Covid Isolation Protocols Changed

[Donoiv11]

8 hours ago, livingonthebeach said:

This video shows what a quarantine room looks like:

 

 

 

Very very similar to my current experience.

 

Onboard Allure and tested positive late last night after quickly experiencing an onset of symptoms. Within 30 min they were testing me in my room… results back 40 minutes later… and moved to my own Quarantine Palace shortly after that. Outside of some layout differences, the room is equipped (and stripped) in a very similar way. They even had a case of water waiting for me when I arrived. 

 

I’ve only been in the room less than 24 hours… with over 4 days to go… but I cannot be more complimentary of how they are handing the situation. From the crew, to the medical staff… the free movies, free internet/streaming, free calls, room service… and multiple calls from their team to check in on me… I hate that I am here… but am making the most of it and can’t fault Royal for any of their response. 

 

Happy New Year! 🙂

[MommaBear55]

1 minute ago, Donoiv11 said:

 

Very very similar to my current experience.

 

Onboard Allure and tested positive late last night after quickly experiencing an onset of symptoms. Within 30 min they were testing me in my room… results back 40 minutes later… and moved to my own Quarantine Palace shortly after that. Outside of some layout differences, the room is equipped (and stripped) in a very similar way. They even had a case of water waiting for me when I arrived. 

 

I’ve only been in the room less than 24 hours… with over 4 days to go… but I cannot be more complimentary of how they are handing the situation. From the crew, to the medical staff… the free movies, free internet/streaming, free calls, room service… and multiple calls from their team to check in on me… I hate that I am here… but am making the most of it and can’t fault Royal for any of their response. 

 

Happy New Year! 🙂

Best wishes for a quick recovery and thank you for your gracious acceptance of a difficult situation

[Vacationdreamer<><]

4 minutes ago, Donoiv11 said:

 

Very very similar to my current experience.

 

Onboard Allure and tested positive late last night after quickly experiencing an onset of symptoms. Within 30 min they were testing me in my room… results back 40 minutes later… and moved to my own Quarantine Palace shortly after that. Outside of some layout differences, the room is equipped (and stripped) in a very similar way. They even had a case of water waiting for me when I arrived. 

 

I’ve only been in the room less than 24 hours… with over 4 days to go… but I cannot be more complimentary of how they are handing the situation. From the crew, to the medical staff… the free movies, free internet/streaming, free calls, room service… and multiple calls from their team to check in on me… I hate that I am here… but am making the most of it and can’t fault Royal for any of their response. 

 

Happy New Year! 🙂

I am so sorry you are stuck in isolation.  I hope you have some bright spots.

 

[livingonthebeach]

3 minutes ago, Donoiv11 said:

 

Very very similar to my current experience.

 

Onboard Allure and tested positive late last night after quickly experiencing an onset of symptoms. Within 30 min they were testing me in my room… results back 40 minutes later… and moved to my own Quarantine Palace shortly after that. Outside of some layout differences, the room is equipped (and stripped) in a very similar way. They even had a case of water waiting for me when I arrived. 

 

I’ve only been in the room less than 24 hours… with over 4 days to go… but I cannot be more complimentary of how they are handing the situation. From the crew, to the medical staff… the free movies, free internet/streaming, free calls, room service… and multiple calls from their team to check in on me… I hate that I am here… but am making the most of it and can’t fault Royal for any of their response. 

 

Happy New Year! 🙂

So sorry to hear.  Wishing you a speedy recovery.  Please keep us updated.  Hang in there - maybe they’ll fly you back home in a private jet. 

[nocl]

21 minutes ago, Rosy Season said:

This is exactly it.  They need to shut it down if just to let the covid die out. 

Not going to make much difference.  Basically they are zeroing the cases on the ship each cruise when the passengers leave and they offload infected crew to other ships.

 

As long as there is Covid in the cruising population, Covid will make its way on board.

 

The number of cases, while they seem to be more excessive on RC, than on other lines, should drop to some degree with lower occupancy, fewer unvaccinated and with masking.  While cases are occurring, in the vaccinated population they are mostly in the mild range with very few, if any in the serious range.  While transmission on board is occurring it is similar to that occurring on land.

 

Those cruise lines have had tighter protocols (all Vax, masks required) seem to be doing better than those that had looser requirements.  So those changes might tight

 

Clearly the cruise lines were not prepared to go from pretty much no cases on board to the numbers have seen in the last two weeks. They probably should consider some form of gift to those on the more heavily impacted cruises.  I intentionally used the term gift because that is exactly what it would be under the terms of the cruise contract

 

Clearly the cruise lines should be held accountable for what they promised and advertised concerning those that do come  down with Covid on board.

 

While the last two weeks have been a surprise, anyone going on a cruise for the next month or two should only do so with the realization that they may/will be impacts on services, entertainment, itinerary and the normal cruise experience.  I believe that RC has now sent out a letter to those cruising the near future indicating that they may be impacts.

 

The cruise lines may cancel individual cruises if a ship staffing is too heavily impacted, but the situation is not anywhere close to what it was in March 2020 when everything was stopped. A time when vaccines did not exist, when there were far more unknowns than known.  A totally different situation, even with the Omicron wave going through.  Which it should be pretty much over by early to mid-March.

[Donoiv11]

11 minutes ago, MommaBear55 said:

Best wishes for a quick recovery and thank you for your gracious acceptance of a difficult situation

 

8 minutes ago, Vacationdreamer&lt;&gt;&lt; said:

I am so sorry you are stuck in isolation.  I hope you have some bright spots.

 

 

When they give you lemons… make lemonade… when they give you DayQuil, take a nap 🙂

[blueslily]

1 hour ago, Donoiv11 said:

 

Very very similar to my current experience.

 

Onboard Allure and tested positive late last night after quickly experiencing an onset of symptoms. Within 30 min they were testing me in my room… results back 40 minutes later… and moved to my own Quarantine Palace shortly after that. Outside of some layout differences, the room is equipped (and stripped) in a very similar way. They even had a case of water waiting for me when I arrived. 

 

I’ve only been in the room less than 24 hours… with over 4 days to go… but I cannot be more complimentary of how they are handing the situation. From the crew, to the medical staff… the free movies, free internet/streaming, free calls, room service… and multiple calls from their team to check in on me… I hate that I am here… but am making the most of it and can’t fault Royal for any of their response. 

 

Happy New Year! 🙂

 

Thanks so much for posting that video of the Freedom  room. Thr information provided in the video was helpful. And thanks for posting about your experience. Good to see information about how rooms are setup, even though Freedom is different than some of the other ships. Take care of yourself. Great to hear that you are being checked on, you have water, and that you have a couple options to help the time pass. All the best! 😁 

[Donoiv11]

6 minutes ago, HappyInVan said:

 

Excellent spirits! 👍

 

BTW, could you peep out the door. How man quarantine rooms in use?

 

I’m not able to see very far outside of the room… Just a quick look up and down the hall when they are dropping of my food. However, I did get a fairly good look last night… while they walked me from my original room to my current room… in a similar style to scenes directly out of ET…

 

It seems that the entire 3rd deck… or certainly a large part… is blocked for isolation of folks who are actually positive (my wife remained restricted in our room and will be checked after 24 hours). On my walk, I passed many open doors and many empty rooms. There didn’t seem to be a ton of rooms currently under use… but hey, that was almost 24 hours ago… that could be different now. Either way, they’ve been great… to both me… and my wife… with full communication/updates along the way. Sucks to be here… but it could be so much worse.

[Jimbo]

So a few cruise lines have paused their sailings, wonder who will be next?

[margo2011]

10 hours ago, Donoiv11 said:

 

Very very similar to my current experience.

 

Onboard Allure and tested positive late last night after quickly experiencing an onset of symptoms. Within 30 min they were testing me in my room… results back 40 minutes later… and moved to my own Quarantine Palace shortly after that. Outside of some layout differences, the room is equipped (and stripped) in a very similar way. They even had a case of water waiting for me when I arrived. 

 

I’ve only been in the room less than 24 hours… with over 4 days to go… but I cannot be more complimentary of how they are handing the situation. From the crew, to the medical staff… the free movies, free internet/streaming, free calls, room service… and multiple calls from their team to check in on me… I hate that I am here… but am making the most of it and can’t fault Royal for any of their response. 

 

Happy New Year! 🙂

Thank you I’m sure your comments will help others .I noticed you have travelled on the SS Norway we cruised on that fabulous ship around 2000 this was our first cruise and still hard to beat .I wonder if you can get the program on TImeshift  The Last Day of the Liners it brought back some fabulous memories of the great Liners including the SS Norway it showed in the uk on Sunday the 2nd January ,enjoy it if you can ,I hope you will be home safe soon .

[Donoiv11]

11 minutes ago, margo2011 said:

Thank you I’m sure your comments will help others .I noticed you have travelled on the SS Norway we cruised on that fabulous ship around 2000 this was our first cruise and still hard to beat .I wonder if you can get the program on TImeshift  The Last Day of the Liners it brought back some fabulous memories of the great Liners including the SS Norway it showed in the uk on Sunday the 2nd January ,enjoy it if you can ,I hope you will be home safe soon .

Very fond memories of the Norway… we sailed here in 2002.. my first cruise. Though showing wear… and not as amenity rich as ships today, it was certainly a unique experience I will never forget. 

 

I have nothing but time for the next few days… mission #1, Find “Timeshift” 🙂

 

Cheers

[PC168]

10 hours ago, Jimbo said:

So a few cruise lines have paused their sailings, wonder who will be next?

I wonder which cruise lines have paused their sailings.

[JT1962]

14 minutes ago, PC168 said:

I wonder which cruise lines have paused their sailings.

It’s all cruises in Brazil, not one specific line.

[Biker19]

12 minutes ago, HappyInVan said:

The alternative to the red flag, is to test all pax and remove the infected.

Not so easy to do with RCI and Caribbean runs.

[Rosy Season]

16 hours ago, nocl said:

Not going to make much difference.  Basically they are zeroing the cases on the ship each cruise when the passengers leave and they offload infected crew to other ships.

 

As long as there is Covid in the cruising population, Covid will make its way on board.

 

The number of cases, while they seem to be more excessive on RC, than on other lines, should drop to some degree with lower occupancy, fewer unvaccinated and with masking.  While cases are occurring, in the vaccinated population they are mostly in the mild range with very few, if any in the serious range.  While transmission on board is occurring it is similar to that occurring on land.

 

Those cruise lines have had tighter protocols (all Vax, masks required) seem to be doing better than those that had looser requirements.  So those changes might tight

 

Clearly the cruise lines were not prepared to go from pretty much no cases on board to the numbers have seen in the last two weeks. They probably should consider some form of gift to those on the more heavily impacted cruises.  I intentionally used the term gift because that is exactly what it would be under the terms of the cruise contract

 

Clearly the cruise lines should be held accountable for what they promised and advertised concerning those that do come  down with Covid on board.

 

While the last two weeks have been a surprise, anyone going on a cruise for the next month or two should only do so with the realization that they may/will be impacts on services, entertainment, itinerary and the normal cruise experience.  I believe that RC has now sent out a letter to those cruising the near future indicating that they may be impacts.

 

The cruise lines may cancel individual cruises if a ship staffing is too heavily impacted, but the situation is not anywhere close to what it was in March 2020 when everything was stopped. A time when vaccines did not exist, when there were far more unknowns than known.  A totally different situation, even with the Omicron wave going through.  Which it should be pretty much over by early to mid-March.

They aren't zeroing it out when there is infected crew at the beginning of each sailing.  They just haven't tested positive yet.

 

And, I just read on FB that some of the next passengers were onboard by 11:30 with a drink.  There were still covid positives on board at that time. I didn't get off until 11 and there were more after me.  How is that right?

[Biker19]

4 minutes ago, HappyInVan said:

 

Wonder what the New Guy will do?

I don't see him doing videos a la Fain.

[Rosy Season]

6 minutes ago, HappyInVan said:

 

To make it worse, RCI has no cruises during this winter in Europe. SO, all their eyes are in one basket. 🥴

 

To make it worse, the group (and RCI) CEO is retiring after 33 years. Hard to end the last week with bad news. 😲

 

Wonder what the New Guy will do?

 

After all, USA is reporting a million cases a day  Omicron is bound to slip through in numbers if you don't do testing at the pier. Then, you'll have to do testing onboard to control the spread.

 

Anyway, its a choice that Royal will have to make. The proverbial rock and the hard place.

 

There's a choice that pax with bookings have to make. Finally, there's a choice that the CDC has to make. 

 

Good Luck.

 

 

Eventually all of the Caribbean ports are going to deny entry to cruise ships if this continues to escalate unchecked -  so it'll get shut down then.  It's my understanding they can't have cruises to nowhere from the US.

[RoyalC]

1 minute ago, Rosy Season said:

Eventually all of the Caribbean ports are going to deny entry to cruise ships if this continues to escalate unchecked -  so it'll get shut down then.  It's my understanding they can't have cruises to nowhere from the US.

It appears that more and more ports are requiring testing that the ships cannot reasonably comply with. If they did it would expose their numbers and they would shut down anyway. Their policies right now are not good. They are trying to hang onto every reservation by doing everything in terms of protocol, policy, and port announcements last minute.

[Rosy Season]

Just now, RoyalC said:

It appears that more and more ports are requiring testing that the ships cannot reasonably comply with. If they did it would expose their numbers and they would shut down anyway. Their policies right now are not good. They are trying to hang onto every reservation by doing everything in terms of protocol, policy, and port announcements last minute.

And this is exactly it.  This is my problem with how all of this is being handled.  It's all in an effort to kind of "hide" the real numbers to stay afloat - pun intended.  While I understand their business conundrum this put them it, it's not ethical (imo) or providing full transparency to either the public or the passengers.

[Rosy Season]

3 minutes ago, HappyInVan said:

 

Its possible. The problem is denial... No, its not a river in Egypt. 

 

So many pax in the States are willing to cruise on despite symptoms. RCI appears to be willing to accommodate them. Sad. 🙄

 

On this forum, I can't believe the hassle that you're receiving. As a solo pax, I would never cruise during the winter in a respiratory pandemic. But, I'm sympathetic to the victims, like you who believed in Royal's promises. 😒

 

I wonder how many of your critics have booked cruises in the coming weeks. To donate money to RCI.

Yep.  RCL is allowing it because it's a business decision at the end of the day.  Their bottom line currently trumps the responsibility to public health.  And unfortunately there are enough people who don't care about covid anymore or think it's benign...so they have a revenue stream.

 

I'm also a solo cruiser!  We should stay in touch in the future 🙂. Although, after this, I don't think I'll ever take a minor child alone with me on a cruise again.  There were too many variables that could've separated us in this environment.

[D4]

30 minutes ago, Rosy Season said:

They aren't zeroing it out when there is infected crew at the beginning of each sailing.  They just haven't tested positive yet.

 

And, I just read on FB that some of the next passengers were onboard by 11:30 with a drink.  There were still covid positives on board at that time. I didn't get off until 11 and there were more after me.  How is that right?

That’s terrible!  Royal notified passengers on some of their sailings right after Christmas to arrive 2 hours later than their boarding time because they were doing extra cleaning/sanitizing.  They certainly should have done that after your germ filled Harmony cruise!

[RoyalC]

2 minutes ago, HappyInVan said:

 

Its possible. The problem is denial... No, its not a river in Egypt. 

 

So many pax in the States are willing to cruise on despite symptoms. RCI appears to be willing to accommodate them. Sad. 🙄

 

On this forum, I can't believe the hassle that you're receiving. As a solo pax, I would never cruise during the winter in a respiratory pandemic. But, I'm sympathetic to the victims, like you who believed in Royal's promises. 😒

 

I wonder how many of your critics have booked cruises in the coming weeks. To donate money to RCI.

The issues we had (we caught covid on Odyssey Dec 12-18 and reported it with no response from RCL)

Crew holding elevators open to allow them to be packed, or not saying anything in general while riding along

Crew not enforcing masking

 

RCL/Crew packing vaxxed passengers together in the dining room and theater, while allowing unvaxxed space in same areas (I guess I could have stayed in my cabin and avoided shows) to unvaxxed and disallowing us in same space!

 

Not asking clearly symptomatic passengers to take a test (always nice when they sit someone right next you in the dining room and they cough, or someone sits down in the theater behind you and starts coughing right over you).

 

I should add almost anyone can game the antigen test and get on the ship. Drive up testing sites make that 100% certain. Add the lag time in exposure, to symptoms, to testing positive and you have sick people embarking. Add the fact that Omicron or vaxxed passengers can honestly test negative on antigen tests and you have a problem.  My travel partner showed symptoms right after the cruise, testing negative many times on antigen, but was pcr positive.

 

The CDC does not even have a form to fill out to report your case. They support children in classrooms right now. They cannot even decide if people should test after five days of being sick before being released into the public. They've lost it! We have over 20x the case count compared to when they shut the country down! 

[RoyalC]

12 minutes ago, D4 said:

That’s terrible!  Royal notified passengers on some of their sailings right after Christmas to arrive 2 hours later than their boarding time because they were doing extra cleaning/sanitizing.  They certainly should have done that after your germ filled Harmony cruise!

It is comical because the virus is airborne. Cleaning as they are doing may prevent noro, which isn't a bad thing either. 

[travelhound]

7 minutes ago, RoyalC said:

The issues we had (we caught covid on Odyssey Dec 12-18 and reported it with no response from RCL)

Crew holding elevators open to allow them to be packed, or not saying anything in general while riding along

Crew not enforcing masking

 

RCL/Crew packing vaxxed passengers together in the dining room and theater, while allowing unvaxxed space in same areas (I guess I could have stayed in my cabin and avoided shows) to unvaxxed and disallowing us in same space!

 

Not asking clearly symptomatic passengers to take a test (always nice when they sit someone right next you in the dining room and they cough, or someone sits down in the theater behind you and starts coughing right over you).

 

I should add almost anyone can game the antigen test and get on the ship. Drive up testing sites make that 100% certain. Add the lag time in exposure, to symptoms, to testing positive and you have sick people embarking. Add the fact that Omicron or vaxxed passengers can honestly test negative on antigen tests and you have a problem.  My travel partner showed symptoms right after the cruise, testing negative many times on antigen, but was pcr positive.

 

The CDC does not even have a form to fill out to report your case. They support children in classrooms right now. They cannot even decide if people should test after five days of being sick before being released into the public. They've lost it! We have over 20x the case count compared to when they shut the country down! 

I think RCL is going to have to consider requiring everyone to be vaccinated.  This would help to reduce the severity of the infection and reduce the quarantine requirements.  That said, RCL is doing a lot more than most hotels and I think some of the criticism has become a little hyperbolic.

[Jimbo]

Why no  response from Royal on this sailing yet ?