UNCFanatik

When was this announced? I must have missed it. When are test cruises?

And there goes Royal's website!

How? Are they going the vaccinated route? Havent seen test cruises announced

see the latest announcement hot off the press from Royal President

Still a matter of timing. At some point, Royal going to have to make a decision on its July sailings. We know that the next hearing will be on June 10th now. How long will it take the Judge to rule? June 10th is a Thursday, so unless he just dismisses the case on the spot, will the hearing be just one day? Will it be two days? If so, it heads into the weekend. So then we get into week on June 14th for Judge to deliberate. Will Royal really wait that long to announce the fate of July sailings and continue to have people in Limbo. Which each passing day, people become more upset with Royals lack of communication. Then there is the issue on % of passengers required to be vaccinated. Will Royal even be able to meet those on a given sailing with the amount of children under 12 plue the 12-16 year olds that parents may not want to have vaccinated. as they say, anything is possible but probable is another story.

It will interesting to watch because Judge Merryday has a chance to strike down the CSO the first go round put punted and sent to mediation. What is the chance he will strike it down now? I mean did anyone really think mediation would have been successful? And last time, how many days did it take him to decide to send to mediation? Do we expect a quicker ruling from the June 10th hearing?

Not to mention what effect the ruling will ultimately have on Alaskan cruises with the assertion from the government that Alaskan cruises were given exception to sail without porting in another country was based on the conditions of the CSO. If FL lawsuit results in CSO being struck down does that cause chaos with Alaskan cruises?

Yes, I agree because it will be interesting to see how Carnival handles their early July sailings because i dont see a schedule for their simulated sailings. Still too much uncertainty in the air to have confidence that there will actually be any early July revenue cruises. Less than 30 days now and a lot has to happen

As I mentioned in another thread, the June 10th date gives Royal more reason to delay any announcement of July cruises because some Royal Exec is holding onto the hope that the CSO will be struck down

Great June 10th. Just gives Royal another reason to hold up any announcements for July/August sailings because some Royal Exec thinks the CSO may be struck down

Overall, I would say there is no chance But if we are speaking theoretically, lets say that they wanted to sail with the vaccine requirement. Like you mentioned, they would need to get past the DeSantis hurdle with the Law. THEN, what is the makeup of your July 17th cruise, is 95% even attainable with the amount of kids under 12 on board AND the amount of 12-16 year olds where parents do not want to vaccinate their children. SO, what would need to happen? Cancel that cruise and rebook only vaccinated people? Cancel the families with children under 12? No easy answers there Let me drag out my dead horse here and again say, THIS is why Royal needs to announce plans with July/ /august cruises TODAY cause people still believe their July cruises will sail because of no official cancellation announcement yet

Too much politics with the CDC these days. You know if the cruise lines were based in the US and had a powerful union they could have written their own rules with CDC like teachers unions did… lol

Agreed. No other business is this required. A Vegas casino/hotel is closest in comparison to cruise ship in my mind and they are just wide open!

Point well taken. And you are right about knowing about the test cruising but I think he could have done both announcing test cruises and expressing regret for the cruises that will have to be cancelled. The way he did it, makes some people still think their July cruise is sailing

Wait, I wouldnt take this as Gospel yet because they are just basing this info on Royal's website and what can be booked. That doesnt necessarily mean that the July 24th sailing will sail prior to test cruise

Interesting. How are they leaving the July 24th sailing which is before test cruise?

That will be August. There is only a 2 week window for most families in August before school and by that time people will have already taken alternate vacations. They should not wait to do this. AND there will be several people that want refunds not FCC. Cant assume everyone will want to rebook

But they have to announce more cancellations anyway. Just a matter of time now. We all know it

The challenge with summer sailings to Caribbean is that its prime family season and those vaccinated thresholds may not be able to be met on those sailings that are already booked with the amount of children 12 and under plus the hesitancy of parents who may not want to have their 12-16 year olds vaccinated. I think that is why Royal chose the test sailings route

I will say this. They need to fire whoever is in charge of Marketing/PR. Michael's Bayley FB post was tone deaf. Yippee!!! is how he starts? Does he not realize how that will be received by customers on July/August sailings that for the first time they realize that their sailings will be cancelled?? Not every cruiser keeps up with cruise news and boards like this. They trust Royal and what they are told. Bayley's FB message was totally tone deaf and put TAs in a terrible position today not to mention those poor customer service reps that man the phones who are now being instructed to outright lie to paying customers. This is a PR nightmare. It would have been better to announce cancellations FIRST and then announce test cruises. I get it, Bayley is rightfully excited about test sailings but did he even run this by his fellow execs and Marketing/PR departments before he announced on FB? If so, did no other exec stop and give him some pause as how this would be received by passengers on July/August sailings? This is truly an unforced error by Royal in customer relations and PR

Thank you! November 21 sailing on Oasis was always backup plan. I would think your October sailing would be good. Hopefully when cruising restarts across multiple ships, October will be good!

There it is. Symphony of the Seas cancelled for July sailings

I fully agree. The CSO should have been dropped in May at the latest as vaccinations were on the rise. It will be interesting to see if the PHE which was renewed in April will be renewed again in July. Excuse my ignorance, but if the PHE is lifted will that mean the CSO by default will be lifted or two separate matters?

Valid point. Something had to happen to spur the CDC to make the changes that they have