KLA

I was on 1/29 Jewel which was Labadee, San Juan, St. Maarten, and Antigua - 8  night. 

5 minutes ago, BB1 said:

I'm wondering if the cancelations are due to ports rejecting ships. Why else would they cancel?

More likely due to the health and safety of their crew, if I had to guess.

What a bummer! 

Trying to take this and get myself in to a suite over my birthday in May instead.  

Prices can vary wildly sailing to sailing and ship to ship with a lot of factors going in to play and sales happen often.

I grabbed the Refreshment Package for $17/day over Black Friday (I think) and I haven't seen it go below $23/day since. 

$88/day definitely seems high for the Deluxe package though. 

Similar happened with our excursion to the rainforest at the beginning of February. It was cancelled a couple weeks ago but other excursions in Old San Juan are still available - I suspect it's related to the increase in cases but not necessarily any indicator that we'll still be turned away at that point. Everything is still speculation.

57 minutes ago, twangster said:

Varies by ship and loads that cruise.  On Quantum class in a JS I've been able to make reservation for the week pre-pandemic.  On Oasis class my luck in a JS has been much worse.  

I'd visit CK upon boarding and ask.

Ah, bummer. We loved CK on our Odyssey Cruise (Junior Suite) and they let us make as many reservations as we wanted for dinner - granted, the ship was fairly low capacity at the time, too. Really loved the CK crew on that ship (not that we have much CK experience to compare to!)

We'll make CK our first stop on Allure in October and just see what they say. 

6 minutes ago, Pooch said:

So is the take away here that it’s kinda pointless to book excursions right now?  Who knows where you’ll go and when you’ll get there?

If they're booked through the cruise line you'll get refunded, but off cruise line might be best to have a plan for when you get in to port but keep it changeable. I'm sure excursion operators understand that things are pretty all over right now, and will work with you. Even in non-Covid times, there are usually clauses that will adjust non-cruise line excursions to missed port days (at least from what I've seen in my experience). 

9 minutes ago, BrianB said:

We had St. Kitts scheduled today as an alternate...but that was canceled and this morning we arrived in St. John's Antigua. Immediately cleared and disembarkation begun.

Have a wonderful day in port! We're scheduled on the Hike and Beach excursion there at the beginning of February. 

It's also pretty easy to grab a taxi there and head towards one of the beaches - very pretty island! 

On 12/29/2021 at 9:55 PM, gomammoth22 said:

Update - Ice shows cancelled for the remainder of this voyage as well.  Down to comedians and musicians.  They’re playing movies in the Aqua Theatre this evening.

Aqua Theater movie sounds great, actually. 

14 hours ago, JeffB said:

I know RCL and Celebrity - both part of RCG - are separate business entities developing and following their own health and safety protocols but I find it odd that RCL is requiring masks on board when Celebrity isn't. Both lines, for all intent and  purpose, have identical vaccination status policies. Does one set of health advisors know more than the other and what do they know?

Celebrity's from their web site:

Following CDC Guidelines, masks will not be required for vaccinated guests. Masks are required for unvaccinated guests under 12 years old while indoors when not in their stateroom, eating or drinking.

 

My speculation without any further investigation or insight is that Royal is much more targeted towards families and kids where Celebrity is targeting adults as opposed to families with children - so probably fewer children on board and less chance for sharing Covid.

I could be incredibly wrong, though. 

8 hours ago, coryo_cincinnati said:

I would say we are heading to St. Thomas and St.Kitts for sure now or they wouldn’t be selling it on that date. 

This likely isn't necessarily the case - a lot of changes are being made very last minute because of how quickly they are changing and the volume of port changes need to be made due to protocol changes. You still could miss these ports. 

My sailing at the end of the month is scheduled to visit Labadee (which no ship has visited since the restart) and San Juan (which has been turning ships away) and I still don't expect to see either of those. Cruising now requires a lot of flexibility. 

Also, hello fellow Cincinnatian! 

You can also order a bottle/can of water along with your alcoholic drink. 

Even if ports of call are being cancelled now, things are changing quickly enough that the situation by the 29th could be completely different at the end of the month (more or less closures or other cruise changing events). We're also cruising on the 29th (Jewel OTS) and keeping an eye on things, but still plan to go. We have two ports we believe will be changed or dropped (Labadee, San Juan). 

As has been said here many times, just need to be willing to be flexible. Even during normal cruise times, ports can be missed or changed for many reasons. 

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/empty-water-bottle

59 minutes ago, barjpoe said:

I made the mistake of putting an empty bottle in my carry on and had to toss it out per the TSA.

Empty bottle? That shouldn't have been an issue. I carry empty ones with me often and fill it after security.

1 hour ago, BrianB said:

Received the email last night regarding our cruise on Anthem leaving Friday. San Juan is cancelled. They extended our time in port in St. Thomas until 8pm. Nine day cruise went from three ports to two. I don’t mind….I’m cruising!

I imagine this will be similar for us at the end of January with the status of both San Juan and Labadee. Maybe I'll just book some extra time in the spa instead. 

I don't foresee this being something that the cruise lines adjust to - this would require testing everyone in the middle of the cruise if San Juan is a stop, which also means they would have to consistently have enough kits and personnel to carry this out for every single passenger and crew member. 

I suspect that this would ultimately mean cancellations to San Juan for a few weeks. 

I'm actually pretty excited about the swap from plastic to cans. Already planning on taking along one of my Yeti bottles to keep water cool and allow it to be resealed. 

18 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Wow….has it been 4 1/2 years ?  I can’t believe that much time has gone by.

Same, honestly. Time has flown. 

On 12/26/2021 at 6:25 AM, need2cruz said:

My heart goes out to you losing your son, losing a child truly changes you forever.  I lost my daughter a few months ago in a school shooting and the grief has been a lot of tears.  I have been longing for my cruise in a couple of months.  Although I can't offer any help with your cruise compass and cruise planning, I can pray for your son's eternal peace.  I'm praying that as your tears flow, you can remember his life and the memories you shared.

1 hour ago, AJK said:

thank you so much, need2cruz. My deepest condolences on the loss of your daughter.  We really want to celebrate this cruise as if he is there with us.

My condolences to each of you - I am so sorry for the loss of your son and daughter. 

I lost my younger brother 4.5 years ago, and while it never really gets easier, it does get easier to navigate and grow around your grief with time. While not a parent myself, I've seen my parents navigate it and I've seen how unimaginably difficult it is and those early days are day by day in navigating those waves of sadness. I wish you both peace and happy remembrance while you sail the seas. The being on the water is truly a place of healing.  

The thing that I think I see as a key difference (and why I don't think sailings will cancel - although I do think they'll reduce capacity where they can) is that if you are vaccinated (as everyone on board these sailings are) is that Omicron will not put you in the hospital if you are vaccinated. While it is more contagious, it is also reportedly more mild. The main purpose of the vaccines is to keep you out of the hospital and keep those who are vaccinated from overwhelming the hospital system (or, the on board medical center). 

The concern remains that the virus will continue to mutate and we'll see a variant that is both more contagious and deadly, but for the reasons I stated above I don't think that we will shut down. We are much better equipped to understand this now than we were in March of 2020. The only thing we can do is control our own actions (and, continue to work to help keep others safe where we can). 

I'd be curious to see if the smoking ban makes the casino more profitable somehow - that would probably get Royal's attention. 

This is actually the second story of a cancelled cruise in this same fashion that I've seen posted here in the past week - definitely think this could be a genuine IT issue. 

Ugh... I really need to book a star class cruise - the lofted rooms are my dream cruise rooms. 

The key here will be getting my husband on the same page... we only just started booking Junior Suites 

It looks like you are having an incredibly relaxing time. So glad it worked out and you were able to get back to sea!