Traveler

That's crazy.

Yes you can have new offers for money , after all its  a business but you do it with something that is easily distinguish between that and a current free offer. For example: No one  complained  about the sugar beach with its extra charges for candy and premium ice cream, on the other hand if you will add some  sprinklers to the free ice cream in the pool  and try to charge for it you will have riots. 

I start to wonder if RCL IT department started to give marketing advices to the management.

And now, as a lesson learned from the Pizza survey fiasco,  10 $ to answer surveys,  500 $ to publish the survey.

2 hours ago, Ogilthorpe said:

"The Gift" ... still included at no charge 

The Gift will be for free , 100$ for explaining it.

Also Cats will be free but a 500$ fine for whoever leave it before the end. 

2 hours ago, dogs4thewin said:

Are these real ideas ( honest questions as some of them it is hard to tell the e-muster and tender boats mostly.  

Hopefully not but hey you never know...

48 minutes ago, TeRriii said:

Shower Charge for $5 / 15 minutes.

You can pre purchase "Unlimited Shower Experience" for $10 / day.

Or you may buy "The Master Key" that include "USE"

Flushing poop still FOC.

And add to that , it 5$ for 15 minutes but 30 $ if you want also hot water .

The survey asking if we will pay money for Sorentos made me think why to stop there. Here some more creative ideas for RCL:

Weight the plates in the WJ and pay by the pound. 

Want Emuster ? Pay extra otherwise you are back to the regular crowded muster.

All cabin doors to be removed , want privacy ? It's extra, diamonds will get free transparent shower  curtains,  D+ will get free transparent door and pineapples will get a real door but without a latch.

Quest challenge lidt can be purchased the day before , same for Love and Marriage. 

Tender boat tickets will cost money,  people will be able to swim to port for free. 

For dinner time you can choose between 5 to 5:15 PM , want another slot ? It's extra.

Extra charge the comedy show if you don't want to be the star of the show.

Jacuzzi will be coin operated,  the good news, you can use your key to charge it to you room.

The flowrider will still be free you just need to pay if you want it filed with water.

At the end of the cruise at the exit you will need to be weight , every extra pound you gain during the cruise will be charged. 

Charge 4500$ for a 7 hour use of the over the water cabanas , oh wait ...

35 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Are those numbers a guess or you know what the numbers actually are? That's interesting if it is those numbers. 

Examples only.

When the second Icon will come prices will go down slightly.  Currently beside big demands I think RCL trying to keep the price high for marketing.  The fact is they started to offer comp Icons cabins in the casino certificates ...  

Same I always wonder if anyone really paying 4500 $ for a 7 hours of over the water cabin or they after they sold out they publish this fair so people will fill good for the 2500-3000 price they paid .

4 hours ago, Geezer Of The Seas said:

Curious about the methodology used to select survey recipients. My wife and I both received it, veterans of a whopping 3 cruises.  What was their rationale? Booking history? Accommodations booked? Onboard spending? Personal demographic (old people)?  Recent trip? Inquiring minds..............

When doing a survey they are looking for just the right samples to represent thier customer. I guess I  this can they want a mix of veterans cruisers,   one time cruisers in somewhere I  the middle so the analyze of the results will be something  like : in total 70% said they will not pay for Sorentos, 5% said they will and 25%: "calling g Sorentos a pizza is against the low" out of it 85% diamonds , 89% pinnacles and 60% gold answered they don't like it

20 hours ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Wow, just freaking wow. This is truly the twilight zone. So you can't complain about a rumored change. Ok, got it, I will pay by everyone else's rules. Thanks

You cam complain and I think you are right. This is the time to do it before they make the change , after it will be done it will be harder.

By the way, beside .asking survey companies like RCL are also tending to use social media scans to check trends about their company and about hot topics related to that.

23 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Hubby got booted too for that reason a few nights! 

That was my spouse favorite part of the ATS when we did our cruise in Symphony , apparently many use it as the snoring room   

I think currently the key are with new customers which might spend more on board. More drinking packages, more special  "one time" sells, more willing to pay for activities which were free before . Also, new cruisers can not compare with  past experiences of food quality and once a day room cleaning. If there are more and more new cruisers it's OK for Royal for people not to cruise 5 times a year ...

Still, the loyal cruisers are important when things will go downhill again.

Happy anniversary. 

The secret with Hooked is to eat there at the day they get fresh supplies . I always try to find out what is the port which they are restocking. 

11 hours ago, Neesa said:

@tonyfsu21 staff has enough to do on this huge ship, no "wonder" they don't pay attention to the deck 18 sundeck anymore.

Sadly since it's virtually impossible to keep the hallway doors secured Royal needs to make the doors out to the sun deck open by sea pass card only, like dare I say DCL.. otherwise it will remain if you can find it you can use it.

Why pay extra for the amenity if you don't have to. It was unbelievable by probably day 3 that the most favorable loungers were "taken" by guests who had regular sea pass cards.

It made me feel like an idiot paying for the suite neighborhood for sure. 

 

Securing the door to open only with sea pass will help but not enough as people can easily piggyback when one is opening the door. What they may do is maybe to locate a sundeck concierge near the door as part of the towel station.

On Odyssey we got the door hanger also.

On 7/3/2023 at 3:05 AM, Rackham said:

I might be misunderstanding the European market for Royal, but I doubt an Icon-class will be positioned there for at least the first three ships. Europe is like Alaska in that it's port of call focused for the most part. The ship is less of the destination, versus in the Caribbean, so it doesn't make sense to run a ship class on these itineraries designed to draw people in due to the ship's resort amenities. Plus, Royal's going to want to run Icon-class where cruising and private island days are equal or greater than number of port days to maximize revenue capture too.

My bet is on Miami, Port Canaveral, and Galveston receiving the first three Icon-class ships.

First , European cruise currency is summer only for RCL (at least until 2025 were we might see one winter itinerary). Second , for the last 10 years there is an Oasis class ship doing the most must see ports and most of the time it's or fully booked or very near to that with prices range as much as twice for interior cabin comparing to the Caribbean market. It's actually depends when the ship is ready. If the ship will be ready at April you might see it going out from Europe considering it is being build in Europe.  If it will be ready during October and behind it will go directly to the US market. I think that what happened to Icon 1, it was planned to start from the UK but when the date was pushed it moved to the US. I don't think Royal will have all 3 Icons all the time in the US as it will impact the revenue of the 5 Oasis class ships (that is 1 of  the six Oasis is offering short itinerary) ...

But that is just my opinion.

Happy to hear you finally arrived, have great time in Orlando. Now just think if you did not have Disney plans and you would fly the regular day before ...

For the taxi driver just give the ship name but make sure you are booking you ride with a taxi driver that has permits to enter the port other wise he will need to drop you at port shuttle bus terminal.  The exact peer might change.

Going of the ship you don't pass any immigration 

46 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Thanks for blogging @Traveler! I always enjoy your blogs. Very informative. Picking up little bits of info here and there for our med cruise next year. Have a safe trip back home!

Thanks, we already landed at home yesterday. Rome is much closer for us than Miami. 

Let me know if you have any questions regarding your next year port of calls.

Last day .

We arrived back to Civitavecchia around 5 am.

Our flight was scheduled to 10 am , the next flight was around 10 pm and cost almost twice so we decided take our chance as it was Sunday and not much traffic. We booked a private transfer at 6:45 am . 5:50 am the alarm went on and we start to get organized , we had some fruit from yesterday for breakfast but we also had time for a quick bite at WJ. At 6:30 am the ship was cleared and we took our luggage and went to the terminal.  No queues at all (and no immigration or custom) RC people guided us to the private transfer area just on the right side if the terminal. The driver was already waiting for us and at 6:45 we started our way to the airport.  We used Rome taxi service as we saw here some recommendations , they were not wrong. We arrived to the airport at 7:40 , check in was 5 minutes,  security 7 minutes and passport control was 25 minutes for me and 5 minutes to my spouse that has biometric passport. By that time the flight had 30 minutes delay already and we got more than an hour to spent in the airline  lounge. Flight back was OK (although delayed) and after several hours we were at home. 

Some thoughts 

We loved this itinerary as it had good ship time with port time.

Ship is very nice and look and feel big and not crowded , only thing we were missing was the ice ring. The only venue which I think is over used is the 270 , it's just not big enough for some of the events. Now we need to start our diet for our next cruise. 

9 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

They stopped serving lobster on Odyssey in CK??

Yes , I think they stopped serving it while in Europe. There is still a lobster salad...

56 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Wait? What? Are you on an 8 night cruise? How did that happen?

7 night cruise but I think since they stop serving lobsters maybe they decide to do two nights of the filet... 

Day 7 - Sea day.

Today was our second sea day , it was suppose to be a port day but since we had the change in ports we enjoy it. I prefer to end the cruise with a sea day always. Breakfast was in  the diamond club,  following WJ after we spotted people eating cherrys,  as you can see we found the the honeypot:-) , love cherrys 

I went to the captain corner to hear if any new news about one of the projects, nothing really new but still it was interesting at noon time they hosted the nightmare kitchen which was first time for us as they not doing this game on most of the ships. It a compilation between two teams to cook 3 course meal from products they have to collect in 1 minute. In between , the cruise director change the rules like changing products or switch stations. Each team also getting one real chef to work with thenIt was fun but results were already predicted by having one team with children only.

For lunch we went to 270, salds and some melting cheese sandwiches. There was one special show with the ships vocals. Dinner was at the CK again  we were happy to see day one menu appeared with the filet mignon, 

it was called @Lovetocruise2002 night.

Once again service and food was not disappointing.  Next was the Gold Art duo in a 45 minutes acrobatics/ circuses show.  Silent party was organized on  the promenade and it was very busy. We went to pack our luggage and prepare for early embarkation day.

Day 6 Chania, Greece.

The Chania stop was  not planned but added after Salerno port was canceled. That was not a big issue to us although I wanted to have a tour in the Amalfi cost, we'll next time.

There is a shuttle bus that takes you to Chania from the port and its  20 minutes ride . Usually it cost 3 E but this time it was free , maybe due to the last minute port change. Chania is a lovely port city with nice old port and a decent archeological museum.

Chania also a very good place to taste Greek food and for some local shopping. We took the 10 am bus and started to walk into the old port. 

The port:

Water were crystal clear 

Time past fast and we went to catch a snack and headed back to the ship. The last shuttle bus was scheduled to around 2 pm so we opted for the 1 pm bus. It took us some time to find it as many of the streets looks the same but I took a picture of one of the stores next to it which help us to find it. There was a queue of 3 busses by the time we arrived and I guess a 10 busses queue by the time we went on the bus , always it's good idea not to wait for the last minute.  Going back to the ship was fast and we went to El Loco fresh for q quick bite, there are serving sour cream who ever is asking. 

Who said they not allowing pets on board :

For dinner we decided to give a try to the main dining room. Service was good and fast although we have been asked many times were we have been hiding until now. 

The melon avocado salad was very refreshing:

The spicy shrimp was RC spicy level which mean not notable but still good

After dinner we went to see the showgirl show , it was good and we might see it again.

The layer club was next (it was with the captain) followed by the quest , both in 270. The venue was packed and everyone came with high energy, by the way the 270 was always packed , I think some of the activities  needs to move to a bigger place. Our team was doing well (guess who came with cruise compas , extra belt and a 20 Dollar note) but due to unfair judgment we came only in the second place.

Tomorrow sea day.