rtazz17

On 7/22/2022 at 5:03 PM, Ocean Boy said:

Oh some people get the free lunch, it is just simply paid for by someone else.

Yup,some people think free means free. Nothing is free and normally middle class pays for all the free things.

On 7/22/2022 at 4:17 PM, topnole said:

Out govt has been paying for it too.  Them and the insurance companies.  

Ours isnt anymore. Just fyi…. 

On 4/2/2022 at 12:27 PM, Lane Hog said:

Anyone who has had Covid might continue to test positive for up to 90 days.

 

You might be able to get a negative result on a rapid test where you do the swabbig if you don't "dig deep" with the swab.  It's just a matter of where the live virus might still be camped out (not as likely in the outer nasal as inner nasal or sinus).  But don't count on it.

 

 

You will test positive on a pcr test for weeks but if you test positive on an antigen test it means you still do have covid. Antigen tests detect live virus.

Im hoping my cruise on april 30 is 100% capacity. We went last august at 30% and it was theworst cruise we ever had. I go because I want to be around people. If your afraid of people and getting covid you need to stay home in a shell. Life isshort,get out and enjoy it. Nobody knows how or when life will end. Live each day.

Wow,somebody went cruising a lot as a child! Holy crap! 175 nights or so! Unless it was still under the double points system which ended when we started cruising😡

Lol,we sailed allure last august,the 1st cruise out for her since covid. There were 1500 passengers and I still couldnt get a chair close to pool. Lol

yes I to predict it will be full capacity soon. I bet by summer. I honestly hated sailing low capacity. It was a ghost ship whic seems cool at first but it wasnt. It was depressing being the only family out on boardwalk at 9pm at night. People give the energy of the ship. No people,no energy. Im looking forward to our may and august cruises and seeing people once again! 

13 hours ago, flamingos said:

Enjoy it, you will likely never see it again.  🙂

Hopefully it never does because its boring with out people. Stay home and be a hermit. Cruising is not meant to be a solo thing. Again,unless you are a hermit

We went on allure of the seas a couple weeks ago at 1/3 capacity. It was a ghost ship. Not fun at all. The people create the energy of anything. It was boring. We wont go again untill capacity is much much higher. Seems like its cool at first to be empty but its not.

We were  on last weeks cruise on allure.. We have cruised for years. I wont say I regret going but its near that. By mid week I had enough of everything. Not being able to get coffee or touch anything pretty much. Wash your hands 5 times to get a coffee,lol. If your familiar with what normally is available,activities etc,there was hardly any. You dont think you will miss a lot of it until its not there. Cruising at 1/3 capacity the ship was a ghost ship. If you hate people you will enjoy it. Board walk(ghost town),we were the only ones on boardwalk at 9pm several nights,central park(ghost town). Yeah sounds great untill you realize what makes things fun is the energy of the people there. Never get to see any of staffs faces,no big deal right? No it gets old. Im not saying some might not enjoy it but there wasnt much to do. St thomas you were walking streets in masks in 90 degree weather. I guess it is what it is. I thought it would be better but it wasnt. First couple days were ok but I literally wore a mask more in 7 days then I did in 16 months. Hours daily. If you think you can hold a drink in your hand and walk around the promanade mask less think again,not happening. At the end of the week I was very much looking forward to going home. Knowing what I know I wont do it again. Yes this is how it probably has to be right now for cruising to survive. Just posting our experience. I fooled myself into thinking it would be fun,but I think I knewin the back of my head it probably wasnt going to be.If you are genuinely afraid of covid you will enjoy it. Because its like the protocols we lived with in march of 2020. 

Please dont jump all over me in this post. Just my opinion your mileage may vary.

I am a firefighter/paramedic 20years on job. Well aware of all the facts of covid. Treated patients since the beginning of covid. So please dont advise me on what you think the facts are. Im well aware. 
We are in our 40s with two older teenagers for reference. Maybe older crowd would enjoy more? Idk. But we arent hermits and this is what it seemed like.   
 

on a better note we did enjoy florida. Guess being with people and seeing faces is what we enjoy. Retiring there in 7 years. 

On 8/6/2021 at 4:11 AM, Chiliburn said:

I can’t see it happening,the virus in Sydney is here to stay.

Sydney will be quarantined from the rest of the country and if the ships do sail,where to?

Wow you have really been drinking the kool aide? 

We leave on allure on this sunday too. Probably be our only cruise ever like this.(reduced capacity ). I like having crowds of people but Ill take this one time! Theres pros and cons. 

1 hour ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

have you heard of the delta variant, by any chance?

 

I don't know about you, but we have protocols. We are required to wear masks when we are in the office/at customer sites by our global employer, and also adhere to strict Covid prevention protocols. Children in our school district are required to wear masks and adhere to strict Covid-mitigating protocols. Thank goodness for that, because our state is seeing a 400% increase in infection rates, and it keeps growing, thanks to delta, while no remote school options are being offered. So, yes, we do live on land with protocols.

Ok,so 400%increase in infections and you are wearing masks? Seems masks dont work right? They dont. Not in the environment we wear them in. We are running around with masks half on and half off,dirty,fabric etc. We are not in a medically controlled environment. We have to wear them on medical calls at the firehouse but other then that im never wearing one because they are not doing anything. If you point me to multiple studies that determined they work let me know. There arent any because they dont. Thats a fact. Make you feel better wearing one? Thats psychological nothing more.I wear one when I am required to play the game. Thats all.

3 minutes ago, Mapleleafforever said:

Although I hope you're right I don't believe you are. Time will tell though now won't it?

 

btw, I'm speaking strictly about cruise ship protocols. 

Oh I know. They cant get much more restrictive unless nobody is allowed on. Its already masks and testing for everyone. It will pass. This isnt forever 

15 minutes ago, Mapleleafforever said:

I believe there will be cruising but the protocols will become more strict and prohibitive. 

Nah its going to lessen. Delta variant has all but disappeared in uk already. Its a blip in time.

just one source. Many to choose from if you dont like this one.

https://fortune.com/2021/08/03/covid-delta-variant-wave-uk-have-already-receded-us/

Lol,we leave sunday and its been a heck of a week. So when you check in is a good starting point

No masks for photos. Covid stops during eating,drinking and of course photos! Lol

Only makes sense.

Cruising is a gamble right now. Just like everything. Who knows. It might get cancelled next yr too. Some people here have had 15 cruises cancelled. Nobody knows whats around the corner. Our cruise got cancelled 12 days before leaving. Is what it is

1 hour ago, disfan13 said:

That's a good point about being uncomfortable. We found Hanes masks, they feel like t-shirts and are extremely comfortable all around. We wore them for 10 days in Disney!  

Unfortunately cloth masks do nothing. Not flaming,just facts. Even on cdc website whom I cant stand it states that.Particles go right through cloth masks if thats your intent. If you just want to look good then cloth is fine🤣. I work as a firefighter /paramedic. Wouldnt be caught dead with a cloth mask trying to prevent anything.

Pretty sure its free no matter the reason.

17 minutes ago, bestestboss said:

just got email from rccl both our jan 2022 cruises-  jan 3 on vision and jan 21 on radience have been cancelled- wow this really sucks

now have to cancel air/hotel/parking and on board perks for this

not going for fcc since has to be booked by 4/22 and cruise by 9/22-too short of a time frame for us since both of these were for jan 2020.

better to be safe than sorry- going to take a break until things get better

Unfortunately it will prolly be a yoyo for quite a while

3 hours ago, Earthworm Jim said:

 

I didn't say CVS isn't good enough for me, or that one couldn't get their test done at CVS. All I'm saying is at the CVS site it's not clear which test you'll be given since the rapid test option doesn't specify it's antigen and the other option might be the NAAT test, which apparently isn't accepted by Carnival. It puts us in a spot.

 

Walgreens options seem more useful, since they clearly list antigen, PCR, and the third type, ID-NOW, which Carnival doesn't specify as acceptable. The only problem there is in my case the closest antigen test to me is in Maine and I live in upstate New York. But the PCR would work, assuming I get the results fast enough.

Naat is a form of pcr test(molecular)

rapid is antigen.

naat is not rapid

Vaccinations work. Period.

we live in connecticut. Our vaccination rate is and has been for months around 80% of population. Even right now we have 2-3% max of tests coming back positive. Our hospitalizations are 165 people and went down yesterday. You simply can not argue that vaccinations do not work like I have read several times in this thread. Its your decision,I could care less if you do or dont but dont say vaccinations are not working. They are/do

14 hours ago, scendro said:

Just some observations….

 

I was on the Horizon July 24-Aug 1st.  Our Facebook group has posted over 10 cruisers on our cruise that have tested positive for COVID since they’ve returned home and many more have symptoms and are in the process of getting tested.  Everyone that posted that they or their spouse has tested positive all state that they were fully vaccinated. 
 

The Horizon was pretty packed (I heard 80% capacity) and there was no social distancing at all.  The shows, buffet, MDR, bars, comedy clubs were all packed with guests side by side.  
 

There were a good number of young kids on the ship and 99% of the time they were not wearing masks indoors (especially in the elevators).

 

In the MDR they would pack guests next to each other at the same table when there was plenty of open seats to allow for distancing and I’m sure this was because their wait staff would have too much room to cover.

 

This cruise was loaded with Casino guests and smoking was unbearable in the casino.

The ship had problems with the HVAC in many areas (buffet near Blue Iguana, the stateroom hallways on some areas, the casino) and there was inadequate cooling/ventilations. 

 

There was no active encouragement of hand washing or sanitizer use.  A few machines hear and there but no workers encouraging the use.  And of course your stateroom had that horrible bar soap that is no fun to use after day 2 because it’s a sticky slimy mess so I imagine that doesn’t encourage hand washing. 
 

The buffet was a free for all and you could serve yourselves with shared utensils (well except the bacon, cakes at lunch and the prime rib, they dolled that out).

 

I personally witnessed many guests getting off the ship and on the ship (in port) without abiding by the mask policy even when told to mask these guests ignored the staff.  I can’t imagine how the staff will have to handle mandatory masks in more areas.

 

I witnessed several guests on the ship actively coughing in the MDR and other indoor areas of the ship in front of staff and nothing was ever said.  
 

 

Well I think this explains it if its actually factual.

21 minutes ago, mek said:

Well that will certainly ensure a correct answer! LOL

By me putting that in my post it stopped anyone from saying 72 hrs. Reverse psychology! Works every time