The Cruise Junkie

One thing I wish Royal did is add more options for the three-night weekend cruises out of FL to other ports in the Bahamas such as Bimini or Freeport, so it is not always Nassau every cruise. 

This move makes a lot of sense for Celebrity now since Laura Hodges Bethge is the new CEO of Celebrity Cruises, and if you are not familiar with her work in the industry, she spearheaded the Perfect Day at CocoCay makeover when she worked over at Royal Caribbean.

100 percent; canaveral is beautiful. 

And yet at Port Everglades and the Port of Miami there is nothing there except cruise terminals and parking garages.  No stores, no restaurants, no bars, no touristy things, nothing to do except stand and wait to board a ship.  Port Canaveral is a much nicer area in general.  Stay at a hotel, walk on the beach.   

....Nassau....the price you pay for Coco Cay.....

I think in general he is correct.  So many return guests don't leave the ship.  Why is that?  They are near the bottom in surveys just above Freeport.  That's doesn't say much about how Nassau is received by the cruising public.
If you are into drugs there is a beach you walk to be and you'll be offered a choice of drugs.  That's not a good look and a pretty poor family experience.
Royal is building their beach club next door to establish a place that can be something to do and somewhere to go because without it there is little point getting off the ship. 
Nassau needs to be honest with itself if it wants to change.  Griping about cruise ships guests not leaving the ship won't accomplish anything.  Someone needed to say it.  

One thing I wish Royal did is add more options for the three-night weekend cruises out of FL to other ports in the Bahamas such as Bimini or Freeport, so it is not always Nassau every cruise. 

One thing I wish Royal did is add more options for the three-night weekend cruises out of FL to other ports in the Bahamas such as Bimini or Freeport, so it is not always Nassau every cruise. 

One thing I wish Royal did is add more options for the three-night weekend cruises out of FL to other ports in the Bahamas such as Bimini or Freeport, so it is not always Nassau every cruise. 

3 changes repeated in multiple forums:
1. Waterslide(s)
2. Playmakers
3. Internet update 
I think these will be well received, and wonder why there still isn’t any press around it. 

One thing I wish Royal did is add more options for the three-night weekend cruises out of FL to other ports in the Bahamas such as Bimini or Freeport, so it is not always Nassau every cruise. 

I Wonder what they'll name it?

Great blog! Sorry to hear about your bad disembarkation experience in Port Canaveral! Usually, Canaveral is one of the smoothest and quickest ports to get from the ship to the road. I visited the port that day in the afternoon around 2:00 pm to see Wonder depart for the first time and traffic was the worst I have ever seen on George King Blvd (the road that cruise terminal number one is located on). And I head down that road all the time and there is never a problem every Sunday in the past with Harmony and Oasis being there. It did not clear up that day until 3:30 pm.

Signs they plan to embark two mega ships on the same day in Miami.  One Oasis plus one Icon, or two Oasis, or two Icon on the same day. 
As they phase out small ships they'll likely do the same in other ports.  Port Canaveral and Port Everglades comes to mind.  

Hmmm.  Where did I say they are backing away from PCN?   I expect they are looking to EXPAND capabilities in PCN to two Oasis/Icon class.  Terminal one is there.  They need another similar sized terminal where they have priority rights.  

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ports-destinations/miami-dade-weighs-new-royal-caribbean-terminal-hq-expansion
 
Miami-Dade County commissioners will vote Tuesday on a new Royal Caribbean Group terminal and berth and a headquarters development and lease deal worth $2.8b over 50 years.

Reads ICON CLASS UPDATE thread... complains of too much information. 

Same here.  I've cut down on my surfing for Icon info. People are not just spilling "secrets," they're dumping them!  I'll just wait for @Matt's big reveal tomorrow.

As someone who lives in the area I would personally recommend staying at Cape Canaveral before your cruise as the area is better than staying in Orlando. There is a service at this port called Go Port that offers a hotel package that offers airport transportation and cruise transfers for pre cruise stays.

Boarding Mariner yesterday we were treated to a SpaceX launch putting another 53 Starlink satellites into orbit.  The launch was at 10:20am just 10 minutes before my assigned check in time so I watched the launch from the terminal 5 parking garage in Port Canaveral.




Today I was walking around Mariner and visited the deck 13 mini golf area.  I noticed there are now a set of four poles outside the glass in an area close to where the Starlink antennas were placed on Freedom for the Starlink test on that ship.






I don't know for certain these will be used for Starlink antennas but there is that potential.  Only time will tell what these will be used for.

Another 53 went up this morning.  Several more batches potentially from CA and FL all month.  Could be several hundred going up this summer alone.

Glimpse into the cost of satellite internet before they used Starlink:
At over $165k per month for 25 Mb/s download by 25 Mb/s upload of pre-paid bandwidth, satellite internet was one of the top operating costs for SpaceX’s recovery fleet. The RCI "Navy" often had speeds twice that per ship or more.  Now we know why they couldn't make internet free on ships.  Bayley has said before their internet bill is millions per month for the fleet.  These numbers support that claim.  
Their internet bill went from $165k to $50k with a 5900% speed increase.  Flat rate $5k per month per ship now.  

This just in from CNBC. FCC approves SpaceX Starlink service to vehicles, boats, planes (cnbc.com)

This just in from CNBC. FCC approves SpaceX Starlink service to vehicles, boats, planes (cnbc.com)

This just in from CNBC. FCC approves SpaceX Starlink service to vehicles, boats, planes (cnbc.com)