ehw51

Still on the website, just not on bookable list.
https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/grandeur-of-the-seas
 

Yes, it is still there under "ships" on the home page, but it's not even listed as an option if you go "Find a Cruise" and then choose "Ships" (over on the right hand side of the page...not at the top).

Not necessarily. At one point Royal Caribbean said December test sailings were possible, but it sounded like that was not certain.
From RC SVP Vicki Freed, "We hope to have the trial cruises in December, but more to come."

I’m not surprised either. And everyone on the boards debating whether or not to cruise before a vaccine comes out, don’t need to worry cause by the time cruise lines start up again I’ll be most people will be able to get the vaccine, which Is what I always figured would happen. You can stop blaming the CDC. 

Based on the email they just sent for a cancelled Feb 2021 cruise it looks like they won't be extending it past April 2022....Oh well, I'll give it a few weeks and then request refunds. I tried to help you out Royal Caribbean!
 
1. 125% Future Cruise Credit: We’re providing you with a 125% Future Cruise Credit to book a new cruise by April 30th, 2022.
This amount is based on your total cruise fare paid, and we’re giving you a little extra, knowing that this is such a unique circumstance.  Your certificate can be used on any Royal Caribbean International sailing that departs on or before April 30th, 2022.  
 

Actually already found the information so in before the mobs take the site to a crawl but thanks.  It's linked above, but here is the post.
 
 
 

I had B2B Symphony cruises in Feb.  One was a casino comp and the other was a regular priced cruise.  @michelleis going to L&S the regular priced cruise to butt up against one I already have in Feb 2022 to give us a new B2B.  I called on the casino comp and they would not move it (price protect) so I just cancelled it for a cash refund.
It's so weird with the casino comps.  Sometimes they will allow you to move them forward and sometimes they won't.  Today they wouldn't.  I should have known that they were never going to let me cruise in a JS for $258 PP on Symphony !  It seems so short-sighted to me though... it seems that they would rather have me move my casino comp forward and keep my money than to deny me that opportunity and have to refund everything.  Whatever.  Too bad that I lost that great casino deal...there was $150 free play on that one, too !  Dang...

Another email will be sent out with the Cruise Planner 125% opt in link.

I wonder if the same policy will apply if you are able to do a Lift & Shift. I was supposed to go last month and when it was cancelled, I did a L&S for next October. When I did that, I was informed that I was not eligible for the 125% onboard credit. Was bummed about that, but it is what it is. I hope that by next Oct, we are back to somewhat normal cruising. My wife is slowly starting to turn against ever cruising again.

It all depends on scheduling and optimism.  L&S puts it into next year plus or minus a month or two excluding holiday sailings.  That could get you a better deal than taking the credit.  But until the vaccine is around and successful it's possible that cruises longer than 7 days will be canceled.  The 125% credit can be used on any sailing so if another option looks better that may be good.  I am planning to go this route and then put a few more bucks down, if it's canceled again I get another credit that I can use for another sailing but after that it gets a little dicey.  You can only use the 125% FCC per person from my understanding which means 2 people traveling you get to use 2 FCC's but end up with a third and you have to push it to another point but have a little over a year to do so in most cases so still not awful.  Having children should theoretically add the number of credits you can use per sailing but don't quote me on that as the FAQ mentions something about per stateroom while other stuff said per person.
A full refund is just cash, if you need a little extra and don't want to try and wait out the suspension this is the way to go.  

You can cancel up to 48 hours before your cruise with no penalty under the Cruise with Confidence program, but that gets you a 100% future cruise credit.
To get a refund you still have to cancel before final payment date (or if Royal Caribbean cancels the cruise instead of you).

Coco Cay is an incredible place. As others have already noted, it's big enough and so well-designed that you never feel like you're on a crowded island, yet small enough that you can casually stroll wherever you want within a few minutes. The shuttles are plentiful, too. Simply an amazing amenity available for RC guests.

Very easy to get around, even have ¨sand¨ wheel chairs with large tires. Shuttles are constant, very easy to find.

If Royal does cancel the Alaska 2021 season, I hope that they cancel the entire season all at once instead of feeding us 4 weeks of cancellations at a time. Also, I don't see it in the interests of the shore excursioners to be put on hold as well. A lot of them bring "kids" up from the lower 48 to work at their business during the summer (I have a nephew who worked on a fishing boat).

Congress won't take up a PVSA amendment.  The passenger vessel industry beyond cruise ships in the US contributes a lot more to the US economy compared to these foreign cruise companies.  There are US operators using US flagged vessels offering cruises from Seattle and Juneau.  Any PVSA relief offered to foreign companies that employee very few Americans while paying no US taxes would quickly be shot down by the courts for the right reasons.  
Even if that impossibility came to fruition it doesn't address the crew C-1/D visa immigration issue which also stops foreign carriers in their tracks.  #notgoingtohappen
I'm actually looking at a cruise on one of the US based small ship cruise lines in Alaska.  They use small ships but they are crewed by Americans and it's a US flagged ship.  That would mean 100% of my vacation spend would help Americans.  It also means they can skip Canada if so required.  They are all inclusive so that offsets the higher base fare.

Richard Fain is also very bullish on the vaccine news
 

Huge step forward - UK just authorized the use of the Pfizer vaccine .
This is excellent news and I hope more approval will come soon from the FDA and other regulators. Maybe there is still hope for the RCB cruise to the fjords  ? 
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-authorises-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine
“The vaccine will be made available across the UK from next week"
 
 

Some more good news , 
Moderna are going to apply the request for emergency FDA approval .
The compile all the extended data  and they for the 30000 people test the vaccine has successful rate of 94.1%  to  protect from C19  94.1 % and 100%  from getting severe hilliness  . On other words  only 11 people out of 15000 who got the real vaccine got ill , noon of them developed any severe hilliness comparing to  185  from the placebo group who got the C19 and 30 of them became severely ill .
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/30/health/moderna-vaccine-fda-eua-application/index.html
 
 
 

I'm curious how this will factor into the 2021 Alaska cruise season.  
Royal won't want to sail ships empty across oceans or through the Panama Canal just to have Canada keep its ports closed and ships can't sail.  
Will have to watch it progress over the coming months.

Doesn't surprise me at all..I suspect it will be at least May or June..by then  the US will have  reached high levels of vaccination(according to their plans currently) and the #'s start to drastically go down as a result.
 
By then, hopefully we will be on our way with vaccinations(although I predict it will take us about twice as long to get it done) and things will start to loosen up. Going to be a long winter and spring for us Canadians!

Great news for our UK friends and possibly cruising from the UK restarting....

Brilliant news! Hopefully it won't be to long before we can all have the vaccine ?

Bring on the jabs!!

BBC article published 15 mins ago:
"The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for widespread use.
British regulator, the MHRA, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, is safe for roll out next week.
Immunisations could start within days for people in high priority groups.
The UK has already ordered 40m doses - enough to vaccinate 20m people, with two shots each.
Around 10m doses should be available soon, with the first doses arriving in the UK in the coming days."
Here is a link to the full article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55145696
Dare I say it but that light at the end of the tunnel appears to be getting brighter ??

This will be my fifth cancelled cruise and my first in 2021. My issue is that I have let RCC keep my money and issue FCC because I am fortunate enough to be in a position to do so and am trying to do my part to keep them afloat.
 What I can not do is take a bunch of cruises in 2021 whenever they do actually start back. So they are going to have to either extend the deadline in which a FCC must be used (by a significant number of months) or I am going to end up getting refunds for all those cancelled cruises in 2020. They only have a few weeks left to announce whether they will or not. Seems like a way to loose a LOT of money quickly. I am sure I am not the only one with this issue.