Ogilthorpe

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 😎

Put candles in a cake, it’s a birthday cake. Put candles in a pie, and somebody’s drunk in the kitchen.
Jim Gaffigan

So far, being unvaccinated has been a “get-out-of-cruise-free” card….meaning unvaxxed could receive a 100% cash refund…however, that may not be the case in 2023.  If it were me and I didn’t intend to get vaccinated (and GOOD for them for making that choice !), I would definitely book with a refundable deposit.  Who knows what the situation will be, then. Hoping that the vax requirement is long gone by then, but nobody really knows.

At this point of the ‘pandemic’ the constant testing of perfectly healthy people just baffles me.

While I agree that on the surface that logic seems faulty, in some cases it could make sense. If the bidding for royalup was robust enough, and the upgrade chain sufficiently long, it could pay off. In your example, a $6000 owners suite is held aside. And the royalup  starts at a crown loft, and continues through grand suite, jr suite, ocean view balcony, central park view balcony, ocean view, and interior. An average bid of $900 would yield $6300, and the now empty interior room could be sold for $1500 more. After the dominoes fell and the inexpensive room was sold, $7800 would be realized in this example, plus a whole bunch of goodwill would be established.  I could be completely wrong, but the math is insane enough to work  sometimes.

A Preist, a Minister and a Rabbi were having a discussion about the beginning of life. The Priest says, the beginning of life happens at conception. The Minister says, sorry, but I don't agree with you and says the beginning of life is at birth. The Rabbi says, you are both wrong. It says so in the Holy Scriptures that the beginning of life is when the dog dies, and the kids move away from home. 😎

Two cruise passengers are lounging on sun beds, reading books. One notices that the other is reading a Che Guervara book.
The other passenger turns to him and asks 
“Have you read Marx?”
“Yes”, her replies. “I think it’s from sitting on these deck chairs so long.”
   

Two bankers were the only survivors when their cruise ship sank. They were both clinging to a single life preserver. One banker, knowing that his colleague couldn’t swim, says, “I think I can make it to shore to get help. Can you float alone?”
The other banker replies, “How can you talk business at a time like this?”

We are both unvaccinated, by choice.  I’m afraid there is little to nothing to be done right now.  The rule is simple:  “vax or stay home”.  As @Poochsaid, you could conceivably cruise with an accepted medical exemption (and you would be subject to restricted access; only able to go into unvaccinated venues) but your husband would not be able to cruise at all without an accepted exemption. 
 
Unfair ?  Maybe.  Their ships, their rules.
Who knows what the refund rules will be in Sept but under current rules, if you are unvaccinated, you can get a complete cash refund for any money you have paid to Royal.  If it were me, I would go ahead and make a booking and then, if the rules haven’t changed by final payment date, get a full refund.  I am no longer messing around with Future Cruise Credits.  I have little confidence that they will allow unvaxxed to sail before the FCCs are likely to expire.

Royal and Celebrity have opted in. 

SHAMELESS plug of my Dad Jokes account on Tik Tok!
 
 

Why did the phone have to wear glasses?
Because it lost its contacts

Not intending to hijack your thread, @Edmundbut I have a little GOOD news for a change.
1.  I just received an offer for a complimentary casino cruise on Wonder !  I cannot believe that they are offering casino comps on this brand new ship.  That's never happened before that I am aware of.  I couldn't resist....even though there is a less than 1.0 X 10 -9 chance that the vax requirements will be gone by then (if ever) I booked 4-8-22, 7 night western.  I stuck with the complimentary inside room so that I will not lose anything WHEN I have to cancel. If, by some miracle, they do change the vax requirements, I can still upgrade down the road but I fully realize that is unlikely to happen.  It was just so nice to actually book a cruise rather than cancel one !
2.  I got confirmation that the Club Royale status will be extended for another year !  That means that even though we will not cruise at all this casino year, we will retain our Prime status through 3-31-23.  That is very VERY good news for us.  The only indication that I had that this was going to happen was the letter that @Ampurp85posted in her recent thread...so it wasn't a complete surprise, but it has now been confirmed so YIPPEE !!!!

I certainly hope Royal and no other cruise line opts into this mess.  Right now the CDC is nothing more than a political tool, that has lied to the American people from the very beginning under the guise of following the science and data.  I’m fully vaccinated but at this point I’m DONE, they promised we would get our lives back once a majority of the population was vaccinated right now according to the Mayo Clinic and John Hopkins over 76% of all American’s have received at least 1 dose this includes the J&J vaccine and over 64% of American have received 2 dose vaccine which is either Pfizer or Moderna.  Remember when Fauci and the CDC said the benchmark was between 60-70% vaccination rate of at least 1 dose would be considered herd immunity and once we reached herd immunity we could get back to normal. What a crock of **** that turned out to be and now they are pushing boosters, for heaven sakes where does it end? 
Cruise lines have been held to an unfair higher standard than any other form of vacation travel or vacation experience in this country and here we have the CDC at it once again. I hope the cruise lines tell the CDC to take their program and shove it some place I rather not say because they (the cruise lines) know what it takes to keep their passengers safe while onboard their ships and in ports of call.  It is hilariously frustrating to see the CDC continue to come after cruise lines when the total number of positive cases on cruise ships is less than 1% when compared to the total number of cases on land within the US. And as far as it has been reported there have been no reports of serious illness, hospitalization and no deaths related to COVID on cruise ships here in the US since the resumption of cruising. 

Welp, I didn’t read the thing, but since the CDC put it together I have some idea what it says.  Was hoping some common sense would come into play with summer and beyond, but if the CDC is calling the shots that won’t be the case.  If Royal intends to run this vaccine thing indefinitely, they should let people cash out their FCC’s that don’t want to sail under these protocols.

The same way they stop healthy asymptomatic cruisers with any seasonal virus (such as the flu, various coronaviruses, RSV, HMPV, adenoviruses, or Rhinovirus).

They don't.

Very true. I’m fully vaxed and got covid 2 weeks ago. Just felt like a bad cold for 3 days. Flu is much worse in my experience.

I had COVID 3 weeks ago, only way I know is that i had to test to go on a cruise and "failed" ... three times, before i gave up and conceded.
That makes me one of the lucky asymptomatic's but makes it hard not to go "seriously, all this for that?"

EXACTLY! I am not boosted and have no intention to do so at this time. Again, if these data are correct https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/pharmacy/states-ranked-by-booster-rates.html and only 42.5% of those that qualify to get Boosters have done so, won't they be loosing some customers? 

😎

My husband booked our first back to back cruise. 8 day Bahamas, followed by 11 days Transatlantic. We had done 3 cruises in the last 3 months. I can't stand the face mask. If Royal requires the booster, we will cancel everything! I rather to lose the deposit money. Enough is enough with this protocols after almost 2 years. I sadly will say goodbye to cruising.

The 2 blaring things I see screaming out in there are 
 
For cruise ship operators opting into CDC’s COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships, CDC will continue to exercise enforcement discretion regarding the requirements of its January 29, 2021, Mask Order, applicable to operators of, and crew and passengers on board, cruise ships.
and 
 
Vaccination Standard of Excellence: ships with at least 95% passengers and 95% crew who are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines.  
“UP TO DATE” meaning you have to be BOOSTED as many times and the CDC decides they want you to be boosted to be “up to date”
 
If Royal goes along with this, I’ll probably be done cruising until everything goes back to the Pre-Covid experience!  I’ve had 3 Pfizer shots and had covid …… I’m done with the vaccine FOREVER and will never take another shot!  I’m also done booking trips that require masks in vaccinated areas  …… if that comes back again, I’m done as well!
 

Well hopefully they plan to extend FCC's beyond this year