dkgrove

See my response on COVID transfer to Vision later that night. The main dining room manager told me that it was about 50% capacity for this sailing.

This had to be COVID related since 50+ crew members were transferred to Vision of the Seas later that evening. Vision is where they put positive COVID cases and use for quarantines. See me post in this section: We just got off a very disappointing 4 Night Freedom of the Seas cruise where we only got 3 late afternoon hours in Coco Cay due to the Bahamian Gov not clearing us until then. We arrived at 8:00am and did not get clearance until almost 2:00pm. We were told hourly starting at about 10:00am that Miami HQ was working with Bahamian officials to get us cleared but there was no information why. We all assumed COVID-19 but not one crew member or officer would speak of it. We were cleared just before 2:00pm after everyone crowded the pool deck, jammed the buffet which did a horrible job of providing food for us when they did not expect to. We finally ate a breakfast / brunch at 11:00 never expecting to be cleared when finally we saw signs of an opening. We canceled our Coco Beach Club Cabana after hearing of the clearance just before 2:00 in the afternoon. The excursions desk offered us a 50% discount if we still wanted to use our cabana at the Beach Club but there would be no food served. THAT was a huge insult in our opinion after no reasoning behind the ridiculous delay. We asked for a full refund and canceled which was completely accepted. Disappointment still huge since THIS was the the one item we were looking forward to during this less than optimum itinerary. We did get off finally after the entire ship was in the departure area for hours. We walked around Cococay for an hour with little to no services transferred to the island. There was no buffet, few bars were open and the place was empty. We returned to the ship with few services open and bar service at a minimum. We still had no announcement or explanation as to the reason for the huge delay sitting at the pier. They did inform us that we would not be departing after the 5:30 all on board notice that Vision of the Seas would be joining us later that night for a crew transfer. From my balcony, I personally saw 50+ crew members transferred to Vision of the Seas (current hospital/quarantine ship used by Royal) that evening while still docked at the Coco Cay pier. All departing crew were wearing white N95 masks, white gloves and luggage wrapped in plastic! We missed the Beach Club Cabana and everything. Very disappointing. I later researched that Royal has been supposedly doing this from time to time using Vision and Rhapsody in order to bypass Bahamian requirements that less than 1% of crew and passengers can be positive with COVID at any time arriving in the Bahamas. I am not a travel expert so I do not know if this is in fact the current requirements but it completely explains why so many crew left the ship and how we were eventually allowed to be cleared to leave the ship at Cococay when we spent the previous day in Nassau with no issue. There could only be one logical reason why we were denied clearance at Cococay and why we off loaded so many crew members. THEY MADE A DEAL. Shame on Royal for not providing us full information and providing a less than positive experience.

We just got off a very disappointing 4 Night Freedom of the Seas cruise where we only got 3 late afternoon hours in Coco Cay due to the Bahamian Gov not clearing us until then. We arrived at 8:00am and did not get clearance until almost 2:00pm. We were told hourly starting at about 10:00am that Miami HQ was working with Bahamian officials to get us cleared but there was no information why. We all assumed COVID-19 but not one crew member or officer would speak of it. We were cleared just before 2:00pm after everyone crowded the pool deck, jammed the buffet which did a horrible job of providing food for us when they did not expect to. We finally ate a breakfast / brunch at 11:00 never expecting to be cleared when finally we saw signs of an opening. We canceled our Coco Beach Club Cabana after hearing of the clearance just before 2:00 in the afternoon. The excursions desk offered us a 50% discount if we still wanted to use our cabana at the Beach Club but there would be no food served. THAT was a huge insult in our opinion after no reasoning behind the ridiculous delay. We asked for a full refund and canceled which was completely accepted. Disappointment still huge since THIS was the the one item we were looking forward to during this less than optimum itinerary. We did get off finally after the entire ship was in the departure area for hours. We walked around Cococay for an hour with little to no services transferred to the island. There was no buffet, few bars were open and the place was empty. We returned to the ship with few services open and bar service at a minimum. We still had no announcement or explanation as to the reason for the huge delay sitting at the pier. They did inform us that we would not be departing after the 5:30 all on board notice that Vision of the Seas would be joining us later that night for a crew transfer. From my balcony, I personally saw 50+ crew members transferred to Vision of the Seas (current hospital/quarantine ship used by Royal) that evening while still docked at the Coco Cay pier. All departing crew were wearing white N95 masks, white gloves and luggage wrapped in plastic! We missed the Beach Club Cabana and everything. Very disappointing. I later researched that Royal has been supposedly doing this from time to time using Vision and Rhapsody in order to bypass Bahamian requirements that less than 1% of crew and passengers can be positive with COVID at any time arriving in the Bahamas. I am not a travel expert so I do not know if this is in fact the current requirements but it completely explains why so many crew left the ship and how we were eventually allowed to be cleared to leave the ship at Cococay when we spent the previous day in Nassau with no issue. There could only be one logical reason why we were denied clearance at Cococay and why we off loaded so many crew members. THEY MADE A DEAL. Shame on Royal for not providing us full information and providing a less than positive experience.