RCVoyager

Twangster, I always read and appreciate your thoughts on most subjects, and mostly agree. But, what is TWIC?

I appreciate and agree with your sentiment. It is a compliment to my wife that the two times she's chosen to leave home in 12 months was to have dinner with her. I think the "what country is this" portion of my comment was probably related to my own frustration with the situation.

My wife had dinner with a friend this week. She and her family are so petrified that she has been off her property exactly twice in the last 12 months (both times to have dinner with my wife). Both parents are working from home. Their 7 year old is being home schooled. All groceries are delivered. The husband has left home a few times when it was absolutely necessary. Upon return he removes is clothing in the garage, the clothing is put into a trash bag for two weeks before it comes into the house to be laundered, and he sprays down with disinfectant before coming into the house. Of cou

Sorry, wash YOUR hands and don't touch YOUR face. I got to typing too fast.

The logic and reasoning used by the entire country defies science and data for an illness that has taken .1% of the population, the vast majority of which were in bad health anyway. Wash you hands, don't touch you face, and when the shot is available, get it. Let us live our lives.

I've thought a great deal about the hatred/ignorance of the cruise industry. I think the answer may be in Twangster's post about the CDC. Only 15% of Americans have ever taken a cruise. That means 85% have not. While many claim they don't want to vacation on a floating petry dish, I think it's something different. I would be willing to bet that most either can't afford to cruise, think they can't afford to cruise, or just never taken the time to book a cruise. All of their excuses(hatred and jealousy) serve to blame someone or something other than themselves.

To add on to that, we would also be thrilled for RCCL to leave an updated Voyager or Freedom class ship for the next 10 years... not just the Breeze or Magic.

Thanks for the response Matt. I hope you're right. It just feels like SJU is becoming less important to the cruise lines. It probably all comes down to money, and it seems to me that most of the time cruise fares out of San Juan are a couple of hundred dollars cheaper than anywhere in FL. Add in the extra revenue generated by the private island experience (in which we don't have too much interest), and the dollar difference is even more in FL's favor. Now rather than two ships year round, RCCL looks to have one ship for part of the year. Carnival looks to be in the same situation...

Thank goodness for this. It just feels like San Juan is teetering on the edge of the chopping block. That would be a real casualty to me.

I can say without reservation of any kind, I WILL NEVER SAIL THE REGENT SUN AGAIN. I was on her in 1995. She sunk in 2001.

I used to think the same way about fins. My brother said, you're in the Caribbean. There's no current to speak of. Just bring your mask and snorkel. You don't need fins. He was right. I haven't traveled with fins for 20 years.

Do you ever watch TV commercials for the content? Almost none of it is true. My dog isn't happier because I feed him XX pet food. My weight doesn't drop because I take this vitamin. The food never looks like the food in the restaurant advertisement. Cars don't look beautiful and starkly colorful when driving on fresh fallen snow (living in IN, I can tell you they look dirty and nasty). Most advertisement is embellished to the max... in my opinion. RCCL and the other cruise lines aren't any different, I guess.

A couple of things come to mind. All those ports that aren't usually available on RCCL will be awesome... to me especially Grenada. Second, I don't know there is much hotel availability on that island. I guess VRBO will pick up the slack. On a side note, and this is true, my GGGGGGG Grandmother was a servant from Barbados (indentured servant). To the best of my knowledge, she was born then in about 1630 (the island was settled in 1627 and was uninhabited for a period before then). I wonder if I can get a hometown discount.

My thought has been, if staying for 1 night, the Sheraton OSJ is great. If for 2 or more, one of the resort hotels. They are pretty cheap right now. Here is my hint. When walking into Old San Juan for the first time, it will make sense to enter through the old city gate on the West side of OSJ. Follow the wall around to the gate. The layout of the entire area will make a lot more sense than just walking in from the East or South.

When you consider that cruises won't be starting until the 2nd quarter of next year in all likelihood, the vaccine should be widely available. If the cruise lines want to keep Covid out of the ships, or if the CDC wants to keep it out of the ships, this makes sense. As someone mentioned above, maybe the flu shot too.