ultimate_ed

Right?  This is the thing I don't understand with folks, supposedly adults, "forgetting" stuff like this.  I've got two cruises booked and I have appointments in my Google Calendar for each of them a week ahead of the final payment date to pay the bill.  And both of those are booked with an agent that has my card on file to make the payment.  Heck, my driver's license expires in 2028 and I've got a reminder in my calendar 3 months ahead of that to tell me to renew it. 
We don't actually have to remember anything anymore.  But, we do have to take the initiative to use the organization tools we have available to us living in the future.
Definitely an expensive lesson for the OP's friend.

Right?  This is the thing I don't understand with folks, supposedly adults, "forgetting" stuff like this.  I've got two cruises booked and I have appointments in my Google Calendar for each of them a week ahead of the final payment date to pay the bill.  And both of those are booked with an agent that has my card on file to make the payment.  Heck, my driver's license expires in 2028 and I've got a reminder in my calendar 3 months ahead of that to tell me to renew it. 
We don't actually have to remember anything anymore.  But, we do have to take the initiative to use the organization tools we have available to us living in the future.
Definitely an expensive lesson for the OP's friend.

Right?  This is the thing I don't understand with folks, supposedly adults, "forgetting" stuff like this.  I've got two cruises booked and I have appointments in my Google Calendar for each of them a week ahead of the final payment date to pay the bill.  And both of those are booked with an agent that has my card on file to make the payment.  Heck, my driver's license expires in 2028 and I've got a reminder in my calendar 3 months ahead of that to tell me to renew it. 
We don't actually have to remember anything anymore.  But, we do have to take the initiative to use the organization tools we have available to us living in the future.
Definitely an expensive lesson for the OP's friend.

Right?  This is the thing I don't understand with folks, supposedly adults, "forgetting" stuff like this.  I've got two cruises booked and I have appointments in my Google Calendar for each of them a week ahead of the final payment date to pay the bill.  And both of those are booked with an agent that has my card on file to make the payment.  Heck, my driver's license expires in 2028 and I've got a reminder in my calendar 3 months ahead of that to tell me to renew it. 
We don't actually have to remember anything anymore.  But, we do have to take the initiative to use the organization tools we have available to us living in the future.
Definitely an expensive lesson for the OP's friend.

Right?  This is the thing I don't understand with folks, supposedly adults, "forgetting" stuff like this.  I've got two cruises booked and I have appointments in my Google Calendar for each of them a week ahead of the final payment date to pay the bill.  And both of those are booked with an agent that has my card on file to make the payment.  Heck, my driver's license expires in 2028 and I've got a reminder in my calendar 3 months ahead of that to tell me to renew it. 
We don't actually have to remember anything anymore.  But, we do have to take the initiative to use the organization tools we have available to us living in the future.
Definitely an expensive lesson for the OP's friend.

100% OP's friend's fault.  I'm not giving them a pass.  But it's not in RCs long term interest to allow this. There's a bunch of customer loyalty data explaining why.
They're better off financially making it easy on customers to remember. I'm disappointed and actually surprised in their process here.

Right?  This is the thing I don't understand with folks, supposedly adults, "forgetting" stuff like this.  I've got two cruises booked and I have appointments in my Google Calendar for each of them a week ahead of the final payment date to pay the bill.  And both of those are booked with an agent that has my card on file to make the payment.  Heck, my driver's license expires in 2028 and I've got a reminder in my calendar 3 months ahead of that to tell me to renew it. 
We don't actually have to remember anything anymore.  But, we do have to take the initiative to use the organization tools we have available to us living in the future.
Definitely an expensive lesson for the OP's friend.

Right?  This is the thing I don't understand with folks, supposedly adults, "forgetting" stuff like this.  I've got two cruises booked and I have appointments in my Google Calendar for each of them a week ahead of the final payment date to pay the bill.  And both of those are booked with an agent that has my card on file to make the payment.  Heck, my driver's license expires in 2028 and I've got a reminder in my calendar 3 months ahead of that to tell me to renew it. 
We don't actually have to remember anything anymore.  But, we do have to take the initiative to use the organization tools we have available to us living in the future.
Definitely an expensive lesson for the OP's friend.

I don't disagree, and ultimately this is the price they all paid for being non-US companies - they weren't eligible for any kind of COVID bailouts/support from the US government the way the airlines and other businesses were.  Of course, they probably wouldn't be able to exist at all if they had to comply with US shipping and labor laws, so there's that.
I'm still betting one of the big three is going to go through a bankruptcy reorg at some point.  The amount of debt (and equity dilution) that Carnival, NCL, and Royal all took on was staggering.

Right?  This is the thing I don't understand with folks, supposedly adults, "forgetting" stuff like this.  I've got two cruises booked and I have appointments in my Google Calendar for each of them a week ahead of the final payment date to pay the bill.  And both of those are booked with an agent that has my card on file to make the payment.  Heck, my driver's license expires in 2028 and I've got a reminder in my calendar 3 months ahead of that to tell me to renew it. 
We don't actually have to remember anything anymore.  But, we do have to take the initiative to use the organization tools we have available to us living in the future.
Definitely an expensive lesson for the OP's friend.

I don't disagree, and ultimately this is the price they all paid for being non-US companies - they weren't eligible for any kind of COVID bailouts/support from the US government the way the airlines and other businesses were.  Of course, they probably wouldn't be able to exist at all if they had to comply with US shipping and labor laws, so there's that.
I'm still betting one of the big three is going to go through a bankruptcy reorg at some point.  The amount of debt (and equity dilution) that Carnival, NCL, and Royal all took on was staggering.

In your region it's mandated by laws or consumer regulations.
That's exactly what it would take to make it the same in North America.  Until it's required by the government, no one cruise line will desire to appear to put themselves at a competitive disadvantage.  
Fifty percent or more on a typical US sailing are new, a.k.a.  pre-gold.  For many newbie it's about price.
Cruise line A - Prices from $399*
Cruise line B - Prices from $475**
* does not include daily service charges blah, blah, blah
** includes daily service service charges
"Look honey, we can save $75 bucks, EACH!!!"
For the newbies cruise line A is automatically a front runner.
Until they are all forced to, one cruise line will hold back and always seek to display the lowest price for marketing purposes.   
 

Between cell phones and email accounts, there are plenty of ways to set reminders these days

You should be able to get it no problem.

it will depend a bit on the bar but generally coke zero is offered everywhere.    On my sailing there were days when the promenade cafe seemed like it only had coke zero.

Coke sucks anyway. Need to upgrade to Pepsi. 

53 days out for me. I have the covered parking reserved.  The new terminal looks amazing - thanks to everyone and especially @Galveston Stevefor all the updates along the way.
As someone who lives in Texas, I'm hoping that Galveston will be successful and the number and variety of cruises will increase.

It’s been a long time coming, but this is happening! (Actual photograph, not an artist’s rendering) 🤣

I think it is actually a lower number than people believe when it comes to Americans. The average American doesn't have a passport of really any need of one. The numbers are getting higher, but I know so many people without one or who just got theirs in the last year or so. Whenever I see the line for BC at port, it is mostly American families with their children.
I would say that less than 50 percent of Americans who cruise will use a passport while it will be at 95-100 percent of non-Americans. This will average out the total to maybe 70-75% of cruise pax using a passport over a BC........this is just my estimates.

Betting that this will be a difficult item to get an accurate count, for a few different reasons. 
First, likely only the cruise line will probably have this info not the travel agents.  Starting at the agents, they probably could give you a very good estimate on how many of their clients they typically book that have passports vs. not.  That will require the individual agents to roll client information up to a larger pool.  I'm doubting that sharing of information is happening.  A large agency might aggregate information but again there is a pretty low chance that gets shared.  Unless someone polls agencies and agents for a conference presentation it is pretty unlikely they are getting a percentage.  They just want to know the processes to book guests with and with out passports since the trends will vary also.  
As for the cruise lines, there is likely variability between lines and times of the year.  My guess is Princess and Holland likely have more passport guest and Disney has one of the lower ratios.  So one cruise line might have a large number of cruisers with passports and some may not.  Even Royal likely has a dip in number of passports on shorter, weekend, or at common vacation/holiday cruises.   
My guess is cruisers with passports outnumber those with Birth Certificates.  If I had to guess, it probably is somewhere between the 2/3 to 3/4 ratio.  
 

https://apnews.com/article/travel-havana-business-caribbean-miami-11a0e8c524c47473d8c5a62131f339d0
 
Interesting development in this court case.  Doesn't seem likely that there will be any sailing from the U.S. to Cuba again any time soon.

You wouldn't just suck it up this one, free, trip and use the refund to get a whole new trip booked in a balcony? 

I would feel like I won the lottery. I would use the money to put on a second trip. Found money is fun money. 

Free cruise!!  Interns strike again?!!!
Maybe it's time to implement a Royal DOWN program where Royal makes bids to get you to downgrade your cabin. 

Symphony in Sep 2022, they started seating MTD on deck 3 about 20 minutes after Early traditional started at the table that were un-used.  Even though Early Traditional starts at 5:30 on Deck 3 only (where MTD will seat) most ship have been opening that at 5:01 and encouraging early diners to come at that time.
So far this Fall my experience on other ships also is they start seating MTD 15 or 20 minutes after early traditional starts just as soon as they can find available space. YMMV