DunwoodyDad

Thanks so much! This is exactly what I was concerned about. We get away with this at our local place because they are selling food either way but I can see how in this case they want to be protective of the hibachi seating. I will have to convince my wife and kids to pick a menu. Thanks again!

Hi, My family will be on Freedom but I have 3 sushi eaters, 2 hibachi and then 1 who is a vegetarian. My questions: Can the 6 of us sit at a Hibachi table even if only 2 or maybe 3 order Hibachi and the others get Sushi? If we can do this, is the full Sushi menu available from a Hibachi table? Finally, looking over the menus of both, the vegetarian options seem very limited. Any recommendations? Thanks in advance!

I’m on this cruise in December but the sequence of days is different (sea, Nass, cc). Interesting that they move them around I guess to manage / limit ships at CC.

Ummmmm. Interesting observations aside, can JeffB weigh in here and translate what this means?

OMG. Smokey, my family almost cries when remembering the craziness in the Frankfurt airport connecting from Rome to ATL. We were coming back from a trip to Italy and a 4 night cruise on Jewel OTS to the French Riviera which was beyond awesome. But the “bonus” day we spent in Frankfurt due the inefficiencies there almost stripped the joy from our trip memories for weeks afterwards....

So are still expecting the CSO to be recommendations rather than requirements as of this Sunday?

I thought it was rumored the MDR menu was changing during the pandemic. I have looked on the app and it looks pretty much the same to me, but I haven’t compared closely. Has anyone noticed changes on Freedom or even Adventure?

Agree they have a lot at stake, but they don’t make vaccinated passengers wear masks on Adventure. Why would they out of the US unless being mandated by the CDC?

Agree and frankly counting on this. The only reason this exists on these cruises is the CSO from the CDC. If the CDC guidance default to only suggestions on the 18th, my assumption is RCL will drop the mask policy if you are vaccinated.

Totally agree with this and I may have misinterpreted what you meant. Bottom line to me is that the CSO going away will be a giant boost for the cruise lines if the current ruling sticks. And If they also could run their Florida based cruises the way they are doing on Adventure, I am sure they would and yes the Florida law is holding them back from doing that.

Twangster, I very much respect your knowledge of the cruise industry, but if you are trying to say that the Florida law over vaccine requirement is a greater hurdle than the CSO, then I think that is a really flawed take. Although it’s clearly not in line with RCLs ideal situation, they were able to manage through this law with the Vax/No Vax zones and sail last weekend at 86% vaccination rate. Meanwhile, because of the CSO they have a ridiculous amount of expensive red tape like test cruises and port agreements, and a requirement for vaccinated passengers to wear masks inside (despite that being a complete break from the guidance the CDC has given indoors while on land if vaccinated). To be clear, I am not defending the Fla law, but to suggest it’s a bigger impediment to get sailing again vs the CSO is just silly if you look at the facts.

This right here is what has bothered me for months and still makes me so frustrated with the CDC and anyone who defends the CSO a under the guise of health safety. The lines had facts on their side of protocols working from outside the US...not guesses (even very educated guesses like for instance “6 feet for proper distancing”). But instead of looking at those facts of successful protocols that lines were executing without outbreaks in order to maintain positive PR/protect their fragile brands after the early pandemic, the CDC and naysayers still believed the myth that cruises were not capable of sailing safely. Then came the test cruises, etc, etc.

Eat at a Guy’s Burger Joint because that would require me to get on a Carnival ship.

This is really important. The meeting sometimes can be at 8 interfering with the late dining seating but this is where and when they will make friends so prioritize it.

Yeah. Going to wait 1 week to see if MIA drops back. It went up by around 150 pp yesterday on me vs FLL. I’ve got a party of 6 so that really adds up. Thanks all!

Hi, Im sure this has been answered before but I searched some and couldn’t find the answer. Due to price on the departure flight from our Freedom cruise in December, I am considering flying out of Fort Lauderdale (FLL). Does anyone have experience doing this and specifically what is the earliest time I should consider booking? I know we can walk off pretty early but I am expecting lines going through customs and then a drive up 95. while I am on the topic, any recommendations on earliest time of we stick with going out of Miami? Thanks in advance!

Also it looks like this $100 package from AT&T only includes 200mb of data for the whole month. If you are using any kind of an app that consumes a lot of data (especially video) that would be gone pretty fast.

I would certainly take a pre-cruise test to avoid wearing a mask at all (since I’m vaccinated). Because RCL essentially set the rules for Adventure, my assumption is that this (masks but no test) was a CDC stipulation. My hope remains that the CSO is invalidated and RCL can set the rules for US sailings to match what they are doing out of the Bahamas.

Right but only IF sailing from US. If sailing from Bahamas, vaccinated don’t need to wear them. Hopefully the Fla lawsuit ruling will invalidate the CSO and that rule.

Thinking about this over the weekend I am really struggling with wearing masks indoors if vaccinated. This statement isn’t even accurate anymore or is this specific to cruises? Masks and Physical DistancingWhen indoors, CDC guidelines require all guests 2 and older to wear masks unless they are actively eating or drinking. The CDC does make allowances for guests to remove their masks in venues and events dedicated to fully vaccinated parties. Since so many of our guests are vaccinated, you’ll find plenty of these opportunities.

Any word on the cruise directors for the ships returning to service? Who is on adventure and do we know Freedom yet?

I just booked for December on Freedom but did so assuming much of the restrictions are gone by then. I don’t wear a mask now anywhere any more so don’t want to be on a cruise where it would be expected in some situations. I plan to use the Cruise with confidence program to move my cruise out if things aren’t better by final payment in Oct.

Not sure how old your kids are but have them go to the kids and / or teens club (depending on age of course) the first night. That’s when they meet friends and it makes a giant difference. We did a DCL cruise years ago but also switched as the kids got a little older and appreciated the focus more on activities and hanging out with other kids their age. They just preferred hanging out at Sorrentos for pizza, going ice skating, doing an escape room, or even walking around the ship with their new friends. Not that there were not similar opportunities on Disney...it just seemed like the focus was more on Disney stuff and/or younger kids. With 4 kids we went from 2 cabins to 3 cabins and despite that spent thousands less each cruise. They love RCL cruises even today (ages 15-20 now) and yet we are a huge Disney family. We just did a week at WDW and had a great time but no one evens mentions going back on DCL. Meanwhile we are booked on an RCL ship between Christmas and NYE and the family can’t wait.

Why would they be any different than what they are doing right now on Adventure?

Completely agree with all of this. If this means removal of the test cruise silliness, that is outstanding. That is a giant hurdle and cost the cruise lines can skip and get back to business.