twangster

There is a thread over in Royal Caribbean Blog message boards as well. No injuries reported.

No. Not so far.

That's a lot of P. Hope the bathrooms are functioning well.

IME what one LA versus another LA does onboard can vary wildly. I would not infer policy from something one LA does. Have your son try it onboard but warn him it might not happen.

Category of suite on select ships such as some Voyager and Freedom class. It was a rarity in that it is a "full suite' yet can be booked with a refundable deposit, until June 1.

Overall I think this change is inconsequential. Slight bummer now that JS and VP are NRD only but in truth I was booking most of them as NRD anyways. For an upcoming Star booking the deposit would have been a few hundred more. Meh. Still would have booked it.

No, but tell more about your wife. 🤣😇

Have you seen airline prices this summer? 🤣 For a family of four it's probably more than 500 miles now.

Not to mention that the extra drive distance between Port Everglades and Miami feels like another 500 miles. I don't know what it is about the extra stretch of road but it's like a scene out of Mad Max.

Last visit the plane wreck was outside the swimming area. I'm not certain who would be able to assist.

Policy says no sharing but some folks with certain Android models claim it works.

Faster ships? Can you elaborate?

Curious how this has worked out for those impacted on this turn around.

Start with an upside down pineapple on the cabin door. You'll likely get all sorts of interesting offers.

On Odyssey smoking is on the port side. Other Quantum class ships use starboard. Odyssey has always been port side.

I'm beginning to think Royal doesn't care that there are some that abuse the program with the "significant other like a spouse" verbiage. When someone at any level in the program isn't cruising there is no cost to having a CAS label applied to them. If someone is cruising then the CAS program may have been a factor in the decision to book a Royal cruise. If it was then the program accomplished the primary goal of a loyalty program. I'm not condoning those that abuse the spouse verbiage but if Royal wanted to crack down or reduce program abuse it wouldn't be that hard for them to do so. They appear to be pretty relaxed about approving status matches.

I've seen enough reports like yours to know it's not always the way that people claim as "policy" (which it isn't). In many cases it's been reported when appealed to HQ it is turned down. It seems once a call on the field is made, it's very unlikely to be overturned under review.

The exception being junior suites that can be made refundable.

You've done better than me. I've had two drawbridge events since the restart. I was wondering if the lumber yard will move. I suspect a parking lot full of cars may yield more than lumber parked there. Lumber doesn't need to be stored at the water's edge. Google Earth still has an old image from before CT1. 🙂 If they squeezed a CT2 in there they could still have cargo operations on non-cruise ship days. Not exactly like this but along these lines. Then add a parking garage with more levels that could also service CT1.

Good catch Folks who haven't sailed Royal before is always the single largest group on board.

Port Canaveral has some work to do if they want to hold onto the title of busiest cruise port. Don't get me wrong, I love Port Canaveral in general terms but having a drawbridge that isolates half of the port, the lack of anything on the North side and parking have not held up to the growth of the port. The North side of Port Canaveral is basically no different than Miami. Nothing but cruise terminals with no bars, restaurants or attractions. The drawbridge is by far worse than the tunnel in Miami. Terminal one on the South side provides easy access to bars, restaurants and attractions but the same can't be said for terminal three on the South side. As the port looks to add new cruise terminals that expansion will see the new terminals away from the bars, restaurants and attractions. Parking is disaster at the moment. Sure they plan to add more surface parking away from the cruise terminals but that means a shuttle bus will likely be needed. Shuttle bus transportation doesn't work well with a sudden influx of thousands debarking at the same time. In general terms Port Canaveral isn't scaling well and the lack of planning or forward thinking is hurting them now.

I would think the cruise line should be responsible to move outgoing and incoming guests between the ports involved, as best as they can. That begs the question was is the best alternative? Years ago when I was a Carnival cruiser Long Beach became unavailable for our return due to weather. Instead they used San Diego which at the time was not a home port for any Carnival ship. Carnival supplied buses to move disembarking guests from San Diego to Long Beach and those same buses were then used to move embarking guests from Long Beach to San Diego. As it turns out I was B2B and I was the only consecutive cruiser on that occasion. With the extended bus ride for incoming guests I had the ship to myself for much of the day. That was bizarre and something I'm unlikely to ever encounter again. While the unplanned bus ride for both debarking and embarking guests was not great, it was the best solution given the unexpected change in ports. In the current situation where parts of Ravenna are impacted by flooding the logistics are more difficult since the port in Ravenna is unavailable to be used as Carnival was able to still use the Long Beach terminal in my example. It seems to me that the cruise line should be responsible to make the best solution available and I don't perceive the Trieste train station to be the best that could have been done for the Explorer diversion occuring right now. It will be interesting to see if the situation going on right will cause any guests to miss embarking today. Royal has offered some compensation to debarking guests but it may take a day or two to understand if that was adequate to cover debarking guests and missed flights that may occur from this change. When a port is closed it is closed. That is beyond a cruise lines control. Yet they can't simply say we have changed embarkation port and it's on the guests to get to the new port with no compensation or refund offered for guests that are unable to make it. Time will tell how this works.

As I read through the comments it seems there is a wide variety of preferences expressed. That leaves me curious. How did Indy's open air and uncovered solarium work out in Southampton? Do enclosed solariums work better such as Radiance and Quantum class? I see opinions panning Odyssey for it's uncovered pool yet Indy has uncovered pools and so many loved Indy in Southampton. I've never thought much of the MDR on the original Quantum class but the Quantum Ultra ships, Spectrum and Odyssey that have an open and beautiful MDR that is a major upgrade. Is this something that might appeal to Southampton cruisers when Odyssey arrives? Indy still has Grease for it's main theater show. Is that a preferred musical? Did cruisers not get tired of that show like they are of WWRY on Anthem? The Effectors on Odyssey is a high tech show but I am unsure how it will be received by UK guests. Thoughts? How do the numbers look on a typical Southampton cruise in reference to guest source countries? In the Med there is typically a strong contingent made up from North American fly in guests. Do Southampton cruises share this characteristic? As a fly in guest I'd love to have more Southampton options but the transfer to and from the port have always seemed to be a more difficult task. What am I missing? Is there an easy or preferred way to get there from LHR? TIA.

Only newer ships in my experience and it was flaky. One moment it worked, a minute later... nope.

Specialty dining has always had varied policies that are inconsistent. That "tradition" continues to this day. The D+ BOGO "enjoys" the influence of this tradition. Back when specialty dining was more affordable I used the D+ BOGO every cruise. Specialty Dining has become so popular that Royal can charge more so I don't use the D+ BOGO as much as I used to, yet in my reduced attempts to use the BOGO I find it still varies by ship. It never hurts to attempt anything just understand that one ship might squash your well thought out plans and you will have to adapt them. Their ship, their rules.