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See my original post. I redid my math based on the approximate mass of the ship vs. gross tonnage, which isn't the right unit. Either way, it's still isn't going to 'rock' at all.

I did some very rough math to see how much of a difference this even makes. Somewhere online I found an anecdotal number that the largest cruise ships in the world (of which Oasis is obviously one) have a displacement tonnage of around 100,000 tons. Displacement tonnage, I believe, is the actual weight of the ship, not to be confused with gross tonnage, which actually is a measure of volume. If you took 5,000 people weighing 200 pounds each, that's 1 million pounds, or 500 tons. Which means, on any given cruise, the guests represent less than 1/2 of a percent of the weight of the ship. More rough math.... It seems the Aquatheater takes up about the final 1/9th of the ship lengthwise. If the weight was equally distributed throughout the length of the ship (which it's not, but let's just say it is), then the final section would weigh ~11,000 tons. Which means, by putting 5,000 people on the back of the boat, you're only increasing the mass of that section of the boat by ~4%. None of this is reliable math, but it shows that, there's basically nothing the people on these boats can do to noticeably affect its balance. This differs from airplanes, where weight distribution even on larger jets is often very important.

I luckily have never had to deal with any type of addiction, nor has anyone close to me. But it seems it's a great program. You hear of people going to meetings for years and years almost every day even after their addictions subside because it helps them so much. And because it's totally 'anonymous', people can't talk about the other people they see. In Elton John's book, he talks about how obsessed he became with going to meetings everywhere he went and how many random people over the years were probably stunned to see Elton John in their AA meeting. Elton is also Eminem's sponsor, which I always thought was a fun fact.

What's the math here? I admittedly don't buy the package because for on-port days it really doesn't make sense, as we spend most of the day off the boat. I've seen other people do the math here and say 5-7 (alcoholic) drinks per day is enough to make it worth it. Even if you're counting both you and your wife's package, 20 seems excessive. Are you only drinking beer?

I just booked a cruise for March 2023 even though I'm going to be on another cruise this March. For one, the deals aren't quite what they used to be, it seems. I think this is because there always seems to be some pretty decent promotion online. I would've waited anyway, however, we're going on Wonder in 2023 and the rooms were already filling up (probably because I'm guessing a lot of people who were supposed to cruise over the past winter or this spring have moved it to spring 2023), so I went ahead and grabbed the room I wanted. I'll keep checking back to see if there's ever a better deal.

Oh, I totally agree. That's not unreasonable drinking by any means, even with your family. It is heavily affected, though, if you do get off at the ports. Then you're packing those 5 or so drinks into dinner and evening. Still not unreasonable, but more of a push in a smaller period of time. Either way, I guess to me it's the feeling that I NEED to do that each day of the cruise to make it worth it. If you have a day where you feel less like drinking or, again, get off at a port, you feel like you're falling behind! My point is that, by nature, a structure like this pushes people to have 1 or 2 (or 3) additional drinks past someone's comfort zone to make sure they feel like they're getting a value from the package. That to me, isn't an ideal way to structure things.

I feel like these beverage packages really encourage excessive drinking. Not necessarily in a bad way, but probably a little past each person's comfort zone. My wife and I both enjoy drinking on our vacations, but with kids we probably max out at 3-4 drinks per day. It's only natural to do the math on these packages and every time we've discussed whether to spring for it, we talk about how averaging 5-6+ drinks per day (particularly on days when we're at a port much of the day) is probably more than we need. Sure, it'd be great to just order without thinking about it, but it's only natural to try to get your money's worth, right?

Unless it's a temporary glitch or something, I would definitely imagine that some organization has booked them all and is reselling or assigning them as part of a convention or special sailing. It's not a special cruise as far as itinerary or date, so there'd be no reason it would be sold out to that level so far in advance. Unfortunately it could be anything and there's probably no way to find out because whoever did reserve those rooms may not have announced it yet. I would say this: The fact that it's the suites and balconies should tell you something. If this were a concert/music cruise or some other type of special interest, it's doubtful they'd reserve every balcony room but leave the cheaper rooms open, as they'd surely want to have less-expensive rooms available for booking for whomever is going to be marketed with this event. It sounds to me more like something corporate where an entity not passing through the cost to an end-consumer is reserving these rooms for employees or reward-winners or something. Again, ALL speculation. But I doubt it's anything crazy because it's doubtful then that they'd book all the balconies and suites and leave everything else.

I thought the same at first, but it does appear to be legitimate. You can find more photos on various social platforms. And there definitely is an Atlantis cruise going on right now on Oasis.

In case you're interested, here's a NYT article about the cruise: Most notable: Part of the problem is that Atlantis (unlike Royal) is not allowing cancellations, so many of these people are choosing to go rather than lose $ thousands. The article also says, "While the company does not offer refunds, it says that the health and safety of its guests is a top priority and it will be enforcing Royal Caribbean’s health and safety protocols, which includes a mask mandate indoors except while eating and drinking and in crowded spaces outdoors." That seems to have gone out the window!

This is, apparently, what's happening on the Oasis right now, where there is currently a chartered cruise. I'll be the first to admit I don't know much about the regulations or economics of chartered cruises, who's in control, etc., but with all the problems going on with infected staff and having to cancel sailings, why would they allow this right now, as it clearly endangers upcoming sailings? (I want to be very clear that absolutely not one ounce of my sentiment here has anything to do with the fact that this is a gay cruise. I have nothing but full support and love for the LGBTQ community and events like this, which I'm sure are a blast.) I also found a post on Twitter saying that Atlantis (the folks chartering the cruise) are encouraging cruisers not to post on social media -- likely for exactly this reason, as it could potentially reflect badly on both RC and the LGBTQ community.

I think the important thing to note here is that, as you noted, things are happening quickly. We booked a cruise in October for December thinking it would barely be different than a pre-COVID cruise and ended up cancelling it after Omicron threw everything off-kilter again. Turns out the boat we were supposed to be on got held off of Coco Cay for 5 hours while RC negotiated with the Bahaman government. So, in retrospect, we're glad we didn't go! It's really difficult to know how things are going to be at any particular moment. It seems things change every 90 days or so, sometimes from one extreme to another. We thought COVID was more or less 'over' in October and then December comes and it's the largest outbreak as far as positive cases since everything began. It's really hard to predict and you may be best off waiting until close to your cruise to make the decision. We booked another cruise for this March, banking on what we think is a likely chance that Omicron will have dissipated and things will be more 'normal'. But we never know when the next strain is going to pop up and what it's going to be like. Overall, though, I would feel pretty confident. After the cancelled cruises pass this month I think they're going to come out the other end in pretty good shape.

I would highly, highly doubt you will on Harmony. The average college kid is looking for a budget spring break. They definitely don't have the cash to drop on a 7-day cruise on a really popular ship at peak rates! In general, those Oasis ships are SO geared towards families. If anything, you'll be overrun with kids (I assume you don't mind that, though, given you're on the Harmony in the first place.)

Uh... these are some pretty adverse answers @kadmgs - I'm really not concerned with high school kids. Those kids are usually fine. They hang out with each other (most of them are just trying to get lucky while dodging their parents!) And obviously they don't drink. My worry is more about college kids viewing this as a Daytona Beach on the Sea. @Templecruiser - Looks like Liberty was out of Fort Lauderdale in 2015. Hopefully being out of Orlando it won't draw as many college kids. I'd also think there'd be more of that atmosphere on other cruise lines like Carnival or Princess. Fortunately, I looked at some schedules and it looks like most Spring Breaks will be over by my sail-date (3/22).

My family and I (me, wife, kids 9 and 7) had planned on being on the March 19 on Harmony this year. We've been on Oasis ships and it's always packed with families. No concern there. We decided we wanted to do some other stuff around Orlando prior to the cruise so we are switching to the Mariner on March 22. It's a 4-night that goes to Grand Bahama and Nassau. Wondering if anyone can offer insight as to what the crowd might be like. Would we still be looking at a lot of families or are we potentially talking about a more college-ey spring break crowd? Or is RC really not like that at all?

That's >85% based on DO, but only 65% of total capacity. Next week could really be a sh*t show if a particular boat hasn't prepared for the higher capacities. If there weren't a pandemic going on and there were no restrictions, I wouldn't care if the boat was full. I was on a full Symphony over Xmas 2019 and we never felt like it was too crowded. However, if they're just maintaining the same staff and protocols with the larger crowds, that could be messy. My guess is different boats will have different experiences. Some might be terrible. Some may be totally fine.

I've been tracking our sailing (12/27 on Freedom) and there hasn't been much movement, at least as of yet. There was 1 room available as of yesterday and there's 1 more today. Under the circumstances, I definitely don't think they're increasing capacity at the last minute. This is very likely cancellations. I wonder if they may even do the opposite. Not refill cancelled bookings to pull back on the capacity.

Correct. If they were exposed at a port of call they wouldn't have symptoms or test positive that quickly.

I think this is newsworthy from the standpoint that a lot of people who don't want to get on a cruise yet are not doing so because they're wondering, "What happens to me if I test positive on the cruise? Am I going to be stuck on an island or on the boat for weeks?" And I think this story a very intentional attempt for the industry to say, "Look. This isn't that common, but if it unfortunately happens to you, we are doing everything we can to get you home and keep the other passengers safe." It takes away the mystery behind a very serious concern that's likely preventing a lot of people from cruising right now.

I realize GRT isn't a straightforward calculation, but nonetheless it is still a calculation of volume, correct? Hoping someone can explain this to me: Odyssey: 1,138 ft. long & 135 ft. wide. 169,300 GRT Liberty: 1,112 ft long & 185 ft. wide. 154,407 GRT How is the Liberty only 2% shorter than the Odyssey but 37% wider and yet has a 9% lower GRT? Basically you have two ships of almost the exact same length but one is 1/3 larger yet has a lower GRT?

I just want to make sure everyone is clear that these policies have nothing to do with CDC guidelines or "government bureaucracy." Nothing is forcing them to do this. No government is mandating these policies. RCI is doing this because their medically trained health experts, who are tasked with evaluating the efficacy of these types of policies, have determined that this policy will help to ensure safe cruising. This is a decision being made by a private business in the best interest of its future and the safety of its customers and employees. No government body is forcing them to do this.

This is a very good point as well. The loudest faction of people (but not necessarily the largest) are the people who see this as a bad thing. There are certainly people (likely those who cruise less often but could potentially be interested in doing it a lot more often -- a very important group of people for the industry) who will feel more comfortable cruising with this policy in place.

I totally understand why everyone here is upset, but I wish you would just step back and understand why they're doing this. They're fully aware there are people out there like you who would be upset about this. They have plenty of people calling them right now complaining. When they made this decision I'm sure they had a pretty accurate approximation in mind of the revenue they'd lose over the next few weeks by instilling this policy. They know they will lose bookings over this. They've baked that into this decision. However, their (very) educated decision -- as the people who lead this industry and know more about it than we ever could -- is that this policy will do more to keep cruising (and the public's perception of cruising) safe than the negative effect of people cancelling right now. I understand also that some people here think masks do not work. Unfortunately for those people, RCI listens to their full-time medical staff, who are medically trained doctors whose full-time job is to evaluate the efficacy of masks and other safety measures on cruising. It's a pretty specific job that they dedicate their life to. And those educated individuals (along with other business executives more concerned with finances and long-term viabilty of the company and industry) have determined this policy will help them continue to cruise safety. The executives at RCI don't give a crap about politics. They care about what's going to allow them to succeed now and years and decades into the future. That's why these decisions are made. That said, I think anyone with a cruise between now and Jan. 5 should absolutely be provided the opportunity to make changes to their itinerary if they don't wish to cruise under this policy.

Agreed. It's insane how entitled people are. RCI is doing what they feel they need to do to make sure the public views cruising as safe and to ensure long-term viability for the company and their shareholders. That's RCI's only agenda. They're not out to get you. There are plenty of places to spend your vacation budget. If you don't like it, go somewhere else.

I don't disagree with you on that. The timing stinks. But honestly this Omicron stuff has come fast and furious. A week ago I was living a completely normal life. I was going out and not thinking about it. My kids in school every day. I didn't know anyone with COVID. Now it's like everyone in my town has it. So I think it's somewhere in between. I don't think they purposely did this now to screw over their customers. I think they weren't expecting this and it came quickly. But I agree for sure they should be understanding and allow people to change their plans!