jticarruthers

Sailed thanksgiving for years and loved it every time, havent made it out the last couple, still pondering jumping on one this year ... will probably see how my September Indy cruise goes and then look to see if anything has a last minute sale going 🙂

you can make that easy ... depending on where in orlando you are 45 mins to an hour from the pier ...

Not sure that i have "a deal breaker" yet ... the further it goes towards being a restricted, not fun, pain in the ass as opposed to a relaxing "do what you want, when you want, where you want" get away from the real world the more likely it is to be a dealbreaker. Masks sound like they would probably be a deal breaker for me .. but i wont know for sure until i hear about it ... i'm not wearing one in my regular life at the moment so to go on vacation and have to wear one sounds like a problem. Having to make reservations to use facilities, etc. would probably be a deal breaker .. again the point of going on vacation is to relax and enjoy not to have to sit in my cabin waiting for my time slot at the pool to open up. We shall see, i'm ready to go but it will depend a lot on what the new experience looks like.

Not a fan when we first started cruising but learned to like at as a good standby option when the "schedule" didnt agree with the idea of a sit down dinner at a set time. Actually upgraded WJ to my "go-to" on my series of Mariner cruises last year ... they really stepped up the variety and the quality and it was great to just wander over when you were ready rather than having to plan to abandon the pool, get cleaned up, etc. in order to make a scheduled dinner break.

Unfortunately the economic impact is going to take a long time to really realize ... it goes far beyond even what you listed above ... car manufacturers, parts manufacturers, plane manufacturers, heck even hospitals and healthcare organizations are laying off people because they are only allowed to treat COVID ... my brother cleans pools ... or did ... state governments talking about 25-30% layoffs to cover COVID costs, etc.

Mixing and matching things incorrectly. They are saying they lost money in Q1 ... assuming they are on a calendar Q1 if they lost 2 weeks of march that would be roughly 2/13 of the quarter or about 15% of the revenue gone for the quarter with very limited ability to cut costs ... i could see that making an unprofitable quarter. They are suggesting they will lose money for the year, not stating that they have ... again mid-march through august/sept shutdown is a lot of lost revenue with a lot of new ships to pay for ... very likely they will lose money for the year. Taking a loan affects cash ... it doesnt count as income ... so the loan is to keep afloat not "show profit". You can lose cash and still turn a profit and make cash and show a loss ... all in the accounting games. With that said the language used is the standard language to prep for a bankruptcy. The question is does someone else want to buy a bunch of slightly used cruise ships out of the bankruptcy or do the debt holders want to take a little loss on the restructure in the hopes that the company bounces back and the repays the rest of the debt down the road

There are going to be new cases for at least the next 18 months ... People seem to think that when we come out of hibernation the virus will be gone, that has never been true and it not the intent. All we are doing is trying to slow the spread so that hospitals dont get overwhelmed ... people will be getting infected until we all get it or there is an effective vaccine ...

No direct personal experience but my brother and his family ran into bedbugs on Freedom OTS a few years back when we did a family thanksgiving cruise. Royal packed up all their clothing, ran it through the laundry and returned it folded later in the day. Pulled all the furniture from the room (couch, mattress, linens, etc.) Did a major clean of the room, treated carpets, etc. (they werent allowed in the room at all for the day but were given an alternate space to use bathroom, take a nap, change, etc.) Replaced the furniture after cleaning the room. Threw in a big enough FCC that they took a "free" cruise a year or so later. Bad experience getting the critters but Royal did a good job taking care of the problem. They were in a family cabin since they had the kids along, otherwise i think they would have just been "swapped" to the open cabin instead of moved out and back in but regardless, they were still happy coming off the cruise and took another ... so im guessing they were ok with the solution.,

My TA was able to convince Royal of the stupidity and they allowed me to apply my FCC balance to "her"balance due

I have had $ show up on weird/old cards before ... my neighbour just got his refund for a cruise ... paid in full on one card, refund was split across 3 cards, 1 of which hasnt been active in years.

Refunds for cruise planner purchases hit today ... seems to be reasonably consistent with "normal" delay on refund when doing the cancel and repurchase routine.

I don't have a problem with being a little more aggressive in pre-screening ... Excuse me sir, you seem to have stuff pouring out of your nostrils and are dripping in sweat sitting here in the air-conditioned departure lounge, could you step aside and chat with the doctor please. Apart from that i am good to go. There are lots of diseases and no guarantees. We had the Zika scare a few years ago ... if it scares you to risk it, then dont risk it, stay home. Malaria is still a thing if you go to some parts of the world, not your thing, dont go. Is COVID dangerous, yes, am i flaunting the rules and running around hugging people trying to get sick .. no. But I would like to live my life and i'm willing to take the risk if the world would allow me to. Crossing the street is dangerous, riding in a car is dangerous, its all a matter of risk you are comfortable with. There are only 2 reasons i am not getting on my cruise on Thursday: 1. No guarantees they would let me off again - this is fine if we just keep going around the Caribbean for a few more laps, not so fine if we are just sitting at the port for 2-3 weeks. 2. They wont let me on - something about not being allowed to sail yet.

Alrighty then ... they must have heard me because my credit card balance went down almost $12000 over night when the refunds hit... I guess i'm back in the planning game. It feels a lot like gambling ... i'm out of money, time to get up from the table ... oh wait, i hit big on the final hand ... deal me back in !

My TA was able to get them to "reallocate" the FFC so that i could use the rest of mine to pay off the rest of the second guest rather than send in money ... where this is really going to get fun is if my buddy decides not to go (blah blah blah, my wife isnt sure about me going, blah blah blah) and i have to do a name change and take someone else (if the boat goes i'm going with it ... )

I hate how they do the FCC by person. Rolled forward a booked cruise from May to Sept. The original cruise was a BOGO style so my name has big $ next to it, my buddy has small $. I got a big FCC, he got a small FCC. The new cruise is split evenly , so i cant use my full FCC and his FCC doesnt cover his half. Stupid crap like this makes me just want a refund and deal with it later .... So now the balance of my FCC has to go to another reservation and he has to pay out of pocket to make it work instead of saying "yep its a wash".