dr martini

This came to my TA, I did not get one. Hope this works
Dear Travel Partner,
Explorer of the Seas will need some extra time during its scheduled dry dock next year. Regrettably, this means our January 29th, 2023 through March 4th, 2023 sailings have been cancelled. We know this news is disappointing and apologize for the impact to your clients' cruise.
Your clients' vacation is important to us, along with the flexibility to make the best decision for them and those in their party. So, we've put together some alternate options for them to consider. Here are their options:
Option 1: Rebook one of the following 2023 itineraries:
7-Night cruise onboard Oasis of the Seas sailing to Perfect Day at CocoCay, Cozumel, Mexico, Roatan, Honduras, and Costa Maya, Mexico on January 29th, February 12th, or February 26th 8-Night cruise onboard Odyssey of the Seas sailing to Labadee, Haiti, Oranjestad, Aruba, and Willemstad, Curacao on January 28th or February 25th 8-Night cruise onboard Odyssey of the Seas sailing to Labadee, Haiti, La Romana, Dominican Republic, Oranjestad, Aruba, and Willemstad, Curacao on February 11th What they'll receive:
Their original stateroom category will be price protected at the original cruise fare rate, excluding taxes, fees, gratuities, and other non-cruise fare items. If their booking was already paid in full and their cruise fare rate decreases, we'll provide them with a refund for the difference. They can expect to receive their refund to their original form of payment 30 days after we move them. Kindly note, refund times may vary depending on their financial institution. To sweeten the offer, they'll receive a credit to spend onboard per stateroom: $100 USD for Interior, Ocean View, and Balcony staterooms | $200 USD for Suites Plus, an additional $50 USD for each third or more guest And, they'll also be reimbursed for non-refundable, pre-purchased transportation change fees incurred (such as flight, train ticket, or rental car). We'll cover up to $200 USD per guest for Domestic changes, or up to $400 USD per guest for International changes. Please email their receipts and booking information to [email protected] for review and reimbursement. Option 2: Re-book any other Royal Caribbean International sailing
If they prefer to re-book another sailing not included in Option 1, we'll waive any non-refundable deposit change fees. Please know, they'll be responsible for any difference in pricing for their cruise fare, taxes, fees, gratuities, and other non-cruise fare items. If their booking was already paid in full and their cruise fare rate decreases, we'll provide them with a refund for the difference. They can expect to receive their refund to their original form of payment 30 days after we move them. Kindly note, refund times may vary depending on their financial institution. And, they'll also be reimbursed for non-refundable, pre-purchased transportation change fees incurred (such as flight, train ticket, or rental car). We'll cover up to $200 USD per guest for Domestic changes, or up to $400 USD per guest for International changes. Please email their receipts and booking information to [email protected] for review and reimbursement. Lastly, your commission will be based on the revised cruise fare paid. Option 3: If they can't find an itinerary that works for them and choose to cancel, we'll be sad to see them go.
We'll process a full refund of any paid portion of their cruise fare to the original form(s) of payment, including any non-refundable deposit. They can expect to receive their refund 30 days after they submit their refund request. If they booked their airfare through Royal Caribbean International, it will be automatically refunded to them. However, if they booked on their own, please contact the service provider directly for their options with them. If they used a Future Cruise Credit on this sailing, and they request a refund instead, we'll refund any NEW funds paid above the certificate amount, and we'll reinstate their original certificate. Lastly, you'll receive protected commission if the booking is paid in full only. It's important to us that your clients find the best vacation option. Please call us at 888-281-9344 by March 3rd, 2022, to select which option they prefer. Please know, hold times may be longer than usual. If we haven't heard from you by March 3rd, 2022, their reservation will be cancelled.
If you have any questions, please contact us at:
1 888 281 9344 in the U.S. 1800 754 500 in Australia / 0800 102 123 in New Zealand In the UK only, by using our webchat service or by calling 0344 493 4005 All other countries, please visit http://www.royalcaribbean.com/contactus for your local Royal Caribbean International office phone number. Thank you for understanding and support. We hope your clients find another cruise vacation with us. Whether they are celebrating a special occasion or looking to explore, relax, and recharge - we have no doubt their time with us will be nothing short of amazing. We look forward to welcoming them onboard.
Sincerely,

I agree, I was just on Mariner (docked beside you in Curaçao). 13th cruise and I have never seen a ship this packed. We just gave up trying to enjoy scheduled activities. MDR service was incredibly slow. We would just sit forever in between courses. All the chairs in the solarium were gone at 630am on sea days. Bar service was excellent thankfully.
I’d gladly pay a premium for lower capacity sailings. 

Just disembarked from 9 day on Allure (Aruba / Curcao / Labadee) 6200 passengers on 5400 capacity ship!!!  Yes, it felt packed.  I knew something was going on in advance when I was having trouble finding an excursion or finding only the 2:00pm excursion start time.  Also no royal up offered.  Staff shortages as well. Red neckerchief chef flipping burgers at Johny Rockets; frequently only 2 bartenders at the pool bars on deck 15; casino cashier working the x-ray machine at the Aruba embarkation. Service slow at all of the specialty restaurants. 

To be fair, these kinds of logistics issues (lack of staffing/supply chain failures) are lagging affectors and add to that, a COVID uptick (whether real or contrived) and you have a mess.  It is extremely difficult (impossible ?) for Royal to make a timely adjustment to a ship that has already been pretty much sold out.  Their only option would be to cancel existing reservations and NOBODY wants to be caught up in that !  Did Royal ramp up passenger density too quickly ?  Probably.  But it will take time to "fix" that and by then, who knows what the situation might be.  Kind of a catch-22.

This!
I think we all understand the troubles of staffing right now, but RC should match their ships capacity with their staffing.
Increasing capacity in this circumstances it's totally unacceptable.

RC ramping up capacity beyond staffing is unacceptable. We’ve got four sailings booked and if our Ovation sailing is similar to our Navigator trip, we might have to cancel until the product matches the price. 

Right. A lot of comments don’t seem to address those of us who aren’t made of money. I can’t just be like “oh well,” next cruise. My household income is pretty decent, but we can’t be throwing around $15k every month on a vacation.
I just want input from anyone who has reliable information. No excuses. No conjecture. I think our concerns are reasonable.

Now we need the return of the quest.

It’s funny how much this topic gets bandied about and how few people (some do!) just own up to it.  Haha i don’t care and I’m not too proud to say I’m a German Irish catholic, I’m not driving the boat and i am going to have some drinks through the day and enjoy it!  We have no problem justifying the  dbx, esp when so many of the cocktails are $10-$12-$14+ I don’t keep a full bar stocked at home of exotic things I’ll use once every five years, I’m on vacation to try things and splurge!  It’s great.  Especially after taking princess a few times and having a huge bill at the end.
Especially on a cruise with a couple sea days and/or private island stops, Bloody Mary or mimosa or two on the balcony with fruit and toast, coffee or juice, couple bottles of water, then a few beers and cocktails with lunch and through the afternoon, another cocktail or two somewhere before dinner, through dinner, (the dbx discount on wine bottles is also great) then a few more beers or cocktails after dinner and bottles of water again on the way back to the room.  Hitting 10-15 chargeable drinks is not hard at all.  We’ll be diamond soon, but I’ll still be getting dbx on any cruise with sea days or perfect day stops, maybe in a later life when we can take 14 day and transatlantic type voyages I’ll hold off but until then, i have enjoyed @Matt’s advice, love having it paid for on my card and cleared my account months ago, just another part of the whole puzzle that I’m looking forward to!

Many is doing a lot of work in that sentence... Thankfully most schools have come to their senses.

I think you'll see pre-cruise testing going away before vaccine requirements.

I want to be clear on this, though. I did not feel that the staff overall was an issue. Overall, I felt like the staff was relatively plentiful. I can think of several examples (guest services, Coco Cay bars and food stands, rock climbing wall, Adventure Ocean, bingo, just off the top of my head) where I was honestly surprised to see so many workers there. And I felt the staff was honestly very friendly and enthusiastic. At no point did I get the impression people were unhappy or unhelpful or rude.
My primary complaint was about the food. .But if I did have one complaint about staffing it's that specifically in the MDR, both our waiter and our server's assistant were less interactive and attentive and, frankly, didn't speak great English. 

I’m in agreement on the MDR. Precovid the staff would get to know my kids, do magic tricks, chat, and have all of their favorites ready to go. In December that was not the case and it just didn’t feel the same. We’re headed out on our third cruise in 6 months and the menu in the MDR is exactly the same as it was the last two cruises every single night. Nothing is different. All out of different ports: Seattle, Los Angeles, and Miami. I used to get multiple apps, and desserts but the quality just isn’t as good as it used to be. I also felt like our stateroom attendants haven’t been as great. On navigator he told us what his hours are. It’s fine and great to set those boundaries, just not what I’ve ever experienced before and definitely made me feel like I needed to be out of my room during those times so he could do what he needed to. Twice he cleaned the room while we were hanging out on the balcony. Just much less personable, not much chit chat in the hall, things like that. I’d never give any of the staff bad reviews because I don’t want to effect their jobs. I hope possibly more staff can be hired so there is better morale.

Yup, this....MDR food and service went down hill when they started pushing $pecialty dining.

This also is sorely missing. All of that is virtually gone. Many of the waiters barely speak English (I don't fault them for hiring these people, but in this particular role servers should be able to serve their clientele effectively,) so it's very difficult to develop that relationship, both as it pertains to the rapport and the service-level (getting knowing what you want, etc.) Drinks take forever sometimes, particularly when you order hard liquor. Wine comes relatively quickly but whenever I've ordered a bourbon the past couple cruises at the MDR it takes forever, not to mention the server has no concept of the selection, no list, etc.

Just got off Mariner over the weekend and wanted to provide a few takeaways I felt stood out.
First, the positive:
I hadn't been on the Mariner. For a 20-year-old ship, Royal has done a very good job keeping the public areas of the ship up-to-date, clean, nice-looking. It's still a great ship with a totally modern feel.  Entertainment seems to continually improve whenever I cruise. I'm not much of an ice skating fan, but felt the ice show was really well done and enjoyable.  The staff continues to be so helpful and friendly almost across the board. Somehow they really find a way to keep the staff upbeat and positive despite the tireless work schedules and repetitiveness of the job. This makes a huge difference in the overall experience of cruising Royal.  A few negative notes:
The staterooms need a refresh. Both of our rooms smelled a little musty and were showing age. Also, having only two electric plugs in the entire stateroom in 2022 is just ridiculous at this point. Also, felt like public restrooms need to be updated.  I feel like the food gets worse every time I cruise, and I think Royal needs to take a real look at the MDR experience overall. The selection in the MDR was repetitive and very uninteresting. I'd describe the food as average-at-best. Meanwhile, the Windjammer really lacks healthy options, particularly for breakfast. Honestly, the best food we had during the cruise was from the Promenade Cafe. It's the one aspect of Royal cruising overall that I feel has dropped in quality noticeably over the past 10+ years. I always enjoyed the experience of dinner in the MDR and the experience of dining overall on cruises. I hate that it's becoming less of something to look forward to. Playmakers - There were all these fans of particular teams at Playmakers to watch NCAA tournament games but the weird version of ESPN they carry would bounce back and forth between the two games. I felt so bad for the people who went there to root for a team they really care about! And we're not talking about regular season baseball games or something. These are huge, mainstream, national sporting events. Their lack of access to live sports is just ancient at this point. But the real question is... why is Royal putting these sports bars onto every ship if they can't support it with the live programming sports fans are going to expect?? Why drive additional attention and devote more space to an area of weakness? It'd be like adding fancy Internet Cafes to every boat and only having dial-up modems at each computer terminal.  All this said, we still really enjoyed ourselves and don't love cruising any less! 🙂
 

@JohnK6404  Yes. In Bermuda, the gangway will be open and manned 24hrs a day while in port. Local security officers will also be manning the entry point on the pier. The ship is just like your hotel. Come and go as you please.

People who allow their young children to play as if they were at an outdoor playground when they are actually inside at the Cafe promenade. Kids were chasing each other around other occupied tables.
I really don't understand when it became acceptable for people to allow their children to bother other people.

Oh boy, this is a big one these days. I just dont understand the need to wear political clothing on a ship. All it does it serve to start arguments, or at the very least a lot of dirty looks.

Five words. Old German men in Speedos

We all know chair hogs are the top of the list, but what would you add.  This might help 1st time cruisers.
Me:
Cheating at Schooner Trivia....play by the rules....NO PHONES. PLEASE!  Seriously, you win a highlighter or a key fob....there is no trophy. Googling doesn't make you look smarter....instead we all, ok my group and other groups around you that have done this multiple times will all look and just mock you in a low voice at their table.... Usually the common joke is they dont know the prize they won was a key fob.  This is really not about winning its about the interaction and laughter.  losing is part of winning.   Sorry if that offends.

Symphony at 4000 this week as @GatorCruiser mentioned, and like previous cruises felt most full on day one and certain times of the day.  would like to find a staff count, but seems to me they have all they can handle. Being on her a few days now I’m convinced staff levels are what’s holding them to lower capacity more than anything else.  
Late seating dinner starts late because previous seating still pouring out, took two hours for the main course plates to come out, food is far and away the most mediocre and inconsistent we’ve ever had in many cruises with royal, waiters are being asked to serve too many tables which isn’t their fault but never remember who ordered what or what goes where, drinks are often painfully slow, there are zero wait staff walking pool deck during the day, pool bars are always slammed (when open, many bars don’t have the beer or bottle you’re looking for), deck chairs are all full or reserved, specialty dining (150 Central Park) was obviously much better but running a race booking everything day one instead of ahead of time was a pain, chops grille and hooked seafood booked for the whole week by 3pm on day one (suite guests obviously had a go in advance).  tots and babies under two years old families are limited to 10 hours of reserved time.  Wind jammer very busy and both sides closed odd hours, solarium bistro not open at all, certain hours of the day nowhere to eat except promenade pizza and wraps and long lines form, gets tough with kiddos and babies to keep them snacking and happy - it’s spring break so there’s teens everywhere, including all over the solarium day and night.  Not as much trivia or events during the day going on, what events there are get packed, dazzles was overwhelmed the other day with the few events they had in there all back to back. Speed test for surf and stream under 1mb in stateroom.
First world problems i know i know i know, happy to be back on a ship but hard for me to recommend the experience as being worth the money for anyone who is not an avid die hard cruise fan.  I’m sure it will get better but right now they are very short handed and not providing the full royal experience many are looking for.

Looks like cruising is back! 😀.  But, how many "beverages" were dispensed? 🤣
 

they have to be getting a ton of feedback on this, both from the islands and from frustrated guests.  very few open excursions to book on these expensive spring break cruises = a lot of not happy families, seeing that all over on our upcoming in various roll calls, fb groups etc

they have to be getting a ton of feedback on this, both from the islands and from frustrated guests.  very few open excursions to book on these expensive spring break cruises = a lot of not happy families, seeing that all over on our upcoming in various roll calls, fb groups etc