beardedladies

A lot of the complaints here are really due to factors affecting pretty much any cruise line of a comparable star rating to Royal - costs are going up massively and the cost of cruises simply aren't rising to meet that gap for a number of factors others have alluded to. It's a tricky time for cruise lines - they're desperately trying to start recovering from covid, but are meeting a load of other hurdles that are coming at a time when they simply don't have the room to absorb them like they once might. So something has to give. Really it doesn't matter much that it was Royal you travelled on - any other line would have shown similar problems right now. That said, I personally think Royal are cutting too far in some areas - with food being a major issue. The poor kitchens simply don't have the budget to produce something even halfway decent a lot of the time. This is something they really need to re-evaluate. It's most painfully obvious when it's formal night and you're all dressed up and served something that really doesn't warrant the effort you've gone to. My personal opinion is that I'm cutting the lines some slack this year. I'll give feedback where it's not performing as well as I think it should, but give them a bit of time to adapt to this "new normal". So my vote is to give Anthem another go next year. See if they've listened to your feedback. If not, as they'll have had over a year of running at full capacity at that point then you can fairly say it's more to do with how they want to operate rather than how they're forced to. If you give another line a go instead and find it's better, then you may be getting an erroneous impression as all lines by then will have had the time they need to recover to their normal operations.

No, status is only recognised after you've earned it, so on the next cruise.

On the other hand, if you contact Royal directly and upgrade your room at the prevailing rate you would get your double-double points. That may be a lot more than a typical royalup bid though!

It's very similar to the ESTA we have to cough up for to enter the USA, so I blam the USA for giving the EU the idea 😉 But to confirm the question above, any cruise that stops in a country in the EU will require to have one. I've a cruise from Southampton in May 2023, so will be interesting to see if we'll be before or after their start date. If we need it then it's going to be the fun experiencing of using a very new and probably buggy system 😕

indeed I'm not expecting Icon herself for a proper UK season but Icon2 or 3 would be nice! Should be pinnacle at the end of this year so fingers crossed for an invite!

Agree with the others that an Oasis class from the UK is unlikely, but what will be more interesting I think is how the new Icon class pans out.... that may prove more appropriate and with more coming along who knows if they've earmarked one for us? Also agree I'd love a different ship each year.... would be great to get a different Quantum class for example and see some different shows.

I think the OP just worded things badly - they’re wanting to book a suite for the points but are complaining C&A discount and OBC are not combinable. this is indeed annoying and seems to be happening more recently. Even worse that OBC isn’t even a bonus - I’ve been keeping an eye on some sailings to book for next year and surprise surprise the suite price jumped by roughly the £ equivalent of the $550 the day before the promotion. What a coincidence!