DD474

That's going to be very interesting as well. If we have 100% vaccinations onboard the ships than why not sail at full capacity?  Which metric would they be looking at to gradually raise the capacity? I hope that they actually follow the science on this one as a whole because as of right now the vaccine is looking like its a miracle for how much protection that it actually gives you from becoming infected/spreading the virus. 

I wonder what procedure RCCL will use to reduce capacity: longest booked, highest cabin category, or by C&A level?

YES....Ready for the Pool Deck.. ?  SAFETY FIRST 
I assume this is what were talking about ?  Just a bit difficult with my drinks ?

YES....Ready for the Pool Deck.. ?  SAFETY FIRST 
I assume this is what were talking about ?  Just a bit difficult with my drinks ?

I just got my 2nd vaccination this past Friday,  my wife get's hers this Friday.   
We're book on Allure of the seas this December.   Hopefully thing's will be normal ? by then. 

My Twin Brother was at Nellis AFB in 1980.  He was a Jet Engine Mechanic.  AKA a JetMac.

YES....Ready for the Pool Deck.. ?  SAFETY FIRST 
I assume this is what were talking about ?  Just a bit difficult with my drinks ?

There are a lot of variables at play. I recall seeing something about drinking at bars only, that's a deal breaker.
Masks: if it is 24/7 outside cabin maybe, but if that's including a pool lounger, sorry, I'm out. If I cannot enjoy a drink on my lounger, I'm out. What's the point of taking in vitamin D with the mask on. For us, the pool deck, including hanging on the loungers, is a big way we spend a day at sea.
Vaccine: take it or leave it. I'm not anti-vax and will probably get it when it's my turn (last). Mainly to put my in-laws minds at ease and of course the suspicion places will ask for a "vax pass." As others my wife gave it to me after treating a C+ patient volunteering as an EMT. We had symptoms but nothing major, just felt like crap, fever, aches, etc.
Edit: I don't see my September Oasis out of NJ sailing anyway.

If vaccines are required, it will limit the pool of eligible guests at least for 2021.   A majority of US guests won't even have the opportunity to be vaccinated until mid-late summer.    I believe Israel leads the world in percentage of population inoculated (but a small market).   I read that based upon their stats, the vaccine they use is 92% effective.    Less developed countries with limited medical logistics systems will take even longer to get their populations inoculated. 
But if we're only going to see 1 or 2 ships sale (per cruise line) from a US port this year, a vaccine requirement would probably fit that limited back to sail strategy.

Mask-Yes
Vaccine - Yes (but have not yet had the opportunity to fill that square yet)

I am (honestly, I spend almost no time on the pool deck anyway except maybe getting a drink from the bar while walking around).

BTW, on my flight home from Key West Saturday, Delta would not allow “gator” style masks. 

I just got my 2nd vaccination this past Friday,  my wife get's hers this Friday.   
We're book on Allure of the seas this December.   Hopefully thing's will be normal ? by then. 

I was just talking with my wife about our Dec cruise.  We are of the same mind.  Masking for ages now, I had covid in Dec thankfully she and our daughter didn't.  The vaccine seems to be helping with keeping numbers down.  I am hoping by Dec the mask requirements will be loosened, but I am not holding my breath on it.  I really hope the pool deck is a mask free zone when you are stationary in your deck chair or at a table.  The pictures of the Singapore cruises with masks on while lounging at the pool does not look like a good time.  
I am also not counting on the cruise to sail.   Until the testing phase has passed and cruise vacations start officially sailing again I am not going to get too excited for what ifs.

Yes, this is the "extra" door that lead to the Grand Panoramic Suite.  I was told that they added that extra door to cut down on the noise from the Coastal Kitchen...but that doesn't really make sense to me.  It is a bit of an oddity that goes along with the GPS though.

@Lovetocruise2002 spotting coming soon to the US border

That's how I feel right now! lol

WOW.. ? What an interesting guess... I had no idea that DD474 was a Fletcher-class destroyer.  USS FULLAM (DD-474). Launched in the Boston Navy Yard on 16 April 1942.  Being that I was born and raised in Boston, it would be a great guess.   BUT the "DD" stands for Drew and Donna.?  "474" is my home street number.   That is so Funny.        I was actually in the Air Force, I was assigned to NORAD (25th ADS) McCord AFB - State of Washington.  ?  LOL..
 

@LizzyBee23 @RickinSTL Thank you for your service!

In reference to requiring employees to be vaccinated.
What most of us forget is that in the US ~80% of employees are "At Will"
In U.S. labor law, at-will employment is an employer's ability to dismiss an employee for any reason (that is, without having to establish "just cause" for termination), and without warning, as long as the reason is not illegal (e.g. firing because of the employee's race, religion or sexuality).
Maybe ya just can't tell them that's why they are fired, they still are fired

I’m guessing the DD474 was the Navy destroyer you were on. My dad spent 23 years in the Navy mostly on destroyers. My first “cruise” was a 2 week trip to Japan with my family on a troop ship where we lived for a few years in Yokohama. We had to get several shots before we went overseas. Then I joined the Navy at got more shots. 

As far as the news reports go on which one is worse and if an existing vaccine works... well throw reading or watching them in the trash. Simply put the news is about ratings and big scary headlines makes most people interested in them. I can barely stand to watch the local weather with the oversensationalization and living in tornado alley is something you have to do sometimes.  That and I feel like I need to get tickets to all the "events" that seem to be popping up. 
 
Save yourself a major headache and an ulcer and watch and read less news about current events that are major headlines. 

But it was good for sanitizer and glove sales...

Not sure if this is tongue in cheek or a serious question. I'm going with the later .......
This stuff is interesting tm me, may not be to others but I post it here mainly because there is so much misinformation about the SARS-2 variants, what they actually are, whether vaccines will be compromised by their appearance or whether or not they evade detection and produce more serious symptoms. The authors of the article where this chart appeared, along with being frankly honest about the risks a handful of variants present to controlling the virus, is that a mutation process known as "convergent evolution" dictates that more worrisome SARS-2 variants will be few instead of many. In practical terms it means that variants found in South Africa may be of the same lineage than those found in Brazil. The implication is that vaccines can be tweaked to handle just a few lineages containing multiple variants and will work fine against all of them. Something I took from this chart is that out of the hundreds of variants (not all of them are shown here) only 6 of them are of concern to scientists studying them and 1/2 of these come from the same lineage.

Obviously good news on the vaccine front today.  After what seems like the 15th approval in a long list of news of, "it's approved", the J&J vaccine will begin distribution from manufacturing sites tomorrow. 
It's a one shot vaccine with trials underway to determine if two shots of it are better. Trials are also underway for teens. It's a "cold virus analog" carrying the SARS-2 spike protein that stimulates a protective immune system response. This, unlike the mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, is a prototypical vaccine similar to AZ's and both the Russian and Chinese versions or your annual flu shot. The biggest advantage is that it can be stored in a fridge for up to 60d. Side effects are comparable to the Pfizer and Moderna shots - arm soreness, flu like symptoms. It's considered 85% effective in preventing serious disease and death v. all 6 of the troublesome variants that I posted about above. It's 66% effective when moderate disease is included - the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines never included moderate disease in their trials. Comparing the effectiveness of the 3 isn't possible due to trial designs. Don't refuse one to wait for another you think is better. Take whatever is available as soon as it becomes available to you. 20M doses immediately available for distribution, 100M "by summer." If I've got this right, the US will have enough vaccines distributed by the end of May to have inoculated everyone over 18 who accepts it.
When herd immunity is reached depends on the rate of vaccine acceptance. Obviously, the more people that refuse the vaccine for non-medical reasons, the later herd immunity will be reached. Anywhere close to 60% gets us there by the end of April.

But still we have this pessimistic messaging that I've derided elsewhere:

“This is exciting news for all Americans, and an encouraging development in our efforts to bring an end to the crisis,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “But I want to be clear: this fight is far from over,” he added, encouraging people to stick with masks and other public health measures.

Look, I'm not a virologist, an epidemiologist or an expert on this but everything I read, you know, the scientific facts, tells me that providing pessimistic messaging like this is counterproductive and encourages and continues the fear factor that is keeping people tethered to their homes and avoiding social contact while public health officials refuse to ease mitigation measures.

FACT:
You can't get COVID from touching a surface yet we persist with this sanitizing of surfaces in public venues. The risk of getting COVID outside, even in congregate settings, is lower than being involved in a serious car crash with injuries. Do we stop driving? Nope. Are there places where COVID mitigation measures include no public gatherings of more than X number of people and masking outdoors? Yes, a lot of places. In a gathering of vaccinated people, no one needs to mask or distance yet, in FL, because of the kind of messaging coming from Biden among others, fully vaccinated retirees living in community settings, won't play cards, dance or gather with each other. In their "golden years" they are sacrificing what is most important for their mental health, face-to-face socialization. Ridiculous. I'm more reluctant to discard masking and distancing for the unvaccinated under 65 crowd when out and about although I can make a case for that based on risk/benefit analysis. It's not because I think increased disease burden in the US will occur in this population. It won't. I do think the potential for increasing new cases and positivity counts is real. There was an article yesterday at the Points Guy website that said, "the one number to watch for the restart of cruising is (absolute) case numbers. I'll get to why that's wrong in a subsequent post.
 Of course, people in the under 65 age cohort will mostly be asymptomatic or have a cold. But, if this population pursues testing and because of it case numbers rise there's a problem with that. The problem is that public perceptions and how PH officials view this will harden, e.g., the CDC won't green light cruising from US ports. The MSM will augment the fear factor by reporting the rising case numbers as a new wave of the virus - the fifth!
An increase in case numbers/positivity (sero-prevalence) will prompt a refusal to ease mitigation measures, mobility restrictions and restrictions to congregate settings. People will continue to needlessly stay home, won't shop, won't eat out, won't socialize, won't gather responsibly. Stoking the fear factor will increase pressure from the public to keep unnecessary mitigation measures in place - and for Pete's sake, don't let cruise ships operate. Everyone will nod their heads in agreement.