Just like the supermarket, DMV, baseball games and so many other aspects of life, waiting in a line on a Royal Caribbean cruise is going to happen sooner or later.

Perhaps part of Royal Caribbean's plans once cruising resumes is to implement new means to spread guests out in order to enforce social distancing, but you will likely run into an extended wait during your cruise.

While you cannot avoid waiting at all, there are some easy ways to mitigate these lines and reduce your stress at the same time.

Lines getting back on a ship

When you return to your cruise ship after a fun day on a shore excursion, lines can develop at the gangway to get back onboard the ship.

Usually in the afternoon when most tours wrap up, many guests return to the ship and lines can develop, with often times there being lines that lack shade.

The easiest strategy is to find a spot in the port area where you can sit down in the shade and keep an eye on the line while enjoying the port area.  Quite often, there are bars and restaurants set up near the pier that you could enjoy a drink while seeing when the line shortens.

Another strategy is to plan to return to the ship significantly earlier or later than most others. If you come back early, you sacrifice time in port but can pretty much walk back onboard.  Likewise, if you wait until the last couple of hours your ship is in port, you may find shorter lines since most others have returned.

One last option is if you bought The Key (or are a Star or Sky Class guest or Pinnacle member), you can take advantage of Fast Track boarding. 

Crowded Windjammer buffet

Dreaming of a lovely breakfast with a cup of coffee, bagel, lox, cream cheese and pile of bacon to go with it? So is everyone else on the ship, and that leads to a busy buffet.

The best way to avoid lines in the Windjammer buffet is to either have breakfast early (before 8:30am) or late (after 10am).

If you like your 9am breakfast, then consider an alternative option for breakfast such as:

• Cafe Promenade
• Johnny Rockets (Oasis Class ships only)
• Park Cafe
• Solarium Bistro
• Coastal Kitchen (suite guests only)

These locations are vastly less crowded and allow you to get in and out with substantially less waits.

Waiting to get into the main dining room

If you have traditional dinner, you will inevitably find a lot of guests waiting outside the main dining room doors for them to open. 

Rather than join the masses and stand around, seek out an entertainer in one of the nearby bars, or play a few games in the casino. 

There is usually something else going on nearby, and that way if you wait until a few minutes after the doors open, you will find no wait to get in.

Waiting to get off the ship on the last day

Admittedly I do not have a great way around this line, but there are some ways to make it easier on yourself.

The last day of your cruise is when everyone has to get off the ship, and you are almost certainly going to encounter a line somewhere.  Not only is there a line to get off the ship, but everyone is tired from waking up early and disappointed their cruise is over.  It is a recipe for a lot of grumpy people.

The best strategy for an easy disembarkation is to stay in a suite.  Suite guests get escorted off the ship by the Suite Concierge and it is the simplest (albeit expensive) approach.

If staying in a suite is not practical, you should either plan to be among the first off the ship or the last.  Even if you wake up at 6am and get ready to go bright and early before the ship even docks, you will be waiting around with the other early birds.

The problem with waiting to be among the last get off the ship is there is nothing to do onboard.  You are requested to leave your staterooms by a certain time, and all the venues are closed.  So you could sit around on the pool deck one last time and enjoy the ocean breeze while the line winds down.

Muster drill

This used to be a quagmire of people trying to leave their muster stations, but Royal Caribbean has solved this for everyone.

Royal Caribbean recently announced an electronic muster drill process it will implement when cruises resume known as Muster 2.0.

Rather than going to a muster station, standing around and listening to safety instructions, guests can use mobile devices and interactive stateroom TVs to learn important safety information.

One on the cruise ship, guests have a set time (indicated by a timer in the app) during which muster drill must be completed by all of the passengers.

So rejoice that we will never have to deal with this problem again.

The global health crisis has forced Royal Caribbean to cancel most of its cruises through November 30, 2020.

Like all cruise lines operating in North America, Royal Caribbean is working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to come up with a strategy to start cruises again.

Cancelled sailings

Here is a summary of the cancelled cruises:

• All sailings through November 30, 2020.
• European & Transatlantic sailings through the end of November.
• Australia sailings through December 31st, 2020.
• Odyssey of the Seas sailings from November 5th, 2020 through April 17th, 2021 are cancelled due to issues at the shipyard and in the supply chain.
• February 14, 2021 Jewel of the Seas cruise.
• Quantum of the Seas sailings departing December 2nd, 2020 – March 22nd, 2021

Guests on any of these cancelled sailings were given the option of getting a 100% refund, 125% future cruise credit, or even moving the reservation to next year at the same price.

Royal Caribbean has a goal to resume cruises on December 1, 2020 (although that date may change).

Will my cruise be cancelled?

If you still have a cruise booked and wondering what are the chances it will sail, the short answer is no one really knows.

While there are still many 2020 and 2021 cruises scheduled to sail, Royal Caribbean is still evaluating ways to make those cruises occur.

At this point, there is not nearly enough information available to have insight into what Royal Caribbean (or any cruise line) is looking for in order to resume sailings.

While it stands to reason the further out your cruise is, the more time you have for the global health situation to improve, it is impossible to quantify or wager a guess as to which sailings may or may not occur.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has begun looking for comments from the public on cruise lines resuming passenger operations, and cruise fans will want to have their voice heard.

Ever since the CDC opened up the means for the public to comment and submit questions for use in formulating a new policy for cruise ships, many have wondered if it is worth it to fill out the form.

The general public can submit comments until September 21 via the U.S. Federal Register. 

 Charles Sylvia is the Vice President of Industry and Trade Relations for the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), and he spoke to travel agents earlier this week about the importance of letting the CDC know your thoughts.

 "Anyone with a pulse and an Internet connection can actually comment," Mr. Sylvia emphasized. "It's vitally important for all of you to comment from your point of view on cruise operations, what you think US cruise operations should look like, the resumption of cruise operations."  

 "This is your your only and best opportunity to tell the federal government what you're experiencing."

Ever since the CDC instituted a "No Sail" order to prevent cruise ships from offering passengers cruises from the United States, many cruise fans have lamented the order holding up the option for cruise lines to resume operations.

Mr. Sylvia indicated this Request for Information (RFI) from the CDC will used for cruise ship planning and infrastructure in the future, as well as the resumption of passenger operations.

"All the comments that are gathered will inform future public health guidance and preventative measures and related directly to the travel on cruise ships."

Anyone can comment on this subject, and cruise fans understand the strict measures cruise lines take to ensure the health and safety of their passengers, and the fact that cruise lines operate at a higher standard that imposed by regulators.

How to submit your comments to the CDC

You can submit comments online or via the mail.

To complete it online, visit the Federal Register's E-Rulemaking Portal by going to the U.S. Federal Register's website.

Be sure to use the Document ID to search for this page: CDC-2020-0087-0001.

The CDC will provide a lot of questions for you to consider, but it is up to you if you want to if you want answer all, some or none of the questions. 

You can submit your thoughts, and be sure to keep your answers free of insults or attacks on what has happened. Instead, focus on the future and explain why and how cruising should resume.

"And it's very, very easy...  to succumb to a pitfall of telling them some information, getting emotional, when you're when you're typing into the comments. And then that comment isn't considered," Mr. Sylvia warned.

Alternatively, you can mail comments to: Maritime Unit, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE, MS V18-2, Atlanta, GA 30329.  Include Docket No. CDC-2020-0087 included with the letter.

One of my top pieces of advice for any cruiser is to use a good travel agent, and the key word there is "good".

A reader recently asked me how do you find a good travel agent, so here are the top five things to look for in a good travel agent.

Ultimately, you are looking for someone that works well with you.  There are a lot of travel agents out there, and the key is to find one that not only takes payments and other requests, but works in a manner that you are expecting.

No fees

The one deal-breaker for me with any travel agent is no service fees for their services.

Travel agencies are paid by Royal Caribbean (and all cruise lines) a commission, and that is baked into the cruise fare. There is no additional cost to you for using a travel agent.

Some agencies will charge change fees or service fees when you make changes to the reservation, and frankly, I do not believe that is warranted.

Be sure to ask any travel agent if they charge any fees for their services before working with them.

How responsive are they?

As I said, a good travel agent is one that jives with your expectations, and the key is knowing what to expect in their turnaround time.

No travel agent is available 24 hours a day to handle requests, but it is fair to ask an agent on average what kind of processing time is realistic to expect.

It is important to get a sense of on average of how quickly they will make changes after requesting. Whether that's 24 hours, 48 hours or a week, make sure you are on the same page with the agent in timing to avoid frustrations later.

Dedicated agent or round-robin?

A good question to ask is if you will be assigned a specific agent, or will be taken care of by the next available agent.

Each agency works differently and there are benefits to both approaches.

A dedicated agent allows for a more personal relationship where they can get to know your preferences and needs and that has the potential to make the booking process easier and simpler since they really know you.

A round-robin agency means you have the advantage of getting serviced without relying on just one person's schedule.

Experience working with Royal Caribbean

A good question to ask a travel agent before working with them is their background working with Royal Caribbean.

No travel agent can have expert-level experience with every cruise line or destination, but it is nice to hear how well they know "the system."

Royal Caribbean has many nuances, and the more experience an agent has, the more confidence you can have that they will take good care of you.

In addition to the agent side of things, it is also nice to hear if they like to cruise with Royal Caribbean on their own.  A good working knowledge of the guest and service side of the cruise line is a great asset with any agent.

These days with cruise cancellations, future cruise credit changes and a slew of other new policies, rules and changes, having a good agent that knows the ins and outs of Royal Caribbean is a tremendous asset.

Price changes

Perhaps one of the most useful and commonly used services provided by a travel agent is pricing and re-pricing cruise fares.

You should ask what to expect in terms of the repricing process when there is a price change.

Does the agent proactively check for price drops? Is it all up to you to find lower prices? If you do find a lower price, what is the best way to request a change?

There are no right or wrong answers to this, just a question of what works for you.

Throughout Royal Caribbean's suspension of sailings, there have been questions about the impact on many aspects of life at sea, including Perfect Day at CocoCay.

Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley was asked earlier this week who is maintaining the cruise line's private island in the Bahamas.

Mr. Bayley compared the upkeep of Perfect Day at CocoCay to any of Royal Caribbean's cruise ships, which all have an operational team to maintain things.

"We have an operating team that rotates through Perfect Day and the maintenance and management and engineering."

The shutdown has provided Royal Caribbean the opportunity to address an engineering issue that needed attention for a while.

In addition to finishing up some landscaping and painting work, there was a pressing need for a repair to Oasis Lagoon pool.

"We've also been conducting a fairly significant repair that we had to do on the Oasis Lagoon."

"We were struggling enormously with having to make a repair on the lagoon and we could never figure out when we could do it, but we knew we had to get it done at some point."

'We could never figure out when to do it because of Covid, obviously we have plenty of time, so that works."

Mr. Bayley also gave a quick update on the impact to the island by Hurricane Isaias, in which the island was spared any significant damage.

"At one point, it was looking as if we were really going to get hit badly. We took one of our ships, Grandeur, went to Perfect Day, and picked up 90 percent of the operating staff to keep them safe and move out of harm's way."

"There was a small team of seven who stayed on the island as the storm passed through. And we're up and about the following morning, and called us and said it's looking good, you know, tree down here and bit of damage here and there.

"But Perfect Day came through perfectly."

With Royal Caribbean's second quarter earnings report just days away, taking a look at competitor cruise line Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) quarterly earnings report from today may shed some light into what we could see next week.

NCLH posted an adjusted net loss for the quarter of $666.4 million in its second quarter, which includes the brands Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas.

While Royal Caribbean Group and NCLH are run differently, they have a lot of similarities and a lot of the same concerns among investors and cruise fans alike.

Millions in revenue instead of billions

It may be safe to assume nearly everyone knew this would be a bad quarter for any cruise line, but the question was how bad would it be.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings reported revenue for the second quarter of $16.9 million. That's revenue, not earnings. Revenue for the same quarter last year was $1.7 billion

That's a 99 percent plummet in revenue.  The net income reported was a loss of $715.2 million, compared to $240.2 million in the year prior. Earnings per share went from $1.11 to a loss of $2.99 year on year.

No plans to sell any ships

One trend that has emerged recently are cruise lines beginning to sell ships in order to drum up any kind of cash flow, but it looks like Norwegian has no plans for that yet.

Carnival has divested a number of ships across its brands and Royal Caribbean subsidiary Pullmantur recently had to get rid of Sovereign of the Seas and Monarch of the Seas.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) President and CEO Frank Del Rio said they have no plans to sell ships.

We absolutely have no plans to divest of any of our vessels,” Mr. Del Rio said during an earnings call with Wall Street analysts.

"We love our capacity. We're the smallest of the big three cruise brands, we're always wanting more. We not only have the youngest fleet, but we have nine incredible vessels on order."

Surprised by demand for 2021 cruises

Something Royal Caribbean noted in their Q1 2020 earnings call is happening with NCLH as well: its loyal customers are not going anywhere.

Despite the nearly year-long shutdown and plenty of fear among consumers, people are still booking a lot of cruises for 2021.

"If you had told me that we were going to be facing these set of circumstances, and your question is, ‘Frank, would you be taking any bookings?’ I would have laughed at you. I’ll say, ‘Of course, not, who would book? It’s crazy,'" Mr. Del Rio said in response to a question on the company’s second quarter earnings call on Thursday.

"But people are booking. People are confident that we’re going to come back. People do want to cruise. They miss it. It’s a heck of a vacation experience, a heck of a vacation value. And so this is temporary. The question is how temporary is temporary."

Restart plans

Just like cruise fans, Wall Street wants to know when cruises might restart and Mr. Del Rio noted the next few months will be critical in determining that.

He talked about Norwegian's joint-effort with Royal Caribbean Group to develop the Healthy Sail Panel, which will offer its initial recommendations by the end of August.

Mr. Del Rio felt good about the cruise line's ability to return, but timing is not so easy to answer.

"People are confident we're going to be coming back. They miss it cruising. This is temporary. The question is, how temporary is temporary?"

Between the CDC extending its No Sail order through the end of September to cruise lines in Europe encountering COVID cases onboard, the industry is not certain when a restart could realistically occur.

In the wake of Royal Caribbean suspending all of its cruises for many months to come, the cruise line offers guests more flexible cancellation terms under the "Cruise with Confidence" program.

Cruise with Confidence has proven to be very popular with guests, because it covers most sailings and gives peace of mind that they can change their mind later on.

The premise of Cruise with Confidence is it allows anyone free cancellations, where you can cancel a cruise up to 48 hours before the sail date and get a 100% Future Cruise Credit that is good for 12 months or more.

Cruise with Confidence is applicable to guests booked on-or-before January 31, 2021 on sailings departing through April 2022. This encompasses essentially all Royal Caribbean sailings available to book currently.

This includes refundable or non-refundable cruise fares.  You are able to take advantage of either booking type with no penalty or change fee for opting into the Cruise with Confidence program.

Chartered sailings do not qualify for Cruise with Confidence.

When opting for the Future Cruise Credit that Cruise with Confidence offers, all rate codes apply, with no restrictions.  The exception is if you prefer to take advantage of Lift & Shift of the Best Price Guarantee programs, which have restrictions on Net rates, Casino rates, Travel Agent Friends & Family rates, Travel Agent Reduced rates, and complimentary staterooms.

Before you cancel your cruise, you may want to consider using Lift & Shift to price protect what you have booked for a similar sailing the following year.

More helpful information

If you have more questions about cancelling your cruise (or if Royal Caribbean cancels it for you), here are some helpful resources:

• Royal Caribbean Cancellations - Updates, Refunds & FAQs
• What happens if I want to cancel my Royal Caribbean cruise?
• Five lessons I've learned from all these cancelled cruises

While Royal Caribbean confirmed in May that it would offer overnight visits to its private island in the Bahamas, we now have a bit more detail as to why it is simply not feasible.

Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley spoke on this topic during a webinar with travel agents on Wednesday, after being asked if the cruise line was considering overnight stays at Perfect Day at CocoCay.

"I've been considering overnight stays for Perfect Day almost since the beginning. One of the issues that we had, ironically, was that we had we had so much so many ships going there, it became problematic. Part of the ongoing capital investment in Perfect Day was allowing us to accommodate additional ships so we could have one ship stay overnight."

As you might imagine, nearly half a year of not being able to offer cruises has taken its toll on the cruise line.

"And sadly, a lot of our capital projects that were lined up were put on hold, obviously, because of the fact that we got no revenue coming in."

This adds onto what Royal Caribbean Senior Vice President of Sales and Trade Support & Service Vicki Freed indicated that they heard from guests they enjoyed the day on the island, but evenings on the ship.

"But as of now, it doesn't look like we will be doing overnights because our guests, even with our late night stays, once they want to come back, they really do want to come back onto the ship and enjoy the fine dining and they want to enjoy the entertainment that we have onboard."

Mr. Bayley did wrap-up by describing an overnight stay scenario as a "crown jewel" to the private island's offerings once cruises resume.

"When we do return to service, it will be phased in. It will not be like a light switch where suddenly the switch is on and everything's suddenly operating."

"But certainly that is kind of the crown jewel of our return to service will be Perfect Day."

Royal Caribbean International President & CEO Michael Bayley spoke to travel advisors on a webinar and spoke on a number of commonly asked topics surrounding the current situation and the cruise line's recovery.

Mr. Bayley spoke for an hour on a variety of questions that travel agents had submitted prior to the webinar related to the timing and plans to resume cruises.

The questions were all about the current situation Royal Caribbean is facing in the midst of no sailings and the global health crisis.

More time needed to develop new health policies

A few hours before the webinar, Royal Caribbean announced they had cancelled more cruises, extending their voluntary suspension of cruises through October 31, 2020.

Mr. Bayley indicated that Royal Caribbean is "actively engaged" in the Healthy Sail Panel working on a healthy return to service plan.

He then went on to say that the combination of the CDC requesting public feedback, along with the submission of Royal Caribbean's return to service plan is one of the reasons why there needed to be another month of cancelled cruises.

"We think it's going to take obviously some time for back and forth with with the CDC when they see the full detail of the plan, and they've received all of the public comment."

Which ships will start first

Another question raised was which ships might start up first, and it looks like Royal Caribbean is still looking at short sailings to begin the return to service.

"I think when we resume service, our thinking is that will probably we'll probably start with short product, Perfect Day, and that'll be the how we'll start phasing in operations."

In addition, Mr. Bayley said during an employee-only call, he is committed to the idea of starting with an employee-only sailing in order to test out the new protocols.

"I said that the first cruise that we will operate through, Royal Caribbean International, will be an all employee cruise, a little bit like a shakedown cruise, because then we can test and take a look at in real-life operations all of the protocols that we're putting into place. And so our first cruise is going to be an employee cruise."

Healthy return to service update

Ultimately, Royal Caribbean wants to ensure when they resume cruises, they do it the right way.

A lot of this is going to be about trust.

Mr. Bayley reiterated a notion conveyed by different Royal Caribbean executives that they want to start cruising again once it makes sense, and not just for the sake of starting up.

"We would never want to resume service unless we were incredibly confident that we could create an environment that was healthier and safer than the environment from which people were coming."

"I think that's really why we're being really thoughtful and taking our time on creating all of the protocols that we we hope we will introduce when they're ready to be introduced."

President's Cruise cancellation

Included in today's announcement that Royal Caribbean would cancel its sailings through October is the 2020 President's Cruise has also been cancelled.

Mr. Bayley lamented the fact there will not be a sailing this year, but did say he hopes to announce a new sailing for 2021.

"We haven't yet decided when we'll do the 2021 President's Cruise, but we certainly will do it."

"So we'll probably announce in the coming weeks when the next President's Cruise will be."

Crew repatriation is almost complete

Some good news is the fact that Royal Caribbean is nearly complete with repatriating crew home.

Mr. Bayley said Royal Caribbean is about 97-98% complete, with some crew facing "unbelievable restrictions".

"One of the positive things that's happened in the past few weeks was that the CDC approved our accruing No Sail order plans and converted many of the ships of Royal Caribbean international and Celebrity to what's called the green code, which means that for 28 days or longer, none of those ships have had any COVID on them whatsoever."

"That green code designation means that the the ability to use commercial air, which which makes logistics a lot simpler."

Impact of coronavirus outbreaks on other cruise lines starting again

The big cruise news this week has been smaller European cruise lines have attempted to restart cruising, but have already experienced COVID-19 outbreaks on their ships.  This has many questioning what impact it will have on Royal Caribbean's ability to restart sailings.

"It's unfortunate, I think also it just shows it shows what a complex challenge this is."

"It's also interesting that what hasn't been reported is that both TUI Cruises and Hapag-Lloyd, which are larger cruise brands, have been operating now, I think, TUI has now done four cruises without any incident"

Despite the fact that smaller lines will operate in a different way than Royal Caribbean, it is provides a good learning experience to overcome these challenges.

"The last thing we want to do is to return to service and get it wrong. And I think and I think our customers and our travel partners really do expect to get it right. And that's our focus."

Royal Caribbean announced on Wednesday it was once again canceling most of its cruises through October 31, 2020 due to the current health crisis.

Cruise operations had been suspended through the end of September, but will now be extended an additional month, except for Australia sailings.

In addition, the remainder of the 2020 Europe season and the fall Transatlantic sailings have also been cancelled. This includes the planned 2020 President's Cruise on Allure of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean also added an an additional pause to their China itineraries through September 13, 2020.

Royal Caribbean hopes this additional time will allow them to work on their new safety measures.

Compensation

Guests affected by the cancelled cruises between October 1 - 31, 2020 have three options for compensation.

Lift & Shift: Select next year’s sailing with the same itinerary type, sailing length, stateroom category, and within the same 4-week window of the original cruise date, and you can take your existing reservation and move it to next year.Option expires on August 20, 2020.

125% Future Cruise Credit: To account for the inconvenience this has caused, guests are eligible for a 125% Future Cruise Credit (FCC) that is based on the total cruise fare paid at the guest-level and will be automatically issued on-or-before September 14, 2020 — if neither of the other options is selected.

Taxes and fees, as well as any pre-purchased amenities or onboard packages will be automatically refunded to the original form of payment within 45 days from the cancellation date. 

If you previously opted to take advantage of our Cruise with Confidence policy, the 100% FCC will stand, and this new option is ineligible.

Additionally, if you redeemed your Cruise with Confidence Future Cruise Credit on a sailing that is now cancelled, their original FCC will be reinstated, plus 125% of any amount paid by the guest on the cancelled reservation.

FCCs for sailings between October 1 – 31, 2020, plus remaining 2020 Europe & Fall Transatlantic season can be expected via email no later than September 14, 2020.

Refund: If you prefer a cash refund, you can do so by requesting this option on-or-before December 31, 2020.

You can expect their refund to the original form of payment within 45 days from the cancellation date. 

If you redeemed a Cruise with Confidence Future Cruise Credit on an impacted sailing and would now prefer a refund instead, Royal Caribbean will process this request in the amount of any new funds paid above the original certificate and, in turn, will reinstate the Cruise with Confidence FCC for future use.

Cruise Planner Purchases: If you had purchased any cruise add-ons, such as shore excursions, drink packages, wifi and more, you could opt to convert your Cruise Planner purchases  to an Onboard Credit valued at 125% of the total amount paid. This offer expires on August 20, 2020.

Cancelled President's Cruise

Among the many sailings impacted by this recent round of cancellations is the annual President's Cruise.

In an email to guests, Royal Caribean International CEO Michael Bayley informed guests booked on the sailing that they had no choice but to cancel.

"This is disappointing news for you and me. The President's Cruise is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to come together and celebrate the cruise line we love, our incredible crew and each other — something we have been doing since 2016."

Mr. Bayley did allude to "new ideas" and other ideas the cruise line is working on for guests that will be announced at a later date.

"Now, we wouldn't be Royal Caribbean if we weren't looking at ways, we can make the best out of every situation. We've been hard at work coming up with new ideas on how we can continue to bring our tradition to life within our current environment. I can't spoil the surprises we are planning, but I would encourage you to keep an eye out for some fun, creative ways we will celebrate together. In fact, I would say I'll meet you on the "virtual seas" soon."