sambao21

8 hours ago, pcur said:

As long as you do this before 9/30 you are covered by the "book by date" of the Cruise With Confidence" policy.

 

I've done this several times over the past year.

Yeah we did one rebook already, and so I'm aware. I'm more referring to if come December next year and they still can't travel and we wanted to move bookings again, unless RC updates the CWC to be extended that far next year, then if say we rebook to late 2023 or 2024, we may have to pay change fee.

5 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

You cannot get a cash refund of your deposit monies paid if you cancel now unless the protocols for your December sailing have been released.      

which those won't be released until November.     Just like the rep on the phone explained. 

 

So as of right now, if you cancel before final payment or before protocols are released your parents are only eligible to a receive a FCC for monies they paid to date. 

 

Re:    will your Father be 70 anytime soon?  If a FCC is issued for each of them and in 2022 they both are 70 or older they can transfer both FCCs to you.    I don't think they both have to be 70 at the time the FCC was issued, I think it is they have to be 70 when it is transferred to another person.   

To do that, you would have to call royal caribbean when ready to transfer  

Unfortunately my mom won't turn 70 for several more years. 

4 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

if they want to get full cash refund and you know for sure they are going to cancel the trip.      What type of cabin are they booked in?     

You can change their cabin to the cheapest available interior cabin, that way if you go the route to make final payment to get a full cash refund when the protocols are released you won't have as much cash paid out of pocket.    Now this is still risky as no one knows for sure what their policies will be in November.

 

They are already on the cheapest interior room, but it's still risky. I would like to just cancel and then book fully knowing when my parents could come, but who knows when that'll be a reality.

4 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

that may be hard to claim as her parents are in China.   I think it is mandatory for everyone to get vaccinated in China, at least I read that somewhere. 

My parents are vaccinated with whatever they offer there (not the ones offered in US, and supposedly not as effective) they just can't get over to the US without complicated travel procedure that effectively prevents them from coming to US and returning home to China.

1 hour ago, pcur said:

You might want to move the entire booking to another cruise in the future, and thereby have a much later final payment date, and see how the travel restrictions are then.  RCCL has cruises all the way out to April 2023.

 

It's a pretty straightforward process:  just have the new cruise date and ship picked out.  I usually have the cabin(s) already priced, too.  The booking number stays the same and the money follows it to the new ship, date, and cabin.  You could even see if you can get the same itinerary, only for a later date.

Yeah, that's actually what I'm leaning towards. The only risk with this is that if they still can't travel to US by then, and RC starts charging a change fee then we risk losing some monies if we had to change again.

Ignore my last response. I completely misunderstood mauraoel response. Anyways, thanks for at least confirm it's a legit practice to pay final payment in order to later cancel for full refund

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Yes, if they are over 70 years old you can transfer the FCC from their name to your name and use for own booking. 

 

Although Royal just cancelled a bunch of cruises in August up thru next March or so which was nice for them to do that early. 

Darn unfortunately, only one of my parents is over 70, but at least it's something. Do you know what process to transfer entails?

3 hours ago, mauraoel said:

This has been the policy for Royal since restart.  A lot of cruisers have made use of it.  But you do have to wait until the protocols are released meaning you do need to make final payment.

That's interesting. The rep I spoke with told me the exact opposite. She was adament that she couldnt issue refund because the policy isn't out yet for my sailing and said that each ship and port is different and she doesn't know what the policy is. She said it should be out in November for a December sailing. I could cancel and get FCC, but then that's back to my problem of having my parents use it by December 2022, which I've no confidence that travel will be possible by then. Anyways, is there some magic phrase I gotta say to make the rep understand what I'm wanting to accomplish? (Fwiw, the rep did seem irritated with me that I was questioning her about cancelling and she just kept reiterating that the policy isn't out yet and she can't do or say much about the sailing)

Going to cancel my parents cruise coming in December, and they will be able to get FCC for the NRD but it has to be used by December 2022, and they reside in another country that frankly I wouldn't hold my breath that between US and China that they will be able to come to US and cruise by then. Does anyone know what options there are such that we don't lose the FCC? Can those be transferred to me for my bookings? Or any other option?

I called RC and the rep I spoke to suggested that wait for the policy for our sailing in December to be posted and if we don't agree, to call and ask for full refund, but that policy won't be posted till after our final payment date. It just doesn't feel right to pay final payment for a cruise we know they won't go on so that we can wait for a policy to be published and we can say we "disagree" with in order to get a full refund. Seems a bit shady and not legit. Has anyone heard of this practice?

We have a stop at coco cay, but did not receive an email. Should we have?

I appreciate everyone's responses, and have made my decision having read what I could find and talking RC. Thanks.

10 hours ago, mauraoel said:

What's not to understand when your kids are otherwise engaged (i.e. kids club or maybe with other family)  you can access vaccinated only locations.

I understand what you are saying. I was wanting to see explicit documented info from RC in an official capacity.

15 hours ago, GTO-Girl said:

Anytime your unvaccinated child is NOT with you then you are free to visit anywhere even the areas marked as vaccinated only.  
 

The rules are pretty clear about that…..

I didn't see explicit rules documented anywhere yet of what you said. I mean what you said was so concise and clear enough to me that RC should take your words verbatim (minus the all caps) and put it in their FAQs and that would be perfectly clear.

On 8/19/2021 at 12:15 PM, mauraoel said:

If you look at this sentence it makes it very clear:

 

 

Yeah I get that when together. I'm seeking more explicit definition when not together. Yeah, I'm pedantic like that 🙂

7 hours ago, DonJuan77 said:

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/are-there-any-experiences-that-are-closed

 

Here is something I found looking as well. It says right on the top of the page:

 

 

I have yet to find anything that says if you're traveling with unvaccinated you're also considered unvaccinated. 

 

Just wanted to edit that this is per ship/per cruise port. My cruise is going to Coco Cay and Nassau, my kid will be allowed in Coco Cay but only my wife and I will be allowed in Nassau UNLESS we book an excursion through Royal. 

Thank you. It's a little clearer and indicates to stick with "Everyone" category. The clarification Im going to ask RCI to make is if that's all the time or when only in physical presence of the unvaccinated kid. Like if kid was asleep with grandparents, could mom and dad go to the vaccinated areas without masks. I totally get when the child is with us, we are restricted, which is unfortunate but I can live with. Every anecdote I've read indicates that mom and dad could if kid isn't with them , but no official policy documented.

Thanks. I've seen those anecdotes as well. Was looking for something official from RCI, if it exists. I definitely hope that's the actual policy but will do my due diligence and call a couple of times to stay on top of any actual policy changes so not as to end up like them Seattle cruisers that was "misinformed".

6 hours ago, jacobtsf said:

If you are with the child you can’t go to vaccinated only areas, but if you are NOT with the child you can. 

Royal also recently changed the excursion rule. If you are getting off the boat with the child you must be on a Royal excursion, if the child is staying on the boat (with someone from your party or in child care) you can go out on your own. 

Do you have a link to where that's stated for the first part? I couldn't find anything on rc website explicitly explaining that, and didn't want to take chance on my own personal interpretation.

I did found link for the excursion part though.

Haha

Thanks.

The gamble I'm in is that final payment is due 9/12 and I have to decide whether to pay RCI  even more money in the hopes that they change protocol in order to be able to get it all back, vs just try and deal with getting the NRD back somehow.

Got a couple more weeks to decide I suppose.

I will try. Is there a good way to do that? I mean like any particular thread or do I just have to watch everything? I'm not a prolific cc forum user.

And would anyone know how I can find what sailings already have had protocols changed and are eligible for cancellation?

So is there an official position published by royal Caribbean on what vaccinated parents can/can't do if they are traveling with unvaccinated kids? Whether they are physically with them or not at any given time? The only thing I saw was that you can't get off the ship unless book excursion through RC and that when dining with kids in dining room you'd be in unvaccinated area.

I presume when in the presence unvaccinated kids, any activities you'd have to attend the unvaccinated showings.

Mainly I wanted to know if I'm not in the presence of the kids (say they are asleep or with other adults elsewhere and I'm on my own), am I restricted or not. Is there any officially policy?

I'm gonna call today to speak to a rep, but if it's published online, that would be ideal.

So I called today and the protocols haven't changed for this sailing and so couldn't cancel.

The rep did suggest that I could cancel and have my parents write a letter stating they would transfer the fcc over to me then I can use it on my booking (we are still planning on going since we are in the U.S....unless things really goes down the tubes). Seeing how they are in china and not native English speakers let alone write, and the fact that I'm already paying for them anyways, it's a lot of hassle to do that dance to basically still pay for my own booking with my own money (even if it's their fcc) and cancelling theirs booking. Seems silly when they could just cancelling outright and not bother with the fcc at all, but at least it's an option...and then the call disconnected so I have to call back again.

So I guess I'm just waiting to see if protocols will change for this sailing before final payment is due in 4 weeks.

Does anyone know if they will send emails specifically if they change protocol for this sailing or where should I be monitoring for that change?

Interesting anecdotes. I called royal Caribbean a couple weeks back and the rep specifically said that since it's NRD, they can switch to another sailing but not get a full refund. He did not even offer an option or ask for any kind of support documentation. My dad is over 70, but my mom is not.

I will call again today.

I really wish we all could just go on the cruise. We haven't seen each other in over 3 years, and we had a new boy that they've never met in person.

I have parents overseas booked for a NRD cruise for December going out of miami (we had already moved once from a sailing that was scheduled for last November) who are unable to come to the US. What options do I have to not lose out on the deposit? I know I can cancel their booking and reapply the deposit for another booking but it would have to be used on a cruise sometime in 2022 (can't recall exact date), which normally would've been fine, but at this rate I'm not holding my breath travel restrictions will be gone by then. (We thought 2021 would've been plenty of time last year when we rescheduled). My immediate family are still gonna go on the cruise this december, but it's just my parents that are "stuck".

I was thinking to go ahead and just book something as far out as possible, and then if they still can't come, can I just cancel and reschedule again and keep doing that until a year travel restrictions are gone? Our final payment is coming up at end of month.

Ideally I could just cancel and get their deposits back obviously and just book when the travel is more certain.

Suggestions or ideas?

Thanks this was such an informative review for our trip this coming Saturday. I really appreciated this.

I think it's easy for non affected parents-to-be to say don't worry about it or stay on the boat (we had plenty of people tell us this), but it depends on the parents. Our doctor advised us not to, and so we ultimately decided not to go, but instead went on a new england, canada cruise on Anthem, and the full credit was applied to that sailing.

This year, we are going on Harmony in October with our 7mo old DD and the lack of anxiety over it on the cruise is totally worth it.