Vancity Cruiser

I was hoping for a sale on 3 night dining package but it is exact same price.

No change in price for any cruise planner items

I am curious @Exileif Royal offered you some alternative dates that would be price matched? I have had a couple cruises 'canceled' due to charters but am usually offered alternative dates that are price matched. Were you offered alternatives but chose the prior week as it fit better with your schedule?

I don't see why its adequate for 18 months of cruising and then would suddenly be considered inadequate

Interesting that Virgin Voyages, who doesn't have a MDR at all but many different restaurants (all included) just earned the honor of top 'bang for your buck' cruiseline knocking Carnival out of that long held position. I prefer the concept of going to different restaurants each night instead of MDR but on Royal they are all an upcharge while Virgin has gone a different route.

I don't see Royal returning fortunately. I recall waaaaaaay back in pre coronial times (I believe it was late 2019) when Royal had actually trademarked the term 'emuster'. This leads me to believe Royal was working on this even before it becoming a 'necessity'

We use shore excursion group frequently. Also use viator.

One of my favorite tours of all time was on St. Maarten. We walked off (a group of 6) and found a van driver willing to do an all day island tour for $25 per person. We toured the entire island hitting all the popular spots and some lesser known spots. Our driver was amazing! P.S. Worrying about making it back on time and booking a ship excursion is something I used to do all the time when I first started cruising. I never book through the ship anymore as they are overpriced and packed. Its cheaper (and much more relaxing) to purchase good travel insurance and find independant tours.

Maybe there will be a new excursion to visit the ruins of a replica of the ruins........

Hoping for a good deal on a dining package on Black Friday. Starting to look at excursions as well since there hasn't been an itinerary change for a while. There have been so many itinerary changes I've been reluctant to book excursions

Alaska cannot handle the larger ships. Most ports are over run when 2 or more medium size ships are there on the same day

I've been checking daily for my 1/05 cruise but nothing. Must just be a holiday thing but that doesn't really makes sense as pretty much all ships are sailing at capacity. The ships are not going to be suddenly fuller in December.

So what I am feeling is that most people are willing to exchange an hour of their time for a buzz lol

I think they are overrated. I no longer go as I prefer to spend my time differently on a cruise

You cannot go wrong either way. Your kids will not be bored on either ship. The shows are probably be a little better on Allure but both are are great. I am a maximize my vacation dollars person so I would probably save the money on airfare, and the 2K savings on the cruise, and do the Navigator twice!

Its not available on Jan 5 Oasis sailing I was so excited for a moment. As a planner this is my biggest frustration of no longer being able to do. But hey, I save time not doing the old school muster drill, so that time is now taken up running around making reservations.

I definately would have been frustrated if this happened to me. I choose to cruise without kids and while I recognize Royal is a family cruise line I enjoy the adult only solarium to relax in daily. Perhaps Royal could have countered this by making one of the other pools (perhaps the beach entry pool) an adult only zone. A little harder to enforce maybe but it would have been a good compromise.

It plays on repeat on the cabin TV on most RC cruises....................does that count as free if you have to pay for the cruise?

Yes I was able to ride solo

Its time to bury this post to the second page but everyone keeps comenting on it..........yes I get the irony of my post

Welcome to the boards! My wife and I also did a Royal cruise for our honeymoon(although it wasn't either of our first cruise). You will have an amazing time!

I wonder if its reasonable to expect an Oasis class and an Icon class ship in Galveston in the future due to thier LNG capabilty. Plus there are only so many berths in Miami, and with the rate of new ships coming from all cruise lines (not to mention MSC's agressive push into the NA market) they need to find home ports for them all.

There are ways around it but you will have to fill out some forms and probably pay a processing fee. Typical governmental money grab. https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-402?language=en_US

I really hope Royal will offer some longer cruise options out of Galveston which can visit a larger variety of ports than just the standard western ports.

When in Roatan we go to the Tabyana Beach Resort. It has amazing snorkling!