twangster

Coming out of warp... ... we find ourselves approaching Hubbard Glacier.

When a hurricane spins up during cruise season a lot of people just want to cancel based on an emotional reaction. Instead Royal stays the course and waits until closer to determine what cruises can operate normally or near normally and don't NEED to be canceled. That frustrates some people who watch the Weather channel hour after hour and get freaked out. Meanwhile the smart business play is to only cancel cruises that truly need to be cancelled. I've sailed on a cruise that left the day after a Hurricane swept up the FL East coast. We flew past the Hurricane on the flight down being one of the first planes to land after they reopened the airport. It was a smooth flight and a great cruise with awesome weather. Some people were frustrated when they didn't cancel the cruise but the truth is they didn't have to. By waiting it became clear they didn't need to cancel the cruise. That's not a perfect analogy to this pandemic but if they cancel too far out they might be cancelling cruises that can operate. This week we learned of a new 5 minute test that could be a game changer. We may be on the verge of getting a vaccine coming to market. The smart business play is to wait and not cancel cruises that might be able to operate despite the speculation of the public. As far as the delay of the Healthy Sail Panel I think that is also smart. If they announce findings now while the CDC public opinion period is open it will induce thousands of submissions with opinions on the panel's findings from an arguably non-scientific public dwelling over every detail. All the arguments for both sides of the mask debate will be submitted in the thousands resulting in delays to the CDC progress as they pour through the responses. That's just one example. Enter the great "I should be able to serve myself in the buffet" debate or "I should be able to check in whenever I want to" debate or "I must be able to book my own private excursions" debate and so on and so on. By waiting until after the public response period is closed they save the CDC from facing an onslaught of new opinions being submitted which will just slow down the CDC.

Royal announced early in August that all ships are going into their "designated forms of lay up". Royal was planning a mix and warm and cold layup on the premise that a return to cruising would not be a light switch with all ships involved on day one. Keeping some ships warm and more ready means a quicker restart. NCLH has some serious cash problems so they may have no choice but to go cold across the fleet and accept being late back into the game when it occurs.

I prefer Lyft actually but if they have a monopoly I fear they will jack up rates.

Thanks for the update. Interesting on the ride sharing. Lyft has traditionally been cheaper for me to HOU airport but one time their surge price was $150 compared to Uber's $50 so I took Uber that time. With Uber deciding not to participate I'm curious how Lyft's pricing will change.

My personal thoughts are that we are getting close to a breakthrough that will lead to a restart of cruise ship travel in North America. Cruising will restart slowly probably with just a few ships doing short cruises. If that's what you have booked once the breakthrough occurs you may be in luck. They have stated time and again it will not be a light switch turning on with all ships heading to sea. If you have booked a longer cruise I'm less confident we'll see action on those itineraries this year. Since I fly to cruise my booked cruises tend to be longer ones so while I'm hoping not many more cancel on me, I will likely have some more cancellations in my future. This is just my gut reaction, I have no inside knowledge or proof.

This is a scenario where a good travel agent might have some insight and thoughts. If you are booked direct I'd call them and discuss "what-if" scenarios without commiting to the changes.

Quantum class ships have food for purchase in the pubs but I don't know if that is available on boarding day. Most ships don't offer food in the pub but the pub is typically a short walk to a venue that has included lunch options.

Delta is calling it "Book with Confidence". Sounds familiar. Valid only until 9/30/2020 though. Good news for Southwest... this is a major component of their marketing. With my ever changing cruise calendar and turning a cruise into a B2B on an ad-hoc basis Southwest has stolen a lot of my business from Delta. Have to give Delta credit, they waived the redeposit fees for my Italy award flights I booked months ago. Glad I waited to cancel these hoping some might change. Like a cruise, don't cancel flights until you must just in case something changes. If I had canceled this yesterday I'd never get those fees back. Today, no fees.

Depends on your taste. Decent Sauvignon Blanc wines are covered, not so many Cabs or Pinots. When I'm eating a specialty steak I'll generally pay the $3 or $4 uplift to a decent Cab.

Welcome to the message boards. My early L&S experience was one where they were very particular about similarities before they would L&S a cruise. That was several months ago. I had a conversation with my travel agent about some European based cruises booked for 2021 over the weekend. She stated they are now being much more flexible. I'm hesitant to cruise out of Europe right now as an American facing so many unknowns about flights and travel bans based on country of residence. I didn't want to purchase flights to and from various European cities at the moment, for me, cruising closer to home once cruising restarts is just easier to think about. Based on that I had her change a spring 9 night Greek cruise to a fall 9 night Southern Caribbean and a summer 12 night Norway/Iceland cruise to a spring 7 night Alaska cruise. In both cases she was successful and my confirmation number remains the same despite wildly different itineraries. It may not be the actual L&S program she used but at the end of the day she effectively accomplished what I desired - my deposits moved to a different cruise on a different date without having to deal with FCC or waiting for credit card refunds. It's at times like this I really appreciate having a good travel agent and leveraging her knowledge and inner workings of the system to get stuff done while I sit back and drink a coffee. L&S or just smart travel agenting really doesn't matter to me as I got want I wanted with just one quick phone call.

If you live in an area that participates in Daylight Savings Time you can appreciate the difference between springing forward (and losing an hour) versus falling back (and getting an extra hour). Sailing West is like the fall DST change where you "gain" an hour each day. It creates an effect where you find yourself not as tired at 10pm and before you know it (after a couple of days) you are still awake and it's 1 or 2am. That's okay because at 2am it becomes 1am. Day after day each day is effectively 25 hours long, the normal 24 hours plus the extra hour given to you. This extra hour means you can do more in the evenings, your natural bed time is shifted you aren't as tired after dinner. See a show and go dancing? Why not? Sailing East you "lose" an hour day after day. It's like shifting to a reality where the day has 23 hours. Suddenly it's dinner time and Diamond happy hour yet it doesn't feel like it, but it is. The hour is taken from you midday. It's 11:59am and poof now it's 1pm. If you are used to eating at 12 noon there is no 12 noon, it's 1pm and lunch service stops at 2pm so you better eat but you just had a late breakfast and before you know it, it's 5pm and dinner time and people are drinking happy hour drinks but it feels like it's only mid-afternoon because your body clock hasn't adjusted fully. Some people prefer sailing West, departing from Europe and cruising to America. Why not? ...25 hour days are more restful when you get an extra hour of sleep. On the Allure Eastbound in March it was common to hear "I feel like all I'm doing is eating, drinking and sleeping".

In broad terms a transpacific typically represents a greater investment of time and money. A transatlantic is typically less expensive than a transpacific plus typically shorter. TAs are usually 12-14 days versus TPs which are often 16-18 days. On a price per night basis you can often get a TA very inexpensively both for the cruise and for the airfare to complete the trip. For Royal most US based TPs involve a flight to/from Hawaii where many Royal TPs start/end and the flight to/from Australia. There are sometimes Asia-US TP routes but these are less common with Royal. There is greater variety of TAs involving Vision, Radiance, Quantum and Oasis class ships. There are typically more destination choices with TAs such as Rome, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Copenhagen or Southampton. Typically TAs start/end involving more US cities such as Galveston, Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando and Bayonne (NYC area). A TP involves crossing the international date line that also has some bragging rights. As far as sea day after sea day I love it and the days seem to fly by. Some TAs have better port of call diversity involving the Azores, Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland, etc. Some TAs just seem to want to get there with just one port of call. If you're looking to bank Crown and Anchor points the TAs offer the best bang for the buck. The other decision is to sail East or West. They have different vibes, one changes time mid-day while the other changes time overnight. The changing time zones day after day messes with some people but if you have driven the Atlantic yourself you already know that concept. Another strategy to reach destinations in the South Pacific would be to fly to Australia round trip and cruise to the South Pacific round trip like the locals do. A B2B or S2S that involves New Zealand and the South Pacific is heaven sent.

The Barefoot Beach area and cabanas are reserved for guests in Grand Suites or higher. Nellie's Beach has cabanas that are available for all guests. They are very nice and a great way to enjoy your own space but they aren't required to enjoy Labadee. If you get off the ship early there are waterfront loungers available at no additional cost. If you wait to get off the front row loungers will be taken but there are plenty of loungers at various places around Labadee. It's a matter of personal preference so some will find great value in a cabana while others would rather spend the money on other activities. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2014/07/24/what-you-need-know-about-labadee-cabanas For general Labadee knowledge: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/06/16/labadee-guide-tips And this podcast about Labadee: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/podcast/episode-181-guide-labadee

I think it's a matter of controlling as many unknowns as possible. A ship excursion sailing on a catamaran for example. The whole catamaran can be chartered to only carry ship passengers and they can define requirements for the cat crew to be tested and the cat to be sanitized. Royal defines the type and level of cleaning required. If guests are allowed to book their own sailing excursion there is no way to know who they will come in contact with or if the excursion boat was really sanitized or not which can introduce the opportunity for the virus to spread and then the virus is potentially brought back on board. Some excursions fit this model better than others. Royal can review their excursions and only offer excursion that limit opportunity for spread.

Copies are never acceptable as there is no way to verify authenticity. Only the original raised seal BC is accepted.

There have been times when CAD has been greater than the USD. As a kid I remember taking a school field trip to the US. It blew my mind when I paid for some minor purchase in Canadian and I received more US money back as change. To a kid at the time it seemed like a perpetual money making machine. If we wait long enough who knows what the future may bring. Wouldn't it be cool to be paying less for a cruise and cruise planner purchases compared to Americans? One can always dream...

CWC doesn't provide a refund such as money credited back to your credit card. It does allow your payments to be converted into future cruise credit which you can use to shop for another Royal Caribbean cruise. There is a difference between an actual refund and a credit that can be used in the future. Just wanted you to be clear on that.

Vision class ships like Rhapsody have a cafe in the solarium. During the day they will have things like sandwiches, soup, fruit, salads and potato chips. Late night they might have pizza. However it isn't a sit down venue like the Solarium Bistro on newer ships. On Vision class you grab a sandwich and sit in the solarium seating that everyone else uses. This is also where you typically find the world renowned Kümmelweck roast beef sandwich. On Vision class it isn't a dinner venue, it's more of a breakfast and lunch quick bite sort of place.

I haven't been on Lady G since 2017 but I think you have to be careful reading reviews that "paint" older ships as tired and run down. Radiance class and older are getting up there in age. It's a matter of expectations. If you sail Symphony and enjoy all that modern decor then all of the older ships won't have that vibe. I have a twenty year old car. It's in great shape for a car of this vintage. However it doesn't have that new car smell (or look or feel). It's got some wear here and there but it's in really good shape and I love it. The A/C blows cold air and I upgraded the radio, added bluetooth and some LED interior lighting so it's been refreshed. However some might say it has an old and tired look. Duh! It's twenty years old! But it's still in great shape. Compared to a brand car it doesn't have that new car feel but that doesn't mean it still isn't fun to drive and enjoyable.

I often find myself on longer cruises which have always been $450 deposit unless, sometimes NextCruise has the $100 deposit promotion. Not all cruises at NextCruise qualify. I've never spent much time dwelling on it, sometimes the cruises at Next are standard deposits and sometimes they have $100 deposits. Typically the standard deposits are: three/four/five $100 six/seven/eight $250 nine + $450 Group cruises can deviate from this. Some travel agencies leverage group type rates but don't organize a group cruise specifically. These can sometimes require $250 deposit minimum or sometimes non-standard deposits.

Which ship? Solarium Bistro? Symphony: Ovation: Or are you talking about Radiance or Vision class with a cafe in the solarium?

While we're waiting to come out of warp, I looked down at my watch. It was 5 o'clock.

The Captain gave me permission to stick my head out and snap a picture at warp speed. It's a pretty smooth ride as we skip over the swells but the sea mist stings a bit when it hits at this speed. We should arrive by 5 he said... time for bed.