3 hours ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

I decided to wait when AZ became available because it had not yet been approved in the US and since my reason for getting vaccinated was to travel I was worried about it not being accepted which is exactly what has happened. By waiting I was able to get Pfizer about 3 weeks after AZ became available and now have 2 doses of Pfizer. I have an antigen test this afternoon and if negative will be flying to Seattle tomorrow and boarding Ovation on Friday.

 

I know many people with an AZ and Pfizer/Moderna though who are in the same situation. They are considered fully vaccinated here in Canada and most other countries and I believe also by the WHO. It is only the US CDC which is not recognizing them as fully vaccinated.

58 minutes ago, Razorrayy said:

One of the most frustrating part is Royal doesn't need to follow the CDC ruling, and they are testing everyone before boarding so darn-it-all let us cruise!!!

it will get sorted - eventually. AZ  or vax versa or vax a million..... whatever the new name is now IS not going to be cut out of the US market gravy train forever. They did not make much money on the vax as the others have. They were the cheapest cost. They have a huge30K+ trial going on now for FDA approval. I'm hoping for great numbers too as i have the double AZ shot. Razor your salty language reminded me of one other way you could get out of your dilemma by way of 'taking care of it right here in Brainerd'. As they did in the that great movie version of that true story.

Hi Royal Blue,
Terexy has sent you a message!

Hi. I'm Silvia. I am looking for someone to fly to the Caribbean. Here are my photos           Can you keep me company? It would be gr...   ************************************************

i have a feeling her cruise partnering offer will be very expensive.      Someone left a door open somewhere!

To update my OP ----- didn't even bother dialing ---- i knew email would be slow but answers do eventually come, 8 weeks, NICE! They have WAYYYYYY more important dealings right now.  But at least a real person typed it out. I did not think about the two levels of processing at Ports - RCCL  staff and PORT staff. i expect the only true RCCL staff is behind the check in counter the rest is port staff.

In anycase my bike plan probably has more hurdles with port staff , RCCL  says just bring it ,  no advance mention needed, boxed or not. If it can fit on the x-ray bed it will go through or will get inspected at some point before coming on. I think each ship will , depending how accommodating they want to be , find a spot in some corner in the hold for a bike box otherwise it becomes a piece of furniture in the room.

They must have large x-ray equipment for all the consumables that come on - that would be a big security hole if not, but maybe there are country differences at the ports security wise. RCCL policy ultimately relies on port staff.

One of the more exciting discoveries in LAB, spotting a giant conch shell in the water close to shore. Immediate thought.... what a souvenir. Turn my back and it was gone, buried into the sand. I've since learned about the conch food industry, especially in the Bahamas. Had no idea. And no surprise it is tough shape due to over harvesting. Yes a much more sentimental souvenir to find vs paying $20 on the street. That is the only way to get a shell back on a ship. Best shell collecting - Baja MEX. Mountains(wheel barrow mountains)  of them just waiting to be taken home, and feet don't need to even get wet!

remember NO vax co. has ever claimed 100% efficacy.  So the 3-5% who are vaccinated WILL get get it . But you won't (99.5%) end up in serious shape or dead.

Yes the un-vaxxed have and will place a huge financial  burden  on the rest society and business for many years to come. Sad to say but the most efficient way to get the vax rates up to that 85+% mark is for a dramatic increase in deaths  - and quick deaths at that . And major names in that anti science echo chamber. No 2 -3 weeks on a vent, cough on monday , dead on friday. You can't spin conspiracy theories when the refrigerated  reefer trucks have to come back to the hospitals because the morgues are full.

Come on karma !

26 minutes ago, ChrisK2793 said:

I’m vaccinated and have had Covid ……. And it’s ridiculous the way the vaccinated are now being punished and forced to do things they shouldn’t have to after being vaccinated for the “sake of the unvaccinated “

 

3 hours ago, ChrisK2793 said:

I don’t understand why 90% or even 85% couldn’t be considered a fully vaxxed cruise …… all the “science” says that herd immunity occurs at 70% to 80% for diseases in populations.

 

That's over months and years not 7 days or with just 3000 people. I expect Tough Love is only way past this. The worst case scenario is going to be the hard anti-vax population AND the rest of the world where they just can't get enough vax supplies will be the breeding ground for a variant that even more transmissible than Delta and we will be back to needing a whole new vaccine NOT JUST A BOOSTER shot. NO SHOT ?... no cruise, no work, no air travel, no concerts..... It's coming.

well guess I was wrong.

https://globalnews.ca/news/8047816/canadian-travellers-us-cruise-mixing-covid-19-vaccines/

Looks like they are following the guidelines of the departing country. For now at least. Once this is over, the pandemic playbook needs a rewrite to have one vax and one set of guidelines for the whole world. It will never happen , but it should.

Gotta think the call centre employee went off script on this one. Mind you for once I get a win IF this really is true. Double AZ vax - the charlie brown of vaccines. Major countries are approving of mix and match and then WHO comes in for the buzzkill. This is going to keep dragging on until we get 85% + full vax rates. Tough to say but we need more quick deaths in the unvaxxed to really drive home the narrative to get this under control. Nothing greater in marketing than fear to get the sale done.

this one tiny sliver of space gets an exemption from the normally strict smoking rules. RC must think the smokers will donate more money than the non I guess. You'd think it would be near the tipping point where the non's will out spend them if given clean air. RC doesn't have a ship on pilot project with a no smoke casino?

I heard about this at the time but didn't know the extra details  I see here now. Just cringe inducing all around. Grandpa just lost his grip on her and his mind made a milli second mistake. I can see the hockey game memory might have been stuck in his brain.  His sentence was more just administrative, I expect no judge would want to pile on to the life sentence he has now.  But ....billion $ corporation?, lawyers working on a contingency fee basis?... they  will probably invest more to get a settlement offer. Usually at the point where RC's insurers have had enough of the costs to them they will make this go away. I don't think I'd want to live much more if I was grandpa.

had to look that up. never heard of those. So one level up from a regular ID , state issued  card? That gets you into canada too? You pay extra for these? I thought Q said the vax's all had chips to get this sorted out. i can't believe people lie on the internet, on purpose even.

12 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

The CDC vaccine advisory group met yesterday and discussed booster shots, but no one seemed to think it was something necessary at this time.

Not now, but I can see this being like the seasonal flu shot. The shorter vax intervals in the US vs Canada is a story still to be told I expect. All the stories i've read is the longer interval is better  than shorter for max anti body levels. But then all could be back to square one if it bounces back and forth between vaxed and unvaxxed people and we get a new variant. Fall , winter will be the real test.

Bonus of going to pharmacy is getting a real printed label. Put them in the passport, extras I will stick on a flat credit card plastic and then laminate. Honor system was never going to work. Next buzzword will be "booster" shots. The un vaxxed will keep this bug alive and mutating for many years.

This is  what prompted the question. From the RCI  FAQ's

What items are prohibited onboard a Royal Caribbean Cuise Ship?

Exceptions can be made for the following sporting goods; however, the item must be stored in the guest’s stateroom and cannot be used onboard.

• Baseball Bats, Hockey Sticks, Cricket Bats, and Golf clubs
• Skateboards, Surfboards, and Bicycles

More research required I guess.

Makes it seem more real, ...... Transatlantic reposition oct/nov ---- Spain to Galveston would be  near top of wish list. Hopefully its still on the sked in years to come. I would love to bike some of the camino trail - on my own bike - pre-cruise. RC does have an impressive list of prohibited items. Bikes get an exemption, at least now. I'd not want to roll on but box it.  I wonder it this would require advance notification or you just show up with a big box and it goes down into storage somewhere below the waterline. Must be separate scanner stations for this I expect.

Personally I'd wait until the bugs are ironed out a bit more  but GODSPEED to the faithful. You  are doing a service to many so that a REAL normal can happen sooner than later.

Been away for a bit. I will virtual cruise for a while. When cruising gets top billing in the news cycle it gets me thinking.

Away from the ocean for quite a while , I had to think hard about my login deets for RCB but did remember finally. Was thinking about something another year out or so. So we'll see how fast the google algorithm will work and I start seeing cruise ads. I see the result of how the cruise industry has to compete amoung   themselves to gets the lowest - *as low as price* - onto the pricing structure and marketing.  First change I noticed was room selection upcharge and the corresponding deposit refund policy attached. Like airline pricing so not a big stretch that its here now. Like vehicle pricing, get them in the door at $ and make them leave at $$$. What will the lines do strip more off to get that number even lower,...will the buffet still be "free" in 5-10 years? Consumers still have the ultimate power but is funny to see the cat and mouse game from a distance. That's why I stayed with this forum to get knowledge from the cruising class.

Got to imagine FEMA or other agencies are close to asking  CARN and RC to cancel for a few weeks and keep away from Galveston until people can come in and leave safely from that port. I think both lines are probably going to have to accept more losses and tell those gulf area passengers they might have be prepared for another week on board. This is the next story the media will look to, how did these huge corporations help or hinder the disaster.

Great reporting Kansas. What a weekend of drama. And just getting worse for that area.  There must be hundreds  on the ship that live in Houston and suburbs that have got to be in agony.

Cruising in hurricane season. A textbook example today of worst case scenario. Forgot about the Act of God small print no one ever reads. So I guess RC could cancel and be in the clear. On the other side if they just don't outright cancel the sailing today they force those passengers not already at the port to travel into an oncoming tropical storm/hurricane. Galveston must have a huge portion of guests that come from a days drive away.  Fly ins probably come in weds to friday. I wonder if trip cancellation insurance would generally cover this situation? They must also have the Acts of God exclusions too. A definite no win.for anybody.

Away from the scene for a while. Then it was the eclipse and now the hurricane to get me thinking since Glaveston was my next port I wanted to try. Thought there might be a few posts on this already. I understand why RC and CARN would wait to the very last minute to even think of a cancellation out of Galveston. I've since learned two new marnier terms - Yankee and Zulu when a port decides to shut operations. Galveston went to Zulu this AM. If the lines cancel they are on the hook financially. Would they have insurance to cover losses like this? What a mess this could turn out to be. How do they staff the port? Houston floods with just a few inches of steady rain. Fuel and food are going to get deliveries disrupted. Lawyers who go after cruise lines are going to love this disaster.

A gift of entertainment from the YOUTUBE algorithm. I had no idea of the cruising subculture devoted to avoiding the $12.50 drink of the day.

The recommended video just turned into another and another. Flasks, fake shampoo bottles, recorking wine, mouthwash scam, cabonation,  fake umbrella even. The cruise industry has apparently

started a second industry - probably  china based, sorry Donald. The comment sections are even more entertaining. Seems to be a cat and mouse game with the port screeners.

Maybe more Carnival than RC, but I can see the logic behind the drink packages in the booze war. These modern day pirates are costing the cruise lines hundreds per person. 

Am I just late to the party on this? Anybody admit to trying this stuff to success? Another mother of invention story.

A Drudge link and UK newspapers , especially Daily Mail, I thought it would be one of those ginned up headlines with fake outrage.

Daily Mail can turn a one paragraph story into five , recycling the same quotes. But not this time. Unless RC had a pretty good discount

already in place I'd be ticked too. Or the very least said upfront this is a pre-finish test cruise, you'd have to accept the conditions.

That floor cuttout with the planks to walk over, thats a lawyers wet dream. Grandpa rolling with his air tank and walking cane over that?

Don't buy a first year car model applies as well to a new ship maiden voyage.

San Fran is also a longshore closed shop. That is one union way to powerful for the job they do. Maybe changed now but we specifically were told not to tip or give into the " we make sure your luggage gets on the ship" scam story.

Pop, soda, cola, fizzy lifting drinks... The amount of drink discussion never fails to amaze. I guess that is why Coke is in the Dow 30.

Just on the pop side the amount of profit per sailing must be astounding, pennies to the cruise line for hard costs. Can an energy drink package be far off?