LizzyBee23

And NCL just announced it's selling another 200 million in shares. 

We just cancelled our April booking with NCL and rebooked with RCL in may. Of course, we also just cancelled a recent sailing with RCL. At this point, we're just laying our chips on whoever will deliver on a return to relative normalcy the quickest.

23 hours ago, Matt said:

Fain's comments on being asked today about kids vaccine mandate: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/11/12/will-royal-caribbean-require-kids-be-vaccinated-order-go-cruise-ship

Yeah... That reads to me like vaccines will be required for young ones in a few months. Not great.

Interested to see what this does for passengers from other countries. The EMA isn't likely to approve a pediatric vaccine.

7 hours ago, 0_0 said:

I'm really hoping they don't create any new pediatric vaccine requirements. My kids pediatrician has already recommended against vaccinating my kids 7, 8yo so mine won't be unless his recommendation changes. I'm going to assume he's not the only one recommending against kids in that age range being vaccinated.

We haven't spoken to our pediatrician yet, but don't plan for our kids to be early adopters. Cancelled one recent cruise already over the fact that kids are only half welcome onboard, and our next (now first) one as a family is at the end of May. Thing 1 will have just turned 5 for that one, so we're definitely staying tuned.

I think the date being so far out may be to signify two things: 1.) the mandates are here to stay, and 2.) a shot across the bow about a future date for pediatric vaccine requirements.

Do these limitations apply to ports in Alaska as well? I guess if I try to reason into it, since the guidance is trying to minimize cases onboard the ship, I suppose it would. On the other hand, we're all US citizens, so it seems strange.

8 hours ago, twangster said:

The CSO does allow a cruise ship that has 95% or more vaccinated to not require masks. 

Once the CSO expires in January that exemption technically goes away.  Note to self - let's see what Celebrity and NCL do about that in January.  

I think most ships sailing with vaccine requirements right now are pretty much at 95%, aren't they? That was one of my takeaways from the latest CDC report.

31 minutes ago, Matt said:

Regarding masks, masks are NOT part of CSO. It comes from same rule that requires masks on airplanes, buses, trains, etc.  

So CSO or not, I wouldn’t expect a change there. 
 

When mandatory mask wearing on airplanes go away, then you could see movement. 

Huh? How does NCL get away with it?

2 hours ago, GKMCruising said:

I'm *hoping* that if they mandate the vaccine for 5-11, it'll put them over the 95% vaxxed threshold and allow them to drop the mask mandate. I expect testing before embarkation to continue for the foreseeable future though.

Most sailings are already over the 95% threshold iirc

I can't imagine subjecting kids to the current requirements onboard while other options remain essentially restriction-free. We're an 11/1 cancellation as a direct result of the continued madness, if anyone's looking for one of the spacious panoramic oceanviews on Indy.

1 hour ago, RCIfan1912 said:

I said to my wife when we drove in the parking lot and I saw the parking was over filled, Covid may not be technically over but its over. 

Yeah, for most of the country it is. Which is why we're electing to cancel. We can have a completely normal vacation in Florida (or pretty much anywhere now) and not have to worry about our kids being treated like disease vectors. We'll try again in April, but honestly not optimistic at this point.

Masking has already become a class issue (see the MOMA spectacle for a recent example here) and part of the reason I sincerely oppose mask mandates for anyone, crew included. @Canadian-Cruiser is committing the same type of logical fallacy. Because an injustice is being committed on the basis of flimsy (at best) science and is forcing the crew to mask at the behest of a corporation catering to the whims of scared passengers, then we should all do it too. The problem is with the requirement in the first place.

3 hours ago, JeffB said:

So, yes, crew are watching the behaviors of passengers and fellow crew members. They care deeply about their jobs and hate missing work and the potential of getting sent home if they become infected. It behooves us to respect those fears and do what we can to keep ourselves from being exposed and potentially infecting them and the consequences they will suffer because of that.

https://reopen.europa.eu/en  

The question that should follow this attitude is would the crew care about the way passengers behave if they weren't required to quarantine as a result of a close contact? 

The crew member you're talking about is committing the false choice logical fallacy. If they really hate quarantine, the anger should be directed at the protocol which requires quarantine of presumably healthy people (like her), not the fact that a passenger triggered it (and let's not even get started on our ability to predict which behavior may have resulted in the original passenger(s) catching the virus). The more likely thing is that you stumbled upon some latent nationalistic or other prejudicial attitude being expressed by someone who thought they'd have a friendly ear in you.

This sounds like (I've decided it actually is) cruelty. Honestly, we're out. Calling to cancel our 11/1 cruise.

Edit: honestly we've been on the fence about it for a while, moreso in recent weeks as the language around the pandemic has started to ramp back up, despite reality for most of us reflecting something much different. I'm not going to go on a vacation that treats my kids like criminals to satisfy the fears of adults, but this is more the last straw than anything else.

On 10/14/2021 at 8:14 AM, Ampurp85 said:

I saw all the emails on FB, at first I thought it was just one ship. But it is across all the fleet so CSO 2.0 is looking like a go. 

It seems like maybe they have sold the sailings to a CDC-specified capacity and now have to reconfigure everything to comply.

Cruising on 11/1. Sad day.

60k??! May as well be a cruise to the moon for most of us.

Not really surprising, but disappointing all the same.

Short of a "cruise" to the moon, I'm not sure the "once in a lifetime" will live up to expectations.

On 9/3/2021 at 2:46 PM, twangster said:

For the purpose of tracelets? 

In fact tracelts must have been successful in Singapore given they even tried using them in the US.  

Yes, by virtue of the fact that our case rates are wildly different.

3 hours ago, Matt said:

I agree they can't stop the virus, but they can mitigate the spread and risks associated with it onboard their ships.

Cruise lines cannot just throw their hands up and let cases pile up onboard. Just like how car manufacturers didn't just say "cant stop car crashes, so we don't need to bother trying to make cars safer", cruise lines cannot stop doing what they need to ensure their business can continue to operate while assuring the public (and government regulators) ships can sail safely.

Not an appropriate metaphor...  No one is talking about parking every vehicle in the country over the risk associated with driving. And we as citizens of a democracy have a direct responsibility for shaping public policy... If politicians are framing the public health choices in a way that isn't palatable to most of us given our own assessment of the risk, it's our job to let them know that, irrespective of the obvious truth that RCL has to play by the rules.

12 minutes ago, twangster said:

Carnival stated that 99.98% of the 1,400 crew are vaccinated.  Seems like odd math.  

Indeed. 1/4 of a person isn't vaccinated. He must have an alter-ego.

32 minutes ago, Hince57 said:

not gonna lie...got some major fomo

Same. Trying to decide how many more times I can refresh my email before it becomes pathological.

Well firetruck. Looks like I didn't luck out.

Ha, true. I'm just curious why they would do this again, and specifically call it a sweepstakes instead of the general call like last time. Another thought that occurred to me was that it has been a while since the last call happened... Maybe they're essentially trying to refresh the list of the willing to make sure they get a good response rate.

I'm interested if they can write off more than just the actual cost of running the test cruise as an expense. Can they use the ARV?