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Royal Caribbean Update


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Here's a current cut & paste from the RCI website under the Itinerary Updates, some really good news! 

October 16, 2017 at Noon EDT (next update Friday, 10/20 at 5 PM EDT)

Royal Caribbean leadership recently returned from visits to St. Thomas and San Juan and will be visiting St. Maarten on Wednesday. We continue to be impressed with the progress the islands are making to rebuild, and are excited to announce our return to St. Thomas with the Adventure of the Seas on November 10. In the next few weeks, working in conjunction with the local governments, we will announce the specific dates in November for our return to San Juan and St. Maarten.

Upon arrival in St. Thomas guests will be able to enjoy a vast array of activities, dining and shopping. Downtown shops are open and have full power, the majority of restaurants and bars are also open, and the boats and catamarans that are used to enjoy the waters of the Caribbean are ready for guests. We are also partnering with the USVI government to restore Magen’s Bay, one of St. Thomas’ most popular tourist attractions. The beach will have its grand re-opening coinciding with Adventure’s arrival on November 10. Magen’s Bay will be joined by Secret Sands Beach, Secret Harbor Beach Club, Lindquists Beach, Honeymoon Beach on Water Island, and Abi Beach – all open for guests to enjoy.  

We anticipate no further changes to our scheduled calls in St. Thomas, San Juan and St. Maarten for sailings December 1, 2017 forward.

:27_sunglasses:

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1 hour ago, Tammy Smith said:

Personally I'm not interested in going to war zone looking areas or being on vacation while residents continue to suffer. We'll be changing our cruise if San Juan or St Marten remain on the itinerary. We'll donate to organizations helping with aid and relief. Let islands heal without gawkers. 

 

I see your point, but they need tourism to return.  It is their lifeline.

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13 hours ago, Tammy Smith said:

Personally I'm not interested in going to war zone looking areas or being on vacation while residents continue to suffer. We'll be changing our cruise if San Juan or St Marten remain on the itinerary. We'll donate to organizations helping with aid and relief. Let islands heal without gawkers. 

 

One of the best way you can help these residents is to provide them with their island's #1 source of income/revenue: tourism. You're absolutely right the populous as a whole needs a certain level of charity to get things fully operational again, but the tourism business needs a boost equally.

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I don't understand how anyone can think that this is good news.  These islands, especially Puerto Rico are still in dire straits. Yes, they need the tourism dollars, however they are really not ready to bring in 6,000 plus people, when they are still sending residents away. The latest news is that the locals are drinking contaminated water.  How can RCCL think that this will not trickle into the food supply given to people on shore excursions and simple exploring the island? That is a liability for the cruise line and trust me, they will have issues and face liability for it.  I live in S Florida and we are still having issues from Irma and it only hit here as a Cat 1. RCCL appears to be making decisions based on financial gain to make up for losses that they incurred.  No one from the cruise line has contacted me or anyone else that I am aware of regarding my itinerary on Harmony Dec 2nd.  If I could cancel and make RCCL pay for this and another cruise, believe me I would.  In my opinion, this is with total disregard for the passengers traveling.  I understand that an itinerary change is an inconvenience, but much better to be safe than sorry. Most likely my last trip on RCCL. My only hope is that representatives from RCCL troll this blog and reconsider this decision!! Health and safety of the passengers should be the primary concern-not financial gain!

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I agree that tourism helps the islands recover as it feels their economies. My only concern would be if tourism interfered with continuing recovery efforts by shifting resources to support tourism instead of recovery. Fortunately, with Royal the emphasis on the guest experience on the islands, so I'm confident they wouldn't be going back unless they thought these issues had been addressed. 

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The island is still receiving aid via land and sea and people are living in tent cities it's not ready for tourism. 75 percent of hotels and timeshares are off inventory. Some are closing permanently. Crime is very high. It's a personal and physical safety issue also and the liability should someone get hurt on the beaches or in and around unsafe structures is a serious concern. Hotel and travel companies are taking a big risk by letting tourists back too soon. We were on the island and speak from first hand knowledge and my husband is an attorney for Marriott International. We've changed our cruise. 

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The local governments are in control of the reopening date.  They are asking for the cruise ships to return. Cruise line officials are ensuring they can fulfill that request in a safe manner.    Cruise ships in particular are a form of tourism that places less demand on resources compared to fly and stay tourism.  Cruises arrive in the morning and leave later the same day unlike fly and stay tourists who stay overnight when crime can be higher and who place greater demand on resources such as food, water, policing and potentially medical.  Crime can be higher in part because there is no money coming in and people are growing desperate in a large part because they have no income.  

Local governments want to reintroduce tourism to bring income but also to bring a sense of normalcy back, which itself helps to reduce crime and stabilize the region. Cruise ships are the ideal answer for how to a slowly reintroduce tourism.  

 This isn't the first hurricane to have this effect, many islands have gone through this before.   When I cruised to St Marteen  in the late '90s it was soon after that islands last such hurricane hit with similar devastation.  

EDIT - in another forum I participate in a similar thread is evolving.  A resident of St Thomas is posting and they want tourists back.  They are not sure how they are going to pay the rent this month and while they are not fully restored (no power at home yet), they are eagerly waiting to welcome us with open arms.  They need the money.  So for anyone that does go to a recently opened island, be generous, tip well.  An extra $5 or $10 is nothing relative to the cost of a cruise.

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Tammy Smith-I am responding to you since you said your husband is an attorney for Marriott.  We are on the Harmony on Dec 2nd as part of the Marriott Owners group.  All of our correspondence has to go through Marriott because we are part of a group package.  By the time they released our booking numbers for RCCL, it was too late to do anything.  I was wondering if your husband had any insight into what Marriott might be doing in response to the announcement that they will be going to these islands.  We are in a difficult position because we used Vacation Club points as well as cash for our cruise. We planned for this well over 18 months ago and this is quite a large financial outlay for us. I do not want to sound heartless in voicing opposition to stopping at these islands, however I have already donated to the relief operations and after going through Irma ourselves, we were really looking forward to this cruise.  I don't know how they expect people to tip generously or otherwise support these islands if they don't get off the ship at these ports, which I personally will not be doing even though we have a free shore excursion from Marriott at both San Juan and St. Martin.

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@ladydiinflorida and @Tammy Smith, for the discussion about what Tammy's husband may or may not know I'd recommend moving the discussion to direct messaging, available here on the forums. Just hover over the name of the person you want to contact and you'll get a "Message" button to privately email them.

Not saying this to mute the conversation here, just thinking that with Tammy's husband being a lawyer, this might be getting into potentially sensitive information that shouldn't be discussed in a public forum. Working 20 years in the financial industry makes me a little paranoid about these things. :6_smile:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've spoken to a couple people on St Thomas today.  Island life is getting better and power is coming back on in many places.  Ships full of utility poles arrived weeks ago and crews have been busy replacing downed power lines.  The Charlotte Amalie area is very close to pre-storm conditions.  My friend told me in places you wouldn't know a hurricane had passed through.  That's not to say every home that was damaged has been fixed or that everyone has power, far from that.  However the curfew is no longer in place and life is so much better he tells me.  Paradise Point remains closed while they make repairs and work towards the goal of reopening as soon as they can.   This is a process and it will take time but they are definitely ready to accept tourists and they need the money that tourism brings.  I am looking forward to my visit there in December.   

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  • 2 weeks later...

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