teddy

I'm so very sorry for what I'm about to post.....I'm working a lot of hours and am tired. The first thing I thought of when I read your reply was....

Current protocol in retail settings (in my area) is to politely ask the person to put their mask on/pull it up/etc. I rarely see someone without a mask being properly worn anymore. The only people who refuse are those who are climbing on a soapbox, and they are not representative of the people I have been interacting with lately. I would hope that there aren't a lot of people will pay for a cruise in order to make a final stand. That being said, there are people out there who are instant jerks when alcohol is added.

Story that my local news channel had on their website this morning about travelers returning to Canada. https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/canada-to-require-travelers-to-quarantine-in-hotels-covd-19-variants-concerns/507-4b853527-3462-42c0-96b5-ed0f883bcade

This crosses the line from cruising to political, and I’m aware that it’s not allowed, but I’ll be honest, I’m not seeing the link between trying to control a pandemic and the murderous police force of 1930s-1940s Germany. Especially when cruising is 100% voluntary.

Masks and distancing work in conjunction with one another. It's not an either/or situation. It's most definitely NOT laughable when you know people who have been affected by Covid and subsequent complications.

I have readers permanently attached in my scuba mask. The local dive shop sent it out for me to have them custom fitted. $200. It looks like bifocals and works very well.

Here is a link to a post of mine about our shore excursion from Cozumel to Tulum. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/11202-tulum-experience-question/&tab=comments#comment-106616

I've been kicking around whether or not to jump in on this....then I said to myself "Why not?" We have decided that we want to cruise multiple times a year. To be able to do so, we have cruise as inexpensively as possible. If we didn't, we'd be hard-pressed to do one cruise a year. We stopped drinking alcohol 15 years ago and are very content with the complementary dining choices onboard so no money spent there. Other than something like when I forgot my hat at home and needed to buy one onboard, we can end a cruise having spent nothing else above the cost we paid when we booked (other than cash tips for crewmembers we interact with). We experimented with bringing water onboard to save money. It did save us money, but is a royal pita to carry around for a few hours. Now, we each bring a stainless water bottle and fill it up.....most of the time we fill it from the sink in our room. We also each bring a small travel coffee cup for carrying coffee around with us. Cheap/thrifty/fugal/tight/whatever. It works for us, and that's all that matters to us.

We brought a case of water with us the twice. The first time it sucked lugging it around with us until our cabin was ready. The second time it sucked even more. We haven't brought water with us since the second cruise.

Until I went on my first cruise in 2019, I thought all cruising was like the Love Boat. It was a Saturday night staple when I was growing up.

Thank you. My wife’s brother is able to get there occasionally as he is able to do the long quarantines required on either end of the trip as well as meet the requirements once in country. The internet makes things better since video chatting is simple, however my wife and her sisters would just like to see their dad. In reference to cruising, we feel that based on the requirements for getting into Canada with a compassionate waiver, leisure travel is a long, long way off.

We are having a hard time getting into Canada from Maine to see my father in law who is having heart issues.

Guess we’d better think about booking the week we want in 2022. Seems like there could be a lot of lifting and shifting from ‘21 to ‘22 happening shortly.

I have no issues with any of the rules/protocols. However, I have worked in a supermarket throughout the pandemic (actually since 1985). Interacting with the public during the pandemic has really made me realize how selfish the majority of people actually are. Based on my observations as a retail worker, I think people will be very difficult to manage onboard. Here's why: First, social distancing seems to be a difficult thing for people to do while grocery shopping. Sure, everyone follows the rules while lining up to check out, but while shopping, it's a free-for-all. Seriously. People are all over the place with zero respect for other shoppers or employees. One day I tried to count the number of people who were within a foot of me (using the 12" floor tiles). I lost count in the 80s. Second....Masks. My state has a mandate that everyone must wear one while out in public. Businesses must enforce the mandate to the point of calling the police. So.....people will wear one to enter the store (as we have a person at the door), then promptly pull it down. Because of my physical stature, I'm often asked by fellow associates to be the point person in asking someone politely to pull their mask back up. There have been times when I feel like I have seen people's thoughts about how far they can push me by refusing. For what it's worth, all I do is ask politely. If they refuse, we call the store manager and the local police. I do not engage other than asking once. If it's this bad in a supermarket when they have to wear a mask for the short time they're shopping, I cannot imagine the disaster in trying to make people wear a mask on a ship after they've "paid good money to be here". Add a few drinks to that, and you have a recipe for disaster.

I just had a chance to look at the picture on my desktop instead of my phone. That's some nice rebar work.

I am planning on getting the Refreshment Package for our cruise in August. I watched it go from $20/day to $30/day with the email I just got telling me to take advantage of pre-cruise deals. ? ?

I always think I want to move to Florida....then my wife reminds me that we've only been there during winter months.

Regardless of the CDC order, Canada has to allow people to enter their country for leisure...which, for all intents and purposes, is not currently allowed. Also, the last I knew, Bar Harbor, Maine banned cruise ships due to Covid and is looking to limit them going forward. I can't see Portland allowing them either...at least until the pandemic is over. Edited to add link about Bar Harbor. https://www.mdislander.com/maine-news/town-council-again-weighs-in-on-cruise-ships

So true. It's amazing how simple the whole process has become since we started booking with a travel agent. <insert shameless plug for Michelle from MEI> ?

My first wife and I were there in 1995 (Nassau). It was fun for me at the time, however I was not long out of the Marine Corps, during which time I had been able to experience some of the more....interesting....parts of the world. I'm older and a tiny bit wiser now.

Very good advice that I didn't think about. I got the basic Voom Surf package for my son. He not only brought his phone, he brought his laptop. He said it was great to be able to stay in touch with friends, especially the first couple days when he was trying to get his bearings. After that, he was able to share pictures of things like snorkeling in the Caribbean while his friends were freezing in mid-winter Maine.

While we’ve come close to getting one a couple times, we couldn’t make the plunge due to the interest rate. While we haven’t carried a balance through a billing cycle on our current card in at least a decade, it has a very, very low interest rate. We’re both very frugal, so even though it’s irrational (based on our history of always paying it off as soon as we get home), we have a hard time getting a credit card with a higher interest rate.

I'm not sure if this qualifies since we will most likely do it again, but the one thing my wife and I wish we had done differently on all our cruises is stay up later. We tend to keep our normal schedule of up by 3 or 4 am....which means we follow our normal schedule of going to bed early. It seems like every day we see things in the cruise planner that we want to go to that night, but we fall asleep. On the flip side, the ships are pretty much deserted that early in the morning.

Our youngest joined me last January on the second leg of my back to back. He was 19 at the time. He had a good time in spite of himself. We rarely saw each other except for the shore excursions we did. For the most part, we kept to our home sleep schedules...I’m early to bed and rise, he’s the opposite. I don’t know everything he did, but here are some of the things I’m aware of: He went to a lot of trivia in the schooner bar, listened to a lot of live music at the different venues. hung out with some people he met at the water slides, found some people to play games with, he went to the silent disco, and quite amazingly (he has anxiety) was a team captain at Quest At 19 you can go in all the different venues, but you cannot drink alcohol. One suggestion I have is to be willing to step outside your comfort zone

I was on Adventure from Jan 18-Feb 1. My wife and I did the first 8-nights, she went home, I stayed onboard, and our youngest came with me for the second itinerary of 6-nights. The whole experience hooked me on back to back cruising. We have two back to backs booked for 2021. Oasis next to Adventure in St. Maarten. Adventure felt big till we saw this. ?