F1guynz

Yeah, we were due to be on Ovation from 3rd - 23rd November. We are also the Transpacific in April but that is not too good either. Looks like we will have to wait until next season ?

We have 3 booked for November which were originally last November.

No surprise really but final payments have been suspended while RCI review port closures and possible changes/cancelations.

It depends on the country you are in. In Australia or New Zealand you lose the whole deposit which is either $200 or $400 depending on the length of the cruise. When booking a non refundable cruise you will see the fine print by clicking on cancellation policy on the guest information screen of the booking screen.

I see she was sold to Azamara’s cruises new owner’s

Nope, unfortunately its never a Victoria's Secret model charter cruise

Princess cruises have cancelled all their Australia/New Zealand cruises until 31st May 2021 so I don't think it will be too long before Royal follows suit.

Hi @squeak0279, Welcome to the forums. Sorry to hear about the cancellation of your cruise. We have also had one of cruises cancelled and another shortened due to the changes in ship deployments. You can read about the changes here. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/10/21/royal-caribbean-will-redeploy-six-cruise-ships-winter-2021-2022

Our Ovation cruise in November next year was cancelled due to a "charter", in reality it is now a new 7 night cruise to Queensland.

Thanks, especially annoying when it was our first Star Class booking and part of our honeymoon cruise. Having said that, here in NZ we are talking about keeping the borders closed until the end of next year so I am not sure how many cruises will actually go ahead.

Frustratingly the second part of our B2B cruise in November next year to the South Pacific has been cancelled and the first half to NZ has been reduced by 1 day. This is so annoying as this is the third time our booking has been cancelled since February 2019, most of the previous booking cancellations were not due to Covid either. It is starting to feel like a budget airline with all the cancellations we have had over the last 18 months. Not much in the way of compensation either, $100 for a suite, but with all the previous cancellation we already had $1000 NZD of OBC so a bit more doesn't really make a difference.

@mattymay I have been booking cruises like that. I paid in full for the original cruise in October that I knew would be cancelled. I will now take that FCC and book a December cruise in Australia as I know that it almost certain it will be cancelled. I plan to build up the FCC booking a more expensive cabin each time to create a larger FCC each time to ultimately pay for our star class on Ovation at the end of next year or our TP in 2022.

I understand one of the reasons they sail around is to make sure that algae and other foreign material don't build up on the underside of the hull as this leads to more drag making the ship less fuel efficient.

Chops Grill (Steak) and Izumi (Japanese) will have sea views. Giovanni’s Table (Italian) is down on the Promenade and has no sea view. Given I’m not a big fan of Japanese food I would plump for Chops But it really depends on the type of food you enjoy. Giovannis and Izumi‘s decor are only superficially themed to match the style of restaurant so that shouldn’t be a big factor. you should be able to find pictures with a google search if you want to see the inside.

I agree. Auckland went back into lockdown today as we have 4 new cases.

"It may well be possible that we'll resume operations in China and potentially Australia before the end of October." Living in New Zealand, I find the above statement from the earnings call to reconcile with what I see happening in this region Australian International borders are closed to everyone except returning Australians and passengers with exemptions, and anyone arriving in the country must undergo a two-week quarantine at their cost. The Australian Government has banned all International travel unless you have an exemption. Borders between states are closed due to the surge in cases in Melbourne, so it is not possible to travel from Sydney (New South Wales) to other states within Australia. New Zealand borders are closed to everyone except New Zealand citizens, likely until the end of the year and possibly longer. Anyone arriving in the country will have to undergo a two-week quarantine at their own cost. The limitations above are in place for the foreseeable future, and it is highly unlikely there will be any relaxation by October/November. Any crew arriving would have to quarantine before passengers would be allowed on board, crew and passengers would have to quarantine again for voyages to New Zealand. There is a general distrust of the cruise industry after the Ruby Princess and Diamond Princess outbreaks earlier in the year, particularly the Ruby Princess which was responsible for aiding the original spread of the virus in New South Wales. I am not familiar with the situation in China, so this might be a more realistic appraisal for that region.

We were originally pointed on that cruise but have rebooked for next year. The final payment isn’t due until 30th August so I would just let things play out until then. If the cruise is not cancelled by then I suggest cancelling using the Cruise with Confidence (CwC) guarantee so that you get the $100 FCC. Not ideal but at least if circumstances change again you will have some time to use it. The other option is lose it completely. The deposit amount you mention sounds unusual as it is normally $400 with Royal for cruises of this length. Is this through a travel agent? One other more risky thought I have is to move your booking to one of October 2020 bookings still on sale as these will be highly likely being cancelled in the next few days, the deposit will move with it not costing you any more. You can book a cruise out of Sydney towards the end of the month so you will have a 2-3 weeks until final payment is due, once it is cancelled by Royal you can apply for the full cash refund. if it doesn’t cancel then just use the CwC policy to get your $100 credit before final payment. With Australians not allowed to leave the county and nobody allowed into Australia it is impossible for the cruises to proceed. i just booked one for October 2020 and paid in full to get the 125% FCC to apply to one of our other cruises we have booked.

Fantastic!! I am so excited for you as that is an awesome itinerary. As they say "go big or go home" and you have definitely gone big. We did 3 weeks in Alaska a few years ago and loved it. By the time you have cruised NZ and Alaska you will be all sceneried out. ? We are booked on Ovation for the same TP so hopefully we will be able to meet up.

I did a L&S on one of our cruises where the price on the new sailing was cheaper. In this case it is much easier to get them to move the cruise rather than doing a L&S. I made the mistake of thinking it would update to the lower price but I had to spend quite a bit of time of the phone with them to sort it out. In the end I just got them to honour the lowest price guarantee.

Just imagine how many FCC's @twangster is having to keep track of ? The kind of stuff from which spreadsheets are made.

In this announcement I observe they have cancelled Australian cruises until 29th October which is into the period when Royal ships would be due to arrive. We originally had 2 cruises booked for November 2020 but moved to November 2021 before the mad rush of cancellations and rebooking begins.

We have always had GS on the hump as these are the most central to the lifts. We have been on both sides of the ship as well so there is no disadvantage there. We do avoid interconnecting cabins as that can effect the couch size and position. The only noise we noticed was the crew or people moving deck chairs at night but in all other ways they were great.

Thanks for the advice Raye, I have changed to one of the middle cabins on deck 10 as they are all still available at the moment. November next year feels so far away but it something to look forward to. We are going to do a B2B around NZ and the Pacific Islands. You will have to come down this way for a cruise sometime once normal service resumes ? Cheers, Carl

Would you go for middle GLS over a corner one? We have one booked on Ovation next year but I flip-flopping about which would be better value.

It’s funny, I was just thinking the other day how much better the website used to be a few years ago. Royal must be one of the few companies that continually takes away functionality from the website. Remember when you could View all the payment information on one tab with the timeline that showed amount paid, final payment date, amount owning etc. sort cruises by cabin class price rather than the lcheapest cabin. cancel a cruise upgrade your cabin without calling update your crown and anchor preferences And these are just the ones I remember. How I long for the good old days of not having to contact their frustrating Call Centre