Rackham

Solar eclipse cruise pricing if the website isn't working for ya. As it comes and goes on my end. Edit: With website issues preventing booking, here was the pricing when the site finally worked and was accepting payment. There's $150 onboard credit included with an interior booking. $75 also happens to be the price increase on an interior cabin per person when comparing these prices to the earlier ones ($75 x 2 = $150). Funny how that works.

Probably this package using Cellular at Sea: https://www.gigsky.com/data-cruises Pricing for the Caribbean starts at $19.99 for 1 day of service and a maximum transfer of 512 MB. Edit: Their service is using eSIM to connect your phone to the ship's cellular (not WiFi) network. From the reviews, it works great so long as you're expecting 4G cellular service, not Starlink, and understand how to disable all the network stuff your phone does in the background. Otherwise your purchased data can evaporate overnight as your phone downloads updates and does various checks. So email and text based web browsing are in. Netflix and Hulu are, probably, out.

I'm wondering how the recent announcement of MSC adding an Alaska season is impacting Royal's itineraries with port avaliablity? Maybe this is why it appears Royal has scaled back their ports of call in the last frontier? An article with the MSC news. https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2024/10/msc-cruises-announces-2026-alaska-program/

They might have seen this article which says the single outlet converter is prohibited. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/bans-royal-caribbean-passengers-know-121600641.html "Royal Caribbean no longer allows any device which creates more plugs. This includes European adapters that turn the outlet into an American-style plug." This is, of course, incorrect (and considering it was their first post it's probably an attempt at stirring the pot), but I could see people who don't know any better thinking this is true since it's an article online, therefore, it's been fact checked and all that, right?

Now that I've had a chance to sleep on the higher than expected fares, they're still not bad when comparing them to the major resort destinations Royal has said is their competition in the past. As much as I'd like to see lower fares, Royal seems to know what they're doing by undercutting their stated competition, but aiming not to leave money on the table either. This is also ignoring C&A benifits with Diamond and above with the value they're adding to booking with Royal.

Ouch. Now waiting with anticipation for the rest of 2026's in the coming weeks and where they might be priced at. Also, is this the first time Royal's porting at Prince Rupert, BC?

Oh, you tease.

And from what I recall, the app will only mark a section as complete after you've been notified that you can start the process embarkation day morning.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/blog/a-very-royal-recipe-ranger-cookies/ Their recipe scaled down for home size so you don't scale to house size.

The next line does make it sound like the park will be reimagined versus scraped, though we'll have to wait and see. ""There will be new experiences inside of that. Some, to be honest, we're literally still exploring," Mr. Schneider said while discussing what cruisers can expect." So here's my prediction on what land will be developed at PDMX. Since I love maps. Overall just over 100 acres which matches up with the verbiage in the article.

Apparently Royal bought it. From the RCB article. "One area we know is being acquired is the Mayan water park located near Costa Maya today. That land will be part of the future site, although Royal Caribbean will develop its own water park."

Since I've yet to see a map of what Royal's acquired, here's my rough estimate based on the news. Based on the articles, the port area will still be open to all lines, but they'll be steered towards a transportation hub instead of being able to enter PDMX. I strongly suspect the PDMX entrance will be something akin to the gates at a major theme park with the Seapass acting as admission media.

Google Maps is indicating the last public bus tonight, from Hamilton to Royal Naval Dockyard, leaves at 10:45 pm from the Central Bus Terminal, route 8. Back at the ship around 11:48 pm.

With a cruise next year where I'd be able to fully take advantage of the DBP, I've been mulling biting the proverbial bullet and purchasing the package. Ultimately decided against it, however, one of the graphs I created for this decision I don't think I've seen during any discussion of which drink package (if any) to purchase. That graph is the stacked bar chart showing how each beverage packages' cost is a part of the others which drinks it includes. Here's a cleaned up comparison chart for Royal's drink packages for a sailing out of Port Liberty in 2025 aboard Odyssey for a 7-night itinerary which includes CocoCay (prices seem to be about standard, however). I found it interesting how the break even point for the DBP, assuming drinking enough to break even with the lower level packages, is 4 drink per day. Which so happens to be the same number of drink vouchers provided at Diamond. Is this a coincidence or is there something going on here from Royal's end that they haven't publicly stated? Description of columns Pre-Cruise: Pre-cruise price in the cruise planner after typical discounts and before gratuity. Add. Bev. Cost: The additional cost of the beverage package compared to the package immediately preceding it. In the case of the Classic Soda, there is no package before and thus the cost of the Classic Soda is in this cell instead. Avg. Drink Cost / Add. Bev. Type: An average drink cost for drinks not included before this beverage package is purchased and which are covered by the beverage package level. Soda is simple at $3.50. Refreshment and Deluxe I kept it simple and went with an off the top of my head average based on personal experience and knowledge of Royal's beverage menus. Package Add. Only Count / Break Even: How many drinks which are covered at a specific beverage package level, and not included in a lower level package, and at the "Avg. Drink Cost / Add. Bev. Type" price point needed to be drunk to at least break even. Rounded up. ex. The Refreshment Package costs $29.99 with an average drink cost of $6.00 for beverages not covered by the Classic Soda Package. Therefore, 5 non-covered by Soda need to be drank to break even with the Refreshment if no Soda package drinks are drunk. Add. Bev. Count / Break Even: How many additional drinks must be drunk to break even and not covered under a lower level package for the "Add. Bev. Cost" of the package. Rounded up. ex. There is a $45.00 premium over the cost of the Refreshment Package for the Deluxe Beverage Package ("Add. Bev. Cost"). The "Avg. Drink Cost / Add. Bev. Type" for Deluxe is $12.00. Thus, 4 additional drinks which are only covered in the Deluxe, compared to the Refreshment, need to be drunk to break even.

https://www.imca-int.com/safety-events/use-of-surge-protected-devices-on-board-vessels/ Also USCG: https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/DCO Documents/5p/CG-5PC/INV/Alerts/03-13b (second version).pdf?ver=2017-07-25-143030-170 Security isn't going to spend the time trying to figure out if something is surge protected or not and customers can't be trusted not to bring surge protected strips. Thus the general ban on multiport outlet adaptors.

It's not. The issue isn't surge protection per se. It's that typical surge protection can divert the excess current through the ground pin or only break the current on the live pins and not the ground pin. However, on a ship, the neutral/ground line also caries current which means the device doesn't actually stop electricity flow and has become a serious fire hazard. In the case of this device, it's a two pin plug. There's no ground pin, thus it's safe to use aboard a ship.

I've already applied, and received, the matches and still got the email. Seems to have been sent out to everyone on their mailing list.

Still too early in all likelihood. Usually third party excursions won't start showing up until 9 to 6 months before sailing.

Royal's trolling Norwegian now?

I was on Brilliance a few years ago and we didn't get close to Hubbard Glacier either. However, the Hubbard Glacier Wilderness Explorer excursion did get as close as possible to the glacier aboard a small ship since it could navigate the ice. It wasn't cheap, but I felt it was well worth the money to experience the glacier up close. My takeaway from everything I've read on cruising Alaska, is that if you want to see a large glacier up close, from the water, your best odds are with purchasing a small ship excursion if one is offered. (I have no idea if one is offered for Endicott Arm.) The flip side to this is if the water conditions are right, your cruise ship can get as close as the smaller ship and you've just spent hundreds per person for a similar viewpoint.

The odds are against a Central Park aboard Discovery. Not just due to the ship's size, but due to where itineraries will take the class. Live plants outside wouldn't do so well during northern itineraries or those sailings happening when it's brisk. Just remembered while typing this of the Rooftop Garden aboard Celebrity and also The Lawn Club which are both found on ships sailing Alaska. So maybe a full on miniature Central Park wouldn't work, but there's other enticing options that would. Honestly, looking at Celebrity's Edge class I could totally see Royal making it their own, modernizing and updating the design to current nautical knowledge as applicable, leaving off the Magic Carpet, and calling it Discovery. Edit: Eden is kin to Two70, so there's some precedent for reuse of ideas between brands. Edit: Got the location of Eden wrong on Edge, so updated the analogy.

I can't imagine there being less than the usual trio of Chops, Italian, Izumi. If there's not an ice rink, I'm anticipating 4 restaurants in total with the 4th being either Mason Jar, Hooked, or Playmakers (I know Royal doesn't consider this to be a restaurant when it comes to their lists, but they serve a complete food menu so I do). I'm curious to see how the neighborhoods shake out on Discovery with how it's slotting into Royal's fleet.

Latest Captain update from CC has 2029 as the launch date with ~90,000 tons of ship. Courtesy of orville99.

Read elsewhere that a Captain was going to spill the beans on Discovery-class during their Top Tier Event this week. I'm now wondering if corporate is going to make an official announcement during the call about the project with these results. Between hitting the trifecta, reinstating the dividend, and this line, "The further increase in yield expectations for the year is the result of higher pricing and onboard revenue expectations across key products, with particular strength in European and Alaskan itineraries," this could be an ideal environment to make an announcement about spending that sort of money on something that's not Icon or Oasis.

I remember reading somewhere that Royal has concluded ships much larger than Icon don't make much business sense. Probably due to a combination of operation and passenger booking requirements on larger than Icon ships. I'm looking forward to the inevitable articles from non-cruiser reporters comparing Carnival's latest and largest to Royal's newest and smallest (of recent builds). Then the article comments from non-cruisers commanding Royal for going small while Carnival's gone huge. Should be fun with a stiff drink.