Meridian

For sure, that's good timing they should have all the things well worked out by then but not to far to wait.

This is a cool video showing some of the Waterpark - an area I was very interested to see - looks very cool.

Well probably wouldn't be that hard, but I suspect they are fine with a few things here and there that continue to build conversation as long as it's not to much.. Also there are a bunch of others. A formal vlog type thing they probably don't want. Few extra videos in the playlist - couple of shorts and a look at Izumi etc

Your most welcome. Glad you enjoyed it . Seemed a unique sort of look vs the curated ones RCL is putting out.

Hi All, I saw this video online of Icon that has been posted. Seems to show a bunch of different areas and some of the new food offerings and random other things. Thought you might want to see it as well as seems to have areas like the empire supper club etc that I hadn't seen in other videos. The ship looks beautiful, look forward to getting on board.

Have stayed here https://www.coasthotels.com/coast-coal-harbour-vancouver-hotel-by-apa before and booked for later in the year pre cruise. Modern and clean and tidy and walking distance to the port. Usually the price is ok (relative). Everywhere central is pretty expensive the further from the port it tends to get a little cheaper. This seems to be a good balance. The Pinnacle across the road is ok as well but a bit more 80s.

Man. Painful conversation. I put in a buy order for 1000+ shares at $30.00 a while back as I felt it had to rise given the demand I had experienced first hand and believed in the cruise industry as a whole. It dropped to like $30.05 so never triggered and never has been that low again and clearly not even close now. Should have just bought but wanted to get it 30 or under and thought it would come back and it kept rising and rising dammit Costly in hindsight. The other lesson I also learnt is never try for round numbers. It will either not go there as is the case here or go way below. Congratulations to those that got in. My CCL and NCL shares have done nothing like the RCL ones would have.

It would seem that way, although when they originally announced it they said they expected up to 800k visitors a year vs CocoCay at 3m. So a fair amount. Quantum out of Brisbane and Ovation out Sydney are consistently pretty full - and other ships come and go - ie Brillance is in AU for a short time at the moment and you would think with something worth going to others might be sent to the region - and then there is celebrity ships as well potentially. Over time people are going to join me and tire of Noumea and as beautiful as they are Lifou and Mystery Island so they might start to see a slow down if they dont shake up things a bit - we dont have the vast population of the US etc where you seemingly never run out of people.

Curious if anyone has seen or heard anything on this project. It was announced in 2019 and due to open in 2022 - sure we all get it was delayed due to the terrible C - but nothing seems to have happened since. Cant seem to find anything on Google, The RCL page about it is still there but they have released the 2024/2025 itineraries and still nothing. We are pretty starved of destinations in this part of the world ex Aus or NZ - you can only go to the pretty average Noumea etc. so many times before its not worth it.. Anyone seen or heard any update on this?

Well that is definitely the process, very much an honesty based system - trivial to beat if you wish to. I would think most people are reasonably honest and I guess they are hoping people will test and they will catch at least a few positives who do then right thing who otherwise might not have even known till it was to late. The longer cruises tend to have more time at sea or be more remote (ours was crossing from Vancouver to Hawaii) - so 5 days at sea. If you tested positive and chose to ignore it and sneak on using another test, you would be definitely taking a risk of getting sick in the middle of the pacific. But overall as you say, it doesnt make a huge amount of sense.

I just did this a few weeks ago. I just had 4 negative tests ( 1 per person) - the actual tests just home ones I had spare - did them in the hotel the night before unsupervised - walked up showed them 4 tests - they glanced at them and they ticked the box on their screens. They didn't care what the test was, where it came from, who's was who's. They simply asked when it was done. I said yesterday and it was done. Took all of 20seconds. Very much a box ticking process. Pointless really but also not difficult. I believe a picture is just the same process, but given i had actually bothered to do the test It was easier to show them.

I was just randomly browsing and it appears the Icon of the Seas site is live - I was looking for the countdown timer but its all there right now. - Looks amazing! There is a lot to take in, the waterpark is next level with pools x 7, infinity pools, drop slides etc , aquadome it just goes on. There is just so much outdoor stuff that looks impressive. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/icon-of-the-seas/site/ - take a look - the only thing they havent really described is the pearl which appears to be some sort of entryway space Im actually a little blown away it looks like nothing else and RCCL appears to be taking it to a whole new level - nice for things to seemingly meet the hype.

I think we are on the same one ex Vancouver on the 3rd to Hawaii - its 10 nights. So 11 days. So still qualifies

I have just got a email on this topic. It says "Proof of a negative test can be the printed or digital results, a clear photo of your self-test result, or your actual self-test in hand". I think we will just do the physical in hand test option - that seems very simple as you will have it so why not. Guess I could also take a picture. Bit of a silly process as it would be trivial to produce negative should you want to but so so glad we dont have to go through all the hassle with video calls with my kids etc.

Which is possibly not enough for them to bother doing anything, which is a bit annoying for those on those, myself being one. But fingers crossed all the same.