smokeybandit

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/if-need-an-rt-pcr-test-before-i-cruise-where-should-i-go

This wouldn't have been avoided with lower capacities. Just a lot of bad luck and timing for those on those cruises that happened to occur right when omicron got its grip.

The 90 day positive thing is only PCR tests. Since you're vaccinated, you can take the antigen test and won't need to worry about it.

So ! Update time ! We now have 21 ships back in operation, 40,000 crew back to work all fully vaccinated and all now receiving their booster shots and over 50,000 to 60,000 guests a week sailing with us all fully vaccinated (over 12) and increasingly the 5 to 12 year olds are getting vaccinated. We have also been managing capacity from our start up in July with 20 to 30 per cent average load factors increasing approx 10 per cent a month to approx 70 to 80 per cent in December. Our normal year full year load factor is approx 110 per cent. (3rd and 4th berth occupancy which is normally kids) With a typical sailing having anywhere from 95 to 98 per cent fully vaccinated onboard population and all guests tested before boarding and all crew tested weekly with front of house staff now being tested every 3 days and everyone wearing masks the vast majority of the time, along with social distancing, sanitizing etc we now have a “positivity” rate way below the national rate and way below our big home port states such as Florida, California, Texas etc and way below Broward and Miami Dade in Florida the two counties that are home to of our biggest home ports of Miami and Port Everglades. So what are we seeing now ! With the new variant ! Please note this is my observation only and is not in anyway, any kind of medical or scientific or political statement. Just letting you know what we are seeing ! We are seeing increases in positivity rates with some ships currently close to 1 per cent (please note Florida positivity rate is 5 per cent which is pretty good relative to others) and recently Symphony of the Seas was in the media spotlight with 48 positive cases (mainly guests) which was less than 1 per cent of the onboard population (for example 1 per cent positivity rate is 60 people from a onboard population of 6,000). Also Odyssey of the Seas has 50 positive cases mainly crew with a onboard population of over 5,000 plus, so approx 1 per cent positivity rate. What else do we see ! 98 per cent plus of positive cases are with the fully vaccinated and 99 per cent plus are asymptomatic or with very mild symptoms often surprised they are positive at all. It really does seem as though the virus (if vaccinated) has morphed to something more like a mild cold ! (Second notice this is not in anyway a statement based on science but simply what we are seeing and hearing from our operations in this environment). As all this continues we see various destinations responding to their concern over the new variant which has resulted in isolated cases of ports closing temporarily for cruise access if either the destination or the ship has elevated positivity rates. On the good news side of things ! Guest satisfaction is sky high ! Lots of very happy guests enjoying wonderful cruise vacations in a safe (relative to any other options) and fun way. The crew (God bless them all) have been through all kinds of obstacles and difficulties and are now back doing what they love to do do and are now able to care for and support their families back home. So my hope is this really is the beginning of the end of this virus and what we are seeing is its morphing to fast spread and less harmful like the common cold ! (If vaccinated). So here is hope as we move into year 3 of this terrible period that 2022 will be the end of this all and life will return to a happy normal where we worry about stuff like kids schooling, car problems, bills and wot not ! And more importantly we look forward to happy times and glorious adventures across the oceans and seas of this beautiful planet. So to all of our Guests, Crew, Employees, Travel and Destination partners I wish you Happy Holidays and Merry Xmas and a happy, healthy New Year to you and your families. ---------------------------------------------- I think everyone can put to rest concerns of any cruises being canceled based on that

Based on that RC still wants to proceed, just they need a different partner to do it.

No extra OBC for any of my cruises. Though I see the DBP is $92!!!! for one of them. (Oh but I can get 50% off a 2nd DBP)

Just about all ports of call have been 4 at one point or another since cruising restarted.

Removal from the website just means they stopped selling cabins (even if temporarily if they're doing some cabin shifting). There's zero to read into in regards to cancellations.

This is the issue with Omicron. Rapid spread but mild if any actual illness. One study that just came out found that Omicron reproduces a lot faster in your airway, but a lot slower in your lungs. That makes total sense in why more and more people are testing positive but feeling fine. Just gotta wait it out. Based on other countries' data, it's a quick hit. No slow onramp or slow offramp. Just a big but brief wham.

I thought I read that a couple crew members tested positive during routine testing.

Actually it blows

I think "new" is "since cruising restarted" and not something recent.

This is a good first step but hospitalization numbers don't give a truly accurate picture since it's a mix of people admitted for covid treatment as well as people admitted for something unrelated to covid but then test positive upon admission during routine testing.

This is great news coming out of South Africa. Unfortunately US public health guidance has been so poor that despite this data, we still are expected to react for the worst

-Pleas from the hospitals will be there no matter what, especially hospitals suffering self-inflicted staffing shortages. -Professional sports are already changing their protocols since they realize keeping asymptomatic people off the field is not a common sense approach anymore as covid weakens -There have been cases on cruise ships since June. With current protocols there will ALWAYS be cases found on ships.

This too shall pass. Even the Biden admin has hinted this could be a quick surge, at least for vaccinated people.

That'll become more important once you can start billing regular insurance for them

This would be the new batches finally getting into circulation

With the feds taking 500 million tests, I'll be curious what supply chain issues will be like

Oh I'm all for banning smoking in casinos for plenty of non-covid reasons.

With that in mind they aren't really banning smoking outright. They're banning smoking because of the mask rule, so it doesn't seem as arbitrary to me as it did before.

This kind of stuff annoys me. Do they have evidence that a leading cause of covid cases on a cruise ship are due to smokers in the casino? Or is this just a dart board measures to make it look like they're doing something. Adding masking is dumb in my opinion for various reasons, but at least there's widespread precedent for it. Picking on the smokers though?

Most of the time a "system glitch" is code for "a human screwed up"

That was announced a week or so ago. But antigen tests will now be given at the port (which is why, thanks to the CDC, you need a PCR test beforehand). Not that big of a deal for Americans, but certainly a huge PITA for Canadians.