Rackham

10 hours ago, Heymarco said:

I saw the popcorn thing on Allure, reminded me of RyanAir wanting to charge for in flight toilets. That and with all other cutbacks, would rather just pay a few extra bucks on cruise ticket than be nicked and dimed for week. Would love to hear of any other main stream cruise lines that aren't like this, have tried NCL, HA, and MSC so far. We are Diamond with Royal but open to change.

Disney doesn't charge for popcorn at their onboard theater; or, at least, that's what I've heard. That's a lot of popcorn for the differences in fares between everyone listed and DCL though.

I think Royal charges for popcorn because they can. High profit at low cost. It's cheaper and less labor intensive versus pizza, and Sorrento's is included.

Would everyone be happier if popcorn wasn't available versus Royal charging for it?

Something I've been wondering, along the lines of data mining, is how much of the Sorrento's question was actually about the pizza and not categorizing guests? Depending on the answers to the pizza questions could group responses to the rest of the survey, at least when it comes to food. 

As several others have said, the fact that we all took this at face value and didn't give Royal any doubt, speaks volumes about the amount of goodwill they've got at this point. 

Also, the pizza Princess is now charging for is the equivalent of Giovanni's, not Sorrento's. It was kinda crazy they weren't already charging for it.

5 hours ago, CrznTxn said:

The only thing I have not seen in the list so far is an upcharge for playing in the Casino. Oh wait... they already take all my money.

Considering the rules and paytables in Casino Royale, there's already a charge for playing aboard versus a land casino. 

On 8/15/2023 at 3:45 PM, twangster said:

Entertainment:

• Aqua show, $9.95 per person, plus 18% gratuity.  
• Ice Skating shows, $12.95 per person, plus 18% gratuity.
• Broadways shows, $15.95 per person, plus 18% gratuity.
• Royal Caribbean original production shows $13.95 per person, plus 18% gratuity.
• Two70 production shows $11.95 per person, plus 18% gratuity.

Save up to 40% on shows during your cruise with an unlimited entertainment ticket. Comedy club (on select ships) will incure a $5 charge per visit. Reservations recommended. Shows cannot be reserved in advance of sailing. 

1 hour ago, Starrynight0154 said:

They’ll have a pizza package for $30 a day, and we’ll see a bunch of posts about is the “pizza package worth it” and “how many slices to eat per day to break even” 

The Top Tier Event gets replaced with the Crown and Anchor Pizza Party.  When will the madness end?!

3 hours ago, steverk said:

For each person that decides to skip paying for pizza, they'll fill up on other, more expensive,  food. Add the impact on customer satisfaction,  and you've got a bone headed decision. 

I've been thinking how charging for Sorrento's could impact food waste and the Windjammer. I could see a new, popular "hack" in certain circles where you build a cold plate for the evening at lunch and leave it in the cabin fridge. The waste part comes in when people decide they don't want what they took earlier or they took way too much to make sure they had enough. Having cheap, avaliable food is a win for Royal in the long run. 

I have nothing to add about the Sorrento's situation that hasn't already been said, but did want to touch on the dining package becoming a set dollar value versus a set number of meals. With the number of additional opportunities to spend on food in locations not covered by the current dining package aboard Royal's ships, this is probably the easiest way to bring those locations into the fold. I'm making the assumption here that the credit could be used for lobster or the Chops filet in the MDR or tapas at Vintages and so on. With the amount of food currently offered during specialty dining, I'm sure Royal's had many post-cruise surveys saying it was just too much and they'd like an à la carte option during specialty dining. And because Royal likes money, I'd expect there to be a prix fixe menu available at each restaurant like IZUMI sushi has. Which leads to this. Royal could sell reservations including the prix fixe menu in the cruise planner like they're currently doing. Royal could also have two variations of dining packages: one that acts like the current dining packages, but limits the purchaser to the prix fixe menu (like IZUMI sushi); and another that acts like arcade credits for dining, buy X value for 20% (or whatever) off for use on dining anywhere aboard the ship. Thus they'd be able to capture people who don't think they'd eat enough for specialty dining and people who don't want to concern themselves with the cost once aboard the ship.

2 hours ago, Cactus527 said:

A pizza package! Such a great idea!!!! But hopefully not one RC looks into further...

I'm kinda surprised Royal doesn't have a bar food/tapa/appetizer package which works at their bars which serve food or as an enhancement to the DBP.

1 hour ago, Cactus527 said:

Can I piggyback off this? My TA said he'd never go on a ship without a thermal spa, and I have been on a few that have them. However, I am absolutely clueless as to what they are, how they work, why I would use one, etc. What is a thermal spa? #clueless

Royal's are a bit limited versus what's found on other lines. With Royal, the thermal suite is a sauna, steam room, fancy shower (themed shower settings, think things like rainforest), and heated stone loungers. There isn't a thermal suite pool or such that some other lines offer. However, older Royal ships might have complementary saunas and steam rooms in the changing rooms for the gym.

Based on this chart (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cruise_ships) NCL doesn't have anything resembling a large ship. Their largest, from this chart, ranks 23rd in the world by size. Spectrum of the Seas, Quantum-ultra, ranks as 22nd largest in the world. Looking at the fleet mix, NCL could stand to gain larger ships if that's the market they want to be in. Royal, on the other hand, has a portion of their fleet consisting of aging small ships to either overhaul, retire, or transfer in the next decade or so. NCL needs to look larger in the mass market space while Royal needs to consider smaller. Two sides of the same coin of fleet development.

Since rumors and speculation have Discovery-class at Neo Panamax sizing, here's the requirements for those ships and characteristics of Royal's current fleet starting with Quantum and ending with Radiance. All taken from Wikipedia. I'm going to speculate from sizing and ship ages that there'll also be a Discovery Ultra-class (at some point) which will be post Panamax sized. Discovery taking over the role of Vision-class and some Radiance-class ships while Discovery Ultra takes over for some Radiance and Voyager-class ships at the start. 

General characteristics New Panamax

Tonnage    120,000 DWT
Length    366 m (1,201 ft)
Beam    51.25 m (168 ft)
Height    57.91 m (190 ft)
Draft    15.2 m (50 ft)
 

Quantum characteristics

Tonnage    168,666 GT
Length    348 m (1,141 ft 9 in)
Beam    48.9–49.47 m (160 ft 5 in – 162 ft 4 in) (max)
Draught    8.5–8.8 m (27 ft 11 in – 28 ft 10 in)

Freedom characteristics

Tonnage    154,407 GT
Length    338.8 m (1,111 ft 6 in)
Beam    
38.6 m (126 ft 8 in) at waterline
56.0 m (183 ft 8 in) bridge wings
Height    63.7 m (209 ft) above water line
Draft    8.5 m (28 ft)

Voyager characteristics

Tonnage    138,000 GT
Length    311.32 m (1,021.40 ft)
Beam    48.01 m (157.50 ft)
Draft    8.8 m (29 ft)

Radiance characteristics

Tonnage    90,090 GT
Length    962 ft (293 m)
Beam    105.6 ft (32.2 m)
Draft    26.7 ft (8.1 m)

Sounds like you're cruising in from Cape Liberty? I'm also in the camp of it's not worth it unless there's a really compelling reason to go. There's too many possibilities of missing the ship and not that many options if something goes wrong for the amount of time you'd have there.

Most people are going to tell you, no, it's not worth it. For the $109, you're getting access to a steam room, an infrared sauna, a fancy shower, and (if I recall) 6 heated loungers. I think it really depends on how much use you'll get from the facilities and how much you enjoy what's included. 

A video tour from Harr Travel of the thermal suite: https://youtu.be/HaLybhMUNtE?t=1489

RCB's Video of the suite: 

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Cappuccino is my one and only coffee beverage.  I always add an extra espresso shot to mine as they are too milky otherwise.  2 shots of espresso and one shot of milk froth is perfect !

Off the top of my head, the classic ratio of espresso to milk in a cappuccino is around 1 espresso shot per 4-5 floz of milk (which sounds like what your preference is). How Starbucks and Royal's cafes make it is approximately twice the milk it should have (1 espresso shot to about 10 floz milk) as a tall or venti. Grande is slightly better with the ratio, though it's still too much milk. I haven't tried this in years, but Starbucks had an off menu size called short (8 floz cup size) for hot drinks. Short cappuccinos were made with a ratio of espresso and milk around the classic ratio.

Check out this video from Matt: 

28 minutes ago, Va4fam said:

Thanks @TXcruzer and @melmar02...........for confirming Royal doesn't use the same technology for every ship.

How much does it cost them to print all those 8 x 10 pictures and throw most of them away?

Would it really be that hard to convert the space to the digital kiosks?

No idea on how much it's costing to print all of them, but the cost is less than what it'd cost to print at home with their equipment. Pictures are like drinks aboard the ship; it doesn't take many to cover the cost of supplies and labor for all of them. After that point, it's pure profit.

I haven't looked into this, but I'm assuming digital kiosks would require a complete equipment overhaul (besides the kiosks, cameras, printers, and computer servers could all need to be updated to work with this system). This might not be cost efficient on a smaller ship when the current equipment works fine.

I would expect the President's Cruise to have more passengers than usual booking specialty dining since it's a sailing targeting Loyal to Royal. So between an increase over normal on the number of cruisers with B1G1 free entitlements, cruisers wanting to try Sabor and Samba since they're not on too many other ships, and cruisers wanting to do specialty dining since it's a special cruise, plus cruisers purchasing dining packages and specialty dining because they're on vacation, specialty dining was probably packed during this particular sailing.

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Nobody really knows yet what will be included and excluded from the UDP/dining packages for Icon.  My personal guess (and that's all it is) is that the supper club will not be included in the UDP.  It sounds very much like Chef's Table to me.  My hunch is the same will be true for the virtual dining train car option, whatever it's called.  With the dining  packages becoming more and more restrictive, I do not see them including some of these more "involved" dining options.

We will be sailing Icon in Star Class in December 2024 and I am expecting some of these dining options to be an extra charge, should we decide to utilize them....and my first inclination will be to not pay extra for them.  The train car thing, in particular, seems like it will be a "one and done" kind of thing for most people.  I hope it's not another Wonderland blunder....but I haven't seen it yet so I will withhold final assessment. Hopefully I am completely wrong about all of it !!

One thing the train experience does have going for it over Wonderland is not needing to feature a weird and exotic ("imaginative cuisine") menu to keep on theme. If Royal feels a need to change it up, swapping out menus and destinations for a mass audience should be easier than updating Wonderland to something new. At least for the moment, the train does sound like a once and done, or seldomly done,  like the Chef's Table or any of the other dining experiences due to the fixed menu. The Empire Supper Club also falls into this category, though considering how often I'm anticipating on sailing Icon (or Utopia for that matter), and I expect it's about the same for the average cruiser, it's a rather moot point. 

Thanks for the heads up on the taxi situation. I'll be doing this on the 18th and based on this review, will need to report back.

August 13 - Allure

2 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Wow, what drinks are they charging $30 for??????

Or is it up to $30 in drinks a day?

That's not USD... or at least that's my assumption with where the poster is located.

"The package includes all beer, spirits, wine by the glass and cocktails $20.00 USD and under as listed on our menu(s), or $30.00 AUD and under for voyages departing from and returning to Australia and New Zealand."

Sorrento's isn't the equivalent of Alfredo’s on Princess. What Princess is doing with the above is covering prix fixe menus at places that'd be the equivalent of say Royal's Playmakers or Giovanni's Wine Bar aboard their ships. Basically, they're including a limited version of a dining package with each bundle.

Edit: Press release: https://www.princess.com/news/news_releases/2023/07/NR-Princess-Plus-and-Premier-Enhancements-27-July-2023.html

What I've been noticing since starting to book with Royal in 2021, is for the first month or two fares are a good value. After that, depending on the sailing, prices start to drastically climb and the value proposition rapidly diminishes. Comparing prices between now (or several months before sailing) and when I booked for this year and next with Royal, I'm getting something akin to buy-one-get-one free pricing. Royal's initial daily fare, for the cruises I'm interested in, haven't hit a particular number yet which will get me to consider not cruising with them since there are itineraries I'm interested in and haven't done yet. However, they're slowly getting closer to this number. For many of the sailings I have booked, I wouldn't be willing to pay the current asking price as the value isn't there for what they're charging.

4 hours ago, F1guynz said:

Even though Royal says they are experiencing unprecedented demand these days I usually see plenty of high value suites still available when previously these were the first to sell out. On our Harmony sailing next year I can see at least 18 crown loft suites available, and they have gone up $7000 NZD since we booked.

I'm wondering if under Royal's financial models they've discovered they can earn more money by increasing fares across the board, leaving some cabin inventory unsold, then filling those cabins through the RoyalUp program? Now empty cabins, due to accepted RoyalUp bids, get filled through GTY bookings or another accepted RoyalUp.

1 hour ago, Benneth said:

Don’t know if anyone is still following but Chichen Itza is in my excursion list for Cozumel. Entails 6 hours of travel time, 9 hours total. When does Royal Caribbean have the biggest sale usually? It’s currently listed for 35% off.

Let me be the first to tell you that trying to time a Royal sale is a fool's game. Buy when the price is acceptable to you, then cancel and repurchase if there's a price drop. Recently prices only go one way, up, so buying early is typically netting the best cruise planner pricing. 35% off is about the best you're going to see. There might be a 40% off sale sometime in the future, but it's not something that regularly happens or something you can count on.

Edit: And in the meantime the base price could go up. So the discount could be the same or greater, and you end up paying more.

29 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

I agree for the most part but don't they at some point have to build "smaller" ships? I maybe not 90 thousand tons but to replace Freedom class and Vision clas ships? Freedom, Liberty, Indy getting up there. Same with the Vision class, Explorer and Adventure. They are gonna need 140 thousand ton ships at some point right? 

They don't have to, but the flexibility these ships offer for deployment and repositioning is a very much in support of keeping them around. They provide options for Royal to zig and zag depending on the company's needs, which Oasis-sized ships simply do not. I expect we'll hear something about them from Royal within a decade, if not within the next 5 years.

1 hour ago, barjpoe said:

No, sorry, I just did a copy and paste into my word file

Maybe someone else can find it. 

Was it this? 

Wavy10 (local news station) report on the cruise terminal enhancements. Basically, the terminal was designed for being a port-of-call and the occasional embarkation/debarkation and not as a regular homeport. So enhancements are needed for Carnival to homeport a ship there.