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Allure & Symphony get test cruise approval


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8 minutes ago, dandi799 said:

Do we know yet how long it needs to be between a test cruise and a paying cruise? Has actual information about that been shared yet? 

Whenever the CDC gets around to reviewing them.

 

While the CSO noted that they wanted 60 days (later revised to 5) to approve test cruise applications, there is no mention on turnaround time for CSCs

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7 minutes ago, dandi799 said:

Do we know yet how long it needs to be between a test cruise and a paying cruise? Has actual information about that been shared yet? 

This is the big question. Everything seems to be moving in the right direction, but at what speed? I know not fast enough for any of us.

What do you think the chances are that a least one of our RC Blog members will be invited to test cruise? It would be very interesting and insightful for the rest of us. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it happens for one of us!

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7 minutes ago, redraider629 said:

With the test cruise pushed out that far, and no telling how long it will take to get approval after test cruise, I am losing more and more hope that we will get to go on our Liberty sailing in September.  

I'm unfortunately starting to lose my positive outlook that I had regained over the last 3 to 4 weeks, and am starting to really feel the squeeze on our Navigator sailing out of Miami in September. With her moving to LA even earlier, it's a double whammy for us. Florida works much better for us being from Maine, and we have a friend who works on Navigator, so this one would sting!

 

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This is giving me higher hopes that my Oct Allure will sail. I wanted to cruise early but I had a feeling that cruising might not be back until Sept in the US. I am sad for all those who have to go through cancellations again but glad I saved myself the heartache by booking later in 2021.

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14 minutes ago, Floski said:

Oh, don't tell me that.

I have to hope that once they get back in, the cdc will sign off and we'll be underway!!!

I think they are going to have to tell people something way sooner than that.  From a purely customer support position, it would be bad to wait until 2 days before the August 1st cruise to let people know the status of their sailing.  If customers need to make other plans or change up things, they would need more time than that.  I know many people may have "backup plans", but even with those they may not have committed much money to them too far in advance.

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13 minutes ago, Jill said:

Sorry @UNCFanatik See if you can move it to October/November. 
 

I’m hopeful my late October symphony will now sail. Hopefully the CDC won’t drag its feet approving revenue cruises. I guess Freedom will be our first clue how fast they approve. 

Thank you!

November 21 sailing on Oasis was always backup plan. 

I would think your October sailing would be good. Hopefully when cruising restarts across multiple ships, October will be good!

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I will say this. They need to fire whoever is in charge of Marketing/PR.

Michael's Bayley FB post was tone deaf. Yippee!!! is how he starts? Does he not realize how that will be received by customers on July/August sailings that for the first time they realize that their sailings will be cancelled?? Not every cruiser keeps up with cruise news and boards like this. They trust Royal and what they are told. Bayley's FB message was totally tone deaf and put TAs in a terrible position today not to mention those poor customer service reps that man the phones who are now being instructed to outright lie to paying customers. This is a PR nightmare. It would have been better to announce cancellations FIRST and then announce test cruises. I get it, Bayley is rightfully excited about test sailings but did he even run this by his fellow execs and Marketing/PR departments before he announced on FB? If so, did no other exec stop and give him some pause as how this would be received by passengers on July/August sailings? 

This is truly an unforced error by Royal in customer relations and PR

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I know this is a long shot, but is there any chance that the test cruise announcement will end up being nullified by the upcoming agreement between Florida and the cruise industry to allow vaccine passports?

The CDC guidelines state the cruises with the 98/95 ratio do not need to do test cruises--maybe I'm absurdly hopeful/optimistic, but I really don't want my honeymoon cruise on Allure next month to be canceled :(

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10 minutes ago, NickNafster79 said:

I know this is a long shot, but is there any chance that the test cruise announcement will end up being nullified by the upcoming agreement between Florida and the cruise industry to allow vaccine passports?

The CDC guidelines state the cruises with the 98/95 ratio do not need to do test cruises--maybe I'm absurdly hopeful/optimistic, but I really don't want my honeymoon cruise on Allure next month to be canceled ?

RCL has stated that they are not going to go the 98/95 route, which is why they have to do test cruises. They are still requiring all eligible passengers to be vaccinated, though. I’m so sorry about your cruise! What a disappointment. 

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43 minutes ago, LovetoCruise87 said:

Holding out hope that my Aug 22 cruise on Allure will still be a go.......

And I'm holding out hope my Aug 15 Allure cruise goes forward... if I was RC I'd just say for the Aug cruises everyone needs to be vaccinated to cruise so they aren't dependent on CDC approval of the test cruise.   Otherwise they are likely canceling another round of cruises waiting for the CDC approval.

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10 minutes ago, NickNafster79 said:

I know this is a long shot, but is there any chance that the test cruise announcement will end up being nullified by the upcoming agreement between Florida and the cruise industry to allow vaccine passports?

The CDC guidelines state the cruises with the 98/95 ratio do not need to do test cruises--maybe I'm absurdly hopeful/optimistic, but I really don't want my honeymoon cruise on Allure next month to be canceled ?

I could see the CDC lowering the percentages to a "herd immunity" percentage, or remove those under 12 from that calculation.

 

AS it is now, 95% is a random number not based on any science, but to force a de factor vaccine mandate.

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43 minutes ago, LovetoCruise87 said:

Holding out hope that my Aug 22 cruise on Allure will still be a go.......

And I'm holding out hope my Aug 15 Allure cruise goes forward... if I was RC I'd just say for the Aug cruises everyone needs to be vaccinated to cruise so they aren't dependent on CDC approval of the test cruise.   Otherwise they are likely canceling another round of cruises waiting for the CDC approval.

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31 minutes ago, UNCFanatik said:

I will say this. They need to fire whoever is in charge of Marketing/PR.

Michael's Bayley FB post was tone deaf. Yippee!!! is how he starts? Does he not realize how that will be received by customers on July/August sailings that for the first time they realize that their sailings will be cancelled?? Not every cruiser keeps up with cruise news and boards like this. They trust Royal and what they are told. Bayley's FB message was totally tone deaf and put TAs in a terrible position today not to mention those poor customer service reps that man the phones who are now being instructed to outright lie to paying customers. This is a PR nightmare. It would have been better to announce cancellations FIRST and then announce test cruises. I get it, Bayley is rightfully excited about test sailings but did he even run this by his fellow execs and Marketing/PR departments before he announced on FB? If so, did no other exec stop and give him some pause as how this would be received by passengers on July/August sailings? 

This is truly an unforced error by Royal in customer relations and PR

I thought the exact same thing when I saw his post.  It was completely tone deaf.

 

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43 minutes ago, LovetoCruise87 said:

Holding out hope that my Aug 22 cruise on Allure will still be a go.......

And I'm holding out hope my Aug 15 Allure cruise goes forward... if I was RC I'd just say for the Aug cruises everyone needs to be vaccinated to cruise so they aren't dependent on CDC approval of the test cruise.   Otherwise they are likely canceling another round of cruises waiting for the CDC approval.

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10 minutes ago, NickNafster79 said:

I know this is a long shot, but is there any chance that the test cruise announcement will end up being nullified by the upcoming agreement between Florida and the cruise industry to allow vaccine passports?

The CDC guidelines state the cruises with the 98/95 ratio do not need to do test cruises--maybe I'm absurdly hopeful/optimistic, but I really don't want my honeymoon cruise on Allure next month to be canceled ?

The challenge with summer sailings to Caribbean is that its prime family season and those vaccinated thresholds may not be able to be met on those sailings that are already booked with the amount of children 12 and under plus the hesitancy of parents who may not want to have their 12-16 year olds vaccinated. I think that is why Royal chose the test sailings route

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This is super annoying, I am supposed to be on Aug 7 with Symphony of the Seas but clearly that won’t be happening. They need to just up and cancel those cruises already so people can either rebook or make other plans. At this point they know July/early Aug won’t be happening, so it’s really bad customer service that they aren’t moving forward with that information. 

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10 minutes ago, dandi799 said:

RCL has stated that they are not going to go the 98/95 route, which is why they have to do test cruises. They are still requiring all eligible passengers to be vaccinated, though. I’m so sorry about your cruise! What a disappointment. 

Where did they say that? Not doubting you, just wanting to read it with my own eyes (and the inevitable tears that will follow).

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30 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

PR is a fickle thing.

 

The good PR from announcing test cruises, even if it has a negative impact on some booked passengers is a better approach than the larger negative PR from cancelling more cruises up front.

But they have to announce more cancellations anyway. Just a matter of time now. We all know it

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I agree with a post earlier. Royal should have just gone ahead and announced cancellations that would be caused by the test sailings instead of announcing the test cruises first. It's still a hard pill to swallow knowing your cruise is cancelled, but I would rather hear that first, than to be sitting in a black hole not hearing if my cruise is cancelled or not. 

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