JLMoran

ngl, I had to check the post date of this multiple times to confirm it wasn't an April Fool's joke.
Matt! Matt! Why hast thou forsaken us?!?
 
😉

See, this is why their "sales" and "promotions" are so often just bunk. It really comes down to, "How well are we meeting our quotas for these packages and offerings?" It's only when the sales numbers are in the toilet that the steep price cuts actually seem to come out. What I consider a reasonable deluxe package price (which would be about $45-$55 PP PD) doesn't seem to be offered any more, even though I was able to snag that price on both of my 2018 sailings.
Not that I'll stop checking, mind you. I'm a firm believer in miracles.

Given the description of the elevators on Odyssey, this might be an issue for my wife. She has benign cerebellar tremor, which causes her hands to shake all the time. If using those elevators requires steadily pointing a finger in front of a button but not touching it, she may get very frustrated if she constantly sets off all the neighboring buttons due to the tremor.

I've always defended @Matt when someone claimed he was being a princess.
Now I'm not so sure.
🤣🤣🤣
 

No wedding ring I see.... Smart man keeping his wealth to himself 😎

See! That guy is a true baller, not us lol

Did the Royal bling necklace come with the cup?  
He just needs Royal bling grills now.

100kroyalbling.com 

She won't have any issues, one can just press the buttons like a normal elevator; 3/4 of the time that's what I did just out of habit.

This could happen, but really it's not as big of a deal as reading this thread leads one to believe.  We met a lot of different people on the elevator.  We always had a conversation starter w/"don't get too close to the elevator buttons, or we'll have to stop at all the floors".  Yes, sometimes we stopped on some extra floors.  Twice we even got to ride in the elevator w/ the surprise piano player!   We enjoyed the journey.  We were on vacation.  The elevator can be one of your favorite memories of the ship.  It's all in the  perspective.

Count me on this sailing. Gonna be my first time on Royal in a good six years! Haven't sailed with them since before the pandemic hit. And this sailing will mark a few moments for me:
I turn 55 four days before sail-away I finally hit Platinum status (for all that means these days 😏) First sailing on Odyssey First time in Antigua and Barbados (too bad no Curacao, but 2 outta 3 ain't bad) And yeah, it's been a minute since I posted to these boards. 😉 

The maximum weight of a Panamax ship is only 52,500 "deadweight" tons. I think Discovery-class will be a Neo-Panamax ship, which can fit into the new locks. To get to the canal, ships must pass under three bridges, which will constrain height. The design should include providing for sailing to and from Tampa, Baltimore, and other ports that have low bridges. They will also take the width of the ship into account. The lifeboats on the Discovery can't obstruct the ship from getting into the lock. 
Discovery should be, therefore, a little smaller than Voyager-class and shaped a little differently. 
Panamax - Wikipedia

https://www.schiffe-und-kreuzfahrten.de/news/royal-caribbean-arbeitet-am-project-discovery-neue-auftraege-fuer-die-meyer-werft-aus-papenburg/290350/?fbclid=IwAR2npaBBwHtZABZ529iS5OnwYZcHtxXTpcXGoqwIk7FvbsgI8Fg91lQ3l0Y_aem_AW-4BT96wP7yvPh-ZW1QbxYPyrLbkxjeW9fxZP0H6J73KQq8iYfJhXpH0Qmk1DckdYo#google_vignette
 
Translation: 
Around Royal Caribbean International, there are ongoing rumors about smaller new buildings under the project title Discovery. Royal Caribbean International has now indirectly confirmed that work is being done on new buildings. In the introduction text of staff captain Markus Alander, who has been working in the new building department of Royal Caribbean for several years, states that he is also working on Project Discovery. In recent years, he has accompanied the introduction of numerous new ships for the Royal Caribbean Group.
Project Discovery is supposed to be planning for medium-sized cruise ships. Since with the four ships from the Vision Class and the four ships from the Radiance Class, several Royal Caribbean cruise ships will soon exceed an age of 20, 25 or even 30 years, these cruise ships must be replaced. However, you cannot simply replace these cruise ships with ships of a significantly larger ship class such as the Oasis, Quantum or Icon Class, as these cruise ships are far from being able to sail all routes.
Royal Caribbean International has not yet placed any orders for Project Discovery. Since the ship class is currently in the planning phase, the delivery of the first ships from Project Discovery is not expected until the end of the 2020 years, provided that this ship class is ordered. Presumably, the ship class is medium-sized cruise ships for 3000 to 3500 cruise passengers. This would only mean that these ships would be about half the size of the Oasis or Icon Class ships from Royal Caribbean International.
Allegedly, Royal Caribbean International is also talking to Meyer Werft from Papenburg about Project Discovery. The shipyard from Emsland could well use orders for new cruise ships. Since the current order book for cruise ships from Papenburg only lasts until 2025, the shipyard could build a new ship class for Royal Caribbean International from 2026. In 2026, the oldest Royal Caribbean cruise ship Grandeur of the Seas reaches the age of 30 years, a year later the Rhapsody of the Seas and the Enchantment of the Seas also exceed this age limit. Royal Caribbean International will have to replace these cruise ships towards the end of the 2020s.
The fact that the Meyer Werft on Papenburg will be involved in Project Discovery is well possible but by no means guaranteed. In addition to the shipyard from Papenburg, the competition of Chantiers de l'Atlantique from France has also built several cruise ships for the Royal Caribbean Group in recent years.

I think this is the first time we’ve actually seen RCI talk about Project Discovery in writing.  I’m on Quantum of the Seas at the moment, and watching Entertainment Today this morning John our CD mentioned that the Senior Officers info sheet that used to be at Guest Services can now be found on the wayfinders that are near the elevators. So being curious, I went to read through it and found this under our Staff Captain.

But it’s not a true match. I get 5 drinks a day. Anytime, Anywhere. Celebrity limits you to happy hour. That’s not equal. I don’t want to drink 5 drinks in 2-3 hours 

I don't think Project Discovery is going to be another mega class ship like Icon and Oasis, but at the same time is isn't going to be the size of a Vision Class vessel either.  I think as others have pointed out it will probably fall somewhere in size between Radiance and Voyager Class but probably closer in size to Voyager Class than Radiance.  With a ship that size there are still a lot of ports around the world Royal can visit.  And I'd imagine depending on how successful/profitable Royal's upcoming around the world is they could even do another around the world cruise on their new Discovery Class ship at some point. 
When I read your post and saw "there is no loyalty benefits to crossing brands" my mind immediately went to airlines and their loyalty programs, where I can fly Lufthansa but have the miles added into my United Airlines MileagePlus account, that isn't going to happen in the cruise industry.  You can't cruise with Celebrity and have those points added to your Royal Caribbean account.  However just because Royal doesn't allow that does not mean there is no value in crossing brands or no loyalty. What Royal does allow is this Celebrity will match your Royal status on the cruise meaning you will get the benefits on Celebrity of the status that you've earned on Royal.  As far as the points go the points will go into your Celebrity account which they will open for you automatically.  
If your goal is to reach Pinnacle status with Royal I would suggest stay with Royal because as we all know the difference between Diamond Plus and Pinnacle is huge.  However if you are Diamond or even Diamond Plus with Royal and don't care about reaching Pinnacle then by all means book a few cruises with Celebrity especially if they are visiting ports of call that you are interested in exploring.   

I understand that Royal is all in on the 10,000 passenger destination amusement park family ships and there is no doubt they dominate that market.  We are sailing Icon and I respect Royal’s dominance in this market.  The demand and profitability is through the roof so good for Royal.  As we have aged and entered the retired empty nesters group we constantly look for longer and more interesting destination cruises.  With Royal that means Vision and Radiance class ships and B2B sailings.  That means old ships and a lot of polished brass with limited ship features.
As the population ages huge numbers of Diamond + and Pinnacle people will be aging into this demographic.  The most flippant response seems to be “just cruise Celebrity or Siversea”.  There is no loyalty benefit to crossing to those brands.  Even though I have status on RCL and and cruise Royal 80% of the time I don’t find Celebrity compelling and are not interested in the Silversea / Regent price points.  I think eventually Royal will have to expand into the other adult segments or lose lifelong customer to other cruise lines.

Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I've always hoped that the name "Discovery" is a clue to a RC marketing scheme intended to sell us on going to smaller ports and rarer destinations, thus needing a smaller-than-mega-sized ship.  Maybe 10 or 20 years from now every port in the Caribbean will be able to handle an Oasis class sized ship, but right now the huge ships have a smaller list of ports which can handle them.

I've been waiting for RCL to decide they won't cede adult travel to the luxury lines or NCL Prima / Viva.  The "floating theme park" has served them well but with the aging of the population I'd love them to do an upscale smaller ship targeted at adults!

It's not the bridge that is the only limiting factor in using the canal.  Royal has a tendency to place their lifeboats so they hang outside the hull in part.  Some ships have walkways that go around the hump hanging like a shelf off the side of the ship.  These protrusions from the side profile of the ship don't allow them to use the canal even if the Bridge of the Americas was replaced.  
If you look at all the ships from all lines that use the canal you will find smooth sides to the ship far enough from the waterline that they can slide down the concrete wall of a lock chamber and not do any damage to the ship or lock.  By placing the lifeboats far out or by having walkways hanging off the ship Royal gains inside space to make the ships have larger internal volume (gross tonnage) giving them more space for venues inside the ship but the trade off is having parts of the ship or the lifeboats hanging out of the side profile.   This also limits their ability to the use Panama Canal.  

There has long been talk of building a new terminal outside the bridge near Tampa.  If that happens or not is up to local officials.  
If area officials decide not to open a more ship friendly location It's equally difficult to imagine Royal would intentionally build a small ship just to service Tampa when there is another cruise port within a two hour drive.  Norfolk is a logical alternative to Baltimore albeit a bit longer drive for some people while possibly closer for others.
Locals complaining they have to drive several hours instead of 30 minutes is hardly a strong factor in the equation.  Royal tends to place their ships where they most the most revenue and it's not uncommon for Tampa to be without a Royal ship some months.
No mass market cruise line is building ships small enough to be able to use Tampa or Baltimore.  Not Carnival.  Not Princess.  Not MSC.  Not NCL.  Not Celebrity.  Not even boutique lines are building small ships.  Not Virgin.  Not Disney.  One could argue that Disney would be better suited to leverage Tampa yet they made the decision to use the East coast sometime ago and they haven't looked back.   Why did Disney expand to South Florida and not Tampa?
There are other cruise ports such as Jacksonville and Charleston that have never seen a Royal ship while other cruise lines use them as home ports with their smaller ships.  Eventually that is what will happen with Baltimore and Tampa.  

I wouldn't presume to know what Royal Caribbean is planning to do about ports like Tampa and Baltimore.  If you zoom out from Royal Caribbean International to Royal Caribbean group, there are just too many possibilities.  Here are some that I can think of off the top of my head.
Build a new class of RCI ship that can service these ports.    Stop servicing these smaller ports entirely. Give these ports over to one of RCGs other lines like Celebrity or maybe introduce Marella to the United States at these ports. The real question is how many small ports does RCG want to support? There's more than just Tampa and Baltimore.  For example, what about New Orleans? Or Northern Europe? Panama Canal?
Once that question is answered, the next one is "how does RCG choose to do it?"  As you can see, there's more than one way to skin that cat.
What I've heard about Discovery project is that it will be neo-panamax.  That means about the size of an RCI Voyager class or a Celebrity Edge class. I'm no expert on ports, but I believe that would be too large for Baltimore, Tampa and dicey for New Orleans.  It would definitely work for Panama, Northern Europe. and Alaska.

At the CAS meeting this week while on the Radiance in Alaska, our Captain Merrek, said a new ship and class similar in size to the Radiance is being planned in the next 3 or 4 years.  The name of the ship is to be the Discovery of the Seas.
Does nybody have any further information  or confirmation?

A captain on Ovation in Australia was talking about Discovery class .
A ship somewhere between Radiance and Voyager class in size.

I hope you were able to move Forward from your Stern Warning and enjoy your cruise.