ultimate_ed

Looks like he'll stay on as Chairman of the Board. I imagine there will be a fairly long transition, though it looks like they've been planning for a while to insure a smooth hand over. Quite the achievements for Royal under his leadership, he's certainly earned a retirement.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/richard-fain-stepping-down-ceo-124700362.html

Can you point to any examples of a Chapter 11 where the share holders didn't get wiped out? It's my understanding that it's theoretically possible. However, in reality, the bond holders and other secured debt holders have priority and there is usually nothing left for the original equity holders after the company is reorganized. Will Royal Caribbean continue as a cruise line? I think that much is ultimately certain. GM continues to make and sell cars today, but the GM that existed for a century went through bankruptcy back around 2009 and became "Old GM". All the assets were transferred to the newly formed company and new stock was issued. The old share holders were wiped out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motors_Liquidation_Company All of the major cruise lines have taken on enormous debt to raise cash to try and make it through the no sail orders. And because none of them are American companies, they haven't gotten any kind of discounts or support on those debt issuance. Royal's terms have been pretty harsh, including being secured by 28 of their ships. So, personally, while I believe Royal will continue to operate and sail someday, I'm not convinced that it will be the legal entity that you own stock in today.

I think the idea of having the MDR split into formal/non-forma seating areas on formal nights would be more feasible if you could identify as part of the reservation that you did/did not want to participate in the formal dress. I've only dressed up for a formal night on one cruise - as it happened to be sailing from Galveston and we live in Houston. It was OK once, but still more a hassle than enjoyable. And, honestly, if I hadn't been a purveyor of various cruise forums before taking a first cruise, I wouldn't have known there was such a thing as formal nights anyway.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Port-Royal-Caribbean-make-deal-for-third-14900202.php Seems like this story has been going forever, but it looks like all the i's are finally dotted and the t's crossed. Can't wait to feel the Oasis and Icon love for Galveston!

I 2nd Curt's suggestions about getting up to Denali and, failing that, at least getting to Talkeetna. The view of Denali from Talkeetna is spectacular...if the sky is clear, which only happens about 33% of the days. Talkeetna also has an airport with several companies offering flight seeing tours of the area. We did one last time where the plane landed on a glacier near Denali and we were able to get out on it and take pictures and have a snowball fight.

Concurring with the other posters - did you by chance go to a post office or other secondary facility for the passport application? It's probably a rare enough situation that folks outside of a state department federal office may not understand it fully. I'd go back to where you applied and take the printout from the state department website that others have referenced. I also agree with the others to get the passport. It's always been something of a hot button topic on cruise forums, but I fall in the camp that having that passport in hand is the gold standard for travel, particularly if you have to leave the ship in a foreign port and have to fly back to the US.

I agree it was certainly slanted by the "journalist" to emphasize the couple's view of how things were handled. I did notice there was a quote from a Royal Caribbean spokesperson, but I wonder how much of the full response wasn't included in the article. It seemed like the spokesperson would have had more to say about the matter. I see it's now been picked up by Yahoo news. Most of the comments there aren't terribly sympathetic to the couple and that was my feeling as well. I'm sure the couple and the paper were digging for sympathy over mistreatment by some faceless big corporation. Instead, they are mostly getting responses along they lines of them being adults who should have planned better. Of course, there are the usual horde of comments about what a terribly idea cruising is, and this story just fuels their animus.

Very true - Royal certainly wouldn't want to end up with a dead body on the ship because the lady got much worse. Though, I was kinda surprised that they arranged taxi and air travel rather that transport to a local hospital on the mainland.

Medical condition puts a couple off of Allure OTS https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/morris/2019/02/25/nj-couple-pays-thousands-get-home-after-being-forced-off-royal-caribbean-cruise/2669094002/ I would think with 15 previous cruises under their belts they would have been more savvy about what can happen when traveling out of the country. Guess they had just been really lucky to never have had an issue before.

That's certainly useful to know. I have no experience with Carnival to compare with. Thanks.

So, I must confess, I'm a bit torn on this one. On the one hand, I'm glad for a new ship. On the other hand, the Oasis class is now ten years old and when Oasis 6 launches, the class will be 14 years old. At least from the bit of digging that I've done on RCCL ship classes, that would be the longest time span that a ship class had been in production. At six ships, it would also tie for the largest class. I guess I'm a bit concerned that the design isn't as fresh as it was when it launched ten years ago - considering that other fleets have stepped up their design game over the last decade, including RCCL itself with the Quantum class. Does Oasis 6 make the most sense compared to Icon 3? I mean, I understand these ships are built to be in service for many years and do get upgraded - we're certainly looking forward to what Oasis herself will be getting. But still, the basic aesthetic of the ship is itself pretty well fixed by the class, and that aesthetic will be older than any off RCCL's large quantity classes at this stage (It looks like the Vision class six ships came out over about 5 years and the Voyager class five ships came out over 4 years). Of course, I'm one to talk - I haven't had a chance to sail on any Oasis class ships yet, so any of them will be a new experience for me.

Just saw the Chronicle article on my Google news feed - happy to see it's already here and generating enthusiasm. Definitely looking forward to an Oasis class opportunity without having to fly! I too also hope this means that we get some opportunities for longer sailings to reach some different ports. Things are definitely looking up!

USA Today is running the story as well: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2018/10/15/royal-caribbean-hikes-beverage-package-prices-2019-norwegian-drinks-cost/1645879002/ Pretty harsh. It's an even bigger percentage increase on the non-alcohol packages.

I don't know, that one gives me an unfortunate connotation of a big wave breaking over the bow. --Ed