RobInMN

4 hours ago, Tolkmit said:

 

No, you've been making assumptions. The vast majority of reports are the class is "smaller." You assume that to mean what your subjective opinion classifies as "small" when in fact it simply means not as big as Oasis/Icon.

The ship could designed for anywhere from 500 to 5000 passengers, and it would still be "smaller."

No. I've never said small (others may have). In my opinion, there is a 100% chance it will be bigger than the Radiance class. Most comments from captains seems to put it around the size of a Voyager/Freedom class.

There is no way they can fit in the expected amenities with a passenger count that makes economic sense in the size of a Radiance. They will have to balance that with size restrictions on where they want this ship to go. New Panamax? Bridge heights for ports they want to go. If they use LNG, will they want to go back to Flam? Geiringer? How about Honnignsvag? The pier there was already about 1/3 the size of Jewel. 

Yes, smaller just means smaller than Oasis and probably Quantum. 

My comment was the fact that Michael Bayley, and many captains have all made comments about a new "smaller" class of ship and there are some people that post here (like the person I was responding to) that don't seem to believe that RC will ever build a smaller sized ship, only going larger with every new class. It's to those people that I am asking, "So Michael Bayley and many RC Captains are all lying?"

3 hours ago, ticketsunlimited said:

I think this was in the making for a long time.  It cant be a coincidence that the three levels of play for the hard rock (unity) are Icon, Star, and Legend.

Is it true that the 3rd Icon class ship will be called Legend of the Seas?

No. Legend is apparently the name for Oasis #7.

Someone posted that according to the website code, Icon #3 will have the code TR

51 minutes ago, Ashland said:

We did the Panama Canal July 2022 from San Pedro to Tampa on Serenade and it was great.

For those of you waiting, book as soon as it becomes available. Ours sold out so fast. Best of luck !!

We just finished the Panama Canal cruise here last month. We booked it the day it was released. Largely thanks to a previous "Booking season begins" thread here.🙂

I've never been on Gate 1, But I did 1 Vantage back in 2005 with my Parents and did GC recently with them again. Vantage and GC were basically the same (including the ships). I believe that Vantage (at least back in the early 2000's) was owned by a brother of the GC owner. But yep, they are no more, so that's a moot point.

Anyway, my wife and I a not fans of GC in the slightest. We are fans of AmaWaterways.

Our biggest complaint about GC is the cabins. The dual fold-down single bunks is unacceptable to us. We want the actual bed that you get in an Ama cabin. Bathrooms are much nicer also.

29 minutes ago, CPT Trips said:

One thing I like about GCT is that there are multiple program directors on onboard instead of just a single cruise director. 

Ama uses a single cruise director. The biggest difference I would point our with this is that on Vantage and GC, we had 4 CDs such that the entire cruise ship was divided between them. This is your CD for the entire cruise, and they lead all the tours. They are expected to know everything about the places you are visiting, and you will be with the same large group of passengers the entire time. There are no options. Not in only in what you are doing, but the pace also. You either do the designated excursion or you don't. and if you do, the entire group stays together at the pace of the slowest person.

I can't speak to other companies other than Ama, but Ama's single CD is more of a coordinator. They do not lead any excursions, instead they are the are the go between with the local expert guides. They are the one that arranges for the appropriate number of guides for the different excursion options (yes! you have options!!), and your groups are almost always kept to small group size (with the exception of some evening all ship events). Not only that, but most walking tours are divided into easy, normal and active, each with their own guide.

45 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Unless you know something I don’t know, there has been no official announcement from RCI about the long rumored Project Discovery. A few months ago I thought RCI’s “big” announcement was going to be about Project Discovery, only to find out the news was RCI is building a 7th Oasis class ship.  

All correct statements. I also thought the "big" announcement would be Project Discovery since Michael Bayley has said they hope to announce it this year. It does seem like it's being mentioned more frequently at the Captain Q&A's (and maybe just because more people are asking), so I'm hoping that is a good sign.

But correct. No official announcements have been made up to this point.

4 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Costa Maya - look at Native Choice tours

28 minutes ago, ShipsandDipper said:

+1

+2

22 minutes ago, TheHawk1 said:

Something closer to Voyager class would be better

That seems to be the prevailing indication from Captain Q&As

31 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

Our first cruise, and first RCI cruise was the Majesty of the Seas.  Is she still in service as something?  The largest cruise ship in the world in 1996 when we sailed her.  Smaller than anything in the fleet now.  

Ours also. It was a weekend neighborhood thing.

While I thought all 3 Sovereign class ships had been scrapped, only her 2 sisters have been. Apparently Majesty is currently owned by Seajets, and "laid up" (whatever that means other than out of service) in Piraeus, Greece. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majesty_of_the_Seas

Not sure what a ferry company is going to do with a former cruise ship, but their wikipedia page says that they've purchased 4 and plans for them are yet unknown.

10 hours ago, Vibe said:

There hasn’t been any official decision, confirmation or announcements for new smaller ships. Only speculation.  
 

No one is lying.

 

We are discussing opinions and rumors.

 

Correct, nothing official, and certainly no actual details has been published, but Michael Bayley has commented at least twice, and numerous captains have commented about a new smaller class ship in the design phase. Bayley has said they hope to make an official announcement sometime this year.

Your comment was that RCI will only do big ships, and leave the smaller ships to Celebrity. This seems to run counter to what insiders are saying.

1 hour ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

We have a Norwegian Fjords cruise booked in Summer 2025 on Independence. Is this cruise going to be cancelled? It is part of a B2B cruise we have booked on Independence. 

40 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Thanks. That’s basically what I read from googling after reading RobInMn’s post. 

Yes. Sorry to freak you out. "Dropping" as in not scheduling new, not cancelling already announced ones. And I was probably a bit overreactive. They are not necessarily dropping all of Norway, but they are severely limiting where they are going. You'll note that starting in 2025, there's no Radiance class from Amsterdam. So no Flam, or Geringer, and no Arctic Circle up to Honningsvag like in previous years up to this summer. They are only scheduling the southern "big" city ports. We'll have to see if they continue with your itinerary in 2026 & beyond.

37 minutes ago, Vibe said:

I think that new Royal Caribbean ships are going to be large and be geared towards families and active younger adults looking for a a wow factor that includes many activities and has many different options for things to do.

 

The smaller new ships are probably going to Celebrity and are going to be geared to the cruiser that want a quieter more sophisticated experience, 

So... everyone's been lying?

41 minutes ago, cyntil8ing said:

Yes, but minors’ accounts will show their parents points until they are 18. My kids are 17 and 20. They both show my status. The 20 year old shows their points. The 17 year old shows my points. Saturday, when he turns 18, his points will drop to his own.
 

It’s weird, and doesn’t make sense, but that’s how it shows in the app and the web site. I think everyone should always show their own earned points, 

This isn't so much a "yes, but", as much as it's additional info. There's no argument or disagreement here. You are saying the same thing as far as "earning" goes. Nothing was said previously about what is displayed in the app. That may be what you were intending to say, but not what you actually wrote.  

11 minutes ago, George C said:

What cruise line was your River cruises, same line or multiple lines ?

in 2005 we went with my parents on Vantage (went bankrupt a year or 2 ago and liquidated). Was not a fan anyway.

We did another one recently with my parents on Grand Circle (Christmas Markets). Again, not a fan. The crew was nice enough, ship & food ok, but the cabins are a non-starter with us. Twin fold down single bunks over a dual bench table. We are spooners. Doesn't work. Reminds me of a camper. Tiny bathroom. Hated the format of having no excursion options and being spit amongst 4 CMs that led all tours themselves.

We've done 3 cruises (1 plus a b2b) with AmaWaterways and have another (4th) booked for Spring. We love them. The b2b was on AmaMagna, and that ship is amazing for a river ship. (find my review in the River Cruises forum). Love the multiple, small group, excursion options and the fact that they use local experts for tour guides.

1 minute ago, TheBucketLister said:

 

I agree with you.  The majority will probably not care.  I am in the minority (I believe) as I love the smaller ship classes.

I don't necessarily love the smaller ships, in and of themselves. When it comes to the ship, I love the Oasis class and the amenities the newer ships have to offer.

However, I love where the smaller ships can go. We loved our Artic Circle, and Iceland & Ireland cruises. We loved doing the Panama Canal. Very excited that this new class will give us the best of both. Not to mention the fact that RCI is dropping the Norwegian fjords due to the new environmental restrictions that I believe they will solve with this new class (LNG?)

Most of those countries don't use the Euro. Any tour guide and bus driver used by Ama will accept Euros. The CD should let you know which countries may accept Euros and should tell you what the current conversion rate should be, but note that any change will be in the local currency. Some countries are more accepting of Euros than others.

We brought a couple hundred in Euros and kept changing for smaller currency at the front desk to use for tips. We did both weeks on the Danube, and this did become problematic on this stretch of the Danube as many people were doing that and they didn't have a great way of getting more once we were no longer in Euro countries. We did not get any local currency on our cruise and just used a CC that has no foreign currency transaction fees whenever a CC was accepted, and Euros other times. We don't do a lot of shopping. 

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

 

After taking 2 to 3 cruises a year for many , many years just don't have the interest in cruising that much anymore.

 

So I guess we are going the opposite way as far as cruising a lot first and now want to do  more land vacations.

Have you done river cruises? We've done a few now and enjoy them. They have the advantage that oceans cruises do in the sense that your hotel travels with you, and obviously river cruises go places you can't get to from ocean ports. We don't like doing the same Caribbean ports over & over, and do some of the other itineraries more, but occasionally will sail for the ship just to see/experience a new one.

Anyway, we've done Nuremburg to Luxemburg, Nuremburg to Vienna, Vilshofen to Budapest to Bucharest, and next Spring will be doing Basel to Amsterdam. At that point, we'll have gone all the way from Amsterdam to the Black Sea. 🙂 

The River Cruises sub forum is active enough.

This

53 minutes ago, cyntil8ing said:

Every person, minor or adult, earns the points for their own accommodations. Minors share their parents’ points and status. At 18, they revert to their own earned points, but keep their parents’ status.

plus this correction

52 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:

No, they will get the status but earn the points for the sailing and cabin they sailed in.

Everyone earns their own points in the cabins that they stay in. Minors "get" their parent's status. Once they are 18, they are allowed to keep that status (but again, not points), until their own earned points reach the next C&A level.

Current threads/discussion on the new class. It's been hinted at for about 2-3 years now, but more recently captians have been mentioning it at Q&A's and Bayley has even dropped mentions. No real details, just that "it's smaller". But there's lots & lots of speculation.

BTW,

We did the Grand Danube, where the first week was basically what you are doing (only in reverse). I believe there is almost 100% overlap. We also did the Prague extension (pre for us) and went to Gogollo on turnaround day. Full review is here:

1 hour ago, Tatka said:

We sailed on Splendor and I think Splendor & Legend were somewhat different than the rest of them. Viking Crown lounge was more to the middle and there was mini golf behind it.

 

It’s also interesting that class is called Vision when Vision ship is one of the youngest. It’s like calling Oasis class Utopia class. 🙂 

Vison Class isn't really a traditional ship "Class". It basically comprised 3 pairs of ships and while it's unclear if all 6 ships were all built under the "Project Vision" umbrella, the class name was apparently named after the project, rather than any specific ship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision-class_cruise_ship

It would be like using "Genesis Class" instead of Oasis Class.

Yes. We've arrived late morning as we checked out of the hotel and took a short train ride and really had no where else to go, and where we boarded wasn't really near anything. I don't think we were even the first people there. We just hung out in the lounge as they were turning the ship over. Depending on where you are boarding, you may just want to drop your luggage off, check in, and then take off for a few hours. You can do that also.

I am not sure if the plugs are actually E/F or C, but both of these have worked just fine for me:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YDF8GCT/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058EG0KC/

I also suggest using a multi port charging station like this, so that you minimize the number of outlets you need for charging:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BX3V6ZZX/

7 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Curious why you would print out a copy just in case. I always add our boarding passes to my wallet (IPhone). I understand the possibility of WiFi not working at the port, but passes in your wallet always work, assuming your phone still works/has power. 

Just never really got in the habit of using the phone wallet app. 

47 minutes ago, Anton said:

The app works for me but I always use a printed setsail pass from the website.  I find that it is quicker to show the printed pass to the check-in agent rather than fumbling around with my phone. 

While I have no issues with and prefer to use the app, I do pack a printed copy in my carry on just is case.

1 hour ago, looking4info said:

She  has done on line checked in. Guess my question wasn't clear. Asking about check in at pier. Will she need to print documents or are there other methods? Hope this clears up my question. Thanks.

At the port "check in" is the "Set Sail Pass". So my previous statement still stands. If she is traveling with anyone else on the same or linked reservation, you only need 1 person whose phone has the app (and working) as you can swipe from passenger to passenger on the same phone to get each person's Set Sail Pass.

You have not given any indication as to whether she is (a minor?) traveling with you/family (or friends) on the same reservation or an adult (where she might be on her own unlinked reservation).

If anyone else she is traveling with on the same or linked reservation can use the app (iPhone or Android), she or they can check her in without needing to print documents. Even the boarding passes can be swiped to others in the same party.