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We are 5000 guests and 1200 staff. That ratio is not normal, right? Today was a great day. Labadee is amazing. Get up early enough to watch the approach and eventual docking. So beautiful. I got up to the top deck about 715 as the sun was finishing rising, and the looming mountains approached. It was so beautiful, laid out like that. I gorged at the Windjammer and had enough food to last for the whole day. I felt so guilty that I waddled around the deck five running track for a while, while I waited for the ship to clear and the gangway to open. I had a lot of company out there, including a lady with a walker who was chugging along with great spirit. I really admired that. Be aware there is a LOT of walking from ship to shore, and then to your chosen beach. There are trams to help out once you actually arrive, but getting from ship to shore is a walk. If you need assistance or a wheelchair or anything like that, make sure to arrange it beforehand. It’s not like Coco Cay, where there are trams to take you from the ship to the island. I’m almost positive I heard the cruise director announce there would be golf carts to help people down the pier, but I didn’t see a single one. There was a crush to get off the ship because we were told unexpectedly early that the gangway was open. I think everyone was anxious to get on the beach and grab a really good chair, but there were plenty of chairs to go around and of course a lot of people rented cabanas or things like that. The minute I got off the ship, I realized I left my phone in the room. So I had no way to take pictures without going all the way back up to the 12th floor and that just wasn’t going to happen. But I sure wish I had made the effort. It was a spectacular opportunity to take pictures of the ship. She looks gorgeous and huge, docked there against those bright blue waters. There are some photo ops at the entrance to Labadee as well. we had perfect weather and the beaches were photogenic and the water is just amazingly turquoise blue. Lots of different nooks and beaches to choose from. Watching people zip-line across the ocean on the dragons fire zip line experience was a lot of fun. I could’ve sat there all day. Every group that went by was just whooping and shouting with delight. Two young men that rode the elevator down with me flew by at one point, in the lying down superman position. They were whooping it up! I definitely recommend spending a little time on adrenaline Beach to watch them go. Keep in mind that it takes them a while to get through their safety training, so they won’t be zip lining the minute you get off the ship. I rode the Alpine coaster and it was a lot of fun. I almost wanted to stop the coaster in the middle of the ride and just look at it the views… Such an excellent view of the ship and the ocean. Here’s something I learned on the beach today. When I arrived at Nellie’s Beach, I was looking around to choose a beach chair. An attendant dressed in uniform with a name tag came over and asked me what kind of chair I wanted, shade or sun? He said, “you’re the boss today!” He led me to the perfect chair, dusted it off, and put the umbrella up. Then he stood there, clearly waiting for a tip. Fortunately I had brought a five dollar bill with me so I gave it to him, but that was a surprise because I’ve never been here before. I just assumed this was like Coco cay, where the staff come off the ship and do things on the island and then get back on the ship with you. The employees on the island seem to be independently employed or something like that and are very hungry for tips— and I got the feeling they were kind of competing with each other. There was a lot of eagerness to help people with simple things. I knew that once I started swimming, I wasn’t going to want to ride the alpine coaster, so I left my towels in the chair and went and did that three times in a row. So much fun and I recommend an all day pass. Sidenote, there was a pretty heavy smell of pot at the very top of the coaster where the employees sit around watching over things. And the attendant standing next to the track looked normal on my first trip, and seriously stoned by my third trip. No judgment here, just commenting. Speaking of that—I went up to the pool around 6 o’clock last night and as I passed by the smoking section, the smell of pot hung heavy in the air. I’m not sure if the employees don’t notice, don’t care, or if they’ve just been instructed to leave everybody alone. But that’s the first time I’ve seen pot smoked that blatantly on a cruise ship. Back to Labadee: I did not go to the market because I was afraid of being harassed. I ran into two ladies who had bought a small piece of art and said that they left because the harassment from the vendors was so aggressive they couldn’t take it. I strolled most of the island but I did not tackle the walking trails like I had planned. I pretty much withered in the heat and after a couple of hours I was ready to go. By the way, Nellie’s Beach is the perfect place if you have small kids, or if you want to just rent a beach mat and float around without being pulled out to sea or bumped into by snorkelers. I was back on the ship by lunchtime and lunch choices were quite limited. The main dining room was closed, Sorrento‘s did not open until one, and the solarium bistro is not open for lunch this whole cruise and the park café was closed for lunch today as well. And yes I did eat that giant breakfast, but I still wanted lunch so I had ice cream at Scoops. The pool was mostly empty until about 2 o’clock and the hot tubs, too! I went up there and swam for a while and hit the hot tub and had a great time. I went back to the room and cleaned up and then I had to work for a few hours. So I took my laptop to the library and all four chairs were filled. Then I took it to the card room and found a nice table and set up there. There were some people playing cards nearby and all of a sudden a woman started shouting at her husband to shut up, shut up, shut up. So I got up and left. Yikes. Tons of live music on the promenade tonight and all of it was so great. Observation: The champagne bar is always packed with silver-haired people. And no one else. There was karaoke tonight with an enthusiastic and supportive crowd, and then another comedian in the Amber theater. Side story about the karaoke: I was sitting next to a 70-ish year old couple who seem to be from New York. I grew up in New York and the husband of the couple looked like every dad of every friend I had growing up. He had the accent, the 70’s clothes, the aggressive edge to his voice, he snapped at his wife, the whole 9 yards. So somebody got up and announced they were going to sing “my way“ by Frank Sinatra. The man said “oh no“ and covered up his face. His wife patted his arm and said, “don’t.“ The man kept his face covered while the singer on stage worked his way through the song. When the singer got to the part “for what is a man, what has he got, without himself, he has not,” the guy choked out a sob. He grabbed a napkin and wiped his eyes and cried while his wife patted his arm. So that was that, and after karaoke, I walked around the promenade listening to all the various live music and there was quite a bit of it this evening. All of it’s so good. I tried a virgin Miami Vice and it was delightful! And I found a cruise duck, which is a thing now. All in all, a really wonderful day. I feel like Labadee is well worth a trip to come see.

You don't have to look very far these days to see staffing shortages in many aspects of life. The hospital where my mother was had nursing shortages. Then when she finally got back to a nursing home they had support worker shortages. There are crew shortages with airlines leading to cancellations and delays. While in Vancouver we heard of crew shortages on the BC Ferry systems. You show up and no ferry today or they have a skeleton crew and the food venues are all closed for lengthy ferry rides. Amtrak has crew shortages. A bar I visit has employee shortages some days. It's everywhere so the only surprise is that people are surprised there are cruise crew shortages, like somehow cruise lines should be exempt from the shortages that are hitting so many businesses.

Just got back today from our first cruise ever on Oasis of the Seas, and it was hands down THE BEST vacation we've taken. Thanks to Matt, all his videos I watched, and all the advice from everyone here, we were fully prepared for everything.

Onboard offer letters from Quantum May 2022 (Alaska). Gold Platinum Emerald Diamond Diamond Plus Pinnacle Youth

My friends are sailing on the Allure 28 May, this sailing has essentially appeared sold out since we were watching it for a possible last minute trip. A few cabins here and there, they (our friends) are thinking about CWC cancelation due to 2 specific reasons. First, the crew shortage seems would be a negative aspect. Secondly, it appears this Memorial Day southern sailing is packed so the capacity at max while crew is suffering does not sound like an amazing vacation. Will the entertainment be effected? While things are static and we must expect the unexpected and be flexible, what is the minimum RCCL expect the passenger to accept per sailing when shelling out so much $$$ ? My gut check tells me missing this one seems like a probable blessing. Thank you so much @She Sails Away for your real trip report. I look forward to continuing this journey with you!

The lifeboats are more spacious than the crew cabins. Add a toilet and shower and it might be considered an upgrade.

Don’t trust the scale in the gym. It seems to have issues later in the cruise….it had me 8 pounds too heavy.

I’m on the ship also with my girlfriend here is a nice picture we took at Labadiee

This is old but man, Texas really sucks I guess. Everyone I know here is freaking out about being able to sail Oasis class from Galveston. Opinion from Florida: Allure is horrible and harmony is just eh. Meanwhile I'm over here like a street urchin begging for any ship with Izumi that does 7 nighters like a peasant.

Royal intended to be at full capacity by May/June. They also knew about potent staff shortages. So then why push forward for a capacity that they could potentially not cater to? The past sailings of around 40 to 70% were doable. So mathematically, if they wanted more passengers, they should have had the staffing and contingency plans in place prior to full sailings. a business is usually in a greater position of power and knowledge, passing off the shortage issues onto the consumer is somewhat wrong. I’m not saying we can play dumb and be blissfully ignorant, but the opposite is to say that we should not expect the greatest possible outcome as a consumer, ever.

Hi all, I'm going to try my hand at live blogging this trip. Who's going: Tim (Me) and Kelli (my wife of 17 years!) Cabin: 8330 A1: 2 bedbroom ATS We got our Genie questioner almost 60 days out on 4/13. I won't go over it as it has been covered countless times. We got our Genie email yesterday at 28 days out and our Genie will be Stepan! We responded right away and he already emailed us back this morning and seems like he will be a wonderful Genie! (This is our second star class experience with the first one being on Oasis in December of this past year) He did ask that we prebook Hibachi and Chef's table as he can't request until the day before. I know some have been disappoint by this, but we just went with it and did as requested. We are pretty easy going and this was our list of initial requests. Dining: We are travelling with just the two of us, so no worries about vaccination challenges. We are foodies and love everything so there is nothing we want to avoid I will leave it to you to arrange dinners as you think is best (we are morning people so we prefer earlier dining times), also we do want to do Chef’s table one evening if there is an early seating for that. Again, we will defer to you for everything, we are easy, the only thing we would prefer would be coastal Kitchen on night on after sail away. On Boarding day we would like to do Sabor for lunch Snacks: We love Charcuterie type items or just plain cheese/crackers/salami etc Sushi Fresh fruits Late night we’ve been known to eat pizza/ranger cookies etc lol Beverages: We would love to have Truly (Pineapple/wild berry) heavily stocked in the room fridge and cooler if possible We love Wine and Champagne (I know you can’t stock that, but just for reference. Also I know there is a boarding day bottle and for that we prefer thee Moet Champagne) Blue Moon (with oranges) Coke Zero/Diet Coke Club Soda Tons of water Sugar free red bull Coffee: We would like a standing order of 2 Starbucks Venti blonde/light roast with cream and equal Shows: We have no preference, so will leave with you We are traveling from Houston Texas and plan to fly in to Orlando the day before and stay at the courtyard in Coco Beach. This will be my first try at live blogging, so please bear with me. I will try to keep it entertaining as we like to have a lot of fun and enjoy being in the moment! Here's to hoping the next 27 days go quick

@She Sails Away this on site on ship information is priceless, I really do appreciate it! I understand Royal is in business to make money, I totally get it. But I said this back in December while on the Odyssey sailing to no where, 8 nights of sailing as our covid numbers would not allow us off the ship in Port, they ramped capacity too fast, too soon. First sailing I was just thinking can we return early please? Staff would disappear as the week went on, it was tough to watch. I know Mr. Liberty is a numbers guy and I understand they must try to do right for the stock holders but at what cost moving forward? Our FCC sailings in June & July are most likely going to be the last for us in a while. I am almost 99% sure we are canceling our Thanksgiving 2022 as the cost seems it may not be justified. A little break to explore land vacations for us, just until we feel the cost is = to the experience. I'm not booking any new sailings moving forward, to many hoops in addition to inflated costs for a mediocre experience. This venue (unofficial RC blog) is such a great place to exchange real time information, I find it difficult to believe some of the "bloggers" on board videos etc. when due to the nature of what they do they receive "comped" sailings thus leaning positive no matter what. An experience for free is surely different from the experience that is paid for. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your sailing, glass half full is still the best way to move forward while on board , right?? Enjoy & cheers to you when you enjoy your next mock tail.

I sailed this ship in Greece in 2020. I did not feel that it was worn out. We had a great cruise. One thing that did bother us and I wouldn't sail her again because of it: the adults only section of the pool was extremely loud as it was a passage area to other parts of the ships. Also the 'adult only' part of it was ignored by some and Royal staff didn't do anything about this. For us that was a deal breaker. Of course that might not be the case for you.

I personally love the Radiance-class ships like Jewel, but mostly for the more interesting itineraries they usually provide. If you prefer "ship as the destination" style cruising I would recommend looking at a different ship.

Thanks for that info. That answers the statement: You can't have contingency staffing INA cruise ship." I think that if there are other ships, borrowing a few from each ship in the aggregate would help at least a little. And my point is having a plan should be expected from big businesses. So many comments here implying that a consumer should bear the burden of staffing issues. I totally get the business side of things. But a failure to communicate, failure to address issues, and expectations that the consumer needs to buck up and take it are NOT good business. Matt stated something to the effect that Royal prides itself and strives for customer satisfaction. I truly believe that, but for the uninformed consumer, like me, it would be nice to know from Royal that the Ovation staffing issues are being looked at.

Just a tin foil hat response, but the staff may be saying this to make sure you rate everyone 100%. I hate when people tell me about a survey and then proceed to tell me how I should rate them. Major turnoff and it will most likely result in a lower score or rating. Also, people need to be honest. It's the only way things or people are going to improve. If you just mark the highest rating all the time, nothing is going to change.

This is so great! Thanks to both of you, I really appreciate it. Grand suite here I come!..... although I may live to regret it since I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back to a JS. Thanks again!

Correct. "Perfect" is the only acceptable score. 4/5 or 9/10 is considered failure. I believe some of them would consider 99/100 failure if the scale was 0 to 100. When a survey follows up on rating something less than perfect with a question about why I have a standard response. Example: Please tell us why you were not highly satisfied. "I chose satisfied because I got what I expected. Highly satisfied requires something special and is reserved for exceptional service. You should be happy with a response of satisfied. I do not operate under an everybody-gets-a-trophy mentality. If you want a highly satisfied rating, do MORE than the standard expectation. By the way, once you do MORE a couple times, that becomes the new expectation and continuing to provide that level of service will return you to a response of satisfied."

And would you look at that, the short term plan is to cut guest capacity. At some point this becomes a safety issue, in addition to being wildly bad for business. The idea that 1-2 months of reduced capacity may lead to insolvency (while possibly true) doesn't really trump that. "Last week the U.K.-based Cunard Line, a Carnival Cruise ship, drastically cut down on the guest capacity for the Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2, and P&O Cruises canceled seven sailings of Arcadia last month. Both cancellations were due to limited crew availability, which would have negatively impacted guest services."

IMHO, the best way to ruin a vacation is to spend time trying to maximize the value of a prepaid item. Not saying you shouldn’t look into what’s available just that you shouldn’t make yourself nuts over it!

Unfortunately on my last sailing both the food and the service was bad. If you have to ask for water EVERY NIGHT YOU SIT DOWN.. and again for refills when "the guy" is filling other tables and walks right by...there is a major problem. That was only one aspect of service that was poor. It was only the second time I've done a survey where the rating was not a 10, and I can overlook a lot. I have recently heard them say the food does count against them. I don't know why that would be. I assume to counteract that you could list your waitstaff in the comments and write amazing things about them. I did that for one of the guest service staff on Anthem and when I boarded again a few weeks later and stopped by to say hello she asked if I had written a review for her and I said I did and she asked if I used the word 'wonderful' and I said I did and she told me the review was sent to her boss and she was given accolades for it. I would have no other way of knowing something positive is said to the employee who receives positive feedback so it was nice to learn this firsthand.

:::::::::::::::: erasing and going back underground ::::::::::::::::::

Not knowing what sort of travel insurance you have, I'd agree with SpeedNoodles to test on the ship. If you test positive (unlikely thought it may be), you'll want to report the situation to Royal so that they provide assistance to you. If you disembark and test at the airport, you are out of their protection and governed by whatever travel insurance you may have. I think you may want maximum protection if you test positive. Just a thought....

That's certainly my outlook. I truly believe they understand and see the problem, so at the very least this isn't a concern among guests that management hasn't gotten wind of yet. Piggy backing on what others have said, I hope for the best and will have to bring some extra patience for getting a drink, slice of pizza, or waiting for a show.

To be fair, these kinds of logistics issues (lack of staffing/supply chain failures) are lagging affectors and add to that, a COVID uptick (whether real or contrived) and you have a mess. It is extremely difficult (impossible ?) for Royal to make a timely adjustment to a ship that has already been pretty much sold out. Their only option would be to cancel existing reservations and NOBODY wants to be caught up in that ! Did Royal ramp up passenger density too quickly ? Probably. But it will take time to "fix" that and by then, who knows what the situation might be. Kind of a catch-22.

We're all still dealing with changes to cruising that may not match our expectations, which are based on previous experiences without the restrictions required by our current world situation. I'm just happy to be getting onboard Ovation on Friday. If it's "not quite as good as my previous cruises" it will still be a cruise. If the experience is at the same percentage level vs. "normal" expectations as everything else in our lives, we will still have a great trip. It takes ten minutes to get a drink instead of seven? Okay. Fifteen minutes to get that late-night slice at Sorrento's rather than ten? So what? The drive-thru at Taco Bell last night took twenty minutes whereas it usually takes less than ten. That's the current reality we live with.

I think I need to buy a lottery ticket. I did retry as they offered and today I got an email....Royal up came through with a balcony cabin?

13th March 2022 sailing, driving to Miami from Tampa 5 hours usually tops....but we leave the day before sailing & this time OMG we were so thankful! Half way there Alligator Alley closed due to fires, smoke made the State Police fully close this route. We had to turn around along with EVERYONE else & make our way back way North to drive across the State and then down again, with so many other motorists. If it was the same day of embarkation we could have possibly missed the ship. If I have learned anything even when driving to a Port I make my way a day earlier, period. You just never know, way to much $$ to leave to chance. * The traffic check in the a.m. was clear, it was only half way there we were starting to see the red, rut row!!

Sewage surveillance on a ship really is of little value since the majority of the population changes every 4-7 days. It might give some retrospective value, but no real future value

Thank you! I think you’re right on those numbers. The ship does feel understaffed, but not terribly so. The main thing I have noticed is that there are constantly plates and cups and empty glasses lying on all of the tables around the promenade or the Windjammer, and it takes a while before someone comes along to get them. Normally those things are whisked away immediately. I also get the impression that there are some actors and performers fairly new to the ship still learning their parts. Cafe Promenade has had two employees in it the whole cruise so far and there is always a long line of people waiting to be served. Starbucks has one person at a time and they also always have a long line of people to deal with. Some of the shops have never opened, and I would imagine that’s a staffing issue. Some of the shops only have one employee at a time inside too. I’m not sure what’s going on with Sorrento’s but there’s usually a line out the door for that as well. I don’t know if that’s a staffing issue or if it’s just that there are so many of us here.

Thank you! I would imagine that memorial day weekend cruise would be absolutely jampacked with people looking to party, and a shortage of staff would definitely be a problem. I don’t know about the entertainment… But I do know this. When I came on the ship on day one and asked a staff member for help registering for the shows, it turned out that she is a cast member of Mamma Mia. They are only showing Mamma Mia the second to last night and then twice on the very last day. I asked why are they waiting so late in the week to show it and why only three performances? She said “we need that time to finish rehearsals and learn our parts.” So that comment implied to me that there are new cast members coming aboard. I would imagine that’s the case on several ships right now. What with people getting Covid and having to quarantine and just a general shortage of people overall. it sounds like they are not only short on crew but having to deal with Covid among the crew as well based on some of the YouTube videos I’ve been watching. It does seem at some point royal would cut back on passenger capacity to match the limited crew, but then again, we all understand they have a lot of money to make up for. interesting that the next cruise on the ship is sold out. I have to say one of the reasons I chose allure is because the fare was noticeably cheaper than the other oasis class ships. I guess it’s because this is the one ship that hasn’t been updated yet? Also I’ve never been to these ports so that was a real draw for me as well.

Two Quantum, two Radiance class for this year. They are moving crew between ships but that practice will also result in calls of foul play for the guests of the donor ship on that particular cruise even if guest numbers are lower for that sailing. Plus the ships don't always port the same week to week so it complicates temporary borrowing of crew and makes crew life very hard on them.

Same goes for gratuities, IMO

cruising may never be what is was like pre-covid. of course that's true of most things in this world. If only we knew what was coming. I feel like we lost our innocence.

Considering a bottle of water is $3+ with grats, a soda can be $4+ with grats, etc. there won't be any way you are leaving "money on the table." Most packages will pay for themselves before lunch. The main purpose of purchasing a package is to save you the hassle of counting.

Last one for today:

Well we are booked on our 1st Fall Foliage cruise for the 4th Time....They kept cancelling it and Lifting and Shifting so we finally took the FCC and applied it to our July Harmony cruise with the family. Hopefully this one stays!!! We will be on the Jewel this August for our British Isles cruise and now the Jewel for the Fall Foliage (10 Night) cruise in October 2023.

The survey is not in-depth and quite generic IMO. They doesn't seem they want true opinions. I do not buy that they are having the highest ratings ever.

Our reasoning too!

Agree with "key". As did a lot of the internet, Cay is most often applied to Caribbean islands, the preferred pronunciation is “key” But RC would have needed a different rhyming slogan than "Perfect Day at Coco Cay" "Relaxing, stress-free at Coco Cay"?

We are on Harmony Christmas 2022 in #8730. First time in an ATS. Looking forward to following along. Enjoy!

I personally don't think the Key is worth it. However, with the Key you get priority boarding, so you can show up at 11:30 and thus not miss the welcome lunch.

Internet on Alaskan cruises are terrible to begin with, the farther north you are the worse it gets. But why don't you test in your room the morning that you disembark? It only takes about 20 minutes. Then you can just use cell service and not worry about it. If you insist on doing it the day before (and I don't see why you wouldn't just do it the morning of your flight), then I wouldn't rely on regular surf. But I really wouldn't rely on Voom of any kind on an Alaskan cruise, especially the older ships.

Read the cruise contract you receive with your luggage tags. Nothing is guaranteed. To say "poo rolls downhill" is sad when you are crapping on the very workers who are doing their best, taking on more work to make your cruise more enjoyable. If you don't like a product don't support it by not buying it, you give the message to the company, not to the employee who is just trying to make a living. In regards to a separate comment you made "Even if they ultimately decide to do nothing, communicating that things are not ideal and taking their lumps with healthy doling out of OBC is better than leaving everyone in this quagmire." It's not good marketing to communicate things are not ideal. Things can change dramatically from week to week. Doling out OBC won't make it any better-it might appease some people, but not everyone. Royal had a 1.3 billion dollar loss in their first quarter, I'm happy they are back and doing the best they can, it beats the alternative. There are people who complained about wearing masks, but sailed-and continued to complain about it. Then there were the people who complained the masks were optional, yet they didn't wear them. I've been on sailings since August and watched the changes go from mask at all times except when seated and actively eating/drinking to unmasking midcruise (Feb 24) to being able to sit at the bars and the removal of signs "only 4 in the elevator -or 6" depending on the ship . To tables being more than 6 feet apart and spacing in the clubs so that you were not near anyone else. I've seen the crew be able to go down to 1 mask only to have to add that second mask back. I've watched ports only accept passengers who are masked (OUTDOORS TOO!) and carrying their vax cards to not masked, yet some businesses still require masks Crew and passengers need to be flexible and open minded. Hopefully one day we will have more pleasurable topics we can discuss.

We're all just cruisers here, no one works for Royal.

A tip to make this happen easier for folks who want to use Uber or Lyft: you can schedule your ride ahead of time in the app, so you're not stuck waiting behind everyone else trying to get a car at the same time.

Well this takes us from 9 tests to 6. It’s an improvement but the US needs to drop it’s ridiculous testing requirement. We literally will walk off a ship that has been in the US ALL WEEK, go straight to Vancouver airport and we need a freakin test. Meanwhile you could drive from Seattle across the border, traisp all over Canada for 2 weeks, drive back across the border and no test required. Proof our government is totally dysfunctional