lizord

4 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

RCI must not have done enough marketing. Have you heard of Wonder?

No, must have missed it. If someone asked me to name the newest RCI ships I would say, Ovation, Anthem, Quantum, Symphony, Harmony, Allure and Oasis. 

Edit: looking at the Wikipedia I also confused Ovation with Odyssey, thought it was the same ship. Sorry for derailing the thread, I'm hoping to book AK 2021.

2 hours ago, WeMissSeaView said:

The Spectrum, Voyager and Radiance are also with Ovation watching Quantum sail with passengers.

Am I the only one who had no Idea the Spectrum existed? I'd never heard of it till now.

7 minutes ago, nocl said:

The other piece of good news is for the first time you have CCL owned lines indicating that they will require passengers to be vaccinated

 

 Princess Cruises, Holland America Line and Carnival Cruise Line plan to resume guest cruise operations for a partial season in Alaska, each with one ship sailing round-trip. These Alaska cruises are available for guests who have received their final dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine at least 14 days prior to the beginning of the cruise and have proof of vaccination. Crew vaccinations will be in accordance with CDC guidelines.

In the US at least. I think HAL is doing some sailings in Europe later this summer with vaccinated guests. 

Are these only new bookings or are there guests already booked on these sailings? Just wondering what will happen to guests who don't want to or can't get vaccinated. CCL Press release said fully vaccinated but the Carnival site doesn't reflect that yet.

1 minute ago, BlerkOne said:

Carnival has only offered OBC for cruises Carnival cancelled.

 

As Carnival hasn't finalized Covid protocols or received permission from the CDC to sail, how could they notify people of covid cruising requirements. They are still changing.

 

I wonder what Princess and Hollands plans are for guests already booked who can't or won't get the vaccine. I don't think any cruiseline has gotten "permission" from the CDC to sail out of the US.

"Carnival Cruise Line has already opened Alaska sailings departing from Seattle beginning July 27, with weekly departures through September 14 aboard Carnival Miracle. There are seven 7-day cruises featuring calls in Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan, as well as scenic cruising in Tracy Arm Fjord. The September 14 departure is an 8-day cruise with an additional stop in Icy Strait Point. Carnival Cruise Line is also working to finalize its plans to operate Carnival Horizon from Miami, and Carnival Vista and Carnival Breeze from Galveston in July. Itineraries along with specific details about protocols are expected to be finalized and announced next week."

From the Press release, how are they planning an 8 day cruise in September, I thought CDC said 7 day max. excited to see the protocols for the Galveston Sailings, I don't know why they would need to release itineraries, they already exist.

Edit: also how is CCL selling these sailings on the site without notice of the vaccine requirement, when will that appear on the site? Guests who can't get vaccinated, do they get the full refund or $600 OBC FCC option?

3 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

The real interesting bit is what I posted in a different thread:
 

Based on recent guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and close collaboration with Alaskan officials, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line and Carnival Cruise Line plan to resume guest cruise operations for a partial season in Alaska, each with one ship sailing round-trip. These Alaska cruises are available for guests who have received their final dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine at least 14 days prior to the beginning of the cruise and have proof of vaccination. Crew vaccinations will be in accordance with CDC guidelines.

 

Bold my emphasis.

 

I guess everyone is counting on it, and these announcements add a little pressure to "get it done".

Are Alaska sailings particularly profitable? Maybe CCL is will go for a quicker restart in AK while they can and run other cruise markets differently. The HAL pricing is available on the 3 word cruise site based in Houston, and it looks pretty high.

3 minutes ago, wolfie11 said:

Just curious as to why Carnival would target casino players when there likely won't be any gambling on board?  The CDC stipulates these are non-revenue generating cruises and gambling is revenue.

probably because there were no E-mails sent out and people are making up stuff on Youtube.

Adventure of the Seas out of Nassau is an option.

Did the ship dock in Galveston? Were they doing a sail by salute to the cameras a la Captain Schettino?

I'd love to see anyone else claim they got the casino email, as the only place it has ever been mentioned was this YouTube video. 

Just now, journeymore said:

I think so. 10 or 12 day to Panama. 

My first and only X Cruise was a 11 day on the Summit in June 2019, longest cruise I'd ever gone on, and I'd love to see a M Class in Galveston.

When was the last time X sailed from Texas? I think the Galaxy used to be here. 

We would love any NCL Ship homeported in Galveston, though I would prefer a Jewel class or smaller. 

I saw this posted to the /r/cruise subreddit today and thought I'd repost here because I hadn't seen another thread on it.

CDC has updated their guidance to differentiate between vaccinated and un-vaccinated sailings! Here is the source (they did not highlight the changes, just kind of threw them in): https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/covid19-operations-manual-cso.html

Important changes below:

Fully Vaccinated Travelers:

Cruise ship operators, at their discretion, may advise passengers and crew that—if they are fully vaccinated—they may engage in self-guided or independent exploration during port stops, if they wear a mask while indoors. The cruise ship operator is additionally advised that foreign jurisdictions may have their own requirements.

Fully Vaccinated Travelers:

Cruise ship operators, at their discretion, may advise passengers and crew that—if they are fully vaccinated—they may gather or conduct activities outdoors, including engaging in extended meal service or beverage consumption, without wearing a mask except in crowded settings.

Thank you Reddit user /u/imnotagirl_janet for bringing this to my attention as I would have not noticed it otherwise.

4 hours ago, bury me at sea said:

How I wish the Freedom would return to Galveston.  She is my favorite ship by far.

Yes, always a great crew and hot meals on Freedom from Galveston. Her and Breeze were the 2 best ships here and am glad to get breeze back, didn't like Vista as much because of the theatre and atrium.

It never made much sense to have the freedom in alaska, the Spirit class was built for alaska with more balcony staterooms.

1 hour ago, Elaine5715 said:

Because if it was free, you would not be able to use stockholder credit on it,  

thank you, I appreciate this, we do always use the stockholder credit. 

8 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

Look for the asterisk stating *Terms and conditions. Click on it and it should take you to all the terms of the offer, which should just how many times it can be used. Having said that a few of the offer terms doesn't specify. In that case you would have to call.

Thank you, I'm gonna have to call, it's not listed. I have the lowest free cruise offer, the jackpot inside, and it looks like only short cruises or the pride transatlantic. Also I don't know why they are advertising mine as a free cruise since it is a $100 cruise with $100 pp non refundable obc.

Any idea how to find out how many cruises you can use the offers on? It impacts my planning if you can only use these offers on 1 or 2 cruises. if I call ccl will they be able to tell me how many i can book?

7 hours ago, phoneman69 said:

The Menu i believe will remain much the same. Lobster only on cruises of 5 days or more.  The interesting part is going to be the seating. Table of 10 now 6 or 4 ? tables of 4 only2 unless same family or joint booking?

lobster on cruises of 6 days or more.

7 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Lol what other cruiseline has cancelled all these cruises to make people buy higher? I'm curious as I havent seen this. I think carnival wouldnt make all those customers mad and cancel and put out new cruises. Never heard of this happening. 

Every single cruise line that has restarted or will restart soon. No cruise line has operated sailings that were sold before March 2020. I don't know what the cruise lines will do but it is what has happened in every other cruising market. If they need a reason just say for capacity reasons, or use NCLs slogan and say "for the guests convenience"

Edit: why operate 2 ships with guests paying $400 a week when you can operate one ship and get $800 a week from all this pent up demand and artificial FCC demand?

I'm thinking the cruise lines will cancel all existing sailings (in waves) and put out limited ships, therefore they can charge higher prices, they can decide to not allow kids, and require vaccination on these "new sailings." Plus there will be an increase in guests stuck with FCC with only high priced cruises to use them on. That's how it has worked in every market that has or soon will resume cruising. I don't think they will get clearance and just sail the cruises as scheduled.

The 3 days before sailing stories are a thing of the past but we generally see a price drop after final payment date if the Cruise isn't fully booked, or has a lot of cancellations. This was especially clear for NCL who overpriced their cruises until final payment the last couple years. Since the pandemic I don't see myself ever booking before final payment again, unless I'm offered a free cabin from the casino.

Something I noticed when looking at the oddysey is that it had a lot more cabins categorized as obstructed whereas on the sister ships they weren't. A lot of the obstructed balconies were on deck 8 or 9 so definitely not lifeboats blocking your view. I think it has something to do with Asia or Australia thinking that if you have something obstructing your look down on the water it is obstructed whereas in the US we don't.

There are some great "obstructed" extended balconies as well as the longer "square" cabins that are a really great value on the oddysey that they charge extra for on the quantom.

Edit: after looking at the deck plans the extra obstructed view balconies on the Odyssey are actually the deck 6 ones you were talking about. I also realize the ship I was thinking of having the obstructed cabins as un-obstructed was the anthem which after April 21 will have those cabins be considered standard balconies. I was looking at Alaska sailings for 2021