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Interesting move, will Royal Follow suit?


Neesa

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Protocols are evolving and changing quickly.  Right now no one knows if Royal will require guests 5 and up to be vaccinated and if they do when that might occur.

Last Friday the answer was basically they are taking a wait and see approach.  It may depend how US parents respond and vaccination rates for 5 - 11.  The Healthy Sail Panel is closely plugged into the progression of the virus, variants and vaccination efforts.  They'll make a decision based on the data and science.  

If they were to do that it could lead to dropping mask requirements if on board vaccination rates exceed 95%.  

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I agree about the ditching of masks, but what an incredible opportunity for Royal to be a wonderful alternative to those who can't participate in that protocol. Once we experienced Royal after DCL we realized it was an incredible choice and have no plans on returning to DCL, to many ships to experience over here. Humm, quite the conundrum for Royal. 

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4 hours ago, Rene Desmarais said:

I believe vaxing Canadian kids(5-11yrs old) will start in the new year.

Our medical officer of health in Ontario just announced this morning it will start by the end of this month (November).  Theresa Tam (Canada's Chief Public Health Officer) said last week that Canada will authorize in the next 1-2 weeks so it should definitely happen before the end of the year.

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Making the change would mean that Royal cruises meet tbe "vaccinated" standard that allows for looser CDC control. Since the CSO is supposed to end in January, it may not matter but I'm not sure they will trust the CDC to actually end it.

I'm not a fan of mandates and although I'm vaccinated and my 15 year old is vaccinated, I'm not convinced that vaccinating 5 year olds is necessary. 

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Does anyone know if RCL has any exemption policies around this specifically around age requirements? My son is turning 5 a little less than 4 weeks before our cruise, so obviously it wont be possible to get him fully vaccinated by the time we cruise. Would we be out of luck if RCL changes their policies or do they account for these types of situations?

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18 minutes ago, infosec123 said:

Does anyone know if RCL has any exemption policies around this specifically around age requirements? My son is turning 5 a little less than 4 weeks before our cruise, so obviously it wont be possible to get him fully vaccinated by the time we cruise. Would we be out of luck if RCL changes their policies or do they account for these types of situations?

For those turning 12 they aren't giving any leniency.  It is stated that you should rebook if your child is turning 12 too soon to be fully vaccinated.  Once they are 12, even if they turn 12 the day they get on the ship, they must be fully vaccinated.  If they turn 12 the next day they don't have to be fully vaccinated.

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Deployment/2021_2022/RTS_FAQs.pdf

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5 hours ago, TXcruzer said:

I can't imagine RCL not following suit, there is really no downside at this point. For every booking you lose, you will gain 2 new ones 

Yes the wisest decision that RCL could make,  give a little time but for all cruisers safety, require all eligible to be vaccinated.  the number of foreign cruisers,that is non-US cruisers, at least from the major ports, again that is USA ports of embarkation is almost inconsequential.  An as we all know the USA to Caribbean market is the main and driving economic market.

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5 hours ago, wordell1 said:

Making the change would mean that Royal cruises meet tbe "vaccinated" standard that allows for looser CDC control. Since the CSO is supposed to end in January, it may not matter but I'm not sure they will trust the CDC to actually end it.

I'm not a fan of mandates and although I'm vaccinated and my 15 year old is vaccinated, I'm not convinced that vaccinating 5 year olds is necessary. 

My understanding is the ports they are going to like Bahamas will be changing their rules to 5+ soon and that is probably more of the driver of this policy.

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13 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Our medical officer of health in Ontario just announced this morning it will start by the end of this month (November).  Theresa Tam (Canada's Chief Public Health Officer) said last week that Canada will authorize in the next 1-2 weeks so it should definitely happen before the end of the year.

Heard on the radio this morning, Health Canada will provide approval tomorrow and 3 million doses of Pfizer will arrive in a few days(enough for all kids to receive their 1st dose).  so we can see start of December for the 1st dose

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From the NYTimes:

 

Last week, the chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean, Richard Fain, said he expects an update on vaccine protocols for children soon, but no changes have been announced yet.

“I think we’re moving in the direction where every cruise will have 100 percent of the crew vaccinated and 95 or more percent of the guests,” he said at a media event on board Odyssey of the Seas, a cruise ship owned by Royal Caribbean.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/travel/disney-cruise-vaccine-mandate.html

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I am certain that Disney will have 0 empty cabins this upcoming season with their vaccine requirement.

I am certain Royal Caribbean (or any other cruise line) will also have 0 empty cabins if they were to enact the same vaccine mandate.

The hard truth is there is an abundance of fully vax'd customers with an abundance of dollars. There is just no plain reason for a cruise line to not to have a safe, healthy sailings. They are just looking out for their customers and more importantly, their employees.

 

In more disappointing news to some, I think the online, proctored health exam is working quite well for Royal Caribbean. IMO, this type of exam will be required for every voyage and by every guest until the end of time. If not COVID specific, a future test that might check for all those things that we had to say No to on the Health Questionnaire upon check in.

 

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2 hours ago, bobroo said:

The hard truth is there is an abundance of fully vax'd customers with an abundance of dollars. There is just no plain reason for a cruise line to not to have a safe, healthy sailings. They are just looking out for their customers and more importantly, their employees.

Royal claims 700,000 have sailed since restart. I have not heard that a single one of these passengers has died from Covid contracted onboard a sailing.

Thus Royal Caribbean is doing a perfect job keeping their passengers safe without young kids being vaccinated. 

I would consider this a plain reason to not reduce the vaccination requirement age.

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9 minutes ago, AlmondFarmer said:

Royal claims 700,000 have sailed since restart. I have not heard that a single one of these passengers has died from Covid contracted onboard a sailing.

Thus Royal Caribbean is doing a perfect job keeping their passengers safe without young kids being vaccinated. 

I would consider this a plain reason to not reduce the vaccination requirement age.

That and parents of kids that age are much less likely to get them vaccinated compared to older kids or even themselves. Then you run into the risk of those families canceling cruises.

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26 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

That and parents of kids that age are much less likely to get them vaccinated compared to older kids or even themselves. Then you run into the risk of those families canceling cruises.

I keep hearing this, but I live in a neighborhood with lots of families that can afford Disney and other cruises and vacation a decent amount.  I have yet to find a parent who isn't vaccinating their child.  Almost everyone got appointments within the first 7 days they were released.  A few waited due to their schedules or they had to wait 90 days from a Covid case.  But everyone now has their first shot done.  The only people who didn't get their kids vaccinated are the same that didn't get themselves vaccinated which is very few people and they wouldn't be able to cruise anyways since they are not vaccinated.

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38 minutes ago, IzzyB said:

I keep hearing this, but I live in a neighborhood with lots of families that can afford Disney and other cruises and vacation a decent amount.  I have yet to find a parent who isn't vaccinating their child.  Almost everyone got appointments within the first 7 days they were released.  A few waited due to their schedules or they had to wait 90 days from a Covid case.  But everyone now has their first shot done.  The only people who didn't get their kids vaccinated are the same that didn't get themselves vaccinated which is very few people and they wouldn't be able to cruise anyways since they are not vaccinated.

No doubt there will be an initial surge of kids being vaccinated. 

 

But even the NYTimes touched on the issue

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/30/health/covid-vaccine-kids-parents.html

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3 hours ago, AlmondFarmer said:

Royal claims 700,000 have sailed since restart. I have not heard that a single one of these passengers has died from Covid contracted onboard a sailing.

Thus Royal Caribbean is doing a perfect job keeping their passengers safe without young kids being vaccinated. 

I would consider this a plain reason to not reduce the vaccination requirement age.

They will sell cabins to more adult, more profitable customers that haven't cruised due to the mask requirement, than they will lose less profitable 5-12 year olds and their parents, when the mandate is put in place, and the mask requirements dropped. Ships will sail as full as allowed regardless

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10 minutes ago, TXcruzer said:

They will sell cabins to more adult, more profitable customers that haven't cruised due to the mask requirement, than they will lose less profitable 5-12 year olds and their parents, when the mandate is put in place, and the mask requirements dropped. Ships will sail as full as allowed regardless

I agree with your logic. 
Some multi generational group cancellations will occur if unvaccinated kids are banned but this could also be offset by more adults (or vaccinated kids) willing to sail if masks aren’t required anywhere on ship. 
I hope Royal will drop area mask requirements without requiring kids to be vaccinated. Time will tell. 

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4 hours ago, AlmondFarmer said:

Royal claims 700,000 have sailed since restart. I have not heard that a single one of these passengers has died from Covid contracted onboard a sailing.

Thus Royal Caribbean is doing a perfect job keeping their passengers safe without young kids being vaccinated. 

I would consider this a plain reason to not reduce the vaccination requirement age.

Does anyone know if this "700,000 have sailed" figure includes  those that sailed from Singapore during the pre-vaccine time period? Or does this only include US sailings along with the new Caribbean departure ports?

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25 minutes ago, fireclan said:

Does anyone know if this "700,000 have sailed" figure includes  those that sailed from Singapore during the pre-vaccine time period? Or does this only include US sailings along with the new Caribbean departure ports?

I would imagine that is a world wide number, but I have no evidence to back that up.

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6 hours ago, AlmondFarmer said:

Royal claims 700,000 have sailed since restart. I have not heard that a single one of these passengers has died from Covid contracted onboard a sailing.

Thus Royal Caribbean is doing a perfect job keeping their passengers safe without young kids being vaccinated. 

I would consider this a plain reason to not reduce the vaccination requirement age.

Bear in mind though, that this has required barring the unvaccinated from certain areas of the ship and only allowing RC sponsored excursions while in port.  That's not sustainable in the long term.

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5 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

No doubt there will be an initial surge of kids being vaccinated. 

 

But even the NYTimes touched on the issue

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/30/health/covid-vaccine-kids-parents.html

No doubt there is some hesitancy, but what I am saying is that hesitancy only hurts cruises if it is their demographics.  Everyone I know that does cruises on a regular basis are getting their kids vaccinated.  So will it hurt their demographic is the question?  I don't think it will.

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On 11/17/2021 at 12:06 PM, twangster said:

If they were to do that it could lead to dropping mask requirements if on board vaccination rates exceed 95%.  

Right up until the FDA changes the definition of fully vaccinated to fully boosted. 

I keep seeing this same logical fallacy: just do A, and then we can do B... Except they never should have been linked transitively. 

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On 11/19/2021 at 8:02 PM, LizzyBee23 said:

Right up until the FDA changes the definition of fully vaccinated to fully boosted. 

I keep seeing this same logical fallacy: just do A, and then we can do B... Except they never should have been linked transitively. 

Remember, that people on these, or other boards, are stating their opinions, not facts.  The cruise lines will do what their own research tells them is the best balance between safety (even if it is just people feeling safer) and revenue.  The politically driven agendas may be fun to argue about, but I doubt they have any impact on the cruise line policies.  However that in itself is simply an opinion.

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I am curious how they will start to handle the kids club with some kids vaccinated and some not and will that push them in a direction to move to fully vaxed.  Because unvaxed I guess have to stay socially distanced, but vaxed wouldn't.  So are they going to say you over here can be closer but you over here can't?  And will that make some upset that their kid has to socially distanced even though they are vaxed.  I guess I will find out in December as I will have 2 vaxed and 1 not (he is under 5).

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4 hours ago, IzzyB said:

I am curious how they will start to handle the kids club with some kids vaccinated and some not and will that push them in a direction to move to fully vaxed.  Because unvaxed I guess have to stay socially distanced, but vaxed wouldn't.  So are they going to say you over here can be closer but you over here can't?  And will that make some upset that their kid has to socially distanced even though they are vaxed.  I guess I will find out in December as I will have 2 vaxed and 1 not (he is under 5).

I'm thinking (hoping) the extremely and unnecessarily strict rules in kids club go away one the CSO expires.

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9 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I'm thinking (hoping) the extremely and unnecessarily strict rules in kids club go away one the CSO expires.

Us too... Everything that hinges consequences born largely by children on a disease that largely spares them has reeked of hostage taking for far too long. I hoped it wouldn't get this far with vaccine mandates, but I guess I'm holding out hope now that most of us have had enough.

I think the new safetyism culture is going to be hard to break, though, evidenced by the remarks here. Cruiselines will probably keep parts of the CSO around to appease these nonsensical, but loud, demands for a time.

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16 minutes ago, Mike.s said:

MSC have just followed suit, how long before all cruise lines do the same

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/26289-msc-cruises-to-require-all-guests-to-be-fully-vaccinated.html

The article states that only passengers 12 and older will be required to be vaccinated.  It looks like they are still allowing kids 11 and younger to sail without being vaccinated.  The OP was referencing new vaccination requirement for kids 5 and older on DCL.

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On 11/19/2021 at 5:41 PM, KWofPerth said:

Bear in mind though, that this has required barring the unvaccinated from certain areas of the ship and only allowing RC sponsored excursions while in port.  That's not sustainable in the long term.
 

i haven’t cruised since pre-Covid and I’m headed out in Jan. I’m vax’d  so I can travel. There’s no way to tell if an unvaccinated person is in a vax’d only area and so it can’t be controlled if allowing Un-vax’d passengers to sail. Can it?

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16 minutes ago, DBCruise said:

i haven’t cruised since pre-Covid and I’m headed out in Jan. I’m vax’d  so I can travel. There’s no way to tell if an unvaccinated person is in a vax’d only area and so it can’t be controlled if allowing Un-vax’d passengers to sail. Can it?

On the ships Royal has the vaccinated wear wristbands which allows them to enter the vaccinated only areas. The ship knows who is and who isn't vaccinated. 

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