twangster

Anything is possible at this point.
It is almost certain Royal will deploy all new ship builds where they they will maximize revenue.  I think Royal tends not to put very much weight on factors such as which market is being served by a new ship for emotional considerations and guest sentiment.  When they consider all things it will come down to how much money they project a ship will earn.  If deployment choice A means more certainty of assured revenue over deployment choice B then it will be deployment choice A.
Things like "a new ship hasn't been deployed in XYZ market in years" mean very little to Royal while guests in market XYZ let emotions influence where they think the ship should go.  Royal cares about money first as they should.  The board and investors who approved the ship want their investment maximized.  
If it is Barcelona then it is Barcelona because they feel it was the best choice to assure maximum revenue.  

Diamond drink vouchers work at Labadee.  
Diamond/Diamond Plus internet vouchers do not work at Labadee unless you stay on the ship.  Labadee has no WiFi coverage while CocoCay does have WiFi coverage.  Using a CAS internet voucher as the ship pulled into Labadee would waste a lot of that CAS internet voucher if you planned to get off the ship at Labadee.

Got your mouse ears on tonight?  🙂 

The point was now open so I ventured out for a look.

Walking along the fort the little bit of cloud cover has burned off and it's a beautiful day in full sunshine.

With the ship in full sunlight I stopped at the overlook again for more pictures.


Finishing at the base of pier the area was much busier now so a few last photos of the ship.

Guests were streaming onto the roller coaster and by now zip liners were making their flight over water.

These featherweights stalled at the bottom and needed a rope assist to finish their journey.

More guests have been strolling off the ship and it was getting harder to take photos without guests in the pictures so it was time for a Labadee tradition.
The Labradoozie Society was calling my name.

A quick stop at Barefoot Beach before it was heavily populated with suite guests for the day.

Next over to Nellie's Beach.

And on to Columbus Cove.


A short stroll through the artisan's market.

Then over to Adrenaline Beach.


It's an absolutely fantastic day here at Labadee.

Our arrival was on time without any special announcements.


Right on time the gangway was open and off I went, nearly first off the ship.

Being early off means the usual instagram photos spots were void of fellow passengers.


I walked up the nature path to the overlook for another view of the ship.



Around the fort the path to the point was closed but I later found it was open so back to that in a bit.   Meanwhile... it's a normal day in paradise.

I didn't plan to do a full live report from this short 4 night cruise on Liberty from Port Everglades with a single stop in Labadee, Haiti.  However Haiti has been in the news lately and so I thought I'd at least post some Labadee photos to illustrate Labadee is still as beautiful as it has always been.  
I booked this cruise at the last minute just three days before the sail date.  Haiti has been in the news since before I booked this cruise yet on Friday morning when I saw a relatively okay cruise fare that was open for solo cruisers to book I had no hesitation booking this cruise. 
I've been to Labadee countless times and I'm very familiar with the social economic and political background of Haiti.  There is no need to visit any of that in this thread.
I'm here in Labadee as I write this, back on the ship after a two and half mile walk around Labadee.
 

Spoiler alert - It's still beautiful here and I still love Labadee.
Next up, some photos...

3x disowned isn't that much worse from 1x disowned.
Go big or go home.  

More importantly Edge class goes through the Panama Canal.

One thing about this class - they have the smokiest casinos from across the fleet.  Majesty used to be really bad.  With her gone the Radiance class take the award for smokiest casinos.  
They try to place a small portable HEPA style standalone filter somewhere and call that the non-smoking area but ships this old don't have the ventilation systems in the casino and as you can imagine a small portable standalone filter in a wide open smoking space accomplishes nothing.  
No ship in this class has a better or less smoky casino.  Learn the deck plans and find another way forward or aft to reach the theater if smoke bothers you.     

I've always favored Brilliance and Serenade.  Both were updated with LED lighting in the Centrum and a few other discrete upgrades that may be missed by many.
Radiance always feels a little tired to me in contrast to her sisters.  I still sail Radiance and would again in a heartbeat but to be honest and fair it does feel the most tired to me.
Jewel is probably my least favorite and that is in a large part due to the NASCAR bar.  This bar is open to the casino so basically it's a smoking area.  Good luck enjoying a drink if you don't smoke.  The others in class have a distinct pub that has passages to the casino but are not wide open to the casino.  The first few feet of these pubs may get smokey but the bar area of these pubs do not.  The NASCAR bar on Jewel just feels very dated and is usually empty except when a show lets out and transitory guests going somewhere else stop to acquire a beverage.     
There are subtle differences such as a Centrum staircase on some, deck 11 balcony cabins on one but not the others, an oceanview suite off the Centrum on some but not others, Centrum hanging art on one, and the number, location and types of specialty dining venues varies.
Having said all that I do have 27 nights coming up on Jewel so even though her NASCAR bar sucks it's not enough to prevent me from sailing her.  Itineraries matter.  The ship less so. They are more alike than different.  Pick based on itinerary and price.

Tragic.

The problem with stating absolutes is that someone, somewhere, some time, will have had an experience where it was enforced.
Chef's Table used to be more stringent than it is now for example.  Chef's Table is supposed to be formal.  

Tragic.

Tragic.

Tragic.

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The balcony discount gets better as you climb higher up the CAS ladder.  Unfortunately it is not a fixed amount off all balcony fares.  The balcony discount is often not combinable with other sales promotions and you will likely find that, depending on the ship and sail date, at the lower levels of the Crown and Anchor Society other sales and promotions can yield a better fare.
It all depends on the ship and sail date so maybe it will work out for you on one cruise but not another.  As you climb higher the discounts increases and more frequently it becomes effective.  
As advised I would not wait 3 months to find out.  If you see a cruise you like I'd suggest booking it now.  
 

More importantly Edge class goes through the Panama Canal.

Expedition cruising only works with small loads such as <250. 
Expedition cruising works best under 200 guests, at 229 last week it felt crowded and the volume of guests impacted the ability of the expedition team to deal with everyone compared to a prior expedition cruise with only 98 guests on board.
I don't see Royal Caribbean International ever doing expedition cruising.  Expedition cruising is so far from the mass market nature of RCI it would not be a good fit and would cost substantially more than the mass market cruiser would pay.  Silversea expedition cruises cost a lot of money, substantially more than the non-expedition "Classic" ships in the Silversea fleet.     
Celebrity expedition cruising in the Galapagos is pretty close to the same price as Silversea in the same region so there is no secret sauce to offering a budget expedition cruise.  You can't do expeditions with large numbers, it just doesn't work given the time it takes to load zodiacs and deal with large numbers of guests doing wet landings on shore in places where local regulations often don't allow for more  than 100 passengers on land at any given moment.  This is exactly the appeal to expedition cruising. 
Expedition cruising involves small guests populations and that just isn't the RCI way of how they generate profit.  

The balcony discount gets better as you climb higher up the CAS ladder.  Unfortunately it is not a fixed amount off all balcony fares.  The balcony discount is often not combinable with other sales promotions and you will likely find that, depending on the ship and sail date, at the lower levels of the Crown and Anchor Society other sales and promotions can yield a better fare.
It all depends on the ship and sail date so maybe it will work out for you on one cruise but not another.  As you climb higher the discounts increases and more frequently it becomes effective.  
As advised I would not wait 3 months to find out.  If you see a cruise you like I'd suggest booking it now.  
 

The balcony discount gets better as you climb higher up the CAS ladder.  Unfortunately it is not a fixed amount off all balcony fares.  The balcony discount is often not combinable with other sales promotions and you will likely find that, depending on the ship and sail date, at the lower levels of the Crown and Anchor Society other sales and promotions can yield a better fare.
It all depends on the ship and sail date so maybe it will work out for you on one cruise but not another.  As you climb higher the discounts increases and more frequently it becomes effective.  
As advised I would not wait 3 months to find out.  If you see a cruise you like I'd suggest booking it now.  
 

The next several scheduled cruises for Brilliance:
April 4 - 8 Night South Pacific
April 17 - 17 Night Transpacific
April 28 - 8 Night Hawaii
May 6 - 6 Night Alaska