Who's going to be booted

[JLMoran]

47 minutes ago, r33796 said:

why wait till 59 1/2    why not sooner

25 minutes ago, Pooch said:

My guess is because that’s when you can start withdrawing from retirement funds without penalty.

Bingo! And that's only the funds in a 401(k) or IRA account. And if you want your full Social Security check instead of a massively reduced one, you can't start drawing on that until at least age 65 (or older, depending on when you were born).

1 hour ago, teddy said:

We have just over 8 years till we hit this milestone.....our plan is the same as yours.

I have just under 9 years left. Wave to me when you cross the finish line so I know I'm almost there.

[KathyC]

On 9/29/2020 at 10:55 AM, beachmama said:

Full payment was made a couple of weeks ago. And we had a ton of extras too (cabana, drink packages, etc). So they are getting plenty of revenue from our reservation.

Did it get sorted out?  

[beachmama]

It did. Somehow RC canceled our booking even though it showed as active with the TA. Thankfully the TA reached out before someone else booked our rooms. I did have to repurchase all our cruise planner items, but I got them at the lowest prices I've seen so far. So while inconvenient, it was not a tragedy. Let's hope I don't see a cancelled your cruise email again!

[r33796]

17 hours ago, JLMoran said:

Bingo! And that's only the funds in a 401(k) or IRA account. And if you want your full Social Security check instead of a massively reduced one, you can't start drawing on that until at least age 65 (or older, depending on when you were born).

I have just under 9 years left. Wave to me when you cross the finish line so I know I'm almost there.

fyi you do not have to wait till 59 1/2  to withdraw funds from ira without penalty but yes on SS reduction

[Pooch]

There are some exceptions (just googled Rule of 55) to the 59 1/2 guideline.

[JLMoran]

46 minutes ago, r33796 said:

fyi you do not have to wait till 59 1/2  to withdraw funds from ira without penalty

It depends on what kind of IRA you have. Traditional ones (which is what my wife and I both have) still restrict pre-tax contribution / earnings withdrawals without penalty before 59 1/2, unless you’re making a hardship withdrawal. IIRC, after-tax contributions can be withdrawn without penalty, and as @Pooch noted you can get some pre-tax exceptions for hardship withdrawals (including due to COVID) and the like.

If we had a Roth IRA, then that could be withdrawn from original contributions without penalty as long as we had the account for at least 5 years. Earnings would still be penalized before normal age.

[JLMoran]

15 minutes ago, Pooch said:

There are some exceptions (just googled Rule of 55) to the 59 1/2 guideline.

Just googled it myself. Only applies to 401(k) / 403(b) plans, not IRAs.

[ehw51]

I´ve been retired for 3yrs, the medicare ads do not stop, only slow down after the sign up date. It starts up quickly though. I think they will start letting out more info pretty quickly, seems they have to start re manning ships if they intend to start 11/1. They aren´t going to be sailing ALL the ships so inevitably some of our cruises are definitely going to be canceled. It is still a big crap shoot. 

[cruisellama]

On 9/29/2020 at 2:57 PM, Jill said:

This is what they did with the first TUI cruises in Europe. Sailings were canceled and then re-opened for booking. 
 

Hopefully with L&S they’ve been able to reduce capacity without having to do what was done in Europe. 

I think its an excellent hypothesis and smooth way to right size the guest list.

[r33796]

12 hours ago, JLMoran said:

 

[r33796]

Didn’t mean to start a financial conversation or a debate.  But you really need to talk to your financial advisor and have them explain it to you, it’s not a look it  up on the Internet kinda thing, that’s what you pay them for .  You both only  got parts of it right 

anyway my point was you don’t need to wait if you have the funds saved and that’s the only reason your waiting till 59 1/2. 

[FManke]

9 hours ago, r33796 said:

Didn’t mean to start a financial conversation or a debate.  But you really need to talk to your financial advisor and have them explain it to you, it’s not a look it  up on the Internet kinda thing, that’s what you pay them for .  You both only  got parts of it right 

anyway my point was you don’t need to wait if you have the funds saved and that’s the only reason your waiting till 59 1/2. 

Haha. At one point I thought I had mistakenly stumbled upon a AARP blog! 

[Pooch]

On 10/4/2020 at 12:27 AM, r33796 said:

Didn’t mean to start a financial conversation or a debate.  But you really need to talk to your financial advisor and have them explain it to you, it’s not a look it  up on the Internet kinda thing, that’s what you pay them for .  You both only  got parts of it right 

anyway my point was you don’t need to wait if you have the funds saved and that’s the only reason your waiting till 59 1/2. 

And that's why I have a "guy"!!  In my case, I am working until we are both eligible for Medicare (which we now are!!!).  Private health insurance can be very expensive.

[SPS]

Can we please stay a bit more on topic here? I'm truly wondering about his very topic and at least one full page worth of replies are birthday, retirement, & IRA/401k talk. (Sorry to vent, just frustrated)

I have an Explorer cruise booked for January 29th. Given the rapidly approaching date, IF it sails, I'm sure it will be at a reduced capacity.

I'm wondering if we will get booted since we we tend to "budget cruise" (interior cabin, re-pricing when the chance comes), even though we are VERY LOYAL C&A members that book early and A LOT of what we save on cruise fare to put toward CP items such as drinks, excursions, spa, & dining. I'm wondering if any of that will be observed and factored in on the Who's In/Who's Out list.

The second frustration I'm having is that although a reduced capacity is almost certainly going to happen, RC is still selling cabins for this cruise of ALL types. (Interior, Virtual Balcony Interior, Promenade Interior, Ocean View, Balcony, & Suites)

Why keep selling these when you know you'll have to cancel a large percentage? Wishful thinking on RC's part?

[AshleyDillo]

7 minutes ago, SPS said:

Why keep selling these when you know you'll have to cancel a large percentage? Wishful thinking on RC's part?

Perhaps wishful thinking and keeping the cash register open.

I think things are just so uncertain that they don't really know what it will look like at this point until they get an actual start date for sailings.  With the requirements for prospective passengers to provide proof of a negative COVID test, that may thin the pool out as some people may not want to be responsible for seeking out testing.   I can see once there is an actual start date that they would end out letters of what will be required of passengers to be able to sail and that could cause further cancellations.  I am sure at that point they will have decided exactly where they would want to house people on the ship and have plans to move around those that are still wishing to sail.

We don't really see the entire picture with respect to cabin availability from Royal's site.  They may be holding back contingency space to move people around if that's part of their operations plan.  We don't truly know yet.  

They may end up needing to do what they did with the Quantum sailings and flat out cancel everyone and reopen bookings for a completely new itinerary depending on port restrictions.  I can see this being a more likely outcome once they know they will be able to start the slow rollout to sailing again.  It has already been said that the entire fleet isn't going to come back at once.  We don't even know for sure which ships are going to be part of the first sailings yet.  

[JLMoran]

@SPS, sorry for hijacking the thread a bit there. To give some quick thoughts on your concern, I'm guessing that like so many, Royal is desperately hoping that by January there will be a vaccine approved and widely available. If there is, that would make it a lot easier to justify keeping all the cabins available.

We'll have to see how that timeline actually plays out. Last I saw, there were close to a dozen vaccines in Phase 3 trials, but none approved so far. And this week, the CDC was cleared by the White House to publicly release its more stringent safety requirements around any vaccine approved for emergency use. From what I remember, part of those requirements are that any vaccine approved by the CDC must have a minimum of 3 months of concrete data showing efficacy and safety. So depending on when the trials began, we could be waiting a while longer yet.

[Pooch]

sorry, promise not to turn 65 again.

[Frank Brealin]

The vaccine will be wildly available upon approval.   The government has spent billions to have the various vaccines currently in testing manufactured so that if and when one is approved they can hit the ground running. 

it’s a risk because the ones that are not approved is money gone to waste 

[JLMoran]

5 hours ago, Frank Brealin said:

The vaccine will be wildly available upon approval.

There are differing levels of "widely available upon approval". Remember that whatever vaccine is ultimately approved, the first batches that were mass-produced are going to health care workers, the elderly, and people with underlying health conditions that make them high-risk. And yeah, let's be honest -- the super-wealthy, world leaders, and others who "count" way more than the rest of us.

There could be a few hundred thousand doses available initially, maybe a million if we're really lucky and the manufacturers put their money on the right horse. But even if there are enough doses in vials, we also need all the other bits to make the syringes needed to administer them.

I realize I'm being a negative nelly here, but I'm trying to keep a realistic outlook and not assume for a second that every man, woman, and child will have access on Day 1 or even Day 100. We need a total of 7.X billion doses (or 2x that if it needs multiple doses to be effective). That ain't gonna be ready in a flash, and controlled distribution will be the reality in the beginning.

[Pattycruise]

On 9/29/2020 at 5:59 PM, beachmama said:

Good news...RC canceled our booking by accident. So thankfully it isn't a booted situation. Bummer for me, I have to go rebook all our planner stuff. Fingers crossed I get the same pricing.

i hear there are great prices today on multiple items!

[Pattycruise]

10 hours ago, SPS said:

I'm wondering if we will get booted since we we tend to "budget cruise" (interior cabin, re-pricing when the chance comes), even though we are VERY LOYAL C&A members that book early and A LOT of what we save on cruise fare to put toward CP items such as drinks, excursions, spa, & dining. I'm wondering if any of that will be observed and factored in on the Who's In/Who's Out list.

I don't see RC taking care of it's LOYAL C&A customers, unless perhaps its the highest of the levels.  I've seen many here who have distinction with issues.  Why would RC cruise fare cost more for a C&A member than a non C&A member?  I did pricing out on a cruise and found that happened when I entered in my C&A number.  I feel they only care about selling cruises, and not a thing about their loyal customers.

[CruisinForABruisin]

Can we please change the title to "Who's"? It's driving me crazy 

[Lovetocruise2002]

7 hours ago, CruisinForABruisin said:

Can we please change the title to "Who's"? It's driving me crazy 

Done. 

[AshleyDillo]

16 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

Why would RC cruise fare cost more for a C&A member than a non C&A member?  I did pricing out on a cruise and found that happened when I entered in my C&A number.

That's just the way the site is programmed.  The site by default will show prices based on the current sale, but as soon as you try to tell it you want to see the C&A price, it will give you that which may not be combined with the sale price.  The C&A discount is a flat discount based on level, so it isn't always the biggest savings.

[mattymay]

So lets say:

- DEC - A month of test cruises in Singapore starting Dec 1st on Quantum

- JAN - If successful in Singapore, the same test in the US on one ship at the start of next year

- FEB - If successful in US, some short sailings to nowhere or private islands for a few months using multiple ships

- APR - Return to normal 'IF' ports are open.

I reckon we're looking at April at least before some kind of a return to normal.

[Pooch]

Dear Lord We have a 7 day out of a Tampa March 20th.  Please I so need this vacation!!!!

[cruisellama]

14 hours ago, mattymay said:

So lets say:

- DEC - A month of test cruises in Singapore starting Dec 1st on Quantum

- JAN - If successful in Singapore, the same test in the US on one ship at the start of next year

- FEB - If successful in US, some short sailings to nowhere or private islands for a few months using multiple ships

- APR - Return to normal 'IF' ports are open.

I reckon we're looking at April at least before some kind of a return to normal.

That’s a timeline similar to what my TA discussed 

[Tanner]

17 hours ago, mattymay said:

So lets say:

- DEC - A month of test cruises in Singapore starting Dec 1st on Quantum

- JAN - If successful in Singapore, the same test in the US on one ship at the start of next year

- FEB - If successful in US, some short sailings to nowhere or private islands for a few months using multiple ships

- APR - Return to normal 'IF' ports are open.

I reckon we're looking at April at least before some kind of a return to normal.

I would hope that those similar type tests happen in the US independent of results from Singapore.  Royal could be doing crew only test sailings mid November potentially.