EnSeven

If the pricing wasn't so high, it'd be easier to swallow, but South Pacific again... for basically a carbon copy of a ship we've had for the past 7 years is ridiculous. And an older carbon copy at that..

Seeing these itineraries and the deluded pricing attached to them is like seeing a boyfriend you've been thinking about breaking up with and he turns up with a man bun...yeaaaaah naaaaaah

Seeing these itineraries and the deluded pricing attached to them is like seeing a boyfriend you've been thinking about breaking up with and he turns up with a man bun...yeaaaaah naaaaaah

Seeing these itineraries and the deluded pricing attached to them is like seeing a boyfriend you've been thinking about breaking up with and he turns up with a man bun...yeaaaaah naaaaaah

They are 100% final!

I like sailing other lines to try something different. 
Royal feels like home compared to other lines but if I never left home, home would get pretty boring. 
I don't have bad cruises on the other lines, they just don't feel like home.
Maybe it's good to try another line if for no other reason than to remind you what line suits you best.

Other cruise lines go to Tonga and Fiji including Celebrity.
Royal tends to stick to Mystery Island, Noumea and sometimes Vila. The itineraries are less diverse than they used to be because some islands never reopened for cruising after Covid, and also some places limit the ship size. Maybe having Voyager/Adventure will provide opportunities for new ports.
Cruises also tend to be shorter now than they used to be with less opportunity to travel further afield. I think it is the cruise ship equivalent to chocolate bar manufacturers who make the chocolate bar slightly smaller each year but still charge the same price.
Also the ships are travelling slower so a port stop that used to take 2 days now takes 3 so the total number of port stops is less.
 

I LOVED Spectrum out of Singapore! The 2 main things I want on a cruise are the outdoor pool in full sun, and the specialty restaurants. On my cruise of majority Asian passengers, it seems what they wanted was indoor solarium and buffet/MDR...so I could always get a primo seat by the pool, and could get a seat at any restaurant with no booking - it was awesome!
What I didn't like was the reconfiguration of large sections of the ship which have been blocked off for suite or VIP guests.

I wonder how many people read this thread yesterday and then we're pointing at cabins on a deck plan going "right wrong right wrong" 😅
I travel solo and just realised i prefer the couch by the balcony. With the door open it almost feels like it extends the space of both the sitting area and the balcony. My last cruise i had a solo cabin with large balcony but no sitting area, and it felt so squishy!

I wonder how many people read this thread yesterday and then we're pointing at cabins on a deck plan going "right wrong right wrong" 😅
I travel solo and just realised i prefer the couch by the balcony. With the door open it almost feels like it extends the space of both the sitting area and the balcony. My last cruise i had a solo cabin with large balcony but no sitting area, and it felt so squishy!

We cruise for the ship experience so we really don’t care where we go.  We have a couple of wish list itins but for the most part, we don’t even look at the itin and rarely get off the ship anymore.  We just completed a 10 night sailing on Vision with 6 ports of call.  We never got off the ship once.

Honestly, I don't see any way to do this, short of trying to find someone in the hallway on embarkation day and asking (which, imo, would be pretty rude and not received very well).

Today we have embarked on our 8-night pacific cruise departing from Brisbane International Cruise Terminal.
For this voyage we are staying in the Royal Loft Suite which is our first star class experience with the amazing Hailey Park as our royal genie. As the cruise falls over Easter the ship is full and there are over 1300 kids on board, and it definitely feels busier than our last cruise on Ovation in October last year.
How did we end up booking the royal loft suite? Well, when cruising was shut down during the Covid years and Royal Caribbean was offering 125% cruise credit for cancelled cruises I booked a cruise and paid in full, waited for the cruise to be cancelled and the 125% cruise credit to be issued. I then booked another cruise and repeated the process until we had accumulated enough cruise credit to book the RLS. As an added bonus it was cheaper than usual as people were weary of booking cruises at that time. Also, as this cruise was booked during the double points promotion, we are getting 4 points for each night sailed.
Sailing on this cruise are Anita and I in the RLS, my parents in a junior suite and Anita's mum and sister in a balcony cabin.
With the royal suite class boarding was a breeze, we were walked all the way through customs and security by a pier genie and we were on board within 15 minutes of arriving at the terminal where we were greeted by Hailey, our royal genie for this cruise, for the first time. She took us straight to our muster station where we completed the e-muster drill requirements.
I had not told Anita we had the RLS booked but I thought she would cotton on when we were boarding bypassing all the normal delays, however while we were waiting at Vintages for our cabin to be ready Anita said to me that our concierge was almost like a royal genie with the personal experience we had received. I realised at this point that Anita still did not know we had a star class cabin booked and the surprise was yet to be revealed.
We were on board the ship by around 11:15am and our cabin was ready at around 11:30am.
Hailey came to collect us and take us to our cabin and even as we took the long walk down the 8th floor corridor to the back of the ship and still Anita had no idea where she was going and what was awaiting her at the end of the corridor.
Hailey handed us our swipe cards and we took our first steps into another world. The cabin was immense and there are no words that can describe the stunning cabin in front of us, from the 8-seat dining table, the expansive balcony with the hot water spa pool, the massive windows for taking in the scenery, the living room and all the space it offers, the media room and second bathroom Then you head upstairs and cross the gantry overlooking the space below to the impressive bedroom, a massive bathroom with a free-standing bath and huge walk-in shower next to it with another small balcony and small jacuzzi.
After having our minds blown Hailey sat down with us and went through the plans for the next eight days and then left us to explore our cabin further and just take in its beauty.
We were just thinking about going to get some lunch when the doorbell rang and there were 4 crew outside bringing us enough food to keep us happy, there was a plate of sushi from Izumi and various snacks for us to indulge in.
By this time the rest of the family were on board (they could have boarded with us, but they had already made their own plans) and they were just as blown away as we were.
We spent an hour or so together in our cabin before they left to go and see their own cabins.
We had organised with Hailey for all 6 of us to go to have a go on the bumper cards. She met us up in the Seaplex and took us to a seated area where we were next to get a turn. Anita and I have done them before, but it was a first for Anita's sister and my dad. They had a great time and while we could have gone again, we decided to save it for another day.
After this everyone retired to their cabins to complete their unpacking and reconvene at 7pm for dinner in the Solarium Bistro which Hailey had booked for us.
Before dinner Anita and I headed to the suite lounge which is in the same location as our cabin but 4 floors up. As there are no lifts towards the aft of the ship there is a bit of a hike going places, especially the suite lounge as you have to walk to midship, go up four levels and then walk back to the rear of the ship again which tends to take 4-5 minutes, but we don't mind. however, If you were less mobile, I can see this being a bit of an issue, likewise the stairs up to the second level in our cabin.
The suite lounge was far less busy than we are accustomed to at 6pm with less than a dozen people in there. We got our drinks and stayed for a short time before heading off for our dinner reservations.  As we were there such a short time, we didn't get to meet the suite concierge during this visit.
We met Hailey outside the Solarium, and she took us through to a table in a more private area of the bistro which we ended up having to ourselves for the night.
The food was nice without being spectacular, but we all enjoyed ourselves and look forward to trying different dining venues during the rest of the cruise.
Hailey had reserved seats for all of us in the Royal Theatre for the comedian who was the entertainment for the first night. Even though we had reserved seats it didn't really matter as the theatre was not very full and we could have found plenty of seats together.
The comedian was just okay, a few funny lines but generally underwhelming, normally he does the adults only show and he seemed to struggle a bit with a family show.
After the show we all felt rather tired and so each went our separate ways so we could catch some zzz's
We are both still on a high from the experience today and look forward to the new few days full of excitement and anticipation. As I get time I will try and add more posts detailing our experiences onboard Quantum.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post, I will definitely post some pictures of the cabin tomorrow once my phone has charged up.

I just sailed Quantum out of Brisbane mid-March.  I had both the actual test strip with the negative result with me and a photo of it. It is still required by Australia (for cruises) and they did check.

A photo will suffice
Cruising From Perth In 2023 | RAC WA

We are on the same sailing. I’ve been to Mystery Island before and it is really just a beach day. It takes about 30 minutes to walk around the island and there is a grass airport in the middle.

I personally wouldn't want to go on a cruise with unlimited alcohol for everyone. I appreciate that I can choose which options I want to include in my cruise price.

Same way millions of people visit Arab countries!
You cant judge everyone because of a few idiots! If we did no one would visit the US due to Trump lol 

I can currently hear the people 4 balconies upwind from me 😞

I can currently hear the people 4 balconies upwind from me 😞

Port Vila and Vanuatu is a lovely place. I once had to go there for work and unexpectedly spent two weeks there. I will say that it's lovely for a day or two, but trying to find a way to keep yourself entertained in off-hours for two weeks is...tricky 🙂  The people are incredible, though. 
As someone from a developing country in Africa, though, the sceptic in me says that Carnival + Royal have enough money to build a decent wharf on their own without using foreign aid that could go to much better causes. But I'll end my opinions there. 

That's great 😁
I looked up my South Pacific cruise and black friday sale has it $900 MORE than what i paid
edit...and i just checked again, now it's $1100 more...lol

Spectrum out of Singapore in Jan 2023 is stopping overnight in both Penang, Malaysia and Phuket, Thailand. I've never had an overnight, I'm so excited!
 

Spectrum out of Singapore in Jan 2023 is stopping overnight in both Penang, Malaysia and Phuket, Thailand. I've never had an overnight, I'm so excited!