TXcruzer

Agree to disagree. 
 
There is nothing they could build or develop in an American coastal city, that would make enough people pay a cruise fare to experience.  All the same laws, taxes, and duties one has at home-it’s not an attractive proposition; hence it doesn’t really exist. 

Exactly, if there was even the slightest hint of liability on the cruise line's part, it would be splattered everywhere already by our legal friend in south Florida.

As interesting as those ports may be, I doubt it will happen. Tampico rejected the idea of a cruise port about a decade ago. Unless they reconsider, that just isn't going to happen.  Without Tampico a stop in Corpus or Mobile would be out of the way of a required foreign port stop.

Agree to disagree. 
 
There is nothing they could build or develop in an American coastal city, that would make enough people pay a cruise fare to experience.  All the same laws, taxes, and duties one has at home-it’s not an attractive proposition; hence it doesn’t really exist. 

We are in Texas and sail out of Galveston often.  The majority of sailings on RCL are Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Honduras.  There are a few variations on a theme like Progresso Mexico or sometimes a Grand Cayman but mostly limited ports.  NCL and Carnival have more variety.  We are retired and care a lot about ports which is why we’ve been flying elsewhere to get on RCL sailings.  Every time I make mention of desire for port variation out of Galveston I’m told either the ship is the destination or I need to go to Celebrity.  I would very much like more variety from Galveston from RCL - and it doesn’t need to be more Oasis sailings.  Love Freedom and Voyager class ships.  Agree Corpus and Mobile are non-starters.

No they won't, ridiculous statement.  There has been no successful litigation against cruise lines with respect to negligence or liability in any balcony or railing design.
These designs are based on international standards for safety, there is absolutely no reason to circumvent these standards to prevent stupid people from doing stupid things.

Come for what? Mobile is a failed embarkation point A continental US stop offers nothing the average cruiser wants. Port Canaveral, without access to Orlando would be unwanted (as it is a large percentage of the cruisers out of NY/NJ don’t get off the ship). Even Key West for all its charm was not an overly popular stop. 

I stand by my statement. I am big on taking ownership. Ownership is not blame. People like to interpose words all the time, especially blame and scam. I'm just saying if my setsail pass still showed absolutely nothing, I would have done something before I spent on hotel and flights. People who spend any money on anything should be of the same mind.
Do I think royal was wrong. Absolutely. My whole point was some stress could have been avoided. I think, imho, people seem to forget these are businesses. The fact that gty have anything to do with the current CEO and changes amaze me. You don't like gty, fine. But imho this example is not a reason to avoid it.
This was an extremely rare instance.I believe Quantum not only has a broken Northstar but other issues. They could have had to have maintenance crew come on. A myriad of reason. Again the whole thing sucks and the original offer was laughable. But to take this as the end-all be-all reason against gty is too much to me. Just my opinion.

Well said, we have had more than one GTY booking where a cabin was not assigned until we were at check in (we had one where room assignment changed shortly after our first drink at the Trellis Bar)

Exactly, if there was even the slightest hint of liability on the cruise line's part, it would be splattered everywhere already by our legal friend in south Florida.

At that point, forget the ship and let itinerary, ports and price make your decision.

I'm sure everyone involved already knows the truth.

No they won't, ridiculous statement.  There has been no successful litigation against cruise lines with respect to negligence or liability in any balcony or railing design.
These designs are based on international standards for safety, there is absolutely no reason to circumvent these standards to prevent stupid people from doing stupid things.

No sir, that is incorrect, links to examples above, others easily found on cruise blogs.

No they won't, ridiculous statement.  There has been no successful litigation against cruise lines with respect to negligence or liability in any balcony or railing design.
These designs are based on international standards for safety, there is absolutely no reason to circumvent these standards to prevent stupid people from doing stupid things.

No sir, that is incorrect, links to examples above, others easily found on cruise blogs.

No they won't, ridiculous statement.  There has been no successful litigation against cruise lines with respect to negligence or liability in any balcony or railing design.
These designs are based on international standards for safety, there is absolutely no reason to circumvent these standards to prevent stupid people from doing stupid things.

What are your travel arrangements? Where do you leave from and return to? Where are your stops?

I think there's a misconception by a decent number of cruisers that if you know what you're doing, what you want, and like to plan/research on your own, there is no use for a TA in that case... and that couldn't be further from the truth.

Flash mob?

^^^THIS BIG TIME^^^
Any credible TA should not be charging you directly. The charges should show up as Royal Caribbean on your credit card. This is a whole other shady issue....yikes.

If your travel agent is charging your card for your fare and not Royal directly, that’s a whole different concern.  

So now that they have guards there, are they there all day? 
What happens if you are in at 4:45? Do they come and escort you out?

I agree. They are banking on once in a life time yolo cruisers paying for cabanas, internet, drink package, balcony toss years of savings at it, not cheaper regulars. They don't want nor care about loyalty anymore. The sad part is they forgot who helped them make it through covid and the recessions of years past, it was loyal cruisers. They need to watch it though. That is how disney shot themselves in the foot, years ago they gave up on loyalty, repeat visitors and annual passholders with cuts to this or that banking on many once in a life timers who pay more. Now their numbers are way down as they finally hit the once in a life timers budget limits.
My husband wants to really stick it out with Royal and get Diamond, I told him by the time it happens it won't matter, the benefits will be gutted or watered down. Now I like Royal but I'm ready to play the whoever is cheaper game because they have changed the game.

Minimum base salary is $658 monthly, raising to $666 on Jan 1 2024.
No one NEEDS to pay for internet and alcohol