jticarruthers

Effective against what?  Spread is extremely low right now.  They need to crank it while they can.  If another variant comes along they'll need to ratchet it back, just like they did with Omi.
Make hay while the sun is shining.  

Agreed, no lines is nice but the experience isnt quite the same and certainly not sustainable for the cruise lines.

Indy was scanning the cards at windjammer on 2/11, no longer scanning them on 2/25 ... so whatever the reason was it seems to have ended. (at least on one ship)

Indy was scanning the cards at windjammer on 2/11, no longer scanning them on 2/25 ... so whatever the reason was it seems to have ended. (at least on one ship)

Indy 2/25 - 2000

Agreed, no lines is nice but the experience isnt quite the same and certainly not sustainable for the cruise lines.

posted on Facebook re Adventure 3/4 sailing.  Let the fun begin. 
 
 

This all sounds like a Royal pain in the butt! 😂 So basically if you’re sailing with unvaccinated 5-11 year olds, it’s a game of Jeopardy/Russian Roulette/Press Your Luck

The only compensation package that would make me even bat an eye at this offer would be a full refund and move me to a suite on another cruise that same week at no cost as well as cover my transportation to the new port and back.

Other than the phenomenally successful new muster drill on the app (no more herding like cattle in designated venues and waiting for latecomers before watching a quick video), one of the benefits of cruising during these changing times is the reduced capacity onboard. I’m on cruise number twelve since September, all out of Port Liberty.
However, having less passengers can not be sustained and still turn enough of a profit for the company. It was unique in the beginning with no crowds or lines…but, it didn’t seem like a real cruise. Watching performers in the bars singing to two, three, or sometimes no guests was weird. Having smaller audiences in the theater made every show and headliner performance feel like a matinee. Pretty much everything was open and available, except dinner in the Windjammer as there weren’t enough guests to justify it. Then there was always the uncertainty of what changes will happen during the cruise; will those ‘numbers’ go up? Will we be denied entry to ports? Will I, or someone close to me, get the virus? Will I have to be quarantined? In some faraway port? Masks, no masks…Onboard and in the ports?

To be honest, I’m really looking forward to the return to normal cruising…more capacity, more excitement, more energy and many more happy cruisers! Cheers!

I would say a near zero percent chance. 

I feel your pain.  While I would love to think that the vax requirement will be gone by ANY time this year, the truth is, I don’t think it’s likely.  Possible ?  Of course.  Much is changing rapidly but the vax requirement is one thing that I fear will be (ridiculously) around for some time to come.  I hope I’m wrong.

As it appears that the pandemic is easing in North America and pretty much globally and as we get back to cruising, I thought it important to bring to the attention of cruisers here the tools the CDC has recently provided for you to assess your own risks of traveling for any kind of vacation be it cruising or something else. They've been mentioned in this thread but, below I'll provide the links that can use to:
Find out what the COVID risk level in the state and county your are traveling to or from, e.g., Port Everglades is in Broward Co., FL. The country risk of transmission is medium (based on cases/100k population and 10% of hospital admissions are for COVID), viral prevalence is below 5% (controlled). Based on your personal health and vaccination status, then finding a county's risk level, you can find what mitigation measures are recommended for you personally. Using the Cruise Ship Color Status link, you can see what the vaccination status of guests is and a rough guide to onboard viral prevalence. This might be useful for last minute cancellations where you're just not comfortable about this. For at least a year, I've been railing about the CDC's inability to provide objective based guidance that recommends how we should protect ourselves, or not, in the pandemic. I object to being told by government what I should do and how I should behave. I've also railed about the inaccuracy of using case counts as a risk assessment tool without context.
Well, the recently released guidance is here now and you can make your own decisions on when and where you feel it's safe to go given your health and vaccination status and how you might want to protect yourself if and when you do go. IOW, for the most part, you decide, not government.**
** To this statement I want to be clear. Federal regulations for masking in certain places under federal jurisdiction, e.g., airports, airplanes, cruise terminals, are still in place. They are set to expire on March 19th. Not sure they will be renewed and if they aren't it is further evidence that government paternalism is giving way to self determination - this is a very good thing, IMO.
Also, nothing has changed with respect to a private business stipulating things like no shirt, no shoes, no service. IOW, RCL can skip a port, tell you not to go ashore on your own or tell you to mask onboard. An order like that is based on RCL's own assessment of health risks to guests and crew. There are also still some regulatory requirements issued by the CDC that have legal standing as long as a ship opts in to the Voluntary Program. An example is masking and testing requirements on board a cruise ship sailing in US waters when viral prevalence is high enough (red status as defined by the CDC) to warrant these measures. Still, we're getting there.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/community-levels.html
https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/cruise-ship-color-status.html 

I got confirmation from RoyalUp on Day 2 that my bid was not accepted ... seems to confirm they were still weighing options on Day 1. Frankly i would not have been happy to find out on Day 2 of a 3 night cruise that my upgrade was accepted and i was being charged and expected to change cabins.
Probably just convinced me not to bid on anymore RoyalUp options for short cruises right there.

Just off Indy and it was supposed to be Grease in Concert, we got Grease in concert lite.
Wasn't clearly announced why but heavily hinted at as COVID related. Quote "This afternoon some members of the cast were pronounced as "not fit for duty" so we are unable to perform the show".
They had some grease cast members perform a handful of songs both from Grease and other songs and then brought back the headliner from the night before to do a few new tricks. Overall it was a fun show but clearly "thrown together on the fly".
In regards to why "Grease in Concert" talked to a regular Indy cruiser two weekends ago when we were on board and he indicated that they were having trouble getting/keeping enough back of house staff to run the prop changes, lighting, etc. so they were doing the "sit and sing without choreography" to get around that.

Regarding the drink vouchers, there’s no reason why your mother can’t split those with you… meaning she can “buy” you two drinks using two of her vouchers.   

I got confirmation from RoyalUp on Day 2 that my bid was not accepted ... seems to confirm they were still weighing options on Day 1. Frankly i would not have been happy to find out on Day 2 of a 3 night cruise that my upgrade was accepted and i was being charged and expected to change cabins.
Probably just convinced me not to bid on anymore RoyalUp options for short cruises right there.

None on Indy over the weekend.

I got confirmation from RoyalUp on Day 2 that my bid was not accepted ... seems to confirm they were still weighing options on Day 1. Frankly i would not have been happy to find out on Day 2 of a 3 night cruise that my upgrade was accepted and i was being charged and expected to change cabins.
Probably just convinced me not to bid on anymore RoyalUp options for short cruises right there.

I hope the test before the cruise goes away before June.

You're not wearing masks because of the rugrats. You're wearing masks because of a policy that thinks rugrats are disease vectors

If it's not that, it's something else.  Attributing blame to any one group is futile in this whole process.  If not for the rugrats, they could have found some other reason for justification. Que sera, sera....

I wore masks because of the CDC's made up unscientific SWAG at a number.  It was the presence of children who caused us to to fall under that made up number.  

Long before the shutdown when I first made Diamond I stopped buying the drink package on most sailings.  I would purchase a few beverages during the day and then during happy I would drink happy hour drinks.  I called my hybrid drink plan.  Even if i spent $20 - $30 on purchased drinks (back then) after a few happy hour evening drinks that was enough.  
Fast forward to today and the any time, any bar, any drink vouchers and my hybrid drink plan is even more efficient.  I can often go whole cruises now and only buy one or two drinks.  If i use my 50% off two beer/wine vouchers wisely I can go quite far with just my drink vouchers.
I do tip for every drink so there is that cost but given free drinks every day of the cruise that's the least I can do.  

I read that as "we want you to wear them but we arent going to play the police except when you come to Adventure Ocean and check your kids into the club".
I'm guessing they dont want to deal with are you a kid or not, are you vaccinated or not, etc.