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Hi everyone, I know we get heated debating which dessert is the best one to order, or if a balcony room is worth it, but let's keep these basic rules in mind when chatting here. No profanity No personal insults No political discussion No debating religion Keep your posts relevant and accurate to each specific thread. We can all have our little fun within each thread but please make sure the information you're putting out there is correct and current. Topics not related to Royal Caribbean may be removed. Posts or comments encouraging cruisers to brea

Okay, I'm just relieved that this is direction this thread is headed in...

Good luck to all my fellow crew members who are currently on Quantum Of The Seas. Lets prove to the world that cruising can be done in a healthy and safe way! Hopefully it won't be too much longer before I get asked to rejoin a cruise ship, and head back to work. I'm amazed at how much love for the cruising there still is, and it's people like you that will keep this industry alive!

Look man, it's not an addiction. I can quit whenever I want to.

I was on a call today and we were told that in reality it is taking them more like 45 business days on the first round to complete the cancellations and while they have put that out for the other two rounds, they hope that they can do those faster. Royal is supposed to be sending an apology to all guests as well. Not posting this for people to attack on it, or comment really... Just wanted to post it somewhere so people would see this and maybe ask for everyone to be understanding of those that are working on all of these cancellations. The person that you call in at the call center is

People talking out loud to their phones held at arm's length.

I said I wasn't going to book another cruise and I held firm on that... I booked two.

There's an easy fix for that though .... Passenger attempts to buy drink ... ding ... i'm sorry sir the computer says you haven't completed the EMuster so your charge privileges have been deactivated, please follow these instructions to reactivate your account.

Perspective is the word of the day. My cruise was a luxury. A break from life and the daily grind. It's a bummer I have to reschedule, and have to cancel my PTO request.....but ......I have an awesome family, I have my health, and....now.....I get to pick out, and plan another cruise to replace the one we just lost! So....as upset we are at losing a vacation, and the hassle of canceling hotels and excursions and such....just ask yourself......

Don't tell anyone please....I have been stalking my "possible sailing" scheduled for Thanksgiving this November because I lost my August VP cabin this past August and I really needed this cabin. (only 1854 or 1804) and both were previously booked so unavailable for this sailing. Of course we have no assurance this sailing will go, BUT it appeared available Friday night, OMG can I switch ?? Enter Sharla our MEI guru, I called her and shot off an email, understanding fully it was after hours so I did all I could do. Within minutes of my email I received a response simply saying " I'm on i

Us poor people go to the windjammer for a cheese burger.

The NCL article shocks the system, how very very sad. BUT, your loyal patrons are here standing by waiting to sail again. Speaking for my family we found ourselves comparing our land vacations to sailing every time and each and every time sailing came out on top. We know you are looking outside the box for ways to get us sailing again for everyones safety BUT glance back and look within also. Our TA family is working so hard and partnering with your patrons for an amazing sailing future. Concentrate on accuracy + speed. Raise the bar and pay attention to the details of our refunds and FC

who are working especially hard during this Covidilemma - waiting on hold with the cruise companies (ALL of them!), rebooking, refunding, repricing, upgrading - WHATEVER. I imagine they are all putting in LOTS of extra hours to help their clients. (We're looking at you, M.E.I. folks, but also so many more of the great ones out there!). We appreciate you!

I know catchy title but the worst happened this week. I have a cruise for this Sunday, 8 March 2020 on Oasis of the Seas. We booked this cruise a year and half ago and was really looking forward to it. I woke up Tuesday morning with the room spinning out of control and feeling very nauseous. I knew that feeling, it was the flu. Knowing I couldn’t just ride it out I had to go to the doctors and get a note indicating my status to inform RCI. Under the rules I had to be 14 days well to sail and I was well within that window. So off I went to the walk-in clinic where they jabbed a cotton s

@Matt 's "perfect" MDR menu:

.......put down another deposit. Good grief. Our May Symphony was canceled, so rebooked for October with FCC, which will likely be canceled. Can’t Lift and Shift because we already have Odyssey booked for next October. This itinerary is rarely offered: St Thomas, St Maarten (our favorite), CocoCay. Next date: May 29, 2021. Start “browsing” availability. Hardly anything left. Panic! Go from JS this past May to oversized balcony October down to regular balcony next May. Call friends who we are booked with. Scan cabins. Find 2 together and bingo zippy, we are booked. I SWORE I would n

Omg I thought the same thing....

The name of it sounds like a tagline for underwear: "Lift & Shift for that Royal Wedgie."

Why must you knock before opening the refrigerator door ? Because you wouldn’t want to catch the salad, dressing. ba-dump-bump

I bet they were sharing the drink package as well. Just attempting to have a normal cruise board

I always try to stay positive but Royal has implemented an unprecedented change that should be a cause for concern for everyone. They are changing a ship, swapping an Oasis class ship to a Freedom class ship and arbitrarily moving guests into new cabins with no recourse, no refund and few options. This is unprecedented and it should be a cause for concern for anyone booking a Royal Caribbean cruise. The ship and cabin or cabin category you book may not be what you find yourself sailing. Without notice or communication your ship and cabin can be substituted to something else.

Not all media sites are the same, and some have no issues reporting on rumors without any confirmation or research. What I post on RoyalCaribbeanBlog reflects on me and my reputation, and I wont post rumors until there is strong evidence behind it. The rumors of Empress may end up being right at some point, but I need more to run on than "unnamed sources" by the same website that said Cunard and Seabourn were sold last month when they were not.

Wishing you the best through this weekend and beginning of next week. Stay safe, stay dry and enjoy that UHDP (unlimited home drink package)!

Same! I seriously feel you pain. This summer is our first staycation in I don’t even remember how long. It feels weird. Our solution? Desperate times and too long in dry dock make you do crazy things. With nowhere to go, we are building a pool, hot tub, and cabana right in our backyard! All inspired by Oasis Lagoon of course. Excavation just happened two days ago. You can take the cruise away from the girl, but you cannot take away the love.

It has been a crazy few days. Lots of back and forth between go and don’t go. Ultimately, a few things sealed the deal for us. Never were we worried about the virus on the ship. I am still of the mindset that the ship is likely one of the cleanest places at the moment. Quarantine on the ship was also an afterthought, because how bad could it be in the ATS? What really made us re-think over the last few days was the possibility of being further quarantined in Trenton (military base). That is where they are taking all the Canadians on the Princess ships. That does not sound like a gr

As you all know, Dan and I are in FL doing some house biz. We have finished all of that for now and are flying home tomorrow morning. We are staying at the Miami Airport Marriott tonite for a very early morning flight. While walking over to the bar at the Courtyard (so weird that everything at the Marriott is closed but the restaurant and bar at the adjacent Courtyard are open !) we happened upon a “registration” table for Royal Caribbean. Being the naturally curious (not to mention, nosy) person that I am, I stopped and chatted with the guy manning the table. He said that he was regis

I decided to hide the posts that had the alleged dates. On the one hand, if it's inaccurate it spreads false info. If it's true, well, it says confidential and I'm not sure how I feel about posting it. I hid the posts, so they may come back, it's an ethical dilemna and I'm not sure how I feel about it quite yet. I hope you all understand. I really try not to be overly censor things at all. I hate the idea of heavy moderation, but at the end of the day, I aim to ensure we spread the correct info here.

Even if ship introduces restrictions such as observing a 2m rule at bar i have it covered

Nope. I work in healthcare as an ICU RN. Wash your hands and dont cough or sneeze on people. Viruses come and go.

So I was frustrated that you could not read the sign so I snuck back over there to take a couple more pix.

Me, seeing that headline and opening this thread to see what's being talked about...

Right now, I don't care where I eat lunch just so long as I am ON THAT SHIP!!!

I'd love to say I'd come up with a great question but I'd likely go full caveman and just say "Need vacation. When cruise?"

Not concerned about a vaccine, my deciding factor will be what the "new" onboard experience is.

On the part of all this about this being a manual process...... I can tell you they have said that on other cruise cancellations BEFORE all of this. This is not like airlines that worked with Corporate travelers and had a system in place for tons of changes after final payment. I know that everyone is frustrated with this process, but please remember that this is a VERY UNUSUAL circumstance that EVERYONE finds themselves in and no one had a good plan for what would happen when the world shut down. The cruise lines have furloughed lots of people and have moved people from their normal jobs t

Did you know diarrhea is hereditary? It runs through your genes lol

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)

You've thought about it, you've dreamt about it, you've researched it - Are you going to do something about it? Lets have a look and see what I did. Many Many Many years ago, my parents took the whole family on cruises around the south pacific. I still have a hand carved fisherman's sail boat model from Fiji with 1977 carved into the side. (Hmmm 43 years ago) Back then you could throw coins over the side of the ship when in port and the local would swim down and pick them up, how times have changed. We are addict's, all it took for me then was a taste 43 yea

So my Iceland & Greenland cruise is officially canceled now, and I learned something very important that I wanted to share here. It appears that if you cancel a cruise that has been Lift & Shifted and you were past final payment when you did the Lift & Shift, you will be assessed the standard cancellation penalty that applied at the time the Lift & Shift was booked. That is, if you were in the first 15 days past final payment when you did the L&S, you would then be assessed a 25% cancellation penalty if you then cancel the sailing; doing the L&S between 15 and 30 days a

.... for those who have Drink Packages !!!

Their lawyer is rumoured to be considering a case against the virus since it diminished his potential income from this and the many other cases he claims to have against Royal.

It was our 7th wedding anniversary and we decided to take the 2019 holiday cruise on Mariner since we never had a honeymoon. We had so much fun but one of our favorite things is the unlimited dining package! We are foodies so we tried every restaurant. We went to Izumi Hibachi twice because the food was soooo good!

Well, we did it ! Put down a down payment to get started. Picked out a house and lot. Should be ready in just a bit more than a year. Meanwhile, we must return to VA and sell our house. We will move into something temp locally and move to FL when our new house is ready. We will be in a brand new phase of the development so right now, there is nothing but dirt and sand there. So, flying back early tomorrow. Upgraded to FC so happy about that. What a whirlwind ! It might sound like an impulse buy to some, but truthfully, this is our fourth trip to FL house-hunting. We trie

So this thread is as close as I can find to my L&S news. I'm hijackin' it. Last week @michelle booked the Royal Suite for me on Empress (11-22-20, 6 night Western Caribbean) with the express intent of L&S'ing it to next year. According to the website, the appropriate cruise to which to shift this would have been a 6 night Western Caribbean cruise on Odyssey. YIPPEE ! That sounds great. Since the appropriate shift from a RS on Empress to another ship is an Owner's Suite, I was happy with that idea. So she called and they stone cold refused to make the shift to Odyssey even th

Dipping their nautical toes into the water: https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23286-1-200-passengers-are-back-on-a-cruise-ship.html?fbclid=IwAR2uQk9ljA-NCqUVcy6OyLZ_b4m1n5hDkI8EVwETKPYQK9lpFCZqXCT0vXI

I don’t miss the muster drill

I have nothing to say, cruise related. Just wanted to say cheers, and hope everyone is having a great weekend. I'm spending the week at the beach with the wife and kiddos...NO WORK. It's not a cruise...but things could be worse..... I hope everyone takes a moment, in the near future, to reflect on this time, and hopefully come away from it with a better perspective. Easy for me to say, I know, but all the same....hope we can all approach this crazy time with some positivity and optimism.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I present a piece of credible evidence that my 1 August Symphony cruise MAY be sailing : Today, the cost of the day pass at Coco Cay nearly doubled !! Yesterday, it was $79 and today it is $149. Of course, there are other reasons for this price jump - it could be selling out...but I choose to see it as being evidence that we are going !! This cruise goes to both Labadee and Coco Cay, which would make it, seemingly, a top candidate for a "go" if ANY of the ships are going. Fingers crossed....

Just booked a cruise for my mom and I for next April. Our birthdays are 12 days apart. She'll be 75 next year and I'll be 50. We're celebrating with a Mother/Daughter birthday trip to Cozumel on the Brilliance! I'm so excited to start exploring these boards again!!!

It's one thing for the CDC to ban ships sailing longer itineraries due to public health concerns. It's another matter altogether for the CDC to become involved with how cruise lines market cruises. Someone needs to challenge this in court. It's a government overreach and potentially violates freedom of speech. "If you talk about cruises longer than 7 days we are going to shut you down". #DefundTheCDC.