dodgestang

4 minutes ago, George C said:

I thought they were removing the pianos .

I hope not......we always book the RS because of the piano.  We have a baby grand at the house and it is nice to have live piano music in the stateroom...either from the auto player...or played by my daughter.

Considering I booked room for 4 and easily added 5th into it I would say the ship will be swelling 😉

12 hours ago, CaliCruzing said:

How crowded in CocoCay in the summer, which is when I assume there are the most kids? Are the lines to water slides super long? Is it like DIsney World in the summer?

They had not opened the water park yet the last time we were there....we always get/got an ocean front cabana and never notice it being overly crowded at all....but.....we were still tendering at the time and it was only one boat per day.

No, it is B U T full

We've been in CocoCay in Dec/January time frame.....we thought the water was just fine 😉

Did they change you from a 9 night to a 6-7 night and not tell you yet?

22 minutes ago, radarcruiser said:

Even if they did, there's thousands of infected people already there......

Millions.....I think you meant to say....Millions

6 hours ago, Tolkmit said:

Hundreds of thousands of passengers on cruise ships already, with no major outbreak problems, is as large scale of a study as was done on the vaccines themselves. It's completely clear, this is a political issue not a safety issue.

 

The simple truth is, most of the public views cruising as an unnecessary luxury. If cruising is allowed, the government will have a hard time justifying restricting anything else. The safety facts are irrelevant. This administration just passed a massive stimulus bill. They have to keep restrictions in place, and this feeling like a crisis, long enough for the end of the crisis and those restrictions to be viewed as a result of that stimulus and credit to go to the current administration not the previous one.

This is so spot on.  It's disgusting. 

Nice to see people starting to get back into a more normal swing around here........I don't think anyone's complained about Cabana prices for over a year....so its refreshing to think we may be starting to get out to sea again soon.

PS....the Over water cabana was 4k for my Cancelled Christmas cruise......they will change what the market will bare....high prices to make the most money and not have any of them sit idle.

Funny news is reporting 100 million people have have gotten the vaccine at the 58 days in Biden admin....so now.....not at some point in April

With the surge and ability for distance learning the amount of kid on TA may change.  Even though my kids are back in school 5 days a week (have been since early October) their school allows/support other students who don't/can't come to class.  We've already had some of the class dial in from Key West on vacation.

I know I wouldn't have a problem with booking up a TA into a European trip maybe the week before a major holiday with my kids at this point, using the wifi and having them do school part of the day :).

5 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Why, you are your own Hibachi chef - what's the diff?

The other diners look at me funny when I use my own Japanese fireman to put out the flames.

1 hour ago, twangster said:

 

You pay money to cook your own food at your table.

Its fancy.......

with that said.....the waiter always did it for us on Grandeur.....but maybe we looked like we needed help 😉

2 hours ago, George C said:

From my experience it’s on all ships that do not have a hibachi, have done it several times on navigator . 
 

 

There is no rhyme or reason really...Grandeur does hot rock.....Anthem doesn't.   Neither have Hibachi.....BUT....and this may be why.....part of Izumi on Anthem is essentially the hallway people who are not dining walk through....so maybe there is a safety concern.

On 9/19/2020 at 3:53 PM, John&LaLa said:

We typically sail 15-20 times a year.

Starting to realize I dont miss it as much as I thought I would. Anybody else?

 

Of course, ridiculously low prices will lure me back😉

We sail 4 times a year.....we are missing it more than ever.

We have tried 'other' things

1. Putting in a pool at the house for the kids.  Took two months to get estimates, signed a contract on July 1st.  Still no pool, expected not to be in till April 2021 now

2. Tried going to all inclusive for long weekends.  Went to Pocono Mountains (Camelback)....had a nice water park....food was mediocre and most eateries were still closed.  Lucky we were only there for 3 nights because any longer and we all would have gone crazy

3. Took a couple weekend trips to Ocean City, NJ.  We owned a house there till last year, but opted to stay at fancy hotel.  It was just sad, managed to have an 'okay' time

So......we are paid off and check in for Christmas cruise and hoping the submission today to CDC helps tip the scales in our favor.  I'm not confident with all the media fear mongering firing up again about second wave this and that.  I am still waiting for positive news out to EU with the cruises that started up 2 weeks ago....haven't heard anything negative yet...but that isn't the same as positive news.

As for low prices......that's going to be questionable for a while.  Decided to try and trade in my 'free cruise' to pay for my Alaska cruise I lifted and shifted into Aug next year.  After applying discount, it was $300 more.

4 hours ago, Dave & Mel said:

I took the FCC, but I am now asking for a full refund.

 

Discussion doesn't make sense to me.

The FCC was for 125% so you took that and could easily book another cruise with it.

Now you are asking for full refund of your 100% paid cruise

And complaining you can use lift and shift.

I can only assume the following happened....you took your 125%, looked at cruises, found out that demand pushed prices up a bit and you may have to out of pocket a little more, so you decided to just cancel it all, take the refund and worry about it later.  Then they started lift and shift.

I can tell you since I have lift/shifted 2 cruises....there are still price changes in play.  I lucked out...and my lift and shifts into the same room on different sailings netted small decreases....but in both cases the customer service operator was attempting to set my expectation while doing the lift and shifts that port fees might change so it might not all work out exactly......

That's just me making assumptions...not an assault.

3 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I continue to wonder if there is rhyme or reason why some refunds are taking this long. 

I have had 5 cruises cancelled and received fcc's and cash refunds  as well as all cruise planner purchases in 2 to 3 weeks for all except for my most recent one to bermuda for October that was cancelled this week.    I have not yet decided what we are going to do L&S or refund.

I am very happy all of mine have processed in that short of time and would love to know why others are still waiting over 90 days for their refunds.   

Your last name starts with an "A" and they start at the beginning list every day 😉

Tough choice 😉

During the winter months the water at Labadee is you swim on the lagoon/inlet side will be warmer (if you get the timing on the tide right since the inland water will be going out with the tide)

Both are nice places.  Labadee has a nice tropical rain forest vibe/scenery going for it.....

Cococay is the newer/fresher destination.  Depending on where you pick to swim you can be in the man made inlet areas with a view that contains the ship all day

Of if you get to south beach area.....I think it has the best over all view...of open ocean uniterrupted to the horizon (at least it did before they added the over water cabanas) but if you get one of those you will get that view back 😉  Other wise turn your head a little to the right so they are out of view 🙂 😉 😉

The water was also the clearest I have ever seen at cococay.  Labadee I thought was a little on the greener side but still beautiful.

I don't have any photos of locations without people in them 😉

Having unemployment go down rather dramatically given all 'analysts' expected it to go up higher again has spurred a lot of market activity and perhaps added a bit of confidence around the 'post covid19 rebound' that has been hotly debated in terms of will it be a V shape or a hockey stick shape....or somewhere in between

😞

The face you make when you bought in at $34 in March.....got tired of watching it go up 4 then down 4 then up 5 then down 6 then up 7....so starting playing the up/down game and taking small bits of profit and realized if you had just left it alone you would have doubled your money today versus the 50% gain you have.

Still....been doing okay for me....but could have been so much better if I had learned how to be patient.

1 minute ago, Jimbo said:

Yeah  I guess, but hell if you aren't nervous buying or selling RCCL stock right now, you not living?

Yeah....I keep buying it and selling it....making small gains....if I had just held it from the first buy and sold today I would have made about 30% more than I have so far....but I'm too nervous to hold it for more than a few days at time....just keep waiting for another 'shot over the bow' in terms of more delays in ports, more strange rules in covid, more bad economic news in general....

3 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Why would it matter really, stock market reacts now or tomorrow...............I never get that when people say that?

People react at different speeds.  If markets are open....knee jerk reaction can tank you quickly...aka a bunch of people get nervous sell, stock starts to slide, more people get nervous, they sell, stock slides more...it hits threshhold, then major holders auto trading kicks in......  If market is closed, the initial knee jerk is delayed and in after hour trading it might take a small hit and then recover by the time the major indexes open the next business day.

I saw the CA announcement early today and called RCL about 12:30....took 10 minutes and 'lifted/shifted' my two reservations from Aug 2 2020 to Aug 15 2021.....I had already cancelled all my cruise planner items 2 weeks ago thinking this would happen and I didn't want to have the full cruise fare plus another 6-7k in cruise planner items sitting in RCL bank account for 2 years.   Still waiting on that refund though 😉

On 5/20/2020 at 1:37 PM, CynBeth6 said:

We have never had to do this before so have a question.  Now that our June Med cruise is cancelled do we have to wait until we get the e-mail on 6/30 about FCC or could it be available now to be able to call and apply it to a different Med cruise we found for next summer that is a little longer than this was going to be ?

Not sure its been mentioned or not....the FCC can't be used for the depo....so that means you do not need (or want) to wait for the FCC prior to booking the replacement (especially if you have a specific cabin you want)

6 hours ago, flyguyjake said:

When did those prior viruses overwhelm hospitals & morgues with dead people?

 

 

Whoa there.....didn't mean to derail the thread into yet another other COVID-19 measurement contests.  PSA....sharing a news tidbit saying clearly the virus doesn't spread as easily on surfaces as first thought is not an open invitation that I want to start an internet argument since neither one of us is saying the virus doesn't spread that way; just that it doesn't spread as easily as thought.  So, you know the whole doom and gloom images of countries walking around outside sanitizing side walks that help whipped up this entire crapfest? Well, now that we know more about the virus those actions appear now to be what we call in the industry 'an overreaction'

🙂