JasonOasis

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.

There is also speculation that Anthem might remain in Europe to do year around sailings. NCL is now doing year around sailings, I think Celebrity will join in on the action, there is speculation Royal might join this growing trend with Anthem. Royal has already expanded their European 2024 season with some ships not leaving Europe until November meaning those ships wouldn’t reach the US until a week or so before U.S.’s Thanksgiving holiday. Leaving Anthem in Europe to sail the Canary Islands and Portugal would allow Royal to compete with NCL and it would allow Royal to at least start their Mediterranean season earlier. NCL’s Mediterranean season will start in March thanks to the ship they are leave in Europe. Royal’s season can’t begin until Mid to late April, because March is still very much high season for cruises to the Caribbean from the U.S. But with European cruises becoming evermore popular with American’s I don’t think Royal wants to give NCL a 4-6 week advantage in the all important Mediterranean market. It is still cool in the Mediterranean in March and early April so Anthem would be a great ship to utilize in that market then reposition her to South Hampton when your Oasis Class ship, Odyssey, and Voyager Class ships arrive in April.

What drew me to Royal was they have something for everyone and that is what I fell in love with. There have always been kids/teenagers on Royal Caribbean ships but my husband and I always our long cruises when most of them should be in school. What I love about Royal are the people, we’ve been cruising with them since 2009 and if feels great to get on a ship and the crew regonize you like hey wheren’t you on Harmony last year. The friendliness of the staff on Royal ships keeps me coming back. I’ve been on some cruise lines where the staff was just mean, nasty and rude to guest. The entertainment on Royal especially on Voyager Class ships and higher is some of the best out there when compared to Carnival, NCL, even MSC. The one area in entertainment where MSC has Royal beat hands down is their Cirque Du Soleil show on Meraviglia. But take Quantum Class ships with Music Hall, I absolutely love doing 12 night cruises on Anthem out of Cape Liberty the bands they book to play in Music Hall I know I’m going to have a rock’s good time every night. I’ve done the zip line, the water slides the rock climbing wall, iFly they were great experiences but at 43 years old I’m at the point where if I do partake in these things on a cruise its great but if I don’t its no big deal. Now one thing I never miss out on on Quantum Class ships is bummer cars I’m sorry but I love me some bummer cars. Royal seems to have gotten their act together with the food, at least on this cruise I have no complaints about the food at all. That wasn’t the case for multiple cruises I took with Royal in 2021 and in 2022 where the food was simply terrible. So it is good to see quality food return. What continues to give me pause with booking a Celebrity cruise is I don’t know if it is to slow of an environment for me at this time. I know at some point in time I’m going to have to leave Royal for Celebrity or some other more upscale cruise line but at 43 years old is Celebrity the right cruise line for me at this time? That is the question that I don’t know the answer too just yet. But in all honesty if Royal were to release the schedule for Utopia I certainly would purchase a crown loft or owners suite in a heartbeat on Utopia. Although I’m not in any rush to get on Icon I certainly would book Utopia without thinking twice about it.

Nothing about Utopia yet. I get Royal wants to keep the focus on Icon and rightfully so as Utopia is just another Oasis Class Ship. However she is currently scheduled for delivery some time during the spring of 2024. Unless that delivery schedule slips or Royal intends on delaying taking delivery or delaying Utopia entry into service then perhaps by September or October of this year Royal will finally release some information on Utopia including putting some cruises on sail. Given the option I would for sure get on Utopia before getting on Icon. Utopia’s arrival and several other reasons are why I havent’ yet booked any cruises in 2024 on Icon.

I'm thinking of trying Celebrity as well. I'm on Symphony right now and Royal has gone all in on family cruising. I've never seen so many children especially on the suite deck. I love Royal but it has been hard to relax on this cruise with all these children running around the suite deck. I have a few more cruises booked on Royal a few weekend cruises but the major cruises are Wonder B2B in October and Symphony again in January of 2024. I was going to book Icon for either the summer of fall of 2024 but I've held off thus far because it just seems to busy . And do I really want to cruise on the ultimate family cruise ship in 2024 and all the children that come along with the words ultimate and family (that is a lot of children) is the question I keep asking myself. On the other hand I think Royal has paid attention to all the complaining about the food especially at speciality restaurants. On our longer cruises we always book the ultimate dinning package on weekend cruises we don't bother we just go to the main dinning room, and thus far Symphony has not disappointed even at Chops the food has been great. Its just the children and the amount of children on this cruise hasn't gone unnoticed at least by me.

I'm wondering the same thing, as of right now starting with their November 2024 schedule and onward into 2025 Royal has 14 ships without a published schedule. I'm wondering if Utopia and to a certain extent China are the problem. I'm thinking Royal is probably trying to figure out if demand in China will be strong enough to justify sending an Oasis Class ship to China. If the answer is no and demand in China hasn't recovered to justify an Oasis Class ship Royal then has to figure out what to do with 6 Oasis Class ships and an Icon Class ship. Of course one Oasis Class ship will be sailing out of Galveston, but that still would leave 5 Oasis Class ships and Icon sailing out of Florida. It would be nice to see Royal homeport an Oasis Class in San Juan for the winter season and sail it to the Southern Caribbean or even to Columbia and ports of call near Panama canal (I know Oasis Class ships can't go through the canal) but if ports in the Southern Caribbean and Central America can handle an Oasis Class ship why not homeport a ship in San Juan. Whatever the wrench is that is holding up the winter 2024/2025 schedule Royal needs to figure it out fast and get their schedule up and open for sale. The competition already has most of their schedule posted and open for sale.

NCL's Getaway will sail out of New York during January and February of 2024 that ship has zero covered heated pools for every day guest. I think guest in the Haven may have a small covered pool, but all other pools are open to the elements. And the reason Royal is sending Odyssey to New York for the 2025 winter season is because NCL is sending Prima to New York for the 2025 winter season. Prima is definitely not a cold weather ship, there are no covered heated pools, the entire outside space on deck 8 on Prima will be useless in the dead of winter as will the outside areas on decks 16, 17, and 18 none of those pools are covered and the go cart track on 19 and 20 would only be able to be used if the weather corporates. Any type of snow, ice, or rain I would imagine would shut down the go carts until the ship is in warmer weather. Then there is MSC which is sending the Merviglia to New York for year around sailings. Now the Merviglia does have one covered but also very small indoor pool. But all other top levels of Merviglia including the exclusive Yacht Club on deck 20 at the front of the ship are all open to the elements. By sending Odyssey to New York for 2025 winter season it would appear as though Royal is simply responding to NCL and MSC's move and it is an admission that Anthem (which is a great ship) would be out of its league going up against Merviglia and Prima. The only ship Royal has that can go up against Prima and Merviglia in the dead of winter is Odyssey, putting an Oasis Class ship up in New York in January and February would be an epic fail. What we have going forward is all three of these cruise lines are either trying to one up each other or simply trying to keep up with the other when none of them will be using the right ship for the market during the winter season, and it is the guest that will pay the price with a diminished experience on their first day. On the two winter cruises I did on Anthem by the time I woke up the next morning the weather was in the mid-50's, that is still a bit to cold even for this Chicago boy to get into a outdoor pool but I did enjoy the outdoor space. But by the second morning it was in the upper-70s or sometimes even low-80's. But you still loose a day of pool fun and outdoor space relaxation because it can be a bit to cool to jump into that water and unless your coming from the upper Midwest or the upper plains 55 degrees is still cold. But for a Chicagoan like myself 55 degrees in January is shorts weather, it just not getting in the pool weather

I've sailed on Anthem four times twice during the cold winter months. The last time I was on Anthem was January 2022 for a 12 night Caribbean cruise and it was cold outside, but Anthem has both indoor and outdoor pools. The solarium is climate controlled and has pools, also on deck 14 behind the solarium there is another indoor pool under the retractable roof which is climate controlled. I noticed NCL has decided to leave one of their ships in Europe for year around cruising. In the colder months the NCL Sun sails out of Portugal and Spain to places in the Canary Islands. I was wondering if and/or when would Royal jump on this there is no reason to bring all your ships home from Europe during the winter. Another thing I noticed is NCL also has a ship sailing out of the Middle East the Jade has spent some time in South Africa and countries along Africa's eastern coast along with Madagascar and Seychelles before heading to the Middle East to visit countries like Oman, Jordan, Egypt, the UAE and Israel then will transit the Suez Canal before begin its Mediterranean season on March 9th. Royal's 2023 Mediterranean season doesn't even begin until mid-April more than a month after NCL's Jade arrival. Personally I love traveling to certain parts of Southern Europe and the Mediterranean during the winter months I don't have to deal with a ton of tourist, its not as hot, thing can be a bit cheaper and overall I have much more enjoyable experience. If Royal were to leave a ship in Southern Europe and sail from Europe year around I certainly would change my yearly winter cruise (which I normally take either in January or February) from the Caribbean to Southern Europe.

Which then raises the question where is Anthem going? Is Anthem going to dry dock for maintenance work in early 2025 or is Royal redeploying her elsewhere?