Ian T

Such is life.  Car dealerships offer "employee pricing, this weekend only!"  yet it's the same price.  
How about the airline industry?  Next flight take a look around at your seatmates.  No one paid the same price.  There is no "standard price".  You pay the price it is the day you book.  Southwest allows you to watch for price drops and receive a future flight credit for any difference but most airlines lock you in the day you book. 
At least Royal allows you monitor prices and refund/repurchase cruise planner items should the price drop.
My spreadsheet tracks dollar amounts.  I couldn't care less if it's 45%, or %10% or some other amount.  All I look at is the price.  I've saved hundreds watching the price, checking frequently.

We call it...Royal's Fuzzy Math!  We have learned a long time ago to not believe in their so called sales.  We constantly check on the items we are interested in from the day we book till we cruise...We learn what the basic price is.  If we find it at a lower price, we know if it's a good deal and we buy it.  If we find it lower again...We cancel the first one and re-buy.  Takes a bit of work on our part to check our cruise planner several times a week but it has payed off in the end.  

Yes, all of the cruise lines use "Creative" marketing techniques...you just have to learn to traverse them successfully.
Bottom line....just ignore anything having to do with "% off".  They conveniently leave out the baseline price, so you have no idea what the "percentage off" is based on.  The best advice is to learn what $$ you are comfortable paying and gear your purchases to maximize that price.  Prices vary wildly between ships, sailings, itineraries, times of the year and booking density.

Talking of UK terminology around "jabs" my wife is a NHS phlebotomist and the standard line to a patient when inserting the needle used to be along the lines of "You might feel a little prick..." however that is no longer considered PC and she instead has to say "You might feel a sharp scratch". ? 

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.

Most people in developed nations never encounter it when international travel is mainstream or between other developed nations.  When a citizen of certain countries travel internationally or you visit specific regions vaccinations are a common requirement to travel.
More importantly we don't know yet if current vaccines are neutralizing.   Does a vaccine "kill" the virus or does the vaccine simply turn someone into a asymptomatic carrier still capable of spreading the virus?  We know vaccines stop an individual from suffering from the worst symptoms and effects of the virus but we don't know if vaccines neutralize the virus on contact.  The data isn't in yet, the science hasn't been studied.  We don't know yet. 
Airlines face the same questions.  They fear that if a vaccine isn't neutralizing then a vaccine requirement to travel doesn't prevent spread or protect the destination area if that destination hasn't vaccinated their population.  If that's the case then travel still needs to be restricted.

The news always takes the "doom and gloom" approach because it garners way more ratings than "things will be fine".  
They always latch onto the worst case scenario discussions because it gets them clicks/views.

Talking of UK terminology around "jabs" my wife is a NHS phlebotomist and the standard line to a patient when inserting the needle used to be along the lines of "You might feel a little prick..." however that is no longer considered PC and she instead has to say "You might feel a sharp scratch". ? 

Talking of UK terminology around "jabs" my wife is a NHS phlebotomist and the standard line to a patient when inserting the needle used to be along the lines of "You might feel a little prick..." however that is no longer considered PC and she instead has to say "You might feel a sharp scratch". ? 

This is the one for me ! I will refuse vaccine if its any other brand and wait for this, no one should be making billions from this pandemic 

Talking of UK terminology around "jabs" my wife is a NHS phlebotomist and the standard line to a patient when inserting the needle used to be along the lines of "You might feel a little prick..." however that is no longer considered PC and she instead has to say "You might feel a sharp scratch". ? 

Talking of UK terminology around "jabs" my wife is a NHS phlebotomist and the standard line to a patient when inserting the needle used to be along the lines of "You might feel a little prick..." however that is no longer considered PC and she instead has to say "You might feel a sharp scratch". ? 

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.

Talking of UK terminology around "jabs" my wife is a NHS phlebotomist and the standard line to a patient when inserting the needle used to be along the lines of "You might feel a little prick..." however that is no longer considered PC and she instead has to say "You might feel a sharp scratch". ? 

Keep the faith!

Keep the faith!

Same....We have an August cruise which I am pretty certain it won't go.  Our next is xmas cruise and that to me is iffy (but haven't given up hope).  We're also Canadian, DH and I are at the bottom of the list for the vaccine so sometime in the fall?, plus we have kids so the vaccine needs to be approved.  And for us Canadians, when will the border open?  Plus the ports need to be open for visitors.  Covid has shut down the world so think it'll be awhile before things start up again. And sadly, cruise ships will be at the bottom of the list to return as they have a bad wrap and are complicated with stops at various places.
But I do have hope things will return.  It just may not be as quick as some think.

Actually I'm watching the BBC here from the US, gotta love the internet. I see what they are saying here. 
One dose or jab as the UK calls it (love the UK) protects enough that no one was hopitalized so getting that first dose to as many as possible is the goal here. Interesting strategy and I understand it now. Hopefully everything falls into place and we can all get this done. 

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'll get mine whenever our state gets to Phase 1B.  I have zero trepidation with getting it.

As much as I really, really, really want to cruise again, I want even more to start putting this pandemic behind us.

We stay in Inside Cabins, so our expectations are not real high....but after thinking about it for a bit, I'd like to see another AC outlet or two as well as a couple USB outlets by the bedstands.

Even before the "global pause" in cruising, I think that Royal had eliminated every one of their extended Christmas + NY cruises.  I really think it is b/c they know they can sell 2 expensive cruises vs 1 expensive cruise.  Now it's B2B or nothing !  Secret:  I booked Holiday cruises on Empress for a VERY good price and then L&S them to Symphony.  Saved around 70%.  What a deal !  Glad I did it while I still could.  No more Empress (or Majesty) L&S !

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. ?

A ship name Tshirt is an absolute for Sheryl, if it is purple, so much the better.  My take away is 2 large bottles of Captain Morgan Private Reserve.