Dad2Cue

It seems like the CDC will be staying busy. It seems that the CDC is having some trouble supplying information so it isn't just the cruise lines. https://www.americanoversight.org/the-cdc-has-been-illegally-rejecting-valid-foia-requests-were-suing I bet there be even more lawsuits before this is finished.

As more obstacles are overcome, it gets very difficult to rationally explain why cruising isn't allowed. Even "reasonable" restrictions are becoming difficult to justify.

"Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a press briefing. "If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic." Does this include cruising??? We stopped cruising because of the pandemic!!!

I have made 0% of my final payments since we cancelled our cruise and took a $2,000 FCC last April 2020. I have lifted and shifted other cruises or simply rescheduled cruises for 2022. All of our existing 8 cruises we now have in 2022 only have the deposit paid. I have not made any additional payments like I used to do. I try to limit the potential for FCCs so some of my future cruises are refundable. I also try to limit the total amount of my deposits on future cruises. Just yesterday, I booked a new cruise. I had another cruise where I originally paid a $500 deposit for a longer cruise but reschedule to a shorter cruise that only needed a $200 deposit. There was an extra $300 but I was able to move the $300 from that cruise to the new cruise that required a $500 deposit. The net result was that I only needed to pay an additional $200 for the new deposit. My next scheduled cruise is October 2021. If I'm a good indicator than my confidence hasn't been very high. However, things might change if I make the final payment this July. I predict that I WILL make the final payment in July so things are changing. I am just beginning to look for cruises in 2023 but only one so far.

No but I will be on the alert for that one. Thanks for sharing.

My wife wanted to do the ABC islands. I booked an Odyssey 8-night cruise that included A and C. Do you think my wife will notice that B is missing???

I would pay for an app that would track the prices if it included cruise prices. You would think it already exists somewhere.

You are very organized. I just try to remember prices from one sale to the next. Most items I get regularly so I know what price I'm looking for. Those excursion prices are hard to remember. Can I give you a list of excursions I want and you can notify me when I should buy them??

I'm somewhat disturbed by the trend of these cruise planner sale prices. They pretty much advertise the same old 50% off but the sale price has doubled in some cases. Internet prices are particularly disturbing. The 4 device internet package for 50% off was never $40 per day when it wasn't on sale.

So then we wind up with lawyers deciding public health policy. It isn't that I think that the public health experts have done such a great job. I just know that I'm vaccinated. That seems to be the present criteria for doing more things and getting back to some semblance of normal. My next booked cruise is in October 2021. I have a backlog of 5 more cruises in 2022. I have a significant financial stake in going on those cruises. I'm willing to do almost anything to protect my financial interests ---wear a mask, forego my 2021 cruise... anything within reason. Everything seems so unreasonable. If this stretches into 2022 then maybe I will need a lawyer. But nothing in the legal realm proceeds quickly and will likely cost more than my investment in cruises. Maybe just waiting is my only reasonable option.

I have need of some of these things. Does Royal provide the scooter while on the ship? I have no idea how we would travel with one. Just a walker seems cumbersome to travel with. I must admit that I have scooter envy when I see one.

I'm getting there myself. My next cruise will probably be with a cane or maybe a walker that has a built in seat. My last couple of cruises involved sitting and hanging out while my wife did her thing. I've started inviting our daughter to join us just so my wife and daughter could do an excursion together and leave me on the ship. We have a backlog of 5 cruises planned for 2022. I keep thinking, that I will need to train for all the cruises by walking a few miles each day. It is a chronic pain condition but I'm not yet disabled but my family thinks I should get the wheelchair thing for the car. I wonder if I would be eligible for an accessible cabin? We have already booked connecting staterooms with our daughter and that works well in terms of a larger balcony and extra bathroom. We also have a panoramic suite on Mariner that has an extra large room but no balcony that should accommodate everyone.

As @CGTLH says there is that catch. Cruise prices are generally increasing so it is more likely that you will be stuck paying the refundable price. Now I look at whether the extra cost of booking refundable is worth it to get the added flexibility. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. It mostly depends on how committed you are to ship, itinerary and the date of the cruise. The extra money to book refundable does protect your deposit. However, if you do the cruise, it may end up costing you more than the deposit you are trying to protect. In that case, booking refundable is hard to justify. OTOH, I prefer to book refundable when it doesn't increase the price of the cruise too much. Sometimes I simply want to make a reservation to get the stateroom I want but my plans aren't definite. In that case, I can cancel and get a full refund when I book refundable. Presently, the cruise with confidence rules allows changes and waives the change fees so that needs to be considered as well.

I was under the impression that they have done an overnight stay at CocoCay in the past. I know they have done cruises with 2 "days" at CocoCay so maybe they will leave and come back the following day. I just want to do my first day at CocoCay. I agree, an overnight stay at CocoCay does sound awesome. I might even stay out late for that experience.

Just so Quantum is back by August ... 2022 I mean. Do you think Canada might be willing to allow Alaska cruises by then?

I have a B2B on Allure starting October 17th. They are two 7-day cruises for a total of 14 days. I'm thinking one of those will go but I might cancel the other one if Allure starts on October 1st. Otherwise, I think there will be some cruise departing the US by August 1st. I think Allure has a good chance of starting sooner rather than later because the stops are Nassau and the private islands mostly. I'm hoping she starts by July 1st so I can evaluate things before the final payment date. I will say July 15th .... final answer.

I have done that. Once I did a L&S and the invoice seemed correct. It had a remaining balance due that also seemed correct. Then a few weeks later someone posted something about a glitch involving how a L&S was processed. When I looked a my online balance due again it changed such that my remaining balance increased by $300. There was a FCC involved so that complicated things even more. Royal was good and acknowledged an error was made. I still don't know how they recalculated everything but I'm pretty sure that I came out ahead by $700 when I compared the original invoice with the new recalculated invoice. I just hope it isn't subject to future review.

The base fare gets tricky after a FCC is applied. I suppose that Royal has a formula for that but at that stage i gave up trying to understand and accepted what they said it was.

This is slightly off topic. Does the new FCC get an extended expiration date? I got tired of a snowballing FCC so I put my large FCC on a cruise way in the future right before the expiration date. I even booked a suite just to use the whole amount of the FCC. I hope that cruise isn't cancelled because it is in August 2022. If it does get cancelled, I assumed I would get an extension on the expiration date. Is that true?

It isn't the FCC math so much ... it is more like funny money. I came to that conclusion when my FCC was applied to a cruise and only the cruise fare decreased. Now I have no idea what the actual cruise fare was. The FCC wasn't even itemized so it magically disappeared but the cruise fare price looks great. I asked about it once and Royal said the FCC was in their system. I would recommend developing your own system to keep track of it.

Just so you know, I value the UK. I have already had two trans Atlantic cruises on Anthem to Southampton canceled so I'm frustrated too. Now it seems like my next best option is a trans Atlantic in April 2022 on Allure. That cruise goes to Spain. It isn't that I don't want to go to the UK. On the Allure trans Atlantic , all the other stops are in Spain except for the stop in The Bahamas. My guess is that the least number of countries I visit will be better through the end of 2022.

I don't know about two stops at CocoCay since I haven't been there even once yet. I have booked a future 5-day cruise on Mariner that has only two stops --- Labadee and CocoCay. I like that idea and that's why I booked the cruise. I could see doing a 7-day cruise that included Labadee and CocoCay and maybe any other port that will accept the ship. I don't mind sea days so it would be fine with me. I have been to Labadee three times and I like it there. I like cruises that stay overnight for two days too. I think Royal did some overnights at CocoCay at one time which didn't sound too bad. Maybe the water park one day and chill the next. That might be an option while ships are being slowly phased in.

How do you put a "hold" on a cruise. I know a person used to be able to do a short term hold for 48 hours or so. Online, that doesn't seem to be an option anymore. My idea of a hold is now putting down a refundable deposit but I don't like doing that anymore. I have 7 cruises lined up over the next 2 years already. Some cruises are refundable and some are not. I don't want to get anymore FCC's. I don't really like the added expense of booking refundable either.

I have two different apps Royal and Royal IQ. Neither one does much of anything. I just looked at both of them and I would now say they do nothing. I did an update and still nothing. Maybe I have the wrong app.

There is no price protection on taxes and fees when doing a L&S. I don't know why my taxes and fees were $150 higher on a nearly identical cruise in 2022 as compared to 2021. I have done two other L&S and the taxes and fees were a few dollars less on one and a few dollars more on the other one. When there was a $150 difference on the Quantum Alaska L&S I thought it was high but what can you do? I suppose local government and port authority revenue has taken a big hit. I think they will want to make up for lost revenue too when cruising resumes. I have never figured out how those taxes and fees are calculated but they seem to be trending higher. There seems to be a fair amount of variability from one cruise to the next. I suppose taxes go up when the cruise fare increases but I don't really know how it works. I do know the taxes and fees become fixed when a cruise is repriced. It doesn't seem to matter what the current taxes and fees are on the day the cruise is repriced. Why are they fixed for a repriced cruise and not a L&S??? Supposedly everything else stays the same for a L&S. Might be an interesting topic if someone knows more than me.