What date for no masks?

[A&L_Ont]

14 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Because RC is a family cruise line while NCL has abandoned families throughout the entire pandemic.

RC had a full charter for Atlantis, and would have cancelled family’s vacations for the charter.  NCL just hosted an Atlantis sailing as well. Let’s be honest; they aren’t here for families, they are here for the money. There is nothing wrong with free enterprise.  

Edited February 13, 2022 by A&L_Ont

[smokeybandit]

1 minute ago, A&L_Ont said:

RC had a full charter for Atlantis, and would have cancelled family’s vacations for the charter.  NCL just hosted an Atlantis sailing as well. Let’s be honest; they aren’t here for families, they are here for the money. 

 

Charters are irrelevant to my point.  Why not just charter every sailing then?

[d9704011]

2 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

 

Charters are irrelevant to my point.  Why not just charter every sailing then?

They probably would if the demand was great enough.

[A&L_Ont]

6 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

 

Charters are irrelevant to my point.  Why not just charter every sailing then?

They would if they could. They are here for the money, and family values go if the money pays out.
 

In the opposite side of the spectrum of Atlantis, they chartered the Allure to Chic-fil-a.  No alcohol was served that sailing and Chicago was not preformed due to it’s story line. They went for the money, and that’s the business decision that worked that day. 
 

My point is, it isn’t “about families”.  It’s about the decision they think will pay out the most. Values cruise one week, Atlantis another, and no kids under 12 vaccinated are all examples to which they think will pay out more. 
 

If they could charter ever week they would, especially right now.

Edited February 13, 2022 by A&L_Ont

[Threedrones]

All mask mandates will end on April 1st.

[topnole]

14 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

That's a great point.  It peaked in South Africa's, Australia's, Argentina's (and other countries') summer, and it peaked in the U.S.'s (and other countries') winter.

There is no true “US” peak.  The varying states differ by months as to when they get hit and when they peak.  

[topnole]

7 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

I realize different states peaked at different times, but when viewed as a whole, the country definitely had a peak/surge/very noticeable increase in cases (whatever you want to call it) in early to mid-January.

 

And many area in the US were hardly hit in January but will be face the peak in February and March.  That is the issue with the US.   It isn’t one country that moves together on this.  It is pockets of waves.   You can fly to Florida from the Mid-west and likely won’t have both breaking bad at the same time.  Florida already peaked weeks ago.   Many parts of the US won’t peak for some time.  So traveling in the US means you are likely to pass through somewhere that is peaking at any given time as it stands

now and the past couple of months.   Smaller countries won’t have such issues.  

[topnole]

19 minutes ago, scorpluvsdolphins said:

I think the word “seasonal” wasn’t used to mean the actual seasons, but a time frame, as displayed by the graph.  

What ONE word would have been better to use than seasonal to mean a time frame?

Temporal 

[not-enough-cruising]

17 hours ago, Dewaldcruiser said:

If you want to cruise, but don't like masks, NCL will no longer require masks as of March 1st.  To do this, they are requiring everyone age 5 and up to be vaccinated.

 

I do not understand RCI's reluctance to follow suit.

Hasn’t NCL chosen to “opt in” to the new CDC program? If so, they won’t be able to go “masks optional” unless they meet a 95% vaccinated and boosted threshold 

[MommaBear55]

38 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

You really think so?  Every state except Maine has seen a decrease of at least 30% in the number of cases over the last 2 weeks.  (Maine has seen a decrease of 9%.)  I guess time will tell.

And that's because Maine dropped by 60% 4 weeks ago. To quote a famous saying "as Maine goes, so does the nation"

[not-enough-cruising]

16 hours ago, Computer Nerd said:

CDC has no say in it anymore. Cruise lines are able to make their own decisions since 15 Jan 2022.

Officially, yes. However the CDC still has control. With the release of their new “voluntary” guidelines they have exhibited another attempt at control. Opt in and

follow the given standards (heavily based on booster vaccines), don’t opt in, and you are classified as a means of general

conveyance, and will be treated just like the airlines (masks 100% of the time) 

[Ralphinsc]

8 minutes ago, topnole said:

I hope so and maybe things are dying out faster than many expected in the mid West.  However, I’m not sure Covid is in its dying gasp.  There are still 16K cases per day avg in Florida for example. That is still quite high, but agree it is on the way down.  I’m pretty surprised it is this high still.  I really thought it would be down below 10K avg by now.   I’ll blame it on all the out of state cruisers.  😂

Yeah, I'm sure there will be more waves. I'm not holding out hope for anything altered for my upcoming April cruise. And of course I'm willing to cruise as is on everything currently in place. Maybe by June for my back to back things will feel almost "normal". Keeping fingers crossed. 

 

And we promise not to try to bring anything down from South Carolina on any of the four upcoming Florida trips we have over the next few months. 😂

[topnole]

4 minutes ago, Ralphinsc said:

Yeah, I'm sure there will be more waves. I'm not holding out hope for anything altered for my upcoming April cruise. And of course I'm willing to cruise as is on everything currently in place. Maybe by June for my back to back things will feel almost "normal". Keeping fingers crossed. 

 

And we promise not to try to bring anything down from South Carolina on any of the four upcoming Florida trips we have over the next few months. 😂

Honestly, April will probably be very good timing.  Our next cruise is May and I’m hoping no new wave kicks up by then.  But the time between each wave seems to be pretty short (4ish months).  Hoping with Omicron we get more time after since so many more will have some fresh immunity.  So many folks got omicron after be vaccinated.   You would hope that provides a lot of protection against infection for a while.  If not, this stuff is never going away for any stretch of time.  

[rj59]

RCI is a business, so they're eventually going to get the message that most people want normality and personal choice now. Blue state governors have been getting the message, businesses are getting the message, and travel destinations are getting the message. So you can go to many European countries, Vegas, theme parks, most states, without a mask mandate. If they want to regain tourist dollars, especially with summer vacation time coming up, Royal and the Carnival brands will have to get with the program, especially after the recent CDC demands to make the cruise system even more onerous and confusing. If the fearful nags don't like it, they can stay home and self-righteously display their masked virtue in public and scold or beam disapproval at the reckless unmasked murderers of the immunocompromised. The rest of the country has mostly decided that it's time to live with the virus, but RCI is still stuck in their 2020 guidelines that make little sense now. Have you ever seen every other table blocked off in a restaurant or theater? Have you ever seen a public library closed because you know, you can get Covid from books (books are still banned on Royal)?  Does Royal really think that vaccination infers immunity from transmission or infection and thus masks or distancing isn't needed in certain magical venues on board that defy the science that the rest of the world knows about (breakthrough cases, waning vaccine protection without boosters, oh and Omicron).  Do they really think that having potentially-infected crew chatting and breathing on passengers through cloth masks in the buffet is safer than letting people serve themselves? Here's my 2022 Sail Safe plan--wear a mask if you are scared or are at risk or don't feel well. Instead of hand sanitizer in every cabin, give everyone a home test pack, to use for assurance and minimize outbreaks. Everyone who shows proof of a booster gets a $13 OBC to cover the cost of a free drink. Destroy every stupid blocked off seat sign, vaxxed/unvaxxed designation, and let people distance as they want. Allow passengers immunity from prosecution if they punch in the face crew who say 'washy washy!'. Okay, maybe the last one won't fly, but Royal has my permission to to use the rest, I'll forward my consulting fee and application for board membership (I'll want to know why the Ovation isn't sailing Mexico right now). 

[GTO-Girl]

12 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Yes. Stop testing so COVID positive passengers can get onboard and cause a mass outbreak that will shutdown ships. It would be a bit stressful when everyone onboard is confined to their staterooms. 

Wow!!!  So let’s just keep testing everyone from now on until we all die???  Where and when does it stop???  
 

Some places are still testing for free but a lot of places are not and that can be a huge expense on families for them just to know they don’t have covid THAT PARTICULAR DAY.  Once they board the ship 2 or 3 days they could very well be positive…..as we saw during the Christmas holidays .  
 

If the cruise lines want people tested then they need to do the testing themselves right before boarding, otherwise stop all this stress and extra expense on the families!!

[DCPIV]

19 hours ago, Jumping Cruiser said:

I understand that more families will choose Royal over Celebrity, but wouldn’t it make sense to just have the same policy across all the RCG brands?

 

I hate to be facetious, but you essentially said "I know the products are so different that it makes sense to have different rules, but wouldn't it make sense to have the same rules?"

[Jumping Cruiser]

1 hour ago, DCPIV said:

 

I hate to be facetious, but you essentially said "I know the products are so different that it makes sense to have different rules, but wouldn't it make sense to have the same rules?"

I was more referring to how Celebrity have the same vaccination requirements, with no explicit limit on the number of unvaccinated children. Technically, this could result in them being under the 95% threshold, in order for a ship to be classed as fully vaccinated. I guess it would differ cruise by cruise, as some will have more under 12s than others.

[twangster]

In November for the Odyssey naming ceremony Royal hosted media and travel advisors on two different two night cruises.  There were very few children on board so the vax rate was well above 95%.  On these two cruises masks were optional.

 

Prior to 5+ being eligible to vaccinate they were reaching in the low 90's for the vax rate on board.  Now that some parents are vaccinating their 5+ kids I have to think they are reaching above 95% vax rate on some sailings.  March break may see the 95% target fall short on Royal but once we are through March I think getting above 95% will occur more frequently.

 

I'd love to see Royal start to announce the vax rate on day one and to make masks optional when a particular sailing is above 95% vax rate.  This could be a stepping stone and a way forward to masks becoming optional for all sailings.  

[little britain]

On 2/12/2022 at 11:25 PM, Jumping Cruiser said:

What I find rather confusing is how Celebrity don’t require masks at all for vaccinated cruisers, but they have the same vaccination requirements as RCCL (12+ must be fully vaccinated), who do require masks if not in a fully-vaccinated area. I understand that more families will choose Royal over Celebrity, but wouldn’t it make sense to just have the same policy across all the RCG brands? 

I was on X Apex 2 weeks ago in the Caribbean and we had to wear masks at all times unless sitting drinking/eating. 

[Jumping Cruiser]

23 minutes ago, little britain said:

I was on X Apex 2 weeks ago in the Caribbean and we had to wear masks at all times unless sitting drinking/eating. 

That was the case until 12th Feb. Any cruises departing after this date had the new rules in place.

[CruisingHogFan]

On 2/12/2022 at 5:08 PM, Computer Nerd said:

CDC has no say in it anymore. Cruise lines are able to make their own decisions since 15 Jan 2022.

This isn’t true. Most of the major lines will probably opt in to the new voluntary conditional sail order.

 

If they do they must follow all the rules the CDC creates….

[Moltar]

49 minutes ago, CruisingHogFan said:

This isn’t true. Most of the major lines will probably opt in to the new voluntary conditional sail order.

 

If they do they must follow all the rules the CDC creates….

Doubt it, you should read the statement from CLIA. They bashed it.

 

”Regrettably, upon initial review, the latest CDC guidance appears out of step with the actual public health conditions on cruise ships and unnecessary in light of societal trends away from more restrictive measures. We are confounded by the CDC’s imposition of even more complex and unwarranted measures which ignore empirical evidence that the industry’s protocols have provided a greater level of COVID mitigation than most any other setting. The CDC’s guidance for multitiered cruises is counterproductive to consumers, creating market confusion between the various tiers, and potentially unworkable in practice.”  - CLIA

 

Edited February 14, 2022 by Moltar

[crazyank]

58 minutes ago, CruisingHogFan said:

This isn’t true. Most of the major lines will probably opt in to the new voluntary conditional sail order.

 

If they do they must follow all the rules the CDC creates….

Not likely,  

[davekathy]

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=6754&et_cid=3519771&et_rid=17144542&et_referrer=Popup_Deals

[travelhound]

On 2/12/2022 at 4:35 PM, GTO-Girl said:

I am hoping they stop this testing!!  So stressful for so many people!!

Good point, they should do what most public venues are doing and only require a test for those who are unvaccinated.