steverk

Most shuttles pick up on the northeast side of the building. Oce you get out of the terminal, proceed across the street to the covered area with the buses. I'm pretty sure that's the location

Yes, you have been able to book both directions since before the pandemic. Back in the day, you could book Azamara too. Idk if you can book Silversea now, but I bet you can.

I've never been to Hell Grand Cayman. I've been to Hell Michigan though. Does that count?

Looking at the deck plan, I don't see a sport court on Rhapsody at all. I sailed her once, but I'm not really in to the sport court and don't have a personal recollection. Perhaps looking at some youtube videos of a ship tour would help?

I've got the exact opposite problem. I canceled 2 excursions to get a better price. The website said it canceled them, but when I went to rebook,it said I couldn't book again because I was still booked and had a time conflict. Customer service made an IT ticket. After 2 weeks, the order history shows canceled, but the shore excursions page shows it as reserved. My credit card has been refunded, but customer service says it's booked and everything is in order. Go figure...

I'm sorry you had such unfortunate luck. The first time I was in St. Maarten I met a cab driver (Ramone in cab 222) who was awesome. Very friendly and really wanted to show us the island. When I returned a few months later with my family, he gave us a custom, in depth tour of the whole island. It took 3 hours and hit all of the highlights including Maho Beach and Orient beach. It was a bargain at $300 for 6 passengers in a nice, clean spacious van. That tour is still a highlight of our cruising experience.

The hop-on hop-off bus tour in Cartegena Colombia! It included several stops and a guided walking tour of the famous walled city. Sounded great. The walking tour was fine, but traffic was so heavy that we didn't feel comfortable getting off the bus for fear of missing the ship. This proved to be a good call. We made it back to the ship with less than 30 minutes before all aboard time. What a disappointment! In St. Lucia my family took a waterfall hike and private beach excursion that turned into a disaster. So bad, I doubt it is still offered. It started off fine with a stop in a fishing village. Then we went on the hike back to a beautiful waterfall. I felt uneasy when there was a sign warning against climbing on the falls, but the guide encouraged everyone to do so. My son was one of the climbers and had an unfortunate accident ending with a broken leg. The guide was no help. My son limped back to the truck, but there was one more stop at the beach. Since the tour description said they would shuttle people back to the ship early if desired, I asked if they would do that. The answer was no. Once back at the ship, the guide simply dropped us off at the entrance to the port. Once again, my son had to limp to the ship to get proper treatment. I can't imagine that Royal Caribbean still offers this excursion, but I've never really heard anything once we were back on board. That's it for my horror stories. I've had some incredible experiences with Royal's shore excursions. But then, I've had a couple that I wish I had missed!

The direction of the waves can make a huge difference. A beam (waves coming from the side) is the worst. A following (waves coming from behind) is the smoothest.

Sorry to disagree, but I believe the problem is not StarLink. Based on my experience, the problem is Royal's on board infrastructure.

Good question. I believe longer, more unique itineraries play a big part in addition to the time of year. On a recent Greenland cruise, I calculated 65.8% of the passengers were diamond or above. The President's cruise and a Panama canal cruise also had high numbers. For comparison, I was on a Mexican Riviera cruise in May. More than 1/2 of the passengers were gold or pre-gold.

You asked about ports being canceled several days in advance due to weather. This is unusual. We've had a bunch of hurricanes recently. Is that the weather issue or was it something else? Keep in mind hurricanes are a huge deal. Depending on the circumstances, it can take days to move the ship around them. Even if Royal wanted to visit a port during a hurricane, there's a good chance the port would be closed.

I agree that the ships can get bigger. The largest ship to date is the Seawise Giant built in 1979. It was 260,941 GRT. That doesn't sound much larger than Icon's 250,000 GRT, but it says a lot! This was built in 1979. Shipbuilding has advanced a lot in the 45 years since. Further, Seawise Giant was a crude carrier. It had a fully laden displacement of over 600,000 metric tons. For comparison Oasis has an estimated displacement of just 100,000 metric tons. As you mention, the real question is what is practical? A larger ship needs extremely large facilities to dock and service it. Eventually, these facilities will be built and the ships will get larger. I just don't think that's going to happen any time soon.

True, but there's always another class of ship coming. In the next few years Royal is going to have to announce the path forward for Vision, Radiance and Voyager classes. All of them are going to be 30+ years old soon. Once these age out, Royal will be unable to reposition through the Panama Canal. They won't be able to effectively tender. Therefore they won't be able to develop new ports. Perhaps they'll go all in on mega ships and use Celebrity for those purposes. Perhaps they'll develop a neo panamax (about the size of Voyager, but with different proportions) class for the purpose.

I find that on average, Voom is ok, but not great. My wife uses it for FaceTime pretty regularly. Usually, but not always, it works. I have noticed that performance declines, and frequently fails entirely when I'm in an area with lots of people. A great example is being in the theater 10 minutes before a show. This is consistent with insufficient router capacity on the ship rather than a Starlink problem. In other words, if you're willing to go to a different part of the ship, you'll usually find a place with good performance.

I guess it's up to you. A year ago, I'd say going to Thrill Island or even getting a cabana would be a great add on. However, prices are really high for that now. If that doesn't bother you, then go for it. All of those facilities are top notch, and you'll enjoy them. IMO the extra cost facilities are great, but not worth the current prices. You can find some fine lounge chairs with shade pretty easily. The beaches are clean and as nice as you'll find anywhere. The games, like volleyball, are also included. Therefore, you can have a great time without the added expense.

I think it comes down to self control and exercise. Doing things like grabbing a small sandwich at Cafe Promenade rather than a full meal at MDR or Windjammer will help. Taking the stairs as much as possible also helps.

I don't see Royal returning to the old happy hour in the Diamond Lounge any time soon. The lounges simply are big enough. Enlarging them is expensive and impractical. Therefore, I expect the vouchers to continue in some form. Perhaps drink prices will rise but the vouchers won't. Perhaps the number given declines. Perhaps the program remains as is. Regardless, I don't see it going back to what it was pre voucher.

I book gty about 25% of the time. It's risky, but I've never been unhappy with my cabin or its location.

I' heard of people taking a transatlantic on Royal. Staying in Europe during the drydock. Then taking the transatlantic back to North America. I never heard how it worked out for them. However, Gary Bembridge has several videos warning about doing something like this. Some of the concerns are as follows: Going to Europe, the ship is likely in rough shape and the focus of the crew can be getting the ship ready for drydock rather than making a great cruise. If anything goes wrong during drydock, the ship may be late getting back in the water, delaying, or even cancelling your return voyage. Going back to North America, the ship is repaired, but probably still has work underway. If you're OK with these risks, then you might be able to put together a similar itinerary.

I think this is less of a problem out of Florida than most other ports. As mentioned earlier, Miami has cruises to all areas of the Caribbean. But Los Angeles has cruises only has the Mexican Riviera and occasional repositioning cruises. Galveston has Western Caribbean. Seattle has Alaska. All worthwhile destinations, but as much variety as Florida.

I've lived through hurricane Ike in Texas. Such events are rare, but extremely disruptive and depressing. It wouldn't cause me to choose a different place to live. Instead, I have a plan and remain vigilant.

I always carry my bag with me. It's a pain, but I've usually got enough to do (visit loyalty ambassador/guest services for something, grabbing lunch, go to NextCruise, etc.) that I'm not in the pool or slides anyway.

Thanks. I never thought this is representative in of the city or Canada. In fact, I think he had a very bad day and took it out on his customers. I didn't get the guide's name. Too bad because it would have been good to include it in my post cruise survey.

Some had been late and some had not. The distance wasn't far. The bus took a pretty long route that was probably about 4km. If you were walking a more direct path I doubt it would have been more than 1km. Like I said, it's very strange and I think Royal is going to have a "discussion" with the tour operator. I wouldn't want to be the guide who has to explain why this was necessary when the all aboard the wasn't until 3:30 and the ship didn't actually leave until after 4

Actually, it wasn't even a 1 minute grce period. He said 2:45 or 2:50. So, you could argue he left 4 minutes early!