Cakemeister

Makes me want to sail on Virgin, lol.

Makes me want to sail on Virgin, lol.

Makes me want to sail on Virgin, lol.

I never gain weight on cruises. I fast for three days after Bon Voyage dinner. 😀

Makes me want to sail on Virgin, lol.

Makes me want to sail on Virgin, lol.

I never gain weight on cruises. I fast for three days after Bon Voyage dinner. 😀

I never gain weight on cruises. I fast for three days after Bon Voyage dinner. 😀

On the flip side, we are within striking distance of Diamond Plus, but the impetus just isn’t there like it was a year ago.  
 
We like Royal Caribbean, but aren’t adverse to sticking our toes in other waters. We didn’t think this way a year ago. It’s hard to explain our thoughts and put forward one concrete reason for our change.  🤷‍♂️

Yes, we are on Grandeur, the 4th cruise for us in Sept.  We disembark on Thursday and get a whole 7 days at home before going on a 15 night B2B on Mariner !  This cruise has been interesting.  As I mentioned elsewhere, this cruise is just overrun with children and I am not one to be bothered with children as a general rule.  The weather is making things worse since going outside or getting off the ship is really not an option.  The mania in the Centrum and WJ has gotten to me.  I think I am done with Grandeur, sadly.  The shining spots of this cruise have been the wonderful Staff and the good luck in the casino.  …and then, maybe I’m just ready to go home.  The internet is slightly better than it was on our 9-2 (Grandeur) sailing but still abysmal.  I feel bad for the VOOM staff.  I know there’s nothing they can do and they must field the endless complaints and complainers constantly demanding compensation.  On the good side, our JS is very comfortable and in a good location, so there’s that !  Tomorrow is PDCC (again !) then back to Tampa and home base for a week.  At the end of this one we will have 697 C&A points.  Hallelujah !

FTFY.

I saw a random article that says the average land-based vacation costs $1919 per person per week, or $3838 for two.
Average vacation cost: Breakdown of travel expenses in 2023 | Pacaso
I cruised on Allure a couple of weeks ago and I paid maybe $2300-$2500 for everything. The final bill hasn't come in yet. My transportation cost was only the cost of parking as I drove, so adding a flight could raise the cost to $3K pretty easily. I also was in an interior cabin. 
I think the 40% number is bogus. Cruising on the cheap like a lot of us do is a good value, but it costs a lot more than 40% of the equivalent land vacation.

We had fun. Oasis-class ships are impressive. Food was great, shows were great.
Getting on and off the ship was super-smooth. There was a line when we disembarked, but nothing horrible. 
I will likely not book another Labor Day cruise for a while as the weather was quite warm. Next year we're sailing in January and November.

Indeed. If you like spending time in the Diamond lounge, maybe Allure is the best Oasis-class ship.

Worst?  That's like deciding on the worst brick of gold.  Some might prefer all other Oasis Class over her while others might place her at the top of their list.  I think it's seldom that someone sails her and has the feeling they are on the worst of anything.

By then, Icon 2 will likely be ready to go. 
If a regular cruise ship makes $300 per passenger per sailing, Icon will likely be more, say $500. 
Matt's calculation was here: Here's how much Royal Caribbean makes on each passenger | Royal Caribbean Blog
$500 times 6K passengers (5600 at double occupancy + a few extra) times 50 sailings in a year = $150 million per year profit from just Icon. The ship will be paid off in only 13 years at that rate. 
And people wonder why the trend is to bigger and bigger ships, and why Royal is blowing Carnival and NCL out of the water.

I saw Blades last night. It was amazing! Especially the hula hoops!

If you postponed to April, you could take in the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Most of S.A. will have some amount of totality. You should make your reservations now for that, though. National Eclipse | San Antonio, Texas | April 8, 2024 - Total Solar Eclipse
Has anyone mentioned Sea World or the historic missions? 
I live in S.A. but I don't know anything about downtown hotels or restaurants.
How long is your trip? 
 
 

If you postponed to April, you could take in the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Most of S.A. will have some amount of totality. You should make your reservations now for that, though. National Eclipse | San Antonio, Texas | April 8, 2024 - Total Solar Eclipse
Has anyone mentioned Sea World or the historic missions? 
I live in S.A. but I don't know anything about downtown hotels or restaurants.
How long is your trip? 
 
 

If you postponed to April, you could take in the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Most of S.A. will have some amount of totality. You should make your reservations now for that, though. National Eclipse | San Antonio, Texas | April 8, 2024 - Total Solar Eclipse
Has anyone mentioned Sea World or the historic missions? 
I live in S.A. but I don't know anything about downtown hotels or restaurants.
How long is your trip? 
 
 

The gas tank on an Oasis-class ship is about 5000 cubic meters. An Olympic-size swimming pool is about 2500 cubic meters. If the reactor takes up about the same space as the engines would, this might open up some possibilities for more bars and restaurants. Hooray!
The LNG tanks on Icon weigh 300 tons each and are 90 feet long. Just think of what you could do with the extra space!
Icon of the Seas Construction Update: LNG Fuel Tank Installation | Royal Caribbean Press Center
 
The problem I see is the difference in lifespan between the reactor and the rest of the ship. The USS Nimitz is fifty years old.
Plus:
 
 

Can this thread please die? 🙂
 

This is for non-suite cabins:   I am a guy's guy with old man hair, and I take my own shampoo and conditioner on all RCL Ships.  With a week of their combo products my hair is all over the place.

There is a blog post:
I used my Royal Caribbean loyalty perks on Celebrity Cruises. Here's how it saved me a lot of money | Royal Caribbean Blog

Someone had mentioned in one of the other threads that the pizza thing was just a distraction from an across-the-board price increase. Give with one hand and take with the other.