Will You cancel Your Upcoming Cruises if Royal Caribbean Doesn't Require Vaccinations

[harkinmr]

30 minutes ago, ArthurUSCG said:

I know I'm not giving any money to RCL until I know I don't have to wear a mask onboard or worry that the ship will be forced to skip ports or return early to port due to an outbreak. I was hoping to sail our of Baltimore for a 15 year anniversary trip on the Enchantment of the Seas in likely a Jr Suite but that's only because the Jr suites are the only ones across the stern on that ship.

Enchantment was my second cruise with RCI back in 1998.  Lovely ship and wonderful memories from that cruise.  I hope your cruise goes and enjoy!

[jrapps]

17 minutes ago, harkinmr said:

Absolutely.  And it was quite surprising.  They were the one line that I thought would be the last holdout.  I see an indication that they are making progress with the State of Florida as well, so I assume their sailings there will be vaccinated as well.  If that "family line" can make the sacrifice, surely RCI can.

Yea, we don't really care for Carnival but all this really has me rethinking that. Of course we book cruises 2 years out so by the time we sailed none of this matters anymore. If I was looking at booking a really last min cruise, I would look at Carnival given these changes. But anyone looking at last minute cruises during Covid needs to seriously rethink their priorities.

[CI66774]

On 6/5/2021 at 9:11 PM, Babr said:

That may be how they get proof of vaccination so there is no fine in Florida.

As long as it’s voluntary and not mandated, then I think it passes muster.

[GetToLivin]

19 hours ago, cruiserking said:

The point is when you have been vaccinated you expect to experience a cruise as close to the "Old Days" as possible. But, with unvaccinated passengers sailing as well our relaxing cruising experience will be severely altered by needing to wear masks, social distancing, not having the freedom to explore ports on our own. 

 

By getting a vaccination I have given myself the peace of mind to go about my life without fear of contracting a deadly virus. I also should be able to enjoy an expensive vacation without the trappings of Covid protocols. Instead I am being flung right back into masks and distancing because others haven't been vaccinated. 

 

Jonathan

 

That's completely understandable and reasonable to want. I would imagine a remedy would be to provide "fully vaxxed" cruises from certain ships/locales. I am not vaxxed but I do not want to go on a cruise where I have to be masked up and distanced the whole time either, so we're not booking anything. I also don't want to be on a cruise where it's obvious between the vaxxed and un-vaxxed, I think that's a recipe for judgement and unpleasant verbal exchanges. Will be interesting to see how this plays out for everyone - I can understand both sides of the issue.

 

As an aside, we decided to take a land vacation to Cancun last month and it was a very interesting experience. Masked of course in the airports and customs, but the resorts allowed masks to be optional. We observed maybe 10% of people wearing masks at the resort itself and there was every type of nationality at this particular resort, and of course, there was no way to know who was or wasn't vaxxed. People were still kind to each other, would be nice to see more of that on these boards regarding this topic (not directed at you, just stating in general).

[jerseygirl3]

On 6/5/2021 at 4:29 PM, Beachammo said:

When Royal decided to do test cruises....they had already made the decision to go No Vax. Why would anyone think differently??

As soon as I heard about their decision to do test cruises, I knew the vaccine mandate was dead in the water (forgive the pun) . Such a shame. They made us think they would keep their ships safe by requiring vaccines for all those eligible and then they doubled down to the anti-vaxers. 

[printingchick]

I think that the rule on land (correct me if I'm wrong) is that a 10-day quarantine is required for anyone exposed to Covid. A local restaurant near my home had to shut down for 10 days recently, due to an exposure. My fear is that - in B_A_H example - the entire ship population would be quarantined, not just the family that brought it on board. What a way to totally ruin everyone's cruise! I'm hopeful this will be sorted out before my next cruise. I totally agree with all those calling for a vaccination requirement. What's the big deal? Travelers are required to get vaccines to travel to all sorts of places. Why should traveling on a cruise ship be a problem. Don't want to vaccinate, don't cruise until the cruise industry and CDC has deemed it unnecessary. I know of no more social form of travel than cruising, so safeguards shouldn't be remotely surprising.

[not-enough-cruising]

14 hours ago, lr657 said:

 

Could go the other way. If Royal can't tell who is vaccinated and who isn't, everyone may need to mask and follow the other restrictions.

 

It does not matter if Royal can tell them apart or not. The CDC/CSO regulate these “mixed” cruises as “unvaccinated”, everyone will be masked up. Not worth the $$$

[3kidsncats]

6 hours ago, Heymarco said:

🤦‍♂️We’re talking about the probability of a major outbreak happening on an American cruise line as you keep suggesting. Yes people travel, but there are so many barriers to prevent spread and this from happening. Sorry, it’s just not a realistic concern at this point. Even worst case scenario would not reasonably allow for what you are suggesting on a Royal Carribean Cruise. If you think otherwise, it’s your turn to provide an example from a recent cruise or large gathering similar to cruise environment (60% plus vaxxed).

You are demanding I supply data for an argument I am not making (which even if I was making that argument, I wouldn’t bother doing because you only choose to see what you want to).  I have never said I’m concerned about a “major” outbreak on an American based cruise — I’ve said I don’t want to sail on a vaccine optional cruise because A) I’m vaccinated and don’t want to wear a mask B) If there is a sufficiently large enough outbreak the cruise could be diverted, delayed, etc C) I’m not interested in being around unruly passengers who argue about having to follow protocols.   I have also argued that your rosy viewpoint of the global Covid situation (and interpretation of the graphs you keep posting) is not taking into consideration the full range of variables or even seeming to understand how to interpret averaged data — ie, when all the stats are averaged together. And finally, you completely dismiss the very real concern of virus mutation, particularly in poorer countries where they are NOT doing well with vaccines.  And even if it is a small chance, it is still a very real chance that ONE person with a new variant could board a cruise ship (or plane, or sporting event, etc) and spread it, potentially to everyone, vaccinated or not.  My opinion is that this risk is greater when unvaccinated people congregate.  

[3kidsncats]

5 hours ago, harkinmr said:

It really is a waste of time with some folks. It’s like banging your head against a wall. When the pandemic does not go poof worldwide in a “couple of months” there will be a moving of the goalposts and you’ll be fighting the battle again.  🙄

I agree — I just made last response to this person because my head is bloody from trying to have a reality based discussion with them.  

[lr657]

40 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

It does not matter if Royal can tell them apart or not. The CDC/CSO regulate these “mixed” cruises as “unvaccinated”, everyone will be masked up. Not worth the $$$

 

Correct, and exactly what I think will happen. Not my idea of an enjoyable cruise and numerous other options available.

[jrapps]

41 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

It does not matter if Royal can tell them apart or not. The CDC/CSO regulate these “mixed” cruises as “unvaccinated”, everyone will be masked up. Not worth the $$$

Yes, this is what the rules say as of today. And if you are cruising in the next 48 hours, I would take that as the rule, and agree it may not be worth the $$$ to some.

 

If your cruise is months from now, you have no idea what will change between now and then. Look at the CSO from a month ago, looks very different. A month from now can also be very different.

[3kidsncats]

2 minutes ago, Heymarco said:

 

 

I am talking about cruising and probability of B happening. You can’t even produce one example, just sensationalized headlines. I don’t accept Mirror as a source and rely on science, data, and probability of an outbreak onboard happening onboard (enough to alter cruise). No evidence of what you are saying, all hypothetical what if’s. Sorry you can’t be bothered to provide anything more substantial. Do you think continually saying it here will make it true? Good day.

Mirror as a source?  I never used Mirror as a source, I don’t get any news from that outlet, never have.  And I didn’t post any headlines at all —  I have no idea what you are talking about, and once again, you have proven that you really don’t pay attention.  I think maybe you are confusing me with someone else?

[not-enough-cruising]

26 minutes ago, jrapps said:

Yes, this is what the rules say as of today. And if you are cruising in the next 48 hours, I would take that as the rule, and agree it may not be worth the $$$ to some.

 

If your cruise is months from now, you have no idea what will change between now and then. Look at the CSO from a month ago, looks very different. A month from now can also be very different.

Agreed, but my wallet doesn’t deal on hypotheticals, all I can do is make decisions based on today. 

[jrapps]

Just now, not-enough-cruising said:

Agreed, but my wallet doesn’t deal on hypotheticals, all I can do is make decisions based on today. 

Exactly. As everyone reached their PIF date, they need to decide based on their personal beliefs and what is known at that time. If your cruise isn't for 6 more months, you can afford to be patient. But everyone has to decide for themselves.

[adonisr]

I'm vaccinated.  Could care less if people who want to gamble and not get the shot are on the same ship with me.  For those who will now refuse to cruise - good, maybe it'll be less crowded on board.

Edited June 7, 2021 by adonisr

[Itchy&Scratchy]

while I am fairly disappointed that RCI will not require the majority of the adults to be vaccinated, I really hope that by the time we cruise in November, the pandemic will be a lot more under control and that most passengers will have been vaccinated voluntarily.

 

My parents and we are vaccinated, but our kid is not (not approved as of this time for his age group).

 

 

5 hours ago, printingchick said:

I don't want to be limited to taking only ship-sponsored shore excursions.

 

me neither! We already have beaches in mind and love a simple low key beach time. Getting there by a taxi with just our masked family in the vehicle for $25/trip sounds more reasonable than a bus with 40-80 strangers for $50 pp.

Edited June 7, 2021 by Itchy&Scratchy

[cruiserking]

4 hours ago, harkinmr said:

Absolutely.  And it was quite surprising.  They were the one line that I thought would be the last holdout.  I see an indication that they are making progress with the State of Florida as well, so I assume their sailings there will be vaccinated as well.  If that "family line" can make the sacrifice, surely RCI can.

I really hope so. Especially since Royal Caribbean has always been such a trend setting, innovative cruise line. You would think they would be able to fashion some sort of work around that enabled them to request vaccinated only cruises. 

 

Do you think that RCCL cruises departing from other ports beside Florida and Texas will continue to request Covid vaccinated passengers? 

 

Jonathan

[harkinmr]

1 minute ago, cruiserking said:

I really hope so. Especially since Royal Caribbean has always been such a trend setting, innovative cruise line. You would think they would be able to fashion some sort of work around that enabled them to request vaccinated only cruises. 

 

Do you think that RCCL cruises departing from other ports beside Florida and Texas will continue to request Covid vaccinated passengers? 

 

Jonathan

I think Richard Fain made clear that RCI would not be doing vaccine required cruises from the US, while Celebrity Cruises would be.  Unless that changes between now and planned sailings I don't think they will be asking for vaccine status so it will be a mixed cruise from their US ports (with the exception of Alaska where Washington State is requiring vaccinated sailings).

[cindivan]

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/pdf/CDC-Conditional-Sail-Order_10_30_2020-p.pdf
 

page 33 of that document (which could change tomorrow of course, but currently the rule) states that if a ship reaches the number of infected passengers (currently 1.5%) or infected crew (currently 1%) the following must occur. 
 

 I can’t get the document to copy paste, but you can use the link and scroll to page 33

 

Number 3 is one that spells out what people have been claiming/wondering. The cruise heads back to home port and all crew and passengers are either isolated (if sick) or quarantined (not sick)

 

 

 

[cruiserking]

1 minute ago, harkinmr said:

I think Richard Fain made clear that RCI would not be doing vaccine required cruises from the US, while Celebrity Cruises would be.  Unless that changes between now and planned sailings I don't think they will be asking for vaccine status so it will be a mixed cruise from their US ports (with the exception of Alaska where Washington State is requiring vaccinated sailings).

It would be great to see some other states request vaccinated only cruises. It's absurd not to. 

 

Jonathan

[jrapps]

Just now, cruiserking said:

It would be great to see some other states request vaccinated only cruises. It's absurd not to. 

 

Jonathan

Carnival is doing vaccine only cruises out of TX

[cruiserking]

8 minutes ago, jrapps said:

Carnival is doing vaccine only cruises out of TX

That's wonderful, but, I'm truly baffled as to how and why Royal Caribbean caved. 

 

Well, I just waited on the phone for an hour and half to voice my displeasure to a Royal Caribbean rep who told me the situation is fluid. I get the feeling that things may change, I sure hope so. She also mentioned you would find out whether your cruise was vaccinated or not a month before sailing which is a little crazy. 

 

Jonathan

[Jimbo]

56 minutes ago, cruiserking said:

That's wonderful, but, I'm truly baffled as to how and why Royal Caribbean caved. 

 

Well, I just waited on the phone for an hour and half to voice my displeasure to a Royal Caribbean rep who told me the situation is fluid. I get the feeling that things may change, I sure hope so. She also mentioned you would find out whether your cruise was vaccinated or not a month before sailing which is a little crazy. 

 

Jonathan

It was a poor decision for sure, I'm sure by this time they are rethinking what they have done and will adjust going back to vaccinated only. Probably by the middle of this month if not sooner.

[xpcdoojk]

Just now, Jimbo said:

It was a poor decision for sure, I'm sure by this time they are rethinking what they have done and will adjust going back to vaccinated only. Probably by the middle of this month if not sooner.

Believes no one.

[mauraoel]

1 minute ago, xpcdoojk said:

Believes no one.

Just watched today's video he explained it very concisely.   They are not going to stop families from cruising.