gatour

There are several reasons as mentioned above.  Size of ship

  Nassau is an example of this.  The larger ships have to dock at the outer berths. And I think St Thomas has this limitation

Historically, some cruise lines have preference.  Cozumel is an example of this.  Carnival "controlled" on set of piers so other cruise lines have to use the set of piers further out.

Then there is local decisions about when/where ships can dock

About the refinery.  Back in the day when it was still operating periodically Carnival ships would have a port of call stop for St Croix listed in the on board "patter" for between midnight an 2am or there abouts.  Obviously it wasn't for passegers but for the ship to take on fuel due to lower costs.

I simply say no, I am not interested.  On all of the cruises I have been where I  had a massage this has worked.

People keep on mentioning "treading" water.   When I took swimming lesson when I was a youngster, they tought us how to tread water by moving arms and/or hands.

They also taught us that you do not have to tread water.  You can lay on your back or front and float.  If you this you are burning a lot less energy than treading water.

Also the more saline the water is the easier it is to float.Look up tours that go to the Dead Sea.  One of the selling points is the ability to float because of the extremely high salinity of the water.

10 hours ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

You can't.  John Heald makes a big deal out of not being able to give out those numbers en masse, because the competition would be very interested in seeing them, and yeah, I can understand that.  So once a week or so he'll give out some stats on a particular cruise, but you can't really extrapolate from that.

 

But as noted, go try to book a specific cruise (mock booking), and see what cabins are left, at what prices - that might give you a hint.

 

And yeah, they seem to be sailing pretty full these days, especially since it is summer break right after the pandemic, so every family that wants to cruise is trying their darndest!

Was this policy before covid or post covid.  On RCCL precovid sometime during the cruise the captain would announce that that they were sail some percentage of capacity, usually 105 percent but sometimes as 110 percent.

Haven't sail on RCCL post covid so don't kow if they are announcing are not.

37 minutes ago, rockmom said:

If you want to bring it, you can bring up to 12 bottles/cans of non-alcoholic beverages, no larger than 17 ounces each.  THIS IS PER STATEROOM, not per person.  You must carry it on, it can't be in checked bags.  of

 

It is on the website, here's the link.  https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/food-drink-onboard-policy

In regards to the 17 oz size, this is kind of quilivent to 500 ml.  Many bottled waters of this size list the 500 ml more promentity than the ounces

3 hours ago, notscb said:

 

Thank you for bringing this up. I was going to post that I was watching a YouTube video that was explaining how Carnival's ship designers had a design that looks eerily similar to what we now know as the Oasis class of ships. There are sources out there claiming that this design was happening as early as 2004 by the designer Joe Farcus.

 

I imagine that there are some engineering limits that might require this kind of design, combined with wanting passenger experience not to feel claustrophobic or overcrowded (imagine how many interior staterooms cold fit in that gap!).

There is also the lifeboat requirements.  If you fill that space with cabins, there is just so much space to add lifeboats or life rafts to accomdate the additional passengers and the additional crew that services those cabins

The different cruise lines have adopted ideas from each other for years and years.  This no different.

3 hours ago, yogibear said:

If she travels with a Birth Certificate, make sure she is back onboard well before sail time. if she misses the boat, BIG Problem. She won't be able to fly home from international port without a Passport!!

Well you are correct about a big problem.  The person will eventually will be allowed to get back to the US.  It may take several days to get it ironed out and perhaps going to another city that has an US embassy/consulate.

As someone above mentioned earlier.  Costa did sail ship(s) out of North America.  While still primary marketed to the European market, they did market to North America.

I actually did some researh on them back then.  The comments were very mixed.  So took a pass.

Not sure if things have changed over the years and if the carnivalization will further affect things

Give it a day or two.  They probably did a fare update over the weekend.and may miss enterered some info.  Alternatively call RCCL directly and talk to one of their agents

This topic comes up periodically.  Carnival is not the only the cruises line that does this.  Since this was instituted years ago, I have never heard of any issues even among competing non Carnival cruise lines.

3 hours ago, brillohead said:

That's not always an option for everyone, either because they can't (work obligations, parents/kids back home, etc.) or they simply don't want to.  

Your comment is as helpful as telling people to give their swimsuit a vacation for the week and stay out of the pool / off the beach or to give their liver a vacation for the week and not drink anything but water/tea/coffee.  People are allowed to do what they want on their vacation, within the confines of the law and the cruise contract.  

At one time I had blocked matj2000.  Maybe he slightly changed his screen name.  Time to do it again

In regards to taxis.  You might want to prebook a car service.  On our last cruise that went out of Barcelona, we traveled with the my MIL.  Each of us had one full sized luggage, along with my wife and my self having two carry ons.  I think my MIL may have had one carryon.  The car I ordered had enough room to accomadate all three of us along with the luggage.

Plus it was nice to just look for a person carrying a sign with our name on it.  We did this both way from the the Barcelona airport to our 3 day pre-cruise stay,  then to the cruise ship.  And then from the ship to our one day post cruise hotel stay.  And then from the hotel to the airport.

Also on the last day or two of the first leg remind that room attendent that you are doing a back to back and your new room number.

16 minutes ago, baelor said:

$13 is cheap for a drink where I live.

And cheap compared to resort hotels, Disney World, etc

Someone used the term "greedy" in what cruise lines charges.  It is called supply/demand.  Basic economics and the base of capitilization.

If you don't like the price of the UDP don't buy it.  If enough people don't buy it at the offered price they will lower it.

For me before we made Diamond I would normally  buy the package based on a cost analyst taking into account if it was a port intensive intenery. 

After making Diamond the equation change so don't buy it as often.

It is two bottles of wine per cabin.

You can bring on canned sodas as long as they are smaller than 17 oz.  I know that is an odd number but it is due to they allow you to bring bottled water and 17 oz is equilavant to 500 ml which is fairly common size for bottled water.

Mind you, that wine, soda, water must be carried on by you and/or spouse.  It can't be packed in checked luggage.

At least a few years ago when they reinstituted everyone of age in the cabin must purchase the alchohic drinks package.  However they would make exceptions.  You have to call RCCL and give a reason.  I did this a couple of times as a my is almost a non-drinker (at most on a 7 day cruise at most she only has two alchoholic drinks)

The rest of your questions I can't answer, and also I may be corrected by people that have sailed post covid.

On 5/22/2022 at 1:09 PM, Bxc53 said:

About device sharing. If I understand, we could buy one 'connection' and use multiple devices ( iPhone and iPads) - but only one connected to the internet  at a time. Do I have this right?

Yes that is correct.  I usually buy the device package.  My wife and myself switch between multiple devices.  Android, Iphones, laptop, tablet etc.  We just made sure that each of us only had one device connect at anyone time.

One time, we bought a three device package, because on our in-laws child needed internet access for school purposes.  It was cheaper for her parents for us to have a third device.  They paid us back with them buying me glasses of wine until we were even.  Note.  I didn't keep track if we were actually even.

Yet another thread the devolves into a covid debate.

1 hour ago, rudeney said:

 

That strategy really makes no sense.  It takes a given number of staff to cook and serve food to a given number of passengers.  By closing venues, they are just consolidating all the poor service in one place.  

11 minutes ago, clskinsfan said:

I would prefer them to cut room staff and make them servers in all honesty. I can live without my room being made up every single day. But I cant stand poor restaurant service. 

To the first quote.  If they are short of staff in MDR plus staff in the specialy restaraunts, make sense to combine the two seperate staff that are available into the MDR or the remaing speciality restaurants.

In regards to the second quote.  It is not as simple reasigning room staff to the the restaurants.  The skill sets are different, training involved etc.  You can't simply snap your fingers and turn a room attendent into a server, assistant server etc. 

I have worked in restaraunts in a resort hotel and there was no way would just grab a member of house keeper and make them service the dining rooms.  Mind you if a house keeper wanted to transfer to Food and Beverage they would given consideration etc.  And then properly trained.

2 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

 

That’s a good point….be sure there are no tabulation errors.  They do happen, though I personally have not experienced one yet.

 

Several years ago my husband took a solo 4 night cruise, so he has earned eight more points than me. Our accounts are linked, so when he hits a milestone, he hits it for both of us.  When I sign in to my account on line I see his point total rather than the number I have earned, yet when I speak to a customer service agent on the phone they congratulate me on my own point total (so we know they are tracking it, too).  If I take a solo 3 night cruise,  the number I see when I sign into my account on line will not change (I’ll still see hubby’s number) but if I talk to a CSA the number they say to me will only to two lower than hubby rather than eight lower.

Also several weeks after the cruise I would check with C&A and make sure your husbands account has been credited with points.  Several years ago when I was checking in after making Diamond, I noticed my wife still showed Emerald.

I checked my cruise history and verified that every cruise that got me to Diamond was a cruise my wife was on.  I called C&A and explained the situation.  The rep looked at my records and hers moved her to Diamond.

My fear was that she would do a cruise with my MIL but without me expecting to get the Diamond benefits.  We sometimes take vacations seperately due to work related issues.  Thus my concern

Bennybrun,  Scratching my head about walking to the surf shop during your stop at Port Caneveral, the only places that I can think of that is within walking distance the dock is a few restaurants and an obversation deck.  Any of the surf shops (Ron Jons) I can think of are in Cocoa Beach and definitely not safely walkable.

The restaurants near the piers are generally decent.

For $150 I would book an ocean view balcony if you want to see the ocean.  The one bad thing about Oasis class ships once they converted they converted the Royal Viking Lounge to a suite lounge, there is no inside lounges to have a drink and watch the ocean go by.  One of my favorite activities to do while catching up on my reading.

The trick about Central Park balconies.is to get a cabin closer to the aft.

There is gap between the bottom of the bathroom door and the floor of the bathroom.  There is a light that is always on in the bathroom which emits through this gap.  Alternatively she could always use the lights next to the bed as someone else mentioned.  Just show her where the switches are.

Several years ago my wife tried Hook on another ship (so I don't get the comment from the reviewer that is a new concept.  Maybe for Navigator but not other ships)

We were not impressed with food or service.  Since the reviewer threw out that he was from the Northeast and he knows good seafood.  I am a Florida native and have been eating locally caught seafood pretty much all of my life.  I don't normally bring this up.  Because I realize different parts of the country have their likes and dislikes in regards to particular food dishes.  Are they wrong, maybe not but I see several of their reviews, I can make decision on trusting them.