Breaking Up Is So Hard To Do

[RCCL Fan]

My relationship with RCI is a long one,  a beautiful one.

 

However with things "rocky" right now, I've said, I'm not splitting up with RCI, but taking a breather.

 

The covid restrictions and mask mandates and all make sense,  but I'd obviously rather cruise without them.

 

The lack of staff onboard, overworked staff,  the risk of crew and myself getting sick and quarantined.

 

There's just so much that's so not normal right now.    

 

I sailed twice in 2021, during all this, and showed my support. I have two more booked in 2022... and have been seriously considering postponing 1 if not both.  Just because I know I'll enjoy them so much more once things improve.

 

Lets do more land vacations I said,   there's so many places we want to go I said.

 

I meant it too

 

So can someone tell me why the heck I looked at more cruises in 2022, can someone tell me why I told my TA to make a reservation?

 

I truly believe it's better to wait for things to stabilize,  before I go back,  but man on man..... Breaking Up Is So Hard To Do....

 

See you at the end of the year Navigator!   hahaha

[joeyancho]

I get it.  Cruising gets in one's blood.  But since Cruising has resumed it has been a diminished experience.   I too am torn.  With the omicron strain things seem to be getting out of hand.  

[RCCL Fan]

The thing that struck me with Omicron is the entertainment staff/shows.  We sailed Allure for Thanksgiving.  The shows were literally all we had to do at night on the ship.

 

Being Unvax (a kid too young to get the vaccine at the time)  we couldn't go in any bars, AO was a joke, there was a lack of entertainment options.   If there was no show there was very little to nothing to do onboard.  

 

We played more mini golf and ping pong than ever.

 

If we had no entertainment shows I would have gone nuts.

 

I can put up with bad service in restaurants and bars.... but nothing to do, that's different.

 

So, that's my big fear about my April cruise, if the entertainment staff goes down then I feel I wasted my  trip.

 

I'm afraid though we'll have things calm down in february and early march only to shoot up again after everyone travels for spring break mid-march.

[firefly333]

Well holidays are always higher capacity. Rcl has taken measures to bring down capacity and stopped allowing more booking. I've heard adventure was at 1k this week and 1174 or something close last week. Reports allure capacity dropped etc. 

 

Other than the 2 overbooked capacity holiday weeks things have been pretty smooth. Let's not decide they are dead. Take a breather .. np.  

[welshrich]

I share the dilemma too, we are loyal to Royal, we did two cruises when cruising returned and it was different, not enough to put me off though.  We have a delayed Alaska cruise and landtour in june and have not yet booked air tickets as I have no idea how this will go, I wish someone on here had a magic 8 ball and could advise....😃

[zpdw484]

4 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

My relationship with RCI is a long one,  a beautiful one.

 

However with things "rocky" right now, I've said, I'm not splitting up with RCI, but taking a breather.

 

The covid restrictions and mask mandates and all make sense,  but I'd obviously rather cruise without them.

 

The lack of staff onboard, overworked staff,  the risk of crew and myself getting sick and quarantined.

 

There's just so much that's so not normal right now.    

 

I sailed twice in 2021, during all this, and showed my support. I have two more booked in 2022... and have been seriously considering postponing 1 if not both.  Just because I know I'll enjoy them so much more once things improve.

 

Lets do more land vacations I said,   there's so many places we want to go I said.

 

I meant it too

 

So can someone tell me why the heck I looked at more cruises in 2022, can someone tell me why I told my TA to make a reservation?

 

I truly believe it's better to wait for things to stabilize,  before I go back,  but man on man..... Breaking Up Is So Hard To Do....

 

See you at the end of the year Navigator!   hahaha

I feel the exact same way. Cruising has been my number one obsession since my first cruise when I was 15 years old. Throughout the past 22 years I have sailed just about every way imaginable. With my parents and sister, with friends, solo all by myself for several years, and nowadays typically once a year with my wife and daughter, and one "adult trip" per year just me and the wife.  The magic has never faded.. there's absolutely nothing I love more than being on a ship at sea..  we were completely lost when cruising was shut down.

 

Since cruising has restarted we have sailed twice. October went very well. Yes it was different but the "magic" was mostly still there.  We also sailed explorer over new years and we felt completely different. It was the most stressful trip I have ever done. Even once all the precruise requirements (stress) were taken care of it was still a mess. Dropping positive crew members off on two different occasions, remaining crew short staffed and totally overworked. For me it's hard to  enjoy my vacation knowing what the crew is going through behind the scenes. Port days shortened,  ship clearance delayed in other ports resulting in missed excursions (still fighting for a refund on these). Ever changing protocols while we were gone resulting in more stress, this on top of all the constant masking and other not so enjoyable protocols onboard.  For the first time ever the "magic" was completely gone. And the two days we spent in San Juan post cruise (which were by far the best two days of entire trip) just confirmed what we were feeling about cruising. I never thought I could feel that way about cruising, and honestly I don't want to take a chance on feeling that way again. I don't want that bad taste in my mouth.  I don't want to lose the magic so to speak.  So the conclusion we have come to is do land trips till things have significantly calmed down.  

 

Yes we understood things would be different on our explorer cruise. Yes we accepted the risks. Yes we think royal is doing the best they can and are not blaming them, but at the end of the day cruising is just not cruising at the moment.  I would rather hold onto past memories and wait for things to be a bit more "normal" before we sail again than to lose the "magic".

 

But with that said... Cruising is definitely an addiction... And here I sit at 6am on a Monday morning reading cruisecritic.... So who knows we may end up back on a ship sooner than we think😁

 

 

[RobInMN]

There's some talk that the more contagious, but more mild Omicron could be the way for COVID to burn itself out. If it happens, you're good to go, but it's still too early to tell. I'd say give it a month before pulling the trigger on April. Not sure when your second one is.

We have a college graduation celebration cruise scheduled at the very end of Feb. That one could be in jeopardy, as it's on Odyssey and it's been having some issues of late. Keeping my fingers crossed.

For my wife & I, we also have a twice re-scheduled b2b Fjords and Iceland/Ireland cruises June & July. I'm still hopeful things will be "normal enough".

I seriously would have thought that we'd be over this by now, but now my current belief is that we all just need to learn to live with it and move forward under a new "normal". That our current modus operandi is doing more harm than good.

 

[fabric_fabric]

We are booked in February on Allure and are committed to cruising. It’s a big (16 person) family cruise postponed from a year ago. Hubby and I cruised twice last summer (definitely cruise-deprived)  on Celebrity out of St. Martin and loved it. This time on RCCL not so much. I can understand changes - it is going to happen. What I can’t understand is the total lack of information and mixed and confusing messages. Right now in one room we have a TBD. I keep getting emails telling me to provide a name or the person will be turned away. I have been calling for a week now and keep getting kicked down the road. I am told the cruise is ‘Code Red’ and given spurious explanations of what that means. So I keep asking myself, do all 16 of us want to fly to Florida only to have the cruise cancelled last minute as RCCL did with other cruises, or should I just cancel now and look for a hotel now while some rooms may be available. In any event, no more RCCL for us Diamond people.

[RobInMN]

7 minutes ago, fabric_fabric said:

 In any event, no more RCCL for us Diamond people.

Do you honestly think it's any better on any other cruise line? You can't compare Dec/Jan to last summer. Completely different situations. Number of ships, number of passengers, pre-Delta vs. Omicron, etc. Omicron has changed the situation drastically, and I can't imagine that other cruise lines aren't having similar issues (but I'm not reading any other cruise line's boards). We cruised on RC in November and it was completely different than what it sounds like right now.

BTW, you do know that Celebrity is the same company, right?

[rbschultz]

7 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

The lack of staff onboard

 

That's because a large percentage of them are contracting covid....

 

In October between Delta and Omicron surges there was staff everywhere. 

[Oxo]

You hit it right on the head!

This is not July - December 2021.

Time/conditions have changed. 

If you post the current conditions, you are creating a pandemic!

Those who think it is only a cold need to read the stories/experiences posted on all the CC forums. Not just RCI.

People are still dying from this current virus. Those that do not believe it is real. 

Stay Safe! 

[JimVB]

7 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

 

 

So can someone tell me why the heck I looked at more cruises in 2022, can someone tell me why I told my TA to make a reservation?

 

 

Because there is ample reason to believe the omicron spike, while severe, may be brief and there likely will be periods in 2022 when cruising can be much more normal.  Hopefully Royal will continue to delay final payments so we can retain some flexibility and make good decisions about when to cruise.

[fabric_fabric]

1 hour ago, RobInMN said:

Do you honestly think it's any better on any other cruise line? You can't compare Dec/Jan to last summer. Completely different situations. Number of ships, number of passengers, pre-Delta vs. Omicron, etc. Omicron has changed the situation drastically, and I can't imagine that other cruise lines aren't having similar issues (but I'm not reading any other cruise line's boards). We cruised on RC in November and it was completely different than what it sounds like right now.

BTW, you do know that Celebrity is the same company, right?  

…………………

Yes, I am a Royal Caribbean shareholder and do understand the corporate structure. My complaint is poor communication and lack of information with the RCCL brand. We did not and do not currently have that with Celebrity. (We cruised Allure in December as a precursor to our February cruise. It was a bit short on staff and a few entertainments were cancelled, but overall it was a satisfactory cruise.) From a shareholder standpoint I do believe there is a lot of upside potential once Covid diminishes. However, I do have a certain amount of heartburn owning a stock with an entity that I refuse to use!

Edited January 10, 2022 by fabric_fabric

[fabric_fabric]

Oops

 

Edited January 10, 2022 by fabric_fabric

[libertybelle41]

8 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

My relationship with RCI is a long one,  a beautiful one.

 

However with things "rocky" right now, I've said, I'm not splitting up with RCI, but taking a breather.

 

The covid restrictions and mask mandates and all make sense,  but I'd obviously rather cruise without them.

 

The lack of staff onboard, overworked staff,  the risk of crew and myself getting sick and quarantined.

 

There's just so much that's so not normal right now.    

 

I sailed twice in 2021, during all this, and showed my support. I have two more booked in 2022... and have been seriously considering postponing 1 if not both.  Just because I know I'll enjoy them so much more once things improve.

 

Lets do more land vacations I said,   there's so many places we want to go I said.

 

I meant it too

 

So can someone tell me why the heck I looked at more cruises in 2022, can someone tell me why I told my TA to make a reservation?

 

I truly believe it's better to wait for things to stabilize,  before I go back,  but man on man..... Breaking Up Is So Hard To Do....

 

See you at the end of the year Navigator!   hahaha

Agree! 

[RCCL Fan]

7 hours ago, zpdw484 said:

Since cruising has restarted we have sailed twice. October went very well. Yes it was different but the "magic" was mostly still there.  We also sailed explorer over new years and we felt completely different. It was the most stressful trip I have ever done.

 

 

This Is Us!

 

Our June cruise on Adventure was literally the best I've had in a very very long time.  Only one other rivals it.

 

Went back in November, and I was so stressed, I think even more stressed than when I had 50 people in tow with us on Independence for our wedding.    There were so many screwups and I tried to roll with it. It wasn't an awful cruise, but it was damn stressful and nothing like the previous one.

 

I was like, yeah I'm waiting til things calm down again.

 

But somehow here I still stand.  haha

[B113]

Have a cruise planned to Alaska in June but not sure if it will take place. Oklahoma had 27,000 cases of Covid today. It's getting out of control with no end in sight. Sure wish we could get this under control. 

Edited January 10, 2022 by B113

[Maitaivegas]

11 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

My relationship with RCI is a long one,  a beautiful one.

 

However with things "rocky" right now, I've said, I'm not splitting up with RCI, but taking a breather.

 

The covid restrictions and mask mandates and all make sense,  but I'd obviously rather cruise without them.

 

The lack of staff onboard, overworked staff,  the risk of crew and myself getting sick and quarantined.

 

There's just so much that's so not normal right now.    

 

I sailed twice in 2021, during all this, and showed my support. I have two more booked in 2022... and have been seriously considering postponing 1 if not both.  Just because I know I'll enjoy them so much more once things improve.

 

Lets do more land vacations I said,   there's so many places we want to go I said.

 

I meant it too

 

So can someone tell me why the heck I looked at more cruises in 2022, can someone tell me why I told my TA to make a reservation?

 

I truly believe it's better to wait for things to stabilize,  before I go back,  but man on man..... Breaking Up Is So Hard To Do....

 

See you at the end of the year Navigator!   hahaha

This my first and last cruise with RCL.  They have messed up my billing 4 times since 10/5/21. If they owe me money then they try to say I them money, I know someone probably falls for that.

Too many cruise lines to deal with their billing mess.

Edited January 10, 2022 by Maitaivegas

[lovesthebeach2]

I’m not a gambler, but we just booked another one yesterday, so now we have 6 booked, 4 this year. We’ve vaxed and boosted. We sat around for almost two years doing no traveling. I’m trying not to let fear rule my activities. The news is nothing but negative and that not good for our health! We doing everything as safe as we can, but we just can’t sit around wasting what years we have left. The ocean calls out to us, so we’re going.