Kentucky816

The first cruise line that drops ALL protocols and acts like normal pre March 2020 will be my

new cruise line.  
 

Mandates are crumbling around the world……..it won’t be long they will all go mark my words.  

Right now after 2 plus years of canceling and rebooking cruises on Carnival and the many hours in hold past as well as  (currently) on hold, it brings me pain to hear the on hold spiel.  After holding out hope we are throwing in the towel completely and if we ever did cruise again it will probably not be Carnival because I now associate them with Not Fun.  Canceling everything late 2022 and all of 2023.  

I was hoping this would all end.  We both just got over Omicron that I got first from a vaxed and boosted person .  It was a bad cold and recovered pretty quickly .   I won’t cruise under these conditions no way no how….way too invasive and stressful in my opinion.  Just canceled all the cruises for late 2022 and 2023 think we are going to cruise via an upgraded Lake Boat with the money we just saved, $$$ 🙌

This whole thread has made me so happy to NOT be cruising any longer ! 

Well for us unless vaccine policy changes we are now ex cruisers.  My DH who cannot be vaccinated and of course I am the other half of this union find it absolutely unappealing to cruise with the current policies.  We just canceled our Antarctica trip with Princess and who knows if we will keep our October 2022 with Carnival.  We did book a lovely VRBO in Sanibel in place of the Princess Cruise  and will enjoy our freedom there.  I understand everyone wanting a vaccinated cruise so please don’t flame me, it just won’t work for us.  I will remember fondly our last cruise in Jan 2020.  Many other ways to travel and perhaps it is for the best.  

Sure hope so, we want fly overseas next year and the mask was going to be a deal breaker for my DH as he can’t breath to well and 8+ hours was a bit too much for him to deal with. 

I saw it for our October 2022 cruise and thought what the hey ?! I think we don’t know what a year might bring !! Carnival needs to watch themselves 😐

Here is just another thought !  We have seen such an increase of RV’s on the road here in the South.  Just got back from a road trip fourteen days and the highways are packed.  Within 15 miles on I-40 I started counting…..got up to 48 RV’s of various types.   Also, the amount of boats on our lakes has doubled, local dealer is sold out and has back orders.  Wall Street Journal said that National Parks attendance is at records this year and to expect lots of traffic. 
 

Many people have changed their ways of vacationing, we did VRBO in Amelia Island Florida and loved it so much we will give up one of our normal cruises (average 3 times a year) to go every year. Only thing we have booked is Antarctica on the Diamond Princess Jan 2022 and that doesn’t go, then are going to Florida again…..no cruise.  Might book an Alaska cruise if elderly parents want to next year.   Just waiting to see how this all shakes out.  🙃

23 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

Could they be adjusting/removing club class with the new "Dine My Way" feature? 

You may be on to something there 🤔

Just now, memoak said:

If you can even log into Princess.com today you are luckier than me. I think the site is totally messed up

Oh didn’t realize they were having problems.  Hopefully fixed soon 🤞🏻

This morning just doing a cursory check on our Antarctica cruise Jan 4th, 22 and there were No Club Class available where there had been 8.  
Great I thought we are filling up, but then at looking at others cruises there are none, not even out to March of 2023 for a Mexico cruise.   Any thoughts on 

why this might be ?  

We saw this bit of news this morning and thought great good news !  However, we won’t be going this year, to many unknowns and frankly we are enjoying traveling by car to many places in the United States.  We have been multiple times to Europe and Australia so a bit of been there done that.  Also, we canceled our Glory cruise in October, just figured we would plan something we know for sure we can do.   I hope those that really want to can take advantage of Europe opening and report back to us here.   

To all those going to Gatlinburg, TN ....a big thank you !!  We live in Tennessee and you will love Gatlinburg, the city has a mask mandate until May but most everywhere in the state we don’t.  Our Covid numbers have been low and we have been open since last May at various capacities depending on the individual countries.  Hope you enjoy your stay in Tennessee!!  

4 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Remember....it's a ship, not a boat.  A boat (life) can go on a ship, but a ship can't go on a boat.

Whatever I don’t remember watching “The Love Ship” ???   Or singing The Love Ship exciting and new Come Aboard. We're expecting you. And Love, life's sweetest reward. Let it flow, it floats back to you....... ?  You say Ship 🚢 I say Boat let’s just get along. 🥰

16 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

But doing a condo means that you will be doing some cooking, have no maid service, have no built in activities and entertainment throughout the day, no  evening entertainment included such as shows, live music, comedy shows.  Also no interaction with strangers over trivia. 

I can see maybe if you were staying at an upscale all inclusive to compare it to a cruise, but I personally can't see the apple to apple comparison with what you're currently doing. But, if you like it, at least you won't have to deal with any short term restrictions that the cruise lines will possibly be enforcing.

Well a quick walk down the beach we have live music and a happy hour, haha.  You are right not the same however there is a sense of freedom that we have now that I am not sure will be there when we get on the boat.  I pray that the old fun things like trivia and shows will still be there and fun.  🙏

Honestly, we have a cruise booked for October which we have to do since family is booked but otherwise we are seriously considering doing land based vacations more often.  Right now sitting we are on the balcony at beachfront condo in Amelia Island for the week.  We started adding it all up what we are spending, VRBO, some groceries, daily dining at some of the best restaurants and we are coming up with same amount spent.  Both DH and I remarked how we think we like this better,  almost every vacation before this was a cruise.  If they go up too much we will be landlubbers 😂

4 hours ago, cynt said:

I'm glad I'm not the only one trying to get away.  My family and friends look at me like I'm crazy. But I have to get away every few months or I'll go coo coo for coco puffs.  

 

June 2020 - a 4 night stay in Pensacola Beach, FL turned into 6 nights. As the date got closer we kept adding a day. Mind you we were supposed to be in MAUI that week celebrating my 50th. So we said no limits in Pensacola. Spend whatever, eat whatever and do whatever. We're going to break the bank.  It was so relaxing. We didn't get near to breaking the bank. We found this fresh fish joint, Joe Patti's and purchased a bunch of fish and shrimp to bring home.  We said that's the excuse we're going to use to go back. LOL! 

 

October 2020 -  Flew to Orlando for a week at Disney World w/ the Mouse. BEST WDW TRIP EVER!! Low crowds, short lines, pool space, restaurant space and clean, clean, clean.  I'm a part time germaphobe so I loved all the cleaning.  DVC owners were dumping points like crazy so we stayed at Old Key West for little to nothing. We'll never see those low prices again. 

 

January 2021 - We flew into Nashville, drove to Knoxville to see the Lady Vols play the UCONN Huskies. OMG great game!! We took care of business in Nashville and drove up to Louisville to check on the MIL. 

 

February 2021 - Flying to Sedona, AZ and the Grand Canyon at the end of the month. 

 

Spring 2021 - DH wants to go to Cedar Point. We'll see because I want to go to the beach. LOL!

 

Summer 2021 - probably back to Pensacola. Maybe an AI in the Dominican Republic, we've been looking at one of the Majestic Resorts.

 

Fall 2021 - Maybe an AI in Mexico. We've been looking at Secrets Akumal Riviera Maya.

 

Happy vacationing everyone. 

 

 

Wow !  👍🏻

On 2/6/2021 at 9:20 AM, Theosprey247 said:

We will be going to Hawaii in July. However, I’ve always wanted the drive the Blues Highway (Memphis, TN to New Orleans LA).

Memphis is a neat town to see.  Quite a bit of history and things to see, Graceland, Sun Records, The Loraine Hotel ( Martin Luther King assignation), the Pyramid......the list goes on.  Only three hours from us and where some of the relatives live. 

9 hours ago, hockeyluver said:

So sorry for your loss.   Since we are in Canada and there is not much to do in the winter......  we have nothing planned.  This spring since there will be no cruise this winter  we are going to use that money and replace the liner in our inground pool and look forward to a fun time with family and hopefully freinds.  We have been in lockdown here since Christmas.  

Hoping you will have a nice summer however it may be.  That actually sounds like a great plan !

We all long for the days of cruising but, hey we have to live the life we have now.  None of us are promised tomorrow and I can speak to this because we just lost

a cousin today at the age of 41 due to an aneurysm.  So here is an idea share a vacation you have done or plan to do this year in lieu of cruising.  We will start, we sure missed the salt air so we are doing a VRBO on Amelia Island, FL and boy oh does it seem to fit the bill.  Tremendous views and great food, a little more low key but when you miss the salt air just having a cup of coffee on a balcony sure will be nice.  So share your ideas with us of fun ways to enjoy the beauty of your area, country, etc, maybe we can learn of new places to explore in the future or present.  

Well not surprised, going to get the refund process started ASAP.  It is sad though sorry everyone 🥴

Here in Tennessee we are basically business as usual.  We don’t have much population in our state and except for Nashville or Memphis things are pretty spread out.  We went to Gatlinburg over New Years and watched fireworks, went to dinner show, hiked and ate out everyday.  We did our part in following the rules and had a great time.  If anyone needs a getaway in the USA may I suggest renting a cabin in the Smokies you can stay in if you want but you can get a change of scenery.  Hopefully cruising soon on Koningsdam this summer.  Hope all stay well and Happy New Year. 

Well we had the Spirit booked for Sep. and it got canceled, then booked another cruise line going roundtrip from Vancouver and now it is canceled.  I had told my husband after rearranging flights for second cruise that if this cruise got canceled we could just stay in British Columbia sight see there.  However, after reading the threads on Cruise Critic and seeing press from Canada we have nixed that idea.  Just booked a Cruise on the Breeze going out of FLL and if that doesn't sail we booked a nice resort in Boca .  We just didn't feel that we would be welcome in Canada even if they open up borders by September (our original date) .......and frankly sorta have a bad taste in my mouth about going to Canada for the time being.   I do love Canada been there many times.....but things have gotten a little weird right now between us; I am sure it will  pass.    😐

On another note here in Tennessee life is going well post Covid-19, we are almost fully open with the exception of the Smokies which are phasing in.  Restaurants, Hotels, RV parks, Dollywood, lakes.....very little masks right now.  Lots of outside visitors from other states as we live in a lake area, people are ready to live life and the kids need to get outside and be kids again.  

You will have no problem with a C-Pap in the OS.  We sailed in October on 14 day cruise and the cabin steward quickly got us an extension cord that did plug into the plug in the vanity area.  She taped it down so no tripping, kinda ran it down the wall and around the corner.  They the cabin stewards are very familiar as to how to deal with this are very accommodating.  Hope you have a wonderful cruise......no worries all will be fine. 😀

Since when has China been upfront about anything?  They lie about their economic numbers. Everything is to save face for the communist party.  This virus though not getting much press in United States, this is not the run of the run of the mill flu.  Jennifer lives in New York but has sources in China, things are not as we are being told by officials there in China. 

https://mobile.twitter.com/jenniferatntd