask policy which requires actually confronting a passenger (vs just removing their stuff and sending it to the towel place for pick up). 

[whyrlygig]

47 minutes ago, hackwid said:

I am not going to debate this post with anyone.  This is my opinion based on 324 nights with Royal and also having sailed 4x since the restart on 3 lines.  We were not originally booked on Odyssey for the Xmas cruise.  We were on the Mariner originally.  I watched the rates at the end of November tank for the last 3 cruises on December.  We were able to move to the Odyssey for half the price of what they were selling it at.  So clearly it was a calculated effort by Royal to fill the ships.  We saw the ability to book Odyssey disappear the first week of December.  Clearly they sold at their capacity limits.

Everyone had to test 2 days or less before the sail.  So what we know of Omnicron is that 2 days Is too far out.  How do we know that?  Because several people were already infected when they board which is why we had to go back to Fort Lauderdale at midnight to drop those 9 people off.  Full on hazmat suit crew rolled their saran wrapped luggage off the ship.  It was pretty surreal.

So Royal says - yes we still only take 5% unvac'd.  But, we had 3600 people.  So when you increase capacity that high- you also increase unvac'd amounts.  This is my first gripe about the cruise.  So they took away the areas that vac'd could be without a mask- which is fine.  But, they ended up taking some of that room and giving to unvac'd because they had so many on board.  So for shows the unvac'd had the balcony of the theatre on deck 5 and also they got 25% of the theatre area on deck 4.  So what that meant was vac'd people had to sit closer in the areas left for us.  No distancing.  Now yes we were masked; but, the unvac'd got to spread out.  We did not.  Royal claims that everyone must be masked.  So what does that mean?  Well they have signs and occasionally make an announcement during the Captains report.  But, I saw not one single employee enforce mask wearing. So you had people with them not at all. Under chin. Under nose etc.  Getting on elevator with no mask.  It was very frustrating because everyone knew there was an outbreak and so many just didnt care.  The 70's disco party was played on the tv and half of the guests were completely unmasked on the dance floor.  All dancing close to eachother.

So our stateroom attendent came in the room 2x a day.  He went down with Covid on day 3.  So a new person had to take on additional rooms which meant the quality suffered.  Some nights there was a knock on the door after 9 asking if we needed anything cleaned.  It got to a point where we just had the guy come in once because we felt so bad for how overworked he was.

We did not go in the dining room at all.  We had my time dining scheduled and the line was so long on the first night.  We went and checked out the dining room space and tables were on top of eachother.  We just did not feel safe that close to other people so we went to the windjammer the second they opened and/or did room service.

Here is my honest feeling about capacity.  I have done 3 other cruises before this and capacity was half or less.  I believe that when Royal increased capacity they did not directly address how they would still maintain distancing.  So they cut off tables in bars and there were not enough places for people to be so they stood on top of eachother.  When they made the rates so low it seems like a lot of large groups ended up on board.  Families that were 25 people deep.  There was no concessions made for these larger groups and they just came in a room like they owned the place.  They ignored the 6 person limit on the elevator and honestly just didn't seem to care about protocols.  

We sat at the port in Curacoa for 6 hours.  Why could they not pick up the provisions they needed?  They could have left it on the dock and had no communication directly and just picked the stuff up.  Because of poor planning they were out of cocktail mixers on day 5.  They had to take alcohol from the store- which made them sell out of plain vodka and rum- because they did not properly plan for the amount of people.  Did the crew not get the memo on how many would be on board?

Speaking of the crew- ask yourself this.  If you were crew and had a sore throat would you work thru it or gladly see if you get in quarantine for 10 days?

What about passengers?  Would you willingly want to go to medical and lose your balcony room to be inside on deck 3?

So when you look at the numbers- realize that most of them are crew which the cruiseline has to report and there is an incentive for the crew to get tested.

But, as a passenger unless you have more severe symptoms- why would any willingly get tested?  So I believe the actual number of people infected in 10 fold.

Finally - it became obvious that they were trying to get people to spend more time in their room.  I can understand it.  But, the activities they did offer were subpar.  Having sailed 324 nights on Royal - the blame falls to them on this one.  They increased capacity clearly without a plan.  They didnt compensate for spacing and distancing.  By the end I found a lot of the crew surly, defensive and clearly exhausted.  We tried to keep to ourselves and have a decent attitude.  I wish Royal would learn from this and pull back.  But, we were told the New Years cruise has even more people on it then the Xmas cruise.  That is a receipt for disaster that I wish they learned their lesson from on our cruise.  I know that we will hear reports from these larger Royal ships of higher numbers and it can affect the industry and ports willing to take these ships for awhile. I wish Royal was honest and told these media outlets that they in fact are not enforcing mask wearing.   That their crew was overworked and outnumbered and just did not seem to want to make people comply.  I know this is full of negative things.  While the ship was new and shiny- sadly the actions of the people made it seem like we were on Carnival.

I am sorry to hear of your experience.  When we went on Odyssey  in September the capacity was just 827 ppl and they were so careful that we really did feel safe.  It was by far my favorite ship.  If however, I experienced what you did I would be sorely disappointed too.  Frankly now I wonder if I should cancel our March trip on Mariner...

[cruisegirl1]

Thank you for the honest review.  We can all look back and see what went wrong, but time4u2go summed it up.  Pretty much a perfect storm.    When  Royal increased the capacity so quickly how would  they know that a new contagious variant would come in to play.

 

We been on several cruises since the return and the December 5 Harmony had MDR tables painfully close.  Closer than I recall from pre covid days.  We tried to change to late seated  dining for an upcoming cruise and were told the seated dining is on the same level as MTD (level 3) and that the levels 4 and 5 are reserved for non-vaccinated.  

 

M

 

[Interestedcruisefan]

1 hour ago, hackwid said:

I am not going to debate this post with anyone.  This is my opinion based on 324 nights with Royal and also having sailed 4x since the restart on 3 lines.  We were not originally booked on Odyssey for the Xmas cruise.  We were on the Mariner originally.  I watched the rates at the end of November tank for the last 3 cruises on December.  We were able to move to the Odyssey for half the price of what they were selling it at.  So clearly it was a calculated effort by Royal to fill the ships.  We saw the ability to book Odyssey disappear the first week of December.  Clearly they sold at their capacity limits.

Everyone had to test 2 days or less before the sail.  So what we know of Omnicron is that 2 days Is too far out.  How do we know that?  Because several people were already infected when they board which is why we had to go back to Fort Lauderdale at midnight to drop those 9 people off.  Full on hazmat suit crew rolled their saran wrapped luggage off the ship.  It was pretty surreal.

So Royal says - yes we still only take 5% unvac'd.  But, we had 3600 people.  So when you increase capacity that high- you also increase unvac'd amounts.  This is my first gripe about the cruise.  So they took away the areas that vac'd could be without a mask- which is fine.  But, they ended up taking some of that room and giving to unvac'd because they had so many on board.  So for shows the unvac'd had the balcony of the theatre on deck 5 and also they got 25% of the theatre area on deck 4.  So what that meant was vac'd people had to sit closer in the areas left for us.  No distancing.  Now yes we were masked; but, the unvac'd got to spread out.  We did not.  Royal claims that everyone must be masked.  So what does that mean?  Well they have signs and occasionally make an announcement during the Captains report.  But, I saw not one single employee enforce mask wearing. So you had people with them not at all. Under chin. Under nose etc.  Getting on elevator with no mask.  It was very frustrating because everyone knew there was an outbreak and so many just didnt care.  The 70's disco party was played on the tv and half of the guests were completely unmasked on the dance floor.  All dancing close to eachother.

So our stateroom attendent came in the room 2x a day.  He went down with Covid on day 3.  So a new person had to take on additional rooms which meant the quality suffered.  Some nights there was a knock on the door after 9 asking if we needed anything cleaned.  It got to a point where we just had the guy come in once because we felt so bad for how overworked he was.

We did not go in the dining room at all.  We had my time dining scheduled and the line was so long on the first night.  We went and checked out the dining room space and tables were on top of eachother.  We just did not feel safe that close to other people so we went to the windjammer the second they opened and/or did room service.

Here is my honest feeling about capacity.  I have done 3 other cruises before this and capacity was half or less.  I believe that when Royal increased capacity they did not directly address how they would still maintain distancing.  So they cut off tables in bars and there were not enough places for people to be so they stood on top of eachother.  When they made the rates so low it seems like a lot of large groups ended up on board.  Families that were 25 people deep.  There was no concessions made for these larger groups and they just came in a room like they owned the place.  They ignored the 6 person limit on the elevator and honestly just didn't seem to care about protocols.  

We sat at the port in Curacoa for 6 hours.  Why could they not pick up the provisions they needed?  They could have left it on the dock and had no communication directly and just picked the stuff up.  Because of poor planning they were out of cocktail mixers on day 5.  They had to take alcohol from the store- which made them sell out of plain vodka and rum- because they did not properly plan for the amount of people.  Did the crew not get the memo on how many would be on board?

Speaking of the crew- ask yourself this.  If you were crew and had a sore throat would you work thru it or gladly see if you get in quarantine for 10 days?

What about passengers?  Would you willingly want to go to medical and lose your balcony room to be inside on deck 3?

So when you look at the numbers- realize that most of them are crew which the cruiseline has to report and there is an incentive for the crew to get tested.

But, as a passenger unless you have more severe symptoms- why would any willingly get tested?  So I believe the actual number of people infected in 10 fold.

Finally - it became obvious that they were trying to get people to spend more time in their room.  I can understand it.  But, the activities they did offer were subpar.  Having sailed 324 nights on Royal - the blame falls to them on this one.  They increased capacity clearly without a plan.  They didnt compensate for spacing and distancing.  By the end I found a lot of the crew surly, defensive and clearly exhausted.  We tried to keep to ourselves and have a decent attitude.  I wish Royal would learn from this and pull back.  But, we were told the New Years cruise has even more people on it then the Xmas cruise.  That is a receipt for disaster that I wish they learned their lesson from on our cruise.  I know that we will hear reports from these larger Royal ships of higher numbers and it can affect the industry and ports willing to take these ships for awhile. I wish Royal was honest and told these media outlets that they in fact are not enforcing mask wearing.   That their crew was overworked and outnumbered and just did not seem to want to make people comply.  I know this is full of negative things.  While the ship was new and shiny- sadly the actions of the people made it seem like we were on Carnival.

Big mistake by RC gone badly wrong

 

Obviously when they were taking all the bookings nobody knew about Omicron 

 

 

[barbeyg]

While I can empathize, people who choose to sail during a pandemic should expect that things will be different and in constant transition. Frankly, the cruise lines can’t please everyone, because everyone has different and very strong beliefs on how Covid should be handled. 
 

We sailed in the first half of December.  We knew that anything could happen to disrupt our cruise, that there could be crowds at times, that we could possibly not see shows, etc.  We decided to go with the flow, and had a fantastic time, since our expectations were low, and we took personal responsibility for choosing to sail.  
 

Omicron was really just starting up then, and things were looking pretty darn good with Covid. Frankly, they still are looking pretty good because once we get past the whole ‘sky is falling’ mentality over the counts, Omicron continues to be mild/asymptomatic for the vast majority of those contracting it. 

 

We personally never sail during the week of Christmas/New Years, even before Covid. We aren’t surprised that the passenger numbers are higher than previous. I don’t know why others are. 
 

We would sail again in January if I was able to be away from my job that month. 
 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by barbeyg

[Mapleleafforever]

1 hour ago, hackwid said:

I am not going to debate this post with anyone.  This is my opinion based on 324 nights with Royal and also having sailed 4x since the restart on 3 lines.  We were not originally booked on Odyssey for the Xmas cruise.  We were on the Mariner originally.  I watched the rates at the end of November tank for the last 3 cruises on December.  We were able to move to the Odyssey for half the price of what they were selling it at.  So clearly it was a calculated effort by Royal to fill the ships.  We saw the ability to book Odyssey disappear the first week of December.  Clearly they sold at their capacity limits.

Everyone had to test 2 days or less before the sail.  So what we know of Omnicron is that 2 days Is too far out.  How do we know that?  Because several people were already infected when they board which is why we had to go back to Fort Lauderdale at midnight to drop those 9 people off.  Full on hazmat suit crew rolled their saran wrapped luggage off the ship.  It was pretty surreal.

So Royal says - yes we still only take 5% unvac'd.  But, we had 3600 people.  So when you increase capacity that high- you also increase unvac'd amounts.  This is my first gripe about the cruise.  So they took away the areas that vac'd could be without a mask- which is fine.  But, they ended up taking some of that room and giving to unvac'd because they had so many on board.  So for shows the unvac'd had the balcony of the theatre on deck 5 and also they got 25% of the theatre area on deck 4.  So what that meant was vac'd people had to sit closer in the areas left for us.  No distancing.  Now yes we were masked; but, the unvac'd got to spread out.  We did not.  Royal claims that everyone must be masked.  So what does that mean?  Well they have signs and occasionally make an announcement during the Captains report.  But, I saw not one single employee enforce mask wearing. So you had people with them not at all. Under chin. Under nose etc.  Getting on elevator with no mask.  It was very frustrating because everyone knew there was an outbreak and so many just didnt care.  The 70's disco party was played on the tv and half of the guests were completely unmasked on the dance floor.  All dancing close to eachother.

So our stateroom attendent came in the room 2x a day.  He went down with Covid on day 3.  So a new person had to take on additional rooms which meant the quality suffered.  Some nights there was a knock on the door after 9 asking if we needed anything cleaned.  It got to a point where we just had the guy come in once because we felt so bad for how overworked he was.

We did not go in the dining room at all.  We had my time dining scheduled and the line was so long on the first night.  We went and checked out the dining room space and tables were on top of eachother.  We just did not feel safe that close to other people so we went to the windjammer the second they opened and/or did room service.

Here is my honest feeling about capacity.  I have done 3 other cruises before this and capacity was half or less.  I believe that when Royal increased capacity they did not directly address how they would still maintain distancing.  So they cut off tables in bars and there were not enough places for people to be so they stood on top of eachother.  When they made the rates so low it seems like a lot of large groups ended up on board.  Families that were 25 people deep.  There was no concessions made for these larger groups and they just came in a room like they owned the place.  They ignored the 6 person limit on the elevator and honestly just didn't seem to care about protocols.  

We sat at the port in Curacoa for 6 hours.  Why could they not pick up the provisions they needed?  They could have left it on the dock and had no communication directly and just picked the stuff up.  Because of poor planning they were out of cocktail mixers on day 5.  They had to take alcohol from the store- which made them sell out of plain vodka and rum- because they did not properly plan for the amount of people.  Did the crew not get the memo on how many would be on board?

Speaking of the crew- ask yourself this.  If you were crew and had a sore throat would you work thru it or gladly see if you get in quarantine for 10 days?

What about passengers?  Would you willingly want to go to medical and lose your balcony room to be inside on deck 3?

So when you look at the numbers- realize that most of them are crew which the cruiseline has to report and there is an incentive for the crew to get tested.

But, as a passenger unless you have more severe symptoms- why would any willingly get tested?  So I believe the actual number of people infected in 10 fold.

Finally - it became obvious that they were trying to get people to spend more time in their room.  I can understand it.  But, the activities they did offer were subpar.  Having sailed 324 nights on Royal - the blame falls to them on this one.  They increased capacity clearly without a plan.  They didnt compensate for spacing and distancing.  By the end I found a lot of the crew surly, defensive and clearly exhausted.  We tried to keep to ourselves and have a decent attitude.  I wish Royal would learn from this and pull back.  But, we were told the New Years cruise has even more people on it then the Xmas cruise.  That is a receipt for disaster that I wish they learned their lesson from on our cruise.  I know that we will hear reports from these larger Royal ships of higher numbers and it can affect the industry and ports willing to take these ships for awhile. I wish Royal was honest and told these media outlets that they in fact are not enforcing mask wearing.   That their crew was overworked and outnumbered and just did not seem to want to make people comply.  I know this is full of negative things.  While the ship was new and shiny- sadly the actions of the people made it seem like we were on Carnival.

Thanks for posting. If you knew then what you know now would you still have gone? 

[Mapleleafforever]

1 minute ago, barbeyg said:

While I can empathize, people who choose to sail during a pandemic should expect that things will be different and in constant transition. Frankly, the cruise lines can’t please everyone, because everyone has different and very strong beliefs on how Covid should be handled. 
 

We sailed in the first half of December.  We knew that anything could happen to disrupt our cruise, that there could be crowds at times, that we could possibly not see shows, etc.  We decided to go with the flow, and had a fantastic time, since our expectations were low, and we took personal responsibility for choosing to sail.  
 

Omicron was really just starting up then, and things were looking pretty darn good with Covid. Frankly, they still are looking pretty good because once we get past the whole ‘sky is falling’ mentality over the counts, Omicron continues to be mild/asymptomatic for the vast majority of those contracting it. 

 

We personally never sail during the week of Christmas/New Years, even before Covid. We aren’t surprised that the passenger numbers are higher than previous. I don’t know why others are. 
 

 

 

I agree with what you're saying but the cruises that have come and gone since the restart didn't have the kind of problems these Omicron cruises are having. 

[barbeyg]

Just now, Mapleleafforever said:

I agree with what you're saying but the cruises that have come and gone since the restart didn't have the kind of problems these Omicron cruises are having. 

I understand that. But, no one knows what is going on behind the scenes to mitigate the situations.  We just have unhappy travelers reporting in, and displeased that they had their plans disrupted while traveling in a pandemic. And frankly, two or three weeks from now, this round may be on the wane. 🙂 
 

The timing of Omicron with the holidays caused the ‘perfect storm’ for travel.  Hopefully, it will cause it to peak and pass more quickly. I’m an optimist at heart, even almost two years into this saga. 

[BSocial]

1 hour ago, hackwid said:

…

So Royal says - yes we still only take 5% unvac'd.  But, we had 3600 people.  So when you increase capacity that high- you also increase unvac'd amounts. …

 

Thank you for your report.  I am glad I was not on that sailing!. .After day 3 when your stateroom attendant tested positive, did they test you or the staterooms he/she had serviced? 

 

I am confused on the comment re:  Royal still only allowing 5% unvaccinated.  Wasn’t the point of the test cruises was because Royal would not cap unvaccinated at 5% .
 

Thank you.  I appreciate  hearing from those who have sailed recently. 

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by BSocial
Clarity

[Mapleleafforever]

17 minutes ago, barbeyg said:

I understand that. But, no one knows what is going on behind the scenes to mitigate the situations.  We just have unhappy travelers reporting in, and displeased that they had their plans disrupted while traveling in a pandemic. And frankly, two or three weeks from now, this round may be on the wane. 🙂 
 

The timing of Omicron with the holidays caused the ‘perfect storm’ for travel.  Hopefully, it will cause it to peak and pass more quickly. I’m an optimist at heart, even almost two years into this saga. 

2-3 months more like it. 

[livingonthebeach]

I would like the answer to the testing as well. I read on other threads that passengers weren't tested unless the passengers requested the test.  If this is the case, the number of positives would be higher, especially among asymptomatic people. 

 

It's good to hear from other passengers what their experience was like but as far as shows are concerned, it is nearly impossible to predict what will actual happen until the ship actually sets sail (due to sick and quarantined entertainers, weather, and other factors).  Running out of mixers and booze?  I don't think they would know this either as they didn't know they would be denied entry into 2 ports.  People do know that these times are not ideal for travel and should plan accordingly and use common sense. There's nothing precise that the cruise lines can tell you ahead of time because they don't know either. 

 

The fact that RCI gave some FCC and OBC was a nice gesture. 

[happyboomer]

We got off the Jewel on the 18th and I had pretty much the same feelings. We booked before Omicron when Covid seemed more in control. We knew we would be taking our chances once it started to spread but family from Denver, Minneapolis, and Florida cities were finally going to have Christmas together. I thought capacity would be lower but they raised it for our sailing.It seemed pretty full to us. Staff seemed very overworked. They were all very pleasant. Our family group of 18 people made the best of it, wearing our masks all the time, used stairs most of the time, washed constantly, and stayed out of crowded areas. The dining room had no distancing as far as we could tell. More than 4 people crowded into elevators with masks under their chins.

 

Despite all of our precautions we took, two of our group felt like they had colds the day we got off and went to get tested. They tested positive. This ruined the rest of our Christmas plans for when we got home. We could not celebrate with everyone. Six are at home isolating and the rest of us have testing appointments. 

 

Boarding was a breeze but getting off not so much. We stood in very long slow moving lines with most people wearing masks incorrectly or not at all.

 

Bimini was our first port and it was a disappointment. Nothing to do there but go to the beach and the water was not very warm. Most came back to the ship early after going to one beach to snorkel. We stayed on the ship and enjoyed the Solarium pool in peace. In Cozumel six of our group booked the catamaran snorkel trip and there was no catamaran. A smaller boat showed up and two of the group did not feel it was safe for the amount of people they put on the boat and stayed behind. They were supposed to go to three reefs but only made it to two right by the ship. Everyone was disappointed in that trip. A couple that went complained and got a little credit back. The others didn't know to do that, including the ones that didn't go at all, and wasted a lot of money. 

 

Our balcony room was clean and enough space. We requested ice but never got it and our poor guy seemed so busy we just got glasses of it and brought it to our room when we wanted some ice.

 

We bought the beverage package and felt it was overpriced. We have been on RCCL probably 4 or 5 times and this was probably our last with them. We have mostly been on Celebrity and Princess and prefer that almost everything is included in their base price. By the time we added the gratuities, beverage package, and internet fees we could have gone on a nicer Celebrity or Princess ship for the same price.

 

Food was okay, nothing spectacular. I liked they served us in Windjammer but it slowed things down. No distancing in seating up there. Ate in the dining room twice for breakfast and food was never really hot when we got it. Dinner in the Dining Room seemed rushed, took away my soup twice before I was finished and replaced it with my salad or entree. It was hard to get more than one glass of wine during dinner. They were extremely understaffed and everything seemed rushed. Chops was okay but not worth paying extra. My filet was overdone, the rib eye was a much smaller portion that we have seen on other ships we've been on. I wouldn't do that again. The bar ran out of Pina Colada mix and at time I was served prosecco instead of Chandon. Sounds picky but I don't like prosecco and know the difference. 

 

This was a major disappointment for me as I planned it and was a Christmas gift to our Children and Grandchildren and because of Covid we didn't get to spend the actual holiday together. Today we will exchange gifts with some of us outside and some of us inside wearing N95 masks as the two that tested positive finally feel better today. Live and learn, just grateful we were together and fun for five days. Having been vaccinated and boosted our sickies are recovering quickly and that is a blessing. 

 

[Merion_Mom]

1 hour ago, Jarmo said:

If passengers didn't disregard the polices there wouldn't be a need for enforcement.  It is disappointing some passengers have such little regard for the crew and other passengers.

 

6 minutes ago, MrMarc said:

Each ship now has a public health officer who is responsible for, among other things, seeing that the covid protocols are enforced.  I have been on 1 Carnival and 1 RCCL cruise in the last 3 months.  They were not doing their job on either, and that was at about 50% capacity.  I think they were too worried about upsetting the anti-mask people and bad press, so they were lax.  Omicron is magnifying the issue.  I think they have to totally reverse this and enforce the protocols strictly or they risk being shut down, having few passengers and/or having nowhere to sail to.

 

It comes from the top.

 

If there is lax enforcement it is because the Captain has not made it clear to his personnel that he wants the protocols enforced.  He has the ability to firmly tell them that enforcing protocols will not negatively affect their job performance assessment.  It should be just the opposite.

 

Period.

[RoyalC]

2 hours ago, hackwid said:

I am not going to debate this post with anyone.  This is my opinion based on 324 nights with Royal and also having sailed 4x since the restart on 3 lines.  We were not originally booked on Odyssey for the Xmas cruise.  We were on the Mariner originally.  I watched the rates at the end of November tank for the last 3 cruises on December.  We were able to move to the Odyssey for half the price of what they were selling it at.  So clearly it was a calculated effort by Royal to fill the ships.  We saw the ability to book Odyssey disappear the first week of December.  Clearly they sold at their capacity limits.

Everyone had to test 2 days or less before the sail.  So what we know of Omnicron is that 2 days Is too far out.  How do we know that?  Because several people were already infected when they board which is why we had to go back to Fort Lauderdale at midnight to drop those 9 people off.  Full on hazmat suit crew rolled their saran wrapped luggage off the ship.  It was pretty surreal.

So Royal says - yes we still only take 5% unvac'd.  But, we had 3600 people.  So when you increase capacity that high- you also increase unvac'd amounts.  This is my first gripe about the cruise.  So they took away the areas that vac'd could be without a mask- which is fine.  But, they ended up taking some of that room and giving to unvac'd because they had so many on board.  So for shows the unvac'd had the balcony of the theatre on deck 5 and also they got 25% of the theatre area on deck 4.  So what that meant was vac'd people had to sit closer in the areas left for us.  No distancing.  Now yes we were masked; but, the unvac'd got to spread out.  We did not.  Royal claims that everyone must be masked.  So what does that mean?  Well they have signs and occasionally make an announcement during the Captains report.  But, I saw not one single employee enforce mask wearing. So you had people with them not at all. Under chin. Under nose etc.  Getting on elevator with no mask.  It was very frustrating because everyone knew there was an outbreak and so many just didnt care.  The 70's disco party was played on the tv and half of the guests were completely unmasked on the dance floor.  All dancing close to eachother.

So our stateroom attendent came in the room 2x a day.  He went down with Covid on day 3.  So a new person had to take on additional rooms which meant the quality suffered.  Some nights there was a knock on the door after 9 asking if we needed anything cleaned.  It got to a point where we just had the guy come in once because we felt so bad for how overworked he was.

We did not go in the dining room at all.  We had my time dining scheduled and the line was so long on the first night.  We went and checked out the dining room space and tables were on top of eachother.  We just did not feel safe that close to other people so we went to the windjammer the second they opened and/or did room service.

Here is my honest feeling about capacity.  I have done 3 other cruises before this and capacity was half or less.  I believe that when Royal increased capacity they did not directly address how they would still maintain distancing.  So they cut off tables in bars and there were not enough places for people to be so they stood on top of eachother.  When they made the rates so low it seems like a lot of large groups ended up on board.  Families that were 25 people deep.  There was no concessions made for these larger groups and they just came in a room like they owned the place.  They ignored the 6 person limit on the elevator and honestly just didn't seem to care about protocols.  

We sat at the port in Curacoa for 6 hours.  Why could they not pick up the provisions they needed?  They could have left it on the dock and had no communication directly and just picked the stuff up.  Because of poor planning they were out of cocktail mixers on day 5.  They had to take alcohol from the store- which made them sell out of plain vodka and rum- because they did not properly plan for the amount of people.  Did the crew not get the memo on how many would be on board?

Speaking of the crew- ask yourself this.  If you were crew and had a sore throat would you work thru it or gladly see if you get in quarantine for 10 days?

What about passengers?  Would you willingly want to go to medical and lose your balcony room to be inside on deck 3?

So when you look at the numbers- realize that most of them are crew which the cruiseline has to report and there is an incentive for the crew to get tested.

But, as a passenger unless you have more severe symptoms- why would any willingly get tested?  So I believe the actual number of people infected in 10 fold.

Finally - it became obvious that they were trying to get people to spend more time in their room.  I can understand it.  But, the activities they did offer were subpar.  Having sailed 324 nights on Royal - the blame falls to them on this one.  They increased capacity clearly without a plan.  They didnt compensate for spacing and distancing.  By the end I found a lot of the crew surly, defensive and clearly exhausted.  We tried to keep to ourselves and have a decent attitude.  I wish Royal would learn from this and pull back.  But, we were told the New Years cruise has even more people on it then the Xmas cruise.  That is a receipt for disaster that I wish they learned their lesson from on our cruise.  I know that we will hear reports from these larger Royal ships of higher numbers and it can affect the industry and ports willing to take these ships for awhile. I wish Royal was honest and told these media outlets that they in fact are not enforcing mask wearing.   That their crew was overworked and outnumbered and just did not seem to want to make people comply.  I know this is full of negative things.  While the ship was new and shiny- sadly the actions of the people made it seem like we were on Carnival.

This is 100% my experience on this ship Dec12-18 and I took every precaution I could (except I did use the dining room and yes people coughed at the next table 6 inches away) and still caught covid. Symptoms first showed right after the cruise... it is obviously that even with a known outbreak no one cares from corporate to get the message across, of they are just beyond incompetent, which it seems to be the case since the beginning of this pandemic.