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I wonder if they might replace a few cruises with revenue cruises around Africa to Dubai like the Serenade is doing this year?

If your cruise left on a Sunday (as most do from Galveston) where did you drop off the car? All the car rental companies in Galveston seem to be closed on Sundays.

21 nights?! Our April 2024 TP cruise on Ovation is only 18 nights. Must be the addition of Picton and Wellington to the itinerary.

Great memories for sure. Hopefully our paths will cross on a cruise again before too long! I think the extra 10 days they talk about is not how long it takes to go around Africa. It is the additional time that going around Africa adds to a trip to Northern Europe or North America. Even with no port stops it takes about 25 days at 23 knots to go from Dubai to Athens around Africa. It only takes about 8 days to go from Dubai to Athens via the Suez with no port stops at the same speed. There are a couple of websites that will calculate port to port times based on ship speed. In any case it will be interesting to see what happens. Hopefully they don’t have to change anything but that is looking less likely as each day passes.

I am also engaging in speculation here. The UWC gets to Singapore on April 24. If they decide to skip all of the Middle East and most of the Eastern Med, they could start a new itinerary from Singapore and resume the original itinerary in Italy (probably Venice) on June 19th. That would give them 56 days to get from Singapore to Venice going around Africa. I saw scheduled cruises by other companies that go from Singapore to Cape Town that last 32 days including many port stops. A cruise from Cape Town to Lisbon is about 24 days also with many stops. By cutting a few ports and not stopping in Lisbon, they could probably make it to Venice in 56 days. The biggest difficulty would be Royal's total lack of any relationships at the new ports. Just arranging shore excursions would be a major undertaking for Royal not to mention resupply and fueling. Not sure if Royal can pull it off or not. This would be an amazing alternate itinerary though. People on segments would need to pick up the ship at different ports such as Cape Town. The plus is that although it is a major disruption, it does not cause an interruption of the UWC.

We are booked on both Anthem cruises. They should be moved into my TA's groups in January. My TA (same as MuyBueno's) seems confident there will be group pricing for both legs. Even if they are pulled back for one leg, we are booked at the prevailing refundable price in a cabin we want which should be OK.

In this case, the refundable deposit fares through my TA are a few hundred dollars less per cabin than the nonrefundable deposit fares available from Royal for the same balcony category. If you booked refundable deposit fares directly through Royal, you can always transfer your bookings into a TA's group as long as they still have group space in the category you booked.

We will book the Anthem B2B as soon as my TA gets their group pricing straightened out!

For those who are interested in Celebrity deployments, there is a CC thread here: Not nearly as good as this thread! 😁

Ok, thanks for the information. Perhaps it is only my TAs policy?

1) the booking must be refundable to move it into a group. 2) if outside the 30 day window you can cancel and rebook in the group.

Interesting because Voyager's already released schedule has it in Rome until Nov. 3rd, 2025. Could it be repositioning to Australia via the Suez Canal?

When will the EB Panama Canal cruises be released for Fall 2025?

We are also booked on the 4/8/25 Millennium cruise but would jump ship in an instant if a suitable sequence of Anthem cruises came out that get us back to North America! Fingers crossed! 🤞

On the President’s Cruise in the Q&A session, Michael Bayley was asked if they ever might have some sort of private island where cruises from Galveston could stop. In response, he gave a knowing smile and said “Very Interesting, what a great idea!” Of course that means something is in the works. Later in the cruise we had Royal Day which was a port takeover party in Costa Maya. The scuttlebut is that Royal is working some sort of deal with Costa Maya to create a Labadee like facility. Watch this space. This could certainly make Galveston sailings more popular, especially for families and would help justify keeping larger ships sailing from there.

Does anyone know if Radiance, Jewel, or Brilliance have Pickleball? Apparently, Serenade does so it is possible.

You can take a Voyager class ship from Florida. Don't take the only Royal ship on the west coast! 😂

https://www.celebritycruises.com/faqs/beverage-packages Here is the text of one of the FAQ answers: What is the Premium Drink Package? The Premium Drink Package includes all Classic Drink Package items, PLUS: Specialty coffees & teas, craft & artisan beers, spirits, cocktails, frozen drinks, Coca-Cola products, premium bottled water, and wines by the glass up to $17 per serving. Also, take a 20% discount off all bottles of wine!

Is it true that the Classic package no longer includes cappuccinos or lattes at Cafe Bacio? In the past, those were always included with the Classic package! Is it cheaper to upgrade from Classic to Premium before the cruise to obtain a loyalty discount?

The LA to Brisbane leg might be a convenient way to get to Australia before catching the Ovation TP back about a month later. Great way to see Australia and possibly New Zealand for a while without a long international flight!

We are boarding Celebrity Solstice in a few weeks. On the app, they already have many activities listed. One is Pickleball on the sports court. Has anyone played Pickleball on a Solstice class ship? I thought the sports court wasn’t big enough. Wondering if this is something worth doing and if I should bother to bring my paddle. Would appreciate comments by anyone with firsthand experience. Thanks.

How was tendering in Cabo? We are on the Dec 11 sailing with an overnight in Cabo. We booked an independent Sunset Cruise for the first day. Ship arrives at 2 pm and we need to be at our excursion at 4:40 pm. I don’t expect a problem but just checking if tendering was smooth.

We are on a cruise that begins on September 4th. Will the gratuity rate change mid-cruise?

My wife got the offer via a postcard with a QR code. She filled out the online form on Friday and listed three cruise choices. We received our first choice via email on Saturday. And we were assigned a super nice cabin location on the hump, deck 8. We are going to try calling tomorrow with a few questions. not sure if you can upgrade to get the perks. We may also upgrade to Aqua if reasonable. Will probably pay off the taxes to confirm when we call. Will report on anything we find out.

What is the latest theory on when Icon will start sailing? Hoping to sail her after the Radiance Panama Canal cruise.