PIC33

We were on the cancelled 26 April Radiance sailing, as well as the previous 4-night from LA, and the following 7-night Vancouver to Seward (all part of a B5B Tampa to Vancouver). Therefore, our expense situation was a bit different. We were effectively stranded in Vancouver for the five days after being put off the broken-down Radiance until we could reboard for the next leg. Flying home to Orlando last minute was not an option for us, as we’d be forfeiting the next cruise (and the return cruise to Vancouver thereafter). Flying back to Vancouver from Orlando a coupled days later also did not make economic sense. So, we spent the five nights in a hotel in Vancouver waiting for the next cruise to start. I politely explained this situation to the folks at RCCL when I filed the compensation claim. I specifically requested the $250 per night hotel reimbursement be extended to all five nights versus just the two offered. I thought this was reasonable since I was not claiming any additional expenses for airfare or transportation. Unfortunately, that request for the additional nights was denied, with the RCCL saying I should file a claim with the AON travel insurance I purchased through the cruise line, which I did. I explained the situation to AON in my insurance claim and cited my policy numbers for both the 26 April and 3 May cruises in my request for the trip delay to be covered. The claim was denied by AON, citing that the cruise was cancelled due to a technical issue with the ship. I also have not yet seen the promised Crown and Anchor points for the canceled cruise appear in my account. This experience has caused me to rethink how I string together back-to-back cruises to create longer itineraries. I am now looking at other cruise lines such as Holland America and Viking, that offer longer itineraries. Then at least if the ship breaks mid-cruise, I can just go home rather than being stuck in limbo waiting to see if the next leg sails.

Woohoo! Looks like the duct tape and zip ties held. Radiance is backing in to the east berth at Canada Place cruise terminal.

Looks like they are taking Radiance out for a test drive to see if the duct tape and zip ties worked. Ship pulled out past our hotel in Vancouver about an hour ago. Fingers crossed the sea trial is successful.

Here is the email received yesterday from Royal declaring victory on the technical issue.

As cruisingrob21 predicted, Radiance just vacated the cruise terminal. She was heading back upriver, perhaps to the same industrial dock we were at on Saturday. Bow thrusters and the one good azipod all appeared to be working as normal. The only time I saw the tug lines taught was as they were swinging the stern around to point upstream. Fingers continue to be crossed for a successful fix this week.

I just got back from a walkabout down past the cruise terminal and Convention Center. They were just positioning what appeared to my untrained eye as another fuel barge alongside midship. No activity at the stern. There was a work barge servicing the NCL Jewel parked behind Radiance, but that appeared unrelated to our little issue. Earlier this morning they tugged in a much larger crane on a barge, which is now sitting out at the end of the Canada Place pier. Again, I have no idea if that piece of kit is intended for us, or some other purpose.

I believe it was a fuel barge. It was tugged away yesterday afternoon.

As of this morning Radiance is still where we left her yesterday at Canada Place cruise terminal. We had been on board since departing Tampa 8 April, and were planning to remain on board until 17 May. Instead, we are in a hotel in Vancouver looking down on “our” ship and are awaiting word on if we will be able to continue the adventure on Friday, or if we are heading back home sooner than expected. The abbreviated 26 Apr sailing was the shortest cruise distance-wise we have ever been on, 6 nautical miles from the cruise terminal to the industrial dock and back! Along with everybody else on the 3 May sailing, we are hoping the ship gets fixed in time to sail as scheduled. Location and distance info from Sat and Sun below, and view from hotel room yesterday.

We just finished a B2B on the Escape from PC (2 and 9 Dec sailings). As trivimp said, they combined our folio. They also carried over our refundable OBC from the canceled stop at GSC. We did not have any non-refundable OBC, so I cannot comment there. They adjusted our itinerary so it looked like we were on a 14 day cruise. Therefore, on the app it would say, for instance, we were on day 10 of the cruise, but the Freestyle and everything else said day 3 (or whatever it really was). What was also a bit odd and troubling was that all of our reservations for shows, dining, spa, and excursions disappeared from the app on the second cruise. Same happened to our friend traveling separately who was also on the same B2B. Fortunately all our plans were still in the ship's system, so we were not turned away at any venue. Also annoying was that we did not get any of the Club Balcony perks the second week. No bubbly, no treats, except for the last round (cookies) and a warm bottle of Duc after we complained twice to our cabin steward and to Guest Services. Turnaround day was as described by others in this thread. We all met in the District Brew House (as instructed by the letter in our cabin) where they had a nice spread of coffee, juice, lemonade, pastries and finger sandwiches. At the appointed hour we were escorted to ding off the ship, then go to the terminal for the facial recognition scan, then after a brief wait escorted back to ding on the ship. Easy and low stress.

There was pay to enter for our 2 Dec Escape cruise. Note the garage did not open until 10 am thought to allow folks from the previous cruise to depart. Same when we departed on 16 Dec (after our B2B), the cars were waiting to be let in to the garage when we drove out around 9:45.

Just off Mariner today. On Friday we suddenly got over 70 chats from people we did not know or invite. There was a big line of people at guest services trying to get rid of the unwanted chats. Some of the texts were saying some pretty unpleasant things I was told. The Chat feature was disabled a few hours later, and did not return the rest of the cruise.

This is the toiletry bag we got in December as a holiday gift on Jewel. I assume the C&A bags would be the same. Sorry, no dimensions since we already re-gifted them.

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We did exactly this shore excursion with Royal back in Dec 2015. It was excellent. A terrific way to see so much more of that beautiful part of NZ than on day trips.