karl_nj

Wasn't that the same exact excuse they used to kick Diamond+ out of the Concierge Lounge for like every single sailing?

Well, you take advantage of the program change to make hitting levels more difficult in the future…. At one point diamond was 10 cruises.

Royal already had that, and then they replaced it with the vouchers. So if they do head in that direction, it would be less then copying celebrity, and more of a rollback to an earlier Royal policy (but perhaps related to trying to match benefits across lines, as mentioned in the cc webinar)

Yeah, no access changes for now. We'll see what happens next year. I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

Remember this from a few months ago? Could be phase 1 of the solution to this 'problem'

Yeah, that's what it sounds like to me too. I bet I'll lose access as a lowly diamond C&A member sometime in 2024...

NCL has Vibe at an extra cost, but they also have Spice H20 for free, no?

Were 16 year olds in the solarium actually an issue? This "consistency" excuse seems a little odd to me. Will they also change the age limit from 16 to 18 for the gym then? If they really want to be consistent then "Kids Sail Free" should go up to age 17, instead of ending at age 11, no?

Might have been the case in the past, but have you seen the prices for Icon? Seems like Royal is creeping up to DCL prices... But you do have a point. My 3 night on Wish last week was more expensive then my 7 night on Wonder last summer. But I was only on Wonder because of a double lift-and-shift starting with a super cheap sailing (including a early COVID re-price) on the non-amped Explorer of the Seas...

Makes me appreciate Disney cruise line even more, as they still do twice a day service, including putting away the sofa and Pullman beds. The included room service was nice too.

They claim it has to do with the environment, but this is actually going to be worse for the environment. If they cared about the environment, they would keep the cruise port where it is but mandate that the ships connect to land power when docked. Instead, what is going to happen is the ships will end up docking 30 minutes away, and then in addition to the cruise ship emissions, there will also be all the bus emissions and extra traffic to move cruise passengers from the nearby port to the city center. They actually just want to build a new bridge, but they don't want to spend the money to build it high enough so cruise ships can pass under.

Exactly... not new at all. No lobster on a 8 day cruise to Norway out of Copenhagen in 2015. This was back in the days when the menu had names like "sage" and you could get a chilled soup every night.

Early Dislike I guess I’ll have to figure out some sort of clothes line I can string across the room to dry my towel for when I need to shower twice, like after a beach day. Towel is not going to dry all bunched up on a hook. also going to be annoying when my ice is melted by the evening. and I’ll be joining team “dirty dishes in the hallway” now, instead of leaving them in the room.

As far as I can tell, you end up with size that is something in between king and queen. I've never brought a tape measure along to actually check the dimensions.

You need to be 13 to create a Royal Carribean or Celebrity account. Was an issue when we wanted to use it with my (at the time) 12 year old daughter on Celebrity Edge in 2021.

I think their point was just that at one time you were able to get to Diamond after cruising for 15 nights, so complaining about the post-restart "double points" and saying it will ruin C&A is kinda crazy. Which you have also pointed out yourself... for most people, the ended up with about the same number of points as they would have anyway, if the covid shutdown never happened.

I always thought it interesting that the carnival corp brands tended to have self service laundry onboard, but not the RCL brands It does make sense to have it for long cruises

It's likely both—staff will be getting more pay and less of that increase will be coming directly from NCL, but instead though this increased fee.

Bermuda. I guess Grand Cayman too (since it's a tender port) but I'm not sure anyone would really complain about that, and I think that port fits in your semi "anti cruise ship" bucket. But I think Bermuda would be an issue if the Royal fleet only had ships Oasis size and larger. People like Bermuda. Though the larger corporation does have Celebrity to go there. In fact, the reason Celebrity was created was to go to Bermuda.

Is it different then the big "group" one they will on some ships, like in 270 on Anthem (or one of the other lounges on ships like Adventure)? That one was themed to some sort of art museum heist or something like that.

Yes, this is the issue with RCL switching to having room stewards only visit a cabin once per day. Switching to once per day was easier for Carnival, because of the way their ship cabins are setup for 3rd and 4th passenger bedding. They would always leave the sofabed in "bed" configuration, and any pullmans would always be down. This was fine for Carnival, because the design/layout of the room allowed this. RCL ships, on the other hand, are much harder to move around in with the 3rd and 4th passenger bedding in 'sleep' configuration. If this was the direction RCL wanted to move in, they should have look into alternate room designs years ago.

Your travel agent can book the "generic" transfer for you, you can't do it online. If you aren't using a travel agent, you'll have to call royal to get the price and book it. I agree that generally they are more expensive than other options, but there are times they may make sense. If you are traveling alone the price may be competitive. If you are traveling in a larger group that doesn't want to split up into seperate ubers/cabs, and you don't want to try to arrange a private transfer, it might make sense even if it's more expensive. I've found UberXL isn't good for a family of 5 with luggage, because you never know if the car will actually fit everyone and everything. Minivan taxi's usually can, but then you can end up waiting a long time in the taxi line for one that can fit everyone and everything. In some ports, Minivan taxi's may not even be a thing.

I totally agree, but before Anthem there weren't any RCL ships sailing out of NJ in the winter with an indoor pool anyway. Explorer of the Seas was here for ages, sailing out of NJ year round. Other than Anthem, the only other ship that sails out of the NY area on a regular basis that has an indoor pool available to all passengers irregardless of age or cabin category is QM2. I don't think any of the NCL ships have them.

It would be nice to get a new/different ship, but losing the indoor pool in winter would be a bit of a negative, especially for kids.

no.