Do not Board - Currently on the Symphony of the Seas 8 day Holiday Cruise

[mek]

5 minutes ago, ssb said:

Life is what it is . Be prepared to Entertain yourself wherever you are . 

I couldn't agree more, but I don't have to spend thousands of dollars to entertain myself.

Right now, I won't cruise - not because I'm concerned about catching Covid, but because I'm not interested in something that isn't 100% the way it used to be. 

Edited December 25, 2021 by mek

[gracia98]

We just cancelled our Dec 26, 2021 cruise on the Odyssey for many of the same reasons. The biggest reason is lack of staff, shows are cut, staff scrambling, they even rad out of mixers since they could not restock at the cancelled ports. Hearing stories of people currently on the Odyssey and though they are making the best of it, they really have no choice not to make the best of it.  I had a choice. We paid a premium for this cruise since it was during a major holiday and we knew that going in. We will go another month. We cruised in early December on the Independence and it was perfect.  Then Omicron came.  I, for one, appreciate the warning and transparency, because Royal Caribbean has not been very transparent to upcoming cruisers, IMO.

[firefly333]

5 minutes ago, gracia98 said:

I, for one, appreciate the warning and transparency, because Royal Caribbean has not been very transparent to upcoming cruisers, IMO.

What would you want them to be more transparent about? They have openly said how many cases onboard this ship. I've seen it blasted from many news sites.

 

Unlike carnival who is getting press for a unknown number of positives onboard carnival freedom. 

 

There are going to be cases going forward for a long time, maybe forever. Cruises may never go back to the old normal. Good that you cancelled and can cruise later. Everyone should cancel who wants to. 

[barbeyg]

Rhetorical question: why do people sail in a pandemic, then get surprised and/ or angry when situations happen?

 

To the OP, and others onboard who are disappointed, I hope you have a restful, enjoyable vacation, despite your disappointment. 🙂

[RoyalC]

3 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

What would you want them to be more transparent about? They have openly said how many cases onboard this ship. I've seen it blasted from many news sites.

 

Unlike carnival who is getting press for a unknown number of positives onboard carnival freedom. 

 

There are going to be cases going forward for a long time, maybe forever. Cruises may never go back to the old normal. Good that you cancelled and can cruise later. Everyone should cancel who wants to. 

Way more people are getting sick on ships than reported.  Symptoms show after the cruise. There is nowhere to report besides a post cruise comment form. Another issue is unvaxxed get space in the theater and dining room. Vaxxed are in there like cattle. I wanted to sit in the balcony,  I was not allowed to.

[Jimbo]

I have a question, on cruises like this do they still have a Captains Corner where they get to ask the  higher up Officer's about the ship and cruising i general.

 

We have always enjoyed those talks..................got to bet though on a sailing like this  must not go over very well? 😮

 

I'm betting they don't even schedule one.

Edited December 25, 2021 by Jimbo

[footzz]

8 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

I have a question, on cruises like this do they still have a Captains Corner where they get to ask the  higher up Officer's about the ship and cruising i general.

 

We have always enjoyed those talks..................got to bet though on a sailing like this  must not go over very well? 😮

 

I'm betting they don't even schedule one.

Probably not, if the Captain has anything to say about it!

[Another_Critic]

26 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

I have a question, on cruises like this do they still have a Captains Corner where they get to ask the  higher up Officer's about the ship and cruising i general.

 

We have always enjoyed those talks..................got to bet though on a sailing like this  must not go over very well? 😮

 

I'm betting they don't even schedule one.

They had a CC on the 12/5 Anthem cruise.

[nelblu]

1 hour ago, RoyalC said:

Way more people are getting sick on ships than reported.  Symptoms show after the cruise. There is nowhere to report besides a post cruise comment form. Another issue is unvaxxed get space in the theater and dining room. Vaxxed are in there like cattle. I wanted to sit in the balcony,  I was not allowed to.

That's because the upper deck of the theatre and MDR reserved for unvaxxed only.  There's social distancing and masking requirements..  I travel solo and on my initial Oasis cruise out of Bayonne, the sating in the MDR was very close to one another in the vaxxed deck.  However, the WJ since all are allowed there was social distancing and masking.  But, conversely, on the Dec. 4th Mariner sail no social distancing in the WJ.

 

Unfortunately, your ship seems to be close to capacity.  Both my sails barely had 50% capacity.

 

 

[Another_Critic]

2 hours ago, AustinCruise said:

We really don’t see the shows or organized activities, so this would not bother me. 

I was on Anthem in early December (4th time on her).  The production shows are still the same as 2015, and I've seen the "headliner" shows at one time or another on previous sailings (either on Anthem or another RCI ship).

[Another_Critic]

2 minutes ago, nelblu said:

That's because the upper deck of the theatre and MDR reserved for unvaxxed only. 

There is no unvaxxed only areas.  There are vaxxed only and everyone (vaxxed and unvaxxed) areas.

[tcneal]

I agree with the OP.  We are on this cruise now and this is a disappointment.  I think the big problem is that they didn't warn us of any of the cancelations.  This is my 3rd cruise since the restart and even with the changes the the previous 2 were very good. This has nothing to do with the mask policy.  We all cruise for different reasons and many will have issues cruising this way.  If so I would postpone.

 

To add one more the craps tables are closed in the casino.  A big blow to me.

Edited December 25, 2021 by tcneal

[Jimbo]

Be best to just spend the money and fly to some island if you can and enjoy a week there. Less people, larger room, and you can still go out and explore the island you are on.

[PlatteCoPoke]

Are pools open?   They still serving booze? Cool, I’m still going.  

[putercents]

2 hours ago, Plum Happy said:

Is that why you are cruising?  The shows?  Not the get away from everything at home and chill?  No beds to be made, no food to prepare or the cleanup?  Tropical sun hitting your face or body?  Time away to read that book you always wanted?

 

The full production shows is why you chose to cruise?

I am going to cancel my cruise becouse Royal lied to me.  Ok they promised something and then due to the risk of negative publicity changed policy. We can not return home without a negative PCR test. It was promised complementary onboard prior to disembarkation. Now they want you off the ship to not have to have proof of any positive tests.

[nelblu]

25 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

There is no unvaxxed only areas.  There are vaxxed only and everyone (vaxxed and unvaxxed) areas.

You are being picky.  Parents who are vaxxed and have unvaxxed children are considered unvaxxed.  They are considered vaxxed if their children are not with them. 

[jasongoldberg]

9 minutes ago, PlatteCoPoke said:

Are pools open?   They still serving booze? Cool, I’m still going.  

Yes but they closed the pools and hot tubs early for the first two nights so far. 

[sandebeach]

26 minutes ago, tcneal said:

I agree with the OP.  We are on this cruise now and this is a disappointment.  I think the big problem is that they didn't warn us of any of the cancelations.  This is my 3rd cruise since the restart and even with the changes the the previous 2 were very good. This has nothing to do with the mask policy.  We all cruise for different reasons and many will have issues cruising this way.  If so I would postpone.

 

To add one more the craps tables are closed in the casino.  A big blow to me.

Is that because it gets so crowded around the craps table, they don’t social distance?

[Biker19]

3 hours ago, Gissi6 said:

I’m a long time lurker

Welcome to CC and coming out of lurk mode.

[alfaeric]

1 hour ago, RoyalC said:

Way more people are getting sick on ships than reported.  Symptoms show after the cruise. There is nowhere to report besides a post cruise comment form. Another issue is unvaxxed get space in the theater and dining room. Vaxxed are in there like cattle. I wanted to sit in the balcony,  I was not allowed to.

One question- how should they post date data?   If people are not checking until they get home to see if they have been infected, how should the cruise lines deal with that information?   I wonder how many passengers are not reporting that they have symptoms while on the ship, but check at home?  Given that there has been a boarding of a person w/ symptoms that didn't report it- I'm betting that many passengers are not reporting anything until they get home- which is too late.

This is an honest question, btw- the demand for transparency is fair, but that also means that everyone has an idea of what that means.  And in your point, there has to be a way to post date data- since none of it was available as it happened.  

[Sunshine3601]

3 hours ago, puppycanducruise said:

Not sure about disembarking in Puerto Rico.  It may violate the PVSA.

They recently changed their policy.  No down lining is permitted on any ship.  Highly doubt they will allow the OP to disembark in PR.

[hellsop]

3 hours ago, billslowsky said:

Should guests who reserved flights through our Air2Sea program experience delays in air travel that result in missed cruise embarkation, downlining to a future port-of-call remains an option as long as the guest is fully vaccinated and able to show proof of required COVID-19 test results prior to boarding.”

Sound ike to me "Better pay the $120 for an airport test because the one you got at Walgreens two days ago isn't valid anymore."

[riviera]

50 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

They had a CC on the 12/5 Anthem cruise.

they did not on the Allure 12/11 cruise.  disappointed   😞

[tcneal]

4 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

Is that because it gets so crowded around the craps table, they don’t social distance?

I asked and was told they lost a lot dealers to quarantine.   They don't have enough dealers to run the tables.  Someone also said that patient zero was at the craps table a couple of cruises ago.  Don't know if that was true.

 

Roulette is open but they make everyone sit down and you can't stand.  The dealer needs to place your bet if you can't reach.

[bill0021]

RCL Promising something....

I am not sure how they could make a promise on something they did not know would happen only a couple of weeks ago.

 

We were on The Symphony the week before.  I think only one of the comedy shows were cancelled and a couple rescheduled.  Hiro was postponed due to too much ship movement.

 

This is a case of bad luck/timing, but I can understand the OP's disappointment, I do not think we can pin this on RCL for being non-transparent unless they have a crystal ball.