smplybcause

7 minutes ago, joepeka said:

If you could please, point me to a link on the RCI web site regarding this refund policy? I could not find it but admittedly did not spend a tremendous amount of time searching. TIA!

They haven't posted it anywhere official. Likely because they don't want to. An executive mentioned it on a travel agent conference call a few months back and the news spread. For the most part I've seen people able to get refunds, but it being unofficial is probably so they can yank it when they want and so that if you don't know you just get FCC.

I wouldn't do it on a Friday. You'll be dealing with rush hour traffic. An accident can shut down the roads and there's pretty much no alternatives. The road you have to take to the airport is a high traffic rush hour road. When we do weekend cruises we don't leave until after 9 to avoid the rush hour mess. 

FWIW I live near the airport and Saturday from the time we started walking with our luggage til I walked in my door was two hours. That included about 20 minutes to get to the off site parking. Which you might be able to cut off without taking the shuttle, but ubers in Orlando have been having a 5-10 minute wait often. Would expect more in Canaveral. 

Since the beginning of Sept Royal has required vax for all cruises. Before Sept they required it for everywhere but Florida. 

All cruise lines now require vax. So either your friends need to get the shot or figure out another vacation. I don't think it's going away - NCL just announced that vax will be required indefinitely. 

I just got off my first carnival cruise. Regarding drink packages - I did notice that most liquor drinks were 2-3 cheaper than what I'd pay on royal. That difference can add up.

Shuttle, uber/taxi, or rental car. 

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

Doesnt make sense. How can the mask policy have to do with how they applied to the cdc of carnival is stricter?  Rcl allows no masks in theater and casino for vaccinated.  Carnival does not. 

 

Sounds like a made up answer sorry to fit what you think not based on what cdc says. Sorry, not that it matters to me. Doesnt sound like anything you read on cdc or carnival would be less strict by your theory. 

It's called Carnival decided to implement stricter rules than cdc required. Nothing is stopping cruise lines from being stricter than the CDC (see NCL requiring 100% not 95%) just that they can't be less strict. 

My guess is that it means royal finally looked at the Tampa sailings and figured out what they need time wise for covid sailings. It's nothing NEW but new to the ship and Tampa so they can say it's new. 

I don't know about 11 day, but the pro rating only saves you a lot of the pre-cruise price is high. 

For example a 7 day pre-cruise price of 50 is 350 for the week. The on board price is 85 - if you purchase on day 4 that's 340. So you save $10 but have 3 days with no drinks because if you buy one drink the pro-rating cost more. 

Now if it doesn't go below 60 that's 420. So you'd save $80 if you buy on day 4. But only if you don't purchase drinks the first 3 days. If you buy the package on board on day 3 you lost money over pre purchasing at 60.

At 65 it's $115 savings if you buy day 4 and $30 if you buy day 3. Only if you buy no drinks before then. 

I think your options depend on when the cruise is and when you change it. If it's before final I've seen people on here post that they can just take their deposit to another cruise. If you're talking after final... getting the FCC isn't instantaneous and could take a while. So if you cancel close to the sail date you might not get your FCC in time for the other cruise.

There's definitely some centralization of records. My primary care doctor has all my vax info even though it was done at a pharmacy not associated with her practice. And it wasn't from me because I never gave them vial numbers. 

I think requiring it starting Jan 1 makes the most sense. The only other earlier option is some mid month date of Dec. I would think royal would opt for the "clean" start of month date... unless the cdc or Bahamas pushes an earlier date.

We'll find out by Monday what the Bahamas are doing. 

No it doesn't save a lot. For example my next cruise is 23 for refreshment and 50 for deluxe. So $27 difference. If you truly only drink 2 alcoholic drinks a day the refreshment would be the cheaper choice. Assuming you don't want the $13 alcohol. But if the 2 might actually be 3, with my pricing it would make sense to do deluxe. 

Another thing not everyone thinks of, but maybe I'm just picky...I like the deluxe because I can just toss a drink once the ice melts and get a new one. Which can happen fast depending on when you cruise. 

Essentially the same as a drink. Ie a titos & mixer drink is $10 a shot of titos is $10. 

26 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

Didn't realize that was the rule.  Thanks. 

M

Yea - you cancel the reservation in the wording of cwc and the reservation is for the whole cabin (everyone in the cabin has the same reservation number).

Makes sense if you think about it. If they let you cancel for one person in the cabin and give them their money back they're going to have to go get the money from the person remaining to cover the fare. Royal Caribbean doesn't want to to get into that mess - "sorry your roommate canceled on you, we gave them a refund so you now owe us $800 or you won't be able to sail" - and they don't want to let people sail with no single supplement otherwise you'd have a lot of people do that for a cheaper cruise. I certainly would do that. 

The whole cabin would be refunded. So your son wouldn't have a cabin anymore and wouldn't be sailing. You can't cancel one person in the cabin over protocol - only entire cabins.

If son wants to sail then you'll have to eat the cost of the dil.

She wouldn't be allowed in any vax only place. Varies by ship, but pretty much the casino, most bars, night club, and certain performances. 

Though I think it's slim that a doctor would be willing to sign their name to a letter that says a person can't medically be vaccinated but it's medically fit to sail - especially since most of the Caribbean is flagged by the cdc as do not visit.

2 hours ago, Rosy Season said:

I thought that I read somewhere that when this happened for adults that those who didn't meet the requirements when it rolled out had to cancel until they were compliant.  But I don't know what the timing was from roll out to RCI mandating vaccines.

Because the adults that weren't vaccinated weren't because they chose to not because it wasn't approved for their use. Cruises didn't start up until mid June. I believe it was April when practically every state had opened shots up to everyone. I know in May the airports were letting anyone get the vaccine. So by the time cruises started up again it was well beyond the 5 weeks required to be fully vaccinated. 

Fine print said double points was only for those gold and above so you wouldn't qualify. 

11 minutes ago, Rosy Season said:

THIS!  Does anyone know what they did for the 12+ year olds?  How long after it was announced did RCCL mandate vaccines?  I'm concerned about my Nov. 21 cruise.

As stated earlier in the thread 12+ vax was required starting in August. Someone else mentioned 12-17 was approved May 10. So Royal required it less than 3 months after approval...83 days to be precise. 

The earliest they could require it is 5 weeks from approval date... which would be first week of Dec give or take. 

My bet is the date required will be somewhere between the 83 and 5 weeks. Heavily influenced if any island puts the requirement for 5+.

Based on needing 5 weeks to be fully vaccinated I don't see how they could require it for your Nov 21 cruise. 

39 minutes ago, CruiseMelissa said:

During that three months, were 12+ treated as vaccinated adults if they were fully vaxxed or not until August when it was a requirement?  You may hold the key to my original question if you have that info 🙃

I honestly don't know! I didn't know anyone in the 12-17 age range that cruised then. I don't recall anyone on here mentioning that their 12-17 got to follow vax protocol before Aug if they were already vax. Don't recall seeing any "my 13 year old was vax so no testing at port" posts. 

7 minutes ago, JMKreno said:

This is correct. I think once the vaccines become "widely available" in the US the Bahamas may require this. But, I do not think the cruise lines will willingly do this until they have no choice. 

 

That being said, I think they MIGHT change the access available to unvaccinated kids between 6-11, such as kids club usage (similar to what they do now for vaxxed/unvaxxed). Makes the impact fairly small IMHO.

 

But, as I mentioned before, this is moot for my family as our youngest will be vaccinated as soon as I can make an appointment in a couple of weeks. 

There's the money factor though. If they do vax only for 5+ they only have to test 2-4 year olds. Cuts down on a lot of test cost. 7 day cruises is then paying for 3 tests per kid. 

Plus having vax be 5+ very likely means ships that start sailing can hit the 95% mark. So no test cruises. No masks. 

8 minutes ago, AustinCruise said:

May 10,2021

 

Were cruises running during that time?

First ones in the US were end of June - mid June for Bahamas.

So it was less than 3 months from the approval. I would expect it to be no longer than that for the 5-11 set. Possibly shorter. 

1 hour ago, JMKreno said:

I think honestly they will keep the requirements for under 12 the same for the foreseeable future. I am sure given enough time they MIGHT make it mandatory (a few months) but I know the subset of those not willing to vaccinate their kids is even larger than those over 12 not willing to get the vaccine. That being said, we will be vaccinating our 6 yr old regardless as soon as it's available here in NV. Hopefully we can get to enjoy My Time Dining and other "fully" vaxxed areas WITH our youngest on our next cruise (albeit there won't be a whole lot of difference from our last cruise.) 

I think one of the biggest factors is what the Bahamas does. Their vax only law is expiring soon. If they replace it with one covering 5+ then the cruise lines will have to follow. 

1 hour ago, CruiseMelissa said:

 

Agreed, I guess I should have added the question.. what did they do this summer between when the 12+ vaccine was approved and RCCL required it, might help to learn about past practices... 🙂

They required 12+ starting in August. Not sure when the 12-17 set were approved to get vax. 

56 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Does anyone remember if the CSO put a limit on cruise length?  Are we ok to do 11 or 12 night sailings out of us?  

 

The article I saw said one of the edits in the extension was to do away with the 7 night limit.