Atlantix2000

Is there a map showing where the new terminals would be located?

I think part of the problem is there are limited sailings available to move all the people that are getting displaced as the number of cancellations grow. When the next month's worth of sailings get cancelled (and we know it's coming), just think how much trouble those people will have getting their cruises lifted and shifted! In a few months when Royal releases new inventory for 2022, things will probably open up as people rearrange their sailings yet again.

One more possible constraint, you will probably need some adult Thrill Waterpark passes because I'm not certain the kids can be there alone. I know I've seen discussions here before but don't remember the conclusions.

Since it is federal law, suspending or waiving the Jones Act would require Congress and the President to pass a new law. I don't see that happening anytime soon. My limited understanding is that the Jones Act was (in theory) supposed to protect the interests of American companies by restricting foreign companies from shipping or cruising between US ports. That sounds good. USA! USA! However, if a ship is flagged in the US, it has to follow all US labor laws which means higher expenses so everybody flags their ships elsewhere. So the Jones Act has resulted in there being no American companies involved! Oops!

Check out the latest blog post, Matt says there is limited inventory for this 50% off sale.

Reward point gathering experts would tell you you want to have 3 Chase cards - Freedom (for 5% rewards on rotating categories), Freedom Unlimited (for 1.5% rewards on everything), Sapphire Reserve (for 3% rewards on travel/dining but 1% on everything else which is why you want the others). For each charge, you use the most appropriate card to get the best rewards, then move the points over to the Sapphire Reserve's reward balance and use the points there with 50% bonus when booking travel through Chase. Done perfectly, you would never get less than 2.25% return on any purchase and could get as high as 7.5%. And that's just with Chase's terms of use. If you can transfer the points 1:1 to an airline and redeem for a particularly good flight, some lucky users have reported getting an effective 10+% return. But it takes effort to track those deals. Of course, many of this site's users clearly enjoy checking their booked cruises daily to find repricing opportunities so they might also enjoy the reward game. Personally, I use 2 Chase cards (Freedom and Sapphire Reserve) and my Discover card (also 5% cash back rotating categories but conveniently never the same as Freedom's).

Chase's points have to be redeemed through Chase's website. If you transfer the points to an airline, you would have to book through the airline. Chase points do not expire but airline points are governed by their own programs so they may or may not have an expiration. Generally, I think it makes sense to keep the points at Chase until you know how you are going to use them because the transfer is pretty instantaneous. Also, you have to do the math to see which booking option makes sense. If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, booking through Chase's website gives you a 50% bonus to the value of your points. This means it is sometimes cheaper to pay for a flight in "cash" by using Chase points at 1.5 cents per point than to transfer to the airline to pay for the same flight with airline points. It is true that the $450 annual fee (which is moving to $550 but I believe they delayed that due to Covid) looks steep but your first $300 in travel costs each year are rebated to you (immediate credit after the charge) so it's really only $150 (to be $250) as long as you actually travel (and that includes gas station charges). There's numerous other perks including access to airport lounges (mostly international with Priority Pass), pays for your TSA PreCheck every 4 years, etc. which may or may not be useful to you. But the more of them you use, the less that $450 ($550) matters. Chase also lets you combine points from all their cards. So I have a Chase Freedom card which gives 5% on a single category like dining/gas/amazon/etc each quarter. After earning those points, I can transfer them to the Sapphire Reserve's balance and use the 50% bonus redemption for travel. That means I effectively earn 7.5% back on certain purchases. Rewards are a bit of a game and there are plenty of websites dedicated to maximizing your redemption value. I don't have the energy to track my rewards that closely but I'm confident I get way more value than the annual fee and that's all that matters to me.

No one knows how long it would take to get the staff back because there has never been a total shut down like this before. Unless international travel restrictions get lifted well before cruising restarts, I would expect problems similar to getting the staff home. Some staff will probably be stuck at home even if they want to come back. Normally only a small percentage of a ship's staff changes at any one time. This will be closer to staffing up a brand new ship but even that comparison isn't perfect. A new ship usually gets filled by experienced staff from several existing ships. Now, everyone will be new or out of practice and in need of training.

This is the main reason I see no point in booking anything for the foreseeable future.

Michael Bayley is CEO of Royal Caribbean International (a single cruise line). Richard Fain is the Chairman (or maybe CEO or both, doesn't really matter) of the parent company Royal Caribbean Group (which owns several cruise lines).

You can search these forums for previous threads about the CDC. Their requirements were published. They may not be on the top of every mainstream media's reporting but they are there. For good or bad, the cruise industry is one of the only things where the CDC has direct authority to say "you may not operate". There's a lot the CDC would ban if they could. When you say "Everything else is allowed to open up and function but not cruise ships" you have to understand that the CDC is not necessarily allowing those industries to open up, it's FAR more likely that they just can't prevent it.

Unfortunately, you've seen mixed answers because the answer is mixed. It depends on the ship and whether you are willing to argue while on vacation. I would also consider all answers to be in question thanks to the shutdown. When things start up again, there may be a new answer but I wouldn't count on it being consistent.

According to my neighbors, pool stores have already been sold out for months (manufacturers couldn't keep up with the spike in demand combined with shutting down their factories). Their pool has arrived at their store but now the installers are so backed up (slower working due to covid safety restrictions) that they are currently looking at late september for an install date. They ordered in April!

You mean this thread NOT written by Ogilthorpe? and which doesn't appear to have anything political in it?

Most restaurants have a cover charge which is covered by the cost of the UDP. The $20/$35 is for those restaurants that charge by the item. For each visit to such a restaurant you can use up to that amount (you can always pay for more). With either style of restaurant, you can go as often as you like (provided they have a seat for you). I see @WAAAYTOOO has beaten me with a more complete answer, so I'll just stop there!

For departures from US ports, Royal does not enforce a boarding time policy. I've been asked when I plan to arrive but I've never been obligated to actually arrive then. (They might ask so they have an idea of when the busy times will be but I don't really think they do anything with the information.) I haven't seen any announcement that this will change once cruising restarts but you never know. The check in process will have to include social distancing in line and if they can discourage too many people from showing up at the same time, that would probably help.

You could always post your question on Royal's Facebook (so you don't have to wait on hold just for a question). Then show her the reply.

How would you handle all of your customers trying to change and/or cancel all of their orders simultaneously? And you're dealing with some of the same customers over and over because they have multiple cruises booked or they don't/won't reschedule for far enough out. You really think you can do all that without wait times going to hell?

Years ago, when the government introduced dollar coins, they had a promotion where you could order the coins and receive them with free shipping. The government thought this would encourage people to get the coins into circulation. Instead, people ordered large quantities of the coins on their credit cards, received them for free, and immediately deposited them in their bank account. Note that this was back in the days when you got decent interest rates in a savings account. Then, you just pay your credit card bill on time....FREE MONEY!!!

I think Carnival's statement that they aren't starting until after the "no sail" order expires around the end of July tells us all we need to know. Royal is just canceling in waves to keep their cash flow a bit better. They are making trips to Asia to drop off crew. They wouldn't do that if they just have to pick them back up two weeks later.

Not to downplay their situation, but the language about "ability to continue as a going concern" shows up very frequently in financial filings. I think it is a required statement triggered by certain debt conditions. It's not good to have to include it but I'm also often surprised to hear about it from companies I'd never expect to be worried about.

When I hear that mantra, I respond by asking about things much closer to home. When's the last time you cleaned your car's steering wheel or the bottom of its cup holder? How about the computer mouse you use 8 hours a day at work or home? Or other equally filthy things in almost everyone's lives that are never thought about even in the cleanest of houses? That cruise ship gets cleaned daily and that was before this pandemic!

Disney hasn't said that; an analyst on some financial TV show said that. (There's a thread on here about it too). Disney is currently working on opening their Shanghai park with social distancing measures in place. Depending on how that goes, they may make announcements regarding their other parks.

When I go to the bathroom, I wash my hands IN the bathroom. Should I be required to wash again after taking 10 steps to the WJ entrance?

I haven't seen an update on the Cadiz port specifically, but I did find an article that Spain's parliament extended their lockdown until April 12th. Considering Spain reported that the last two days also had the two highest number of deaths, I don't really expect Cadiz to reopen anytime soon.