JasonOasis

I appreciate you bringing this up because we just sent out a memo to our flight attendants warning them that we are now seeing increasing wait times for passport renewals. Right now on average we are seeing a wait time of 8 to 9 weeks for normal processing. (Doesn't make for happy flight attendants when they have 40+ years are use to flying only international trips and now have to fly domestic trips for at least 2 months.) However for people with cruises especially European cruises this coming summer please check your passports now. If you think your passport is expiring or know it is expiring and you have a cruise especially European cruise the time to renew your passport is now. Even if you choose expedited processing your are probably looking at 4 to 5 weeks. The airline I work for didn't give us a reason why we are seeing this increase in wait times after seeing wait time decrease dramatically over the past year but here we are at 8 to 9 weeks for normal processing for passport renewal.

Disney in addition to Disneyland Tokyo also has Shanghai Disneyland Park which is part of the sprawling Shanghai Disneyland Resort, which is another reason i'm scratching my head at their decision to base this ship in Singapore and not Shanghai at the semi-newly construction Shanghai international port. Disneyland Tokyo and Shanghai Disneyland Park do not have world wide appeal like Walt Disney World in Orlando but with over a billion people living in China Shanghai Disneyland Resort doesn't need to have world wide appeal. Disney over more than a decade has built their Shanghai resort into what it is today. I get U.S. - China relations are in the best place right now and by all accounts are heading in the wrong direction, but this ship isn't being marketed to Americans. I just don't understand the the Singapore link unless this is part of a larger plan to expand the Disney brand into Singapore using this ship. However, because there is literally no space within the tiny country of Singapore to put a Disneyland Singapore or an even larger Disneyland resort Disney has come up with this bold idea to use Global Dream. Since there is no space on land the ship becomes the vehicle Disney uses to expand their global reach and they finally will have a presence in Southeast Asia.

Europe can be a lot with young children. I did this same cruise that your booked on in the spring of 2019 and my husband and I booked every shore excursion through external companies. I forgot the tour group we used in Marseille but I do know we did a walking tour it was a very small group that included lunch and stopped by this soap shop where we were allowed to make our own soap with the help of a expert of course. I still have one of the soaps I made I told my husband we can't use it all we have to keep one as a souvenir. We used Viator (they have both an app and you can find them online) and booked tours through them in Mallorca and also Naples. In Naples we both wanted to go to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. Royal was charging some outrageous price like $239 dollars per person and you would be on a bus with 40-50 other people I was like hell no. With Viator our tour group was only 6 people they picked us up from the pier in a Mercedes Benz luxury van that had recliners. We had a local driver that took us to all the places we wanted to go although lunch was no included he took us to this local restaurant in Sorrento and the price for our 10 hour tour was only like $115 dollars per person. In La Spezia we took off on our own and took the train to Florence (Royal was charging to much money to go to Florence on a bus) because I wanted to see and shop at the Ponte Vecchio and I also wanted to see the statue of David. Luckily back in 2019 the ship was in port something like 15 hours and we got up early to make sure we were off because we knew we faced a 2 hour 30 minute train ride. We are adventurous which is why we did this on our own but it was a very, very , very long day but it was worth minute of it. However I would NOT recommend you do this with small children, we were wore out by the time we got back to the ship however we made it back an hour prior to the all aboard time. In Civitavecchia we did the same thing we got off the ship and took the train to Rome. The train station in Civitavecchia is within walking distance of the port but there is also a shuttle. In 2019 the price for a one way ticket was around $5.00 (it was like 4 Euro which I think back then was like $5 dollars) and the ride to/from Rome was only 48 minutes (so a lot closer than La Spezia to/from Florence). Again because we are adventurous and because I had already been to Rome we took off on our own to explore Rome and have some lunch. It was great we saved a ton of money in both Florence and Rome by taking off on our own but I would not suggest people do that unless you are absolutely comfortable doing something like that, can navigate these European cities and streets, and lastly know without any doubt that you can absolutely get yourself back to the ship with at least an hour to spare before the all aboard time. Our last full day onboard was an at sea day and I don't think we even woke up until something like 2 or 3 pm we were so wore out from the previous days of just going, going, going. What I will say is this any Oasis Class cruise out of Barcelona is fun but pace yourself. That cruise in 2019 was our first European cruise we went to placing I had never been to before and I know I over did it by thinking I have to get it all in all at once on this cruise. I'm not sure why I thought that but end although we had fun and memories for a life time we did WAY TO MUCH. God willing there will always be another cruise so don't approach this cruise thinking you have to get it all in, in this one cruise because it can be a bit overwhelming especially if you're use to simply cruising the Caribbean and Mexico like we were.

So what ports can handle Disney's Global Dream ship? Global Dream has a width of 46.4 meters and a length of 342 meters, whereas Oasis Class ships have a width of 47 meters and a length of 360 meters. In terms of size those are some pretty close numbers, if Oasis is limited one would imagine Global Dream would be limited as well. Or does the slight variation in the numbers/size make all the difference Global Dream can reach ports because it is slightly smaller, while Oasis Class ships can't because they are ever to slightly bigger?

It won't effect any one looking to book or having already booked a Spring/Sumer 2023 European cruise from any EU country. ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorization System) goes live in 2024. The purpose of ETIAS is so EU countries can keep better track of who is entering and exiting individual countries. Most individuals doing short terms stays in an EU country are allowed to remain for a total of 90 days after which you must leave the country. ETIAS must be obtained BEFORE you arrive into a EU country. The way the EU has set this up and the airlines have known for a few years this was coming is this if an individual shows up (for example to O'Hare) and they do not have ETIAS clearance the airline can not under any circumstances allow that individual to board the flight period end of discussion, the EU is very serious about this. When I look at the list of countries where the EU will require ETIAS I'm surprised that the U.S. is on this list considering some of the other countries that are listed. I didn't think the EU had a problem keeping track of and making sure U.S. citizens leave the country by the end of their 90th day. ETIAS is valid for up to 3 years, however, if your passport has less than 3 years to its expiration then ETIAS will expire when your passport expires. The charge for ETIAS for U.S. citizens right now is about $7-8 dollars depending on the exchange rates. For now what I know from working in the airline industry is that the U.S. for now does not intend to reciprocate by requiring EU citizens to obtain some sort of visa for travel into the U.S. but of course that could change.

The capacity of Dream will come down by 300 passengers. Under Genting design most staterooms would have been extremely small. What Disney has said is they will redesign many of the cabins making them bigger which will result in maximum capacity dropping down to around 6000 total guest.

I'm surprised they will homeport it in Singapore and not in Shanghai at the international cruise port. Without a doubt either Wonder or Utopia will go go Asia. Having 6 Oasis Class ships and 3 Icon Class ships in the US is too much. I think it is a given that at least one of these ships will end up in Asia by the time that Disney ship is delivered in mid-2025 if I'm not mistaken. With the amount of capacity Royal has coming online over the next few years it wouldn't surprise me as the cruise market recovers in Asia if at some point when the second Icon Class ship is delivered both Wonder and Utopia end up in the Asia/Australia market.

I just booked my first ever transatlantic cruise on Odyssey leaving on November 2024. I booked a I was going to book a Grand Suit but ended up booking the Owners Suite for just over $12,500 dollars total including taxes and fees. I recently booked and went on a last minute cruise this past February on Symphony and since it was book 3 weeks prior to departure and they only had one suite left (a Grand Suite) my husband and I paid a total of $7,793 dollars for a 7 night cruise. That is a lot of money for a Grand Suite but both my husband and I needed a vacation we had been working some crazy hours, we had the money already sitting in our special cruise account so we booked it even at the inflated price because we just needed to get out of Chicago. In my opinion there are still some great deals to be had and cruising is still a great value but now more than ever you have to book early. We locked in $12,500 dollars for a Owners Suite in my opinion is a deal especially on Odyssey where suites are a bit more expensive than on Oasis Class ships, for 14 nights that isn't bad. I just checked and the price has already gone up several thousand dollars anyone booking a Owners Suite on the same cruise will now pay nearly $16,000 dollars and I think that is because they only have 2 or 3 of those suites left on that cruise. On my February Symphony cruise I thought Royal had fixed the issues with their food quality. The cruises I took in 2021 and 2022 there were issues with food quality and with bars not being properly stocked. However on February cruise every bar was stocked and we had the UBP so both my husband and I were getting our moneys worth. There were food or quality issues at any of the speciality restaurants, the main dinning room, windjammers, Park Cafe or anywhere else. I thought the food was great, the portion sizes has always been the same. As others have pointed out Royal had to take on quite a bit of debt to stay afloat during the shut down. To pay down that debt they have to do something so if that means raising prices I'm okay with that because I don't want to see Royal end up in bankruptcy court. If you love cruising as much as I do your choices are clear, either book early to lock in a lower rate, book last minute pay the inflated rate especially if you are booking a balcony or a suite, book a stateroom in lower category than you normally would to save money, or lastly stop cruising altogether. In my mind cruising is still a great value and is still one of the best forms of vacation you can experience.

FionaMG is correct. I work for a major airline here in Chicago that partners with Lufthansa. When you arrive in FRA you need to follow the signs for passengers in transit, and since you are coming from the US you will clear immigration in FRA your first point of entry into the Schengen zone. It is very easy at FRA there are signs in several languages all over the place so it is nearly impossible for you to get lost make a wrong turn if you are reading and following the signs for passengers in transit. After clearing immigrations proceed to your next departure gate to BCN. I'm not sure how long your layover is at FRA but if you have a long layover (several hours) make sure you remain within the secure in transit area you can't leave and go explore Frankfurt if for example you have 6 hour layover. You must remain in the secure in transit area of the airport. Upon arrival at BCN you will claim your bags and proceed through customs. If you have nothing to declare going through customs is generally the same process like here in the States you grab your bags and proceed to the exit marked Nothing To Declare. However if you have something to declare by all means declare it, because the EU just like the United States is strict and has a zero tolerance policy. The time to declare something is before they pull you out of line for random luggage inspection not as they are going through your bags.

I was just reading this article and it surprised me to see that Royal has 10 ships in the top 25 most searched ships for the past 12 months and the top 5 ships are all Royal. In fact Royal has 7 ships out of the top 10 positions. I must admit I was surprised to see ships like Liberty and Freedom of the Seas on the list although they are number 24 and 21 respectively. Following Royal was MSC with 8 ships from some interesting homeports like Sao Paulo, Brazil and Martinique. MSC's global expansion and homeports is really impressive and customers are responding. I wish Royal would add a few interesting homeports like MSC has done. Carnival had 2 ships make the list the Mardi Gras and Celebration. In addition to 2 Carnival cruise ships on the list the Carnival Corporation had another 3 ships make the list 2 Costa ships and 1 Aida ship. In all Carnival Corporation had 5 ships make the list of the top 25. However what really surprised me when reading the article was the lack of NCL ships. NCL only has 1 ship on the list of top 25 most searched in the past 12 months and that was Prima, and Prima location on the list was a bit of a eye catcher, it came in at number 17 out of 25. NCL like Royal and MSC has a lot of new/newer ships in their fleet. I thought with semi-older ships like Royal's Liberty and Freedom on the list there would be several newer NCL Breakaway Plus Class ships on the list as those appear to be very popular ships but there wasn't the only ship to make the list was Prima.

I've cruise with NCL and MSC out of Florida not that long ago just to mix it up. For me living in Chicago I prefer the 2.5 hour flight to MCO, FLL, or MIA or the 1.25 hour flight to EWR/LGA to sail out of Cape Liberty than to face a 4 hour flight to LAX. So I get it you want convince and something close to home when cruising and if you've gotten to the point where your tired of Navigator thereby all mean go take a couple of cruises on NCL or Carnival. After all I do agree with other who said they would like to see Royal do more, have more variety or ships and destinations out West. With so many new ships coming over the next few years maybe Royal will show LA some love by homeporting another ship out west in LA permanently along side Navigator.

According to The Points Guy NCL will reverse course and revert back to the e-must drill after having received considerable criticism and complaints from many of their guest. In January NCL abruptly reverted back to the in-person drill citing safety reasons and believing the in-person drill was more effective than the e-muster. However many of their guest including most of NCL's most loyal guest made their displeasure known and now the company will reverse course and bring back the e-muster. Beginning April 1st all NCL cruises will revert back to the e-muster to the delight of many of their customers. Neither Royal or Carnival followed NCL in eliminating the e-muster and according to The Points Guy there is no word on whether Disney will change course and bring back their e-must drill as well. https://thepointsguy.com/news/norwegian-cruise-line-muster-drill-change/

Before the pandemic was Royal considering homeporting 2 Oasis Class ships in China? Is that why they the option exist for a 7th Oasis Class ship?

We use our D+ drink vouchers on disembarkation day (in the early, early morning after leaving the club) but you have to use them before the calendar day ends. On a 7 night cruise that for example goes from Saturday to Saturday the last day you have drink vouchers as a D or D+ is Friday and I think those vouchers expire at 4:59 am Saturday morning (disembarkation day). As far as I know Royal does not give you drink vouchers for disembarkation day which would be in this example a Saturday. So what my husband I will do the night before is use our vouchers to get power-aids, and he likes his sugar free red bulls, but your vouchers expire at 4:59 am. So if you want any thing like speciality coffee on disembarkation day you will have to pay unless you also have a beverage package.

Grand suites don't have shower curtains on Harmony, and it isn't just Harmony where you will find the half glass shower, this set up can also be found on Symphony. We booked a last minute cruise on Symphony which set sail this past February 18th in a grand suite which was all they had left and the suite also had the half glass without the curtain as well. I've stayed at a few upscale hotels which also have this same set up with a half sheet of glass and no curtain for the shower and personally I don't have a problem with it. I think they are moving away from shower curtains on new ships the exception would be if you're staying in an accessible room then you would have curtain. But I've stayed in a few accessible rooms over the past 14 years that I've been cursing with Royal and let me tell you in an accessible room the water goes every where a lot more than it does with the half sheet of glass. (But then in the accessible rooms you don't have a tub either.)

For sure do the iFly it is a lot of fun it is free, free, free. I you do iFly on land at any of their ground locations I think the starting price is like $79 dollars for a single flight and the price varies from state to state.

Your local bank might be able to help you out, if not most international airports in the US have a foreign currency exchange for you to exchange dollars for euros. Secondly I would not use a debit card in a foreign country at all even at an ATM. So if you're not going to exchange your dollars for euros before you go then I would suggest you simply use a credit card.

I asked this question some time ago on this site and I even sent Royal an email. The response on this site from most people was they use to then they stop mostly because they were making money off South America cruises. The response I got from Royal via email was thank you so much Mr. Smith for your email if you wish to experience a South American cruise please visit CelebrityCruises.com, and although you will not received credit on your Crown and Anchor account for any cruise on Celebrity, Celebrity will honor the status you've earned with us here at Royal. That was the response I received from Royal, so I have no idea if Royal ever intends to go back into South America or if their strategy going forward is to continue to push passengers who wish to cruise out of South America over to Celebrity Cruises.

Your pass should show "Sea Class" you are not going to see the word "suite" on your set sail pass. When you get to the pier just go to the entrance for suite guess show them your set sail pass and they will let you through.

Take into account your personal safety, also take into account location location location especially if you intend to go out partying the night before your cruise departs. You don't want to be in a questionable part of town trying to save a few dollars on a hotel coming home at 4 am from a night of partying in South Beach. Then there is the question of cleanliness and I don't even want to go down that road. I just did a cruise on Symphony and out hotel which was in Brickell cost us $340 dollars for the night. Sometimes we will stay in Brickell other times we'll stay in South Beach but the reality now and for the foreseeable future is Miami is expensive and is going to continue to be expensive.

Just this week NCL announced the 3rd and 4th Prima Class ships would be 10% larger than Prima and the 5th and 6th ships would be at least 20% larger than the current vessel. NCL's CEO claims the larger ships are needed to accommodate larger fuel tanks. However a company executive who spoke after the CEO revealed that push to go bigger is to achieve better economics with Prima Class vessels. Now If I'm not mistaken NCL's Prima Class was purposely designed smaller than other newer ships in NCL's fleet because NCL was looking to try and position themselves as a more upscale cruise line a step above Royal and MSC and as such they thought smaller would be the way to go. In 2019 when talking about Prima NCL was convinced bigger was not better and they wanted to go smaller because they believed their customers wanted a more upscale and elegant experience. NCL wanted to send Prima Class ships to destinations/ports mega ships could not visit and believed customers would pay a premium for the experience. Well fast forward to 2023 and now NCL is saying the economics of Prima (now that she is in service) and upcoming Viva in their current smaller size are not working as expected and they now need to make the remaining 4 ships larger. Although Prima kicked off its inaugural season to rave reviews from both critics and passengers alike it hasn't helped NCL's bottom line. The company didn't reveal if the 3rd Prima Class ship would be delivered on-time, but it did reveal the 4th, 5th and 6th Prima Class ship deliveries would all be delayed by at least 1 year as NCL works on redesigning the last 3 ships. The company also revealed the redesign isn't cheap either it will cost NCL $1.27 billion dollars. The 3rd Prima Class ship wasn't mentioned so I don't know if that ship will simply be stretched but essentially remain the same as Prima and Viva but with more staterooms. Perhaps it is already too late to redesign the 3rd Prima Class ship so she will only be 10% larger but essentially the same. https://thepointsguy.com/news/norwegian-prima-class-ships-bigger/ I know a couple months ago in a different thread there were questions about Royal and smaller ships and twangster posted the economics of smaller don't work don't work for companies like Royal. It would appear as though twangster was right, and times have changed and the economics of smaller ships don't work for cruise lines like Royal or even NCL. Cruise lines don't just decide to build a brand new class of ship on a whim, they spend years and hundreds of millions of dollars doing R&D. I've sailed with NCL quite a few times there are a fantastic cruise line (although they do nickel and dime you to death once onboard). However, when I think of NCL, premium cruise line doesn't come to my mind, so how did NCL after years and millions of dollars invested in R&D get it wrong Prima Class? How to they go from bigger isn't better in 2019 to now in 2023 not only making the last 4 ships 10% and 20% bigger but now also having to redesign the 4th, 5th, and 6th ship to the tune of $1.27 billion dollars?

Thank you so much for your response, it really does mean a lot to me because I am getting to the point where I know I'm going to have to leave Royal. I just feel like Royal is going all in on family (children) vacation, and the traditional off season where children are in school is nearly no more. My husband and I tried MSC a few years ago before the pandemic. We did 3 cruises on MSC and ended up coming back to Royal because MSC wasn't a good fit for us. I think I'll give Celebrity a try in 2025, I already have a couple cruises booked in 2024 and I'm trying to leave the remainder of 2024 open for Utopia but I'm going to look at Celebrity for our cruise in February of 2025.

I agree with twangster on this one. I have Pre/Global Entry and I've found that works just fine for me. I can't justify the cost of Clear because they are not at every airport and if they are at the airport you are flying out of they may not be located in the terminal you're flying out of. For instance if the airline you primarily fly is American Airlines there is no reason for people who fly exclusively with AA to buy Clear because AA has blocked Clear from setting up in any terminal/concourse where they are the sole or main operator. Clear might save you a couple minutes but lately traveling out of O'Hare's Terminal 1 where there are Clear lanes the line for clear can at times be longer than the line for Pre, so I just stick with my TSA Pre/Global Entry.

Passengers generally begin disembarking the ship around 7 a.m. and MCO (if that is the airport you're flying out of) is about an hour away. If the cab or Uber speeds they can get you there in 45 minutes, but generally it takes an hour. Lets time it out: Off the ship: 7:30 a.m. Cleared customs and outside the port 7:45 a.m. In a cab to MCO: 7:55 a.m. Arrival at MCO: 8:55 a.m. Depending on the time of year and day of the week lines to both check-in with bags and get through security can be quite long. Check-in with bags: 9:25 a.m. Clear TSA: 9:50 a.m. The earliest flight time I personally would feel comfortable with is an 11 a.m. departure. Boarding starts at: 10.20 a.m. Seat released at: 10:45 a.m. Door closes at: 10:50 a.m. If that all seems a bit rushed that is because it is and although I would be comfortable booking an 11 a.m. flight there would have to be a really good reason for me to do it because you are up against the clock from the moment the doors open on the ship until you board that plane and that isn't how you want to end your vacation. If you don't want to feel rushed I would say do not book anything prior to 12 p.m., if you still get off the ship by 7:30 a.m. you've given yourself an extra hour and you will board your flight feeling relaxed instead of rushed.

The cruise season is already year around in certain parts of the European market. I 100% agree its is pure speculation and it's anyone's guess where Anthem will end up at with Odyssey taking over at Cape Liberty. But with both NCL and now Celebrity jumping onto the year around cruising out of Europe the market must be growing. It isn't infinite but something is happening the reason why US cruise lines are now doing year around cruising out of Europe. Time will tell if the rumors/speculation about Anthem are true or not but if the market continues to grow I don't see how Royal remains on the sidelines.