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Independence of the Seas 2020 – no more Southampton but COCO CAY!


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Independence of the Seas 2020 – changes to sailings

Responding to strong booking interest in our exciting new Caribbean private destination, Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean International has announced a 2020 deployment change for Independence of the Seas. The ship will now sail from Fort Lauderdale, Florida rather than Southampton. Guests affected by the itinerary change will be offered full refunds and a ‘Future Cruise Credit’ for use on alternative sailings. The popular Quantum Class ship Anthem of the Seas will return to the UK market for 2020, adding more options for guests sailing from Southampton. Please click on the following FAQs for more information.

 

IMO a very bold move, but seeing what @twangster had put in another thread about slow sales in Europe it wasn't a surprise

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10 minutes ago, J_Keeble said:

I'm not sure royal are even doing the fjords this season now? Also I just thought maybe odyssey might come to Southampton for a couple of months before it goes to the US.

 

im not sure when she is due for delivery though.

Jewel has a few Fjords sailings in 2020 out of Copenhagen and Brilliance offers 1 from Amsterdam.

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1 hour ago, Joe01 said:

Very, very bad idea.

Complete slap in the face to the UK market. And we get stuck with the cr*p Anthem instead. There go my plans to do a Scandinavia cruise on ID.

Which ship to sail now?

Why is the anthem cr*p? We were thinking of doing the ovation..

i think a change is good the Indy as been here for ever now..

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1 minute ago, Jason12 said:

Why is the anthem cr*p? We were thinking of doing the ovation..

i think a change is good the Indy as been here for ever now..

Narrow, creaky, bad design. Not enough outdoor pool space, the Royal Esplanade was a con. I did like the Bumper Cars and North Star, but both had insanely long queues.

Quantum Class are my least favourites in the fleet. Glad I tried Anthem but wouldn't sail her again.

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So I’m guessing the Ovation is coming to the UK 2021 as it’s repositioning from Sydney to Singapore March 21 and not to Hawaii as usual..

the Voyager is also doing its usual repositioning to Singapore in April 2021 for the season so I cannot see the Ovation staying in Singapore.?? 

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1 hour ago, Joe01 said:

Very, very bad idea.

Complete slap in the face to the UK market. And we get stuck with the cr*p Anthem instead. There go my plans to do a Scandinavia cruise on ID.

Which ship to sail now?

We were thinking to do the Fjords this year, but decided to do western Mediterranean this year and leave Fjords for 2020. So that’s our plans out the window 

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5 minutes ago, Jason12 said:

So I’m guessing the Ovation is coming to the UK 2021 as it’s repositioning from Sydney to Singapore March 21 and not to Hawaii as usual..

the Voyager is also doing its usual repositioning to Singapore in April 2021 for the season so I cannot see the Ovation staying in Singapore.?? 

So That Leave A Huge Question If That Is True. What Ship Will Replace Ovation In Alaska?  Just A Thought But It Would Be Cool To See Spectrum Over There In Alska For The Summer And Spending The Winter In China?

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Just now, 3trinitythree said:

We were thinking to do the Fjords this year, but decided to do western Mediterranean this year and leave Fjords for 2020. So that’s our plans out the window 

Indeed. They've affected thousands of cruisers for this when they already have enough ships to call at CocoCay for the Summer season.

It's only Radiance Class doing the Fjords now.

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11 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

Money money money.......3 ships a day in Coco Cay....

 

This is the answer.

 

By pushing everything to Coco Cay, that is a butt ton of money they don't have to pay someone else.  It's perfect - we will pay ourselves!

I don't begrudge the company (well, too much) for trying to make absolute top dollar, but I hate the thought of that little island being 

slammed full of people.

 

And I hate that they appear to be dissing the folks in England.  But as badly as ManU have been this season, I'd want to leave country, as well!!

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As mentioned in the other thread bookings are off in Europe.  

Of course they are moving ships where they'll make money, keeping a ship in a region that isn't booking well would be foolish.  They are a business.  They have shareholders they are accountable to.  

 

https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/05/08/what-royal-caribbean-wants-investors-to-know.aspx

     Geographic hits and misses

     It's rare that booking patterns are strong in all regions of the world and like most years, we are seeing some variation this year.

          -- Liberty (on the call)

      The cruise line operator noted strong demand in the core Caribbean geography that accounts for about half of its global business. Volumes were surprisingly weak in Europe, meanwhile, likely due to economic uncertainty around Brexit.

      The company is responding by shifting some assets toward the U.S., and that move highlights a key advantage of Royal Caribbean's diversified approach to deploying its ships. "We've built a business model that can play in the rain," Liberty told me, so sluggish demand in any one area isn't likely to drag down overall results.

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1 minute ago, twangster said:

As mentioned in the other thread bookings are off in Europe.  

Of course they are moving ships where they'll make money, keeping a ship in a region that isn't booking well would be foolish.  They are a business.  They have shareholders they are accountable to.  

 

https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/05/08/what-royal-caribbean-wants-investors-to-know.aspx

     Geographic hits and misses

     It's rare that booking patterns are strong in all regions of the world and like most years, we are seeing some variation this year.

          -- Liberty (on the call)

      The cruise line operator noted strong demand in the core Caribbean geography that accounts for about half of its global business. Volumes were surprisingly weak in Europe, meanwhile, likely due to economic uncertainty around Brexit.

      The company is responding by shifting some assets toward the U.S., and that move highlights a key advantage of Royal Caribbean's diversified approach to deploying its ships. "We've built a business model that can play in the rain," Liberty told me, so sluggish demand in any one area isn't likely to drag down overall results.

it was strange that I read your posts this morning and then 2 hours later we get this announcement.

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Just now, Joe01 said:

@twangster

It has nothing to do with Brexit. It was due to them having extremely high prices and not enough people booking. 

Although I think having both Anthem and Independence is asking too much of the market. They are both very big ships.

 

Last time Anthem came it was joined by Navigator I Believe and that worked. But maybe as Anthem was brand new it had more pulling power. just on a side note P&O are bringing out a new ship IONA next year at Southampton.

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3 minutes ago, J_Keeble said:

Although I think having both Anthem and Independence is asking too much of the market. They are both very big ships.

 

Last time Anthem came it was joined by Navigator I Believe and that worked. But maybe as Anthem was brand new it had more pulling power. just on a side note P&O are bringing out a new ship IONA next year at Southampton.

They had Anthem with Explorer in 2015. Independence isn't much larger than Explorer.

I can't see why Anthem would appeal more to the market anyway - it's nowhere near Indy's league and wasn't received particularly well in 2015.

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Just now, Joe01 said:

@twangster

It has nothing to do with Brexit. It was due to them having extremely high prices and not enough people booking. 

I think Brexit is a factor, albeit maybe not the primary one this journalist decided to blame.  It's the easy scapegoat but at the same time you can't dismiss Brexit completely either.

Don't mean to insult you Brits, but it is wreaking havoc with money and many different companies that operate globally with a presence in the England.  It's a mess.  Uncertainty breeds instability.  What else would one expect?  It's not going to be a smooth ride through this for you folks.  Have family there, wish you all the best.   

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Also, for about 2 or three cruises Carnival has their ship leaving out of Dover. Could that have drawn away customers from Indy? 

This might shift up the way that other lines deploy in the Caribbean with another ship in Fort Lauderdale. 

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Just now, twangster said:

I think Brexit is a factor, albeit maybe not the primary one this journalist decided to blame.  It's the easy scapegoat but at the same time you can't dismiss Brexit completely either.

Don't mean to insult you Brits, but it is wreaking havoc with money and many different companies that operate globally with a presence in the England.  It's a mess.  Uncertainty breeds instability.  What else would one expect?  It's not going to be a smooth ride through this for you folks.  Have family there, wish you all the best.   

I'm not here to talk politics, but I can't really see how Brexit would affect ship bookings. 

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Just now, Joe01 said:

I'm not here to talk politics, but I can't really see how Brexit would affect ship bookings. 

It business.  All businesses that operate globally with a presence in the UK are facing repercussions from Brexit, travel operators included.

Faced with uncertainty people are holding on to their money and not booking vacations in the same manner they have previously.  

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Just now, twangster said:

It business.  All businesses that operate globally with a presence in the UK are facing repercussions from Brexit, travel operators included.

Faced with uncertainty people are holding on to their money and not booking vacations in the same manner they have previously.  

I don’t see any uncertainty whatsoever in the UK we are thriving ? 

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