Royal Restarts in Singapore with Cruises to Nowhere

[Ethanol95]

 

I'm ecstatic that this has been confirmed by our local news agency. RCl's Quantum of the Seas along with Dream Cruise's World Dream will be the first two ships sailing roundtrip from Singapore come December 1st 2020, (Nov 6th 2020 for World Dream). Wooo! All rooms offered are currently balcony and above categories with each ship restricting it's capacity to 50%. The cruises on both lines are only open to Singaporean residents and all passengers have to take a swab test before boarding.

 

Read more here: https://str.sg/J2gA

 

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[Coralc]

That's wonderful news! Enjoy! 

[Chiliburn]

Happy for you. Hopefully we won’t be to far away.

[Cruise Wonderland]

All the sailings will be cruises to nowhere (no destinations).

 

World Dream:

2 nights (Wed - Fri)

2 nights (Fri - Sun)

3 nights (Sun - Wed)

 

Quantum of the Seas:

3 nights (Mon - Thur)

4 nights (Thur - Mon)

[Below images show the departure time and arrival time. The departure time is delayed to 9pm which would probably be a common thing for cruises in the future, as it takes lots of time for virus testing before embarkation.]

 

[Ethanol95]

10 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

Happy for you. Hopefully we won’t be to far away.

I hope so too! I was supposed to be sailing to Moreton last month 😕

[Ethanol95]

7 minutes ago, Cruise Wonderland said:

All the sailings will be cruises to nowhere (no destinations).

 

World Dream:

2 nights (Wed - Fri)

2 nights (Fri - Sun)

3 nights (Sun - Wed)

 

Quantum of the Seas:

3 nights (Mon - Thur)

4 nights (Thur - Mon)

[Below images show the departure time and arrival time. The departure time is delayed to 9pm which would probably be a common thing for cruises in the future, as it takes lots of time for virus testing before embarkation.]

 

Great find! Although I did see that there were also 2 night sailings, did you manage to find that too?

[Chiliburn]

Just now, Ethanol95 said:

I hope so too! I was supposed to be sailing to Moreton last month 😕

Im sure if another commonwealth country sets the example Brisbane won’t be far behind.

[Cruise Wonderland]

7 minutes ago, Ethanol95 said:

Great find! Although I did see that there were also 2 night sailings, did you manage to find that too?

 

Only one 2-night sailing on 1st December (i.e. the first sailing).

Starting from 3rd December, there will be regular departures on Thursdays (4 nights) and Mondays (3 nights).

 

[Cruise Wonderland]

To summarize the departure dates of Quantum Singapore (cruise to nowhere) new sailings:

 

2 nights:
- Dec 01

 

3 nights (Monday departures):
- Dec 07, 14, 21, 28
- Jan 04, 11, 18, 25
- Feb 01, 08, 15, 22
- Mar 01, 08, 15

 

4 nights (Thursday departures):
- Dec 03, 10, 17, 24, 31
- Jan 07, 14, 21, 28
- Feb 04, 11, 18, 25
- Mar 04, 11, 18

[Ethanol95]

2 minutes ago, Cruise Wonderland said:

To summarize the departure dates of Quantum Singapore (cruise to nowhere) new sailings:

 

2 nights:
- Dec 01

 

3 nights (Monday departures):
- Dec 07, 14, 21, 28
- Jan 04, 11, 18, 25
- Feb 01, 08, 15, 22
- Mar 01, 08, 15

 

4 nights (Thursday departures):
- Dec 03, 10, 17, 24, 31
- Jan 07, 14, 21, 28
- Feb 04, 11, 18, 25
- Mar 04, 11, 18

Right that makes sense, the 2 night is a filler till they get on a regular alternating schedule. 

[masteradept]

I think the 9pm departure/6:30am arrival times are also good for working people who won't need to spend leave on these days (I think?), though I suppose if pre-departure testing is a thing, it may require a half day anyway. Still, I always wondered why the Royal cruises leaving Singapore departed so early before, since Dream always had a work-friendly 8pm departure slot.

[Ethanol95]

1 minute ago, masteradept said:

I think the 9pm departure/6:30am arrival times are also good for working people who won't need to spend leave on these days (I think?), though I suppose if pre-departure testing is a thing, it may require a half day anyway. Still, I always wondered why the Royal cruises leaving Singapore departed so early before, since Dream always had a work-friendly 8pm departure slot.

I think that's just a coincidence and logistic reasons also. I don't really enjoy the night time departures, sailing into the dark. I want to be able to see when i'm cruising out of a port you know?

[Cruise Wonderland]

11 minutes ago, masteradept said:

I always wondered why the Royal cruises leaving Singapore departed so early before, since Dream always had a work-friendly 8pm departure slot.

 

Because in the past Royal arrives at 6am/7am in the morning so they can depart at 5pm.

Dream arrives in the afternoon, so they can only depart later at night.

[Ethanol95]

4 minutes ago, Cruise Wonderland said:

 

Because in the past Royal arrives at 6am/7am in the morning so they can depart at 5pm.

Dream arrives in the afternoon, so they can only depart later at night.

Not true, both my cruises onboard Genting Dream always arrives at 7/8am for morning disembarkation. Maybe with the longer itineraries they arrive in the afternoon.

[Cruise Wonderland]

8 minutes ago, Ethanol95 said:

Not true, both my cruises onboard Genting Dream always arrives at 7/8am for morning disembarkation. Maybe with the longer itineraries they arrive in the afternoon.

 

It depends on the itineraries. Below are the ORIGINAL schedules of Genting Dream destination cruises.

 

Wed: arrives Singapore at 14:00 (or occasionally 18:00), next cruise departs 21:00

Fri: arrives Singapore at 12:00, next cruise departs 21:00

Sun: arrives Singapore at 10:00, next cruise departs 17:00

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Cruise Wonderland

[BirdTravels]

It’s a great restart!  Enjoy 

[Balsam12]

To put the Dream cruises into perspective....

 

Dream Cruises was born out of Star Cruises, who were essentially operating floating casinos. The destinations were irrelevant because all they really wanted was to get in to international waters so they could open the casino.

Their ships were always based in places without land based casinos (Singapore, Hong Kong, Mumbai etc). Most of their cruises were aimed at locals (Singapore residents paid minimal amounts for their cruise when compared to residents of other countries).

The turnover in their casinos was huge, hence being able to offer really cheap cruise fares to locals.

 

The sailing times were definitely structured around allowing locals to board. Superstar Virgo (which is now Explorer Dream), was the main ship based in Singapore, and did cruises to nowhere every weekend, sailing from Singapore at 10pm on Friday night, and arriving back late Sunday afternoon.

When Singapore opened land based casinos, many of the locals still preferred to do their gambling on a cruise ship in international waters, where minimal questions are asked. I believe that for locals to gamble in land based casinos in Singapore, they must produce their tax records as evidence they can afford to be gambling before they are even allowed in the door. Obviously, many locals simply don't want to do this, so there is still a huge market for floating casinos.

My point here is that you can't really compare Dream Cruises with other mainstream cruise lines.

[Ethanol95]

30 minutes ago, Cruise Wonderland said:

 

It depends on the itineraries. Below are the ORIGINAL schedules of Genting Dream destination cruises.

 

Wed: arrives Singapore at 14:00 (or occasionally 18:00), next cruise departs 21:00

Fri: arrives Singapore at 12:00, next cruise departs 21:00

Sun: arrives Singapore at 10:00, next cruise departs 17:00

 

I guess my experience wasn't fully accurate cause i only went on the 2 night ones. And i really thought it was 8am, but looks like it was 10am. 

[Ethanol95]

2 minutes ago, Balsam12 said:

To put the Dream cruises into perspective....

 

Dream Cruises was born out of Star Cruises, who were essentially operating floating casinos. The destinations were irrelevant because all they really wanted was to get in to international waters so they could open the casino.

Their ships were always based in places without land based casinos (Singapore, Hong Kong, Mumbai etc). Most of their cruises were aimed at locals (Singapore residents paid minimal amounts for their cruise when compared to residents of other countries).

The turnover in their casinos was huge, hence being able to offer really cheap cruise fares to locals.

 

The sailing times were definitely structured around allowing locals to board. Superstar Virgo (which is now Explorer Dream), was the main ship based in Singapore, and did cruises to nowhere every weekend, sailing from Singapore at 10pm on Friday night, and arriving back late Sunday afternoon.

When Singapore opened land based casinos, many of the locals still preferred to do their gambling on a cruise ship in international waters, where minimal questions are asked. I believe that for locals to gamble in land based casinos in Singapore, they must produce their tax records as evidence they can afford to be gambling before they are even allowed in the door. Obviously, many locals simply don't want to do this, so there is still a huge market for floating casinos.

My point here is that you can't really compare Dream Cruises with other mainstream cruise lines.

You make some good points, but I think what you have forgotten is that their business model is evolving. It indeed started out as floating casinos, but in the long run, i can see that their vision is to rival global cruise lines like Royal and Carnival brands. With expansion of the upcoming global class Dream ships into more international ports, less focus will be on casino experience as that only applies to the Far East, but then passenger experience, luxury and destinations would become the larger focus of this new market for them.

[Balsam12]

1 minute ago, Ethanol95 said:

You make some good points, but I think what you have forgotten is that their business model is evolving. It indeed started out as floating casinos, but in the long run, i can see that their vision is to rival global cruise lines like Royal and Carnival brands. With expansion of the upcoming global class Dream ships into more international ports, less focus will be on casino experience as that only applies to the Far East, but then passenger experience, luxury and destinations would become the larger focus of this new market for them.

 

I certainly wouldn't argue that their model is evolving, as is their fleet, however there will always be an emphasis on the casino. They make a lot more profit there than they do on any other aspect of their business. They also don't market to much other than locals.

Given time, there may be realistic comparisons to other cruise lines, but not as it currently stands.

[masteradept]

I think partially what happened with Star Cruises/Dream Cruises came about because, as above, Star tended to be mainly for gambling, and got a reputation as such (went on a Star Cruises ship back in the day and most of the family found it boring/disliked it). So for the longest time cruises were associated with gambling.

 

Recently, probably in part due to RCI ships like Legend (i think?), then Mariner, Quantum and Ovation coming, the local market got exposed to what a "proper" cruise could be like and warmed up to the idea. I guess what happened is then Genting started Dream Cruises as a more traditional cruise line beyond gambling, while also distancing themselves from Star Cruise's reputation.

[Ethanol95]

I think partially what happened with Star Cruises/Dream Cruises came about because, as above, Star tended to be mainly for gambling, and got a reputation as such (went on a Star Cruises ship back in the day and most of the family found it boring/disliked it). So for the longest time cruises were associated with gambling.
 
Recently, probably in part due to RCI ships like Legend (i think?), then Mariner, Quantum and Ovation coming, the local market got exposed to what a "proper" cruise could be like and warmed up to the idea. I guess what happened is then Genting started Dream Cruises as a more traditional cruise line beyond gambling, while also distancing themselves from Star Cruise's reputation.

The saddest part is that even though Royal provides the 'proper' cruise experience, dream's itineraries are much more interesting, which is a bummer, cause I think Royal's ships are much more to my liking.

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[ReneeFLL]

So happy for y'all cruises are starting up over there. 🛳

[firefly333]

The more up and running, the more chance rcl will resume here. I'm ready to talk about some actual cruises that return. Chair hoggers lol, anything

Edited October 8, 2020 by firefly333

[Mapleleafforever]

Makes sense they start with Singapore where mask use is not only compulsory but also not controversial at all. I still stand by my prediction that cruises will commence out of the US in Summer of 2021.