Carnival Requiring Vaccine Through At Least July - I Booked With Them

[SailorMarg]

I didn’t want to have to go back to Carnival, but Royal has forced my hand with their allowing non vaccinated people on cruises out of Galveston and with Carnival just having announced they will require vaccinations on ALL passengers leaving from Galveston through at least July.  Many are anticipating that requirement will go though the end of summer at least.  I live 3 hours from Galveston, so I choose to stick with those cruise lines that cruise from there, Royal and Carnival.  I switched to Royal exclusively after a fiasco on the Carnival Vista when I booked the Havana Suite a couple years ago and was less than thrilled with the experience.  But, I can’t choose Royal over Carnival for my summer cruise out of Galveston given Royal’s decision to allow un-vaccinated people on board on even their very first sailings out of the USA.  Seems extraordinarily irresponsible and I certainly don’t want to be aboard a ship where there’s an outbreak among the un-vaccinated passengers and our cruise is thereby interrupted.  So, I booked a Grand Suite aboard Carnival Breeze and will give them another try.  Sorry to leave Royal but ultimately, they made that decision for me.

[Jimbo]

Totally understandable, you are forgiven. Enjoy your cruise.

[firefly333]

Vista will be first ship. I would have booked vista. Not my favorite ship either, but will be first to sail. I'm for playing it safe. Breeze is 4/5 days right? I caved and booked a 5 night breeze myself but not july.

[SailorMarg]

4 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Vista will be first ship. I would have booked vista. Not my favorite ship either, but will be first to sail. I'm for playing it safe. Breeze is 4/5 days right? I caved and booked a 5 night breeze myself but not july.

I actually prefer 5 night cruises.  We live on, and run, a ranch and 7 days can feel too long to be away.  Plus, I really miss my doggies when I’m gone and I’m ready to be back with them after 5 days.  Plus, I’d much rather go on three 5 day cruises than two 7 day cruises. Being a 3 hour drive from Galveston helps. So we booked Breeze, 5 nights, for August.  I’m thinking they will keep the vaccination requirement for at least a few months.  I might be wrong, but we will see.

[firefly333]

1 minute ago, SailorMarg said:

I actually prefer 5 night cruises.  We live on, and run, a ranch and 7 days can feel too long to be away.  Plus, I really miss my doggies when I’m gone and I’m ready to be back with them after 5 days.  Plus, I’d much rather go on three 5 day cruises than two 7 day cruises. Being a 3 hour drive from Galveston helps. So we booked Breeze, 5 nights, for August.  I’m thinking they will keep the vaccination requirement for at least a few months.  I might be wrong, but we will see.

I'm north of dallas so almost twice as far, so I'd rather go longer, but I'm not running a ranch.

 

I was just saying vista is 2 weeks ahead of breeze, not that anything was wrong with her. Great ship. My favorite class. I'm booked too but later than you. Let's hope no snags. 

[LeeW]

You could look at this another way - if Royal terminates a cruise early they will likely refund the entire cruise and maybe some/all of the onboard purchases.  So you might get a 5 day cruise for free.  Not really any different than hurricane changes.  Even on the first cruises last year it was a tiny percentage of passengers that got sick and both cruise lines and ports didn't have much understanding of how to handle it.  Now it is likely the people affected would just be quarantined and rest of ship would continue as normal.  

 

To us the onboard mask policy and what the port rules are will be more of an issue.  We are Carnival stockholders and have never sailed on that line.  Seventeen cruises cancelled so far - hope the August ones actually sail.

[Diver2014]

Another reason we would never book with Carnival but I understand their situation.  The cruise lines will do anything right now to get passengers on board and get the Center for Disease Conspiracy off their backs with all their arbitrary rules.  We'll wait till next year and sail on Royal.

Edited June 10, 2021 by Diver2014

[Moltar]

On 6/7/2021 at 4:14 PM, SailorMarg said:

I didn’t want to have to go back to Carnival, but Royal has forced my hand with their allowing non vaccinated people on cruises out of Galveston and with Carnival just having announced they will require vaccinations on ALL passengers leaving from Galveston through at least July.  Many are anticipating that requirement will go though the end of summer at least.  I live 3 hours from Galveston, so I choose to stick with those cruise lines that cruise from there, Royal and Carnival.  I switched to Royal exclusively after a fiasco on the Carnival Vista when I booked the Havana Suite a couple years ago and was less than thrilled with the experience.  But, I can’t choose Royal over Carnival for my summer cruise out of Galveston given Royal’s decision to allow un-vaccinated people on board on even their very first sailings out of the USA.  Seems extraordinarily irresponsible and I certainly don’t want to be aboard a ship where there’s an outbreak among the un-vaccinated passengers and our cruise is thereby interrupted.  So, I booked a Grand Suite aboard Carnival Breeze and will give them another try.  Sorry to leave Royal but ultimately, they made that decision for me.

 

Have fun on that bender. Are you good at funneling beers? I kid. Maybe.

Edited June 10, 2021 by Moltar

[Tapi]

On 6/7/2021 at 4:14 PM, SailorMarg said:

Seems extraordinarily irresponsible and I certainly don’t want to be aboard a ship where there’s an outbreak among the un-vaccinated passengers and our cruise is thereby interrupted. 

I do believe that a vaccinated cruise is the safer way to go (part of the reason why we've booked Celebrity for September), but I wouldn't call un-vaccinated cruises "extraordinarily irresponsible". By now, we've had almost a year's worth of data since cruises restarted in the Mediterranean last summer and later expanded to other parts of the world. At the time, we didn't even have vaccines. Yet, Cruise Lines have safely and successfully been sailing with protocols and procedures in place, which will also be applied to cruises when they resume from the USA. With all of that said, I'd still prefer to sail on a fully vaccinated cruise simply because it provides an extra layer of safety over the protocols already established and proven.

 

Have an absolutely fantastic time on Carnival! Many many years ago, I had a horrible cruise on them and I swore I would never sailed on them again. I waited a few years and decided to give them another try. Ended up having a fantastic time, followed by many other wonderful and memorable Carnival cruises. Hope you have the same.

Edited June 10, 2021 by Tapi

[Goodtime Cruizin]

33 minutes ago, Diver2014 said:

Another reason we would never book with Carnival but I understand their situation.  The cruise lines will do anything right now to get passengers on board and get the Center for Disease Conspiracy off their backs with all their arbitrary rules.  We'll wait till next year and sail on Royal.

 

Good post. This is spot on. 

[Diver2014]

1 minute ago, Goodtime Cruizin said:

 

Good post. This is spot on. 

Thank you. I fully expected the flame throwers to get their 2 cents worth in.