NoobCruise

18 minutes ago, GatorCruiser said:

No packed antacids ? That’s an epic pack fail. We bring a pharmacy with us when we sail. You just never know when you’ll need various items. 

You Sir are correct. While this was just our third cruise I normally travel with all the requisite traveler pharmaceuticals. Having not suffered from a stomach acid problem for years I thought I would be fine. What I failed to realize is that I don't live next to a Lemon Post bar, and after a few days of sweet and sour drinks my stomach was wrecked.

Another epic fail was Royals failure to charge me $40 for a $6 dollar roll of Tums. There simple wasn't any antacids in their singular essential store. It wasn't like they were out of stock of it there just wasn't any place for it. They had Pepto tablets (not the bottles) and Akaseltzers but zero antacids. Very strange.

5 hours ago, PhillyLady said:

Okay, there has certainly been a lot of hype about this ship, and a colleague (adult) is doing a back-to-back with her mother (senior) this Fall, so I was somewhat interested in learning more about the huge new Icon. 

 

Thanks for watching.

We did do some adult only type things but not much. A great comedy show. I hung out at dueling pianos which was great as well but I say I hung out there because I couldn't actually enter it was so crowded. I just stood outside the venue but it was smartly designed to have a bar there for expected overflow. Other than that not much adult evening type stuff except the casino. We were both so beat at the end of the day my wife went to bed at the same time as our 6 year old.. I probably should have said at the beginning of the review that it is geared towards family's with young kids. I met plenty of people on the ship without their kids who were loving the ship. It is not like it is bad for adults in any way (unless you live and die by the Solarium) it is just great for kids my son's age.

The spa and the shopping are first class as one might expect. I just didn't use the spa or do any shopping other than some Icon swag and a failed search for antacid medication. 

We sailed on Icon on Feb 24. Since then I have spent way too may hours creating a video review of our cruise. Yes it only took 2 months.  It's geared for family with kids.

Please watch the review if watching YouTube videos about cruises is your thing.

Spoiler alert: ... we liked it?

1 hour ago, DoomSlayer said:

This has not been my experience.  I have booked GTY Ocean View balconies which are guaranteed not to be boardwalk or central park balconies.  I usually book these by calling into the casino desk to book and not booking online.  I am pretty sure you can do the same by calling into the regular reservation line too.

I wish that was the case in my attempted booking. I would book a GTY $5300 icon room in a second if i knew I would get an ocean view room.

7 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

It depends upon the type guarantee you have.  A neighborhood balcony can be any balcony including Central Park, Boardwalk or ocean view.  An ocean view balcony can only be an ocean view balcony -no CP or Boardwalk.

Thanks WAAYTOOO but I don't think I was ever given an option for ocean or neighborhood. We are pricing Icon cruises next year and if I am remembering correctly once I selected the category of balcony it gave me two options pick your room (which i guess would be type of balcony as well) and a guarenteed balcony with no further options.

Does a guaranteed balcony really mean that you could get an ocean view, or a central park, or royal promenade, or boardwalk? Is it just me or is that a ridiculous amount of variance? It seems like quite the gamble. Assume that you won't get an ocean view I guess? Is royal promenade any better than an interior room?

On 10/31/2023 at 11:12 PM, Morris Family said:

Well this seems interesting. 3 ships at cococay on the same day! And one is a icon class, and one is an oasis class. That's like close to 17k people lol. Wonder whose itinerary will be changed. Look at the attachment from cruisemapper.com

That is certainly interesting. I have been to CocoCay twice in the past couple of years and both times our ship was the only ship there that day. I guess that streak will come to an end.

1 hour ago, TheMaxRebo said:

noticed in this overhead shot you can see the dry slide that is on Deck 16 - looks like it just also follows a staircase down one flight

 

That's some eagle eye pixel peeping. I am not sure that's a real picture of the ship, not that it matters. If it's on the deck plans I am sure it will be there.

11 minutes ago, ScottD said:

Nice..so it's basically a slide right next to the stairs! That's pretty cool

There is going to be a lot of drunk dads going down this slide. I predict this get closed before the end of the year.

31 minutes ago, Keanoknick said:

I went from less than 100 points to over 2500 in one night on Allure back in June, bank roll was less than $2500.   

One night!  A man can dream!

Found it! Maybe. This looks like a slide to me. 

I personally am all for having more slides and fewer staircases. 

2 minutes ago, tonyfsu21 said:

Yeah the show is no good. The only redeeming feature of the show is the contortionist. They should have saved a few bucks and just made this guy an elevator feature like the mobile piano player. 

LoL. I will politely disagree. I don't want to be anywhere near these separated shoulders or dislocated joints.

Since I posted this message I have seen the show in person, and while I am ashamed to admit initially I did try to cover my 5 year olds eyes during the bone breaking I quickly realized it would draw more attention to it. It was fine. Maybe the bone breaking was toned down after launch or maybe since my boy enjoyed it I cared less about it. There were definitely noticable "ooohs" from the audience (for lack of a better word) in disgust at certain moments. All that said I would see the show again. 

It's pretty lame and I found the shirtless gymnast far more offensive than the bone breaker. I didn't appreciate the show being wordless.

On 7/30/2023 at 5:49 AM, CHRIS WONG said:

Are you Prime, Signature, or Masters?

I am hoping to go from Zero to Prime during the week of Feb 24th! 

12 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

Too busy to spend 2 minutes to check?

Estimated room total for 2 guests: $1645.62 USD

If he booked it I thought it would be top of mind. Jeez

3 hours ago, CruisingSteve said:

This won't last long. Better hurry if you want it. I've never seen Wonder prices this low before

 

After the Royal math how much does that work out to with taxes and port fees for 2 adults?

Nice work.

Basically this means for me if you drink cocktails the drink package makes sense since you typically only have to drink 6 drinks a day to break even.

If you drink beer, or seltzer then you are up to 10 a day and that might not make sense for many people.

4 minutes ago, steverk said:

In my experience,  I enter my c&a number and state when I'm entering the number of people in the cabin. It adjusts the price then.

For me it (RC website) always asks me the number of state rooms, then the number of adults and kids on a page before your pick your room type, once you pick a room type, you get to the page with the price and your names, sex, address, etc and the price never changes for me on that page anymore.

When it comes to pricing a RC cruise on their website I swear I use to remember that sometimes the price would change when (fake) checking out and get lower, when you added your Crown and Anchor number and sometimes it would go lower when you would add your state residence if it was a state that RC operated out of like New Jersey.

I ask because for at least the last six months or so when pricing dozens and dozens of cruises the price never has gone lower when you add your C&A # or state of residence.

What's going on here? Did they stop these discounts? Or are they adding them in after you have actually paid? Very confusing.

15 hours ago, steverk said:

Price gouging is usually defined as charging higher prices at times when people have no choice but to purchase your product.  For example, a gas station charging $10 per gallon just before a hurricane.

Last time I booked a cruise it was by my own choice. 

I'd call this pricing the ship out of the market.  My guess, it will come down within the first year of operation. 

Agreed about the falling prices. They will never site any numbers but early bookings on Star will be a fraction of what Icon did. And I wouldn't hold your breath for another press release touting record breaking sales or demand as royal did in the wake of Icon's sales.

As for the definition of price gouging what you cited was the illegal form of price gouging. What Royal is doing is a cash grab which is certainly price gouging.

1 hour ago, OCSC Mike said:

What they've done historically and what you would prefer does not mean that's what they feel is the best strategy right now. They are doing what they feel will maximize short and long-term profits... as they should.

It's price gouging and is generally considered a bad business practice because it alienates your customer base.

8 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Why would they start low/reasonable? They can always drop prices later if they feel they're not selling enough cabins at the current rates. These cruises are over 18 months out.

Because historically you get the best prices on the first day they are offered. This is a huge shift in their business practice.

2 hours ago, putinbay said:

Completely agree. These prices are absostingylutely crazy. Our Icon cruise for March of '24 that we booked way back in October of '22 has increased in price 3 fold. Yup, you read that right! A 300% price increase! This will be the last Royal cruise for us. 

I get the Icon pricing. They started low or reasonable and then skyrocketed because it's the first new ship class in a decade. A new class ship with new bells and whistles matter when it comes to demand. I don't get the Star pricing. On the first day of booking the prices didn't start out reasonable and then skyrocketed, they started out already skyrocketed. A two year out Feb 2026 ocean view balcony was nearly 6 grand.  More than a $1k more expensive they our similar Icon cruise we purchased weeks if not months after launch for $4,400. It's not a new class of ship, there is already an Icon so there will be no major wow factory or new demand. Yet they expected more demand? and priced it like it would have more demand? Makes no sense to me. What's the second or third Oasis ship? I don't know. No one cares.

On 12/4/2023 at 12:27 PM, tonyfsu21 said:

Oh, it matters. The only way to get even a hint of decency regarding price is to book out to 2025 at this point. In two days we are going to book Star for Thanksgiving 25 because that one is going to get a bit crazy regarding pricing if you hold off. 

How did the early Star pricing work out for you?