Oshawapilot

6 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Very self centered behavior. More reason to go to vaxxed only cruises.

 

However, it I can't take this thing off,  every time I take a shower and get it wet... which can be mutiple times a day... I'm heading to guest services to get it cut off and replaced.

Meh, its nylon or something, it dried very quickly.   Got it wet endless times between showers and hot tubs and pools and it didn’t bother me after the first 10 mins or so afterwards.   
 

Just make sure you get it on your non dominant wrist.    I made the mistake of getting it on my dominant hand and kept dipping the loose ends in food etc until I hacked off the excess.   
 

I can’t help but think there’s a more effective way to denominate vaccine status thought.   Like maybe…..your seapass?     If they can manage to get my loyalty class and even my beverage package status on there surely they can add vax status.  
 

Problem solved without any silly wristbands. 

32 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Why would anyone loan their band to someone else?

Saw wristband swapping happening on Oasis just a few weeks back.   Apparently not all the check in agents were putting them on as tight as ours were, and for families traveling with other families, some in non-vax categories because of <12YO kids with them who wanted to go see vax only events, well, reasons are clear.  

4 hours ago, lovelife said:

How I wear mine on my watchband.

Surprised they allowed that as the whole idea behind these is that once they're on, they don't come off, and hence, can't be "borrowed" by the non-vaxxed passengers.

Ours were put on tight enough at the terminal that there was no way they were coming off.    Got a bit annoying, sure, but in the grand scheme of things post covid, it wasn't even on our radar until we got off the ship and removed them.  No biggie.

Just now, Miloomar said:

Royal has said the WJ will come back on ships sailing over 50%... 

Except there’s been a few cruises where the capacity was over 50% and it wasn’t.  

12 minutes ago, Miloomar said:

That's more than 50%.... why wouldnt the windjammer be open?

Food waste issues, likely.     When a good portion of the ship eats in the MDR every night, the percentage of people left in the windjammer is pretty small in comparison to normal with the ship at 50-60% to begin with.

2 hours ago, lovelife said:

Seems like more....

What I observed was that with a lot of the usual activities on hiatus (a lot of the entertainment through the day - poolside stuff, the silly stuff like cake-making contests, towel folding classes, etc etc etc) because of not wanting to have crowds gather, people are naturally gravitating to the same areas out of a lack of other things to do that would normally break things up.   So it seemed a lot busier on the ship than the raw number of passengers would suggest.

7 minutes ago, ReadyToCruise2 said:

On the thread for the November 7th Oasis sailing out of Miami, they have posted the Cruise Compass for a couple of the days.  For that sailing, it shows the Windjammer open for dinner.

 

The odd thing is that it is noted with "RR" for Reservation Required!

 

I wonder how they are controlling the that situation? 

It showed the same thing on our oasis sailing a few weeks ago, however we just showed up and nobody ever seemed To actually need a reservation.
 

The only difference we noticed was that you had to tap your seapass coming in as well as exiting so they could presumably keep tabs on the number of people coming and going. 

On 10/28/2021 at 12:28 PM, Jerseygirl1416 said:

Thanks for the update!

 

Over 3600 seems like a lot of people for the amount of tables, chairs, loungers…they have blocked off or taken away due to social distancing. We had just over 2700 and it was hard to get pool loungers, windjammer tables and reservations in specialty restaurants and shows. I wonder at what point they will stop adding to the number of guests without undoing some of the social distancing?

A lot of seating was replaced on Oasis last week.     We really had zero issues finding seats anywhere honestly, even the typically high demand areas on sea days.
 

The distancing thing was pretty lax except in a handful of places.     And of course anything involving a junk sale or raffle or whatever in the Promenade it went completely out the window - everyone jam right in, the rules don’t matter anymore.   Honestly trying to even bother with that sort of stuff on a cruise ship is impossible anyways.     

I’m aboard Oasis right now.  Windjammer is indeed open for dinner.   The new no-touch system is still a but rough around the edges everywhere so far as some crew members being stretched thin on the amount of buffet areas they’re handling, not just in windjammer but everywhere.   
 

Not complaining, just an observation.   It’s not a major issue, things just take a bit longer.  

We’re aboard!

We opted to stay slightly out of town and then just park at the port this time vs doing our usual park and cruise routine.    Seems like it was a good decision - we’ve just been tooling around shopping all day, headed for lunch now, then not long after parking.    I’m going to guess the shuttles will be a dogs breakfast with eve thing being compacted into a few hours now.     
 

At least the BW had a full coach bus for a shuttle last time we were there vs the minibus or van options the holiday inn and others use.   

2 hours ago, corinnv said:

On the Pride as well. It was just announced that we will be in port one hr earlier.  That would put us in at 3

Curious if they offered you all aboard any compensation for things?

Flight changes and all that costs money we all know.  

I’m going to guess we will be doing muster tomorrow....since the email did say sail away would be right after everyone is onboard.       Trying to do a rushed muster at potentially 8-9pm with thousands of hungry (and slightly disgruntled) people trying to make the best of dinner would be unlikely to go well.   
 

SOLAS gives 24 hours for it to happen.     Although unusual for a cruise line to exercise that (particularly since *cough*, Costa Concordia) it seems likely in this situation.  

Got the email at 8:20 here.   

$15 PP stateroom credit seems a little weak to me considering not arriving at the port until 6:30 as ordered means not only buying lunch for many,  but probably dinner as well.    Reality is most people won’t probably get onboard until 7-8pm at the earliest.   
 

Well, it is what it is.    Good news is no effect on our itinerary at least.  
 

Luggage is our next concern.   My question is...will the staterooms be open as soon as we board?    They’d have to ask current guests to vacate early so the attendants can turn them over.      If that doesn’t happen, then it could be hours after an already late boarding before they’re ready....?      Add to that delayed luggage arrival....and it could be midnight before we get our luggage?        
 

If the staterooms will be ready right away we will probably just carry on our luggage to avoid that potential delay.    
 

8AM has come and gone without the promised update from Carnival.  
 

They did just pre-auth my credit card on file for $200 though.   🙄

Current location of the ship is still over 100 miles from Baltimore, although still making19 knots.      Looks like there was some sort of hold up through the night.    

Last the ship popped up on AIS it was now making almost 22 knots, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say whatever mechanical issues were at play have been addressed.

I actually just checked again and she's now reporting 22.6 knots so they are definitely running wide open now - that's actually faster than her normal service speed.

She's showing off Cape Hatteras now so it's actually a little further north than I feared.     Just measured roughly 120 miles to the mouth of the Chesapeake.   At current speed that should put her at the mouth and picking up her pilot around 5 hours from now, so around 3AM.       Transiting from the mouth to Baltimore is roughly a 10 hour process assuming everything goes smoothly, so that would put the ship pierside around 1-2PM or so.    

If everything goes perfectly.     

But I'm sure they're doing everything possible to get there ASAP.     Getting in late is bad enough for ships logistics, but the later the worse things get - crew will be thrown way off schedule by simple things such as having to handle luggage late into the night, etc.

Ack, 5:15.   
 

Well, it is what it is I guess.    Will be a late sail away for us on the flip side - hopefully we can still make our full day in Half Moon Cay (first port day for us) as a result.    Of all the ports of call on this itinerary that’s the one I’d least like cut short.    🙁
 

i 

The ship doesn’t usually arrive until 10am anyways, so arguably,  by typical disembarkation day standards, you get to sleep in either way.    Within reason.  

Just now, cellfree said:

And all on board who have flights out of Baltimore tomorrow/Sunday will be scrambling to make changes.

They often open up the wifi for free And provide some free phone minutes in these sorts of situations to allow people to make the necessary changes.  
 

Still not fun.    But a potential reality anytime you cruise.   

At 8am today when she last reported on AIS the ship was still off the coast of Georgia and was showing she was only making 19 knots.  
 

I’d say arrival well after noon tomorrow is likely now.    Even if they get their propulsion issues fixed and pick up speed they’re still going to struggle to make time.   
 

Guess we’ve got some time to kill tomorrow after checking out from the hotel. 

Thanks, glad to know it wasn't just me.  😉

Seems to be fixed now.    Tried it at my BIL's place earlier (just to rule out it was my ISP or something weird) and it was still dead...but now it's working everywhere.

Can someone else try the msccruises.ca website and tell me if it's not working for them either?    Again this morning I can get to the point of the choice of available itineraries, but when I select the one we are looking at (the 12 night on October 22 2020 out of NYC) and click the "Select" button to actually select a stateroom option, it just goes to a mostly blank screen with the MSC header across the top, and nothing more.

And Merry Christmas everyone.  🙂

So, the .com (USA) website appears to be working now.

The .ca (Canadian) website appears to be still DOA.

I tend to favour booking in our own currency as otherwise we're subject to the currency swings.

Doing some Christmas eve dreaming and have been sniffing around at MSC after someone recommended we try the Yacht Club experience.     However, both the MSCcruises.ca and .com websites appear to be broken.   The .ca website just goes to a blank page right after you select a cruise, and the .com website just seems to freeze up part way through the selection process - can't even get to a stateroom selection.

Tried on mobile and 3 different browsers on my laptop, same results.

Can anyone else confirm if it's busted for them as well?