SpeedNoodles

Thank YOU.  We are. It’s a shortened cruise but it’s going well.  Beautiful weather today given the awful weather enroute.  Happy Dan has quite the red face from hot tub lounging earlier this afternoon.

Is this also true in Galveston? I hear they have some funky-a** alcohol laws.
 

Texas does have some funky tax rules, so the choice of drinks while still in port is limited to those for which the Texas alcohol taxes have been prepaid.  So while the options are limited while in port in Galveston, the opportunity to enjoy a drink is still immediate.  Once you get into international waters, the options for drinks are greatly expanded.

May I refer you back to your original thread on this exact topic? 
 

For those who wonder about Johnny Rockets and the dining and beverages packages...  We went to JR today for lunch (no $$ limit) and our shakes were included with our refreshments packages.  SCORE !
On a similar topic...we had dinner tonite at Chops.  I had the spicy shrimp (yummy) and Dan ordered the lamb shank being served in the MDR tonite. We advised them, when we arrived at Chops, that Dan would be ordering the lamb shank so that they would get a bit of a head’s up.  It was delivered in a timely manner and was excellent.  We decided that we were full and didn’t want dessert right then (burgers at JR may or may not have played a role, here !).  Instead, we made reservations for dessert only at Wonderland on our way back to the room. The Wonderland concierge seemed a bit confused with our request but made the reservation for us.  We intend to go to Wonderland to sample The World - finally - at 8:00. I will let everyone know that goes.  I have high expectations.  
 
So far, we have run into Yen every day of this cruise.  We’ve seen her almost as often on this cruise as we did last year when she was our Genie.  She told us that We Will Rock You has been cancelled for tomorrow (due to reduced #of pax on this cruise) and will only be performed on the last day - once in the afternoon and once in the evening.  She is such a sweetie. She told us to call her if we need anything but of course, we would never do that.

May I refer you back to your original thread on this exact topic? 
 

Understatement of the century. We're looking at about 45,000 cases worldwide...That is .00058% of the world population. Now, the vast majority of those are in China, and an even more vast majority of those are in East and Southeast Asia - maybe like 98%, I believe. So only 2% of the .00058% of the world's people (a) have Coronavirus and (b) are outside of E/SE Asia. These are rough numbers, and it's always changing, but just goes to show how ridiculously small of an issue this currently is outside of that region. Now, picture even just one of those people being the random few thousand people on that ship at the same time as you. 
The mathematician and engineer in me cannot even remotely calculate how small the odds of that are. 

Day 11 - Sea Day
This morning I took in the sunrise from deck 15.











Our progress...

Exited to follow along .  Symphony is amazing!

There is absolutely, positively no reason to be remotely concerned about coronavirus on a Caribbean cruise.
To date, this is a problem in Asia/China.  Not one here.
Worry about bigger issues, like what happens when @Big Dawg Ron is on your cruise.

The Costco card has no foreign transaction fees.  I only use my RCCL Visa for Royal Caribbean purchases (including cruise fare).

And right after I posted the above, they all had prices added to them 🙂
#stupidnightshift

The Costco card has no foreign transaction fees.  I only use my RCCL Visa for Royal Caribbean purchases (including cruise fare).

Well, at least I hope they have a good supply of pink champagne on ice!

Welcome to the Hotel California...
Song reference for those outside of my generation or region.  

And right after I posted the above, they all had prices added to them 🙂
#stupidnightshift

The Costco card has no foreign transaction fees.  I only use my RCCL Visa for Royal Caribbean purchases (including cruise fare).

And right after I posted the above, they all had prices added to them 🙂
#stupidnightshift

You are going to love Symphony of the Seas.  Our second time on this ship.  We love it far more than the Edge.  More entertainment, etc.

And right after I posted the above, they all had prices added to them 🙂
#stupidnightshift

And right after I posted the above, they all had prices added to them 🙂
#stupidnightshift

@PG Cruiser Wow a pastor that cruises, your own version of walking on water.

Unfortunately, I cannot avoid church nor can I endorse this solution... I’m the pastor!!! 😂 
Seriously I am not that concerned about the coronavirus.  The washy-washy guys have trained us well.  I am more concerned about the overreaction to the outbreak - screenings at airports and cruise ports, quarantine procedures, delays, cancellations, etc.  

Thanks !  It seems that we have gotten all of the refunds now....dining pkg, refreshments pkg, gratuities, Beach Club excursion, port fees.  Yesterday we had more than a $3K negative balance ($500 of that was a RCCL Visa redemption and had nothing to do with the cruise fare rebate).  We took care of most of that with our first night casino visit !
 
The weather is awful today.  Lots of wind, lots of waves.  Lots of motion. Cold.  Luckily, neither Dan nor I get seasick - thank goodness ! Still enjoying the trip though.  There are a couple of C&A and suites events today which we will probably skip.  We have not received our C&A welcome amenities.  I suspect this is due to the delayed boarding. I’m thinking they waited until everyone boarded to avoid delivering gifts to rooms that were ultimately cancelled.  If we don’t get them by the end of the day, we will pay the Loyalty Advisor a visit.

I meant to post this earlier and forgot.  Yes, we got information earlier today that the ship is sailing at about 60% capacity.  I haven’t noticed any lack of crowds or anything to make me feel like the ship is “empty”.  The casino was bustling earlier tonite. Folks who ate in the MDR said they definitely could tell that there were people “missing”. They said their section of the dining room was completely empty except for them.
I also wanted to comment on our cruise fare “rebate”.  I was stunned when I saw our account this morning. The rebate was about 4X what I thought we would get, based on our rebate last month on Oasis.  I’m now completely perplexed at how they calculate cruise fare rebates. There just doesn’t seem to be any commonality between what they gave us last month on Oasis and what they gave us yesterday on this cruise.  I’m not complaining....just totally confused.  Apparently they can rebate you anything they want to.