Royal Caribbean Blog

Canada's Transport Minister announced today the Canadian Government has extended its ban on cruise ships through October 31, 2020.

The announcement was made this morning by the Public Health Agency of Canada during a press conference that addressed a variety of topics of what the Canadian government is doing to handle the health crisis. The ban applies to cruise ships with more than 100 people, including passengers and crew.

Canadian Minister of Transport, Marc Garneau, announced updated measures pertaining to cruise ships and passenger vessels in Canadian waters.

Canada had originally closed off its borders to all cruise ships carrying more than 500 passengers and crew until between April 2 and July 1, 2020.

The ban of cruise ships in Canadian waters makes operating cruises to Alaska or New England effectively impossible because U.S. cabotage laws require foreign-flagged vessels leaving from a U.S. port of call to first call on a "distant foreign port" before returning to the United States.

Royal Caribbean had already cancelled its Alaska and Canada cruises through the end of July in conjunction with its voluntary global suspension of cruises.

UPDATE: Royal Caribbean will offer an update on what it will do next week.

When Royal Caribbean starts sailing again, the cruise line expects new policy changes to evolve and change over time.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd Chairman and CEO Richard Fain was interviewed by Travel Weekly, and indicated new policies added when sailings return might not be a permanent change.

"There will be a lot that will be a lot different, but it’ll be one thing the day we start up and something else a month later, and something else a month after that."

Mr. Fain's comments today echoed what he recently told CNBC that the start up will resemble what we see in society with an evolving approach to policies, "And my guess is that when we start, we will limit the number of people who can go on to a ship, just as my neighborhood restaurants are beginning to open up."

"And by the way, we'll learn from the experience in our society. We'll learn from the restaurants. We'll learn from the barber shops. we'll learn from the experience in our society. We'll learn from the restaurants. We'll learn from the barber shops. I know I need one and I We'll learn and we will adjust much as they are doing. So we'll start at one point and then gradually, as knowledge of the disease, as the testing, as the contact tracing, as vaccines come on board, that will gradually adjust.

Royal Caribbean has not announced any new policies or changes guests can expect in order to keep everyone onboard safe. 

There has been plenty of speculation in and around the industry, with parallels being drawn to other businesses and industries that are beginning to start up.

Royal Caribbean's current date to resume sailings is August 1, 2020, with the exception of China, which is set to resume sailings on July 1, 2020.

If you are trying to decide if buying an unlimited alcohol package right for you, then you are not alone in debating this quandary.

Many cruisers are curious if the up-front cost charged by Royal Caribbean is worth it, and if they are better off simply paying for drinks as they go.

If you are on the fence about whether it is a good idea to buy a Royal Caribbean drink package on a cruise, here are the important considerations to factor into your decision.

Why you should get a cruise drink package

Easy budgeting

Purchasing a drink package means you have a fixed cost for all your drinks during your cruise.

Instead of worrying about if you really should order one more mojito, the cost is already set, so it is all about what you want, when you want it.

Purchasing an unlimited drink package makes containing costs super simple and gives a great deal of relief that you can order a drink at any bar or restaurant and not end up with a crazy bill at the end of the sailing.

Convenience

One of the best reasons to get a drink package is how simple it is to order drinks and not worry about running up bills or collecting receipts.

In addition, gratuity is included with the unlimited alcohol packages (in North America), so you do not need to be concerned about how much to tip the bartender or waiter. 

Having a drink package makes things incredibly simple for enjoying drinks on your cruise, without having to think about bills, budget or extra cost.

Beverage variety

While Royal Caribbean includes basic beverages to all guests in the cruise fare, some guests prefer to drink a lot of bottled water, sodas, specialty coffees and more.

When purchasing an unlimited alcohol package, most of the focus is on the beer, wine and cocktails included, but these packages also offer unlimited sodas, coffees, bottled water and sports drinks.

The assortment of drinks means added value to your package investment, and convenience of being able to vary what you want to drink.

Your cruise will visit a private island

If your Royal Caribbean cruise will visit Perfect Day at CocoCay or Labadee, getting a drink package makes a lot more sense because of the fact drink packages work in these locations.

Just like onboard the ship, drink package benefits extend to CocoCay and Labadee and that means an entire day onboard and onshore of getting value from the package.

The only exception is souvenir cups are not included with the drink packages, so you need to request your drinks in a plastic cup if offered the souvenir option.

Why you should not get a cruise drink package

You do not drink a lot

The top reason not to get an unlimited drink package is if you do not drink enough during your cruise to "break even" on the investment.

Drink packages offer value, but it requires you to drink enough every day of your cruise to make it worth it. 

There are a lot of ways to get value from a drink package, especially if you mix up the type of drinks you get, but for the alcohol package, you should be ordering around five to six alcoholic drinks per day to make it worthwhile.

Port intensive itinerary

If your cruise ship is scheduled to visit a lot of ports, you may not find a lot of opportunity to take advantage of a drink package.

Longer sailings, especially ones with very few sea days, can make breaking even on a drink package purchase difficult. Since you will be busy exploring ports, and likely tired at night from a full day of exploring, that leaves little time to indulge in drinks onboard.

In general, the less sea days and more days docked in a port, the more difficult it is to break even on the cost of a drink package. 

Package price

When you look at the total price of an alcohol package for two people on a seven night sailing, you are probably looking at over a thousand dollars in total cost. 

This sticker shock is a lot to swallow, and while it may end up being a money-saving option in the long run, it is still a lot of money to pay up-front.

Your adult cabin mate does not want an alcohol package

Royal Caribbean requires if one adult in a stateroom wants to purchase the Deluxe Beverage Package (unlimited alcohol package), then all other adults in that stateroom must buy a package. This drink package rule often creates an issue when one adult prefers or cannot drink alcohol.

If you call Royal Caribbean and mention your the other adult(s) in your stateroom do not drink (as much) alcohol, they will often let the other adult purchase the Royal Refreshment package instead (which costs significantly less per day).

In lieu of taking a selfie while having a great time at Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean is offering the opportunity to take your selfie photo and turn it into a virtual photo from the somewhere on the island!

Following up on the popularity of the last time it offered a virtual photo, Royal Caribbean's Crown and Anchor Society is offering anyone the chance to send in their best at-home selfies and the super talented social media crew will virtually transport you to CocoCay.

All you have to do is share a photo of yourself in the comments on the post, and the staff will transform you into a digital photo shortly thereafter.

Be sure to act quickly! Royal Caribbean will only take submissions from noon eastern until 1:30pm eastern.

Are you thinking of going on a Royal Caribbean cruise solo? It is not as crazy as it may sound, and a lot of people take this sort of vacation every year!

Going on a solo cruise means being able to do what you want, when you want to do it, and it has its own sets of perks (and hurdles). 

Cruising solo in a double occupancy world

There is no denying that cruise ships are traditionally configured for guests who are sailing with at least two people in each stateroom.

The cruise model is based on double occupancy, which means the profitability of a ship assumes two people per room. 

When cruising solo, you will likely become quickly familiar with the term, "single supplement fee", which means you are charged extra for cruising with just one person in a stateroom. The single supplement fee makes up for the lost revenue by not having a second person booked in the same room.

While single supplement fees are common, there are a few ways around this fee.

First and foremost, Royal Caribbean offers solo rooms on select cruise ships. Ten Royal Caribbean ships offer a limited amount of studio staterooms that are designed (and priced) for solo cruisers. These rooms do not come with a single supplement fee associated with the booking.

Another way around the fee is if you have at least 340 or more points in the Crown and Anchor Society (Royal Caribbean's customer loyalty program).  If you are that high up in the system, the single supplement cruise fare is reduced to 150% from 200%.

One other way to get around the single supplement fee is on some rare sailings, the fee may be waived in order to encourage bookings. This is typically offered on last minute cruises, where the cruise line wants to quickly increase bookings.

Money saving tip: Pretend you are not solo

One of my best tips is to price out a cruise booking as a solo cruiser, as well as making up a second person in the room to see which option is cheaper.

Royal Caribbean's system sometimes penalizes solo cruisers so much with the single supplement fee, that it is not uncommon to find a lower price by paying for a phantom second guest who never actually shows up.

Essentially, you place your name and the name of someone else on the reservation. This could be a family member or friend who has absolutely no intention of sailing. It does not really matter, since this person will not be sailing, and there is no penalty or issue if a guest does not show up for the cruise.

While you will be paying for a second person that is not going on the cruise, in many cases this is still cheaper than a booking that only has one guest on the reservation. 

It should be noted that when you show up for the cruise without that second person, you will be refunded port fees and taxes for the second person, as well as still receive double Crown and Anchor points for cruising solo.

The best part about this tip? You get an even bigger stateroom than if you booked a studio cabin!

Best cruise ships for solo travelers

While there are ten Royal Caribbean ships that offer solo rooms of one kind or another, I think a few stand out for offering the best options for a solo traveler.

The Quantum Class of ships, which include Quantum of the Seas, Ovation of the Seas, and Anthem of the Seas, offer not only standard studio staterooms, but also studio balcony rooms.

These Super Studio Ocean View balcony rooms offer a private balcony that measures 55 square feet, and is a rare commodity for any solo room.

If you want to try one of Royal Caribbean's biggest ships, check out Harmony of the Seas for their Studio Interior and Studio Ocean View rooms.  Harmony is the only Oasis Class ship to offer studio rooms, so if you want to cruise on the largest ships in the world, this is the one for you.

Solo cruising tips

Being alone on the cruise does not mean a week-long adventure where you talk to no one. Cruising solo can be a very fun and social adventure, and many readers share how much they enjoy sailing by themselves.

Going solo on Royal Caribbean is a bit easier than on other cruise lines, because of the variety of activities offered. Many activities and events offered throughout the day lend themselves to being friendly to someone cruising alone.

Daily trivia competitions, escape rooms, water slides, FlowRider surf simulator and shows are just as enjoyable for someone on a cruise solo, as it is for couples and groups.

Royal Caribbean also offers cooking classes, drink seminars, and even a Chef's Table experience that are very fun activities to enjoy.

Another good tip if you are alone on a cruise is to actively strike up conversations with the crew. Start up a conversation with your waiter or bartender, seek out and introduce yourself to the Cruise Director, and get to know your stateroom attendant. Not only are the crew friendly and open to conversation, but many of them are equally interested in socializing since their friends and family are not onboard either.

Shore excursions are another great way to meet other people and not feel so alone. Nearly all shore excursions are group excursions, so you will end up with others from your ship.  In fact, you might consider an activity or experience that pits people together (scavenger hunts, demonstrations, rides, etc) as an opportunity to be a part of the team.

Another trick for making the transition of a solo cruiser easier is to book a theme cruise.  There are a ton of groups that organize cruises, and invite anyone with the same interests to join them.  These group sailings are filled with people who do not know each other, and that means many more people than usual who are interested in getting to know their fellow guests.

Lastly, try meeting your fellow cruisers before you even get onboard by connecting on Facebook. It seems like there is a Facebook group organized for each sailing, so just search on Facebook for your ship name and sail date, and see what you find.  You might strike up a conversation with others booked on the same cruise, and end up making friends before you even get onboard.

Your thoughts

Have you done a solo cruise vacation? Any additional tips? Are you thinking of cruising solo on Royal Caribbean Does a solo cruise seem like something you would enjoy, or would you miss being with your friends or family? Hearing from you is half the fun, so if you have other thoughts or questions, please share in the comments!

If you purchased Royal Caribbean stock in the early months of the economic downturn, the last week has likely been a welcome sight.

Royal Caribbean's stock price (NYSE: RCL) has been shooting up over the last week, with the entire travel industry seeing big gains as investors see a near-term economic recovery. This hope has many believing a return to pre-shutdown prices could be on the horizon.

Royal Caribbean's stock price closed at $54.29 at the end of trading on Wednesday, marking a 9.54% gain on the day. After trading on Tuesday, the stock was up 14%, that followed a bounce back at the end of last week.

The cruise line's stock has been shooting upwards for the last week, beginning on the day when the cruise line announced over $1 billion in losses and another round of cancelled cruises through August.

The recent trend is great news for the cruise line, who has seen giant losses in its stock price following a wave of bad press related to cruise ships, and trepidation in the market regarding the future of travel.

Royal Caribbean's current plan is to resume sailings on August 1, with China sailings perhaps starting up in July.

Note: Matt Hochberg has no position in any of the stocks mentioned, nor does he own any cruise line stock.

It looks like overnight stays at Perfect Day at CocoCay will not be happening after all.

In the past, Royal Caribbean hinted at the possibility of offering cruises that had an overnight, or even longer, stay at its private island in the Bahamas.

Royal Caribbean Senior Vice President of Sales and Trade Support & Service Vicki Freed answered a question during a webinar on Wednesday that touched on the status of the cruise line's plans to offer overnight stays.

"It's something that we have talked about and we even did late night days in Perfect Day at Coco Cay, where we had fireworks and we had a concert." 

"But as of now, it doesn't look like we will be doing overnights because our guests, even with our late night stays, once they want to come back, they really do want to come back onto the ship and enjoy the fine dining and they want to enjoy the entertainment that we have onboard."

While overnight stays may be sidelined as an idea right now, cruises that feature multiple stops at CocoCay seem to be a hit with guests.

"Those have been more successful because people say, Oh, I didn't get a chance to really experience everything I wanted to do at Perfect Day at CocoCay. Maybe today I want to do the thrill side and the next visit I want to do the chill side."

Royal Caribbean announced today it has rehired over 100 employees that were laid off in April 2020 in order to help with the significantly long phone hold times.

Royal Caribbean Senior Vice President of Sales and Trade Support & Service Vicki Freed made the announcement during a webinar with travel advisors that it was aware of very long hold times, and the cruise line decided to bring back employees to help with the issue.

"I do want you to know that we're not just talking about it, that we're doing something about it. And over the weekend, we've called back over a hundred people that we had to lay off to come back, call center people and help us in the call centers. So many of them came in on Sunday and Monday of this week. They're in training right now because there will have been more suspensions since we had our layoff and they should be up on the phones this week and next week."

"So that should help on the long hold times. And again, I sincerely apologize to our value travel partners because this is not the kind of service we want to provide you. We want to give you excellent service."

A separate email sent to a travel agent specified that Royal Caribbean hired back 130 reservation agents.

Thanks to Katina Bradley for providing this email

Royal Caribbean has experienced longer than normal wait times due to the "snowball" effect of multiple cruise cancellation announcements, that has overwhelmed call centers. Compounding the issue was the lay offs the company made last month, which reduced call capacity.

One of the best things any American can do when cruising, is to have a passport, but what's the difference between the passport card vs book?

The decision of which passport option to choose will depend on how and where you intend to travel.

There are two choices to consider when getting a passport in the United States: a passport book or a passport card. Each has different form factors, and purposes for using.  A traditional passport book comes with pages for stamps and important documents to be included, whereas a passport card resembles a driver's license and fits easily into a wallet.

So what is the difference between the passport book vs. passport card? The answer lies in the sort of travel you intend to take.

Having a passport for U.S. citizens is optional for cruises that leave and return to the United States, and mandatory for cruises outside the country.  Both a passport card or a passport book is a valid form of identification for domestic cruises.

Read more: Do you need a passport for a cruise?

What is a passport card useful for?

The U.S. passport card is a less expensive passport option that looks similar to a drivers license, making them cheaper and more convenient. A passport card is valid for 10 years.

Passport cards are only for land or sea travel, which means you cannot use them for air travel.  In addition, you cannot use a passport card for cruises that depart from homeports outside the United States.

The inability to fly with a passport card makes certain scenarios a problem for the traveler.  If you were ever stuck in a country outside the United States, either due to being left behind on an excursion or an unexpected end to the cruise, it would be impossible to fly home with the passport card.

What is a passport book useful for?

A passport book allows international travel across air, sea and land. A passport book is valid for 10 years.

The best thing about a passport book is there are no restrictions with where you can travel to or from.

What is the difference between the passport card vs. book?

The appeal of the passport card is it is cheaper than the book, while providing a better option than relying on a birth certificate and state issued identification.

The reason why a passport book is a better idea is because it better protects you if you were ever stranded somewhere. Having a passport to protect against being stranded is a big reason why I recommend everyone get one.

Moreover, having a passport book means you can travel internationally via an airplane. Keeping in mind a passport is good for ten years for adults, you will have ample opportunity to recoup the investment of a passport book.

If you are looking to same money and do not want to carry the bulkier passport book, a passport card might be worth considering.  For most people, getting a passport book is a smarter choice.

The city of Haines, Alaska wants to expand its relationship with Royal Caribbean in order to get more cruise ships visit the city.

Haines Tourism Director Steven Auch said the city would like to see more ships on a regular basis.

According to KINY radio, Royal Caribbean had an agreement to bring ships to Haines for a few hours when they visit Skagway in summer 2020, but that was before the Alaska cruise season was put on hold.

Mr. Auch believes cruise ships would have a lot of support from businesses and the community to get more visits.

"Royal Caribbean wanted to make sure the community is interested.  Not only did the assembly pass a resolution but we received a flood of emails from the community in support of it," he added.

The 2021 Royal Caribbean schedule has ships headed to Skagway which will spend a few hours per day in the evening in Haines.

Haines would like to see Royal Caribbean make Haines one of their primary stops in 2022.