Freedom of the Seas - Issues at Coco Cay

[twangster]

As @Matt has posted, cruising these days requires a great deal of flexibility.  Those on Freedom today and posting here are living proof.

Such a weird way to handle the situation.  What was the Bahamas thinking?  If there is a new policy then announce it for everyone, including cruise lines to see.  What occured today is just bizarre, but a sign of the times.  

Not a good look for the Bahamas.  

[SpeedNoodles]

I'm still not clear on why they weren't allowed to disembark passengers in the morning.

[Matt]

On 12/30/2021 at 8:49 PM, SpeedNoodles said:

I'm still not clear on why they weren't allowed to disembark passengers in the morning.

I heard there was some misunderstanding between cruise lines and The Bahamas. Not just Royal, but DCL and MSC got affected too.

I have no idea if that's remotely true or not.

[DunwoodyDad]

2 hours ago, Matt said:

I heard there was some misunderstanding between cruise lines and The Bahamas. Not just Royal, but DCL and MSC got affected too.

I have no idea if that's remotely true or not.

The whole thing felt like some kind of red tape gone wrong situation. But I never heard a proper explanation of what happened. We did get a few hours on the island in the afternoon but it was far from ideal. My wife stayed on the boat so missed it altogether. 

[Tony Alenmo]

I wish we could get a formal explanation of what was going on. Everything went fine on the ship. We thought there was an outbreak with the employees on the island or something, which was a wrong assumption since we were allowed to go after all.

On the side note, does anybody who was on Freedoms of the Seas know what was the passenger head count? Just curious since it didn't feel crowded at all.

[dkgrove]

This had to be COVID related since 50+ crew members were transferred to Vision of the Seas later that evening.  Vision is where they put positive COVID cases and use for quarantines.  See me post in this section:

We just got off a very disappointing 4 Night Freedom of the Seas cruise where we only got 3 late afternoon hours in Coco Cay due to the Bahamian Gov not clearing us until then.  We arrived at 8:00am and did not get clearance until almost 2:00pm.  We were told hourly starting at about 10:00am that Miami HQ was working with Bahamian officials to get us cleared but there was no information why.  We all assumed COVID-19 but not one crew member or officer would speak of it.  We were cleared just before 2:00pm after everyone crowded the pool deck, jammed the buffet which did a horrible job of providing food for us when they did not expect to. We finally ate a breakfast / brunch at 11:00 never expecting to be cleared when finally we saw signs of an opening.  We canceled our Coco Beach Club Cabana after hearing of the clearance just before 2:00 in the afternoon.  The excursions desk offered us a 50% discount if we still wanted to use our cabana at the Beach Club but there would be no food served.  THAT was a huge insult in our opinion after no reasoning behind the ridiculous delay.  We asked for a full refund and canceled which was completely accepted.  Disappointment still huge since THIS was the the one item we were looking forward to during this less than optimum itinerary.  We did get off finally after the entire ship was in the departure area for hours.  We walked around Cococay for an hour with little to no services transferred to the island. There was no buffet, few bars were open and the place was empty.  We returned to the ship with few services open and bar service at a minimum.  We still had no announcement or explanation as to the reason for the huge delay sitting at the pier.  They did inform us that we would not be departing after the 5:30 all on board notice that Vision of the Seas would be joining us later that night for a crew transfer.  From my balcony, I personally saw 50+ crew members transferred to Vision of the Seas (current hospital/quarantine ship used by Royal) that evening while still docked at the Coco Cay pier. All departing crew were wearing white N95 masks, white gloves and luggage wrapped in plastic! We missed the Beach Club Cabana and everything. Very disappointing.  I later researched that Royal has been supposedly doing this from time to time using Vision and Rhapsody in order to bypass Bahamian requirements that less than 1% of crew and passengers can be positive with COVID at any time arriving in the Bahamas.  I am not a travel expert so I do not know if this is in fact the current requirements but it completely explains why so many crew left the ship and how we were eventually allowed to be cleared to leave the ship at Cococay when we spent the previous day in Nassau with no issue.  There could only be one logical reason why we were denied clearance at Cococay and why we off loaded so many crew members.  THEY MADE A DEAL.  Shame on Royal for not providing us full information and providing a less than positive experience.  

[dkgrove]

6 hours ago, Tony Alenmo said:

I wish we could get a formal explanation of what was going on. Everything went fine on the ship. We thought there was an outbreak with the employees on the island or something, which was a wrong assumption since we were allowed to go after all.

On the side note, does anybody who was on Freedoms of the Seas know what was the passenger head count? Just curious since it didn't feel crowded at all.

See my response on COVID transfer to Vision later that night.  The main dining room manager told me that it was about 50% capacity for this sailing.

[Tony Alenmo]

Thanks for your info dkgrove. I saw the empty "sister" ship from our balcony. I did not witness the crew transfer, however.

[Fryemom]

I too was on The Freedom of the Seas cruise last week. I personally watched (and videotaped from my balcony) the crew disembarking and getting onto the other ship. They brought us 10 new crew members and then I counted 106 crewmembers leaving our boat. And as someone else said above, their luggage was wrapped in plastic and all were wearing masks and gloves. In the end one individual came out to move the gangplank and was wearing a full white hooded suit that was definitely medical grade.
 

I am sure they are doing pool testing of the crew and that is how they discovered so many positive cases. We heard there were just under 2500 passengers on board.
 

As disappointing as it was that we had a late arrival at Perfect Day, I think royal Caribbean did a fairly good job of creating a normal cruise experience for my family. We were disappointed that the hot tubs closed earlier than our last cruise and the craps table wasn’t open in casino but everything else we could live with. 
 

We had a great time regardless! 

[PazzoJesse]

On 12/30/2021 at 9:02 AM, VanDyne said:

We are currently sitting at the dock on Freedom of the Seas, and the Bahamian government has not allowed the ship to disembark. It has been two hours past the posted arrival time. The Norwegian ship at the next island over is also not docked. Not sure what the issue is as we were in Nassau yesterday. The ship has not communicated any COVID issues and stated that RC HQ is working with the Bahamian Tourism Agency.

This rumor was based in some truth, that has since snowballed into false information.

On December 30, guests on Freedom of the Seas reported their ship was unable to dock at Perfect Day at CocoCay because Bahamian officials refused to let passengers off the ship.

Similarly, Disney Cruise Line's Disney Magic was also held up from docking at Castaway Cay in The Bahamas.

In the case of both ships, Bahamian officials allowed the passengers to disembark later that day.

It appears that this was some kind of a paperwork mistake on the side of The Bahamas, but nothing has been confirmed.

[Vancity Cruiser]

As the issue seems to be more among crew than passengers it might be prudent for Royal to put all their crew back into single occupancy rooms for a while. They had this during the restart and might want to revisit it to slow spread among crew.

Odyssey of the seas had to transfer crew to Vision this morning at Coco Cay before passengers were allowed to disembark.

[smokeybandit]

Honestly it's of no benefit long term to slow the spread. You almost want omicron to get through the crew as fast as possible, as long as you still have enough non-quarantined crew to staff the ship.

[twangster]

8 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Honestly it's of no benefit long term to slow the spread. You almost want omicron to get through the crew as fast as possible, as long as you still have enough non-quarantined crew to staff the ship.

Heck at this point I am beginning to think I want to get Omi, off ship, or whenever, just to further strengthen my boostered system.

I thought about roaming the streets on NYE offering to kiss strange women but figured I'd just end up on the cable news as "A Florida man was arrested..."  

[SpeedNoodles]

13 minutes ago, twangster said:

Heck at this point I am beginning to think I want to get Omi, off ship, or whenever, just to further strengthen my boostered system.

I thought about roaming the streets on NYE offering to kiss strange women but figured I'd just end up on the cable news as "A Florida man was arrested..."  

Emphasis on "Florida Man", lol.

One of my partners at work just tested positive - I found out yesterday and came home this morning from work and took a test, honestly hoping it was positive too, just to get it over with.  Alas, my mitigation techniques work (she smokes, I don't like the smell on her, so I've been masking around her just to save myself, lol).

[Reneedb]

We just got off our cruise on The Harmony Jan 2. We were allowed onto Coco Cay January 1st.

We did have crew members positive for Covid as all the Grease performances we cancelled. Some staff were double masked because the were deemed as close contact to a positive person.

PS, My 35 year old son test positive today. My estimation is that he was exposed Tuesday. Friday night he had a very slight phlegmy throat which he chalked up to snoring, and Saturday it seemed better but he felt more tired. He thought it was from too much to eat/wine. We flew home Sunday and he thought he felt fine. He took the test this morning because he returns to work tomorrow.

[KJ1231]

Wife and daughter are on Coco Cay today - no issues so far on the Freedoms of the Seas this week (Miami->Nassau->Coco Cay->Miami). They sent me pictures of all the empty beach chairs. Waiter said about 1,800 on the ship? 

[Patchy]

2 hours ago, KJ1231 said:

Wife and daughter are on Coco Cay today - no issues so far on the Freedoms of the Seas this week (Miami->Nassau->Coco Cay->Miami). They sent me pictures of all the empty beach chairs. Waiter said about 1,800 on the ship? 

Great to hear!   Wondering if you’re hearing any intel from them on COVID case counts (passengers and crew)?   Also when you say no issues, are you referring to docking at Coco Cay specifically or the broader onboard experience (shows and entertainment)?   I’m curious because I’m sailing on Freedom next week.   I know every sailing is different, but I’m curious nonetheless!  Thanks!  

[KJ1231]

55 minutes ago, Patchy said:

Great to hear!   Wondering if you’re hearing any intel from them on COVID case counts (passengers and crew)?   Also when you say no issues, are you referring to docking at Coco Cay specifically or the broader onboard experience (shows and entertainment)?   I’m curious because I’m sailing on Freedom next week.   I know every sailing is different, but I’m curious nonetheless!  Thanks!  

They are having a blast - they've gone to shows every night. The wait staff in the dining room has been great with my daughter - giving her the next night's menu in advance so she can verify the gluten free choices, etc. They also bring them their glasses of wine as they are being seated (my daughter is 20yo and my wife says they treat my daughter like a princess). If there has been any problems they haven't mentioned them.

AND I just got another picture by the pool area and it is empty! So they are either all at he beach or hiding in their cabins....

Almost good enough to make me consider getting the jab.......

 

[Patchy]

Thanks, @KJ1231!