Cruising With JT

So exciting! This reminds me of a Black friday sale where everyone is waiting for the deal to be released and then boom! Gone in 60 seconds.

If they select you as a volunteer, do they pay for your airfare hotel etc? 

CDC extending to Oct 31st was inevitable, it's just a waiting game really.. honestly, consider it very lucky if they open up sailing this year, even with that document they submitted... how much you wanna guess no one at the CDC has read through it? CDC has been out to ignore the cruise lines... every other aspect of the travel industry is up and running, airlines, Disneyworld, Vegas, etc etc, but no cruises even though they are going to probably be cleaner than any other place... these no sail order extensions are just annoying.

I know they are doing it on a month to month basis, but as we cruise fans need to stop hoping that it will be put to an end. Seriously, it's getting old. I am waiting for the day they just come out and say, okay, it is lifted, rather than giving people false hope. I cancelled my Nov 2020 cruise 5 months ago knowing it wasn't going to happen and if it was, I wouldn't want to experience that onboard experience, just sounds terrible and un-vacation like. I am keeping my  fingers crossed things look better by Spring 2021 and a vaccine is out (that is effective) so we can go on our cruise to Alaska in July 2021. And by then, hopefully we can go cruising without a mask and screenings. Let's see what happens!

3 hours ago, krhardy said:

My crystal ball shattered while we were moving things to paint during our shelter in place order (HA!), but I have a few thoughts. I have no proof that these are under consideration, but they make sense to my teeny tiny exhausted little brain:
     ~ I see port arrival times actually enforced to reduce the number of people in the port at a time
     ~ I think it is very possible that a negative test will be required to board-at least initially
     ~ Obviously the buffet will be more cafeteria style, but I also see in the main dining room no more combining tables/travel parties that aren't together (we've all done the "dine with a stranger" thing). I think specialty restaurants may extend their dinner hours to allow more spread out reservation times.
     ~ I think there's a decent chance that room service might temporarily go back to complimentary (even if it's just during peak times) to encourage anyone who wants to eat in their room...as much as I love my servers, I know I'd be down to dine on my balcony a night or 2!
     ~ I think we could see theater shows require reservations on all ships, and more performance times offered to spread guests out. My husband works for a large church in our area, and they have gone back to face to face worship with a few simple protocols in place: each row is marked with tape either green or blue...at the 9:00 service people sit in the blue rows and at 10:45 people sit in the green rows. You must keep 3 seats between your family and another. Then, the whole sanctuary is fogged after Sunday service. Something like this would be time consuming for the staff, but simple enough to implement.
     ~ I see masks being required-at least initially like at the Florida theme parks and their resorts...they can be removed if you are eating or settled in poolside (or in the water)
     ~ I think we may see hot tubs closed initially since their capacity isn't really monitored.

I'm sure there are also a ton of things that I haven't thought of, and like I said-I could be wrong about every one of these things. Merely speculation.

Well said! I agree with all of this. The screenings will be happening throughout the day as well I imagine, or at least when you get back to the ship from a port. Bottom line is we know this, cruising will not look the same for awhile! I don't think we've ever needed a vaccine as bad as we do now. The world is falling apart, and it's embarassing to see the US be the laughing stock of the world since cases are increasing like crazy. I bet you if cases were under control here, cruising would've started by September, but nope.

29 minutes ago, princevaliantus said:

I can see the bankruptcy filings already. I wonder what the announcement from Carnival is going to be tomorrow.

Probably more cancellations. If they go bankrupt it won't be announced until they are in the worst case scenario which is Spring 2021 from what I am hearing.

Man, the trend is definitely not good. I had a feeling no cruises until at least Spring 2021 which is why we cancelled November 2020 and April 2021. Hoping that summer season to Alaska in July 2021 happens if not, the cruise industry is long gone and will never return the same as it was. I miss cruising.

1 minute ago, SpeedNoodles said:

You may not be going far enough in the process to see it?

It isn't working on Chrome but it is for Firefox

3 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

My research: 

Chrome: new format

Firefox: new format

Edge: old format

Internet Explorer: won't even flipping load

Odd, I am on Chrome and it is still showing the old format.

Website looks the same to me. No new updates.

Just reading this not-so-live-blog now and wow I really enjoyed this @rshov Excellent writing and glad to hear you and your fiance had a wonderful time! We are currently planned on Oasis in April 2021 but given everything going on we aren't really sure if it'll happen. Going with a group of 30... 16 adults and 14 kids including our little monster. Should be fun. Thanks again for a wonderful review! Looking forward to reading your June 2021 Odyssey blog!

Harmony of the Seas group cruise 9/16/17 :)

Just booked Harmony of the Seas July 1, 2017!

 Nice!!

Did you have fun? A lot of the chatter I've been hearing on the Internet is that many amenities and basic things had issues...hopefully they got them fixed? Definitely looking forward to your review on here or CC if you decide to write one :)

So awesome to see more folks putting down deposits!! Wooooohoooo!!

Totally agree! We booked our cruise to Alaska in July 2016 way back in January 2015, and just now booked a cruise in September 2017 in May of 2016 :)

Hi Kathy,

 

I was ready and waiting to get a screenshot of you from the PTZtv cam but all I got was a ghost ship. So sorry you had to miss sail away, I would have felt & done the same. Happily you will have many more sail-aways in the future so save those signs  :)

 

I hesitated in posting these 2 ghost ship screenshots I took while trying to find you on the webcam, but look closely in the second one you were there in spirit! (wish I'd taken a larger screenshot)

 

 

The second pic is awesome, I see you Kat! :)

Thanks for sharing your Day 2 with us Kat, love the pics and all the scopes and tours you did today! woohoo Enjoy Labadeeeeeeeeee tomorrow!!

Here is a good overview of the lava flow: http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/09/27/royal-caribbean-classic-lava-flow

Okay, I am so getting a lava flow on my next cruise!

Great to hear more folks who have booked the group cruise! I am sure more folks will be joining as the months go along...and can't wait to share more details as it gets closer and hope to find out more on what group events etc we will be doing :D

Thank you for blogging and sharing your first day Kat! Glad to see you are having a great time...and no more worries about the sail-away, you are going to have a fantastic time!

Hello everyone!

I didn't see a thread started on this yet so thought I'd get one started...just wanted to see who else is booked on the Harmony of the Seas group cruise sailing next September 16, 2017!

I've already put down my $500 deposit and will be coming along with my sister (she too is a cruise addict).

490 days to go! Really looking forward to getting to know you all more over the coming months and hanging out on the world's largest cruise ship together :)

Cheers,

John

@johnt_83 on Periscope :D

PS -- I am going to try and do my first ever live periscope on Norwegian Pearl this summer to Alaska, still need to look into all the details about their Internet etc but the sailing is on 7/24/2016 and I'll be going with my wife and 4 other friends. Glacier Bay sailing out of Seattle (this is where I live too!)