PlayingwithFiber

I'm so sorry for your loss Laine! There's no doubt covid can be a nasty b*stard!! We each have to decide on our own comfort level as far as living with this virus - I don't really believe that it is ever going to go away completely. It will always be with us - probably ebbing and flowing as other endemic viruses do. We cancelled our cruise because of the increased testing requirements Puerto Rico has put in place - we would each have had to test 3 times to go on this cruise. At a cost of $130 for each test, that's almost more than I paid for the cruise itself. I already have my travel agent ready to book a February cruise out of Tampa that goes to Mexico rather than the Caribbean. Just waiting for the cruise credit voucher to come through. Even before all this, cruise ship staff were cleaning all the time and personally I don't feel at any more risk that I would at most retail establishments. I'm absolutely not trying to minimize your experience and feelings! Like I said, we each need to figure out our comfort level and do the best we can. I prefer making my own decision rather than having the cruise companies cancelling everything though - no one has to book them and if no one does, well, they'll figure out that maybe they need to scale back their schedules or something. I hope you are able to get the FCC with no hassle - the last email I got from Royal Caribbean about the increased testing requirements said right on it that if these changes made me not want to cruise or want to reschedule to just call. We're getting an refund of the taxes/fees and the credit is just for the basic cruise fare. So like $650 credit, $225 taxes, etc.

We were on the 2/6 cruise out of San Juan; I just got off the phone with Royal Caribbean and they are giving us a FCC and cancelling our reservation. Our cruise was paid in full too. Maybe try again? It was way faster and easier than I expected - less than 30 minutes total and they actually answered right away. On hold a few times as they looked into other cruise options for me. As disappointed as I am about not getting to go on this particular cruise, I'm thrilled at being able to cancel it. We'll probably try to book something out of Tampa (close to home) that won't require airfare & hotels and wouldn't be a big deal to be flexible about - it's only a little over an hour from us. I'd encourage you to try again for your cruise though!!

I'm sorry to hear it's not going to work out for you this time. I just paid the balance due for ours (Feb 6) but I have to admit that part of me still doesn't believe it's going to happen. The past 2 years we've had so many plans cancelled that I'm feeling a bit jaded I guess. 😕 Can I ask what airline it was that cancelled yours flights?

Thanks for finding that! My google-fu failed me on this. I hear you on the flights/times - the main reason we ended up just staying the night and flying home the next day. I'm SO excited to get back to cruising but sheesh....all of these logistics/rules changing every other day are seriously messing with my calm. lol

I can understand them skipping a port that requires a negative test to disembark. The logistics of trying to test everyone on board would be challenging, to say the least. 😕 And if the test has to be within 48 hours...ugh. I'm still wondering what will be required to disembark when we return to San Juan. I guess I'm glad we didn't book a flight home the same day since I'm afraid it may not be a quick process. (We're on the February 6 cruise.)

I'm wondering the same thing - we're scheduled on the Explorer on February 6 for a week long cruise. 😕