Todd

Short cruises are great if you understand what you are getting, it is not a full one or two week vacation that you can pack everything in. I look at short cruises like long weekends. Do you not look forward to 3 day weekends? Not many would say only three days off so I want to work instead. I can also slide in short cruises and less impact on my other interest. If I want to leave the Philippines for a longer cruise I need to plan and take time, so I create no issues for my business interest. But a 3 to 5 day cruise is very little planning of impact. I have a 5 day cruise booked in this month. I can conduct business here Monday, drop off at airport Tuesday morning, noon on ship Hong Kong, Sunday morning of ship returns Hong Kong, airport, home Sunday for lunch. And while not 12 or 14 days I'm sure it will be a great trip. Give me a short cruise every few months and a longer cruise or two over the year I'm happy.

DocLC, Firegal2539 Yes I too though that when first reading... but it could just be as Doc said, family upset and needing help. Nothing wrong with giving the contact information so they can contact Royal. In order for this to be a scam the OP or someone would need to ask for something of $$$ value. The only thing they wanted was information, and while information about this maybe priceless to them, it costs us nothing. But it does bring up a interest point, if you google Royal, Cruises, etc. this site is always very near the top. Congratulations Matt on getting such good real placement.

It would help to know what port and ship he was to board. Royal has crisis management teams that handle these types of issues. If you post a little more information then the members here will be able supply information. Royal will be able to tell you if he is on the ship or did not get on the ship. You can contact his ship using the information below: Onboard Extras Print This Page Q: Can I contact people back home from the ship? A: Your friends and family can contact the ship by calling (888) 724-7447. Or from outside the U.S. they can call (321) 953-9003. The cost is $7.95 USD a minute and can be charged to their MasterCard® or Visa®. From outside the U.S. additional long distance charges will also apply. You can also call the main US Royal number 24 hours a day.... But if after hours you will need to press the replies like you are booking a new cruise to get through to a live representative who can provide information. If you press any other reply after hours you will go to a message center. 1-866-562-7625 Hope this helps a little and that things work out.

Tony You just need to travel to Asia and the Welcome to smoking signs will be out for you. I do not smoke and try to stay away from it. But it is available and very open here, like many other things that a not PC correct in the West.

First thing, fire your Travel Agent and post negative reviews anyplace you can. Any agent who says "Those ships that run the short cruises are really old and tired" does not understand the market. The normal life of a cruise ship is about 30 years Brilliance of the Seas was launched 2002 and a 30 million plus refurbishment 2013, Navigator of the Seas was launched in 2002 and refurbishment in 2014. Both these ships are great ships in excellence condition. I would not use a agent if I was booking simple cruises, it is very easy to handle on your own. And yes I am being very hard on your agent but it is earned by the actions.

I know Oasis class ships do not travel to Asia.... yet. But here the Royal Smoking policy is much more liberal, with smoking allowed in many more areas, including the balcony of your cabin.

In theory it really should not matter where you are located, as long as you are within the prime coverage area of the constellation of 12 satellites that make up the 3B Networks (Company providing service to Royal). 3B networks says that the Optimal coverage between 45° north/south latitudes or 3100 miles north or south of the Equator, with a service limit of 62°, with covers 99 % of the Royal service area. From the company website: "Steerable Beams Tracking Your Ship. O3b’s satellite beams follow the ship on its normal route. O3b maintains the ship within the beam centre.O3b receives latitude/longitude updates on two hour intervals via in-band or out-of-band channel. Beam tracking updates in real time if the ship has to change course." So if one says it works great in St Thomas, the same should be said for everywhere along the same latitude. Other counties also at this latitude are Mali, Chad, Saudi Arabia, Oman, India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam., Philippines, Mexico, etc. So the service should be the same speed for all. As about every 2 hours the satellite you are using is out of range and you pick up the next one. And yes I know this is way to much information unless you are another Tech Geek.

I sailed on the Legend last August for 10 days, I can tell you first hand the ship is not in bad shape. It does not seem like a older ship, most things the passengers see look very new. You can tell it is old by design, and does have a few issues, the lifts are not as fast as current era ships, the layout is not as clean as the newer ships. Did have some issues based upon the age, Reynaline's key card need to be changed several times, in the end they changed the whole door lock system. I do not think it is because the ships is falling apar,t because it is not. I believe the real issue is the number of passengers it can carry per cruise and the cost of operation per hour. Remember it has a much older engine and propulsion design, so higher fuel costs. And that means higher operating costs per guest carried. I'm not happy it is leaving the fleet but I understand it from Royal's side. If the Legend could have been used in Cuba, it would have been moved to that port. But it is just to large for the current port setup. I do not think Royal brought the Empress back becasue it was a great ship. They did it because it works for the port size and they believed it would be a fast lower cost option.... So far they have been wrong with the idea of fast and lower cost. Never done a cruise with Royal on a ship going out of service, but I hope to do that with the Legend on its Singapore to Dubai cruise. So I will be able to see first hand if the service, staff and ship are below normal standards for Royal. Any other board members interest in this Spring 2017 cruise?

Matt's information It is operating. Link to post and photo

You can added these packages to your shopping cart and just leave them in the cart until about 3 days before the cruise and pay at that time. Or you can pay now, the major difference is that if they are having a sale or change the price. They can stop sales, change pricing etc, until the purchase is paid. Unlike the cruise fare once you pay the deposit the price is locked in, for these extra packages the price is not confirmed until paid in full.

I book as a US Client on the US Site. But it is my understanding the no future discount is at 30 days not 90 days. This is the 3nd cruise in the last year that I booked under 90 days. While the discounts may not be as deep as in the past they are still good.

High winds cause a very bad day Friday for the RCCL Infinity, in the port of Ketchikan, Alaska the cruise ship hit the docks causing 2 to 3 million dollars of damage to the port and put a nice hole in the side of the ship. While early reports have no injuries I'm sure some will be coming forward. These large cruise ships have so much of the ship out of the water that when high winds happen they can be very had to control. From the videos it can be seen that the bow engines were full power and the ship still could not be controlled. Remember this is a US Port so a very experience Harbor Pilot on the ship plus a high time captain and they got this one wrong. I'm not trying to place blame here but maybe the next time a captain cancels a port call for weather we should all think about this and not the lost port time. Video of the docking

I agree with you most crew areas are under the passenger decks but not all of them. I was on the Mariner of the Seas and they had a crew area with cabins on deck 8 in front of the forward lifts. I know it was a crew area becasue the door was open a few times and I could see cabins and a officer came out. I asked him and he said officers and management crew area. I believe as these ships get bigger and bigger just not enough space on the underwater decks. My guess is the area in question here is mechanical as several decks it is blocked out on.

Royal is offering some really great pricing for the three cruises to bring the ship from Australia to Spain. It is three cruises that total 33 days, it would be a great half a World Cruise if anyone wanted to do all 34 days. Or add the Australia South Pacific and Fiji cruise for 12 days before and you have a 46 day tip. The 34 day cruise can be done for cruise fare of US$3600 dollars plus port fees inside cabin, and the crazy thing is you can upgrade to a jr suite for about double the fare. 11 NIGHT BRISBANE TO SINGAPORE CRUISE Legend of the Seas Feb 20, 2017 $699 pp inside cabin 10 NIGHT THE SPICE ROUTE CRUISE Leaving from: Singapore Arriving in: Dubai, United Arab Emirates Legend of the Seas 3 Mar 2017 Sailing $499 pp inside cabin 13 NIGHT SUEZ CANAL & THE MED CRUISE Legend of the Seas 13 Mar 2017 Sailing $599 pp inside cabin Think about this a cruise fare of $53 dollars per day is a great value. It is a lot of time but for those who have ever though about maybe doing longer cruises this looks like a great trip. I do not have the time to do this many days but I will book the Singapore to Dubai cruise when I am on Voyager later this month. Its a great ship and change to do a wonderful trip. I checked the rates today for this leg the pricing came out to this: Inside $1215.00 Total with taxes Outside $ 1414.00 Total with taxes Balcony $ 1813.00 Total with taxes Jr Suite $ 2213.00 10 days in a suite on a great ship, double C & A points, $110 pp / day is a normal cabin price in the Caribbean. For most cruisers the airfare will be more than the cruise.

I understand were you are coming. I had a 14 day cruise book on Ovation Dubai to Singapore for May 25th.... But the cruise Gods also did not want me on that cruise. Had a Real Estate deal come up here and could not be away for those 16 days. So I traded the cruise for 8 townhouses.... yes it hurts when you are looking forward to trips but at least you will have a good trip. It maybe worked out for the better. I booked a short cruise end of this month to replace it. And now I see that Royal is going to move the Legend of the Seas next spring to be sold. While the Legend is not the Ovation in any way some really great deals on 10 day Singapore to Dubai trips. Also Dubai to Spain is really low pricing. Inside cabins under $50 per night and Suites for about $110 per night.

Have had several unique events on cruise ships over the years. I was on one cruise line that went bankrupt during the cruise, it was a river cruise in Europe. The captain and crew dock the ship and said we all have no jobs, sorry and they left the ship or really I should say river barge. Another trip again on a very small ship here in SE Asia, the crew had a disagreement with the local river patrol and it was not a fun time. I been on a couple of first cruises for ships and was given special photos, and cups commemorating the first cruise. A couple of storms with big waves and very high winds. I was trying to take pictures and the crew was telling me I could not be on deck. But it really was not that bad because of the size of the ship. With the high free board and ocean liner design (QE II) it really handle the weather well. For my partner Reynaline I am sure her most unique cruise event will be on our next cruise at the end of the month. After five years together I need a better name for our relationship.

Last report: Jun 04, 2016 13:25 UTC Ship type: Passenger (Cruise) Ship Flag: Bahamas Destination: ST MAARTEN ETA: Jun 05, 11:15 Lat/Lon: 18.45967 N/66.10033 W Course/Speed: 276.7 ° / 0 kn. Current draught:8.9 m Callsign: C6SA3 IMO / MMSI: 9167227 / 311263000

While many get the best deals based upon their own requirements by booking early, I will say again it is not the best deal. Today I booked 5 NIGHT NHA TRANG & CHAN MAY CRUISE 21 June 2016 from Hong Kong on the Voyager of the Seas. Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony D3 the total cost for 2 people was US$1830.88 with port taxes, which is $915 dollars per person. The cruise did not hit this low price until while under the 90 day window, so booking early would have cost more. I understand last minute cruise do not work for most but if you can work this way the pricing can be great.

What different does it make in a storm if your port hole window is under the wave height? The port holes and windows on these lower decks are 100% water tight. I will agree in a storm you could be looking out a window that is underwater. But the amount of roll on the ship will be much less on these lower decks. Besides no extra charge so the submarine view out your port hole.

Royal has reached out to the passengers on the first two sailings and offered them a 25% future cruise credit. Passenger on the ship got this email/letter from Royal: “Thank you for being a part of the Southampton pre-inaugural sailing on Harmony of the Seas. We hope you gained a sense for why we were excited about our newest member of the fleet with her many incredible features introduced for the first time at sea On a ship of such scale and complexity, we were hopeful all work would be complete in time for your cruise and recognize there were simply too many projects still being completed during the voyage. Please accept our sincere apologies. We’d like to have the opportunity to welcome you again, and to offer you our hospitality at the highest standard. We are offering each guest who sailed with us on (these two sailings) a Future Cruise Certificate for 25% of the cruise fare that they paid for that sailing. This certificate may be used for a future cruise on any Royal Caribbean ship within the next 18 months. Withing the next two weeks, Future Cruise Certificates will be e-mailed or mailed to your address on file, or travel agent if you booked through them. We are eager to have the opportunity to welcome you back onboard in the future, when we can deliver the experience at the high standards Royal Caribbean has become known for and that we expect of ourselves. Thank you for choosing Royal Caribbean.â€

I believe it is becoming more about the number of passengers the ship can carry. It all comes down to revenue for the ship. 2000 passengers or 5000 passengers, still one captain, one hotel director, etc. The Royal model going forward seems to be the largest ships that can get into the ports. The only ships on order are Oasis and Quantum class ships. One of these ships allows for the same passengers as two of the smaller ships. The other issue is cost of upgrading these older ships to meet that standards Royal wants for the line. It was reported Royal spend 50 million dollars upgrading the Empress of the Seas, on a smaller ship like that it takes a long time to recover 50 million dollars. I really like the Legend size ships but I do not see them in the future for Royal.

Travel with soft sided luggage so it is never a problem. Even in a small cabin always seems to be more than enough room for luggage.

2500 members strong.

The Empress of the Seas last week was also missing from tracking for about two days. I believe maybe a issue in the free system available to the public. These ships never really disappeared, always tracked but the system we see and the full tracking system is different. Position Received: 5 min ago (2016-06-03 00:35 UTC) Vessel's Local Time: 2016-06-02 20:35 (UTC -4) Område: NCSA - North Coast South Am Latitud / Longitud: 12.94233° / -69.97366° Read more at http://www.marinetraffic.com/se/ais/details/ships/shipid:374485/mmsi:311263000/imo:9167227/vessel:ADVENTURE_OF_THE_SEAS#RXts7MJogvXjiS96.99

The real question is do you want to have Internet access on the cruise? Does not matter if the price is fair, high or low, if the service is great, fair, or bad. If you want internet access and to be able to us your phone you really have no choice, purchase it or have no access. Yes very close to land your phone can work but limited, and ATT does have a roaming deal but again very limited.