ehw51

Masks will be required until the pandemic is declared "over" by the WHO and CDC. The vaccine is 95% effective in preventing illness due to COVID 19. Whether or not a vaccinated person could still be a carrier and therefore spread COVID has not been studied. Cruising without a mask will occur in the 2nd half of 2021. 

We will eventually be back to maskless cruising. It's just a matter of how long it will take. 
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Isnt that what i said in 1st paragraph? FOR A GOOD WHILE YET! I never said forever 

95% effectiveness is based on trial numbers of becoming "sick" or symptomatic.  This means you could still become infected and spread it.  That is why masks will still be required in the early releases of the vaccine.  Once the population has been vaccinated or we see a huge drop in COVID hospitalization, is when masks may not be mandatory.  So in theory, if the majority of the population gets vaccinated, it will eventually work towards herd immunity.
 

Saw on a Princess sales channel video they've specifically inquired with the CDC about B2B and they haven't heard back.  
I'm sure Royal has inquired as well.  It's in the hands of the CDC at the moment.  Everyone is waiting for them to respond.

I have a B2B scheduled in March...March 4th for 4 nights and March 8th for 5 nights out of Fort Lauderdale.
Two days ago I received an email reminder letting me know I was near the final payment date. I made the final payment online and it was accepted. This reminder email was probably automatically generated based upon payment due date so I don’t believe this is the final word. I’ll just wait and see.
As far as making payments are concerned...even if it’s probable that the cruise will be cancelled, I will still make the payment. For me it’s a no-brainer...if and when the cruise is cancelled, my payment comes back as a future cruise credit worth 125%. Because of the number of cruises I’m lucky enough to be able to take, that’s a nice investment!

Why?  Planning to sue me?

The longer it goes, the more it seems that way. I was (and still am) hoping they are operating as an honest broker in all of this.

I disagree @twangster. I believe you're inferring what the CDC believes, and until they specify an issue with B2B, there is no reason to believe they look at consecutive cruises as anything more than two cruises in a row.
The CSO goes into great detail about what cruises line can and cannot do. They would certainly specify if there was an issue with B2B.
All that being said, CDC has no idea a B2B is a thing in cruising.  They constantly refer to cruises in terms of days instead of nights. 
Not saying they may not amend things as they go on, but they're not going to leave something as important as not permitting passengers on multiple cruises and putting permission to cruise in jeopardy(as you suggest) without actually stating that.  

The difference is on a B2B you have to disembark the cruise then re-board for the new cruise.  They are purchased as 2 different trips with 2 different booking numbers. It is not one cruise.  The CDC says the cruise lines can not offer / sell any cruise longer then 7 days.  They have not.  It does not say someone can not do 2 cruises whether separated by 1 day or 12 hours.

Not to argue with you but the cruise lines consider B2B cruises as 2 seperate cruises.  Totally independent of each other.  That being the case there is nothing to stop me from doing a B2B.  The cruise line is only offering 2 separate 7 day cruises.  There is no violation of any stupid CDC policy.
 

Our governor just held a presser to discuss distribution plans for the state.  All things still point to a "summer" availability for 18-64 yo.  This is subject to change once approval for children has been obtained.  
He also said that immunity comes some time after the second shot.  If you get the first shot in May he stated, the efficacy numbers that are being offered will be achieved after the second shot and you should expect the stated efficacy level of protection sometime in July.  
If that is true, that's another two months or so added to the timeline.  
Has anyone else heard this two month to efficacy claim from the date of vaccination?

I just pack last minute. I'll "prep" the week of but getting suitcases and stuff but otherwise, order pizza, poor a Guinness and start randomly tossing stuff in my bag. I do it so quick that I triple check I didn't forget an essential, like underwear. 
That's cool you have an Irish Pub you get to look forward too! I will have to remember that pub next time I fly into FLL!

I actually booked a cottage in the Bruce Peninsula for early July because I needed to have a vacation to look forward to. It's not exactly a cruise, of course, but at least it gets me out of the house.
My wife seems to like Kelly's Landing near the Convention Centre hotel cluster so we've gone there the last 3 times we've sailed out of Port Everglades. So I guess that's a tradition as well?

We did two short trips this past summer. Wildwood NJ since we could drive to it & NY Adirondacks where wife & family own property in a small town (also driveable).
Probably do something over the summer if a weekend getaway to Florida or something in the Spring still looks like a bad idea.

Check into a Hilton property.. Drink some Man Sodas..  Find a good burger joint.. 

Meeting up with fellow cruisers or friends that live near the port the night prior to the cruise.  Always a PLUS if I can sit outside by water with a good view while visiting with everyone as well.

Wake up at 7:00am and drive over to Einstein’s on 17th street and grab coffee & bagels for us. 8am pack the suitcases. 10:15am call Uber. 11:00- 11:30am sitting on the boardwalk getting ready for the doghouse to open for lunch. 

All we can do is sit back and speculate. We also have to have ports that will let us dock and disembark.  Looks like there are going to be some challenges with vaccine distributions and faith in it. I think RCG is just as anxious as all of us, they can´t take any chances. They have to get this right, rushing them isn´t going to help. We all want to cruise asap, we just have to be patient. 

Wow, I can't really think of too many. Sometimes I forget to pack until the last minute, if that's a tradition. I listen to reggae all year round, so there's no music that gets me psyched (and I can't stand Jimmy Buffet). No movies. I guess I am just boring. Perhaps dropping my dog off at my mother-in-laws house the night before? Oh, and if we're cruising out of Ft. Lauderdale, we always hit up The Field Irish pub right off the plane for onion rings and Guinness, followed by a walk out the jetty next to Halmos College to watch any ships leaving if there are. That's about it. 
 

Building the itinerary folder and breaking out the cruise supply/clothing boxes for pre-sort depending upon itinerary
 

Most of all the other companies got research money from the US government , Pfizer did not so they have more flexibility. 

In addition to the endless YouTube video tours, I tweak and re-tweak my packing list, make sure the kids clothes still fit only to find out the week before we leave that they don't, and make the various Dollar Tree / Walmart runs for all the travel related things. We get the suitcases down a couple weeks before we leave so they can taunt us so we can finesse our packing a little bit more. Finally the night before embarkation we eat out somewhere around the hotel, load the kids up on Benadryl, and share a bottle of wine while we put on our luggage tags. 

The safe in your room probably isn't quite large enough for a laptop, however! 

I also watch those walkthroughs. It's certainly quite thorough. To be honest, I'm watching a LOT of YouTube content nowadays (although I generally watch the livestreams on delay - sorry Matt!) and it's probably bad since I have the travel bug again.