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JasonOasis

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Everything posted by JasonOasis

  1. No they don't know what's going to be happening in the region a year from now but at least they know but more importantly their guest know where their ships will be. Equally as important is their guest now have the information they need to either continue with the cruise, or cancel their cruise al together, and guest who've had their entire voyages canceled can decided what they want to do. The worst decision Royal or any cruise line for that matter can do right now is wait and see. Traveling from the US to Europe isn't cheap at all, I'm assuming most people if they book their airfare separately from the cruise line are probably just starting to look at prices. So yes now right now is the absolute time for Royal to cancel the 2024 season because waiting causes more problems.
  2. I'm on Wonder right now my download Mbps is 12.06 and my upload Mbps is 3.82 Voom has bee great the entire time we've been onboard. We had no issues last week and no issues this week either and we are on day 5 of this cruise.
  3. So my husband and I are doing our annual b2b cruise so we are on Wonder this week as well. I don't have all the information but I what I do know is on the last day some time in the late afternoon early evening there was a medical emergency onboard Wonder it must have been serious enough to the point where the captain decided the best course of action wa to get Cape Canaveral as quickly as possible which is why Wonder was doing 25 kts. Even on arrival they didn't turn the ship around they just parked it bow first into the berth. Hopefully the individual is okay and made it to the hospital and is on their way to making a full recovery. I'm still impressed that a ship of this size and magnitude can move with that kind of speed.
  4. No we left Costa Maya on time. I guess they just turned the ship now that we don't have a wind directly on the bow our speed is now up to 25kts. They are flooring it tonight on Wonder of the Seas 25 kts on a cruise ship of this size. I don't know what the record speed is on an Oasis Class ship but we have got to be getting close or even over the record. This is awesome for a travel geek like me this is just the cherry on top of what's already been a fantastic cruise. I can honestly say I've never been on a cruise ship moving at 25 kts.
  5. It's been a while since I've personally been on an Oasis Class ship that was moving this fast. And that's with an apparent 46kts (or if you convert it to MPH that is 52MPH) wind just ever so slightly off the bow of the ship. I don't know how many engines they are running right now but i'm really impressed. In the airline industry you always want that tail wind when at cruise altitude as a headwind can slow you down. The fastest I've personally observed while cruising on an Oasis Class ship is around 22.7 kts most times we sailing between 20-21 kts. My husband was like it feels like we are really moving so I turned on the TV and sure enough 24.4 kts which is impressive on its own but the fact the ship is maintaining that speed with a 52 mph headwind beyond impressive and just shows the power of those engines and of course the 3 azipods.
  6. After reading this thread and your comments RCIfan1912 I have to say completely agree. I"m on Wonder right now we just left Costa Maya heading for Cape Canaveral. Wonder still looks great she still looks brand new (the last time I was on Wonder was last year so this is only my second time on this ship). The crew on Wonder have been absolutely phenomenal and Royal has for sure stepped up their game when it comes to the food from Windjammers to specialty dinning (I'm not much of a MDR person). I think this is my first cruise where it really fills like Royal is firing on all cylinders since the pandemic. For those of us who cruised during the Royal Come Back season I think we all knew what we were in for and for the most part we were all just happy to be back out on the open water. But in my opinion 2022 was more misses than hits on every cruise I took with Royal and I know it couldn't have been easy for Royal. Having crew members come back after so much time off, having to hire so many new crew members some from different cruise companies and some with no experience at all. The food quality, taste and presentation issues, and also let's not forget about the liquor issues in 2022. A lot of this was completely out of Royals control but I'm so happy they pushed through The Royal Come Back and they pushed through 2022 and now here we are 2023 and its full steam ahead. I did a few cruises earlier this year and there were a few minor absolutely minor issues nothing major. However, this cruise here on Wonder I really feel like Royal is finally back absolutely hands down without question the best cruise I've been on since the pandemic shut down.
  7. That would be a disastrous move from a customer relations standpoint. Not many people were complaining in 2021 when Royal launched the double points program except people who were already pinnacle. Royal did what they had to do to get people back on their cruise ships. Airlines did the same thing in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 where they extended the status people earned in 2019 to try and get them to fly. The problem now is you have lounges that are full both on Royal ships and airline lounges. Where I think Royal miscalculated was in how long they let the double miles program run. They ran the promotion for to long and it has resulted in an explosion of Diamond members. I'm on Wonder right now and according to a loyalty event I went to largest number of guest onboard in the Crown and Anchor society are diamond members. Now Royal is trying to figure out how to best deal with over crowding in the lounge. Right now with the huge influx of diamond members and the number of diamond members onboard they have restricted access to the Crown lounge during certain times of the day. There is only so many people who can safely fit inside that lounge here on Wonder. I was already diamond plus when Royal rolled out this promotion but that promotion has cut down significantly on the amount of time it will take for me and my husband to reach pinnacle status. In my opinion if the promotion helped you cut down the time an the number of cruises you had to take to reach diamond I think its disingenuous to complain because Royal now has to respond to huge influx of diamond members which is now leading to overcrowding in the lounge formerly known as the diamond lounge. There were some people on this site (I was as not one of them as I benefited from the promotion) who issues warnings about that promotion when it was launched and warned something like this could happen but if my memory served me correctly most of us on this site didn't care all we cared about was double points on each cruise. Now the time has come where someone has to pay for this and unfortunately for NOW the group paying for that promotion are diamond members as it appears to be the group that experienced the largest increase in members which probably can be traced back this promotion
  8. If you are concerned about it I would suggest you just look up each individual country you're visiting or hoping to visit on the cruise to see what their entry requirements are for cruise guest. Cruise lines don't just take your passport for no reason when they take them or ask you to surrender them it is because they are required to do so at as a requirement of whatever country (port of call) you are entering.
  9. I on Wonder of the Seas right now. We boarded the ship at 10:15 am this morning and I had a drink in my hand by 10:30 am. Our original boarding time was suppose to be 12:00pm but since we are in a suite they didn't hold us back which we knew they wouldn't. However they were redirecting people in non-suites to the appropriate lines to wait for their assigned check-in time. We were told today's sailing is over capacity the sailing isn't oversold but every stateroom will be occupied which is probably why they were redirecting people who showed up early in non-suite rooms to the appropriate line where they would have to wait for their check-in time to come around. But if you are in a suite or have purchased the key they started boarding at 10:00 am
  10. Sorry I didn't mean to forget about our friends to the North.... We love the Canadians LOL
  11. Just announced yesterday the European Union EU will once again delay the launch of their European Travel Information and Authorization System ETIAS until at least mid-2025. In laymen's terms all that means is American's will NOT need a visa to travel to Europe in 2024. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/etias-europe-tourist-taxes-explained/index.html
  12. Just booked my very first Celebrity Cruise on Apex this coming March 2024. Some friends of ours who who are husbands moved to LA are on a Celebrity cruise right now (they normally cruise with Carnival). They know I'll never cruise with Carnival again and they finally grown tired of Carnival and didn't want to cruise with Princess Cruises (thank the Lord) so they decided to book Celebrity. They just booked another Celebrity cruise for March 2024 while currently onboard their first Celebrity cruise and they called our mutual friends here in Chicago who are engaged and told them about it so they booked the cruise and they then called me and was like you have to come as well. Long story short I booked Celebrity Apex in an infinite veranda for a 7 night cruise in March for my husband and I. Both my husband and I are excited to try them out and we got what I would consider a really good deal on the veranda. I called Celebrity directly and booked over the phone the guy was extremely nice very knowledgeable knew how to look for all the discounts and got us the all inclusive package for only $3,728.36 Not bad considering Apex is one of their newer ships and March is just a little over 5 months away.
  13. Royal has stated they are seeing a lot more first time cruisers so I think they are trying to walk a fine line here providing first time cruisers the information they are looking for while trying to not upset loyalist like us with information we don't need.
  14. Seeing the number of complaints about 3/4 night cruises out of PDCC I think we are forgetting Wonder isn't suppose to be here and I'm wondering when Utopia was in the planning stages was the plan to have Utopia here in the U.S. as well? We know the original plan was for Wonder to go to China. However, if an Oasis Class ship doesn't go to China by July of 2025 Royal will have 6 Oasis Class ships and 2 Icon Class ships in service. Obviously during the summer months one Oasis Class ship will be in the Mediterranean, one will be sailing out of Cape Liberty, one sails out of Galveston. That still leaves 3 Oasis Class ships and two Icon Class ships for the Florida market in addition to all the other ships Royal has in the Florida market. With these mega ships being limited as to what ports they can visit something has to give which is part of the reason why they are placing these larger new ships on 3/4 night Bahama cruises. Another reason Royal is placing ships like Utopia on 3/4 night cruises is because they are attracting a lot of first time cruisers and now days most first time cruises want to set sail on the newest and best ships they don't want to sail on older ships.
  15. How does one loose drink vouchers when they are loaded automatically and daily onto your sea pass? For diamond members you get 4 vouchers loaded daily on your card. Now I've seen instances where bar tenders have use someone vouchers when they ordered a drink and they didn't want their vouchers used at the time but that falls on the cruiser in my opinion to catch that while they are signing the ticket. If that's what's meant when people say loose a voucher I have a hard time blaming Royal for that because you should catch it while you're signing the ticket and the bar tender will surely correct it.
  16. I love sailing on Adventure but in my opinion Adventure feels more crowded than any Oasis Class ship that I've been on especially since Royal did away with the in person emergency drill. Royal has done their homework with the Oasis Class ships and I'm sure that will carry over to Icon Class ships where despite these ships size they don't feel crowed at all. Whereas some older smaller ships can feel a bit crowded at times because of their design.
  17. What is the smallest class of RC ship that you are willing to sail on? For me personally the smallest class I consider and actually sail on is Voyager Class which is still a fun ship. But I'm just wondering and this question isn't just for you any one can chime in. What is the smallest class of ship you'd sail on?
  18. The ship will observe daylights savings they will have some signage the on the day of. However as another person posted the ship may observe the time change a day earlier than or on the same day that we observe it on land, but it is the captains decisions.
  19. This is a tough one I have so many and I love every single Oasis Class ship but if I had to choose I would say my top 5 would be in this order Symphony Anthem Allure Adventure (my first cruise ever in my life was on Adventure and I've taken multiple cruises on this ship since) Freedom Why did you have to limit it to just five?
  20. If you are concerned about your luggage put some AirTags on them and be done with it. Luggage delivery times vary sometimes iv'e checked in at 11am and don't get my luggage until 7pm and other times i've checked in at 2pm and my luggage is outside my room before we leave port. Your stateroom are usually ready by 1pm however if you are carryon items and you wish to drop them off at your room in most cases the attendants will allow you to drop off your items but you will have to leave immediately.
  21. The high cost of cruising has now caught the attention of the news media. According to several new outlets including NBC News cruise prices have soared and are now 43% higher than where they were in 2019. Interestingly enough it isn't Royal Caribbean that leading the way or in the drivers seats it is Carnival with Carnivals CEO saying just a few days ago on CNBC that Carnival with all its brands is well position to push prices even higher industry wide in 2024. Cruise lines from Carnaval, Royal, NCL, even Virgin are all blaming the price increases on unprecedented demand which shows no signs of waning, the rising cost of labor, food and fuel. Carnival stated and I quote "the company has been able to deliver a value of 25% to 50% over comparable land-based vacation alternatives". According to the Today Show this morning a 5 night Bahamas cruise this December will cost at least $736 dollars per person that is 37% higher than it was just last year in 2022. That 37% increase is across all cruise lines with NCL telling the Today Show even with these price increases cruising remains the best value for customers vacation dollars. For cruise lines like Royal, Carnival, NCL, Virgin it is full steam ahead for 2024 and according to the Today Show the cruise lines are saying customers are putting less emphasis on pricing and more emphasis on setting sail to paradise. According to the cruise lines they all stated don't look for prices to come down any time soon, there are still deals to be had but they are few and far between. If you want the best price book early because for now demand and according to another article I read some travel agents agree with cruise lines that cruising is indeed a better value than land-based vacation in fact some travel agents are saying taking a cruise is still 50% to even 70% cheaper than a comparable land based vacation. For people saying they are thinking about switching to Carnival or another brand that is cheaper than Royal just think about people who cruise with Carnival people who are loyal to cruise lines like Carnival some of them are being priced out completely. Think about it if you are being priced out of Royal and are considering Carnival or some other brand that appears to be of value there are people at those brands who are truly being priced out of the cruise industry completely and for now there is no end in sight. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/09/cruise-prices-rise-as-operators-meet-surging-travel-demand.html https://nypost.com/2023/10/10/cruise-prices-surge-43-amid-post-pandemic-travel-boom/ As someone who works in the airline industry an industry I've been in for 27 years I can tell you we are suppose to be in the "off" season now. Before the pandemic mid-September through mid-November was typically the "off" season along with the second week of January through the first week of March. I can tell you this we are not in the off season even though summer is over the children are back in school, the college is back in session airplanes are just as full as they were in July. In fact we are busier this fall than we were at this same time in 2022. I can't explain what is going on in the travel industry all I can say is if you are thinking about travel book early, book early, book early. For those of you looking for last minute deals good luck I truly do hope you can find them.
  22. I've sailed with MSC 3 times already and the next time I'm looking at getting on a MSC cruise is when MSC World America shows up. MSC is a great cruise line but they are not Royal and I'm not just saying that to try to convince people to stay with Royal, I could care less if people cruise with Royal or MSC. All I'm saying is I noticed the difference some good and some not so good. The one area MSC excels in is food, they have some of the best food on their cruise ships, on the other hand if you buy a speciality dinning package and think you will have access to 99% of the menu be prepared to hear a lot of this word NO that is if you ask questions before ordering. Purchasing a specialty dinning package on MSC only gives you access to 15% of the menu if you order anything outside of that 15% they charge you al la carte. If you don't ask your server you won't hear the word NO they will take your order and then surprise you with this nice huge bill at the end of your meal while you are sitting there thinking I have a dinner package then the server will tell you none of what you order was included in the specialty dinner package. The drinks and wifi package is something MSC offers off and on from time to time but just like with NCL it is buyer be where. The drinks package is for well drinks only so if you drink something other than well on land and are looking to have that drink onboard you have to change your preference or pay the difference. And the free wifi is for browsing, email, and text messages only it does not include streaming. That was another thing I noticed people were finding out once onboard, however by now I think people should know anytime a cruise ship offers free wifi it is going to be their slowest wifi that is free anything above that you have to pay. Another area MSC excels in is entertainment any one sailing on Meraviglia pay the extra money for both Cirque du Soleil shows (they are not the same shows). However there is a lot lacking during their daytime entertainment. If you are someone who likes the casino and are use to Royals fairly large casinos then be prepared for an extremely small casino even on their newer ships hopefully they fix this on MSC World America a ship that is being specifically built for the US market. There are a lot of things to do to keep your self entertained on MSC cruise ship but be prepared to pay onboard for some of those experiences much like NCL. Lastly if you are like me and like to cruise in a suite the good news is MSC has a lot of suite categories. However do your homework because some "suites" on MSC ships are suites in name only not in actual size, meaning some "suites" are the same exact size as a standard balcony. So if you are booking a suite because you either want or need extra space do your homework do not just book a suite simply because the word suite exist look at the square footage of the room to make sure you are actually getting what you are paying for. I feel like MSC in America (totally different if you do MSC cruise out of Europe) but here in America I feel like they are a hybrid model somewhere between NCL and Royal. They are quite NCL but they are quite Royal either but it works as long as people go onto their cruise with all the information and the correct expectations. If you do your homework first and modify your expectations your MSC cruise will be a great experience. However, if you go into it expecting Royal then prepare yourself for a huge disappointment. At the end of the day depending on your experience your MSC cruise more than likely will end up costing you just as much as a Royal Caribbean cruise. The difference is you are not paying for it all up front instead you are paying for a lot things once onboard that you don't realize you're paying for until the cruise ends.
  23. Great news for those business owners who would have seen a significant drop in business had this gone through.
  24. I don't see the benefit here either to Royal/Celebrity or us the consumer. I'm diamond plus according to Royal my status would convert over to Captains Club Elite on Celebrity and I would be entitled to all the perks at that level. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/celebrity-loyalty-points#:~:text=For instance%2C if you are,a Captain's Club Elite member. The only thing is I don't get the points on Royal so it doesn't help get me any closer to pinnacle on Royal. But if I'm not trying to reach pinnacle on Royal then what is the issue they are already matching my status on Celebrity, I just don't see the upside to this. In my opinion if they merged these two programs it probably would take 1,000 points or more to reach pinnacle on Royal. There is no way they leave it at 700 and people on Celebrity would have a harder time reaching zenith. It really comes down to what is more important to each individual cruiser. If reaching pinnacle is important then stay with Royal but for those who are ready to experience more than what Royal is offering and don't care about pinnacle then what do you have to loose by cruising on Celebrity.
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