WAAAYTOOO

Personally, I do not believe a single word of anything coming out of China.  I think the chances that they have -0- new cases is -0-.  They've just quit testing.

I’ve heard Royal do this before. They do it sometimes 

Purely a guess.  I will go with 1 July 2020

The State Dept just issued a Level IV travel ban. Americans are not allowed to travel internationally - anywhere.

As a general rule, final payment date is not negotiable however, I would certainly try and contact them to see if something could be worked out.  This is another example of the value of a good travel agent.   They have the ability to make special arrangements such as this.  In the absence of an agent, I recommend contacting them directly to see if they will work with you.  My guess is, they will.

How nice to have that divider open. That provides an incredible balcony !  Too bad you had to close it again.

Interesting that you were able to order from 2 specialty restaurants at once. One of the “rules” for Star Class has always been room service from only 1 specialty restaurant at a time.  Maybe they are changing that rule.  Thanks for including that information.

4 minutes ago, twangster said:

CLIA made the recommendation based on the meeting with the VP.  The cruise lines followed the White House and CLIA on this one.  

I understand.  That doesn't make it any less of a knee-jerk reaction in times of crisis that accomplishes nothing...

31 minutes ago, tonyfsu21 said:

Is it difficult as a safety professional to “look the other way” when your on vacation? I’ve witnessed one OSHA nightmare after another on these ships. They need to maybe review some human performance training.....

Yes it is.  I’ve seen some pretty sketchy stuff over the years.  I just look the other way and keep on moving.

If I remember correctly, those FCC's aren't going to be delivered until the end of the 30 day prohibition period.  So I don't think they're supposed to be delivered until the middle of April.

No, the hotel is very close to the port.  Probably no more than 5 miles.  The hotel has a shuttle that will take you to the ship.  Sorry....I forgot to mention that part.  I think there is a charge for the shuttle to the port but I cannot recall how much it is.  Very little. I also cannot remember how much the cruise shuttle is back to the airport but I believe it is in the neighborhood of $75 per person.  It might be less. I just don’t recall.  Sorry.

We rent from Hertz at the Orlando airport and stay at the Residence Inn in Coco Beach.  Hertz has a rental office within walking distance of the RI so you can use the car all day and into the evening (even after the Hertz office has closed). It’s very convenient. Then, for returning back to Orlando, we take a Royal bus shuttle from the port.  We normally avoid the cruise shuttles, but this is one exception as it is reliable and convenient.  

26 minutes ago, princevaliantus said:

Hate to bring up the "the Elephant in the room", but if MY doctor won't sign a letter for me stating that I am healthy, THAT alone will make me question as to "am I REALLY healthy" and make me get checked with another physician. That would be the first thing that pops into my head.

This is precisely why this "healthy enough to cruise" process is a fool's errand.

In my line of work (Safety Engineer), there is no such thing as a "safe" system.  You can evaluate the system for risks, identify them, mediate them, redesign, evaluate, mediate and on and on but you never, ever, ever (if you want to keep your credentials) pronounce a system is safe.  There's no such thing b/c no matter how automated it is, systems have to be operated and maintained by people....and people will make mistakes and use poor judgement.

So most HCPs will never sign a document saying that it is safe for their patient to do ANYthing.

If the cruise industry is trying to pare down its cruising population then this is a great way to do that.  Even then they are going to find that even young people get sick or have accidents !  I really, really hate this kind of knee jerk reaction that implemented such a ridiculous policy that is destined for failure.  This was a perfect example of overreaction in a crisis leading to very BAD policies.  Well-intended though it may have been, it is utter nonsense.

Just my opinion, but I wouldn't believe a SINGLE WORD about anything coming out of China.  Just sayin'

Re: elective surgeries....I feel so lucky to have gotten this knee replacement when I did.  The surgeons that did this knee are now postponing all such surgeries.  We have just been ahead of this awful wave in so many ways...I feel so blessed.

We had RCCL stock but when we divested out of the market in October 2019 (hallelujah !!!!!) we got rid of everything. We never tried to use it to get any OBC b/c by the time they loosened the rules for getting OBC we were already out of the market - or pretty close to that time.

Have we been tempted to get back in ?  NOPE.  We are as happy as 2 clams to be seeing our "safe" investments increasing every day rather than going down, down, down.  We both still have a little "funny money" in the market but it's less than 2% of my portfolio so I don't really care what happens there.  Trust me when I say...that the best decision I ever made in my entire life was to get out of the stock market last year.  Dan and I calculate that we would have lost more than a million dollars together if we had stayed.  Will it come back ?  Yes, I'm sure it will but I haven't got that kind of time !!  This is all the retirement money I will ever have.  If I had lost close to 30% (or more) of it in these past few weeks I would be devastated financially.  No cruise stocks for me !!!!

Thanks so much for the pix of 10324.  These 2 (10324 and 10724) are the only 2 GLS that we had not seen.  We had 10720 on the second half of our B2B and were so disappointed with it.  We were in 8724 on the first half of the B2B and that room was incredible !!  Nice to see that the "interior" GLS on 10 were nice size.

Welcome to the blog, Alvie.

I have noticed that, since the halt in cruising began, the Cruise Planner prices have gone up and remained there.  There’s really no way to know whether there will be any “sales” forthcoming or not.  We just have to keep checking.  You are wise to check daily.  We do the same.  Hang in there !

Any FCC will be made to the cruisers.  You and your husband will both receive one.  They don’t care who paid !

Thanks for taking the time to do this.  We need a good distraction right now.

I love Yen.  We have had her as our Genie twice (Feb 2019) and we saw her a few times on our recent Anthem cruise (the shortened cruise ending 2/15/20).  She is a sweetie.

40 minutes ago, Jewel2020 said:

Hi, we are supposed to sail out of Rome May 27th, I highly doubt this will happen, but I keep looking at the price of this cruise and I could upgrade to a jr. suite for the less than what I paid for our balcony rooms.   Do you think I should upgrade? is it worth it? just in case we do get to sail.   If not I still qualify for the credit.  I'm just asking because this was to be our first cruise ever and have no idea what I'm doing anymore..lol!  can't get money back for anything, half my flights are not even credited yet cause we were coming back in June, so honestly I haven't done anything to change any of my trip, it's just not worth it right now with the long wait times for anything.  I haven't even cancelled my tours or airbnb's yet.  So basically should I upgrade or not?

Of course, try and upgrade !!  Why wouldn't you ?  Even if the cruise is cancelled in the end, you will be no worse for the wear.  Maybe we will all be lucky and be cruising by then !!  I have a Majesty cruise out of NO May 16 and I'm still planning on going !!  I would upgrade, too, if I could...but the prices on that one have stayed very high.

Yes, the big windows are certainly dramatic but I think the biggest advantage to the CLS is the location - deck 17.  Being close to the CK/SL is very nice.  Personally, I would also choose the OS over the CLS.  In fact, I DID choose the OS over a CLS for the March 2021 Allure sailing.  Subsequently, I was able to grab a Star Loft Suite so I gave up the OS, but I prefer an OS to a CLS.  The stairs are a problem for me and I feel there is much more room in an OS than a CLS.

Correct. Free internet only on Oasis and Quantum class ships with GS or higher.  You would have to pay for internet on Freedom regardless of what cabin category you have.

I certainly don’t know for sure, but I thought Cadiz was the only dry dock capable of bringing an O class completely out of the water.  Maybe Southampton has such a dry dock.  I really don’t know.

By “casino credit”, I assume you are talking about something that you purchased through the Cruise Planner ?  Any Cruise Planner purchases (excursions, food or beverage packages, Internet, casino credit, etc) will be refunded directly back to the credit card used to purchase them.  If you rebook another cruise, you would have to repurchase any Cruise Planner purchases you wanted.

Welcome to the blog !

The article states that the "he cancellation of this contract for this ship".  That does not mean that a new modified contract could not be executed.  Cadiz is one of the only shipyards in the world (in the west, anyway) where the azipod work can be completed so it would make no sense to send the ship back to Hampton.  No dry dock work could be completed at Hampton. I agree with @jeffmw that, if the ship does go to dry dock, they probably will do SOME of the amplification work, but certainly they will not have the full amplification that had been planned.