Mike.s

We sailed of Rhapsody of the Seas from Tampa earlier this year, having previously sailed on Anthem, Freedom and Independence. We loved it. Much smaller ship meant much less walking, hardly ever used the lifts, sorry elevators ?, no queues anywhere, could always get a sunbed. Yes we did miss the promenade but will be sailing on a smaller ship again in the future.

This is so true, lots of people will be more concerned with whether they will still have a job not what type of cabin to book once lockdown is lifted. 
Also Social distancing will be here for a long time yet, its been stated that it could be up to 2 years before things return to some sort of normality, i cannot comment on other countries but the company i work for in UK has stated that once lockdown is lifted those employees either working from home or on furlough will not all return at same time! They will be reintroduced to the workplace gradually to reduce the risks involved, you only have to look at Japan and Singapore last week to see that even without restrictions being lifted a 2nd wave can hit at anytime. 
In my opinion the cruises for the rest of this year ( if they happen ) will probably be half full, yes there are those who will cruise as soon as they can because they want to while others wont due to the risks involved,  however RC may also decide to reduce the capacity of ships to further reduce the risks,  as has been mentioned last thing they need is more bad press. 

Can't see Europe opening up anytime soon, we're still in the middle of the crisis, there's no chance anyone will give the green light to anything that has thousands of people all at the same venue at the same time, be it a cruise, a sports event.... Just wish Royal had bitten the bullet and delayed things until the autumn, rather than death by a thousand cuts.

Can't see Europe opening up anytime soon, we're still in the middle of the crisis, there's no chance anyone will give the green light to anything that has thousands of people all at the same venue at the same time, be it a cruise, a sports event.... Just wish Royal had bitten the bullet and delayed things until the autumn, rather than death by a thousand cuts.

Can't see Europe opening up anytime soon, we're still in the middle of the crisis, there's no chance anyone will give the green light to anything that has thousands of people all at the same venue at the same time, be it a cruise, a sports event.... Just wish Royal had bitten the bullet and delayed things until the autumn, rather than death by a thousand cuts.

The $1B per month claim for Carnival to keep operating is interesting.  
While Carnival has a larger fleet now you begin to see the magic of operating mega ships and how CCL and RCL differ financially.
Last year CCL corporate had $20.8B gross sales with $2.99B of net income.  That makes expenses roughly $17.8B or $1.4B per month.  Granted that is extremely simplified.  
Last year gross sales for Royal were $10.9B of which $1.88B became net income.  That makes expenses roughly $9B or $750M per month.  Granted that is extremely simplified.  
Royal's gross sales were 52% of Carnival's yet Royal's net income was 63% of Carnival's.  How can that be?  In part it's because of mega ships, but in simple terms Royal is more efficient and generates more revenue per guest with a much smaller fleet.  Carnival PLC has just over 106 ships versus RCCL with half that.    
The cost to idle a mega ship will be close to the cost to idle a smaller ship.  Minimal fuel to putter around, cost of minimum bridge crews and marine department will be marginally higher for a mega ship compared to a small ship.  While the hotel department crew counts are much higher on mega ships much of those crew are going or have gone home.  
Normal monthly expenses include fuel consumed at normal cruise speed and supplies to feed roughly a hundred thousand guests among other things.  With ships slowly idling around and with the dramatically lower cost for oil right now their fuel costs are significantly lower.  Fuel is one of the larger operating expense during normal times when ships are running at cruise speeds.  Now?  Not so much, comparatively speaking.
While revenue is dramatically lower right now so are operating expenses.  With crew contracts ending and crew going home what's left are the marine department crews and bridge officers.  Consequently employee costs are down and there are fewer crew mouths to feed by the tens of thousands across the fleet.
It's very interesting that CCL is claiming their floor to operate right now is $1B per month.  That suggests they have shed $400M in monthly expenses. 
RCCL has lower expenses because they fewer ships to float right now, roughly half as many ships across all brands.  On the surface using CCL numbers Royal would shed $200M per month in expenses for a fleet half the size.   Fain and other executives are also cutting their salaries through September.
The magic question is what Royal's minimal cost to keep the fleet floating around and cover land based employees that are retained during this period?
Until this year's SEC filings occur that's anyone's guess but let's call it $500M per month as a SWAG.  With the secured credit to date that should last at least through the end of the year.

Airplanes, trains and buses don't have medical teams on them who are required to report illness on board.  Neither do grocery stores, churches, schools or sports stadiums.
It's difficult to track the movements of someone who flew domestically but stood in a line to get a coffee with someone who just got off a plane from China.  Three minutes in that line in close proximity they now touch the credit card machine right after that passenger from China and now they have it without even knowing.  Next they board a plane for a short flight within their country and by the time the plane lands 6 more are infected.  
On a cruise ship every visit to the medical center is logged and documented.  Upon arriving from being away a ship is asked about any health issues and they are required to report it.  A local ferry boat might see one infected person board and 20 minute later there are dozens of infected COVID-19 passengers but no one knows it so it goes unreported.   Some of those now go to church or school or a grocery store but no one knows so it goes unreported.
The fact is that community spread was occurring as passengers boarded cruise ships around the world but nobody knew it at the time.  Guests unknowingly brought it on board a cruise ship but they caught COVID-19 on land and introduced it to the ship - the ship didn't make the virus out of thin air.  At that same moment community spread was occurring at hundreds of social gatherings from school to church to bars to neighborhood card games but there is no way to capture that and document it like there is on a cruise ship.
The media can't report that which is undocumented yet we all now know was occurring.  It's unproven theory even though it's accepted within the scientific community.  Hard counts in documented reports from ship medical logs are facts that are easily picked up by the media.  "Seventeen guests with flu like symptoms" is a hard fact that a journalist can write an entire story around.  
Banning churches and school would be a hard sell for any free society to accept so they quietly get included in stay at home policies.  Calling out and banning a luxury vacation industry is an easier sell that makes it look like governments are doing something despite the fact that it doesn't really do anything at this point and those same stay at home policies already cover the cruise industry.

Cruise ships don't have to parallel park, do they??
 
Jokes people, jokes! ?

Other sites are reporting positive tests for Corona-virus amongst the crew on Oasis, let's hope they all have a speedy recovery and that Chris Wong is well back in the UK, scary times ?
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVHHMkz2Tz0&t=106s
 

Other sites are reporting positive tests for Corona-virus amongst the crew on Oasis, let's hope they all have a speedy recovery and that Chris Wong is well back in the UK, scary times ?
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVHHMkz2Tz0&t=106s
 

Other sites are reporting positive tests for Corona-virus amongst the crew on Oasis, let's hope they all have a speedy recovery and that Chris Wong is well back in the UK, scary times ?
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVHHMkz2Tz0&t=106s
 

Other sites are reporting positive tests for Corona-virus amongst the crew on Oasis, let's hope they all have a speedy recovery and that Chris Wong is well back in the UK, scary times ?
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVHHMkz2Tz0&t=106s
 

Other sites are reporting positive tests for Corona-virus amongst the crew on Oasis, let's hope they all have a speedy recovery and that Chris Wong is well back in the UK, scary times ?
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVHHMkz2Tz0&t=106s
 

Other sites are reporting positive tests for Corona-virus amongst the crew on Oasis, let's hope they all have a speedy recovery and that Chris Wong is well back in the UK, scary times ?
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVHHMkz2Tz0&t=106s
 

Hi there 

I was on the EDGE last year and really liked it mostly because it was a little smaller than like an Oasis class but has all sorts of cool and modern fun things and areas to explore AND the motion stabilizers are top notch on these new builds - it maybe that you could try one out in a Caribbean sailing where weather is generally not an issue - And the Rooftop Garden and Solarium were by far 2 of my favorites.  Always good to try something new !

Dear Valued Guest,
We are writing to provide you an update to the itinerary for your XXX of the Seas cruise to Alaska.
Your departure port has changed from Vancouver to Galveston and the cruise will now make stops at the ports of Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Roatan.
Sincerely,
Aurora Yera-Rodriguez

Matt
Thanks for the link, even more excited about travelling on Rhapsody than I was before (my wife is just rolling her eyes reminding me that I'm in my 50's)

Matt
Thanks for the link, even more excited about travelling on Rhapsody than I was before (my wife is just rolling her eyes reminding me that I'm in my 50's)

Matt
Thanks for the link, even more excited about travelling on Rhapsody than I was before (my wife is just rolling her eyes reminding me that I'm in my 50's)

Rhapsody is a Vision class ship.  We sailed her the last week of January and had a wonderful time.  We were in an "ocean view" (aka window) stateroom on deck 4.  Only issue is that the OV rooms seems a little smaller than the ones on Voyager or Freedom class ships.  We had a wonderful waiter and assistant waiter (actually, we loved our assistant waiter). Also, the cruise director and activities manager were wonderful.  All-in-all, I'd recommend it and can't think of any major glitches.

The junior suites with the higher numbers (8050 and above) are under the indoor pool and spa so hopefully would be quieter, we hope so as we're in one of them in a little over a week ☺️

Balcony, unless it's way more expensive. Nothing better than sitting with a good book, a beer/glass of wine and watching the sea, not found anything more calming. 

We gone for this option on Rhapsody at the end of the month, the price difference between Chops on it's own or Chops +1 was minimal, much more appealing than the 3 night dining option on a 7 day cruise. And on a smaller ship with fewer dining options it made sense to us. 

I tried getting a Real ID the last time I renewed, but the staff at the DMV were clueless dicks, so I'm just going to use my passport, lol.

Ah the joy of repricing, excellent news for you and your family @DDemuth, shame it's not available worldwide. Enjoy those "free" drinks and excursions?