J_Keeble

Anything is possible at this point.
It is almost certain Royal will deploy all new ship builds where they they will maximize revenue.  I think Royal tends not to put very much weight on factors such as which market is being served by a new ship for emotional considerations and guest sentiment.  When they consider all things it will come down to how much money they project a ship will earn.  If deployment choice A means more certainty of assured revenue over deployment choice B then it will be deployment choice A.
Things like "a new ship hasn't been deployed in XYZ market in years" mean very little to Royal while guests in market XYZ let emotions influence where they think the ship should go.  Royal cares about money first as they should.  The board and investors who approved the ship want their investment maximized.  
If it is Barcelona then it is Barcelona because they feel it was the best choice to assure maximum revenue.  

More importantly Edge class goes through the Panama Canal.

This is getting around, don’t know how genuine it is .
 

A wrap-up of our last few days on our cruise:
After the Noumea stop, the headliner show that night was a hypnotist called Shane St James. The show was very funny and family-friendly. He called for volunteers to be hypnotised, and there was a stampede of people to the stage.


The following day, our final port stop was Mystery Island in Vanuatu, a place we have visited several times. The facilities on the uninhabited island are fairly basic, featuring white sand beaches, shallow-water snorkeling, and market stalls in the centre of the island. Locals also offer boat tours for viewing turtles, snorkelling, and exploring in glass-bottom boats.

Mystery Island is a tender port, so passengers who wished to get off early required tender tickets. We elected to get off in the afternoon, avoiding queues for the tenders, and it was a 10-minute trip to the jetty on the island.



It was a very hot day, so we decided to walk around the island and then return to the ship. There is a sandy track that runs around the perimeter of the island, and there is also a grass runway down the centre of the island, built by Americans during World War II when the island held strategic importance.



There are some half-day beds that can be hired for $159 AUD, which also include a massage. The day beds can be rented prior to the cruise and may sell out, so I recommend booking in advance. Be aware, these are very basic day beds, so do not expect CocoCay quality facilities.

Many of the passengers who had come over early had already returned to the ship, so the tender queue was short, and we were soon on our way back to the ship.
Dinner was at Jamie’s Italian, and the food and service were great.


The final couple of days before returning to Brisbane were sea days, with the sea having a bit of a swell, causing the ship to pitch more than usual. The pool was closed, so it was fun to watch the pool slowly empty itself of water.

Dinner was in Coastal Kitchen, which included lobster night. The lobster was nice, but I thought the portion size was less than generous. Our CK server recommended we also order the scallops as an additional main, as it was a very small meal. We both took up the offer, and I agree if this was the only main ordered, you would come away still feeling hungry.

I had eaten one and half scallops before I took this photo but this was the whole main dish.

On our final sea day, we were joined by Willie in the suite lounge and had a very enjoyable conversation that ended all too quickly as we had a dinner reservation at Chops. After dinner, we put our bags out ready for the sad reality that we would be leaving in the morning.

Our final morning consisted of breakfast at CK before meeting Willie at 9 am to leave the ship for the final time. Getting off the ship was very quick, and Willie escorted us straight to our bags. It was time to say goodbye and thank Willie for everything he had done for us on this cruise.
There was a Pier Genie waiting by our bags, and she escorted us straight through a special customs zone and out to the terminal forecourt where we had an Uber waiting. If we had preferred to use a taxi, there was a priority queue for SC guests.
Sadly, another cruise has come to an end, but we will be back next year to do it all again. In the meantime, we look forward to our next cruise in September on Harmony.
 
 

I don't think they will do very much to Quantum guest areas. 
The dry dock is being performed due to required maritime maintenance every 5 years until a ship is 20 years old then every 2.5 years.  That is the primary reason for the dry dock.  The required maintenance is the basis to maintain the certificate to sail.  Without the prescribed scheduled maintenance the certificate to carry passengers would be revoked.  
It's not unusual for some additional work to be performed to guests areas during a dry dock because the ship is empty of guests.  When Anthem was scheduled to go into dry dock in 2020 before the pandemic happened Royal flat out stated there would be no meaningful updates to guests areas.  They might replace things like broken floor tiles but there would be no new venues.  During my January 2020 cruise on Anthem they replaced all the carpet in the Windjammer doing sections every night while the WJ was closed.  This was months before her scheduled dry dock in May of 2020.  The point being that replacing carpet doesn't require a dry dock.  Carpet is routinely replaced all the time as required over the lifecycle of the ship.  
Quantum, Anthem and Ovation are one year in age apart.  Once onboard they are nearly identical to each other. In many places if you were magically teleported between ships you would not be able to tell which ship you were on since they are nearly identical to each other.  There are minor differences such as the name of the pool side restaurant.  Ovation had this restaurant changed to a Fish & Ships venue during her first Alaskan cruise in 2019.  I was onboard and watched them work on it during the cruise.  It didn't take a dry dock to get this venue changed, it was done during a regular cruise with guests.  On Quantum specifically they may choose to modify this venue in a dry dock, or not.  Bilingual signage might be replaced, or not.
The SeaPlex pods that hang off the ship where Playmakers is located on Odyssey is wildly different between the original Quantum class and the Quantum Ultra class Odyssey. They would need to do a lot of work making significant structural modifications that would alter the weight and balance of the ship requiring her to be reengineered and recertified.  It's possible but it would be costly.  Would a PM generate enough new revenue to justify the multi-million dollar modification?  Without a PM guests find somewhere else to drink and eat so the investment would need to show that retrofitting a PM would generate new additional revenue that would not otherwise be spent.  
I doubt they would make this sort of investment on the original Q class ships but who knows?
They could maybe find a way install a Teppanyaki venue by displacing the teen/kids club area.  That would require some infrastructure such as plumbing and electrical to support a food venue in a place that doesn't have that infrastructure currently.  Would such an investment generate new additional revenue or would it simply drain revenue away from the existing specialty dining venues?  Royal has data to review from Odyssey to see if Teppanyaki has created new revenue or reduced the revenue from the other venues.  If the amount of new revenue is minor it's difficult to justify adding a Teppanyaki to the original Q class (non-Ultra).  
My gut is telling me that the original Q class ships won't receive meaningful updates to guest areas.  If a ship does not yet have shore power capability that will likely be added during a dry dock.  This type of modification may be best done with the ship completely dark, no power.  A dry dock while doing other required scheduled maritime maintenance is an ideal time to slip in a few days to add shore power capability.  Quantum needs shore power capability to operate from California so if she hasn't already had this added, it will be added during this dry dock.   
I think they will find a way to refresh Allure and Explorer.  Adventure is mostly "amplified" already, they just need to some minor stuff to call it a full amp.   PM on Voyager class is not required to declare them amplified so I'm not sure Adventure will get a PM.  Royal has to be careful as they have told investors they are focused on reducing debt, not so much on amplifications.  Yet we all know ships like Allure and Explorer need an update.  Liberty and Adventure to a lesser degree but both could use a minor touch up.  That's four ships that clearly have a need despite Royal telling investors amplifications have been indefinitely postponed.   I suspect they will find a way to quietly update these four ships without the fanfare and telling the worlds about it like the "amplification" program did.  Beyond these four ships I don't see newer ships such as Q class getting meaningful changes such as new venues at this time.  

I haven't looked at Liberty's prices but that's how I felt about Adventure when it was released for PC. Sure, it's cheaper than Wonder (not saying much there) and I never priced group rates, but even as a frugal cruiser, like you said, the drop off in what it comes with is pretty significant. I wish they had left Mariner here. Not only do we have a sentimental attachment but it has Playmakers, Bamboo Room, Dog House, etc. Adventure has... ummm... not much.

In fairness Royal's executive team has a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders.  That comes way ahead of building ships that a small subset of return guest desire.  
I agree with your assessment though.  Most of my research now is going into exotic train journeys which come with stops at various places with excursions.  They are like a cruise on rails with very good food, like Michelin rated food.  My first train trip will take place this summer.  There is one in Peru, several across Australia and New Zealand that look really interesting.  Some of them are less than a balcony on Icon.  

Antarctica has long been a continent that has intrigued me and what better way to get there than on a cruise?  So it is that I find myself about to board the Silver Wind for 18 nights. 
Departing from Puerto Williams in the South of Chile, Silversea has gathered us in Santiago, Chile as our commercial airport of arrival and departure.  From here Silversea has chartered private aircraft to fly us to Puerto Williams to board the ship.  This is considered an "Expedition" Silversea cruise so a little different than their "Classic" offering.  
Encompassing both Christmas and New Years, the itinerary:

 

Like @Lovetocruise2002 said, after the Icon prices, I'm not surprised one bit by Star's prices. 
What's interesting is how the Icon prices fell since going on sale.
You can get on the Icon inaugural now for ~$3800 for 2 in an inside cabin. It wasn't too long ago that was about double. With a new ship, it seems a lot of people book just to book it, but end up cancelling before final payment.
I'm not saying Star's prices will also fall later, but it's worth noting the trend with Icon.

CAS discounts now loaded.  
I was able to move from an interior to a boardwalk balcony and saved $210 in the process for a September weekend.
So for anyone who says CAS discounts are fake, I beg to differ.  

On board Navigator they had some Utopia stuff.

Is Mama Mia really ‘Slipping through our fingers’?
Could this be ‘Our last Summer’ to see this play?
Hopefully this decision isn’t just about the ‘Money Money Money’
 
 
 

There have been rumors of "Project Discovery".  Royal likes to call new ship class developments a "project".  However that's all that been known.  
Considering that Vision and Radiance class are all that can use the Panama Canal, it stands to reason that Royal would look to create a new class that could.  Mega ships are great but they are a PITA when deploying ships between the Atlantic and Pacific.  They need something that can.
Without any proof or facts, I've always thought that taking the Edge class platform, the basic hull design, not an Edge class ship and painting a Royal name on it, they could leverage a successful hull design and save that engineering cost, and by using LNG engines, build on that hull design to create a new class for Royal.  
  

Just booked this cruise solo!

I have to imagine if Royal was placing Utopia anywhere but into the US they would have released her for booking already.  
For the longest time I thought she was heading to China but I suspect the geopolitical environment and China's pandemic policies turn those waters ice cold. 
So I imagine they are trying to, or have figured out plan B.   If the intention was Singapore and that was decided there would be little reason to not publish that choice.  A Singapore deployment would not cannibalize Icon sales to much of any extent. 
Any deployment announcement would drive deposits and that is cash in the bank.  What would cause them to defer money in the bank at a time when they desparately need money in the bank?
IMO they still don't know where she is going and/or she is is headed to the US and they are confident that deferring the announcement won't impact impulse new-ship-fever Utopia bookings so by deferring they minimize impact to Icon bookings.
Seriously if they are placing her in Singapore the excitement will mostly be in Singapore while the vast majority of the cruising world will immediately put her out of mind and focus exclusively on Icon so from that perspective it makes the most sense to make that announcement sooner rather than later.   Nothing against folks from Singapore but they are a very small percentage of the global source market for cruising and while some may plan a trip to Singapore exclusively because of such an deployment, the vast majority of the cruising world would then treat Utopia like they do Spectrum - like she doesn't exist.      

im on that! 🙂

im on that! 🙂

If I remember correctly, they've already tweaked Anthem's port schedules for a couple of itineraries in early June.  Have ALL my fingers crossed that they'll leave our May 14 sailing alone.....

I contacted royal on Twitter and they managed to send me the 2 photos I purchased 
 
when I say purchased, they were my free diamond pictures 

Test load is up 
Some new additions 
 




 

no way that's a kids pool in the aft....Adults for sure...

I think its nailed on to be a Plumb bow

I think its nailed on to be a Plumb bow

I also vote that you just get extra keys to cabins and do your own switch.  As others stated, one original name on the cabin must stay on that reservation to keep the sailing price you have.

Is there any way you can have your TA change the people now? You won't have to reprice if you are just changing names.