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Oh, and hey ladies! Please don't read this part....guys only. Guys...you gotta know of those eight people, there is one man who gets nothing but grief every day from his wife that they bought that el cheapo inside cabin on deck 2. Ya' know she's look'in around and seeing all those empty cabins with whirlpools and special soaps and balconies with binoculars on 'em and door bells and she is making her husband pay for making such a bad decision. Poor guy.

If you are one of these eight people, what kind of tip do you leave on the dresser in your stateroom???? https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/artania-cruise-ship-docks/index.html I mean, yeah over the past 4 months you've 'prolly gotten good at guessing the price of the Peter Max and now know all dance steps to every 70's night song. Hell, they might have even taking turns dressing up as the indian. But....on the other hand the cruise line almost nearly killed you....or worse. So, what kind of tip do you leave behind???? On the other hand, how do you bring all those fancy, flashing light cups home; 'cause it's like A LOT of 'dem.

In all the recent events, I don't remember an announcement of Rhapsody being retired. https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1997/cruise-ship-2417-passengers-stock-no-s2509-3024096/ The asking price of $85M is really cheap; and I bet you could buy it for a whole lot less than that today.

Allow me to throw out this suggestion, release deployment schedules and allow bookings that are ambiguous. Let me explain: Anthem of the Seas 7 night cruise departs from Tampa June 15, 2023 Use standard pricing: Inside cabins are $175 a night, Porthole are $200 a night, Balconies are $275, etc. etc. Sell the benefits of the ship and all the activities that offers, the itinerary? That'll be announced at some point in the future. Many people would be happy to put deposits down for future sailings with unknown itineraries, particularly marquee ships like Anthem, Harmony, and Odyssey.

Wow, knock me over with a feather!!!! Guidance, leadership, taking initiative, creating an acceptable path forward, being a role model......I think American Queen and their fleet of riverboats are going to be very successful and be the first to return back to a profitable enterprise. Meanwhile, judging from Richards Fain's MSNBC interview; Royal Caribbean's plan is to just sit idle "until they tell us what we have to do". No commitment to resume cruising. Then there is the laughing at getting employees back home <shakes head, very disappointed> Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1Q of 2021.

The short answer is: That is just how short on cash Royal is and by giving obscure partial payments greatly reduces if not eliminates the legal footing a canceled passenger might bring in civil court. The long answer: All the accessible loan money probably has covenants stating that it can not be used for refunding customers. This actually makes a lot of sense, you just have to view it from the point of the bank. In commercial paper the strings attached are called covenants. Examples of covenants might be executives can not create a golden parachute for themselves with the funds, no stock buy backs, or the money can only be used for maintaining fixed assets because if this all goes down the toilet, the bank can make a legal claim against the title of those fixed assets. The bank can't make a legal claim against customers who received a refund. I'm guessing that the billions of available loans are not able to be used for this purpose. So customers desiring a refund need to be paid from cash from three main sources: cash previously on hand, cash from new cruise sales, or cash from newly sold (treasury shares) shares of stock. Common sense tells me those aren't the most robust streams of income today and with a large company like Royal there are likely a lot of other expenses and contracts contending for that pool of money. How the CFO prioritizes which squeaky wheel gets grease? This is triage. It's a day by day basis of fixing that days most urgent needs. Every workday is a nightmare and there is no end in sight. Oh, and they already spent all that cash on hand left over from last year. So there are a bunch of customers Royal rightfully owes money to. There is some cash to pay them, but not all of them in their entirety. So they drag their feet, postponing the payment of any money. The make no promises of payment but a lot of innuendo. They look for any reason to reduce those payments. And then they begin to give payments in random amounts, no certain percentage, no per diem, otherwise no recognizable methodology. Therefore it looks like a cumbersome system, Royal is just being Royal, and the IT department is now working in accounting. And customers just feel shortchanged, not out and out ripped off. And, if this were to really go down the toilet; the legal standing of a partially refunded customer is much, much weaker as to one who received nothing. And as a potential class action case of partially refunded customers, their amounts are all over the place and it's a hard to figure out because you can't just say this cruise contract was unpaid, you have to subtract a couple random amounts to come up with the unpaid balance. It's a purposeful mess. Got it?

You have to want to get them home, like calling Royal Caribbean to get an issue taken care of; you have to be persistent. Like a James Van Fleet weather forecast, you have to be honest and frank. Like James Van Fleet, daily briefings and frequent updates will go a long way. Van Fleet uses a bunch of social media to get his word out. In short, honest communication will go a long way with the stranded crew if Royal is in fact trying. Today, Royal Caribbean is not trying. CDC mandates??? How about turning your negatives around into positives??? How about leadership and guidance??? This whole maritime platform is based on leadership, seniority, and wisdom; well.....I'm expecting brilliance out of highly paid people with stripes on their shoulders and corner offices in Miami and so far I'm not getting any. If I was the zookeeper I would clean the floating petri dish to the point it was a germ free environment. I would test everyone aboard twice a day. I would implement platforms and activities so that those onboard do things. I would start with the easy stuff, how can we do the dances that are done during the sail away? How can these people go to the main theater and watch a movie or a performance? How can we let them on the pool deck and occupy a lounge chair for an hour? How can we feed them all together? It means changing behaviors, it means changing norms. Instead of saying we'll just let our boat and the staff linger on some ocean; I would create a space and protocols that make a cruise ship better and safer than being on land. Someone disembarking from one of my cruise ships would be welcome in any country, in any airplane, or at any hotel. The relative few staff that are onboard would be my guinea pig, a nice small sample size to work with to establish how life and activities on future sailings might be preformed for when we pack the boat with 5,000 passengers. Imagine....people wanting to get on a cruise ship because it is a better, safer place than where they are at??? Whoa... Doing so requires leadership. It means changing things and implementing practices that other companies and institutions will look at see are a successful path going forward. It means being a pinnacle.

Why do so many people here have a difficult time for Royal being exposed for doing something obviously wrong? It's clear these crew members feel marginalized. Royal has promised to send them back home and has not done so. Their feelings and concerns are valid and true; Royal is very, very wrong. Why attack the poster or the news source? As a lover of Royal Caribbean, how can you not feel sympathetic for these crew members? Or, do we only appreciate them when they make us a towel animal or bring another drink?

The lay berth fee is a tax by the City of Miami. It's not the fee for the longshoremen to take a rope and put it around a cleat and later remove it, that's different. Apparently even though you spent $247M on a new terminal and a 200' longer private dock, you owe the city additional money just for having ropes attached.

Yes, Royal's embarrassing blunder of watching the Super Bowl instead of weather guidance nearly cost them a brand new Anthem of the Seas. They changed weather forecasting companies and hired James Van Fleet to offer a public face to weather issues. James Van Fleet's honesty and right down to the facts style is comforting to every cruiser no matter the weather circumstances. I vote he takes over as Chairman and CEO when Richard Fain steps down.`

If you are looking for an overwhelming Yes response than this is the place you will find it. But in reality people are going to transition back to normal at all kinds of different rates and as they see comfortable. There is no switch that gets flicked back normal. It will takes years to get back to 2019. That being said, people are not looking for a vacation. They have been on a vacation for a month and a half and as much as they would like to get out of their house, getting away from it all is not on their radar. I voted No. Cruises for me involve airplanes, airports, hotels, and ground transportation. I need to feel comfortable and safe with all of those things before I make the decision whether being safe on a cruise ship is even possible.

I was hoping this was a new penalty for chair hogs and their Boca Clips....bummer. <shakes head>

True Lift and Shift champions add cruise insurance to their new reservations if they did not have it before. Even if you've sailed for years without it, I think it's very prudent at this point in time.

Are you saying the the whole industry is dirtier than the floor of the Windjammer at lunchtime? Nah..... I think you'll agree, the Lift and Shift is notice to future cruisers to seek cover and protect yourself. Which, just occurred to me; if you are Lifting and Shifting you should also be adding Cruise Insurance as a part of your new booking.

Alrighty, jus' lookin' out ya' know.

Any change on the Princevaliantus position with today's Lift and Shift offer???

Ummmm.....is "Mr.Speed Noodles" aware he is being called Mr.Speed Noodles by a bunch of random internet people?

I heard their other idea was Lift and Seperate.

@YOLOI think the Lift and Shift is the opportunity all of us die hard cruisers have been looking for! Without question I would lift and shift any upcoming cruise I got to the following year. Delaying payment and delaying making a decision whether do I really wanna place myself in that situation. Your cruise is in November??? Lift and Shift till next year and as we get closer to November and you have more information whether this is a trip you would like to take; pick up the phone and book a new one. If not; hey, you dodged a bullet. Lift and Shift is a very generous way of allowing us to postpone payments and decisions for a very long time. Thank you RCL!!!

Allow me to be perceptive. You got an upcoming cruise that you've put $100 USD down on and have all kinds of concerns whether the ship sails, the final payment date is coming up and I might not want to give them money, I'm in a high risk category health wise, or the cruise is one thing but how I get to the boat, the hotel, the airlines, and how enjoyable is arriving a day early gonna be???? Lift and Shift baby!!! Postpone that cruise (and the payment) for one year and if things clear up as we get closer to your November vacation date and you feel better about it....pick up the phone and book a new one.

Lift and Shift sounds too much like cosmetic surgery procedure. I would have called it what it truly is Save Your Bacon.

Without question I am 100% certain they file chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize debt and restructure the company. I have less and less daily reservation whether it will be a chapter 7 bankruptcy and they terminate the business and liquidate the assets.

It's the exact same situation, RCL is just bigger. The longer things continue, the "lifelines" of credit become a noose.

Well....I think many, many people will be saying "And that's how I ended my job working on a cruise ship." Royal is really throwing in the towel folks, make no mistake about it.

Why is there not a Royal Caribbean Blog GoFundMe to provide tequila and condoms for Royal Caribbean crew members trapped onboard???? I want to pledge $100 for tequila and another $100 for the condoms, where do I send my money?