Vanessa77

Can’t advise on your first point, however have some insight on the second. Not sure where you’re from, but for explanation purposes I’ll assume not from Aus? We have 3 lots of 2 week school holidays in Aus (in addition to the 6 week summer/Christmas holidays) one of which occurs over Easter. In my state it looks like the term 1 holidays begin on the 6th of April that year, however that is Victoria and RC departs from Brisbane and Sydney and not Melbourne. All of the states have different holiday timetables and therefore some might start before and some might start after that. As a teacher, and previous student in Australia, parents generally aren’t shy about taking their kids out of school for a holiday, particularly as it get closer to the end of term. So it’s likely that your cruise will fall on some states holidays, and that there will be kids on the cruise. How many? No idea.

Hi all, I'm curious about whether anyone has any info on whether royal and presumably other cruise lines are taking bookings to capacity or if they are capping their bookings to a certain percent? I’ve booked a Jan 2022 cruise, and it already seems pretty full. So I am wondering if when cruising finally get the go ahead, will it be those that booked are good to go, or if cruise lines are offering bookings to full capacity in the hopes that by the time it resumes or gets to that specific cruise (for later cruises) they will be able to sail with more passengers. Which if they aren’t will require cancelling some bookings. Thoughts or info available?

Yay! Finally. Surely is land/air travel is allowed cruising to and from NZ for Australian and NZ passengers would a sure thing.

Hi all, So I recently booked a cruise for our honeymoon in Jan next year. I booked this directly through the RC website and I don’t believe there was any where to actually note during the booking process that this is our honeymoon. Is there anyway to go about adding this to our booking somehow? I know they sometimes have honeymooners events like cocktail parties and such, and I don’t know if this is by invitation or open call, but if it is by invitation then we’d like to make it noted on our account so we can participate. This is only our second cruise and the last one we did was with my whole family, so it would be nice to be able to meet people in similar situations as ourselves. I’m sure many of you will chastise me for not using a TA as I’m sure they would be able to do this, and while I am considering transferring the booking to a TA (not even sure if this is a thing where I’m from) I don’t Currently have a TA that I feel confident with so I may not end up doing that at all. Also feel free to chuck in any honeymooning tips or idea for me. Thanks!

Thanks @CruisingOz! I am fully expecting that post covid things will be strict for check in times to manage crowds, however was just curious whether my one experience pre-covid was the norm for Australia, or whether I just had a weird experience where they held to the schedule for other reasons ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. The 5-night dining package is exactly what we’re going for too. I did really enjoy the MDR but with 12 nights we’ll need to mix it up a bit. I am excited about the solarium dinner, the menu looks great. We actually tried Izumi on Voyager and we were not that impressed. The location was nice and quiet like you say, but the food just didn’t impress. We’re from Melbourne where there is an abundance of Asian food to experience at a pretty low cost. The food at Izumi kinda fell short for us. We’ll give it another go, but it’s probably not one of the restaurants we are hanging out for as it is.

Hi all, I have couple of questions, one specific to people who have cruised from Aus before and one for those who have done long cruises before. 1. I’ve been on one cruise before In late 2019. I know that Matt often says that the arrival times for embarkation are more suggestions so when arriving to board my family all had different times. My partner and I had 11am and we could board straight away. My sisters family had 1.30pm and could not board with us. If you’ve sailed from Aus before/frequently do you find that the ‘embarkation times are suggestions’ holds true for embarking at Sydney? Or are they actual boarding time? (Note: regardless of answer here I do assume it will be different when cruising resumes due to the ‘rona). 2. MDR menus on long cruises. The last cruise I took was a 9 night cruise so it’s not like it was short, but this is a little longer than that one and I am wondering whether when cruises get this long, do they repeat MDR menus on some of the later nights? I’m thinking about the balance of specialty dining and MDR nights. There are so many more places to eat on Ovation than when I went on Voyager and I want to eat at all of them, but don’t want to miss out on the good nights at the MDR (not that I ever had a bad night there) when I’m eating at other place! So curious if there will be any menus repeated, in which case we can schedule specialty dining on those nights. Thanks!

Absolutely. And I’ve heard talk that they will be the requirement regardless. Although we’re behind in our roll out, all Australians were set to be vaccinated by October. We have next to zero incidences of community transmission, so I don’t see why at that point we shouldn’t be able to go on holidays around our own country via ship. I mean I can right now go to a resort anywhere in the country for 2 weeks ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. And with countries such as NZ being in the same position at Aus and a travel bubble with them expected to open within the next month, I don’t see why that couldn’t be included too. And any other country that fits the same profile. I do think it will be prudent to assume that cruises from Australia will not include international travelers for the next season however, New Zealanders excluded. Realistically much of the world isn’t and won’t be in the same position as us in 6 months time and while I want to get crushing, I’m still on the side of keeping travel relatively domestic until such time as the risk is very low.

Fingers crossed the bubble gets sorted soon. Also keen for the NZ bubble!

@velts thanks for this insight! Despite the fact that it does say this right on the room type I completely overlooked it. Ended up booking a regular balcony that looks like it has a very slightly bigger balcony on the deck plan. Thanks!

Hi all, I’m very much hoping that the next cruise season in Australia will go ahead, and I’m looking to book for Jan 2022! Going with a bigger ship this time, and I am also planning a bigger room, considering a large balcony room, perhaps aft, perhaps mid. My question is about which level I should select as I’ve never had a balcony before. Is it nicer to be lower and closer to to the sea for relaxing and for scenic cruising or is a higher up balcony better for viewing and relaxing on a balcony? Advice much appreciated!

@RWDW1204 & @S0nny thanks, that is all awesome information! He’s had a brief chat with a stoma nurse, but it was not very in depth as it’ wasn’t certain that he had to have one. He came out of surgery yesterday and it did end up going that way, so these are all great points to bring up with the nurse. We’re in Australia, so I doubt we’ll have much to do with the stoma companies directly, it will all be through the hospital, but this is certainly a great source of information. @Momof4crazytocruise Thank you! This is exactly the sort of feedback and opinions I was looking for! Looks like I’ve got several questions and tips to follow up on, firstly whether salt water is ok, how often the ship refills the pools, and perhaps sticking to morning swims in the cleaner water if swimming is desired.

If you must know, it’s not an ‘unhealed wound’ it’s a stoma bag. I was simply trying to be delicate about it. And as most people in the world do not own their own private pool, the majority of people who swim with this condition (and as mentioned, the nurse has said it is perfectly ok to do so) will be swimming in public pools. @twangster & @GrandmaAirplane thanks for the advice on the type of water in the pools. Is this for 100% of the fleet, or do some have chlorinated water? There is about 50/50 chance he’ll end up with this, so just want to be prepared for questions to ask the nurses and doctors if/when the time comes.

Hi all, This might be a weird question, but I wanted opinions on the hygiene/sanitary rating of the pools on board. My partner is going in to surgery shortly, and will be 7 weeks post op when we go on our cruise. His incision site will likely be well closed at this point, however he will possibly have a temporary drainage implant type thing, so he wont be fully closed up. He is unsure as yet whether he'll be comfortable swimming while he has this (though the nurse said swimming shouldn't be an issue) but I was just curious about the hygiene aspect of things. Any feedback would be appreciated!

Interesting info on Lelepa itself. The island has 2 towns, churches, and a population of 500. Wiki says that RCI will be creating a 'private resort' on the island, so there is already a big difference between Lelepa and Coco Cay in that I don't believe Coco was inhabited at the time RCI took the lease? I wonder if that means guests will be restricted to the resort area, or if service will just be restricted to the area. Lelepa is quite a bit larger than Coco Cay as well, at 5km long vs the 1 on Coco Cay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lelepa_Island

No need to think about it, the press release says specifically that it will be different from Coco-Cay: I do however hope that they keep the dual elements of 'Chill" & 'Thrill' when developing Lelepa. I like to option to do both, and commercially this diversifies the customer base the island will appeal to.

YAY! I am so excited for this! Wonder if it will be first half 2022, or second half 2022. Also, how do you reckon you say that? Does it rhyme with 'day'?

Also Australian! And while I’ll certainly admit to having done some moaning, my comment was mearly a statement of likely fact. Do you not agree? The timelines all meet up. Voyager is going back for second round amplification (a program which does seem to be linked to the Caribbean market) in 2021. Wonder is going to be doing Asia full time from 2021, leaving the question open about whether they need so many very large ships. Also I believe that someone commented on an unnamed quantum ship moving to Aus at some point (somewhere in this thread actually), perhaps it was 2021. Therefore it seems reasonable to assume that Aus will get quantum, wonder does Asia, and voyager will go back to the Caribbean market once receiving her final Caribbean makeover. Can’t really moan about getting bigger and ‘better’ ships in the fleet when not having them was.....what we were moaning about in the first place...? ?

Yeah, and they'll probably take Voyager back after it gets its 'proper' amplification.

Also, someone posted a letter from Royal in the Singapore cruise society FB page explaining that their April 21st 2021 cruise on voyager has been cancelled because they want to start the dry dock earlier than was previously scheduled. So it does indeed look like they are rectifying their mistake with regards to cancelling the full amplification.

Could this be another move to do with the Asian market? If all the ships stationed there are Quantum class and have a blue hull, then this would aid them in presenting a more uniform fleet to the Asian market, and have Voyager stand out less from the other ships.

I wonder if this is in response to feedback the have received on this current 'amplification'. Also, dang 2022 is ages away. I'm sure the ship will be lovely and fresh when she is out of dry dock, but if I book another cruise it wont be on her when there are ships like Ovation going from the same port.

@bretts173 I feel like you explained the comparative disappointment in the Voyager AMP perfectly in the Oasis chain. They have sold the Amplification Program as a certain style, and they have not only not delivered on that style for the Voyager, but have fallen far short. If they had simply said that the ship was going in for a refresh/refurbishment, then I don't think we'd have a leg to stand on for being disappointed. But the fact that they are trying to sell this as the same improvement program as Mariner, Navigator, and now Explorer just leaves me really confused.

Some of you may be interested to know that Royal doesn't allow smoking in the casino already for cruises out of Australia and the U.K. In Aus we have pretty strict smoking laws. You can't smoke inside of any public building (as in any building that isn't a house). You can't smoke in any outside area that also serves food. You can't smoke on the grounds of public building such as courts and hospitals. I guess that as we're already used this there isn't any outcry in this situation when applied to cruise ships, but people will always be perturbed if it is different to what they're used to. Would be interested to see what the casino take is on a UK/Aus ship vs a US. Keeping in mind that our gambling ages are 18 as well, so they likely already have a slightly larger percentage of eligible gamblers.

Hi all, I’ll be sailing this December with my partner, parents, siblings etc. all together we are 10, possibly 11. We all have My Time dining, and as it is a Christmas cruise I’ve gone ahead and pre booked dinner for us all together in the main dining room for 3 nights of the 9 night cruise (one of which is Christmas night, plus night 1 and night 9). Now that our cruise has started to get closer, we’ve been talking about schedules, meeting up, how to stay in touch. And my mum has mentioned that she wants to just make a MTD booking in the MDR for every night of the cruise for all 10 of us for the same time each night as a standing booking. While I have heard others doing this and rocommending booking your MTD for the week as soon as you can, I have a few issues with this. - We don’t really know what time shows are, and what time we should book for. - My sister is bringing her 3 kids, and I can’t imagine them wanting to even eat in the MDR every night. She has already said she wants no part in formal night - We are a large group. If we make the booking for 10, and they reserve it as such, but only 5 of us show up, this just feels kinda rude. I know this isn’t an odd thing for traditional dining, but when MTD is a supply and demand thing, I just feel uncomfortable doing this. Does anyone have some thoughts or advice for me on this situation? Thanks in advance!

Thanks heaps for this! Helpful to see all the changes clearly laid out. Curious about the removal of the Arcade. They are still selling arcade credit on my cruise planner for December. Do you think they will put the game machines somewhere else, and if so where? My Sisters kids will be on this cruise, and I'm sure they'd like to play if there is an arcade available.