JLMoran

...when you unexpectedly have to get a tree taken down, and that could be paid for with your canceled cruise refund, but you still decide to take the FCC and switch booking to another cruise. ?

Got the call about this from my TA this morning. Was initially going to take the full refund option, but it turns out that she has a group rate on Freedom's Bermuda sailings out of NJ that would let us switch to one of her October sailings at effectively zero additional cost, with a cabin upgrade from OV to Balcony as an added bonus. Talked it over with the missus and we'll be taking that option, just have to follow up with the TA once we settle on a date.

This brings up an interesting question in the context of the upcoming Adventure and Vision sailings -- with only one ship on the island at a time, and the ships sailing at reduced capacity, standard loungers and umbrellas will be available in massive abundance. Does that reduce the "need" or end value of a cabana in that case? At least at the normal (kinda crazy) pricing?

My older daughter is a part-time children’s music teacher and has had to take several tests now that she’s working out of the actual school building again. Always gets the results in 24 hours even without explicit rapid turnaround request (which requires a form from a doctor, like I’ve had for my pre-surgery tests).

Could be based on percentage of bookings for Adventure / Vision (must be vaccinated) vs other sailings. But yeah, some context would be nice.

So a bit of a setback. Not sure what the exact problem is, but this is not healing properly at all now. I'm getting some splits along the stitch lines where the wound was covered, and the graft appears to have basically failed in all but a couple tiny spots. If I was going to describe it, most of it looks like a bad burn wound right now, with other areas that don't look as bad but are refusing to form proper new skin. Doc has put me on a new treatment regimen, applying gauze pads soaked in "Dakin's Solution" twice a day over the entire graft and flap site, and wrapping that up in rolled gauze and an ace bandage. "Dakin's Solution" is apparently just highly diluted bleach -- the one active ingredient is 0.25% sodium hypochlorite -- along with a couple of stabilizing agents in water. Started it last night, and I will say that where the skin was getting progressively more itchy it's already calmed down a lot. Hopefully this will stabilize everything again and get me back on course with healing. Next appointment is a week from Friday. Body, can you seriously get it in gear already? I've got a cruise in just under 3 months and I will be damned if I'm going to miss it because you can't manage to heal decently.

This. I've gone all over the map with what I did / didn't buy on a given cruise. Have never bought a dining package because I just don't find it's worth it. I've bought and not bought the drink package depending on the price vs what I know I can comfortably manage every day of a cruise. I will say that if you're a big specialty coffee (i.e., espresso-based beverage) drinker and also drink lots of bottled water (and maybe like fresh OJ with breakfast), then getting the refreshment package on a good sale (around $20 per day) is usually a good purchase. Even if I don't get the deluxe package, my wife and I almost always find the refreshment one worth it. Other first-time advice I'll give is to not try and do two shore excursions in one day. It's technically possible in some ports, depending on the schedule, but trying to transfer between them on time could be seriously stressful. The times I've seen where it could be done, the end of one excursion was usually at the start time of another, or within only 15-30 minutes at best. Just pick one thing you want to do most and then use whatever time is left in port to just explore close to the port area on your own.

Any risk of massive static shocks from that? Or is that just a thing for drama in Hunt for Red October?

Actually, world governments did institute lockdowns during the 1918 Spanish Flu. There are published newspaper articles that several of my friends had shared with me showing the crazy parallels between then and now. As with now, the lockdowns were working to reduce the spread of the disease. And just like now, the big problem was that people needed to work and continue earning a living. Today we have multiple industry sectors that can work remotely, but they're basically all high-tech or phone-based (e.g, customer support and billing, or service booking businesses). Still tons of jobs that require getting out of the house and going to work. Just like back then, masks were heavily promoted as a way to reduce infection risk. And just like today, they became politicized and large groups refused to wear them. And if you go further back in history, you can see even then basic ideas of lockdown or isolation were attempted. When the bubonic plague was sweeping Europe, cities closed their gates to all incoming foreigners because they had no idea how it was spread. Ships were blockaded and merchant trains denied entry. Problem of course was that the disease is spread by fleas living on rats that just jumped ship and swam to shore, or were riding with the merchants and just entered the city via the sewers or other entry points. So yes, widespread lockdowns historically don't work. But they absolutely have been tried before.

@Matt, @Lovetocruise2002 – You are no longer the gold medal holders for furthest-out live blog kickoff. ?

Current evidence indicates that natural immunity to “OG Covid-19” confers little immunity to the variants that have emerged and become the dominant strains in multiple regions. The Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines have so far been shown to confer significant immunity against at least a couple of the variants (UK, South Africa); and May similarly confer increased resistance to the other variants, although evidence is still being gathered. And it’s not clear yetif J&J or AZ have similarly broad protection.

CDC needs to update the dining for fully vaccinated to allow extended indoor dining without any need for masks. They’ve already said it’s allowed on land, so why the heck would it not be allowed in the MDR of a ship that’s going to have the tables spaced out and no mixed group dining / large tables?

You’ve got a great PM there. Glad he’s not easing the pressure on the stone workers and making sure things are to spec and, more importantly, to the customer’s satisfaction.

If I read today's latest CDC update right, crowd size is no longer an issue when it comes to fully vaccinated individuals. Either indoors or outdoors. So the pool deck and other outdoor onboard spaces will all be fine. Especially for these Adventure and Vision sailings that are running at much-reduced capacity.

That's slightly older news from a couple of days ago, I think. Both that and the fact that masks are no longer required in any outdoor space on board.

I see suites available again for my Aug 14 Vision sailing. Looks like whatever Royal was debating or mulling over has been resolved to their satisfaction. EDIT -- Looks like the only option for a suite is "Suite Guarantee". Innnnnnnteresting...

My hope with this change in policy, for the upcoming Adventure and Vision sailings we'll see these additional updates from the Healthy Sail Panel / Royal: No masks required in the MDR or any other dining space (including smaller venues like the pub, Boleros, etc.) No masks required in the Royal Theater or other performance venues, the Viking Crown Lounge and other mainly lounging areas indoors, etc. No masks required while using loungers in the Solarium (if enclosed and not open to the outside air) Only time masks might be required, if even then, is when walking the hallways and corridors Those are quite narrow and two people passing by each other will get quite close; the brief exposure time from just passing is probably not going to be an issue But Royal might still at least recommend it to cover their butts for when passengers are going to their cabin and have the bad luck to hit a log jam of people going somewhere else Honestly, I think even this won't be recommended, never mind required. If the CDC says vaccinated people can congregate without regard to crowd size, then why bother? Wild card here is the destination ports. The Healthy Sail Panel has to take into account not just the US regulatory agencies and the latest science, but what the port governments are mandating. I've been checking Bermuda's web site for updates to Covid protocols, and so far they are just as glacial in their movement as the CDC has been. Zero significant changes that I've seen in the vaccinated tourist protocols for land vacations, never mind any info specifically about cruise passengers. No idea if the Bahamian / Caribbean / Mexican ports' governments have been making any kind of similar updates as the CDC.

Yeah, that really is just a BS way to do it. At that point, pay the minimal "extra" for the all-inclusive room since you'll more than come out ahead just on tips, even if you don't use one byte of wifi data or take a single non-free drink. That is a point to consider about the drink package inclusion. Even if you don't drink alcohol, the classic beverage package also includes coffees, sodas, and a few other semi-premium beverages. So you can still get some value out of that being included if you like to get coffees at Cafe Al Baccio or other premium coffee venues.

Our guys used the same machine to level everything out, but did it after the settling had a chance to happen. NJ soil is very clay-heavy and tends to move a bit once it's wet, especially when topsoil or sand is added in. And in my case, the work was also done after displacing a lot of the soil in the area to remedy a leak / hole in our foundation wall's cinderblock. If your soil is more sandy or otherwise drier, and wasn't really moved around a lot in that area (not the area that just got back-filled by the bobcat) you could well be correct about them being less-concerned with settling down the road.

They actually may want the rain to help settle the material. I have a paver patio that was put in many years ago, and before the pavers were laid down they put the top layer of sand and soil in place and left it there for about a week, maybe two. They wanted to get it rained on and really settled / packed down so that once the pavers were installed, they wouldn't get uneven from further soil settling and compression. It definitely worked. The patio is still level everywhere, except the very edges where the retaining strips have come a bit loose as the soil in the yard has shifted over the years. Glad to see more forward movement. Hopefully those errors in the stone facade and fire pit shaping will be worked out this week as well, before the rain comes.

Point of order. @Lovetocruise2002 always posts to her blogs first. Or at least always starts them before @Matt. ??

When you drive past the local Izumi on the way to work and think, “Nah, I’d rather swing by Giovanni’s Table for lunch today.” Yes, there really is a sushi / hibachi place not 15 minutes from my house named Izumi, and I would drive past it every day on the way to work. Back when “driving to work” was actually still a thing.

$210 is way less than the cost of those perks when purchased separately. Assuming that they are also not including gratuities in the rate, that alone runs about $100 per person over 7 nights, if I’m remembering right that they are $14.50 per night for non-suite cabins. Classic beverage package by itself is $50 per person per night, so on a 7-night sailing that would be $350 all by itself. That “discount” stinks to high heaven. Even allowing for some fuzzy math package rate for AI, you’re not saving a damn thing once you have to pay the gratuities.

Expect the cost to be higher than a standard excursion since it will be for far fewer people. I booked one with Celebrity, that combined a whale watching tour with a walking tour of Akureyri in Iceland, and for just four people it was running about $90 per person. They do scale the price based on the size of your party; if you have friends or people on a roll call who want to join you, the per person cost can drop much closer to a regular excursion.

And/or Bermuda + Perfect Day cruises!