DDaley

And I have YOU to thank for it, because you encouraged me to have Michelle check again. So THANK YOU!!!! 

WOW !  Waaay to go !  If it’s showing up in your online account I think you’ve done it !  That’s the best deal I’ve heard of yet !

I'm in the process of Lift and Shifting my Jan 2021 Empress sailing to 2022 Odyssey.  I haven't received confirmation from Royal Caribbean, but the sailing is showing up on my Cruise Planner, so I'm assuming that's a good sign.  The difference between the Owner's Site on Empress and the Owner's Suite on Odyssey is $9200.  Keeping my fingers crossed!!!

Great pictures ..... we were on it at the beginning of january and had a great time on it ....

Sorry but I've been hung over in my cabin the entire time! 😀😀

I'd like to toss in Rainforest Adventures in the Castries Waterworks Preserve for St. Lucia. I ended up choosing it over the Pitons zip you listed because it includes an aerial tram through the jungle to get to the ziplines from the base station. It was amazing, I loved being in the rainforest! Seeing the Pitons may be the deciding factor though, now I just have to go back again to see them 😁  

This sunset courtesy of cruising in general.

After Happy Hour at the Schooner Bar I saw the Captain in the Centrum and asked if we might pop into San Juan while we are here.  
Since we are in the vicinity, he said sure!


When it's a made up cruise, you can do things like this.

Cruise relaxation mode engaged.



I heard in a press briefing a Painkiller might prevent Coronavirus.  I looked at my watch and it was 5 o'clock.

Unsure of the recommended dose, I had several.

They say they have enough credit potential to last through most of 2021 with no revenue.  

Michael Bayley is CEO of Royal Caribbean International (a single cruise line).  Richard Fain is the Chairman (or maybe CEO or both, doesn't really matter) of the parent company Royal Caribbean Group (which owns several cruise lines).

An opportunity for the US government to "look good" to us as constituents.
"Hey, WE'RE not the ones keeping you from travelling!"

Sovereign was my first cruise in 1998! I loved sail away.. I remember there were people down on the dock waving at our departure like an old school sailing vessel.

Very sad, there was so much pomp and circumstance when Sovereign was built and first sailed into Miami as the first purpose built mega-cruise ship.  She was the first ship of the modern cruise era.  Such an unfitting end.
 

Here they are with the Carnival Fantasy that was just beached.

It doesn't take long for today's sunset to arrive.
Where better to take it in than the aft deck behind Boleros?

One can properly ask that question but the question can't be asked and motivated by emotion.
In your view, what is the data based "risk to other countries" (French Polynesia in this case)? Can the risks one assigns to C-19 community spread be mitigated by locally implemented measures?  If there is a cluster of C-19 infections, will such disease burden outpace the capacity of the health care system to care for the infected? What is the benefit of improving the island's economies weighed against all these risks?
These are hard questions and, it seems to me, local public health officials are answering them by saying, right now, we will continue to allow travelers to come to our islands and believe this step, while it carries some risks, those risks are outweighed by the benefit to our economies and our citizens.
Encouraging and I like it.

An update on the Paul Gauguin:
More detailed (and well balanced) info is now available in local media:
https://www.radio1.pf/paul-gauguin-les-passagers-en-septaine-a-terre-le-protocole-sanitaire-renforce/
https://www.tahiti-infos.com/Les-passagers-du-Gauguin-debarques-et-confines_a193190.html
None of the other passengers and crew tested positive from Sunday’s testing, and they have been allowed to start to disembark the Gauguin Monday night. Here, IMO, are the salient facts to note:
The infected passenger is a 22-year-old travelling with her mother. They arrived from the States last Sunday, before boarding on Thursday. They’d been diligently following the mandatory masking and social distancing protocols, and were also diligent about doing the required self-test and dropping it off as instructed. They 100% complied with all of the conditions that were imposed on their travel and their cruise -- they did their part to mitigate risk.
The requirement for a test to be done 72 hours before boarding the departure flight is not perfect - but we all knew that already. It’s acknowledged that she could have easily been infected in the interval, or had a first false-negative. The required self-test done 4 days after arrival did its job. However, it did not prevent her from embarking the ship. Because of this, a 3rd test on the eve of embarkation is now going to be required, administered by the authorities.
The sanitary protocols onboard ship were strictly adhered to, and worked. Tracing identified 24 ‘at risk’ crew and passengers that had been in contact with the pair (out of 340.) The pair’s shoreside day on Bora-Bora, with the use of a rental car and a stop at a restaurant, as well as their time in Tahiti could reliably be contact-traced as well.
The authorities expressed confidence in their testing, tracing and isolating policy. They feel that the E.T.I.S. system (https://www.etis.pf/en/), that they have put in place to manage the health screening and monitoring of the tourists on the islands, functioned as intended. They felt that the risk of exposure had been minimal (not zero.)
All passengers and crew that tested negative must now adhere to a 7-day quarantine, to end with retesting to be redone at the end of this period. The monitored ‘confinement’ must be done at home for the residents, or in designated accommodation for the other passengers. All had to sign an ‘honour-bound’ quarantine compliance agreement. Passengers who live on Tahiti were the first to be allowed to disembark and go directly home on Monday night. Residents of the other islands are expected to disembark to return home today. The crew shall remain onboard. 
The mother-daughter pair will be closely monitored during their quarantine on Tahiti, for any sign of illness.
The interesting thing about all of this is that this incident has happened in a “closed environment” of sorts - with French Polynesia being essentially free of community transmission. What remains to be watched, especially in the next 7-10 days, is if the islands remain cluster-free, and if none of the passengers and crew return a positive result when retested in 7 days.
The French Polynesian authorities did state that they do not want situations like this one to repeat, where a ship carrying passengers has to return to port and deal with a quarantine situation again.
The main take-away here is the importance of compliance with the sanitary protocols.

The City gates have be expanded in modern times to accommodate the vehicles of today.   These used to be the size of the gates on La Citadelle.


A little taste of Europe right here in North America. 

A new fake feature is the Royal Transporter.  I dropped by just in time to see some new guests arriving from another ship.

📷 :CBS/Paramount
Pricing:
For $79.95* (plus 18% gratuity) you can be transported to another ship.  For a discounted rate of $39.95* (plus 18% gratuity) they will transport you to a random ship they choose.  Finally a heavily discounted rate is offered at $19.95* (plus 18% gratuity) but it will transport you to a different cruise line.  This is a one way trip as the Royal Transporter is only available on Royal Caribbean ships.   
* Crown And Anchor Society discounts apply.  Gold 10% off.  Platinum 15% off.  Emerald 20% off.  Diamond and Diamond Plus 30% off.  Pinnacle who have been cranky get a free transport to another ship, otherwise Pinnacle get a 50% discount.
I packed my bags and used some of my OBC for the $39.95 transport.  I'm not sure where I'll be on day two, but at least I'll be on a Royal Caribbean ship.  

Wait, what is that?
Is that what I think it is?  I think it is.  That mythical object that we have been banned from seeing all this time. 
It's a cruise ship!

Bar service in Gold Star:

In my made up trip it's 5 o'clock everywhere all the time!

It was a great day for flying and while my airplane cabin had windows on both sides the best views were on the right side of plane as we approached Anchorage.


It's so nice flying private without the hassle of the TSA or waiting for luggage.  I'll have to book this class more often from now on.

I have a fever but it isn't from COVID-19.  I have cruise fever and an itch I can't scratch.   
So why not join me for a wild and impossible cruise itinerary involving teleporting between cabins, ships and continents? 
The Captains have gone crazy and with the newly installed warp drives I'll be having dinner in the Northern hemisphere and eating breakfast in the Southern hemisphere.   From the Oasis Lagoon at CocoCay to an Alaskan glacier the next day.  From the zip line at Labadee through the Panama Canal down under to the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the blink of an eye, this is going to be a wild ride.  
Cruise Itinerary:  Haven't decided yet, we'll see how this plays out.
Cruise Length:  Haven't decided yet, we'll see how this plays out.
Leaving from:  Haven't decided yet, we'll see how this plays out.
 
With a special waiver from the CDC (Cruise Denying Consulate) no ships or crew will be harmed or exposed in the making up of this fake cruise.   
Sit back, buckle up and enjoy the ride.  🙂
Time to spin the hand sanitizer bottle and see where to begin this journey...