karl_nj

If you just bought the shares, you could probably send a copy of the trade confirmation.

Voyager and Solstice classes are so very different though, even from a ship hardware POV. Not sure you can really compare the two. I agree about Radiance vs Millenium class and Quantum vs Edge though. Quantum class and Edge class were even built by the same shipyard. But they are still pretty different. The "infinite balcony" cabins on that class are either "love it" or "hate it". What do you and your wife like most about the Quantum class ships?

I think you are likely right about staffing issues and service post COIVD. I've been on 3 cruises since the cruise restart. The first one was on Celebrity Edge in Aug 2021; the service was great on that cruise, but I think that was more due to the fact that there were hardly any passengers onboard then it being on Celebrity vs Royal. The second one was Oasis of the Seas October 2021, the service wasn't as great, because the passenger load was increasing. My most recent cruise was Anthem of the Seas during Christmas Week—you could totally tell the staff was overwhelmed by the passenger volumes. Like you, I still had fun on all three cruises, but I'm certainly going into my next cruise in August, on Wonder of the Seas, with lowered expectations due to the staffing difficulties everyone is having worldwide, in every industry. As a "Fan of Royal Caribbean" I'm glad to see that you realize it's difficult to compare any cruise lines right now, to service received before the cruise lines had to shut down over COVID. I'm also a big proponent of encouraging people to try multiple cruise lines. But I would recommend giving RCL a try again in the future. Maybe in a few years check out one of the Oasis class ships, as they are certainly different than any other cruise ships out there (thought I think MSC is trying to go in that direction with one of their new ship classes.) Or maybe try a Quantum class ship, my favorite RCL ship class. By the time you might be ready to try RCL again, the Icon class should also be sailing, we should find out more about those ships this fall. Looking forward to reading your blog post about your experiences with food on the ship!

I keep hearing about people at work that are catching COVID from, uh, I guess somewhere that doesn't involve a vacation. However, they don't post about it on Facebook, since there isn't a specific Facebook group for people who shopped at Publix some time during the week of June 26th.

Looks like NCL has now dropped pre-cruise testing where no longer required: EU Healthy Gateways Ends Pre-Cruise Testing Requirements For sailings beginning August 1, 2022, vaccinated guests sailing on a cruise originating from any port EXCEPT a U.S. port; Canadian port; or Piraeus, Greece are exempt from all pre-cruise COVID-19 testing requirements.

I'm glad you have had good luck; in my experience not everyone does. Especially in households with those under 18 years of age, since they can't have their own accounts. It's impossible to do 4 tests at once when 2 people are under age 18.

It took me all day to manage to get though 4 online emed tests for my cruise the last week of 2021. Between a covid wave, lots of christmas week travel, and amazon cloud server issues, it certainly was not as easy as you make it sound.

My experience has been that I was charged the adult price at the Steakhouse on both Celebrity Edge and Oasis of the Seas for my 12 year old in 2021. I didn't question it, since she ordered from the adult menu. I'm glad other people were able to get a reduced price for their kids in Specialty Restaurants.

Though keep in mind, at a specialty restaurant, if your 12 year old orders from the adult menu, you are charged the adult price, not the kids price. Which makes sense, as they ate an adult meal.

Viking Ocean had been doing daily onboard COVID Tests, but they just stopped that as the US no longer requires testing fly back. Interestingly, they also just made a change to no longer require COVID tests for boarding, except for sailings out of the US and Canada. I wonder if Royal will do the same, and drop all tests to board except for sailings out of the US/Canada.

I don't think the "taxes" have anything to do with what you paid for the cruise. I just did a mock booking for a cruise in a inside cabin, and the taxes and fees were $387.44. Then I changed it to a balcony cabin, taxes and fees were $387.44. Biggest suite, $387.44. Perhaps they are based per passenger?

Whenever I've done a "one way cruise" i've never parked at the cruise terminal; i've always used an uber or car service. But I live in North Jersey so it's not super far for me to get to any of the NY Area cruise ports. Maybe parking at EWR makes more sense? Then uber over to the cruise port? Then it should be easier to get to your car once you fly back to Newark.

Kids don't seem to mind "bunk beds"; they often prefer them. Especially if it means they don't need to share a bed with their sibling.

Sometimes the price difference isn't as much as you would think. Often the rooms that can hold 3-4 are more expensive for passenger 1 and 2, compared to a room that only has double occupancy.

I thought that non refundable wasn't available for suites, did they change something recently? 8. Why was the decision made to enforce only non-refundable deposit fare options for Suite inventory (specifically Grand Suite or higher) and Guarantee categories? In an effort to preserve our valued Suite inventory and to ensure availability for our committed guests, a non-refundable deposit will become the only option for those guests interested in reserving an upper Suite. https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/LTYA_News/17056800_Nonrefundable_FAQ_News.pdf

Yeah, that is certainly one way to look at it—and if you are enjoying all the "extras" that you normally wouldn't order, you are certainly getting value out of getting the drink package. And that isn't even counting things that many others have mentioned, like convenience, being willing to try new things (and abandon them if they aren't to your liking), and not having any bar bill surprises. You can't really assign a price to those, but there is certainly some value there too. However, the other way to look at the drink package is if it's saving you money. If it's something you wouldn't order unless you had the drink package, and you are trying to figure out if the package is actually saving you money, then you shouldn't include it in your calculations. I think this is where the discrepancy in opinions about the drink package comes from. I've never bought the drink package on an RCL cruise; it won't save me money, and I prefer to explore the full wine list at dinner, instead of being limited to the wine by the glass menu. However, on my last Celebrity cruise, the fare included the base drink package, and I even paid to upgrade it to the 'better' package. I can certainly see why people enjoy having the drink package. I certainly made good use of it!

I didn't sail on Royal in the 80's, but I did sail on an NCL ship in the mid 80's, so a dedicated buffet restaurant not showing up on new, bigger, ships until the late 80's sounds about right. On NCL's Skyward in 1986/87, there was no buffet. There were two seatings in the main dining room for breakfast and dinner. On sea days they would setup a lunch buffet in a conference room on the pool deck, with some hamburgers and hotdogs and such. I assume you could also go to the MDR for lunch, but I was 12 and in no mood to go sit down in the MDR for lunch. Kids were also banned from using the elevators! But I was allowed to visit the bridge on sea days! And there was no "kids club", but they did have some activities for kids on one of the open decks in the morning on sea days. I still have a metal that I won when my team won some kids cruise ship olympics thing.

Yes, you take your masks off for photos.

I've never had any luck combining Amex Cruise Privileges and whatever the sale of the week is going on with Royal Caribbean. I've had much better luck using it when sailing Cunard.

Yeah, actually, it has a UA "flight" number and everything. Counts as a segment for elite qualification, etc. It's kinda crazy, actually. Since it's a bus from ABE to EWR. And the flight was cheaper than it would have been if he booked out of EWR and skipped the bus. I was kinda annoyed, but I certainly wasn't going to drive out to PA just to take a bus back to NJ, just to get a cheaper flight.

There is a "flight" on United Airlines from some airport in PA to EWR that is actually a bus... One of my friends took it once, because the fare was cheaper then booking the flight he needed out of EWR. Even though he wasn't thrilled about the taking the bus ride.

The C&A points from my Christmas cruise on Anthem just hit my account, and now I'm (finally!) at the Diamond level. The double points certainly helped, but I would have ended up at Diamond by now anyway, if all of my planned Royal Caribbean cruises didn't get cancelled by covid. Interestingly, I hit Diamond with 9 cruises, one being a "double point" suite. Which, I believe, would have been the number of cruises needed to hit in order to reach Diamond back before they changed the program in 2011. Of course, my cruises were all 7 day (or more) cruises, whereas back in the day one could get to Diamond after taking 10 3 night cruises (perhaps only 5 if they were all suites, thought the double points for suites wasn't a thing from the start of the program). 29th cruise overall, counting all cruise lines. 9 on Royal, 7 on NCL (but alot of those were 1-2 night cruise to nowhere's, which barely count), 5 Disney, 4 Cunard, 2 Celebrity and 2 Carnival. Now time to plan more cruises...

I was reading on Cruise Critic that for quarantine on Celebrity, you get moved to a Balcony cabin (vs an oceanview on Royal). And if you do have a drink package, they will still send you drinks via room service. I donno if they will send you free Elite drinks during happy hour or not—lets hope you don't need to find out!

I guess that makes sense, since the MDR food is also often "a step above" on Celebrity too. My daughter had the everyday NY Strip on Celebrity Edge most days in August. When we were on Oasis at the end of October, the quality of the NY Strip was noticeably different on Royal. I don't think she noticed or cared though, and enjoyed it on both ships. On the other hand, the menu descriptions do seem to be very "fancy" on Celebrity. More fancy than they really are. They like to talk about truffles all the time. Wife and I aren't huge fans of truffles. Luckily it seems like all Celebrity does is whisper "truffle" above the plate of food, while vaguely waving one around, sealed in a plastic bag.... Their ships also seem to have fewer (but larger) bars. On Edge my wife and I kinda missed having a large number of different bar venues to visit during the cruise, compared to most Royal ships. Indoors, there was really just the martini bar, eden, and the nightclub (which was dead until late at night). So basically two bars to switch between. I did like that they have more of an Enrichment/Lecture program on Celebrity. Not as in depth as Cunard, but still nice to have as an option.

The delta is bigger if you are traveling solo (like @twangster) or taking along kids too young to drink (like me), as you are paying for a drink package for people that don't exist, or can't use it.