Vancity Cruiser

Or don't do that to the crew....more people than not are going to pay the gratuities, so you won't be doing any harm to the company- just the people who helped you during your cruise. I haven't noticed or been bothered enough by cut backs to cause me to want them out of business. If you don't like how they operate- there are plenty of other lines you can try (all doing the same thing, by the way) 

I'm sure Royal would love to amplify all their ships, and I would love for them to do it. However, I am not prepared to have cruise fares triple in price to cover it

That crossed my mind as well......lol

They've gone up enough as-is.  🤣

That crossed my mind as well......lol

I and others are still waiting to hear what's happening with our Freedom sailings in November/December 2024. They've been off the website for weeks and everything points to her doing her required dry dock in that period, including a booking at the port of Funchal in November that pretty much confirms this hypothesis.
But we have yet to hear anything from Royal and those who contacted them have essentially been given the run-around, which is not fair because it prevents you from making alternative arrangements far enough in advance that the prices are still reasonable. Obviously it's way too far out for anyone to have air booked yet but, even so, a couple of the apparently affected sailings are holidays sailings that will be extremely difficult to replace closer in.
I used to work in tourism and the one thing we held as gospel was always to keep our guests informed. Even if you have nothing new to tell them, you go and tell them precisely that, and you keep doing it until you do have some news for them. Nothing stirs up a beehive of discontent more than people feeling they are being ignored and disrespected.

For an infrequent or first time cruiser this may very well have been a trip of a lifetime.  In this case the Odyssey itinerary the week that was chartered was more rare and not offered on a regular basis.  That's extra salt rubbed in the wound.
I argue it's quite sad that the practice of dumping guests has become so common place that regular cruisers have become normalized to it.  "Oh well, dumped by Royal again".
The OP's rant is well deserved by Royal and other cruise lines that do the same.  They wouldn't have an agenda were it not for being poorly treated in the first place. 

Interesting story on this. Most land border crossings have not been checking for this. Recently some friends of friends (1 who is unvaccinated) drove across the border and flew to Miami to take a cruise on Odyssey. The focus was on getting across the border from Canada into the US since Royal is not checking for getting on ships and Canada doesn't require it coming back across. They got into the US at the land border no problem and figured they were home free. 
What never crossed their mind (nor mine as I knew they were doing it) was that they had to go through US customs again coming off the cruise ship in Miami. She was detained for 2 hours while the custom agents figured out what to do. They eventually just let them go (probably because no one really gives a crap about the outdated requirement).

Yes, its called purchasing another cruise.

Interesting story on this. Most land border crossings have not been checking for this. Recently some friends of friends (1 who is unvaccinated) drove across the border and flew to Miami to take a cruise on Odyssey. The focus was on getting across the border from Canada into the US since Royal is not checking for getting on ships and Canada doesn't require it coming back across. They got into the US at the land border no problem and figured they were home free. 
What never crossed their mind (nor mine as I knew they were doing it) was that they had to go through US customs again coming off the cruise ship in Miami. She was detained for 2 hours while the custom agents figured out what to do. They eventually just let them go (probably because no one really gives a crap about the outdated requirement).

Interesting story on this. Most land border crossings have not been checking for this. Recently some friends of friends (1 who is unvaccinated) drove across the border and flew to Miami to take a cruise on Odyssey. The focus was on getting across the border from Canada into the US since Royal is not checking for getting on ships and Canada doesn't require it coming back across. They got into the US at the land border no problem and figured they were home free. 
What never crossed their mind (nor mine as I knew they were doing it) was that they had to go through US customs again coming off the cruise ship in Miami. She was detained for 2 hours while the custom agents figured out what to do. They eventually just let them go (probably because no one really gives a crap about the outdated requirement).

Scary but that shadow box in the middle of Central Park looks like ME behind a shower curtain.
Cannot get that ugly image out of your head now can you?

I hear that. I’m from Vancouver Canada so have to traverse the continent when cruising from Florida but on the plus side we gain 3 hours going home 🤷‍♂️

I think I might be in a serious minority here lol.
I like to get on early-ish. I like to sleep in and usually we plan our boarding time around when our hotel check out is so we have time to have breakfast, repack whatever we unpacked the night before and then comfortably head to the shuttle and port.
And when it comes to leaving, I do wish we could get off a little later. Mainly, again, to sleep in, do a final did-i-get-everything check and still have some time for breakfast and to say a mental goodbye to ship without feeling rushed or frazzled. (Our departure from Allure last year may have been our most relaxed departure - we got some pastries from the Central Park Cafe and enjoyed them while waiting in the champagne bar for the suite departure time - but even that wasn't relaxing because we had to be alert and ready to jump up and go when the concierge came by)
so my ideal is early on late off.
but if i had to shuffle it all, i'd have no problem late on late off. More time to enjoy the city we're leaving from.

I'd prefer another hour in the AM to leave for sure, especially when it seems like most flights back home for us have been either too early, or mid afternoon. 
I don't like having to set an alarm so early on the last day.  Would much rather take our time.  Would lead to a more relaxing disembarkation process.

I sometimes enjoy the later boarding.  After 1:30, there are no lines, you can go straight to the cabin, and most eating alternatives are open without so many people.  Of course, if you eliminated the earlier boarding, these advantages would disappear.

Everyone here, myself included, loves to get on a cruise ship as early as possible on embarkation day to begin enjoying the ship and everything it has to offer. The downside to this is on disembarkation day we are kicked off the ship much earlier than I think most of us would like so the next passengers can get on early. I’m curious how many here would like more lines to adopt Virgin Cruises schedule where the earliest embarkation time you can get is 1 or 2 pm but you don’t need to disembark until 10 or 11am?

We're on the oasis of the seas. 
 
Booked two rooms, 11th deck forward. We couldn't get connecting staterooms for the same price. Just for giggles, I wanted to find out how much more it would move to the two cabins, directly NEXT to us on the ship that are still available, but connecting. 
 
You might want to sit down for this. We're talking INTERIOR staterooms. All four rooms are IDENTICAL in the location, just one pair happens to have a connecting door to both staterooms. You ready for this?!?!!? 
 
They wanted nearly $4000 to 'upgrade' us to connecting staterooms. I felt like it would be cheaper to bring a hammer, do it myself, and pay the repair bills after the cruise. 
 
Really?!?!?! $4000 to get a door between staterooms....wowowowow. 

We would love this, too! We are not morning people at all and even having another hour before having to disembark would be wonderful for us. We would gladly embark one hour later at the start in order to leave one hour later at the end.

We just kind of accept it since we love to cruise the Caribbean. Unfortunately it’s not just the time but the airfare costs which sometime match or exceed the cost of the cruise 😥

Same here! I’m in LA and have a $6k cruise booked that will cost about $6-7k to fly my family out to San Juan to embark onto the ship.

Everyone here, myself included, loves to get on a cruise ship as early as possible on embarkation day to begin enjoying the ship and everything it has to offer. The downside to this is on disembarkation day we are kicked off the ship much earlier than I think most of us would like so the next passengers can get on early. I’m curious how many here would like more lines to adopt Virgin Cruises schedule where the earliest embarkation time you can get is 1 or 2 pm but you don’t need to disembark until 10 or 11am?

We just kind of accept it since we love to cruise the Caribbean. Unfortunately it’s not just the time but the airfare costs which sometime match or exceed the cost of the cruise 😥

I would absolutely prefer this. I hate, hate, hate having to be up at the crack of dawn to get off the ship, especially if we're flying home transatlantic on disembarkation day, since those flights are overnighters that don't leave till later in the day. Those extra few hours on board would make a world of difference to us.

Not being near any cruise ports we like to disembark as early as possible to get on the road. The wife and I are thinking about getting a vacation place in Florida in the future, in that case might change our mind