twangster

The biggest issue I have with the OPT is that the waiting area for boarding is outside, in the sun, or possibly in the rain. As ships grow in size this issue scales proportionally with more time spent in the outdoor waiting area as ships increase in size. Terminals in less desirable areas can work. Bayonne and Fort Lauderdale are prime examples and both handle Oasis class. Even Miami isn't an intersting port isolated out there on Dodge Island without any shops, bars or restaurants. The lack of an abundance of international direct flights is an issue for Brisbane, the industrial nature of the port in Brisbane less so. I now find myself on the Quantum TP leaving Sydney in 2025 (moved from Ovation). I was tempted to book the preceding 2 night repo cruise from Brisbane to Sydney but Brisbane is a pain to get to. So instead I'm probably going to just do the TP and lose the South Pacific cruise before that I had booked on Ovation. Brisbane port being less scenic than Sydney isn't a factor for me. Getting to Brisbane is.

It’s bad enough folks are using this forum to post other cruise line trip reports. Doing a train live thread here is even further far fetched.

It's not very hard to finance a new build when they have iconic numbers to show as predictions for estimated returns. That billion dollar+ ship also secures that billion dollar new debt for that new ship so it's a lot different than spending a billion fixing up old ships or servicing $40B in debt for example. Cost cutting and new charges are a way of the mass market cruise industry. Everyone who plays in the mass market space is doing it. Cost cutting or "service optimization" does allow debt to be repaid faster. As much as I hate the service changes I also recognize why investors would demand it. The company also has to keep the future on the radar screen. All these mega ships generating mega profit will allow them to work on a smaller less profitable platform such as Discovery. More LNG capable ships prepares them for when they will have no choice but to get rid of Voyager and Freedom class. That day isn't in the near term but it's not that far off either.

The problem is no one wants pretty but polluting ships. More regions are strengthening emission requirements. Making guest areas pretty is really lipstick on a pig if they don't replace or retrofit the now very old engines. Thinking this through... Radiance class use jet turbines engines so they are not the same bunker based engines that most ships around the world use. Those jet engines are now 20+ year jet engines. No airlines runs the original 20 year jet turbines, most western based airlines operate newer jet turbines and even those newer jet engines are under attack for not being clean enough or green enough. There have been some concepts put forth for converting old bunker based fuel oil engines to run biofuel but so far this hasn't been attempted at large scale in the cruise industry. That concept doesn't apply to jet turbines engines with no clear manner to convert very old jet turbines to run biofuel. Nor has biofuel been offered in bulk at cruise ports around the world. Placing jet turbines in Radiance class was a great idea in their time but that time has long past. Those jet turnibers may just make Radiance class prime to eliminate from the fleet albeit for different reasons than eliminating Vision class. Silversea is part of the same parent company to which Royal and Celebrity belong. They did do full retrofits of old ships of the same vintage as Radiance class. The interiors of those ships look brand new. Despite that Silversea is aiming to eliminate those old ships over the next few years despite just recently investing heavily into retrofits. I think with that expensive lesson learned it is unlikely that Radiance will receive anything other than basic marine maintenance they are forced to do to keep the ships registered.

Booked it last year for summer 2024.

In fairness Royal's executive team has a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders. That comes way ahead of building ships that a small subset of return guest desire. I agree with your assessment though. Most of my research now is going into exotic train journeys which come with stops at various places with excursions. They are like a cruise on rails with very good food, like Michelin rated food. My first train trip will take place this summer. There is one in Peru, several across Australia and New Zealand that look really interesting. Some of them are less than a balcony on Icon.

I've moved on to sacrificing Royal trinkets such as keychains, highlighters and single use backpacks.

6218 is an obstructed balcony cabin where the lifeboats are stored just off the balcony. For the most part you can look over the top of the lifeboat which is around the height of the balcony railing. From the balcony of 6218 you should not have a lifeboat davit directly in front of you but there is a davit in front of the next cabin forward of 6218. This may be in your view when looking forward or to the right. If you look carefully in the photo below you can see a lifeboat visible through the glass of the balcony. Looking over the top of the lifeboat you can see the ocean in the distance but the view down towards the sea right beside the ship is blocked by the lifeboat. Here are some additional photos that illustrate how the lifeboats are stored relative to the deck cabins. In this last photo you can see the white davits or towers that hold the lifeboats. Some deck 6 obstructed balcony cabins have one of these davits directly in front of their balcony. That shouldn't be the case for 6218.

It’s a fixed view from a camera mounted on the bridge.

That's one possibility. Another is sending her to the Atlantic. Odyssey lacks the indoor family pool that is very popular out of Bayonne with two sea days leaving and two sea days returning on most itineraries. Those tend to be cooler sea days year round but especially in the winter months. It appears Quantum stays in the Pacific which makes sense as she has bilingual signage already and is high roller casino ready. Second to Spectrum, Quantum is the most Asia ready alternate for Spectrum to augment or be available when Spectrum dry docks. I suspect Anthem stays in Australia to give that market something different, splitting her time with Alaska. That leaves Ovation. Ovation to Bayonne checks a couple boxes including a new to Bayonne ship for that market just as Anthem is something new for Australia. Time will tell.

Water is heavy. The fountain has a large water storage tank. The later OA class were built without Rising Tide fountains so that weight could be used elsewhere and the space for the tank used for other purposes.

Refundable uplift shows on the final page right before making a deposit.

Let's face it, Royal doesn't want the Vision class ships but they have no place to dump them with Pullmantur gone. So they run them into the ground. People book them, then complain, but there are enough new to cruise and loyalist booking them so why accelerate the last ride to a beach in Turkey we all know is overdue?

Pretty sure Vision class was too dirty for Alaska so they replaced her with Serenade the year she was supposed to do Alaska leaving EN in the Atlantic. The following year Brilliance became the 2nd RD class Vancouver based ship for Alaska. She (EN) probably would have failed to qualify for the NZ sounds as well.

Yes, it's been officially blessed and frequently tested on group cruises.

With the current buffet offering on Royal that would result in a growing reduction in GT.

With only Odyssey in the Atlantic basin it stands to reason they could bring another Q class over from the Pacific. Odyssey doesn't make sense from Bayonne in the winter, the indoor family pool found on the earlier Q class is very popular on those two sea days in and two sea days out of Bayonne. I'm booked on OV for a B3B, April 3, April 12 and April 29. The first two show "closed" but as we are learning from other passengers the middle TP has been cancelled. No word on the other two, yet. There are so many possibilities so I'm just going to sit back and wait. I'm tempted to do a train across Australia instead. Maybe The Ghan or Indian Pacific or both. Might have to change to another season and think about a TP another time. I'm growing increasingly frustrated with their silence. They know what they are going to do but for some reason they won't tell us. I need to firm up my 2025 plans so it may not include Royal Caribbean at this point, at least down under.

CAS voucher drinks can be shared but you'll need to order the drink and tell the waitstaff or bartender that you want to use a diamond voucher for their drink. Since you have the drink package from being Star it is important to tell them to use a diamond voucher otherwise it appears you are suggesting to share drink package drinks with them which is not allowed. The point is you need to be present to order the drink, you can't transfer vouchers. They can't order their own drinks with them. That may not always be convenient.

Just to clarify... Studio cabins for solo cruisers don't earn double points. These studio solo cabins can only hold one person. A regular cabin designed for two guests when booked by a solo cruiser will earn double points if you are paying the single supplement fee. Are you in a studio solo cabin or double occupancy cabin and you are paying the single supplement fee?

Ask for a new copy. Tell your TA you can't find it.

If a new copy of the invoice still says ZI then I would keep that as my expectation.

I've been eyeing short Carnival for weekend getaways. Royal's short weekend program here is high and goes up once Utopia arrives. I'm a few cruises short of platinum on CCL so maybe it's time to fix that.

Request a copy of your invoice. It has the category on it. Quantum class has limited ocean view cabins. Weird to upgrade someone to this category but anything is possible.

I Wonder what ship might go there next? https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2024/01/25/royal-caribbean-rumor-wonder-of-the-seas-galveston

How are Voom speeds?