The Cruise Junkie

MSN mentions RCB...
They could have at least given @Matt proper credit. 
“He did not mention the group by name, but Royal Caribbean’s blog found one such post by a member of the group ‘Stand.Earth.’ “
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/royal-caribbean-ceo-anti-cruisers-sabotaging-cdc-public-comments/ar-BB19dgUX?li=BBnbklE&fbclid=IwAR23Er96y6y0UNaMuNghgYdEvHIIP_mFds18RWhEhKqkRkxYxntS2-8y5Bk

Yes the Caribbean is a few mouths away but Caribbean is not however....
https://thepointsguy.com/news/caribbean-cruise-comeback-seadream/

Here @Matt article on this matter!
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/09/19/royal-caribbean-ceo-warns-anti-cruise-group-flooding-cdc-extend-no-sail-order
 

@Jaymac Radio Just finished posting an email in favor of lifting the no sail order, I read it over multiple times to make sure it was fact driven and devoid emotion. Enough already, we want to sail!

Here @Matt article on this matter!
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/09/19/royal-caribbean-ceo-warns-anti-cruise-group-flooding-cdc-extend-no-sail-order
 

Interesting shot of all 5 currently beached in Aliaga..... you can barely see Sovereign & Inspiration.
From Left to Right...
Monarch (part of the bridge ripped out)
Sovereign
Inspiration
Fantasy (with the nose removed)
Imagination (beached yesterday)
 
 

Thank you @Matt & @twangster! You both made some great points about not only how the legislative process works, but why this bill is needed. This adjunct Poli Sci professor thanks you! 
Matt's point about the process is true. So many pieces of legislation do not even make it out of committee for a vote on the floor, much less make to the other chamber for the vote. It would have more traction if there was a "sister" bill in the House moving through their process at the same time. As far as I can tell, there's not. Therefore, this looks like a "let's support our local economy/constituents, but we doubt it will make it out of committee" piece of legislation. It gets both Rubio and Scott some local media coverage, but as of now its just been referred to committee. If you want to watch what happens with it, here's the link to it. https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/4592
I agree with @twangster that the bill has merit, especially with how the CDC controls the industry. Not trying to place blame on one particular group or party, but this is a trend of the 20th century continuing into the 21st century... Congress grants power to regulatory agencies and allows them to set their own regulations without a check from the people or another branch. In other words, if we don't like our House rep., we can vote them out. If we don't like a regulatory agencies/administration's regulation, sucks to be us. The only solution is to have Congress address it with legislation like we see here or the president can address it with an Executive Order, but would require some major pressure on the president from the cruise industry. 
Thanks for coming to my "How a Bill becomes a Law" and "How the Bureaucracy is considered the 4th Branch" TED talk. ?

So good to see even folks from the government starting to get the cruise economy to restart again soon! Here is @Matt article on this matter.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/09/16/us-senators-introduce-bill-allow-cruise-lines-restart
 

I believe the two senators are U.S. Senators working in Washington.  They are from Florida but currently work at the federal level.  The bill if passed would apply at the federal level.  

@twangster, I could not just like your post. I wanted to personally thank you for your time in articulating that point. I feel more educated now and even better about it because of your input, and as always you have the BEST pics! Thanks so much, you enlightened me and that is so appreciated, cheers to you!

One the key takeaways for me is the idea that the CDC would no longer have exclusive control of the cruise industry.
At the moment the CDC does have singular control with no check or balance from any other component of government.  They are "king" of the cruise industry.  Whatever the king says is the law of the land.
Under the proposed bill the CDC would be one of many agencies providing input to the panel but the CDC wouldn't be the sole decision maker, the panel can make a balanced, informed decision, at least in theory.  
The CDC has stated that one concern and reason for the no sail order is that cruise ships requires resources of the CDC and other agencies at a time when these resources could otherwise be focused on American communities.  The Vessel Sanitation Program or VSP normally involves large numbers of CDC resources that implement and manage the VSP program.  With the cruise industry shut down these resources at the CDC have been redeployed in the field or retasked so they are focused on COVID-19.  
That sounds great but it amounts to shutting down an industry because the CDC doesn't have enough resources to fulfil its mandate.  The danger with this reallocation of resources within the CDC is that it will keep the cruise industry shuttered indefinitely.   It could take years after a vaccine is available before all American communities no longer need the resources of the CDC to the extent they do today.  If the cruise industry remains shut down through 2023 or 2024 it will be dead.   If the cruise industry was lost forever the CDC would be fine with that as they would be able to focus exclusively on the American people on a long term basis.
At the moment the CDC has the power to kill an industry and with it all the jobs and economic impact associated with that industry.  No one can stop them, this is within their power today.  This bill would wrestle that power and control away from the CDC bringing balance to the process.  
 

At this point, it's just a bill and at best, it is aimed at both Senators' constituents to make it look like they are on their side.
It still needs to get to a vote, as well as actually pass the Senate and then the House. Without getting into any kind of political discussion, that is far from a certainty.
Back to the idea of the bill, on the one hand yes it does feel a little late, but then again, until cruise lines in Europe managed to sail, no politicians were talking about cruising restarting.
On the other hand, I look at this less as legislation salvation, but honest to goodness pressure towards cruises resuming. We don't need this act to pass for cruises to start, we just need the right influence in government to get more and more people in the powers that be to get things moving and allow the No Sail Order to be rescinded, as well as approve new plans by the cruise lines. Up until a few weeks ago, there wasn't much government pressure to do any of that, but I feel like now momentum has shifted.

So good to see even folks from the government starting to get the cruise economy to restart again soon! Here is @Matt article on this matter.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/09/16/us-senators-introduce-bill-allow-cruise-lines-restart
 

So good to see even folks from the government starting to get the cruise economy to restart again soon! Here is @Matt article on this matter.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/09/16/us-senators-introduce-bill-allow-cruise-lines-restart
 

While I definitely think the Icon class ships won’t be cancelled, I could see them being delayed depending on how long the absence of cruising lasts on Royal’s financial situation. Like many have said, it could take a while for the cruise industry to recover. But eventually these will be built because of the environmental benefits. LNG is the future of cruise ships until they figure out how to make them totally electric. 

Here is the latest from @Matt on the ICON CLASS. 
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/09/16/royal-caribbean-gives-brief-update-icon-class-cruise-ships
Good to see this is still happening!

Here is the latest from @Matt on the ICON CLASS. 
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/09/16/royal-caribbean-gives-brief-update-icon-class-cruise-ships
Good to see this is still happening!

Imagination is sitting at anchor at Aliaga, Turkey waiting to join her sister on the beach. 
The cancellations of Magic, Valor, Paradise and Spirit into 2021 appears to be related to required dry dock maintenance scheduled for 2021.  Given their current positions and knowing a restart won't involve all ships at once it's likely the smartest way to play the hand they've been dealt.  It wouldn't make sense to sail empty ships across the Atlantic, do a few cruises at reduced capacity and then take them out of service for their scheduled 2021 dry docks.   With the Freeport floating dry dock out of commision from the Oasis incident last year it's probably easier to find a shipyard in Europe to do the required work in 2021 so keep them over there and take them off the list of restart ships.
Royal kind of did the same when they cancelled Odyssey all the way up to 4/30/21.  While her delivery was impacted by the pandemic it wasn't impacted for that long.  So instead of sailing her empty to American in February or March only to sail back to Europe for the scheduled cruise season in April they just cancelled everything through 4/30/21.  

Good news for European cruisers. I fear the US is still a ways away.

This is overdue for Carnival Corp. and something they probably should have done a few years ago.  This is part of the reason why RCCL can generate more revenue per guest using a smaller fleet.  In the heyday of cruising this sort of waste and inefficiency was easier to ignore.  Now it's costing them significantly.  Numbers don't lie... 12% of capacity but only 3% of operating income.  
RCI may need to take a harder look at their older ships but generally it has a newer fleet so not nearly as pronounced as Carnival Corp.  Still, the lesser efficient ships may need a closer look.  

While Carnival did announce more ships to be sold, it's not an additional 18....
 

Not RCI but wow Carnival Corporation to remove more ship. Now I wonder what ships will be sent to the scrapyard or sold to another cruise line not under the Carnival Corporation flag.
https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23505-carnival-to-further-accelerate-ship-exits-18-vessels-to-leave.html
 

Not RCI but wow Carnival Corporation to remove more ship. Now I wonder what ships will be sent to the scrapyard or sold to another cruise line not under the Carnival Corporation flag.
https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23505-carnival-to-further-accelerate-ship-exits-18-vessels-to-leave.html
 

Looks like its official... family reunion.

I really miss Brilliance