what will Royal do about Bahamas

[Chauncey Picklepants]

1 hour ago, AlohaLivin said:

Cool. But hoping to locate activities for St. Kitts (which is why I headed here 👍🏼)

My apologies, I quoted the wrong user post in my post about Shipwreck Bar. It’s a good time. 

Edited October 22, 2021 by Chauncey Picklepants

[cruisegirl1]

Some Nassau stops are changed because of construction at the pier.   Most of those who have changes have been notified. 

 

M

[smokeybandit]

Bahamas has required all 12+ cruise passengers to be vaccinated since Sept 3. That expires November 1, but I assume they extend it since it's all but guaranteed the CDC will extend the CSO

Edited October 22, 2021 by smokeybandit

[smokeybandit]

41 minutes ago, flamingos said:

Look to fewer cruises from Florida and moving more departures from the Bahama.  Everything is working perfectly and there is no reason to screw it up. 

I think RC keeps a seasonal homeport in Nassau, but it won't take away from Florida homeports.

[RFerrington]

2 hours ago, Joseph2017China said:

 So if the ship goes to Mexico, and Mexico does not require a vaccine, than the cruise ship can't ask for it.

...but yet they still do...

[cindyscruise]

Thank you for answering my question.  Not that I own an explanation but I have not been on the boards for a while.  Then when I tried to get on I was having log on issues.  I appreciate the poster who gave a temporary fix to that situation.  Right now I am out of the country so news I get is sometimes old.  Went to the Bahama government website and saw where they said you could not get off the ship is not vaccinated. Guess I should have just gone their first.    I am not totally aware of what the situation is in Florida.  But it sounds like the cruise lines can get between a rock and a hard place trying to abide by all different countries rules.  Where I am you must show either a negative test (no more than 3 days old) or a vaccination card to enter any public place including the grocery stores and public transportation.  Masks are mandatory

[BirdTravels]

13 hours ago, cindyscruise said:

The reason I asked is that I read that Bahamas will no longer allow ships with unvacinnated to enter their ports.

That is old news. And all cruise lines going to the Bahamas from Florida (including Royal) have required 100% of the passengers over 12 years old to be vaccinated for a long time (NCL is still running 100% vaccinated passengers, no kids). 

 

A few weeks back, our vaccine card was inspected 3 times at the terminal before we were allowed to board our ship with called at both Nassau and CocoCay

Edited October 22, 2021 by BirdTravels

[AlohaLivin]

4 hours ago, Chauncey Picklepants said:

There’s a fun beach bar called Shipwreck that we’ve been to several times. It’s a well-known landmark and on a great long stretch of beautiful beach.  

Thank you! I will look it up 😊👍🏼

[AlohaLivin]

5 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

We love st kitts and have been there a couple of times.  What do you like to do?  

Sometimes we go somewhere new, like St. Kitts, we like to take a good tour with an guide who knows the location well! We do like beach days, but with this S2S cruise we have so many so days at the beach that maybe would be good to change that up a bit for St. Kits. Definitely open to suggestions (assuming that cruise passengers are allowed to make that choice in Nov)

Edited October 22, 2021 by AlohaLivin

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, AlohaLivin said:

Sometimes we go somewhere new, like St. Kitts, we like to take a good tour with an guide who knows the location well! We do like beach days, but with this S2S cruise we have so many so days at the beach that maybe would be good to change that up a bit for St. Kits. Definitely open to suggestions (assuming that cruise passengers are allowed to make that choice in Nov)

I recently read on 2 other threads that St Kitts is one of those islands requiring cruise passengers to do ship excursions only.    I am due to go there in Jan and hope that's not the case as I like to take local taxi to one of our favorite beaches on the island. 

 

If you want to do a fun trip check out the railway excursion.    We did this the first time we went to St Kitts and really enjoyed it.     They provide free drinks for the couple hour tour and I think we had some snacks too.    

 

Another trip we did a small local bus tour of the island that stopped at a fort and rum factory for a tour and free shots of a couple different rums at the end of the excursion.   This tour covered locations the train did not go to.

 

It was that tour guide that told us the best beach to go to and boy was he right we went the following week (were on a b2b at the time) and we absolutely loved the beach.  I can picture location but cannot remember the name of the beach.   

IF able to do non ship excursions there is an area after the cruise port where all the local tour guides and taxi drivers hang out.     You walk thru the port past all the shops, cross the street and walk up a little hill to a circle street that has a clock tower and a local museum.    That is where you find taxi people that can take you where ever you want.   You can negotiate with them too.     

 

the first guy I asked about ride to beach - said some ridiculous amount of $50 or so Round trip - walked away from him and found a very nice lady who said she would do round trip for $15 - she was a wonderful person and told us all the about growing up on the island.    She showed up the specific time we gave.    We gave her a very nice tip.

[rmontanez]

I just posted on a new thread the changes for Odyssey 11.20 that is goring now to Nassau from Florida.

[AlohaLivin]

36 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I recently read on 2 other threads that St Kitts is one of those islands requiring cruise passengers to do ship excursions only.    I am due to go there in Jan and hope that's not the case as I like to take local taxi to one of our favorite beaches on the island. 

 

If you want to do a fun trip check out the railway excursion.    We did this the first time we went to St Kitts and really enjoyed it.     They provide free drinks for the couple hour tour and I think we had some snacks too.    

 

Another trip we did a small local bus tour of the island that stopped at a fort and rum factory for a tour and free shots of a couple different rums at the end of the excursion.   This tour covered locations the train did not go to.

 

It was that tour guide that told us the best beach to go to and boy was he right we went the following week (were on a b2b at the time) and we absolutely loved the beach.  I can picture location but cannot remember the name of the beach.   

IF able to do non ship excursions there is an area after the cruise port where all the local tour guides and taxi drivers hang out.     You walk thru the port past all the shops, cross the street and walk up a little hill to a circle street that has a clock tower and a local museum.    That is where you find taxi people that can take you where ever you want.   You can negotiate with them too.     

 

the first guy I asked about ride to beach - said some ridiculous amount of $50 or so Round trip - walked away from him and found a very nice lady who said she would do round trip for $15 - she was a wonderful person and told us all the about growing up on the island.    She showed up the specific time we gave.    We gave her a very nice tip.

 Such great information, thank you 😊 I may just need to take you with us  👩🏼‍🤝‍👨🏻👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏼 If you think of that beach name, let me know! The train also sounds good. I hope they offer something for this port, via RCL or on our own. 

[karena1]

21 hours ago, cindyscruise said:

If the Bahamas which includes Coco Cay will not let Royal dock with unvacinated guests and Florida says they cannot require that what will happen?  Will Royal just ignore Florida?  Will they change ports?  I cannot imagine they would not want to go to Coco Cay.  Guess they could change where they go from.  

They have already said everyone has to be vaccinated since the Bahamas requires it.  They get around our Florida laws by saying the islands require it.  We are fine with it, we are both vaccinated so we could cruise with no issues

 

[PTC DAWG]

6 hours ago, RFerrington said:

...but yet they still do...

Because most ships going western stop in Nassau..

[karena1]

18 hours ago, cindyscruise said:

I am glad to hear that Coco Cay won't be cancelled.  Our cruise also goes to Labadee and that may not happen from what other posters are saying

That is because of the unrest in Haiti.  Not safe there right now and has not been for a while

[karena1]

9 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Another thread is discussing the reason for a lot of sailings having nassau port cancelled is due to construction and limited docking during the construction period.

exactly.  We ended up with a sea day in Sept on Freedom b/c of all the construction going on in Nassau.  Not that we care, we rarely get off the ship in Nassau anyway.

[karena1]

7 hours ago, flamingos said:

Look to fewer cruises from Florida and moving more departures from the Bahama.  Everything is working perfectly and there is no reason to screw it up. 

Totally disagree, more and more ships leaving from Florida like it used to be.  I think Nassau will be more attractive than it used to be but ships will always leave from Florida which we love since we live here.  Easy for us to jump on a weekend getaway

[Sunshine3601]

15 minutes ago, AlohaLivin said:

 Such great information, thank you 😊 I may just need to take you with us  👩🏼‍🤝‍👨🏻👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏼 If you think of that beach name, let me know! The train also sounds good. I hope they offer something for this port, via RCL or on our own. 

Sounds good - when we are going?        I found the beach - here is a link

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Carambola+Beach+Club/@17.2751941,-62.678318,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x3c90574b217414c3!8m2!3d17.2751941!4d-62.678318

When you get to the resort you can rent a chair with umbrella and do swimming on one side, then other side of beach is an area for snorkeling with a cave too.      

We didn't want an umbrella and they let us sit on lounge chairs without paying anything.  they have waiters that can bring you cocktails to your lounger too.    

This beach club serves food too but we were not hungry after a big breakfast on the ship.    You could even walk down to the bar/restaurant Shipwreck from this beach club if you wanted but everything you need is at the beach club.     It is a beautiful area and you can see Nevis from this beach too.    

[karena1]

3 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Sounds good - when we are going?        I found the beach - here is a link

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Carambola+Beach+Club/@17.2751941,-62.678318,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x3c90574b217414c3!8m2!3d17.2751941!4d-62.678318

When you get to the resort you can rent a chair with umbrella and do swimming on one side, then other side of beach is an area for snorkeling with a cave too.      

We didn't want an umbrella and they let us sit on lounge chairs without paying anything.  they have waiters that can bring you cocktails to your lounger too.    

This beach club serves food too but we were not hungry after a big breakfast on the ship.    You could even walk down to the bar/restaurant Shipwreck from this beach club if you wanted but everything you need is at the beach club.     It is a beautiful area and you can see Nevis from this beach too.    

We are going to Carambola next April when we go to St Kitts.  Not our favorite place.  In Dec, we don't get there until 10 am, so just going to get off and shop for a bit and go back to the ship.  Going to treat it more as a sea day.  In April we are there early, so will go to Carambola and try it out.  Most of the beach in St Kitt's are pretty sorry.

[csnarpy]

Nothing wrong with Bahamas, our December cruise just changed from Jamaica to Nassau 

[donh0526]

We were just there on the Oasis. Back to back cruises. Both time in Bahamas and coco cay.

[nelblu]

6 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

That is old news. And all cruise lines going to the Bahamas from Florida (including Royal) have required 100% of the passengers over 12 years old to be vaccinated for a long time (NCL is still running 100% vaccinated passengers, no kids). 

 

A few weeks back, our vaccine card was inspected 3 times at the terminal before we were allowed to board our ship with called at both Nassau and CocoCay

I got one better, when I sailed Oasis on Sept. 5th out of Bayonne, they checked my vaxxed  cards some 4 different times.  The test results only twice before entering security and at the check-in kiosk.

 

RCL staff, while on board,  checked me for the green bracelet a few times.  3 times when I entered and re-entered the casino as my band was obscured by my long sleeve shirt.  Once at the Adult show because of the same reason.  I questioned why since the sail was 100% vaxxed for adults and the venues were for adult only.  Got some obscure answer.

Edited October 22, 2021 by nelblu

[AlohaLivin]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Sounds good - when we are going?        I found the beach - here is a link

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Carambola+Beach+Club/@17.2751941,-62.678318,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x3c90574b217414c3!8m2!3d17.2751941!4d-62.678318

When you get to the resort you can rent a chair with umbrella and do swimming on one side, then other side of beach is an area for snorkeling with a cave too.      

We didn't want an umbrella and they let us sit on lounge chairs without paying anything.  they have waiters that can bring you cocktails to your lounger too.    

This beach club serves food too but we were not hungry after a big breakfast on the ship.    You could even walk down to the bar/restaurant Shipwreck from this beach club if you wanted but everything you need is at the beach club.     It is a beautiful area and you can see Nevis from this beach too.    

 We leave November 14! Get packed! ⚡️ Thanks for the beach info. I am definitely going to make a note so we have it as a good option. I am not sure if the “bubble” requirement will be an issue mid November or not, hoping not.

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, AlohaLivin said:

 We leave November 14! Get packed! ⚡️ Thanks for the beach info. I am definitely going to make a note so we have it as a good option. I am not sure if the “bubble” requirement will be an issue mid November or not, hoping not.

See you soon😀

If not able to own excursion royal does offer the railway excursion, it shows up on my next cruise for january.  I'm sure you'll have fun whatever you do.  Enjoy!

Edited October 23, 2021 by Sunshine3601

[pcur]

11 hours ago, zekekelso said:

The Florida/Bahamas issue hasn’t gone away. Florida has not agreed that its ok for ships going to places that require vaxxed passengers to require passengers to be vaxxed. (editors note - gotta be a better way to word that last sentence.)

 

The cruise lines are acting like the law doesn’t apply. These are uncharted waters. If Florida wants to raise a stick, expect some long and nasty court cases. 

Not to mention the fact that the ships are registered in Liberia, not the U.S.  I'm sure that will get involved in the legal tangle, if necessary.