masteradept

Rather than which ship it is, I'm actually more disappointed that Singapore seems to be going back to seasonal instead of having a year-round ship, especially considering the increase in popularity of cruising since cruising restarted here.

I think they don’t have much choice but to accommodate those with early seatings during MTD on this one, if it was only a few people I could see that happening but on this occasion it seems to be about the entire 5:30 seating having these issues. Doesn’t look like the Windjammer has any capacity left for more people at this point either, so I suppose the only thing they can do is expedite the MTD service as much as possible. 

Actually it seemed like most of the mad ones were those with assigned timings at 5:30, rather than those with MTD. Overheard someone saying “you expect us to come on board just for dinner and then get off again?”, so it seems like it was a common issue for lots of people here. Specialty is all full up too, doesn’t look like they can accommodate any more people, so it’s probably also a capacity issue, trying to squeeze everyone assigned to 5:30 in as well with the late excursion timings. 

On Symphony now and we had a port stop in St. Thomas from 1-8pm. Since most excursions got back to the ship around 6 we missed our 5:30pm dining slot and were sent to my time dining. I can understand the reasoning but it seems like on this cruise almost the entire 5:30pm seating missed it and a huge line ballooned for MTD. As far as I could see some of the waiting guests were pretty cheesed off too. Is this usual for late port stops on Royal? Seems like they should be adjusting the early seating timing for days like this at the very least. 

Thanks for all the comments! I will definitely at least try giving them a call - nothing much to lose, since the worst case is still cancelling for FCC, though it's less than ideal. Quite a bummer since this is for an anniversary, and there aren't any other sailings that don't visit Nassau/other ports in countries I can't visit.

Just a bit of background, currently for Singapore, only travel to certain countries is allowed quarantine-free, and all those countries are in Europe, US or Canada, so ports are limited to those that are legally part of those countries (e.g. San Juan, St Maarten, ports in the Virgin Islands etc.). Took quite a search to even find the original itinerary that was eligible, since almost all the other lines have private island stops in the Bahamas. It's not a hard  "no travel" rule, so I probably have less to stand on, more that there are lots of measures soft-banning travel there (expensive hotel quarantine, nullified travel and health insurance, denied boarding for the flight back etc.) I also believe that all passengers clear immigration even if not getting off, so even though I couldn't care less about visiting Nassau, it wouldn't work either.

Well, thanks for all the help. I'll give them a call, and the worst case is I'll switch to one of the European itineraries (much higher fare though ...) and do a road trip in the US with my current flight.

Hi all, got an email that my cruise on Edge was changed from San Juan, Tortola and St Maarten to Nassau, Tortola and St Maarten. Normally I know that cruise lines don't offer any form of compensation for such changes. However, this one is a bit complicated because although my country allows travel to the original 3 ports (the reason I booked this trip in the first place), travel to the Bahamas isn't allowed for now. I know it's a long shot, but is there any way that I can ask for a refund or something for the cruise? If not, I'll probably just have to take the FCC under cruise with confidence.

Hi all, was trying to figure out if Celebrity offers halal food on board Edge from Fort Lauderdale. Tried to email them but no response so far, and all I've found is this news article from some time ago.

https://cruise-arabia.com/2017/05/04/celebrity-cruises-targets-middle-east-passengers-with-fleet-wide-halal-food/

Thanks for the advice!

I'm not sure if the agreement with Singapore is to have a year round deployment, but it could otherwise go back to the pre-covid days of no year-round deployment in Singapore, with Spectrum using Mariner's old schedule of summers in Shanghai and winters in Singapore.

Finally a nice change of ship here in Singapore. Spectrum is scheduled to homeport from October 2022 to April 2023.

Source: https://www.sgcruisesociety.com/blog/sc-sghomeport-2022

It's not Wonder like some of us hoped, but still something!

On 9/22/2021 at 10:58 PM, ronaldfelder said:

According to the review on cruise critic that Quantum is set up for the Asian market. Question now that it's being used here in the U.S. to go to Alaska have they made changes needed for us American, Canadians, and other English speaking people.

 

I'd also like to respectfully point out that Quantum is currently based in Singapore, where the majority of us speak English as a first language too. I don't think you need to worry about how the ship is set up, as it's not like there are vast differences between a Singapore sailing and those from European or US ports. As mentioned above, some activies are normally chargeable in Asia (like iFly and Northstar, but not Flowrider), but these should change when she moves to the US.

As an aside, I always wonder why so many people here throw around "Asianized" like it's something to be worried about. Not like those of us here don't enjoy a good cruise with much the same things as most other people around the world.

3 minutes ago, Ethanol95 said:

I still cannot believe 5 Oasis class ships will now be sailing Europe and NA. 

Yeah, it's pretty disappointing, I was really looking forward to having an Oasis class out of Hong Kong, especially if Wonder would pass through Singapore during the positioning cruise. Even if they didn't sell cruises, would have been nice to see her dock...

4 hours ago, Ethanol95 said:

One of my sources tell me maybe as early as end Sept, but their announcement could also be no announcement knowing Royal. 🤣

Before they changed Wonder, it looked like it was going to be Spectrum because that was the only ship with no deployment when Singapore was the only port. Now, who knows though... though would be really nice to get a new ship that isn't Quantum or Voyager.

20 hours ago, Surfguyxxx said:

I guess I'm not understanding this as I see there are Asia sailings up to January of 2023 already but again, nothing to Singapore.

Just to add on to this, because Singapore's borders are currently closed to almost everywhere (we're finally opening two-way general travel with Germany only next week), the current regulations for the 2 ships sailing from Singapore (Quantum and World Dream) are that they are for Singapore residents only. What I noticed from the website is that the Quantum itineraries only show up if you change your country to Singapore, otherwise they won't appear.

That said, currently the only itineraries are 3/4 night sailings on Quantum with no port stops, so although you could take a look at them on the Singapore site, I'm not sure if you'd want to book them (I enjoyed them a lot though!) Also, I'm hoping that the rules on sailings only for Singapore residents are relaxed soon, as are those on port stops, so we can get sailings out of Singapore that go places too!

Luckily here in Singapore Royal is covering the cost of the pre-cruise tests, as is the other operating cruise line (Dream). Wonder why they wouldn't do the same elsewhere.

1 minute ago, Ethanol95 said:

They haven't announced an extension of double point bookings. 

I booked during the promotional period, but they did mention that any changes to the booking would render the promotion invalid, so just have to wait and see.

1 minute ago, Ethanol95 said:

99% those port call sailings will be cancelled.

Yep, expecting that to happen. Just as long as they don't cancel the double C&A points along with them, it's not too hard to go to Penang and Phuket next time anyway.

8 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

What ship is supposed to replace Quantum in Singapore in November  if it was to go to Brisbane?

Theres a report that Wonder will start sea trials on the 30th of August.

Currently Voyager, booked a November cruise with port stops in Malaysia and Thailand, but considering the covid situation, that could change any minute. I suppose if port stops aren't possible and Quantum doesn't head to Brisbane, she might continue her cruises to nowhere instead of having Voyager take them.

10 hours ago, Biker19 said:

I don't recall seeing a schedule for Wonder through 2023.

Looks like Wonder has a couple of trips out of Hong Kong in Dec 2022 through Jan 2023, but nothing after that.

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

No, just further confirmation that Asian itineraries are released later than other markets. 

True, but all other ships are already spoken for for that period (China itineraries are out), so if not Spectrum, I don't know which other ship it will be for Singapore.

This is just guesswork, but I notice the 2022-2023 deployments for Singapore haven't yet been announced (looks like it got pushed to July). At the same time, looking at the RCCL website, the only ship without any available trips in end 2022 is Spectrum. Possible sign of Spectrum redeploying to Singapore?

I feel like this may just be out of date - sometimes what they release on their US/main websites don't really match what we get in Singapore (and probably HK as well). Otherwise so far no indication that the Hong Kong plan is on hold.

I'll be on her on Thursday, so if anyone's interested I can post pics/reports of how they're doing things. They seem to be upselling everyone into suites since the capacity is so low, offered me a SGD50 (US$35-40) upgrade for both pax from a balcony to JS. Sounded like a great deal on the JS so I took it (though I'm not expecting the double points I suppose).

22 hours ago, Hogbay said:

Maybe it would of been quicker if you applied for Singapore citizenship. 🤣🤣

Guilty as charged 😅  Gold to Diamond over the last couple of months thanks to the Quantum sailings. But hey, they're cheap in JS and I was probably going to take those voyages anyway.

I don't know what the old menus were on RCCL out of non-Asian ports (the one time I sailed from MIA I had a UDP so never got to the MDR), but if anyone wants I can share some of the Singapore menus, or if someone posts one of the old menus I can check what was different.

Thanks to this promotion, you'll probably see a huge explosion in the D/D+ population out of Singapore too, since the promotion keeps getting extended hwile the sailings here are going on.