steverk

I always figured, the best seat on the plane or the worst. If they don't land at the same time, then I don't want to be on the plane!

I purchased an annual plan through Allianz. At $400 for everyone in my household, it seems a pretty good deal. I haven't had a vla9, so I can't really say how good or bad they are.

I'm guessing royal has realized that the new Galveston terminal isn't handling the 11am surge like they anticipated. They're simply trying to spread people out.

I've used air2sea many times with all the major US airlines. Sometimes I had to wait a month or so, but I was always able to select my seats either through air2sea or through the airline website

I checked a couple of fares today. One had an $800 upcharge for refundable. Not gonna do it. I'm on a cruise right now so if I walk to NextCruise, I'll get a reduced deposit so the upcharge is totally unjustified for the downside of losing the deposit

You never know about the pricing. I booked 3 rooms on Allure a few months ago. I was going to do interior, but balcony was $2 cheaper. Who'd a thunk?

Sailing allure right now. Asked my attendant. He said they have been told only 1 service per day starting in January. He was very concerned how he will be able to properly clean 25 rooms by 1pm on turnaround days.

That is what I would have expected. This happening before security. Once through security, we walked right in.

Your experience is what I expected based on many reviews of the new terminal. I agree that people showing up outside their boarding window is a major contributing factor. The design is another factor. It appears royal was trying to be efficient. Check in, pass through the barrier and a shortcut to security. Sounds great on paper, but once the security line stretched beyond the first checkstand, problems began and multiplied. I really hope they get it figured out. Galveston is very convenient for me and I Don't want to have this experience going forward.

That would not be consistent with what I observed. When I arrived on the second floor, the room was jammed with hundreds, perhaps over a thousand people trying to check in. There was almost no signage to direct people. It turns out there really wasn't a check in line. Rather,there were dozens of unmarked check in stations arrayed throughout the room. You were supposed to just walk up to the most convenient one. However, all of them were mobbed. Once checked in, I was directed to the security queue. Once again, unmarked aside from a small sign that said"eneter here". This line didn't move. Turns out, after checking in to most of the other stations, the agent would open the barrier to let their people in to the line closer to the front. This is effectively legal line cutting and was based entirely on which check stand you happened to get. Some people undoubtedly got lucky and boarded quick. Everyone else just waited. Perhaps a missing passenger complicated the situation, but the basic problem is very poor design.

Not common at all, but no unheard of. Norovirus has been a thing on land and sea for some time now.

I've done 2 northbound alaska sailings out of Vancouver and one round trip Seattle. I enjoyed all of them but recommend the one way, which means Vancouver. Royal's northern most port is Seward, which is too often overlooked. Plan to spend at least a day there and enjoy the national park and quaint town.

Arrived at 10:50 for an 11:00 boarding time. Not that anyone checked!

First time out of the new terminal this morning. What a disappointment! I've heard how was 5 minutes from car to ship. Took 2 hours in a disorganized mess! One of the agents said they've stopped enforcing check in time and it has been this way ever since

I used to pay off early, but then discovered another issue with doing so. If you book Air2Sea, and don't pay off your cruise until final payment date, then your airfare remains unticketed. This has a few drawbacks, but 2 really big advantages. First, you can cancel the flight at any time without penalty. The seconds is related. You can reprice the trip without penalty. These advantages go away once you make final payment.

I have a b2b2b2b (4 segments) that crosses the Pacific. I called air2sea and booked the flights without any issues at all. Perhaps calling again will help

Evidently royal agreed with you at least when they developed the quantum class. It remains to be seen if they will feel the need for a "smaller" ship when they release the class after Icon. Buckle up! I'm sure it will be an interesting ride.

I've been on royal ships that change time and ones that do everything by ship time. The cruise compass will tell you, so just pay attention. As far as your excursion, I'd expect them to know when the ship docks. Regardless, cruisemapper.com should have arrival time as the local time

Cool! Thinking about what "discovery" might mean is already making my head spin.

All very good points. I'd add one consideration as well. Would a new, modern cruise ship, that happens to be smaller and more efficient, change the calculations you've mentioned. It would be very interesting to be a fly on the wall when Royal's management is discussing this!

I personally like the twice per day service. It makes me feel decadent. On the other hand, Royal says they are competing against land based vacations. More and more hotels are moving to once every 3 day service. I really don't like that, but don't have many alternatives beyond cruising. So, I guess I may need to learn to live with once daily service. I don't have to like it.

I was on Celebrity Inifinity in July and was disappointed by the food as well. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad. In fact it was in line with RCI. But Celebrity prides itself as a foodie line and RCI doesn't. Therefore, I expected Celebrity to be significantly better. As a point of comparison, I've sailed Carnival, NCL and Princess. Princess food was a better than RCI, but Carnival and NCL were both significantly worse.

As you can see from #Kathleen picture, there is a structure on the back of Liberty that obstructs all of the aft balconies. Most of the Jr. Suites on Liberty are side facing and unobstructed. I hope this is helpful!

Depends on the ship and room. I've had jr. Suites on adventure and Liberty. They faxed out the side and had no obstruction. On some ships, aft balconies will be partially obstruction

I agree. Same goes with IAH. the area around IAH is knicknamed "Gunspoint" for a reason.