Jim Lamb

The hardest job would have to be a solo musician. Being one myself, I know the toll that performing a 4 hour gig 5 days a week can take on your body and voice. Imagine doing 5-6 gigs a day (1 hour at a time) in different venues all over the ship. We're talking about gigs starting sometimes mid-morning and going on until late evening. This goes on 7 days a week with very little time off. You even find the soloists playing on embarkation days when leaving the ports. Although most of the performers are treated a little better than other crew members, their contracts generally run 4-6 months. If you have problem with your gear during a cruise, there are no music stores in the middle of the ocean so you have to carry backups for your equipment. If your voice gives up, you're done. I checked into signing on at one point and realized the strain that such a gig would put on any personal life that you currently have. You have to be a special kind of "Solitary Man" to enroll in that lifestyle!

They were featured in an article here on Cruise Hive a month or so ago. If you are a US citizen, it is hard to book a cruise on them as they seem to only allow embarking via flights from the UK to our ports. I believe the previous article pointed this out as well.

I agree FJB! Staying inside the company ports does not expose you to the real reason that we like to go to different places. It is to see the countryside, meet the people, and explore things outside the company stores located in the made-up ports of call. Places like the shopping village at Costa Maya right off the ship are all owned or operated by the same people and have the same merchandise. Get out and see the world and know that if there is any brewing dangers outside the gates of one of these made up villages the cruise line and the authorities would make sure you were aware of it.

We experienced this on a Carnival cruise over Thanksgiving last year. The problem was that the "kids" were all teenagers and they were booked in a cabin alone while the parent's cabin was down the passageway a good distance. They were banging on the walls at all hours of the night and parents would come retrieve them for breakfast in the morning! Never ever take a cruise on the Conquest over Thanksgiving holiday!

It's working again!! Yeah!!

Well, here it is Thursday morning and the "fix" is broke again. I'm back to looking at the home page instead of the News page.

Thanks Emyrs! It seems to be working fine now!

I'm still having the same issue with the news page. I have cruise news from the previous week displaying. Same thing last week and then on Friday it cleared up and went back to normal. It then sticks again.

FJB I agree wholeheartedly! And, after reading Royal's policy, it says nothing about "emotional support" animals, just animals that have been trained for a specific purpose in assisting with a special need. These folks that have to bring Fifi along because they are nice to have on their lap need to stay home with the dog and enjoy their PETS there!

Me too FJB!

My wife and I just returned from a cruise on the Jewel of the Seas. Love that boat! It was the first Royal that I cruised on 12 years ago and she is still just the right size and has the most pleasant crew that I have ever encountered. While our cruise was great along with the ports that we visited, we were surprised by one thing, People were allowed to bring their precious "emotional support" dogs on board. I didn't realize that was allowed. We did notice on our walks around the ship that Royal had put together a 2'x2' artificial turf poop pad hidden on deck 5 toward the bow. There were two dogs on board our cruise with the owners carrying them everywhere on board. Don't get me wrong, I am the biggest pet person around (2 dogs, 2 cats) but I don't understand bringing them onboard a ship. Does anyone else see a potential problem once all of the fake emotional support animal people find this out? Isn't there a problem with brining animals into a foreign country? Even if you don't get off the boat with them, how is that any different than just a year ago with ports not allowing any boat into their waters with reported covid cases or unvaccinated folks onboard? Just asking!

The cruise itself was less than great. It was, however, better than being on land! We booked because of the price and a good chance to get away for the holiday. We will remember this for next year!

My wife and I just returned from a Carnival cruise on the Conquest from the Port of Miami. While there was much to say about the cruise itself, our biggest complaint came as we returned to Miami on Friday morning and disembarked from the ship at a different terminal than the one we left from. While this may not be a problem for some, we had parked our car in the lot directly across from terminal D. We were now at terminal F with a long walk to our car. We are both seniors and not prepared to make this trek. My first thought was that other ships had come into port before we arrived, and the port had placed one of them at terminal D and it was not available. That was not the case. As we started our walk towards the walk to terminal D parking deck, I noticed that there were no other ships in port yet. The port did offer to load you and your luggage into buses and take you back to the terminal but at that point after waiting in line packed in like sardines just to get off the ship, why would you jam your bags into the belly of the beast and try and sit in bus seats with all of your carry-ons with everyone else that you just got some distance from. My wife made it to terminal E before she gave up and I walked on the retrieve the car and come back and load her and the bags into it and head home. In all of our previous cruises, this is the first time that has ever happened to us and it made no sense!

And by the looks of it, getting better!

FJB, I agree wholeheartedly! Unmask the deception of the CDC and their politically motivated intrusion into the cruise industry and expose the science and truth guiding the FREE world and not the sheepish behavior of the flock!

In my experience, above not much of a concern but you do not want to be below anything that involves food prep or public areas!

OOpps! Nevermind, it is still there! I just figured out that I had clicked the "hide advisory" button a while back! A guy can hope right?!

Has anyone noticed that the Covid banner for information about requirements has disappeared from the top of the Carnival homepage? Is this a sign of great things to come? I know it used to be there as the first thing that you saw when you went to their page. Could it be that the folks at Carnival will be the first ones to come to their senses and ban the discrimination from their cruise line? We can only hope and pray that this is the first domino falling for the reopening of cruising for the masses!

Come on Royal! I know that you guys have someone monitoring what goes on these boards so you have the pulse of the public. Do the right thing! get rid of these draconian vax mandates and open up your future! Get back to normal life! The damn thing is over and don't be the last ones holding out to the fear!

The chips are falling into the right and sensible places! The sky is no longer falling folks, Chicken Little can go back into the hen house! Now it's up to the cruise lines themselves to do the right thing and send the VAX mandates packing!

Bravo Wenick!

Those folks in the offshore call centers will say anything to get you to book a cruise! Only believe what you have in your hand in writing.

I rest my case DeanneB!

DeanneB, the people getting sick with it now ARE the vaxed! As far as the requirements, the CDC does not have the power to enact policy, they only have the power to publish rules and guidelines. It's the cruise lines that are following the heavy hand of the CD(emocrat)D! I would bet you that if you put, let's say 2500 people that are unvaxed on a 7 day cruise to nowhere (read that as no port calls) that the infection rate at the end of the cruise would be less than or equal to the current rate of infections on cruises.

The cruising CDC travel extortion will continue until the Biden administration is shown the door and all of the sheep go with them. If the vax is so damn safe and effective, why do vaxed people get the virus? Here's an idea, how about having, let's say, every third cruise on any particular ship, a NON-VAXED cruise! Let's see what would happen then! I would bet that the occurrence of Covid, if detected, would be no worse than the current rates of infection than you see on these all vaxed discriminatory cruises that we are witnessing.