jeffmw

We took a cruise out of NJ to Bermuda a couple years back in September. We were told not to worry about hurricanes as they seldom hit Bermuda because it's much further north and "Atlantic" vs. the Caribbean islands. A week before we left, a huge hurricane popped up and we spent days online just watching the weather news worried we'd be stuck on the boat and unable to go to Bermuda when that was the entire reason for going on the trip. In the end, we got lucky. It hit the island a few days before we got there. There was visible damage (mostly just branches down and stuff) but it wasn't enough to prevent us from going. In all probability, you'll be okay and your cruise will be fine.

Timing will be everything for this. If you want to do it in the morning (before 10 or so) or in the evening (after 6) you should have no trouble finding some areas with no one around. If you want to do it in the middle of the day, it may be tougher. If you're going to do it in the morning or in the evening, Deck 16 should have plenty of areas. It's the area above the pool deck and there are some decent-sized open spaces. It'll be windy but scenic. If you want to do it mid-day, there are plenty of venues that won't even be open depending on the activity calendar. Boleros or the karaoke bar might work if you're quick. You might even be able to get them to let you use the lobby area of the main theater, which would be quiet and private.

You get what you pay for. Guaranteed rooms are a great way to save money if you don't care where your room is. Truthfully, I've never had a horribly placed room (never done GTY) but we get inside rooms often and it's fine with us. We don't spend much time in the room anyway, and if you don't plan to either, I wouldn't worry about going this route.

I'll be on Odyssey 3/24.

There's an elephant in the room here. The entire cruise industry and its profitability is built upon cruise lines paying workers wages that, in the First World would not be considered a legal or viable wage. This has been interpreted by lots of mainstream media and investigative journalists as exploitation -- and I understand that conclusion -- but that's First World-centric view. Cruise lines hire people from places where what they pay is considered good pay and a good opportunity. When people go to a resort in Mexico or any other country where low-level workers are paid low wages, it's seldom they stop to question the ethics. The cruise lines are held to an inconsistent standard because they operate out of the US, even if they aren't hiring American workers. Everything is a function of the economy of a particular place and context. Tucker Carlson recently went to Russia and raved about how a week's worth of groceries that would've cost $300 in the US only cost $175 in Russia. That seems like an indictment of the US economy until you consider that the average American makes in a week (~$1,100) what the average Russian makes in a month. Their groceries cost 60% of ours, but they make 25% as much as we do. With that bit of knowledge, their groceries cost far more than ours. It's all context. Long (long) story short -- small amounts of money that mean very little to us mean a lot to the people from places like India and the Philippines, who work on these ships in the menial roles. Any amount of cash you can give any of them is extremely worthwhile to them.

I'd be interested to know what, if anything, gets shaved off the top. Like when you donate to a charity and they say "100% of your donation will go to...", does any of that money end up with Royal as some kind of administration fee to the workers? Going through the trouble of removing daily gratuities and doling all that money out individually seems like a lot of work (and you miss tipping some of the people you may not see, like laundry workers). But I'd be inclined to try doing it if it's not all going to the workers.

I'll be on an Obstructed View on Odyssey in a few weeks. I used photos of the side of the ship to pick one that was as unobstructed as possible. Mine is at the end of a row, so there's the bar that holds the lifeboat partially in front of the balcony but the left side is basically fully open without an obstruction. You get what you pay for. If you want to stare out at the ocean in the distance without a lifeboat preventing you from seeing down, get a regular balcony. But for the lesser cost, an Obstructed View is a nice option.

I will say Cozumel is more built to handle it and there's a lot more to do around there, but nine is insane.

More cruise ships? This month (Feb. '24) there is an average of FOUR ships per DAY, and on four days there are SIX (which I assume is the current maximum). Do we really need a port with seven large cruise ships docked in one day? And what do they mean larger? We've seen Icon dock there. How much bigger are we getting?

Next, have them install something to do.

We always comment on how bad we feel for the band that plays when you walk onto the island because they have to stand there and play that song over and over, not only for hours, but day after day. It must haunt them in their sleep. It's possible they killed it because it had run its course. It's also possible there was a licensing deal for the song that ran out. Usually, it's fair game to cover a song. Any band can cover a song at any time in a live performance. But that song may have been commercialized to a point where Royal might've had to buy rights to it. More likely, though, they're just done with it.

We had a virtual balcony on a cruise last year. I loved it. My family really didn't dig it as much. I just felt, with an interior room, it was nice to have some view of what's going on outside. Obviously a balcony is better, but so is a 2-story suite. You get what you pay for. I found myself turning it on every time I came into the room just to have a sense of outside and feel less closed in, especially during the day.

Never had an issue at Miami. Always has been really quick and efficient, although we typically have an earlier boarding time. Not sure if it gets more crowded later on.

I imagine both Utopia and Oasis 7 will have a few significant new features that set them apart from the first 5. Particularly with Icon Class now out there, it doesn't seem like Royal would be content just spitting out 2 more Wonders. These two ships will need something that give people who have already been on Oasis Class ships several times a reason to want to try them out. As for Discovery Class, I wonder if Royal is waiting to see what direction they end up going as a company. If they keep going the "compete with Disney" route, maybe all they do from here forward is big, family friendly ships that go to Cozumel & Nassau, and maybe the smaller boats more focused on creative itineraries will be built under the Celebrity brand?

They were doing similar things after COVID, where they began at 50-60% and went up from there. That was partially safety, but also very much about staff levels. Debuting a new class of ship is a very different beast than a typical ship launch. With Wonder, for example, they had the blueprint of 4 other Oasis ships. Very few surprises. Royal has more data than we can imagine and do all sorts of complex studies on crowd movement, but with a brand new ship design there are things they simply won't be able to predict with crowd movement, congested areas, staff needs, etc., until they just open it up and do it. For example, with a brand new pool deck design, certain bars may have much more traffic than others and they may need to adapt how many bartenders are staffing one vs. another. Better to make that correction at 70% capacity when the lines are only sorta long vs. when they're at 100% and it's a clusterf**k. However, I can almost promise you they'll be as full as possible for Spring Break cruises.

I'm Jewish, so I can't speak for Easter, but I have been on cruises during both Hanukkah [not a particularly religious holiday] and Rosh Hashanah [a notably religious holiday], and they do seem to plan well for religious observances. For Hanukkah there were a ton of Jews onboard because it was during Winter Break on Symphony. They had a rabbi on board and they had a menorah lighting along with latkes (potato pancakes, a staple food for the holiday) every night of the cruise during Hanukkah, which we thought was pretty impressive. I think it was in the Cruise Compass. A lot of people attended (upwards of 100 people some nights). On Rosh Hashanah on Adventure, they had a small service in the Crown Chapel, but there were not many observant Jews aboard, as it's a pretty religious holiday and most Jews would likely not take a vacation during it. All that said, I have to imagine there are full, comprehensive services on board for Easter, given the level to which it's celebrated by a majority of the ship's passengers (and crew, for that matter).

(I always feel the need to offer the disclaimer that Formal Nights ["Dress Your Best"] are optional. Do not feel a need to bring formal clothing on your cruise unless you feel like bein' fancy.)

Royal would have no reason to focus marketing on its older, less-attractive ships. Companies don't spend money to market old and outdated products. Royal's new marketing heavily towards families is both smart and extremely logical. I don't mean to be insensitive to the senior citizen cruisers out there, but old people are seldom marketed to for good reason. Even if they have Super Uber Platinum Plus C&A status, they often cruise in small groups at off-peak times and, most importantly, they have a limited number of years left in them. By focusing on families, Royal gets larger parties in bigger rooms on more expensive ships with the added bonus of indoctrinating a new generation of kids into cruising, hoping they'll grow up and continue to spend money with the cruise line with their kids, etc. All that said, the lessons above are totally valid. Smaller ships are great for people who don't need the flash of a brand new ship, who simply want to relax, and those who care more about ports and destinations vs. the ship itself.

This is absolutely by design. The heavy advertising focus on Icon is very clearly geared towards converting first-time cruisers. It jibes with a lot of the narrative from the recent earnings calls as well. Royal knows there's a pretty defined line between vacationers who cruise and those who don't. They've got cruisers locked in, but the gateway to significant growth is converting people who think they'll never go on a cruise. They're positioning Icon as a reinvention of the cruise vacation to be more aligned with a family resort. My theory is they've pushed Icon knowing it was the best eye candy for advertising, but also knowing that it would be too expensive for a lot of families. So they get people excited about taking their first cruise and inquiring about Icon, and then when they get sticker shock they book them into Oasis Class ships, which Royal can be confident will also provide a great family experience. There'll be good and bad to this for us regular cruisers. Yes, reservations will be easier. People won't know the tricks and hacks, etc. But it'll also be annoying because there'll be a ton of people who have no idea how to do basic things like show up for dinner, or get on and off the ship. I'm guessing lines at Guest Services will be longer.

Everyone has a right to their feelings and takeaways. I'm not going to crap on this person for having an opinion. It does seem like this person had some issues (the room smelling is a little odd). I also think, though, that people go into cruising with preconceived notions and look for reasons to be disappointed. One thing I try to keep in mind when I board a cruise is that embarkation day is always going to be a bit of a clusterf*ck. Other hotels and resorts don't have every single room emptied out and thousands of new guests check in at the same time. It's understandable for little requests and things like cribs, distilled water, etc., to get messed up. That first day, there are gonna be mixups, long lines, etc. It's a hectic day. You just gotta remember you're on there for several days and just be a little patient.

LOL... kinda misleading when they include Coco Cay in the numbers. So does this mean Utopia is going to primarily be used for 3-4 night cruises over weekends? Maybe I'm late to the party on this, but you'd think Royal would have the older Oasis Class ships handle that and use Utopia for the 7-nighters. On the other hand, this could be another part of Royal's strategy to rope in first-time cruisers -- here you have the ability to get on their brand new ship and only commit to a short trip.

They've invested a ton into TV advertising, including during sporting events, over the past several months. They probably decided the repetition was better than a one-off. Super Bowl ads were going for $7 million for 30 seconds. Strategically, Super Bowl ads are more conducive to high-production, specialized, one-off ads vs. what Royal tends to do. Don't know about you, but their recent marketing seems to be doing a good job of creating awareness. A lot of non-cruisers have been mentioning Icon whereas I don't remember that ever being the case with a new Royal ship.

I love the look of it more than its functionality. It's a cool-looking feature on the Promenade, but its primary issue is its size. With the space taken by the bar, there's really only room for a half dozen or so tables and maybe 15 people on it. Usually when I've tried to get a spot on it there hasn't been one. And even if you do it's pretty compact. It's best for parties of 2. As far as how often it moves, on Wonder there's actually a list of "departure" times, which I don't think is on the other Oasis ships, but I could be wrong. The Bionic Bar is what it is. Kids like it for obvious reasons. I was surprised it was actually relatively busy in the evenings when we were on Wonder last year over Spring Break. Not adding it to Icon is a clear indication they decided that space is better used another way. Icon devoted more space along the Promenade to retail. In the coming years when the Oasis ships are due for a refresh, I wouldn't be surprised to see them replace Bionic Bar with one of those Royal-themes merch stores.

It seems like the past few years Phoenix has spent more and more time on Royal ships. They're clearly a draw people enjoy, especially with the Music Club venue on more of the ships. On shore, a band playing 70s & 80s rock covers like that would never be something I'd go out of my way to see [and I certainly wouldn't pay for it!], but it's a fun way to spend a couple hours on the boat in the evening. You kind of wonder if at some point Royal will just start hiring full-time rock cover bands that will go from ship to ship.

Every ship we've been on they supply climbing shoes. You actually take your shoes off, to put on theirs but you do need socks.