GarlicBread

They accepting crew vaccinated with AZ. 

I highly doubt they wouldn't accept guests too...

1 minute ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Thanks for the first hand knowledge and my apologies for posting incorrect information that was based of Royals posted age policy.

 Its just the adult thing (and people are too quick to sue of anything went wrong). If 18 wasn't classed as an adult it would be fine, but then I suppose that wouldn't be the cut off to start with...

Hello, crew member here 👋

The only non essential crew I know who have had an LOE are those who are now on Quantum or those who have needed to update documents, and once those documents are updated that LOE goes. 

Royal have told us in their newsletters that that would be the case so not unexpected for now. 

They also have said those that go back first will be those with the least travel restrictions and those from countries with low covid numbers. So I'm not going anywhere soon even with my vaccination 🤣🤣

As someone who worked in the teen centre right up to the shut down, unfortunately no, they won't be allowed in the teen centre once they turn 18 as they are now classed as adult. 

(CC 'experts' can come at me, but I've been the one that's actually informed teens that they can no longer attend as they are suddenly 1 day older.) 

While the age thing is somewhat true it also isn't. 

For example, if a child turns 5 during the cruise they can then take part in activities such as the rock wall and laser tag, they day they turn 5. 

23 hours ago, Tall-Cruiser said:

 

I tend to agree with Ken on this one. I would speculate that one reason could be that Barbados was very very helpful to the Cruise Lines during the peak of the pandemic with the repatriation of crew and allowing ships to dock. I recall an Aida ship Captain that was very thankful for how Barbados helped them while other ports denied them entry. IMO, I am happy for them that Cruise Lines are rewarding them for their help during some very difficult times. 
Also, the itineraries look great. 

Absolutely this. A lot of crew over on the crew groups I'm on are very happy and supportive about this, that Barbados will be getting some $$ at the same time that royal gets to top of their dollar too. 

There's a lot of crew that will be forever thankful to Barbados for their support, love and effort in getting them home. 

8 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

I'd like to know how they protect the landlords who can't pay their bills because the tennants can't pay the rent.

Not really on topic, but actually the UK have done quite a lot for landlords and renters 😊 with things in place such as furlough and universal credit there aren't massive numbers who can't afford rent. Then they have given funding to local councils to help, put mortgage holidays in place...

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-and-renting-guidance-for-landlords-tenants-and-local-authorities/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-landlords-and-tenants

4 hours ago, Diver2014 said:

This topic has me in stitches.  For so long, many on CC have been complaining about being 'nickeled and dimed' to death so now Celebrity comes up with the brilliant idea to be all inclusive (thank goodness!!!) and the complaints are rolling in!  I think more people than not will like the inclusive idea us included!

This is exactly what I was thinking. 

But people always gotta have something to complain about...

On 10/14/2020 at 1:10 PM, bobmacliberty said:

Not sure how they choose who comes back when (seniority? performance rating?) but I think it will be a small % of the ship based workers returning to work in the short term. Good to at least see Riley headed to Quantum...even if that's just Asia at this point.

Months ago, (a month or so into the cruising halt) they said the first to go back were those who had been at home the longest. 

Most recently they made it clear it would be those who have extensive knowledge/experience of that ship/class of ship, and whose required documents are still in date, who come from a country where they easily travel to the ship from and who can follow the new health protocols. 

17 minutes ago, bouhunter said:

I'm sure everyone who is working on a ship is getting paid.  The captains aren't there alone.

The question was who gets paid 365 days a year , even if they're not onbaord. 

Captains get paid all year, even when they're home. 

The majority of crew only get paid when working.

Many have a fixed salary when onboard. 

Those who get it when not onbaord I think (but could be completely wrong) are the the steering committee, those with no one else above them (with the exception of the captain who is above everyone), eg (but not 100%). Captain, staff captain, HD, chief safety, and maybe doctors. 

People like the cruise director, chefs, GSM still have someone above them they report to. 

Even then, carnival recently got rid of many of those positions that were still being paid while at home, so who knows how long/if they are still getting 100% of what they usually would.

I know royal have cut quarantine pay for crew onboard...

3 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

The estimate discussed on our local radio was 6 weeks to assemble crews.  For several countries RCCL will need to actually send ships.  Another couple weeks to shuffle crews from ship to ship.  A month to train the new crew members.  Thus probably private island journeys with a few ships in early 2021.  Followed AFTER A VACCINE with shorter cruises.  Gonna take a while.

Just curious, why would it take a month to train crew? 

When you first join and you're brand new, all that training (fire safety, crowd management, evacuation, drills wet and dry, usph, environmental, plus on the job training, etc.) takes less than a week (and not all day every day) and that's with guests onboard....

Would they really need 3 weeks of Corona virus training? 

Just gonna leave this here...

36 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Just curious, how do you terminate a crew member who is not under contract?

I would think by now, most not currently on a ship would not have an active contract. 
 

M8

The majority of those 'terminated' were officers 4 stripe and above, they were still getting 50% of their wage even though they weren't on contract. 

Disney has a lot of first time cruisers, a lot of which have probably been put off cruising for now. 

A lot of guests do a land and sea package, and most land packages aren't happening right right now. 

Disney also had an insane premium to just have a mouse onboard, and I think a lot of (even their dedicated) cruisers have realised that if they implement the same restrictions as in the parks, they're just getting a standard cruise: no meet and greets, no shows, no dance parties, no movie theater, no fireworks, reduced dining, questions around the kids club. 

I still think other cruise lines will cancel too though!

3 hours ago, firefly333 said:

So you work on the ship. Sorry you feel they are stringing you along

I don't necessarily feel they're stringing me along, (it's not like they decided to take a 1 month break and forgot to get back at it) it wouldn't be the end of the world for me if I didn't go back and I'm lucky that I have support at home, but I do feel sorry for a lot of crew out there. 

We get regular emails and occasionally there can be some wording that might insinuate something is about the happen, and there's a few desperate crew out there who hear what they want to hear and believe they'll be back onboard within the month. 

5 hours ago, GarlicBread said:

Don't want to kill the vibe,  but bartenders have been going back throughout the shut down, someone's gotta man the OB. 

Maybe I should also add, I'm friends with 3 (as in real life friends, not a guest/crew fb friend) guys in F&B who were offered a contract to go back over the last few months, and only one actually made it onboard, because flights/travel/open boarders/boarding the ship just didn't align and work out. 

However, I have also heard of a GSO who's been offered a contract, and I would have thought those guys would have come well below F&B and housekeeping. 

9 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

Do you know what ship they are on? Curious to if there is a pattern for Navigator. 

All crew have had this.

Don't want to kill the vibe,  but bartenders have been going back throughout the shut down, someone's gotta man the OB. 

I come under entertainment, I've had emails telling me to make sure my documents are uploaded and ready to go, they make no indication they'll be needed soon, just they know who has everything in date as the longer it goes on, the less will have those and it makes their job easier when they get the go ahead.....oh and to keep us waiting for them by making us think something is 'about' to happen so they have experience crew to go back. 

There are crew going back quite regularly. 

They're just not going back to serve guests...

18 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

So is there any benefit for hospitals  to falsely report COVID19 patients?

 

M8

Nope, apart from 'winning' at numbers. 

And our local hospital trusts and local news have never reported any deaths as 'from' covid. They've always said 'with' covid or after testing positive.

But some people still have to find something to be dramatic about, especially in lockdown haha! 

34 minutes ago, jg51 said:

We do not know if the same status (as the above) is true of Royal Caribbean International ships -- or if, instead, her crews are not quite yet 100% repatriated.

They were at 98% about two weeks ago. 

22 hours ago, LXA350 said:

 

 

It just shows how complex the situation is, starting with bringing back crews to make sure they don't have the virus. Imagine cruising out of a country such as the US, where there is a high likelihood that passengers will bring the virus on board. 

Exactly this. Right now and for the foreseeable, crew boarding RC ships have to go through a month long quarantine. 

If they're still doing that once guests are back onbaord, crew could potentially be in isolation for a month, only to be infected by the first passenger they interact with....

5 hours ago, mps69_1999 said:

Not wanting to sound like a complete negative nelly.... there are going to be an element of people who just won't do this, and there will be multiple calls for these people to complete the process before the departure.

If they are sitting in the bar or having food, they're not going to move.

Lets face it, we've all been in airports where people get called to board the plane, and hold everything up. I can see the same happening here too.

I'm guessing they'll do it how they were doing it pre-covid. 

Close all the venues and stop all activities. 

I assume all crew will still need to go the their assembly stations, to direct guests, check them in, answer questions which would mean bars and and everywhere else would need to be closed for this to happen. 

Crew still attend guest drill, including crew who's emergency duty was to patrol crew staircases, even though they have no guest interaction at that time. 

Then once drill is 'done' (however they say its done) everything starts back up again. 

3 hours ago, sxphil said:

Will that stop RCL using Coco Cay as it is currently doing as a temporay mooring 

I'm sure I read something from Captain Kate that they had special permission to dock there to change crew and to deliver supplies to those still on the island, but no one is allowed off the dock onto the actual island, which is all they've been doing the last few months anyway. 

But it was on one of her instagram stories that only last so long so I cant find it now...

6 hours ago, julesbeara said:

Crew members that have had their contracts delayed due to the shutdown have received zero assistance from Royal Caribbean.  (They do not have a Hardship Fund available or Emergency Funds available, or it is not been communicated to many crew members 😒).

 

 

That's funny, because I'm a crew member who had my contract delayed/cancelled due to the shutdown. 

Every week (this week it has started every other week) I, and all crew have had a newsletter from the company. Every newsletter has mentioned the hardship, emergency and education funds that crew can apply for... 🤔

If a crew member doesn't read/recieve/put the contents of those newsletters all over the internet and because they're not mentioned in an article from, March/April?, doesn't meant they dont exist 😒