Jamesszy94

47 minutes ago, Mike.s said:

Seems Royal is only intertested in putting more and more ships on short breaks in the Caribbean, those of us in other regions get what's left over.

I guess because that's their most popular destination as well as CocoCay. What a shame. 

2 minutes ago, Chili said:

The person said only 2 Quantum for the next couple of seasons and they will assess it then.

I don’t know if an oasis can get into Port Kembla but the dock is long enough and there’s LNG there . That’s about the only hope we have ,maybe a LNG ship split between Sydney and Singapore.

Beats having to travel to Brisbane I guess. (isn't Brisbane the only other place in Australia that can fit an Oasis class?).

I actually wouldn't mind if they started doing Sydney > Singapore again, it's been a while and all the cruises we've had for the past few years have been some combination of Australia & New Zealand or the South Pacific.

53 minutes ago, mattymay said:

I think it will be Anthem and Quantum for 25/26, purely based off Alaska ships.

I'm glad I got to sail on Ovation before she goes back to the US then. I guess having Anthem down here would be a nice change of scene, but another Quantum ship? Come on Royal.... give us an Oasis or Freedom class ship... maybe I should book a cruise on Brilliance before she too inevitably goes back to the US.

Meanwhile... we're stuck with Pacific Explorer, Encounter and Adventure (don't get me wrong, these are by no means bad ships) but they're basically old Princess ships. And I guess we also have Luminosa and Splendor - but these hardly count as Mega-ships. I just wish there was a new ship built solely for Australia and to call Australia home..

Well... their sister company Celebrity has "Expedition" vessels which sails the Galapagos... 

Maybe if Royal ever wanted to get into the exotic location market, they could make smaller Expedition vessels and sail to places like the Kimberley, Galapagos to name a few. But I guess Royal is the more family-oriented fun cruise line and Celebrity is the luxury-destination oriented one. 

On 10/31/2023 at 10:02 AM, Chili said:

I have been chatting with someone very senior from Royal Caribbean Sydney just recently.(who asked to not to use their name)

I asked about a second ship for Sydney next season and the response was quite shocking.

They said because of carbon emissions Royal won’t have a third ship in Australia.

Royal has to reduce its emissions as a company as a whole and because itineraries in Australia have long distances and high fuel burns. Australia is is a unattractive market.

Brillance ,being an older ship will go back to the U.S and do short runs with more port days .as to keep emissions down.

Unless there’s a newer fuel source like biofuel or a gas in Australia,there’s no plans for more ships.

So that doesn’t sound good for us and especially Lelepa.

So that only leaves us with Ovation in Sydney and Quantum in Brisbane then?

There goes our hopes of getting an Oasis class..

Symphony? Spectrum? Serenade?

Royal aren't obligated to do anything. They could sail into an active conflict zone, but they chose not to because they clearly chose to put the safety of the ship, the crew and the guests first. If you don't like the new destinations and it's a make or break for you, you can always cancel

Can Royal Caribbean change a cruise itinerary?

Quote

In the event of strikes, lockouts, riots, weather conditions or mechanical difficulties, or for any other reason whatsoever, Royal Caribbean® may, at any time and without prior notice, cancel, advance, postpone or deviate from any scheduled sailing or port of call and may, but is not obliged to, substitute another ship or port of call and shall not be liable for any loss whatsoever to guests by reason of such cancellation, advancement, postponement, deviation or substitution. Royal Caribbean® shall not be responsible for any failure to adhere to the arrival and departure times published in this brochure for any of its ports of call.

The apple never rots far from the tree. Unfortunately, some kids just can't be taught because their parents act the same way. It's just the reality we live in these days when things like Twitter (X), TikTok, Vaping etc exist. Best we can do is just report it and let security deal with it. 

17 hours ago, Tony Crawford said:

I about flipped out when I saw this this morning!  Unfortunately, I can't make the maiden for Icon, but there's no way I miss the maiden for Star!

So exciting!  Only one more question... What's next after Star of the Seas???  I'm BEGGING for an Oasis or Icon class to hit the West coast!

I thought they were done with Oasis after Utopia, unless you mean one of the current Oasis goes to the West Coast.

40 minutes ago, mattymay said:

Cool... now drop the Icon prices because it's not new anymore 

Realistically, how much would they even drop

19 hours ago, JB17 said:

This will also further complicate abbreviations - SotS could now refer to Serenade, Symphony, Spectrum, or Star.

Easy

SeOTS, SpOTS, SyOTS and StOTS..

Or we can just call them Serenade, Symphony, Spectrum and Star

The other two ships (Liberty and Adventure) that were scheduled to be amplified don't have star next to their names 

I was having a look at the 2024 Royal Caribbean fleet on their website...

There's a star next to Allure and Explorer (a star means means they've been upgraded)... but none next to Liberty and Adventure..

Is this a mistake or am I missing something? 

First time I sailed on Ovation - the seas were pretty good until the last few days when we were nearing Malaysia/Singapore - that's when it started rocking, but it wasn't too bad

When I sailed on her again in March this year, the rocking was much more noticeable, I actually did get sick one day this time around - normally I'm not too bad with motion sickness, but I don't know why this time it was particularly bad.

When I sailed on Pacific Eden (a MUCH smaller ship, even smaller than Grandeur at about 55,000 GT) you could feel the ship rocking MUCH more and a lot of people got sea sick 

I couldn't find plane tickets for 2025, so I inputted 2024... but usually it's around the same price right? 10k for flights + cruise and this isn't even including hotels when we get to Florida  (Australian Dollars)

I'm sailing on Disney Wonder next year, and it was about $12,000 for a 3 night sailing for 5 adults and 2 young children. I booked because we'd never tried Disney and wanted to take my niece and nephew on board....and to be honest, it's not surprising, since it's the Disney brand. (Also this is the first time Disney Cruise Line has sent ships down to Australia)

But Icon sailings 2 or 3 years later still being 8k+ for two people is insane. 

On 9/13/2023 at 6:57 PM, Chili said:

We try to upstage Brisbane,you though there cruise terminal is a mess just wait for port Kembla.

 

I mean... Brisbane have already upstaged us (at least for the moment) by having a port that can fit an Oasis-class ship (now if only Royal would send one down our way)  At the moment, Brisbane is our best bet, and I don't think Port Kembla will be complete for at least another 3-5 years

5 hours ago, Chili said:

I’ve been following Vanuatu media and not a word of Lelepa. I even emailed the local paper and they haven’t heard anything. 
 

We might have a new cruise terminal for Sydney ,not the most desirable as it’s about a hour or more from Sydney.

I don’t know how big a ship it could take but Celebrity solstice has been there .

 

https://cruisepassenger.com.au/news/australian-cruisers-could-sail-out-of-wollongong-while-foreigners-enjoy-our-harbour-views/

I would rather travel 1 hour to Wollongong than have to travel 6 hours (by car) to Brisbane if it meant we could get an Oasis class ship down here. 

But also, 1 hour to Wollongong would be much preferable than having to get on a plane and worry about delays, lost luggage etc.

The 18 repositioning cruise from Honolulu to Sydney is very tempting and has a lot of destinations I want to visit

What should I expect - for those who have been on one

Do I need a visa? Since Hawaii is part of the US

There's also a 17 night one on Brilliance.

It irks me when people call them "boats"  (I kid I kid) - I don't really care.

I believe Matt from RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com ( ) made a video about the differences between each Oasis-class ship.

Give it a watch and see.

From what I understand, most of the Oasis-class ships are pretty similar re: things to do on board, except Allure, since she didn't get her amplification.

On 6/24/2023 at 6:32 AM, Thumper44 said:

Thank you for this.  The Voyager class has the best set of names (as a group) in my opinion.  It's a shame there's not more of them.  And it's a shame that the other classes don't have this kind of clear, cohesive kind of naming scheme.

Good job!

Maybe if they ever run out of names or they need a new class of ships - they can use these ones and call it the Voyager Ultra class or something.. or the Surveyor class.

You have to remember, Enchantment of the Seas was built back in 1995 - She's 27 years old, of course she's not going to be in top shape or as new and pristine as her sisters like Harmony, Symphony and Wonder. But it doesn't mean that Royal Caribbean is purposefully neglecting her. 

My family and I are going on Disney in January, 3 nights on the Disney Wonder (a 24 year old ship) and we still almost had to pay upwards of $10,000. But it's Disney so I'm not surprised. On my recent cruise I was speaking with the NextCruise person and was discussing cruising in Australia and how for the past 2-3 years, Royal has offered the same itineraries without changing anything and she said yeah it's unfortunate and she hopes that Royal changes up their itinerary for the 2024-2025 season.

It's a combination of:

• New Zealand
• South Pacific cruises
• 3 days cruises to nowhere
• Transpacific or repositioning cruises
• Cruises around Australian cities

If Royal want to increase their prices - fine, but personally I think they should also consider other destinations/ports around the world to justify the price increase. Just my two cents . I see so many cruise specials or last minute deals for Quantum sailing out of Brisbane and I click on them and half the rooms are unsold.... (okay, maybe not half, that's an over exaggeration, but it's still a lot unsold)

I mean it's completely understandable things have changed, especially considering the world is very much still going through a pandemic (as much as we hate to admit), things won't go back to "normal" for at least 5-10 years and even then, who knows if we'll ever go back to what it was like pre-pandemic. I don't cruise nearly as much as other people here, but from my experience, I didn't really notice a decline in quality in anything, the staff were all still very nice, lovely and polite, and the food was all very good (except on one night). Everyone has different experiences though, my dad absolutely loved the cruise (it was his first time on a RCI ship)

44 minutes ago, twangster said:

I've sailed Allure a number of times but in more recent times twice since the restart.  Still a great ship.  

I'm secretly hoping they don't add the purple monster but if they do it'll still be a great ship.  

I honestly like that Allure is the only one without all the fancy slides and all the post-Amplification stuff, it's what makes her unique and stand out from the other Oasis class ships!

I know it's supposed to be a joke, but Enchantment isn't even that small, if I remember correctly, she's the largest of the Vision class ships. Icon is only about 65 metres longer than her... okay, sure, she's 3x larger in terms of gross tones, but Enchantment was built 26 years ago....