JasonOasis

London has quite a few international airport but from the US your options are limited especially looking for inexpensive tickets. I would suggest looking at Gatwick, and I think there are a couple airlines that fly from the US to Stansted. But your best option would of course be Heathrow but Heathrow sometimes isn't cheap at all.

Does this mean she will be an all weather ship? On the main page it was also mentioned that Royal is working of some type of event in New York as well after her UK sailing. It isn't particularly warm in either the UK or New York in the later months of the year so I find it interesting they would launch her from Southampton and are trying to get her into New York possibly after her UK sailings. Could ICON replace Anthem in New York or be an addition to Anthem in New York?

YES!!!!! The best perk of all two bathrooms. It is the worst when one person hogs the bathroom in the morning for 45 minutes or more but only wants to give me 10 minutes to s**t, shower and shave, oh the devil..... Okay I'm better now

Utopia Seriously Royal that's the best name you could come up with Utopia of the Seas.

I can't speak for everywhere but in Chicago liquor, beer, and wine prices are up across the board the days of one store being cheaper than the other are over in Chicago its terrible. There is a thread up right now where the OP stated they couldn't find crown royal at any bar on their ship and they spoke to a manage who said Royal and crown royal had a disagreement over price. This one thing is for sure you won't find it cheaper onboard the ship. You can alway buy the beverage package and cancel it and repurchase it if it goes lower. Another thing I've started doing is looking at the price of the refreshment package and subtract the difference. For me it put the UBP into a better perspective, right now the refreshment package is $34 dollars per day that means the I'm only pay $32 dollars a day for liquor. I'm the type of person who takes full advantage of the refreshment part of the UBP and the liquor part of the package. When I look at it like that paying $32 dollars more per day for liquor is worth it especially seeing onboard individual drinks are around $13 dollars for spirits. That $32 dollar difference comes out to about 2.4 drinks per day and Lord knows I'm having more than 2 drinks per day on a cruise.

My sister, her husband and child are on this same cruise that left on Miami on April 2nd. Spring break is in full swing and this is her first cruise since the comeback. I text her after reading this and she stated the ship is completely full 100% capacity but again we are in full spring break mode in this country so it is to be expected that ships are going to be at capacity or near capacity. However thus far she is having a blast, yes there are lines they've had to wait 2-4 minutes at times for drinks but the staff has been friendly and helpful from the moment they boarded the ship . She has eaten at the MDR past 2 nights and she had no complaints about the food in the MDR. I think people have to adjust their expectations going forward the days of ships being at 50%, 60%, 70% capacity is over so for those of who have gotten use to limited capacity on ships and no lines, no waiting there are now lines at bars and other venues. I'm sorry the OP lost their seat at the show but my question is what time did the OP show up to the show. Ten minutes before show time they release all seats with the ship being at capacity I'm sure Royal back to enforcing that policy where they release all seats 10 minutes out. I'm sorry the OP isn't having a good time but at least from my sister perspective there are thousands of people on board who are having the time of their lives soaking up the fun in the sun.

You are right Royal did wait until just after the announce that cruise would be allowed to resume, which has me thinking Royal had both a plan A and a plan B for Radiance. It would appear as though the New Orleans and Galveston redeployment was plan B, and perhaps the only reason they pulled Radiance is because they were not seeing the sales numbers they needed to see to justify sending 3 ships to Australia and felt like they had given the situation as much time as they could. This is why I asked what is demand like in Australia because here in the U.S. even before our government allowed cruising to resume demand for cruising was up. In fact some ships were "sold out" thanks to capacity restrictions even before cruising resumed. You had all three major cruise lines Royal, Carnival and NCL all stating future bookings were up, traffic on their individual websites was up in some cases over 100%, first time customer booking were up all before cruising resumed in the U.S.. To cancel an entire season on a ship that is already open for sale isn't a decision I think they made lightly especially just to send that ship to New Orleans on new itineraries not yet for sale. I think the financials/demand drove Royals decision, they must believe or have hard data that suggests Radiance will generate more demand which in turn should generate more revenue for Royal sailing out of New Orleans than it would sailing out of Australia. I certainly hope they send Radiance back to Australia in the near future but for now it appears as though Enchantment will replace her for the 2023/2024 season.

What is demand like right now in Australia? It isn' just Royal that has pulled a ship out of Australia, for the October 2022 - April 20023 season, Carnival has done the same they are only sending the Splendor back to Australia for the time frame mentioned, while the second ship that was home-ported in Sydney will go to Jacksonville Florida. And they still haven't announced what if any ship will replace Carnival Spirit in Australia. At least Royal has announced Enchantment will go to Australia in 2023. Granted Enchantment is not Radiance but I'm thinking the reason they pulled Radiance for the 2022/2023 season is because they are not yet seeing the vigorous return of demand that they've seen here in the U.S. and/or even in Europe. For the European summer season late April 2022 - October 2022 Royal will have 10 ships sailing from various homeports all throughout Europe. If the demand is there Royal finds a way to put the ships there if they are pulling a ship out it has to be a sign that perhaps the Australian/New Zealand market needs more time and less ships while demand slowly returns.

Oh know I would have love to meet you... I think as more people in Caribbean are vaccinated the testing requirement may go away maybe this fall but I don't know when the vaccine requirement will go away perhaps in 2023.

What My husband and I are on Wonder on April 8th we live in Chicago which together with the state of Illinois finally some weeks ago dropped all covid restrictions. However on Tuesday March 22rd we put our masks back on when ever we go out grocery shopping or other things, we stopped dinning in at restaurants if we don't feel like cooking we order and pick up our food to go with our mask on. We stopped having people come over to our house, we've limited our interactions to phone calls or FaceTime with family and friends. The reason we are doing this is because our goal is to pass that test get on Wonder of the Seas on April 8th. In my opinion this is what I'v been asking for since the beginning of the pandemic. The government give me the information but let me make my own decision on what mitigation and precautions I want to to take. When people post on here that they've tested positive and had to cancel their cruise last minute I do feel for them but I also wonder if they took the necessary precautions in the weeks leading up to their cruise to protect themselves to make sure they pass the test. Learning to live with covid as we are now doing does not mean covid no longer exists and as long as cruise line require pre-cruise testing each person has to make an individual choice leading up to their cruise. What I ask myself is this what is more important to me? Not wearing a mask while grocery shopping over the next 2.5 weeks? Hanging out with friends and family, dinning out and sitting down inside at a restaurant in this cool dreary Chicago weather? Or not wearing a mask while cruising stacking up the sun and dinning at Mason's on Wonder of the Seas in the warm waters of the Caribbean? It a no brainer the Caribbean wins every time so I do what I must to make sure I pass that test.

The CDC is just one piece of the puzzle what we all have to keep in mind is cruises from the US all stop at at least one international port. I know a lot of focus has been placed on the CDC and rightfully so. However as much as we all would like to see the pre-cruise covid test dropped I don't think we will see cruise lines take that step just yet especially out of the US. I think dropping the required pre-test would only be done when destinations in the Caribbean feel comfortable enough and have enough of their population vaccinated. Right now more that 50% of Caribbean residents still have not been vaccinated, and most islands still have covid requirements that cruise lines still have to abide by. It isn't a free for all just yet I think it still going to take time for that pre-cruise test to go away.

I've been to Rome several times once on a cruise and I've gone inside the Coliseum each time I've gone. However my recommendation would be if you are comfortable with public transportation and trains would be to take the train from Civitaecchia to Rome (the station at Civitaecchia isn't far at all from the cruise port and in Rome you can have a local guide meet you at Rome Termini or there are other ways to do a local tour that takes you inside the Coliseum for way less money than what the cruise lines charge. It is a very popular route so there are trains leaving in each direction every 10-15 minutes and it takes about 45 minutes to an hour to travel between the stations. On our cruise when we took the train our train tickets were like $11.00 euro oneway and $9.00 euro to come back (they have dynamic pricing). If you are looking to save a bit of money and can navigate public transportation I would highly recommend you take the train to Rome and start now looking for local reputable guides or local tour companies to take you on the tour of the Coliseum. If you plan everything in advance you can see everything you want to see enjoy lunch in Rome (and who wouldn't want to have lunch in Rome) and still have time to take the train back to Civitavecchia and not miss all aboard. When we did it I planned everything out we got off the ship early and we were back onboard the ship almost 2 hours before all aboard time so there was no rushing at all. I don't know if your cruise is stopping in Naples as well but in Naples we wanted to see the Amalfi Coast and Sorrento but Royal Caribbean's prices were in my opinion outrageous. Instead I did research found several reputable local tour companies that actually pick up at the cruise port in Naples we book a semi-private tour maximum 6 people they showed up in a stretch Mercedes Benz van with just 6 captain chairs in the back there were 3 couples a semi-luxurious van not 60 people crammed onto a bus. And our driver was our tour guide born and raised in Sorrento so he was extremely knowledgable. This excursion seeing the Amalfi Coast and Sorrento having lunch on the coast going to all the local places large tours can't or don't go to it was the highlight of our cruise and we didn't even pay half of what Royal Caribbean was charging. Of course lunch was not included in our price we paid for that separately but I still have dreams about that meal that is how good it was. For anyone doing a European cruise I would strongly recommend they do their homework on the ports of call and look up local tour guides because I feel like you get so much more for your money going local than through the shore excursions desk.

NCL is far from all inclusive. It may appear through their marketing tactics that they are much competitive than Royal but that is only until you get onboard. I've cruised with NCL several times and I've found they nickel and dime you a lot more once onboard than Royal Caribbean does especially on their newer ships. Things that you think are included in the base cruise fare you find out are not included and you have to pay extra to enjoy them once onboard. I know Royal does this as well but NCL takes the cake in my opinion with it comes to onboard hidden charges. Free to Sea may seem like it is a great deal before you get on the cruise it isn't until after you on the ship you realize what Free to Sea covers and what it does not and believe me there is a LOT free to sea does not cover or is excluded from free to sea and you have to pay more and most times you don't find out until you are there at the venue. And don't be fooled by the free Wifi that free Wifi basically only lets you check emails, send emails, look at very basic websites. If you want Wifi like what you find on a Royal Caribbean ship you have to pay extra but if you don't know that before boarding the ship and you need "real" Wifi not the free Wifi now you have to pay full price for "real" Wifi once onboard the ship. The free to sea program a great marketing tool in my opinion but nothing more than that. Royal in most cases charges more up front than NCL but in my experience I've always ended up paying for it on the back end on a NCL cruise. I'd rather pay more upfront and know what I'm getting than pay less and be nickeled and dimmed once onboard. This is just another reason why I'm more loyal to Royal than NCL or other cruise lines as well.

This is what Royal should roll out fleet wide. On our last cruise they only had the 12oz non-resealable cans which are the worst.

Yes as along as you take the test within 24 hours of your departure back to the US. So if you are going to go the at home testing route I would suggest you take the test on the last day right before you go to bed this way you know the test results are within that 24 hour time frame just in case your flight experiences a lengthy delay. Fingers crossed the CDC follows other countries lead and at the very least drops all testing requirements for fully vaccinated travelers. It would be nice to see the testing requirement dropped altogether but I'm not sure if the CDC is ready to relinquish that kind of control just yet.

I would caution against airline credit cards unless you intend to be loyal to one specific airline or one of the 3 major airline alliances (Star, OneWorld, SkyTeam). If you are looking for more flexibility and are not looking to be loyal to any one single airline there are better travel credit cards that earn points that you can then transfer to almost any airline for miles. I would take a look at Capital One Venture Card they have a whole suite of different Venture Cards, Chase Sapphire, American Express Gold, Citi Premier just to name a few. Another reason you may want to look at a non-airline credit card for travel is because over the past 2 years many US airlines have devalued a lot of their miles or points meaning that redeeming those miles/points for free travel now cost more miles/points than it did before the pandemic. There are positives and negatives to having an airline credit card or a non-airline credit card but if you for instance fly jetBlue this week, Delta, next week, Southwest, then United, American it may be better for you to go with a travel related credit card that doesn't lock you into one specific airline. And the good thing about some of the cards I mentioned earlier is you get more points than you do with many airline credit cards on everyday purchases and many of them will also allow you to transfer your points to an international carrier which in some cases have better mileage/points redemption offers than US carriers.

If you don't have them already I would order the free government at home test, those test can be used and results presented for re-entry into the US or if you don't wish to do the at home test it does appear as thought Denmark is keeping some COVID testing locations at international airports open for now. However if you do decided to test at the airport you must first make an appointment and of course there is a charge and the charge varies by test. Denmark on the other hand has dropped all COVID entry requirements for fully vaccinated and for individuals who have fully recovered from a previous COVID infection.

This is nothing more than a political move and judicial overreach. The international airline that I work for did not quiz or grill passengers on why they were traveling to Cuba we just took the money and provided the flights. All the major air carriers added quite a few flights to Cuba over that time frame as tens of thousands of Americans visited Cuba. If this judge wants to go after cruise lines she has to go after airlines as well because after then President Trump reversed President Obama's policy every single US carrier dropped most and in some cases some carriers canceled all flights to Cuba as demand plummeted and returned to its pre-Obama era levels. Which begs the question how many airline passengers flew to Cuba for vacation to go to the beach, a club, visit landmarks, check out all the vintage cars or a host of other reasons this judge says wasn't allowed under the law. But once again cruise lines make for an easier target than airlines.

I have them as my back up plan every cruise that we've done since cruising resumed we've always tested at Walgreens or CVS and have always tested negative and had our test results in less than 24 hours. We are on Wonder sailing out on April 8th I have the free government test kit our backup plan my hope is to never have to use it but to have it just in case. If I do use it I'll post something but I'm hoping to not have to.

Hopefully you win some money as well.

Yes.... If 2 elevators show up and are completely full I'll ride the next elevator even press the button for an elevator going in the opposite direction. My pet peeve is when I see people berate the staff. I don't understand that type of behavior especially when on vacation for the life of me. The staff works extremely hard most of them are working 12-15 hours a day 7 days a week for up to 9 months depending on the length of their contract. The majority of guest on the ship don't work 7 days a week when they are on land.

That 18 night TP 24 cruise on Ovation looks good, but at 18 nights I most certainly would need a suite and your right the prices for a grand suite or higher are pretty high. There is nothing wrong with window shopping

I think Royal has done a great job speeding up the boarding process during COVID but the speed only works if customers use the app and upload every single piece or required documentation. VeriFLY is no different the lines will only move faster if the majority of passenger actually use the app. In the cruises that I've done since the resumption of cruising once I've gotten through security (which is the major traffic jam) I've been cleared onto the ship in around 15 minutes and the only reason it is taken that long is because people ahead of us didn't or couldn't used Royal's app and/or they didn't complete and upload every single piece of required documentation.

I think there is a long way to go before the market reaches saturation. Galveston no longer just attracts cruisers from Texas and Oklahoma, people from all over the US and Canada are cruising or have future cruises booked out of Galveston. Cruising in this country is back and from things that I've read demand is higher than ever for cruising hence one of the reasons why Royal is redeploying Radiance to New Orleans and Galveston with New Orleans being a port many people wondered if Royal would return to. Another reason I think cruise lines are focusing on Galveston is there are only so many ships you can fit in PortMiami, Port Everglades, and Port Canaveral on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and to a lesser extent Monday's. I think the bigger question is, is Galveston (the city) and other cities near Galveston ready for the influx of cruisers that will be boarding these ever larger and larger cruise ships that are coming to Galveston over the next 2 years or so.

I 100% agree this is totally the fault of the Australian government. And it isn't just Royal who has decided redeploy an Australian ship to the US-Caribbean market. For now Carnival is only sending one of their usually Sydney based ships back to Sydney this fall the other ship is heading to Jacksonville FL to be deployed to the Caribbean. We will have to wait and see what the 2023-2024 season brings but the Australia government should have made this decision months ago.