RCCL bogus new policy, buyers beware!

[crewsweeper]

3 hours ago, Biker19 said:

To be fair to the OP, when they booked (months ago) those rules were likely not like that.

Good point.   I can sense the OP's anger when used to DIY vs ship excursions.  I prefer DIY but will use ship when the excursion is what I want or entails a bit of driving from the cruise port to excursion site.  Ship excursions are by nature overpriced versus independents because the cruise line gets 50% and vendors associated with ship excursions aren't allowed to book cruisers independently.  

[kirtihk]

18 minutes ago, cured said:

The individual governments care about how their citizens feel. They certainly don't care how you, as an individual, feel about the rules they implemented for the safety of their people. They may care just a smidgen about the collective feelings of the cruise ship passengers because they generate income. But not more that about their people.

In the perfect (Utopia) world yes; however, we don't live in a such.

 

Voyage, voyage...

Edited November 24, 2021 by kirtihk

[HBE4]

I think the key word for should be "flexible". As in, you need to be flexible with your travel plans.   You always needed a certain degree of flexibility when traveling due to traffic delays, weather, airport delays, etc, etc, etc. Now having to take into account new and ever-changing pandemic rules, you'll need to be 10 times more flexible and stay on top of current events. Not just book a vacation and not think about it until it's time to leave the house.

 

I think that last sentence applies to the OP and I do feel for them. Conditions and rules were changed after the booking of their trip, a fact that was not immediately clear at the beginning of this thread. Hopefully a lesson learned for all of us, although most of the CC regulars seem pretty good at rolling with the punches.

[Sunshine3601]

4 hours ago, Biker19 said:

To be fair to the OP, when they booked (months ago) those rules were likely not like that.

I understand as the rules were not published when I booked my grandeur sailing out of barbados last January when royal first announced the new home port.    

But the fact she is blaming royal when it is clearly Barbados that set the rules is wrong.

[drusierdmd]

I'm on the explorer now.  What's ridiculous is they cram 50 of us on tour bus for 30m...clearly adults traveling by themselves as well.  The windows were all shut, no fresh air ventilation.  Then they passed around a clip board for everyone to sign their name or stateroom!  On the wide open beach we were all assigned to small section and had to pay for umbrellas. We sat 5 feet away from fellow cruisers, 4 rows deep from the water.   I get the times were are living in but this is a bunch of this is medical theater...and I'm a boosted doctor.  

[MommaBear55]

5 hours ago, kirtihk said:

The key word is "feel".  However, who cares what one feels.

Luckily, their caring about their citizens is a good thing. I find those who can't care about their fellow human beings to be lacking something significant. 

[SRF]

On 11/24/2021 at 12:41 PM, crewsweeper said:

Ship excursions are by nature overpriced versus independents because the cruise line gets 50% and vendors associated with ship excursions aren't allowed to book cruisers independently.  

 

Not always.

 

I have found the vendor of several ship's excursions, and while most times they are cheaper, there have been times when the ship's offering is cheaper.

 

Possibly because the price was negotiated a while ago.

 

And even when they are cheaper, many times the difference is very small.

[shipgeeks]

Price difference example:  White Pass Railway, Alaska.  Website price $99.  Ship price $100.  (Or maybe the other way around; I can't remember.)  With ship booking the train pulls up right to the ship.  With website booking one needs to walk into the town.

[Seville2Cabo]

7 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

Price difference example:  White Pass Railway, Alaska.  Website price $99.  Ship price $100.  (Or maybe the other way around; I can't remember.)  With ship booking the train pulls up right to the ship.  With website booking one needs to walk into the town.

Actually I was looking this morning at this.  We have an August Alaska cruise booked.  The price has gone up.  Ship price, $139.  Online price, $134.  We have OBC, so will book with the ship

[Georgeny]

On 11/23/2021 at 3:35 PM, PolytheneGirl said:

I read somethign on here that a lot of the cruise companies (not just Royal) were struggling to do more tours because of the fact that the people who run them are either not availble, are migratory/seasonal workers, etc so maybe that? 

Also - just speaking to my husband on this very topic and he mentioned that maybe that they are looking at the fact some ports have higher case numbers? So bubble excursions helps them to protect against people bringing cases back on board? (specifically thinking of the EU ports where it isn't required as such but numbers are vastly rising - maybe a way to continue cruising and protect the ships? Although, again from reading on here, I think some of the islands aer also seeing case numbers go up?) 

I would agree with your husband, makes sense that the ship would restrict disembarks via excursions to protect all passengers. Who knows who and where independent disembarking passengers will go that might make them more susceptible to contact with covid.

 

We all should understand that there are to be some limitations in this environment that will continue probably for the foreseeable future. I value RCL doing everything possible to keep us safe as possible! We recently sailed RCL Oasis Bahamas and Florida itinerary. Other than the Private island CoCoCay, which was fantastic as an aside, we wouldn't even get off in Florida.

 

Face it, you don't have the time on any cruise to really visit or part take in meaningful  island activities. For a scuba enthusiast etc far better to travel to an area and stay. Currently I would be happier if they didn't even allow any disembarkation except private islands where they also control vaccination etc.

 

George in NY - Carnival 12/19/21 sailing pending. 2nd cruise since Pandemic restart 

[CruiseChief]

My DW and I just researched this on the RCCL website since we sail on the AOS on Wednesday. It appears to be true for cruises calling at St. Lucia, Barbados, and St. Kitts.