little britain

56 minutes ago, green_apples said:

The deployment article doesn’t have Voyager from Australia departing in 2025, but it does have Anthem… it doesn’t seem to be anywhere after Europe October 2025. Surly a mistake?

I feel that Voyager Suez cancellation email combining in 3..2..1..!!

20 hours ago, Norwaylady said:

💙 I do really looking forward to try AZ. 
 

If it goes well on AZ, we will probably book more if they have the correct itinerary for us😊

 

We feel that X needs to offer more of the special routes. We feel maybe a decline in the more special routes🤔🙄 

 

We go to the Caribbean just to get summer and sun. 
But if I can have it on a more special route to Mauritius 🇲🇺 or Madagascar 🇲🇬 or Seychelles 🇸🇨…. Count me in😂😂😎 

We have just booked Az for January 2026 going to all those places!! The price for a balcony has gone up almost $4000 since the itinerary was announced just a few weeks ago… but what an amazing route with an overnight in Zanzibar! Can that tempt you? 

Interestingly it was an email from NCL that first caught our attention with this route. However when I price it up, both NCL and Aza were the same price! No brainer as to which one to choose!   However the holiday budget now rises because we “ have” to do a safari as well now, as we are in the area! lol! 

4 minutes ago, uktog said:

No. Dummy bookings will not show it. Only after you complete a booking and make a deposit is the OBC shown.
 

 

If I do a price check it clearly shows 2 prices - albeit the same price - but one option has Pay in full get 5% OBC 

On 6/30/2024 at 5:56 PM, tgg said:

When the offer went to 10%, we grabbed it.  Our TA took care of everything seamlessly. The amount is reflected in our revised invoice.

 

This will pay for all our excursions on an upcoming cruise.  Thanks Azamara.

So the only way to see whether it is 5/8/10% is to continuously do dummy bookings to check what it says? 
 

I presume the OBC is non refundable therefore must spend on board? 

38 minutes ago, Viajera7 said:

Not only that but what about the perks. Would you get free laundry as D+ and up if a cruise lasts less than 5 days?

Yes RCI is saving $$ on those: you only get free laundry on 5+ nights, you only get one amenity on cruises of 3-6 nights, you don’t get your $25 meal voucher ( P only) …. But you do still get your free WiFi 🛜 

How do you track the offer?

If I try a new booking the ‘Price from’ and the ‘Pay in Full get 5% OBC’  prices are the same?! 
And the fare is $3000 more than when we booked 2 weeks ago! 

3 hours ago, Billy Baltic said:

The business model is sound but it leaves out customer satisfaction. With this model there is no place for the loyal cruisers who want to sail on a newer ship with lots of dining choices, on a 10 -12 day sailing to interesting places. 

That’s called Celebrity ! I have 4 booked - 3 of which were booked before the Pinith upgrade … so that just icing on the cake 🧁 ! 
 

@sgmn I’m doing b2b Singapore to Japan in March .. I may do a live from over in the X boards  😉 

@Norwaylady how busy are the specialty restaurants? Are they offering any deals? 
Deck plans show TG and Qsine still. Is that correct? I love Qsine! 

This summer’s hottest collab has entered the chat: Meghan Trainor  x Utopia of the Seas. 🔥 As Godmother, Meghan brings all the vibes to welcome our newest weekend getaway to Port Canaveral with an exclusive performance on board.

Want to witness it live on The World’s Biggest Weekend? Follow us on Instagram to enter for your chance to win a Utopia of the Seas getaway so you and your bestie can see Meghan take the stage on our preview sailing. 🔗 instagram.com/royalcaribbean

7 minutes ago, leaveitallbehind said:

Smoking is permitted outdoors on certain decks with non-US based RCCL sailings, but you are correct that no indoor venue - including the casino - allows smoking.  My previous comments were relative to US based sailings and for clarity I should have indicated that.  

My bad; the original question was regarding smoking in the casino 🎰 and I should have been specific about that. 
 

On 7/1/2024 at 1:54 PM, gordylad said:

thanks for your reply......do you know if RC allow smoking in all of their ships?

No, not on sailings from England or Australia. 
 

Radiance is a lovely older style elegant ship with good connections to the sea. That design is called “ ships of light”.  

I also don’t care for InTENse. It was very dark. Literally and figuratively.
I much prefer the one on Symphony, with the red shoes! 
 

On 6/26/2024 at 1:47 PM, nogard13 said:

We didn't do shuttles from either location.  We rode a train from Rome to Ravenna (via Bologna) and arrived the day before our departure, then called a cab from the hotel as this was the least expensive option (45€).  We did do the charter bus from the ship to Venice (Tronchetto) and that one had a meet time of 9am in Studio B.  The bus itself departed around 9:45am since everyone had to walk to get luggage, have it loaded on the bus, and get settled in.  We arrived in Venice around 12:45pm.

Do you recall the price and times of the transfer to VCE airport please? 

38 minutes ago, Billy Baltic said:

I might be wrong but I don’t think group rates go up and down for a particular sailing / cabin. 

Yes I’ve had a drop on a group bkg 

3 hours ago, tonygcharles said:

I can only say from my recent experience..

I'm doing TA Oct 24 and Oct 25 I purchased them on release day, I've  not seen  them for less when I track them.. one has gone from £700 -to £1900 for the balcony....when there released and they don't look reasonable price I will hold off , just incase they drop of course 

Use a USA TA who gets group rates? And you get price drops.

10 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

I didn’t mean “only” in the sense of whether the compensation is adequate. I meant only as in, why cancel and make people start from square one, scrambling to book the new sailing and try to maintain the same cabin. The change doesn’t seem big enough to warrant that instead of letting people choose. When the Star Princess sailing was changed, not only did the bookings remain but there was a significant price drop due to shorter number of days and fewer ports, as well as changing embarking location from Southampton to Barcelona. No OBC however. I just don’t understand why RC has to scrap the whole thing.

 

 

Yes the option was to rebook one of 3 itineraries. Unfortunately the only decent one, which goes to Bermuda and actually ends in the right country wasn’t one of the options! 
 

My deposit refund was asked for on Thursday and was refunded by Saturday. 

On 6/30/2024 at 8:32 AM, Norwaylady said:

The Royal loyalty matches are already onboard😩🫣😱😳😬🙄😑

Not to be rude or judgmental… 

But the lady in front of me was so angry on the crew. 

She made it very clear that Royal was SO much better, they gave her 3 free drinks every day. 

She was not happy to pay for her cafe latte….🤬 Royal had a coffee card AND she had her 3 drinks vouchers🥵😥🫣

Just to let you know this rude lady is not correct.

There is no RCI level which offers 3 drinks. The lowest level is Diamond which offers 4.

Diamond has always matched to Elite so this is not a new match.

And she can use her vouchers against a coffee if she wants on RCI but what a waste of a voucher imho!! 
If she wants a coffee card she buys a coffee card. They aren’t free! 
 

I would be very happy to correct her! 
 

Have 2 cruises booked on Infinity ( just paid deposit on another this morning!) so loving your review x
 

13 hours ago, vjmatty said:

So it’s only a 6 day difference, and to Barcelona instead of Portsmouth? When this happened in the reverse direction on the Star Princess for fall of 2025, no one was automatically canceled. It was a choice. Can’t bookings just be left in place for those who still want to be on the new sailing?

Only? 
 

So she now leaves 5 days earlier; 

the cruise duration has been cut;

she is missing out the 3 best ports and going to the same old same old Spanish ports;

she ends in a different country….

and for that RCI are offering $100 per room ( not even pp) OBC 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Hope you didn’t have too many Slippery Nipples last night!!! Just waiting for the Lerici moaners to complain about the names of the cocktails! 
Safe travels home! 🏠 

5 hours ago, mjldvlks said:

Well, it’s not supposed to be in Europe in April 2025.  It is scheduled to sail from NOLA over the winter. It has to cross at some point if it’s going to sail from Southampton to Boston on August. 

She was due to arrive in Portsmouth, England on 27 April 2025. Then she was going into her dry dock, before resuming cruising on 15 May 2025; so, yes, she was meant to be in Europe in April 2025. 

On 6/26/2024 at 2:07 PM, Norwich Cruiser said:

Today my friends what an amazing experience we are all having.

 

Everyday seems to get better and better.

 

We are once again luckily blessed with fabulous weather and Royal had arranged for speed boats to take us all ashore to Lerica.

 

On arrival there’s music stilt walkers dancing in the streets to various live music along with the Caribbean bands.

 

Royal have totally taken over the streets and town.

 

Everywhere you go it is literally swimming with cruisers all enjoying the unlimited free flowing Prosecco and beers of any kind along with traditional breads and local food.

 

I really can’t describe it just imagine the Rio carnival and it will give you some idea.

 

Whoever has organised this incredible celebration gets absolutely top top marks.

 

If anyone has not experienced a Presidents cruise ( this is our first ) I truly cannot recommend them enough.

 

I’m hoping everyone makes it back to the speedboats for the return journey but not convinced.

 

When looking at next years Presidents cruise I say if you are thinking about it don’t I’m absolutely positive it’ll get fully booked if it isn’t already.

 

 

 

 

I see from my friends in board that people complained 🤦‍♀️ about the Lerica event and they have been issued with $50 pp compensation. Yes that is right , compensation for a free event where everything is laid on for you!  

You couldn’t make it up!! The entitlement of some people never fails to amaze me and is probably one reason why I would steer clear of a Presidents Cruise and all the badge-wearers 

🤞you win a cruise @Norwich Cruiser and have an aperol for me! x 

@cruisemom42 any pics please and logistics costs of getting there etc ? Thank you 🙏 

43 minutes ago, marci22 said:

How fast did you get off the ship in Flam?

We walked off 8:45 and were at train station in minutes. There were already people there waiting. Guess we got on board the train about 9:15. There was quite a line behind us 

Distance from ship to train 🫰

as you can see ! 
 

FYI: Flam was also the best place to buy clothing. I bought a jacket there that I saw in all other ports for 595nok instead of 1100nok.  The best shop would be the other side of the green railway carriage in the pic; and to your right 🛍️

7 hours ago, renebfl said:

Is there a Royal Carribean shuttle that just takes you from the port to Florence?  I don’t want to go to Pisa, just Florence 

They did a Florence on your Own excursion last year. Transferred you to train station and you had a few free hours in Florence. I wouldn’t do it again as far too much waiting around on the platform whilst earlier trains to Florence Came and left. We couldn’t get on those as the tickets weren’t valid. 
 

There was an independent bus shuttle you can find on line; or I’d get a cab to the station and buy my own tickets for the earlier train. 

14 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Have you checked the deployment thread. It sounds like there are issues for sept and oct 2025 for Voyager and posters expect them to be cancelled. I would read thru the latest posts. Does it go thru the red sea or idk but might be doing some special cruises and not the ones shown. 

 

Read before you book as suites are non refundable. I think someone from rcl said unique itineraries  ... to replace what's shown?

 

Start reading here ...

 

This document shows Voyager on “ Unique Sailing” for 3 months September to December 2025.

i wonder if Voyager is going take passengers around South Africa from Barcelona to Brisbane. 
It would be a big deployment change. 
https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Deployment/2025_2026/2025-2026_Deployment_Summary_Ship.pdf

That’s exactly what I posted on page 1