dr martini

Navigator four night in February earlier this year, just before everything started going haywire!  Booked a GTY balcony with DX bev on a whim and stayed on the SW side of Florida with some family for a couple nights on either side of the trip, was a very easy drive over to Miami.  As many others have mentioned, so impressed with the brand new upgrades on Navigator and at CocoCay - it was all just so great, especially enjoyed the escape room (set the best time on our cruise but who knows, maybe they say that to everybody) and the schooner bar, best memory probably the last sea day where patience paid off in getting a casita on the upper deck hanging there most of the afternoon and then won big in the casino that night.  Just perfect.  Reaffirmed my love for the voyager class, for me and what I like to do it's just the right size of ship, hope to try Freedom or Indy someday soon as well.....

Navigator four night in February earlier this year, just before everything started going haywire!  Booked a GTY balcony with DX bev on a whim and stayed on the SW side of Florida with some family for a couple nights on either side of the trip, was a very easy drive over to Miami.  As many others have mentioned, so impressed with the brand new upgrades on Navigator and at CocoCay - it was all just so great, especially enjoyed the escape room (set the best time on our cruise but who knows, maybe they say that to everybody) and the schooner bar, best memory probably the last sea day where patience paid off in getting a casita on the upper deck hanging there most of the afternoon and then won big in the casino that night.  Just perfect.  Reaffirmed my love for the voyager class, for me and what I like to do it's just the right size of ship, hope to try Freedom or Indy someday soon as well.....

I really miss Brilliance

Welcome to the message boards!
Christmas decorations usually start going up at the tail end of U.S. Thanksgiving or the week after.  
This past year (2019) the tree went up the first week of December.


During this time they add a "Yuletide" channel on the TV system with a crackling fire.

Eventually the Gingerbread house display will arrive.




They also replace some sounds around the ship with Christmas music at times.  
There was a Santa parade that started on the Boardwalk to the Christmas tree in the Promenade followed by a chance to sit on Santa's lap.  

The bulk of the decorations will be found in the Promenade but it's hard to mistake it's Christmas time on board.



Christmas on board any Royal ship tends to be a magical time.

Note:  These pictures were taken over a three week span in the weeks before Christmas, I wasn't on the ship on the week that included Christmas Day.  The Santa parade was once per cruise.

I think I've fixed the issue with uploading photos, sorry about that.

I always slip a $10 to the server on the first night when they open up a bottle of wine I brought on board. While I've never encountered a a corkage fee yet, this makes for some incredible service as the week progresses. I also like to give our cabin steward $20 on the first day as well...it's amazing what that investment will do for you during the rest of the cruise.

I generally tip a $1 with the DX.  First of all not all of that 18% goes to the server.  They get an amount per swipe of the card but it isn't the full gratuity you or I pay.   
Secondly, I tend to use the DX a fair bit.  The more you use it the less your effective tip is.  If you drink one drink per day with the DX then you have contributed a good amount to the tip pool.  If you drink 10 or more drinks per day, alcohol, coffee, water, juice, etc. then not so much.    Everyone I know who scored the $18 DX deal committed to tipping extra because they recognized they weren't contributing very much.  If you get it on sale your tip contribution is lower compared to buying at full price.
It's funny because so many express concern that crew wages are low but when you introduce the topic of tipping they clam up and shut their wallets.  "The company should pay".  But the company doesn't pay, it is what it is.  Don't like it, don't cruise but by removing tips or avoiding them you aren't hurting the company, you hurt the crew, the very crew people claim they care about.  
Regardless I've definitely noticed better service when tipping extra.  On more than one ship I've had a bartender recognize me months later and know my drink months later when I return.   On another occasion I had the DX on cruise #1 of a B2B but not on cruise #2.  During C&A happy hour on cruise #2 my drinks were often never empty and made with something I prefer.  That would not have happened otherwise.  Take care of your bartenders and they will take care of you.

Completely disagree. Beverage tipping, like dining in a restaurant, is how the service industry works. 
Unfortunately all employers (including cruise lines) pay employees with understanding tipping will make up difference. This happens everywhere, and it's a debate for another day if that is right or wrong.
In the meantime, tipping is not only expected, I absolutely see a big difference in the speed and friendliness of service when waiters/bartenders notice tips coming their way.  You don't have to "make it rain" by any means, but I definitely have seen a difference with even customary tips.

Being Scottish i tried to work out how many drinks i could have had in the time it took to create the spreadsheet ????

I got it too and suggested they hire Matt Hochberg to completely redesign and implement a new website.

If you live in an area that participates in Daylight Savings Time you can appreciate the difference between springing forward (and losing an hour) versus falling back (and getting an extra hour).
Sailing West is like the fall DST change where you "gain" an hour each day.  It creates an effect where you find yourself not as tired at 10pm and before you know it (after a couple of days) you are still awake and it's 1 or 2am.  That's okay because at 2am it becomes 1am.  Day after day each day is effectively 25 hours long, the normal 24 hours plus the extra hour given to you.  This extra hour means you can do more in the evenings, your natural bed time is shifted you aren't as tired after dinner.  See a show and go dancing?  Why not?   
Sailing East you "lose" an hour day after day.  It's like shifting to a reality where the day has 23 hours.  Suddenly it's dinner time and Diamond happy hour yet it doesn't feel like it, but it is.  The hour is taken from you midday.  It's 11:59am and poof now it's 1pm.  If you are used to eating at 12 noon there is no 12 noon, it's 1pm and lunch service stops at 2pm so you better eat but you just had a late breakfast and before you know it,  it's 5pm and dinner time and people are drinking happy hour drinks but it feels like it's only mid-afternoon because your body clock hasn't adjusted fully.  
Some people prefer sailing West, departing from Europe and cruising to America.  Why not? ...25 hour days are more restful when you get an extra hour of sleep.  
On the Allure Eastbound in March it was common to hear "I feel like all I'm doing is eating, drinking and sleeping".

All the Empress photos remind me of something that has always boggled the mind - the public spaces on the smaller ships have so much more room to move around. In particular, the Schooner Bar has less chairs and tables in what appears to be MORE space than on some of the newer, bigger vessels.

I have two Europe based cruises booked right now in spring of 2021.  I'm on the fence with them meaning I'm undecided.  Final payment isn't due until early in 2021 so I have some time to sit and wait to see how the pandemic evolves until then.  
I am confident that Royal will be around, so much so I am booking new cruises in 2022.  I consider the deposits toward these cruises to be low risk.  

How many people think we should buy a Monarch lifeboat for Matt to create a RCBlog studio/office/YouTube broadcast booth?
Or, should it just be the furnishings from one of the pool bars?

Appreciating you are not part of the EU but the EU guidelines for a return to cruising call for short itineraries to start.  While longer itineraries in Europe may have been where the money was before that may not be an option for a while. 
Also, it's only Florida really that has a short cruise market and the primary route for these short cruises is Bahamas.  Once you've done that a few times it's not that exciting for the return cruiser, it's primarily a route that targets the new to cruise market.   So it's not fair to state the entire US as large as it is benefits from the short cruise market which is as misleading as it is to say the entirety of Europe only does long cruises.
Aisa has short cruises as well, as does Oz.  Singapore, Hong Kong,  Shanghai, have 3 to 5 night.  Oz offers short sampler cruises to nowhere.  So it's not just the US that has short cruises, they do exist elsewhere in the world.

#1 from last cruise- Cococay south beach experience was really just incredible.  what did they put on those burgers?!
1 expected change - I'm not personally wild about it but we'll likely see a lot more enforcement on assigned times and directional traffic flow to mitigate crowds in tightly spaced confined areas; not just disembark/embark on first and last days, but probably all port days, entertainment, dining etc.  hard to see personal movement going back to as free as it once was

Very different experience for me.  I can cite many Royal ships where the bar staff know exactly what I like and in some cases have it ready for me as I approach.  
You have in a nutshell defined the entire service industry in Canada.  Oh, and I guess it works that way on a ship too.  

I don't see longer cruises on Navigator happening for years.. They Amped this ship specifically to do weekend cruises.. They needed a way to make the weekend cruises more expensive.. When weekend cruises were on old ships you could get rates in the $200 a night per person for an inside room.. Now They try to get $400 a person.. Of course they don't always and they drop the price when there isn't demand but they knew what they were doing when they amped navigator. They also charge more for drink packages with shorter cruises so weekend cruises I'm sure are pretty lucrative for them and they wanted to make sure they had a nice ship for that... Do you not like Oasis class ships? They have all the bells and whistles and go for the week you are looking for.. 

Yea I am sure these weekend cruises are great for a lot of people. We have one booked in December but I am worried we are going to feel rushed and not get to experience the full ship. 
Who knows though! We also might love it and decide to go on one every other month. We will have to wait and see ?

I love the voyager class, was just on navigator in February as my first reamped ship and love what they did so I share many of the original poster's feelings here. 
When my wife and I were researching cruises we looked hard at the Freedom class as very similar ships and I can tell you that whenever things resume we will be looking at Independence and Freedom of the seas, which I think are also incredible values on upgraded ships.  The Freedom class is VERY similar to Voyager and they offer a lot more variety in their itineraries.  Four night, five night, seven night to canada, bermuda, southern Carib (ABC islands) a lot of great options there for really incredible prices.  I started cruising on the Voyager class, I still prefer that as a more classic cruise feel (for us married in our mid-upper 30's) compared to the Oasis which I truly enjoyed but was overwhelmed by kiddos and pricing and some other things but I'm getting away from the topic at hand. 
While voyager itself is on the other side of the globe, eventually Adventure and Explorer and Liberty will get their upgrades as well.  The world health situation and economy will improve and in a few years there are even more Amped ships offering even more options.  Think positive!

Key west is overrated. Go half way to marathon or islamorada. Much better experience. Key west is like the Daytona or Panama City of the Keys. Fun for a few hours but that’s about it. I’m a Floridian so I can say such things! ?

No numbers analysis for me, just thinking about the statements already made and where they logically lead.
My vote for first ship to sail is Symphony. It's been stated that the bigger ships are more profitable with smaller passenger counts, and she's the biggest (as well as the newest) they've got. She's also got all the bells and whistles, making it easy for the people who book on her to enjoy their time even while social distancing.
I think it will be the radiance class ships that are the last to return to service. They're smaller than vision class and from what I've seen do mainly more-boutique itineraries. Which Radiance ship specifically? My bet's on Radiance, which if I remember rightly is the ship assigned to the Alaskan sailings. I think with Canada shutting down their border for the foreseeable future, Alaskan sailings are going to be the very last to resume, even though they're typically the 7-night duration that regions like the EU are looking to max out at. When Alaska does open up, they'll put Ovation back on those sailings before any Radiance class ship, since she's bigger / more bells and whistles / more profitable with reduced passenger count.
I think Empress will actually sail before the Radiance ships, or at least before the last one, even though she's smallest of them all. She can do the 7-night Bermuda sailings out of NJ that go nowhere else while Anthem / Adventure / Freedom can do the 5-night version. Alternately, she could be put on a purely Canadian itinerary, say from Montreal to Halifax and back, avoiding the problem of a closed border with the US; and yes, that might even make it possible to leverage the double standard that exists with flying into the country from the US today, making it possible for US passengers to do that sailing while Canadian passengers fly to / sail out of Bayonne.
So there you go, for whatever it's worth. ? 

I didn't sail Indy until well after her amplification and I didn't do a trip report on that occasion. 
I did sail Navigator on her first cruise coming out of amplification and have sailed her again since.  I went overboard with Navigator photos in this trip report:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/11143-navigator-mar-1-2019-9-nights-southern-caribbean/
This isn't entirely fair to Indy since she is in great shape with her amplification but having said that the amplification of Navigation was more complete touching more areas including cabins.
My only beef with Navigator is the 3/4 night Bahamas itinerary they stuck her on.  I was lucky enough above to sail her 9 nights to the ABCs.  

Freedom class is a stretched version of Voyager class, Voyager Plus is more like it.  
The extra section midship affords another pool on the pool deck and more space on the Promenade so there is a dedicated Sorrento's pizza on Indy plus more cabins on Indy so more people on Indy.  Other than that the layout of the ships is nearly identical (minus the extra section in the middle that Indy has).
Some of the minor difference include things different water slides, Skypad on Indy, a different Playmakers location.  Some of the specialty dining options are different between ships.  Navigator received her amplification well after Indy so it was more transformational.  Navigator has the resort style pool upgrade.
The truth is both are great ships.  For me Voyager class is a favorite.  They are large ships but not mega size (at one time they were the largest cruise ships in the world).  Of the amplifications that have been completed the one Navigator received was the most impactful in my opinion.  They learned a lot with each prior amplification and they knocked it out of the park on Navigator.  Plus the ice skating show on Navigator starts with drones and drones are cool so there is that too.  

I worked for a long time at the ground level in hospitality and retail;  I’m now in management and these kind of complaints are so tiresome.  No one wants to hear you rant and rave about one thing (which is why I agree with Matt’s analysis of most short amateur reviews of anything online-they’re useless).  If you’re a loyal customer who has a valid point and if you bring it up in an email or in person on the cruise in a respectable way I’m 1000% sure management would find a way to comp you something, literally anything, some kind of credit, a drink or specialty dining coupon, a discount on the laundry service, anything to stop the complaining and try to send you away happy.
Cruise ships have huge commercial laundry facilities that they’re already paying to operate everyday that run at a scale much more efficiently than any set of personal household size machines on upper decks that obviously weren’t getting used enough to justify taking up space that could be used to sell cabins and/or compensate for the headache of people complaining that they weren’t on the right floor, complaints about other guests hogging the machines and leaving their laundry about, theft, messes, breakdown/repairs...and on and on.  Most hotels don’t have self laundry anymore for the same reasons.