MarcBerger

Well good luck.

Well the cruise is now over. 
 
After making a very late port at Ensenada on Day 2 of the cruise, we headed northward and spent our day at sea in the Santa Barbara Channel. 
 
This was much farther north than we initially expected to be heading, but Captain James announced that it was outside of the area affected by the storm. We spent the day circling the waters in the channel and the water was very calm. 
 
At night we headed back to the Port of Los Angeles and definitely sailed through a part of the storm causing it to be pretty rocky. We got back to port safely though. 
 
thanks for all who responded!

An email from C&A, that would be a first for many of us 😉

I don't expect to see Icon 2 news until after Icon 1 launches

Happy to share with you all that I will be joining Icon Of The Seas later this year, and I will be a part of the start-up team.
 
I look forward to seeing all of you who have booked a cruise for 2024!
 
I'm excited to make video on the newest, biggest, and best ship in the world!
 
 

Getting rid of the bionic bar and Wonderland would be great improvements.

La Casa De Habanos (LCDH) shop in Aruba was small but the cigars were good.  Prices have climbed a bit on Habanos since 2020 but if you are looking for authentic Cubans, this is a good stop.  Walk to the right after getting to the main road outside the cruise port, over the small bridge and down to the shopping center.  Its in the middle of the three rows of shops - when you see Starbucks, you are in the right spot.
Cigar Emporium in Aruba is also good and has legit sticks. I haven't been in there recently though.

Chris (@CHRIS WONG) just posted this hour plus long video focusing on the Symphony dry dock... thank you Chris!
 

Definitely no VR visors

Usually they have it for purchase but by the comedy club and not always. 

It's almost like the problem isn't the satellite provider... 
Oh wait.  I think I said that when they first talked about moving to Starlink.  

Thanks for sharing this info!

This might be an unpopular opinion. I think it is probably about time to retire the Bionic Bar. Super neat novelty the first time you see it, but I think it gets my drinks right about 50% of the time when it is working, and it's a waste of space most of the time. They usually have at least 1-2 crew members there to make sure the thing doesn't mess up when it is open as well. Might as well just turn it back into the Champagne Bar or something. 

My regular recurring celebrity/fan cruise group for the fans and stars of the BBC TV series Doctor Who has sailed as a group on Explorer Of The Seas for 2 years in a row, out of the Pacific Northwest in 2018, and out of Miami to the deep Southern Caribbean and back in 2019. She's a wonderful ship and I can highly recommend her, and I'm sure she will be even fresher newer and more exciting following the dry dock. I would not hesitate to sail her again, however I wanted a slightly different experience this year, and never having done Oasis class before as a group, we are booked on Wonder Of The Seas for this October. For some ports the larger ships simply cannot get there, and going there on the smaller ships should not be a problem, as Royal Caribbean traditionally maintains them in very good shape. 

That picture is actually Wonder, not Utopia. Utopia isn’t even close to that far along in its construction.

Why would you assume that?
Even new ships have WiFi issues because ships are made of metal.  Metal walls.  Metal floors.  Metal ceilings.  Metal doors.  The newest WiFi 6e standards do a poorer job penetrating metal than the WiFi standards from 2015 do.  
They could spend 5 million dollars replacing all the access points across the fleet with 2023 technology and the problem would still be... too much metal!  They might see a 3% gain mostly from access points that can accommodate more clients in places like the Promenade.  That would be money poorly spent.  
The only solution to poor WiFi on cruise ships is access points in each stateroom like new ships have.  They are not going to recable the ship and pull Cat 6 or Cat6E cable to staterooms.   That would mean ripping the ship apart.  Only Wonder has access points in the cabin in the RCI fleet.  
Jewel for example has a great 8 year old WiFi platform that can deliver more than everything that Starlink that generate, IF you are outside of your metal cabin in a public area.   
 

She was at Cruise Terminal 1 in Port Canaveral on FRI, 1/6/23, getting material/crates loaded onboard by crane. We had lunch at Grills that afternoon.
She disembarked later to allow Wonder to dock the following morning for our sailing on 1/7/23. I'm assuming she immediately began her trek to Cadiz after that short stop in PC to load up with some material/supplies.

I think the FRIEND owes her money....certainly NOT Royal....WOW

So, I haven't even gone on my first cruise (booked for our first in July! Can't wait!) BUT I do travel fairly regularly, and OP, this entire situation seems to be strictly your own doing and that of your friend. The staff seemed to be exceedingly accommodating. From what I can see, the only fault on the part of the cruise staff would be to not have a terribly good plan in place for those who experience an unexpected mental health crisis while on board. Although with your vague and selfish focus, it could also just be that you're more focused on poor you instead of the potential health and safety of another human being.

Weird. You asked compensation for private matters ?

Strong first post 

I'd be more concerned with a friend of twenty years that is suicidal.  Heck, forget about twenty years, someone is suicidal.  That becomes a priority.  
Once that reality was upon me, my cabin doesn't matter.  The only thing that's important would be that person.  Nothing else matters.

Wow. Just wow.
The only thing I see RCCL did that is questionable was to let you board in the first place.  
They gave you a second cabin.  You only paid for one.
RCCL is not responsible for your relationship.
Of all the ridiculous complaints I've seen from first time posters, this one takes the cake.
Suck it up buttercup.  You and your friend ruined your vacation... not RCCL.

Thank you