Cakemeister

I would guess that Discovery-class ships will run on LNG. There's plenty of time to finalize the plans, since they need to build Star, Utopia, and Icon 3 first. 
The article suggested that they could order the first ship this year. From ordering to delivery, the first Oasis-class ship took almost four years, and the first Icon-class ship took more than seven. Subtracting time for the global pandemic, if the first Discovery-class ship was ordered this year, then it might be 2028 before it was delivered. This fits well with the delivery of Icon 3.
 

A Royal Caribbean world cruise is definitely #1 on my bucket list. On a Discovery-class ship, not one of the older rust buckets.
Seven cruises in a year would be great, but I cannot afford the vacation time or money right now. Someday...... 

My wife and I recently finalized the adoption of my 6 year old step daughter! I have the court document finalizing the adoption, but we haven't received the new birth certificate yet. I was thinking about booking a "gotcha" cruise for her since she absolutely adores cruising, but was wondering if I would have to wait until we received the new birth certificate? Or would the "old" BC along with the court documents suffice? Any insights into this would be greatly appreciated!

You can also choose longer cruises. Mrs. Cake made Diamond with no suites in 8 cruises by taking two transatlantic cruises and sailing solo once (her friend was in another cabin). 

I'll be on board, first half of a B2B.

Typically, North America to Europe cruises are in the spring and Europe to North America are in the fall. 
My personal preference is Europe to NA, because of the time change, like Cactus said. I went east-to-west and loved it.
Mrs. Cake went west-to-east once with her sister, and she said the time changes were done in the middle of the day and were awkward. I don't recall her saying anything about the difference in weather between the spring and fall.
If the time of year makes a difference so that a spring cruise is better for you, don't hesitate to book west to east. 

https://www.schiffe-und-kreuzfahrten.de/news/royal-caribbean-arbeitet-am-project-discovery-neue-auftraege-fuer-die-meyer-werft-aus-papenburg/290350/?fbclid=IwAR2npaBBwHtZABZ529iS5OnwYZcHtxXTpcXGoqwIk7FvbsgI8Fg91lQ3l0Y_aem_AW-4BT96wP7yvPh-ZW1QbxYPyrLbkxjeW9fxZP0H6J73KQq8iYfJhXpH0Qmk1DckdYo#google_vignette
 
Translation: 
Around Royal Caribbean International, there are ongoing rumors about smaller new buildings under the project title Discovery. Royal Caribbean International has now indirectly confirmed that work is being done on new buildings. In the introduction text of staff captain Markus Alander, who has been working in the new building department of Royal Caribbean for several years, states that he is also working on Project Discovery. In recent years, he has accompanied the introduction of numerous new ships for the Royal Caribbean Group.
Project Discovery is supposed to be planning for medium-sized cruise ships. Since with the four ships from the Vision Class and the four ships from the Radiance Class, several Royal Caribbean cruise ships will soon exceed an age of 20, 25 or even 30 years, these cruise ships must be replaced. However, you cannot simply replace these cruise ships with ships of a significantly larger ship class such as the Oasis, Quantum or Icon Class, as these cruise ships are far from being able to sail all routes.
Royal Caribbean International has not yet placed any orders for Project Discovery. Since the ship class is currently in the planning phase, the delivery of the first ships from Project Discovery is not expected until the end of the 2020 years, provided that this ship class is ordered. Presumably, the ship class is medium-sized cruise ships for 3000 to 3500 cruise passengers. This would only mean that these ships would be about half the size of the Oasis or Icon Class ships from Royal Caribbean International.
Allegedly, Royal Caribbean International is also talking to Meyer Werft from Papenburg about Project Discovery. The shipyard from Emsland could well use orders for new cruise ships. Since the current order book for cruise ships from Papenburg only lasts until 2025, the shipyard could build a new ship class for Royal Caribbean International from 2026. In 2026, the oldest Royal Caribbean cruise ship Grandeur of the Seas reaches the age of 30 years, a year later the Rhapsody of the Seas and the Enchantment of the Seas also exceed this age limit. Royal Caribbean International will have to replace these cruise ships towards the end of the 2020s.
The fact that the Meyer Werft on Papenburg will be involved in Project Discovery is well possible but by no means guaranteed. In addition to the shipyard from Papenburg, the competition of Chantiers de l'Atlantique from France has also built several cruise ships for the Royal Caribbean Group in recent years.

It leaves today. I hope it is successful so that there is another one.
I don't see anyone doing a live blog for it on this forum. 😞
The Ultimate World Cruise | Royal Caribbean Cruises

It leaves today. I hope it is successful so that there is another one.
I don't see anyone doing a live blog for it on this forum. 😞
The Ultimate World Cruise | Royal Caribbean Cruises

go 4-5 days early, stay in london 3-4 nghts and southampton the night before. Haven't done that trip but have done others where the airport is in a cool place that cannot be appreciated in a few hours with jet lag and the port is remote. The one night on town relieves the anxiety of something going wrong with transportation and how many times will you be in london while you are alive, the hard part is getting there, see a little of it. We are doing he reverse in 2023 but wev'e been to New York/New Jersey a number of times so we are flying in the day before and spending out time in Europe at the end, leaving Southampton the day of arrival to spend time in London and  then time in Dublin (flights back from Dublin were cheaper so the difference nearly paid for the Dublin days).

690 people that I'm jealous of.

The UWC has only 690 “World Cruisers” and the rest is made up with:

1). “Long Haul” ones (doing one or more of the 4 long segments)

2). “Short Haul” ones (doing the “small” 18 to 29 night ones)

I only checked one of the “Short Haul” segments and it was not sold out. 


My soulmate and I will be on one of the short segments and we will post some general comments. 


Curt from Canada

It leaves today. I hope it is successful so that there is another one.
I don't see anyone doing a live blog for it on this forum. 😞
The Ultimate World Cruise | Royal Caribbean Cruises

It leaves today. I hope it is successful so that there is another one.
I don't see anyone doing a live blog for it on this forum. 😞
The Ultimate World Cruise | Royal Caribbean Cruises

It leaves today. I hope it is successful so that there is another one.
I don't see anyone doing a live blog for it on this forum. 😞
The Ultimate World Cruise | Royal Caribbean Cruises

Here's this month's offers to be earned onboard as instant certificates (provided you secure a NextCruise open booking while onboard). You can use the offer codes above the QR codes and look at the available sailings from https://www.clubroyaleoffers.com/CertificateOfferCodeLookUp.asp
This will give you an idea of what ships/itineraries they are comping currently.

They have debt to pay off. 
Bargain hunters like myself can sail other classes of ships until prices come down on Icon-class. And if prices get too high, the invisible hand will guide customers to other cruise lines.
 
 

They have debt to pay off. 
Bargain hunters like myself can sail other classes of ships until prices come down on Icon-class. And if prices get too high, the invisible hand will guide customers to other cruise lines.
 
 

I have at least 5 years to go, maybe 10, but it is so fun to see 15-29 day cruises offered!!!   Gotta have something to get us through the long Midwest winter!!!!!   Jane

Ask your room attendant. I get distilled water for my CPAP, no problem. 

During the last few months there were many questions and new post around the casino “free cruises” system , how it is working and how to use it.
Here is the information I gathered and the way I understand it , feel free to add to it /correct me.
Club Royale which is the name of the Royal Caribbean casino loyalty plan offers three  different kind of free cruise offers/certificates:
Annual cruise – Any one that is qualify to one of the three tree upper loyalty  tiers are entitled for Annual cruise:
Prime (2500 to 24999 points) – Inside cabin.
Signature -(25000 – 99999 points) – Balcony.
Master – (100000+ points) – Grand suite.
The Annual cruise can be booked from mid-April to end of March on the next casino year you got qualified for the tier. For example, if you got to be Prefer at December 2022 you will be entitle for the free cruise from April 2023 to March 2024.
The current offer is good for any 7 nights (or less) cruise with some blackout dates (like holidays) and not available on the newest ships (like Icon).
Instance certificate- During a  cruise you can get two kind of certificates :
1 – instance certificate for people that cruised in the past and played in the casino , this certificate might be in your cabin at the first day of the current cruise and based on your pervious cruise level of playing in the casino. Many time people are not getting it and there is not any clear rule who gets it and who not.
2 – instance certificate at the end of the cruise which you will get based on your play at the current cruise and the points you accumulate. It can start from low as 1500 points up to 25000 points for a  Grand suite and 2000 free play. The number of points that are required for getting discounts/free cruise can change from cruise to cruise so its better to verify it while you are on the cruise(you will have the information in the Casino host desk).
On the night before the last night of the cruise or during the last day ,your casino host will send your room the certificate. If you continued to gamble during the last day you can ask the host later to re print you a new certificate incase you past some point threshold (for example you got certificate for 4000 points and you now have 5000) .
Free play – The  current on board  certificates also can includes some free play for the cruise you will book with this offer , to be entitle to get it you must book the cruise using next cruise option. To make it simple, if you think you are entitled for a free cruise and a free play you can go to the next cruise location and  book your specific cruise from the offer list  or book a wildcard next cruise (which is good for booking any cruise) and use it later to book the cruise you choose  .Such booking  need to be done no later then 30 days after your cruise (please note it used to be 7 days so  better to check it every time). If you failed to book it in 30 days , you can still use the next cruise open booking  to book a cruise up to one year but you will not get the free play.
To get the list of cruises you can choose from or ask of the host can  print it or (And much better) wait a day or 2 and check for the offer in the club royal offers site - clubroyaleoffers.com enter your last  name and C&A number to check for the offer name number , it will show you all the different itinerary you can choose from.
Mail/club royale ite offers -  From time to time Club Royal can send offers using snail mail , emails or just load it to the club offers site (clubroyaleoffers.com).  
The Logic / algorithm behind the system of who gets the offers is really not clear , mainly I  guess its 10%  based on player activity, 5 % last cruise points accumulation , 5%  reviewing customer current booked cruises and 80% using voodoo .
The number of offers and number of cabins available  is based on current not sells cabins status and inventory , the speculation is that RCL using this kind of offers to fill up empty cabins. In other words , successful  selling efforts = less comped casino offers.
There are few things that might impact receiving offers such as wrong email (the usual excuse), two accounts which are  using the same email (for example if you opened account for a family member and use your email), already heaving many offers booked and not being a  us resident).
 
 
Q&A (as per my understanding the program):
·         What do I need to pay ? – IF it is fully comped cruise you will need to pay only port fees and taxes.
·         Can I add people to the free cabin offer ? – Yes , usually offers are for two (although lately they came up with single person offer) you can add more people to the cabin but it will be most likely with full price.
·         Can I use the offer to use on a cruise which is not in the list ? – Some of the offers/certificate comes with dollar values, with this kind of offers/certificates you can ask to use the dollar value for another cruise (but usually without many discounts so not all the time it will be cheaper than just book a regular cruise).
·         Can I give the certificate to someone else ? – No the certificate is not transferable.
·         Can I upgrade an offer/certificate – Yes you can try to upgrade , most of the time the upgrade will cost  the casino rate differences between the upgraded cabin and the cabin in the offer, sometimes the price might surprise you (for both directions).
·         Can my travel agent book the offer for me – Yes , but take into consideration , as far as I understand that most likely the commission the TA is getting for such booking is much less
·         Do I get C&A points for a casino comp cruise? – Yes, you are getting full C&A points including double points for being in suite.
·         Can I combined offers for a better offer – Yes, sometime , depends who you are asking  but only if the offer is of the same kind (like two annual offers) . Its always good to try.
·         How I am getting the free play ? – During the first day of the cruise when the Casino is open go to the casino cashier and ask to use the free points , they will load it to your account.
·         Are free casino cruise entitle for royal up offers ?  - Yes most of the time you will get the Royal Up offer.
 
 
As always , play for fun not for the offers 🙂

Re: the casino option
The major thing to remember is if you don't enjoy the casino, this tactic is not worth it. I utilize this tactic and have always come out ahead. Another important note is that the options may not be available during ideal times.
My last cruise on Allure in October I won 2 certs so my group could sail Alaska on Quantum. It cost me about $2k and I spent the evenings and mornings in the casino, but I had plan to do that anyway, so my time wasn't lost. The most important thing is to look at the list before you begin. Since I had goals, two rooms for Alaska, it made it easier to know that they were achievable. 
I was also lucky enough to use my 2023 annual cert on Wonder because I sail in Jan. So don't assume that Icon/Star etc. will be available just because they have been in service a year. If I recall the Icon sailings available on the list were for sailings not doing well in shoulder season and on the higher point list. 

Ashleydillo did a good job of explaining everything so I'll add the way I do things. Typically I only have enough vacation time to do 3 sailings per year (sometimes I stretch it to 4). So how I usually get my 3 free cruises would be to Gamble most on the first cruise of the new Casino year (which runs from April 1st to Mar 31st). I usually go for either 4k pts or 6500 pts on that one sailing. This year on my first cruise of the new casino year,  I was running good on slots at first and hit over 9k points on that sailing. I would say at 4k or 6.5k pts on one sailing the comp list pretty much covers almost all sailings for the next calendar year. I pick my favorite sailing which is also usually one of the more expensive sailings on the list. (This comp alone Typically cover my gambling losses or better). For the annual tier cruise, I typically choose a sailing on Spring break (because I have 2 boys ages 10 and 8 we also get my Wife to just Prime every year (never too hard imo) so I can get a 2nd room for my annual tier comp. We typically book an Oasis  Class ship during  Spring Break (its farely expensive  to book yourself but upgrades from interior to Balcony can be cheap). For our 3rd free cruise we typically pick one outta Galveston from the mail offers we get cause we live in Houston. 

If you earn a cruise by hitting a certain number of points on a sailing you have to choose a sailing off of their list or you can use the trade-in value on any cruise.  The annual tier cruise that you earn by hitting Prime can be any ship more than a year old and 7 nights or less and not over the holidays. There is now also an exclusion list for the tier cruise. This past year it excluded most of the Wonder sailings even though she's over a year old.
Yes.
Points are based on money played through. If you win on a spin and play those winnings it counts the same as if you put in fresh money. A $20 bet gets you 4 points on slots. The max out of pocket for Prime would be $12,500. That would happen if you didn't win a single cent on any of your spins.
One tier cruise, yes. However you can earn comped cruises based on points earned in a single sailing. Those lists change monthly and are specific to the number of nights of the sailing you are on and how many casino points you earned. Right now the comped cruises start as low as 1200 points on the sailing I am on.
If you earned 2500 points on April 1, 2024 you would get free drinks for the rest of the 2024 casino year (April 1, 2024 through March 31, 2025). You would not get your Prime tier cruise until April 2025. You would be considered Prime for all of the 2024 casino year and also for the 2025 casino year (April 1, 2025 - March 31, 2025). You are basically qualifying for Prime for the following casino year but you get the Prime perks as soon as you hit the 2500 mark. They will put a sticker on your card on that cruise you hit it and free drinks start immediately.
You also will get other cruise offers throughout the year but those aren't guaranteed.
The tier cruise and the comped cruises earned on a sailing are double occupancy. Sometimes the random cruise offers are for singles only, basically you have to pay for one person in that case. You can combine your tier offers and result in a better room.
You can also upgrade your comped room and pay the difference in price between your free room and the upgraded room.

Not true at all, if you ask anyone who is a seasoned player on Royal that plays in Casino and get comp'd cruises. You'd learn that comp'd cruises aren't hard to get at all. And you'd likely only lose 33% to 60% of what the cruises actually cost to get the free cruises. The key is you'd actually have to be willing to go on the free cruises to make it worth it. For example on my Allure cruise in last August it takes 4000 pts minimum to get Icon comp'd.  Thats $20k coin in. With slot average of 85% payback percentage thats an average of $3000 in losses (I did a bit better than the avg). But by gaining 4000 pts on that cruise not only got me the Icon (which would've already costed more than $3k to book it yourself). It also got me the annual Prime cruise, plus additional mail/email/online offers. Thats minimum 3 free cruises for an $3k loss on average. So many non gamblers have no clue what they're talking about constantly spewing BS about how us gamblers lose way morethan what the free cruises cost. Truth is if you know what you're doing and know how to manage your gambling budget. You'd definitely make out like a bandit with the comp'd cruises versus paying for the cruises outright. Especially these days with the outrageous cruise fares Royal is charging. I actually kept a record. Over the past 7 years since I started sailing all comp"d on Royal. I've sailed on 18 comp'd cruises with Royal that would've costed me $76692 had I booked it myself. My total losses in the Casino the past 7 years was $31k (and there are many other comp'd cruise offers I received but didn't use because I only have so many vacation days a year)