Zambia-Zaire

9 hours ago, L454S said:

Why on earth would I pay RCL or anybody to watch me and what I do like the gestapo........... 

More & more, this becoming what is being called, "The New Normal"

2 hours ago, Yo2slick said:

I am far from anti vaccination but I do not agree with this vaccination and will not be getting it. 

If cruise lines start requiring all vaccinations and not just Covid then we can talk about normalcy.  

According to numbers, there is not enough vaccines to vaccinate a huge percentage of the population, in the U.S. alone, for the CDC or Cruise lines to justify making it mandatory to cruise, unless the Reset date for cruise is set sometime pass possibly Summer of 2022, moving forward.  

20 hours ago, MaryCS62 said:

Anti-vaxxers are one reason we've had measles outbreaks in the recent past.

 

Well that's completely not true....the increase in immigration since 93 has lead to an explosion of previous eradicate diseases in this country....

On 12/20/2020 at 6:21 PM, JasonL said:

After listening to @Matt recent podcast about wishes for 2021, I thought of a couple of my own. How about you?

1. Ok I'll put this one in since I'm starting the topic and I'm pretty certain everyone on here wants the same thing..... CRUISES TO START BACK UP

2. RCG to rework their website: Fix some of the weird glitches & ALLOW MORE OPTIONS WHEN BOOKING(or mock booking) like allowing you to put in the max guests that rooms allow.

3. More west coast cruises including more short cruises out of Seattle(this is probably more like an unrealistic dream)

Definitely choice #3...and obviously, you can't have #3 w/o #1. However, in addition to that, a private island in the vicinity of the Mexican Riviera, would be fantastic.

7 hours ago, KenCP said:

Michael Bayley just announced the retirement of Empress of the Seas and Majesty of the seas will be leaving the fleet.  I wonder if Vision of the Seas is next?

I suspect the whole Vison Class possibly on the chopping block.... 

7 hours ago, twangster said:

I've cancelled all of my refundable cruises and requested refunds.  I have too many FCC now and with Royal cancelling another Star Class cruise on me that had FCC in play the early indication is they won't re-issue the FCC.  They already did this to me once but my TA was able to escalate it as a "one time" exception.  

My advice is ask for refunds.  FCC is fools gold.  They can and will cancel your FCC if your cruise cancels.  Poof, it's gone, just like that.  

Avoid FCC at all cost.  Don't be tempted by the 125% FCC carrot they may dangle in front of you.  Carrots are great for donkeys, don't let them make you into an *ss.  

Little late to the game being played I see... 

I suspect reduce capacity....which may or may not be a bad thing; but, i also suspect that will be coupled with much higher prices across the board.

Just a matter of time now before cruiselines has to flag ships...requirements of U.S Steel is negligible these days in a global society. I suspect extortion through policy for tax revenue & more control of the industry is the ultimate goal. Members of the House have been suggesting these things since late Spring.

36 minutes ago, coneyraven said:

YES!!!!!!

I'm hoping @Matt is right about her staying in Baltimore. 

I would think, given the CDC strongly suggesting their willingness to allow ships with balconies to possibly sail, uf Royal is set on keeping the Vision Class ships & Majesty in the fleet...Royal would move them to foreign ports more friendly to balcony-less ships, like the Middle East, some parts of Asia & the Med.

On 7/17/2020 at 11:36 AM, Mrs. Thomas said:

We look at flu deaths (well that's what the media reports on). Is this different because it is new? I understand that this can be really bad, but why are we confining the healthy in fear instead of quarantining the sick?

To answer your question....Politics & Extortion. Reporting as a whole(cases, death rates, severity) has all been hugely manipulated, "mostly" for political reasoning from both sides. Numbers been reported are highly suspect, because of the method of the reporting...as @PattiHere has shared, which is a mere microcosm of what's happening in every region or state across the country. There has been a number of reports questioning the validity of the method, of information being release to the public, in order to highlight, highly inflated numbers...to what gain. The numbers has never justified wrecking an already tenuous economy. As far as the CDC apparent bias against the cruise industry....well, I suspect a case of extortion. At some point, if these cruise lines wish to operates in the United States, its largest customer by far, they are going to have to flag some ships, pay into the system, & hire American workers(which is so ironic given "Guess Worker Program")...something the industry has refuse to do, for a long time...are now being "pressured" to decide what direction to take. Drip drip drip them to death.  

Drip drip drip...

On 6/22/2020 at 8:53 AM, coneyraven said:

I would be shocked if that happened ... if I was a betting man, and this goes for the other ships under the Pullmantur label, RC will take over under their name and continue to run the routes as planned.  Who knows though.  As for the scrap yard.  I don't think we're even close to that yet.

 

Kinda conflicting reports on Pullmantur...one report states restructuring the business...another seem to suggest dismantling of the business. If I was a betting man...i bet Pullmantur is done, their ships are scrapped, RC cut ties & and save capital, and expect some ship under the Royal banner to be moved/sold and/or scrapped....and I would not be surprised Empress, Majesty,  and all of the Vision Class be eventually moved/sold and/or scrapped. Not just because of the age of those ships; but, it appear the capacity is going to cut initial & for some duration of time, which make these ships even more less efficient/green tech, and with limited balcony cabins(which seem to be a huge concern for the CDC), as well as HEPA Filtration systems, those ships provide little reason, in Royal quest to satisfy the CDC & return to cruising. It is what it is under today's climate.

1 hour ago, Andrew72681 said:

I will unequivocally state that the customer service agents weren’t in charge of the decision of moving a years worth of customers from one ship to another. That decision most likely originated with Nick Desrochers and other members of the revenue management team. While not an easy decision these days when holding onto whatever revenue you can makes Wall Street happy, it was an easy one. 

Just as when a plane is taken out of service and replaced with a smaller one seats get moved and customers get assigned based on status and anticipated revenue. This was clearly done in a suboptimal way as if not already there @twangster is approaching Pinnacle. 

Yeah, I get it...no one is blaming the customer service rep for the essential "lift & shift" afar from bad customer service. I don't know Royal's system algorithms; so, I'm oblivious if it actually automatically defaults to closest category or not, other than hearsay. I suppose a case can be made that the brass ultimately is responsible; they oversee their component of the company….yeah sure. Just don't think anyone can unequivocally say one way or the other. Royal customer service reps has unequivocally have a history of being ill informed in a number of areas of their job, at times. I suspect that more of the case than Royal pulling a hawkish move at this time, when public opinion is very precious if they want to entice the public back, anywhere near 70% of what they where pre-virus...given the number of blocks stacked against the industry & pure reputation.

I must say...the airline analogy is not the same, imo. I've been flying 1st class every chance we get(if 1st class not sold out), for a few decades now, since my wife & I was bumped up to 1st class at no added cost, back in 98....a lucky draw. When you book 1st class and there's a change in flight to a different model aircraft...we are still moved to 1st class on the new aircraft(which admittedly only happened a very few times to us). However, in conversation with other flyers, that experienced such a change, in every case, they where offered frequent flyers miles and/or credited discounts on next flight, if they flew coach because they couldn't take a later flight, with available 1st class. Flights are immediate & only last mere hours unless you flying cross country like we frequently have to do...one is not living on an aircraft. Booking a cabin for duration of a number of days is completely different...you living their for that period of time & paying for a specific set of comfort & perks. I readily compare it to hotel resort room personally than an airline.

2 hours ago, Andrew72681 said:

The customer service reps aren’t the ones who tried to downgrade @twangster, that message came from above. I refuse to blame the phone agent who was going by what they and others were told at the beginning. If their original plan was to let everyone refund or move to another ship then they would have gone with that before remapping everyone to new rooms. This blew up in their face and clearly caught them off guard.  

I don't think anyone can make the statement underline, unequivocally. I have seen a number of times on this blog, people explain how Royal's system algorithms "automatically default" to the closest category, which may very well be the case here. The customer service rep, I suspect, was basing things off what's they see on their monitor & trying to make sense of it, as they deal with the customer...in this case twangster's agent. The Rep can only assist as far as what they can do themselves, base on what they see & have to refer issues to the next level of customer services when needed...they are just following the info in front of them...and couple that with how verse they are outside of that, is where some mishaps occur that need to be address. Again, not defending any shrewdness on Royal behalf...just stating other factors that could very easily be at play. 

14 hours ago, Andrew72681 said:

I just have a hard time imagine any group of yes-people that would sit on a zoom call and say “sure boss I’m sure there won’t be any backlash if we toss people from Allure to Liberty”

??? This unclear & make very little sense as related to my post & appear to contradict itself....

Anyway...i found that in many cases, after reading many explanation and/or occurence here, Royal customer service does not appear, at times, to be well informed of the policy, and make numerous mistakes, that are essentially brought to their attention, proven to be unclear on the policy, causing an unfortunate mishap, again, that is brought to their attention. That's not to defend Royal or convey they don't exercise shrewd business practices...it seem like many of these circumstances, the customers services rep are not well versed in the policy until someone clearly bring it to their attention & things are eventually & exhaustedly resolved.

This unfortunate for twangster & others that may have faced the same situation; but, many times on this blog, twangster patiently explain to other here, the befuddlement of some of these reps. Now is a good time for Royal & frankly, all cruiselines to start refresher & updated classes on their policy & customer services.

9 hours ago, twangster said:

The other things that bothers me in this NRD conversation is why should that be a factor when Royal is cancelling the cruise?

They cancelled the cruise.  I didn't. 

I still want to sail Allure even if it isn't AMPED on that date.  I'd even fly to Florida to do it.  Change home ports, just let me sail.  Nope. Royal won't let me.

So given this is all on Royal, why should I have to book refundable?  

This what gets me...they have been offering reasonable options when they have cancelled dates...what's the difference when they cancel a ship itinerary.....then autonomously "lift & shit" a booking. Thinking there may have been some confusion or misunderstanding by their customer service rep. Not defending Royal, just surprise they would act so autonomously w/o the customer say & disappointed, if intentionally, before any public out cry....especially in this moment of time. Surely Royal is not that short-sighted. Will be interesting to see how thing ultimately turn out.

13 minutes ago, twangster said:

My TA has invested several hours on this talking with various levels.  

Royal "offered" to move us to another ship waiving the $100 NRD fee but there would be no price protection.  We would need to pay prevailing rates for Star Class on another ship.  Since we booked Allure within an hour of it opening up we had a pretty good rate.  That rate isn't available on other ships and Star Class availability is pretty low in general.  

They refused to grant any equivalent Star Class benefits for accepting their move of our booking to Liberty.  No gratuity, no Voom, No beverage package, no dining package, etc.  

Finally they offered a 100% refund of the non-refundable deposit.  I jumped at this. 

They said it can take up to 90 days to receive the refund.  I had a talk with my credit card company and explained it all truthfully.  Royal cancelled the cruise, attempted to substitute an inferior ship in a different class of service and ultimately they offered a refund in full but at 90 days away.  My credit card company also found this 90 days to be unacceptable so they are disputing the transaction on the basis that it shouldn't take 90 days to receive a refund when the merchant cancelled the service and will eventually issue the refund in full.  

<smh> very disappointing they would be so disingenuous & one sided.

Looking like August may actually be the time frame cruiselines return to the open seas.

Possible proof that the virus & wrecking of the economy was overly exaggerated...from WHO's own findings. Remember...older citizens over 70 & those with already underlining health issues(whether they're 15, 30 or 45 yrs old)are the ones suffering severe to critical infections.

"Around 8 in 10 coronavirus infections are mild or asymptomatic ― meaning the person had no symptoms ― according to the World Health Organization. Meanwhile 15% of infections are severe, and 5% are critical." 

The whole article is an interesting read & their reported figures.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-common-is-asymptomatic-coronavirus_l_5ed103adc5b6392ca7780ee0

7 hours ago, CrznTxn said:

For RCCL and other cruise lines they would need a dedicated hotel for all guests prior to embarkation so they can perform their health screening (can you say rapid Covid testing for 3,000 to 5,000 folks). Not sure how this would play out in the various ports.

From what I gathered, cruiseline will be forced to sail a some percentage of capacity. Let's just say half capacity for the sake of argument. That alone, should help alleviate hotel capacity, in a given city. Not sure they can legally force a overnight stay & imagine they(cruiselines) will follow some of the airlines screening protocols to boarding.

A bigger concern i have, behind a potential force 14-day quarantine upon return...is the sailing capacity of the ship, one is to cruise. There has been numerous of claims that bookings have been up from Sept through early 2022. If a cruise is booked...i dunno, let's say Oasis otS, near 80% capacity & the mandate is to sail at half capacity...how will the line determine who sails on that particular date. Reservation are made. I imagine there will be just as much difficulty and trying to move selected passengers to other dates, given many dates booked are just as likely to be over the mandated capacity...if booking has truly been up significantly, for the time period previously mentioned.

1 hour ago, DublinFC said:

I cant see RC making the complimentary buffet included with the for charge dining.  I just don't think that makes good business sense to me.

I totally agree; yet, with the amount of capital being lost, everything is off the table, at this point.

Cruising as we once known it, is done. It won't be as liberating as it once was as it become more controlled to some degree.

4 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

It seems like people don't want things done right but done fast.

A number of people with influence are waking to the thought that the numbers really does not justify continuing these lockdown policies; yet alone, the shutdown of the Global Economy. More & more are speaking against lockdown measures & no doubt, a growing number of regular everyday citizens have as well.

Sound like the Windjammer will morph into a cafeteria.

Same here