JasonOasis

I disagree there is a difference between wearing a mask to enter a store or to board an airplane and wearing a mask on a cruise ship any time you're outside your stateroom while moving around from venue to venue. I'm fully vaccinated have been for some time I've taken several vacations since being vaccinated in fact I'm on vacation now in New Orleans I can not fathom having to put a mask back on as a fully vaccinated individual even on a cruise ship. In my view either the vaccines work or they don't work. If they do work and I believe they do what was there original intent? There original intent was to prevent severe infections that resulted in hospitalization or God forbid death. We know the vaccines are working at least here in the US, because the number of people who are now requiring hospitalization and ICU bed are mostly unvaccinated individuals. The vaccines were never designed to prevent infection they were designed to keep people out of the hospital or worst the morgue, so fully vaccinated people should not need to wear mask. They have to stop moving the goal posts, we saw them move the goal post when it cam to testing now they are moving the goal posts again as it pertains to the vaccines.

Even on a Transatlantic sailing Royal still has to comply with all local laws. Hopefully once the ship is in international waters they will make an announcement onboard relaxing the mask rules but don't expect to see any changes before then. As long as that ship is in territorial waters they must comply with each specific countries rules which adds to the confusion for passengers. Keep your fingers crossed I think you will see a relaxation of the policy and more of an alignment with the US onboard mask policy once the ship is in international waters.

Has the Australian government or even the New Zealand government ever stated why they will not at the very least allow cruising to resume from Australia or New Zealand while restricting cruising to citizens of these 2 countries? We have seen these types of cruises work in Singapore where only Singapore residents can cruise so why can't the governments of these two countries do the same? These cruises could potentially be restricted to Australian and New Zealand ports or they could be cruises to nowhere. I feel sad that it appears as though no progress has been made to help Australian's and New Zealanders get back out on the open seas.

You are absolutely right. Royal needs to invests large sums of money in IT, in today's environment even if there was no COVID customers expect better from a company the size of Royal Caribbean. Recently I paid off one of my upcoming cruises using FCC's I conducted the entire transaction online, it then stated no balance remains on this reservation. A few days later maybe 5 or 6 days later I decided to sign in and see how much remained outstanding a different cruise and me not paying attention clicked on the wrong cruise I had the wrong reservation number and up pops the cruise I know I paid off with FCCs showing $1200 dollar outstanding balance. I had to snatch myself real quick because my blood was about to boil, and I called the loyalty desk the first agent stated she couldn't help me and transferred me over to a different department. The new agent could help but she was like since you used 2 FCCs the computer decided to apply the full amount of the first FCC but not the full amount of the 2nd FCC and we will re-issue you another FCC for the remaining amount in 30 days. She stated there must have been an IT problem or glitch. She could see in her system both FCC certificates, she could see my selection to apply both there were no name changes no funny business but RCC computers decided nope not applying the full amount of the second FCC. She had to transfer me over to a manager because a manager was the only one who could override and apply the full amount of the 2nd FCC to the cruise. She kept saying you will get another FCC in 30 days and I kept saying I don't want another FCC I want the full amount of the FCC already used applied to the cruise I selected. I'm glad I clicked on the wrong cruise and entered the wrong information I still can't explain how I did that but if I hadn't I would gone on thinking my cruise is paid in full and there would have a $1200 dollar outstanding balance because Royals computers decided not to apply the full amount of the 2nd FCC.

In a different thread dealing with cancelations I posted both Australia and New Zealand advised airlines they would not be reopening their borders before 2022. The airline that I work for just this week pulled flights to both Australia and New Zealand off the schedule through February of 2022. During normal times the airline I work for operated their most robust schedule from November through April. If for instance both these countries do remain closed through February of 2022 then my guess would be yes the entire 2021/2022 Australian and New Zealand spring/summer cruise season is done. Even if Australia were to open in March of 2022 Royal Caribbean's busy season basically begins to wind down by the end of April as some ships then begin making their way either to Asia or over to Hawaii on their way up to the Pacific Northwest for the Alaska cruise season. Who knows what Royal will now do with those ships temporarily, we will all have to wait and see maybe something from the West Coast..

It is my understanding both Australia and New Zealand have at least told airlines their countries would remain closed for the remainder of 2021. The airline I work for just this week removed flights to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and New Zealand from their schedule through February of 2022. Those flights were supposed to resume on October 29th 2021 but now the suspension will continue through February of 2022. Australia was supposed to reopen in March of 2021, then it was pushed back to July of 2021, that was pushed back to October of 2021 and now it has been pushed back to February 2022. Qantas which is Australia's top international airline has blasted the decision (that is putting it nicely) but there is nothing they can really do. According to some of worlds top business journals some are now estimating Australia and New Zealand will not fully reopen until 2023 because both countries have adopted a zero COVID policy. In fact Sydney and several other Australian cities on the Pacific side on Australia just went back into lock down because 15 COVID cases were detected. Australia also just last week reduced the number of citizens who can come home that number is now down to just over 3000 passengers per week world wide not just from the U.S.. Australia still has citizens who still haven't ben able to return home they've been stranded outside their country since 2020. So the flights operating to SYD out of LAX and SFO are really transporting Australian citizens home (those who can afford it) but no tourist are allowed in the country. My advise for anyone looking at cruising out of or taking a trans-Pacific cruise to Australia or New Zealand would be this don't plan or book any cruise to/from these countries before 2023 perhaps even 2024.

Working in the airline industry I can tell you Singapore is still closed to all Americans, the last update I saw hinted that Singapore may not reopen its borders until 2022.

Fall over board

Not to disagree with a moderator I would suggest calling Royal directly because below is a copy and paste directly from Royal Caribbean Healthy Sail center when you dig into specific departures. I think it all depends on where your cruise is departing from there is no one size fits all. Will I require travel insurance for my cruise departing from Florida in 2021? A For cruises departing from Florida homeports from August 1 through December 31, 2021, as a condition of boarding, each unvaccinated guest 12 or older must provide proof of a valid travel insurance policy that has a minimum of (a) $25,000 per person in medical expense coverage and (b) $50,000 coverage for emergency medical evacuation and no COVID-19 exclusions.  The insurance policy must name the unvaccinated guest as the policy holder or beneficiary, and may be purchased from a travel insurance company of the guest’s choosing or through the Royal Caribbean Travel Protection Program, which includes the requisite coverage. This policy applies to sailings from August 1 through December 31, 2021, and all bookings — except bookings made between March 19, 2021 and June 28, 2021. To be considered fully vaccinated, guests must receive their final dose of the vaccine 14 days before sailing and provide documentation such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control COVID-19 vaccination card. Guests who do not or cannot provide proof of vaccination will be considered unvaccinated and subject to these terms. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/will-i-require-travel-insurance-for-my-cruise As you can see in this excerpt Royal states insurance must have coverage for emergency medical evacuation which doesn't sound like Royal will cover emergency travel expenses for adults who choose to cruise unvaccinated. Whenever I travel internationally I always have travel insurance, I look at it the same way I look at car insurance I've been driving for the past 26 or so years I've only used my insurance 1 time but yet over that time I've paid who knows how many thousands of dollars to AllState . But the one time I needed them they cam through I only paid $500 dollar deductible and AllState paid $22,000 dollars because the other driver who hit me wasn't insured (the cost of labor in Chicago is ridiculous). I've never needed travel insurance until 2018 on an MSC cruise and then we were medically disembarked and all hell broke loose. We had to pay for everything up front but we we're fully reimburse by our insurance.

When was the change to your cruise made or how long as it been since you made your selection? The reason I'm asking is because sometimes it does take up to 30 days after your made your selection or your cruise has been canceled for your FCC's to show up. I've had quite a few canceled cruise where I choose the FCC and it took 30 days for them to show up in my email others I've gotten as quickly as 5 to 10 days later.

This was posted on the main page of this site today Royal Caribbean will offer full refunds to all passengers who at this time for personal reason don't wish to comply with their current health protocols and requirements. Some times these things take time but I'm glad to see RCC do the right thing by offering passengers who don't wish to get vaccinated or buy travel insurance all their money back and not Future Cruise Credits. In fact according to the article on this site RCC will cash out your FCC's as long as they were issued as a result of the pandemic and not as a result of a hurricane. Meaning if you have an FCC from 2019 and you booked a nonrefundable ticket Royal will not refund your money on that cruise but any cruise impacted by COVID you will be able to received a FULL REFUND. Although I'm fully vaccinated with this news my faith in Royal has been restored, better late than never. I've always said fair is fair now this is a fair deal for everyone involved because now unvaccinated individuals truly have an option and they are not stuck with FCC's that they can't use as a result of their personal choice.

I understand your objection to not only this post but some of my other posts. The point that I'm trying to make and have been trying to make is simply this with the exception of Alaska cruises all other cruise that leave the United States are heading to an international country. I 100% respect your views on COVID but your personal views get jettisoned the moment the ship docks in an international country and you disembark. What I'm trying to say is this any one who is unvaccinated can not travel to countries like Israel, Italy, Spain, France, Iceland and a whole host of other countries. You aren't even allowed to board the aircraft here in the United States including Florida, because the country the aircraft is headed too has implemented restrictions which must be complied with regardless of an individuals opinion or views on COVID and vaccines. Countries in the Caribbean are not here to serve or cater to Americans they are not beneath us there are rules and restrictions in place that we have to comply with. If they have entry requirements or concerns over what could be large numbers of unvaccinated passengers coming off cruise ships then they have every right to work with the cruise industry to try and limit the number of unvaccinated passengers they allow onboard and then allow off their ships while the ship is in port. A cruise out of Florida is no different than boarding a flight from MIA heading to TLV they both involve international travel the difference is Florida's law doesn't apply to airlines but it does apply to cruise ships. As much as I like Ron DeSantis this Florida law has made a mess of this entire situation. Countries in the Caribbean who thought 95% of cruise ship passengers would be vaccinated are now faced with the possibility that the number of vaccinated Americans on those ships may be far less than that and it is forcing them to respond and forcing Cruise lines to respond hence the change in RCCs policy. If you are unvaccinated adult and you test positive you and your entire traveling party will be medically disembarked from the cruise even if you are asymptomatic. Right now there are still quite a few Caribbean Islands that require all visitors arriving by air to purchases travel insurance. Just because you arrive by ship doesn't equal an exemption especially if you are unvaccinated. When a cruise ship pulling to a port in the Caribbean after a few minutes or so the captain will come on and say something like: The ship has been cleared by local authorities or customs and immigrations the gangway is now open all aboard is 7pm tonight. Ron DeSantis does not have the authority to force an international country to allow unvaccinated cruise passengers into their country. His power and authority ends the moment the ship leaves the dock period there is no other way to say it and right now because of that law cruise lines are now caught in the middle between Florida's law and complying with restrictions or concerns now being raised by Caribbean nations as a result of Florida's new law.

I thought something like might happen which is why in a different thread I raise the question, what happens if a non-vaccinated adult passenger tests positive and several people posted Royals response they will cover all cost. But when you are talking about resuming cruising on multiple ships from multiple port out of Florida where you are prohibited by law from asking for or requiring vaccines the cost to Royal Caribbean to get customers home would be astronomical. Remember when the industry shut down the CDC prohibited cruise lines in particular from utilizing commercial travel to get people people home if they tested positive. If cruise lines are still barred from booking customers who test positive and subsequently disembarked from the cruise on commercial flights the cost of booking noncommercial travel adds up quickly and there is no way a company like RCC can absorb the total cost associated with getting non-vaccinated passengers home on noncommercial flights. I 100% believe that passengers should have a choice they should not be forced into getting vaccinated just to go on a cruise. However at the same time unvaccinated passengers can not expect a cruise line to absorb 100% of the cost if they should test positive during their voyage. Back in 2018 my husband got sick on a MSC cruise we were on the Divina on a 12 night cruise and they medically disembarked us in Colon Panama. Luckly we had insurance and I'm bless to work for an airline. If we didn't have insurance and airline employee, between the medical cost, hotel cost, port fees (Panama charged us a hefty penny for the disembarkation in Colon), taxi to get from Colon to Panama City and then finally last minute air fare we could have easily been out of $10,000 - $13,000 dollars if not more. That situation was the first time we ever had a medical emergency on vacation and I was grateful we had insurance. This situation we went through is precisely the reason why I've been questioning Royal's policy on covering 100% of cost if a passenger test positive especially if RCC feels like Florida's law would result in a even larger pool of unvaccinated customers (adults) on their ships. There is no way RCC can cover the cost and remain in business if several unvaccinated adult passengers test positive on cruises and require disembarkation. Remember the MSC ship in Italy disembarked not only the 2 passenger who test positive but also their entire traveling party and those deem to be in close contact because they were all unvaccinated. I can only imagine what it cost MSC to get all those passengers home especially if they couldn't use commercial /public transportation.

Kerry Sanders from NBC News is onboard Celebrity Edge as well and he has done a really good job showcasing all the hard work the cruise lines have put in to restart the industry. I think Kerry Sanders my be an avid cruiser but he isn't allowed to say that on national television because in one of his reports he framed the original outbreaks on cruise ships last year as not being the fault of the cruise industry but do to the fact cruise ships were turn away from multiple ports which could have stopped any break. He is probably one of the first if not the only national journalist to finally point out the truth. That being said he did note in his report today although 99% of all passengers are crew are vaccinated, once the Edge arrives in port Celebrity will allow guest to go ashore and shore excursions have to be booked through the cruise line, the reason for the change is because there are unvaccinated children and some adults onboard. In his report this morning he noted since the 2 cases onboard the Millennium, Celebrity on this cruise will test all unvaccinated passengers while in port as they return to the ship. I don't know and it wasn't clear if Celebrity is doing this (testing unvaccinated passengers as they return) simply because of the media presence onboard the Edge, or if RCC is doing this as a test to see if this is something they should explore rolling out to all RCC ships and test all unvaccinated passengers at least in the short term in port as they return back to the ship. He also reported unvaccinated passengers in certain indoor settings are required to where a mask. However when looking at his live shots from the pool deck and other outdoor spaces you can see both adults and children vaccinated and unvaccinated out and about with no mask on. In an interesting turn of events customers onboard don't seem to mind the changes to the buffet instead of people serving themselves the crew serves you. But the ship is only at 40% capacity so there are no lines no waiting it will be interesting to see if that change sticks around or if in time cruise ships revert back to self serve type buffets we've all become accustomed too. One thing he always does is he talks to normal everyday paying passengers and the one thing they all say both vaccinated and unvaccinated is they all feel like they are finally on VACATION. Even though things are a bit different onboard they all have stated they feel like they can finally relax, breathe and have fun again. I must say I'm shocked by NBC News at first I thought they were interested in a "I got you moment" but good ole Kerry Sanders is really doing a great job showing people who may not be avid cruisers just how safe it is get on cruise ship.

The truth that we all are dancing around is this every cruise leaving the US with the exception of Alaska cruises are all sailing to an international country. Right now there are only a few Caribbean island nations that are still closed not only to cruise traffic but just about any tourist traffic. Most Caribbean island nations have reopened and all have testing requirements for arriving passengers who arrive by air they are required to present a negative test no more than 72 hours old and many nations will test the passenger again upon arrival at the airport. However many Caribbean Island nations have chosen to relax those rules or look the other way for cruise ships because they need the tourist dollars that cruise ships bring in. We all know COVID is here to stay it is never going away, we also now know just how effective the vaccines are, in that a vaccinated individual can not spread the virus but also a vaccinated individual if they do get infected 99.999% of them are not facing hospitalization or worst. Here in the US people 12 years and older now have a choice they can choose to be vaccinated or they choose not get vaccinated. However in most Caribbean island nations they still don't have that choice something one of my coworkers pointed out and he happens to be from Grenada, and I feel like that is an important thing to remember when we are talking about shore excursion and Caribbean Cruises. If you are saying there is no chance these children picked up COVID on a shore excursion then what you are saying is they brought COVID onto the ship with them which in turn means they brought COVID onto every island if they disembarked the ship. If we all can't see the danger in that then Lord help us. We are all so concerned about what happens on the cruise ship itself but I wonder how many of us have given one thought to the human beings on the islands that we will come into contact with. Many of them right now do not have access to any vaccine so they don't have a choice vaccinated or unvaccinated but will welcome any and all cruise ship passengers with open arms because they need the tourist dollars. Is Royal Caribbean really the bad guy for saying unvaccinated passengers will no longer be able to go on third party excursions I don't think so. The people in the Caribbean deserve a fighting chance they deserve to be able to make the same choice we all here in the United States now take for granted and a vacation shouldn't override that. Once the vaccines are available to any and all who wants one then I'm all for Royal dropping the requirement but until there is more vaccine in circulation/distribution in the Caribbean all cruise lines have a responsibility to help limit the amount of COVID being brought onto an island by unvaccinated individuals. I believe unvaccinated American's should be allowed to cruise and enjoy themselves on the ship without restrictions. But until there is enough vaccine in circulation where every person who lives in the Caribbean has a choice (the same choice we now have in this country) then I think unvaccinated individuals should be restricted to cruise sponsored excursions where there is a bit more control and where the cruise can limit contact and possible exposure. Last week on this site I posted the only Caribbean island nation that has nearly 70% of their population vaccinated are the Cayman Islands and to give themselves a chance they have banned cruise ships until some point in 2022. The Cayman Islands are one of the wealthiest island nations in the Caribbean as are the British Virgin Islands, and the Turks and Caicos. What I've noticed is the wealthier the island nation the higher their vaccination rates are and the more restrictions they have in place or are exploring putting in place for cruise ships. And while the Cayman Islands has decided to remain closed to all cruise ships the British Virgin Islands which has just reopened will only allow passengers who are fully vaccinated to disembark a cruise ship in port. The governor of the US Virgin Islands is imploring Governor DeSantis to reconsider his stance on vaccines and cruise ships not because the US Virgin Islands is concerned about what happens onboard the cruise ship, he is concerned about what unvaccinated passengers may be bringing onto the US Virgin Islands where there still isn't enough vaccine to meet demand. The US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands are not alone in expressing their concern about unvaccinated passengers on disembarking cruise ships in port and left to just roam freely other island nations are concerned as well and we are starting to hear more about it as we inch closer to cruising resuming from Florida. The cruise industry holds a lot of power within the Caribbean because they are an essential part of the life blood of the Caribbean. Pre-pandemic more passengers arrived in the Caribbean by cruise ship than by airplane. But make no mistake these Caribbean Island nations that are opening their borders to cruise ships and their passengers are hoping and expecting both cruise lines and their passengers to do the right thing and protect these islands until there is enough vaccine where their citizens will then have the same opportunity to make the same choice any American over the age of 12 can now make. In my opinion any American who chooses to cruise unvaccianted in July, August, September, October, even November should expect to run into some type of restrictions at the different ports of call within the Caribbean. Hopefully by December or January 2022 their will be enough vaccine in the Caribbean where these islands can begin to drop their concerns over unvaccinated cruise passengers. Until then I think it is incredibly selfish for unvaccinated cruisers to think their third party shore excursion is more important than protecting people who don't yet have access to life saving vaccines.

Since you came up with this poll I'm curious which option would you choose?

I absolutely agree with you in this Royal is playing checkers when they should be playing chess. If Royal wishes to keep customers loyal to Royal then they should for a limited time (perhaps 3 weeks) make a one time offer only offer to customers for a full refunds regardless if they booked a fully refundable or nonrefundable cruise fare. I think you bring up a valid point by pointed out Royals policy which now states unvaccinated customers who are able to get vaccinated will incur additional cost. Although I'm fully vaccinated and have every intention on going on my cruise at the end of October I would be lying if I said I wasn't reading the blog everyday trying to get a glimpse of what life is like onboard Adventure of the Seas or Celebrity Millennium. Even though I've booked a fully refundable cruise I still haven't paid the balance because I want to read about other customers onboard experiences once cruse resumes from US ports. This way my husband an I can make an informed decision as to if we really want to do this or will we give it a few more months and wait until our January cruise. The closer we get to cruising resuming out of US ports the more confusing the regulations have gotten from one state to the next and come October 29th 2021 it will have been 2 years since my husband and I last boarded a cruise ship. We had several cruise schedule in 2020 starting in April, June, October and November they were all of course canceled, so it's been 2 long years. While we are excited and still love cruising I'm also adjusting my expectations of life onboard and I want to wait and read about other peoples experience about life onboard the ship. We were both sitting down talking about this issue the other night and we were both like if we get the feeling that the changes onboard are too drastic we should just wait and cancel and book another all inclusive resort in Cabo, or Jamaica. That is what we did last year it isn't a cruise but it still was a great vacation. One of the benefits of booking suites are you get to diamond+ status very quickly however being over 400 points away from pinnacle it will take years even booking suites even with their double cruise points offer. I'll admit when it was first announced I was excited but now I'm like it meaningless for customers who are diamond+ and still have several hundred points between them pinnacle. I think once Royal really get its US operations back up and running they should give all customers a chance to digest all of the changes. I think people should be reading blogs like the one found on this site and educate themselves about life onboard to better manage their expectations. I think Royal needs to be completely upfront with unvaccinated individuals who decide to cruise and let them know all the additional cost they will incur and potential cost they could incur should they or any member of their traveling party test positive during the voyage. Finally Royal should make a one time, limited time offer of full refunds for passengers like yourself and tell customers although the changes are temporary, they are also necessary at this time to protect everyone onboard. That being said we look forward to welcoming you on a future Royal Caribbean cruise just as soon as things get back to normal. The value of loyal customers some companies appreciate it others take it for granted that you will alway be there. Although customers did make a choice to book nonrefundable fares they did so under different circumstances. These are not normal times or normal circumstances and I'm a firm believer in fair is fair. Royal should make a one time, limited time exception and those who miss the cut off, they can accept an FCC or if doesn't work then Royal wins and keeps all their money.

This is great news especially for people who are vaccinated because even if you come into contact with a COVID positive person or the cruise deems you've been in close contact with a positive person its doesn't mean the cruise is over if you are fully vaccinated. Contrast that with the MSC where 2 passengers tested positive but with a totally different outcome. In both cases the protocols worked but in two entirely different ways, for fully vaccinated (Celebrity) your cruise vacation can continue once you test negative, but in the case of MSC even though according to USToday only 2 passengers tested positive they are reporting MSC removed not only the to positive passengers but their families which tested negative as well as people deemed in close contact even though they all tested negative except for the two original passengers. The reason MSC took these extraordinary steps and removed all those passengers was because none of them were vaccinated. The protocols worked in both cases but I'm sure the people on MSC who were deemed in close contact (not members of the family or part of their traveling party) were not happy that their cruise vacation was cut short. But because they were unvaccinated and the cruise line didn't want to risk it by allowing them to remain onboard.

I would not cancel a March 2022 cruise based on what's going on now. If current reporting is to be believed most Caribbean Islands are ramping up their vaccine roll outs. The islands with the highest vaccination rate at 60% of the population in the Caribbean are the Cayman Islands but they have banned cruise ship until 2022. The next three islands are Anguilla at 40% then Turks and Caicos at 31%, and finally British Virgin Islands at 26%. All other islands including the Bahamas and Jamaica are below 24%. While over in Mexico and Central America, Mexico leads with just 15% of their population being vaccinated. However all of these cruise destinations with-in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America are ramping up their roll out as more vaccine becomes available so we should see much higher vaccination rate come of March 2022. I wouldn't cancel the cruise right now, instead I would suggest you wait until final payment is due and if it looks like cruise lines are still performing COVID testing during the voyage as that date nears then you make your decision. Don't make a decision based on what you are seeing right now because things will get better as time goes on.

That is not what I said at all, in fact I said quite the opposite I said COVID will come onboard the ship even Richard Fain has stated as much it is how you manage it that will prevent outbreaks, but if you only test passengers 3 days prior to boarding and never test them again how will the cruise line know to enact their COVID protocols? Let's use the recent MSC cruise as an example. Several people tested positive on that ship and they don't require vaccines either to cruise because of the slow rollout in Europe. However, the only way MSC knew they had a problem and to activated their COVID protocols, quarantine the positive passengers and ultimately disembark the positive passengers , their entire traveling party and perhaps even other passengers who were deem in "close contact" was because MSC performed testing and contact tracing during the voyage. If MSC has not performed COVID testing after the voyage was underway they never would have known COVID was onboard the ship which would have allowed COVID to spread unchecked. If you're going to allow unvaccinated passengers on a cruise and that cruise is making stops at several ports of call then cruise lines must perform COVID tests on passengers at some point during the voyage it is the only way to keep COVID cases onboard (and their will be cases onboard) low and prevent any type of outbreak. COVID found it way onto two different cruise ship over the span of 2 days but in both cases what stopped COVID from spreading unchecked was because each cruise line performed COVID testing during the voyage then activated their COVID protocols. Having COVID protocols and activating COVID protocols are two different things.

I don't think that is the case here, I don't think we are dealing with people who presented a fake vaccination card. But this does bring up an interesting point vaccinated individuals can contract covid but I believe the science stated they can't spread covid which is good news for a cruise ship. The issue we could see once cruising resumes out of US ports are unvaccinated individuals who leave the US negative for COVID, disembark the ship at one or two ports of call, come into contact with a person with covid while not taking all proper precautions then bringing covid back on the ship. The major difference between US, European cruises and Singapore cruises is Singapore cruises are to no where therefore there is little to no chance of covid ever enter the ship if it isn't brought onboard during embarkation day. Whereas both here in the US/Caribbean and in Europe you are visiting several ports of call and with cruises relaxing the rules and allowing any and all passengers to disembark like we normally would before covid there is a chance covid could be brought back onboard the ship. Since vaccines will no longer be required the only way to stop any outbreak onboard a ship is by testing all passengers at some point during the voyage, and that is what cruise lines are trying to do they know covid at some point will come onboard a vessel but what they can not have are any more covid outbreaks even though the original outbreaks were not the fault of any cruise line. People keep saying the protocols are working, well the only way for covid protocols to work is for a cruise ship to identify covid positive passengers early and isolate those passengers. The only way to identify and initiate covid protocols this is through testing, because there is a chance covid will be brought back onboard a cruise ship at one or more port of call. If Celebrity has not tested the guests (even though the test was for guest to return home) we would have never know about these two passengers. However, just because we would not have known does not mean covid isn't on board the ship. Since we are not going to require vaccines ( and I'm 100% okay with that decision) we then have to accept the fact that testing must, must be performed while onboard the ship especially if the ship is stopping at multiple ports where all passengers are allowed to disembark and explore the islands on their own.

Here is a section from the cruise contract that covers if a person tests positive for COVID once onboard and is disembarked. f. Passenger Testing Positive for COVID-19 During Cruise. Passenger understands and agrees that if, after boarding, and even if Passenger has fully complied with all COVID-19 Policies and Procedures, Passenger tests positive for COVID-19 or exhibits signs or symptoms of COVID-19, Carrier may disembark, refuse re-boarding after a shore excursion, or quarantine Passenger as well as members of Passenger’s traveling party, or take other steps which Carrier determines, in its sole discretion, are necessary under the circumstances to protect the health and well-being of others.Under these circumstances, any such Passenger with a known or suspected case of infection with COVID-19 who is disembarked, refused re-boarding, or quarantined shall be entitled to a prorated refund or future cruise credit or the unused portion of the Cruise Fare. For further details, refer to Carrier’s refund and cancellation policy at www.RoyalCaribbean.com. Each such Passenger is responsible for all other related costs and fines, including without limitation travel expenses. Under no circumstances shall Carrier be liable to any such Passenger for any costs, damages or expenses whatsoever incurred by any Passenger.If Carrier received payment via credit card and a refund is owed, the refund will be made to that credit card. file:///C:/Users/u216009/AppData/Local/Temp/cruise-ticket-contract.pdf I'm not trying to be confrontational I'm just trying to understand because the cruise contract clearly states something completely different than what the Healthy Sail Panel states. I don't know when the cruise contract was last updated but clearly these two documents are not in agreement.

Then what did Richard Fain mean when he said unvaccinated passengers would have to cover any and all cost associated with their decision to cruise unvaccinated? He made that statement earlier this week and never really explained what additional cost he was talking about.

My concern is for unvaccinated passengers if they either test positive while onboard or they are deem to have been in close contact and Royal decides to disembark them at the first available port it could potentially be very expensive for those individuals to get home especially if they don't have insurance. And if they are actually positive with COVID and its not a false positive they can't return to the US until they test negative which would then involve quarantining in a country they never intended to stay in. I believe people should be given the choice whether they want to cruise without being vaccinated but this MSC story should be treated as an eye opener as to what can happen if you do and you test positive.

As far as I know MSC does not require vaccines, Europe vaccine roll out has had a few delays. The article states the passengers and accompanying parties were taken off the ship and transported home. My question is when they say accompanying parties are they only talking about those in their party or were the close contacts who were also tested remove from the ship as well? Cruising is all about relaxing, meeting people, talking to people, I've met some really great people over the years on cruise ships and since we know they already have the technology to identify who you've been in close contact with can Royal and or did MSC disembark passengers who were also in close contact but not necessarily with the couples traveling party? What constitutes close contact and how long would one have to be in close contact for the cruise to say this person tested positive now you have to come with us as well? Also are their different standards for close contact for fully vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals?