FionaMG

Harmony, 26 September 2021, Western Med from Barcelona (fingers, legs and eyes crossed) ?

With most eyes firmly focused on the restart of cruising from North America, European cruising is not getting much attention right now. Somewhat slipping under the radar, this past Saturday, 26 June, MSC's Grandiosa became the first cruise ship to set sail from Barcelona since lockdown began. She is calling at several Italian ports as well as Valletta, Malta. For anyone with an upcoming European cruise or, indeed, anyone else who may be interested, here is the link to the Port of Barcelona's press release about the restart. https://contentv5.portdebarcelona.cat/cntmng/gd/d/workspace/SpacesStore/587d1daa-12f8-42ad-a505-077c9ff951dc/210626_Represa_Creuers_EN.pdf Paragraph two mentions the next few cruises they are expecting, including Harmony OTS on 15 August.

The time to get worried is when you get an email out of the blue cancelling your cruise planner purchases when you didn't cancel or change anything.

I don't know the answers to your questions, just wanted to say congratulations. ?

Not so bothered about the double points but if they would only extend the "sail by" date on CWC for another couple of months, that's what would entice me to pull the trigger...

I have noticed the pricing is crazy for my Harmony cruise at the end of September. It has never gone below $15.99 per day for a 7-night cruise in the whole year I've been tracking it. We have two free diamond days so I think we'll be holding off until day two, then using those and only thereafter purchasing on board. ?

The answer is... it depends on the price in the cruise planner and on whether or not you can hold off until day two on board to purchase by making use of shoreside connectivity on day one. @twangster posted some brilliant price comparison charts for this that show you exactly where the sweet point is for one device (it likely wouldn't be much different for two devices). Maybe he can chip in with the link? Alternatively, I saved them so could probably upload them as PDF files, although I don't have access to them right now.

Apparently as far as the competent authorities are concerned the technicality of being 2 separate cruises is irrelevant. What counts is the initial boarding point and the final disembarkation point. You can get round it by having a b2b where you get off one ship part way through, spend the night on land and then continue your journey on a different ship. I think both @WAAAYTOOO and @twangster had plans to do that - TP to Hawaii on one ship, an overnight on land and continuing on a different ship the next day. Maybe one of them can chime in if they like.

Yes, they would but, if I'm not mistaken, it only works for closed loop cruises, starting and ending in the same US port, which Hawaii to Seattle isn't. Similar cases crop up quite regularly and often result in folks having to cancel part of their b2b cruises, and it confused me too, but then @twangster was kind enough to explain it to me.

Isn't it to do with the PSVA (or whetever it's called) since they were doing a b2b starting in Hawaii, so that would mean their cruise starting and ending in the US, but point to point rather than a closed loop, and hence not legal?

I'm now seeing a "Vaccine Requirement" banner on my Harmony cruise out of Barcelona at the end of September. I checked and it's there for the transatlantic too. This is a new development as it wasn't there yesterday, although to be expected given the remarks made by Richard Fain about sailings which would require vaccination.

I do not see anything different to all the previous "sales" they have been running over the last year. Basically they have just consistently yo-yo'd between prices during sale/not sale and absolutely nothing is tempting me to get my credit card out. I can't help thinking this is a missed opportunity for revenue because some of the onboard stuff that doesn't cost them anything, such as the ship tour, cup cake classes, etc., could be discounted more to tempt people to book.

Harmony and Anthem westbound transatlantic sailings in October 2021 are back up on Royal's website. Note that I haven't actually tried booking either of them so I don't know if they are genuinely on sale.

Excellent article about it by a TPG writer who is on board here: https://thepointsguy.com/news/celebrity-millennium-cruise-ship-covid/

Haha, I had never even heard of it before now. Very fitting.

I agree with @KristiZ that you don't really notice it much. And I have also been on MSC cruises where people get on and off at practically every port of call. They have it down to a fine art.

Love Aruba. I was more than happy to pay the $1 to use the bathroom. Very clean and best of all NO line because most people don't want to part with a dollar to pee! Believe me when I say a decent bathroom is a big deal to us members of the fairer sex and to my mind a dollar a go was a bargain! ?

They will pleased that you're making the effort. And since your cruise is still a year away you have time to brush up on those 20 or so phrases and maybe learn 20 or so more.

It's called interporting. They've been doing it for several years now on this particular itinerary. It can be a bit weird for those boarding at the secondary embarkation port (which in this case is Rome) because some of the onboard activities, such as the welcome aboard party are out of kilter. However it's a wonderful feeling walking down corridors filled with disembarking passengers' luggage and knowing you still have several more days on board.

Still seeing the old style for September 2021 on Harmony.

Welcome back @WAAAYTOOO. You were missed. ?

I will be very happy about this if it also applies to my Harmony sailing out of Barcelona. We will get much more use out of the benefit than we do under the "old" rules.

Yes, you can sometimes pick up a bargain but as @gatorskin76 and @Pooch said it involves regular (not to say obsessive) tracking. If you're only interested in a couple of items then you can just keep track of them in a notebook. If you're looking at multiple items then a spreadsheet can be helpful. Either way, ignore the banners claiming xx% off because Royal are masters of fuzzy maths and they move the goalposts whenever it suits them. Look only at the bottom line.

That's very interesting, thanks for answering. Can't wait to see your onboard pics when you do finally get to sail her. ?

I have never been on an inaugural sailing but I've been around the boards long enough to know that it's a big deal for many of my "board buddies". So I am just curious how those of you who were booked on the initial inaugural that subsequently got shortened and now is apparently no longer an inaugural feel about this latest move? Will any of you want/be able to go on the new inaugural?