Chadster

Y’all ready for a cruise this week? Abe Hughes (Cruise Director on Oasis) is doing a virtual cruise so jump on board! Here’s today’s cruise compass. I’ll post the link to his Facebook so you won’t miss out this week! 
 
https://m.facebook.com/cruisedirectorabehughes/

My issue is the lack of awareness. My 79 y/o grandmother and her friends went out to vote this past Tues. Same for venturing out to stores even though they all watch the news, several times a day, and had been warned. My 36-44 year old friends have been hanging out at Starbucks, Chipotle, home depot and anything that is open. Crowds and crowds of people have more than doubled our cases...known cases...in a mere two days. We could have flatten the curve and be cruising by May imho....but things are getting worse. I am frustrated because very few people are taking this seriously, yet are the same ones who seem to be the biggest complainers.

Here in Maryland, we've had 41 cases announced since yesterday; we're up to 190 as I type this. Two deaths. My school extended our spring break an extra week, and we're starting online coursework this week; they've officially ruled out any return to on-campus learning for the spring semester. Thankfully, I've only got one class to deal with...most of my other work consists of writing.
Still no word on when they'll reopen the Cruise Maryland terminal, though I don't sail out of Baltimore until December; my upcoming cruise is from Cape Liberty in either June or July.
Trying to stay upbeat (I really feel uncomfortable saying "positive"!) about my chances, but I'm also a realist. If there's ANY risk to people still present when cruise time comes, I'll give up sailing for the good of the public health...though I really hope it doesn't come to that.

???
I might just be willing to trade the proposed credit for 14 C&A points a week for the duration of the shutdown!!!
 
 

Very well said! Here's a little something I had to remember earlier, and I hope it helps someone.

Very well said! Here's a little something I had to remember earlier, and I hope it helps someone.

Very well said! Here's a little something I had to remember earlier, and I hope it helps someone.

Very well said! Here's a little something I had to remember earlier, and I hope it helps someone.

Very well said! Here's a little something I had to remember earlier, and I hope it helps someone.

The only time a cancellation fee is invoked is if you cancel outright or change the ship or sail date.  If you are upgrading from one category to another on the same sailing there would be no fee for doing so.  The only possible exception would be if you downgraded from a full suite to a non-suite they MIGHT assess you a $100 PP fee but that is not your situation so I would not expect any fee at all for making the changes you have described.
It's hard to quantify the "extra" that the balcony gives you over an interior.  #1, there is more room, overall, so that's enough for me, right there.  However, whether or not you would get "use" out of a balcony during the cold months out of NJ is so personal.  For me, even if I do not go out and sit or stand on the balcony that much, it is still so nice to have the natural light from outside and the ability to open that door and get fresh air.
For me, the extra $530 is a no-brainer.  Overall, you will enhance your experience by having more room and the balcony accessibility, even if you don't use it that much.  That actually sounds like a great deal to me !!

Ovation has had a successful Alaska cruise season and had planned to return in May 
Seattle round trip on any ship is an awesome Alaskan experience but the one-way North or South provide a better opportunity to see even more of Alaska.  
Quantum in Alaska should be very much like Ovation in Alaska and a great way to experience Alaska on a bigger and newer ship with lots of technology and things to do on those cool sea days.  As cold weather ships they are perfectly suited for Alaska.

Now I wanna book an Antarctic cruise! ?
 

Very well said! Here's a little something I had to remember earlier, and I hope it helps someone.

Very well said! Here's a little something I had to remember earlier, and I hope it helps someone.

Very well said! Here's a little something I had to remember earlier, and I hope it helps someone.

Or maybe Royal will do a good thing like DCL and push back final payment dates by 30 days. ?

I'm just hoping that if they do extend their resumption of cruises, they'll push out FCCs or refunds quickly. I'm really trying hard not to cancel my original June sailing and go full-on with my July sailing (Canada/New England), but I worry if I wait too much longer, I won't get the FCC quickly enough, and I'll put a bit of extra financial strain on myself. ?
I'm not very good at this whole patience thing. ?

I'm just hoping that if they do extend their resumption of cruises, they'll push out FCCs or refunds quickly. I'm really trying hard not to cancel my original June sailing and go full-on with my July sailing (Canada/New England), but I worry if I wait too much longer, I won't get the FCC quickly enough, and I'll put a bit of extra financial strain on myself. ?
I'm not very good at this whole patience thing. ?

I'm just hoping that if they do extend their resumption of cruises, they'll push out FCCs or refunds quickly. I'm really trying hard not to cancel my original June sailing and go full-on with my July sailing (Canada/New England), but I worry if I wait too much longer, I won't get the FCC quickly enough, and I'll put a bit of extra financial strain on myself. ?
I'm not very good at this whole patience thing. ?

I'm just hoping that if they do extend their resumption of cruises, they'll push out FCCs or refunds quickly. I'm really trying hard not to cancel my original June sailing and go full-on with my July sailing (Canada/New England), but I worry if I wait too much longer, I won't get the FCC quickly enough, and I'll put a bit of extra financial strain on myself. ?
I'm not very good at this whole patience thing. ?

Very excited about this news! So excited that we changed our Serenade July 2021 sailing to the Quantum out of Seattle! This change leads me to wonder if QOS will receive a refurb/update besides the laser tag to appeal to the American market. Since this ship has been in the Asian market for quite some time, it has a noodle shop among other Asian specialties and interests. Does anyone have any idea? Heard anything? Granted, we will still be in the #teamCK crew as we will be Sky Class, but just wondering about some of the other offerings. So Psyched! Now, if we could get that intern to show up again! 
Thanks Sharla at MEI for making this happen!!

Actually.... it's a all been codified into US law.  While it may have been the Jones Act or The PVSA in origin, technically about 15 years ago those all sort of wrapped into various parts of US law (46. U.S.C. § 50101 and 46 U.S.C. § 55103 plus others).  Origins of both impact the cruise industry. 
The Jones Act was originally conceived to apply to merchant shipping but as written parts of it apply to any vessel, cargo or cruise (or other) in US waters.  Percentages of US steel in a ship, percentage of US workers on board, cabotage, etc. are items from Jones that apply to cruise ships while the concept of closed loop and distant foreign port comes (plus other items) come from the PVSA.
There will not be any waivers anytime soon.  Doing so would have ramifications beyond what anyone could imagine. 
The concept of cabotage, picking up a passenger (or a thing like cargo) in one US origin and dropping them (it) off in another US destination applies to airlines as well.  You ever won't see foreign carries such as Qantas, Air Canada or British Airways picking up a passenger in say New York and dropping them in Los Angles.  Nor will you see American, Delta or United (or any US airline) picking up a passenger in Sydney and dropping them off in Brisbane just as an example.  International agreements and conventions rule the movement of passengers and who can move who within a country versus to a foreign country.  They are delicately negotiated between foreign countries.
Many countries have variations of laws that apply to cabotage although some enforce them for airlines more so then for ocean travel because many countries have no domestic maritime industry they are trying to protect.  
Believe it or not there are significant international conventions that govern the maritime industry including the maximum time any one person can work on ship.  If a ship worker wanted to work two back to back contracts by maritime law and convention they can't if it exceeds established time frames.  Hours per days, week, month etc. are as well.  Many of these were established for maritime personnel before cruising became a thing.  If you think a cruise ship worker has it bad there are plenty of maritime ship employees on various other forms of ships that have it much worse.  Today they have it somewhat better because of how the merchant marine industry mistreated it's workers many decades ago.  It wasn't the cruise ship industry that drove the creation of these protections as many people believe.
The day any cruise line is granted a waiver or exemption from US Law there would be an avalanche and ripple effects through many closely or somewhat related industries.  No one is going to upset the carefully balanced apple cart that allows cruise ships (and other 'carriers') to operate as they do today.    A cruise line is just another "carrier" in a complicated system that governs all "carriers" - planes, trains, ships and others.
The reason Puerto Rico isn't subject to enforcement (at the moment) is that there is no US carrier attempting to operate passenger service on a maritime route to the US mainland.  If NCL gave up it's Hawaii operation, it's conceivable that eventually Hawaii could possibly be subject to a similar temporary waiver.  Keywords are conceivable, eventually and possibly.  The story of the NCL's ship that qualify as "US ships" versus "foreign flagged" is complicated and a very long story.  I don't see them giving up on that and any waiver granted to any foreign flagged vessel would surely be met with legal challenges that would go on for many years.

Now I wanna book an Antarctic cruise! ?
 

Now I wanna book an Antarctic cruise! ?
 

Now I wanna book an Antarctic cruise! ?