not-enough-cruising

Now you are changing the parameters of your argument. You were called out as wrong, and pivoted. A citizen must prove citizenship Good day

You missed the part where the post you quoted quantified it as FOREIGN born US citizen, you must, in fact, have their passport. This is due to the fact that they can not produce a US born birth certificate to accompany their photo ID when on a cruise for example. Even US citizens by birth need a passport or EDL to enter the country at land crossings.

Just book an imaginary friend, easy peasy

VAT has been charged on Coco Cay for some time now.

There is a different GTY class for neighborhood balconies VS ocean view balconies.

Not confused at all, it appears you can book a cabin for EXACTLY the advertised price

Royal's normal occupancy is between 108% and 110% regularly. This article does not support your argument. It does however cite the few cruises that had to bump people due to an inventory miscalculation (as stated above from the time when the post Covid bookings began to take off)

Yes, no problem

The article posted was published immediately following the incident. Australian health officials and Royal (I assume) didn’t want the “C” word mentioned. Several articles published in the weeks following (most notable crew center and other industry publications) stated the real reason for the inventory crisis.

You are extremely overstating the number of people being "bumped" from their cruises. If you researched a little deeper you would see there is little to no correlation in "involuntary denied boarding" between those that paid to secure a specific cabin, and those that booked a GY rate. The article you quoted has as much to do with a Covid outbreak among the crew and Australia's overzealous Covid rules than it has to do with a GTY booking.

"rampant overbooking"? "bumping insurance"? Really doesn't seem to be much change in pricing for the last 4-5 years to me I would temper your expectations for pricing on your alternative vacation options; everything I have looked at recently is much more expensive than 12-18 months ago.

pre punched card stock is significantly more expensive

Not for UDP reservations it isn’t.

Tens of thousands had cruises cancelled during the pandemic; a large percentage of us ultimately had to file fraud claims to get monies back. I is close to $50,000 in claims Not knee jerk and NOT lazy

I always get 10:00 or 10:30

I have not seen the cans of water since the early days of the post pandemic start up. Nothing but plastic bottles the last 6-7 cruises.

Works in Galveston

I think you got the mail in the head. The demand just doesn’t exist for a ship that size from Los Angeles/Long Beach.

The WOW bands on Royal are a bit of an embarrassment, honestly, compared to the Princess medallion. You can unlock your door with it, and make a purchase around the ship (although quite often purchases require one to remove the band). Definitely not worth the hassle in my opinion.

FWIW the solarium on Wonder is also fully enclosed and climate controlled. Personally, for me this is a plus not a minus.

Getting harder to find value for any cruise

We had purchased that week for 4 trips; got to use one (Oasis Feb 2020) the rest we lost to the shutdown!

No “Vegan Tax” onboard

Los Angeles schedules for 2025 are due to be released the week of February 18th; last schedule I saw.

Thank you I can’t seem to find it