PlanoDebbie

We've been on two cruises since they started back up.  In September we were on Miracle, which was 100% vaccinated, with zero waivers.  Should be perfectly safe, right?  At least 10 people in our FB group tested positive within 2 days of leaving the ship.  Our group only represented about 25% of the guests onboard.  

This past Monday we got back from a 4 day cruise on Breeze.  We felt fine when we got off the ship.  We had a 4 hour drive to get home.  By the time we got home, we were both exhausted and went straight to bed for several hours.  On Tuesday we both woke up with a sore throat and cough.  We both assumed we had a sinus infection, so hubby made a Dr appt for Wednesday.  As a precaution, they tested him for covid.  He tested positive.  I did a home test this morning and also tested positive.  Our FB group has had about 50 people test positive so far after getting off the ship.  My sore throat is pretty much gone already, and our symptoms have been pretty consistant with a bad cold plus a lot of fatigue the first few days.  I did email Carnival about both of us testing positive.  If you are worried about getting covid, stay home.  This Omicron varient is spreading like wildfire.  If you do choose to cruise, get the booster shot, buy yourself some kn95 masks and avoid any high touch surfaces on the ship.  Every time I walked past a hand sanetizer station, I grabbed some.  We wore masks every time we left our cabin.  

On 12/23/2021 at 6:45 PM, Duanerice1 said:

I was reading about another ship, one of the Celebrity ships.... Said they had x amount of cases, everyone just mild symptoms or asymptomatic. 

 

My question is, if someone is asymptomatic how does anyone know they are positive as I assume they wouldn't test, right?   Just curious as it doesn't make sense. 

We just got off of Breeze on Monday after only a 4 day cruise.  We felt fine when we got off the ship, but after a 4 hour drive home we were both exhausted and went straight to bed.  Figured it was just travel fatigue.  The next day hubby and I both had a little bit of a sore throat and cough.  We both assumed it was a sinus infection.  Hubby went to the Dr on Wednesday and they tested him for Covid.  He tested positive.  I took a home test this morning and also tested positive.  So far in our FB group, there are at least 40 people who tested positive after the cruise.  Our symptoms are pretty much like a bad cold, but it did result in us spending Christmas at home by ourselves.  Fortunately I'm retired, and hubby is on vacation through the end of next week.  I recommend everyone get a booster shot before cruising and be sure to take a covid test about 3 days after getting home.  

On 12/16/2021 at 12:03 PM, purrlinda said:

Do you know why the cruise was raised to yellow?

The CDC raises a ship's rating to yellow once it exceeds 1/1,000 positive covid cases over the past 7 days.  Considering the infection rate in the state of New York currently exceeds 17/1,000 positive covid cases, the threshold for a cruise ship to be rated yellow is pretty low.  So if there are 5,400 people on a ship, they are classified as orange with 1 to 5 cases onboard.  Once they have 6 cases, they are bumped up to yellow.  Every ship is required to report cases to the CDC on a daily basis.  I'm honestly surprised that there hasn't been any announcement for the CSO to extend beyond January 15th with the massive outbreaks of Omicron.  

RCL is losing $24/share right now, so they are desperate to get their ships out with paying customers as soon as possible.  It sounds like they are rushing things a bit with assuming that 14 days after their crew are vaccinated they are all fully immune.

We cruise Carnival the most, because we are only a 5 hour drive from Galveston.  We've also cruised on RCL, Holland America and Princess.  Have only saided once on RCL (Allure of the Seas).  Their entertainment was positively the BEST we've ever enjoyed on a cruise.  I do like their ticketing process, especially their policy to cancel reservations if you haven't arrived within 10 or 15 minutes of the show beginning and allow the standby folks to enter the venue.  NOBODY is allowed in once the show starts.  Love this policy, as you don't have to deal with all of the late-comers trying to squeeze past you.  For the size of this ship, their Lido buffet dining rooms were way too small.  It's the only ship we've had to stand in line to eat.  The restaurants were all fabulous, but got expensive if you paid for dinner every night.  Would definitely NOT recommend an inside balcony cabin.  Zero privacy, as you could look straight across and into every single inside balcony cabin across from you.  Princess was very nice, but always felt crowded.  Also, you don't get a sofa in your cabin unless you book a balcony or better.  Two weeks of sitting on the bed in our OV cabin was not good on my back.  Holland America was quite the experience.  Hubby and I were right about 50 on this cruise to Alaska for 2 weeks.  LOTS of retired folks on this ship.  We sat with different folks at dinner every night and was a week before we had anyone younger than 65 dine with us.  It was an 18 year old grandson traveling with his Grandpa.  We still had a nice cruise.  By 9:00 pm, there was NOBODY in any of the public lounges.  We laughed that we could have run naked down the hallways every night and nobody would see us!  We choose our cruises based upon the price primarily.  Now that I just retired after 20 years in Education, we don't have to cruise according to my school calendar any more!  

I've got both knees replaced with titanium, and never had an issue.  I use to tell the TSA folks at the airport that I have metal in my knees so they always put me through the full body scanner.  A few years ago, the Security location at the airport didn't have a full body scanner option, and they suggested just going through the regular metal detector to see what happened.  Went through just fine.  Haven't had any issues at the port metal detectors either.

No available excursions for our September Alaskan cruise on Miracle.  Reading the Covid protocol on CCL for Alaska it almost sounds like you won't be allowed off the ship in port unless you are going on a Ship excursion.  I sure hope I'm not reading more into it.  Oh well, we've already cruised to these ports on several previous cruises.  Was just hoping to walk around the port in each of them to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  I feel bad for all of the local shops and restaurants that really depend on the cruise industry to provide them enough money to live on during the rest of the year.

We prefer to have the Anytime Dining.  A line will start forming before the dining room opens up, but is usually cleared up about 30 minutes later.  The only nights we found the wait to be a bit longer was on formal nights.

Looks like the exact same questions I've had to answer every single morning upon entering my school to work over the past year!

On 5/30/2021 at 10:07 AM, eclue said:

Can someone please give me the email address to send in the Carnival shareholder form for OBC.  We usually cruise on Princess but we booked the Alaska cruise with Carnival....Thanks!!!

Which Alaska cruise week did you book?  We just book the Sept 7th one on the Miracle.  Can't wait.  This will be our 4th cruise to Alaska.  We never get tired of the majestic beauty there!

I owned over 300 shares of CCL for many years and enjoyed the OBC as well as the quarterly dividends.  RCL was a much better investment, as I owned about 175 shares of it as well.  When C-19 hit, I dumped both stocks.  I'm 2 days away from retirement and have moved that money into much better investments for now.  I will reinvest once it becomes a more attractive investment to me and is once again paying a dividend.

I've never had an issue with packing a small pair of scissors with a 2-3" blade.  For on an airplane, I have the folding pair on a lanyard that I can wear around my neck.  I hate dropping my scissors on a plane and having to twist and turn to pick them up.  I've only had one flight attendant question me about them.  I told her the blades are barely an inch long and well within FAA regulations for what is allowed.  Besides, I'm only cutting threads, not anything else.

On 6/2/2021 at 3:58 AM, mondello said:

On a related note, they do give a free bottle of wine if you book the steakhouse the first night.

The wine will be one of their cheapest, and your waiter won't automatically tell you about it if you didn't already know.  We had to ask our waiter about it.  Then he only wanted to bring us 2 glasses instead of the full bottle.

For anyone wanting Cheers or Wifi, your best price will be pre-cruise.  You will NOT get a better price onboard.  Also, don't waste money on their wine packages.  You will be paying $100 to get like 5 bottles of stuff you can easily buy for under $5.00 in your home liquor store.

We just booked our September cruise last night.  I was surprised that nothing in there asked us for our passport information.  Good thing, because mine expired last summer.  I retire on Thursday and will be renewing my passport on Friday.  Is the check-in date when you get to pick the boarding time you prefer and such?  Only thing I've done was selecting bedding choice and dining room time.  

We did a Spa Balcony on the Breeze a few years ago, and I don't remember any sort of "unique welcome ritual" happening.  To be honest, we didn't really feel like the perks of a spa cabin were worth it, other than the lovely aroma every time we went to our cabin.

I wish they would offer vegetarian options in other categories besides Indian.  I can't stand the smell of curry, but would love to have a Chinese veggie stir-fry with tofu.

Since you are guaranteed an inside cabin, if they sell out of all 4 person inside cabins, they will have to upgrade you to possibly an oceanview cabin.

We just booked the 7 day Alaskan cruise last night for September.  Got an Interior category cabin that's on Deck 4 and has huge windows with obstructed views.  Price was only about $670/pp plus port fees and taxes.  It also came with $500 OBC.  Since they got the waiver to avoid canceling the entire season, I figured this was probably the safest itinerary to be on.  Seattle to Alaska and back.  Can't wait.  We had wanted to do something special last summer for our 40th anniversary, but we all know what happened.  This Alaskan cruise starts the day after our 41st anniversary.  We've cruised to Alaska 3 times already, and absolutely LOVE it up there.  I will also be retired in 2 more days after 20 years in education, so this is the first time we've been able to really travel for our anniversary.

When Carnival first started doing the staggered (assigned) check-in times, I wasn't a happy camper and was sure that it was going to be awful.  Surprisingly, it goes quite smoothly.  In Galveston, they have 2 que lines, one for those on time, and the other line for those that are too early.  If the on-time line gets really short, they allow some of the too early folks to fill in the lines.  I think it took us barely 10 minutes after dropping off our bags to getting through the check-in procedure and finding our cabin.

I think all of the cruiselines have one goal.  They want to get people out on their ships and bring back their employees.  They've already lost a small fortune being shut down for the past year.  Carnival has sold off several older ships over the past year for scrap.  A lot of people are afraid to jump back into cruising, so everyone is offering whatever it takes to fill their ships.

From what I've seen on another website today, the CDC is requiring that in order to sail from US ports they are requiring 98% of all staff to be fully vaccinated as well as at least 95% of all guests.  When reading some of the booking requirements for a few different cruiselines, some say that anyone under age 16 won't be allowed to cruise since they can't be vaccinated.  What???  In addition to proving that you've been fully vaccinated, you will also have to provide a negative PCR test a few days before sailing.  Some cruiselines are also giving everyone an antigen test before getting on the ship and again before returning to your debarkation port.  The only thing I didn't read anything about was if masks would also be required on the ship.  That would probably be a deal-breaker for me.  What a mess.

This doesn't surprise me at all.  I sold all of my Carnival stock last week and took a huge loss on it.  The reason I sold is because CCL credit rating has been reduced to Junk, which is the absolute lowest you can have.  I believe they are selling off ships just to pay for current expenses to stay alive until they are able to cruise again.  Dividends have been cancelled as well.  I had accumulated about 400 shares of stock over the years.  Also sold all of my RCL stock last week as well.  As we are fast approaching retirement within the next few years, I needed to move that money into something else that would be generating some much needed dividends.

2 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Doubtful. I think more tele-medicine with doctors on shore.

Tele-doctors seems more likely so that they can provide services to any ship in need.

On 3/15/2020 at 6:55 PM, billymarksfbc said:

My wife and I are going on Our 20 anniversary trip. Originally we were going on the fascination with ocean view, out of San Juan, PR and going to st Thomas , st marten, st Kitts, st Lucia and Barbados. I was excited for those ports and we love San Juan. Never been to these ports. Now we are rescheduling for May. We can do the same thing or switch to the Vista out of Galveston to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Been to Cozumel. Not a fan of western carr. Wanted something new. My wife and I have only gone on 1 cruise and liked the fun things to do and sea days. I realize we lose that on fascination but we love the ports. Thoughts?! 

https://www.caymancompass.com/2020/03/14/breaking-schools-close-cruise-ships-banned-to-prevent-coronavirus-spread/

Grand Cayman has banned ALL cruise ships until at least mid May.

The cruiselines would have to change all of their cruises to being 7 or fewer days if that policy doesn't change.  We did a 14 day HAL cruise to Alaska about 12 years ago.  The average age on that cruise was probably 68.  We had their version of Your time dining and were seated with different groups every night.  Every night we were seated with retired folks who were well over 65.  Not too many working folks can afford a 14 day cruise.  Very few children were on the ship.  Who else can go on a 32 day cruise?

We are going on the Vista for the first time in 2 days, but not on Lido deck.  We did have a Lido balcony on a different ship a few years ago and really liked it.  We were afraid that it might be really noisy, but it wasn't.

About the ONLY downside would be if it's raining and you need to get to the Lido buffet.  You can either choose to get wet, or go down one deck and over.