MacMarauder

5 hours ago, Steff79 said:

The video is nice. But no infos what is at the top deck at the moment. Only haven. 

Yea I'm wondering that as well. I'd like to see how much kids space they have on the top deck. So far Prima looks pretty cool!

7 hours ago, Keksie said:

So now we have a whole generation of children thinking they are full of bad germs that will kill the people they love.  Counseling may be a booming job opportunity in the future.  Several school districts around here have done away with or are doing away with the mask requirement for children in school.

I'm not sure about older kids but as a parent of a kindergartener and preschooler I can safely say that masks are of extremely low concern to them. They haven't been introduced to the culture wars so a mask is simply something they wear on their face. There are things of much greater importance, like what is for dinner and will you buy me this new LEGO set lol.

1 minute ago, lenquixote66 said:

A lot of subjects that are now permissible on CC were not prior to the Pandemic.People are not cruising .They cannot come on a cruise board and discuss their recent cruises.Internet cruise boards are closing.

 

Oh I agree it's fair game, I just find it amusing how far off the original subject things can get sometimes!

I think if theology or philosophic views on life are being brought into a thread on Cruise Critic it went even more off the rails than normal lol

If they were going to test for something else prior to boarding I think Norovirus would be the best candidate.

Personally I have a hard time seeing the governor of Florida blocking cruises from happening. Right now this issue is more political than practical since we aren't close to cruises resuming in the USA. If fully vaccinated ships are what is required to get the industry on it's feet again in Florida I have to believe he will allow it. He has several outs to save face politically between maritime/international considerations and the CDC.

I don't follow politics super closely but DeSantis strikes me as someone with his eye on a future presidential bid. I think being the first governor to ban vaccine passports (before they even exist here) was a way to raise his national brand. 

If you have younger kids I would say Oasis class for sure. There are four main pools and one of them is a water park for kids. Also all the Oasis class ships have water slides except Allure. Although I didn't get to go on the adult water slides on Oasis myself because I was looking after my young kids lol.  

Realistically Florida and maybe Texas will be the first US ports to open, I wouldn't expect anyone in the Northeast to start cruising until several months after them. Also 2nd quarter of 2022 sounds like a wild guess to me, especially given how many moving parts there are in this situation.

I don't have any local knowledge but my first cruise ever was out of Tampa so it holds a special place for me. The cruise port is in a great location IMO, we were able to walk to the port from a downtown hotel which was really cool. We also flew in during the Gasparilla festival so it was quite interesting seeing so many drunk people wandering around dressed as pirates. 

Tampa is on my short list of places I would move to once the kids are out of the house, have fun down there!

2 hours ago, DaCruiseBug said:

The reality is that the amount of revenue they'll lose by requiring a vaccine is tiny compared to the revenue they'll lose if the CDC doesn't allow them to start back up this summer or if there's an outbreak onboard a ship and things get shut down again.

Exactly, and between pent up demand plus reduced capacity I think they will easily be able to fill ships with the millions of people that have been vaccinated in the USA.

Honestly I think the vaccine debate with regards to cruising is becoming boring, pretty soon it will just be the reality of the industry. Maybe they can make a separate board on cruise critic for people to share their thoughts on vaccines.

My last cruise was in December 2019 on the newly amped Oasis of the Seas. It was my first time going to Labadee. It was also our first cruise with connecting cabins which was awesome. I feel lucky that we were able to get a cruise in right before COVID. 

4 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

I'm not a big fan of all the brighter colors and cartoony deco (flowers etc.) on the pool deck.  I much prefer a more natural palette with the mosaics the Voyager and Freedom class ships sport.  Can't get past the Orange palm trees....looks more like a Carnival deco to me.

This is highly subjective but I think the opposite, I like the new colorful decks. We were docked in PR on the refurbished Oasis next to Anthem, I remember thinking how much better the Oasis deck looked side by side.

21 hours ago, davekathy said:

I haven't heard this one before (?). Where did you hear that?  

If you read the live thread from Ethanol95 where he went on one of the recent Singapore sailings, this is how he described it:

Exploring the ship is made much harder with staff sitting at entrance's and exits of each place in the ship. Guests have to scan their set sail cards once before proceeding, at some stations, my temperature has to be taken, at others staff check for the 'TraceTogether' app. Not sure why there is a discrepancy. I wanted to go explore the seaplex but the staff said, "sorry, we are only allowing guests with bumper car reservations into the seaplex at this time".

Of course I have no idea if they will implement this or something like it for US sailing but it is a possibility IMO.

If I'm going to be restricted to specific parts of the ship at certain times that's a deal breaker for me, I like to wander around without having a set plan.

As someone with school age kids I am very familiar with getting vaccine records which I have to request from their pediatrician. When I did my first COVID shot at Walgreens they asked for my doctors info so they could forward the record to them. From what I can tell there is no national vaccine database, it's all handled by local doctors offices. So, my best guess is that if you want to go on a cruise that requires the COVID vaccine you would just get a copy of your records from your doctors office.

The other option is they could ask to see the paper card you get but that seems so unofficial and easy to fake that I'm not sure there is much point to it. Although I suppose our SSN cards aren't much better looking which is considered an official document.

I know there is talk about vaccine passports but given the normal speed of government offices it may be a moot point by the time they actually get them into people's hands. 

My question to the CDC would be, what's the difference between a ship full of vaccinated people in June '21 vs November '21 (or any future date for that matter)? I'm worried that the people making these decisions are the same type of people who dislike cruising and would be perfectly happy to see the industry go away forever.

I look at it this way, for the ships to sail again they are going to start with every possible precaution. As time goes on some policies will be dropped some will stay. If you want to be one of the first people to get on a cruise in '21 you are going to have to roll with whatever RCI wants you to do. If you think the policies are madness then sit it out for awhile. 

Well personally I think this is great news and a big step towards the eventual full return of cruising! Can't wait to get some reports from passengers on the first sailings.

Yes I have lost some enthusiasm, it's hard to be excited about something with so much uncertainty. However, I think once ships are sailing again it will come back, hopefully we will see soon!

I'll take it one step further, I don't think the CDC will lift the no sail order in 2020

On 7/16/2020 at 3:39 PM, zekekelso said:

The consequences of a Covid outbreak onboard would be devastating. Proof of vaccine of antibodies in your body to cruise. 

Exactly, the worst thing that could happen to the cruise industry would be another COVID outbreak. It would kill the industry IMO. The media would have a feeding frenzy.

By requiring proof of vaccination the cruise lines could say that cruising is safer than any land vacation in the US and completely change the current narrative. So to answer the OP, yes I think they should require it and I hope they will. 

1 hour ago, boatseller said:

It is highly unlikely that any private entity will require a vaccine, especially a new one.  Too much liability. 

My kids school is a private entity and they require a whole bunch of vaccines.

47 minutes ago, bouhunter said:

Which may be never.

Yes there is a chance there will be no vaccine. There is also a chance there will be no more cruises again. In my post I noted "very likely", I understand there are a range of possibilities.

21 hours ago, TheMastodon said:

 

At this point I don't understand the obsession with disinfectants inside ones home - people are catching this mainly through the air - not on contaminated surfaces.  Just wash your hands.  

 

Agreed, my wife and I have talked about this, there really is no reason to horde Lysol in your home. As long as you wash your hands when you get in and keep your house a reasonable level of cleanliness that should be sufficient.  

Yes absolutely, I will get the vaccine regardless of cruising. 

Also I think the scenario we are discussing is in RCI's best interest and very likely - they will wait to resume cruises until vaccines are readily available and require proof of vaccinations to board. In that case the cruise lines will be able to say that you have less of a chance of getting COVID on a cruise than land which will help turn around the negative stigma of cruises being COVID spreaders.