mattymay

Ovation is a strange one. It does the usual Transpacific (Sydney-Honolulu-Vancouver) in Apr 2025, but then it doesn't make it to Alaska. That means there are 3 (Anthem, Quantum, Ovation) on the US west coast. So there is a chance that any of them could come back I guess, but Ovation has to go 'somewhere' for that 6 months? We might know more in Feb if they show up on the next round of releases.

I like Voyager too. In fact, I'm sailing on her this afternoon. 

It just never got the Amp that Mariner and Navigator got which disappointed a lot of people here. 
"Maybe if we paint the hull RCI blue they won't notice" - someone at RCI
 
I have a Resilient Lady cruise next week out of Melbourne. Feel like I'm cheating on someone 😆, but this is what happens when you don't change things up, people want to try new things. I am hopeful of the Voyager return.

I think he meant 25/26 season. Anthem is in Singapore until Mar 2025, then heads to Alaska to replace Ovation until Sep 2025.
The question is where does Anthem go after that? If you base the answer off previous years, then Alaska ships come to Australia, which would be Anthem and Quantum. But...throw in the poor Quantum sales, the carbon reduction @Chili has info on, and the Voyager returning rumor.. it's really hard to say!
Do we get 2 Quantum's and 1 Voyager? or will they reduce capacity and go with 1 Quantum and 1 Voyager?.. and if so which Quantum?
My uneducated guess is... that they have been reading this blog and see our constant whinging about the same old ships. So... it's Anthem in Sydney and Voyager in Brisbane. It's a long wait until April to find out.. although there might be some hints along the based on other releases.

It just never got the Amp that Mariner and Navigator got which disappointed a lot of people here. 
"Maybe if we paint the hull RCI blue they won't notice" - someone at RCI
 
I have a Resilient Lady cruise next week out of Melbourne. Feel like I'm cheating on someone 😆, but this is what happens when you don't change things up, people want to try new things. I am hopeful of the Voyager return.

It just never got the Amp that Mariner and Navigator got which disappointed a lot of people here. 
"Maybe if we paint the hull RCI blue they won't notice" - someone at RCI
 
I have a Resilient Lady cruise next week out of Melbourne. Feel like I'm cheating on someone 😆, but this is what happens when you don't change things up, people want to try new things. I am hopeful of the Voyager return.

I think he meant 25/26 season. Anthem is in Singapore until Mar 2025, then heads to Alaska to replace Ovation until Sep 2025.
The question is where does Anthem go after that? If you base the answer off previous years, then Alaska ships come to Australia, which would be Anthem and Quantum. But...throw in the poor Quantum sales, the carbon reduction @Chili has info on, and the Voyager returning rumor.. it's really hard to say!
Do we get 2 Quantum's and 1 Voyager? or will they reduce capacity and go with 1 Quantum and 1 Voyager?.. and if so which Quantum?
My uneducated guess is... that they have been reading this blog and see our constant whinging about the same old ships. So... it's Anthem in Sydney and Voyager in Brisbane. It's a long wait until April to find out.. although there might be some hints along the based on other releases.

It just never got the Amp that Mariner and Navigator got which disappointed a lot of people here. 
"Maybe if we paint the hull RCI blue they won't notice" - someone at RCI
 
I have a Resilient Lady cruise next week out of Melbourne. Feel like I'm cheating on someone 😆, but this is what happens when you don't change things up, people want to try new things. I am hopeful of the Voyager return.

I recieved a survey from Royal which was all about South Pacific options and to rate them. Places like Solomon Is. PNG, Apia, etc 

Yeah, we also booked an Italy and Croatia cruise in 2025 on Voyager.

I've solved the lack of variety issue by booking Star of the Seas for 2026. Used up the entire years cruise budget in one go! 😆

This is true!
Haha.. will be doing my best to avoid Qantas. Our luggage showed up 10 days later, after we got off Wonder we had to drive to MCO airport and collect them from American Airlines baggage services. 

This is true!
Haha.. will be doing my best to avoid Qantas. Our luggage showed up 10 days later, after we got off Wonder we had to drive to MCO airport and collect them from American Airlines baggage services. 

I've solved the lack of variety issue by booking Star of the Seas for 2026. Used up the entire years cruise budget in one go! 😆

I've solved the lack of variety issue by booking Star of the Seas for 2026. Used up the entire years cruise budget in one go! 😆

I don't know if any of this will happen any time soon.  The US is Royals biggest market and according to a few surveys done in recent years between 70% - 85% of American's have never been on a cruise ship.  If we go with 70% that means 30% of us have been on a cruise ship however between 8% -10% have taken their first cruise within the past 24 months.
 The number of first time cruisers in this country has just exploded in recent years and I think its driving Royals decisions not only in Australia/New Zealand but if you look at Europe Royal isn't sending as many ships to Europe in 2024 or 2025 as they've done in the past.  Instead they choosing to keep more ships here stateside as a result of that insatiable demand here in the US.  
When Royal finally settled on Icon's size and also order 2 additional Oasis Class ships their original plan wasn't to have this much capacity here in the US.  Yet here we are just weeks away from Icon launching and months away from Utopia launching.  Royal will have 6 Oasis Class ships and an Icon Class ship sailing from the US to somewhere in the Caribbean come mid-November 2024 when Royal ends their European season for the winter.  It's looking like come winter (November) of 2025 there will be 2 Icon Class and 6 Oasis Class ships sailing from ports here in the US.  I don't know if anyone prior to the pandemic shutdown thought we'd see this type of demand from the US.  And its largely being driven and sustained by first time cruisers.  Many of those first time cruisers are experiencing this form of vacation simply based on word of mouth from people they know and trust. 
For people like you and even like me (I love to travel the world its one of the reason's I decided to work for an airline) Royal focusing more on first time cruisers, the ship being the destination, families with small children means we have less options when it come to the ports we can visit. For you and people in Europe that means less ships, less options less ports.  I do believe at some point this phase the cruise industry is in here in the US will come to an end.  I think it could happen by 2027 or 2028 which I'll admit is a long ways away but I don't think we've yet hit the peak of this insatiable demand here in the US.  Once we hit that peak and demand starts to wane Royal will once again have to look at destinations and offer more of a variety of cruises especially as those first time cruisers become repeat cruisers.

Celebrity Edge in Sydney this morning.
 

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