cruisellama

Maybe there was an $18/pp/day deluxe drink package offered and they shut down the site to clean all evidence.

I wanted to make a final payment but wasn’t up yet

Been a down a lonnnnnng time.......Maybe tomorrow

Same problem.   Cannot sign into Royal or Celebrity webpages.

The times we've been there yes.  Seating around the pool area goes fast and folks seem to camp around the pool all day.   

and of course Dal..

The Captains Club event for higher tier levels (Elite and above) offers  a limited drink menu during specific hours, so not really a benefit we even partake; hence,  we always book drinks as part of an inclusive package, so not been an issue.  We do  like the complimentary laundry service on the 7 night or longer trips.   With 2 people, each Diamond/Elite, you get a bag each after the 3rd night. 

On 9/7/2022 at 10:24 PM, cruisecontrol said:

Not sure how common this happens, but this far ahead what are the chances they move coco cay to Monday or Tuesday instead of the very last day? 

I guess weather could influence such a decision, but we wouldn't know that  until we're sailing.  And they couldn't reschedule unless there is room on the island.   Lots of demand from many ships and it can get very crowded.  All such factors would need to be considered.

We are in the peak of the season.   Actually been a quiet year so far.

18 hours ago, Larry Muster said:

Do we have any time tables on when they will release schedules for Summer 2024?  I haven't cruised on anything but Royal in 5 years and try to book pretty far out.  Next cruise I book will be summer 2024 and want to try Celebrity.  Excited to find out when those itineraries will be available.  

Think they'll be released around December/Jan timeframe.   Its frustrating, but with still some level of uncertainty on country requirements, understandable.

Floating island meringue dessert

On 8/22/2022 at 2:07 PM, JasonOasis said:

Oh no they won't struggle to find places to deploy them in the Norther hemisphere winter season. The number of ports in the Caribbean that can accommodate an Oasis Class ship has grown over the past several years.  It is my understanding that Royal continues to work with Islands in the Caribbean on port upgrades so Oasis class vessels can visit more islands. 

For the northern hemisphere's winter 2024/2025 season a deployment could for example look like this: 

Harmony, Galveston 7 night Western Caribbean cruises;

Wonder, Port Canaveral 7 night Eastern and Western cruises; 

Allure, Port Canaveral 3 and 4 night Bahamas/ CocoCay cruises;  

Symphony and Oasis, Port Everglades 6 and 8 night Eastern and Southern Caribbean Cruises;

Utopia and Icon, Port Miami 7 night Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises.   

 

I hope at some point you all Down Under do get an Oasis Class ship I really do.  However, I still think any chance Australia has of getting an Oasis Class ship is directly tied to both China and Hong Kong.  Both of these markets when they reopen need to see strong demand for cruising because Wonder of the Seas could then cruise the Chinese and Honk Kong markets from mid-April through early-October before repositioning to Australia from mid-October through early April for Southern Hemisphere's spring/summer season.  

IMO - I prefer Oasis class ships in the Caribbean.  As we've experienced most of the off-shore island offerings, we make the ship the destination and Oasis class ships deliver.  We sailed the Med on Symphony, and as we spent most of our waking hours touring, we couldn't enjoy the ship as much.  We have a couple of bookings from Galveston on Oasis class ships, and I doubt we'll even get off the ship at the stops.  If we want port intensive tours, we'll go to a smaller ship and line.  [Analogy:  If you're planning to tour desireable/historical land sites, do you need to stay in a 5-star hotel?  Or if you're in a very  nice resort (as your vacation focus),  do you really plan  tour the surrounding land sites?  So we formed our opinion in if the focus is the shore destinations, ship amenities are the focus, and vice versa, if the shore offerings are the most attractive, the ship is our destination.  Just a thought.]

On 9/12/2022 at 1:34 PM, Reigert2008 said:

We just returned home from our first cruise out of Texas.  One thing that struck us as different was that the Texas flag was hanging on the promenade, over the "TV" at the pool, and off the bridge.  These were only there on embarkation day and then disappeared until the last night / early morning of disembarkation (next embarkation).  

 

With Royal, we have cruised from Maryland, Washington State, and multiple ports in Florida and we've never seen a state flag being displayed in this manner.  Is this some Texas regulation or something that requires ships to do this?  

I've sailed Liberty a few times from Galveston, and the ship does sport a state of Texas theme as it has been home ported there.   We'll have to wait and see if the new ships home ported  take on the theme.

On 9/7/2022 at 9:16 PM, twangster said:

Both Celebrity and Princess cater to a different demographic that doesn't tend to include binge drinkers.

We're just a bunch of old farts that run out of gas after dinner.....

Its not a 1:1 comparison because there are no toys on Celebrity ships.  Just pools, hot tubs, sports court, fitness center and spa.  The dining opportunities match to a point.  Edge class will the the greatest number of culinary opportunities.

I remember Oasis of the Seas used to have a shipboard webcams.   Anyone know if they will they ever be used again?

and if you're not happy with what's on the menu, you can request a MDR menu and they'll give you something from that venue.   They'll work hard for customer satisfaction.

Good news story.  

17 hours ago, jaedam0820 said:

We would be on board the Freedom of the Seas next week out of Miami. As per the weather forecast, it's going to be rainy all week. Does Royal ever cancel a cruise due to bad weather and how soon do they notify their passengers if ever? Also, how do they inform their passengers of the cancellation? We would be flying to Miami a day before the cruise.

They'll just try to sail  the ship out of the inclement weather.  Now if there was a hurricane moving into port, you might see a cancellation.

On 7/23/2022 at 11:32 PM, Traveling Mike said:

I have been on multiple of both cruise lines and the way I explain the difference is...

• Royal is where you want to play with toys and do things
• Celebrity is where you want to relax and enjoy shows and events

 

• Royal is where you want to take your kids and have fun
• Celebrity is where you want to avoid the kids and enjoy peace and quiet

 

• Royal (Symphony) has old ladies on the wall when men are going to the bathroom
• Celebrity gives you riddles on the wall when men are going to the bathroom

A  great summary - ready for Powerpoint

20 hours ago, twangster said:

It's interesting how the specs of the ships has been changed over time.

When first announced at 201,000 GT that grew to 208,000 GT but the cabin count remained around 2,500.  At double occupancy original specs called for 5,000 passengers.

https://www.offshore-energy.biz/mv-werften-starts-construction-of-1st-global-class-ship/

Somewhere along the way that grew to 9,500 passengers but still only 2,503 cabins.  That yields an average of 3.8 guest per cabin.  

https://www.mv-werften.com/de/news-und-presse/news/mv-werften-beginnt-bau-des-zweiten-kreuzfahrtschiffes-der-global-class.html

It was very bold of them to assume they could consistently fill the ship with 3 and 4 guests per cabin.  

At 208,000 GT they were to have less space compared to Oasis class, 12% smaller than Wonder, yet 2,500 more guests in that smaller space.  More of the internal space was to be allocated to casinos.  

These ships were designed specifically for China.  Between the cabin capacity and the space allocated to casinos it would be hard to imagine them successful in a role other than casino cruises.  The ships weren't designed to be destinations themselves as the west understand that concept or to visit destinations in the vacation market.  They were designed to be massive floating casinos where the casino was the destination.  

I have a hard time imaging any mass market cruise line finding a place in the fleet for such vessels. 

Birthing is part of the load, but they also have to accommodate "life raft" space for 9000+ - as well as all the other "hotel infrastructure" for that bump.

I notice the "aging" more after being on one of the newer or more recently upgraded ships.   Ah the smell of fresh deck primer 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/see-it-biggest-cruise-ship-ever-built-could-be-scuttled-before-it-ever-sails?utm_source=wnd&utm_medium=wnd&utm_campaign=syndicated

Can't figure out who would invest in a $1.8B supership with no home.    Its a 9,000 passenger super ship that's almost complete with no place to go but scrap!

53 minutes ago, twangster said:

Starlink users on land report rain outages.  While Starlink is lower at around 550km above the earth, that's still a long way for faint signals to travel and rain fade as it is called still impacts LEO constellations like Starlink.   

Initially and the reason they are starting on Indy is because that ship is within Starlink's current maritime coverage map.  The problem with the current approach is that an earth or ground station in Florida will need to downlink the signal. Even if the ship is under sunny skies if the Florida ground station has a thunderstorm moving through that can also create an outage.   

Also keep in mind the satellites are moving pretty fast.  A storm on the horizon will impact signals when the storm is in between the satellite and the ship.  It doesn't take a storm sitting on top of the ship to cause an outage.  Once more satellites are launched this can be mitigated by having multiple satellites to choose from.  Right now there aren't very many overhead a given cell on the earth's surface at the same.  

Starlink is in its infancy.  It has launched around 1/4 of the satellites it needs to do this properly.  It won't be perfect on day one.  Like a fine wine it will improve with age.  

That's the kind of insight I was looking for.   I have some neighbors claiming SL can beat the weather (which I have problems believing; given the operating band.)

2 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

If you already get the internet packages then you're used to satellite internet

Yes, but SL satellites are in a lower orbit than legacy systems so wondering if its performance is noticably better.    I have noticed diminished performance with existing systems in heavy rain.  Curious if the lower orbit with  larger constellation overcomes the precipitation issue.   Of course, can only tell if we encounter heavy precipitation while using that system.  Will be a "qualitative" observation only.