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We just landed in Miami 2 hours ago after 12 hours of travel through snowstorms from Vancouver to find our Symphony sailing tomorrow is cancelled. Literally got the notification at the second wheels touched down. Obviously disappointed but we knew things are crazy and anything was possible. First reaction was let’s see if we can get on another Royal cruise sailing in the next day or two. Unfortunately Royal has all sailings through January frozen for new booking and no one at customer service was any help. Ever the optimist, my wife got on the phone with Norwegian and long story short, we are boarding on Norwegian Joy in 17 hours. What a wild ride!!

EVERYWHERE has had covid cases over the last several weeks! I am like you, how I feel about going changes daily, sometimes several times a day. I’m not a doctor, I didn’t stay at a holiday inn express, I have no crystal ball. My OPINION is this increase has to do with: 1. Omicron 2. Holidays 3. Increased testing because of #2 4. Increased capacities on ships because of #2. I HOPE all of the above will subside before I have to make my decision.

Sending good vibes to all of you guys in the MEI family. We all thought this nightmare was pretty much over.

Before I share about hubby’s next trip to Royal’s medical, I’m going to share a funny story, that happened between hubby’s accidents. Hubby and I shared a table with two single women for dinner in the dining room. They were a bit older than “Old White Woman.” Our table was a nice four topper right by a window looking out at the ocean. It was nice, but not really a great deal, because once it gets dark you are looking out into darkness. But that’s a story for another time. The two women sharing our table were the type that waited for the dining doors to open because they had a “thing” about being the first people seated. So, hubby and I, did find it a bit “odd” that they were not already seated when we arrived to our table for dinner. We were also stunned that the bread from the basket was warm. Previous nights, the bread basket contained bread that was the temperature of its last home. Hubby and I quickly ate our piece of warm bread and grabbed another. By this time, our waiter showed up to get our drink orders. He looked a bit confused as we answered. Hubby and I figured he must be filling in for our normal waiter and having a hard time adjusting to a new table in the middle of the cruise. Just when I finished buttering another piece of warm bread, my hubby out of nowhere said: Old White Woman we are at the wrong table. I told him he must of had too much bourbon because here’s the wall we sit against and there’s the ocean to our side. Hubby said we were at the right table but at the right table on the “wrong” floor. After a quick discussion about whether I should leave the buttered warm bread and whether we should attempt to “clean up” the table we decided to leave the “crime” scene fast - with the bread.

Woah.....I read that subject way differently!! lol

It was a wild ride for sure! I was ready to cut our losses and book a couple nights in a hotel and head back but my wife always finds a way to make things happen

Well she’s also a good buffer between hubby & I, married 41 years and the 24/7 togetherness of retirement can be………. challenging

Get a few drinks in me and I'm going to seriously mispronounce that name with certain expletive!

Ahem, that would be Shippy McShipface of the Seas, thank you very much. You can always put a Boaty McBoatface on a Shippy McShipface, but not the other way around.

This blog post may be helpful: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022/01/07/i-felt-extremely-well-supported-passenger-shares-what-happens-after-testing-positive

I would hope post cruise testing gets nixed since the vaccines haven't shown much affect in preventing omicron infection.

My take on this situation: I feel safer on a cruise than I do in my own city. On a cruise everyone is vaccinated and wears a mask. At the local grocery store I have no idea if someone is vaccinated (likely not here) and no one except employees is wearing a mask.

Just walk around the public areas without a mask. A crew member will magically appear and hand you one. I’ve witnessed this happening, especially after shows and during pictorials on the Promenade.

And NCL was the first to cancel almost half of their ships sailing. 100% vaccination means nothing anymore. Time to transition from pandemic to endemic

And so it begins...I'm glad we had looked at other alternatives. Still flying to MCO on Sat Jan 15th. I've always wanted to drive to the Keys, I'll get that chance if they cancel Harmony on the 16th.

True but Boaty McBoatface OF THE SEAS is NOT!!!

Photos from St. Maarten and our brewery tour

I've had to log out and in on the app before new results showed up, but with the printed copy of the results PDF you are fine. I like to have paper copies in case of technology fails at the port or I do something stupid like dropping my phone 100' from the terminal check in line. I've never shown the app results to board a cruise. I've always used the PDF.

‘Atta girl! I like the way your wife thinks!

that's like the Hail Mary of last-second cruise rebookings. good work!

Ah, so like all things Star Class, ship and Genie dependent lol

That's normal. Same as Negative.

Ditto. And also feeling sad for the passengers sitting in their hotel rooms planning to board tomorrow. That's a lot of dollars wasted on travel to Miami due to a last minute cancellation. I don't want to see that repeated in three weeks and will monitor closely. Hoping that we've hit the peak and will begin to see a plunge in covid cases very soon.

I’m really hoping this is the beginning of the end of this frickin virus. At least the pandemic part of it. Really hope all those infected with Omicron get long lasting immunity to future variants. It’s the only way out of this black hole

I am curious to why the cruise lines have not put in place that everyone over the age of 5 is now required to be vaccinated before cruising. Most of the blogs I have read of people that have contracted Covid was either with or around an unvaccinated person between 5-12. Just curious to when the cruise lines are going to change to include everyone 5 and above since the vaccine is available. I do not think it is fair to require everyone else and not the young children.

Sometimes life isn't fair, sadly. I think requiring vaccinations at this point isn't fair. I also don't find it fair that certain lines mandate the vaccines even if you are allergic to the ingredients in them (I am and cannot have another dose per the doc), thus potentially permanently kicking you off the ships. I certainly hope they never require the boosters, or I will have to cancel all of our trips.

Hell, I don't need a few drinks in me.....I f-ed it up just reading it!

Most of these ships haven't been sailing yet and/or have a positive rate that is hitting double digits. I am sure they would rather move healthy crew to less ships and sail that way. Harmony, Allure, Oasis, Mariner, Indy, Freedom, Anthem, Navigator and Liberty have less positivity rates and should sail without issue. I cruise in like 2 days and think my Indy sailing will be fine as I haven't even heard of many cases.

In hindsight it'll blow over quickly. But it'll feel like forever to get through it.

I booked ours right away in the hopes I could catch a cruise planner sale but that didn’t happen. The opposite happened. Prices reached as high as $1899. When the cabana became unavailable to book through cruise planner it didn’t say “sold out” like other excursions, it said “check onboard” so it’s possible your genie can check with the onboard team. As others have said, keep checking frequently between now and then. I went back and forth on the cost but in the end this experience was the highlight of our cruise. I am so glad we did it. Good luck!

I received my shipping notice 1/6; I received my order 1/5.

I know the CDC just said the CSO still goes optional next week. But I still don't trust them to power play their way into more restrictions. That said I can't imagine there's any more impact on March cruises than there is now

Although you are correct that the vaccine is available to 5-11 year olds, it is not readily avalible worldwide. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/countries-vaccinating-children-against-covid-19-2021-06-29/ This maybe one reason why cruise lines are a little hesitant to mandate vaccines for 5-11 year olds. Many parents with kids in this age group from countries that do not have the vaccine would not be able to travel. @wordell1 brings up a very good point about testing. Also not all cases were spread by cruisers in this population. Many got sick on board because they tested negative prior to embarkation, but the testing occurred too early in the incubation period and they became sick while on board. This is another reason why I do not understand this mass hysteria about there being cases on board. There will always be cases of covid on board. It is highly improbable for there not to be a single case of covid onboard known or unknown. I also do not understand the infatuation of the media to call every case of covid in a vaccinated individual a "Breakthrough" case. The vaccines developed were never intended to prevent all covid infections. They were developed to prevent severe to life threatening illness. So a breakthrough case would be a vaccinated individual that needed hospitalization and or ventilation. Overall I have not heard of any cases on board any of the cruise lines that required the infected who was vaccinated to be ventilated and hospitalized. I do think that some time Q1 timeframe we will see RCL and other cruise lines mandate vaccinations for this group.

No. You will get your final bill delivered to your stateroom while your asleep on your last night, they slip it under your door and tip toe down the hall very quietly. If you owe anything you will have to stand in a line and pay it before you get off the ship. You can avoid that by setting up all of you and your travel partners charges on board paid by a credit card. You can do this when you are setting up your cruise account online before you leave home for the port of embarkation. Charges made at the bars, beauty salons, massages, etc. will have an automatic 18% gratuity added and you will be presented a bill that you must sign. There will be an additional line for a "Tip" if you want to add that to the bill or you can leave some cash with the bill. That's up to you, not required. I always bring a lot of $1, $5 and $20 dollar bills that I give to the porters, bartenders, wait staff and cabin attendant. For the wait staff and cabin attendant you can bring envelopes from home or get them from Guest Services. Just don't wait until the last night if you decide to get them from Guest Services, do it early or you will be in a very long line.....and that is NOT fun your last night! Oh yes, on your table in the MDR, if you dine there, will be little name card holders with the names of your waitstaff. I take a picture of that so I can write their names(with correct spelling) on the tip envelope. Hope this helps and Welcome Aboard! Ask away with any questions you may have. There are a lot of experienced cruisers here who will gladly answer you and give you friendly advice!

Actually, you can go to guest services, hopefully prior to the last evening when the lines get long, and fill out a form that allows them to provide an extra tip to anyone you wish to name. They will then charge that to your sea pass card and ultimately to the credit card you have on file to pay for expenses. You either have a credit card on file or you need cash to pay your bill before you leave the ship. ( I have heard that for those that have neither, they have very high interest rate financing document you have to sign to get off - no you can't stay another week, and wash dishes.) Although I do agree with those that say the best thing to do is bring cash and either hand it out as you go or put it into one of the WOW envelopes at the end, last night putting the persons name on it and then hand that to them or drop off a guest services.

I have a friend who went on a Princess cruise and the passenger count was only 250!

I'm determined to not worry about the end of the month for at least another week or two. I just refuse, lol.

We did a B2B in August on AOS, and the first week was close to 600, and the second week dropped to just under 500 (first week of school that week)

Too many cases onboard = ports denying docking. Royal got around this at CocoCay by transferring sick crew onto vision. Shows being cancelled and venues closed because not enough crew. In my opinion, it IS mostly a crew issue. Yes passengers are testing but I believe the bulk of cases are crew. Without ports/shows/open venues, the ship cannot really offer what passengers are paying for. Plus I think the ship (Symphony) needs a breather. She needs time to collect herself. (Sounds like she’s about to have a nervous breakdown )

Also in the crossing my fingers boat for Harmony!

I cancelled a cruise last week for this week. My TA was told there was no cash refund because I had Air2Sea booked. This was NOT a FCC booking. Good luck. Seems to me I am punished for having utilized Air2Sea. I will be cancelling my flights by Celebrity airbooking for my summer cruise. I don't need their BS. I can book refundable via the airlines and get my full $$ back if I cancel, unlike utilizing the cruise company, where i need to cancel prior to final payment to get my refund.

This does not surprise me at all. The Holiday sailing capacity issue I feel is directly responsible for this. Everyday on the Odyssey more and more crew were missing. They need this pause to get the crew healthy again, just my humble opinion. Crew is tested weekly we were told with or without symptoms. The numbers climbed while we were on board...and then the contact tracing. I hope they extend CWC now too!

Found this rendering of UFS on Wonder of the Seas on PInterest today. It appears to be consist with the other construction photos I have seen. Of course still no complete floor plan. https://pin.it/47KmcAA Wonder of the Seas.jfif

We all got additional OBC for missing St. Thomas yesterday so I booked some additional wine tastings in vintages. Yesterday was the Italian tasting. Today is Mystery wines where you have to guess the grape! Also I found the adult only pool yesterday and really enjoyed the "waves" on the side of the pools.

They do have Saturday-Saturday itineraries. They are just limited to only being able to do one large ship a day out of a particular port terminal. Oasis sails out on Sundays but Symphony is doing the Saturday-Saturday itinerary currently.

I'm sure they have done the research and see that it's easier for people to do Sunday-Sunday for a 7 night cruise, since they probably fly in on Saturday and may only take 5 days off of work. That is our situation. a Saturday-Saturday cruise means we need 6 work days off. Our big issues coming from SDF is not "going out of the way" for any destination. I really don't need to stop in Baltimore on my way to Orlando. We only fly Southwest, so we have to deal with what they offer, but it works out best for us in the rewards program and they generally are the cheapest option to book with directly when you include many of the fees that others charge (we always check at least one bag). We don't get a lot of nonstop options from SDF, so we just try to get the best layover options

Just before covid (feb '19) we did WDW stayed at the Coronado, then had Coco Beach shuttle pick us up morning of the cruise (it takes about hour and half). They had another family in the van with us. Dropped us off at the RCI terminal. I think we had a 10AM pick up.

Supply and demand. Mid-day Sunday flights will always be more expensive and more in demand. Not for cruising, but people going home from a weekend getaway and business travelers going to their next work site for the following week.

I think it would be nice to have a "You are here" on the deck maps like they do near the elevators on the big screens with other ship info.