Just off Odyssey Xmas cruise... honest review from Diamond plus member with 324 nights.

[MISTER 67]

On 12/26/2021 at 1:34 PM, hackwid said:

I am not going to debate this post with anyone.  This is my opinion based on 324 nights with Royal and also having sailed 4x since the restart on 3 lines.  We were not originally booked on Odyssey for the Xmas cruise.  We were on the Mariner originally.  I watched the rates at the end of November tank for the last 3 cruises on December.  We were able to move to the Odyssey for half the price of what they were selling it at.  So clearly it was a calculated effort by Royal to fill the ships.  We saw the ability to book Odyssey disappear the first week of December.  Clearly they sold at their capacity limits.

Everyone had to test 2 days or less before the sail.  So what we know of Omnicron is that 2 days Is too far out.  How do we know that?  Because several people were already infected when they board which is why we had to go back to Fort Lauderdale at midnight to drop those 9 people off.  Full on hazmat suit crew rolled their saran wrapped luggage off the ship.  It was pretty surreal.

So Royal says - yes we still only take 5% unvac'd.  But, we had 3600 people.  So when you increase capacity that high- you also increase unvac'd amounts.  This is my first gripe about the cruise.  So they took away the areas that vac'd could be without a mask- which is fine.  But, they ended up taking some of that room and giving to unvac'd because they had so many on board.  So for shows the unvac'd had the balcony of the theatre on deck 5 and also they got 25% of the theatre area on deck 4.  So what that meant was vac'd people had to sit closer in the areas left for us.  No distancing.  Now yes we were masked; but, the unvac'd got to spread out.  We did not.  Royal claims that everyone must be masked.  So what does that mean?  Well they have signs and occasionally make an announcement during the Captains report.  But, I saw not one single employee enforce mask wearing. So you had people with them not at all. Under chin. Under nose etc.  Getting on elevator with no mask.  It was very frustrating because everyone knew there was an outbreak and so many just didnt care.  The 70's disco party was played on the tv and half of the guests were completely unmasked on the dance floor.  All dancing close to eachother.

So our stateroom attendent came in the room 2x a day.  He went down with Covid on day 3.  So a new person had to take on additional rooms which meant the quality suffered.  Some nights there was a knock on the door after 9 asking if we needed anything cleaned.  It got to a point where we just had the guy come in once because we felt so bad for how overworked he was.

We did not go in the dining room at all.  We had my time dining scheduled and the line was so long on the first night.  We went and checked out the dining room space and tables were on top of eachother.  We just did not feel safe that close to other people so we went to the windjammer the second they opened and/or did room service.

Here is my honest feeling about capacity.  I have done 3 other cruises before this and capacity was half or less.  I believe that when Royal increased capacity they did not directly address how they would still maintain distancing.  So they cut off tables in bars and there were not enough places for people to be so they stood on top of eachother.  When they made the rates so low it seems like a lot of large groups ended up on board.  Families that were 25 people deep.  There was no concessions made for these larger groups and they just came in a room like they owned the place.  They ignored the 6 person limit on the elevator and honestly just didn't seem to care about protocols.  

We sat at the port in Curacoa for 6 hours.  Why could they not pick up the provisions they needed?  They could have left it on the dock and had no communication directly and just picked the stuff up.  Because of poor planning they were out of cocktail mixers on day 5.  They had to take alcohol from the store- which made them sell out of plain vodka and rum- because they did not properly plan for the amount of people.  Did the crew not get the memo on how many would be on board?

Speaking of the crew- ask yourself this.  If you were crew and had a sore throat would you work thru it or gladly see if you get in quarantine for 10 days?

What about passengers?  Would you willingly want to go to medical and lose your balcony room to be inside on deck 3?

So when you look at the numbers- realize that most of them are crew which the cruiseline has to report and there is an incentive for the crew to get tested.

But, as a passenger unless you have more severe symptoms- why would any willingly get tested?  So I believe the actual number of people infected in 10 fold.

Finally - it became obvious that they were trying to get people to spend more time in their room.  I can understand it.  But, the activities they did offer were subpar.  Having sailed 324 nights on Royal - the blame falls to them on this one.  They increased capacity clearly without a plan.  They didnt compensate for spacing and distancing.  By the end I found a lot of the crew surly, defensive and clearly exhausted.  We tried to keep to ourselves and have a decent attitude.  I wish Royal would learn from this and pull back.  But, we were told the New Years cruise has even more people on it then the Xmas cruise.  That is a receipt for disaster that I wish they learned their lesson from on our cruise.  I know that we will hear reports from these larger Royal ships of higher numbers and it can affect the industry and ports willing to take these ships for awhile. I wish Royal was honest and told these media outlets that they in fact are not enforcing mask wearing.   That their crew was overworked and outnumbered and just did not seem to want to make people comply.  I know this is full of negative things.  While the ship was new and shiny- sadly the actions of the people made it seem like we were on Carnival.

I just don't understand the reasoning to let 5% be unvaccinated.

We just sailed with Princess for 2 cruises in 3 weeks and everyone needed to be vaccinated and tested 2 days before boarding. Everyone was masked and crew members made sure you washed your hands when entering the World Marketplace which is the buffet area but a crew member served your food and handed you a plate and silverware and got your drinks for you.

[jerseygirl3]

With children being infected at a much higher rate than previously, why has Royal not mandated children 5-11 be fully vaccinated?  The vaccine for that age group has been available for several months now. This would help to increase the rate of vaccinated onboard. 

[vacationlover_mn]

13 hours ago, RoyalC said:

Missing fully vaxxed (unless you are missing a comma)- mine was October 4 and 25 two dose Pfizer. Caught covid on Dec 12 cruise- symptoms two hours after departing ship of course. 

Wish I could find the diagram again… I think what they did was put the following in the last category, but I would have liked it broken out more: people who have had both shots that are current, and those that have had a booster if they were due for it?  

[kirtihk]

On 12/26/2021 at 1:57 PM, bouhunter said:

Thanks for the report.  Makes me happy we shifted all of this winters cruises to 2023.

And what will happen then?  No viruses in the planet of Earth?  Everyone will be promoted to the Paradise?

 

Mad world...

[Ocean Boy]

16 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

And what will happen then?  No viruses in the planet of Earth?  Everyone will be promoted to the Paradise?

 

Mad world...

No, hopefully just a more normal cruise experience as the reaction to the infection evolves. But let the snark continue...

[Iamcruzin]

On 12/26/2021 at 2:24 PM, denas said:

  Well they have a policy about towels on chairs they have never enforced. Why would anyone expect them to enforce a mask policy which requires actually confronting a passenger (vs just removing their stuff and sending it to the towel place for pick up). 

You are right. I have had to confront customers not wearing a mask during the height of covid in the store. It's not easy. I have had to call the police on some because it got ugly.  I can't imagine confronting passengers who are already angry and possibly drunk.

[Mikew0805]

On 12/26/2021 at 1:34 PM, hackwid said:

I am not going to debate this post with anyone.  This is my opinion based on 324 nights with Royal and also having sailed 4x since the restart on 3 lines.  We were not originally booked on Odyssey for the Xmas cruise.  We were on the Mariner originally.  I watched the rates at the end of November tank for the last 3 cruises on December.  We were able to move to the Odyssey for half the price of what they were selling it at.  So clearly it was a calculated effort by Royal to fill the ships.  We saw the ability to book Odyssey disappear the first week of December.  Clearly they sold at their capacity limits.

Everyone had to test 2 days or less before the sail.  So what we know of Omnicron is that 2 days Is too far out.  How do we know that?  Because several people were already infected when they board which is why we had to go back to Fort Lauderdale at midnight to drop those 9 people off.  Full on hazmat suit crew rolled their saran wrapped luggage off the ship.  It was pretty surreal.

So Royal says - yes we still only take 5% unvac'd.  But, we had 3600 people.  So when you increase capacity that high- you also increase unvac'd amounts.  This is my first gripe about the cruise.  So they took away the areas that vac'd could be without a mask- which is fine.  But, they ended up taking some of that room and giving to unvac'd because they had so many on board.  So for shows the unvac'd had the balcony of the theatre on deck 5 and also they got 25% of the theatre area on deck 4.  So what that meant was vac'd people had to sit closer in the areas left for us.  No distancing.  Now yes we were masked; but, the unvac'd got to spread out.  We did not.  Royal claims that everyone must be masked.  So what does that mean?  Well they have signs and occasionally make an announcement during the Captains report.  But, I saw not one single employee enforce mask wearing. So you had people with them not at all. Under chin. Under nose etc.  Getting on elevator with no mask.  It was very frustrating because everyone knew there was an outbreak and so many just didnt care.  The 70's disco party was played on the tv and half of the guests were completely unmasked on the dance floor.  All dancing close to eachother.

So our stateroom attendent came in the room 2x a day.  He went down with Covid on day 3.  So a new person had to take on additional rooms which meant the quality suffered.  Some nights there was a knock on the door after 9 asking if we needed anything cleaned.  It got to a point where we just had the guy come in once because we felt so bad for how overworked he was.

We did not go in the dining room at all.  We had my time dining scheduled and the line was so long on the first night.  We went and checked out the dining room space and tables were on top of eachother.  We just did not feel safe that close to other people so we went to the windjammer the second they opened and/or did room service.

Here is my honest feeling about capacity.  I have done 3 other cruises before this and capacity was half or less.  I believe that when Royal increased capacity they did not directly address how they would still maintain distancing.  So they cut off tables in bars and there were not enough places for people to be so they stood on top of eachother.  When they made the rates so low it seems like a lot of large groups ended up on board.  Families that were 25 people deep.  There was no concessions made for these larger groups and they just came in a room like they owned the place.  They ignored the 6 person limit on the elevator and honestly just didn't seem to care about protocols.  

We sat at the port in Curacoa for 6 hours.  Why could they not pick up the provisions they needed?  They could have left it on the dock and had no communication directly and just picked the stuff up.  Because of poor planning they were out of cocktail mixers on day 5.  They had to take alcohol from the store- which made them sell out of plain vodka and rum- because they did not properly plan for the amount of people.  Did the crew not get the memo on how many would be on board?

Speaking of the crew- ask yourself this.  If you were crew and had a sore throat would you work thru it or gladly see if you get in quarantine for 10 days?

What about passengers?  Would you willingly want to go to medical and lose your balcony room to be inside on deck 3?

So when you look at the numbers- realize that most of them are crew which the cruiseline has to report and there is an incentive for the crew to get tested.

But, as a passenger unless you have more severe symptoms- why would any willingly get tested?  So I believe the actual number of people infected in 10 fold.

Finally - it became obvious that they were trying to get people to spend more time in their room.  I can understand it.  But, the activities they did offer were subpar.  Having sailed 324 nights on Royal - the blame falls to them on this one.  They increased capacity clearly without a plan.  They didnt compensate for spacing and distancing.  By the end I found a lot of the crew surly, defensive and clearly exhausted.  We tried to keep to ourselves and have a decent attitude.  I wish Royal would learn from this and pull back.  But, we were told the New Years cruise has even more people on it then the Xmas cruise.  That is a receipt for disaster that I wish they learned their lesson from on our cruise.  I know that we will hear reports from these larger Royal ships of higher numbers and it can affect the industry and ports willing to take these ships for awhile. I wish Royal was honest and told these media outlets that they in fact are not enforcing mask wearing.   That their crew was overworked and outnumbered and just did not seem to want to make people comply.  I know this is full of negative things.  While the ship was new and shiny- sadly the actions of the people made it seem like we were on Carnival.

The highlighted above really tells me more about you, not people in general. I would absolutely give up my JS for an inside if I tested positive. (not that an inside is what you get anyway... exaggerate much?) If that was not an option for me, I would not agree to the cruise contract, the protocols, etc, and just cancel the cruise. If one is willing to do what you mentioned, well.....  That makes them the problem! 

 

People really need to take personal responsibility. If they are not smart enough to understand protocols, and risks, maybe they should have someone read them, and explain the risks to them as if they were explaining to a two year old. I would think that someone with 324 nights would understand this better, but clearly that was a bad assumption.

 

If anyone does not like what could happen, then do not cruise. Period. In my opinion, complaints regarding cases on board, quarantining, masking, social distancing, cancelling of shows, activities, ports, etc... are ridiculous.