bobroo

Ya’ know what Royal has done a good job with so far on the Barbados Island Hop cruises? The shore excursions for Trinidad, Tobago, and St. Vincent. Good job shore excursions team!

Royal appropriately priced these with what I call "San Juan pricing". San Juan pricing is lower than "Florida" pricing because they take into account the adde airfare. But even with that, the suite price per night for that 14 nighter is very, very low. Good for you!

This is the second best news I've heard today! New ports of call for Royal in St Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago; all in one cruise; and.....<drumroll> .......NO SEA DAYS!!! I'm excited like European Cruise excited, Way to go Royal! Could this mean the door is opening for stops in Venezuela????

Perhaps just as exciting are the new port stops in St Vincent and Trinidad. Well......maybe they are porting in these places. When you go to book those stops are omitted from the itinerary. So who knows???

Sadly, no mention of the most economical people mover: a zipline between FLL and Port Everglades. :0(

I would be very cautious about the CDC having an opinion poll of Americans what a reopening of cruising should look like; long time cruisers may not get the results they are expecting. Jus' say'n....

How many people think we should buy a Monarch lifeboat for Matt to create a RCBlog studio/office/YouTube broadcast booth? Or, should it just be the furnishings from one of the pool bars?

My question is, being beyond confident there will be no sailings this year: do I greatly increase my cabin categories on 2020 cruises in order to receive an inflated 25% part of the FCC??? If so, is this a company I want to front money to? Will there even be a Royal Caribbean in 2021/2022??? This strangely feels familiar, like I am over-served in Casino Royale and trying to make financial decisions past midnight.

I do not understand the benefit of wholly owning Silversea at this point in time. Crazy...

I think the company that operated the Royal Up program has been gone for months and will likely never return. Going forward, Royal Up is unnecessary. Royal is simply substituting much higher pricing for balconies and above from day one. I know it's unpopular here, but if they need to trim the manifest for social distancing purposes; it will strictly be done by 'How much did you pay?'.

We went in August of 2014 and only have good memories of the ruins at Tulum and of the Mía Restaurant & Beach Club who was the vendor for our beach break. Yes it was hot and humid, it would be disappointing if it wasn't. I have very high regard for the Mayan culture and I don't think I'm going to far out on a limb by saying and hot and humid as it was touring the ruins, it was very much likely hotter and more humid at other places inland. The Mayans chose the locations for their settlements for astrological reasons; but I also think the Tulum location was chosen for it's ocean breezes

Of interesting note, do you know how TA’s check for price reductions? No, they don’t have a software program that monitors their customers pricing; they do it through mock bookings at royalcaribbean.com just like you and me. We all need to appreciate our TAs more.

I gotta tell you guys I am troubled by Matt's recent post about the proposed EU guidelines. I've been thinking about it quite a bit over the weekend. It's not the guidelines themselves, they seem so simple. I have always thought that when cruising resumes the change in culture will be harder than the changes themselves. That's why I have been upset that Royal has not come out and said "we are going to create many areas for hand washing", "we are going to reform the old practices of embarkation to allow for social distancing", or "we are changing the way we serve food"; very, very easy and

It would come as no surprise to me if 10 or 15 Royal ships were decommissioned by the end of the summer.

Just my opinion: if losing online contact with this company brings a big knot in your stomach; you should probably be reevaluating the value in your life you are allowing Royal to have. Jus' say'n