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Joe01

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  4. Current Cruise Director & Activities Manager List

    in Royal Caribbean Discussion

    Posted

    Time for an update!

    • Adventure - Chris Brown joined early July (for 2 months?).
    • Allure - Jimmy Rhodes until late July/early August then Mike Hunnerup (date?).
    • Anthem - Dan Whitney started July 13 until August 29. Mitch Merucci returns from August 29 until January 5, 2020.
    • Brilliance - Rob McNally joined late April (unknown how long he is onboard)
    • Empress - Cecy del Razo joined mid July for 2 months then Elvis Pinto returns mid September
    • Enchantment - Bobby Broughton until August 28 and will return October 28 for 4 months.
    • Explorer - Clo O'Connor joined July 21 until sometime in October.
    • Freedom - Katy McCullagh (former AM on HM & SY) started mid-June (for 2 months?).
    • Grandeur - Cory Rogers until August 8 when John Blair returns from his vacation. John is on GR from August 8 - November 30.
    • Harmony - Dennis Charles started July 7 until September 29. Marc Walker returns September 29 for 4 months.
    • Independence - Cuddy Cudworth started June 11 until October.
    • Jewel - Simona Ferraiuolo started early July (for 2 months or 4 months?).
    • Liberty - Brian Leavitt until August 11 (next CD unknown).
    • Mariner - Marcelo Alvarado is onboard until early September (next CD unknown).
    • Majesty - Tanya Yates Tongue (Tornado Tanya) returned in June (for 4 months?).
    • Navigator - Hugo Arenas until mid August then Cory Rogers (for 2 months?).
    • Oasis - Mike Witte until August 18 (next CD unknown).
    • Ovation - Joff Eaton returned June 21 for 4 months.
    • Quantum - Paul Rutter returned in April and will likely be on vacation soon (next CD unknown).
    • Radiance - Susan Adams until late July (next CD unknown).
    • Rhapsody - Michele Scarpato started late April (for 4 months?).
    • Serenade - David Bradshawe until mid September then Carly Boileau returns (for 2 months?).
    • Spectrum - Fang Lixin joined mid June (for 4 months?).
    • Symphony - Mike Szwajkowski until August 17 then Ricky Matthews for 2 months. Mike returns from his vacation late October/early November.
    • Vision - Steve Davis returned May 6 for 4 months.
    • Voyager - Michelle Oliveira returned late May for 4 months.

    I think that this is all of the available info. I have no idea where to start regarding AM info so only doing a CD list for now.

  11. Why are Royal reducing the number of sea days on Oasis Class sailings?

    in Royal Caribbean Discussion

    Posted

    1 minute ago, ChessE4 said:

    I'll take the other side of the question.  I prefer more port days, fewer sea days.  For me, cruises offer the opportunity to see different cultures and try to practice foreign languages.  I'm not very good, but I try.  I do agree that the Med cruise we took was challenging, but we mostly enjoyed the ports.  It's no different than camping trips, which tend to test your endurance. 

    That's totally cool if that's your style of cruising, but that means that you're probably better suited to the smaller ships which tend to offer port-intensive itineraries to better ports. Oasis Class isn't a good class for decent ports.

  12. Why are Royal reducing the number of sea days on Oasis Class sailings?

    in Royal Caribbean Discussion

    Posted

    3 minutes ago, twangster said:

    I respect that you have a counter opinion to my own but no one is forcing people off the ship on any itinerary.  If people want to sail for the ship as the destination all the better in the Med.  5,000 of your fellow passengers have disembarked leaving you with an empty ship to enjoy.  That's better than a sea day.  

    The geography does present some challenges in some Med. ports.  The areas of interest are not always in close proximity to the port.    Perfect opportunity to stay on the ship.  Yet many people do book these cruises and many guests do disembark at these ports.  Many guests still have a wonderful experience despite the bus ride.  

    You've missed the point - port days limit the activities which are available. Activities such as Belly Flop, World's Sexiest Man, Quest, Love and Marriage, Captain's Corner, Trivia, and the shows such as the Ice show, Aqua show, Broadway show...I could go on...are all crammed into one day on this itinerary. Even the sports activities are reduced.

  13. Why are Royal reducing the number of sea days on Oasis Class sailings?

    in Royal Caribbean Discussion

    Posted

    5 minutes ago, Matt said:

    That was a product of a time when few ports could handle Oasis class ships. Today, far more ports can do so.

    That is true, and I'm glad that the likes of CocoCay have found their way to the Oasis Class. That said, do they really need Cozumel, Roatan and Costa Maya all on one itinerary? The latter two are fairly similar in terms of nearby port offerings and whilst the ship will have some first-timers, the majority of C&A members will have visited Coz.

  14. Why are Royal reducing the number of sea days on Oasis Class sailings?

    in Royal Caribbean Discussion

    Posted

    14 minutes ago, twangster said:

    The Med is always port intensive largely due to the ability to reach so many wonderful destinations in a 7 night duration.  This is why many people don't mind Greek cruises on smaller and older ships.  The port intensive itinerary - they are there for the ports of call.  If Royal removed ports just for Oasis class in the Med, people would call them out for that.

    People don't usually do Europe on Oasis Class for the ports as the bulk of the guests are European and can fly to many of those cities for fairly cheap (less than £350 to fly from where I live to spend a weekend in any of the cities on this itinerary). They are usually there for the ship. As you say, people don't mind small ships for the ports. If you are an American trying to do Europe, there are so many better itineraries than this 7 nighter.

    I would also disagree with your assessment that the ports are wonderful. Whilst the Italy ports offer plenty, I really can't see why they would keep Marseilles on the itinerary when the city offers very little (nearby Cannes and Villefranche are far better, obviously can't be reached due to tendering not being feasible for OA class). There isn't anything in the port area in either Palma and Marseilles, so you pretty much have to take their transfer bus which isn't free. I was displeased with this on Allure in 2015, and it was still the same on Symphony in 2018.

  15. Why are Royal reducing the number of sea days on Oasis Class sailings?

    in Royal Caribbean Discussion

    Posted

    I've noticed that with the addition of several new ports to the Oasis Class itineraries that they are often reducing the sea days from 3 to 2. Back in the day, OA and AL would traditionally rotate the 7 night Western and 7 night Eastern, both itineraries had 3 ports and 3 sea days. When the Med itineraries started back in 2015, they started offering 5 port days and 1 sea day (I'll mention this more later). 

    I was on Harmony recently for a B2B and the 2nd week was 4 ports, 2 sea days (CocoCay, Costa Maya, Roatan, Cozumel). A minor gripe was that I felt that with only 2 at sea days was that the activities program including shows and hosted activities had to be crammed in to those 2 days, and therefore, there wasn't as much time to go to as many of the events. This isn't a criticism of the CD or team as they can only work with the itinerary that they are given, but with so many events going on onboard the Oasis Class, 2 sea days isn't enough. I often stay onboard and enjoy the amenities, but the issue is that it affects the activities program which is usually minimal on port days.

    Another issue is with the Oasis Class Med itinerary. Why on earth does that have only 1 at sea day? Nowhere near enough time to enjoy the Oasis Class offerings in any way and they still keep the same ports each year despite rotating the ships that they send to Barcelona. Marseilles is a total waste of a day and that ought to be an at sea day. Palma is nice but you have to pay to use their transport at the port and it is a fairly early departure, so that is another port that should be canned from Oasis Class itineraries. I do get why the 3 Italy ports are offered though - they offer plenty in terms of excursions and even plenty to do near the port in La Spezia & Naples.

    All that I'm saying are just observations, and personally, I think that the Oasis Class would work much better on the older 3 ports, 3 sea days approach. What are your thoughts?

    BTW - was about to post this as a CC thread and realised that it could be inflammatory so I'll post it here in much friendlier territory. What would I do without the blog?

  16. Harmony LIVE ~ 6/30 & 7/7 ~ Eastern/Western Caribbean

    in Live Blogs

    Posted

    8 minutes ago, mom2mybugs said:

    What are the ports...for me it would be Europe every time but you are from there so the novelty isn’t there but maybe easier to travel?  Jane

    Bayonne, Port Canaveral, Perfect Day at CocoCay, Nassau for Oasis.

    Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Marseilles, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples for Allure. 

    I've been to all of these ports, and personally, the ports on both suck with one good one each (CocoCay and Naples). The Allure itinerary might look attractive to an American but as a European, my opinion is that this is a very basic Med itinerary and I cannot, for the life of me, understand why they have only 1 at sea day on an Oasis Class (it has to be 3, even 2 didn't work on the 2nd leg of this cruise). Marseilles is a total waste and should have been cut from this itinerary years ago (and that's from someone who likes France). The Med itinerary that you are doing on Vision is one of the best for people trying to tour Europe.

    Barcelona is a shorter flight, but Bayonne is by far the easiest US departure port for me to sail from as United offers direct flights from both Glasgow & Edinburgh to Newark.

  21. Harmony LIVE ~ 6/30 & 7/7 ~ Eastern/Western Caribbean

    in Live Blogs

    Posted

    1 minute ago, Floski said:

    Dumb question that I haven't seen addressed yet - for those big slides - do you have to walk all the way up there?

    You do know that fat people don't like to climb stairs, right?   ?

    The CocoCay slides? I didn't use them, but it seems so.

    Can't imagine it being too fun - the stairs from Deck 15 to the top of the slides on the ship were enough.

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