rjrpar

Have a cruise to Bermuda scheduled for Oct’22 and just heard about this requirement today.  Is it a new requirement?  

On 4/11/2022 at 10:21 PM, str6 said:

So Celebrity is letting all kids 12 and under cruise without vaccinations if you are from any other country but the US--- but requiring all American children over 5 be vaccinated??  It should be across the board 12 and under not vaccinated-- not discriminating against Americans!  

For U.S. Guests – Ages 5 and older must be fully vaccinated with last primary dose administered at least 14 days prior to embarkation.

For Guests from All Other Countries Other than the U.S. - Ages 12 and older must be fully vaccinated with last primary dose administered at least 14 days prior to embarkation. 

 

 

Unbelievable 

13 hours ago, RedneckBob said:

Equinox still holding at 33 passengers in isolation out of 1,824 passengers. No problems stopping at seven ports in a row including St Kitts today.

Just got off the Wonder OTS last Friday.  5300 passengers,  very few mask wearers, and no mention of Covid.  All ports were open.  St Thomas had signs in all the shops that masks were required to enter but very few people complied, including the employees. Seemed like things were back to normal, hate to hear this about the Equinox. 

Did anyone eat in The Mason Jar or Hooked Seaford?

Can anyone comment if most of the stores/restaurants/bars in town are open for business?

thanks in advance

39 minutes ago, blue_water said:

BUT . . .  I have heard just recently that there is a great reluctance for taxi drivers to take you there from the ferry terminal in St JOHNS.
Where did you read that?
 

Many will go to STJ on their own simply because the added flexibility allows for more time there. You just need to monitor the time, of course.

Taxis and ferries are very reliable and STJ is an easy day. Cost from Crown Bay is ~$51/pp (Taxi from Crown ->> Red Hook = $11, Red Hook ferry to Cruz Bay = $8.50, taxi to Trunk = $6).

Safari taxi drivers waiting at Cruz will drop you at Trunk or Cinnamon, and will also offer a 1 hr island tour for ~$25/pp, then drop you at the beach…
 

Thanks for the info,  great post

16 hours ago, sharon&family said:

Is this test good for Royal?  We can't book it until about 5 days in advance and that has me worried.  The CVS near us that we used in the past only is doing PCR tests now and I dont want to wait that long for results. Quest Diagnostics through walmart is also doing PCR.  I like to schedule a second test as a backup but Im not sure what to do.  We test April 1st for our cruise leaving on April 3rd.  

Keep checking CVS.   We had the same issue last week and then the Antigen test popped up as an option 

40 minutes ago, ticketsunlimited said:

When it isn’t in the cruise planner it’s an indication that it is sold out for that sailing. It happened to me on our last sailing. Ours reappeared for one day as cancellations must of occurred. It was gone again later that night. Keep checking it may open up for a bit.

unlimited dining package sold out our week also. Mostly because of limited capacity.

 

Thanks

We are on the Wonder departing 4/1 and are also trying to buy the 3 night package.  Can’t find it on our cruise planner?

Does anyone know if the Wonder will have a Broadway show?

1 hour ago, UNCFanatik said:

 

I totally agree and that open discussion on all things Covid has not been promoted. Science, by its very definition should be "settled". As we have seen in these last 2 years, what is now becoming generally accepted was labeled a conspiracy theory once upon a time in order to minimize and demonize certain individuals and opinions that went against the official narrative partially because public health officials thought that by entertaining certain discussions, it would lead to vaccine hesitancy at some point. The "Noble Lie" became acceptable practice in the name of public health but that just turned out to erode the public's trust Just look at the things that were once considered conspiracy theories and would get someone deplatformed and banned from social media which now openly accepted:

 

1. Lab leak theory

2. Questioning the efficacy of cloth masks

3. Accepting Natural Immunity

4. The use of certain therapeutics

5. The true risk to children from Covid

6. The true cost of lockdown policies

 

All the while our public health officials continued to send mixed messages and "The Science" turned into "the Political Science". Its good to finally see a pivot but its long overdue

Great post. Thank you

12 minutes ago, bucfan2 said:

That is indeed a sad truth.

Agree, it’s scary how some will relinquish freedoms so willingly.

We received ours in 2 days and a email confirmation 

5 minutes ago, kearney said:

It is not all about us. If people have been following the news... there are issues all over the country due to sick employees... so if things went smoothly, right now, I would be surprised. Flights cancelled due to sick employees...our recycled items were not picked up for two weeks..reason...sick personnel... some hospitals have issues as well as grocery stores. So if you want top notch service... wait until things settle down..not who knows when that will be.....

Or be smart enough not to complain about it on an open forum!

28 minutes ago, royalcruz said:

46 minutes ago, hackwid said:

I am not going to debate this post with anyone.  This is my opinion based on 324 nights with Royal and also having sailed 4x since the restart on 3 lines.  We were not originally booked on Odyssey for the Xmas cruise.  We were on the Mariner originally.  I watched the rates at the end of November tank for the last 3 cruises on December.  We were able to move to the Odyssey for half the price of what they were selling it at.  So clearly it was a calculated effort by Royal to fill the ships.  We saw the ability to book Odyssey disappear the first week of December.  Clearly they sold at their capacity limits.

Everyone had to test 2 days or less before the sail.  So what we know of Omnicron is that 2 days Is too far out.  How do we know that?  Because several people were already infected when they board which is why we had to go back to Fort Lauderdale at midnight to drop those 9 people off.  Full on hazmat suit crew rolled their saran wrapped luggage off the ship.  It was pretty surreal.

So Royal says - yes we still only take 5% unvac'd.  But, we had 3600 people.  So when you increase capacity that high- you also increase unvac'd amounts.  This is my first gripe about the cruise.  So they took away the areas that vac'd could be without a mask- which is fine.  But, they ended up taking some of that room and giving to unvac'd because they had so many on board.  So for shows the unvac'd had the balcony of the theatre on deck 5 and also they got 25% of the theatre area on deck 4.  So what that meant was vac'd people had to sit closer in the areas left for us.  No distancing.  Now yes we were masked; but, the unvac'd got to spread out.  We did not.  Royal claims that everyone must be masked.  So what does that mean?  Well they have signs and occasionally make an announcement during the Captains report.  But, I saw not one single employee enforce mask wearing. So you had people with them not at all. Under chin. Under nose etc.  Getting on elevator with no mask.  It was very frustrating because everyone knew there was an outbreak and so many just didnt care.  The 70's disco party was played on the tv and half of the guests were completely unmasked on the dance floor.  All dancing close to eachother.

So our stateroom attendent came in the room 2x a day.  He went down with Covid on day 3.  So a new person had to take on additional rooms which meant the quality suffered.  Some nights there was a knock on the door after 9 asking if we needed anything cleaned.  It got to a point where we just had the guy come in once because we felt so bad for how overworked he was.

We did not go in the dining room at all.  We had my time dining scheduled and the line was so long on the first night.  We went and checked out the dining room space and tables were on top of eachother.  We just did not feel safe that close to other people so we went to the windjammer the second they opened and/or did room service.

Here is my honest feeling about capacity.  I have done 3 other cruises before this and capacity was half or less.  I believe that when Royal increased capacity they did not directly address how they would still maintain distancing.  So they cut off tables in bars and there were not enough places for people to be so they stood on top of eachother.  When they made the rates so low it seems like a lot of large groups ended up on board.  Families that were 25 people deep.  There was no concessions made for these larger groups and they just came in a room like they owned the place.  They ignored the 6 person limit on the elevator and honestly just didn't seem to care about protocols.  

We sat at the port in Curacoa for 6 hours.  Why could they not pick up the provisions they needed?  They could have left it on the dock and had no communication directly and just picked the stuff up.  Because of poor planning they were out of cocktail mixers on day 5.  They had to take alcohol from the store- which made them sell out of plain vodka and rum- because they did not properly plan for the amount of people.  Did the crew not get the memo on how many would be on board?

Speaking of the crew- ask yourself this.  If you were crew and had a sore throat would you work thru it or gladly see if you get in quarantine for 10 days?

What about passengers?  Would you willingly want to go to medical and lose your balcony room to be inside on deck 3?

So when you look at the numbers- realize that most of them are crew which the cruiseline has to report and there is an incentive for the crew to get tested.

But, as a passenger unless you have more severe symptoms- why would any willingly get tested?  So I believe the actual number of people infected in 10 fold.

Finally - it became obvious that they were trying to get people to spend more time in their room.  I can understand it.  But, the activities they did offer were subpar.  Having sailed 324 nights on Royal - the blame falls to them on this one.  They increased capacity clearly without a plan.  They didnt compensate for spacing and distancing.  By the end I found a lot of the crew surly, defensive and clearly exhausted.  We tried to keep to ourselves and have a decent attitude.  I wish Royal would learn from this and pull back.  But, we were told the New Years cruise has even more people on it then the Xmas cruise.  That is a receipt for disaster that I wish they learned their lesson from on our cruise.  I know that we will hear reports from these larger Royal ships of higher numbers and it can affect the industry and ports willing to take these ships for awhile. I wish Royal was honest and told these media outlets that they in fact are not enforcing mask wearing.   That their crew was overworked and outnumbered and just did not seem to want to make people comply.  I know this is full of negative things.  While the ship was new and shiny- sadly the actions of the people made it seem like we were on Carnival.

Maybe people on all the mass cruise lines are very much alike. Sorry, but your last comment sounds awful

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

How will that make a difference?

 

Omicron is the magic key to truly getting back to normal.  We should all be happy that by spring omicron will be the dominant variant and the majority of people who get it would never have any reason to suspect they have covid.  Omicron is the portal to treating covid like the common cold.  The question is, will society allow it?

I think the question is, will government allow it

1 hour ago, JuliaMS said:

For our Dec 16 cruise we got on e-mail 12/8 for GTY being assigned with a PDF attached, the PDF had the cabin info. A few hours later got e-mail our Royal Up was accepted and a new PDF with new cabin info.

Thanks

Can anyone share their recent experience with the timing of RCCL’s notification of specific cabin numbers on Gty’s?  Also, will they contact us directly or go thru our TA?

8 hours ago, njhorseman said:

Trans-Bridge Lines used to offer service to Cape Liberty but per their website that service has been suspended during the pandemic:

https://transbridgelines.com/pier-services

"Pier Transportation to Cape Liberty Pier in Bayonne, New Jersey, and Manhattan Cruise Terminal in New York, New York is currently suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic."

 

Trans-Bridge does have service to Newark Airport . You could take that route and then Uber/Lyft, taxi or car service from the airport to Cape Liberty.

https://transbridgelines.com/airport-services

Thanks!   Sure hope Trans-Bridge resumes the service soon, very convenient.

Would appreciate any info on bus transportation from the Lehigh Valley(PA) to Cape Liberty.   

1 hour ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

That actually IS very good value, even before you add in the "included" items.  Less expensive than a Panama Canal cruise.

 

And I LOVE the people who are saying that it's a BAD thing because THEY can't go.  LOL.

Totally disagree!  Over $600/day for a balcony per couple is not a good value.  Our rule of thumb is ~$300/day.  Our January cruise on the Anthem is $200/day

47 minutes ago, deliver42 said:

We sailed on the Ovation last month and the masks weren't always needed even indoors. It depended on the venue. If the venue was for vaccinated people only, no masks were required.

Thanks.   Our concern is we would like to cruise on the Anthem out of NJ in January.  With the cold weather, we will be mostly confined to the interior of the ship for the first and last days. Neither of us is comfortable wearing masks for an extended time. 
Cruise fares are very attractive but we’ll probably wait, and if mask requirements change,  book last minute.

6 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

For most cruises protocols have been released 30-days +/-     Even then there were last minute changes made.    For now, assume that everything will stay the same as I don't see the cruise lines going to let their guard down and loosen up indoor masking especially if they plan on increasing passenger capacity for holiday cruises.

Thanks. We were hoping if Celebrity has success with their more liberal masking policy, that it might be adopted by RCCL

When can we expect RCCL to issue protocols for Jan, 2022.  We are most interested in masking requirements inside the ship
Thanks in advance.