Royal Caribbean Blog

While Royal Caribbean cruisers are waiting to see what new health policies the cruise line will come up with, we are getting a preview of what might be an example of one new policy with MSC Cruises.

MSC Cruises resumed cruising in Italy on the MSC Grandiosa, and a family was denied reboarding after they deviated from their cruise line approved shore excursion in Naples, Italy.

The unnamed family was not allowed to re-board after breaking their “social bubble" and leaving the shore excursion.

MSC Cruises laid out a series of new rules and protocols aimed to keep guests safe onboard the ships, as well as prevent the spread of COVID-19.

During this initial phase of operations MSC requires guests only go ashore as part of an organized MSC Cruises’ excursion.

A spokesperson for MSC said the family was not allowed back onboard the cruise ship because they had separated from the organized group trip to go exploring on their own, therefore posing a possible risk to others on the ocean liner amid the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19.

"In line with our health and safety protocol, developed to ensure health and wellbeing of our guests, crew and the communities we visit, we had to deny re-embarkation to a family who broke from their shore excursion yesterday while visiting Naples, Italy," the MSC Cruises spokesperson said on Wednesday. "This family broke from the 'social bubble' created for them and all other guests, and therefore could not be permitted to re-board the ship."

The MSC Grandiosa departed Genoa on Sunday night for a seven-night cruise of the western Mediterranean, with port calls in Civitavecchia, Naples, Palermo and Valetta, Malta.

The Grandiosa's current sailing is the first cruise in the Mediterranean by a major cruise line and vessel since the cruise industry shut down earlier this year.

Royal Caribbean has not yet announced its health protocols

Royal Caribbean has not announced its new health policies and protocols yet, but the cruise line did promise to deliver them by the end of this month.

Royal Caribbean Group teamed up with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings to form a panel of health experts who are actively working on generating a set of recommendations that both cruise lines can use to keep guests safe.

Ultimately, the panel will work through all the options and practices considered, and come up with the best course of action for the cruise lines.

If you still have a Royal Caribbean cruise booked for the end of 2020 or sometime in 2021, your best bet is to not cancel the cruise on your own.

There is plenty of concern among cruisers about if their upcoming cruise will actually sail, as well as if they even want to go on a cruise during the current global health crisis. While preemptively cancelling a cruise may seem like a good decision now, you might still want to hang on, even if you know you do not want to cruise.

This article is about why you should wait for at least Royal Caribbean to cancel the cruise before you pull the trigger on cancelling it.

You might regret it later

There are two reasons why you might regret cancelling a cruise down the line.

Financially, you are better off waiting for Royal Caribbean to cancel your cruise than for you to cancel your cruise.

From the beginning of the cruise shutdown, Royal Caribbean has offered far more favorable terms to guests who have their sailing cancelled by the cruise line, than if they opt to cancel.

The classic example is anyone who cancelled before the cruise line and had to settle for just a future cruise credit, instead of the option to get a full refund. 

Moreover, if Royal Caribbean cancels on you, you can qualify for 125% future cruise credit, which is a bonus not otherwise available.

The other reason why you might regret cancelling a cruise later is if you cancel and many months down the line you want to rebook.

Things are changing every day in terms of the cruise line's plans, as well as approaches and treatments for COVID. While things might look not-so-great today, perhaps in Spring 2021 the situation will be very different.

While you might be able to change your mind later and rebook the same sailing, there is a good chance someone else will have booked the cabin you had booked, which means finding a new room available.

You have non-refundable cruise fare

A common reason for cancelling a cruise is to get a cash refund, but if you booked non-refundable cruise fare you can qualify for a cash refund minus the change fee penalty.

If you take advantage of the Cruise with Confidence program and cancel your cruise in exchange for a future cruise credit, you will not be able to get a cash refund at all.

However, if Royal Caribbean cancels your sailing later on, you can choose to get a 100% cash refund, even if you have a non-refundable cruise fare.

You can cancel up to 48 hours before your cruise begins

There is little risk in waiting to cancel. Even if Royal Caribbean were to resume cruises and you decide you prefer not to sail, the Cruise with Confidence program.

This means you can wait and see what happens, and decide at anytime until 2 days before your cruise begins to actually cancel for a 100% future cruise credit.

This kind of flexibility means you do not have to make a decision now, and take advantage of the best information available closer to your sail date.

What if Royal Caribbean goes bankrupt?

I have heard from some cruise fans they are worried Royal Caribbean will not be able to survive the extended cruise shutdown, but there is quite a bit of time before a bankruptcy scenario could occur.

In Royal Caribbean's second quarter earnings report, as of June 30, 2020, the Company had liquidity of approximately $4.1 billion all in the form of cash and cash equivalents. A few weeks later, Royal Caribbean announced it has secured a new $700 million term loan facility.

Most Wall Street analysts believe Royal Caribbean Group has enough cash on hand in order to survive until at least the end of 2021 with no income.

All of that points to the likelihood of a bankruptcy forfeiting your balance with the cruise line to not be a consideration anytime soon.

Over the last few weeks, many cruisers have heard cruise lines say their ships may enter cold lay-up, but what does that mean?

With cruise lines entering a prolonged suspension with no cruises resuming anytime soon, one option available is to move ships from a warm lay-up into a cold lay-up.

In order to get a better sense of what cold lay-up is and what it means, I turned to Commander Don Goldstein, Retired United States Coast Guard, who has over 32 years of experience.

What is cold lay-up?

When a cruise ship goes into cold lay-up, it is essentially shutting down as much of the ship as possible in order to cut costs.

Royal Caribbean's fleet is currently in a state of warm lay-up, which means they can bring the ship back to service very quickly since the machinery, lifesaving equipment and navigational equipment are all well-kept and up to date.

In a cold lay-up, the opposite is true. Most of the mechanical systems are taken offline, with just the bare essentials left online to preserve the ship. 

Depending on how long the company intends to lay-up the ship, different approaches can be taken to preserving the interiors of the ship. For a lay up of three to nine months, the air conditioning will continue running to keep the humidity down.  But a more prolonged lay up would result in the rooms being hermetically sealed.

In terms of crew, the amount of workers onboard is drastically reduced.

In a hot lay-up, the engine department and the deck department are pretty close to fully manned, but in a cold lay-up there would be a bare minimum skeleton crew that could step in the case of an emergency to get the ship moving (such as a hurricane).

Why do a cold lay-up?

If you are wondering why a cruise line would consider putting its ships into cold lay-up, it is all about saving money.

The benefit of putting a cruise ship into cold lay-up is added savings compared to a hot lay-up.

"People are the big expense in a lay-up, and you've got a whole lot less people involved in a cold lay-up than you do in a hot lay-up."

Hurdles to get ships back into service

After a ship enters a state of cold lay-up, getting them back into service is no simple task.

In a cold lay-up, you basically have to re-certify the ship, depending on how long it has been in cold lay-up.

"There are a myriad of certificates that have to be redone if it's been longer than six months," Command Goldstein described, and he outlined four entities that go into a ship recertification:

• Ship owner
• Port State (where the ship is located)
• The flag state (Bahamas, for all Royal Caribbean ships)
• Classification Society

All four of those entities have to be involved in putting the ship into cold lay-up, and they all have to be involved in taking the ship out of cold lay-up.

How long to get a ship back into service after cold lay-up

Another question is how quickly Royal Caribbean could get a ship back into service after a ship goes into cold-lay up.

In a best case scenario, Commander Goldstein said if the ship has only been in cold lay-up for three months, the ship could probably get back into service in two to three weeks.

The bigger issue is there are only a limited amount of inspectors available to re-certify a ship, and with other cruise lines trying to do the same thing, that could become an issue if there are not enough inspectors available to get on a ship.

If the cold lay-up extends beyond three months, and goes to six months or more, then Commander Goldstein indicated it could take a month or more to get a ship back out of cold lay-up.

Once the ships return to the United States, the ship would be inspected by the Coast Guard.  These inspections could take just a few days to verify the certificates that had been previously issued when the ship came out of cold storage, as well as verifying crew training and testing.

Just days after the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis announced two Royal Caribbean ships would be allowed to harbour, the arrival of the first ship has been delayed as health experts consider additional information.

ZIZ reports the scheduled arrival of Rhapsody of the Seas on Wednesday, August 19, was delayed. Vision of the Seas is scheduled to arrive on August 24.

Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris told concerned locals, "much was considered and deliberated on over a two-week period before the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines was given the greenlight for safe harbour for two of its vessels".

The Prime Minister added that his experts have advised the risk is low with granting safe harbouring of both ships, as crew members on both ships are required to have a negative COVID-19 test results before boarding from their home countries.

The crew members will all be retested at the end of 14 days and only released from quarantine if they all test negative. It is only after the return of a negative RT-PCR test on day one and day 14 will they be allowed to disembark the vessels.

Moreover, the Prime Minister added the health risks to the citizens of the island are low, "but in the medium term we will benefit."

The rumor mill went into overdrive with speculation that Empress of the Seas has been sold to an unnamed buyer for an undisclosed amount by an unnamed source, but it turns out it is not true.

Empress of the Seas recently sailed to the Greek isles, which began fueling hearsay that she was making a last stop before being sold off, similar to Pullmantur's ships just a few weeks ago.

I reached out to Royal Caribbean on Wednesday afternoon to get more clarification on the rumors and they flatly denied Empress has been sold.

"Empress of the Seas has not been sold," a Royal Caribbean International Public Relations spokesperson told RoyalCaribbeanBlog. "She is on the way to Greece where she will stay for a few months."

"We are constantly looking for the best places to deploy our ships in order to get all the ship services we require for operations."

Empress of the Seas was the subject of the same kind of rumors in late July when the ship began sailing towards Malta, but Royal Caribbean confirmed the ship was still very much in the fleet.

Despite being in the region for a few weeks, rumors began swirling again today when an unnamed source claims Empress was sold. 

There have been no Royal Caribbean International ships sold since the cruise shutdown, but the company is considering ways to further reduce its average monthly cash burn under a further prolonged out-of-service scenario and during re-start of operations.

Royal Caribbean Group Chairman and CEO Richard Fain said in mid-July there are no plans to sell ships, but it is a consideration.

While what is in store for Royal Caribbean's short term and long term future are anyone's guess, Wall Street analysts have no problem weighing on how they see things progressing.

Bears of Wall Street is a group of traders and financial analysts who recently wrote it may not be until 2024-2026 before Royal Caribbean Group can return to 2019 levels of business.

Royal Caribbean Group recently said they have a monthly cash burn of $200-290 million, and the financial group thinks Royal Caribbean has enough liquidity (cash) to deal with a prolonged cruise suspension.  That being said, the road back to recovery is going to be a long one.

Given the financial strains of trying to remain in business, the Bears of Wall Street estimates Royal Caribbean Group will be able to return to pre-COVID levels of business sometime around 2024-2026.

Royal Caribbean Group has $4.15 billion in cash reserves, and its net debt position is $15.46 billion. The good news is that the company faces only $0.3 billion and $1.3 billion in debt maturities in 2020 and 2021, respectively, which gives it enough breathing room not to worry about the liquidity crunch. At the same time, Royal Caribbean says that the company already has $11.3 billion in committed credit facilities to fund its expenses, so liquidity is not going to be a problem.

"We continue to take substantial actions to bolster our financial position," said Jason T. Liberty, executive vice president and CFO. "We have accessed the capital market in an opportunistic manner and continue to aggressively manage our spend. We are prepared to navigate a volatile period while making decisions that position the Company well for the recovery."

In concluding, Bears of Wall Street does not believe in short selling Royal Caribbean's stock for a few reasons:

1. Royal Caribbean doesn’t have any major debt maturities in the upcoming years.
2. They have the possibility to raise enough liquidity to stay afloat for a long time.
3. The Federal Reserve will continue to push the stock market higher.

"For that reason, we have no position in the company and believe that there are better long and short opportunities on the market right now."

Note: Matt Hochberg has no position in any of the stocks mentioned, nor does he own any cruise line stock.

When you get onboard your Royal Caribbean cruise, you might be ready for a bite to eat and Royal Caribbean provides a few options to dine at for no additional cost, and some that do cost extra.

Getting on your ship means a lot of choices on how to begin your vacation, but many guests elect to start things off with lunch.  Embarkation usually begins in the late morning to early afternoon, so lunch is the first opportunity to sit down for a bite to eat.

Here is what you should know about where you can eat on the first day of your cruise.

Food included at no extra cost

Depending on your ship, Royal Caribbean offers a few venues to dine at that cost nothing extra to enjoy.

The most popular option is the Windjammer Marketplace, which is a traditional cruise buffet that serves up a variety of food and beverages. It is also the first restaurant to open on embarkation day, and will remain open until just before it is time to set sail.

You will find soups, sandwiches, burgers, nachos, casseroles, fish, salads and plenty more to choose from and it is unlimited.  Just grab a plate, take what you like, and find a seat.

There will be other venues available to dine at on your ship that are complimentary. These include:

• Park Cafe
• Cafe Promenade
• Cafe Latte-tudes
• Sorrento's Pizza
• Wipeout Cafe
• El Loco Fresh

The main dining room is not typically open for lunch on embarkation day, except for guests who purchased The Key, where they will enjoy a complimentary specialty restaurant meal there.

Restaurants that cost extra

Anyone who wants to indulge may prefer to eat lunch at a specialty restaurant on the first day of the cruise.

While not all specialty restaurants may be open on the first day, some do open their doors for those first few hours onboard.

There is no need (nor option) to make lunch reservations on embarkation day, so it is just first-come, first served.

If you purchased a specialty dining package, you can choose to use your package benefits on the first day lunch. Just let your server know that you have the package.

Just like the included restaurants, which restaurants are open on the first day depend on the ship. The typical extra-cost restaurants open for lunch on embarkation day are:

• Chops Grille
• Johnny Rockets
• Giovanni's Table
• Jaimie’s Italian
• Sabor
• Playmakers Bar

How do to find which restaurants are on your ship

After reading this, your next logical question may be which restaurants are on your ship, both specialty and included.

The easiest way to find that out is to read a past Cruise Compass from a sailing on your ship.

The Cruise Compass is a daily newspaper of events, times, and schedules, including what is open on the first day of your cruise.  If you read one or two of these Compasses, you will quickly discover the restaurants open on embarkation day for a given ship are pretty much the same each sailing.

Restaurants open for dinner

Once you get to dinner time on the first day of your cruise, all the restaurants onboard will be open for service.

Unlike lunch on the first day, dinner time is the beginning of a more normalized schedule for operations onboard and you do not have to be concerned about a specific restaurant being open or not.

The most notable restaurant open to everyone for dinner, but not lunch, on embarkation day is the main dining room.

Depending if you booked traditional or My Time Dining for your dinners, the dining room is always available as an option, in addition to the complimentary and specialty restaurants onboard.

One of the things I love about Royal Caribbean is how there is always something new and different to try. Even after dozens and dozens of cruises, I have yet to tackle everything to do.

Royal Caribbean offers so many activities and things to do onboard that the notion of being bored on a cruise is simply ridiculous. If anything, there is an overwhelming (in a good way) variety of activities.

Here is a look at the things I have not yet gotten around to trying yet on a Royal Caribbean cruise.

Rock climbing wall

The fact I have not done the rock climbing wall is truly bizarre because I really want to try it, but just have not managed to make it happen.

A few times I actually planned to give it a try, but the wall was not open for guests to climb.  One time the wall was open, but it was so hot that the crew member warned me against trying due to the wall being too hot at the time.

I hope to finally give it a try at some point, as it looks like a lot of fun and a great challenge.

FlowRider

While I would love to be able to be one of those people that hops on the FlowRider surf simulator and impress everyone with my mad skills, unfortunately my lack of physical coordination makes this less appealing.

I love to watch people try to surf on the FlowRider, but the truth is I am very concerned about falling hard on a part of my body not accustomed to taking a lot of weight and hurting myself.  It is a bit of an irrational fear considering how many people have no issues, but it still lingers in my mind.

If I were to try the FlowRider, I think I would do the boogie board option at the very least, since that seems to be far less impactful when wiping out.

Attend the art auction

Before I ever took my first Royal Caribbean cruise, I heard warnings from other cruisers about the art auction and issues others have encountered.

First and foremost, I am not much of an art person.  Second, the concept is not terribly appealing.  And third, there are plenty of reported issues with the art dealer to scare me off.

Someday I would like to sit in for a few minutes and observe, but I have no burning desire to check it out anytime soon.

Volunteered for a game show

Whether it is the Love and Marriage, The Quest, Battle of the Sexes or any of the other game shows Royal Caribbean produces on its ships, I have never been a volunteer for them.

While fun to watch, I am a bit too shy to give these shows a try myself out of fear of embarrassment. I also derive much more satisfaction from watching others, than doing it myself.

Out of everything on this list, this might be the last thing I ever tackle because of my personality.  

Laser tag

Like the rock climbing wall, I have not tried laser tag on a Royal Caribbean ship out of primarily bad timing on my part.

Laser tag is held in Studio B at select times, and I think I am usually doing something else during those times. In addition, I seem to recall laser tag being held on port days while the ship is in port.

I absolutely want to try laser tag, and my kids do too, so I think this will happen sooner than later.

Cupcake Class

The cupcake decorating class is an onboard activity that I hear a lot of positive comments about, so I think I would not mind giving it a try.

Like laser tag, I think my kids would really enjoy this too, so perhaps it is something we can try on a sea day to change things up.  

Karaoke

Like so many other people, it is one thing to sing to yourself in the car or shower, but singing in front of a crowd is a completely different proposition.

As an observer, there are three kind of people who usually volunteer for karaoke: really good singers, really bad singers that do not know they are bad, and really bad singers who go up for a laugh.

I would fall into that last category, but I admit I have a bit of stage fright going up there to sing a song I know I am not going to do very well. At some point I think I could muster the nerve to get up on stage to belt out a tune, but who knows when that will occur.

Sailed on some Royal Caribbean ships

I would be remiss if I did not mention that I have not sailed on every Royal Caribbean ship yet.

There are so many ships to choose from, and I have not yet managed to get onboard all of them. Here are the ones I am missing:

• Spectrum of the Seas
• Ovation of the Seas
• Liberty of the Seas
• Voyager of the Seas
• Adventure of the Seas
• Radiance of the Seas
• Serenade of the Seas
• Vision of the Seas
• Grandeur of the Seas
• Enchantment of the Seas
• Empress of the Seas

I would love to sail on each of these ships at some point, so it is just a matter of scheduling, as well as ensuring these ships are close enough to make a trip practical (sorry, China and Australia cruises).

Stayed in a Star Class suite

While I have stayed in a many different suites, I have yet to experience the very top tier suite experience on Royal Caribbean.

The Star Class suites are on Oasis and Quantum class ships, and the reason I have yet to give them a try is the price tag.  

I have done plenty of Junior Suites, Grand Suites and Owner Suites, but never booked my own Star Class room.  I have been inside of these palatial staterooms, but was never the person who slept every night in that room.

At some point, I really want to give it a try to see how it compares, especially for the opportunity to have access to a Royal Genie. I just need to find a Star Class room that does not so closely resemble the price of a new car.

What is something you haven't done on Royal Caribbean yet?

Now that I have shared my list, what are the things you have yet to try on a Royal Caribbean cruise? What is at the top of your must-do list? Share your thoughts in our comments!

The plan for a $300 million cruise destination in Freeport, Bahamas may need to be adjusted given the major changes in the cruise industry.

The Bahamas tourism and aviation minister told Tribune Business that the sale of the Grand Lucayan resort and redevelopment of Freeport is still a go, but the deal will need to be adjusted from what was originally planned.

Dionisio D’Aguilar said the Royal Caribbean joint venture, Holistica, "still seem to be interested" in the redevelopment, but need to restructure the terms of the deal because of the major blow to the cruise industry COVID-19 and associated shutdown have had on the cruise industry.

Holistica is a new company formed between Royal Caribbean and ITM Group that seeks to develop cruise ports around the world.

“It may not be the deal we had prior to March 3, but to say it’s not going anywhere would be an incorrect conclusion. They [the Holistica partners] still seem very interested, and you have a wiling seller and a willing buyer negotiating terms. The willingness is still there.”

Mr. D’Aguilar did not disclose details on the ongoing negotiations between the government and Holistica.

In early March, Royal Caribbean announced a multi-phase project that will redevelop the Freeport cruise ship terminal to bring a new world-class destination with a one-of-a-kind hotel, convention center, water adventure park and more.

He did say that Royal Caribbean and ITM may be adjusting their valuation and projections given COVID-19’s continued devastating impact on the cruise business and tourism in general.

"Obviously August 2020 is not the same as February 2020, so obviously you are going to change some terms to take into consideration the facts have changed. It’s very unfortunate, but it is what it is."

Mr D’Aguilar also conceded that talks on the Freeport Harbour component of the deal, which are taking place between IBM/Royal Caribbean and the Hutchison Whampoa-controlled Freeport Harbour Company, “need to be concluded”, although he added: “I’m advised it’s moving in the right direction.”

#With the Bahamian economy shut down for four to five of the past six months, the minister said Royal Caribbean/ITM’s construction start still remains delayed by around six months.

St. Kitts and Nevis announced on Monday it will allow two Royal Caribbean cruise ships to stop at St. Kitts.

Vision of the Seas and Rhapsody of the Seas will be able to harbour at Port Zante.

Lindsay Grant, Minister of Tourism, said each crew member will be given an RT-PCR test upon arrival and quarantine for 14 days on their vessels. When all crew members receive a negative test at the end of their quarantine, they will be allowed to disembark while observing social distancing and mask-wearing safety measures.

There are currently zero active cases of COVID-19 on the island.

"The health and the safety of our citizens, residents, and of our visitors remains our number one priority […] We have taken all the necessary health and safety protocols to ensure that St Kitts and Nevis remains safe." Minister Grant noted. "This assistance represents the true nature of our people to support others in a time of need," he added.