Jmccaffrey

I have filled out many surveys after going on cruises, but I really didn't think anyone looked at them. Surprisingly, I received a response in email today:
 
Thank you for your suggestion! 
We know our guests want a lot of things and we do our best to incorporate every little or big suggestion. I have added your email to our collection to better assist our future roadmapping team as to what we should work on next. 
Thank you again for your input, hope you have a great rest of your week
 
Roman C
Royal Caribbean International
---------------------------------
 
On Thu, 1 Feb at 11:54 AM ,  Fox wrote:
      Please put the overhead announcements on the app during sailing.
 

And he would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling bloggers !

ngl, I had to check the post date of this multiple times to confirm it wasn't an April Fool's joke.
Matt! Matt! Why hast thou forsaken us?!?
 
😉

I've always defended @Matt when someone claimed he was being a princess.
Now I'm not so sure.
🤣🤣🤣
 

Loyal to Royal?!?  Not so fast, here comes Princess Matt!  🤣

Francis Scott Key Bridge (Baltimore) 185 feet (56 m)  and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is 186 feet 

I'm supposed to be on the Vision on 4/4.   I can let you know what they have to say once I get told anything.  

Yeah, Norfolk or Bayonne would be my guess. And a whole bunch of charter busses.

While I do wonder what RC will do (odds they will move this ship to NYC), but right now I am praying to for everyone

I've already reached out to Royal Caribbean for impact on cruises

There is no way that the debris will be cleared by the time they get back. My money is that they will be diverted to NYC or Norfolk and bussed back to Baltimore. 
 
A tragedy for those few people on the bridge. Luckily it wasn’t during rush hour. Those pilots are going to have a lot of questions to answer. 

This makes perfect sense within the context of Royal going after families who'd consider vacationing at a major theme park. Cozumel is a popular port with many, many ships calling on it. Providing a beach club option for travelers who are uncomfortable getting outside Royal's bubble through non-Royal resorts is going to make them a mint.

I'm not expecting a low-priced offering.
 
Though I could see it being cheaper than the new nassau one since cozumel will offer a lot more competiton

I wonder what the pricing is going to be.  Is it going to be dynamic pricing?  I assume it will also include round-trip transportation.  I guess that would be a great way to guarantee you would return to the ship on time especially at a port like Cozumel 🤪

I expect the news much closer to the actual refurb. I say that because in the Royal Amplification days the specific details of an amplification were announced closer to the start of the work being done.
Royal has always been cagey about their refurbishments. They tend to play it "close to the vest" until they can't anymore. 

The China market is untapped potential and RCCL definitely wants to compete.  I wouldn't be surprised to see Wonder wander off even before Oasis 7 is done.
Also, given the current demand a lot of Vision itineraries could be dropped for larger ships (shift Voyager in and replace Voyagers with Oases).  Everything is sort of cyclical, Oasis will be the new Voyager class (which really has 8 ships since Freedom/Liberty/Independence are pretty much just stretched Voyagers) and Voyager will replace vision.  Eventually Quantums will replace Radiance. 
The question is how to fit Voyager and Quantum into the places that Vision and Radiance go now.  As far as home ports go my memory is the two tricky ones are Tampa and Baltimore? I am sure Discovery will come along eventually but I suspect it will be closer in concept to Quantum than Vision.  

 

Radiance and Vision size ships sail in and out of Tampa & Baltimore. Voyager class and above are too tall. These new ships need to be able to sail under bridges in order to get into open water from those 2 ports. Not sure of the size criteria for Alaska & the Panama Canal, but maybe they could be a little longer and wider than the Vision & Radiance class and have a retractable smokestack like the Oasis class ships.

I think it's quite natural that Royal would talk with shipyards they have done business with in the past.  If nothing else they need to get an idea on pricing for such a build.  They are probably also talking with the shipyard that builds Oasis and Icon class.  Before they can approach the board to seek permission to proceed and lenders to finance the concept they need to know what a shipyard might charge and when they have time to fit it in.  
If one shipyard offers to do it for $900M but can't start for four years while the other shipyard wants $1B and can start in a few months they might decide to pay the higher amount to get it done sooner, or vice versa they might delay the project to save money.  They won't know until they talk to the shipyards.  

https://www.schiffe-und-kreuzfahrten.de/news/royal-caribbean-arbeitet-am-project-discovery-neue-auftraege-fuer-die-meyer-werft-aus-papenburg/290350/?fbclid=IwAR2npaBBwHtZABZ529iS5OnwYZcHtxXTpcXGoqwIk7FvbsgI8Fg91lQ3l0Y_aem_AW-4BT96wP7yvPh-ZW1QbxYPyrLbkxjeW9fxZP0H6J73KQq8iYfJhXpH0Qmk1DckdYo#google_vignette
 
Translation: 
Around Royal Caribbean International, there are ongoing rumors about smaller new buildings under the project title Discovery. Royal Caribbean International has now indirectly confirmed that work is being done on new buildings. In the introduction text of staff captain Markus Alander, who has been working in the new building department of Royal Caribbean for several years, states that he is also working on Project Discovery. In recent years, he has accompanied the introduction of numerous new ships for the Royal Caribbean Group.
Project Discovery is supposed to be planning for medium-sized cruise ships. Since with the four ships from the Vision Class and the four ships from the Radiance Class, several Royal Caribbean cruise ships will soon exceed an age of 20, 25 or even 30 years, these cruise ships must be replaced. However, you cannot simply replace these cruise ships with ships of a significantly larger ship class such as the Oasis, Quantum or Icon Class, as these cruise ships are far from being able to sail all routes.
Royal Caribbean International has not yet placed any orders for Project Discovery. Since the ship class is currently in the planning phase, the delivery of the first ships from Project Discovery is not expected until the end of the 2020 years, provided that this ship class is ordered. Presumably, the ship class is medium-sized cruise ships for 3000 to 3500 cruise passengers. This would only mean that these ships would be about half the size of the Oasis or Icon Class ships from Royal Caribbean International.
Allegedly, Royal Caribbean International is also talking to Meyer Werft from Papenburg about Project Discovery. The shipyard from Emsland could well use orders for new cruise ships. Since the current order book for cruise ships from Papenburg only lasts until 2025, the shipyard could build a new ship class for Royal Caribbean International from 2026. In 2026, the oldest Royal Caribbean cruise ship Grandeur of the Seas reaches the age of 30 years, a year later the Rhapsody of the Seas and the Enchantment of the Seas also exceed this age limit. Royal Caribbean International will have to replace these cruise ships towards the end of the 2020s.
The fact that the Meyer Werft on Papenburg will be involved in Project Discovery is well possible but by no means guaranteed. In addition to the shipyard from Papenburg, the competition of Chantiers de l'Atlantique from France has also built several cruise ships for the Royal Caribbean Group in recent years.

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Well you might get your dream! If you’re on Facebook go join this page

Tony Hawk officially became a senior citizen this year, and much of Gen X has already crossed that threshold, so Royal's just catering to the seniors. 😏
 
Now I feel old. 😟

Bummer - two weeks ago I was on Allure and drink in hand at 10:38!!

My first thought upon reading @Matt's blog earlier today was, "Oh boy, Suite Lounge is going to be a bit more crowded." 😬