eel

10 minutes ago, springaussie said:

Geoff Royal still hasn’t announced what is happening with Anthem repositioning Southampton to Singapore in October.

The whole situation is just a mess. 
The odds are the Voyager passengers will be in the same situation this time next year. 

The October Anthem cruises keep on appearing and disappearing on the website. It looks like they might be planning on still running the November Dubai to Singapore cruise. But leaving Southampton 2 weeks earlier by cancelling the Canaries cruise. 

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

2 hours ago, little britain said:

We flew to IAH last year, stayed at airport hotel then picked up car and it was easy drive down to Galveston stopping at NASA en route. Galveston is a lovely town with some great restaurants. 
If you have a few days take the car over on the free ferry to Bolivar to drive on the beach! 

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. 

9 hours ago, yyzcruising said:

From the roll call thread for Sydney to Honolulu. Haven't heard anything on our Honolulu to Vancouver.

 

Quantum will be doing the TPAC and should go live for booking after existing passengers have had a chance to make their decision (February 8th for syd-hon).

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

4 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

Great memories eel 😛

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2661933-ovation-may-13-24-live-in-alaska-wlots-of-photos/page/13/#comment-57495996

 

Lol!!! Good times

 

 

The way I look at  most things in life these days ....  K.I.S.S. So regard to the Suez and Red Sea, let's all pray that over the next couple of months there's some kind of agreement made whereby passage can be made safe. If not:

 

• Most all current reports say that the tankers require about 10 extra days to re-route from the red sea around Africa.

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.

9 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

In my very humble and unknowledgeable opinion, but knowing 100% that RCL is all about the bottom line $$$$$, there is no way that RC will cancel a full 4 months of the UWC after the Suez crossing, with all those segments prepaid. And the re-routing/home-porting the ship where? At what costs? How will they sell cabins? to who? and at what price??

 

Again in my humble opinion with zero facts, the Dubai to Athens sailing is an 18 day sailing with 7 port stops, by removing the port stops I think perhaps enough time to send her around Africa and into the Med in order to get to Athens on time. BTW, RCG already did this in January with the SilverSeas Silver Moon, albeit without passengers. In Serenade;s case, they can easily sail around Afirca with passengers, however would be a lot of sea days I would think as there would be limited time for port stops I would think. 

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.

27 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Group rates are not dependent on agencies.  They are either offered or not.

 

There was a screw up initially with what appeared to be group rates for the 4/13 sailing the night it was released and you could create a group but they were standard rates and not group rates.  They were removed form cruising power at around 9am the following morning and nothing has been able to be blocked since.

12 minutes ago, MuyBueno said:

All I know is that my TA says he has group rates for both cruises and has provided specific rates for various categories. 

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.

5 hours ago, Biker19 said:

There's not a general amount and sometimes the group rate is higher than the regular sales price.

4 hours ago, tottenhamfc said:

ok thanks. This one is well priced I think.

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!

13 hours ago, Saab4444 said:

This is for Royal Caribbean.

For those who are interested in Celebrity deployments, there is a CC thread here:

Not nearly as good as this thread! 😁

3 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Bookings  do not have to be refundable to more onto a group. Non refundable can be moved into the group and can be repriced to group rates they just remain non refundable. 

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

6 hours ago, mousemom11 said:

 

Oh good. I'm within the 60 day window. Thanks.

4 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

It was changed to 30 days in August or September of 2021.

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.

58 minutes ago, springaussie said:

Darwin Ports 0730 to 1700 Voyager of the Seas.

07 December 2025! 

 

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? 

11 hours ago, RedOaks said:

Radiance and Serenade WB Panama Canal are available for booking 2025.

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

5 hours ago, little britain said:

I’m booked on Millennium in Japan for 3/25 but hoping to swap that to RCI if possible. But it would need to do a lot of Japanese ports which I think a repo wouldn’t. 

3 hours ago, MCEaton said:

We are also booked on Millennium Japan for 3/15/25 but looking for a Repo or TP returning to the states. Would love for Athem to fit into our dates or maybe do a likable swap.

2 hours ago, cruisin from florida said:

Oh, wow!!! We're doing a best of Japan on Celebrity 4/8/25 -4/20/25. It would be so cool if a Tokyo-Vancouver sailing were available to bring us back to North America!

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! 🤞

19 hours ago, Russ Lomas said:

Totally a guess on my part and I have not heard anything about it, but seeing all the money RCCL just sunk into a new terminal in Galveston and the fact that they just completed the President's Cruise out of there, I am assuming they want a major presence in Galveston and would continue to port an Oasis class ship there for 2025 (unless sales of the Harmony in 2024 and early 2025 go really poorly, which I doubt).

15 hours ago, huntnewt said:

I have thought the same and have wondered if Galveston would receive the second Icon class due to all of the attention that it has had lately.

15 hours ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

Galveston has the lowest per day prices in all the fleet - surprised Royal is wasting an Oasis class on these low prices!

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.

15 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

Come on  give us a voyager class in Australia,don’t be so greedy,my favourite ship 

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

5 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Where did you read this , 🤔 as it is not true 

You need to call in to get your Elite discount of 15% 

We will just pay the difference if we want to upgrade a drink  

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.

44 minutes ago, bigeck said:

Calm down and wait on Icon

 

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