Thumper44

Excellent choices; both would be on my list as well. Maybe something like Sister Act or Dreamgirls might make good cruise ship adaptations, or maybe Little Shop of Horrors Any particular reason you didn't like the Oasis version of Chicago? Or you just don't care for any version of Chicago? And I think you're right about NCL having Jersey Boys. I haven't looked it up in a while but I believe they also have Beetlejuice, Million Dollar Quartet, and maybe Rock of Ages -- all of which would be on my list to put on an RC ship but that won't likely happen while they're on NCL

I came here for THIS comment!

Probably a dry dock in Freeport, but that's just a guess. I'm personally hoping that the next dry dock includes changing the cabin doors from magnetic strip tech to RFID tech (and wow bands) but most dry docks are just routine maintenance.

One thing I'm hoping is that that financial expediency doesn't get the only vote in Royal's future. Mega ships with maximum berths is certainly the most profitable model right now but cruising is about a certain type of travel how that makes the traveler feel. So hopefully a successful cruise line will always have some capacity to spend money on the intangibles that make cruising special, even if that doesn't produce maximum profits. I think some of the more cynical comments in this thread (and on these message boards overall) are an indicator that some faithful cruisers have felt that the cruise industry may not quite be hitting that mark often enough. If cruising starts to feel like how most of us are treated by the airlines, then people will spend their vacation money elsewhere. And that's a shame because I think cruising is truly special, even when it's not absolutely perfect. So here's to future ships being diverse and interesting and making the cruise experience something really special

Once again, Rackham wins the internet today. Way to go bringing in the numbers! This is great analysis to bring the conversation.

Excellent point. The Discovery project is the counter-point that says not everything is going the mega-ship route for RC. I actually think a fleet of all-Icon & Oasis sized ships is strategically bad for RC. It paints them into a corner, shutting them out of some markets (Alaska) that they don't necessarily want to give up on.

That would be awesome. I'm all for amplifying the Radiance class and getting several more years out of them. One of my favorite cruises was Jewel to the Windward islands out of San Juan. More of that please!

That's what I want. Maintain around 30 ships, maybe more! My personal hope is that the Discovery project is going to be huge, like 10-12 ships. Presumably this is from Meyer Werft in Germany (who built the Quantum class) or possibly Chantiers de L'Atlantique in France (who built the last several Oasis class). Maybe both companies will be involved. Meyer Turku in Finland (they build Icon) is also supposed to be working on a climate-neutral ship design projected for 2035. I'm guessing that they build six to ten Icons and then switch to the newer design about a decade from now. If that many new-design ship orders is too ambitious, I think another Quantum Ultra like Odyssey of the Seas would be great. And order a couple new Edge-class ships while you're at it; Celebrity won't mind!

Icon #5 and #6 were both optioned in 2024, so they could both happen in the time frame. So I could see ten new ships (Icon #2-6, Oasis #7, Discovery #1-4) between 2025 and 2032 (10 ships added in eight years). But whenever the aforementioned ships retire, and if they retire at the same rate they entered service, that will be 13 ships subtracted in about eight years). So maybe it's something like a 3+ ship deficit by the mid-2030's, maybe 25 ships instead of the 30 ships we'll have by fall of 2026. The three Freedom class ships will hit age 30 in the mid to late 2030's. I think all these ships can do 30+ years with Royal, but they do have to retire eventually.

Wouldn't that be fascinating? Half of my interest in this topic is because I'm a sucker for naval architecture and ships in general. I waste way too much time imagining how I would remodel another cruise line's ship if it were bought by RC.

Sorry for the click-bait style topic, but the 13 oldest ships in the current RC fleet were built in less than 8 years, almost 30 years ago. Which means that these ships are going to reach their expected end-of-service dates just as rapidly as they were built. That's the four remaining Vision class ships, all of the Voyager class, and all of the Radiance class. If the Discovery project starts producing ships by 2029 (When Voyager otS turns 30), I could see a one-to-one replacement of the five Voyager class ships. But that would still leave the fleet with 8 fewer ships than what we have right now. Do you think the Discovery project will produce more than 5-6 ships (perhaps a dozen built at a rate of three ships every two years)? Do you think Royal is ok with a fleet of 20 or fewer ships? Does the fleet get augmented with new builds from older classes (more Quantum, Oasis, or ships from sister lines' classes). Will Royal ever buy a ship from another line (like the Disney bought the Global Dream) to augment the fleet?

I genuinely hope to see a follow-on announcement of amplifications of several ships for the next multiple years, as each ship gets closer to its next dry dock. As excited as I am for the Discovery class, I'd really like another decade of an amplified Radiance class ships, which I think/hope is going to be the case.

Fascinating… where are you seeing wedding ceremonies happening on most ships? I've seen a few in the Viking Crown Lounge dance floor area. For context, I'd rather have an escape room than have a ship chapel (which might surprise some). But I've seen the few remaining chapels used more than the conference rooms which are almost always sitting empty (in my anecdotal experience).

I genuinely don't understand that. I have to think that they 1) are going to put in a playmakers but marketing decided the other things on the list were more important to mention, or 2) they're holding that space for something else down the road that's still in development but since they can't imagine uninstalling a playmakers, they're leaving it as is for now Option 2 kind of fits with the apparent desire to have variety within a class of ship but I wish every Quantum class had a playmakers like Odyssey

That would be lovely re: the Spare Tire, a have friends who spoke well of it. Looking at the menu, it would NOT be my cup of tea. I really don't know about some of the aqua dome market venues, some of those could be in that conversation