AspiringCruisePlanner

This might be useful regarding timing of CWC extensions (last page of doc). http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/General_Info/Suspension_CWC_Reference_Grid.pdf

Thank you for expanding on my post. Yes, a true apple to apple comparison is not realistic with this situation. I guess my main point was that a 1% infection rate over a week or less time period for a population of people is still significant and shouldn't be just brushed aside as a low infection rate. I'm still confused where you're getting this 10% number from. Is this a percentage of the geographic population that tested positive from the start of the pandemic or a calculation of the percentage of a population that tested positive in a short period of time? I'm unaware of any regions that had this rate of infection in a matter of 4-7 days. If you're stating that this is the percentage of all tests that come back positive as rolling average (positivity rate), you've misunderstood what I'm comparing here. For a time after the restart the infection rates onboard cruise ships were very low (less than 10 people) but with omicron that number has jumped to 50+. There's a reason the CDC set the green, orange, and yellow color statuses for cruise ships. They are not just arbitrary thresholds.

I wouldn't be so hasty to make this accusation. There was a passenger on Symphony that posted an audio recording on Twitter when he was refused to be tested after suspected exposure and was merely quarantined. From the recording it sounds like Royal's policy at the time was to only test symptomatic passengers.

I don't think anyone is discounting your experience onboard. There's not a good reason to believe it's false. In fact people should be seriously considering the likelihood that they will end up in a similar situation on their next cruise this month. It's certainly a possibility and Royal has provided the CWC benefit for a reason. It's clear that the increased capacity over the holidays coupled with the omicron variant has created a situation where Royal's onboard resource capacity is pushed to its limit. When that happens, customer service and onboard experiences take a major hit. I don't believe Royal is trying to intentionally mislead their customers about what is happening onboard or what policies they intended to make good on. They just don't have the manpower to handle the current situation. From a risk mitigation standpoint there's only so much that could have been done based on how quickly omicron came to the US. They would have had to cancel people's bookings to reduce the passenger loads, which would have been a logistical nightmare. They've already paused bookings for some ships in February in response to this variant, luckily.

Yes, but the 1% metric is for passengers/crew testing positive while onboard, not pre cruise testing. The only reason they would test onboard would be symptomatic cases or suspected exposure (much like on land). Even with 1 million positive cases per day in the US, it would still be on par with the case counts on recent sailings.

Better check your math before you go spreading this notion. If 1% of people onboard are getting infected onboard in a matter of 4 days. Then that means around 3.3 million people would need to get infected in 4 days in the US to be on pace with that infection rate. Right now it's about 400k infections per day in the US and that's with the omicron spike. Blown out of proportion? Not really

This is a baseline for overall test positivity rate, not infections over a period of time. Even if 1% of the United States became infected each couple of days (length of a cruise) then we would have an issue on our hands. You have to look at these metrics from a different perspective. The main concern as others have pointed out are the limited resources for handling even 1% infection rate onboard (med staff, isolation rooms, administrative personnel), plus the logistics of clearing these people to go home once ashore.

From RCG's Chief Medical Officer within the 12/30/21 press release: "For example, even before Omicron, we have been giving all our crewmembers booster shots as they became eligible."

From the deck plan room description: Two King size beds Four twin size bunk beds Double pull out sofa bed I count 10 places to sleep (not including the slide) but they list is online as 9 person occupancy ATM. Honestly, this is was a large motivator in me deciding to start investing early and significantly for retirement. I like the idea of me being able to pay my whole family's vacations when I'm a granddad.

My thoughts exactly. Have you tried calling to see what the room configuration is going to look like? i.e. # of bedrooms and bathrooms. I feel like they might give you more details so you can decide whether the assignment is going to work for you.

@AlmondFarmer guess I was right! Hopefully the rearrangement works out for your party. I saw this bed configuration on Royal's deck plan and am wondering how it's all going to be arranged. Beds Two King size beds Four twin size bunk beds Double pull out sofa bed Wonder's definitely looks bigger than the Symphony UFS but not as big as the Spectrum one. IMO, the Spectrum UFS is the best suite in the fleet. https://youtu.be/p01kCylEQZs

I'd like to hear this band and hear why they are smoking in the casinos

I'm sure you have a source to back this claim, but Royal's site still says 2023 for debut. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/icon-of-the-seas

$20 it'll be Icon out of Galveston at that time.

I did track the 1st/2nd vs the 3rd+ prices. You can see in the first chart that the bottom 2 (longer) stacked bars show the price for the 1st and 2nd passengers. The next smaller bars show the lesser fare for the 3rd and up passengers. Basically stack the number of bars matching the number of people in the cabin and the total price will be at the top of the stack as shown on the vertical axis. The second chart plots the per passenger cost (total cost divided by the number of passengers) based on the number of passengers in the room. Note that the higher the number of people, the lower the per passenger cost. I found that the 3rd+ rate was around $1000 during this season and the 1st/2nd rate was between $8k and $15k. The charts require a little bit of figuring out, but all the info needed should be visible.

I've been looking forward to the 2023 Caribbean deployment to see a full picture of what the villa suites go for in the Summer months. They always get snatched up quick, so I knew I'd have to act fast to pull some pricing data. Here are my findings. The pricing is drastically higher between the last month of May and the third week of August (as expected). At 10 person occupancy the villa suite was around $35k in the peak and $27k otherwise. This means between $3.5k and $2.7k per person cost with 10 people. This is a significant hike to what I've heard this room going for before. Someone on Symphony said they are paying $16k in May of 2022. I've included some charts that break down the per person cost for most of the Summer sailing dates. All the June itineraries got snatched up quick, so I couldn't pull a price on those.

They might get that snazzy new ultimate family suite tho Chances are slim tho

Sounds like this is being moved to Wonder. Good luck on the cabin moves! Fwd: Harmony of the Seas: we're sharing an important change for your clients' upcoming Royal Caribbean cruise JP      Dear Travel Partner, We've continued working on our Royal Comeback and bringing our entire fleet back on the seas. As we review and analyze our itinerary plans, we've decided to reposition some of our ships to offer our guests the very best experiences. Our original plan for Harmony of the Seas was to offer sailings departing from Orlando, Florida in late 2022. Instead, Harmony of the Seas will begin sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, Florida. Unfortunately, this means your clients' original sailing will be cancelled. However, the good news is, Wonder of the Seas - our newest and latest flagship - will now take its place and will offer similar itineraries. So, we'll automatically move your clients to the Wonder of the Seas sailing departing on the same day as their original Harmony of the Seas cruise. This way, they'll still have the opportunity to enjoy a sailing similar to what they were looking forward to with many of the same features - but now on our newest ship! We hope they're as excited as we are. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to shifting sailings and rebooking guests, so please bear with us as we work to make this process easier for you and your clients. We'll begin moving reservations on December 17th, 2021. We expect moves for individual bookings to be complete by January 14th, 2022 and by February 4th, 2022 for all group bookings. We'll send an updated reservation confirmation with the revised details to the email address on file as soon as their reservation has been completely updated. Below is a message we kindly ask you to please share with your clients that have an impacted sailing. As always, thank you for your support and partnership, and stay healthy! Dear Guest, We've continued working on our Royal Comeback and bringing our entire fleet back on the seas. As we review and analyze our itinerary plans, we've decided to reposition some of our ships to offer our guests the very best experiences. Our original plan for Harmony of the Seas was to offer sailings departing from Orlando, Florida in late 2022. Instead, Harmony of the Seas will begin sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, Florida. However, the good news is, Wonder of the Seas - our newest and latest flagship - will now take its place and will offer similar itineraries! So, starting December 17th, 2021, we'll automatically move you to the Wonder of the Seas sailing departing on the same day as your original Harmony of the Seas cruise. You'll enjoy your sailing in a like for like stateroom, and all your amenities will remain the same. Your vacation is important to us. While we're confident you'll have an amazing time onboard and enjoy many of the same features as Harmony of the Seas - but now on our newest ship - we still want you to have the flexibility to make the best decision for you and those in your party. Below, we've outlined your options along with a few additional details. Option 1: Stay onboard the Wonder of the Seas cruise We'll automatically move you to the Wonder of the Seas sailing departing on the same day as your original cruise. So, there's nothing for you to do! Your new sailing will still offer the same beautiful ports of call as your original cruise, and it'll depart from the same destination. We'll move you to a like-for-like stateroom and your original stateroom category price will either be protected at your original cruise fare rate or reduced to the current cruise fare rate (whichever is lower). This excludes taxes, fees, gratuities, and other non-cruise fare items. If you were already paid in full and your cruise fare rate decreases, we'll provide you with a refund for any difference in pricing. You can expect to receive your refund to your original form of payment 30 days after we move you. Kindly note, refund times may vary depending on your financial institution. We'll send an updated reservation confirmation with your revised details to the email address on file as soon as your reservation has been completely updated with the pricing fully adjusted. Option 2: Select a 100% Refund If you no longer wish to sail, we'll be sad to see you go. We'll process a full refund of any paid portion of your cruise fare to the original form(s) of payment, including any non-refundable deposit. You can expect to receive your refund 30 days after you submit your refund request. If you booked your airfare through Royal Caribbean International, it will be automatically refunded to you. However, if you booked on your own, please contact the service provider directly for your options with them. Lastly, if you used a Future Cruise Credit on this sailing, and you request a refund instead, we'll refund any NEW funds paid above the certificate amount, and we'll reinstate your original certificate. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to shifting an entire season of sailings and rebooking all guests, so please bear with us as we work to make this process as easy as possible for you. All moves will be completed by January 14th, 2022, and we'll send an updated reservation confirmation with your revised details to the email address on file as soon as your reservation has been completely updated with the pricing fully adjusted. If you prefer to cancel your cruise, please call us at 888-281-9344 or contact your Travel Advisor by January 10th, 2022. And know, hold times may be longer than usual. If we haven't heard from you by January 10th, 2022, you'll remain booked on the alternate Wonder of the Seas sailing. If you have any questions, please contact your Travel Advisor immediately or contact us at:

Oasis AND Symphony are going to be in Miami in Fall 2022. I doubt they'd be able to do Harmony as well.

@AlmondFarmer posted a comment in another thread saying Europe is likely end of this week and 7 night Caribbean may be next week. This is not confirmed, but something to be aware of.

There's a bit of delay between the cruises being released and them being shown on cruiseplum.com or any other booking site. For example, the 2023 Alaska cruises released on Nov 30 in the evening, but I didn't see them listed on CruisePlum until the following evening. It seems like the data is pulled on a daily basis.

It reads to me any proctored molecular COVID test that is not classified as an antigen or antibody test since they don't have a set list of acceptable tests. PCR is just a subset of NAATs. They do mention the ID NOW as an acceptable test on their site as well as differentiate the difference between molecular and antigen tests. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/if-need-an-rt-pcr-test-before-i-cruise-where-should-i-go

@MattG Take a look at my post above regarding ID NOW tests from Walgreens. Less than 24 hour turnaround time. No potential exposure requirement and it's free.

They could be making this adjustment to policy based on the case rate for this age group. We don't have that data so we can't be sure. What we do know is that the antigen tests used are less sensitive to identifying positive cases for people younger than 18. This is especially true for asymptomatic cases. https://academic.oup.com/jpids/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jpids/piab081/6361004 My guess is that Royal has seen a disproportionate amount of onboard cases within this age group and is deciding to require a more sensitive test (PCR) prior to boarding regardless of vaccination status.