Mr.Cruiser

You‘re luckier than me. Yesterday I received another one of those emails starting with “About Your Upcoming Travels“ and the subject “Select a New Sail Date“. And this is already the replacement cruise I chose instead of this canceled one. I can‘t believe it! I‘m getting tired of organizing everything over and over again …

So there is still no fix and no info which change has caused this issue? Is there someone who did not have any login issues at all? I guess everyone who tried had this problem… I hope Royal does not expect every customer has to change the account‘s password so hoping there will be a fix yet… This all looks like changing password policy gone wrong … Just hoping there was no data breach…

I asked RCI and they told me that all excursions should have been published by now. As there are still none for Amsterdam, there will obviously not be any further ones. Since RCI will no longer be offering cruises via Amsterdam from 2025, they have probably decided not to offer any more shore excursions already this year. So unless any of you see shore excursions in Amsterdam on your cruise this year, I won't wait any longer and book my return trip. Thanks

Hi all, there‘s one thing that makes me curious: Is there anyone whose cruise ends in Amsterdam in 2024 and Royal offers shore excursions on the last day? I want to plan my departure and so far I don't see any offers in the cruise planner, although the shore excursions for all other days have been known for months. I also looked at the cruises for May in the app and don't see any offers for Amsterdam there either. But as far as I know there were some last year and I'm sure the same ones are offered every year, so I'm wondering if Royal really doesn't have any more planned for 2024. Does anyone know more about this? Thank you.

That‘s strange. RCI wrote me that they offer a limited refund for this cruise for flights not booked through RCI. Maybe they don't do it for you because your flights go via Slovenia or according to your country laws they don't have to. I don‘ know but I understand it‘s really disappointing.

Good point. The last cruise in Sep starts on 25.09. so it will end on 05.10. (10 nights). Maybe this is another case of someone chartered the ship but I noticed there are more gaps like 21.09.-25.09. and 19.10.-27.10. I could not find a cruise in these time periods.

@Plasticbrain I think our letters should be pretty much the same. If I choose option 1 they offer me: "You’ll remain in the same stateroom on our October 11th, 2024 Explorer of the Seas sailing." Just like in your letter.

Interesting. I thought they just cancelled my booking of 12 Oct. So it seems to affect all October 2024 sailings of the Explorer... I was curious and also checked my cabin: It is also shown as available although I have not yet contacted them. I wonder what happens if someone else books the cabin and you decide to stay? Who then has to change their cabin? They turned my cruise into the "8-Night Greece, Italy & Cyprus" cruise with completely different itineraries. I have not booked this route so I will have to cancel the cruise. A lot of planning time went into it and unfortunately there is no mention of what happened or why none of the originally planned ports can be visited. Has anyone heard any more information about this? Another thing to bear in mind is that even if I change my booking to another comparable cruise it will definitely be more expensive because I had booked shore excursions and other things in the cruise planner with significant discounts during the Black Friday deal. Now these things are much more expensive and I can't book them again with the same discounts, which is very annoying.

Sadly, I was also surprised by this message. It has now been turned into the "8-Night Greece, Italy & Cyprus" cruise with completely different itineraries. I did not book for this, so unfortunately I will have to cancel the trip. A lot of planning time went into it and unfortunately there is no mention of what happened or why none of the originally planned ports can be visited. Has anyone heard any more information about this?

I find the new European cruises for 2025 disappointing in several respects. No more cruises along the west coast of Norway and therefore no more Arctic Circle Cruise. Luckily I'm doing mine next year. With the removal of Anthem in Europe some cruises have unfortunately been completely discontinued. For 2025 I wanted to book a cruise to the Canary Islands but instead of 4 dates there is only one cruise in early May - but it's not warm enough for me at that time. Also the 14-day Mediterranean Cities and Med Beaches & Cities no longer seem to be offered. Do you think there will be more dates released this week for summer 2025 cruises in Europe or is that it?

@cedricmr That sounds good. Can you tell which local tour operators you‘ve chosen and can recommend? Thanks

Thank you guys for your links to local tour operators. I have been to Norway several times and know it is expensive but Royal's excursions for Norway are currently just overpriced. Period. This year I was there with another cruise line and the excursions were much more attractive. There is only one thing that still makes me hesitate to book through local providers. On our trip we had to significantly shorten the time the ship was in one port due to bad weather. As a result, many excursions that lasted longer were cancelled. Since I had booked through the cruise line this was not a problem. However, if I had booked through a local operator it would have been my risk and no one would have refunded me the cost.... Or are there also local providers who offer a compromise if the ship is shorter ashore than planned? Thank you!

Nice! I had tried it before but then I must have caught the cruises where it doesn't work. At the end you have to enter all the data as usual and already make a deposit by credit card. Can someone please give me an example of a cruise where this works? Thank you.

So how does the Courtesy Hold work? Can I make a reservation for a cruise on the website without paying for it and decide within 24 hours if I want to book and pay a deposit for it?

There are still cruises on Jewel starting in Amsterdam next summer so I hope they can stick to the plan.

Thanks. I have found similar data. The 15 minutes by taxi is very optimistic, probably more theory. Every time I check the ride time in Maps it is more like 30 minutes. But by taxi seems to me the safest way if you have to be at a meeting point at a certain time. And the prices in Barcelona are moderate.

I have booked a tour that starts in front of Parc Güell. Can anyone recommend the easiest and / or fastest way to get there from the cruise port Adossat Terminal? (The Symphony will probably dock at Terminal B or C). Should I take the metro, the bus or rather the cab? The traffic in the city always seems to be slow in some places, as it always takes at least half an hour to get there, even by car.

@TheHobbys Thanks again for your blog! Since you got on in Rome, so Interport, there is one more thing that interests me: Did the app on the ship work for you and did your calendar show all the reservations that you had booked on the ship but also before the cruise? In my case, I could see in the app all my reservations that I made on the website. However, for over 2 weeks the view under "my calendar" has been blank. I just hope that on the ship's WiFi all my reservations will show up again…

@TheHobbys Thanks for your daily blogs ! I'm doing the same cruise this summer, so I find it interesting how things are currently going on the Symphony. Are there places on the ship that you should definitely have seen and not miss? Have you been to the "King of the World" near the Solarium yet ? How is the food at MDR and Windjammer? If the food has also gotten worse on my cruise I will have to look for alternatives where you can still eat well for dinner. Thank you

Oh dear. Obviously not all passengers had been sufficiently informed about this process. I imagine that is also very stressful, especially if customs also wants to see what you brought and you even have to pack your bags because of it. Or can you at least leave your belongings on the ship?

That sounds terrible. Do I understand correctly that you weren't even allowed to stay in your cabin but every passenger was forced to leave the ship just to go through customs, only to be allowed back on the ship, even if you didn't want to enter the country in Miami? With thousands of passengers this can take all day and ruin it. No wonder people were very upset. Is that always the case in Miami?

Two balloons fly across the desert. Says one to the other: " Watch out, a cactusssssssssss...." "What wasssssssssssss…?“

I‘ve also read some reports of people get double points in the past but last year I was in same situation and only got solo points. They didn‘t want to give me double points, even when paying for 2 people, because then I’d had to book solo …

@mathiegirl If you have booked a tour with bus ride to Oia you will be tendered to another pier. There are buses ready to take you to a parking lot in Oia. From the parking lot you have to walk a bit up to the street and from there it is only a few steps until you are in the middle of Oia. I think this is doable if you are not in a wheelchair.

I saw that screen several times for the 3NDP for my cruise too. I booked it before anyway but one day it appeared with another picture on the overview site and a cheaper price so I checked it out. When I went to the 3NDP site I saw that sold out button and the currently unavailable message. The same message appeared for MDR so you could not book my time dining. After 1,2 days it was all OK and booking was available again. But 1 day later it was the same situation again. That game repeated several times. Either it was an error or maintenance or maybe they were adjusting options and prices these days. When dining packages are really sold out they disappear and you can‘t choose them anymore.