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Buzzard

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  1. After years of sailing lots of places other than Coco Cay, I finally made it there last week. While my wife has had no issue with the beach lounge chairs onboard ships, unfortunately the beach chairs we tried at Coco Cay were terrible for her back given they are a completely different style as the backs of the chairs do not seem to be able to be raised as high compared to chairs onboard ships. Does anyone know if all lounge chairs are the same at Coco Cay or could there be a different style somewhere on the island? It would be a shame to have to contemplate an upgrade to the skyrocketing prices now being charged for a few hours in a cabana unless we have no other option for return trips to Coco Cay. Also, are the beach chairs at Labadee the same style as Coco Cay? thanks!
  2. Keep in mind that comment was from April 2022 in reference to sailings during that summer, not this year. I sailed Serenade that year (also end of June 2022 so it could have been the same sailing as the poster took) and had a Suite GTY which ended up being a JS in an aft cabin which I was over the moon at getting, especially for an Alaska cruise on a Radiance class ship. While I don't know about the credibility of 50% occupancy estimate for 2022, obviously that rate isn't being found anywhere even remotely in 2023 which is what I believe you are implying.
  3. I have a December 2023 holiday sailing on Odyssey coming up. Like some others have mentioned, individual restaurants populated in CP just a few days ago, but no dining packages at all. I'm wondering if it could somehow be holiday related (specialty holiday dining options in the specialty restaurants are bookable). Does Royal always make dining packages available at these super peak times or might they be refraining from offering packages due to the additions of the holiday dining specialty options or some other reason? I've never sailed over the holidays so this is uncharted for me.
  4. My last two cruises were on Odyssey and then Explorer. Completely agree with other posters thoughts about just going with the itinerary most appealing to you regardless of ship if that is more important to you. Given you've been on Odyssey, don't expect the more modern bells and whistles or more contemporary decor on Explorer. You can obviously also expect more wear and tear on Explorer as it is 20(ish) years old now. None of this means in any way that Explorer should be a lesser cruise option. Royal typically does a nice job with keeping older vessels clean and functioning well even if they look a bit out of date. You'll notice Explorer looks dated before you even step foot on it given the lack of glass on the balconies. That said I certainly enjoyed both vessels and suspect you will as well if you are OK with the ship being a bit dated and a little smaller than Odyssey.
  5. I had an Odyssey sailing in August 2022 (Greek Isles also) cancelled due to the ship being chartered as well. It was chartered for a gay cruise. As others have indicated these things do happen. We were only mildly inconvenienced as we were able to move the booking to the preceding sailing and the cancellation occurred prior to airfare being bookable (so just over a year away from sail date). Our biggest hassle was changing our vacation rental home in Rome to the new dates, which occurred at a significantly higher price given the original rental was on sale due to Covid prior to things picking up. That said, it's the hassle of airfare, particularly if travelling a long distance which is likely the most frustrating aspect of sudden changes due to charters. I'm guessing that most of the time these cancellations occur a year or more prior to sailing, but not always. With bookings at or near record levels might the cruise lines have less (financial) incentive to book charters unless during off season? The almighty bottom line will always win the day so my guess is they won't have more incentive if they can simply get ever higher fees from companies booking the charter. Generally speaking, anyone have any opinion when reservations become fairly "safe" from being cancelled due to a charter? I suspect there is no concrete answer.
  6. My first reaction was this is a cost saving move as well regarding last cruise night vouchers not resetting at midnight. I doubt it will impact me as it's not uncommon for me to have unused vouchers some nights and I never am out and about after midnight on the last night of the cruise.
  7. Completely agree with other posters regarding ship class / size / features influencing which city to choose if that is important to anyone. That said, I think one aspect which to me seems overlooked is the Canadian portion of the inside passage. Ships sailing from Vancouver get to see this part, while sailings out of Seattle skip it and sail up the western edge of Vancouver Island in the open ocean. Maybe it was the fantastic, warm, sunny weather on my sailing in late June (Serenade) but I think the scenery on this part of the sailing was spectacular. I enjoyed the views just as much there as anywhere in Alaska, aside from Hubbard.
  8. I've used this device as well on a couple recent cruises without any issue. It's very compact and if you plug it into the European outlet on the ship will give you even more outlets available via the US outlets. As an aside, however, I thought it amusing that on my just concluded voyage on Serenade the Lavazza machine in our suite was hooked up by (you guessed it!)... a staff supplied extension cord given it was located nowhere near an outlet. I'm not saying this to justify brining one on the ship, just as an observation.
  9. I'm just about to get off Serenade. Happy I did not see this post until today . Was at Hubbard June 30th and heard fellow passengers the next day commenting that the ship did not get as close to the glacier as they had on previous cruises. Perhaps this had something to do with their observation. Was lucky my better half insisted on booking the Hubbard excursion to get close to the glacier. It was pricey but an absolutely fantastic day and one of my all time cruising highlights. Weather was perfect which of course helped.
  10. I love Oasis class ships. They are, by far, my favorite class of ship although I've only been on the older Oasis class ships (Allure & Oasis). I'm clamoring to get on one of the newer Oasis class ships to check them out. The neighborhood design makes them ideal for whenever I want quiet time or time to seek activities which, I think, is the concept that appeals to many other people. The breadth of options of things to do really appeals to me. In fact, I love Oasis class ships so much that since the cruising re-start my trips have been / will be Navigator, Serenade and Odyssey (twice)! Hmmm, in retrospect maybe I need to re-think how I'm going about my booking strategy . In my partial defense, Symphony was a covid casualty in 2020. Anyway, can't wait to get back on an Oasis class at some point.
  11. Our room was revealed today by Royal and the QR code reader totally nailed it (well almost). Room number was accurate (the final 4 digits) but I'll go out on a limb and guess the deck might be a little off, unless Royal suddenly has ships going to deck 80.
  12. Thanks so much for sharing this. I have a GTY Suite upcoming for a June sailing and see what seems to be an aft Jr. suite by using this trick. Fingers crossed.
  13. When you are on Royal's homepage, look near the top right corner of the screen. Near that area you will see which country specific version of Royal's website you are using and give you the ability to choose a different country if needed. Prices should then be displayed in the currency of whatever country is listed. As Vancity Cruiser mentioned, prices in CAD will be noted when you are looking at the pricing pages if you are logged into the Canadian version of Royal's website (which should be the case if you are accessing Royal's website from a Canadian location).
  14. Douglas is just a more obscure (i.e. formal) name for the Peace Arch Crossing. Pac Highway and Douglas / Peace Arch are just a few miles from each other. Most folks who are not familiar with the area just stay on Interstate 5 which takes them straight to Douglas / Peace Arch. Many locals will take an exit as they approach Blaine (last town in WA) to take the Pac Highway border crossing (it's doubles as a general port of entry and the truck crossing) as it sometimes can have a lower wait time than Douglas / Peace Arch and then drive back over to the freeway (Interstate 5 becomes highway 99 once in B.C.). Wait times of course are very subjective. They are listed on I-5 as you approach the border but that will be of little use given you will have already specified your port of entry in Arrive Can. Bottom line: You might find a quicker entry via Pac Highway, but it's not guaranteed. Douglas / Peace Arch is the most direct route (even though Pac Highway is only a few miles away) for those who want to keep it as simple as possible.
  15. I'm wondering if there's really any meaningful difference in speed between surf and stream given your experiences with it. I mean if Surf really is slower than Stream, is there really any ability for things to get even slower than you've had with Stream? Makes an old school dial up connection seem lightning fast...
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