smokeybandit

I know the CDC just said the CSO still goes optional next week. But I still don't trust them to power play their way into more restrictions. That said I can't imagine there's any more impact on March cruises than there is now

With the ventilation systems, there's really no deep cleaning that'd need to be done. The hazmat suits and foggers we hear reports of are extreme overkill from the March 2020 understanding of covid.

It makes total sense to show them as sold out just from a marketing perspective. "Hey, you're too late, this cruise is so popular it's full!"

Not uncommon in the covid era. Cruises get pulled late to keep passenger counts at manageable levels.

I can't help but picture one of those dome cages that crazy people ride motorcycles in

The best price we ever got was the first time we ever did a suite on Explorer in 2015 (5 night trip), right before drydock. Total cost for 2 adults and 1 child in a grand suite was $2300. No idea why it was that cheap. But I wish I knew. Since then I haven't found any good way to get a better price.

https://www.asta.org/About/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=31372 Alexandria, VA, January 5, 2022 – Zane Kerby, President & CEO of the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA), issues the following statement in response to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) updated guidance on COVID-19 and Cruise Ship Travel, recommending that cruise travel be avoided regardless of vaccination status: “An increase in reported COVID cases on cruise ships should surprise no one given the worldwide spike driven by the highly-transmissible omicron variant. The difference between enjoying a cruise vacation and visiting your local grocery store or restaurant, however, is the extraordinarily stringent anti-COVID measures put in place voluntarily by the cruise lines, in close consultation with the CDC. These measures include testing, vaccination, sanitation, mask-wearing and other science-backed measures, as well as protocols to respond to potential cases of COVID-19. “If the average cruise ship were a U.S. state, it would be the safest in the country – by far. According to Royal Caribbean Group, since cruising restarted in the U.S. in June 2021, its ships have carried 1.1 million guests with 1,745 people testing positive – a positivity rate of 0.02 percent. Among U.S. states as of January 4, Alaska’s positivity rate is the lowest at 9.4 percent, with Georgia’s the highest at 38.7 percent. “Cruising is no more responsible for the spread of the Omicron variant than travelers from southern Africa were at the outset of the current crisis. But we continue to see knee-jerk reactions singling out travel for discriminatory treatment. Because the travel industry is regulated more heavily than other activities, when COVID caseloads rise or new variants emerge, travel takes the hit. It brings to mind the old saying, ‘if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’ This pattern needs to stop. “The Administration has shown flexibility on its anti-COVID measures of late, including the recent decision to lift the November 26 travel ban on eight countries in Southern Africa. We call on it to do the same here. At this stage in the pandemic, the tools exist to allow us to combat this virus without crippling an entire sector of the U.S. economy in the process. Let’s use them.”

I don't like Aria because there's an entire cruise line called Aria Yes, I know, I'm a stickler for some semblance of originality.

And Norwegian thought they were going to be king when they went with an all vax requirement.

I'm sure there's a lot of back door handshakes that make both sides come out looking good.

Malfeasance of the Seas

A rare wise move by the CDC.

That already exists

To keep somewhat of a theme with the other Oasis class ships, Melody is my pick. Some of those conflict with other lines' ship names.

With the plumbing built in, is it some wacky new stateroom?

That's just it. The CSO was written for the longer lifespan of old variants, not Omicron. Changing 14 day quarantines down to the CDC-recommended 5 will make a huge difference for crews. Focus on those who are actually sick ( which we've seen so far is very few) and stop testing people for post-cruise just because they're unvaccinated (especially in light of the evolution of vaccine effectiveness pivoting from prevention of disease to mitigation of severe disease). At this point it's not about rolling back protocols, but adjusting them to meet the current climate of what covid has evolved into. In another month or two once omicron wanes, then start rolling back protocols, especially the ones that really make no sense at all (like the strictness of AO)

Only 10 days until the CSO expires and cruise lines can use more current and up to date protocols than the archaic ones in the CSO

Coolerator

He posts quite a few RCLBlog articles. Matt must have pictures of him doing something deviant like sailing Carnival.

If you're caught with an empty glass, you're ordered to go to the closest bar and refill it.

If time and money was unlimited, there'd be dozens and dozens of variants that get discovered.

"The CDC said Thursday that 5,013 cruise-related infections had been detected between Dec. 15 and Dec. 29. " What is "cruise-related?" People that test positive for covid within 5 days of leaving the ship and just assume it was from the ship? https://www.galvnews.com/opinion/editorials/free/article_e4baef96-b7f6-53f8-b02f-45b6970920bc.html

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022/01/04/icon-of-the-seas-blocks-arrive-shipyard-along-something-weve-never-seen Since it's early on in the construction, is it something related to the LNG storage?