Gears

Canada now has the same requirement as of January 7th for anyone 5 years of age or older.

Of course...there are countries where flights originate on a 'temporary exception list' where a test result is not required to board the plane...primarily because these countries do not have the capacity to test and provide results within 72 hours. Alas...flights have arrived from these countries where the entire flight - all rows - has been identified as potentially exposed to C19.

Even with a negative test a 14 day quarantine on return is required.

7 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I wanna go!!! That itinerary looks amazing! I need to retire.

Or adopted by a nice couple in FLA?

Just landed in my inbox today...looks like a go.

1 hour ago, princevaliantus said:

Source cannot be disclosed, especially on message boards, due to privilged information.

Then it's meaningless.

Hang on a minute...

Your first post says "So we made what we thought was the best decision and canceled our trip."

Your second post says: "If things were different and we canceled then I can see them keeping the deposit."

Any and all 'Port Shopping' seminars...

One of our first cruises...naively thought this was a good idea. Ended up being "Make sure you visit the Diamonds International and pick yourself up some rare crap-o-lite jewelry!". Curious how there is a Diamonds International at every port of call...

6 minutes ago, PaulRC said:

I have not heard of this.  Is this just speculation?  Where did you read this?  If that is the case it is not a real vaccine is it?

Here's a link to an FDA FAQ page. Not a great deal of certainty on many topics.

https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/mcm-legal-regulatory-and-policy-framework/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-frequently-asked-questions

@monctonguy Same here. I remember back in the day (March 2020) when the plan was to extend March break by two weeks and everything would open up again by the first week of April. The no need wear a mask, it's 'low risk', no need to close borders, it's 'low risk'. Now it's a province wide shutdown (again!...rinse & repeat expecting a different outcome) and you can get an $800 ticket for having too many people in your house.

Meanwhile, increasing lockdown measures over the past 6-8 weeks and the cases/day numbers either still go up or stay the same. I don't think they (or anybody) really knows what to do (without causing issues/deaths from other reasons).

Agree...it does not look good for cruising based on what we see today.

1 hour ago, monctonguy said:

LOL...what??!...IF the vaccines prevents you from getting Covid, then you cant spread what you don't have!!!!!....

 

On the other hand, if you get Covid..then the vaccine didn't work AND of course you can transmit it....

 

Please tell me all about the other vaccines we have that have eradicated certain diseases......but you could still get the disease and spread it if you had the vaccine......

 

 

I think the media headlines have led the public in general to believe the vaccine is some sort of 'cure-all bubble shield'. The number of hospitalizations and deaths will certainly plummet considerably overall...the population will be far 'less sick'. Discontinuation...nope.

I think you are going to see vaccinations being a requirement of countries of ports of call factoring into a cruise line requirement as well.

Wife and husband portrait on a formal night.

The folder of pictures is like a time machine...

15 minutes ago, AlmondFarmer said:

Thank you all for your responses. I was hoping for someone to say go to blanketybkank.com, enter sail date and price adjustments are done automatically. I will stick with the tried and true traditionally method explained above.
I read the fine print and Star class Genie managing my booking for me is not listed as an service/amenity, bummer.

I'm hearing business opportunity...for someone with time. @Lovetocruise2002??  

We have requested refunds through this link on the health and travel alerts page. If I try to enter the same booking number again the system tells me there is already a refund request being processed.

https://cancellation.royalcaribbean.com/?brand=R&_ga=2.229053980.1074290171.1608209331-1417170877.1594931665

However, on my profile, there is no record or reference of any bookings, refund requests or FCC amounts. In fact, the only notification received was refunds for Cruise Planner purchases using OBC. If I didn't actually know about the bookings and refund requests, I wouldn't know a thing. The unsettling part is that the only record I have is the original booking and payment confirmations from the travel agent.

Our final payment was November 20 for cruises cancelled on December 2nd.

We are submitting a dispute to our credit card company for the charges based on 'cancelled services'. Although we have submitted refund requests to RCI...I can't say I have any confidence that said refunds will be processed in a reasonable time based on people's actual experience.

9 hours ago, twangster said:

Now that I'm in the states when they come to town (back before the virus) I could go to see them play for $12.  For $16 I get a ticket, a t-shirt and a free beer.  Unreal. 

We have joke in Southern Ontario...it's cheaper (all in) to fly to a US city to see the Leafs play than it is to buy Leafs home tickets.

3 hours ago, KWong said:

I would laugh my head off if this did happen. But then the Leafs have been dead to me since about the turn of the century, so...

Management heads hitting the ceiling of salary cap while at the same time reaching for the basement door. A feat that can only be accomplished my TML management, year, after year, after year.

When cruising (what's that??) and people ask where we are from, it's not uncommon to be asked if we follow the Leafs. The answer..."Well, we know about them. It's kind of like a reality show, but with a real live arena where you pay in the area of $400/ea for nose bleed seats hoping to be on TV. None of it is real."

38 minutes ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

Well the Leafs won’t lose to Boston first round, but you’re right....the won’t make it past first round.

GO CANUCKS!!!

 

PS never thought I’d be having a hockey discussion on this board lol

If you fly to Toronto...after landing...the PA announcement: "Welcome to Toronto everyone! Proud home of the 1967 Stanley Cup Champions.".

20 minutes ago, twangster said:

Word is the NHL is considering an All-Canadian division for the next season to avoid border crossings.  

Correctamundo. The sports channels up here are all over that...higher domestic ratings when Canadian teams play each other.

Oh...and the Leafs still won't make it past the first round anyway.

Perhaps not well known that you can do this (at least you could at one time...back in 2009)...

Embarkation day at Port Everglades for a 7 night Eastern Caribbean itinerary...about 12 motorcycles were loaded on to the ship. A group had arranged to have them on the ship and go on self guided tours at some of the ports of call.

Port day at St. Thomas...about 4:00 pm...beep beep beep...of the tow truck backing up with a bent up Harley Davidson Buell hanging on the hook. Watching them get it loaded back into the cargo hold...that was interesting.

Rider was OK...some scrapes, bruises and a damaged ego, but was lucky.

7 minutes ago, twangster said:

Just got another $500 in refunds today.  $14k to go...

I see the RCL stock price is down about 2% on news of your cancellations... 

2 hours ago, twangster said:

My personal approach right now is to book nothing more with Royal until the pandemic is clearly over and everything is back to normal.  Once bitten twice shy sort of thing.  

I like Royal in general but they've lost their way in this pandemic.  Once I see them getting back to the Royal I used to know I'll come back.

I echo that.

On Monday I was generally positive. Today (Friday), that positivity has disappeared and has been replaced with the opposite.

The deal breakers, all the black Friday, extended to the weekend and then cyber Monday deals...only to outright cancel the cruises a day or two later they were advertising sales for. The continual marketing to buy-buy-buy only to announce more cancelations and say 'we don't know when' followed by more buy-buy-buy marketing...not a place I want to keep our money waiting.

We'll look at coming back when there are green lights across the board.

They need more time. Understandable.

So...

• Each ship must conduct successful test cruise(s)
• Each ship must apply for and receive 'conditional authorization', this application will take --> at least <-- 60 days (aka minimum)
• If a test cruise embarked by -- lets say December 13th (which could theoretically happen...I guess)
• They are not going to run test sailings on all ships day 1, they will work out the kinks on one or two and then expand what works to other ships
• They have to do this for how many (?) ships leaving US ports
• If all goes well on a test cruise and everything else lines up perfectly...

...then, and only then, a March 1st sailing could take place...with all passengers there and ready to go.

A couple of bumps and kinks to work out, process re-working, new test cruises and who knows what with the CDC...can be expected. While miracles do occasionally happen, I think expecting March 1st embarkations out of the US is now unrealistic given the time they need to meet the CDC requirements.

Barring some sort of surprise intervention, I think this is just 'this round' of cancellations.

If all goes as can reasonably be expected, it will be only a couple of ships to start and maybe May 1st. A few extra glitches and it will be June/July.
 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After thinking a little more -- with the vaccines on the horizon...why bother going through the massive expense and anguish of trying to meet the CDC rules...risking a case or two and shutting down? Why not just wait a few months more and require all crew and passengers to have proof of vaccination? Problem solved (so to speak), carry on as they were and they can probably tell the CDC where to stick their list.

26 minutes ago, RBRSKI said:

I find it very hard to believe that I’m the only one who thinks they need a Plan B desperately.  Look to start cruises somewhere other then the states!  
Our current government showed they had some desire to help with cruises resuming.  Don’t even think of cruising in 2021 when the new government takes over in January.   
 

It’s just a dose of reality in my opinion!

You're not the only one. 

They will have plan B, C, etc. They're just talking about all the options behind their closed doors and not telling us  what they are looking at. RCI hasn't announced cancellations to the degree other cruise lines have...could be a very good reason behind that.

Water package for 50% off.

Other than that...

13 minutes ago, JT2 said:

I see it listed.

Dunno...maybe it has something to do with where I am searching from.