MADflyer

4 hours ago, Dennis#1 said:

Thought Voyager was scheduled to sail from California in summer of 2021.  Why would she have to spend one more year in Asia?

They have since deployed Voyager to Asia even though they did have port bookings at Hawaii and on the west coast. 

http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Deployment/2021_2022/VY_2021_Asia.pdf

They still hold a booking at Astoria Oregon for June 2021 for Voyager that they booked just in March of this year. But it would seem that will be cancelled as well. 

https://www.portofastoria.com/Assets/dept_1/pm/pdf/cruise ship log 2021.pdf

On 8/15/2020 at 9:29 AM, twangster said:

While there are no actual itineraries available, I found some destination highlights on the charter/meeting site that give an idea what Royal is or was thinking at some point in time.  The other destinations we already know well but these two stand out from the rest:

 

Pacific Northwest - San Francisco, Victoria, Astoria, Vancouver

 

 

We did the 8 night Pacific Coastal on Explorer back in 2016. It was actually one of the best sailings I have had with RCI. Ours went down to Santa Barbara along with San Francisco, Astoria and Victoria. 

RCG had made a booking for Voyager back in March just prior to the suspension of cruising to have a call in 2021 at Astoria, OR. They have since deployed Voyager to China, so it would seem it will be cancelled at some point. It does show they have or had Pacific coastal plans. 

Sat 6/26/21

Voyager of the Seas

C 1 F

1020' 28'

Intercruises Kate Anderson

8:00 23:00

3138 3/4/20 Confirmed

1 hour ago, FlowBroTy said:

Just a thought but could harmony be a place holder for allure OTS as she could do a few mouths in the med before her amp as royal should have enough funds by then and a amp would add a ton of money to the ship and after the new terminal in Galveston when it is finally done in a few years so they can send it there. Just a theory if it not a ICON class ship.

ICON will be delayed by a minimum of 10 months. That was announced on financial call earlier today.   They now will not even begin the project until 2022 if not longer. 

I do not see Allure getting a full amp soon.  Liberty is booked currently up until the first week of November 2022 at Galveston and Grand Cayman. 

While that could be a Barcelona to Galveston TA , there is currently no evidence of that crossing.

It is true that Allure is not booked all summer at St. Maarten in 2022 as she is now for 2021. She calls there through the end of April 2022 only, with Symphony and Harmony currently booked at St. Maarten summer of 2022. 

29 minutes ago, irishgal432 said:

So Quantum and Ovation are booked for Alaska in 2022. I got a great price on Quantum  and was concerned if they wouldn’t sail if we could lift and shift to 2022 if the program is still active. 

That was the plan at that time. Port bookings are not open to view any longer so only based on previously scheduled port calls at Victoria BC. 

19 minutes ago, Jack McGowan said:

Not forgetting Bliss & Encore heading to Sweden 

Interesting indeed.  

That is a little too close to Germany where all those ships have their finance holiday though April 2021.

Just saw that all the RCI new builds after Odyssey will be delayed with at least 10 months. 

Interesting that Norwegian moved the ships that were held at Norfolk, VA over to the MED with 3 ships arriving last night, the Epic, Dawn and Spirit.  Epic is at Gibraltar with Jewel today and Dawn and Spirit anchored at Gibraltar. Breakaway and Getaway were already at Marseilles.

Back when I found that Quantum was going to be deployed to Alaska for the 2021 season,  RCI had already booked the 2022 season as well and they had Quantum and Ovation at Seattle and then both Serenade and Radiance with Vancouver and Vancouver/Seaward.  Victoria has sense taken away access to distant future bookings. 

Serenade does appear to do a Panama Canal sailing following Alaska in October of 2022 with Grand Cayman booked for October 15th. She appears not to be returning to Australia. 

MSC had booked a new build ship for Alaska 2022 to compete with RCI and NCL, both having 2 newer ships in Alaska for the season. MSC thinks the European feeder market will have greater interest in Alaska sailings in the future. 

32 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Not sure it means much on some of these port bookings as Grandeur still shows up too.

The Pullmantur bookings are using the ship code that moves with the ship. Those are not RCI bookings that are showing for the most part. Pullmantur bookings for the other ships that have been scrapped are still showing as well. 

16 minutes ago, Jack McGowan said:

Think the only thing that seems to be a bit off is the Gibraltar ones, independence has been on there for the next few years (including 2021) and there hasn’t been a second ship out of Southampton 

Gibraltar has been a mess the past couple of years with sailings being added and the old ones never being removed. Watching them as an indicator is good as bookings often lead to finding bookings at other ports. 

Riviera Ports is the most accurate along with Key West port agent site and Grand Cayman an Le Havre.  Many others are dependable when they can be viewed like Victoria BC and Hawaii ports. The lack of information from most ports now does make this a much more difficult task than it once was. 

I think that the Palma bookings for Harmony are actually an example of the place holder referenced. They had the whole season booked for Harmony previously and then cancelled the late summer. I had always suspected ICON for Barcelona but there is no evidence of that now and she might be delayed or cancelled. 

58 minutes ago, Jack McGowan said:

Don’t forget Royal are probably just booking the slots, doesn’t necessarily mean that ship will use the slot

I have been doing this for years and there have been very few examples of just pure place holders.  Now, RCI changing deployment at the last minute for one or two ships is nothing unusual. 

19 minutes ago, Saab4444 said:

Do you really believe they take Adventure in 2021 for the Baltic and go smaller again with Jewel in 2022 after just one year?

I only post when there are bookings that are posted. They have currently not booked Adventure at any ports that I have found. 

Serenade of the Seas is booked on October 15th 2022 at Grand Cayman. This indicates that the ship would not return to Australia for the 2022-23 Season and would move to a US port.

This could indicate possible Panama Canal sailings. (at least one) 

On 8/7/2020 at 12:05 AM, Biker19 said:

Gibraltar ...shows 

 

Jewel on 5/3/2022, 8/29/2022

Rhapsody on 5/5/2022

Indy on 6/7/2022, 7/26/2022, 9/1/2022, 9/27/2022

Anthem on 6/29/2022, 8/3/2022, 8/17/2022, 9/21/2022, 10/5/2022

Thanks for starting this season's thread. 

It appears that Jewel's TA will arrive in Barcelona in early May and then sail via Lisbon, Le Havre and ZEEBRUGGE. She will most likely sail the Baltic with home ports of CPH or STO. 

Anthem only has one MED stop at Villefranche summer season 2022 on July 1.  Anthem has 3 bookings at Funchal with sailings to Tenerife for Canary Island sailings in July, August and September from Southampton. 

Indy is booked with 3 stops at Funchal in June, September and October for Canary Island sailings from Southampton. 

Rhapsody does stop at Funchal on May 3rd 2022, after leaving Nassau from Tampa and then on to Gibraltar. 

Vision is booked the entire season from May to October at Barcelona for the longer MED sailings. 

The Harmony of the Seas Palma bookings are currently only for April and May of 2022. I would think that ICON would have been planned for the summer season as she is released in May of 2022. This could easily be delayed or cancelled. 

Brilliance is booked back at Amsterdam and with the August end of season and no bookings in the MED could return to sailing to Iceland on to Boston for 2022 for her transatlantic. 

3 minutes ago, tsundet said:

Other than that, Europe's been open for quarantine free travel for some weeks. In theory the passengers could be from all over... 

What I am reading has a little more of a positive twist on the situation. 

They state all passengers had to register mobile numbers and that text went out to all passengers from the 17th and 24th of July sailings. 

Seems contact tracing has worked very well for Norway and 69 community health offices around country have been activated. 

They have tested all of the crew again now and they now have 29 additional crew members that have tested positive. That is a total of 33 now. 

They stated that they have followed the Norwegian and International guidelines and that crew had self quarantined in their home countries for 14 days and were tested prior to travel and then for 10 days at a hotel in Norway prior to boarding the ship. 

They have 60 passengers in quarantine in Tromso Norway and have spoken by phone with 89 of the passengers from the past 2 week sailings along with a text message that was sent to all passengers. They are testing the passengers with a quick test and then sending them home by tomorrow, following the regulations set out by the quarantine regulations. 

The situation at the Clarion Hotel where the passengers are quarantined was chaotic as it seems several passengers just showed up in the lobby to check in and that the local hotel had not received much information. The cruise line had booked about half of the 219 rooms at the hotel.  

The hotel had to rapidly gear up as a quarantine hotel where the passengers required all services as they are not allowed to leave the room. Then the hotel had to deal with the issue of  the regular guests that were already booked into the hotel. 

The crew are all quarantined onboard the ship, with those that have tested positive isolated. 

I guess what was most impressive is how quickly the local community health officials, regional hospital and national health department all coordinated the effort and how closely the cruise line cooperated with the requirements. 

https://www.vg.no/

9 hours ago, Fairsky84 said:

Is anyone else surprised that the Sovereign-class and Fantasy-class ships (about 30 years old) are being scrapped but the original Royal Viking ships (now almost 50 years old) are still sailing? That’s pretty amazing.

The Royal Viking ships were very fortunate to land with Fred Olsen Line and Phoenix Reisen, 2 lines with management and clientele that appreciate  these classic ships and classic cruising and do not demand the new shiny revenue generators. These companies are both known to maintain and operate their ships with the utmost standard. 

I am a bit concerned for the RVL Star and RVL Sky from 1972 that are with Fred Olsen now that they have been able to grab 2 ships from Holland American Line and might be ready to drop the historic vessels. 

I have sailed on all four RVL ships both as a child and then into my 20's and certainly remember just how well constructed they all were. I think the fact that they started their life with Norwegian registry might also play a role in their longevity. 

The modern cruise industry would not exist without the innovation of these classic ships. 

11 hours ago, zebra36 said:

And if you are n a location with Caesars properties you can apply Caesars tier matching offer to gain Diamond status every other year with them which has better perks vs Mlife

The status match benefits have probably turned out to be the most valuable benefit of being D+. 

I have been able to get the Caesar's tier match every year even though I know that is not supposed to be the case. I think maybe that is because I sign up at the 'minor' casino's and have done the tier match at a different location each year. I fully expect this will not work at some point, but so far so good. 

I mainly use the benefits in Vegas. The $100 Celebration dinner each year and the 2 free Vegas show tickets have been great. 

1 hour ago, Plum Happy said:

What does Royal do with the artwork on their ships?  Do they remove it or let it go as well?

The art would most certainly have been removed and is of great value. 

Royal Caribbean has one of the largest private art collections in the world. While the art could be re-purposed, it would more likely to some degree go to the international art auction market. 

Royal Caribbean has a very close relationship with International Corporate Art that goes back to their original Norwegian origins. Over 20% of the art on Royal Caribbean ships is Norwegian and Royal has a major art foundation established in Norway. 

https://www.icart.net/

56 minutes ago, mek said:

... if you become ill with C19 - how do you know what the long term side effects of that might be?  There are no guarantees on that either.

Exactly.  Research in Spain is currently showing neurological problems developing in over 50% of Corona-virus patients. Covid-19 will become a major 'pre-existing condition'. 

I have 100% confidence in the Oxford University / Astra Zenica vaccine that is moving forward at an amazing pace as I have followed that one most closely. They will not release a vaccine that is not safe. I will get it the first chance I can. 

https://english.elpais.com/science_tech/2020-07-17/over-half-of-coronavirus-hospital-patients-in-spain-have-developed-neurological-problems-studies-show.html

38 minutes ago, JHU said:

...Baltimore crowd... very loyal set of passengers.  

I do not see RCG with RCI  leaving Baltimore or Tampa in the short or long term. I would even expect them to maintain a presence at this point in New Orleans. 

These ports are also great feeder markets for passengers moving up to Celebrity, Azamara, Hapag Lloyd  or Silversea and for positioning in general. This recovery is going to take 8 to 10 years. 

4 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

I don’t think it will be coming as we are getting a second wave which seems to worse.

The cruise ban is till September... 

The inquiry was not for 2020, but for a possible 2021 sailing 15 months from now. For that one they do have port bookings still in place for 2021. 

Port calls for the fall of 2020 have been cancelled, while they do still hold the bookings for the Spring return port calls for the eastbound crossings. 

On 7/15/2020 at 11:43 PM, IDB37 said:

Does anyone have any news re Serenade of the Seas for fall 2021 and whether she is heading down under via a re-positioning transpacific  cruise ?

 

(Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere).

 

Many thx..

 

That would seem to still be the plan with the Hawaii port bookings for October 2021 still standing and she would do a transpacific following the Alaska 2021 season. 

It does appear that she does a Panama Canal sailing following the Alaska 2022 season though as a booking has appeared at Grand Cayman. 

I sure hope their Astoria gets saved and not sent to the scrap yard. She is the former Stockholm, built in 1948 as a Ocean Liner and converted to a cruise ship in 1993 and the longest serving current cruise ship sailing at 72 years old. 

Some might remember her as the vessel that collided with the Andrea Doria off the coast of Nantucket.  

Some ships should be saved as a museum piece and not just sent to the scrapyard. 

Early research is showing that the greatest interest being shown now is actually for small ship sailings. 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23235-demand-strong-for-small-ships-according-to-agent-survey.html

The Spanish King had a great statement to the Spanish people on Thursday at a ceremony to commemorate those that have died and the essential workers. 

"...in these months, our society has provided a lesson of immense courage. Spain has shown its best spirit. With the passing of time, we will remember that we were an example of civic responsibility, maturity, resistance and commitment to others.”

The statement gives insight to how Spain will handle the 'New Normal' and the relationship they will have with the cruise lines. 

https://english.elpais.com/society/2020-07-16/spain-holds-tribute-to-victims-of-covid-19-pandemic.html