gatorskin76

I had my second shot last Wednesday. I don't know about long term side effects, but it definitely had short term side effects....

There are definitely ways to determine, but keep in mind your original reference was to testing, so surely they would have a way of testing only those that haven't shown proof of vaccination. Masking in areas would be more difficult, but the original reference was testing.

$55/night is very high relative to what I have seen on different cruises. You should be able to get it cheaper at some point, hopefully. I have been able to get it on several different cruises at $22.99/night for the faster version. I hope you get lucky with a sale like that in the near future.

We don't know this to be true, please cite a source if you have one. The issue wasn't asking if someone is vaccinated, it was requiring vaccination for service. So, as others have suggested, an easy work around is simply to offer the option for people to voluntarily provide the information with different protocols for those that offer it up. Is there really going to be someone that got the vaccination that wouldn't offer that information to Royal? There could be, but I imagine most who have been vaccinated would offer it freely.

There is a chance, that once cruising becomes more concrete, and people start planning more for their cruises, these prices might “normalize” a bit.

You might be right, I can't say you are wrong, but I don't think it could be the same as the Ruby and Diamond. Those were a result of those ships sailing around with no where to port with ever increasing case counts. That isn't going to happen. There will be headlines, but with the current news cycles, I suspect it would be forgotten in 24 hours if it didn't drag out. That was also in a time where some places had hardly any cases.

That's #funnynotfunny, because mine has the same $600 savings banner at the $699 price. The day pass is at $83.99 but just has pre-cruise deal banner. I was able to snag it on Black Friday for $43.99.

It would also be interesting to know what number would make the majority of people comfortable enough to sail. I could be wrong, but I really doubt it would end up anywhere near 50%. I would imagine a base line somewhere around 70-75%, and I think it would be higher most likely.

I don't begrudge them the dynamic pricing, because that does make sense. I am sure there is some component of booking rates that help them manage the overall sales. Prior to the pandemic I was able to find the thrill waterpark cabana for $299. Unfortunately that was on a sailing that was one of the first ones cancelled in March 2020, so I never got to take advantage of that great price. It was on the Navigator on a Coco Day with the Mariner and Navigator there at the same time. Now if the Navigator is at Coco Cay with an Oasis class ship, it would make sense to have a different price (supply and demand). It's sold out on my November cruise, so I can't figure out current pricing, but it says $699 and I have seen it as high as $999.

Yes. I particularly like that "rare" extension of the current promotion.

Certainly Royal Caribbean International has more at stake than almost anyone in cruises coming back online and in a way that doesn't lead to them getting pulled again. They also have to have more information than any of us regarding the numbers. So the fact they would come out with this plan has to be good news on their confidence that they can manage the risk. The big unknown at this point seems to be the protocols. Once those are announced it will either put some at ease, or lead to an even larger kerfuffle regarding their decision to not mandate a vaccination. I wonder if there is anyway they would be able to, or even entertain the idea of publishing the % of cruisers on each ship that had provided their vaccination status. This could end up like some restaurants publishing the calorie counts in their meals which led to people not buying as much food, but if they were high figures might put some at ease.

Most everyone probably understood up to the other day that there was some chance that existing cruises in July were in jeopardy, but I can certainly understand the disappointment (5 cancelled cruises for me). Hopefully this is the last round for those that have been slated for restart.

Going to share a theory I had yesterday on the Carnival news from yesterday. I wonder if Carnival put that out there for leverage. Up until yesterday they seemed on the track that Royal announced. I wonder if Royal was getting concessions in the back and forth on the mandate and Carnival decided they needed some leverage in their discussions.

***My post below didn’t directly answer your question, but because prices vary from cruise to cruise, who knows. The “sale” percentage I pretty much ignore and just look at the total price.*** Unfortunately to really know when you are getting a deal you pretty much need to create a spreadsheet to track pricing. As is suggested, when it gets to a price you are comfortable with you can book, then you can always reprice if it goes lower. As far as I know, they haven’t developed a way to hide the lower price once you have booked, but I have wondered.

Agree. We are probably discussing the difference between 95% and 85%. Which probably doesn’t change the numbers that much given it doesn’t sound like you pick this up by passing someone in a hallway. I understand the concern about the cruise shutting down, but look what happened on the Odyssey trip over. They had a few positives in their crew and they dropped them off and kept going.

Is there a percentage of vaccinated passengers you would be comfortable with? If they have no mandate and 85% are vaccinated and 100% of crew, is that safe enough? Even with requirement you would be sailing with some unvaccinated, unless you confined yourself to the adults only section, and even then you might run into a medical exception.

It’s definitely tough to be on an island, but I hope if they change course it’s only for 18+, and I understand for me that’s self serving.

There are Loyal to Royal cruisers that don’t feel the same way as you, at least one anyway.

Hopefully I won’t have to fight them on that, but I will if I have to.

Someone could argue anything, but I think the winning argument would be that it satisfies the FL ban. I am sure Desantis would accept it as he would do a victory lap. Time will tell

I would, although I am vaccinated at this point. I would have cruised before.

If you have FCC's that haven't been assigned to a future cruise, I would assume those would be refundable? Since the cruise they were issued for wasn't a voluntary cancellation? I have a few that I haven't applied to Nov and March cruises where I paid for refundable deposits, and I would assume that the original FCC's would be refundable. I thought the original program mentioned that if you changed your mind later that you could request a refund of the original amount, not the extra 25% obviously.

If I thought there was risk, more than taking them to Publix, I wouldn’t put them at “risk”. I don’t think it’s a question of our appetite for risk but more of a difference in the view of what risk exists. But I agree with the general sentiment, to each their own.

In reality what is likely to be the percentage of unvaccinated if they lift the restriction? I would imagine they would still be around 75% without the restriction. Perhaps they could even develop a % that still makes it “safer”. Similar to what the 95% cruises will need to do, but a lower number. I don’t really understand your “risk” comment, but I live in Florida. My kids have gone to in person classes all year without incident. You do realize that even with requirements for vaccines all the under 12 kids would be coming into contact with other under 12 kids not vaccinated. I don’t let my kids hang out with random 30 year olds in close proximity, so I’m not sure the “risk” is that much of a concern, but we have been to Disney and Universal several times, so….

I just went back and watched Richard Fain’s video from around a week ago. Here was his statement about Royal Caribbean International…”everyone who’s eligible for the vaccine will be expected to have one”. Things can change, but that sounded pretty definitive at the time.