Plumlee2028

Last year when Quantum couldn't go to Skagway in September, and with the engine issues, they canceled the Dawes Glacier portion, I cancelled and switched to the Discovery Princess, which went to Skagway the same day Quantum was going to. The dock could only have 1 large ship at the time, while smaller Holland America and Norwegian ships docked at the other docks in town.

Boarding Apex in 2 and half hours!

Yes, they have a plan for LNG. https://www.portofgalveston.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=209 Carnival Jubilee heads to Galveston this year, it is LNG powered.

I had a similar issue with Celebrity MoveUp this the month. Tried everything (cache, browsers, the works). It said "not eligible for upgrade" but said pending for about 5 weeks. Then I was awarded the bid.

I think it would depend a bit on pricing. Meyer Turku has no more publicly announced ships after Icon 3 in 2026, so their order book may be open. If Oasis 7 is substantially cheaper to build (hundreds of millions) then they may go that route. Otherwise, I would think they would be talking with Meyer group about Icon 4. May depend on other factors as well, such as if they decide to start negotiating for a replacement for Vision class (not a 1 for 1, but non-icon sized ships where the tonnage replaces vision class). The other factor is the yard building Oasis at this point also builds Celebrity Edge class so the group could make decisions as well and not exercise that option, but build another Edge class. Jason Liberty has mentioned potential orders are in the backs of their minds so its possible we learn some details this year. That said, From 2021-2026 Royal is adding/added 1 Quantum class (Odyssey), 2 Oasis (Wonder/Utopia), and 3 Icon class. That is a lot of new capacity to add in a 6 year span with so far only Majesty and Empress departing the fleet.

I have a hard time buying in to the MSC terminal. I know they announced the LOA to look at doing it, but MSC doesn't have the best recent track record on this, that's why Royal is getting basically half a terminal extra in Miami. They've generally struck me as a company big on press and announcements and quietly let the follow through lapse a bit. This would be a big investment well outside their normal client base. I know they want to build up their US customer base, but they haven't done so yet, and going straight into a new port with a custom terminal would be...unusual. Fort Lauderdale is getting some growth too. Princess will have larger ships there in the winter and Royal keeps the Short cruises there in the winter which pumps out a lot of passengers as well as a Winter Oasis class. The article on Port Canaveral stated Florida Ports forecasts about 5.2 million passengers for 2027. Galveston's big advantage is that the big players (Royal and Carnival) each keep large ships there year round (2 for Royal, 3 for Carnival). Fort Lauderdale slows down a lot in the summer. Im not sure what Royal Group has guaranteed Port Everglades for passengers, but with their Miami Guarantees, Celebrity will have to be part of that. While their terminal in Port Everglades will be their primary, they will im sure also operate lots of sailings from Miami, impacting Port Everglades. It will be an interesting tug of war for a while.

Winters in Galveston are going to get that much busier: Carnival is following in Royal's direction of having a smaller (relative to their fleets) ship operate longer voyages in the winter with Miracle doing 9-12 day sailings. https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ship-operations/carnival-adds-fourth-galveston-ship-offering-longer-cruises So the winters have Royal with 3 ships: Allure or Harmony (7 nights) Adventure or Voyager (4/5 Nights) Radiance or Jewel (9-12ish nights) Carnival is going to 4: Jubilee replaces Vista on 7 nights Breeze (4/5 Nights) Dream (6/8 Nights) Miracle (9-12 Nights) Princess has Ruby Princess this year and Regal Princess next year NCL has Prima next winter and then Breakaway (or getaway?) the following winter Disney does their winter ops MSC is knocking as well.

Its not uncommon to change classes once they start. Celebrity stretched Edge and Apex with beyond and now Ascent in a similarly large increase. Freedom class at Royal is a stretched and enhanced Voyager class realistically (If I remember, marketing may have called it "ultra-voyager" or some such back in the day). The next round of Prima class will have around 300 more people, not to dissimilar from the Edge/Apex to Beyond/Ascent comparison. Prima is pretty big for the number of passengers it holds. I think they have realized they can have more passengers for similar operating costs without changing the desired customer experience. (the redesign costs were surprisingly high to me. I dont know anything about that, just stuck out as large).

Summit is usually Terminal G, that is the only place I ever see Celebrity at Miami.

I really enjoyed the new menus last month. It was the first week Oasis had them, and the overall food consistency/quality was the best I could remember in a while (at least since the restart). It also cut around 15-20 minutes off the time of the meal, getting to around an hour or so. Royal Caribbean has not in recent years had the reputation of the best food in their class. Repeating the same processes over and over doesn't make sense, when they can identify methods to improve the product and the costs associated with it. There's still lots of choice, and the classics are still there, they are just not labelled as such. Most of them can be found on multiple nights. I was much happier with the menus that the past ones. They did well in my opinion.

Enjoy!

I stayed in 11329 last month. Watched the entire aquatheatre show with the slide not blocking the view at all. Great room. Not much noise from the boardwalk or top deck (except during the aqua show. Good Views as well out the back. Attached PDFs of pictures...heading to work and it didn't seem to like my attempts at embedding photos... Boardwalk Balcony.pdf Show.pdf

They believe the value gap of cruise to land based is "too good, too much value." So prices will go up. If your ships are at 100% occupancy despite being moved into less markets because one of your profitable markets is closed, then you have to raise prices. As others have said, there's still some pretty good values out there and fair prices. As I usually have internet, drink package, etc, I have found cruising on Celebrity or Princess is better for me at this point with their bundled fares. Went on Oasis last month, dont have another Royal cruise booked, but have 2 on Celebrity and waiting for North American Sun Princess sailings. That said, after being on Oasis (really enjoyed it) I do know I would be just as happy on Adventure, or Radiance, or whatever which adds more options to find interesting itineraries at good prices.

I was on that cruise, Oasis 15-22. Didn't bother me other than a "Oh Man, I wanted to try that." For specific dining functionalities, as many on that cruise likely chose to partake in, Solarium Bistro is probably the best one to close. MTD was a little bad the first night, but the rest of the week I never waited more than 15 minutes or so. Sometimes the service inside was a little chaotic, but I did actually think the speed was faster with the new menus for the number of passengers.

They had a few this winter, but no other plans.

Pants were quite comfortable on the sun deck yesterday of Oasis leaving Miami today. Bringing some lighter long sleeves onto Coco Cay today. Weather looks great though, just a little cool in the morning.

The only poor experience I have had with my time dining was on Adventure back in November 2021. The ship had just returned from a Drydocking after the Nassau season. I was on the first sailing back, so obviously that service was excellent with only 1000 aboard. The sailing in November, it seemed like the occupancy increase ran past a staffing increase to me (at least in the dining room). Just generally more frazzled. A Head Waiter (who we had on the first sailing that year) told us that very few reservations were made the first two nights, throwing off the program, but it was still slower service than usual, with all the waiters running like crazy. The last few nights of that cruise were fine with the usual quick seating and great service. Usually the wait is a couple of minutes in my experience. Ill see on Oasis next week.

Im doing the seven colors lagoon there in a couple weeks. My Costa Maya excursions did not show up until about 30 days before sailing. The other stops were earlier.

The China possibility has some legs with some competitive moves. Carnival's new company, Adora, is building ships in China and has a few ships now (2 previous costa, 1 new build coming, more new builds on the way). However they are still upstart and the capacity isn't there yet. Costa has basically left. Carnival not only moved Costa back, but has taken that capacity out of the Costa brand. Costa's two "built for china" ships are transitioning to Carnival and another costa ship moved to carnival. They are going to sell two more Costa ships this year. They have cut that brand in half and are likely focusing on the Med and French, Italian, and other European cruisers. Princess, which started some China operations, seems content to focus on Japan for their Far East operations. Norwegian, with the Joy, gave up before Covid even existed. Be interested to see if Utopia ends up with some Wonder changes like the more blocked off Aqua theater, closed in Solarium, etc that were added for the climate in Asia during construction.

Finally got a Solstice Class Booked, and now 2 planned Celebrity sailings to only 1 Royal. After Oasis of the Seas next January, got Apex in April 2023 and Relection to the ABC islands in April 2024. That'll at least give me all of the classes on Celebrity.

We'll say it was all your doing, so thank you! lol

They opened up a lot of excursion options in Costa Maya finally.

It said week of the 12th. They still have a few more days. Celebrity released theirs yesterday FWIW. Royal may do today, tomorrow, or Friday.

Yes they do. Celebrity has a cruise planner just like Royal. (Same look and feel). Celebrity will run sales as well. They have been running one, so excursions are a bit extra discounted now too. Just like Royal, depending on how far out your sailing is, they may add more excursions as it gets a bit closer. That said, my very recent experience is Celebrity's have been available a bit further out, but that just may be my specific cases.

I am as well. Its very odd. The five listed are unimpressive as well (and largely sold out). I am hoping to go out to the lagoon, and that's far enough away I would prefer to do it through the cruise line.