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.

This doesnt list Quantum of the Seas - but its in the cruise compass - given it just needs some small bats and balls and a court - i would say any ship with courts on it (is that all ships?) will offer it. Easy cheap way to add to the entertainment roster.

You covered a lot of points pretty fairly. Chair hogs are a problem at most every resort in the world on land or not, places where they have rules I have been and then enforce them have just as many issues the other way so I can see why they dont. I haven't been on an old RCL ship like Adventure which is 20+ years old , only Oasis and Quantum class - so I think a number of your comments relate to the ship. On Harmony for example - our kids (9 and 12) loved kids club and it had a huge range of things to do and the facilities were great, I couldn't get them out of it - on ever ship the kids club staff have been some of the best staff on board so thats also a bit weird. I do agree lumping 12 year olds with 17 year olds is weird (my daughter was only 12 by 1 week when we last went) I just asked them to keep her with her brother in the younger group and they were fine with that. In the Caribbean i have always found the wifi good but again, newer ships. I also really enjoyed Labadee we found it one of fav stops - much more enjoyable than San Juan for us which I would happily skip in the future for more time somewhere else but I guess its what your looking for. If your going to try something else, Cant recommend P&O - I think the newest ship might be ok, but overall they seem a worse choice in most ways. We did a princess cruise earlier this year with the kids and despite a older vibe the kids club was as amazing and good as any and had a great time. So many choices with Carnival, NCL etc - our P&O experience was pretty poor.,

Thanks for your response and to the others as well. Guess they sold a lot of packages as 9pm is the only slot on day 1 and no slots at all on day 2 which would have been fine. Ill just deal with it when we get there I guess.

Hi All On the 3 or 5 day dining package you have to select a courtesy booking for the first day. The question i have is, can I cancel this and swap - as its a 10 day cruise and I dont really want it on the first night at all and also the onlky time available is 9pm which is hopeless with 2 small kids. Another question is - for the restaurants like Jamies Italian where there is no surcharge and its not ala carte pricing - can we order what we like, like the main dining room - 3 starters if we so desire or is it just one like a normal restaurant? Thanks for any insight.

I happened to have spent 3 weeks or so in Tarragona earlier this year and went up to Barcelona numerous times via car and train. This is pretty tight. Its about 1hr - 1hr 20 drive just plain distance, thats perfect conditions, often the road can be very congested - in the mornings especially. I also have flown out of Barcelona airport a number of times, its huge across multiple terminals so you need to factor just walking time inside them as well. The "cheap" airlines like Ryanair , EasyJet etc are sticklers for check in on time as well, they shut it the minute its supposed to be shut even with people in the queue. You need to drop you bags for Ryanair for example 40mins before the flight at the latest - so your really aiming to be at the airport about 9 as it will take you 5-10mins to find and walk to the counter. I guess im saying, if you get off the ship as early as possible with no delays with bags etc and have someone waiting you find fast , who drives fast and there is no holdups on the road or in the airport itself then its probably possible, but it will be tight and stressful depending on how early you get off and impossible if you get off say later than 8.. If you drop the 10am flight bit, there are lots of options, train is also not a bad one - it goes from Tarragona station which is on the waterfront into Barcelona central and then you get the subway right into the airport from there.

Got a Royal Up email - had a look. prices are ridiculous - even almost minimum bids are about what I could have just paid at the time. That's fine. Question I have is do the numbers change or is this it? I have checked a few times and they appear the same - but do they change down (ideally) ever? So I don't need to keep checking

Im sorry to hear this person had a bad experience and are angry. That's a shame. I'm curious thou what they seek to achieve with this posting - its not a review site and as they will see above - its not a very receptive audience either. Maybe just getting it out there was what they were looking for.

I had very similar experiences (different providers) - the last time the woman just wanted to chat about the holiday I was going on - not paying attention at all , id imagine she has done this all day every day for months and her level of interest as in none - was showing. As I was on my laptop I was trying to do it right and holding the test so she could see it due to the angle of the camera, she told me to not worry about holding it on the screen, just put it down on the desk (totally out of sight) till its finished and let her know. So it wasnt even in view could have easily swapped it if I wished. When I finished within 1 second I had the cert in my inbox, she had already prepared it as passed she said. So the whole thing seems a bit pointless if they are going to allow virtual. If your not honest you will easily get away with it, if you are honest you of course would report yourself. But if thats the case they might as well just ask you to do it yourself anyway as it will be the same result. After doing this a couple of times now and not to mention you can do it all legit and be negative and the next day be positive, you really start to consider the photoshop option.

That is an impressive 2022 list of cruises you have booked. The cruise bug has bit you hard ! What about March 2023! got to keep the streak going.

Awesome - thanks for that - You can definitely see days where there are say 2-4k people vs 10-12k on the biggest - that I guess will definitely make a difference to your experience I would think, but even a busy day will be a lot better than not being there - so enjoy your time whatever it is!