DunwoodyDad

12 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

1.  No.  If you are at the hibachi table there would be an additional charge for anything ordered from the hibachi side even if you have the UDP.  So if you are having hibachi and want some sushi, you can certainly get it - for an additional charge - but you are still going to be "paying" for hibachi whether you eat it or not.  The single exception to this rule is Star Class.  SC can order anything from the Sushi side when they are at hibachi at no additional charge.

2.  Yes and no.  The full sushi menu IS available but anything you order will be at an additional charge on top of the hibachi fee (or UDP, whichever applies).  My guess is that the seating is so limited on the hibachi side that they do not want people sitting there that are not there for hibachi.

3.  Can't really help you with this one but I have read of others who were vegetarians and enjoyed Izumi, whatever that is worth.

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!

9 hours ago, Reigert2008 said:

Just got off the Freedom from our 4N cruise.  Here are the cruise compasses if you (or @Matt ) wants them!

Overall it was a great time (as usual).  Looking forward to the next one!

 

Freedom_CC_4N_BahamasPerfectDay_08022021.pdf 4.77 MB · 4 downloads Freedom_CC_4N_BahamasPerfectDay_08022021_WelcomeAboard.pdf 1.98 MB · 3 downloads Freedom_CC_4N_BahamasPerfectDay_08032021.pdf 4.96 MB · 3 downloads Freedom_CC_4N_BahamasPerfectDay_08032021_PerfectDayMap.pdf 1.72 MB · 3 downloads Freedom_CC_4N_BahamasPerfectDay_08032021_PerfectDayTips.pdf 1.18 MB · 2 downloads Freedom_CC_4N_BahamasPerfectDay_08042021.pdf 7.21 MB · 1 download Freedom_CC_4N_BahamasPerfectDay_08052021.pdf 4.91 MB · 3 downloads Freedom_CC_4N_BahamasPerfectDay_08052021_DepartureLetter.pdf 1.58 MB · 2 downloads

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?

On 7/21/2021 at 10:15 AM, smokeybandit said:

While true, that was 70 years ago now. Other countries get new railways, highways, airports (except Germany, they're not good at airports), etc, done in far less time than in the USA. 

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?

13 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I have a friend who works for American, he said they were told mask would be a thing until at least Jan 2022. The variants, plus the regular flu/cold season is the main reason why.

I don't bank on July 18th being anything. Without it being a "everyone who can/want to be vax cruise," mask are going to be a thing. We could hope that those who are vax should be allowed to go maskless but the cruise lines have too much at stake.

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?

19 minutes ago, cruisinghawg said:

July 18th could prove interesting.

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. 

2 hours ago, twangster said:

 

It doesn't have to be this way.  Government could do what it does best, get out of the way.  That applies equally to the federal and state governments. 

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. 
 

3 hours ago, twangster said:

An important moment but it's still not clear how this changes very much for Florida cruises.

The pandemic in general is not over and it's not clear what the impacts of future variants will be.  

The Florida law that prevents a cruise line from cruising safely with vaccinations as a tool in their toolbox is not immediately impacted by this case with the CDC.

For Royal Caribbean International at every step they've taken a path that allows unvaccinated children so it's clear they are trying to accommodate families even in states where this legal case has no immediate impact.  They've also quietly allowed some exemptions beyond children. 

Clearly Royal is not trying to deny service based on vaccination status even in Nassau where it could have, that's bad for business and Royal knows it.   Some are trying to make this look like a binary situation, all vax or no vax but it's not for Royal and never has been.

That's why the Florida law is a law that isn't required.  It's a law to make it look like government is doing something when in fact it's just more government overreach while everyone is celebrating this judge who just slapped down a government for overreaching its power.

In an ideal world a cruise line would be able to determine safe protocols based on the ratio of vaccinated and unvaccinated and they could adjust protocols as new variants emerge and other's go away.  Is that 85% today? 80% a month from now? 50% six months from now? That's for the proper experts to decide, not a doomsday federal agency, not an authoritarian state government and not the general public.  

The pandemic isn't over.  Delta won't be the last variant.  Vaccines are the path to safe cruising without a 100% vax requirement.  Cruise lines like Royal are not trying to establish an absolute vaccine requirement.  That's doesn't change with this latest step in the case against the CDC.

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. 

9 hours ago, JeffB said:

More precisely, if the cruise lines had been able to restart almost 6 months ago under the guidelines of the Healthy Sail Panel - which have very obviously worked outside the US - none of the economically costly cold and warm storage of cruise ships would have happened. 

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.

9 hours ago, wordell1 said:

Yes, It is very important to attend the first meeting on the first night of the cruise.  There are some organized activities as well but a lot of groups form up the first night.  Keep in mind that all the kids are in the same boat.

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. 

11 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

But vaccinated need to get tested for Bahamas cruises.

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. 

12 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Cruise ship rules.

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 Distancing
When 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.

56 minutes ago, MrMarc said:

Ok if, as many people, including this Judge (even of not directly) that there is no science behind masking and distancing, why does he point to it as reasons (along with vaccination) for the infection rate dropping and remaining low?  It seems to me that the CDC could come up with a limited order that includes these elements that would be within the Judge's conditions. So everyone celebrating the cruise lines freedom to do whatever they want might want to wait a month or so.  Even if the CDC totally drops this, which I think is highly unlikely, the cruise lines are going to have to come up with protocols on their own, making it more likely that there may be liability concerns despite waivers and releases, especially on previously booked cruises. So I think it may be possible that we end up with restrictions that no one likes.  But at a minimum, if things were uncertain before, they are in total chaos right now.

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

1 hour ago, ConstantCruiser said:

It does free the cruise lines from being beholden to the whims of the CDC.  

They don't have to expend vast amounts of energy asking and negotiating with the CDC on a ship by ship basis for the next several months, waiting for the CDC to make a change and then investing countless hours to redo process and procedures based on the latest outdated CDC requirements. 

Cruise lines can now choose when and where to restart and what protocols they will use.  They can be agile in responding and adapting as the situation unfolds (the CDC is not agile).

It also saves the industry millions of dollars.  Test sailings cost money.  They consume vast amounts of fuel and crew salaries have to be paid.  Test cruises have to be resupplied with vast amounts of food and other provisions.  Port fees and taxes have to be paid yet they can't charge passengers anything.  Pilots have to be paid.  Longshoreman have to be paid.  Terminal contractors doing things like check in have to be paid.  All the while test cruises are generating zero revenue. That's hundreds of thousands of dollars saved per ship for a beleaguered industry shut down by the government.   

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.