Bowen

They also have a phone number you can call in advance to check capacity of unvaccinated, so you can know before hand if you can sail, instead of booking and crossing your fingers.

To my knowledge there isn't any cellular plan you can buy to keep connected at sea, but you can do the ship board internet packages. If you just want the basic then you can do the Surf package, which is cheaper than Surf and Stream (which will let you watch shows on YouTube, etc). Hope that helps!

Looks like RC is acknowledging that the CDC has made the new recommendations and is now reviewing them: CDC Guidance for Cruises Departing the U.S. The U.S. CDC recently announced that the COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships is no longer in effect, and published recommendations to guide cruise lines as they determine protocols. Upon review, we will adjust our protocols and provide guidance to our guests. For now, our current protocols remain in effect for cruises departing U.S. homeports. See current protocols.

I see that Virgin even has a phone number you can call to check unvaccinated available space. That’s very cool, get an answer before you book.

Awesome!

It's been three years since I've cruised, so much has changed!

Same as above, my kids know that if I hear anything negative they're going to be glued to my side the rest of the cruise. We also have a magnetic white board that we put on the outside of our door so they know where we are and we know where they are (like with check in times). And we do the text app thing that RC provides.

Oooh! I did not know that. We buy the soda/voom package and then a two device package, I guess? I'm really not sure now, lol.

No, it’s all included as far as I know.

I think the newest ones were written today? But yeah it's basically just "Must" to "should", but I don't think they're going to give more guidance than that.

Well it looks like the new guidance is out, so hopefully that means we'll hear something soonish from the cruise lines. Maybe in the next week?

We do this and just provide each person with one login code, so if they want to use a different device they have to swap and they don't interfere with anyone else's internet. It works.

I cruise with teenagers, one is super outgoing, the other is extremely shy and will only hang out with the other. The outgoing child will immediately go to the teen club to see if there is a sign that lists any activities that will be going on. He'll join every scavenger hunt, card came, mini golf tournament, basketball game, etc. I'll see him at the start of the cruise and "maybe" I'll see him in the Windjammer having lunch with his new friends. The last time we cruised, as we were leaving the final morning, the crew members were actually saying bye to my oldest, and one stopped me to tell me that they'd never met a more polite kid, apparently he ordered a LOT of sodas at the bars. So if your teen likes new people, the teen club will have a lot going on. We cruise in the off season since we homeschool, but even in slow months with just 20-30 other kids his age on the cruise he is always going. The other one will go to the teen club only if his brother is going, and generally will come back to the room if he doesn't want to do something the other kids are doing. He'll pal around with me and we'll go swimming, play golf, whatever.

Did you guys see how much cruise stocks jumped when the CDC announced this? I think it was 7% for Carnival and almost 13% for RC. If public sentiment controls the stock market at all, it's a good sign.

Congratulations!!!

Is this the newest suggestions? I hope so, it leaves a ton of leeway for cruises to just ask you to fill out the form and then if you feel sick on board you can go get tested, just like we used to do with the flu. I cannot wait for RC to come out with their new protocols, let's goooo.

Since I'm a huge fan of polling (if you follow People's Pundit then you know what I mean), I would like to see a binary poll. One or the other, force people to answer without leeway. "If you had to choose, would you choose x or y". Just in case you ever feel plucky and want to repeat the poll in a few weeks.

I wouldn't be any more concerned than I would have been pre COVID. Illness is a risk of life, travel, etc.

We had a bug here as well a couple of weeks ago. I think as long as you’re feeling good then you’re good. Have fun!

I take it if you cannot submit a bid at all it either means the sailing is full, or they just don't have any rooms better than yours? Mine just comes up with "be sure your sailing is within 30 days". Good luck, btw!

You will definitely get tired of all the delicious food, you will!

I don't even fantasize about this cruise. 1/4 of the way through none of my clothes would fit and I'd have to budget more money for elastic pants.

And if you look at the uptake of boosters, that aren’t required in the US, the number of cruisers who are “vaccinated” is even lower. Let’s say 1000 people on a cruise a year ago we’re vaccinated, less than 300 got booster number one nationwide, booster number two declined even further from there. The number of people on cruises right now in the US that have any therapeutic effect at all might be 40% in the most optimum circumstance. In reality it’s quite likely much lower depending on departure state. There’s just no point to it being a metric anymore.

I’ve been calling every week since the six week point just for this reason. I’ll call again on Thursday. Hopefully the CDC thing will mean opening up more space to unvaxxed.

This is my big concern, the reservations were made almost a year ago, but she knew about them before going in for jury duty. Hopefully they will understand the chaos of travel arrangements happening right now and understand that she just forgot to mention that she might be traveling. Even that's still up in the air, I'll call on Thursday, which would be three weeks out for us, but they did say it could be as close as two weeks out before we're given an answer.