rjweber3

Our cruises are in my signature block. I haven't counted in years. We're D+ on RC and Elite+ on Celebrity. Caught the bug 24 Februarys ago. Retired US military, retired contractor, current semiretired consultant. 

Our cruises are in my signature block. I haven't counted in years. We're D+ on RC and Elite+ on Celebrity. Caught the bug 24 Februarys ago. Retired US military, retired contractor, current semiretired consultant. 

Our cruises are in my signature block. I haven't counted in years. We're D+ on RC and Elite+ on Celebrity. Caught the bug 24 Februarys ago. Retired US military, retired contractor, current semiretired consultant. 

That's Ausable Chasm, NY, "The Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks!"  Not quite as impressive as the real Grand Canyon, but it is definitely a beautiful place worth visiting if you're in the area.
 
https://www.ausablechasm.com/

Two things @USCG Teacher
1. "Total Eclipse of the Park" = Clever!
2. That bridge and waterfalls photo is stunning! Where is that?

Well, here in NC the eclipse was not so much. Temperature dropped, shadows got long, birds were quiet and there was a run on the grocery store. They ran out of bread, eggs and beer. Kind of like what happens when a hurricane is coming. Today folks are asking, where are the day after eclipse sales? Amazing how mother nature messes with folks! 😎

Wow, Teddy…what an awesome opportunity.  Sounds like you guys are really in the boonies.  Will be a good place to hide out from the demons who came/come through the vortex. 😂😜

Oh yes.  Very sad.  But either way, I hope the family finds closure.
I sure hope and pray for the best.

So, I'm amazed I haven't seen anything on the blogs regarding this incident.
A Charleston man with dementia got separated from his family in Cozumel last Wednesday
and still hasn't been found.  His family (daughter, primarily) is afraid that he may be hurt and
without aid.
https://www.live5news.com/2024/04/08/missing-mexico-charleston-family-searching-loved-one-with-dementia/
 

@bobroo I found an article from 2019 that went into a little more detail about this disagreement between San Juan and several cruise lines.  In the article it is reported that Carnival Cruise Line in addition to Royal Caribbean had grown increasingly frustrated with the conditions/infrastructure of the docks, the Port Authority in San Juan had not invested any money in the docks and their financial situation at the time in 2019 didn't allow them to invest in money in upgrading their docks.  It was reported that Puerto Rico back then was looking at privatizing the cruise docks although the article does not divulge which company they were looking at.  However it is reported in the article both Royal Caribbean and Carnival asked the local government to stop the sell or privatization because both cruise lines were willing to invest their own money into repairing the docks.  (I'm assuming if both Carnival and Royal wanted to repair the docks they would have also taken the time in upgrade the docks to handle larger ships.)  Their offer was rejected at which point Royal decided they would pull out of San Juan.
However now in 2022 San Juan signs a deal with Global Ports Holding this company manages ports around the world just look at what they doing at Nassau's port. I think this is a deal both Royal and Carnival can get behind.  I think the whole reason behinds Royals frustration was do to the fact that the Port Authority had allowed the port and docks in San Juan to fall into such disrepair and they didn't have money to fix it and who knows how long talks or negotiations had been going on.  At a certain point Royal and Carnival was like we will pay to get this fixed (probably because it was impacting their customers experience) and that offer was turned down Royal decided to pull its ships. Luckily for all everything worked out Royal is still sailing from San Juan and the contract to privatize was awarded to Global Ports Holding.
https://www.theweeklyjournal.com/business/royal-caribbean-cruise-ships-canceling-calls-to-san-juan/article_adf16aa2-1084-11ea-9748-b31d04b39438.html

It wasn’t just Royal Caribbean, all the lines had the same reaction to the government of Puerto Rico taking over the pier and cruise terminal operations.
The local government had proven time and time again that they could not manage these operations properly due to their financial constraints. The dis repair of the current infrastructure and lack of reliability on operations had become a significant obstacle to profitable operations for the cruise lines. The cruise lines wanted to have a say in how things were built and operated because their success in the area was tied to the proper execution of the plan. 
 
Enter Global Holdings Int. They manage these projects all over the region, and the world. They have relationships with all the players AND deep pockets. 
 
This is not a middle finger in the face of Royal Caribbean, just the opposite. 

I know in the times before COVID seems like 30 years ago but in about December/January-ish of 2019 Puerto Rico wanted to remodel their cruise ports. Royal Caribbean was excluded from the conversation and this really got their underwear in a bunch. There is (or perhaps was) a Royal business unit that is a port and pier general contractor/designer/consultant/architect. And not that they don't know the business or do a good job; but it does bring in "their guys". I think it was the "their guys" that Puerto Rico found objectionable and therefore said 'No, we are doing the job ourselves'.
Well, Royal got really upset they were not the architect/general contractor. They stomped their feet and threw their weight around.  There were a bunch of threatening letters to top politicians and I believe some top brass from Royal had meetings with these politicians to change their minds(?) stating that Royal had had a close relationship with PR for 40 years and the good things they do but real heavy on the PR owed Royal the job of port improvements.
PR said, we are doing the job without you. And about that 2019 December/January-ish timeframe Royal Caribbean cancelled any future ports of call to San Juan that they had not already had under contract with their port authority. There were some source documents posted on the Blog at the time (letters penned by Royal). And there was a press release stating the future cessation of sailing to San Juan which was really brash and totally uncharacteristic of Royal. You could tell they were steaming.
It all was just 3 years ago.
 
Post COVID we have sailings to San Juan way into the future. I wonder if the revenue from the just-about-a-guarantee of selling a few hundred cabins to the quinceanera girls on any sailing out of San Juan changed their mind?
 
 

Be interested in seeing some specific plans. 
We have been disappointed in the inconsistency of ships Royal has been sailing from San Juan.
Last time there in Jan of 2022 we were changed from original Freedom booking to Explorer (close to same).  We are having to skip Jan-Feb 2023 and Voyager would not be to bad.  But 2024 Jewel just doesn't cut it for us.  In 2020 just before Covid they also did a ship change down grading us to Jewel.
San Juan is a wonderful embarkation port, just sometimes the choice of ship seams to leave a little to be desired for me.  JMHO

Sadly, this situation will not be resolved.  It has gotten worse over time not better.  We went to Sandals Antigua where it is adults only and they told people that you had better put belongings down on beach chairs by 6 am.  They were right, by 6:30 everything was staked out.  On RCL it doesn’t help that there are over 5,000 passengers competing for 400 pool loungers (or whatever the actual math is).  We compete with other passengers to reserve seats for the shows.  I see people every morning “reserving” 4 chairs at 7 am.  It’s a herd mentality.
I think now there are the hogs who don’t care and the non-hogs watching the hogs and getting angry.  I’m a lot happier on vacation not using their chairs and loungers at all and not having to think about what others are doing.  Get a waterproof pool tote to leave near the pool and let the others battle it out.

We are currently on Explorer.   On boarding day the Cap included, in his welcoming chat, that chair hogs would not be tolerated.  He said, "These chairs do not belong to you.  They ALL belong to me !".  I thought it was awesome.  We do not use outdoor loungers (well, Dan will on occasion, but not routinely) so it's not an issue that we deal with but I am totally on the Cap's side on this one.

The ‘Chair Hog’ conundrum involves more than just releasing hogged chairs.
For the cruise line, and especially the crew members, the issue includes taking action that results in passengers confronting each other over who ‘stole’ whose chair and what did you do with my stuff! Many passengers who unknowingly find a recently cleared chair have no idea that the previous occupant had their stuff removed. The returning occupant has no idea that their stuff was removed by the crew. Also, confrontations with crew members simply doing their jobs. Tempers flare and can have unintended consequences. 
Hopefully by consistently publicizing and enforcing this new policy…it will become common knowledge and have a positive effect on preventing hogging, and confrontation between passengers.
Also, the crew must be able to release the right items to the right passenger. Once they take possession of someone’s property, they are responsible for safeguarding it until they release it back to the rightful owner. Mistakes can happen. Not to mention dealing with passengers who claim they were ‘only gone for ten minutes!’…or so many other excuses.
Finally, the crew and the bosses don’t want negative reviews because of their actions trying to deal with hogs. I’m thinking that there have recently been so many negative reviews about chairs being hogged that the ship has decided to take action, knowing that it will generate negative comments…but less than they are getting now.

I don't think the scenario @loki007 describes of going to get lunch is the problem. It's the people that get up at 6-7am and reserve chairs without being there for a while to actually use them.
It breeds others to grab chairs so they have one, and it's the primary reason why you can't get a chair when you get up to the pool deck around 10 or later.
Once you get to the lunch hours, all bets are off if you ask me. 

This!

Sort of like when you couldn't buy toilet paper during the pandemic.... Remember those good ol days? 
There was a limited supply so people started stocking up and hogging TP not knowing when they would be able to find it again. This further exacerbated the shortage of TP. If there were no chairs hogs there would be chairs when you needed them most of the time 

No. You'd just get the benefits that Celebrity's Elite status gets.

Disagree 100%. Why are you so special that you get a hold on your chair for an hour while you go do something else? Be happy you got a chair for 3 hours, others haven't been so lucky.

Yes me too….I’ve tried to uninstall the app and re-install, but did not work. I was trying to check-in on the App last night, which was when I first encountered the issue. I was able to do so on my PC so no harm, no foul, but I really like saving my SetSail to my phone in the App to use at embarkation instead of the printed copy. Oh well, I don’t sail until May so we do have some time. Hopefully they get their act together by then. Also get the Dining feature in the App working again as well!!

i'll be the naysayer on this policy. If I choose to get up and head to the pool deck at 9:00 to get some seats i should be able to go to lunch for an hour and come back to my stuff. Maybe the right solution is to sell reserved chairs on the cruise planner. Then I can buy them and leave them empty all day if i want. 

Welcome to the message boards!
You'll need to be out of the cabin by 8, and then you can definitely go up to the Windjammer for breakfast or Main Dining Room (depending on what time they stop serving).
10:15am pickup is late, I bet you'll be sitting around the terminal waiting.
If I were you, I'd ask for a pick up closer to 9am.

Google Fulton Parking Garage. I've always parked there when driving in and cruising out of NOLA. It's decent pricing to leave your car during the cruise and they have a shuttle to the port or you can walk the couple blocks.
Harrahs used to have comp parking if you gambled to a certain level so that might be good to research for your pre-cruise stay. Louisiana casinos are non-smoking too so that's always an awesome treat.
Hilton Riverside is great location wise but you'll pay for that. If you go away from Canal towards the Convention Center some of those hotels tend to have a better price point. There's a trolley right by the cruise terminal that goes all the way to the French Quarter.