Landry_TX

Alternate title: Thousands do exactly as millions do every day on airplanes and travel, albeit with better protocols

I'm on Liberty and passed the terminal 3 construction site. I was pleasantly surprised to see some vertical construction! 

There are a lot of MyVegas RCL cruises available.  Leaving from LA, Barbados, Galveston.   I just booked a 7day from LA.   I just got back from a MyVegas one from Galveston.

Trev and Chels teamed up with Royal to donate $100,000 to Mr. Beast and Mark Rober's #TeamSeas!!! How awesome!! 
 
https://twitter.com/TmarTn/status/1454198122633105416?s=20

Trev and Chels teamed up with Royal to donate $100,000 to Mr. Beast and Mark Rober's #TeamSeas!!! How awesome!! 
 
https://twitter.com/TmarTn/status/1454198122633105416?s=20

I grabbed one of the 7 nights on Liberty. 1,000,000 points seems kind of high for this round of cruises. 

Thx for posting. Shocked that some are still available. If not on Symphony the first week of November I would be all over this. 

Thanks for the heads up... I'm now gonna be on Odyssey for 5 nights! It makes for an unexpected endnote to follow my 13-day sojourn on Allure.

There are a few cruises up on My Vegas right now. All are in the month of November

There are a few cruises up on My Vegas right now. All are in the month of November

Not the ship because you know how to take personal responsibility for yourself.

(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.

Whoa! Now there's a 9-night on Independence to Port Canaveral, Miami, Nassau, and Coco Cay! Round trip from Galveston.

Most of the Independence of the Seas sailings from Galveston are now available to book.

This morning we checked out of the Oyster bay resort and boarded the ship!  Pictures below.
I'd recommend the Oyster Bay resort.  The room was small, but well decorated and comfortable.
The boarding experience went better than I expected.  They had a small warehouse set up for check in.  It was air conditioned and had someone playing steel drums.  They also gave out citrus water. So all was comfortable.
With only 500 or so people on this cruise, the ship feels more like a museum than a cruise.  I've seen more crew members than passengers!  Anyway, everyone is excited to be back on the ship.
The muster drill was much easier now that we have Emuster.  However, they had to make several announcements to make sure everyone checks in at their station.
The complementary internet is surprisingly slow.  It makes uploading pictures difficult and video is out of the question.  If you need something better, you'll have to upgrade to the stream package.
In other news, Rhapsody of the Seas and Vision of the seas are docked along side our ship.  It's great to see them again, but they need a good coat of paint.
 
 

Who's Richard?
 

Just flew back from Dallas last week and had no problem keeping my mask off for much of the trip,  isolated seating in airport with a drink in front of me not bothered, after the plane started the roll I slipped it down and only pulled it up again when in noticed the few time the stewardess was coming down the isle.
Mind you I have been fully vaccinated for months now, so the chance of me contracting it, being an asymptomatic carrier are less than the chance of my dying in a car wreak on the way home from the airport.  So I poised no risk to myself or others.
I think the public will determine when enough is enough through increased public disobedience.

I heard Odyssey is headed right to the Bahamas to take Adventure's place.
(OK I made that up but that'd be cool)

If I join the Latitude club, how high would I need to be to book now? I live near Sacramento, CA 38.5 degrees north, hopefully this is high enough. 

How long before the whale tail joins the party?

We never stopped having back yard gatherings. It's not difficult to maintain space between individuals outside and the recommendations have always been "wear a mask indoors where the ability to maintain six feet of separation isn't possible."
Outdoors AND spaced apart - easy to do. And we've kept on keepin' on.

Come on down to Florida ... barbecuing since July .... 2020 !!  ?

It's a good thing there are community guidelines on this blog to prevent me from typing up how I feel about this statement.