twangster

When you are an 800 pound Gorilla does it matter? Gotta give em credit for their LNG ship initiative. It was something watching Mardi Gras "steam" out of port without a spec of smoke in the sky. All cruise lines have a few skeletons in the closet. Let's just say Carnival isn't known for playing nice with others in the sandbox.

I thought they stopped doing a spa perk with Sky Class in 2016. You used to get a free treatment with Sky Class like one massage.

I suppose you could have a Dream about receiving a Gift that turned out to be a Book. The 3rd iteration from Pixels could be "Resolutions". Get it? Pixels in a digital picture... resolution of a digital photo. ?

Mariner cabins weren't touched in her AMP. So that's something they could cut from Liberty's AMP and still call it an AMP. I don't think Indy's cabins got much love either in her AMP. Haven't been on Freedom post-amp yet.

You are thinking of the 'The Gift" on Anthem a.k.a "The Dream" on Ovation in the main theater. "The Book" is Odyssey's Two70° show like the Two70° "Spectre's Cabaret" show on Anthem a.k.a "Pixels" on Ovation but while the shows on Ovation and Anthem are loosely the same show with some minor tweaks, "The Book" is supposedly all new from scratch.

Liberty was 90% pre-amped already. She received the cabin additions a few years ago along with water slides and suite lounge. Missing is Playmakers and maybe another new specialty restaurant to replace Sabor. It wouldn't take much to finish a mini-amp and call her AMPED. Not all ships have received a complete pool deck makeover in their official AMP. Not all ships had cabins refreshed in their official AMP. Ovation received Fish & Ships as a makeover restaurant upgrade during a cruise to Alaska with guests on board. It wouldn't take a lot to replace Sabor on Liberty. Playmakers is a bigger project than that so maybe she doesn't get a PM - wouldn't be the first AMPED ship that didn't get a PM.

For now it's Show Girls, Past, Present, Future in the main theater and The Book in Two70°. This is consistent with most of her sisters. Anthem is the only Quantum class with anything like a Broadway show but We Will Rock You isn't actually from Broadway.

For me, spending two nights on the Allure simulation cruise erased any misgivings I had about all the crap casting shade on the pre-cruise excitement I used to experience but had lost touch with.

Other than Nassau Royal Caribbean has required masks indoors and the testing requirement was announced days ago. Carnival restarted with 95% vax and 75% capacity but that was it. They had no protocols on board. It's a free for all on Mardi Gras right now, like the old days of cruising with 4,000 passengers and 1,400 crew on board jammed into bars and comedy clubs to capacity. Combine the guest count across all Royal ships sailing this week and that's lower than the number on one Carnival ship. MSC is a lot closer to Royal when they restarted this week with 100% testing at check in, vax or no vax and they require masks indoors. If anything Carnival is falling in line with where the rest of the industry has already arrived. Interesting tactic. Offer mask free cruises while others were saying masks and tests, then today tell booked guests, sorry, masks and testing will be required. I'm booked on a Carnival and Princess cruise and the FB groups are lighting like a bad thunderstorm. Naturally there are claims of "bait and switch". Many claiming to cancel. Guess my cruise may not be as full as Carnival thought it would be. If those are vax passengers cancelling they'll likely be forced to cancel unvax kids they have just granted exemptions to in order to maintain the 95% quota. That'll go over well days before a cruise. No one, including myself, liked it when Royal announced masks indoors early July. I even cancelled an Odyssey cruise. Yet here we are, pretty much all cruise lines now requiring masks indoors, even the holdouts like Carnival and Princess. What can we do? People didn't get vaccinated and numbers soared. While largely now an unvaccinated pandemic it is spilling over into a small number of vaccinated. That's okay on land where it's hardly reported but on a ship the media has a parade every time a case is announced on a ship. Cruise lines gotta go into into heavy protocols mode to protect the industry. It is what it is, but I do think Carnival was a little sleazy in the way they reached where they are today. But, it is what is needed right now and I'll board my Carnival cruise feeling a little better for it.

Today Carnival announced a similar policy. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/08/04/carnival-joins-royal-caribbean-requiring-pre-cruise-covid-tests-and-masks-vaccinated This is where society is right now. Once more get vaccinated we can hopefully avoid this for the next variant because this isn't over.

Confirmed recently on a travel agent call - Harmony is coming back to Port Canaveral to execute cruises as planned from Port Canaveral.

Just so everyone knows, the captains of these excursions boats all know each other, it's a small community even if the company they work for are competitors. Most will get on the radio and exchange sighting locations. On the smaller boats you may be able to hear the radio chatter and see this in action yourself.

Magic eight ball says...

All you can do is wait until they have a firm cabin for you. Different ships classes don't map to each other well and there are limited resources who are all very busy handling an overload of rebookings. You may or may not like the outcome so start preparing yourself for that scenario. I was in a 2 bedroom Aquatheater suite on Allure that was mapped to a 2 bedroom grand suite on Liberty. The only thing these have in common are two bedrooms. One is Star Class the other is not. So on and so forth. At the end of the day after a lot of back and forth that was the best they could do so I requested a refund. I hated losing the booking but there is this pandemic wreaking havoc on the world and my bad day losing a great cruise booking seemed pale in comparison to what some people have been through so I got over my initial disappointment pretty quickly.

In my experience in the Caribbean I have been successful with wifi calling using only Surf. British Isles is another matter. Which ship? If it's a newer ship he will do much better but regardless of ship, satellite internet is still subject to outages when there is heavy rain or in other temporary situations. Also, wifi in cabin is not always the best signal and it can be hard to find a quiet place on a ship that doesn't have background music piped in. The library is one spot but then again that isn't great for talking on a cell phone for the sake of other guests in the library.

When Anthem returns to Bayonne, Oasis has always been scheduled to return to Florida for the winter. It's encouraging to see they are still trying to restart Oasis from Bayonne in September rather than scrapping the entire Bayonne summer/fall Oasis debut. If you want to do Oasis from the Big Apple (area) you'll need to do it before November 2021 or wait until next year, but even next year Oasis leaves for Florida before November 2022.

I did one at Walgreens today up the coast that was zero cost. https://www.walgreens.com/findcare/covid19/testing?ban=covid_vanity_testing Made an appointment yesterday, went through the drive thru, never left the car. My local one doesn't do rapid tests so it was the slower PCR. Down the road a few miles is another location that has the rapid tests.

Technically that is still within the CDC CSO. They may have been holding out hope for a better turn in the pandemic but with delta soaring the CDC may have told forget it, not going to happen. My estimate is the ship sails without guests on the way back to the US.

Sorry to hear that. It looks like they are keeping Radiance in the Pacific. My Radiance Panama Canal for October was cancelled, or moved to Serenade is a better way of putting it. At any rate, Radiance stays in the Pacific out of service for the moment. Even Miami isn't safe when the ship is in the wrong ocean ? They are moving some cruises to other ships. It's such a wild time in the industry. Swapping ships was almost unheard of before but now more and more ships are swapping. Rhapsody guests being moved to Serenade in Tampa for example.

I was in January. Rhapsody to Serenade. Dear Guest, We've been diligently working to prepare for our Royal Comeback. It's taken months of planning and coordinating to get up and running - from activating new homeports and communicating with local governments and authorities, to ensuring our new protocols maintain your wellbeing with our Healthy Sail Panel. As we continue to review our itinerary plans, we've decided to reposition some of our ships in anticipation of our return to cruising. Our original plan for Rhapsody of the Seas was to begin offering sailings departing from Tampa, Florida beginning December 2021. However, Serenade of the Seas will now take its place. Unfortunately, this means your Rhapsody of the Seas sailing will be cancelled. However, Serenade of the Seas will offer similar itineraries, so we'll automatically move you to the corresponding Serenade of the Seas sailing beginning August 3rd, 2021. This way, you'll still have the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful destinations you were looking forward to! We know how much time and effort go into planning your vacation and apologize for any inconvenience caused by this change. While we're confident you'll have an amazing time onboard Serenade of the Seas, your vacation is important to us - along with providing you the flexibility to make the best decision for you and those in your party. Below, we've outlined your options along with a few additional details. Option 1: Stay onboard the Serenade of the Seas cruise Beginning August 3rd, 2021, we'll automatically move you to the Serenade of the Seas sailing departing on the same day as your original cruise. So, there's nothing for you to do! Your new sailing will offer similar destinations as your original cruise, and it'll depart from the same destination. Your original stateroom category price will either be protected at your original cruise fare rate or reduced to the current cruise fare rate (whichever is lower). This excludes taxes, fees, gratuities, and other non-cruise fare items. If you were already paid in full and your cruise fare rate decreases, we'll provide you with a refund for any difference in pricing. You can expect to receive your refund to your original form of payment 30 business days after we move you. Kindly note, refund times may vary depending on your financial institution. Lastly, as we return to service, our sailing protocols will evolve. To stay informed and up-to-date, please visitRoyalCaribbean.com/Health. Option 2: Select a 100% Refund If you no longer wish to sail, we'll be sad to see you go. We'll process a full refund of any paid portion of your cruise fare to the original form(s) of payment, including any non-refundable deposit. You can expect to receive your refund 30 business days after you submit your refund request. If you booked your airfare through Royal Caribbean International, it will be automatically refunded to you. However, if you booked on your own, please contact the service provider directly for your options with them. Lastly, if you used a Future Cruise Credit on this sailing, and you request a refund instead, we'll refund any NEW funds paid above the certificate amount, and we'll reinstate your original certificate. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to shifting an entire season of sailings and rebooking all guests, so please bear with us as we work to make this process as easy as possible for you. All moves for individual bookings will be completed by August 18th, 2021, and all moves for group bookings will be completed by September 8th, 2021. We'll send an updated reservation confirmation with your revised details to the email address on file as soon as your reservation has been completely updated. If you prefer to cancel your cruise, please call us at 888-281-9344 or contact your Travel Advisor by August 24th, 2021. And know, hold times may be longer than usual. If we haven't heard from you by August 24th, 2021, you'll remain booked on the alternate Serenade of the Seas sailing. Should you decide to cancel after our moves are complete, you will continue to be covered by our Cruise with Confidence policy. If you have any questions, please contact your Travel Advisor immediately or contact us at: 1 800 754 500 in Australia 0344 493 4005 in the U.K. 1 866 562 7625 in the U.S. or Canada All other countries, please visit http://www.royalcaribbean.com/contactus for your local Royal Caribbean International office phone number. Thank you for your understanding. We hope you find another cruise vacation with us. Whether you are celebrating a special occasion or looking to explore, relax, and recharge - we have no doubt your time with us will be nothing short of amazing. We look forward to welcoming you onboard. Sincerely, Aurora Yera-Rodriguez AVP | Guest Experience Royal Caribbean International

So here's the thing with larger boats: When everyone rushed to one side it actually starts to list that way ? The problem is trying to secure a spot on the railing so you can see. Once a whale is spotted on the other side, it's a mad dash to secure a spot on the railing on the other side. When you are on a smaller boat they are more agile and can more quickly move with the whales or to another location. What tends to happen is the larger boats are a little further away while the smaller boats end up getting between the whales and the larger boats. In this next picture a whale had just submerged behind me so my smaller boat was between the larger boat and the whales. Is that worth $200? That's up to you to decide.

They aren't done with CocoCay, there is still land to be developed. In fact the employee lodging area appears like it wouldn't be too hard to move if needed. Rest assured there will be more coming to PDCC, it's just a matter of when.

Not me. They are reacting and adapting, a lock quicker than the CDC. MSC still says no test for vaccinated yet they tested everyone at the port yesterday, vaccinated and unvaccinated, including people who paid for tests for unvaccinated kids in the days before. They wouldn't accept those test and retested every single person who boarded. That isn't written anywhere in policy. Cruising during the restart is going to take some flexibility. Things will change sometimes daily.

The transatlantic was always scheduled to arrive on Nov. 13 but for some reason they had her first two weeks in Texas blocked off. Some speculated media cruises or some other modified cruises in the interim but alas they finally opened up two regular looking 7 night cruises, the second of which is Thanksgiving so it's a "premium" cruise. I'm betting they've got a plan in place and maybe even some contractual verbiage that encourages the work to get finished in time, or enough work to make it happen even if the terminal isn't 100% complete. It's encouraging they are confident enough to open these two additional weeks. I'm betting it'll get done barring any hurricanes coming that way.

ALLURE OF THE SEAS DEPLOYMENT UPDATE We are thrilled to announce that we recently opened two additional sailings onboard Allure of the Seas® in November 2022 out of Galveston, Texas. These 7-Night Western Caribbean sailings will depart November 13 & 20, 2022. https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/deployment/2022_2023/21075570_Allure_7_Night_Caribbean_Deployment_Flyer.pdf