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Apparently our 1 & 2 year old Kids cannot disembark with us at our port of calls..


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We are booked to Sail the Liberty of the seas out of Galveston in Feb 2022, We are C&A diamond members and Huge RCL fans. This will HOPEFULLY be our kids FIRST cruise ever, with the Whole Family, 20 of us are booked to cruising together.

We have just been told we will not be able to take our unvaccinated 1 & 2 years olds to port with us , UNLESS its with an RCL excursions.!?!?

WHAT'S THE POINT OF GOING ON A FAMILY Holiday!?! We were told that if we didn't want to book an RCL excursion our kids need to stay on board. IF us adults still wanted go to port, we could leave our kids with the kids club for the day...I thought she was joking at first, Our children CAN'T be vaccinated anywhere in the WORLD.... We don't want or need to do an RCL excursion.. we have been to these ports before and just want to chill and do our own thing.

Needles to say, i will be calling head office to see if this is for real... or our party of 20 will be canceling our much needed and anticipated family Holiday.

I feel so heart broken and betrayed by this Bull shit policy and desparte money grab from our favorite cruise line. 

We can't be the only family dealing with this policy....?

 

 

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1 hour ago, Deanna Mcfarlane said:

We have just been told we will not be able to take our unvaccinated 1 & 2 years olds to port with us , UNLESS its with an RCL excursions.!?!?

I understand your frustration, as we had the same issue with our two-year-old daughter on our Alaska cruise in September. That said... they've made it abundantly clear for a while now that unvaccinated passengers couldn't leave the ship except for on RCL excursions. However, as @SpeedNoodles said, protocols are changing month to month, so that may not be the case by February - no one really knows for sure.

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6 hours ago, Deanna Mcfarlane said:

We are booked to Sail the Liberty of the seas out of Galveston in Feb 2022, We are C&A diamond members and Huge RCL fans. This will HOPEFULLY be our kids FIRST cruise ever, with the Whole Family, 20 of us are booked to cruising together.

We have just been told we will not be able to take our unvaccinated 1 & 2 years olds to port with us , UNLESS its with an RCL excursions.!?!?

WHAT'S THE POINT OF GOING ON A FAMILY Holiday!?! We were told that if we didn't want to book an RCL excursion our kids need to stay on board. IF us adults still wanted go to port, we could leave our kids with the kids club for the day...I thought she was joking at first, Our children CAN'T be vaccinated anywhere in the WORLD.... We don't want or need to do an RCL excursion.. we have been to these ports before and just want to chill and do our own thing.

Needles to say, i will be calling head office to see if this is for real... or our party of 20 will be canceling our much needed and anticipated family Holiday.

I feel so heart broken and betrayed by this Bull shit policy and desparte money grab from our favorite cruise line. 

We can't be the only family dealing with this policy....?

 

 

This post made me sad;

I hear and feel your frustration and disappointment, I personally would not be leaving my kiddos behind that young in the kids club (my own trepidation) but mine is now a teen. As others have said these protocols have been in place forever (since sailing started again) but hearing this does nothing to help with what you are feeling. This is a HUGE disappointment but as @SpeedNoodlesnoted we do not have protocols for February yet but I feel confident in saying here I don't believe a call to the "head office" will change much as they are transparent & clear, please don't take this as a personal a front, they do this to protect themselves and limit litigation IF someone came back and tried to accuse them of something related to this mess we are going through. 

There are protocols I whole heartedly DO NOT AGREE WITH, period. BUT if I want to sail I know I must adhere to them. You can wait and see what the protocols bring or not, as CWC is still in effect plus I believe they are possibly doing cash refunds due to not being agreeable with the newest protocols but you have to wait for February protocols to be released for this scenario. You're family Holiday may not be exactly as you imagined but can you make it work? Maybe there is someone in the fam that would stay back with the kiddos? Maybe a land vacation is in order?

I wish for you peace and a solution that works for you and yours, but if you are going to sail sadly we have to accept the cruise lines protocols no matter how we personally feel. I am sad you are heartbroken BUT when you step back and breathe take solace in the fact you have an amazing family of 20 who are here, healthy, safe and who enjoy each other so much you can commit to a vacation together, I wish for you a calming and agreeable solution to your situation. 

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7 hours ago, Deanna Mcfarlane said:

We are booked to Sail the Liberty of the seas out of Galveston in Feb 2022, We are C&A diamond members and Huge RCL fans. This will HOPEFULLY be our kids FIRST cruise ever, with the Whole Family, 20 of us are booked to cruising together.

We have just been told we will not be able to take our unvaccinated 1 & 2 years olds to port with us , UNLESS its with an RCL excursions.!?!?

WHAT'S THE POINT OF GOING ON A FAMILY Holiday!?! We were told that if we didn't want to book an RCL excursion our kids need to stay on board. IF us adults still wanted go to port, we could leave our kids with the kids club for the day...I thought she was joking at first, Our children CAN'T be vaccinated anywhere in the WORLD.... We don't want or need to do an RCL excursion.. we have been to these ports before and just want to chill and do our own thing.

Needles to say, i will be calling head office to see if this is for real... or our party of 20 will be canceling our much needed and anticipated family Holiday.

I feel so heart broken and betrayed by this Bull shit policy and desparte money grab from our favorite cruise line. 

We can't be the only family dealing with this policy....?

 

 

I agree the policy stinks, but nothing we can do about it at the moment.  We have a 4 and 7 year old traveling with us in December and had to book 2 RCCL excursions we’ve done a dozen times just to get them off the ship.  We chose 2 of the cheaper/shorter ones so my kids can at least have an opportunity after the excursion to buy the souvenirs they always look forward to getting in ports.  
 

$20 toys just became $500+ due to their policy lol.  
 

PS if you decide on leaving them in adventure ocean make sure you sign them up as soon as you get on board as they have very limited availability.  Our Oct sailing only had 15 slots total for their age groups.  
 

Hopefully with the CSO set to expire mid Jan this policy will be cancelled in time for your Feb sailing.  

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8 hours ago, Deanna Mcfarlane said:

We are booked to Sail the Liberty of the seas out of Galveston in Feb 2022, We are C&A diamond members and Huge RCL fans. This will HOPEFULLY be our kids FIRST cruise ever, with the Whole Family, 20 of us are booked to cruising together.

We have just been told we will not be able to take our unvaccinated 1 & 2 years olds to port with us , UNLESS its with an RCL excursions.!?!?

WHAT'S THE POINT OF GOING ON A FAMILY Holiday!?! We were told that if we didn't want to book an RCL excursion our kids need to stay on board. IF us adults still wanted go to port, we could leave our kids with the kids club for the day...I thought she was joking at first, Our children CAN'T be vaccinated anywhere in the WORLD.... We don't want or need to do an RCL excursion.. we have been to these ports before and just want to chill and do our own thing.

Needles to say, i will be calling head office to see if this is for real... or our party of 20 will be canceling our much needed and anticipated family Holiday.

I feel so heart broken and betrayed by this Bull shit policy and desparte money grab from our favorite cruise line. 

We can't be the only family dealing with this policy....?

 

 

Its a CDC rule, not a Royal Caribbean rule.  Other cruise lines are doing the same thing with unvaccinated guests.  You can cancel and rebook for a later date if you don't like the protocols.

I'm not a fan of the CDC protocols, but the cruise lines have no choice but to follow them.

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9 hours ago, Deanna Mcfarlane said:

 

We have just been told we will not be able to take our unvaccinated 1 & 2 years olds to port with us , UNLESS its with an RCL excursions.!?!?

 

That rule has been affect since July when cruising first re-started.  I'm sorry someone in your group did not review all the protocols before booking.  I'm guessing that as soon as they begin requiring kids to vaccinated, this requirement will be eliminated for kids 5 and older.  Under 5, know knows.

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16 minutes ago, Scooter6251 said:

That rule has been affect since July when cruising first re-started.  I'm sorry someone in your group did not review all the protocols before booking.  I'm guessing that as soon as they begin requiring kids to vaccinated, this requirement will be eliminated for kids 5 and older.  Under 5, know knows.

The rule is for unvaccinated, not an age range - we could potentially see vaccinated 5 year olds as early as 5 weeks from the day the shots start.

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At least Royal is allowing unvaccinated children to cruise. Some of the other cruise lines aren't allowing unvaccinated children PERIOD. It's a totally FUBAR policy, but it is what it is, and as @twangstersaid, your anger need not be directed toward the cruise line.  They are dealing with the ridiculous, ineffective and injurious protocols that they are mandated (or in some cases, choose) to follow, absurd as they are.

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We should be thankful there are protocols that keep us safe, even if when we may be inconvenienced.  Anyone, even vaccinated persons like me, can carry the virus and infect others (although the % may be low).  Unvaccinated kids are especially problematic.  Now I'm sure you keep your toddlers out of harms way, but you don't want them to pick up the virus from someone else.  Yes, it's frustrating, but taking a Royal Caribbean excursion isn't really a bad thing...

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6 hours ago, wordell1 said:

Its a CDC rule, not a Royal Caribbean rule.  Other cruise lines are doing the same thing with unvaccinated guests.  You can cancel and rebook for a later date if you don't like the protocols.

I'm not a fan of the CDC protocols, but the cruise lines have no choice but to follow them.

As @twangster mentioned, this is not necessarily the CDC and more likely the protocols for the port being visited. A lot of Caribbean countries have opened up their ports to cruise ships as long as only full vaccinated travellers come off the ship

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I'm not sure any of us truly appreciate the red tape and myriad of government regulations from many countries that the cruise lines have had to navigate through to restart cruising.  Just when they take a step forward one country or government agency throws a wrench in the machine and every thing goes off kilter.  It's a pretty amazing job they've done to get to where we are.

Having said that cruising in the restart won't be for everyone.  The world is not back to the old normal we used to know.  It's okay to not like the protocols and to reach the decision that cruising isn't for you right now.  That's a personal matter and each of has a different tolerance for the absurd and in some cases seemingly unexplainable protocols that have been placed on the industry right now.

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5 minutes ago, twangster said:

I'm not sure any of us truly appreciate the red tape and myriad of government regulations from many countries that the cruise lines have had to navigate through to restart cruising. 

Couldn't agree more. I think that aspect of the restart has largely been overlooked as a herculean effort to navigate.

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WOW! Thank you everyone for the response, lots to take in here. Also @Scooter6251 We booked this cruise in May and this was for sure not a policy at the time.

I am thankful i was made aware of it by a fellow colleague who just cancel their trip because of it and received a FULL refund from RCL. We will wait to see what the new policy is come the new year. If no change, we will cancel and book an all inclusive. I am praying for the cruising industry truly. It will die if the older generations don't  step up and understand how this will affect the younger crowd and there cruising experience.

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1 hour ago, Deanna Mcfarlane said:

WOW! Thank you everyone for the response, lots to take in here. Also @Scooter6251 We booked this cruise in May and this was for sure not a policy at the time.

I am thankful i was made aware of it by a fellow colleague who just cancel their trip because of it and received a FULL refund from RCL. We will wait to see what the new policy is come the new year. If no change, we will cancel and book an all inclusive. I am praying for the cruising industry truly. It will die if the older generations don't  step up and understand how this will affect the younger crowd and there cruising experience.

Again, this is an issue of government regulation, not any decision by the cruise line. 

The ridiculousness of it is summed up by your statement that you will just book an all inclusive. The government, in its misguided judgment, sees the 2 vacations differently and regulates one, but not the other.

If this type of intrusion into your life isn't welcome, just remember it on election day.

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It is difficult.    For a variety of reasons, we will be cruising in Europe over the holidays.  Even though our party is all fully vaccinated, we are limited to cruise line excursions.   Few of the excursions are appealing but we will probably choose the best of the worst in some cases and remain on board in others.  We choose this trip because it was the best way to visit our adult son who is participating in a fellowship program that prohibits him for leaving the EU for the 12 months of the program.   This is his only free time and with covid on the rise in Europe, we feel safest in a “cruise bubble “. 

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