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Oasis to Cape Liberty in 2020?


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I've heard similar rumblings, with the added speculation that part of the refurbishment will include further modifications to the stacks so that they can once again retract, even with the scrubbers that @twangster had noted were installed after initial construction.

IF

(that's a mighty big if)

that's true, then Oasis could in theory clear the bridge by lowering the stacks as originally designed.

I guess we'll all know some time later this week when the Summer 2020 Caribbean, CA/NE, and Bermuda itineraries come out. Original speculation was for an AMPED Freedom class ship, but I guess having an Oasis makes some degree of sense if they can fit it in there. The differences between AMPED Voyager class (Adventure) and Freedom class will be small, and the ships themselves aren't that different. Plus, people have gotten used to the Anthem and everything she has to offer, and while an AMPED Freedom class ship will have a lot of new stuff on it, it still won't have the level of entertainment and on-board activities for sea days that the Quantum class offers. Getting an Oasis class ship there for the summer would allow them to still have a ship with the same or bigger level of WOW as Anthem offered, and ensure that people have lots of things to occupy them during the 2 sea days down and 2 sea days back for those 9-night Caribbean runs.

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@JLMoran  I have heard the same rumblings about the lowering of the stacks.  Didn't they just apply for a patent regarding their stacks?  I did not pay much attention to when I read the article.  

The other rumblings that I heard was they were going to follow the Anthem's itinerary.  9 nights NE and turn to a 5 night to Bermuda only.  However, I also heard they would do a 7 night schedule for Oasis.  I am hoping that they would do that, but it doesn't make sense to me because the Adventure does 8 nights to Bermuda/Bahamas/Coco Cay.  Hence, to me it would make more sense for Adventure to take over Anthem's routes of 9 and 5, and this way Oasis could do a 7 and 7.  It just means you would have 1 less sea day.

I would also like a 7 night for Oasis.  My Hubby's and my biggest complaint of the Anthem for 5 nights was to do everything we wanted you really need 7 nights.  Just when you figured out the ship you were getting off the next day.

I really wish they could get a larger ship into Baltimore, but I get it.  We did the Enchantment and Lady G is the same size (approx.)  It is just too small for us.  Enchantment was fine, bc it was port heavy, no sea days..  Adventure is as small as I am willing to go.  

I love Cape Liberty to sail out of.  I am not a huge fan of NCL and combine that with driving into NYC, I will stick with RCCL.

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13 minutes ago, Pima1988 said:

The other rumblings that I heard was they were going to follow the Anthem's itinerary.  9 nights NE and turn to a 5 night to Bermuda only.  However, I also heard they would do a 7 night schedule for Oasis.  I am hoping that they would do that, but it doesn't make sense to me because the Adventure does 8 nights to Bermuda/Bahamas/Coco Cay.  Hence, to me it would make more sense for Adventure to take over Anthem's routes of 9 and 5, and this way Oasis could do a 7 and 7.  It just means you would have 1 less sea day.

In the summer, Anthem doesn't do a CA/NE run -- that's only in the fall months, where her cold weather design is well suited to going north in the colder weather. Adventure handles the CA/NE trips over the summer on a shorter 6-night run, which alternates with the 8-night Bermuda and Bahamas itinerary. The 9-night trip Anthem makes over the summer is to Bermuda and the Eastern Caribbean (St. Maarten, San Juan, and Labadee), alternating with a 5-night Bermuda-only. 

Assuming they keep the same general summer itineraries out of Cape Liberty, then the problem is with those southbound runs. You just can't get down to Florida from NJ in anything less than two days each way, and that's with the ship going at a pretty good clip the whole time. Unless the current 8-night trip dropped Bermuda and only went to Nassau and Coco Cay, I don't see a way to get that down to 7 nights (and I'd wager a good number of people would probably dislike that itinerary option). The 9-night Bermuda / Caribbean run could only get to 7 nights by dropping two ports (Bermuda and maybe St. Kitts, so you still get the stop at the private island). There's just too much ocean to cover, and Oasis needs to be able to go slower at least some of the time for things like the Aqua Theater shows.

I've been mulling over any way that Oasis could get two 7-night itineraries and I just don't see a way it could happen, given the inability to effectively shorten any southbound itinerary. You can't have Oasis take over both northern routes, even if you lengthen them to 7 days (which is doable), because the durations of the southern ones don't add up to a multiple of 7, which seems to be a requirement of having one ship do alternating itineraries. I'm not clear why all regular / non-repositioning itineraries a ship sails have to work out to some multiple of 7 (paging @monorailmedic for random cruise trivia!), but there you go.

So, a long-winded way of saying that if Oasis does come to Cape Liberty, and Royal doesn't change up the itineraries offered, it will most likely just take over the 5-night Bermuda and 9-night Caribbean sailings that Anthem has been doing. I agree that's not great for those on the 5-night trips since they'll barely have a chance to learn the ship, but at the same time I hear everyone on these boards say that even a 7-night sailing isn't enough to fully explore and experience an Oasis class ship, so it's probably not a real "loss" anyway. Just means you have to do a B2B on both itineraries! ? 

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36 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

You just can't get down to Florida from NJ in anything less than two days each way, and that's with the ship going at a pretty good clip the whole time.

Well that's the fastest correction to my supposedly sound logic that I've ever seen...

I have no idea how this logically (logistically?) works out, but there is indeed a 7-night Oasis sailing from NJ to Port Canaveral, Perfect Day, and Nassau. And they also have an 8-night that has those ports plus Miami. And for both, they are somehow getting the ship all the way from NJ to Port Canaveral in just one sea day! She's going to be running all six engines and going flat-out to pull that one off!

I've never seen a southbound itinerary from NJ that got to FL using less than 2 sea days before this. Color me flabbergasted!

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1 hour ago, JLMoran said:

I've never seen a southbound itinerary from NJ that got to FL using less than 2 sea days before this. Color me flabbergasted!

It docks in Port Canaveral on Day 3 at 1pm - so it's pretty close to 2 full days worth or sailing. 

Some very rough calculations it should take about 39 hours going full speed from NJ to FL. That would mean they have about 6 hours to play with and get all those engines firing!!

Anthem is also doing the same itinerary.

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12 hours ago, JLMoran said:

Well that's the fastest correction to my supposedly sound logic that I've ever seen...

I have no idea how this logically (logistically?) works out, but there is indeed a 7-night Oasis sailing from NJ to Port Canaveral, Perfect Day, and Nassau. And they also have an 8-night that has those ports plus Miami. And for both, they are somehow getting the ship all the way from NJ to Port Canaveral in just one sea day! She's going to be running all six engines and going flat-out to pull that one off!

I've never seen a southbound itinerary from NJ that got to FL using less than 2 sea days before this. Color me flabbergasted!

Anthem did a 7 night that did that same route.

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18 hours ago, JLMoran said:

Well that's the fastest correction to my supposedly sound logic that I've ever seen...

I have no idea how this logically (logistically?) works out, but there is indeed a 7-night Oasis sailing from NJ to Port Canaveral, Perfect Day, and Nassau. And they also have an 8-night that has those ports plus Miami. And for both, they are somehow getting the ship all the way from NJ to Port Canaveral in just one sea day! She's going to be running all six engines and going flat-out to pull that one off!

I've never seen a southbound itinerary from NJ that got to FL using less than 2 sea days before this. Color me flabbergasted!

Check this out. Boston to San Juan in one day. 

Edit: Never mind  when I clicked further it’s more than one day.

 

992C1891-BE21-4A1C-BB41-C63FCA231BDE.jpeg

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On 12/11/2018 at 7:37 AM, Pima1988 said:

It is rumored to be that the Oasis will replace Anthem after she comes out of her retrofit.  I am wondering if this is truly true because I am not sure it can clear the bridge..  Anthem only clears by @20 feet.  I remember being on the pool deck and you could see the brand of the car tires as we under the bridge.

 

 

You know, Royal Caribbean once had to cancel a whole season of scheduled Quantum sailings to Bermuda, once they figured out that the ship was a little too long to safely make it to port...

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On 12/11/2018 at 5:20 PM, JLMoran said:

I'm not clear why all regular / non-repositioning itineraries a ship sails have to work out to some multiple of 7

There are plenty of exceptions to this for most lines.  While it's not common at all as you go up-market, you do see exceptions with contemporary lines as well - but I get your point that it's common to see 7/7 or 3/4.  The 7/7 is simple in that weekend embarkations make sense for guests who can use the leading Sat or training Sun (as the case may be) to go to or from the port of embarkation, plus I'd wager it's probably an easier psychological "sell" for folks to take a seven night sailing requiring just five days of vacation across a calendar week.

The 3/4 pattern allows lines to offer weekend sailings (appealing to those local to the port for sure) as well as four nighters in between for those who aren't concerned with vacation time.  Even in cases where the net of the 3/4 night revenue is less than some of that lines seven night sailings, it may be that the line doesn't think the demand is there for that particular ship running seven nights, plus, not everyone is looking to sail for that long - so it becomes an alternative offering for those who may not have otherwise sailed.  This is especially true of first timers who may be apprehensive about longer cruises.  In fact, that's why you saw RCI put so much money into Mariner, so they could offer a great experience on those shorter sailings and lure first timers in.

For the sake of mentioning some "regular" exceptions in the contemporary space, and sticking with the Caribbean (obviously sailings out of the NE and in the Med are a different ballgame), Carnival Conquest alternates b/w six and eight night sailings (eight nights allows them to get to the ABCs), and Independence of the Seas is operating four and five night sailings, and Navigator often sails nine nights to get to the ABCs.  

Interestingly, there was one ship that used to occasionally sail seven night sailings from South Florida and visit the Southern Caribbean: Cunard's QE2.  Her service speed was 28.5 knots, compared to Navigator's service speed of 22 knots.  QE2 top speed?  34 knots, or 39MPH.  She was the only passenger ship capable of those speeds that regularly visited the Caribbean.

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55 minutes ago, monorailmedic said:

For the sake of mentioning some "regular" exceptions in the contemporary space, and sticking with the Caribbean (obviously sailings out of the NE and in the Med are a different ballgame), Carnival Conquest alternates b/w six and eight night sailings (eight nights allows them to get to the ABCs), and Independence of the Seas is operating four and five night sailings, and Navigator often sails nine nights to get to the ABCs. 

Thanks for the explanation, @monorailmedic! But even with those exceptions, you do still end up with a multiple of 7 -- e.g., alternating 6- and 8-night, or 5- and 9-night, means 14 total (7*2). So you still get that mysterious multiple of 7. Even the seasonally unique NE sailings like the north- and south-bound Fall Foliage cruises out of NJ are 11 and 10 nights, for a total of 21 (7 *3).

Are the people in the trip planning division just secretly a bunch of numerologists with a nigh-mystical love of the number 7? ?

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3 hours ago, JLMoran said:

Are the people in the trip planning division just secretly a bunch of numerologists with a nigh-mystical love of the number 7? ?

I think they are just relying on people being comfortable with the idea of traveling on a weekend and taking a whole week off work and/or school.  (Yeah, not everyone actually works M-F but everyone is familiar with that being the "standard").

From a practical point of view though, imagine if a cruise line always did 8 day sailings.  Their schedule would never line up with the calendar.  Their port employees' schedules would be constantly changing, food and fuel deliveries to the port for resupplying the ships would always be changing, negotiations for docks at the islands would be harder especially if most ships have a regular schedule.  I think it's just easy for everybody when things are weekly or biweekly.

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2 hours ago, Atlantix2000 said:

I think they are just relying on people being comfortable with the idea of traveling on a weekend and taking a whole week off work and/or school.  (Yeah, not everyone actually works M-F but everyone is familiar with that being the "standard").

From a practical point of view though, imagine if a cruise line always did 8 day sailings.  Their schedule would never line up with the calendar.  Their port employees' schedules would be constantly changing, food and fuel deliveries to the port for resupplying the ships would always be changing, negotiations for docks at the islands would be harder especially if most ships have a regular schedule.  I think it's just easy for everybody when things are weekly or biweekly.

Carnival tends to do 4 or 6 or 8 night sailings out of Manhattan, but I think that is mostly to avoid the NCL ships that have priority on Sat and Sun.

 

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We're on a 7 night Grandeur in April, that leaves and returns on a Thursday.  So it requires 6 days off of work which is annoying; Thursday we embark... Friday, Monday - Thursday we disembark and drive home.  So I'm going to work on Friday.  Weekend departures are soooo much easier. 

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