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Very well said! Here's a little something I had to remember earlier, and I hope it helps someone.

I know that for a lot of people outside of this community, it may seem silly to be so upset about canceled/changed cruises. However, we all understand that vacations like these are a way to escape reality and make once-in-a-lifetime moments. We all come together to enjoy these fantastic ships and destinations and we truly get to appreciate the good times. So given the hard times at the moment and what may come up, I wanted to take a moment to appreciate this community. We will get through this and cheers to our next cruise vacation (whenever it may be)! (Also thanks to @Matt obviously lol)

That is really cool! We need cruising to come as soon as possible when its safe of course.

Here Are Some Videos From My Last Sea On board Mariner OTS. This Is Part Two. I Hope You Will Enjoy The Video.

Or maybe Royal will do a good thing like DCL and push back final payment dates by 30 days. ?

How about the following in lights: "$500 in OBC" ?

??? I might just be willing to trade the proposed credit for 14 C&A points a week for the duration of the shutdown!!!

LOVE THIS EFFORT ON CARNIVALS PART...ROYAL CARRIBEAN...COME UP WITH SOMETHING LIKE THIS....WE ALL WILL RETURN WHEN THIS IS OVER....

All lies !!!!!!!!!!! According to a guy at work who spends FARRRRRRRRRRRRR to much time on the dark web this is all a conspiracy going back as far as mankind evolved, it's all to do with JFK, Disney, Tom Hanks, Royal Family ( The list is endless ) and we will all find out the truth soon enough!! Am i concerned about Covid - 19? not really what will be will be! am i concerned about guy at work ? OH YEAH ....... The world has gone absolutely crazy and where and how it started should be left to the experts to work out and deal with! we should not listen to rumours or random shit on the internet that NO ONE can confirm or deny because doing so may just create more issues

Well said and I am for some reason all of sudden Mr Optimistic. I say this is over or calms down much early than people think. I'm not sure our Oasis cruise in early May will go on but I am thinking positively. We will get through this together!

Well, you should be making Pinnacle soon !

“Speedy” was Dan’s call sign when he was a USMC pilot. Lol

We loved the Radiance Southbound. The ports of call were fantastic, Juneau, Icy Strait, Skagway, and Ketchikan. We spent four days in Anchorage before taking the train to Seward, so there is another plus. There is so much to see and do in the Anchorage area, that four days was not even close to enough time spent there. My son will be bringing a friend for plenty of fly-fishing in Seattle before embarkation and then also while on the cruise. Because of the cost comparison for what we like to do, pre-cruise activities and port excursions (read: fishing), and the added cost that we are picking up for my son's buddy, selecting the Quantum sailing was a no brainer. If it were just the three of us, we would choose another Radiance southbound. This Quantum sailing, as mentioned by @SpeedNoodles (I call you "Speedy" when I think of you and your posts) and @twangster, does have some fun port stops that others sailings, like Serenade, don't have. For our particular sailing, 8/9/2020, port stops are the same as the Radiance North/South sailings with one exception, and that is Skagway. Instead of Skagway, we will be visiting Victoria, BC. I hear it's a "yawner," but that's alright given all that the ship has to offer. I will research this more, though. The fly-in-fly-out fly fishing excursion in Juneau was fun and could get them to remote places to fish. This is a picture of my son and his guide, Zachary from Bear Creek Fly-fishing Outfitters: This is what I hooked into in Juneau at Tracy's ("If lov'n you is wrong, I don't wanna be right"): The picture doesn't do the king crab leg justice. It was HUGE! The fly-fishing in Icy Strait (Hoonah) was a lot of fun, too. Below are pictures of my husband and a Char (aka Dog Toothed Salmon) he hooked into and me with my pink salmon (aka Humpy). For the squeamish, that is not blood on the Char's lip. That is the breeding coloring of this beautiful fish during its final trek back home. The Pink and I were not getting along in the photo. Our son likes to tie his flies, so on our next sailing, he will be using his own. Of the three of us, he is the most accomplished fly fisherman. Living in the Ozarks, we have abundant clean streams and waterways for this type of fishing. Below are two pics of him hooking into one of the many pinks he caught just outside of Icy Strait: I should mention that on the guided stream trips, one of the guides always had a shotgun on his shoulder. It was the end of July, and the bears are hungry for the salmon swimming upstream. No bears encountered us. Just as here in the Ozarks, and especially more so up north, we must be "bear aware." Ketchikan afforded some regular open water salmon fishing. We got to ship our catch home, and it was delicious. The bottom line, we can't wait to go back and excited to try a big ship. Flying out on a float plane ensures that we get to some pretty remote areas to wet the line. We prefer the Alaskan cruises, and like @SpeedNoodles "Speedy," we have Norway/Finland on the bucket list.

I believe that is the Breeze in Port Canaveral.

No refunds. But I did not get a run around from them, zero nonsense. They let us re-book another flight that was less than the one we lost. And the remainder of the money can be used at any time, no questions asked. I just really appreciated that compared to some of the run around things I have heard from some other companies.

I loved the way that Delta handled our whole mess last week. Both my parents (who cancelled their Panama Canal cruise) and I booked through them and could not be happier.

I'm more optimistic: Based on China's cases, the virus started about mid January and on about Feb. 4th the upward curve started to head downward. So maybe from about a month from when it started in USA, it will start declining. My prediction is May 1st for Royal Caribbean to start sailing. But April 11th would be wonderful!

People get it confused all the time, it's not the Jones Act (Merchant Marine Act of 1920), it is the PVSA (Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886) that prohibits foreign flagged ships from doing closed-loop voyages that do not visit a foreign port. While the Jones Act might get some waiver to increase commerce, it is unlikely the PVSA would fall under that as there is nothing to really gain by loosening it. We can blame the Cleveland administration all we want, but RCCL is completely capable of flagging a ship in the US to do Hawaiian cruises. They choose not to pay the associated taxes and hire and pay the people they would be required to with a US flagged ship. I'm not saying they are wrong to not want to do that, I really like the international crew on most cruise ships, but they are just as capable of doing it as NCL is. NCL just chose to do it, neither RCCL nor anybody else has at this time. Welcome to the forum!

This one is for @SpeedNoodles. https://www.wnd.com/2020/03/penguins-leave-habitat-go-exploring-aquarium-forced-shut-visitors/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=wnd-brief&utm_campaign=dailypm&utm_content=brief

This article just showed up as a link from a Brit YouTuber I’m subscribed to. Article published today. Italy wants the world to see what this virus is really like. https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-they-call-it-the-apocalypse-inside-italys-hardest-hit-hospital-11960597 Key quote: I’m not one to pray, but sending prayers to the people of Italy that they come out the other side of this soon. This is starting to look like 1918 in a scary way. Hopefully other countries see this, spread the word, and people who have thought all the instructions to stay home was just hype (I’m looking at all those college kids who decided to go to Miami Beach for spring break) will finally get it.

It seems that Royal wants to try as long as possible before cancelling more cruises and extending the dates of closure. I'd just keep holding tight for further clarification from them. I too have a cruise in May and waiting for them to cancel it for me so I can get a refund.

The issue is that whenever the idea of repealing the PVSA comes up we are thinking about it from the limited scope of cruiselines. PVSA affects any vessels that operate in US waters. Repealing it entirely I don't see would ever happen. It's a very pro-USA economy act that covers fishing vessels, ferries, casino boats, etc as well as cruiseships. Rewriting it to provide an exclusion for cruiselines is a possibility, but I don't know that the cruiselines ever thought it was worth it to fight that fight. I could see perhaps an Executive Order at the Federal level that would halt the Customs Border Patrol from fining the cruiseships for not visiting their foreign ports due to the COVID-19 situation.

The only time a cancellation fee is invoked is if you cancel outright or change the ship or sail date. If you are upgrading from one category to another on the same sailing there would be no fee for doing so. The only possible exception would be if you downgraded from a full suite to a non-suite they MIGHT assess you a $100 PP fee but that is not your situation so I would not expect any fee at all for making the changes you have described. It's hard to quantify the "extra" that the balcony gives you over an interior. #1, there is more room, overall, so that's enough for me, right there. However, whether or not you would get "use" out of a balcony during the cold months out of NJ is so personal. For me, even if I do not go out and sit or stand on the balcony that much, it is still so nice to have the natural light from outside and the ability to open that door and get fresh air. For me, the extra $530 is a no-brainer. Overall, you will enhance your experience by having more room and the balcony accessibility, even if you don't use it that much. That actually sounds like a great deal to me !!

We're hoping our 5/31/20 sailing doesn't get cancelled, but we too plan on booking one in late SEPT or OCT with a refundable deposit just in case! We just have to think about how the potential FCC (if we wait for Royal to cancel to get the 125%) and final payment due date for the newly booked cruise will work! I believe it's currently 30 days from cancellation until we have access to the FCC. Hmmmm.... it may be a tight timeline for us if Royal waits until the last minute to cancel! The other thing that stinks is that we will likely loose out on the better CP sales and dining time slots, etc., the longer we wait to book! ? 71 days... hopefully!

Thanks! Will help with planning. Since my wife works in a school and the two kids are in college we'll be looking at something in December since American Airlines current offer is free change but fly by 12/31. We're in Philly and airfare now to San Juan is a little less than what we were paying to go to Vancouver and back from Anchorage. Will have to get @michelle to look for Southern Caribbean perhaps!

I have no idea when it will resume, but I fall around the Labor Day camp. While we currently have a May 2020 cruise booked, I’m 80% sure that will be cancelled so we booked 2 diff refundable options to lock in prices before FCCs drive up prices more. We have Aug 30th and Nov 29th booked. Nov was my idea and August my parents. Holding both to see who (if anyone) is right.

Same here - we were sailing 5/15. I'm less concerned about the cruise since the credit is good til 12/31/2021 and we could just do next May. Where I may get burnt is on airfare. I have $3K in airfare invested with American Airlines on 4 tickets (wife and I and 2 kids). Right now they are giving free changes but you must start trip by 12/31/2020 and I think it will be 4 tickets so I don't get a $3K lump to use how I want. SO, what does one do with (4) $750 airfares and $6k in FCC? As for FCC - do I get a lump? Or is it by cruiser like the airfare? Funny thing is, 28 years ago my house was being foreclosed on. Now I'm in a situation where I need to figure out how to use $9K in vacation cash. I am truly blessed! I truly feel like a heel asking this during sicce trying times but at least its a distraction....

I'm just hoping that if they do extend their resumption of cruises, they'll push out FCCs or refunds quickly. I'm really trying hard not to cancel my original June sailing and go full-on with my July sailing (Canada/New England), but I worry if I wait too much longer, I won't get the FCC quickly enough, and I'll put a bit of extra financial strain on myself. ? I'm not very good at this whole patience thing. ?

As of now NOTHING official from RCI about anything past April 10 or Alaska- so hang tight! Hoping for some good news !

btw, if it's not obvious -- I'm an avid scientist at heart, if not by profession. My current career is in web application design and programming, but my Bachelors is in biology with a concentration in molecular biology and genetics. I also put in two years at Hoffman La-Roche doing cancer research before deciding that I didn't have the temperament for a career that's defined by years of failure with only rare successes. But I still keep up with science and developments along with whatever is going on in the computer science world.

Day 4 – Nassau The first two days of the cruise didn’t go by fast but now that we were stopping in ports the days started to fly by! Usually when we do this route, we do Cococay first, so it was unusual for us to do Nassau first and not get in there until 1PM. Four of us planned to do the Aquarium at Nassau tour through Royal Caribbean. My husband and I have done this tour a few times but since we were with a few who had never been we thought it would be fun for them. Yen met us on Deck 4 at 1:15 and escorted us off the ship and to the front of the line where wristbands were being handed out on the pier. We waited for a little while and then they had everyone with tours walk to the end of the pier. As I mentioned, we have done this before but the amount of people doing some sort of excursion was insane. The lines and the standing was so long and it was warm (thus the resulting V neck t-shirt sunburn I had). We all regretted saying that we didn’t need water when Yen asked us! We finally got on the shuttles and off we went to Atlantis. Out of all of times that we have done this same tour, this was by far the worst. The headphones weren’t working at first and usually, this tour brings you through the aquarium, around the outside of the grounds and then through the shark tunnel. After she walked us around the aquarium and near the pools the tour ended which was not what we were used to. We wanted to still see the shark tunnel, the baby turtle area and walk around still. Unfortunately, the shark tunnel was closed (it looked like there was some water leaking from the tank and it was closed). We did get to see the baby turtles and everyone said that was the highlight of the day. This first picture is of the tunnel the floating tube water park ride takes you through – I would love to do that sometime: We got back to the ship around 5 and had dinner at Jaime’s Italian with all 10 of us. Once again, all of our drinks were waiting for us at our table. The waiter brought us all of the appetizers for the table (two meat planks, Garlic Prawns, Arancini, Garlic bread, Bruschetta, etc.) We each ordered our own dinners and then we got a dessert plank with everything from the menu. Talk about food coma!! I don’t think I have ever eaten that much in my life! I am terrible at taking pictures at dinner but I can attest, the lamb chops and lasagna were both amazing!! Headed down to the casino after dinner to see my favorite bartenders and play some slots and Let it Ride. No big wins but we always have fun! We already earned Prime for the year so we didn’t need anymore points but we still gambled for fun.

I have noticed that I haven't seen an RCL promotional email land in about two weeks +/-.

There are valid reasons why the FDA approval process is lengthy. While cutting red tape sounds great in a press conference, if that cuts corners in the FDA approval process that may not be a good thing for a lot of valid reasons. If additional funding is provided so some phases of the approval process can be accelerated that's another matter.

Personally, I do not believe a single word of anything coming out of China. I think the chances that they have -0- new cases is -0-. They've just quit testing.

I get the safety issues ...but do you really think if able they will go months and months with ships docked? I cant see it.

If all else fails you can always hook your laptop up to your largest TV. Put on your cruising clothes and watch live blogs of cruises....I am sure we are all stocked up to make our own DBP. If that makes you sad, given this trying time, do what I do. Look at videos of cats, or any animal, riding out social distancing.

Yes, I have seen it before. Often two rooms are less than four in one room. We tend to book holiday sailings, so the 4-berth rooms are in demand.

I was 53 when I took my first cruise on the beautiful Freedom of the Seas. Our fifth will be on April 26 ( #stillgoing! ) on Harmony, but nothing can replace the phenomenal memories of that first cruise. Mind you, I was so naive that I thought we had to wait on the dock with our luggage, etc, so when we got to the terminal and the porters took our bags, I was too happy. I'm tellin' ya - when I first walked onto that ship into the Promenade, I know my mouth was agape for 10 minutes. It was so much more than I ever had imagined. The entire cruise was phenomenal, including the wonderful dinners in the MDR, the Solarium, the ports of call (especially when we went to Orient Beach; my gosh how spectacular that was), even the drive home was easy and uneventful. I wish I had more money and more time to cruise a lot. It is so fantastic, and the Royal crewmembers make it so much more enjoyable. 37 days!

I have found over the years that buying property is the way to go. I purchase as much as I can, even the less expensive ones. But I don't really care for Boardwalk or Park Place. There is a big pay off once in awhile, but the chances that people actually land on them is not worth the expensive. I also like the railroads and utilities!

The Suez Canal would be interesting. Has anyone ever done that?

Well all the casinos are closed....so stocks it is....too bad I have to wait till Monday for my $$ transfers to all be in place to move in. Will probably be back up at 30,000 by then with my luck ?

Los Angeles to the Galapagos - however many days it takes to get there, balcony suite, and then just leave me there with the Blue-Footed Boobies and tortoises.

I'd extend my Celebrity Summit sailing to 21 days and make the following changes: (Day 1) Embark NJ (Day 2) Sea Day (Day 3) Halifax, NS (Day 4) Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown) (Day 5) St. John's (Day 6) Sea Day (Day 7) Sea Day (Day ? Qaqortoq, Greenland (Day 9) Prins Christian Sund (cruising day) (Day 10) Sea Day (Day 11) Reykjavik (arrive at 8 AM instead of 2 PM) (Day 12) Reykjavik (extra day) (Day 13) Reykjavik (depart at 5 PM instead of 1 PM) (Day 14) Icelandic fjord exploration along the northwest coast (Day 15) Akureyri (arrive at 8 AM instead of 11 AM, and depart at 5 PM as already scheduled) (Day 16) Sea Day (Day 17) Sea Day (Day 18) Edinburgh, Scotland (Day 19) Aberdeen, Scotland (Day 20) Sea Day (Day 21) Dublin

I have to change that up some, Departure Port Day 1 San Diego Day 2 Cruising Day 3 Cabo San Lucas, MX Day 4 Puerto Vallarta, MX Day 5-6 Cruising Day 7 Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala Day 8 Cruising Day 9 Puntarenas, Costa Rica Day 10 Cruising Day 11 Panama Canal Day 12 Colon, Panama Day 13-14 Cartagena, Columbia Day 15-16 Aruba Day 17 Curacao Day 18 Bonaire Day 19-20 Cruising Day 21 Turks & Caicos Day 22-23 Cruising Day 24 Fort Lauderdale

I never answered my own question but I would love a TA on a quantum class ship. Somewhere between 11 and 14 days would be perfect. I think I would like maybe a cruise that departs from Southampton but ends up in a Western Caribbean itinerary including CocoCay. I would definitely book a Jr suite or higher depending on who is traveling.

I'd love a Panama canal cruise that includes a Western Caribbean itinerary on one end, and a Mayan Riviera on the other.

+1. I'm not holding my breath on this. I think we will get the FCC sans the +25%.

Actually.... it's a all been codified into US law. While it may have been the Jones Act or The PVSA in origin, technically about 15 years ago those all sort of wrapped into various parts of US law (46. U.S.C. § 50101 and 46 U.S.C. § 55103 plus others). Origins of both impact the cruise industry. The Jones Act was originally conceived to apply to merchant shipping but as written parts of it apply to any vessel, cargo or cruise (or other) in US waters. Percentages of US steel in a ship, percentage of US workers on board, cabotage, etc. are items from Jones that apply to cruise ships while the concept of closed loop and distant foreign port comes (plus other items) come from the PVSA. There will not be any waivers anytime soon. Doing so would have ramifications beyond what anyone could imagine. The concept of cabotage, picking up a passenger (or a thing like cargo) in one US origin and dropping them (it) off in another US destination applies to airlines as well. You ever won't see foreign carries such as Qantas, Air Canada or British Airways picking up a passenger in say New York and dropping them in Los Angles. Nor will you see American, Delta or United (or any US airline) picking up a passenger in Sydney and dropping them off in Brisbane just as an example. International agreements and conventions rule the movement of passengers and who can move who within a country versus to a foreign country. They are delicately negotiated between foreign countries. Many countries have variations of laws that apply to cabotage although some enforce them for airlines more so then for ocean travel because many countries have no domestic maritime industry they are trying to protect. Believe it or not there are significant international conventions that govern the maritime industry including the maximum time any one person can work on ship. If a ship worker wanted to work two back to back contracts by maritime law and convention they can't if it exceeds established time frames. Hours per days, week, month etc. are as well. Many of these were established for maritime personnel before cruising became a thing. If you think a cruise ship worker has it bad there are plenty of maritime ship employees on various other forms of ships that have it much worse. Today they have it somewhat better because of how the merchant marine industry mistreated it's workers many decades ago. It wasn't the cruise ship industry that drove the creation of these protections as many people believe. The day any cruise line is granted a waiver or exemption from US Law there would be an avalanche and ripple effects through many closely or somewhat related industries. No one is going to upset the carefully balanced apple cart that allows cruise ships (and other 'carriers') to operate as they do today. A cruise line is just another "carrier" in a complicated system that governs all "carriers" - planes, trains, ships and others. The reason Puerto Rico isn't subject to enforcement (at the moment) is that there is no US carrier attempting to operate passenger service on a maritime route to the US mainland. If NCL gave up it's Hawaii operation, it's conceivable that eventually Hawaii could possibly be subject to a similar temporary waiver. Keywords are conceivable, eventually and possibly. The story of the NCL's ship that qualify as "US ships" versus "foreign flagged" is complicated and a very long story. I don't see them giving up on that and any waiver granted to any foreign flagged vessel would surely be met with legal challenges that would go on for many years.

I would absolutely LOVE for there to be a Jones Act Waiver! There used to be a 2 day cruise to nowhere that left from Norfolk VA, that had to go by the wayside partially due to the Jones Act.