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The four levels of cruise anticipation in the post covid era


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Level 1: It's T-minus 45.  Got checked in and got my preferred time slot! I'll unnecessarily fret about how long it's taking to validate my vax card, but oh well

Level 2: T-minus 30. Holy cow my luggage tags are ready. My luggage has dust on it in the garage and I'm not touching them for another 4 weeks but gosh darnit I'm printing these luggage tag right now! Level 2 isn't much more exciting than Level 1 but those luggage tags are some physical artifact that the cruise is near.

Level 3: T-minus 2. My armpits are soaked from that 15 minutes of anticipatory hell constantly squinting and wondering "is that a second line or just an eyelash?", but the covid tests are negative. Level 3 is a Richter scale tier difference from Level 2.

Level 4: Liftoff. On board the ship. My flights made it, I got a great absolutely terrible night's sleep at the hotel like a kid on Christmas Eve, and I got through check-in with no issues. Let the fun begin.  Obviously Level 4 might as well be light years from Level 3.

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Spot on!   I recommend that RC adds a bar to hand out the refreshment of choice immediately at the end of the boarding gangway to award those with a who have passed the Indiana Jones-level feats of planning, waiting, reserving, testing, uploading, printing, packing, flying, driving, uber-ing, masking, swabbing, hand sanitizing, worrying, cough-squelching, checking, double checking, waiting again, until FINALLY.... you can board now.    

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20 minutes ago, leesam82 said:

I definitely agree. I would also add a level 2.5: Worrying about every time someone in the family has a cough! Praying its not Covid 

YES!! We test on Saturday, and there are maybe three weeks of the year here in north Texas that we don't have some sort of high pollen allergy alert. No one is allowed out of the house until we head to Walgreens for our appointments! 😆

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2 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Level 1: It's T-minus 45.  Got checked in and got my preferred time slot! I'll unnecessarily fret about how long it's taking to validate my vax card, but oh well

Level 2: T-minus 30. Holy cow my luggage tags are ready. My luggage has dust on it in the garage and I'm not touching them for another 4 weeks but gosh darnit I'm printing these luggage tag right now! Level 2 isn't much more exciting than Level 1 but those luggage tags are some physical artifact that the cruise is near.

Level 3: T-minus 2. My armpits are soaked from that 15 minutes of anticipatory hell constantly squinting and wondering "is that a second line or just an eyelash?", but the covid tests are negative. Level 3 is a Richter scale tier difference from Level 2.

Level 4: Liftoff. On board the ship. My flights made it, I got a great absolutely terrible night's sleep at the hotel like a kid on Christmas Eve, and I got through check-in with no issues. Let the fun begin.  Obviously Level 4 might as well be light years from Level 3.

My family and I just passed our Covid tests for our Wonder Of The Seas cruise that leaves Rome tomorrow. We did the Emed tests in our hotel room.

 

Stage 3 complete, bring on stage 4 tomorrow!

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1 hour ago, leesam82 said:

I definitely agree. I would also add a level 2.5: Worrying about every time someone in the family has a cough! Praying its not Covid 

Oh goodness - I am experiencing this RIGHT NOW!!  Fortunately I am 2.5 weeks out but last night my son called telling me his son (my grandson) just tested positive for COVID.  Yes, we had them over for Memorial Weekend.  Now everyone in the family is scrambling for a PCR test since our home tests have been showing negative.  At least if I do have COVID, I should be well enough to cruise on June 19th.  Fingers and toes are crossed.

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I can't even get excited about an upcoming cruise like I used to until get through Smokey's "Level 3". These testing requirements really make me temper my expectations.

We spent the entire month of January as secluded as we could just to try and make sure we would test negative on January 27th!

At about 4:00 pm that day (once my wife's test results were done) I finally got to exclaim "We're going on the cruise!"

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35 minutes ago, FireFishII said:

Oh goodness - I am experiencing this RIGHT NOW!!  Fortunately I am 2.5 weeks out but last night my son called telling me his son (my grandson) just tested positive for COVID.  Yes, we had them over for Memorial Weekend.  Now everyone in the family is scrambling for a PCR test since our home tests have been showing negative.  At least if I do have COVID, I should be well enough to cruise on June 19th.  Fingers and toes are crossed.

If there was ever a time you WANTED to get COVID (?!?!) then , YES now is that time!  I tested positive Friday and am still coughing and short of breath.  Otherwise feel fine and actually did test negative last night with a home test but feel I really need another week or so to feel back to normal!  Unfortunately my entire family that vacationed in Universal Studios and Disney for 7 days all tested positive within a day or two of returning…kids, grandkids, all of us!

2 vaccinations and 2 boosters did not help me stay healthy! 😥🥴
I hope you stay COVID free!!!!

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1 hour ago, SPS said:

I can't even get excited about an upcoming cruise like I used to until get through Smokey's "Level 3". These testing requirements really make me temper my expectations.

Exactly this. The thought of that darned q-tip obliterates all the pre-cruise excitement and anticipation. 😕

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Stage 3 is coming up for us, 3 weeks from tomorrow.  We're getting ready to go into full blown anti Covid mode, masks everywhere, no unnecessary visitors or visiting, take out instead of dine-in, etc.

There is a stage between 3&4, will our flight get cancelled or rescheduled.  We're flying down to Miami the day before and we've already been rescheduled from morning to afternoon.  The way the airline industry has been going, it's definitely a stress point.

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2 hours ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

If there was ever a time you WANTED to get COVID (?!?!) then , YES now is that time!  I tested positive Friday and am still coughing and short of breath.  Otherwise feel fine and actually did test negative last night with a home test but feel I really need another week or so to feel back to normal!  Unfortunately my entire family that vacationed in Universal Studios and Disney for 7 days all tested positive within a day or two of returning…kids, grandkids, all of us!

2 vaccinations and 2 boosters did not help me stay healthy! 😥🥴
I hope you stay COVID free!!!!

Hope you feel back to normal soon. We are positive too, started with symptoms on Saturday after our AK cruise. Thankful we had a lovely cruise, and recovering, but totally exhausted.  I just loaded the dishwasher, and had to rest. 🙄  So glad we didn’t get a worse variant, but this one is more than enough for me. 🙂

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5 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Level 3: T-minus 2. My armpits are soaked from that 15 minutes of anticipatory hell constantly squinting and wondering "is that a second line or just an eyelash?", but the covid tests are negative. Level 3 is a Richter scale tier difference from Level 2.

Hoping this level is just a bad memory by December. 🙂 Even though it didn’t worry me so much the second cruise like it did the first one. 

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I found this past cruise (May 13th, Ovation, Alaska, out of Seattle) to be one of the most pre-boarding stressful times I've ever experienced in may couple of decades of cruising.  I attribute that to the possibilities of things going wrong with the very significant milestones that HAVE  to be met and have to have specific results.  

Level 1:  Checked in and everything went Okay.  Took a few days for my VAX to validate.  Is something wrong, is that normal?  What is normal, now?  

Level 2:  My wife has already packed and unpacked several times.  It's right at 30 days out and my luggage tags aren't printable, yet.  Is something wrong, is this normal?  What is normal now?

Level 3:  Time for COVID tests.  Too many conflicting opinions about which test is acceptable by Royal's Terminal team.  Not sure if we're using the right test!  Will my party and I have anybody come up positive?  One person's test had issues with the Internet connection and we don't have any extra!  But, the lost connection didn't matter, the testing company (emed) didn't care that they didn't see the 15 minutes go by as the sample was being tested.  Extremely stressed out with all the above.  Can something else go wrong?  Is this normal?

Level 4:  In an effort to make time go by faster, go to bed in the hotel at about 7:00 PM, after having many many adult beverages in the hotel bar.  Lay awake ALL night looking at watch and a news channel on TV.  Worried if we have followed all the post-COVID requirements and documentation required.  Get on ship, not without issues but not COVID related, and am so relieved to get there, almost sink into the couch in exhaustion, exhale, gather the strength to start to explore the ship and attend the Muster Briefing.  Manage to get excited all over again and start the partying and go to Chops for a great steak.  

I look forward to getting back to the good old days of pre-cruise minimal activities, less stressful milestones, luggage tags etc.  Eliminate the so called "NEW NORMAL", period.  I love cruising and I love cruising on Royal's ships.  That doesn't mean that I will not have criticisms.  THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT and I will not cower from that.  

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6 hours ago, Wjduffyjr51 said:

Spot on!   I recommend that RC adds a bar to hand out the refreshment of choice immediately at the end of the boarding gangway to award those with a who have passed the Indiana Jones-level feats of planning, waiting, reserving, testing, uploading, printing, packing, flying, driving, uber-ing, masking, swabbing, hand sanitizing, worrying, cough-squelching, checking, double checking, waiting again, until FINALLY.... you can board now.    

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This! With the only addition being stalking Weather app over news of growing tropical depression in next 72 hours when I’m set to board in 4 days and I have to fly across the country to get there!!!! 😫😫😫

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I totally agree with @PatsFanBrian air travel these days is definitely more stressful. We flew to FL for our Match cruise and had all sorts of problems but made it. Really glad we were flying in the day before. For our Alaska cruise in a couple weeks we're flying in two days early. Flights have been changed on us twice already.

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On 6/1/2022 at 1:58 PM, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

If there was ever a time you WANTED to get COVID (?!?!) then , YES now is that time!  I tested positive Friday and am still coughing and short of breath.  Otherwise feel fine and actually did test negative last night with a home test but feel I really need another week or so to feel back to normal!  Unfortunately my entire family that vacationed in Universal Studios and Disney for 7 days all tested positive within a day or two of returning…kids, grandkids, all of us!

2 vaccinations and 2 boosters did not help me stay healthy! 😥🥴
I hope you stay COVID free!!!!

I was thinking the same thing. But we all tested negative, including the grandchild's parents.  Go figure.  So, now that I am within 2 weeks of the cruise, my fingers and toes are cross.  NO COVID!!!

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