JasonOasis

1 hour ago, ApexoftheSeas said:

Maybe Oasis 7 will home port year round in Europe?

Interesting idea but since Oasis is a warm weather ship I have to ask how cool or chilly does it get in the Mediterranean from Mid-November through mid-April. 

Earlier this year NCL announced they were canceling their plans to leave both the Epic and Getaway in Europe for year around sailing beginning in November/December of this year do to low demand and would redeploy those ships from the US to places in the Caribbean where demand is high.  One could argue both Epic and Getaway are suitable all weather ship more so than any Oasis Class ship, they are also smaller than any Oasis Class ship.  If there isn't enough demand on those smaller ships from mid-November though mid-April I don't see why Royal would homeport an Oasis Class ship in Europe on a year around basis.

21 hours ago, Villageidiot said:

Look at a one way car rental to the port. I know Hertz has a location close to the port. Good luck and enjoy the cruise.

All the major rental car companies have locations close to the port.  My last cruise out of Port Canaveral in October/November of 2023 we used Avis and they also run shuttles to all the terminals.  

A few years before that we used Uber to get us to the port I believe for an SUV our Uber cost around $140 dollars. 

Going back to our October/November B2B 2023 cruise after the cruise ended we use a taxi to get us to MCO it only cost us $120 dollars.  We thought about doing the one way car rental thing again to go back to the airport but I was like I don't want to be bothered with those lines at car rental facilities in Port Canaveral we are extremely long on those days and a rental would have cost us almost the same price as a taxi around $100 dollars so we just took a taxi straight to the airport. 

5 hours ago, billdauterive said:

It's not that it's a ship to be avoided, it's that it was already home ported in Galveston last year. It seems like a step back going to the same ship (even if it really isn't because of the upcoming amp).  I think even having Oasis home ported in Galveston instead of Allure would've been received better since it would be a different ship.

Michael Bayley also really screwed up this deployment imo by implying the next ship would be Wonder.  Any ship other than an Icon class or Utopia was not going to be received well after that.  I know I was extremely disappointed after the official announcement when I probably wouldn't have been without thinking Wonder was next.

Don't take this the wrong way because I mean no disrespect but you should know better than to trust what the CEO of a large corporations says.

At the airline I work for most of what the CEO says is aspirational at best when it comes to the future or future planning  By the time network planning, revenue management, maintenance control, network operations gets involved the whole plan changes from what our CEO said to what actually happens.  

CEO's have these grand visions and some of them runs their mouths and announce plans before the people who actually do the work crunching the numbers and compiling the data have given them the okay to actually make the announcement.  At the end of the day it all comes down to money, whether its a cruise line or an airline, once the data is compiled these companies are going to place their assets in markets where they will get the highest return on their investment and Royal can get a higher ROI from having Wonder in the 3-4 night Bahamas market than they can if they were to keep Allure in that market and send Wonder to Texas.  Right now Royal is raking it in on 3-4 night Bahamas/Coco Cay cruises, and with the success they've reportedly seen since Utopia has gone on sail out of Port Canaveral it is really a surprise to see Wonder relocate to PortMiami to do the same thing?  Again we  have cruise lines like NCL and MSC taking similar paths with using newer larger ships on their 3-4 night Bahamas cruises and Royal has positioned themselves as the game changer in this segment of the market.  The largest market for 3-4 night cruises here in the US is Florida so to be a game changer means they have to have their biggest, best and yes newest ships sailing out of the Florida market where they will reap the highest ROI.

29 minutes ago, Lucky said:

Hopefully this is the  case. I'm dying to go on Utopia or Wonder (again) but refuse to do a 3 or 4-night that goes to CocoCay and Nassau.

Well I think you should book a cruise on Wonder soon.  The market has changed even NCL is now shifting from older smaller ships on 3-4 night Bahamas cruising and is now using Joy and Breakaway.  Although neither of those ships are brand new they are some of NCL's most popular ships with a lot activities onboard, to keep guest occupied from start to finish.  It wouldn't surprised me if Carnival who just order their 4th Excel Class ship brings one of those ships to the 3-4 night Bahamas cruise market. 

Allure is a great ship it's still an Oasis Class ship I don't know why people now see Allure as this black sheep within the Oasis Class that is to be avoided. 

Dress your best in my opinion is what people should do every night while on a cruise. 

Don't miss understand what I'm saying because I refuse to wear a suit and tie on a cruise I have to wear those things every time I go into the office and will not put that mess on when I'm on vacation.  However I always wear either a polo or a button down shirt and either some nice slacks or dark color jeans during the evening.  To me that is dressing my best on vacation. 

Freedom is fairly large nearly  5,000 guest can seat sail on that ship at any given time at full capacity. 

Freedom is also a one of Royals most favorite ships there is a lot to do onboard.  I've personally sailed on Freedom numerous times and wouldn't hesitate at all to book a 7 night cruise on that ship. 

I was on Symphony this past January and yes they had wow bands at guest services.  

Also you can save your wow bands and reuse them on future cruises all you have to do is bring the band to guest services and they'll reprogram it for you.  So its no longer a one and done type situation.

I'm an AT&T cellular customer have been for over 20 years and I'm telling you go with VOOM.  VOOM is reliable and for the most part has great download speeds.  

Now if you are looking to use your cell phone while in port while away from the ship then you would need AT&T's international day pass, it's $10 dollars per day and it covers over 210 countries. 

17 hours ago, Lucky said:

The short sailings are so, so........so boring.

3-4 nights that go to CocoCay and Nassau repeatedly. I mean, yuck.

The popularity of weekend sailing continues to grow as Matt posted on the main page Royal isn't the only cruise line devoting large cruise ships to the weekend 3/4 night sailing market out of Florida.   Both NCL, Carnival and even MSC are devoting more of their fleet to 3/4 night cruises. 

I've done a few weekend cruises myself on Freedom and they are a lot of fun and they are the ultimate party cruise. Having said that I also feel your pain in that Royal has pulled back on European sailings in order to fuel their expansion in the weekend 3/4 night cruise market.  

These are the ebbs and flows of the travel industry even in the airline industry this coming summer neither United, Delta or American are planning record number of flights to Europe for 2024.  Most are saying their summer European season this year will be flat or the same capacity as it was last year. But looking back summer of 2022 and summer 2023 there was unbridled growth to Europe from all these carriers however for summer 2024 Europe seems to be cooling off as Americans look elsewhere for vacation. 

This season of 3/4 night cruises will stick around for a few years but like any thing else as the market changes Royal will adjust. 

8 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Quantum joining Navigator out of LA starting in October 2025.  All cruises are 3-6 nights, which is disappointingly short.

 

https://artifacts.portsamerica.com//wbct/pdf/2025-la-schedule.pdf

I'm going to take a different approach and celebrate the win.  According to an article on this sites main page Royal will now have 2 ships sailing out of Los Angeles start in October of 2025.   I love 7-14 night cruises like anyone else and right now they only offer 3 and 4 night cruises out of LA on a singular ship.  To base a Quantum Class ship in LA even if it will only be sailing between 3-6 night itineraries is still a win, win for Royal cruisers and I believe it will be a win win for Royal as well leading to perhaps 7 night itineraries or longer out of LA on Quantum. 

Another thing I noticed is (although I don't think they've announced anything) it is showing MSC will base a ship out in LA as well. The MCS Bellissima is showing sailing out of LA start in late 2025 as well.  Things are for sure starting to heat up in the LA cruise market with the arrival of a second Royal ship and perhaps the arrival of MSC. 

14 hours ago, tonyfsu21 said:

I think the space to insert another level would be between emerald and diamond from the perspective of RC. The pandemic cruise points promotions backfired and saturated the diamond level. 

It most certainly did not  backfire.  With all the negative press cruise lines endured both in both on social media and news media they had to do something because some in the media were basically blaming cruise lines for the spread of covid.  

Without double points promotion I don't know how many loyal cruisers would have put up with all the things we had to put up with just to get on a cruise ship.  You had to get vaccinated, boosted, then tested within days of departure (and when cruising first resumed they wouldn't take the rapid antigen test), you had to answer health questionnaires, when cruising first resumed you had to wear a mask inside certain venues on the ship, social distancing and more.  There were a lot of hurdles the cruise industry had to jump over then passengers had to jump over just so the CDC would let cruising resume.  We were already diamond when cruising resumed and would have needed 2 cruises to make diamond plus instead we made diamond plus in one cruise and we also took 3 other cruises during the double points promotion. Without that double points promotion it is doubtful either myself or my husband would have put up with everything passengers had to put up with to get on a cruise ship when we could go and had gone multiple times to Mexico and really didn't have to deal with any major restrictions to get into Mexico.  Think about it Florida was fully open, Las Vegas had opened back up and those hotels were packed in Las Vegas we took a trip to Vegas as well during the cruise industry shut down and Mexico were booming and the cruise industry or Royal had to come up with something to get customers back on their ships not just one time but multiple times.  For people loyal to Royal that double points promotion along with insanely cheap cruise fares is why we jumped though all those covid protocol hoops just to go on vacation.

16 hours ago, Biaggio said:

More free Wi-Fi days, ship tour, more free laundry especially on TA crossings. Won’t happen because they are all revenue generators. 

How many people are in your room can also determine how many free bags of laundry you get.  

My husband and I get 2 free bags of laundry on cruises because it is a bag per person.  Those laundry bags can hold quite a bit of clothes if you fold them and compress them in there. As long as it's in the bag it qualifies for the free wash. We use that service when we do our B2B cruises we each do a bag of laundry the first week and then again the second week.  At first we thought it was one free bag per room but it is one free bag per person at D+ or higher.

As far as should there be another level I don't know whether it would help or not.  We both just passed 360 points on our last cruise this past January the benefits are nice but when I look at the benefits for pinnacle they are great and better than NCL, Carnival, and MSC but it isn't enough to keep me loyal to Royal which is why my next cruise is on Celebrity and next year I've already booked a cruise on Virgin.   Diamond plus is good but with pinnacle being so far away I kind of feel free now to go explore other cruise lines that are not NCL, Carnival or MSC (I've already cruised on those several times) because to reach pinnacle is going to take years.  

26 minutes ago, ScottD said:

but does that help with traffic? this seems to be a traffic issue more than a check in or terminal issue

No it doesn't help with traffic, and that traffic is caused by the bottleneck U-turn and reduction in lanes all vehicles have to make to enter Terminal A. 

The OP stated they had to wait 30 minutes to even get a porter, that is extremely unfortunate and for sure not the norm at Terminal A even with an Oasis Class ship in port. There have been several cruises where my husband and I showed up at 10:30 if not a few minutes before and not all the porters were out front.  But what people have to remember is those same porters are also helping passengers who are getting off the ship.  Showing up early does allow people the opportunity to board early but you still need to pack patience because although the ship might be empty people are still leaving the port and not all the porters are in position to assist the now arriving passengers. 

2 hours ago, Lexster said:

So, back in May of last year, we went on Harmony of the Seas. The Miami terminal was utter chaos. We had a check-in of 10:30, but there were a ton of people there. We drove and waited for probably 30 minutes to even get to the porter and then we had to wait in a long line to get to check-in. Once actually in the terminal, we were on the ship within like ten minutes.

I recently saw a video of some vloggers going on the Icon in Miami and they took an Uber, drove right to the porter and got checked-in within ten minutes for the entire process. Were we just unlucky the one time we went or were these vloggers lucky? I think they had a later check-in, but still, it was like no one was outside whatsoever.

Check-in times no longer matter that was really something that came about when cruising resumed after the shutdown.  Even though Royal still "uses" check-in times people show up when they want now days they don't make people wait and most people understand embarkation day is day 1 of their cruise to waiting to board until 2 or 3 pm is a nonstarter for a lot of people with those check-in times. 

PortMiami's Terminal A has always been a hurry up and wait type of port especially when an Oasis class ship is in port but generally once you check your bags with a porter its smooth sailing right onto the ship.

21 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Ramping up for the Asia market again?

Bingo!!!

Don't forget Disney Cruise Lines purchased the Global Dream an unfinished 6,000 plus passenger mega cruise ship which will be exclusively based in Asia when it launches sometime in 2025.  As good as Spectrum of the Seas is it's no Oasis Class ship.  With Disney throwing down the gauntlet so to speak in Asia with their still unnamed mega ship I think Royal is dusting off their Asia market plans which they shelved during the pandemic. And what better ship to go head to head with a Disney mega ship than an Oasis Class ship.  

Royal may not be able to respond to Disney's move in 2025 when Disney launches their new ship in Asia, but that doesn't mean Royal  has to sit on the sideline.  I think Oasis 7 is Royal's response and most likely will go to Asia, China in particular to take on Disney.

3 hours ago, USFFrank said:

 This is strictly my opinion, and I'm sure someone here is going to try and correct me, but this is all I can see right now after reading this announcement. I thought Royal Caribbean had a debt to pay. They jacked their prices up so much on everything in order to pay this debt that I can't afford to cruise with them now.  Maybe I should thank them for this. Because of what they are charging, I'm branching out, I booked a Carnival cruise that was less expensive and goes to 3 ports I have not visited yet. Now instead of building a smaller ship like they had hinted at, they are now going to build another giant ship with a limited itinerary that you need to take out a second mortgage out in order to sail on, not to mention jacking up the prices again on every other ship in the fleet. And yes, I know the sailings will all sell out, but I won't be on them. And for those of you who do choose to buy them, more power to you.

Carnival also announced they placed an order for another Excel Class ship so Royal isn't alone in ordering more large cruise ships. And cruises on any Carnival Excel Class ship is nearly the same price as a cruise on any Royal Oasis Class ship. 

Project Discovery will happen and to be honest I'm not surprised to see this order for an Oasis 7.  If I'm not mistaken last year Matt hinted at such an order on this very site on the main page when he wrote an article about Royal have the option to order another Oasis Class ship but was being mum on whether or not they would exercise that option.  Also the reason I'm not surprised is because I don't think Royal has changed their plans for placing an Oasis Class ship in the Chinese market.  Having said that I don't think anyone could have guessed that the US market would be able to absorb 6 Oasis Class ships plus several Icon class ships.  Now that Royal see's the US market can handle that kind of capacity I don't think they have any plans on sending Wonder to China which was where Wonder was supposed to originally go. Could Oasis 7 end up in China I don't know and I don't think any of us will know for sure until Royal announces where the ship is going.  However I don't think ordering Oasis 7 signals Royal isn't moving forward and continuing the process with Project Discovery.   Should Project Discovery be officially launched (and order placed) if it's a "white ship" or a clean sheet design, a ship like that wouldn't even be delivered until at least 2030 or later. 

This cruise is normally on Anthem which Odyssey is in the same class of ship (Quantum Class).  I've don't both the 11 night and the 12 night cruise on Anthem in January and February several times my most recent 12 night cruise in January on Anthem was January of 2022.  

The truth for the first day at sea the solarium is going to be crowded however the temperature once the sun comes up on that first day at sea will be in low to mid 60s.  For people like myself coming from Chicago where it could easily be  with windchill -25, mid 60's is a heatwave and I'm in shorts teeshirt and flip flops.  However by the time the sun comes up on your second full day at sea temperatures will be in the mid 70s and the solarium won't be as crowded.

Of the flip side when you're sailing back to Cape Liberty on that last full day before arrival when the temp during the day is back down into the 60's in my opinion it never seemed like the Solarium was overly packed.  I think that is because the cruise blues has started to set in as people realize that on the next day it's back to reality. 

We just go off an 8 night cruise this past Sunday on Symphony and my husband got one instant offer onboard and he also got monthly certificate in the mail and they both were for either a balcony or JS for multiple cruises including Utopia in September of this year. He gambles but not that much and usually his offers are for either an ocean view or balcony which we will usually take the cash offer and apply it to an existing cruise we all booked.  He's never gotten an offer instant or monthly for a free junior suite and at first we thought it was a mistake.  Long story short the offer was real and we booked a B2B in a junior suite on Utopia this September using his Casino Royal offers. 

Now we have to find a different cruise to take in January of 2025 as we were booked (not for free) on Utopia on a B2B.  However, there was no way we were passing up a free JS and his certificates were only valid for 1 month so they don't give you a whole lot of time to find a cruise.  But his offers had nearly every US based ship except for Icon, from the 3/4 night Caribbean cruises to 7 night Alaskan cruises although the Alaskan cruises were for balconies only. 

Also we were told by a Casino Royal agent on the phone when we called if you get an certificate for a free JS redeem it immediately, because revenue management only give Casino Royal so many JS's and once that allotment is gone that is it even if there are JS open for sale to the public they can't give you the JS once they given away their allotment.  This is why the offer is for either a balcony or a JS, once they give away the fee allotment they can upgrade you into a JS from a balcony but you have to pay for the upgrade which defeats the purpose of a free cruise. 

If you are looking for a summer cruise then a Transatlantic cruise is out because Royal sends the ships over to Europe in April for the European season and they return to the US in October and November (I'm doing my first Transatlantic cruise this coming November on Odyssey). 

I've never done a cruise to Norway it is on my bucket list and I heard it is beautiful.  My husband and I have done several Mediterranean cruises on Oasis Class ships those are a lot of fun and generally they tend to be 7 night cruises on Oasis Class ships. Other ships that are smaller have longer itineraries and offer more options when it comes to ports of call.

Which ever cruise you choose one thing is for sure you will not be disappointed. 

20 hours ago, Cakemeister said:

The maximum weight of a Panamax ship is only 52,500 "deadweight" tons. I think Discovery-class will be a Neo-Panamax ship, which can fit into the new locks. To get to the canal, ships must pass under three bridges, which will constrain height. The design should include providing for sailing to and from Tampa, Baltimore, and other ports that have low bridges. They will also take the width of the ship into account. The lifeboats on the Discovery can't obstruct the ship from getting into the lock. 

Discovery should be, therefore, a little smaller than Voyager-class and shaped a little differently. 

Panamax - Wikipedia

How then is Norwegian able to get both the Bliss and Joy through the Panama Canal?  They are both Breakaway-Plus size ships, with capacity for over 4,000 passengers and over 1,600 crew with 16 deck above the water line. 

I'm  not saying Discovery should be the size of NCL's Breakaway-Plus sized ships, in fact I hope Discover is closer in size to Voyager-class ship.  I just don't understand how NCL is getting these massive ships through the canal on multiple 15, 16, even 18 night cruises.

7 hours ago, Jamesszy94 said:

Or will it be smaller than Voyager but bigger than Radiance?

I have a feeling it'd probably be somewhere between Radiance and Voyager class - Maybe 120,000 GT?

I don't think Royal will go as small as 120,000 GT.  What I'm wonder is this when it comes to project Discovery, could Royal take a ship the size of lets say Celebrity Edge or a ship the size of NCL's Prima and have that be the foundation for project Discovery in terms of size 130,000 -140,000 GT. 

Edge and Prima can get into some interesting ports, they can't get into Baltimore or Tampa but those ships offer a lot of flexibility in terms of ports they can visit. 

Both Edge and Prima are winners even though they aren't gigantic cruise ships. Although NCL has decided to make the final 3 Prima Class ships larger than the first 3 those first 3 Prima Class ships can get into some very interesting ports around the world as can Celebrity's Edge Class. 

I'm gong to tell you this with the hope that you take my advice.  Do NOT arrive in Rome the same day as your cruise departs.

I don't know how much money you've spent on this cruise and I don't need to know.  What I do know from 27 years working in the airline industry is this anything and everything can happen in a moments notice.  When you are talking about going on a cruise you never want to chance it by flying in the same day the cruise departs.  Your margin for error is slim as it is assuming everything is on-time.  But what happens if your flight has a mechanical delay lets say 2-3 hours leaving the U.S. what will that do to your margin of error.  What happens if customs in Rome is totally backup and it takes 2 hours to clear customs (that isn't an exaggeration its happened multiple times this year) what will that do to your margin of error.

If you want to error on the side of caution I would suggest at the very least you arrive in Rome the day before your cruise departs.  If your budget could afford the cruise fare and the airfare, then surely your budget can afford a hotel in Rome or Civitavecchi for at least one night.

NCL just released its winter 2025-2026 long cruise Caribbean season.  They will reposition Viva to Galveston from mid-December 2025 through April of 2026.  The ship will mostly do Western Caribbean 7 night cruises however there will be a 14 night Eastern Caribbean cruise in January of 2026.

Similarly they will be sending for the first time a Breakaway Plus ship NCL Escape to New Orleans.  Escape will arrive in New Orleans in November of 2025 and will remain through April of 2026 doing Western Caribbean cruises as well and Escape will also offer a 14 night cruise to the Southern Caribbean 

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/12/norwegian-winter-2025-26-viva-to-galveston-escape-to-new-orleans-more/

I'm wondering will we see Royal put something larger than Brilliance in New Orleans for the winter 2025/2026 season, perhaps a Voyager Class or even a Freedom Class ship?

If you have a cruise or know someone who has a cruise on Celebrity or Silver Seas that starts or ends in Brazil on or after January 10, 2024 you/they will now need to apply for a Brazilian e-visa. There are no exceptions or exemptions for cruise ship passengers.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Brazil.html

https://www.afar.com/magazine/u-s-travelers-will-soon-need-a-visa-to-enter-brazil

This information came out 3 days ago and I'm sorry for my delay in posting this but this applies to ALL Americans if your cruise starts or ends in Brazil you will need an e-visa. We knew this was a possibility in the airline industry as Brazil reintroduced visa requirements for Canadians and Australians earlier this year, now they've just announced it for Americans as well. The cost for the visa is $80.90 and once obtained it will be valid for 10 years.  The Brazilian government is saying it should take 5 days to process visa request but most experts are saying apply now because it could take up to 2 months for your visa to be processed.  

On 12/8/2023 at 6:42 AM, Jamesszy94 said:

Either way, I think Royal needs to either:

- Give us a new ship that's not a Quantum-class or give us a different Quantum class

- Change up the itineraries so it's not always South Pacific, Queensland or New Zealand

- Have one of their ships home port in Sydney/Brisbane all year around

I don't know if any of this will happen any time soon.  The US is Royals biggest market and according to a few surveys done in recent years between 70% - 85% of American's have never been on a cruise ship.  If we go with 70% that means 30% of us have been on a cruise ship however between 8% -10% have taken their first cruise within the past 24 months.

 The number of first time cruisers in this country has just exploded in recent years and I think its driving Royals decisions not only in Australia/New Zealand but if you look at Europe Royal isn't sending as many ships to Europe in 2024 or 2025 as they've done in the past.  Instead they choosing to keep more ships here stateside as a result of that insatiable demand here in the US.  

When Royal finally settled on Icon's size and also order 2 additional Oasis Class ships their original plan wasn't to have this much capacity here in the US.  Yet here we are just weeks away from Icon launching and months away from Utopia launching.  Royal will have 6 Oasis Class ships and an Icon Class ship sailing from the US to somewhere in the Caribbean come mid-November 2024 when Royal ends their European season for the winter.  It's looking like come winter (November) of 2025 there will be 2 Icon Class and 6 Oasis Class ships sailing from ports here in the US.  I don't know if anyone prior to the pandemic shutdown thought we'd see this type of demand from the US.  And its largely being driven and sustained by first time cruisers.  Many of those first time cruisers are experiencing this form of vacation simply based on word of mouth from people they know and trust. 

For people like you and even like me (I love to travel the world its one of the reason's I decided to work for an airline) Royal focusing more on first time cruisers, the ship being the destination, families with small children means we have less options when it come to the ports we can visit. For you and people in Europe that means less ships, less options less ports.  I do believe at some point this phase the cruise industry is in here in the US will come to an end.  I think it could happen by 2027 or 2028 which I'll admit is a long ways away but I don't think we've yet hit the peak of this insatiable demand here in the US.  Once we hit that peak and demand starts to wane Royal will once again have to look at destinations and offer more of a variety of cruises especially as those first time cruisers become repeat cruisers.