EmersonNZ

The genetic sequencing is of the genetic signature of the virus, not the person (In fact it is a completely different process). It is used by health officials to determine which variant of the virus is the most common in a particular community and to identify any new variants in the community. There are a lot of reasons this is important such as developing treatment plans, determining if a more contagious/deadly version is gaining traction, determining how a virus is spreading through a community etc etc. To make feel people better they probably should call it virus signiture sequencing...

I think we will eventually get an Oasis class ship in the region but I imagine it will once the 1st or 2nd Icon class sets sail. This will free up 1 or 2 Oasis class ships from the Caribbean market and they could be looking for a new port to call home.

Chris is on Ovation. He does later that it doesn't apply to other ships. I imagine within certain company criteria each Captain his ability to make changes to shore leave based on the requiremnts of the ship at the time.

Chris Wong (Crew member currently on Ovation) mentioned in his vlog today 16/3) that all shore leave had been rescinded due to an increase in COVID amongst crew (Link to video). They had been granted freeflow shore leave about 2 weeks ago but that has now been withdrawn. Obviously this is pretty tough on the crew as it could mean they won’t have shore leave during their 6 to 9 month contracts. This would indicate that the crew COVID numbers are higher than they had planned for given they are hving to take these measures knowing the impacts it will have on staff moral (They wouldn't make that change lightly). This could certianly play havoc with crew scheduling. You only need a couple of people in a deptment not being able to work to cause roster/staffing issues.

RCCL doesn't work in a vacuum. Many on shore businesses across the world are facing staff shortages. In the case of NZ for example we have the lowest unemployment we've had in decades which is leading to staff shortages in some fields (Hospitality being one). Add to that visa delays, quarantine rules in some countries, vaccine requirements etc etc etc ,RCCL will be struggling to fil some positions just like everyone else And then of course just like on land I imagine they will have staff having to quarantine because they test positive or are a close contact also adding to the shortages for particular sailings. If I am quarantining for 7 days that could be a whole 7 day cruise I can't work (or a couple of 3 and 4 night cruise etc). Being a staff p[lanner must be a nightmare about now.

I know everyone is keen to get back to Vanuatu but I think their government needs to be conservative in their decision making. It is important to remember they don't have the health infrastructure of NZ, Aust, US or for that matter New Caledonia. The number of hospital beds and ventilators per head of populations is well under the countries most of us call home. Also unfortunately adding to this as a population they are also over represented in conditions that increase the risk of serious COVID outcomes (such as Diabetes etc). On the other hand a great deal of the countries income is from tourism so opening up is important. Yes, can’t wait to get back there…. But I absolutely wouldn’t want to do so if I knew I was putting the people of Vanuatu at undue risk. I am happy to let Vanuatu make their own decision on when they want to open up and respect the fact they are being cautious. When they do I hope Australia and New Zealand continue to support them as far as ensuring they have access to any medical facilities they may require as they open up and that the cruise lines act responsibility and take into consideration the nature of the countries infrastructure itself when deciding to dock in a given day our not (Which I think they will be especially RCL which has long term agreements in place with Vanuatu). I actually wouldn’t be upset if you had do a rapid test before being allowed off the ship in port. Given most itineraries see a 2 or 3 day sail before you land it gives time for your viral load to be high enough to test positive. It might be a nice compromise between having the ships return and keeping the population as safe as possible (Never will 100% but anything we can do to reduce pressure on their health system the better).

Don't tempt them.... before you know it they will be charging to watch the navigation map on the TV. (I'm only half joking and almost recret typing this in case some at RCL sees it.)

There is some minor variation but mostly the same beer will be the same price througout the ship (And does depend on ship). As far as happy hour you will often see various specails such as '$x' for a bucket of beers. I've seen the offering vary throughout a crusie and even different per venue.

In the case of Oasis you WILL receive internet as apart of your suiet You will receive 1 login for each person in the cabin. This means that you can use the internet on one device at a time per person. You can happily log off one device and then logon another (And if someone doens't want to sue the internet at the time... grab their log in

From you original post it seems you are on Voyager which is part of the Voyager class (this class includes Explorer of the Seas, Adventure of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas and Mariner of the Seas). This ship class does not include Internet as part of the suite amenities.

We must give gratitude to our robot masters....

I've certainyl done the 'hold my breath and sprint' tactic. Reducing oxygen input during training is all the rage these days in endurance training

Does anyone find it strange they often place a smoking section around the running track? As someone who uses the running track a few times a cruise this really annoyed me. Being as (not) fit as i am when I'm running I need all the air I can get and breathing in second hand smoke is not really helpful

With a love of scuba diving I would be looking at Caribbean itineraries. Every cruise I go on I try and do at least 1 or 2 days diving and always found the excursion well run (Obviously with Scuba diving some times it gets cancelled by whether but better to not dive than have adverse conditions create dangerous conditions. As far as solo traveling… as ellcee said the wonderful thing is the choice is yours. On the smaller ships you might get to know the crew a little better which could be nice while the bigger ships there is so much to do. Whatever cruise you do I hope you have an amazing time.

We are seeing the same thing for sailings out of Australia for this coming summer season (Nov-Mar). So far even with the 125% discount I'm seeing dringks package is about 110 % more expensive than I paid in 2020.

First of all congratulations on your Royal Up bid. Each of the ships have a email address for the concierge and hopefully they should be in contact. If you are planning on doing speciality dining I would ask them to arrange that for you. Even if you are doing a dining plan they are able to books them for you. Pop in and say gidday to the concierge on the first day in the concierge lounge. I'd also make a happy of popping in tot he lounge for nibbles and a drink each night. I always enjoy getting to know the concierge team during these times as well as your follow suite cruisers. During the cruise if you have any questions, if there are any issues or you were wanting help with anything remember just to ask the concierge and they will be sure to help you as much as they can. I know NZers and Aussies are rather shy in asking for things but honestly they are keen to help. My experience is they will also appreciate the laid back ANZAC style and really appreciate a bit of a chat and someone taking some time to say hi and ask a little about them etc. Most importantly... have an amazing time!!!!

Just checked and the US$ price is $90USD. I was able to log in using US$ and it is listed as $90.

I am really hoping it is a mistake or filler as they get things back on to the site etc. The price I am seeing at the moment for our January sailing out of Sydney is nearly 115% more than I paid in Feb 2020.

Simular story for our January Ovation sailing ($156 NZD). That is absolutly insane and absolutly no way we'll be buying a package at that price it is about double what we last broughout it at in Jan 2020. I am hoping it is a mistake or placeholder as they start adding things back into the cruise planner for sailings out of Aust. If not I can't see them selling too many at that price. As you mentioned for many that will be mroe than the cost of their cruise.

International or domestic? Domestic if the ship arrvies on time you should be able to do it without an issue. I'd get off the ship, walk to the Circular Quay train station (About 5 to 10 minutes) and it is a direct train stright to the airport. It is about 30 minutes to the airport in the train. International you have to allow extra time.. You could do it if everything goes well.... but... Personally I wouldn;t do itm myself (and aren't for our January trip when we are staying a night before catching our flight home to New Zealand the next day.

I would suspect it'll be the same rules as any other tourist who enters the country in that they have to be fully vacinated. I wouldn't be surprise to see the cruise lines also add testing at depature (Govt may alos add this but I suspect the cruise lines will anyway if the rest of the world is anything to go off). The interesting bit will be do they treat a cruise ship like any othe bit of transport (i.e must wear a mask) or like a entertainment venue such as a resturant/bar (Don't have to wear a mask). Of course there is a lot of water to go under the keel before October so I imagine things will change multiple times before then.

Good questions.... the instances happened at various C&A levels but we are Emerald so certainly not top tier by any means (Will be Diamond after our next cruise in January). As for whom made the initial contact regarding the issue it was normally Keryn. The Coke example was our first cruise with Royal so not even Gold (Keryn is the coke drinker and it was her that approached the Windjammer staff). The excursion was our 3rd cruise so I'd guess Platinum (No complaint was made as it was weather related. Royal themselves contacted us about the available seat... they did have Keryn’s phone number but doubt if they knew if it was male or female). The air conditioner again was Keryn who mentioned it to the cabin attendant. We were gold for this cruise. I personally didn't notice it but Keryn doesn't cope too well if the room is warm at night so mentioned to the attendant she couldn't get it to work. After he tried he informed her it seemed to be broken and hence contacted maintenance. Onboard credit was me who contacted them. I first rang and then they gave me an email address to contact. It did take about 10 days to get a reply at which point they let me know they had credited the $400.

I noticed a few complaints on these board regarding the service they have received from RCL. And while I am the first to say they aren’t perfect I thought I would share a couple of examples of where they have gone the extra mile to make things right when they have gone wrong. In each case we received service which was above and beyond what we expected. In each case we just let them know there was an issue and never expected anything in compensation. My advice. If there is an issue let them know. Be nice and polite. Remember every staff member wants to make your cruise enjoyable and whatever went wrong it either wasn’t the staff members fault or if it was a mistake on their part they do it on purpose. An issue with air-conditioning (we think) We were in a room that had a bit of an issue with the air-conditioned. We mentioned it to our stateroom attendant who apologised and got maintenance to look at it. It took them a couple of days to fix it but eventually got it working. We thought nothing of it and forgot about it. On our last day we got a letter in our state room saying a 30% refund had been credited to our credit card. They didn’t mention what it was for hence we ‘think’ it was due to the air-conditioner. Cancelled excursion due to weather. We were on an Alaskan cruise and had saved up to an excursion of a lifetime which included a helicopter ride to a glacier and then a bobsled ride. Unfortunately there was low cloud cover most of the morning so the helicopters couldn’t fly. This certainly wasn’t in RCL control but they offered us a more expensive excursion which also included a helicopter flight later in the day. Unfortunately this also got cancelled as the weather hadn’t lifted. We thought that was the end of it and resigned to not being able to take the trip. About an hour later we got a call on our cellphone only to tell us that they had one spare space on a flight leaving in 30 minutes which they guaranteed would fly. While it meant I couldn’t go as there was only one seat my wife had an amazing trip. What I was impressed with is they took the time t to ring us and see if we wanted the spare seat. They didn’t have to do that. No sugar free soda in Coke Freestyle We were on a cruise where they didn’t have any sugar free soda on the ship. We mentioned we couldn’t find diet free soda to one of the staff in the Windjammer out of passing. Before we know it a manager came and gave us bottles of diet coke and let us know we could go to any bar and ask for free diet soda. We thought that was the end of it… then when we got back to our room that afternoon there was a plate of cookies waiting for us with a little note. Then every day or so another plate of cookies in our stateroom Issue with on board credit We made a booking for an upcoming cruise and there was a bit of an issue with the onboard credit. The indicated we would receive $400 when in fact we received $50. A quick email to RCL and not only did they fix the mistake but they added a whole $400 making it $450 onboard credit.

I would absolutly get Surf and Stream. Video conferncing is essentually a 2 way streaming service and needs the faster bandwidth that the Surf and Stream service allows. I think it is important to moderate your expectations with internet sppeds on ships. While RCL internet is really good for ship board internet access that reality is the spped can range for 'almost unusable' to 'bearly adequate' with a smattering of 'this is pretty good'.

As mentioned above Chops is the only place where you are limited to 1 main however even there I often get 2 appetizers (Grilled Black Pepper Bacon... one serving is never enough).