Charles4515

I never took a bus after they started the shuttles so I don’t know how crowded they are now. It would be up to the driver whether to let you bring all that stuff. The shuttles are convenient, right off the dock. They are packed though. 24 years ago I easily walked up the hill but not sure about now. 😀 The last few years we don’t take a shuttle or bus, we take a taxi.

Going down the hill is not a problem. It is going up. The bus fare is $5 exact change to Horseshoe Bay as the fare is 14 zone to Horseshoe. However depending on when you will be there a digital fare app coming, Shorelink. Right now projected July 8 so it might be available for you. The drivers are currently undergoing training on the app. The bus stop is across from the entrance to Clocktower Mall. You would need to take the #7. As for a bag on the shuttles I always have a beach bag. I don’t if there is space for a cooler.

Amazon has them on a pre prime day sale right now. 20% off for a 4 pack. The single price is also discounted.

On a round trip out of Seattle with only one Canadian port I can see why some might skip a passport. If there is an emergency they could probably wait until the next port which will be a US port if they don’t have a passport. They might wait anyway even if the passenger has a passport.

Allure is like Harmony and Escape is like Getaway so you would have a good idea what they are like. Choose whichever ship you would enjoy. I would not worry about the adult children. They will find late night stuff on either.

That is your opinion not backed by facts. It is legitimate to take some closed loop cruises without a passport, with birth certificate and DL. Whatever reasons Oceana and Regent don’t allow that are irrelevant and we can only guess. The key thing is that whatever cruise people take they need to find out and follow the document requirements.

A very small segments of the cruise industry. It is irrelevant. They don’t do many closed loop cruises.

You are exaggerating. You and some others just hate that there is an exception to having a passport. The CBP and cruise line have personal and procedures in place or they would never allow the birth certificate as a valid document. They are prepared for that and of course they make it happen.

I would not travel on those cruises without a passport but the odds of that happening are pretty low. When the government made the rules that allowed using a birth certificate on closed close loop cruise they did an analysis and concluded that there wouldn’t be major problems and there have not been. Most problems are that people can’t get on the ship because they didn’t bring the right document. I wouldn’t want the hassle but people do get through it if they have an emergency.

I advise friends and family to get passports because I think travel will broaden their life and experiences but some are not interested. Many can’t for one reason or another. It seems arrogant to demand one size fits all. I am not talking about you but some posters on the board sound arrogant and elitist.

Is Celebrity on the stock exchange? RCI? Those are just brands. The company is Royal Caribbean Group. The allocation of ships and berths to the brands can be adjusted to market conditions. The investors who own the company only care about RCG profits.

Americans have the option of taking some cruises without passports. When you have options you have choices. It is understandable that some will make that choice. Since it is a legal choice they are doing nothing wrong. You don’t understand the reason because you don’t have a choice. If Canadians had a choice I have no doubt they would be just like Americans.

True but now that I am D+ on RC by reciprocity I would still rather book on Celebrity.

Now that you mention it that question came up in previous discussions. I asked AI and it came up with this: “Whale migration routes are dynamic and can change due to a combination of natural and human-induced factors. Continuous research and monitoring are essential to understand these changes and their implications for whale populations and conservation efforts.” International Regulations seems like the best explanation for the changes in itinerary but of course some pundits on Cruise Critic prefer conspiracy theory’s.Believe what you like.

Similar but Canada has a small population compared to the US. 38 million versus 333 million. There is room to grow cruise bookings in the US. I think the only thing that would drive Royal to build smaller ships is lack of ports for the larger ships. More likely they will build more private islands and do shorter sailings if they run out of ports.

My belief is that they won’t build any new ships below 150k tonnes. Time will tell.

As I have gotten older Royal Caribbean does not draw me. I only go on Royal when family and friends do. These days I want better than Royal provides. Better than they likely ever will provide. My taste has gone upscale. They can survive as a family line. Most families can’t afford what I can afford now. I think Royal does not need Tampa or Baltimore. Minor markets. (the new bridge in Baltimore can be higher and probably will be because higher is the standard now but the other bridge is too low for larger ships. Unless it gets knocked down by an accident it is going to be an obstacle for many years) I can see them building more super Quantum sized ships but I doubt they will build smaller than that.

I believe there was a thread last year about this. It was claimed that cruise ships are by voluntarily agreement reducing speeds in whale migration season to avoid non voluntary regulation or something like that.

I have used AT&T at Cape Liberty a bunch of times at Cape Liberty. Even called an Uber a couple of times. Some of the gang I cruise with has Verizon and they always had a signal. We have cruised out of Cape Liberty over 15 times. As for the veracity of what one of the workers said I kind of doubt it. Perhaps there was an outage at the time you returned. Of course coverages vary. T- Mobile has one bar in my local neighborhood so I never considered it so maybe it is bad there but I never heard that mentioned.

If you both have Voom (it is not Zoom) you can use iMessage to text if you both have iPhones or WhatsApp to text if you don’t both have iPhones.

Small ships would have to have higher prices to be profitable. If Celebrity is not affordable to you then you might not have a savvy booking strategy.

People keep saying RCI is going to build a class of small or smaller ships yet they keep ordering larger ships! You are right they generate the most profit. If they order a smaller class of ships I believe they will go to Celebrity and Silversea where they can profit by charging higher fares.

I still get two Celebrity email a day but I don't get Captains Club emails any more. The Captains Club emails were the only ones I wanted. Royal Caribbean emails and Crown and Anchor emails stopped comming about 8 years ago. Never could get them restarted even tried new email addresses. When I booked a cruise I did get emails about the cruise. Found out that marketing emails are sent from a different country than booking emails. (neither from the US)

But that is not true. However that is another reason I don’t believe those people were told by their TA that all they need was a DL. Every TA I ever dealt with told me I needed a passport period even on any itinerary though I could have used a birth certificate on many of them. They would say that because they knew there could be an emergency and their customers might have to fly home.

Take that claim with a grain of salt. I suspect they are trying to save face by claiming they were told that by their travel agent to save face or they thought if they told you that you could make an exception.