kw1816

6 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Have you looked at covid protocols for the UK?   Do they require children to mask up indoors at public places?   Maybe this will give an idea what the UK will require cruiselines to follow.

The OP is from the UK , albeit from Northumberland 🙂. As a fellow Northumbrian, we often don’t class ourselves as anything other than this !

We’re on the 2 day on May 13th, still waiting for the UK sailing protocols.

3 hours ago, twangster said:

Barbados is a popular embarkation port for UK residents

And for lots of other Europeans - Germany in particular. With lots of direct scheduled flights it’s a very popular cruise and stay, we’ve just done two weeks, one week an a Barbados hotel and one week on the Grandeur. 😀
 

4 hours ago, SG65CB said:

This arrangement seemed inefficient to me because if someone books a cabin from Monday to Monday from Barbados, then someone else books that same cabin the following Saturday from San Juan, that cabin is going to sail empty from Monday to Saturday. The same can happen the other way with cabins empty from Saturday to Monday.

 

I took a closer look at reservations and found that each cabin can only be booked from San Juan OR from Barbados. If you do a mock booking to sail from San Juan you see a certain set of available cabins. If you book to sail from Barbados you see a different set of cabins, and the San Juan cabins are all unavailable.

 

I think it's interesting that they do this, and also that they have (maybe) figured out the demand for boarding in each port. A lot more cabins are available to be booked from San Juan than from Barbados. For example there are two grand suites available only if you leave from Barbados, all the rest can only be booked from San Juan.

RC are no strangers to Interporting, they’ve done it for years on Med cruises from Rome and Barcelona for instance. I’d assume they shift inventory from one home port to another based on demand. 

1 hour ago, Billy Baltic said:

It would be interesting to do a poll on this. How many people are willing to come from North America this summer to sail in Europe if a preboarding test is required in the 24 or 48 hours before.

And would be interesting to see the reverse, how many people are currently willing to travel from Europe to North America to sail with the pre boarding requirements ? 
 

Speaking as someone currently on the Grandeur as a family, and having had 10 Covid tests to get here (and another 4 tomorrow to get off !). Due to fly back to the UK on Monday.

2 hours ago, deweytrader said:

Are you allowed to take these said drinks out of the suite lounge or are you required to drink them there?

On the Grandeur at the moment in a GS and have no problems taking drinks out of the suite lounge - we’ve been taking drinks down to dinner each evening. 😊

What sailing are you on ? We had a JS booked originally on the Allure and then transferred to the Wonder. Checking the pricing I was surprised (after all the discussions about no suites available and suite customers being offered JS) to see lots of suites available on our Aug 14th sailing. 
 

We’ve just upgraded to a 1 bed GS for the same price we booked a JS.

We're on the Grandeur from Barbados in a couple of weeks and the above is the updated protocols we received yesterday (albeit slightly different for Barbados sailings).  

It's down to each Island to set their own criteria but in general, it's a relaxing of most rules. Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent and Dominica on our cruise haven't relaxed them yet.

3 hours ago, Billy Baltic said:

Some junior suites on Wonder of the Seas deck plans show as max occupancy of 5. Maybe they’re factoring one in the bath

That made me laugh 🤣

We have one of these 5 person JS booked on the Wonder in August, I’m assuming it’s the main bed (2) , the double sofa bed (2) plus a single Pullman bed (1). 
 

if not, we’ll draw straws for who gets the tub !

On 3/1/2022 at 1:56 PM, Lloyd555 said:

Not really. Some bow rumours. That's it.

I'd expect with an all-new ship design they'd be looking at the most effecient design around,  hydrodynamically speaking. wondering if we'll see an X bow or an inverted bow ?

NCL seem to be heading in this direction with the Prima.

Barbados no longer require a PCR test, Antigen tests are now accepted: https://www.visitbarbados.org/covid-19-travel-guidelines-2022

We’re travelling at the end of March, and had COVID in Jan, for this reason, we’ll be going the Antigen test route - hopefully ruling out a false positive test.

As long as the test you do meets the criteria laid out in the above, you should fine. RC also perform an Antigen test at the port before boarding. 
 

RC only require a PCR for unvaccinated under 12’s

Just curious, do Neptun Werft build a common design LNG FERU, regardless of customer/brand ?

I can see the need for the outer hull sections to be different due to the different ship designs, but I'm sure they'd be significant cost saving to building  common design engineering spaces. I can just imagine a Carnival Chief Engineer asking a RC chief engineer for a spare flanged whotsit to keep the motor turning. Or maybe not 😉

12 hours ago, Tin can said:

You can't price match when booking in the UK, you would have to cancel and lose your deposit and re book. I'm surprised this wasn't enforced when upgrading the cabin for the original poster.

Errr.. You can and we have - summer last year sailing on the Anthem, quick chat with RC using the online chat function saved us nearly £600 on a JS.

All we are saying, is give PEAS a chance.

Muffin to see here - move along, move along …

April cruises seem to be back up - at least on the UK site. 

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

She's still sailing out of the UK till the end of the month.

Monday is the final sailing from the UK (5 night) - PCR tests allowing we'll be on her. I believe she's leaving Suthampton on the 30th for the non revenue TA.

We're booked on the April 3rd sailing with a week in Barbodos before. So hoping that the cruise will go, if not, we'll extend another week in Barbados. It's a great itinerary, we did something similiar on Carnival Fascination many years ago out of Puerto Rico and it's a much different vibe than the normal Eastern/Western caribbean.

I feel that if they start up in December  then the season has a good chance of completing. Interestingly  all the April cruises have disappeared from the website, but the 10 night repositioning to Galveston still  shows as leaving on the 24th April.

We're booked for an April sailing - it'll be interesting to see reports when it starts sailing in December, but I think you'll have to be prepared for the possibility of missed ports, RCI shorex only in some islands, mask wearing when deemed appropriate.

We booked with this in mind, if the situation and requirements ease, then great. If not, we can accept them. If it gets worse - who knows 🙃.

13 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

Anthem is not a new ship. If you peruse the reviews here on Cruise Critic for Anthem sailings PRIOR to the pandemic the majority of the reviews don't mention that there aren't enough bars on the ship the existing bars are too crowded, that just isn't a majority view of the Anthem. So either the pandemic sailings have changed things substantially or it's a cultural viewpoint, or a bit of both. 

Add to that cold weather, pretty much everything on the open decks closed, Windjammer closed - that puts everyone inside each evening. Not sure that combination of factors has come together before.

I can't say i noticed overcrowding on our August sailing, we're back on the 25th sailing which is expected to be busy (half term).

Many moons ago, when I worked onboard, the shoppies always referred to it as 'Inch of Mold'. Always makes me smile when I see it for sale 🙂

Oh, and Tanzanite was running out - quick, buy as an investment*

*This was 30 years ago, I note that Tanzanite is *still* running out ....

Had a check on our sailing (Aug 14th) and was a bit surprised to see some suites listed - There's about a dozen 1 bed GS available. This is on the UK site:

Logged in this morning and we’ve been switched overnight, JS on the 14th Aug sailing 😁

Almost the same cabin - been moved next door , Allure 7630 moved to Wonder 7632. Very happy to see in in my planner.

21 minutes ago, rjmols said:

Does anybody know what time the European sailings open up for booking today ?  (gmt)  Thanks

I'd guess 9am EST - when someone gets in the office and pushes the big red button  🙂 (2pm BST)

16 minutes ago, sgmn said:

Do you know when the European cruises go on sale?  I had a look yesterday but could only see the Caribbean ones

Next Wednesday (22nd) I believe.

I’m also see the Allure western Caribbean listed in my upcoming cruise. No doubt it’s a placeholder/limitation of their booking engine etc. - But would it be too much to ask for RC to communicate this sort of thing ? 
 

I can just image how many see this and call in panic.

Come on RC, you manage to email me constantly to sell me shorex, drinks packages, dining options and other ‘Don’t miss out on this opportunity’ upsells. Surely you can email updates on the booking process 🤔