EmersonNZ

I agree with F1guynz... I'm not sure I have ever not seen a sale of one sort or another.

Any recommendations would be truly welcomed. It looks like we are going to have one complete full day before we join the cruise (Though I imagine some of that will involve sleeping ). We have booked Sophie's Station but can change it if you have a better option. Ideally, we'd stay the same place the cruise stays but I'm not sure where that is (And it may be many locations I guess)

Unfortunately it doesn't look like suites were included this time around for our Dec 30th cruise (Just as well as today is final payment day...) I think I prefer the new look over the old one.... just

We were on Ovation in January (Pacific/NZ from Sydney) and there were no Broadway calibre shows. There was a RCL original show which I would consider 'ok' but certainly not Broadway quality (Think good High School production). There was also a Broadway type showgirls/guys show which was.... let's just say not my scene. One night they had a local Australian singer headlining in the theatre and she was rather good as was the comedian they brought on board but I imagine they rotate on and off the ship every sailing. Best entertainment in my opinion on the ship was actually the singer/songwriter playing the Irish pub on board.

If they did what they did last year when we were on OVation out of Sydney they change the VIP Casino back to the Music Hall but keep the noodle bar (Which was average). The stage show was more like a chorus girl show (During it I was thinking they kinda put the women's rights movement back 30 years....). I certainly would have preferred a Broadway musical or even one of Royals own Broadway type shows. We had a great cruise and apart from that show, I can't speak highly enough of the whole experience. You are going to love your cruise.

Me too. I had an amazing day diving in Saint Maarten on one of our Disney Cruises and would love to give back a little from an Island that gave me an amazing experience.

We were on Quantum last year (New Zealand/Pacific) and there was a Music Hall. I believe they do some quick modifications between the Chinese season and the Australia/New Zealand season. In you case sailing out of Shanghai, I imagine the Casino will still be in place. When you say the Chinese market loves gambling.... believe me they LOVE gambling. The VIP lounge on Quantum I am sure is earning RCLmore per sq 'm' than any ship in the fleet.

Hi all Keryn and I are heading on an Alaska cruise next year which includes a precruise tour out of Fairbanks Alaska. I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for hotels in Fairbanks? We will be travelling from New Zealand so we'd like to get in a couple of days before the tour begins just to grab a days sleep and relax a little before our trip begins. Thank in advance

.... and then enjoy :-)

I think you'll find that 'your experience may differ to that advertised'.... By in large I have had a really good experience with Voom. It is fair to say that there are times when it was average (unable to watch streamed video but fine for facebook etc) but most of the time it was pretty good. I imagine that depending where the ship is compared to satellites , how many people are using it at any given time and of course the signal strength where you are all on the ship will have an impact on performance. From a technical point of view having done a little large site networking in the past creating a wireless network for 5,000 users probably averaging around 2 devices (though I guess limited by cost to maybe an average of 1 device each) on a moving platform made of thick steel in the middle of the ocean with no land based communication systems is very very impressive.

That makes sense. I imagine anything he divers are doing before then is just remedial instead of full repairs.

Agreed... We loved our time San Juan and would be very happy to spend another day there. St John is fantastic but so is San Juan so it's like choosing between 2 very yummy flavours of ice cream

A 'gold' member.... (1 three night cruise)... I bet they are really worried about next years profit now..... I totally understand people being upset and personally I think there should be a free cancellation or maybe a on board credit offer but I don't for one sec blame RCL for this. It is likely it was due to a manufacturing fault and I am sure if so it will be costing the ship yard (I presume you get a pretty good warranty when you buy a $1.2b ship) but there will also be costs accrued by RCL (Which I am presuming as they will be insured for). They will have contracts with the ports they are missing, costs with the new ports, contracts with suppliers from everything from fuel to food. There is no way this is a decision they have taken likely and would absolutely rather avoid it if they could.

Presuming they just don't have a propeller laying around (Not sure it is something you have laying under your bed) the lead time to manufacture on would be at least a month, then you have to ship it (3 weeks by ship and a very expensive flight otherwise which they will probably go for considering operating costs). Then there is planning the fix itself. I imagine they already have a team of divers assembled and are setting up a simulated environment to plan the fix. Having over 1000 dives including some working on repairing fishing boats (Somewhat smaller than Allure ) it is going to be extremely difficult and you would want to prepare for it just like astronauts prepare for a spacewalk. They are probably going to have to preform a fix that has never been done before and probably has never been designed to be attempted in the water. As a Diver this is right up there with the most difficult dives your could imagine and is going to be extremely difficult. The only thing they have going for them is it is it isn't at depth so decompression should be an issue and if it is a controlled environment hopefully the visibility isn't too bad (I've done a fix where even with high powered diving touches you could only see an arm length in front of you, I can't imagine doing this type of fix in bad viz). I really hope they do a documentary on this fix as it really is going to be an interesting one...

We've done a 'few' Disney cruises that we love but I must admit we are probably won't be going back to Disney for a while. I just don't think there is value in it for me compared to Royal. If it was 25% difference in cost then maybe... we it's more like 50%+ at the moment

You'll have to let us know your NZ itinerary. Depending on schedules etc we might be able to give you the locals experience We did Ovation in January which include New Caledonia, Vanuatu and then a few days in NZ (Auckland, Tauranga and Bay of Islands. It was interesting seeing you home country from the prospective of a cruise ship. Living here day in day out you kind of forget how beautiful it actually is.

First all.... Welcome to the group Barbs!!! I can't speak for this itinerary in particular but I can tell you that the 14-night transpacific cruise does offer the drink package discount so I imagine it will be offered on the Atlantic crossing as well. The drink packages tend to be available anywhere from 12 months to 4 months prior to your cruise. There really doesn;t seem to any rhyme of reason when they are released as it seems to be different per cruise. You are going to have an amazing cruise. If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask the board

Far too early! On every cruise line I have been on I have been well off by 8:30am. Lie DocLC said it normally depends on the time you dock (Which is normally around 6:00am) but you can expect they will want you off by 9am at the very latest (And out of your cabin by 8am). I would love to see a documentary on the work that ends to be done from when they dock Actually probably more like 9pm the night before) to when they leave port with the new group of passengers. It must be a very well orchestrated machine.

I can't see why there wouldn't be. There is on the 21 day Transpacific cruise. At the end of the day they are charging you for the packages by the day so it really doesn't matter to them if it is 5 days 10 day or 21 days. I imagine they will also have a formula that works out how much they need to charge per day for the cruise depending on how many sea days there are so again U can't see why they wouldn't offer a drink package.... same of course will go for the dining packages.

Looking at other boats on the site Rhapsody is actually pretty good value.... There is another cruise ship on there for $350m and another $400m... I think we should consider buying all 3 and start our own RCL Podcast cruise line.... http://www.yachtworld.com/boats-for-sale/?&No=0

Mmmm do you think if we all chip in $1 we might be able to make a bid for it? I'm sure we'd get a discount for cash on a $200m sale... I have a funny feeling the fuel bill might give us a bit of sticker shock but

They have really improved the process in New Zealand over the last 5 years. When I first got my passport (many years ago) it involved a lot of paper work, getting documents cited by JPs etc etc. Now it can all be done on-line including uploading your own photo etc (As you upload it it checks to see if it meets the requirements as far as background and being clear etc goes). I seem to also remember it taking about 5 weeks to get my passport sent to me now it arrives in less than a week in most cases. We've also gone back to 10 year passports which is good so I won't have to do it for a few years yet.

As many have mentioned there is no right or wrong answer for this. For some, they will prefer to pay a certain amount each month off the total to avoid having to find a large lump on the payment due date. If you don't regularly save and find it tempting to dip into savings then this is a great idea. Personally, I do something simular but instead of paying the money to RCL I put the money into a separate savings account and then pay a lump sum the day before the cruise needs to be paid off. In our case this because we have an offset mortgage (i.e any positive funds in our bank accounts reduces the principle we have to pay interest against) it is better for us to keep the money in our own accounts as long as possible which reduces the interest charges on our mortgage. If I didn't have a history of saving I would probably pay off a certain amou8nt each month but I am confident of not touching the money so in our case it is better to not pay it until the last moment possible. It really is up to you and what makes you feel more comfortable.

Yep I noticed all prices have dropped on Australia sailing which as you said I would guess is due to the NZ$ increasing against the US (Though dropped 2c in the last week but still 4c better for the month). We rebooked our Alcohol + Internet & Non Alcohol package and saved about $250 which was nice. I also noticed the arcade deal was made available on our Voyager sailing (Dec 30). I am still hoping to see the Non Alcoholic + internet package turn up on the Australian site which i haven't seen yet.

Having the internet details on arrival certainly would be handy especially for those are flying in from overseas and may not have a local mobile with a data package etc (Keryn and I are in Australia and the US we have local SIM cards with mobile data etc but I imagine a lot of people don't). If they were really cleaver and got their IT department sorted to look at the complete customer life cycle they would use the login you use for your cruise planner to log into the ships wireless as well. This really wouldn't be too difficult to do but would mean aligning your authentication systems to all use some like Active Directory etc. You could easily update user details to an on-board auth server at port (or via sat for that matter, I just wouldn't authenticate back to a land based service and instead use a ship based copy).