JasonOasis

The CDC remains drunk on power they are not interested in creating a safe travel bubble on cruises. Both Royal and NCL when they resume cruises from ports outside the US have stated all passengers would need to be vaccinated. The CDC knows fully vaccinated individuals can not spread the virus, so even if the CDC were to go a step further and tell cruise lines in addition to 100% vaccinations we want all passengers tested at the port prior to boarding. Even if the CDC were to go that far and require rapid COVID test I do not think cruise lines would object. It is almost as though they want to create this environment of zero risk on a cruise ship and since they know its impossible to create a zero risk environment they are determined to just stand in the way and block all efforts to restart cruising.

It might surprise you to see what new new LGA looks like I've provided a link below. The new terminal is now open even though they have a few construction projects to finish up. LGA has come a long way over the past few years. https://thepointsguy.com/news/first-look-laguardia-terminal-b/

Norwegian just announced they will resume cruising outside of the US beginning in July, sailing out of Athens Greece and Montego Bay, Jamaica . Then in August they will begin sailing out of La Romana Dominican Republic. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/norwegian-cruise-start-caribbean-greek-121608178.html

I think another thing that could help move things along is if the cruise industry in the US spoke with one voice. Today Carnival Cruise Lines put out a statement saying they are not taking a stance or a position on mandatory vaccinations. They agree with Royal and Norwegian that the CSO is not workable and needs to end by July but that is where the agreement ends with Carnival. The CDC isn't just going to get out of the way and allow each cruise line to come up with their own rules especially when Carnival back in February was floating the idea of allowing passengers to board a cruise with a 5 day old negative COVID test. It shouldn't be this difficult for the 3 major cruise lines in this country to get on the same page and requiring a 5 day old COVID test (Carnival) is not how you're going to restart cruising in this country.

But the question no is asking is this, has Royal Caribbean, NCL, or Carnival been able to acquire their own personal stock pile of vaccines or are they partially or totally dependent on crew members getting vaccinated on their own in their own countries? We are focusing so much attention on the US which is doing a great job rolling out the vaccines, but if we look at the EU and other nations around the world they are clearly struggling in their rollout. Some countries are just now receiving their first shipment of vaccines. Also again working in the airline industry I know the CDC and WHO do not recognize Sputnik V and CoronaVac (China's vaccine) as a valid because they did not through all the proper steps during their trail phase. So take for example Iceland (and ther are other countries) which is open no quarantine necessary if you are fully vaccinated. But they will only accept your vaccination card if the vaccines on the card is a vaccine that has been approved as being valid by the WHO. We don't have to worry about that here in the US for obvious reasons. However both Russia and China have started shipping their vaccines around the world because it is difficult for some countries to get Pfizer, or J&J and they would rather take Sputnik V or CoronaVac instead of waiting for Pfizer to have availability. Another question is this will the CDC allow accept Sputnik V as a valid vaccine for crew members? Now this isn't to say at some point in the future these vaccines will be accepted and prove themselves to be just as effective as for example Pfizer but for now they are not recognized valid vaccines and US airlines can not accept them if a country requires the airline to check for either a negative COVID test or a valid vaccine card. If crew is the long pole in the tent what does that make the vaccines especially if Royal does not have its own CDC or WHO approved stock pile it can administer to crew members who are not Americans? We are all focusing on America but as we all know crew members come from all over the world. When I did the comparision it wasn't meant to be taken so literally each industry has its challenges and while cruise ship might be ready to sail there are other factors that could put a damper on things.

The US administered over 4 million doses this past Friday or Saturday so it is conceivable that by June or July anyone who wants a shot can get a shot. The problem with NCL's plan is there are still quite a few details missing. What I've learned just from the 2 or 3 months I've been a member on this site is it takes time to get ships ready to once again accept passengers. I'm no expert in the cruise industry, but in the airline industry the longer an airplane sits on the ground in storage the longer it takes to get ready to fly again. Some of these airplanes that have been grounded since last March it is taking 5-9 weeks to get those planes ready to fly again. In the cruise industry I imagine NCL would need a response back from the CDC by the end of this month if they are serious about restarting cruises on July 4th. I don't see the CDC responding to NCL's request by May.

I'm surprised that both Norwegian but especially Carnival aren't doing the same thing Royal Caribbean is doing by offering a limited number of cruises out of Nassau or some other island. They almost seem to have been caught off guard by Royal Caribbeans decision to sail out of Nassau and Bermuda. Knowing that it takes planning to pull off what Royal Caribbean is doing, it looks like while Royal was working a their contingency plan to jump start their cruise season both Carnival and Norwegian were sitting on the sidelines hoping the CDC would come through. I found it quite funny last week watching Christine Duffy's video where she claims Carnival is America's cruise line as she struggled to come up with several reasons (excuses in my book) as to why Carnival would not temporarily reassign a small number of ships to new homeports in the Caribbean or Bermuda. Regardless to what Norwegian does it is clear Royal Caribbean is charting its own path and if the CDC won't let them resume cruising from US ports they will simply find another port within striking distance. Judging from the response, homeporting in Nassau and Bermuda is paying off for Royal and it wouldn't surprise me if both Norwegian and Carnival are kicking themselves in the rear end asking why didn't we think of this.

Oh God I just realized I need more vacation days next year. There are so many great cruises on the horizon in 2022, I have 2 cruises already booked for 2022, I'm holding out to see what else Royal comes up with. Haven't booked anything for the fall yet still waiting to see what happens with LA.

Welcome to the CDC........ can't you tell we are moving very fast on this issue.

My brain is hurting after only reading a portion of if this updated guidance. On the one hand I'm happy the CDC is feeling the heat and has finally done something, but on the other hand from what I've read so far there are still a lot of built in roadblocks. Clearly the CDC has been sitting on this additional guidance for months I guess they thought the cruise industry would just take it laying down and they have inserted roadblocks that will make it difficult but not impossible for cruising to resume in the US in July or August.

There is no difference but you alway need an exit strategy. By saying international travel poses additional risks and even fully vaccinated travelers are at risk that could allow the CDC to keep the CSO in place until November 1st. That is probably their exit to keep cruising shut down in this country. The CDC realizes many Americans are done sitting at home and we are vaccinating over 3 million Americans every day so they are throwing in the towel on domestic travel, but by inserting that caveat about international travel that gives them a way out when someone like DeSantis or the Mayor of Miami demands an explanation as to way cruising remains suspended in this country. Cruising is considered international travel so while I'm encourage I'm also concerned that this new guidance won't help cruise lines.

Royal Caribbean does not want its guest to leave the casino to have a smoke. They want you to stay in there as long as possible so they can drain a few dollars from your bank account. Also I've noticed when they are fueling the ship the only place smokers can smoke is in the casino and they take it very seriously. On the newer larger ships like the Oasis Class and Quantum Class they really do a good job of pulling in the fresh air into the casino. Although I don't smoke, I don't think cruises should be 100% non-smoking that sounds like it would be hell for anyone who smokes. And having a 100% non-smoking policy only forces people to hide their smoking (smoking in cabin, public bathrooms or on their balconies) which could lead to unintended consequences. I'm willing to bet apples to oranges the reason Carnival relented was because they were discovering guest were still smoking onboard. So why not dedicate several areas on the ship as smoking sections and for those of us who are nonsmokers if we choose to venture into the smoking section then we are choosing to deal with cigarette smoke.

I'm a nonsmoker, I can only tolerate the smell of a burning cigarette for so long then I have to go. At the same time I feel like I have to ask what is a casino without some form of cigarette smoke? As much time as my husband and I spend in Casino Royal if we are on the nonsmoking side of the casino I don't smell the smoke at all. It really seems like in my opinion Royal continuously pumps in fresh air into the casino because you do have people who are sensitive to the smoke or don't want to smell the smoke at all. If the nonsmoking side of the casino were inundated with cigarette smoke that might keep some nonsmokers away or cause them to spend less time in the casino than they normally would.

It was a complete waste of time and I decided not to watch the entire documentary I couldn't stomach it after a while. Instead of focusing on what went on onboard the ship perhaps they should have spent their time focusing on the failure of government. And I'm not singling out the Japanese government alone several governments around the world turned cruise ships away even the US government left people stranded on the Grand Princess in San Francisco Bay for days then after letting the ship dock at the Port of Oakland they still wouldn't allow them to get off the ship for days. Then there as another cruise ship on a round the world cruise that was turned away from several ports, a country in Africa finally let them dock and allowed the people to get off. Ever since the beginning of this pandemic cruise lines have been portrayed as floating ships of hell, when the truth is if these ships would have been allowed to dock and passengers allowed to disembark and quarantine on land there would have been a different outcome for many people onboard those ships. People in government made decisions based on fear and politics (wanting to keep their countries COVID numbers low) instead of science and compassion which did nothing but contribute to the rise in COVID cases onboard these cruise ships. We are dealing with a novel coronavirus but the cruise lines are 100% to blame for what happened Diamond Princess and the Grand Princess and governments bare no responsibility? I don't think so and I'm tired of people in media, in positions of power and in politics using COVID-19 and what happened on cruise ships early on in pandemic as a poster child to portray the cruise industry as unclean, unsafe, unhealthy and something that should be avoided and shut down. Over 400,000 thousand people have safely cruised on multiple cruise lines around the world since cruising resumed late last summer and so far there have only been 30 cases of COVID on ships. Yet the cruise industry is still fighting the image that has been thrust upon it because people in power refused to allow ships to dock and passengers to disembark until the situation onboard became so dire letting people off was the only choice remaining. But no one is holding anyone in government accountable for the initial decision to say no you can't dock in our country. If this was a airliner in need of help and the pilot calls out an emergency no country, no government would turn that aircraft away, and not a single country would have made passengers remain onboard with a novel virus they would have taken all passengers off the aircraft and quarantined them on land. Why were cruise ships not given this option or courtesy as well?

Without prying to deep into your situation I would suggest you book a handicap accessible room this way she has more than enough room to use her scooter inside the room and she can also take the scooter on the balcony because all accessible rooms have a ramp that folds down which give passengers in scooters and wheelchairs access to their balcony. Accessible rooms cost the same amount of money but you do have more space in the room. Just know that if you request an accessible room and no one in your party is found to be in need of the room Royal Caribbean does reserve the right to move you to another room onboard if a passenger onboard needs an accessible room and there are none available.

This cruise was nearly sold out, there were no suites, or balconies available and only a handful of ocean view and inside rooms available. Having said that according to the email any customer who does not respond to Royal Caribbean by April 13th, on April 14th will have their cruise switched over from the 9 night to the 5 night private island cruise. I would imagine the cruise would then go on sail around April 15th or April 16th. It shouldn't take Royal to long to move guests reservations over and then depending on how many people stay with the cruise and how many change cruises conduct inventory and release the newly available staterooms. I call today and I inquired about the the 3 replacement cruises they offered December 4th, 2021, January 15, 2022, and January 29, 2022 and there were no suites availability not even junior suites. I would have settled for the junior suite and gone after the upgrade to a larger suite but the agent put me on hold to contact revenue management she came back and said revenue management checked and they told her they were not hold back any suite they were 100% sold out I was like forget. The Crown and Anchor agent was very apologetic on the phone and was very nice and patience with me. I had been looking for a January 2022 cruise I saw a a great rate on a Aqua theater Suite on Harmony of the Seas for a January 30th cruise the rate was so good I was like booked it. she booked it for me no change fees and she even gave me and my husband each a $100 dollar onboard credit for our Harmony cruise. I now need to do some research to find a November 2021 cruise because like I said earlier 5 days isn't going to cut it for me. The problem with November 2021 is there is little to no availability in suites on the cruises my husband and I want to go on. We've got our work cut out for us for sure to now find a new cruise after our October cruise.

I think you are right because there is nothing in the email that even address the price difference. I think what they are going to do is advise customers of the price after April 13th, 2021. Any customer who has not responded to this email prior to April 13 Royal Caribbean will just adjust your cruise and assume you are okay with the 5 night private island cruise. At the very least this email should have included pricing for every stateroom category on the 5 night cruise the fact they don't even tell customers the new pricing is unacceptable because we know Royal Caribbean already knows the pricing so why not inform customers already booked of the new pricing. Originally in 2018 or 2019 I forgot when Odyssey went on sail I booked a 9 night May 2021 European cruise. I moved that cruise in 2020 because I knew by October 2020 Europe would not be open to American tourist in May of 2021 and Royal would cancel Odyssey's European season, so I move the cruise to November 11th a 9 night in an owners suite. Now that cruise isn't happening, my next cruise booked on Odyssey is May 2022 we are once again trying for a European Cruise.

I just received my email advising me my November 11th cruise has been canceled. I was so looking forward to that 9 night southern Caribbean cruise and they want to offer me 5 night run of the mill cruise to their private islands. I'm completely disappointed and not happy with this I'm just going to cancel have them refund the money I've already paid and look for a different cruise to take in November, 5 nights on a cruise ship is not enough. At least I still have my 7 night Symphony of the Seas October 30th sailing, but now I have to find another cruise and of course prices have gone up for guest looking to book in a grand suite or higher. Not happy right now with Royal Caribbean, not happy at all I get the excitement surrounding cruising out of Israel but you don't screw over your largest customer base which is here in the U.S. you bring the ship home in time to honor the cruise schedule customers have already booked, you don't cancel a 9 night southern Caribbean cruise and think it is okay to offer me a 5 night cruise with stops at Coco Cay and Labadee.

So basically what you are saying is there is no viable legal recourse for states or cruise lines. Lets say for the sake of argument if President Biden were to intervene like President Trump did the CDC still has the legal authority to come up with another order that could potentially block the resumption of cruising. I think you are correct and the CDC will extend the public health emergency, but my questions are if they allowed the PHE to expire could that potentially end the CSO as well by default? I guess what I'm asking is this are there legal limits to the CDC's power in this situation and if so does anyone know what those limits are?

I just read the article in USA Today and I'm literally fuming right now. For the CDC spokesperson to say so defiantly the CDC's CSO remains in effect until November 1st is ridiculous. Even USA Today pointed out to the CDC last year they stated guidelines would be forthcoming and yet there have been no guidelines not a single one communicated to cruise lines. The CDC has done nothing but sit on its hands for the past 5 months, and now when multiple news agencies and the Mayor of Miami start asking hard questions the spokespersons response was the CSO remains in effect until November 1st this is 100% unacceptable. Which means the CDC has done absolutely nothing behind the scenes to resume cruising in this country all they are doing is stringing along this industry with no intentions of giving any updates.

I think airlines will respond, just look at how they responded to the announcement of cruise ships home-porting in Barbados. While you won't find nonstop flights from most cities you will probably see an increase in flights from east coast cities/hubs like BOS, JFK, EWR, IAD and DCA.

At this point I would just be happy with the CDC getting out of the way and allowing cruising to resume in July, and no masks on the pool deck. But it would be nice if we could get rid of the masks policy completely once more people are vaccinated. There is good news coming out of Israel where they have vaccinated at least 56% of their population. As one would expect hospitalizations and deaths have decreased but so has the rate of community (person to person) spread. But don't expect the CDC to admit that anytime soon they will just continue to say there isn't enough data to drop the mask mandate if everyone is vaccinated.

For anyone traveling to the Bahamas when Royal sets sail on Adventure in June, if the CDC has not updated their entry requirements for international travelers you will still need to present a negative COVID test at the airport before boarding your flight back to the US. Some countries have already begun updating their entry requirements, requiring either a negative COVID test and/or requiring passengers to present their original vaccination record that verifies they have been fully vaccinated, with a vaccine approved by that specific country (most western countries have approved Pfizer, Moderna, J&J and AZ). If the CDC has not updated the entry requirements for entry into the US although Royal will only allow fully vaccinated customers to cruise if you plan on returning home to America you will need to present a negative COVID test prior to boarding your flight back to the U.S.. We are already seeing problems with spring breakers who've traveled to Mexico and the Caribbean and they are fully vaccinated but are not allowed to board their flight home because they didn't think they still needed to present a negative COVID test after being fully vaccinated. So please keep that in mind if you travel internationally until the CDC catches up with the times and amends its order all international arriving passengers will need to present a negative test.

@twangsterCan a Quantum Class ship fit under the Bridge of the Americas? I know I just joined this site about 2 months ago but I have to admit when Royal first announced Odyssey of the Seas I was hoping, praying this ship would do Panama Canal sailings just like NCL's Bliss. In addition to that I was hoping Royal would send Odyssey during the winter months (December - March) down to South American to challenge NCL by offering 7-10 day roundtrip cruises out of Buenos Aries, or 14 day one way cruises between Buenos Aries and Santiago (Santos) Chile and vise versa Chile back to Argentina. I know Celebrity offers limited sailing during the winter from Brazil to Antartica, but I was really hoping Royal would take on NCL in South America with Odyssey of the Seas. That ship has so much potential I'm hoping within 2 or 3 years Royal will expand its reach during the winter months by redeploying it down to South America instead of doing the Southern Caribbean. I've sailed on NCL multiple times and had a great time but I prefer Royal to NCL any day of the week.

I would suggest just start checking mass vaccination websites, pharmacies, city, state, county vaccine websites anything, this is how my husband and I got our 1 dose of Pfizer this week. They had no shows we checked the website mid-late afternoon and the mass vaccination site run by FEMA not far from our house went from no appointments available to having same day appointments available because people didn't show up. I would suggest maybe start checking websites around 3 or 4 pm local time especially if most vaccination site in your area close between 8 or 9 pm. They can't keep the shots it is better to put the shot into someone arm than throwing it in the garbage.