twangster

Yep, that's why the new crew position was created. Title is something like "Digital Entertainment Manager" or some similar title. They started poping up on ships in the second half of 2019 and early 2020. The plan to move to digital included the paper going away. The CD's were told the time spent managing the paper version will be now invested to managing the digital version. The problem was the transition meant doing both the paper and digital versions and that meant twice the hours, not the same hours spent differently. CD staff did what they were used to, the paper updates and the digital version in the app was not updated. Guest complained, it was on post cruise surveys, Miami demanded answers "Why is this happening?". So the CD's told them, because we don't have more hours to give, we are all, already doing long hours every day. Hence the new position whose exclusive job it was to manage the app version. Then the pandemic hit before they could really go to it and make a difference that guests noticed.

It's an evolution. A long time from now all digital will be more widely accepted. Until then paper compasses will be offered upon request but the hope was that would steadily decline year after year.

Royal was already heading that direction and would have probably already made the switch if it could have figured out the technology. To address that they started adding a crew position to manage the cruise compass within the app. It was originally thrust upon the CD staff but it turned out to be more work than they expected so they created the new crew position, then the pandemic hit. Nonetheless the plan has long been to cut down on the paper compass and only distribute upon request. If you ever see the recycle center on a ship the paper cruise compass is a huge source of material that has to be dealt with. That was the motivation to cut down on paper copies. The highlighter thing is easy. Add activities to your calendar in the app, once they get working.

Print Seapass cards vertically like they do for >18 but < 21. Very easy to see who qualifies.

Let's be clear. The CDC is not saying everyone can discard the mask. Only vaccinated can discard the mask. If Florida doesn't allow the cruise line to ask the question, the cruise line has to assume everyone is unvaccinated therefore everyone must wear a mask. Furthermore there is no way the CDC is going to green light unvaccinated and unmasked cruising right now. To be clear I have no issues being around unvaccinated. However I am not going to put the mask back on so they can join the party. If they want to take the chance that's their choice but don't expect me to mask up to accommodate them and that would be the only way the CDC would allow cruising to occur without requiring vaccines right now.

That's challenging for all existing bookings. I don't want to sail on a ship where I have to endure protocols to accommodate unvaccinated.

More good news, cross posted in an Alaska thread. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/05/13/bill-allow-cruise-ships-sail-alaska-without-stopping-canada-passes-us-senate Things are quickly moving in the right direction on many levels.

Reopen the bookings! I'll go!

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/05/13/bill-allow-cruise-ships-sail-alaska-without-stopping-canada-passes-us-senate

Look at how fast the country is progressing. A week ago we would have had no idea this was coming. It's great news. A week from now more great news may be upon us. A week after that, even more great news.

One step at a time. It's all academic while the CDC is keeping ships from sailing in the US. Once cruise lines can clear the CDC hurdles we can look at the next speed bump.

Not if you scare the unvaccinated away. Hourly temperature checks, 2 masks at all times, etc. but only if unvaccinated.

More importantly it's still not clear that a state can control this at all. And if they can, can they do anything once the ship leaves state water sort of thing. While there is ample maritime convention that federal government regulations apply for ships involving a US port, I'm not sure there is any history of a state government having control over the entire voyage in the manner the federal government does. To me the whole thing is a political stunt. I don't think it would survive a day in court.

Another angle would be to pull a CDC. One set of rules for vaccinated, another set for unvaccinated. If you are willing to show proof of vaccination, these protocols apply (very few). If you choose to not show proof of vaccination, these protocols apply (including wearing masks, etc). This way they don't "require" proof of vaccination.

If required by federal regulation (CDC) I don't think a state can override that.

Suite Guaranty are back so it's something. Still odd.

Apex and Edge have Simply Sail rates too, but not for solo, must book with 2.

What do you call cheese that isn’t yours? Nacho Cheese.

Once you lose credibility or the appearance of losing credibility it's 100 times harder to gain it back. This new messaging of "vaccinate and you are free to go back to the old normal" has to roll down to cruising at some point. We'll soon see retailers eliminating their mask policies, then planes and trains will follow and with each step it's harder and harder for the excessive ship policies to be upheld by the CDC.

All steps in the right direction. Eventually one way or another this will come to cruise ships even if the CDC delays that a little longer. Hopefully Adventure and Vision can benefit from this guidance now and prove it works on cruise ships too.

They done such a good job at that so far.

One thing about the new Simply sail rates - they can be hard to see and if you don't know to look for them it's easy to miss. This Concierge Class GTY rate doesn't exactly look attractive given it's just $10 less. However it's easy to miss the warning that it's a no frills rate. For $10 less per person for the entire cruise you lose Wi-Fi, drinks and gratuity.

I suspect we'll find many departments within the CDC are isolated and have no awareness what another part of the CDC is doing. In this case the Political Directives Division has updated mask guidance while the Cruise Denial Division is still looking to add more protocols.

More hurried half baked legislation much like the vaccine passport ban. Cruise lines can't afford one case. That outcome is unlikely when vaccines can't be required until the public health emergency has been declared over. The media will quickly shift back to hating cruise ships upon the first "outbreak" of more than one case.

As we all know the flu and this virus are not the same. The flu is well known, as much as it can be. The long term effects of SARS-CoV-2 is not well known nor has the flu produced anything close to the death tally. In this case an attorney could argue that a prominent public health agency published extensive material regarding the dangers of cruise ships and SARS-CoV-2 yet a sweet innocent child will now suffer an entire lifetime of misery due to becoming infected on a cruise ship. It's almost like if the cruise lines don't follow the CDC all way into Crazytown with protocols they expose themselves to frivolous lawsuits claiming they didn't do enough to mitigate SARS-CoV-2. If a grandparent can drop a child out a window and then sue the cruise line for having windows just imagine the coming tidal wave of lawsuits against the cruise lines. At least during an initial restart there has to be something to protect companies that are not allowed to leverage vaccines to mitigate risk. If the government is going to ban vaccine requirements then they should protect the companies from related litigation in the same stroke.