Tin can

I thought the cruise lines waited if they could for their own excursions and took responsibility to get you to the next port if they couldn't. I'm sure their is no absolute guarantee they will wait, I recall a Royal sailing in the Meditteranean that had to leave late passengers on one of their tours due to rising tides at the next port or something like that and the late passengers were transferred to meet them.

We are UK based but cruise all over the world with Royal. It’s our differences that make travel interesting. Florida departures seem very relaxed and we have sat in the MDR with people in pyjamas and swim wear. The North East of the US to us appears quite formal like Europe and my native UK very formal. When Royal cruised from Dubai every night was very formal a bit like our Singapore cruise. Personally I wouldn’t go to a restaurant in shorts, it’s a cultural thing, but I have no issue with people who do.

Wow…. never seen an MDR line so quiet let alone on formal night. It’s very different on the European sailings we take.

Absolutely agree, the Royal comparison was just to indicate they were similar sized companies when Thomas Cook filed bankruptcy. If Royal does keep US deposits in escrow then great as there is no federal US law requiring them to do so and I'm fairly sure deposits were used as working capital during Covid with the 125% FCC incentive. This wouldn't have been the case with UK funds even though we got the FCC promotion as there is law in place here that funds are held securely. With all that being said I would still prefer your US price adjustments 😐

Don't get me wrong I would prefer price reductions like you enjoy in the US but I was very grateful for the consumer protection when we were taken care of on holiday with Thomas Cook (probably the size of RCI) who went bankrupt in 2019. Consumer protection is a bit like insurance, its of no use until you actually need it.

For JFK we have previously taken an Uber to a left luggage place near Time Square and spent the day in the city before another Uber for our evening flight. The Royal shuttle and Manhattan tour from memory was about $400 for three people and only stopped at the Memorial so it worked well for us and was considerably cheaper.

I’m not sure if this is linked to the booking IT issues but there are gaps in the recently released China 25/26 from Shanghai. There is only one four night sailing in February, three sailings in March and two in April 2026 showing. I wasn’t sure if this was a glitch or particular to China with non public sailings or charters being common?

Thanks all, I am looking at a sailing on Spectrum of the Seas and a non connecting room so presumably a full sized sofa.

Could a 3 person cabin be made up with a pull down bed rather than a sofa bed or do all 3 & 4 person cabins have a sofa bed. I’m specifically after a cabin with a sofa bed for us as I don’t want our son having to use a pull down. If sofa beds are standard then great, if not how do I know which cabins have them.

This isn’t my first rodeo with Royal so I should know this but do all sofa’s convert to sofa beds. Our son is getting older now (and bigger) so I think it needs to be a pull out sofa hence the question but I don’t know how to choose one. On the deck plans some rooms have an asterisk or a triangle, is that the distinction? Thanks

No, I'd draw the line at that 😆😂

Fair enough, I actually like experiencing a different crowd and culture. It's one of the reasons I shy away from UK cruise brands such as P & O as being from the UK I don't want a cruise specifically tailored for UK tastes attracting a mainly UK market. Too many new people out there to meet 🙂

Sounds good to me, I'm not sure if you have been before but Hong Kong is great. Our BA flights from Heathrow to JFK were pretty good for August for Liberty from Port Liberty but after that Bermuda and the Dominican Republic will be ticked off the list so running out of new ports and looking for something new. Thats my problem, always looking for something new 😀

Short sailings is the way it's going generally with Royal even from the UK, the way I see it is I might as well have a change of scenery from the same old Med/US ports.

There is value in sailing from China even with airfare (UK airfare anyway). I regularly sail from the US as I have done the Mediterranean too many times now but even I am getting a bit tired of Coco Cay/Nassau itineraries so I am seriously thinking of giving China a go. If nothing else it will be a bit different and If they are trying to attract new passengers with two ships then with us its working.

I was looking at Easter 2026 and there is nothing for Spectrum out of Shanghai between April 2nd and the 18th April but she has two Shanghai sailings afterwards. I notice that itineraries haven't been released for Hong Kong or Beijing yet so do you think it might be a possibility that she may change departure ports during these dates. China departures are all new to me 😳😀

Everyone has to make their own decision with this if the sailings continue according to their circumstances - cancel the cruise, stay on the ship or carry on regardless. Myself personally I’m just an average Joe from the UK the wrong side of 50 but I’m not going to be intimidated by lawless thugs. On our sailing if it calls at Labadee 100% I’m getting off to spend the day there. Foolhardy it may be and I respect everyone else’s decision but that’s the way it is for me.

it was very easy on the ship buying the transfer tickets and in fact you had to confirm your departure plans to your stateroom attendant. The actual shuttles were very well run. Not long lining up or sat on the coach before we were on our way.

It was really bad, very uncomfortable and quite a few were left at Ravenna as they couldn’t physically get on and believe me they tried 😀. It might have had something to do with the very high numbers of Italians on board our particular cruise which apparently was unusually high so more travelling domestically rather than to Marco Polo airport.

You are making the right choice getting the shuttle, the train from Ravenna to Bologna as the above poster states was very crowded. Our times were very similar to the sheet posted and everything was really well organised. Enjoy the cruise, we had a great time on Explorer last summer and really enjoyed the atmosphere on board with the mainly Italian crowd.

This is a bit tongue in cheek, but UK insurers are taking a risk when we depart our 'small European Country' to Haiti so the odds are against them for us meeting a grizzly end. The murder rate in some US states though is significantly higher than Haiti, even allowing for under reporting US insurers have better odds for some of you walking around in Port au Prince than being at home.

Perhaps but I think more curiosity, from my experience of meeting and being in their company the accolade seems to exaggerate behavioural traits. Not good or bad…. just interesting 🙂

I’ve perhaps worded that badly, I wouldn’t say formal attire was being enforced but a certain standard was being enforced (no shorts). This was on one of the first sailings out of Southampton May 2022 to the Fjords and was all nights not just formal night.

I think it's more of a cultural thing.

In our experience Royal often interprets things very differently world wide. In relation to what you have found above we have often seen people in bare feet in the MDR on Florida departing cruises but also then experienced formal attire enforced in our native UK and the Far East with Royal.