RCVoyager

That is dishonesty on RCCL's part. The Explorer is clearly not a sister ship to the Freedom. I find it hard to believe they thought nobody would call them out on this. RCCL needs to clarify and correct this notification. This is sad if Royal has come to this.

Didn't mean to come off to forward. I just wanted to be sure you knew the facts. Good luck with your choice(s) here.

Agree here. To me, St. Martin is a little tired. I wouldn't avoid it, but again choosing between it and Grenada is easy for me.

I agree with others that not everyone is all that interested in CocoCay.

Toss in Grenada, and the Epic looks pretty good to me.

The Explorer is not a sister to the Freedom. Freedom is one of three in the Freedom Class. Explorer is one of five in the Voyager class. The Explorer is now pushing 20 years old. The Freedom is somewhat newer. All of this makes the NCL Epic look better to me. Newer ship than either RCCL vessel in question. An itinerary which includes Grenada and has more ABC options than RCCL at least for now.

I get that Okgladgal. It's probably not a trade I want though. It also looks like RCCL is doing less of the ABC islands and more of the Barbados/St. Lucia itinerary

Looks like the best option out of San Juan may be the NCL Epic. I have been critical of NCL from my experience on it several years ago. I like the itinerary that includes Grenada. Hopefully the main dining room options are better than they were then.

Thanks for posting this. I did not know about it. I love the San Juan market, and I don't see this as a positive for it. Carnival is currently pulled out, and now this.

Can someone in a nutshell explain what is going on? It sounds like the Explorer and Freedom are being switched? Thanks.

I appreciate your perspective on this. I was hoping maybe the Breeze or Magic would be assigned to San Juan. There are so many ships going out of FL these days and only a few out of San Juan. We really like the Southern Caribbean itineraries and you can't do those in 7 days out of FL. There is no doubt the cruise lines charge a little less out of San Juan which the passenger would generally spend on air to get there. Makes your view make sense from a profit standpoint.

It will be interesting to see how the cruise lines fill the vacuum that is being created by scrapped ships. San Juan is our favorite port of origin. We like both Royal and Carnival (on their newer ships). We haven't considered Carnival out of San Juan for several years because the Fantasy (definitely not a new ship) is the ship Carnival ported in San Juan. Now the Fantasy is scrapped. Will Carnival put a nicer ship there or abandon (at least temporarily) San Juan as a home port? Any thoughts from those who follow closer than me? I look at cruisetimetables.com all the time. My guess is that the cruise lines will be reworking their schedules completely coming out of this, and that anything scheduled in 2021 is subject to change... that's even assuming the cruise lines will be running at all in 2021.

It seems doubtful there was much lasting damage. The storm was not that strong and was moving pretty fast for hurricane standards. Really strong storms or really slow movers are the storms that typically cause major problems.

I agree about scrapping the Fantasy Class, but their newer ships are very nice.

I've done the drive both ways. It was way cool, and I hope to do it again 1 day. The only caveat to my endorsement is that we had no traffic issue driving either direction. I have read of traffic nightmares when there is an accident or some other trouble.

In my opinion, the Fantasy Class and Spirit Class need to be retired. Carnival could actually benefit from this situation. There's about 14 or 15 ships that need to go. For many people who take their first cruise the thought process is to try a cheap 3 or 4 night cruise to see if they like cruising. Next thing you know they are on a Carnival Elation cruise to the Bahamas and have a negative experience never to come back to cruising again. There will be lots of ship builders looking for jobs. It will be the best time in a long time, possibly ever, to build new ships in 12 or 18 months from a cost of building view. Carnival could really be rewarded for dragging their feet into the bigger, better, newer arms race of ship building that has occurred over the last 20 years.

Just because you type it, doesn't mean it's true.

I think you pretty much hit it on the head, and I'll add that many if not most of the authorities around the globe have become drunk on the power of control. If anyone thinks any of this has anything to do with health, safety, cleanliness, social distancing anymore, I've got some oceanfront property in Indiana to sell you.

I might add, the term "erupts" seems a bit harsh. I don't see a single torch. No pitch forks. Heck, I don't even see anyone shaking a fist.

While there is no doubt the cruise lines will face big challenges in the coming months/years. Being written by CNBC means that the cruise line will be shown in the most negative light possible. Frankly, I'm surprised they didn't lob in a "floating petri dish" grenade somewhere in the piece.

I had a note in my list that she was leaving. I guess I need to update!

Using the Voyager Class as the marker between newer and older ships, RCCL has 15 newer ships plus the Odyssey and Spectrum and 11 older ships with the Legend and Grandeur being subtracted soon if not already. Their fleet is much newer than Carnival's which has about 7 newer ships and about 19 older. The Fantasy Class is in need of retirement and the Spirit Class only slightly behind it. RCCL and Carnival are the extremes of the major lines with all the others falling in between.

I believe after the initial barrage of rebookings, there will be a big lull in bookings over the next 1 to 2 years. In my opinion, there will be amazing prices offered, but dining packages, drink packages, and other add-ons will be more expensive, and I'm afraid service and food quality will take a hit.

In the past, yes you could with a 3% fee. I would not be surprised if that rule changes with all the obc being thrown around by the cruise lines.