GKMCruising

Seeing as Royal is always adding new venues, I'm curious what others might want to see as a new specialty option in the future. I'm thrilled that they've added Hooked, as I absolutely adore fresh seafood, and I'd like the southern comfort restaurant idea they pitched in the recent survey. I'd also love to see them take a page from Virgin and do a Korean BBQ restaurant - Izumi is already a big draw, so I'd imagine a K-BBQ place would be similarly popular.

I'll agree with you on that one. Having someone manning the Freestyle machines is definitely just hygiene theater, just like having someone wipe down every single touch point every 5 minutes. It might cut down on stuff like noro, but nobody's catching COVID from sitting in a chair that someone with COVID just sat in. I imagine the theatrics will disappear if/when the CDC backs off a bit, and the truly useful protocols will remain.

Given that the union leaders are usually the ones supporting and organizing sick-outs and protests... yes?

Yup. I've kept in touch with our waiter from Ovation. They're headed home until after the new year, and are not guaranteed to come back to the same ship when they return to work.

I'd agree if the pilot's union wasn't also calling it unfounded. Usually the union will go along with the "blue flu" statements when the cops do it.

Not definitively, but if someone goes to the doctor a couple days or a week after going home and is diagnosed with COVID, you can guarantee the CDC is going to pin that case on Royal. So honestly, that number probably isn't too far off for symptomatic cases. Sure, there have been more asymptomatic cases than anyone will ever know, but that's the case even on land.

Some of the shore excursion companies haven't fully reopened yet. I imagine more will pop up as time progresses.

I feel like we need to hear this story.

I'd be interested in trying to compile a master list of affected sailings/cabins, see if there's any noticable pattern - itineraries, ports, sailing dates, which decks/cabins, etc.

Yeah, despite the fact that we've basically proven at this point that surface transmission isn't really a vector and the "contaminated" air inside the cabin should be long gone before the new occupants have access to the room. It would also partially explain why I haven't heard of anyone on the Wonder inaugural with us getting and email yet - it's a brand new ship, so there can't be any contaminated cabins yet.

I got to thinking about this last night and made the same comment to my wife about the vaccine requirements - that they must be enacting some sort of spacing so they can add more unvaccinated guests. Maybe it'll wind up being like the shows currently - some cabins / sections designated as vax only, other areas being "general population" rooms?

Assuming that they're open, yes, you definitely can enjoy them. However, the seas were too choppy and it was too windy for them to have the outdoor pools open on several of the days during our Alaskan cruise last month. That said, Ovation does have an indoor pool, and I believe Quantum does as well.

I guess I should be glad I don't have any emotional attachment to my specific room on Wonder in March. No email yet, but clearly they didn't send them all out in one batch, so I'm not in the clear yet.

That was my guess - but it still doesn't explain the loft suites.

This is almost exactly like the fiasco with people and the merge from Allure to Wonder. Just because two rooms have the same deck code doesn't mean that they're "equal" in the eyes of whoever booked the original cabin.

Yeah, I've seen FB posts, a couple posts on here, and at least one or two on CC. They definitely need to clarify exactly what they're doing and why before people storm their offices with torches and pitchforks.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's some people with insane amounts of FCC and an open schedule that do exactly that.

I've gotta wonder if staff would draw the line *somewhere* in regards to dress code. Someone see what happens if you show up at the MDR in a bathrobe.

Yikes! That sounds... unpleasant.

If it's really bad, they won't.

Yup, this was on Ovation in Alaska last month. PXL_20210915_061134155.mp4 PXL_20210911_142738157~2.mp4 PXL_20210911_142445632.mp4 PXL_20210911_142738157.mp4

Maybe if they have large chunks of empty cabins on a floor they're trying to use those to "balance" the ship out in terms of capacity, so to speak?

Yeah, that's fair. Here's hoping to more notice under less "unprecedented times" moving forward.

Agreed. We don't typically do summer sailings, so we haven't had the sheer numbers of kids that come with the May/June/July sailings, but for the most part all the kids I've seen on board have been at least somewhat civilized.

For those of us with limited vacation time, it'd be nice if they'd announce these just a *little* farther in advance. Alaska wouldn't have really been feasible for me next year anyways after just going this year, but still.