Atricks

Matt posted an article touching on it (And the new free airport transfers), but the vehicle traffic coming in and out of Miami port traffic has shot up in the last month or so, mainly because of the brand new MSC terminal right next to Royal's being opened up. Saturday April 12th is the first sailing of their new World America ship, which is also the same day Icon is leaving and is about the size of an Oasis class ship (capacity of 6,762 passengers, icon has 7600) along with all the other ships using the rest of the older terminals. It just means traffic is about guaranteed to be beyond horrible getting out there (Regardless of bus, uber, taxi, or driving in yourself) and can't really be compared to past months before the new terminal was opened. MSC Seaside is also using the new terminal (around 5100 capacity). If you are heading out there on a weekend Just pack your patience and get there before checkin (maybe even aim for 45-60 minutes before, it could take that long just getting to the terminal once on dodge island), it may be a good while before anything significant improves getting around on the weekend embarkation/debarkation days.

Just a heads up for anyone going to Roatan in the near future, all the sloth, monkey, parrot & animal holding excursions are no longer allowed. (As of March 1st) The animal parks and sanctuaries on the island who are properly licensed to have these animals will be able to keep them. However, visitors will not be able to hold or handle the wildlife, such as the sloths. Island guests will be able to still observe the wildlife and also take a Sloth Selfie, but no longer hold the animals. I'd assume more particulars will be known over the future.

For New Years eve on Oasis of the Seas, this just dropped for seats during the "ball drop" on new years eve. I'm sure it's similar on other ships. We've never been on a new years cruise before (this one we got from when thanksgiving Freedom was "Cancelled" for dry dock as an alternate choice with no price change, we typically don't book over Christmas break. The Schooner Bar Balcony table is more than what we paid for the original cruise.) Standing room is available, but just to give an idea for how it is just for seats along the promenade/Schooner that are typically just open for anyone to use. Curious how it is for other ships, especially Icon, over NYE. There are multiple NYE parties going on in different venues, but it appears the promenade is the "biggest one"

Old Diamond lounge location is now more staterooms, and they also chopped off some of Adventure ocean to add more staterooms, not sure if they did it elsewhere. But honestly that's kind of lame.

In front of the bridge is usually intentionally dark so that the bridge crew can see ahead clearly. The wings off the solarium (in front of Adventure ocean) are a good choice on the Oasis ships, or aft deck 5 under the aquatheater if you can't get there. On Voyager/Freedom class, the no question answer is the helipad.

Here's a new interview with Craig regarding how Royal responds to hurricanes, also first place I heard they had two full time meteorologists at Royal now.

Rail from this point in Cocoa to the Port itself has been discussed in the past, but there's a bunch of environmental concerns about expanding it across Merritt Island. This 10 year old article https://www.floridatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/12/11/controversy-grows-port-canaveral-rail-plan/20245383/ discusses the possibilities, including an option connecting the port with the existing Nasa Railway that's already on the island (but a bit out of the way as it goes through north of titusville) and also building it across from 528. Nasa railway barely ever gets used nowadays, and would be susceptible to blocks when rocket launches are going on, so a new set of bridges across from where the cocoa curve is is probably the best long term plan. I.e. it's come up before, but seems unlikely in the short term.

App now saying Norfolk as well

This story from a local news station in the Hampton Roads area mentions Royal has contacted the Half Moone Cruise Terminal at Norfolk about possibly using it for Vision, but no announcements one way or the other yet. https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/carnival-to-temporarily-move-baltimore-operations-to-norfolk/

Clearance will likely take a least a month (maybe a few weeks if they really pile on). The entire bridge and the cargo ship need to be cleared out. (cargo ship would need to get unloaded first) As for the bridge itself, the closest analog in the Tampa Bay Sunshine Skyway collapse in between Bradenton and St. Pete in 1980 and that didn't reopen until 1987. It'll probably be years before they rebuild a bridge there. One key difference is Skyway had two spans so they just converted the undamaged one into a 2 lane road until the new one was built. Key bridge is gone in both directions. (They potentially may have an opportunity to make it taller to allow the bigger ships.. Bay bridge near Annapolis may still limit that though since it has about the same clearance )

Live feed of the bridge

The entertainment booking options just opened up tonight on our March 16th Icon cruise, and I've not seen mention of this show anywhere. Is this "Effectors 3"? Are we getting the first showing of it on Icon? I just don't know anything about it and haven't heard anything about it (booked it anyway since we were on both Odyssey and Wonder before the Effector shows were ready): Screencap of cruise planner below: (clicking on it provides no further info except times, we reserved the first one day 5 (cozumel) at 7pm)

Wonder, with the giant cowboy hat on the promenade, in Galveston when Star moves in to Port Canaveral seems like the most likely thing.

Saw this interview with Craig with Greg Fishel (retired meteorologist from WRAL TV in Raleigh, NC) Where they discuss the cruises a bit. Craig is a good asset for RC to have.

Ticket sale, may be worth it if you are heading from Orlando to Miami or Port Everglades on a longer cruise: