AshleyDillo

For price reference I just checked all my upcoming cruises that visit CocoCay and the beach beds range in price from $149-$199.

If you are serious about wanting one and willing to pay that much, lock it in at that price. You can cancel and rebook at the lower price if the price drops later. When you do that, book it under the other half's name before you cancel the one in your name so someone doesn't accidentally snatch it up when you release it!

Yes, you are only choosing which person you are booking it under. It is confusing, but basically you have to pick someone in your cabin. The shore excursion will be booked in that person's name.

And they are doing that, just not in Florida because they aren't allowed to.

Oh yes..I quite enjoyed that. Some very tongue in cheek comments peppered throughout.

Remember the intent of this whole lawsuit by Florida was to point out the CDC was overstepping its authority. It's a little late in the game for there to be a big, huge impact based on this order since they already are in the test sailings phase. If you read through the order it even discusses that the CDC argued that Florida couldn't have suffered economic harm from the shutdown. If so they would have filed this motion when the CSO was originally ordered instead of waiting in good faith that the CDC would come through timely with the framework to get the cruise industry up and running again.

Means that unless the CDC comes back attempting to narrow the injunction, then after July 18 they won't have the CSO hurdle to cross to get back into service. It will only be a matter of logistics and trying to keep everyone safe and healthy and happy, which as you can see from various topics all over this messageboard, can be very polarizing.

I don't really speak legalese, but my interpretation is that effectively this suspends the CDC from taking action against a ship for violating the CSO. But only through midnight on July 17, 2021, and then the CSO basically becomes guidelines and not requirements? And this gives the CDC a deadline to step up with better guidelines... ...based on science, which the CDC excels at ? Then Florida can come back and tell the CDC that yet again their guidelines are out of touch with reality and we have another hearing.

Matt posted them in the Royal Caribbean Dining group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/royalcaribbeandining/permalink/2892278091035732/ I nabbed the non-alcoholic page for you.

Jump to the conclusion at the end... Because of (1) Florida’s probability of success on the merits, (2) the imminent threat of irreparable injury to Florida, (3) the comparative injury depending on whether an injunction issues, and (4) the imminent and material threat to the public interest, Florida’s motion for preliminary injunction is GRANTED, and CDC is PRELIMINARILY ENJOINED from enforcing against a cruise ship arriving in, within, or departing from a port in Florida the conditional sailing order and the later measures (technical guidelines, manuals, and the like). However, the preliminary injunction is STAYED until 12:01 a.m. EDT on JULY 18, 2021, at which time the conditional sailing order and the measures promulgated under the conditional sailing order will persist as only a non-binding “consideration,” “recommendation” or “guideline,” the same tools used by CDC when addressing the practices in other similarly situated industries, such as airlines, railroads, hotels, casinos, sports venues, buses, subways, and others. (Docs. 45-4; 45-5;45-6; 46-4) However, to further safeguard the public’s health while this action pends, CDC may propose not later than JULY 2, 2021, a narrower injunction both permitting cruise ships to sail timely and remaining within CDC’s authority as interpreted in this order. The motion for the proposed injunction must support the proposed terms with current scientific evidence and fully disclose — if unavailable to the public — scientific evidence, including methodology, raw data, analysis, and the like and the names and qualifications of the scientists participating in the study, modeling, or the like. If CDC moves under this paragraph, Florida must respond within seven days. A hearing will occur immediately after Florida’s response. Additionally, if circumstances materially change at any time, either party can request a hearing to modify this injunction, a hearing will occur immediately (within twenty-four hours, if necessary), and an order resolving the motion will issue immediately. The parties are ordered to return to mediation before Magistrate Judge Anthony Porcelli at a time and place ordered by Judge Porcelli and in accord with the terms (including confidentiality) of the earlier mediation order (Doc. 51).

It's really hard to know how diluted the experience is going to be, even with these new protocols. Masks are required indoors for everyone, which to me makes sense because there's no other way to police between the vaccinated and unvaccinated and force the mask wearing. If you read the protocols, they don't mention an identifier for the vaccinated. They do mention you need to have your SeaPass card for entrance into venues, which I imagine will have your vaccination status encoded on it. They can use the SeaPass to track everyone on the ship for potential contract tracing issues and also use it for entrance for the vaccinated-only lounges, shows, etc. They mention specific venues or lounges may be for the vaccinated only, and in there folks will be allowed to be without masks. They don't go into details about which venues these will be, so it's hard to determine how restricted the unvaccinated will be. I see the vaccinated only areas as being akin to those mask-free relaxation stations at Disney World where you could sit with your masks off. I would think it would be limited to only a few lounges, and probably not ones where they hold activities. The lounges with activities they would keep hybrid or do different sessions if needed. The options for everything will be either vaccinated-only or hybrid. The great thing is that they are offering full refunds (at least for the July Freedom sailings) if you aren't happy about the situation.

https://www.royalgazette.com/tourism/news/article/20210615/royal-caribbean-cruises-scrapped-because-of-strict-island-covid-19-rules/ Bookings were probably bad, but after reading this article it makes me believe that they couldn't come to an agreement on the restrictions so it was easier for them to pull out of Bermuda. They rerouted a lot of itineraries that were slated to port there as well because Bermuda required 100% vaccination for passengers. It appears from the comments, a lot are upset about the heavy restrictions and their effects on tourism in Bermuda.

I was going to mention this...typically the advertised incentives are for non-refundable but you can book refundable. You won't get as much OBC with the refundable, but you still get a little bit. Usually they'll offer on onboard incentive for booking within the first few days of a cruise, too. It's something small like a free bottle of champagne and a raffle entry to win OBC. Also at NextCruise, the deposits will go through as a separate charge. They don't get charged to your onboard account so you can't use OBC to offset it.

It used to be for Oasis Lagoon, South Beach and Chill Island carbanas you could add up to 2 extra people at $50 each. Those were the only cabanas that had that option listed as there wasn't a special admission item that came with the cabana like at Thrill Island waterpark and the Beach Club. For the waterpark cabanas since it involves waterpark admission, I don't see them offering a discounted price to add folks to the cabana. You would need to purchase the additional waterpark passes for 3 people in your case. Whether or not they would have access to the cabana is likely more at the discretion of the cabana attendant in this case. Sometimes a little tip when asking may buy some leniency, especially if you don't plan on having all 9 of you there at once. Space in the cabana is limited, including the seating so it isn't fair for you to encroach on the nearby cabanas' enjoyment.

I enjoyed Jamie's on both Anthem and Symphony. I can't recall any menu items that we tried that were a miss for us. I don't quite think it is worth the cover charge, but it's a nice option to have when you have the ultimate dining package

I will have to check with my mom, unless @CGTLH happens to know. This was in 2014, so who knows if they're even still around or in business.

Pretty typical of Royal in my opinion. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. These changes get made and it's like they don't fully think out all of the different places they need to make the changes, or the timing is taking too long for the changes to be updated across all the different areas. You for sure won't be able to get an answer from the front line customer service reps. They really can't see more than we can on the consumer website and I don't think they get these updates pushed out to them. A lot of the times you will know of a change before they are even aware of it.

Mine has been able to do an extended hold like this too..it's how I snagged a Villa Suite before they were gone!

I've never been to Sitka, but Icy Strait was one of my favorite ports. We visited before they even had the dock built, so even less than is there now. We did a private whale watching excursion and that pretty much made the entire port visit worthwhile for us. It was just 5 of us on a small boat so we were able to go out and see a lot of whales and even spotted some whales on the shore.

Chill island is most likely closer to the pool, but not by much. South Beach is quieter and it's close to the floating bar, which is neat. Also you can walk on the sandbar waaaay far out which is also fun.

Boardwalk is going to be loud at night. While you may not be able to see the aquatheater show from your balcony (depends on if the slide is in your way or not) you definitely can hear it. Hope you like 80s music!

Yes. If a specialty restaurant is open you can use the package there.

SeaPass card for access. Whether there is an attendant depends on what you are referring to by "Suite deck" and the time of day.

Thanks for the heads up. I never would have known about this as their emails always get buried ?

From my understanding even with vaccination and antibodies if tested at exactly the right time after exposure to a big viral load of COVID (perhaps at one of the ports?), one could test positive before the immune system kicked in to quell it. Not technically a false positive, but doesn't mean they were infected or infectious. But they would be treated as if they were and quarantined and subject to future testing. Seems like that's what the Celebrity protocols are doing here and if no one else ends up testing positive then they would have effectively worked.