Rackham

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.

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:

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:

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

You probably can't clear customs and leave, but if you could, you'd have to go through the entire process again (and might need to clear Canadian customs on your way out). I'd just drop off my bags with the porters and then head off for the day.

Yeah, last week. Check in time was at 1:30 pm (wanted to explore Vancouver a little first). Breezed through check-in at 1:20 pm. Like literally walked in, they scanned my SetSail pass, and I was handed a Brilliance paper ticket to keep with me until getting aboard the ship. Here's where the hour+ ordeal begins. You'll take the ticket, walk outside, and downstairs for security screening first and then US immigration control. Keep the ticket because you'll be mixed in with passengers for any other ship also embarking for both. We had a Celerity ship and a Holland America ship also embarking along with us. The lines will snake back and forth like you're waiting for a theme park attraction and move about as quickly. Immigration control is the automated kiosks where you'll insert your passport, answer some questions, and take a biometric photo. If your passport and responses are accepted, you'll get a ticket to take to the person at the end of the immigration area. If you're "X"ed, you'll have to wait in another line to speak with someone personally. My passport and answers were approved, so I got to leave without lining up again. All in all, without any issues going though the process, it took approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes to clear and get aboard the ship. Edit: You didn't ask, but while I'm thinking about it, the debarkation process went basically as you'd expect at any other port, but a Canadian customs declaration form is required to be submitted after getting off the ship. Said form, and instructions to fill it out, are provided by Royal on night 6 (or at least it was on my sailing). You might want to bring a pen as Royal didn't provide one. I do travel with one, so it wasn't an issue, but there were people in the terminal needing to fill theirs out at the checkpoint.

I wonder if it's a situation where Royal isn't planning on homeporting a ship in Norfolk yet, but is exploring their options with a limited amount of their vessels that can sail from Baltimore? So maybe Royal's made a visit and talked with people, however, there's not an immediate plan concerning the port over the next couple of years.

The issue I saw last week, with kids in the Solarium, on Brilliance was that with Park Cafe being in the Solarium, it was rarely an adults only space. I also think it was open to children (or the posted signs ignored or superseded) far more often than the posted signs allowed for, but I wasn't keeping track.

Smallest flow rider in the fleet aboard Brilliance.