VACruiser

@Adriana come on Adriana, you know you 're coming here to get the drama..we all are. We should call this the Tales of Royal Caribbean.  @Ampurp85could be collecting details for a tell all book that she is secretly writing - I can't wait for it to come out It could be a mystery novel, murder mystery, or just a plain ole what the heck goes on RCI cruises with pictures of inappropriate clothing choices.

BTW, showering on cruises is a must with all the humidity - gross if you are not!

The reason I like @Ampurp85 writing style is you always tell the good, the bad, and the very ugly. You bring a good balance to the cruising. And, you're entertaining too. 

^^^ @Ampurp85 rarely disappoints in a blog. You can tell by the writings that it will entertaining and that is what keeps me coming back.

@Adriana you have a very high tolerance meter that I'm sure I don't have. You definitely set the bar high for the grace under pressure. Hats off to you. With all that had gone on the Diamond Manager would have been the straw that broke the camels back for me. He would have taken a full brunt of righteous anger; controlled but angry. I can't even imagine how much you have spent to become a Diamond...

I was deployed to Haiti in 1997 and been all over the country; wonderful people until they aren't. I spent time at Cap Haiten that is just east of Labadee; beautiful area. Most of the time the violence stays down in Port-au- Prince, way to the south, but if it truly pops off more than the normal level of violence, and it hits the villages in the north, I'm sure Royal will relook the visits to Labadee.  I really liked Haiti, but it has some serious problems both economically and politically. 

^^^ I wonder if I can get away with that in a Crown Loft Suite  Maybe I'll go on the Spectrum of the Seas where it is reversed and say I only speak English I don't understand. 

15 hours ago, Swar said:

Just let everyone cruise. I really do not care if COVID positive peeps are on the ship or not - hint hint they are already on every cruise. As long as the bars are open...  

People with colds and other communicable diseases have always been allowed to cruise. A woman ,in the casino, was coughing up a lung for hours the other day. Didn't slow me down at all.

I totally agree with your assessment and would love to see that happen; BUT, in this environment I think the cruise lines will take a very conservative approach like we are starting to see now. Cruise lines get the microscope on them as a vacation industry more than any of the other vacation venues. And, those headlines kill the industry so that is the reason they will be very conservative.

As you can tell in this blog site alone there are many strong feelings on the way forward. If you bring up an idea, even what I would consider benign, lots of people get offended by the mere mention of an idea that may not be mainstream.

I'd almost rather have all the cruise lines go to 100% testing for everyone regardless of Vaccine status and here is why. Some of these vaccines shots taking by individuals can be very old by now, over a year old and efficacy rate could be close 0%, Then you have the 4 and 5 shot crowd and their efficacy rate is varying depending on a whole set of factors that I'm not going to get into. If the goal is to keep Covid off the ship, with the highest chance of success, the only way to do that is test 2-3 days prior to have as best of a baseline as you can have. We all know that this is not 100% guaranteed but it seems the easiest way to make it work. We are just going to have to learn to live with this virus always knowing it is present.

I type this as I sit here with Covid coming back from a vacation at the South Carolina beaches. I had my shots, and boosted, but the little beast got me anyways. It didn't matter how many shots I have had because there is no meter on my body that tells me my day-to-day efficacy rate of the shots in my body...today you are at 05% left on your shot status - oh no better get another one. It becomes an exercise in chasing your own tail.

I can say having a summer sickness is the worst way to end a vacation and it has truly over stayed its welcome. I had to take another 40 hours off from work, which I didn't want to do, and I have to wear a mask at work when I do go back because I'm typhoid Mary. Can't say I blame my co-workers this coughing doesn't sound good - ugh!

I'm curious as to if someone happens to get off the ship at say Grand Cayman and is caught without the proper documents by Grand Cayman officials trying to visit tourist areas or trying to get back on the ship? I'd bet the fines would be large and you may end up in the pokey. You better know the rules to the place(s) you are visiting.

@NeesaI enjoyed your blog. Sometimes it's about the writing style and you tell it like it is - warts and all. I like when people write about the good and the not so good so it gives a good overall perspective on how some things on ship really are. And, maybe others can read it and take mitigating actions to improve their cruise. Glad non of that made you down and you were able to stay positive throughout your journey.

On 6/16/2022 at 1:04 PM, SpeedNoodles said:

Seriously, people, THIS IS WHY EVERYONE SHOULD USE A TRAVEL AGENT! (I yelled for the people in the back).

I got that, and that is true, but the only reason that is true is because RCL is so hard to deal with and has such poor IT that things like this occur. It's kind of sad for a multi-Billion dollar company.

Might as well get used to Covid-19 as it is here to stay like all viruses that frequent the human host.

Not to be a Debbie-downer but the balance sheets for all the cruise lines are in the pooper ...it may be a long time hold but buying a commodity on the way down is like catching a falling knife. You can catch it but sometimes it's going to hurt. RCL has a lot of money to pay back to investors to get their financials back under control and that is why they don't have a positive Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio and their earnings per share is a -20.79. That's not a healthy company.

If you are dollar cost averaging for the long haul you may be rewarded in the end but not anytime soon.

3 hours ago, Matt said:

In general, I'd agree with you. The issue is the entire service/travel industry is being affected right now. This isn't a Royal Caribbean specific deficiency; it's all companies.

So back to your point, if you feel you aren't getting your money's worth and/or you feel the ROI isn't there, then I'd advise holding off cruising until this issue goes away.

Personally, I file this under the "it is what it is" category of problems and I'd have the same issue if I went to Vegas or some other land resort, so I'll stick with cruising and hope they're going to staff up.

^^^ I agree with all the points above. The Return on Investment is not there for a once in a year vacation for my family so I will hold off until much later. At the moment I'm renting houses at the beach for my vacations with the family. I can better control the outcome.

On 5/30/2022 at 10:01 AM, Matt said:

I think that's probably generally correct

I'll never understand why we should accept less for the money spent. Any other product to price point we'd hold the producer of the product to a high standard for money spent, aka Return on Investment (ROI), and we'd demand standards are kept but cruising seems to be the one place were I read they are trying, they have X problems and it'll get better. If I go on a trip and pay thousands of dollars, sometimes 10's of thousands, I better get a good ROI or I'm not doing it again.

To get close to the break-even point you would have to drink 7.5 drinks a day per person - 98 x 2 = $196 per day for a seven day cruise = $1372 and just say the drinks are $13 = 105 drinks for the cruise broken down to 2 people  = 52 drinks for the cruise and 7.5 drinks per day. That's quite a bit of drinking - doable but there are days you are in port or on excursions so you have to do some drinking when you get back on ship.

There is a point where the juice is not worth the squeeze...literally  

I think I'd rather pay as I go. I'm not a big drinker so I'd be fine with that option as I watch my daily expenses. I have caught several times where drinks were put on my tab and I haven't drank them so off I go to customer service - it happens.

7 hours ago, 10-42 said:

Or people like my wife and I.  We just got off of a Star Class last week, it took over 2 years to get to it.  We have another Star Class booked in January 2024.  This gives us time to save up for that very expensive gift to each other.  I'm very middle class, a retired Army Sergeant and Social Security <for the both of us, we try to live below our means so I can afford to save a little each month to do what we love and pamper ourselves once every other year or so.  Don't know how many cruises we have left in us but we will make the best of it and will go first class.  Money is a huge issue to us but we know how to budget and save. 

As they say, go first class now or your kids will go first class later.

I have really enjoyed this blog I think you have been extremely honest in a balanced kind of way weighing out the good and bad.  As others have said, we all know that this has not been the best couple of years for cruising and we as consumers have to weigh the Return On Investment for a vacation.

When it gets too hard to justify the money spent fewer people will book cruises and the lines will respond. But, RCL is still 45 Billion in the hole right now and they have to take that into consideration on ship occupation. I'd hate to be the CEO and CFO right now. Awesome blog I'll miss it when you're done.

One of these days people are going to start to realize that when you are vaccinated and boosted it is from a variant we already know of. When new variants come around it's all bets are off and you are not protected no matter how many shots you've had.

At some point we have got to treat the Coronavirus like just another virus that humans get from time-to-time. The good thing is that with every new variant it is getting weaker and we are buiding better immunity against it. 

One day it will change but not any time soon with our current attitudes treating this as if it is the plague.

10 hours ago, 10-42 said:

Even if I drank 12+ Diet Cokes a day (like I used to before I had bariatric sleeve surgery (only have 15% of my stomach/pouch now)), I wouldn't expect anybody else/everybody else to pay for my habit.  

There is a lady (close to 40 YO) I work with that drinks Diet Coke in a 24 ounce thermos that she fills with ice. She drinks at least two to three of those a day. I call her a lab rat and there are scientists that follow her around just to see what happens. On top of all that, she is a heavy smoker too - UGH!!!

^^^^I second and third that. Has way too much Personally identifiable information (PII)  involved in that form to give it away for a 15% discount. I don't think I'd do it for a 100% discount

12 hours ago, 10-42 said:

Attention:

Just a heads up for disabled Vets that haven't cruised out of Galveston in a few years, like me.  If you are used to getting free parking because of your service connected disability, NO MORE!  Their new policy is to give you a 15% discount and only if you are at least 50% disabled.  So, don't forget to bring/save some extra $$ to park with!  I guess your sacrifice isn't worth as much as it used to be. 

As you were!

https://www.portofgalveston.com/245/Disabled-Veteran-Discount-Program

I too am a retired US. Army veteran with a VA rating -  how do they know you are above 50% do you have to bring along your VA rating paperwork too or do they take you at your word?

It's not that they are wrong per se, it's more like hopeful and wishful thinking based upon business interests versus medical necessity. It's been true pretty much for the last two years. Cruise lines and restaurants have been the worst effected by all the so-called experts the past two years and RCL like others are just trying to survive the business environment.

ah yes, family...traveling with family can become very special at times.

and, that is where it starts to get cray-cray. Every country will have different requirements for what makes up current and what happens if you have gotten over Covid and what that means for this mess. If you had two shots, three shots, but you got Covid and recovered what does that mean and on and on we go...the possibilities can be endless. The current cruisers on this site are much more diligent than I would be on keeping up with all the changes so my hats off to you who can do that.  Me, in the mean-time, will head to the beaches in South Carolina until this gets sorted out