Cruising With JT

@monorailmedic and his wife are on your sailing as well, and he's blogging over on cruisehabit.com. He said the ship is way below the desired 50% capacity, something like only 26%. So a lot of the ship looks like a ghost town at times.
Maybe you'll bump into him. Just look for the guy sitting at the sunset bar trying all the whiskey options. ? 

Isn't this a cool way to commemorate the return to cruising?

This morning,  there was a crew filming from a drone. Rumor is that they were from Good Morning America, so I guess our cruise is getting attention.  ?
Last night we went to the show and they showed a great video to celebrate being the first ship back. The wife got a great pic with the senior staff all on stage. I'll upload it as soon as I can get her out of the jewelry store. ??

I'd happily read 10 blogs from those onboard

Thanks @smokeybandit! She's doing a much better job at this than I!  I'll keep it up anyway, because it never hurts to get additional perspective.
The cruise is going well. The skies are cloudy and we have a following wind.  It's just kinda weird to have a wind so strong that it is outrunning the ship.
Anyway, we had a great dinner in the MDR last night and they brought us a special cake for our anniversary.  Tonight we do a proper celebration at Le Petit Chef.  It should be fun.
Today's "cruise compass" (Celebrity doesn't really seem to have a name for it) had instructions to sign up for our end of cruise COVID test.  You could sign up for Thursday or Friday.  We chose Friday because it is a sea day and we didn't want it interfering with out shore time.
Meanwhile. I'm going to sit to sit outside and enjoy my balcony.

I've always assumed that employees and family will be the optimal test cruisers.  
No one is better suited to see a successful outcome than employees and family of employees.  It also avoids a horde of social media wannabes some of who are only interested in getting likes and clicks.  Just search Youtube for anything related to cruising and many of the results include drama queens blowing stuff out of proportion because they don't care what the effect of their words are, it's just about money to them.   Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe!  Cruise lines are going out of business!  O.M.G click click click!  
I refuse to watch their drivel but you have to know because of them cruise lines don't want that kind of sensationalized coverage of what will probably be really kind of boring.  Best way to avoid that is to limit the audience to those with a vested interest.  
I also wonder if crew from one ship can volunteer to be test cruisers for another.  Completely unpaid, volunteer basis only.  "Cruise like a guest".  

I haven’t seen any verifiable information. Not saying it hasn’t happened, but they may be starting with employees, travel agents, or others with perhaps sign a NDA. 

So...just wondering has anyone reading this been contacted to be a test cruise passenger?  I'm thinking that Royal must have contacted their volunteers by now...no??  Just thought I would try to find out if anyone turned out to be the lucky one(s)!!  

Odyssey means you can sail out of USA, and you get to go on the newer ship in the fleet. 
 
Adventure will cost you much less for the cruise (airfare not withstanding), get you two days at Perfect Day at CoocCay, and that ship does not need approval from the CDC to sail. 

Wow, seriously awesome pics and footage, thank you for sharing! I am booked on her old inaugural now on Nov 15th, looking forward to hearing about the cruise for those going on her new inaugural July 3rd. The prices are wild!

I would not got on a cruise if I wasn't vaccinated. Plain and simple. 

All good, everyone has a different opinion, I was just going off of what I am seeing on other social media sites like Facebook and my thoughts, most people aren't too happy with the decision. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Fortunately for me my next cruise isn't until November. I am a big believer in that the best and safest way to get cruising restarted out of the US is to require vaccines for all those who are eligible. Plain and simple. It's temporary, not forever, just do it at the start, because if something happens onboard, the CDC is ready to shut it down again.

Shocking news of the day... Carnival requires vaccine but Royal drops it. Who could've predicted that? Disappointing news for sure for myself and all other Loyal to Royal cruisers but let's see how this all plays out. I think Royal dropped the ball on this to be honest but we'll see...oh and that Carnival Mardi Gras ship don't look too bad...I got a feeling that Royal may reverse course... usually happens when there is a huge backlash from their loyal customer base. Michael Bayley (President/CEO of Royal Caribbean) said that 80% of their guests prefer to go on cruise ships that ARE vaccinated, so of course this decision makes perfect sense. LOL.

If money is not an issue, I would definitely book Odyssey from Florida over Adventure from Nassau. Odyssey is a newer ship, offers more amenities and you don't have to go through the various hoops like flying into another country such as the Bahamas (health visa and all that). I checked prices for July 3rd and they are insanely high, so be prepared to open up your wallet if you decide to go that route. If not, the Adventure sailing should work out nicely as well ? 

We are excited as were booked on Indy out of miami July 3 2021 and just had our reservation moved to same type of room at no extra cost on Odyssey for that same sailing date out of Fort Lauderdale. 

My video from the day of the Mardi Gras & Odyssey. The RCI coverage starts at 2:06 in the video.
 

Time lapse
 

Great pics. Thanks for sharing. 
I still don't like the way the name is written on the side of the ship though.

I hope the approval process is a quick process. The CDC has not shown they are in any hurry for cruise lines. I wonder if it was RCCL or CDC who set the test sailing dates.
All of this is questions and conjecture on my part. I am sure RCCL has been talking to the CDC and they would not announce the July cruise dates unless they had assurances on the approval of the test sail approval.

They won't fail.  It's not even a pass/fail situation when you look at the criteria of a test cruise. It's more of a "do all these things, report back that you did all these things, and you're fine"

I am looking into Freedom summer cruises, most notably the 3 and 4 days sailings out of Miami leaving in July, however I know that Freedom is also the first to conduct test cruising from 6/20 to 6/22. What happens when Freedom "passes" or "fails" those test cruises? If they pass, the July cruises are good to go I assume...and if they fail, they are a no go? Curious since we are in final payment at this time. 

Odyssey of the Seas has arrived and I had a front row seat.
From my location I first spotted her through the trees.

I was strategically located in Jetty Park to get as close as possible once she was in the port.

Water cannon salute from some tugs and local fire fighting vessels.




At last a close up view.

With horns blaring and crowds waving it was time to say hello.



She is a beauty.



SkyPad and iFly.

She was well watered on her way in.

Once she reached the mid-port turning basin she did a turn so she could slip into the Royal Caribbean terminal.



Finally, Odyssey has arrived.
Let the cruises begin.

Technically, yesterday (June 5) - Celebrity Millennium out of Saint Maarten. Celebrity is close enough ?
You can follow along on Billy's site: https://www.cruisehabit.com/first-cruise-back-today-we-set-sail-first-time-over-year -celebrity-millennium-day-one

I'm not going back to delete posts, but this is your reminder THIS IS NOT THE FORUM TO DISCUSS IF THE VACCINE WORKS OR EFFECACY. 
Also, if you don't agree with someone else's take, leave it be. You're not going to convince someone here of anything, other than the best cocktail at the bar.
Another pro tip, you don't have to get the last word! Leave it be.
Going forward, I will delete and lock threads.
"Why do you have to delete? Why can't you let us talk like adults"
Because it ends up being a war of words, and everyone gets annoyed and upset. 
KEEP THE DISCUSSIONS ABOUT CRUISING.