fireclan

My opinion is (after working the last seven years of my career in addictions) you definitely need a cruise. I hope this all works out as you sound like an honest person who wants to do the right thing by answering honestly.

My opinion is (after working the last seven years of my career in addictions) you definitely need a cruise. I hope this all works out as you sound like an honest person who wants to do the right thing by answering honestly.

@DuaneGIf you prefer a certain cabin category or cabin in general Royal wants you to book, they are in business to make money. They have hired this third party firm to add to their revenue with this program to fill cabins last minute, it is up to us as passengers to just deal with the way it is handled because essentially if you "win" you may be getting your cabin at a price point lower then it could have been purchased, especially when sailing with more then 2 people.
Participating in the program going in one must know you are just a number, that is all. This is our third time bidding and we are 5 days out, all bids still pending. Our two previous sailings our bids were not accepted and we found out the evening before our sailing, 1800hrs and 1900hrs. It's a great program for some lucky passengers and hands down better then the demeaning way DCL conducts theirs in the terminal.
My advice, book the cabin you want and then bid if there is something you would love to try and then forget about it. (Okay, I check my status daily) but go in accepting you will be assigned the cabin you booked and what a happy surprise if your number is called and you "win" the upgrade. Wishing you a positive outcome. 

Sincerely- thank you for asking.
To avoid unwelcome vaccine controversy, I’ll just say that we are philosophically and medically opposed to the COVID injections.  Under no circumstances would we consider getting any of them.

Someone above mentioned that Royal has it's ships catered more towards "family" sailing. I agree that the kids being vaccinated has everything to do with protocols. We have found a way with T/A's and some other sailings to have a more adult experience. 
We just cancelled two more sailings for January now that Royal extended their mandates through March, have only a few more booked through 2022. Will wait and see, haven't had a mask on in over 6 months, still won't pay to wear one.
 

Crap. If this happens to us, we're screwed. We fly out Christmas Day for Dec 26th Oasis. We are planning on doing our Binax At-home proctor test on Christmas Eve. We are not off to a good start as We have already received 6 tests that expired before the website said they would at the Optum store. Website said Feb 3, but the tests we received said Dec 18th (with the 3 month FDA extention included). They refunded our order, but don't have any to ship. I then ordered directly from eMed. Hopefully, eMed isn't shipping dried up dropper tests.

The French government pretty much left them to rot after the big hurricane, while the
Dutch sent a lot of relief to help re-build.   We were in Marigot in '18, after the storm, 
and there was a house fire downtown.  The hoses and fire equipment was abysmal.

We haven't spoken to our pediatrician yet, but don't plan for our kids to be early adopters. Cancelled one recent cruise already over the fact that kids are only half welcome onboard, and our next (now first) one as a family is at the end of May. Thing 1 will have just turned 5 for that one, so we're definitely staying tuned.

My guess, and it is just a guess, is that by announcing these protocols at this time, it gives them time to resell cabins cancelled by those unwilling or unable to cruise under these protocols. 
Seems like a bold move a new CEO (and former CFO) might make............

Well there goes cruise #7.  I think I am done at this point.  I'll take my chips off the table at this point and stop thinking of a Royal Caribbean cruise as way for my family to vacation together.  At least they gave me advance notice, I'll give them credit for that.  Once things normalize and they have full ships, perhaps prices will normalize as well, if not, then oh well....
I don't think the cruise lines did themselves any favors in this whole process.  I understand this was a very difficult situation for everyone, but we will see how it goes moving forward.

I'm right there with ya'.  Forgive my suspicion, but you have to ask the question, "Why is Royal Caribbean doing this" ?  Let's face it, they are not doing it for our benefit....there is some reason why they are pushing this information out now.  The reason that they have been putting protocols out month-by-month is to minimize cancellations.  By making this pronouncement so far in advance, they are inviting an avalanche of cancellations - which is what they will be getting for us. Why ?
My concern is this:  if we fail to cancel all of our cruises now (at least, those through 3-31-22), they may withdraw the ability to get a cash refund (based on vaccine protocols) down the road.  Their logical justification will be "Well, we told you back in November what the protocols would be...you had the chance to cancel and you didn't.  Now we are only going to offer you FCC's for your cancellations".  Since an FCC is completely useless to us, I will avoid that at all costs.
So it looks like we will be cancelling 8 more cruises (4 of them are Star Class).  It's heartbreaking, but I don't really see any alternative at this point.  I cannot afford to lose the opportunity to get my money back now.  So, like @gatorskin76, we will be taking our chips off the table and leaving the game.  We have some 2022-2023 cruises booked but those are still out of reach.  
BTW, we have still not received a single email regarding the protocols through March.  As I said above, we have 8 booked so I am a bit perplexed why we haven't been notified for ANY of them.  Thank goodness I heard of this through the blogs or I would have no idea at all.

I think the date being so far out may be to signify two things: 1.) the mandates are here to stay, and 2.) a shot across the bow about a future date for pediatric vaccine requirements.

I'm really hoping they don't create any new pediatric vaccine requirements. My kids pediatrician has already recommended against vaccinating my kids 7, 8yo so mine won't be unless his recommendation changes. I'm going to assume he's not the only one recommending against kids in that age range being vaccinated.

I would recommend taking a screenshot of your twitter exchange, just in case there's an issue at check-in.

I have never done Karaoke and pretty sure I never will.

We got one too!

Guest services will give you as many envelopes as you wish. We hand them directly to the intended person so that we insure they receive it. Another option is if you have on board credit there is a form guest services can provide to you so you can dedicate specifically who and what amount you wish to tip someone.  I just found out about this form last week on the oasis. It's great if you have extra OBC. Hope this helps someone. 

Hello Everyone.
We are cruising on December 26th for a bucket list trip for my father. There is 9 of us going. 1 adult whom is not vaccinated, is going to be the deal breaker on the entire vacation. When we booked it was not mandated, now it is. We are FL residents leaving from Port Canaveral and now going to Mexico and CocoCay. Does anyone know what or if there is anything we can do?
 

Once the December vaccination protocols are released, and assuming they will not allow your unvaccinated adult to go (almost a certainty), you can cancel your cruise for a full refund.  This will probably require you to pay your cruise balance in full, first. That is the catch.  So if you're not willing to pay out the full amount for the cruise up front and then get a refund about 30-45 days later, then you will have to go with @Matt's recommendation and get a future cruise credit. I have used the cash refund process 8 times now since August 2021 (and I also have 2 coming up in Dec. too, which will almost certainly suffer the same fate), so it does work....but it isn't fast and your money is tied up for some time.
You also have the option of having your non-vaccinated family member be a "no-show" which would not reprice your cruise.  That person simply does not show up on cruise day.  In that case you would receive a refund of only that person's taxes and port fees (the cruise fare for the no-show would not be refunded).  ...but of course that would require you to sail without the unvaccinated person...

Welcome to the message boards.
Under the Cruise with Confidence program, you can cancel up to 48 hours before your sail date and get a 100% future cruise credit with no penalties.
Then you could book a different cruise for the future when perhaps that one adult gets vaccinated, or maybe if protocols change.

Here’s mine.  
We’ve arrived at a port.  People are getting off.  This isn’t out first port on call.  People have no idea they need to have their SeaPass card out ready to be scanned.  Then they fumble through a backpack/purse/pockets/look at spouse who has all the cards…somewhere.  Meanwhile crew have been loudly announcing to have your SeaPass cards out and ready.  

I just did it today for the fist time. It couldn't have gone smoother - other than the several stores around me not offering the rapid test and having to drive to another location. But not that big of a deal. My appointment was at 10:30 and I had my results before noon. They were good about texting reminders and links to the results and stuff as well as email. I booked mine the first day they were available, on 10/24

Again, this is an issue of government regulation, not any decision by the cruise line. 
The ridiculousness of it is summed up by your statement that you will just book an all inclusive. The government, in its misguided judgment, sees the 2 vacations differently and regulates one, but not the other.
If this type of intrusion into your life isn't welcome, just remember it on election day.

This is one of the things I like when we occasionally cheat on Royal with Princess.  They asked for proof once, and now every booking we automatically get an onboard credit for military service.  It's not a ton of $ so those who have been able to apply a good discount on Royal are doing better, but it is nice to just have the credit every cruise with no effort.

Nobody knows what the protocols will be for February yet.  Right now, that is the policy for through November.  Many do leave the kids for a short time in the nursery or Adventure Ocean.