WAAAYTOOO

Just make it a sea day.  Not a big deal at all.

So what are the options (for Royal) if this requirement is sustained ?
1.  They give in and have to refund the money for anyone who is considered unvaccinated.  This is money coming directly out of Royal’s pocket.  A few pissed off customers.
2.  Royal rearranges the schedule and finds a port that will accept the ship.  It’s a huge hassle for the schedulers but no refunds.  Probably highly unlikely for close-in sailings.  A few pissed off customers (maybe).
3.  They say “F” St Thomas and schedule a sea day.  No refunds b/c schedule changes do not qualify for a refund.  A few pissed off customers.

Just make it a sea day.  Not a big deal at all.

From what I experienced, the casino was vaccinated only. For the theatre shows they made the mezzanine an area for unvaccinated guests and the lower floors were vaccinated only. I’m sure there were more places but those two caught my attention. Traveling with 2 young kids we never felt restricted in any way in that regard. 

If I were Royal Caribbean, I'd be looking at adding a St. Thomas visit on every sailing from a Florida port. ?

I will definitely try that out! Handing down my written request and sitting down and having some nice drink while waiting booking process to be made. Sound like a good way to start a cruise! ??

Chris, I have a casino related question for you!
We are sailing on a B2B2B on the Odyssey starting 8/22/21 and are Prime in Club Royal.  Are you able to share what the min-max current limits are on Ultimate Holdem and Blackjack?  Are you still able to hold Slot & Blackjack tournaments with the social distancing requirements?
Thanks in advance!
Jess

Except for options 2 and 3,  “Cruise With Confidence” allows anyone to cancel up to 48 hours before for any reason for a 100% FCC ……… Remember unvaccinated under 12 traveling with vaccinated adults can still go on the cruise ….. Let’s say 20% (maybe less) of the age 12+ passengers are unvaccinated and would be refunded …….. on the flip side, what happens if a huge majority of the vaccinated passengers start canceling cruises because ports are being cancelled or changed to less desirable ones to accommodate the unvaccinated?  
Yes, Royal will still have their money and they have to take another cruise at another time with their FCC …….. but I’m willing to bet that RCL has crunched the numbers and decided it’s better financially for them to 100% cash refund the unvaccinated than to take the risk of an undetermined number of vaccinated passengers cancelling for an FCC because their ports are being cancelled to accommodate unvaccinated passengers.  RCL wouldn’t have made this decision to keep the port and remove the unvaccinated from the cruise if they didn’t think it was in their best financial interest.  Money decides everything.
 

Just make it a sea day.  Not a big deal at all.

As long as it stops at one port outside US, option 3 could easily happen 

So what are the options (for Royal) if this requirement is sustained ?
1.  They give in and have to refund the money for anyone who is considered unvaccinated.  This is money coming directly out of Royal’s pocket.  A few pissed off customers.
2.  Royal rearranges the schedule and finds a port that will accept the ship.  It’s a huge hassle for the schedulers but no refunds.  Probably highly unlikely for close-in sailings.  A few pissed off customers (maybe).
3.  They say “F” St Thomas and schedule a sea day.  No refunds b/c schedule changes do not qualify for a refund.  A few pissed off customers.

Just make it a sea day.  Not a big deal at all.

I don't know why they couldn't just flag it so unvaccinated couldn't get off the ship in St. Thomas.  But I guess they're going to flat out refuse the ship if it's not all eligible aged folks vaccinated so that isn't even an option.

I seem to remember that if you book with Next Cruise they automatically assign your booking to the travel agent who handled the booking for the cruise you are on, so if you're looking to change to a different then you need to tell them not to. As long as you own the booking you can subsequently transfer it to a new agent of your choosing within 60 days of booking, if you wish.

Just make it a sea day.  Not a big deal at all.

I just called my local pharmacy as they offer Covid testing.
Medicare and Medicaid are covered....for the rest of us he said it is $65 for a rapid test.  Here is the website from their page, it has a place you can enter a zip code to find pharmacies that participate.  https://myrx.io  Perhaps give that a try to see if there is a pharmacy near where you will be.  He said they text you your results and when I asked if it is something they can print for me he said yes (I honestly don't know anything about this service and if it would be printable).
So much can change between now and your sailing date.  I hope this helps!

We got back from our weekend sailing on Freedom and it was quite the experience. We had great weather (it’s been raining like crazy in SoFL) at Coco Cay and Nassau. Being on the Freedom with only 1000 passengers is odd and I think we prefer the action of a packed ship but this was certainly interesting and had many positives. We opted for the Coco Beach Club and it was overall a good experience. The elevated dining experience had some nice choices like grilled Caribbean lobster which was prepared and presented very nicely. There was literally nobody at the beach club (see pics). My only complaint is that there’s not enough shade by the pool and it’s odd that upon arrival the host doesn’t bring over a bucket or pitcher of cold water to wherever you are seated. Minimal gripe but still it’s hot as h*ll (keep in mind I’m born and raised in SoFL and I still think it’s hot!). Onboard Freedom there was little to no action which is to be expected. It was nice to go to the suite lounge and have the entire place to yourself for a change. I know this type of reduced capacity cruising won’t last forever so we just rolled with it. IMHO my family and I felt very safe with young children in regards to RC’s COVID safety protocol. They did a great job and the ship and stateroom were extremely clean. The kids literally wanted to eat at Giovannis Kitchen every single night so we did (the pizza!) and it did not disappoint. We are looking forward to things hopefully getting back to normal and more cruises in our future!

I'm no lawyer but I don't see how this is around Florida Law.  Florida Law states that cruise lines can't ask for vaccine status.  St. Thomas states you can't come here if anyone over 12 is not vaccinated.
While I see Royal Caribbean trying to use this as a way around Florida Law, some Floridian (or their governor) is going to end up suing Royal Caribbean over this and I don't think this shields them at all. Legally it sounds more like if you sail from Florida, to follow both laws you would not be able to include the US Virgin Islands as a destination for the time being.

I wouldn't hate if more ports did the same and it was around around the Florida law...

I hope more ports will impose such vaccination requirements since the lines (and Florida) are unwilling. 

Well, that's a bummer.  Thanks for letting me know.  All my other next 8 cruises booked are some kind of suite, and all sail before Sept. 31st next year so can get the 4X points.

Me too, thank goodness.  They have never gone back down to what I paid last year.

I looked at my offer and it said I can modify up to 54 hours prior to cruise.  So, kinda looks like no upgrades will be done until about 2 days before.  We will have left the US by then

Probably the best perk coming out of all these early sailings is the high crew to passenger ratio.  Great service - amplified.... 

Not sure which bed you are referring to here ("We’re wondering if they’re comfy if we just split up and both get a double bed or whether we go with splitting the double into twins") but if you are referring to the bed in the loft of the GLS (the "Master" bed...sorry, I hate that term), that bed does not split.  It is a Duxiana mattress and unlike other beds on board, it is 1 solid King mattress.  I believe that the OS bed will split even though the OS used to be a solid mattress as well (maybe it still does ??).  But the SC mattresses do not split into 2 separate beds. Perhaps you are talking about the sofa bed/mattress, in which case I have no idea as I have never had any downstairs bed made from the sofa(s).