Ian T

Keep the faith!

I agree regarding the second shot and only time will tell (I understand that currently under 1m people have received the first dose and I have no idea how many of them have subsequently become infected). Given the sharp increase in cases and associated hospital admissions here there is a real concern that the health service could soon become overwhelmed and I believe the idea is to give as many vulnerable people as possible the chance to build up some protection, thereby allowing health professionals to focus their attention on those who unfortunately have not had that chance.

100 million doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine ordered by the UK Government; of which "several million" are reported to already be available with vaccination due to start on Jan 4th. There has been a change to the protocol here though... it seems latest analysis shows that whilst two doses remains the gold standard, enough protection is still seen in people who have so far only had the first dose (which is currently most of them - the first person to receive her second dose did so yesterday) that none who have gone on to become infected have required hospital treatment. This is encouraging news given they are considered the most vulnerable members of our society. Therefore whilst everyone will still ultimately receive two doses the plan now is to administer the first dose to as many as possible within the most at risk groups rather than prioritise the second doses, which will instead be administered within 12 weeks. This morning the Health Secretary Matt Hancock said "What I can tell you is whereas previously I've said that I hope we can be out of this by Spring, I've now got a very high degree of confidence that we can be out of this by Spring"... I really hope he's right! ? Arguably of more importance however - and to your earlier point @RCIfan1912 - this vaccine should be more widely available to developing countries, in terms of both cost and logistics (as it can be stored in a normal fridge) and AstraZeneca are reported as hoping to produce and distribute 3 billion doses at zero profit in 2021, which should deliver a real kick in the teeth to the virus; however it is a race against time as the thinking is the longer the virus is able to circulate, the more opportunities there are for variants to emerge.

I am usually with you on this, but to @Allen2's point, Christmas is special in our household too so I am happy to break my own rule... but only for this one time of the year mind!

We are planning on taking our first December cruise in the lead up to Christmas 2021. Whilst we will not be on board on Christmas Day itself we are flying across the pond to take a 12-night out of Bayonne, returning on Christmas Eve and then spending Christmas Day in New York (ever since Home Alone 2 was released my wife has been really keen to spend Christmas in a NY hotel ?). Our boys will be 19 and 24 and are both in seemingly serious relationships so we suspect it may be the last time we holiday together as a family. ?

We are Team Magnet, and that extends to each port of call too. Our one proviso is that the magnet includes the place name.

We are in a similar situation. On our Dec 2021 sailing our son and his friend will both be 19. They are sharing a cabin and can do so as long as it is next to someone in the same party who is over 21. The cabins do not need to be connecting either, just together.

Definitely Feb 2022 (sorry, I realise now how I should have been clearer - in the UK we typically refer to dates as day/month/year). Thanks for looking out though.

Unless you are in the pool, largely yes.

I'm on the fence... masks are required pretty much everywhere except in the cabin and whilst eating/drinking or in the pool. Now I eat as much - OK, likely more! ? - as the next person whilst cruising, but I am not a really a water baby and with so much to do on board we are rarely in the cabin. This is leaves a lot of time wearing a mask and I wonder whether it will end up feeling too oppressive. I should say that I am lucky enough to be able to work from my home office (and have been since March) so have not had to wear a mask for a prolonged period of time - as to whether I want to start doing this on a cruise, the jury is out... but I SOOOO want to cruise again! ? ? ?️ ?

One frustration I do have with FCCs is the apparent lack of consistency regarding the ability to transfer currencies. We used to book direct with RCL in GBP before we saw the light and switched to MEI for our bookings and we had two GBP FCCs as a result of 2020 cancellations. RCL would not allow us to use a GBP FCC on a USD booked sailing (Michelle at MEI even tried for us too) and so we have had to cash in the FCCs for refunds instead. This came as no real surprise to us as it has been discussed on these boards before; however this week a RCL customer service representative told me that had it been the other way around it would not have been an issue as there are no restrictions on using a USD FCC on a GBP booking. If this makes sense to someone it certainly doesn't to me. ? To add insult to injury the additional 25% that we ultimately forfeited amounted to the equivalent of c. $1,800 (I know that in reality we never really had it but all the time we had the FCC certificates held tightly in our mitts it felt like we did!) This said though it has been more than offset by having our future bookings looked after by MEI... at the end of the day we didn't lose any real money and we have already saved more than that by taking advantage of the opportunity to re-book during price drops, with Michelle's valuable help of course. ?

As per my original post - Feb 22 on Oasis. First leg Eastern Caribbean; second leg Western Caribbean and CocoCay (we are gonna make the most of the trip across the pond once we are are allowed to travel again!) ? I fully appreciate that COVID could still be a factor and nothing is guaranteed. If this is the case then we will just need to flex accordingly, but being in the glass half full camp I am hoping that by then the news on the vast majority of the current COVID procedures will be yesterday's chip paper as we say here. ?

Many thanks, that's super helpful. Just in case the situation on Deck 9 is similar to the one you have described on Deck 8, we have decided to stick with deck 10 and take the cabin next door for the second sailing... hopefully with the help of our cabin attendant we may be able to avoid hauling the luggage off and back on again on turnaround day.

Yay that's great news! Looks like we could make it to Diamond before the end of 2022 after all ?

In view of the timing and length of the sailing it is perhaps unsurprising. What is surprising though is that given their track record in this area RCL has taken the decision to cancel so far out, particularly as there is a (very slim I know) chance the CDC could rescind the max. 7 night condition to the sail order before then. Either way it's tough news to receive. I dread it when an RCL email hits my inbox these days as it is rarely good news - even the good news is not as good as it first appears... if I get one more email reminding me of the savings I can enjoy on CP purchases for my cancelled Feb 21 cruise! ? Come come now Ian, happy thoughts... ??????

Thanks so much

We are currently booked on a Feb 22 Oasis sailing (ocean view balcony, Deck 10). We are looking to turn it into a B2B; however in order to keep the same cabin for both sailings we would need to change decks to Deck 9. We have no issue with this in general; however the available cabins are in fairly close proximity to the Music Hall and we are worried about noise bleed. Admittedly an ocean view cabin will of course be on the outside of the ship and Music Hall is in the centre but I wonder whether anyone has first hand experience as to whether or not our concerns have any foundation? Many thanks

We are booked on the Easter weekend sailing out of Southampton on Odyssey so keeping everything crossed ?

With this morning's news about UK approval of the Pfizer vaccine, maybe... just maybe... ?

BBC article published 15 mins ago: "The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for widespread use. British regulator, the MHRA, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, is safe for roll out next week. Immunisations could start within days for people in high priority groups. The UK has already ordered 40m doses - enough to vaccinate 20m people, with two shots each. Around 10m doses should be available soon, with the first doses arriving in the UK in the coming days." Here is a link to the full article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55145696 Dare I say it but that light at the end of the tunnel appears to be getting brighter ??

Difficult one I know. We are waiting to hear on our 8 day in Feb 2021... the good news is that it is to CocoCay so there is a chance RCL will simply cut it to 7 days; the not so good news however is we will be travelling from the UK so may not be allowed into the country to board anyway! ? I know you are new to the message boards but don't know if you are also new to cruising - either way please accept my apologies if I am about to tell you something you already know... ? If you are really concerned about missing out on an August cruise and finances allow, then an option is to book the August cruise on a refundable deposit basis. The gamble is whether the cost of the deposit outweighs any cost increases that may come along if you wait to book until you can use any FCC you receive from the 8 day sailing, as the deposit will be money out of your pocket that you won't be able to "cash in" by switching it for FCC; however it will give you piece of mind that the August sailing is in the bag (and I'm sure I speak for many when I say I am hoping against hope that this madness is on the wane by then!) If you do get to sail on the original cruise, albeit with some tweaks, you can always cancel the August cruise before the final payment date for a full deposit refund.

The same prices apply for our 12/2021 Anthem sailing. Given it's a 12 night sailing and we are 6 DBP and 4 soda packages in our party that's a healthy chunk of change we are saving... almost enough to cover the inflated shore excursion costs! ?

Oddly, I have (I think!) just been able to check us into our 8-night Anthem sailing on 6th Feb 2021. ? ? I initially received the Been A Glitch message but clicked again and was routed through to the check-in screens.

And welcome to the message boards! ?