FionaMG

Availability of bathrooms both on any form of transport used during a tour and at the stops.

Thanks for this. I share your scepticism. Given that the whole of January 2025 is blocked, which I had presumed was for the dry dock, it crossed my mind that maybe they had decided to bring it forward but I can't see how that would make financial sense at it would mean cancelling two holiday cruises (Thanksgiving and Christmas), so I guess we'll just have to give them the benefit of the doubt for now. I can still see the cruise in my planner too, with tons of excursions and other extras already on sale.

The US already DOES require EU (and UK) citizens to get an electronic travel authorisation and has done for some years now. It's the ESTA. It's only valid for 2 years and as at a few days ago (when I got ours) costs $21 per person, so the ETIAS is a bargain. Previously, our ESTAs cost us $14 each, so quite a big jump in price since the last one, which was just prior to the pandemic.

I guess they may not have updated all ships and maybe those that haven't been updated are still offering the old perks? Especially since @bigmoose7563 has confirmed they had the room service. This is what I see on my cruise planners for Anthem and Freedom: I would suggest you make sure you have a dated screenshot that you can take to guest services on board if it turns out you're not getting the perks you expected. That way you'll at least be able to prove what was shown in your cruise planner on the day of booking (in case it gets changed in the meantime).

Those look to me like the old perks that were in place during the post-covid restart. I'm pretty sure this is an outdated list and that the room service and 25% discount on specialty dining are no longer a thing. @Matt has an article somewhere on the site about the pros and cons of The Key and whether or not it's likely to be worth it.

Oh wow, what a headache for you! Fingers crossed it won't come to that.

It's been MIA for a couple of weeks now, and it's not just this sailing either. If you plug November/December into the booking engine, you'll see there's nothing at all between the 9th of November and the 29th of December.

You did, but you accidentally wrote UK rather than European. I don't remember ever seeing a UK outlet on a Royal Ship, not even on Anthem which sails from the UK. UK outlets look like this:

So true. And I had been planning on getting one of those external discs to back everything up for some time but just never got round to it. Lesson learned.

Well, am I glad I posted my research on this thread? My computer died and I lost EVERYTHING! So, finally, Haugesund. As far as I can gather, this port is a fairly recent addition to Royal's Norway itineraries. I remember reading a live or semi-live review about this port last year and the person who was doing the review said that only a handful of excursions appeared on Royal's website and very much at the last minute. That reviewer booked the Akrafjord and Langfoss Waterfall tour without doing any research into it but said it turned out to be a good tour. It's currently showing sold out for my sailing (7th July) but might be an option for others on different sailings. Although perhaps not as well known to the cruising community as places like Bergen and Geiranger, it does appear that you can easily spend some pleasant time ashore in Haugesund. There are various monuments that can be visited, including Norway's national monument (https://www.visitnorway.com/listings/norways-national-monument-haraldshaugen/1591/ ) and there are the usual boat trips in the fjord and plenty of walks and hikes. There is also an apparently renowned cupcake shop (https://www.visitnorway.com/listings/jåblom-bakst-cupcakehuset/212333/) which I suspect I will be unable to resist paying a visit to. Anyone looking to do an excursion with a local supplier can take a look at this page: https://govikingadventure.com/cruise, which lists excursions by ship and arrival date in the port. The prices are obviously much cheaper than Royal's. According to the information on the site, this company has a booth just by the port exit. They also offer the option of cancelling for a full refund at least 24 hours ahead of the excursion and a refund if the cruise call is cancelled or the time is changed to the extent that it impacts the excursion. Note that I have not used this company, so I'm not recommending them, just pointing out their existence to assist everyone with research. The komoot site again is a good one if you're looking for walks and hikes: https://www.komoot.com/guide/664244/hiking-around-haugesund And here are a couple of general ones that suggest a range of things to do. The visitnorway one, in particular, has some great images: https://www.fjordnorway.com/en/destinations/haugesund-haugalandet https://www.visitnorway.com/places-to-go/fjord-norway/haugesund-haugalandet/ I hope you'll all find this useful and it will help you have a great time on your cruises.

Hi John and welcome to the boards. I don't the answer but suggest you change the title of your thread to reflect what you want to know (rather than your name) as you're more likely to get a response that way.

I agree and, in fact, I have a vague idea that that used to be a thing in the somewhat distant past, many "enhancements" ago. Of course, I may also be having a senior moment and just letting my imagination get the better of me.

"Routine engine maintenance" was cited as the reason for adjusting a number of itineraries as far back as June last year. On our 12-night Canaries cruise in September/October, although we did not skip any ports, our time was cut in several of them, sometimes significantly, such as Madeira and Tenerife, where our full-day stops were effectively reduced to half. I have two upcoming cruises on Anthem, one next month and one in July, and I would not be at all surprised to get one of those emails any day now where they say they're enhancing the cruise by changing the itinerary.

I remember reading that too, although not where I read it.

Glad I was able to help. Note what @ChessE4 said too, as that's important.

It depends. Assuming you're booked on a through ticket (i.e. with the same airline or airlines that have an agreement such as American and Iberia), your bags would be checked through to Barcelona. You would not have to collect them in Frankfurt. On arrival in Frankfurt you would go through immigration (passport control) but not customs. On arrival in Barcelona you collect your bags and go through customs (but not immigration, since you did that in Frankfurt). However, if you are booked on two separate tickets or with airlines that don't have an agreement, then you will have to clear immigration, collect your bags, clear customs, re-check your bags and go back through security, but you wouldn't have to do either immigration or customs again. Under certain circumstances (such as a visit by the Pope, an international summit or an imminent terrorist threat) EU member states are allowed to tighten their border controls and in those cases you could conceivably have to go through immigration again on arrival in Barcelona so you should be prepared for the eventuality, although these occurrences are very rare.

It certainly would be helpful. I don't know who decides these things. I've put airline boarding passes into my Google wallet but the setsail passes just don't have that option.

Not that I can find. (Would be thrilled to learn there is a way.) I took screenshots of ours so we don't need internet to access them.

Barcelona is considered the main departure port for this itinerary so the menu rotation will almost certainly start from there with the Welcome Aboard menu. For folks boarding in Rome, the menus (along with everything else) will be out of normal synch.

Yes! Got them!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Me too!

Ah, yes, you're right. Not for full suites anyway. I think you can for junior suites and also the panoramic (no balcony) suites that exist on a few ships.

Hi @CruisingMomMN and welcome to the boards. I have a booking on FOS at that time too (December 7th) and noticed the exact same thing. In my case, I'm not particularly worried since I booked it refundable as a place holder and almost certainly will be changing it anyway but I totally understand your concern. When I originally booked I did notice that Freedom was blocked for the month of January 2025, so when the December sailings dropped off (apart from the one over Christmas), I did wonder if they might have decided to bring forward whatever it was they were planning to do then. Given the circumstances and if your budget allows you to pay out a new lot of 5 deposits, @Ampurp85's suggestion might be well worth considering. At least that way you would lock in an alternative sailing that would suit you, rather than waiting it out and potentially getting left high and dry.

Me too. Hurry up Royal!

This ship looks so amazing. I also recently saw a video about it by UK bloggers Ben & David. I really want to sail on Beyond sometime soon.