LovetoCruise87

Does anyone know who the Allure of the Seas captain is?

According to Royals website, Odyssey will start sailing on July 31st

Royal Caribbean Announces Summer Sailings

It is still early. Our August cruise on Allure still doesn't have anything scheduled for entertainment as of yet. So I am sure that once the early cruises are set with everything, they will begin to work their way forward. I am however seeing excursions for the end of our cruise. 

If you never done it, air boating is a lot of fun. The best place is Lone Cabbage Fish Camp on 520 west of I-95. 

Cruising on Allure in August. I know that a lot will have changed by then. 

Thanks everyone for all of your information. I appreciate it.

I wanted to find out if anyone has booked their next cruise by using RC NEXT cruise program. I've always thought of doing that but never have. Advice, pros and cons?

 Cruiseitude (n):  a grumpy mood from lack of cruising

On 6/17/2021 at 10:06 AM, JLMoran said:

If I don't like the kid that I pulled in on my line, or I specifically want 2 boys and 1 girl, can I do catch and release?

I think that can be worked out

17 minutes ago, WhiteSoxFan said:

There 's no point to getting upset right now unless you happen to be booked on one of these first cruises.  Things are going to change.

I'm happy my next two cruises are on Celebrity.

My next cruise isn't until August, so I know things will change considerably by then .

55 minutes ago, WhiteSoxFan said:

Personally I think we just need to take a deep breath and let thing play out a bit.  Royal is trying its best to comply with the regulations and laws as they currently exist.  We've all seen how fast things are changing in the last few months.  

That said I do think that by putting these rules in place they may be trying to incentivize people that may be on the fence about getting vaxxed.

  

I

I agree. This entire situation is very fluid at the moment. What is said today may be completely different than what is said tomorrow. 

12 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

The whole reason is to try to discourage unvaccinated adults from cruising.  

 

Also I found this interesting

"In the coming days, we are expecting updated guidance from the CDC on mask policies for vaccinated guests and will update you at that time."

 

To me that says by the time these cruises start, vaccinated people won't have to wear masks anywhere on the ship.

I am certainly hoping that by the time of my cruise, August, all vaccinated people will be able to go without a mask all over the ship.

The showers in the cruise cabins are so small, I just soap the walls and spin around a few times!

12 minutes ago, GregD said:

Hey @Lovetocruise2002, take 2 for a birthday/inaugural cruise?

Now THAT sounds like a great idea!

Can't wait to see what this ship will looks like as well as new features!!

We are 67 days out for our Allure cruise and we can't check in yet. I get the same ,"Working on the fun" box as well. 

On 6/12/2021 at 10:24 AM, cruisellama said:

I'm sure the same issue occurs with people flying on aircraft every day.  They just don't test so no one knows.  

I completely agree

49 minutes ago, JeffB said:

Something worth understanding re SARS2 Variant, Delta .......

Something interesting has emerged in COVID reporting. The MSM is providing balance. Some folks here are aware becasue you look for it but the folks who don't follow cruising like we do on the periphery, the ones who really need to know, don't. 

Cases have stopped falling in the US and the Delta variant is thought to be part of the problem. The other is regional low vaccination rates. Alone this news could be more of the dire consequences stuff we've become accustomed to from the press. But no ......for the first time since I've been watching (and bitching about it's absence in reporting on COVID) deaths and hospitalizations are loudly proclaimed as continuing to drop. The NYT had a graph that showed a steep rise in new cases in the UK - all of it due to Delta which describes 90% of new infections there. Superimposed on that graph of rising case numbers is deaths. That graph continues its steep decline. The UK is one of the few countries globally that has a high vaccination rate among it's population and the continuing steep decline in deaths is attributed to that. The message here is that falling vaccination rates in the US could slow a return to normalcy

Not mentioned in the NYT's piece is the path that Boris Johnson chose to pursue which was to get more shots into arms by significantly delaying administration of a second dose - that was recently reversed and at risk Brits are getting their second dose on an urgent basis. There's a good chance that the lack of a second dose is behind an increase in transmissibility and attendant steep rise in new cases. The takeaway here, also not mentioned in recent reports of this circumstance is that you can't draw parallels to the circumstance in the US which is approaching 60% of the population vaccinated at least once and 50% twice. The US also has a high per capita rate of SARS2 infections which is known to confer some degree of immunity - the level of it over time is unknown for now - but the US is theoretically closer to a level of herd immunity that may, by itself, tamp down R(0) [the rate of increase of infections) in the coming months.

The takeaway here is that the vaccines plus high levels of herd immunity are capable of restoring normalcy to cruising more quickly than most expected. However, those who are able and refusing to get vaccinated are hindering that effort. Those are the facts; this isn't about the politics or emotions surrounding vaccinations. The science does support that if you had COVID and developed detectable ABs, you're likelihood of contracting COVID is about 10X less than uninfected persons without ABs. However the data is preliminary, not peer reviewed and goes out to only 120d. After that the question is, how long does natural immunity last? We don't know - studies are ongoing but any loss of natural immunity might stoke a seasonal jump in infection prevalence this fall. We also know that the unvaccinated are more likely to be asymptomatic viral shedders to what degree others may become infected is not known but it is theoretically possible. We do know this: 6 months of vaccine availability has allowed small studies following people that got vaccinated in December. This group shows a stronger AB presence than those with natural immunity only. Vaccination significantly boosts an AB response from previous COVID infection IOW, vaccines produce a more robust immune response than natural immunity does. That unquestionably relates to lower rates of transmission across all age cohorts.

We know that relying on new case numbers as a measure of disease control and disease burden or lack of it is unreliable, there are better measures, right? Do politicians who ultimately make PH policy decisions know this? Is there a risk of an uninformed public putting pressure on these politicians andHHS/CDC officials to "do something" when case numbers rise in the US? Is shutting down cruising a highly visible, easy to do thing and is cruising at risk? The answer is obvious. Ways to reduce risks of that happening?: Keep case numbers low. Get vaccinated.

BTW, FL is in good shape. If you're interested this is the state report through 6/4/21. The graphs showing vaccine impact by age group says it all ......

http://ww11.doh.state.fl.us/comm/_partners/covid19_report_archive/covid19-data/covid19_data_latest.pdf  

Thanks for the info Jeff. Yep, here in Florida we are in good shape. Vacs going up and cases coming down. 

15 minutes ago, steverk said:

They announced on the ship that the patients were moved to isolation rooms.

According to my room steward, all of the people who were in contact have been tested negative and released.

There's been no further announcements on the ship about the status of the two patient's 

Again, the protocols were put in place for just this reason, and they are working.

The Healthy Sail Panel have done a great job in putting this together.

16 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

As The Washington Post article linked by the OP notes, there are expected to be some measure of "breakthrough" cases in vaccinated people, which includes infection by one of the variants that the vaccines don't completely protect against. The two who tested positive clearly hit that low-chance lottery.

And that is a lottery I have absolutely no desire of winning, therefore I will not buy any tickets!

26 minutes ago, vanelli56 said: