twangster

I'm sorry a family member got sick but didn't you read what you purchased? With respect it's not shameful. I had to walk away from a cruise when my daughter graduated from the military. I got zero back after paying in full. I had zero expectations that they would bend the rules for me. I knew the cancellation policy so when it applied it wasn't a surprise or shameful. If I book a non-refundable plane ticket I don't expect the airlines to refund me if I don't need to fly anymore. If you buy a brand new car and wreck it on the first day you still have to pay for it. That's the way contracts and life works. It's not easy to sell cruise cabins with just a few months to go before sailing. Most people make bookings many months or years in advance. They'll likely lose money now that they'll have to drop the price hoping to find someone who can sail in your cabin. Why should they lose money when you back out of the contract?

Exactly. Vision and Radiance don't have adult slides, zip lines, bumper cars, skating rinks, laser tag, skypads, etc. So in that sense they are already more Celebrity-like in terms of activities. If you are willing to go without all that, Celebrity should be in anyone's search criteria now. Just as Royal may transition to a bigger ship line, Celebrity can also expand it's target audience to pick up the RCI small ship market.

No different than an airline - show your ID and ask them to print one for you. Checking in once at Bayonne and they didn't like my printed SetSail pass used for boarding so they printed me a new one. As long as you have checked in online you technically can show up with nothing (other than passport) and still board the ship. Might take a little longer but this is the worst case scenario fall back plan.

My money is on RCCL better aligning the loyalty programs between Royal and Celebrity. Perhaps even earning points in a combined program when sailing either line. Then Royal can focus on the mass family market with big ships while Celebrity can service routes with their smaller fleet. With tighter integration between loyalty programs there will be less incentive to leave the family.

Even Anthem tenders at CocoCay. Besides, whose to say Royal will always offer itineraries that require small ships? If they can make more money or be more profitable on big ship itineraries why do small ship ones? Sure, as long as they have small ships in the fleet, they'll operate those itineraries, but they are not going to keep or add small ships just to do small ship routes. When the time comes in the future to lose Vision and later Radiance, they'll stop doing small routes. Look in the future. Far into the future. Twenty years from now. Thirty years from now. Now build a timeline from present to that future time. At some point on that time line Vision no longer exists. At some point on that time line Radiance doesn't exist. At some point on that time line Voyager doesn't exist. At some point along that time line they'll stop offering the routes they offer today that require small ships.

The trial was short lived. It's expanded to many ships since then. It's pretty easy for them to implement, I'd assume it's already being provided on your ship.

The pier tends to be the long walk, the taxi stand is 5 minutes through the port area. From the ship maybe a 10-15 minute walk to the taxis.

That sure beats Canada where only 17.5% claim to be able to hold a conservation in two different languages.

The computers are pretty locked down - web browser only that resets every 5 minutes when idle to wipe out any cached data. My question would if if the USB ports are locked down or not? Most of the ones I've seen don't provide access to the desktop or any file utilities to perform a copy. They are locked down to just allow the web browser to function. To be fair though, I've never tried to access the USB ports.

Most Mariner cabins have two 110v outlets (North American style) and one 220v power port (European style). They can't add extra outlets in a room. I bring a plug adapter that allows me to use the 220v power port as well as the 110v outlets. https://shop.cruisehabit.com/products/2-to-1-eu-to-us-power-adapter-gain-extra-outlets-in-your-stateroom?variant=37171684299 Note this doesn't change the voltage from 220v down to 110v it just makes the 220v appear on a North American style outlet. Consequently anything you plug into it must be capable of accepting 220v. Many but not all modern devices are ready to accept 220v. Phone charges, CPAP machines, laptop chargers, etc. Many (but not all) of them can be plugged into 220v outlets. This can free up the remaining two North American outlets for other things. Before using an adapter like this, make sure your devices can accept 220v.

When i first learned to dive 35 years ago it was all instructor led and required many hours sitting a classroom. When i got my daughter certified in 2013 I went through it like I had never dived before. Much it it now is done on a tablet in an app at home replacing the tedious hours in a classroom. The two pool dives done at home or if you do it on the ship are done on sea days and early in the day typically before pools open to the public. I don't know if Royal will do just the two open water check dives to complete it. I know you can often make arrangements with a dive shop in a Caribbean country to do the check dives but that's something you work out directly with the dive shop in advance.

I see. It's true, I didn't factor in the 0.001% I'd earn in my bank account... ?

Ketchikan isn't normally on the Seattle itineraries for Royal like it is for Celebrity. For whatever reason, Royal only goes there on the one-way North/South runs on Radiance Class.

Two OBC pitfall scenarios to watch out for: 1. Celebrity promos often include OBC per guest. I had a situation where my +1 couldn't come at the last minute. Her OBC was lost. Had there been no OBC but lower fares, it would have been a better outcome. 2. Had to cancel a cruise at the last minute without a covered reason for insurance purposes. With an OBC component in the effective price, my losses were higher because i still had to pay (and lose) the higher base fare without an opportunity to offset that with OBC. You can argue these are remote possibilities yet if you cruise enough it can happen. Both have to me.

Only for you ?

Hmmm. Need option 4. Lowest effective final price of cruise regardless how its derived. To me I don't care if how it's presented, what is the final price? Fare $3,000, OBC $100 = final cost of $2,900 Fare $2,900, OBC $0 = final cost of $2,900 Fare $3,500, OBC $500 = final cost of $3,000 <- bad deal and this is often what I get at NextCruise (a bad deal with lots of OBC).

Fixed.

What are you talking about? All of my pictures are here... Just Kidding - finally fixed them ?

They gather people in the theater to be ready to disembark as soon as possible. If they try to gather people at the published arrival time some people are always late. By ‘starting’ an excursion before the publushed arrival time it better ensures everyone is there and they can stream groups off as soon as the ship is cleared without waiting for the inevitable stragglers In some cases where tenders are involved at some ports the ship might have an 8 am ‘published’ arrival time, excursion tenders can run before those open to other non-excursion guests.

Just wait until it's your turn to pay for the next wall.

The pier was originally supposed to be completed nearly a year ago. March 2018, then June 2018, then December 2018, then January 2018, then March 2019. It's a complex project that has been years in the making clearing protests and environmental hurdles along the way. If their construction contractor (an American company by the way) notifies them of another delay they have no choice but to alter more sailings where they intended to have two Vision class ships share the pier. That's the nature of construction underwater - sometimes you get into the project and discover something that calls for another approach and re-engineering. Let's be clear, the impacted cruises involved two ships that were supposed to use the pier on the same day. No pier, only one ship can visit that day. On the itineraries that were impacted they stopped advertising CocoCay many months ago. I just sailed one of them. There were a handful of itineraries that were impacted. That's it. No other ships impacted. They are not just randomly cancelling calls to CocoCay. The intent was to have two Vision class ships share the new pier. That will eventually happen. When the pier wasn't ready for those ships that were double booked they had to make a decision and one of the two ships had to find an alternate port. For me on Vision last week we went to Miami instead. That was changed and we were notified many, many months ago. They stopped selling that cruise with CocoCay listed long before final payment due date. For OP on Grandeur she was diverted to Grand Bahamas. Same deal - Grandeur lost and Enchantment lucked out. There remain some Vision and Grandeur itineraries that were not impacted. Next week for example the Vision ports of call are reversed in order compared to what I just sailed. As a result, she isn't double booked with Enchantment into CocoCay. That's why they continued to sell that particular Vision cruise with CocoCay still listed - it's still going there. Not bait and switch.

The other problem with Radiance class is that they have the smallest number of suites in the fleet. Even Vision class, Empress and Majesty have equal or more suites. Royal is all about suites. I'm not saying they are going away soon, they'll let them live out their life cycle. If they can sell off the Vision class maybe Baltimore will get one.

Celebrity. Royal may very well become a large(r) ship line with all ships over 130K GT. Voyager class has some longevity yet - that's why they are AMPING them. No single line can try be everything, it's possibly better to focus on the mass family crowd that wants FlowRiders and Laser Tag and Slides and Skypads. Let Celebrity focus on smaller markets, or *GASP* create a new brand in the RCCL family.

Every goes at some point. By the time OA 5 comes around Radiance is in it's 20th year in service. In the 10 year view we are talking 2029 and all Radiance class will be >25 years old. Having owned a classic car they are a lot of fun but you get tried of them constantly breaking down. A 30 year old ship is a liability. They are not here forever.

MSC is creating one, Disney is adding a second. I'm sure NCL is out there looking too. RCCL needs them to port a growing fleet. With all lines adding more ships they need places to sail.