NickNafster79

Just got off the phone with RC. The woman I spoke with seemed to think that unless you were flying into the Bahamas or staying there (and just doing stops/excursions), a Bahamas health visa would not be needed.

When I pointed out that the Bahamas' official website said that all visitors would require a health visa, she said she wasn't sure and that RC would email us with the requirements.

So yeah...still not sure.

Wondering this as well!

Geez, I know we're all excited about cruising again, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't plan on getting some sleep.

On 6/10/2021 at 10:01 PM, Matt said:

Welcome to the message boards!

Check out this blog post Top 10 Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas hidden secrets

This is awesome! Do you have one of these for all the ships...including Freedom of the Seas? 

In the same boat...er, not a boat at all since they canceled my cruise 

I've just decided I'm going to have to call after work and make sure I have a book or something on Netflix pulled up.

On 6/5/2021 at 3:41 PM, NickNafster79 said:

Well, looks like I might be officially done with Royal Caribbean for good.

After canceling my honeymoon cruise (proceeded by Michael Bayley "Yippee" Facebook post) all bookings that would have worked around the dates we are able to cruise have been filled. We didn't even have a chance to rebook.

Apologies if I sound angry or am out of line thinking this, but priority should have been given to displaced customers for the new cruise dates, which isn't exactly possible when RC sends the the official cancelation announcement Friday afternoon at 3:00 PM.

Thank everyone here for all their help and information while trying to navigate this situation. You all have been exponentially more helpful than RC has.

Well, small glimmer of hope. The CR supervisor I spoke to Saturday evening said he expected more sailing during the month of July to be announced.

Is this any potential truth to this, or was he simply trying to get me off the phone?

Well, looks like I might be officially done with Royal Caribbean for good.

After canceling my honeymoon cruise (proceeded by Michael Bayley "Yippee" Facebook post) all bookings that would have worked around the dates we are able to cruise have been filled. We didn't even have a chance to rebook.

Apologies if I sound angry or am out of line thinking this, but priority should have been given to displaced customers for the new cruise dates, which isn't exactly possible when RC sends the the official cancelation announcement Friday afternoon at 3:00 PM.

Thank everyone here for all their help and information while trying to navigate this situation. You all have been exponentially more helpful than RC has.

Anyone have any luck finding July bookings for Odyssey online?

18 minutes ago, UNCFanatik said:

Still a matter of timing. At some point, Royal going to have to make a decision on its July sailings. 

We know that the next hearing will be on June 10th now. How long will it take the Judge to rule? June 10th is a Thursday, so unless he just dismisses the case on the spot, will the hearing be just one day? Will it be two days? If so, it heads into the weekend. So then we get into week on June 14th for Judge to deliberate. Will Royal really wait that long to announce the fate of July sailings and continue to have people in Limbo. Which each passing day, people become more upset with Royals lack of communication.

Then there is the issue on % of passengers required to be vaccinated. Will Royal even be able to meet those on a given sailing with the amount of children under 12 plue the 12-16 year olds that parents may not want to have vaccinated. 

as they say, anything is possible but probable is another story.

58 minutes ago, WesKinetic said:

So just thinking ahead to best/worst case scenarios (and I mean that purely in a "fastest vs. slowest" sense, not a value judgment of what I personally want to see happen), here's what I've come up with, but I'm sure I'm missing something. 

Fastest:
1. Court sides with FL, rules the CSO invalid.
2. Either cruise lines opt not to require vaccines or some kind of compromise is reached on Florida's vaccine requirement.
3. At that point, cruising (at least out of Florida) could theoretically start as soon as the cruise lines are ready to go.

Slowest:
1. Court sides with CDC, CSO remains in place. 
2. CDC slowly approves test cruises. 
3. Cruise lines say they still plan to require vaccines for those eligible.
4. Florida digs its heels in and files suit to prohibit vaccine requirement.
5. Cruises are put on hold until a court ruling on Florida's case. 
6. Whichever way the court rules, things remain on hold pending appeal. 
7. Supreme Court ultimately rules in Florida's favor.
8. Cruise lines have to come up with new on-board protocols before they are finally ready to resume cruising.
 

Love him or hate him, DeSantis deserves credit for finally getting CDC off of high center. But his rhetoric on the vaccine law has kind of painted Florida into a corner. It was Florida's suit that finally moved CDC to (slowly) start taking action, and they're to be commended for that. But, ironically, they could win their suit against the CDC but then have a court fight over their vaccine law grind the process to a halt. I hope it doesn't come to that and that cooler heads will prevail. But I'm not optimistic about that anytime politics gets involved. 

Let's say Option 1 happens (which I highly doubt, but am holding onto any shred of hope I can at this point).

Do you think there would be a chance that cruises that were in limbo (i.e. not canceled yet) due to recently announced testing cruise dates might be back on again?

1 hour ago, UNCFanatik said:

Overall, I would say there is no chance

But if we are speaking theoretically, lets say that they wanted to sail with the vaccine requirement. Like you mentioned, they would need to get past the DeSantis hurdle with the Law.

THEN, what is the makeup of your July 17th cruise, is 95% even attainable with the amount of kids under 12 on board AND the amount of 12-16 year olds where parents do not want to vaccinate their children. 

SO, what would need to happen? Cancel that cruise and rebook only vaccinated people? Cancel the families with children under 12? No easy answers there

Let me drag out my dead horse here and again say, THIS is why Royal needs to announce plans with July/ /august cruises TODAY cause people still believe their July cruises will sail because of no official cancellation announcement yet 

I know RC customer service didn't know anything yesterday. I'm wondering if they've been advised differently for calls this weekend.

Regardless, you are absolutely right. They need to announce cancelations immediately if it's as sure thing as it seems. I'm lucky enough that I can drive to Orlando, but many folks can't and have book flights, hotels, etc. Even a full refund won't make them whole.

Once again, my foolish optimism has me hoping for something that isn't likely, but thought I'd throw it out here first.

My cruise on the Allure is July 18. From what folks have said, RC would be doing test cruises regardless of the Florida vaccine passport ban because they want kids/families to be able to board their ships.

There also has been talk (based on local reports and Forbes) that work is going on behind the scenes to let the 95/98 vaccine passport threshold happen for cruises while allowing DeSantis to save face politically by saying there's nothing he could do stop federal regulation of ships that sail in international waters. 

With the Allure doing a test cruise on July 27, is there a snowball's chance in hell that my July 17 cruise could still happen with the 95/98 vaccine requirement beforehand?

50 minutes ago, jensspark said:

This! I prefer Royal over any other cruise line. I’m also a TA. This entire announcement and the confusion it has caused would have been alleviated if they had moved forward with cancellations. Nobody wants to learn their cruise was cancelled by reading it on Facebook, especially when the message starts with “Yippee”. What do I as a TA say to clients? 

The "Yippee" thing kills me.

I get that it's a big step forward to getting restarted, but the news means a lot of us are likely having our cruises canceled. This was my first cruise in almost 20 years and my honeymoon, so "Yippee" doesn't quite capture my mood at the moment (as I'm sure it doesn't with many others, as well).

10 minutes ago, dandi799 said:

RCL has stated that they are not going to go the 98/95 route, which is why they have to do test cruises. They are still requiring all eligible passengers to be vaccinated, though. I’m so sorry about your cruise! What a disappointment. 

Where did they say that? Not doubting you, just wanting to read it with my own eyes (and the inevitable tears that will follow).

I know this is a long shot, but is there any chance that the test cruise announcement will end up being nullified by the upcoming agreement between Florida and the cruise industry to allow vaccine passports?

The CDC guidelines state the cruises with the 98/95 ratio do not need to do test cruises--maybe I'm absurdly hopeful/optimistic, but I really don't want my honeymoon cruise on Allure next month to be canceled :(