Pattycruise

We're still awaiting details on if the Bahamas will allow a close contact to leave on a commercial flight without 14 days quarantined. 
 
If not RC is flying us on their dime

Nearly 16,000 new cases in Florida announced today.  Six cases on a ship.  
We know the virus has not been eradicated.  We know unvaccinated are the primary transmission vector and we know that even some vaccinated will get the virus because the vaccines are not 100% just like other vaccines do not guarantee 100% protection.
It is strongly possible that the infected guest "zero" could have become infected before leaving for the cruise.  If those infected individuals did not cruise they would likely have never known and continued to spread it back home.  Another example of spread being stopped because they went on a cruise.  Now they know and can take appropriate measures at home while they recover.  
Protocols worked and cruising helped to limit the effect these individuals would have on their community.  Sounds like a win, except for the innocent bystanders caught up in it on the cruise.

If you struggle with flexibility you should be rethinking your plan. Anyone with a cruise booked or thinking of booking a cruise for at least the next year yet should be prepared for things to change. From ports of calls to requirements to processes the industry is going to be very fluid for at least a year yet. If you are looking for a vacation where you are certain things aren’t going to change you should be looking for a land based vacation (I.e. resorts or hotels) where your chance of contacting covid is much higher but ignored by the media.

Of these 1,000 plus guests who tested negative, how many have COVID, still undetectable on tests, will fly home to their home states and possibly infect others?  There is a "window of uncertainty" 5-7 days after exposure.

RC probably shelled out upwards of a half million today.

A 6 passenger lear jet that can convert to an air ambulance.  

(No offense JeffB but I'm writing a JeffB-length post here)
 
It all started Thursday night after the debarkation round of testing. All three in my group were negative, but about 10:30pm got a call from the ship's doctor saying our son was identified as a close contact for a boy in Adventure Ocean who tested positive. We never really asked for details on when or what they defined as a close contact since I figured we'd never get that detail as I'm sure they'd cite privacy. (Adventure Ocean follows strict masking and 6-foot social distancing rules as well as avoiding shared toys/supplies so I really doubt it was a 15 minute close contact, but we know the pressure cruise lines are under.)
The medical staff will only call you with results that late if they're positive (not that that stopped me from waiting up until after midnight for the first one).  The next morning we got a letter saying "dear guest" saying "guest" was quarantined. This step in the process is the one RC needs to work on. The letter didn't specify who (aka, just our son or all 3 of us?) had to quarantine (ended up just being our son) and had no "for more information contact XYZ" info on the letter. While the letter did list all the free services we'd have during quarantine (room service, internet, movies, phone calls) it didn't do a good job of outlining really what to expect. In my comments to RC I'm going to urge they have guest services call those people directly and lay things out for them instead of just a form letter, especially since the letter said staff would check up on us throughout the day and no one really did.  So we called the nurses station for some info, and the doctor called us back saying our son was indeed negative but they (I'm not sure who "they" is but I got the inkling it wasn't solely ship management) wanted another PCR test 24 hours later. Which meant 10:30pm again. 

By afternoon (Friday) we get a call that guest services wanted our passports, vax cards and health insurance info.  We never really got details on who wanted this, but we think it was the Bahamas government.  Because a bit later, the guest services manager called and finally we got a good line of communication going. Despite the negative tests, the Bahamas didn't want to let our son take a commercial flight home since he didn't fulfill the country's unvaccinated quarantine window (14 days, tell me that wouldn't suck). Apparently RC tried to get a waiver for us, but as of later Friday, the guest services guy was prepping us for a private flight home.  
The 2nd test Friday night came and went negative (and I'm going to assume all 4 other contacts were negative too, based on a talk with our pilots) and we got one more call from guest services that they'd have updated flight info by 8am this morning.

We got that call and they were still working out the details of the flight, but were prepping for it to be a late afternoon/evening flight and we'd move to the Hilton for a few hours. Somehow that got moved up and by 9am we got our 1pm fllight time and were just instructed to hang out in the room until noon. 
At noon guest services walked us down and we were off the ship.
They had a limo van (aka, party van) for us right off the ship, drove us right to the plane, got on the plane, flew right to our home airport and had the town car waiting for us at the GA terminal to take us home. Apparently whatever deal they had set up required actual door to door delivery, so I got dropped off at the parking lot to get our car, and our wife and son got the town car ride home.
 
So count me as the "I'm not an actor but a true story" for anyone that has concerns about booking a cruise due to fear of being covid-stranded (even if you aren't the one testing positive), RC has you covered.
I can't compliment RC enough for how efficient they were with getting us (and apparently 4 other groups for a total of 20 people in the "contact tracing kid" bucket) out of there and thus avoiding having to stay another 10-11 days for the Bahamas unvaccinated quarantine period.

Hope they wait until next week to implement. That way we are already on our ship and can enjoy the last week of freedom. If not, oh well, we are still on a cruise and it beats having to stay at home locked down for a vacation anytime.

Matt has a list on the homepage that lists the ships that are scheduled to sail and from what port. Will they? Hard to say. We will also be on Adventure this weekend, I know they will be sailing!

Try this
 I just called my local pharmacy as they offer Covid testing.
Medicare and Medicaid are covered....for the rest of us he said it is $65 for a rapid test.  Here is the website from their page, it has a place you can enter a zip code to find pharmacies that participate.  https://myrx.io  Perhaps give that a try to see if there is a pharmacy near where you will be.  He said they text you your results and when I asked if it is something they can print for me he said yes (I honestly don't know anything about this service and if it would be printable).
So much can change between now and your sailing date.  I hope this helps!

If Royal already canceled the excursion due to the removed port stop, I'm not sure there would be anything left to cancel in the CP. ?‍♀️

Thank you, I did misunderstand the 5 day thing.  
BTW, my kids hate you  they wanted the GS….it’s “expired” on their bids. ?

Both 8 night cruises. I'm chalking it up to "why look for logic where there clearly isn't any".

Yay! I just save $465 dollars on my next two cruise for next year!

Sorry, but the Black Friday sale hasn't been what it used to be. I would not recommend waiting for any one sale.
The best strategy is to track prices over the long term. Book early, and then cancel/rebook if/when a price drops.

We just booked a cruise (Enchantment out of Baltimore in June) and it has $50 pp deluxe, $23 pp refreshment. Seems like it's unlikely to get better than that.

Thank you, I did misunderstand the 5 day thing.  
BTW, my kids hate you  they wanted the GS….it’s “expired” on their bids. ?

Awesome!  Thank you!!

States that started spiking first are already at peaking. Give it a couple weeks and it'll be over

This one is a dead horse and has been discussed and confirmed to death. ?
 
Count backwards.
 
Think of it like this...
Saturday - the day you need the results, typically the sailing day, Day 0
Friday - 1 day before the day you need the results, Day 1
Thursday - 2 days before the day you need the results, Day 2
Wednesday, 3 days before the day you need the results, Day 3
Tuesday, 4 days before the day you need the results, Day 4
Monday, 5 days before the day you need the results, Day 5
 
Even Royal Caribbean covers it in the FAQ.

Where Do I Take A RT-PCR Test And Submit The Results Before Cruising? | Royal Caribbean Cruises

I for one am totally shocked by this ?

It just means the day you get the test doesn't count towards the "three day" window.

Testing Wednesday the results will be valid for an embarkation on Wednesday (D0), Thursday (D1), Friday (D2), or Saturday (D3).

I'm glad that you are okay!

Yes, it was cancelled!  I felt the earthquake where I live (Kenai Peninsula).  I heard the tsunami warnings going off for a couple of hours before it was cancelled.  The earthquake felt a little different that others in that there were no hard jolts, but just a long 2 minutes of moving and swaying.  My hanging lights and chandelier just swayed back and forth, and there was enough movement that my grandfather clock stopped!  That was rare!  People along the coast do take this seriously, and I watched a steady stream of cars evacuating low lying areas.  The news reported that some of the coast guard ships based in Kodiak left port and headed out.  While out on the water, a tsunami is usually barely detectable, and only materializes once it gets close to shore in shallow water.