zepp914

19 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

You don't pick an AK cruise based on the on board entertainment.  You go to AK because of what is happening outside of the ship.  Your priorities are all wrong.

 

 

 

I would normally agree, but we have a 10 year old going with us.  

3 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

You would only be out $300.

 

There is a penalty of $100pp.  The balance of the deposit is issued as a FCC that must be applied to a cruise within a year. (The actual sail date can be further out)

 

 

Thanks!  

I'll see how the travel agency handles it and go from there. 

1 hour ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Since you are still before final payment date, I'd take my losses and go with Holland or Princess. 

 

This is a very significant change of itinerary, and it would not surprise me if there was a high percentage of guests who booked RC just for Glacier Bay.  Hopefully social media will publicize this enough for Royal to offer appropriate accommodation, including full refund.

I would be out $750 since there are 3 of us.  My extended family booked through a travel agent, so I don't know if they will owe the same, more, or less.  

I would be happy if they gave me back the deposit as credit towards a future cruise.   I just feel really screwed as I wouldn't have taken a shoulder season cruise if it wasn't for Glacier Bay.  I also would have went with a different cruise line.   Alaska may be a once in a lifetime trip for us and now we aren't going to see what we wanted to see most.   

I understand storms and stuff can cause diversions, but we are more than 6 months away, they have plenty of time to resell the rooms of anyone else affected by this change.  

13 hours ago, AlanF65 said:

There can only be two ships in Glacier bay per day and Holland and Princess have priority.

I guess they added stops to Glacier bay because both my cruises now have two HA in Glacier Bay.

 

If this is true then RCI will never get to go there.  They could wait until RCI had set its dates and then reroute their ships accordingly.

I wanted to give HAL a go, but my wife and son looked around on Youtube and determined the entertainment on-board their ships was about as fun as a funeral.  

I convinced my extended family to sign up for this cruise because of Glacier Bay and I am not sure how I am going to tell them.  

Here is the email from my May 22 Ovation cruise if anyone wants to read it:

Dear Guest,

Before we set sail on our May 22, 2020 Ovation of the Seas cruise, we have a change to share with you.

Earlier this year, we were excited to add Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska to our itinerary. However, sometimes things don’t go as planned and we’ve changed back to the original itinerary. So, we’ll visit Endicott Arm & Dawes Glacier as originally planned, instead of Glacier Bay National Park. We are sorry for any disappointment, but we’re confident you’ll have a wonderful time as we provide you with plenty of opportunities to explore everything Alaska has to offer – including glaciers! Please see our new itinerary below.

One of Alaska’s lesser-known gems, Endicott Arm Fjord marks the southern edge of Fords Terror Wilderness area. As you drift through its 30-mile-long stretch, you can’t help but be awed by the surrounding granite cliffs, mountain valleys and dozens of gushing waterfalls. Your journey through the scenic fjord ends with a front-row view of Dawes Glacier. Standing over 600 feet tall and a half-mile wide, this very active icecap is known for its spectacular calving displays which produce huge, chunky icebergs that float in area waters. Check out how you can take your Alaskan adventure to new heights by browsing through our Cruise Planner!

We thank you again for your understanding and look forward to exploring the wilderness of Alaska with you!

We had good luck getting decent pours at the Trellis Bar and the Schooner bar.  Our biggest complaint was that most bars didn't have a blender that worked, so getting a mudslide or anything frozen was a chore.  According to my mother, the robots at the Bionic Bar were the only ones who could make a proper Long Island Iced Tea.  

We enjoyed the one on Harmony.  I felt most of the puzzles, aside from the last one, were pretty easy.  People who had only ever done one or 2 escape rooms thought it was hard. 

My wife and I were paired with 5 or 6 other couples, so I would say there were 12 people total.  The room is always the same, so if you split up, someone from your first group could spoil it for your second group.    

The room itself, held a dozen people rather well.  We never felt cramped.  There are archways and the really tall guy in the group had to avoid hitting his head.  You can see what the room looks like on some of the youtube videos.  

I am kind of bummed about this.  I love that ship.  We always had a blast on her.  

The Baltimore market puts Royal in a rather interesting conundrum.  The port is worth it as both Pride and Grandeur usually have no trouble sailing full.  They are eventually going to run out of smaller ships that can make it here though.   I am not sure if Majesty, Empress, or the Radiance ships meet the requirements to be in the Chesapeake Bay.   So after Enchantment, then what?  

18 hours ago, mugtech said:

So we should see a repositioning cruise by Enchantment from San Jose to Baltimore, perhaps on April 17, 2021, available in early November.

If there is one, that may be tempting.  

Would there be one for Grandeur as she switches companies?  Obviously Pullmantur doesn't sail out of Baltimore.  I suppose they could sail her empty from Baltimore to wherever for repainting.   

My 10 year old broke his the first day he had it.  They replaced it for him, but the next one fell apart too.  I don't know why he had such a hard time with it as he has no problem wearing a watch.   My wife liked hers.  We got used to going up to the bar for them to swipe it as opposed to taking it off all of the time.  

The only specialty restaurant we tried on Harmony was Sabor.  The service was great, but the choices were not that exciting at all.  We actually preferred the windjammer options on Mexican night!  

We shared a table in the MDR with some platinum Carnival folks.  Harmony was their first RCCL trip.  They said the biggest difference for them (aside from the massive ship) was how the cruise directors operate.  On Carnival, the cruise director comes over the loudspeaker every hour or so to let you know what is going on.   I can't recall the cruise director on Harmony talking over the loudspeaker more than 4 times on the entire cruise.  So if you aren't one to read the Cruise Compass and plan your day that way, you may not like it as much.   

On a ship this big, plan early and often.  If you have My Time dining, set it up in advance.  Sign up for the shows ahead of time.  

Also, the most important tip I can give anyone on Harmony is KEEP YOUR ELBOWS IN when going down the ultimate abyss.  My wife didn't listen and had some nasty rub burns on her elbows that lasted a week or so.  

So I was looking around on another site and saw KSF on my cruise.  I went back to Royal's website, did the pretend booking, and saw my cruise was $391 cheaper today (no KSF though).   I lost $300 OBC, but a net gain of $91 seemed worth it to me.   Anyway, my dinner was set to 5:30pm when I KNOW I asked for My Time.  Even without the $91 it was worth the call to fix that.  

So my parents-in-law are joining me on this cruise.  They decided to go through AlaskaCruises.com.   I am not sure if they can change their price or not.  I also need to find out how to sync us up for dinner.  

This is one of those things that makes me question everything.  Yes it looks cool.  I always thought the big selling point of the similar places in Fiji were that you could sleep and wake up on the ocean.  You can't really do that here, so basically it is like renting a covered pier.  

If I had unlimited money, sure, but if I had unlimited money, would I be going to Coco Cay?   I don't think we paid $1400 for all of the excursions and drink packages combined on our last trip.  I would rather have a drink package than spend a few hours at one of these.  

30 minutes ago, Ashland said:

RCI WJ has "great deserts"....Oh my, I couldn't disagree more with that !!

The WJ isn't exactly a food desert.   

I meant to say desserts.   😣

My Alaskan cruise becomes $306 cheaper, which is good, but I don't see the $300 OBC.  So do I bother jumping through hoops or not?  We are probably going to have over a $300 alcohol bill.

I thought the buffets in Vegas were flavorless.  Vegas isn't exactly close to water, so imagine how far the shrimp and crab legs have to go to get there!   I preferred eating at the Popeye's in the Excalibur, but to each their own.

RCCL buffets have great deserts and I loved taco night.  I am not a fan of their pasta and you couldn't make worse pizza if you tried.   Aside from the pizza, I would say the food is much better than Golden Corral.  

We went in late August when a lot of kids had gone back to school.  We were on Harmony and that was the only ship at Coco Cay that day.  My son really enjoyed the water slides, but he had to wait an hour for the really tall slide and about 30 minutes for any other slide.    He said it would only be worth it if you were on a really small ship that was the only ship in port.  

I think the water park was a good idea, but I don't think it has enough slides for the crowd it receives.  Also the lifeguards from the ship staffed some of the slides, so the slides on the ship were closed.  I am not sure if the flow rider was open or not.  

Next time we get stuck going to Coco Cay, we are just going to make a beach day of it.    

17 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Sorrentos is the best pizza on the planet

My son admits that when it is hot and fresh it is somewhat better than bowling alley pizza.  When it has been sitting out for a while, it is worse than school cafeteria pizza.    

If only they could use one of those smoke stacks to make brick oven pizza.  

I feel like 7 to 9 days is the sweet spot.  Five days left me wanting more.  Usually by day 8, I am just completely done eating cruise ship food.  

I don't care if I am in an inside room or balcony in the Caribbean.  We paid for an inside balcony on HOS so my claustrophobic mother wouldn't go crazy.  I really liked people watching from it.  I can't imagine watching the ocean all day, but anything is better than the Royal Caribbean TV options.  We always bring little board games to play to pass the time on sea days.  

I like the larger ships, but they can only go to certain ports.  If, from here on out, they only build behemoths, I would switch to lines that let me go to a greater variety of ports.   

Our cruise on Harmony was on August 18th.  We were able to start reserving shows on May 12th.  I highly recommend you reserve shows before getting on the boat.  

Also, there are some shows you can't reserve.  The ice show that you cannot reserve is 10 times better than the weird 1887 one you can.  

When we were there in August, the water was filled with jellyfish.  Nature is going to do what nature is going to do.  

I started researching like BoonTJ03 a few weeks ago.  Do Northbound or Southbound with a land tour, people said.  Make sure you sail out of Vancouver, people said.  They are all 100% correct of course, but then when you look into the logistics, it quickly becomes a nightmare.   My wife, like B. A. Baracus from the A-team, doesn't like to fly.  She will only do non-stop flights.  Are there non-stop flights from Anchorage to the DC area, of course not and I didn't expect there to be.  Alright fine, let's do a round trip out of Vancouver.  Surly there are non-stop flights to a large Canadian city out of Dulles, Reagan, or BWI right???  No there is not.  There are occasionally non-stop flights out of Newark, so that may work out for BoonTJ03, but not as well for us.  

So Seattle it is, unfortunately, unless I leave the wife at home and just take my son or go by myself.  There is also the possibility of taking the train to Newark from home or the train from Seattle to Vancouver, but that is just more expense and time.  If I had unlimited time, I think I would do the train and then take a Northbound cruise from Vancouver and then stay a day or 2 in Anchorage and take a different ship back.  It would be like a back to back with a break.  Make sure one stops in Sitka and the other in Skagway.  One Glacier Bay and the other at Hubbard...  

It certainly gets crowded during the muster drill and after the shows end.  I think we waited 30 minutes to get out of our muster area (which was the ice rink oddly enough).  

I agree with the above posters.  I just want to add that unlike smaller RCI ships, you will want to make reservations for everything (shows, my time dining, escape room, etc).  The people that seemed the least happy on the ship were the people unwilling to plan or use the app.  

We ate with a couple of Carnival Platinum cruisers.  I asked them what they found the most different.  They said that the cruise director wasn't making an announcement every 5 minutes!   I think our cruise director was on the loudspeaker maybe 3 times on the cruise.  They also claimed the steak on Carnival was better, but the desserts and buffet on RCI were better.  

Ohhh yeah most importantly, KEEP YOUR ELBOWS IN when doing the Ultimate Abyss.