Bowen

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.

You're right! And then if another cruise does it differently they have to go back in and reevaluate, lol.

Showering, Sleeping....what's the third?

I have always been Loyal to Royal, but I'm going with the first line to drop the vaccine and testing mandates, no second thoughts. I'll come back to Royal when they do, but I'd rather cruise on any line that just lets me cruise without the stress. That said I do think they all end at the same time, all the lines.

I think most of the "vaccinated" in the US aren't up to date. I know there is information out there on booster uptake, but it was like half of the initial group, then the 2nd booster was half of that, etc. So a huge portion of the people the cruise lines consider vaccinate right now are actually not vaccinated. I think they should just go back to a health declaration. And they need to stop testing altogether. No tests means no outbreaks. Perfect.

I don't think it will matter as far as protocols they have in place already. They've done this before, right? Released protocols and then changed them before hand? I don't think anything keeps them to the September time frame, like it's not a legally binding thing. If people don't want to cruise with the new changes then they'll offer refunds, just like the people who booked under one protocol (no vaccine mandate, etc) and then the protocols changed and they refunded us.

From your fingers to RCLs ears.

Just saw this on the Twitter, so hopefully something soon.

Awesome, thank you! I just messaged her and asked her to just go ahead and try to get both weeks off, especially now in light of the CDC news, maybe we have a better chance of getting the exemptions approved.

We did star class, same suite, on Harmony. Great room! It was loud very often though, if they are practicing for the show, which they seemed to do every day in the early afternoon. No naps for you!

I am asking a lot, and I know it won't happen, but if they would make some changes and not leave the testing/vax protocols in place through September that would be awesome. Even give a little, like no more testing if you're vaccinated, antigen tests if you're unvaccinated, something.

Here here!

OMG please let this mean the end of vaccines and testing, please.

Yeah I'm going to have her ask. I guess if the exemptions don't come through then she can just tell them that she no longer needs the days. We'll start there.

We're supposed to be cruising a week in August and a week in September provided our religious exemptions come through. My mom just got Jury Duty for six months, every other Wednesday through the end of the year. And of course both weeks are dates that she is supposed to be sitting on the Grand Jury. We do have the RC vacation protection plan, so my question is, will this be covered? If I call and cancel because of jury duty, even though it's not for me, will I get a refund? We don't want to go with only part of the family, and we are in the same room, so I'm kind of feeling out my options. She feels terrible that she didn't realize it, and while she might be able to request off, she's not sure she can do it twice in such close succession. I realize she should have just let Jury duty know about the trips in advance, but with all the exemption stuff going on she just forgot, so no sense crying over spilled milk. Anyone dealt with this?