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

[volk904]

Just my opinion but has some have said the game has changed a bit.  Even with the standard Vax you can still catch Omicron or at least test positive and spread it.  The good news is with the vax in most case it is not serious.  The booster seems to be more effective against the new variant.  I think the cruise lines need to strongly encourage passengers get the booster before their trip.  It may help.  They probably need to reduce capacity back to 50%.  This may be in process since about week ago there reports of Royal Closing some Jan cruises out.  

Final note is it would be interesting to know if those early cases on day 1 were self tested or tested at test sites.  

[Ocean Boy]

2 minutes ago, bigeagle12 said:

As grown adults .. KNOW THE RISKS .. and either go or cancel. 

I think that applies to cruising in general. People with health issues go to sea, get into issues for various reasons, then complain that the ships don't have all the capabilities of the Mass. General Hospital. Those folks should consider vacationing in Boston.

[crusinthrough]

10 hours ago, hackwid said:

 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.  

 

 While the ship was new and shiny- sadly the actions of the people made it seem like we were on Carnival.

Are you saying the family had more than 6 people in the elevator at one time, which is allowed or these 25 passengers stood out from all other passengers to the extent that you could identify them and notice that they would get in an elevator if there were already six people inside?

 

What is it like on Carnival?  It's amusing that people who sail RC think it's more elite than Carnival.  

[stretchcruz]

2 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Name one other than NCL (which is ending their port side testing in a couple weeks)

Viking Ocean

[ONECRUISER]

9 hours ago, Mapleleafforever said:

2-3 months more like it. 

Maybe, maybe not. With it already peaking in multiple Countries, this one moving faster then other Variants. But I'll go with 2 Months myself. 😉

[PiperHolliday]

7 hours ago, topnole said:

You realize if the ships only sailed with young healthy people Covid wouldn’t even be a concern. So in principle, you want to ban young kids so that older high risk individuals can feel safer while they cruise?  Even though you kids don’t spread Covid like adults do?   
 

The entire reaction of the world and the US on Covid is to protect the old and unhealthy.  But yeah, let’s ban young healthy kids from joining their family on vacation.  I’m certain the world has gone crazy.  If the vaccines work, why ban kids.  If they don’t, why ban kids?  

 

My young, healthy, 30 year old friend and ex-coworker died from it. Stop seeing in black and white. How the virus effects people is very individualized. People have different needs and experiences than your own. Some people feel it's better to protect everyone, even if they seem unlikely to be effected - if it takes something as easy as getting a painless shot, then why not? You seem to be focused on the wrong aspect of the vaccine - it is to prevent severe illness, not necessarily stop the spread. 

 

For the record, my one year old had covid and it was the most horrible experience. I didn't get sleep for a week and he was in a lot of pain. If you're super excited for an experience like that, you've got some weird priorities. All just so you can have your cruise...

 

As a parent, I would never take my kid on a cruise right now and it's not because I'm afraid he's going to die of covid. I prefer not to put him or myself through that kind of experience again. But hey, maybe your kids enjoy being sick. 

[Teeara]

8 hours ago, topnole said:

And many adults spend little onboard too.  

Yes, that would be me.  We walk off the ship with a bill around $200.  My mom walks off with under $100.  We get a drink or two, I buy some photos and trinkets in the shop and that's about it.  I try to pre-purchase as much as I can, but onboard not so much.  I'm there to sit on my balcony, read my book, explore a few ports and enjoy being at sea.

 

My roommate and I were on Navigator the first week of November and it was wonderful.  42% capacity, everyone wore masks (properly), 4 people or less on the elevators.  Total bliss.  Well, except that the stores weren't stocked with as much merchandise in the past (my roommate's complaint, not mine).  And the social distancing in the MDR was a joke.  WJ was very good for social distancing, but they weren't open for dinner.  I don't think I would've enjoyed the OP's cruise either if I had experienced the same thing they did.

 

 

[bajathree]

9 hours ago, topnole said:

Average families aren’t going to pay $3000 per person for what they offer.  A family of 4 or 5 would be $15,000.  They need average families too to survive.  Way too much supply (ships) to put passengers on.  It’s a nice thought, but not practical.   They aren’t even profitable for a week at capacity unless they sell enough onboard stuff like drinks, specialty dining, etc.   

You are correct with the oversupply issue. They brought on too many ships too fast into an uncertain market. But look at what's happened to housing prices here in Tampa/over most the country....rental prices are up 40% over the last year....car prices are way up over invoice ...it's all related to supply and demand...and right now supply in most everything is an issue and the demand is high. NOT in cruising....exactly the opposite has happened in an inflationary market....prices have gone down due to over supply and not enough demand.

[ABoatNerd]

Thank you OP for your analysis and taking the time to post.

I appreciate your observations.

It seems to me that it is all about the $, the product quality is not important.

Since the cruise lines do see those cruising in these time as being cruise addicted (obedient consumers), it is logical that the cruise lines exploit them, well knowing they can get away with it.

 

I have not cruised since 2018 because of the high price and product deterioration amongst other reasons, and I most certainly will not be cruising again any time soon. I am monitoring the boards for elder friends who have a cruise in February. They are very nervous, and rightly so.

 

Being trapped in a cabin is beyond awful. I most certainly would rather be trapped on land where services and travel options are close by, hence land trips are in my future. 

 

At this point, travel is a purchase of the brain, not emotion - it is a cost benefit analysis.

 

 

[alwaysflyin]

9 minutes ago, ABoatNerd said:

Thank you OP for your analysis and taking the time to post.

I appreciate your observations.

It seems to me that it is all about the $, the product quality is not important.

Since the cruise lines do see those cruising in these time as being cruise addicted (obedient consumers), it is logical that the cruise lines exploit them, well knowing they can get away with it.

 

I have not cruised since 2018 because of the high price and product deterioration amongst other reasons, and I most certainly will not be cruising again any time soon. I am monitoring the boards for elder friends who have a cruise in February. They are very nervous, and rightly so.

 

Being trapped in a cabin is beyond awful. I most certainly would rather be trapped on land where services and travel options are close by, hence land trips are in my future. 

 

At this point, travel is a purchase of the brain, not emotion - it is a cost benefit analysis.

 

 

What specifically are these elderly friends nervous about?

[Blauelini]

20 hours ago, hackwid said:

 This is my opinion based on 324 nights with Royal and also having sailed 4x since the restart on 3 lines.    

You really need to copy and paste this into an email and send directly to Michael Bailey. mbailey@rccl.com is the email address I believe. 

[Mikew0805]

21 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.

LOL @ the comparison to Carnival. The population of people on Royal & Carnival is exactly the same. I know some people don't like to hear that, because somehow they think they have "stepped up" to Royal.. but that is simply not true. In fact... The worst behavior I have witnessed myself, has been on RCI. These kinds of comparisons are silly.

[D4]

4 hours ago, ChC said:

 

Because that is human nature. That is why we have police, we have courts, we have prisons. There is always a percentage of the population is rule breakers, and there is always a percentage of population is self entitled. Utopia of self respects and self regulation all end up badly. Hence if you want to enforce a protocol, you must have a body or procurement to enforce it. So the blame is firmly on RCL. They come up a requirement and not enforce it, while on the ship the captain and the security officers are the only ones with authority to enforce any rules written by RCL. 

 

It is really simply, enforce it or admit it to everyone that it is suggestive only.  

Well said.  And RCL has already addressed this in their “Healthy Sail Center” documentation.  If they started removing people from their cruises for not following these policies, compliance would soar.

 

i think RCL is only publishing these Covid policies to try to reassure the public and the CDC that they are making cruises as safe as possible.  However, they are clearly not enforcing these policies.

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/how-do-you-enforce-new-protocols-what-consequences

[thomasale]

23 hours 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. 
 

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

 

 

My sentiments summed Perfectly!

 

[happyboomer]

22 hours ago, RosieRoo said:

Sorry to hear some of your party got sick. Hope they are all on the mend. Jewel is one of our favorite ships. You mention there is no distancing in the dining room or Windjammer.  Did you feel there was better distancing in Chops?  Just wondering if it would be worthwhile for us to buy a specialty dining package and avoid the dining room altogether. 

 

21 hours ago, golf4me2010 said:

I’d be interested in the specialty dining also. 

Thank you they are all feeling fine, just a little tired and the first two days felt like they had a slight cold. Thankful for the vaccinations and boosters. We had a 7:30 reservation in Chops and our party was large, we were at two tables next to each other. There were a few other people eating at the same time and it seemed much less crowded. Seven of our party also ate at the Japanese restaurant (don't know what it was called) and they also said they felt it was spaced out more than the main dining room. 

[happyboomer]

17 hours ago, JoelinSedona said:

Having gotten off Symphony a few days ago and being told by various staff members that they are understaffed....that's "how so".  And that's why many activities were eliminated or slashed. And when they did open up something for a short period, people would line up cheek to cheek.

Staff on the Jewel told us  they didn't have enough staff for the increased capacity. They worked so hard it's a miracle they maintained good spirits and excellent service. They said the work permits and clearances from other countries were very slow to process.

 

[rs45thompson]

On 12/26/2021 at 1:34 PM, 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 so sorry you had this experience.  We went on Mardi Gras in October and on Symphony last month.  I would have to say that most complied with the mask rule.  Of course you had a handful that refused and were being difficult but the majority wore their masks.  

 

The elevator was a different story.  On both lines people did not see the limit (cough cough) and did not comply with that but at least they wore their masks.  

 

I think a big problem with staff not enforcing the mask rule is they are plain tired.  Every day they are being cussed out, ignored, or yelled at for asking people to pull up the mask, wear the mask, or cover your nose and they are tired of dealing with it.  Many have to be at the end of their contract and are exhausted.  I'm not saying it is right, but I understand.  After 5-6 months of being mistreated you simply "don't see it" because you don't want the hassle.  This attitude and unwillingness to engage with passengers is probably part of the reason why there is an increase in cases onboard.  

 

What is the solution?  Shorter contracts?  I would say compliance by passengers to wear the mask without being told, but we both know that's not going to happen.  I like the idea of smaller capacities but I don't know if cruise lines would be able to survive at 30-50 percent.  What to do?

 

Also, I hate to break it to you but the passengers on Royal are no better or worse than the ones on Carnival.   In most cases they are the same passengers.  Why do people think that Royal passengers are so much better?  We are the same.  

 

 

[Mapleleafforever]

On 12/26/2021 at 10:51 PM, topnole said:

It hopefully does.  But older and unhealthy are having worse outcomes from omicron.   So if it is milder, it is still going to hit vaccinated folks harder who are of advanced age or unhealthy.  There are already omicron deaths of this type     

I personally know far too many people (14 last count) who currently have Covid (Omicron) and the older ones are definitely feeling it more, 2 in their 70's (triple dosed) have had to go to hospital just today. Doesn't seem to be much difference in symptoms between the non vaccinated and vaccinated people in my conversations the past few days. 

[sgmn]

43 minutes ago, Mapleleafforever said:

I personally know far too many people (14 last count) who currently have Covid (Omicron) and the older ones are definitely feeling it more, 2 in their 70's (triple dosed) have had to go to hospital just today. Doesn't seem to be much difference in symptoms between the non vaccinated and vaccinated people in my conversations the past few days. 

Same here, I hardly knew anyone personally in the last 18 months who had covid but this last three weeks I have heard of loads of people with it including family members 

[vacationlover_mn]

55 minutes ago, Mapleleafforever said:

I personally know far too many people (14 last count) who currently have Covid (Omicron) and the older ones are definitely feeling it more, 2 in their 70's (triple dosed) have had to go to hospital just today. Doesn't seem to be much difference in symptoms between the non vaccinated and vaccinated people in my conversations the past few days. 

I saw a fantastic diagram from a local hospital, that I wish was easily available at a state/country level- number of people in hospital, icu, ventilator, broken down by non-vaxxed, vaxxed but late for booster, fully currently boosted.  It is very informative!

[Mapleleafforever]

4 minutes ago, vacationlover_mn said:

I saw a fantastic diagram from a local hospital, that I wish was easily available at a state/country level- number of people in hospital, icu, ventilator, broken down by non-vaxxed, vaxxed but late for booster, fully currently boosted.  It is very informative!

Would love to see that extrapolated further, ie all vaccination statuses by age. 

[vacationlover_mn]

5 minutes ago, Mapleleafforever said:

Would love to see that extrapolated further, ie all vaccination statuses by age. 

Completely agree!

[RoyalC]

1 hour ago, Mapleleafforever said:

I personally know far too many people (14 last count) who currently have Covid (Omicron) and the older ones are definitely feeling it more, 2 in their 70's (triple dosed) have had to go to hospital just today. Doesn't seem to be much difference in symptoms between the non vaccinated and vaccinated people in my conversations the past few days. 

How do they know what version they have? We caught it on Odyssey (Dec 12 cruise which won't get reported to CDC I'm sure) and the doctor said they won't know which it is. It has to be sent off to check it.

[RoyalC]

27 minutes ago, vacationlover_mn said:

I saw a fantastic diagram from a local hospital, that I wish was easily available at a state/country level- number of people in hospital, icu, ventilator, broken down by non-vaxxed, vaxxed but late for booster, fully currently boosted.  It is very informative!

Missing fully vaxxed (unless you are missing a comma)- mine was October 4 and 25 two dose Pfizer. Caught covid on Dec 12 cruise- symptoms two hours after departing ship of course. 

[Mapleleafforever]

12 minutes ago, RoyalC said:

How do they know what version they have? We caught it on Odyssey (Dec 12 cruise which won't get reported to CDC I'm sure) and the doctor said they won't know which it is. It has to be sent off to check it.

All were tested by PCR and not soon after got a call from a public health nurse. They have it like clockwork here now.