dr martini

in the US, sure, but that's a political football type item that changes very often. but for corps based in liberia? or the bahamas? my point is we don't know and it doesn't really matter because they're burning huge amounts of borrowed cash anyway and taxes are literally at the bottom of their list of concerns right now, buried down at the bottom of the deep blue sea? (I know I know, sorry)

I think that’s got to be it, this accomplishes a few simple things. A chance to stir up the news cycle and send out the reminders that we’re seeing to the people who had already signed up. Clearly, the previous setup wasn’t perfect and they learned from it, the past outings seemed to reward those highest in RC status, media, influencers etc. Maybe the response rate from the average customer was way below what RC expected? I’m sure they learned a lot from their interactions with those who both did and did not take the first test cruises. Maybe the most notable thing about this promo to me is the short fuse on the entering/selecting - this helps narrow the field to people who are fully vaccinated and ready to go right now, today (the first ship sails Wednesday!) and willing to go out and live as normal as possible in the world as it exists right now today (no politics but clearly many people are still not, regardless what they thought at the time of filling out the first test cruise volunteer form online). All that and then giving the dates and sail locations should help further target people who are reasonably likely to be able to go. People who love RC, who are ready to travel, who have flexible work schedules or are retired, who live in Florida, greater NY area, in TX, these are big population areas.....or if not driving then ultimately those who can/will drop $500+ Per person on last minute airline tickets and/or have the miles/status to do so etc etc etc.

@LizzyBee23 by write off you mean for taxes? In a general sense here in the states, yes, most marketing campaigns and giveaways are done by companies for the good will and publicity they generate and can be accounted for as plain old operating expenses, marketing & promotion etc.....but in another sense, no - without entering the realm of pure speculation we do know that there are many corps and entities that exist within the behemoth that is Royal Caribbean Group and many of those are not registered in the US for tax and regulation purposes, they're in many of the banana republics and Liberia's of the world which have very little to no taxation or regulation, so who knows what they can or can't write off exactly. At the end of the day; a company that doesn't post any profits doesn't have to worry about paying any taxes, and for Royal....shall we say nicely, that won't be a problem this year. There's a good post on the main page of the most recent wall street earnings call, but the past year and half they've been spending a lot of money to keep ships out there afloat and ready and are now spending even more to get them loaded full of supplies, fuel, food and provisions to say nothing of taking on full crews who also need to be paid while getting trained and ready, all of this before passengers and their dollars return. Royal Caribbean Group reports $1.3 billion loss second quarter 2021

@Matt is correct here - it takes me back to the old law school days but there is a distinct difference between a sweepstakes and a raffle but regardless, there's always a lot of legal work that goes into any big company doing a giveaway of any kind. I signed up, there was a lot of boilerplate, running anything nationwide runs into a lot of issues with varying state regulation but I thought this was a good idea, as I did when we discussed the initial volunteering a while back. Gives Royal a lot of free advertising across social media, the travel industry outlets give them various write ups, and the all important actual word of mouth. Gives RC more data on potential customers, we get excited about cruising even more and some of us will even get to go. Makes sense to me. Like others have said the last minute nature of the travel/airfare etc was probably keeping a lot of folks out of the individual invites, this way folks get three options depending on their schedule and where they live - win/win in my book. Like everything else the last year and a half, learning as we go....

Another very happy customer with the Saint Kitts blue water safari catamaran ride with snorkeling and lunch/drinks provided. We had a group of a dozen aged 22 to 60 on spring break cruise in 2019 and had a blast. https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g147374-d11457277-St_Kitts_Deluxe_Catamaran_Snorkeling_Tour_With_Lunch-St_Kitts_St_Kitts_and_Nevis.html

Voyager of the seas in March 2002, western Caribbean as a high schooler. it was spring break while she was the largest ship in the world at the time and we stayed in promenade view interiors, just loved absolutely everything about it. what a rush. my grandparents had a thing for taking the aunts and uncles on the 'largest ship in the world' at the time, we heard stories as kids about a few trips they took on Sovereign of the seas and the great times had. the grandkids were 'finally' included on the Grand Princess a couple years prior (first time us kids got included) and the same group did Explorer of the Seas a couple years after when she debuted and slightly edged voyager. I still remember being absolutely blown away by the Royal Promenade, skating rink, sheer number of public spaces and dining/bar options and things to do. it was a teenager's perspective of course, but i remember vividly all of the differences from the fancy, traditional Princess vibe and the fun bombastic Royal experience. now i certainly can appreciate both and would try princess again in the right circumstances. I'm no psychologist but the experiences and memories aboard have to be wayyyyy up there in terms of why the Voyager class is still my favorite, the best balance of service, amenities and options with a solid connection to the ocean without the huge crowds and feeling like being stuck inside the mall of america that can happen on other ships. Royal built themselves into what they are today with the Voyager/Freedom class. (in today's terms would we be calling the freedom class Voyager ultra?)

it's just money, you can always make more of it!

Wow. Working with the general public in restaurants and food service, human error would tell you that we have just as many under charges as over charges across thousands of transactions every day which are admittedly much smaller and less important than booking a suite on a cruise ship. But still, I can count on one hand the number of people who have come to me in 20+ years to fix a pricing mistake that favored them, the customer.

Thanks for the post, and absolutely agree with above the most likely explanation would be to use the downtime to get her regular inspections and routine maintenance work done now. Otherwise Royal would be looking at a timeline where cruises come back online later this year or early next out of the US only then to send their largest, newest ship serving US passengers out of service and into dry dock later in 2022 when demand is crazy high and they need to be making money. Much better to get it all done now. As for COVID/ventilation changes or upgrades, she's a brand new ship compared to the rest of the cruising world and Royal has some great info right off the homepage about how often air is circulated around the ship, hard to imagine much would need to change there but who knows. IMO royal could do more to tell that story about fresh air and, indeed, fresh sea air being one of nature's best remedies. Fresh sea air and salt water have been a prescribed aid for people with a variety of conditions for as long as we humans have been trying to understand and take care of ourselves. Now it's just much a mental illness remedy as well, at least for me haha https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/10/14/how-royal-caribbean-will-circulate-air-its-cruise-ships-protect-against-coronavirus and

Yea I was going to mention two things, Royal Up which Twangster has covered here and also mention travel agent/other group blocks. Basically Royal is overselling certain categories (ocean view/ocean view balcony GTY) the folks who purchased will be offered upgrade opportunities to bid for a Royal Up! into a junior suite for example and the bids work themselves through Royal's algorithm until things even out and everyone has a room. I remember this discussion from a few other threads, thanks for keeping track of our experiences @Curt From Canada!! Seems that less and less often are these upgrades are just given to priority or status heavy members, but instead must be paid for/bid on. For all we love about RC we all know the experience is more and more about the approach some call nickel and diming, Royal would call up selling additional revenue from you after you've booked the cruise. If it wasn't working they wouldn't keep at it, must be fairly effective. So as mentioned, the other thing I've learned is that there are almost always blocks of rooms that we cannot see booking directly through Royal's website. Travel agents (and maybe Casino Royale or other programs too?) have blocks on most sailings that are released back to Royal if they aren't sold by a certain date ? - that's probably in this same 2-3 week window when most assignments happen. So that's a big +1 for using an established TA as well. I have booked GTY before when traveling with just my wife, I probably won't again, the savings weren't that great on our cruise but like everything your mileage may vary. I had been doing the research for next year with a larger group of family - looking for 6 rooms close to each other (in a row, across the hall, etc) and there was nothing across any sailing I could find for Feb or March 2022 sailing out of FL, then called a TA we had used for this group in the past, she found several options for blocks we could choose from across different floors of different ships on the main cruise we had settled on and also on different cruises. We were originally on floor 14 all six cabins together, but then moved down to 9 to be on central park and more mid ship etc etc. We had options. So the rooms are out there, it's just about which route you want to use to find them (and how much you do or don't want to be staying near the people you're traveling with haha)

I grew up boating on the Mississippi and lakes around the midwest, that ferry ride is one of the least comfortable boating experiences I've ever been through. Won't do it again. We have stayed in Playa del carmen at an all inclusive and rented a home down near tulum several times and we also love to cruise, in my opinion it's best to just pick one or the other and enjoy what you're doing in the moment and don't try to mash too many things together. These Cozumel ferry trips usually combined with other bus trips inland would be one of those examples. Too much 'planes trains and automobiles' haha. Plenty to do on the ship and in/around cozumel, world class snorkeling and wall diving and shopping and bars and restaurants. If you want to do an all inclusive someday in Cancun or Playa, great, do that too. But taking the ferry ride and then a bus ride somewhere and back all in four hours cannot be enjoyable, especially if I'm in vacation mode and trying to enjoy my day. Just my two cents.

booked for spring break just shy of a year from now and i would not bet any amount of money on it sailing at full capacity, which means some people are getting the boot and not going on the cruise they think they are going on. the CDC guidance on masks outside from yesterday was good news for the quality of the cruise for vaccinated people. the world we live in now. no idea when things will start and how limited capacity guidance/cancellations/bumps will work do we? the one thing we can bank on is that there's going to continue to be a lot of future cruise credit out there for a lot of folks for a long time to come!

Agree! We pushed a cruise from last year and just finished moving things from this year to spring 2022, but would really like to see things get rolling this summer/fall to get the kinks all worked out and this EU news is another welcome step. That way, hoping one year from now there still might be some (light?) protocols, vaccine requirement etc, but things are running closer to normal....just wanted, needed something locked in to look forward to. things can't stay closed forever.

finally, a small win for common sense. great news

I think with protocols it can be done, but how enjoyable will it be? Vegas requiring masks around pools but not in, I walked away from a gambling table locally after being asked to adjust my mask the third time, I just get to thinking about the entire experience of dining, shows, casino, dancing, escape room, pools and beaches..... Obviously it's been talked to death for over a year now, but I have serious concerns about what cruising will look like when it resumes, how much fun will it really be vs the costs and hassles associated with it and that's not even talking vaccination and testing, which I think are a given. I mean Spring break 2022, Jan 2023? I could still see mask mandates a year from now. Worries me that things won't ever go back to being as free and fun as they used to be. I get that change is constant for any part of life, but I'm already missing the good old days.

Matt is correct - online reviews are usually pretty worthless. People either seem to have an axe to grind and vent on their keyboards instead of calmly discussing any issues with fellow humans in a reasonable way, or....the other stuff we see online is clearly a paid promo piece of glowing PR. i stayed on navigator in Feb of 2020 in a balcony with new carpet a few new other pieces (artwork, bed cover, couch, TV, etc) and yes, the cabins were not as brand flashy new as the cabins on Symphony which I cruised a year earlier, but were still fine and we had a great cruise. I was really impressed with Navigator after being on several other Voyager class ships that had not been Amped. Feels like ship cabins are something that gets talked about too much....99% of cabins are designed to be small, efficient little places where most people are not going to spend most of their time. It's a place to hang up your clothes, shower and sleep right? Can't compare them to an upscale hotel or condo where space is not at a premium in nearly the same way as a ship and it's much easier to put on a new coat of paint every year.

If you don’t have kids with, I would honestly go mariner and the better ports. Much of the oasis class is kid stuff (are you really gonna do water splash parks, slides, zip line, carousel etc?) and this also means A LOT more kids on board as well, depends on time of year with school calendar of course, but still going to be many families. Oasis amenities are great and impressive but it can feel a bit mall-like and you don’t see or feel the ocean nearly as much (if that’s important to you) and the up charge factor is seemingly in play everywhere for everything. Many more suite only and booked ahead of time for fee dinging venues and experiences. Just boils down to what you want - it was fun to watch my niece and nephew play on some of the bells and whistles, but if it was just my wife and I we would be looking at so called smaller/older ships with better pricing (hello balcony room) and a more intriguing set of stops vs oasis class to the same old places.

I've been thinking about this a lot as well. Speculation is certainly one thing, but there are some hard data points and things we can reasonably observe and I always appreciate your well informed takes on the cruise industry. The short cruise trend really jumps out to me as combination of the Nav/Mariner experience from the past few years combined with the lessons of COVID/the singapore cruises to nowhere, you have to think if RC had a leased, controlled space like CoCo near that route they would take advantage as a way to lengthen cruises and generate more revenue/brand loyalty/etc, all good things for the bottom line and their shareholders. RC has these upgraded ships and the pricing/occupancy percentages from the past few years out of FL shows that demand is very high among southeastern US residents (people who have low travel to costs, people who like the sea and the beach vibe, people who have second homes down south or family friends nearby etc etc). We can tell by their moves that they would rather run these full ships with days at sea, to their island and to the bahamas with who they have a close (and getting closer) relationship instead of putting more assets into week long/other runs out of San Juan or Galveston or wherever else, who knows how long virus restrictions and breakouts will continue to be a very real concern for any island nation. FL easier to resupply/maintain the ships, easier to train and exchange crew, easier to come back home if there is an issue relating to basically anything, COVID or not. And thus, the older, not amped voyager class ships will be last to be put back into full service while brilliance has tampa and the barbados gamble is, well, a gamble. They learn from it and we'll all pay close attention to how that goes and how they progress there. In a way it's almost a reboot of the cruise industry, where several of the older smaller ships that were just divested/sold/scrapped were initially for the short cruise 'try it out' and 'treat yourself' market. That's pretty clearly the RC bet on the near term future of what their return to business model looks like.

i have been on adventure and was very near the elevator on navigator (one of her twin sisters) almost exactly a year ago ? We were assigned there by royal in a guarantee balcony fare (which I thought might happen) but we had zero issues with noise. In fact, between having door open for ocean breeze/water sounds and the lovely, soft menu music Royal plays on the excursion and ship location/map channel i never heard a thing that one wouldn't have heard anywhere else (the occasional door slam/knocking nearby from housekeeping/etc). Side note: does anyone know where I can find that music? one of you lovely people should make a playlist or youtube channel of it if you haven't already

I would agree with Matt that the Key isn't a great deal. If you can find Wi-Fi bundled with drink package on sale that's the route I have gone the last few cruises and been very happy with the price (between 60-70 USD per day). My wife (in my stateroom) will also get the deluxe bev package but we can share the Wi-Fi access code so we both don't need to purchase wi-fi, we're not both on our phones all the time type people. Happy to leave it in the stateroom plenty of the time or make sure at least one of us is in airplane mode and just use for taking pictures while out and about. As far as lines, we booked everything in advance well before the last couple cruises for shows/times/specialty dining etc and everything worked very smooth in the app and with venue staff. Hit the waterslides on a port day and waited less than a minute on one and no wait on the other. Got all the other info we could need here from this site and in brief chats with bartenders, our stateroom attendant, etc. Good luck!

it's not great news, but in south florida (like any other major metro area) there is a TON of competition among many food vendors for their huge hospitality industry as well as your normal grocery and institutional type services. i'm in the food business up north and while the past year has been crazy, there's still plenty of product and capacity (although manufacturers have limited their product runs, a lot of specialty and smaller volume flavors/editions are just not being made). the perishable side of the business for produce/meat/deli has always been a bit of the wild wild west to it because there are very large outfits that contract pricing out a great ways and there are many more smaller distributors who buy up the more close dated items and pound the pavement selling hot priced deals to move that product. very unfortunate that one business is going out and i'm sure it's pandemic related but by no means does that affect cruise lines' ability to procure food. another great thing about the free market is another entity will get a great deal on that food and use it before it spoils, someone else will get a deal on buying or leasing that space and someone could easily get back into the food distribution business there or anywhere else as soon as lines start back up.

rum and youtube, basically. Some cruise and travel - Matt does a great job, tips for travelers with Gary is mentioned around here regularly. I really like the luxury boat tours from Aquaholic Nick too, he's great. If it's not those its been guitar repair/review or the rescue and repair guy.

having been on all of the voyager class except mariner and then on symphony, the voyager class has to be it for me with Navigator at the top. Love that mariner is doing a slightly different itinerary with the 8 night offering out there, like many I certainly wish they would open Navigator up a bit, but then it is a business and that 3/4 night continuous loop out of miami must just be printing money for them. Voyager class offers all of the things 99% of cruisers need for a warm weather cruise (how many of you are doing skypad?) honestly the only thing I truly hands down liked better on symphony was the front of ship wide view solarium with pool, but unfortunately the bar and cafe up there was always slammed and way understaffed, also the adults only wasn't enforced at all. Maybe I loved that solarium so much because on the rest of the ship I just lost touch with the fact that we were actually out at sea on the symphony, it was amazing but too much going on, feeling very crowded along with the sheer number of venues led to very FOMO feeling, a week was not enough time to get around and really ever be comfortable. schooner bar is a favorite but locked into an odd spot on oasis class, the board walk and music hall space facing the back of ship felt very underutilized and yet playmakers was always too packed, as was el loco fresh and WJ.....central park was a welcome quiet place but couldn't see the water.....need to try freedom/indy for the amplified experience on a stretched out Voyager class. there's just nothing like knowing the layout and being comfortable with your surroundings.

Great topic for times like these! I'm a proud German/Irish catholic, I've always gotten DBP and hey, I'm not driving the ship. Day 1-3ish are a lot boozier than days after but here we go- 8-9AM -order a few orange juices with the bagels/danishes and coffee room service. Mix the champagne I brought onboard (as my two bottles of wine) with the OJ and enjoy on the balcony 10-11am- Bloody mary from pool bar or the new bar by the windjammer (great addition) Noon-3p Sea day couple beers by the pool, maybe a fun cocktail like mai tai or mojito, if on diving/snorkeling excursion most of them provide a local beer like Carib or good old cheap and easy rum punch Then either back to the room and nap or in a good shady deck chair spot, then get ready for dinner. 5-6pm - After cleaning up for dinner grab a bourbon old fashioned or some other classy cocktail at Schooner or somewhere else on the lower decks/around promenade type area Red wine with dinner, Regular coffee with dessert, after dinner Jameson/ginger or another mojito somewhere with live music. Later in the cruise....it's just the beers around the pool in the afternoon and maybe the wine with dinner or the cleaned up cocktail. The speed and quantity of consumption definitely taper off as the week goes on. Man I miss cruising.

Great idea and execution from Royal Caribbean. Float the idea, let it leak and marinate a little bit, then launch it. Honestly hard to believe that they actually *need* anyone's name or contact info, they have thousands and thousands of people who had cruises booked for whichever time period, region or ship they choose to start with (although there seems to be a lot of consensus for those factors that seem valid). It will be a new or newly remodeled ship with the latest safety and tech, launching from Miami (or FLL) and maybe just going to their own island and back. That's what I would do for maximum control. This whole volunteer sign up program does achieve a couple other key objectives adds layers and layers of liability shielding for RCL, letting them make any prospective passengers aware of the risk and agree to it many times over on top of the standard guest contract gives RCL, indeed cruising in general, a ton of free, good vibe publicity locks in thousands and thousands of new prospective customers as well as targeted data points on many of their existing customers (as I see you can enter your C&A society number with your application). it's a dream come true for the marketing and sales team and they didn't have to do very much work to get TONS of hot leads on countless prospective customers. If my wife wasn't currently pregnant I would have signed both of us up in a heart beat.