WAAAYTOOO

Obligatory, if it's a good TA comment ?

Make sure you have a good TA and they will certainly take great care of you!
 
 

The truth is, the insurance requirement for unvaxxed pax is more of a negative incentivizer to dissuade unvaxxed pax from cruising than it is a real need to insure them.  It may be working to weed out some unvaxxed pax (the truth is, I don't think there are really that many of us !!!!) but for us, the harder they try and push us out, the harder we are pushing back.  They may get me in the end, but I won't go down without a fight.

The truth is, the insurance requirement for unvaxxed pax is more of a negative incentivizer to dissuade unvaxxed pax from cruising than it is a real need to insure them.  It may be working to weed out some unvaxxed pax (the truth is, I don't think there are really that many of us !!!!) but for us, the harder they try and push us out, the harder we are pushing back.  They may get me in the end, but I won't go down without a fight.

We are doing the over-the-water cabana July 18th. I plan on doing a live blog review so I’ll let you know how it is. 

Ooooh we are definitely going on the hunt July 17th! ?????

This is a link to ALL cruise lines visiting each port. Seems the ship I'm on will be the only ship in port. https://claalaska.com/?page_id=1250

I guess there is an agreement JR suites are NOT worth it!   Just kidding.  Thank you all for your input on this!
 

Yup and my husband is a “flasher”!!  God he loves that gold card.?

Not at all. That's part of the services they provide. 

I have so much respect for any sort of service staff. It is hard to learn everything and then have to learn everything you know in a different way. I think some people believe like "well they worked on Indy, so Explorer should be a piece of cake." Sometimes even something as small as, they keep the silverware in a panty instead of by the dishwasher, can throw a person off. I knew the first initial sailings would be a little rocky as most of them have been off for at least a year. Plus it could be some staff have never worked on a cruise ship. I know RCG has always had a standard of service and prides themselves on that, but I will be more than understanding if the crew are a little rusty.

I just noticed today in the Royal app that my Freedom of the seas sailing for November is now starting to identify certain areas with a (V*) to show which areas are for Vaccinated guests only. Obviously many things could change since technically the protocols for those sailings are not out yet . But I just wanted to pass that information along.

P&O as well. Same parent company obviously, Carnival have also removed everything before 25th Nov from website.
I'm just gonna take the refund and book a land holiday. I still have Jan and Feb bookings that look like they will survive the cut for now.

Princess cruises has now cancelled Australian cruises through to 19 December 2021.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/princess-cruises-cancels-australia-cruise-holidays-through-december-19-2021-301323790.html
I assume Royal won’t be too far behind.
I have paid for all our cruises in full to optimise the 125% fcc to use when we rebook.

The CDC has demonstrated that it is highly politicized … it has been months if not longer behind in the science and statistics… and I would certainly challenge the statement that it regulates the cruise industry.  It has been acting in such a manner and is being challenged in the courts.  The reality is that it has very limited regulatory authority and has very likely overstepped its authority regarding the cruise industry.
 
 
 

Please reread my post… I have made some edits… that agree with your observation.

From all reports the vaccinated on Celebrity were very eager and willing to share their vaccination status with the cruise line.
That's the crux it right there.  The vast majority, an overwhelming number of people who book cruises and are vaccinated don't have an issue with showing proof of vaccination.
This discussion is mostly fueled by individuals who are not vaccinated.  
For most vaccinated who book cruises there is no controversy.

Royal told TA's on a call this week the CFAR included in their coverage has been raised from 75% to 90% FCC.
Keep an eye out for that change.

No truer words....

Agree, we've always had travel insurance, but we've only needed to use it for luggage problems.

The truth is, the insurance requirement for unvaxxed pax is more of a negative incentivizer to dissuade unvaxxed pax from cruising than it is a real need to insure them.  It may be working to weed out some unvaxxed pax (the truth is, I don't think there are really that many of us !!!!) but for us, the harder they try and push us out, the harder we are pushing back.  They may get me in the end, but I won't go down without a fight.

I have never experienced anything like that but then again, I do not look for it, either.

This is truly my pleasure.  Nothing I would rather discuss than the joys of SC.  It sure beats talking about vaccines and unvaxxed protocols !
I understand you being nervous....but it is just a nervous anticipation.  I know...I have it myself every time I am looking forward to going on a SC cruise.  The Genie is whatever you want them to be.  Some people just want to be left alone (that would be Dan) and some people want the Genie to do everything.  The best situation is somewhere in the middle.  Some Genies are better at certain things than others.  For instance, Reyno (we've had him twice) is, hands down, the best party planner of any of the Genies we have had but he tends to be very busy and can sometimes be hard to get ahold of.  He loves a good party and his planning is exemplary.  Reyno also walks at a forced march pace (he was an Officer in the Army in South Africa) and I could never keep up with him !  Charlie (unfortunately, no longer with Royal) was the most personable and the added the best "personal" touch.  Yen Lee was the most efficient...she is very literal but not particularly spontaneous but damn if she wasn't right there ALL the time when you needed her !  Joyce was the most fun.  She was a chatterbox and would tell you all the Genie "secrets".  Sebastian was the ultimate professional.  He seemed to be the best at most everything, all around but definitely not the party planner that Reyno is.  So you just never know what you're going to get.  They are all wonderful and there isn't a Genie that we have had that I wouldn't be thrilled with having again.
The best advice I can give you is....USE the Genie for things that you would not, otherwise, be able to do.  Have them plan a party for you.  If you don't have any family or friends on the cruise with you, participate in your cruise's Cabin Crawls and invite them all to your suite.  The Genie will arrange all the food, drinks, plates, napkins, silverware....literally EVERYthing you will need.  Most likely you will never have the space or the service to do this again.  Have the Genie set up a small event for you in one of the venues that normally don't have events...like a small party at Vintages.  You can have it catered from one of the other specialty restaurants or you can get an assortment of the tapas from Vintages.  We were traveling with friends who were also SC on one of our Harmony (Reyno) trips and even though you aren't permitted to have food in the casino, one night....waaaay early in the morning, I see a guy making his way through the casino with about 6 pizzas stacked up and I thought to myself, "that's strange...I've never seen anyone with pizza in the casino before".  Sure enough, it was Jim and Jim.  I guess they treated the whole side of the casino to pizza.  I'm sure they were very popular.  LOL  We met some wonderful people at the Chef's Table when we were on Anthem and we invited them back to our GLS.  We called Yen and asked her to have some snacks delivered (as if we needed any more food after the CT but it seemed like a great idea at the time...) and we got waaay more food than we needed but they also brought us a bunch of drinks (can't remember what they were now...some Scotch for Dan and I think I got a margarita or something)...all delivered for no extra charge.  They will bring you as much food and drinks as you want so it doesn't matter that the other people in your party (in your suite) are not SC.
You learn as you go along.  We weren't that "good at it" the first time.  You begin to learn what you can and cannot do.  We did B2B SC on Anthem in Feb 2019.  The first leg of the trip we went all out - the Cabin Crawl party and the people from the Chef's Table.  Then, on the second leg, we chilled.  We did some of the shows a second time (we love We Will Rock You) and we went to a concert of a Bon Jovi cover band.  Yen saved us seats up on the second deck of the Music Hall (even though she's not supposed to do that).  So nice.  When we were on our last SC cruise before the shut down, we had Joyce reserve us some seats in the Oasis's Music Hall (which is the old Dazzles...not nearly as nice as the Anthem's Music Hall, IMO) to see a Journey cover band and we invited @twangsterwhich is when I finally got to meet the man, the legend, the MegaBot.

I don't know about that... this is what a $1,750 pair of jeans looks like these days.

understand, have heard it while in line for something and I always make a point to also make a comment just to be generally overheard, like if we would have have paid 10 or 15 thousand for our cruise that could have been us also.  sometime people just have to be reminded that money is privilege, that's just a fact.
Don't let it bother you!! just enjoy that privilege.

Seen it myself on many other cruises. Guess when demand at JR isn't that great they'll pull in support. Amazingly it always seems to be Giovanni's getting JR support, can't recall an instance seeing them at Chops.