Any Canadians cruising Jan, or Feb?

[Cthy651]

Happy New Year everyone, seems like a deja vu of last year.  I am just wondering if there are any Canadians sailing on Royal, and what there experience has been?  If you sailed in Dec, would you do it again.  I have major health issue concerns so just checking on the lay of the land.   Don't need any sarcastic or nasty comments, to my question.  Thank you.

[emdia43]

Jessycruises has 3 booked- she should be around here before boarding #1 this weekend. 

[Mapleleafforever]

Not a chance for us for a number of reasons including not wanting to be quarantined if testing positive (even with zero symptoms) and we won't be cruising while we have to wear a mask.....at all. Will be asking for a refund on our non refundable deposit which will be fun as our TA doesn't seem to want to help much except repeating that Royal is only giving FCC. 

[StanleyandGus]

My husband is on the phone cancelling our cruises at the end of January and February. We do have a transatlantic in November that we can transfer the cruise credits to. Hopefully.

 

We not worried about getting sick- or a least, not very sick- but testing positive and not being able to get on an airplane decides it for us.

 

There is a Canadian board that’s pretty much devoid of nastiness.

[gc]

1 hour ago, Cthy651 said:

Happy New Year everyone, seems like a deja vu of last year.  I am just wondering if there are any Canadians sailing on Royal, and what there experience has been?  If you sailed in Dec, would you do it again.  I have major health issue concerns so just checking on the lay of the land.   Don't need any sarcastic or nasty comments, to my question.  Thank you.

We have been able to enjoy 4 cruises this year. If your plan is to fly there it will complicate your travel if you test positive and will not be allowed to board the aircraft.

Starting February 1st cruises after disembarking you will be responsible for your own PCR testing to fly and cross the border. 

There are many tribulations that could possibly happen but our experience so far is the vast majority of the passengers are following the health and safety protocol and wearing face masks.

Royal requires everyone over 12 to be vaccinated.

If you choose to take a vacation my experience has been Royals ships are about as safe of a place as you will find anywhere.

        

[mackfam]

We’re booked on the Jan 3rd sailing on Brilliance out of Tampa.

If our flights are not cancelled and our COVID tests are negative, we’re going. We just got our boosters a little over two weeks ago so we’re probably as protected as we’re ever going to be right now.
 

We realize fully vaccinated and boosted people are still getting the virus but we’re willing to take that chance as we are fed up with putting our lives on hold

[touesns]

We have a sailing on the Allure of the Seas for Jan 8/22.  Also if our flights are not cancelled and we get a negative test back we  are a go.  We have our 2 doses and the booster, are both retired in our early 60's.  Have no health issues and are wanting to do Something.  Fingers are crossed all will be well!

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

 

[DirtyDawg]

No cruising for us yet. But we are in the Caribbean right now at an AI. The flight down and the resort were/are half empty so social distancing is no problem. It looks like a lot of people cancelled. The buffet and two of the specialty restaurants have lots of outside seating. Masking is required and enforced in all inside locations or when you go up to order at the bar but it's not much of an issue.  The food is as good as most cruises we've been on but the entertainment is lacking. They have a casino but there is no way Mrs. Dawg will go inside it even though she loves the slots. Even double vaccinated and boosted, this is an outside vacation for us. Maybe we'll get back to cruising in 2023.  😪  Does anyone know is any of the new RCL or X  ships will have swim-out balcony cabins. Those would be nice!

[JessyCruises]

3 hours ago, emdia43 said:

Jessycruises has 3 booked- she should be around here before boarding #1 this weekend. 

Yup I do!  Hubby and I are flying from Moncton tomorrow (1/1/22) through Toronto on Westjet to FLL.  We board the Oasis in Miami on Sunday 1/2/2022.  We move over to the Odyssey in Port Everglades on 1/9/2022.  My son, his friend and my sister are flying on 1/14/2022 to join us on the Odyssey on the 15th.  I have a live running and would be happy to answer any questions you might have. 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2821101-a-canadian-takes-on-a-s2b2b-on-oasis-1222-odyssey-1922-11522-hopefully/

 

We already had a bit of a crisis last night with Westjet cancelling our flight to Miami on 1/1/2022 and auto-rebooking us on a flight to Miami on 1/4/2022 which obviously would not work for a 1/2/2022 sailing.  After more than 4 hours on hold & on the phone with a rep last night, we got it straightened out and managed to get on a flight to FLL tomorrow instead.  Hopefully we will not have any more flight issues tomorrow.

 

We have already done 7 cruises so far since restart - Odyssey on a B3B in 08/22-9/11 and a B4B on Allure 10/31-11/27.

[Cthy651]

Thank you all, for your responses, greatly appreciated.  Jessy Cruises, I will be following you on the board, I hope you have a wonderful vacation.  Stay Safe

[edrussell]

We are going on our first ever cruise on Jan 20, out of Baltimore.  We are driving to help eliminate any flight complications.  I will say we were in Vegas back in Sept of 2020 and the Rivera Maya in Nov of 2020 so we have traveled during the pandemic.  We are both double vaxxed and in both of our cases we wouldn't run into any complications with work if we get delayed returning.  We both realize perhaps this isn't really the time to take this cruise, but we are going to roll the dice and see how it goes.

 

[GEORGIEGIRL]

On 12/31/2021 at 3:40 PM, DirtyDawg said:

No cruising for us yet. But we are in the Caribbean right now at an AI. The flight down and the resort were/are half empty so social distancing is no problem. It looks like a lot of people cancelled. The buffet and two of the specialty restaurants have lots of outside seating. Masking is required and enforced in all inside locations or when you go up to order at the bar but it's not much of an issue.  The food is as good as most cruises we've been on but the entertainment is lacking. They have a casino but there is no way Mrs. Dawg will go inside it even though she loves the slots. Even double vaccinated and boosted, this is an outside vacation for us. Maybe we'll get back to cruising in 2023.  😪  Does anyone know is any of the new RCL or X  ships will have swim-out balcony cabins. Those would be nice!

Can you tell us which AI? I would like a backup plan should I not be able to cruise.

[Ourusualbeach]

16 minutes ago, GEORGIEGIRL said:

Can you tell us which AI? I would like a backup plan should I not be able to cruise.

My personal opinion is to stay away from AI's.  There are lots of horror stories about guests being told they are positive, made to spend an additional 2 weeks at the resort at a special "reduced rate", being denied a second test and finally when pushing back enough told they were negative.  Happening all over in different countries, Mexico, Jamaica, DR.

[Gemina]

We are cruising on Feb 26th and, at this point, we are still going. Our entire family of 5 tested positive for Covid over Christmas so I actually feel better about going now. My husband and I get our boosters in a couple of weeks and my youngest gets his second dose about then too. Couple all of that with our (now) prior infection and I’m feeling pretty good about travel. 

[mackfam]

Made it to Tampa so we’re all set to board tomorrow. Haven’t heard of any mention of major problems on Brilliance so keeping my fingers crossed things are restively normal 

[RickCanada]

On 12/31/2021 at 3:27 PM, touesns said:

We have a sailing on the Allure of the Seas for Jan 8/22.  Also if our flights are not cancelled and we get a negative test back we  are a go.  We have our 2 doses and the booster, are both retired in our early 60's.  Have no health issues and are wanting to do Something.  Fingers are crossed all will be well!

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

 

We are on the same cruise.  Are you a Halagonian?

[Ott_CanuckSpouse]

Booked on Enchantment out of Baltimore (paying attention to anything edrussell cares to share!) on March 5 .  Driving too. I guess it mitigates risk?  Family of 4 (2 over 12) all fully vaxxed and parents boosted.  DH getting wobbly about the idea.  Hoping our newest nemesis "Omi" clears through North America by end of January since they've been around for a few weeks now already.  Feel like we are extra boosted now since "Omi" went through the house already.  Isolating annoyance now over as today was the first day out of the house since Dec. 27.

[touesns]

5 hours ago, RickCanada said:

We are on the same cruise.  Are you a Halagonian?

We have lived there, but currently we live in Antigonish 

[DirtyDawg]

On 1/2/2022 at 7:59 AM, GEORGIEGIRL said:

Can you tell us which AI? I would like a backup plan should I not be able to cruise.

We were in the DR in Playa Dorada which is near Puerto Plata. I am glad we went when we did as there were no issues with flight delays, etc. but with all the flight cancellations which seem to be growing daily, I'm not sure we'd be going now. We would likely cancel and wait it out until travel in general hopefully gets better.  

[A&L_Ont]

On 1/2/2022 at 8:19 AM, Ourusualbeach said:

My personal opinion is to stay away from AI's.  There are lots of horror stories about guests being told they are positive, made to spend an additional 2 weeks at the resort at a special "reduced rate", being denied a second test and finally when pushing back enough told they were negative.  Happening all over in different countries, Mexico, Jamaica, DR.

Add one more thing to the list of, nothing surprises me anymore. Lisa just shared with me some similar stories she read about from Cuba. 

[DirtyDawg]

On 1/2/2022 at 8:19 AM, Ourusualbeach said:

My personal opinion is to stay away from AI's.  There are lots of horror stories about guests being told they are positive, made to spend an additional 2 weeks at the resort at a special "reduced rate", being denied a second test and finally when pushing back enough told they were negative.  Happening all over in different countries, Mexico, Jamaica, DR.

I had not heard any of those horror stories. Our experience was just fine. We were tested  at 9am at the resort and received our negative results within 12 hours. However, our next door neighbor at the resort did test positive and she was moved to another room to quarantine. The resort had one of its 20+ buildings set aside for quarantining guests. You could tell which building it was as all the people hung out on their balconies and there was a stream of room service waiters going in and out. The last time we saw her before leaving, she was going to be tested again by a different lab because, as we all know, any PCR test can result in a false positive. Our son found that out in the U.S. this past fall. 

 

We had brought the RT-LAMP test kits as a back up in case we tested positive. I think we will add those to our essential packing list for any future pandemic travels. 

[A&L_Ont]

Here is a link to the Global News story my wife telling me about. In general it seems like a cash grab, with a fall back of the PCR being “wrong”. Meanwhile a healthy person could catch it from an infected person while in quarantine.  Like I said, nothing surprises me anymore. Kinda makes me wonder, where are the angry masses over this. 🤷‍♂️
 

https://globalnews.ca/news/8495286/positive-covid-pcr-test-while-on-vacation/

 

Edited January 8, 2022 by A&L_Ont

[Ourusualbeach]

47 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

Add one more thing to the list of, nothing surprises me anymore. Lisa just shared with me some similar stories she read about from Cuba. 

Just received an e mail this morning from a client whose husband is stuck down there.  Horror stories for sure

[Ourusualbeach]

48 minutes ago, DirtyDawg said:

I had not heard any of those horror stories. Our experience was just fine. We were tested  at 9am at the resort and received our negative results within 12 hours. However, our next door neighbor at the resort did test positive and she was moved to another room to quarantine. The resort had one of its 20+ buildings set aside for quarantining guests. You could tell which building it was as all the people hung out on their balconies and there was a stream of room service waiters going in and out. The last time we saw her before leaving, she was going to be tested again by a different lab because, as we all know, any PCR test can result in a false positive. Our son found that out in the U.S. this past fall. 

 

We had brought the RT-LAMP test kits as a back up in case we tested positive. I think we will add those to our essential packing list for any future pandemic travels. 

Glad to hear that things worked out for you.  Just had an e mail form a cruise client who booked her own AI for over the holidays.  Her husband is still stuck down there.  She also told me of a lady she was talking to at the resort coming home who had to leave her 18yo daughter there to quarantine by herself as they would not allow anyone else to stay as she was an "adult"  I'm seeing similar horror stories daily that are shared by travel agents from across North America in our chat group.  Yes there are lots of positive experiences however it just seems that there are a whole lot more shady players in the AI industry compared to the cruise lines.

[Mapleleafforever]

4 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Glad to hear that things worked out for you.  Just had an e mail form a cruise client who booked her own AI for over the holidays.  Her husband is still stuck down there.  She also told me of a lady she was talking to at the resort coming home who had to leave her 18yo daughter there to quarantine by herself as they would not allow anyone else to stay as she was an "adult"  I'm seeing similar horror stories daily that are shared by travel agents from across North America in our chat group.  Yes there are lots of positive experiences however it just seems that there are a whole lot more shady players in the AI industry compared to the cruise lines.

We were looking at an AI for this winter but stopped after hearing some similar stories from people in our circle over the holidays.