AntiMatter

1 hour ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

Well they do not require a real test!

They require you to show a PICTURE of a test or an old test! So where's your theory now?

 

There's a difference between between requiring some form of screening and not requiring anything. I'm booked on a transatlantic coming up soon and intend to get a legit test from a 3rd party. If my test is positive, I won't go. Being a responsible person, I don't need Royal to tell me that. I'm confident many others others would do the same. Those who do a self-test on the honor system doesn't mean that all of them will cheat. I mean, 5000+ passengers aren't all going show up with a photo of fake self-test results. So requiring some form of proof of testing at least it cuts down the odds vs not requiring anything at all. Especially if you have to defend yourself in a court of law against gross negligence and reckless conduct by a common carrier. 

 

If a bad outbreak occurs, then Royal can point to their testing and vaccination requirements and argue that they did something, enough even, as opposed to doing nothing, though perhaps not exactly the highest standards they can utilize to protect passengers. So to answer your question, the reason why Royal has this policy in my opinion probably has to do with legal liability and avoidance of bad public relations, more than anything else. My "theory" applies just the same and specifically it's an opinion to address comments along the lines as to why Royal still has these covid requirements for transatlantics and the implication in comments that it is arbitrary, not necessary, etc..

I've been on 4 transatlantics with Royal (3 prior to Covid) and it's funny to me to note how many ppl cough in a packed elevator at start of cruise vs near the end of the cruise. Unscientific, sure, but the results are consistent. In transatlantics, you are potentially close to a week away from a port in case of emergencies. So imagine a scenario where you have hundreds of passengers and/or crew with a contagious deadly virus and nowhere to dock to help the situation.

 

Conversely, imagine the potential liability and PR for Royal. They know we're still in a worldwide pandemic. They know cruise ships are conducive for virus spread. They know that treatment options and emergency services are limited once they depart from US to Europe. They know that allowing a passenger with contagious virus onboard can be disastrous for other passengers and crew. So they're not even going to require a TEST to screen for the virus and just let everyone onboard for nearly 2 weeks? How much sense would that make? Yeah, transatlantics are different. 

After so many years of cruising and watching pier runners I thought nothing like that would ever happen to me but it nearly did - in Norway. I got back from a RCL tour and got mired in a souvenir shop by the pier in Geiranger, losing track of time. Once I realized nearly everyone had cleared out and checked the time it was defcon 1 to rush to the ship (about 5 mins away). The first checkpoint had already closed and I could see in the distance that onboard ramp to enter the ship was being removed. The officer had to contact the captain by radio and ask for permission to allow me and my companion aboard and I can say that the pause in waiting for a reply was panic-attack inducing.

 

Thankfully he did because I cannot imagine what I would have done had I been stuck in a sparsely populated fjord in Norway with hardly anything other than what I was wearing plus some gift shop apparel and refrigerator magnets. 

 

After that harrowing experience I make it point to take steps and never allow myself to be in a similar situation again. As others have mentioned, among the tips I incorporated are to set an alarm on my phone for at least 1 hour before departure (and subsequent alarms); I double check the departure time on the Compass the night before whenever stopping at a port and on the sign on the way out as they scan your card to be sure it's prominent on my mind (before I hardly paid attention to them); and finally I scan and save as pdf files my passport, id and travel insurance papers and upload it as an attachment in an email to myself, and to a secure cloud vault for redundancy so that I can access it anywhere in the world with wifi availability. At some point I also became familiar with the STEP program and use it as well. It's also good to take a pic of the port agent info from the Cruise Compass, just in case.

 

Hopefully by Bebop1088 sharing her experience in this excellent thread it will help someone avoid a similar, potentially horrendous situation or ameliorate it should it occur.  

8 hours ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

Currently on Allure. She's in great shape and anticipating all the new cruisers boarding tomorrow. We've heard there have been cancellations for the TA but can't confirm. Lots of C&A members expected. Hearing over 2000 D, D+, PC with 181 Pinnacles. 

 

👀

 

Whelp.. not a Pinnacle but this will be my 5th TA and second one on Allure. Here's hoping that the March winds treat us kindly. I heard from a reliable source there were many cancellations as well so it will be interesting to see how it pans out.   

I have brought water onto Serenade, Allure, Harmony and Navigator. I put it into an empty bag and put a luggage tag on it at each port. It got to our cabin with no issues.

 

Same here. I check a shrink wrapped case of water inside a small suitcase with a luggage tag for longer cruises and never had an issue with it.

I give them a big tip (usually $20) the first night before they even serve us a drink then about $10 each subsequent night. After that, they take good care of me the rest of the evening and the rest of the cruise. Most of the time, I don't even have say anything. They just look at me, nod to see if I am ready for another one and the drinks keep flowing. Btw, I heard they share the tips among the bar staff like the casino does so it should not matter if you get the same server on the final night or not.

I dined solo at Samba Grill on Allure on the final night of a cruise. Besides me sitting alone, there was hardly anyone else at the place; only a handful of tables being served. Needless to say, the service was excellent as was the food. :D

I got a pic with him on the Allure TA a year ago. Royal should hire him as some kind of guest ambassador for the PR and 'work' he does on their behalf. He's like a celebrity on board.

Norovirus is a huge concern on cruise ships as are other viral and bacterial infections. Many people will get sick and some will die from acquiring it.

 

Infections propagate more quickly in part because of sick people coming in contact with others in close confinements like elevators, crowded theaters and buffet lines, coughing and sneezing on other people and fomites which transmit viruses. Food is also a common way to transmit infectious organisms.

 

Washing hands and using sanitation gel helps to combat the spread of infectious organisms by reducing them. Period. There may be a debate about which of the two methods is more effective but there is no debate that they both reduce the number of germs on hands and surfaces.

 

There is also no evolutionary resistance of microbes to alcohol gel as someone intimated previously. The evolutionary resistance and rise of 'superbugs' has to do with antibiotics which works in a completely different manner to kill germs. You can easily look this up. Alcohol based products if properly used is like a lava flow that leaves little to nothing in its wake for germs to propagate until you touch something dirty again.

 

It's like many other things where a little scientific knowledge goes a long way. Those who understand and take precautions tend to have a lower incidence of infection and sickness. Those who don't, tend to be at higher risk for getting something like norovirus and dying, especially if their immune system is subpar to begin with.

Delighted to hear that Katie is still on Allure. Thanks for the review. :cool:

T minus 2 days!

How was Chops on the Vision?

Lovin the beautiful photos...enjoy BERMUDA!!!! Love you! Ally and Lyric :)

 

Nice smiles and pic.

Last year on the Liberty TA we were diverted to the Azores several hundred miles from the coast of Portugal for a medical emergency for what seemed to be 2 to 3 hours. A small boat came to the ship to pick up the ill passenger and ship doctor, then we had to wait quite a while for the doctor to make it back on board from land.

 

Didn't effect the arrival one bit. It's so far away that they can easily make up the time by speeding up the cruising speed by one knot or less. Many passengers just took to the pool deck to enjoy the unexpected views.

I'll be getting on as you get off on the 11th. Who is the Capt?

What types of steak do they have on the menu at Giovanni's? Anyone know?

Cool. Thanks for sharing the link.

[quote name='Merion_Mom']Bob, they are EXACTLY what everyone else has reported from upgraded systems:

$189.95 ($190) for unlimited, one device.

$229 for unlimited, two devices.

$60 for one 24 hour period, unlimited use.

$30 for an hour of use, usable over any period of time.

You can no longer buy "just minutes". If you are using an hour and it is "up", you are kicked off. No more "just another minute". You would have to buy another hour.[/quote]

Thx for the info, Merion_Mom. Enjoy your cruise!

I understand your frustration....for the first time we are looking at other cruise lines for next fall! We have only used RCCL but I think it is time for us to start comparing the various cruise lines. After we try one or two we may find that we only want to use RCCL...but until now we never had the desire to compare.

 

Likewise.

 

Supply and demand forces being what they are, it cuts both ways. RCCL can jack up their rates all they want, resulting in lower demand and folks like myself looking to other cruise lines for the first time and giving them the opportunity to WOW me over not just one time but possibly for many more sailings.

 

I'm loyal to Royal but I am not blindly loyal. I hope the fine folks in corporate who want to squeeze as many dollars from guest bookings as possible realize that they are pushing a significant segment of repeat cruisers away towards other cruise and travel options before their domestic earnings take a nose dive. As long as they keep pushing me to the competition with their prices and insulting my intelligence with these bogus 'sales', I won't be booking anything with them in the foreseeable future.

My question was what could possibly be wrong with bringing a small pair of wire snips or pliers on a ship? If I really had evil intent on my mind I am sure I could find much more dangerous weapons and tools on the ship!!:eek:

 

Presumably you can go around the ship cutting anything which looks like an electrical cord. Just please spare the Freestyle machines for me. :D

The thing is - it's their ship and you are their guest. If they wanted to ban something far more innocuous like white pants or t-shirts with the word Carnival on it, they can.

 

Banning a pair of wire cutters which can cause damage to their property in the hands of a vandal doesn't seem to me like it's all that unreasonable.

Pre existing conditions usually refer to a medical condition for the insured. For example, if you are under the present care of a doctor for heart disease and have a cardiac related event on a trip, coverage may be excluded for related medical and other expenses. Different policies have different definitions and look back periods so the first place to start would be to refer to the policy language.

 

The medical conditions of others usually don't figure into pre-existing condition exclusions for yourself. It sounds like what you want to look into is the part of the policy which deals with trip cancellation and trip interruption coverage which is different than the medical/pre-existing coverage for the insured.

I will be on Liberty June 2015. I hope they get a freestyle machine before we sail. I know my teen boys will love it.

 

Loralie

 

Lol... I said the same thing about a year before its 2013 transatlantic sailing. How very disappointing is right.

Nice photos. Any experience using the internet on board? I am wondering how good the signal is. Also, does the ship have a Johnny Rockets?

I was on the Liberty TA last year and while we were docked to depart, the Navigator which had left from New Orleans and also on a TA crossing, made an unscheduled pit stop in Ft Lauderdale for a medical emergency.

 

Later on towards the end of our TA voyage, it was Liberty's turn to make an unscheduled stop in the Azores in order to offload a passenger with a medical emergency. Ironically, Navigator was docked there while this time Liberty was the surprise guest.

 

It seems that these medical detours are somewhat common on these longer TA cruises, which typically attracts a much older crowd than the shorter duration cruises.