cruisellama

As early cruising will most likely require cruise line sponsored/operated excursions, will visiting the port  tourist shopping areas be off limits as a condition of disembarking? 

Lived in FL at one time.  Best to start with a fresh new house - then you know what you have.  The climate and insects tend to wear things out a little faster in an different ways than up north.  But proximity to the ports is a fantastic perk of being there.

2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Well, we did it !  Put down a down payment to get started.  Picked out a house and lot.  Should be ready in just a bit more than a year.  Meanwhile, we must return to VA and sell our house.  We will move into something temp locally and move to FL when our new house is ready.  

We will be in a brand new phase of the development so right now, there is nothing but dirt and sand there.

So, flying back early tomorrow. Upgraded to FC so happy about that.

What a whirlwind !  It might sound like an impulse buy to some, but truthfully, this is our fourth trip to FL house-hunting. We tried the west coast.  Nope...the drive from Tampa to the Port of Miami was horrific.   Tried central Florida but only Port Canaveral was really convenient.  I knew that we would not be able to afford the Miami area, so after just 1 perusal in south Florida, we moved on.  Not only was it expensive, but they didn’t really have the type of “Active 55+ community” that we were looking for.  We finally tried the south-central east coast (Port St Lucie) and it was Juuuust right.  Almost exactly half way between Port Canaveral and Miami.  Dan kept saying that when we found the right place, we’d “know it”.  I guess he was right.  I have bought and sold many homes in my life but this will be the first brand new/build home for me.  Very excited !

So not following in the steps of Super Mario (yet)?  Guess no one can until the bug is gone.

27 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

If you’re looking at Spring 2021, I would imagine that the cruise lines will still be mandating that all passengers must book excursions through the cruise line, not with a third-party, to comply with safety / health rules. As such, you’d have to book through the Cruise Planner after booking your sailing.

Logical

On 9/3/2020 at 9:27 PM, KathyC said:

There are VERY few Celebrity cruisers in this group.  You're not going to get a lot of replies for these types of posts.  

I was on one Celebrity cruise last year, and they didn't have those bottles.  But if they did I would not have saved them. 

Then you're missing an experience!  Coolest aluminum containers since aluminum beer cans and bottles.  Now waiting on the aluminum straws.

24 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Yes, we did use the HOV but honestly it wasn’t necessary.  We chose Port St Lucie precisely b/c of it’s equidistant between the 3 major cruise ports. We literally looked on a map and picked it by geographical position.  Turns out to be a nice place, luckily !

Perfecto!  (used to live in NVA - former "slug")

I had collected a few Symphony of the Seas interior construction pics (various phases) before sailing her.   Brought them along to a few venues to see the before/after.   Really pretty cool if you enjoy the engineering behind the construction and decor - just nerding out.

Good luck on the search.    Need to be driving distance to ports I imagine.  Did your Uber HOV'it?  All Admiral's clubs are pretty weak at this time, at least now they're open..    

On 9/4/2020 at 7:33 AM, danv3 said:

Will be interesting to see how "enforcing arrival times" works in practice.  

Cattle prods (maybe)?

In the current construction phase, it almost looks like a container ship with cabins as containers (which is how the assemblies go together).  Ship construction is fascinating.

NICE (and good news)

Guess not

Is possible to know ship occupancy as prior to departure (do lines share this info with TAs)?  Was manually looking over open cabins on a ship that's still sailing in Nov and wanted to get a feel how many open cabins.  Just cumbersome mock booking - changing class and running through decks.  If it were to sail, guessing it would be under reduced capacity anyway.

Also noted on the RCL website, on "plan a cruise" if you bring up the calendar, still shows Oct '20 as an available month to book.   Kind of a noticeable bug or lack of attention to detail in website maintenance.

4 minutes ago, teddy said:

Thanks for all the info.

I'm leaving from Galveston on Aug 29, 2021 for a back to back on Liberty.  

Sailed both those itineraries different times  - family really enjoyed it.   Liberty is a friendly ship, we'll sail her again..

Outstanding

Anyone else hold on to these?

Matt blogged positive news on the Galveston port upgrade - new start 1 Apr 21 (although 1 Apr isn't a good day)...   Hope to see and Oasis or Q class in the future.

Prices and itineraries are really attractive.  Unfortunately (for us) we're maxed out in reservations for 2021.

14 hours ago, nate91 said:

I really hope cruising comes back soon! However, at this point, I'm beginning to get frustrated with the cruise lines, especially after RC delayed the results of the healthy sail panel. Myself and my fiancee are dealing with PTO expiring, and her boss has a two month maternity leave as well during which we can't take any vacation. We have cruises booked in both November and December with both Carnival and RC, and the not knowing is getting incredibly stressful. We'd love to do a land-based vacation, but our cruises aren't cancelled, and we have amassed so much FCC from earlier in the year that we can't afford to take the FCC (and Carnival offers nothing like it). 

I'm just frustrated that the cruise lines have no plan whatsoever, and especially with my admittedly unique situation, I'm essentially left twiddling my thumbs and waiting to see if I'll be able to use my vacation time in ANY way, much less a cruise (the preferred method). 

Prefer just pulling the "bandaid" off quickly.   I think there are internal plans, but keeping cash flow on life support is a high priority.   To my surprise, still seeing Nov, Dec cruises being marketed - meaning, "please send deposits, you'll eventually get to use them".

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Bad cookies, no bueno

Also getting the usual 3rd party cruise promotions emails with airlines for some upcoming cruises.   Noticing a number of 2, 3, and 4 day cruises on the advertised RCL and Celebrity offerings. What's odd is Celebrity doesn't have many short cruises yet a number of S and M class ships are being promoted with the short itinerary.   Shorter itineraries is one of the risk mitigation tools being investigated.  Wonder if this is signaling one of the health panel recommendations.  Some start as early as mid-Nov 20.  (Matt blogged the guidelines are not expected to be published until the end of Sept.)

8 minutes ago, vanelli56 said:

Wanted to bring this back up and get peoples thoughts now with more information available such as rapid covid testing, some cruise lines starting to sail in Europe, CDC travel updates, etc. 

Currently with most RCL cruises cancelled until Nov. 1, when would you think we will hear about the next round of cancellations... or even better, a statement about confirming some cruises will actually happen as part of a phased in approach? As of today... that would put us about 60 days out for sailings. 

I am starting to think that we might have a chance for a small number of sailings to happen between different cruise lines. I think its just a matter of having one carrier make that call... and the rest will follow. (fingers crossed)

All guessing too.  I was following the Celebrity website and noticed this morning that Nov/Dec dates dropped off the site.  Yesterday, they were still marketing some Nov/Dec 20 cruises.  I posted a message, went back to the website and voila!,  Nov and Dec 2020 are still on the site.  Not sure if I had a bad cookie, if there was a error on the site, or an oops -  Immediately raised my skepticism.   

Are you aware of other RCL Nov cancellations?   While I fully expect remaining RCG 2020 cruises to cancel, I haven't seen a press release announcing general cancellation of the remainder of 2020.

Been monitoring the Celebrity site.  Prior to today, you could still book some cruises in Nov & Dec of this year.   Now the booking calendar has cleared 2020 and only has 2021 dates available.  Anyone else read something into that?  Correction - the 2020 dates are back in the booking page.

On 7/21/2020 at 7:44 AM, twangster said:

For Americans who are looking for a cruise other than the Caribbean, Alaska is a natural alternative.  Many people haven't been but have almost had Alaska on their radar.   Alaska allows Americans to spend their vacation dollars in America, supporting their own country's recovery. 

When cruising first returns in 2021 there may be a trend to staying closer to home.  Fewer folks from Europe (or Asia or Australia) will be sailing from the Americas and fewer folks from the Americas will be sailing from Europe (or Asia or Australia).  In contrast to sailing the Med, Alaska is "safe" for Americans because it's mostly American ports and there are options to depart from an American port (Seattle).  This is the "safest" (emotionally) during the first year or two of post-pandemic cruising.  With the exception of a call in Victoria it's an "All American" vacation more so than any other cruise itinerary.

If anyone has been thinking about an Alaska cruise but put it off now is great time to begin thinking more seriously about an Alaskan cruise.

I'm a huge Alaska fan.  Cruised 3x and I don't get tired of it.  The last frontier.