whitsmom

I agree 100% with you as I have asthma.

At this point, it is still too early to know what will happen just yet.
Normally, I would be home for about 6 weeks before starting a new contract.

Quick update: Wife ordered a new passport on August 27th, expedited service. Updated to "In Process" on September 1. The passport arrived today (9/29). We were worried with the updates to the system, but no problem... we don't leave for another week <whew!>.

I asked NextCruise on my last sailing and they said the land tour counts for double points.

Thank you! That’s what I thought but ya know September 30 is hours away and I got that fleeting moment of “oh 💩 did I count correctly?” We will be right at 175 points by the end of October 2022 and if I counted wrong, I’d be forced to book more in a hurry! 

Re the links:  Carnival has been sailing at 70%+ capacity.  They and MSC are both known to be stretching it when it comes to safety protocols for Covid.  Both should be expected to have more cases.  They aren't representative of the entire industry.  Even with that, the percentage of people sick on those ships is miniscule compared to the number who were sailing.  Carnival had 3000 passengers and 1400 crew aboard, and 26 people infected is less than 1%.    And the last article is a click-bait opinion piece.  Doesn't really provide anything.  And this is not to minimize death from Covid.  My family has had its share of Covid tragedy.  This is to put the situation into perspective.
I feel safer taking an RCI cruise than I do flying, shoulder to shoulder, on a plane right now, because RCI has been jumping through all the ridiculous CDC hoops.  I'm quite impressed with some of the measures they have taken.
Some of us are ready to cruise, some of us aren't.  Both decisions are valid.  One doesn't have to be right and one wrong.  We each get to make the choice for ourselves.  🙂
That said, I am not even thinking about our May 2022 cruise in relation to what the protocols will be, because they could be completely different by then.  
Hope you get to take/enjoy your trip.

I spotted these at Home Depot this morning.
 

NEW CRUISE VLOG!
 
Just another day in my life, and why I love my job working on a cruise ship.
 
 

This morning, the day before arrival back in Bayonne, I received my complimentary Covid antigen test in the conference center on deck three. I had made a reservation for 8:10 but arrived a little early. No line, no waiting…got my nose tickled and done. Bioreference Laboratories has been contracted by Royal to perform the tests on board. Tested at 8am and received my results via email at 11:55am. Negative. Easy peasy.

On Adventure this month, I had Voom Surf. 
 
I have an iPhone and was able to text and send pictures to two friends of mine…one has an iPhone and the other has an Android 

The AT&T cruise ship plan is awful. It's super expensive and gives you back very little (and slow).
You are much better off paying for the Voom Surf and Stream Package.
Before you leave home, turn on Wifi Calling on your phone.
Then, when you're on Voom, disable your phone (put it into airplane mode) and connect to wifi. Wifi Calling will allow you to make calls and text for a fraction of the cost of AT&T's plan.

Yeah, I never use apps for communicating with people back home. I always have Voom and just have my phone on airplane mode and text like normal.

We’ve found the best way is with the ships Voom.   We can send, receive texts just by using our phones texting app…Do FaceTime and even make actual calls.   We can do just about anything on the ship that we can at home on our WiFi.  

756 passengers onboard Odyssey this week.

We used to dress up on formal nights every time; however, as we get older, we mostly do more of a business casual.  That being said, it doesn't bother me in the least if someone wants to wear shorts to dinner.  Once everyone is sitting down you can't tell what they are wearing anyway.  It makes it easier on packing leaving the formal stuff at home as I tend to over pack anyway. 

I can't speak for other TAs necessarily, but Royal Caribbean (or most suppliers) pay the agency after final payment is made. Then the travel agency pays the agent the month after travel is completed. 
If a cancellation occurs before final payment, no commission. If a cancellation occurs after final, there may or may not be commission. Commission even gets recalled sometimes by the supplier.
Basically, though, you book a trip and cancel I don't get paid. It's kind of like a return of a product to a store.
There was some commission protection last year from a lot of suppliers but only after final payments were made and only in certain circumstances- If FCC is used and a cancellation happens, no commission.
It has been a tough year and a half.
 

The Bahamas health visa was ONLY needed for cruises that departed from Nassau (Adventure of the Seas this summer).  You do not need a Bahamas health visa if your ship is stopping there for a day

No, this is not normal.
Because the majority of crew joined the ship at the same time for the restart, a lot of the crew have similar sign-off dates. The process of changing crew member's sign-off dates has already started.
Some of us maybe required to extend, some even shorten our contract.
My contract has been extended for a couple of weeks.

I wouldn't think they would want to "start from scratch" with an entire new crew.  That sounds like a recipe for lots of problems....

Considering they are offering covid coverage extended till the end of 2021 im sure they will still offer the testing to return home. At least that would make sense!

As the rules stand right now, yes that would be allowed.

I got this from my local CVS.  I think it's made specifically for the CDC Vaccine Card

I just received my back to back letter last night (night 4 of 7) explaining what I need to do on turnaround day, Sept 26. There was a QR code that I scanned and it opened a page where I entered my information and chose a time for the rapid test to be given on the day before, Sept 25, in the Conference Center on deck 3. All of the times were available and I chose 8:10-8:20am. Test results will be sent to my email. We have to meet at the theater on turnaround day at 8:15 for our wellness check. Once that is completed, we will be checked in and our new seaPass card will be issued along with the In-transit card. We are to bring our passports, vaccination card and the credit card we plan to use. 
I’m staying in the same room so I don’t need to pack up. My room will receive priority service. 
We have to leave the ship and go through customs. We will be escorted off and pass by the facial recognition scanners and then be escorted right back on. If we choose to venture out in Bayonne, we can use the In-transit card to bypass check-in, but cannot re-board until general boarding commences. I have no intention of leaving the ship. 
Consecutive Cruisers will be offered lunch in the MDR on deck 3 (V) from noon to 1pm.
**On another note…it was addressed in another post but, any liquor purchased during the current cruise will be held until the end of our time on board.
 

So, no video of swabs up the nose? 

I was checking on the status of my wife's passport (https://passportstatus.state.gov/) and saw that they added a message to their page. UGH!!