Eslader

51 minutes ago, BND said:

Um, I was asking that poster where they got their info.  I then went onto say what it actually said when I found an article.   You answered something I didn't even ask, but okay.

Um, again for clarity, when you say things on a public forum, sometimes people will comment in response. Those people might not always be the person you were addressing in the first place. This is normal. There is a private message system to be used when you don't want anyone else talking to you.

Where my confusion lies is why you have apparently gotten upset that someone agreed with you.

37 minutes ago, BND said:

You only quoted part of what I posted, but okay.  I stated that it says "some people may", but okay.  You should have quoted lizzieandluke who posted the original "findings".

I was answering your question - the one you posed in the part that I quoted. For clarity, I was not accusing *you* of misunderstanding.

47 minutes ago, BND said:

Everyone who had any level of illness lost 20%.  I find that hard to believe.  Where did you read it?

 

It's a complete misunderstanding of the actual findings. What the findings really say is that "some people who get respiratory diseases develop pneumonia."  Yes, we knew that, and pneumonia is not permanent. This is not a special feature of CoVid-19.

16 hours ago, squadron said:

Don't think the water taps are going to be turned off!  

That's more reasonable than buying a year's supply of toilet paper like a bunch of people are doing. After all, if the public works department gets sick, the water might get turned off automatically if a computer detects a problem that no one is there to fix.  On the other hand, it's fairly unlikely that we'll end up confined to our homes for an entire year... 😉

20 hours ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

I am upset and disappointed that cruising is being made to be the culprit in the spread of Coronavirus, but theme parks appear to be unscathed.  Why is there no mention of Disney and the other parks?  I believe there is exposure to many more people on a typical day at Disney than on a ship.

Because the general public is terrible at statistics, and therefore sees cruise ships as, in the words of John Oliver, "floating petri dishes." 

When the noro ships were in the news, people got the mistaken impression that it's *common* for cruisers to get noro, not recognizing that there were a few hundred sick people in the news, but hundreds of thousands of cruisers who never got sick. But of course, no one's going to do a news story that says a vacationer remained healthy and enjoyed his vacation. 😉

In the wake of that, any time any disease starts circulating, the minute it shows up on a cruise ship - well, those disease factories must be the worst place to be, right?

Frankly, I think people doing this is a great way to get Royal to walk back it's willingness to allow us to cancel up to 2 days before the cruise. 

Let's not abuse it when companies actually do the right thing, shall we?

5 minutes ago, hazence said:

When the media talks about the death rate percentage among the infected...what about people who may have had a cough, run a fever for a day, and never seen a doctor? This is so new...who can say how many mild UNREPORTED cases there are? 

 

How many people died in traffic accidents in the US today? That statistic might be frightening unless you could compare to an accurate count of everyone who made it to their destination alive.

Statistically around 100.

The unreported cases thing is a good point, but pretty much every disease mortality rate statistic has to deal with the same problem.

1 hour ago, Bearsfan82 said:

Lets say on average you pay $60 dollars a day for the drink package. I realize some get it even cheaper but lets just say $60. At $12 dollars per cocktail thats only 5 drinks a day to hit that price point to break even. At $7 a beer thats roughly 9 beers a day. To me, the 5 cocktails is not quite a bit for a whole day. Lets say 2 mimosa or blood marys for breakfast, maybe a cocktail during the day, and a couple drinks at night. Really doesnt take much to hit the drink package price

Except the math doesn't work as well on shore days. Unless you're at one of the "private islands," your drink package doesn't follow you to shore. If you spend all day on land, then to "get your money's worth" you either need to slam a bunch of booze down that night, or drink more on average during sea days.

Every single time we cruise my wife and I consider the beverage package, but for the amount we drink - - especially considering that stuff like wine pairings/etc aren't included - - it's just never made sense, even counting the coffee.

You say he was clearly way over his limit, but you don't say how. Was he just acting goofy, or was he starting fights? If it's the former... Honestly as long as this isn't a daily habit for him off the ship, there's not much that can or should be done about it. He's a grownup and can overindulge from time to time if he wants to. It's a big ship. Leave him in the bar and go hang out in the solarium.

If, on the other hand, he's starting fights or doing the other obnoxious things that mean drunks do, then it *is* a problem that should have been addressed, preferably the morning of day 2 when he might be at least partially sober. "Knock it off or this is your last invite to a mutual vacation." And then see above about the big ship and going somewhere he isn't.

And if it's a daily thing off the ship as well, he needs professional help that you can't be expected to provide.

14 hours ago, briternik said:

I don't understand why everyone is still trying to compare it to the flu.  It doesn't compare.  Have we ever forced quarantine on a cruise ship because of the flu? Have we ever stopped planes from flying because of the flu?  The Louvre is closed.  Disneyland Tokyo is closed.  They played a soccer game with no fans.  This makes me wonder how much they aren't telling us.  They wouldn't do these things if it wasn't serious.  They lost tons of money.  I agree it's mostly the elderly and immune suppressed at risk.  I'm not worried about myself.  I am worried that I will carry it home to my parents and other older relatives. 

They didn't really have cruise ships the way we think of them now during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, but the SS Talune is relatively famous for having been the subject of an influenza quarantine, yes. And when it docked in Western Samoa and its master neglected to tell local authorities that it had been quarantined at its last port of call, the locals let people off, and they spread the flu virus to the whole area and killed off 22% of the population.

And during that outbreak here in the US, public places including schools were closed nationwide, public gatherings were banned, and they didn't play soccer games in front of no fans because the athletes weren't allowed to congregate together either. Kansas City even banned most weddings and funerals.

And btw, that strain had a 10-20% mortality rate, which blows Corvid-19 out of the water.

37 minutes ago, HalfHand said:

 

The common cold and the flu combined doesn't kill 140,000,000 people per year. Covid-19 is presumed to have a 2% mortality rate and that's 2% of the population.

 

Mortality rate refers to people who die from the disease, and is limited to people with the disease.

In other words, if 100 people get Disease X, and it has a mortality rate of 100%, that doesn't mean the whole world dies, it means 100 people die.

5 hours ago, Balsam12 said:

if this is declared as a "pandemic", which would mean travel insurance cover is null and void if the cruise is cancelled.

As I understand it, they won't cover you (unless you have cancel for any reason coverage) if *you* choose not to go because you are afraid of getting sick.

But if you can't go because of Corona-related reasons outside of your control (ex: your flight is cancelled because the airlines decide to quit flying to Florida so you can't get to the ship, or you miss half your vacation because you can't go to your next destination because the ship is under quarantine), then you're covered.

Beyond that, I agree with you entirely. I'm not afraid of getting sick. I'm mildly concerned that some aspects of my upcoming March cruise will be impacted because of needless panic. I've seen 3 (might be more by now) cases where Caribbean islands have refused to allow ships to dock because someone on board had flu-like symptoms. 

Well, I mean, there are more than 5,000 people on that boat. *Someone* is always going to have a cough. It'll be annoying if shore days get cancelled out of needless fear.

I don't have any one specific line in the sand. I treat my approach to sailing with Royal the same way I treat my approach to anything else I spend money on. After it's done, did I get my money's worth?

I'm a somewhat sporadic visitor to these forums. I tend to show up when I have a cruise within the next 6 months, and then I read a bunch of stuff to see what's changed. And like clockwork, I start thinking "yeah, if everything that's being said here happens to me, I'll probably book another line next time." But then I get on board and have a great time, and often end up booking another one before I get off the ship.

Part of that is that I'm relatively easy to please. Put a ridiculous drink in my hand and stick me in a lounger in the Solarium with a Kindle, and intersperse that with regular feedings and I'm pretty happy. I avoid most of the money traps. I only walk through the promenade on my way from one end of the ship to the other, and I don't stop at the stupid watch "sale," nor do I buy gold chains by the foot because I am not (regrettably) Mr. T.

Basically, I tend to avoid a lot of the stuff that generates complaints around here in the first place, and so it doesn't impact my vacation one way or another. My chief complaint is that I have yet to find a Royal bartender who can make a decent Old Fashioned. 😉

To get me to stop sailing with Royal, they'd have to reduce their value to me below what I paid for the trip. They're getting closer to that point with every sailing, but they haven't reached it yet. As they tend to sail full, I'm probably in the same boat as most of their customers - at some point they will drop below a value point and a whole lot of us will book elsewhere, and then Royal will bump things back up to recapture us, which may or may not work.

Hah! I completely forgot about those guys. 

Excellent. Thanks! I knew having to have my own mask for prescription lenses would come in handy some day. 😉

They should rewrite their sales copy then, 'cause the website doesn't reflect that. Annoying. Thanks for the info gang.

I've been overly busy since my last cruise so I haven't kept up. Is it really any coffee drink as advertised or are they pulling the 1 shot = 1 drink nonsense?

8 hours ago, snaefell said:

Yes,again as we are all different it brings dread to many,for many others who have been brought up with it,it is just a normal food item,that is why when I watch.for example,Bizarre Foods on TV,because of the nature of the programme & some of the strange(that's my opinion as we are all different!)  things that he eats I always smile when he seems to stress the word BLOOD when he describes it!

I wasn't brought up on it, but I do enjoy it when I can find it. Which is rare, unfortunately.

But then I *was* brought up on menudo which most people seem to think is disgusting, so a little blood in a sausage isn't going to faze me.

I see there's an all-day snorkeling "excursion" for 35-odd bucks. I assume that's just "here's your equipment, there's the beach, go have fun?"

If you bring your own equipment, do you still have to get the excursion to snorkel?

TIA

Snorkeling was fun last time I was there. Mainly because the tour operator was a hoot. The snorkeling itself is so-so. There's better in the Caribbean for sure.

Otherwise, it's a good opportunity to hang out on a beach.

Remember that children are defined by Royal as under 16, so some people that ordinary humans consider to be children are adults for the purpose of solarium access.

Yeah, I have some trouble believing that the staff just dumped 'em at the pier and ran away. I'm guessing it went more like "We need to get you to a hospital right now." "No."  "But your life might be in danger. We'll off-load you here and call you an ambulance."  "No."

And after enough no's, for liability purposes they had to tell them they'd just have to leave and take responsibility for themselves because if the woman was about to die, and they let her stay on-board under their doctor's care, and then she died, they'd probably get sued for exercising bad judgment. 

And the reason I suspect that is that they've just been "tossed off the ship" for internal bleeding, and instead of going to a doctor to get checked out, they decide to take a long cab ride, then a long plane ride, then another long plane ride before going to the doctor. That seems fishy to me. No matter how angry I am at a vacation getting short, if I'm bleeding internally and a doctor tells me I need a hospital, I'm going to the hospital immediately.

The end of the article also made me roll my eyes -- the "what would people who can't afford to drop 3 grand on plane tickets do?" bit.   They'd have travel insurance like every other responsible adult who goes on vacation, and insurance would cover it.

On 10/19/2018 at 3:04 PM, BNBR said:

 

Sigh... you don't see the relation?  If Royal didn't care, then neither would the waiters. 

 

And obviously Royal cares, which is why THEY ARE SENDING YOU THE SURVEY.  

They care enough to abuse the waiters if the waiters get a bad review, which is defined as anything less than perfect.

They may or may not "care" enough to contact each person who mentions a complaint. When you think about it, they're sending out thousands of surveys every week. If only 10% of their customers fill out surveys, that's more than 10,000 surveys *per week* they'd have to read in order to respond to each one.

It's far more likely that they're taking random samples of surveys to review by hand, but letting a computer tabulate the numbers from the vast majority of them.

19 hours ago, sfaaa said:

The now discontiued McD pizza was awesome and way better than those you get at Cafe Promenade. Still craving for one. You could actually custom order your McD burger back in 1979 by filling out a grill order at the cashier counter. Many people just didn't know about it.

You still could, at least in the 90's when I worked there in high school. No grill slips, but you just told us what you wanted us to do and we'd do it.

19 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Was that the one with the dbl clamshell?  We only carried it a few months.  No shelf life.  Plus it took up to much room in the warmer.

 

I actually enjoyed Sorrento's pizza on Harmony last month.  Perfect 13 out of 14 nights.

That was the McDLT. Famously advertised by Jason Alexander before he was cast in Seinfeld and stopped having to take bad gigs. 😉

1 hour ago, Robo1098 said:

I have to say I was kind of hurt by this.

Why be hurt by a comparison to McDonalds? McDonalds is the most successful quick-serve restaurant in history. It pulls in more than 20 billion dollars a year. Other businesses wish they did as well as McDonalds. And, much like Royal, people whine about the food but keep coming back nonetheless. 😉