gatorskin76

When I look at these threads I think of the ban on discussions about vaccines and protocols. I am really not sure why this is different. I am not a smoker, and don't recommend it, but Royal has their policy and well...

I think it's really the perception of a piling on when the point had already been made. I can tell you that I expect a response to whatever anyone states that could be seen as critical of RCI to basically be "Did you read the cruise contract, they can do anything they want". I am never disappointed when expecting that response, and it's usually many saying the same thing. There should be an obligation for anyone to be an educated consumer, but the fact that a company can do something, doesn't always mean they should. Now, I don't want to be someone piling on, and I don't know if any consideration was offered to the OP given their situation, but the $100 change fee with a NRD is clearly written in a lot of places and I imagine they were offered a FCC for the balance of the deposit. While it's probably not typical, it would be nice if they would have offered the ability to transfer that to someone else, or eliminate the 1 year expiration to allow for recovery to be able to cruise.

If it's not that, it's something else. Attributing blame to any one group is futile in this whole process. If not for the rugrats, they could have found some other reason for justification. Que sera, sera....

Time will tell with pricing, but as you mentioned there is no real danger in booking since you can reprice. Royal is stating that cruisers are spending more on their cruises than they did pre-Covid...will that continue indefinitely? Again, time will tell, but I suspect you have the pent up demand Disney mentality of let's make this a trip of a lifetime going on. It will be interesting to see how the economics work moving forward, particularly with the potential that people have less discretionary funds in the future (rising prices) and all those FCC's being used up. At some point they are going to have to increase their population of cruisers. Maybe that happens organically with people becoming more comfortable with cruising, but again time will tell. I suspect pricing will have to "normalize" somewhat unless they increase their customer base.

Royal Caribbean has been back to sailing for less than a year. The fact that they have FCC’s that cancel 12/31/2022 is absurd, imo. I get FCC expirations in a typical situation, but to put expirations on them when they haven’t returned to cruising under any semblance of how they did when most people booked….they have been holding onto that money and now they are going to say “poof” it’s gone. They may not be alone in the industry, but I think there is going to be a big mess at the end of this year if the explanations in this thread are accurate. Matt….this would make a great item for clarification for all your followers that don’t meet current criteria for sailing. Is it one year from the rebooked cruise or all expire 12/31/22, no matter what. Some general clarification would be much appreciated.

I can’t speak for others, but any of my posts are directly related to Covid protocols on cruise ships, not Covid in general or politics. A lot of people have moved on and are cruising again, but there are still some of us that aren’t able to because of current protocols, or should I say choose not to jump through the hoops placed in front of us. For those that are back to cruising…congrats. Some who were part of this community prior to the pandemic, when shorts during formal night was the controversial discussions, are still waiting to be able to participate in this activity we all enjoy, but we aren’t able to discuss when that might become a reality. Oh well…

This thread seems shorter than it was before. I wish there was a place for reasonable discussion.

I wonder if anyone will ever consider natural immunity in their protocols. Would be a breathe of fresh air, imo.

A lot of the opinions aren't really "political" opinions, they are just opinions. Unfortunately just about everything has been turned into a political opinion at this point. I have an opinion on the protocols. It's my opinion. I can assure you it has nothing to do with my political affiliation.

I think this was based on Opting Out. So if you Opt Out, and the punishment is everyone needs to wear a mask, that might not be as bad as the protocols associated with Opting In.

Welp, I didn’t read the thing, but since the CDC put it together I have some idea what it says. Was hoping some common sense would come into play with summer and beyond, but if the CDC is calling the shots that won’t be the case. If Royal intends to run this vaccine thing indefinitely, they should let people cash out their FCC’s that don’t want to sail under these protocols.

Well hopefully they plan to extend FCC's beyond this year

Wouldn’t be a smart move given the current situation, but could be great for those that want to cruise without crowds.

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 sure the folks at Pfizer wish this pandemic never happened, but man….

Look, these posts aren’t in the spirit of the rule to not discuss this topic.

That’s one take.

your natural immunity point is spot on. it makes it hard to accept the whole premise when you ignore such a significant factor in the discussion.

I doubt it will be optional, unless all vaccines become optional. They have had “eligible” individuals in the vaccine wording and doubt they would treat 5-11 different. They had a chance to do that with 12-15 year olds or 16-17 year olds, and didn’t. A 12 year old gets the same dose as an adult. An 11 year old would get one third the dose. An argument could be made that it’s more palatable to vaccinate an 11 year old than a 12 year old.

None of us know….enough said

It’s really ridiculous that they haven’t released them IMO. I have a Nov 21 sailing booked and I don’t know the protocols and can’t get a refund until they tell me what is 99.9% likely going to be the case. They can hide behind it’s out of their control, but if it’s not extended are they really going to drop vaccine requirements? So what are we really talking about some mask nuances. Silly.

Pretty minimal impact, not sure how you draw that conclusion. Perhaps the Bahamas will just print extra money like the US.

Cruise ships are pretty “regulated” with their protocols.

Unchecked legislature = bad Legislating from the bench = bad Perhaps she made a good decision based on the facts, I don't have the patience to read it (thank you for the summary so I didn't have to), so I guess I'll step back and read the comments.

If the goal is to reduce the likelihood, then might as well keep the masks too, right?