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Did anyone else see this "ghost" announcement about updates to the 2021 summer deployment?


ctwilliams

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This just popped up in Feedly for me where I have their press center as a source. But, if you go to the press  center it is not on there? So I don't know the accuracy? 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

MIAMI, Sept. 17, 2020 – Royal Caribbean International today provides an update to its 2021 summer deployment, announcing upcoming redeployments of six ships. Tapping market research and listening to feedback and input from guests and travel partners, the cruise line has adjusted its seasonal schedule with the goal of providing guests with greater opportunity and variety for their 2021 adventures. The unrivaled itineraries combined with Royal Caribbean ships and crew will deliver the best vacation experience for those who deserve nothing short of a memorable getaway next summer. Most importantly, Royal Caribbean is applying the best available public health, science and engineering insights to deliver a safer and healthier cruise vacation. 

Highlights of the updated summer cruises for 2021 include the European debut of the long-awaited Odyssey of the Seas sailing from Rome; new 4- and 5-night Mediterranean getaways from Barcelona; and more Caribbean island time with ships sailing from additional, popular U.S. cruise ports next summer. 

Guests with confirmed bookings between April and October 2021 whose cruises are affected by these changes will be notified directly within the next three weeks, as the new, enhanced itineraries are added. These existing bookings will continue to be covered by Royal Caribbean’s Cruise with Confidence program.

New Ways to Vacation

The newly announced adventures below for the 2021 summer season will be available to book over the next three weeks.  

Europe

  • Adventure of the Seas, which was previously scheduled to sail from Copenhagen and Stockholm, will head for Barcelona to sail a mix of 4- and 5-night short Mediterranean itineraries to historic destinations like La Spezia and Rome, Italy; Ajaccio, Nice and Marseille, France; and Palma and Ibiza, Spain.
  • Initially scheduled to sail from Miami, Brilliance of the Seas will now homeport outside of Venice in Ravenna, Italy, offering 7-night roundtrip sailings that visit Greece, the Greek Isles and Croatia.
  • Jewel of the Seas, originally planned to homeport in Amsterdam and Barcelona, will now sail from Stockholm and Copenhagen on 7-night cruises calling on Northern Europe’s picturesque ports of Helsinki, Finland; Tallinn, Estonia; and Visby, Sweden.

The Caribbean

  • Originally set to sail from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Independence of the Seas will make the neighboring city of Miami her home for the summer season. Sailing a combination of 6- and 8-night cruises to the Southern and Western Caribbean.
  • Vision of the Seas¸ previously planned to sail from Barcelona, will sail from San Juan, Puerto Rico and offer 7-night Southern Caribbean itineraries to exotic destinations like Philipsburg, St. Maarten; Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis; St. Johns, Antigua; Castries, St. Lucia; and Bridgetown, Barbados.
  • Rhapsody of the Seas will move from the Mediterranean and further expand short Caribbean sailings with 4-, 5- and 7-night cruises from Tampa, Fla., visiting The Bahamas, Perfect Day at CocoCay and the Western Caribbean.

Adventure on Course

Guests can vacation as planned with previously announced cruises departing as of April 2021. In the Caribbean, travelers can set course for idyllic islands, including new destinations, with newly amplified ships, shorter itineraries and more. Two of the world’s largest cruise ships, Symphony and Allure of the Seas will sail alternating Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries visiting Perfect Day at CocoCay, while the newly amplified Oasis of the Seas will make her Big Apple debut sailing from Cape Liberty in Bayonne, New Jersey. Cape Liberty will also be home to Freedom of the Seas, which will homeport there for the first time in summer 2021 and offer itineraries that visit Bermuda, Canada and New England. Guests can also choose to sail on the newly amplified Mariner and Navigator of the Seas for short Caribbean getaways with 3-night weekend and 4-night weekday itineraries to The Bahamas and Perfect Day at CocoCay.

Vacationers looking to explore the Old World can still discover Europe like never before in summer 2021 with itineraries that feature a mix of destinations. Anthem of the Seas will sail from Southampton, England and offer a variety of cruises, ranging from the 7-night Norwegian Fjords to 14-night Mediterranean Cities, that include new ports of call in Denmark, France and Norway. Harmony of the Seas heads back to Europe for the first time since her inaugural season in 2016, with 7-night sailings to the Western Mediterranean.

The Last Frontier will have the cruise line’s biggest Alaska season yet with four ships: Quantum, OvationRadiance and Serenade of the Seas. Quantum will make her Seattle debut, sailing 7-night cruises that leave on Mondays, alongside sister ship Ovation, which will continue departing on Fridays. Returning favorites OvationRadiance and Serenade will offer varying 7-night itineraries sailing from Seattle, Vancouver, British Columbia; and Seward, Alaska.
 

About Royal Caribbean International

Royal Caribbean International has been delivering innovation at sea for more than 50 years. Each successive class of ships is an architectural marvel featuring the latest technology and guest experiences for today’s adventurous traveler. The cruise line continues to revolutionize vacations with itineraries to more than 270 destinations in 72 countries on six continents, including Royal Caribbean’s private island destination in The Bahamas, Perfect Day at CocoCay, the first in the Perfect Day Island Collection. Royal Caribbean has also been voted “Best Cruise Line Overall” for 16 consecutive years in the Travel Weekly Readers’ Choice Awards.

Media can stay up to date by following @RoyalCaribPR on Twitter and visiting RoyalCaribbeanPressCenter.com. For additional information or to make reservations, vacationers can call their travel advisor; visit RoyalCaribbean.com; or call (800) ROYAL-CARIBBEAN.
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Strange that you got this, but now it's nowhere to be found. Seems to be legit, maybe they are postponing a few days with announcing?

I wonder why they would make these changes when a lot of these already have bookings?

For me keeping my fingers crossed that our Odyssey the Seas will not be altered.

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12 hours ago, JLMoran said:

Sounds like a press release that got auto-pushed to their RSS feed while being held everywhere else, or else the main site had it published and then pulled

I agree, it looks like someone accidently hit publish.

Big thanks to @ctwilliams for the heads up. I can at least start writing it up and wait for it to be formally announced.

Keep in mind some details could be added/changed by the time they announce it.

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We have (had) a cruise on Adventure out of Stockholm so now I am curious to see how they handle that. Not as interested in Barcelona. I know they have changed ships out and then moved everyone over to the new ship (Galveston coming up I think)? But what do they do when they completely change the itinerary and port that you begin and end in?

I looked at it again this morning and it is still the same, showing in Feedly but not on their actual page. Hope no one got transferred to the mail room!

 

(I tried to upload a screenshot of the page in feedly but it looks like it is not working? Tried a .jpg and .png in both Firefox and Chrome. I'll try again later)

 

 

clip.png

Edited by ctwilliams
trying to upload screenshot, not working
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So hypothetically speaking, if this were true, where does this leave someone like me? 
 

Booked on an 8 night on Brilliance for July, would they just move me over automatically to the same category on Indy? Or would I be cancelled and then I have to rebook something else? I am really hoping this is not going to happen because I really wanted to sail Brilliance again. Haven’t been on her since 2005 and there are no corner grand suites on Indy. ?

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4 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

So hypothetically speaking, if this were true, where does this leave someone like me? 

For the average cruise in a standard cabin it's easier to address this concern.  For more unique and special cabins it most likely varies on a case by case basis.  

This isn't a done deal.  This could have been something from weeks ago that someone neglected to remove from an autopost when the idea was nixed.   Time will tell.

What you can do is begin exploring alternatives just in case it does come to pass.   This way you'll have a head start over other cruisers should this be announced soon.

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6 minutes ago, twangster said:

For the average cruise in a standard cabin it's easier to address this concern.  For more unique and special cabins it most likely varies on a case by case basis.  

This isn't a done deal.  This could have been something from weeks ago that someone neglected to remove from an autopost when the idea was nixed.   Time will tell.

What you can do is begin exploring alternatives just in case it does come to pass.   This way you'll have a head start over other cruisers should this be announced soon.

I seem to recall your Charlie Foxtrot when Allure was cancelled and they moved you over to Liberty (I think ?).

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3 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I seem to recall your Charlie Foxtrot when Allure was cancelled and they moved you over to Liberty (I think ?).

Since that time they seem to be more eager to retain customer deposits so that might open up xfers beyond conventional L&S.  Never hurts to ask.  

Foy my CF they refused moving to anything other than Liberty and they ended up having to refund me.  Perhaps they realized that wasn't the best outcome for them...

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37 minutes ago, Pooch said:

The price on our cruise has risen almost 30% in the last few weeks.  I am stubbornly holding onto the hope that they have reached reduced capacity and are trying to discourage further bookings.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

The price on my balcony guarantee has gone up 43% since I booked it the beginning of August. Maybe they readjusted the cost due to moving from Brilliance to Independence....

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I sent a DM to them on Twitter, here is reply: 

I'm so sorry for the delay. Yesterday a press release was posted that featured an update on our Summer 2021 itineraries. It was posted in error and featured outdated info. We’re always looking at ways to offer our guests and travel partners the best vacations. When there are confirmed details on any changes to our itineraries, we’ll let you know.

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33 minutes ago, JT2 said:

I sent a DM to them on Twitter, here is reply: 

I'm so sorry for the delay. Yesterday a press release was posted that featured an update on our Summer 2021 itineraries. It was posted in error and featured outdated info. We’re always looking at ways to offer our guests and travel partners the best vacations. When there are confirmed details on any changes to our itineraries, we’ll let you know.

That's some excellent PR deflection.  Only one piece of info has to be wrong to claim it "featured outdated info".  Everything else could still be accurate!

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2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

So hypothetically speaking, if this were true, where does this leave someone like me? 
 

Booked on an 8 night on Brilliance for July, would they just move me over automatically to the same category on Indy? Or would I be cancelled and then I have to rebook something else? I am really hoping this is not going to happen because I really wanted to sail Brilliance again. Haven’t been on her since 2005 and there are no corner grand suites on Indy. ?

generally I have seen them move to same cabin on the new ship and price protect that (unless its lower) but with new rules weekly who knows

 

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17 minutes ago, Atlantix2000 said:

That's some excellent PR deflection.  Only one piece of info has to be wrong to claim it "featured outdated info".  Everything else could still be accurate!

Glad to see I'm not the only cynical one here. That's exactly how I took it.

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I suspect they are looking at all ships and where they are right now compared to where the cruise season will be relative to a full restart.  

That has changed.  What they knew a month ago is different than the view today.  

It makes little sense to send a ship across ocean(s) empty to fulfil a partial cruise season at reduced capacity.  It would cost significant sums of money to send all ships to where they all need to be.  The smarter move may be to redeploy more ships closer to where they are right now given a full restart won't be for some time after an initial restart. 

Some ships are already close to where they need to be.  The list above may need to be revised to include more ships that fall into this scenario rather than the few listed above.     

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12 minutes ago, twangster said:

I suspect they are looking at all ships and where they are right now compared to where the cruise season will be relative to a full restart.  

That has changed.  What they knew a month ago is different than the view today.  

It makes little sense to send a ship across ocean(s) empty to fulfil a partial cruise season at reduced capacity.  It would cost significant sums of money to send all ships to where they all need to be.  The smarter move may be to redeploy more ships closer to where they are right now given a full restart won't be for some time after an initial restart. 

Some ships are already close to where they need to be.  The list above may need to be revised to include more ships that fall into this scenario rather than the few listed above.     

This all makes perfect sense. Cost savings will be as important, if not more, until a full cruising schedule comes back online.

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Purely from a Europe perspective, it seems like they are ditching the 12 nighters so I'm going to guess that this is COVID related and ties in with the idea that they'll do short cruises first.

Sucks for me - I wanted to go and see Jewel when she ported in Greenock for the day, it's been 11 years since I sailed her and she was my first ship. ?

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9 hours ago, Phillip Diamond Plus said:

I sure hope that Jewel will still sail on the 12 night sailing May 28th to the British Isles from Amsterdam.  I am booked on that one and also have air. 

We are in the same boat (pun intended) as you! We have Jewel booked just after you June 9 to Norway and Iceland and booked accommodations in Amsterdam even before COVID we were so excited! 

We just went to the Baltic last year and while we loved it we aren't interested in returning yet so crossing all my fingers and toes this is wrong info

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