DaveWithHat

3 hours ago, Nathan adams said:

They put 2 more on. Lol

2 more? Can you be more specific? I don't see any changes. Maybe I am not looking at the right thing. I am looking for Caribbean cruises out of NJ and Baltimore from May through end of year for 2023

It is mostly a guess but my expectation is that cruises will not be cancelled. I think that most policy maker recognize that variants will likely continue and that we cannot sustain continued lockdowns type policies as this is creating other long term issues. I think the focus will be on how to provide care for those that get sick and to also support the routine care that is also needed. 

Going on a cruise is a personal choice where travelers can evaluate their own risks and decide for themselves if they want to go. The refund/cancellation policies are making this decision easier. I hope that policy makers leave the travel industry alone.

Lastly the speed of transmission for the Omicron variant seems to be so fast and there is so much travel with the holidays that is seems like there will be no one left to infect in a few weeks. It seems like it is impossible to avoid exposure right now so you will either get it or for some reason you have enough immunity to resist it. Either way it seems likely that the numbers will go down during the month of January.

What is C19?

I assume that part of the decision by Royal Caribbean to open up itineraries is dependent on how stable the itineraries are meaning that rapidly changing travel rules are creating havoc for travel planning and that there is some overhead to customer service when the make changes after releasing itineraries. Another aspect of the decision is likely, do they want to try to get in a bit more revenue before they close the books for 2021. If they know they have hit their revised revenue targets for 2021 then I can see them delaying so they can get off to a good start on their 2022 revenue goals.

We recently did the group cruise on Harmony of the Seas, cruising for the first time as Diamond members. The inconsistency in enforcing policies described in this thread match our experience with the free drink policy for Diamond members. We found the staff was generous as we exceeded the 3 free drink limit several times. This mostly occurred in specialty restaurants with wine. I suspect that in these cases, where they know you are already paying extra for the meal that they have a bit more flexibility. 

I can understand why it is frustrating when policies are not consistently enforced yet my experience is that when they are not, it is usually in favor of the guests as in our case with the free drink policy. That kind of goodwill improves the experience for me and makes me more generous with my tipping in return.

We are going to do our first fall foliage tour next fall out of Boston. This is our first cruise out of Boston where we live only an hour away so it will be nice to go out of a home port. We are also doing our first back to back cruise by taking the same ship on a repositioning cruise to San Juan for a total of 14 days of cruising (our longest yet) so this will be a lot of 1sts for us. We are very excited for this.

4 hours ago, Vlad said:

In the meantime, can anyone share some special ideas? Been to caribbean many times in cruises... 

Can be Europe, but need specifics. Itinerary, ships, stops. 

I'm thinking of middle of September 2023.

Special occasion. 

 

We have done two Mediterranean cruises, one out of Barcelona and one out of Venice. The highlight for me was visiting Dubrovnik. One part of the appeal of Dubrovnik was the Game of Thrones angle as portions of the show were filmed there and another was how striking it was historically. It was hard to imagine people really living there. While in Venice we visited the island of Burano and had one of the best lunches in my life so any cruise that involves Venice or Dubrovnik would be higher on my list. 

For Europe, similar to comments regarding Alaska cruises, the destination is more important than the ship, so we find the smaller ships work well as you are not so torn between visiting the ports vs doing things on the ship. Also, bigger ships will be limited on which ports they can visit. 

For US cruises we usually fly in one day prior to embarkation, for Europe cruises we try to fly in at least two days ahead to have more time to visit the city and recover from the long flight that usually is a red-eye flight.

@AshleyDillo Wow, what a great site! This definitely helps filter down to cruises that I am interested in. The cost per night is also insightful. I can see a difference between the newer/bigger ships and the older/smaller ships. 

Do you have any idea how soon after Royal Caribbean releases a new season of bookings that the site will be populated with the new data? I assume they must use scripts/automation to pull this data in.

Thank you for sharing!

Dave

I am looking for a strategy to search for cabin rates. Here is some context: Let's say I am interested in a particular cabin type such as a Junior Suite and I am hovering over my keyboard for the summer/fall 2023 itineraries to open up for booking. When the bookings open up, let's say I see three different ship/itineraries that appeal to me and I am interested in a September timeframe. Now I want to find the cheapest Junior Suites available. My experience is that the prices vary a lot depending on which week is selected, forward/aft of ship as well as floor number. I have also seen adjacent rooms have prices that vary by several hundred dollars, and I have seen some weeks are much more expensive than others.

What is the fastest way for someone to see all the Junior Suite prices for the above situation? Given my scenario, I am looking at three different itineraries and 4 possible weeks so essentially trying to compare prices across 12 different cruises. The only way I know of to compare prices is to open several browser windows and to methodically walk through the booking process comparing different dates, different floors etc. when what I really want to see is a giant list of J3/J4 prices, find the cheapest one then look to see what week, ship and room is associated with that price. I have tried to keep the scenario simple for the sake of discussion but in reality, for the 2023 itineraries that should be available soon I am open to any sailings out of Boston/NJ/Baltimore from April 2023 through the end of the year where I don't really care about the itinerary, I just want the cheapest Jr Suite available.

We do work with a travel agent so I know that they have a better feel for the price variances since they spend more time doing this sort of thing but even they may not catch the obscure cabin on a given itinerary that is a super deal.

Is there any way for a mortal to do this?

Dave

Thank you twangster!

Does anyone know where to find a list of port acronyms? I can figure most of them (ROM = Rome, MIA = Miami, SYD = Sydney) out but a few I am not sure of: BYE, TGN, CDH, FLL - I tried to Google but it led to many dead ends.

The test kits may still be valid even if the date on the box indicates otherwise. You should check with the manufacturer of the kit as they will likely have revised expiration dates based on the serial number of the kit. 

Having extra kits is wise as we had one kit where the reagent bottle was empty.

Thanks for the feedback! We are looking forward to our first group cruise. It is also our first cruise out of Boston which we will be able to drive to instead of fly to! Oh and another first is that this will be our first cruise at the Diamond level!

My wife and I have signed up for our first Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruise (Oct 2020). I know it is a long way off but we were already looking at excursion options and other activities. We know that the group cruises will sometime feature activities that are exclusive for the group. We are curious to know if any of these are known in advance so that we minimize the chance that we will book something else at the same time.

Book a second cruise out of Honolulu! 

I think the photo packages are by room. Our kids are older and stay in separate rooms and we only see them in our package if they are in the photo with us. 

In regards to the overall pricing it seems very high so we rarely buy any photos. I suspect there are many people who feels the same. I assume the RCCL team has done the pricing analysis to show that the high prices make them more money but I still cannot help feeling that if they made the prices more reasonable that more people would buy and they would make more in volume. 

I run a lot of road races where photographers take pictures of runners. They used to have the same concept regarding prices where they charged a lot photos. The newer model seems to be let the runners have free access to digital versions of the photos at a quality level that is suitable for posting online (Facebook, Instagram etc) but not good enough for printing. They also typically include the company logo in the photo so that when people post the photos they are getting free advertising. I think this would be a big win for RCCL.

We have had similar experiences with our TA where we are more aware of price changes than our TA even though we do not check every day. Also I think we have been on more sailings and listened to more of Matt's podcasts than our TA so from a general knowledge perspective there are times when I feel we know more about RCCL than our TA. Matt is always promoting TAs but I feel he gets exceptional service in part due to the number of cruises he goes on and because he promotes them so much. 

2 hours ago, CGTLH said:

Correct you get points based on the land tour and cruise. In my case I had booked the "8B" cruisetour on Radiance (13 nights) and was in a suite for the cruise part.

Total points earned was 26, 13 points for each night and an extra 13 points for staying in a suite for the cruise.

Thank you for the response. For the land tour portion of your trip were there any additional benefits as a suite guest? 

How many points do you get if you book a 7 day cruise to Alaska and a 5 day land cruise, 7 or 12? What if you book a suite for the cruise portion?

For ships that utilize Wowbands for room access is getting a card for accessing multiple staterooms an option?

I no longer see two options for internet access on my upcoming cruises. I am only seeing the Surf & Stream option and not the surf only option. The Surf & Stream Voom option is currently priced for my cruises at $11.99/day (30% off sale). I do not need the stream option and would prefer a 30% off the surf only prices. The last significant posting I could find on the topic was from the blog entry for Feb 7, 2017 titled "Guide to Royal Caribbean Voom WiFi Internet prices and tips" where the pricing and options were as follows:

• Surf & Stream Voom
  • 1 device: $17.99 per day, per device
  • 2 devices: $15.99 per day, per device
  • 4 devices: $13.99 per day, per device
  • Single Day Pass: $27.99 per day, per device
• Surf
  • 1 device: $12.99 per day, per device
  • 2 devices: $11.99 per day, per device
  • 4 devices: $9.99 per day, per device
  • Single Day Pass: $19.99 per day, per device

Does anyone know if they have consolidated their internet plans?

I had not considered that all passengers would have to exit the ship. That makes a lot more sense. Thanks for the reply!

I searched the blogs to see if this question has already been asked and answered but searching on "embarkation" and similar terms came up with many unrelated results so I apologize if I am repeating.

I see that Symphony of the Seas has the following two cruises:

Aug 2, 2018; Aug 9, 2018; Aug 16, 2018; Aug 23, 2018; Aug 30, 2018

It seems that the way these cruises overlap that some passengers will embark on Symphony on Aug 5th in Spain while others will embark on Aug 9 in Italy. The itineraries visit the same ports so If I am interpreting this correctly, the Aug 5th passengers may get off the ship on Aug 9th in Italy for an excursion day while others are embarking on day 1 of their cruise.

This seems very interesting from a logistics perspective.

1) Am I interpreting this correctly with passengers embarking on different days?

2) What happens if someone is supposed does not get off the ship at the end of their cruise? I get that their sea pass card will be de-activated but what if they went to the pool deck grabbed a chair and napped for the day? Is there a scenario where the crew would be frantically searching for passengers who have remained on board? 

3) Is this a new way to schedule cruises? It seems that it might sense in that the crew only has to move half as many bags etc since only half the ship may be getting off at either port. It adds a new dimension to shopping for a cruise if you are looking for the cheapest flight options or if you desire to spend a few days in a city before/after your cruise.

I am very curious to know how this works logistically.

Dave

Thanks for the feedback!

I am trying to compare the cost/value of a cruisetour vs booking just the cruise and planning my own land vacation. For comparison I am simply using interior stateroom pricing from 2016/17 RCCL printed tourbook.

The 7 night Seward to Vancouver interior cabin cruise prices start at $1119

The 7B Cruisetour featuring a 6 night land tour prior to the cruise has prices starting at $2602 adding $1,483 over the cruise only price. This is $247/night compared to the cruise portion of $160/night.

Considering that we will be traveling as a couple the nightly land tour portion is ~$500/night. I recognize the price includes transportation and travel guide as well as the convenience of having the trip planned and managed by someone else (a very big convenience)

One other dimension to this is that we may be traveling with children/spouses and and possibly some other couples (13-20 adults total). One view of this is that we could plan our own land tour (lodging, guide, transportation) getting a more tailored trip (and possibly save costs?) and the other view is that we would struggle to put together a plan that suits everyone.

I am assuming there is not much to be saved by planning the land tour ourselves and that there is a higher risk of having an unpleasant experience but we are interested in what others have experienced.

Dave