How's everybody doing out there?

[KathyC]

We're hanging in!  Both college boys are home, doing virtual college, I'm working from home. My husband goes into his job though, as he works at a hospital.  NJ has us under essential travel only, so we are doing our best to stay sane, not eat all our food in one day, and not to put tooooooo many deposits down on future cruises.

[JLMoran]

We're doing OK here in northern NJ as well. I've already been working home for 5 months because of a slow-healing wound I'm dealing with, and my wife just got work-from-home setup with her employer. Both kids (one HS, one college) had their schools closed last week and are now on distance learning for the rest of the school year / semester.

Actually took advantage of some people canceling their booking on my August 2 cruise to upgrade from a pair of inside cabins to a pair of OV cabins. Summit's OV have good-sized windows, about 4 feet across in the rooms we booked, so that will be a nice step up; keeping an eye for an adjoining pair of the aft deck 3 OVs to open up, will move there if possible for the 6-foot windows they have. And being on deck 3 should feel more stable than up on deck 7 if we run into any rough waters in the north Atlantic.

[mrp4352]

Doing ok here in Dallas - first full week of work-from-home so we'll see how it goes.  Amazingly, we haven't been able to find any savings/upgrades on either of this year's cruises, although we were able to upgrade our Carnival cruise next January.  Stay safe, everyone!!

[CruiseHabit Bill]

As we're always remote/home-based, that part isn't too different here. Most just worried about friends and family, and wishing we could take a vacation!

For us, and many others I suspect, the weird part of this is the global nature of things.  When a hurricane is coming we think, "oh, we could go to North Carolina."  When tourist season makes things too busy for us to want to venture out, we think, "let's book a cruise" - but in this case, there isn't the same escape mechansim.

On the upside, we're getting SO many home project done!

[smokey0202]

hanging in there here too and still working on the front line each day doing best can for employees and customers.  have to stay strong to get thru such a trying time for all of us whether we are home bound working or not.  at least for me these extra hours and incentives are paying for more cruises to be booked so thats a perk for sure in my book.  lets hope we all wont be in dry dock too long or will be diagnosed with dry dock syndrome..................

when is your next cruise scheduled???

 

[JLMoran]

Just thought of an unexpected perk of the work from home thing: at 5:30 PM, the lock comes off the beer fridge and I can enjoy one while I wrap up my day.

Heard an urban legend that’s standard policy in any Australian office, figured I’d make it a reality here at home. ??

[KathyC]

9 hours ago, smokey0202 said:

hanging in there here too and still working on the front line each day doing best can for employees and customers.  have to stay strong to get thru such a trying time for all of us whether we are home bound working or not.  at least for me these extra hours and incentives are paying for more cruises to be booked so thats a perk for sure in my book.  lets hope we all wont be in dry dock too long or will be diagnosed with dry dock syndrome..................

when is your next cruise scheduled???

 

 

August for us.

[mrp4352]

21 hours ago, smokey0202 said:

 

when is your next cruise scheduled???

 

 

We're supposed to cruise the Baltic in July.  Fingers and toes crossed it still happens!  But if it doesn't, then we have Canada in September!

[Jedi Jason]

In Orlando we miss going to Disney parks and eating out at restaurants. My wife is able to work from home since she is an IT director. I work at a hospital in Orlando and radiology technologist that specializes in CT scan. I have been exposed to positive COVID patients whether I knew it or not but we are taking enhanced precautions with all patients so I don’t feel like I am in significant danger.
My kids have transitioned to school from home and seem to be getting into the new routine.   I buy more groceries at one time than I did previously to minimize my trips away from home. Orange County which  Is where Orlando is located just started a two week restricted movement/ lockdown.  I live in the county just North of there but work in that county. My family is healthy and we had started a master bathroom renovation just prior to all of the craziness. We have been able to declutter some of the house with the extra time at home and we are working the rest. Fortunately our cruise schedule fit around the pandemic. We had a cruise in January and February and our next one isn’t until October. The February 29 cruise earned me a self quarantine due to CDC guideline changes after I had already returned to work. 

[mrp4352]

Jedi Jason, if it helps any, here in Dallas, we miss going to the Disney parks, too! ?  

 

We did decide to cancel our Baltic this summer. With work-from-home being extended until the end of April at the earliest now I would be more comfortable putting a bit more time between this and travelling to Europe.  We're working with our travel agent to look at which options make the most sense for us.  Hopefully a cash refund (since we're just barely before PIF date) that we can apply to a Disney cruise in December (we haven't been able to stomach the prices, but this may be just the excuse we need), or if it's FCC, we had booked an Anthem cruise in Oct '21 that we'd apply it towards.

[JLMoran]

To follow up on my update about the cabin change: A whole block of the aft OV cabins with 6-foot windows on deck 3 opened up, I’m guessing a group booking canceled. Immediately called my TA and got us moved the two cabins closest to mid-ship. Even though they have huge windows and are considered “premium” by those who know about them, Celebrity actually considers them a “worse” cabin category (cat 6) than the mid-ship OV (which are cat 5), so I got a more desirable cabin while paying a little less than I was before.

If anyone is feeling optimistic about August, there are lots of OV cabins still available, and there is a pretty good resident rate for NJ residents, maybe residents of other states. 2-week sailing from Aug 2 through 16, open jaw from Cape Liberty to Dublin. Stops in Canada, Greenland, and Iceland.

[Jedi Jason]

On 3/30/2020 at 9:01 AM, mrp4352 said:

Jedi Jason, if it helps any, here in Dallas, we miss going to the Disney parks, too! ?  

 

We did decide to cancel our Baltic this summer. With work-from-home being extended until the end of April at the earliest now I would be more comfortable putting a bit more time between this and travelling to Europe.  We're working with our travel agent to look at which options make the most sense for us.  Hopefully a cash refund (since we're just barely before PIF date) that we can apply to a Disney cruise in December (we haven't been able to stomach the prices, but this may be just the excuse we need), or if it's FCC, we had booked an Anthem cruise in Oct '21 that we'd apply it towards.

i agree the Disney cruise price is hard to get past but if you enjoy the parks then I think it’s worth doing at least once. I have been writing about my Disney Fantasy trip from February 29 on the trip review section of the message boards here. Check it out if you are Disney curious. I still have a few things to add but the day by day recap is nearly finished. It was my first time on DCL after sailing with Royal a lot and more recently Celebrity. Hit me up with any questions if you want.