Royal's start up vs carnival's

[zpdw484]

So Royal Caribbean sails the freedom at approximately 30% capacity with 93% vaccinated guests instead of the much less restrictive 95%. Now due to that 2% everyone is having to mask indoors, wear wrist bands, etc.  Meanwhile carnival sailed the Vista today at approx 75% capacity with no masking, self serve buffet, etc. It is interesting the different approaches the two lines are taking. I am not a carnival fan at all but from a business perspective their way seems more logical. It will be interesting to see how it plays out for both.

[tallnthensome]

I don't normally sail carnival but with what Royal has chosen as far as its route to reopening I won't be sailing with them . 

[ReneeFLL]

Sounds like Carnival is getting back to more of a normal cruise.

Edited July 4, 2021 by ReneeFLL

[zpdw484]

17 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

I don't normally sail carnival but with what Royal has chosen as far as its route to reopening I won't be sailing with them . 

We have Royal cruises booked for Oct and Dec. We are not getting too high or too low on the idea of actually going. The way things are changing almost daily who knows what we will be looking at by then.  Just gonna set back and watch things unfold and make a decision closer to sailing date (if these sailings even happen as they are out of San Juan and there has been no news yet about San Juan departures)

[Jimbo]

19 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

Sounds like Carnival is getting back to more of a normal cruise.

Sounds like they are taking a real unnecessary chance at this time with so many onboard. I suspect they will be making news headlines  real soon sorry to say.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Jimbo

[Coralc]

12 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Sounds like they are taking a real unnecessary chance at this time with so many onboard. I suspect they will be making news headlines  real soon sorry to say.

Why? They are all vaccinated. There are no unvaccinated children onboard. As a non-parent, I think it sounds great! 

[firefly333]

7 minutes ago, Coralc said:

Why? They are all vaccinated. There are no unvaccinated children onboard. As a non-parent, I think it sounds great! 

Actually there are some unvaccinated children aboard. They allowed people to get exemptions and some were allowed. 

 

I think the confusion is it's a vaccinated cruise if they are at 95% vaccinated.  ..just not all the kids who were booked were able to go. I for sure have seen posts from people who got exemptions for their kids. Boarding and emuster went smoothly. Just under 3k pax onboard. 

 

And I saw some reactions on my roll calls to allowing self serve buffets. Not everyone is for it. Some said they will eat elsewhere but luckily vista has a lot of food choices. 

 

I think a lot of families cancelled and they offered some solo rates and a ton of casino rates to refill the ships with vaccinated adults.

[Jimbo]

2 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Actually there are some unvaccinated children aboard. They allowed people to get exemptions and some were allowed. 

 

I think the confusion is it's a vaccinated cruise if they are at 95% vaccinated.  ..just not all the kids who were booked were able to go. I for sure have seen posts from people who got exemptions for their kids. Boarding and emuster went smoothly. Just under 3k pax onboard. 

 

And I saw some reactions on my roll calls to allowing self serve buffets. Not everyone is for it. Some said they will eat elsewhere but luckily vista has a lot of food choices. 

 

I think a lot of families cancelled and they offered some solo rates and a ton of casino rates to refill the ships with vaccinated adults.

Recipe for trouble.

[firefly333]

4 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Recipe for trouble.

Based on what? Other than more pax onboard, what's the difference between celebrity and carnival start up. I havent seen any data that covid is spread in a buffet. 

 

More people, lots of choices to eat. Vista has Havana with it's own private pool area. More areas to spread around. They dont test anyone but the children who arent vaccinated. Unless someone has symptoms no testing ... same like celebrity approach.. just a bigger ship. Guess we will see. 

 

Tomorrow horizon from miami and john heald aboard, he finally managed to get the right paperwork to fly to the USA from the UK. Hes been retested even though vaccinated. 

[HicksRA]

Carnival sailed from Texas. Freedom from Florida. 
Maybe had something to do with it. 

[Jimbo]

4 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Based on what? Other than more pax onboard, what's the difference between celebrity and carnival start up. I havent seen any data that covid is spread in a buffet. 

 

More people, lots of choices to eat. Vista has Havana with it's own private pool area. More areas to spread around. They dont test anyone but the children who arent vaccinated. Unless someone has symptoms no testing ... same like celebrity approach.. just a bigger ship. Guess we will see. 

 

Tomorrow horizon from miami and john heald aboard, he finally managed to get the right paperwork to fly to the USA from the UK. Hes been retested even though vaccinated. 

You answered your own question, more people onboard, more chances for fake vaccine cards and having issues onboard.

[firefly333]

1 minute ago, Jimbo said:

You answered your own question, more people onboard, more chances for fake vaccine cards and having issues onboard.

Always a chance, but I think the worry about vaccinated cruises is overblown. Each to his own. These ships typically are at 115% with kids in the summer. The % is stated from double occupancy. Those havana cabanas dont come cheap. I hope they have a awesome time and no bumps. Horizon tomorrow is a newer sister, except the guys pig and whistle bbq has been changed. I'll be watching. Though I'm not as interested in miami.

 

People predicted super spreader from dallas baseball too. Who knows which ship will have a issue. .. though I'm sure if its carnival you will say I told you so with no basis other than % onboard. I dont think issues can be predicted by % onboard. Rcl will have more unvaccinated..sounds just as dangerous. No one knows. 

[PhoenixCruiser]

34 minutes ago, HicksRA said:

Carnival sailed from Texas. Freedom from Florida. 
Maybe had something to do with it. 

 

 

Absolutely! 

 

 

 

[PhillyFan33579]

3 hours ago, zpdw484 said:

So Royal Caribbean sails the freedom at approximately 30% capacity with 93% vaccinated guests instead of the much less restrictive 95%. Now due to that 2% everyone is having to mask indoors, wear wrist bands, etc.  Meanwhile carnival sailed the Vista today at approx 75% capacity with no masking, self serve buffet, etc. It is interesting the different approaches the two lines are taking. I am not a carnival fan at all but from a business perspective their way seems more logical. It will be interesting to see how it plays out for both.

Carnival has a long history of anything goes on their ships, so it doesn’t surprise me that they are trying to get back to normal as soon as possible. I realize everyone has different expectations when it comes to cruising, but the anything goes mentality on Carnival ships is why we will never sail on Carnival again. 

[firefly333]

4 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Carnival has a long history of anything goes on their ships, so it doesn’t surprise me that they are trying to get back to normal as soon as possible. I realize everyone has different expectations when it comes to cruising, but the anything goes mentality on Carnival ships is why we will never sail on Carnival again. 

Like what? I have alternated the two for many years and find rcl and carnival to be similar except rcl closes its buffet more hours. And doesnt do priority tenders and debarkation as a perk so had a couple bad experiences of 2 hours wait to tender I never had on carnival.

 

Not sure what you refer to as anything goes as I havent experienced this. ..all this because carnival is doing self serve buffet? What else is anything goes? I'm doing pay venues for dinner on vista except lobster night in Mdr. And I have cheers for espresso in the morning. I'm looking forward to it. Never understood why rcl pax have a attitude toward carnival. The new mardi gras has so many new food venues. Moving much more toward ncl with it's more many pay venues and adult only cabin areas. Those Havana cabanas on vista class and the new area on mardi gras rival the better suites on rcl in price. It's just a different direction toward adult only areas and more food options.

 

I admit I was surprised carnival made the hard choice to drop most kids from early sailings instead of the 1000 cuts rcl is doing to dissuade the unvaxxed the chicken way. It would have been such a cleaner start for rcl to just cut to 95% vaccinated. 

 

The new Havana areas for adults with lounge chairs always available at a private pool is hugely successful. The new mardi gras area is even more expensive on the LG fuel ship which rcl doesnt have either. Rcl cruisefares are cheaper I have to admit. Plus some free drinks by diamond level. I book rcl mostly for the cheaper price. 

[time4u2go]

5 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Carnival has a long history of anything goes on their ships, so it doesn’t surprise me that they are trying to get back to normal as soon as possible. I realize everyone has different expectations when it comes to cruising, but the anything goes mentality on Carnival ships is why we will never sail on Carnival again. 

What do you mean by "anything goes"? 

[Mapleleafforever]

8 hours ago, Coralc said:

Why? They are all vaccinated. There are no unvaccinated children onboard. As a non-parent, I think it sounds great! 

And as a parent the reality sounds great to me! 

 

Will my kids be able to participate in the youth program on board?

Camp Ocean™: You should know that we do not currently plan to offer our supervised children’s programs on your cruise in order to minimize the risk for children under 12 who were granted an exemption because they could not be vaccinated.

Circle “C”® & CLUB O2®: Given that teens sailing will be vaccinated, the teen clubs will operate as usual. However, any unvaccinated children/teens who have been approved to sail will not be able to participate in our youth programs for the time being.

[Mikew0805]

7 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Carnival has a long history of anything goes on their ships, so it doesn’t surprise me that they are trying to get back to normal as soon as possible. I realize everyone has different expectations when it comes to cruising, but the anything goes mentality on Carnival ships is why we will never sail on Carnival again. 

Anything goes? Long history? Nonsense!! Are you sure you are not thinking of Royal ships? Royal is the only one of the two that I have witnessed not enforcing their own guest behavior policies. You can choose not the like the line, but the misinformation about the line is annoying, yet typical. 

 

Some folks (not saying this poster) just need to feel like they are a "higher class" than others. There is nothing higher class about RCI vs. CCL/NCL/MSC. I have heard it said so many times on a royal ship when someone is referring to a CCL ship that is nearby/next to us. Usually, these people cause me bruise my frontal lobe from all the eye rolling.

 

[Moltar]

Could have something to do with the whole anti-vax/anti proof movement so to say in FLA which is massively slowing down back to normal cruising out of that state and causing more restrictions on board. Sail out of Texas if you can or the Bahamas.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Moltar

[kearney]

Look, it will be an interesting test. If Carnival has no issues.. it will help expedite changes to other lines. I am still trying to figure out why Royal requires vaccinated to do PCR tests for sailings out of Nassau...when Bahamas does not require vaccinated to be tested to enter.

 

 

[Russ Lomas]

10 hours ago, zpdw484 said:

So Royal Caribbean sails the freedom at approximately 30% capacity with 93% vaccinated guests instead of the much less restrictive 95%. Now due to that 2% everyone is having to mask indoors, wear wrist bands, etc.  Meanwhile carnival sailed the Vista today at approx 75% capacity with no masking, self serve buffet, etc. It is interesting the different approaches the two lines are taking. I am not a carnival fan at all but from a business perspective their way seems more logical. It will be interesting to see how it plays out for both.

I wonder what happens on August 1st for RCCL when 12 and older need to be vaccinated.  If they are sailing around 93% vaccinated now with those 12-17 permitted unvaccinated, would that put them above the 95% threshold and permit different rules regarding masking onboard?

 

I hope that Carnival cruise does OK.  I would feel a lot more hesitant to go on that cruise and an RCCL cruise right now, but that is just me.

[soremekun]

A rising tide lifts all boats.  I hope things go well for Carnival.  It will benefit all cruise lines as they ramp up sailing from U.S. ports.

[zpdw484]

9 hours ago, HicksRA said:

Carnival sailed from Texas. Freedom from Florida. 
Maybe had something to do with it. 

I don't think this has anything to do with it. I believe royal has test cruises planned out of Galveston, Seattle and new Jersey. This would lead us to believe that they are targeting less than 95% vaccinated on all of their sailings not just from Florida. I believe I read yesterday that someone received protocols for a serenade Alaska sailing and it was the same protocols as from Florida

[matj2000]

8 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Carnival has a long history of anything goes on their ships, so it doesn’t surprise me that they are trying to get back to normal as soon as possible. I realize everyone has different expectations when it comes to cruising, but the anything goes mentality on Carnival ships is why we will never sail on Carnival again. 

 

What is the  "Anything goes mentality" ??.....

[bobmacliberty]

11 hours ago, zpdw484 said:

I am not a carnival fan at all but from a business perspective their way seems more logical.

 

This may end up being correct, but Royal is staying true to their family customer base, even if it means potentially sacrificing business results.  You could also argue that Chick-fil-A is making a bad business decision by not being open on Sundays.  Look how much money they're leaving on the table.  They are also staying true to who they are.  I would personally disagree with both of these business decisions, but I can respect both companies for making them.

 

My guess (hope) is that things will change a lot and quickly over the next month or 2 and some of the current Royal restrictions will ease.  It will definitely be interesting to see how things play out.