Sushitex

During one of our last pre-pandemic cruises,  hubby was trying to download funds from our credit card for the second time on a slot machine, and noticed that it would no longer do so. He had planned to use the money that he cashed out in other slot machines and at table games.  A staff member in the casino told him that so many people try to use the slot machines as a free ATM that they allow people to use it only once and then they lock them out. After verifying that hubby was a Prime member and that he was truly trying to gamble on the slot machines, etc., they did something to unlock him and he was able to continue the process. 
 
Now we just charge the money we  will use to our room - it’s tied to our credit card, there are no extra fees, and we earn double points with the credit card.  
 
If we do want actual cash, we both are currently Prime, and they will waive the transaction fee for Prime and higher-level members. However, we no longer see any point  in carrying around large amounts of cash. 
 
 

I hope so, keeping my fingers crossed! 

On the Independence out of Galveston?  We are scheduled on the September 19th sailing on her. 2 out of our 3 bids already were "expired" (rejected) but the other said "pending" a little while ago. 
We are more anxious about our Covid-19 test tomorrow, but thinking about the possibility of upgrading is keeping me distracted, a little. 

I hope so, keeping my fingers crossed! 

We ordered the monitored home test kit set from eMed on Monday morning, and received it around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, a very hot time of day in south TX. Fortunately, the Fed Ex person rang the doorbell and hubby heard it (I thought it was a doorbell ringing on a tv commercial, lol.) Anyway, it's in our spare bedroom,  and it's usually pretty cool in there. 
 

We ordered the monitored home test kit set from eMed on Monday morning, and received it around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, a very hot time of day in south TX. Fortunately, the Fed Ex person rang the doorbell and hubby heard it (I thought it was a doorbell ringing on a tv commercial, lol.) Anyway, it's in our spare bedroom,  and it's usually pretty cool in there. 
 

https://cen.acs.org/analytical-chemistry/diagnostics/COVID-19-antigen-assay-set/98/i34
 
Looks like they are preparing to produce 50 million tests per month

It's been 9 years, but on our cruise to Alaska, I had read a guidebook and we took a public bus to Totem Bight State Park. It was chilly and rainy at first (the sun came out later) so it was pretty much deserted on the bus and in the park - it was a cool place to visit and wander around in. I believe that we rode the bus back to town and did a little souvenir shopping, then walked back to the ship.  
We would love to return for a second cruise to Alaska, and since Sitka was not even an option, we'd love to go there.
Our favorite port had to be Skagway - we booked an independent tour. They took us on the Yukon Railway, then a minibus that went into Canada and we stopped to eat lunch and play with the Alaskan sled puppies (and dogs) at one training "farm." It was absolutely one of our top shore excursions.

We are on the same cruise. I'm wondering if the stop will be replaced by Perfect Day or Nassau (hopefully Perfect Day.) 

Just a little over 2 years ago, we sailed on our first Royal cruise, the Liberty of the Seas. We had previously been on 7 Carnival and 3 NCL cruises. Honestly, I booked the Liberty because it was cheaper than the Carnival ship going out of Galveston that June (probably the Vista; we cruise on her next weekend, lol.) Be prepared to be "wowed" by the technology on the newer Royal ships. The Liberty offers ice skating shows, FlowRiders, The Perfect Storm (water slides, etc.) and (in my opinion) overall, better entertainment than on most of the Carnival ships that I have been on. The major change for us, though, was learning about Club Royale, Royal's casino program. Although husband has gambled on every Carnival ship, we have never understood how the program works (still don't, for the most part.) Club Royale has a website and a brochure that tells you exactly what tier you are as a gambler, and what benefits you might obtain. What a game changer for us - by the end of that 7-night cruise, hubby had earned Prime status as well as 2 comped cruises (a certificate cruise and an annual "tier" cruise.) This won't occur during every cruise of course, but it did happen during our first Royal cruise. 
Of course, no cruise line is perfect. We missed the friendlier atmosphere (the entertainment crew) that we have seen on most Carnival ships during that first cruise. However, we were impressed with the friendly staff on the Enchantment of the Seas (our second Royal cruise ship.) 
We are also looking forward to our upcoming cruise on the Harmony, which will actually be a B2B in late January/early February. We'll be staying on the 8th deck because I am curious about the Central Park area. 
BTW, we haven't totally left Carnival - we have some cruises booked with the line. After several years of receiving no offers from Carnival, husband was mysteriously sent several casino offers this past spring.  We are not picky; we're grateful. Can't wait until we are all cruising again!

Just a little over 2 years ago, we sailed on our first Royal cruise, the Liberty of the Seas. We had previously been on 7 Carnival and 3 NCL cruises. Honestly, I booked the Liberty because it was cheaper than the Carnival ship going out of Galveston that June (probably the Vista; we cruise on her next weekend, lol.) Be prepared to be "wowed" by the technology on the newer Royal ships. The Liberty offers ice skating shows, FlowRiders, The Perfect Storm (water slides, etc.) and (in my opinion) overall, better entertainment than on most of the Carnival ships that I have been on. The major change for us, though, was learning about Club Royale, Royal's casino program. Although husband has gambled on every Carnival ship, we have never understood how the program works (still don't, for the most part.) Club Royale has a website and a brochure that tells you exactly what tier you are as a gambler, and what benefits you might obtain. What a game changer for us - by the end of that 7-night cruise, hubby had earned Prime status as well as 2 comped cruises (a certificate cruise and an annual "tier" cruise.) This won't occur during every cruise of course, but it did happen during our first Royal cruise. 
Of course, no cruise line is perfect. We missed the friendlier atmosphere (the entertainment crew) that we have seen on most Carnival ships during that first cruise. However, we were impressed with the friendly staff on the Enchantment of the Seas (our second Royal cruise ship.) 
We are also looking forward to our upcoming cruise on the Harmony, which will actually be a B2B in late January/early February. We'll be staying on the 8th deck because I am curious about the Central Park area. 
BTW, we haven't totally left Carnival - we have some cruises booked with the line. After several years of receiving no offers from Carnival, husband was mysteriously sent several casino offers this past spring.  We are not picky; we're grateful. Can't wait until we are all cruising again!

I’ll be on the Vista July 17th (unless something changes), and the Independence September 19 - October 6 (moved from Liberty and Explorer.) 

This is probably a good sign: Yesterday afternoon, Carnival sent hubby an email offering a comped inside room for either the Caribbean or Alaska for dates in July or August. We hurriedly booked 7 nights on the Vista out of Galveston, paying just the taxes/port fees. I wrote "hurriedly" because the website must have been inundated with other people doing the same thing, it was going in and out - it wasn't long afterwards that he received the "OH SNAP, no more cruises available" message when he tried to do a mock booking a few minutes later. 
Our new cruise begins on July 17.  The earliest date I saw for Galveston was for July 15 on the Breeze. 
Anyway, just the fact that Carnival sent out some last-minute offers for FL and Galveston sailings indicates (to me) that they are serious about sailing this coming July and August. 

Fortunately for us, hubby and I have been fully vaccinated since February, so we're okay with having some non-vaccinated folks onboard. We can also live with wearing masks and social distancing - we just did that (in most places) for a week in Las Vegas. Like everyone else, we JUST WANNA cruise, lol! ?

This is probably a good sign: Yesterday afternoon, Carnival sent hubby an email offering a comped inside room for either the Caribbean or Alaska for dates in July or August. We hurriedly booked 7 nights on the Vista out of Galveston, paying just the taxes/port fees. I wrote "hurriedly" because the website must have been inundated with other people doing the same thing, it was going in and out - it wasn't long afterwards that he received the "OH SNAP, no more cruises available" message when he tried to do a mock booking a few minutes later. 
Our new cruise begins on July 17.  The earliest date I saw for Galveston was for July 15 on the Breeze. 
Anyway, just the fact that Carnival sent out some last-minute offers for FL and Galveston sailings indicates (to me) that they are serious about sailing this coming July and August. 

So many questions.
Is the US okay vaccinating crew who are then sent somewhere else in the world?  Kind of seems like these ports are vaccinating crew so ships can sail in the US from the ports that are offering the vaccination service.

It has to be playing trivia games, lol. When we used to sail on Carnival ships, we collected many "ships-on-a-stick" and several medals. On Norwegian, it was points that could be traded in at the end of the cruise for some kind of souvenir. With Royal, lots of Royal-branded pens, key chains, luggage pulls, and those oh-so-coveted highlighters! 
 

It has to be playing trivia games, lol. When we used to sail on Carnival ships, we collected many "ships-on-a-stick" and several medals. On Norwegian, it was points that could be traded in at the end of the cruise for some kind of souvenir. With Royal, lots of Royal-branded pens, key chains, luggage pulls, and those oh-so-coveted highlighters! 
 

So, the restrictions on the "restricted" passenger voyages will no longer be in effect on November 2, 2021? The Conditional Sailing Order will expire on that date, or:
The expiration of the Secretary of Health and Human Services’ declaration that COVID-19 constitutes a public health emergency, OR The CDC Director rescinds or modifies the order based on specific public health or other considerations.  I just re-read pp 31-40 of the CSO, and besides the social distancing, mask-wearing and sanitation measures, there's also the ban of sailings  longer than 7 nights, for the restricted passenger voyages. Am I missing anything else? 
I realize that masks are not fun to wear, but if wearing one in public places means that I can cruise, I am okay with it. My only confusion is in the wording about wearing masks during extended mealtimes. Maybe it won't matter anyway, if we are socially distanced enough from those who are not in our "travel bubble" - we'd be too far away to spread any germs and thus, wouldn't need to mask up between bites. 
It's not hard to read "between-the-lines" that the CDC is rooting for crews and guests to be vaccinated. Personally, I'd feel better if the adults on my cruise are all vaccinated (or as many as possible.) 
Getting back to the November 2 ending of the CSO, I am hoping that things like masking up on cruises will go away at that point, especially if the virus has been better contained in North America by that time. 

Wow! Hubby received  an offer for a comped cruise with Carnival, so we booked a 5-nighter on the Breeze for late October, going out of Galveston. I hope that this is a sign of good things coming  for all the cruise lines sailing out of the U. S . 

Port Canaveral begins vaccinating cruise ship crew.
https://www.floridatoday.com/story/money/business/2021/04/30/port-canaveral-becomes-first-u-s-port-start-vaccinating-cruise-crews/4896178001/
Port Canaveral on Friday became the first U.S. port to coordinate COVID-19 vaccine distribution to cruise ship crew members, in advance of a possible return to cruising in July.
The U.S. cruise industry has been shut down since March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The vaccination of crew members will help accelerate a return to cruising.
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It is expected that a number of other cruise ships will be docking at Port Canaveral in the coming weeks, so their crew members can receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
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It also is possible that cruise ships not typically at Port Canaveral will be docking there so crew members can get vaccinated aboard the ships.
Port Canaveral said it developed its vaccination procedures in cooperation with the Parrish Healthcare Center, Canaveral Fire Rescue and cruise lines' medical personnel.
The port said up to 1,000 COVID-19 vaccination shots a day can be provided to vessel crew members, as well as to shoreside and waterside support personnel.

Wow! Hubby received  an offer for a comped cruise with Carnival, so we booked a 5-nighter on the Breeze for late October, going out of Galveston. I hope that this is a sign of good things coming  for all the cruise lines sailing out of the U. S . 

I think it's real progress.  And given the rumors of hotels full of cruise workers in south Florida and the reports of 2 Carnival ships heading to Galveston to prep for cruises, I believe the cruise lines are committed to making it work.
In other words I went from hopelessly pessimistic to an incurable optimist in about 2 nanoseconds!

Good to see this... fingers crossed.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2021/04/28/cdc-cruises-could-restart-july/4883450001/