NEW- ROYAL CARIBBEAN ANNOUNCES UPDATES TO 2021 SUMMER CRUISES

[nate91]

I had the May 8th 8 day on Brilliance, Southern Caribbean, now Southern Caribbean 8 day on Independence. Only port that's the same is CocoCay. 

[Firefly]

16 minutes ago, LCinPDX said:

Do you know for sure that the itinerary isn't changing?  The email we received for our Aug Cruise on Brilliance said that it would visit "similar destinations."

For our date the itinerary is the exact same thankfully. 

[WannaCruise]

Really tempted to change our 5 night Freedom (Bermuda) to 8 night Southern Caribbean on Independence.  Similar ships (and Sky Pad for my younger one who loved it on Mariner).  Great itinerary and we could add 3 nights for almost the same price.  Think we're going to keep Freedom though with covid being so unknown as we can drive to Freedom's departure port whereas we wouldn't drive to Indy's (i.e New Jersey vs Miami).  Plus, we do really want to see Bermuda (and doesn't hurt that we got the "cheap" drink package too).  

[LCinPDX]

3 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

Really tempted to change our 5 night Freedom (Bermuda) to 8 night Southern Caribbean on Independence.  Similar ships (and Sky Pad for my younger one who loved it on Mariner).  Great itinerary and we could add 3 nights for almost the same price.  Think we're going to keep Freedom though with covid being so unknown as it's a departure port we could drive to if needed whereas we wouldn't drive to Miami (i.e New Jersey vs Miami).  Plus, we do really want to see Bermuda (and doesn't hurt that we got the "cheap" drink package too).  

I am on the Aug Southern Caribbean Cruise that was changed to Independence.  I am happy about the ship change, but a little nervous about any possible itinerary changes and cabin reassignment.  

[Lovetocruise2002]

14 minutes ago, LCinPDX said:

I am on the Aug Southern Caribbean Cruise that was changed to Independence.  I am happy about the ship change, but a little nervous about any possible itinerary changes and cabin reassignment.  

We had the 8 night Southern Caribbean itinerary that include St. Lucia.  The one change was that port of call was scrapped and now replaced with La Romana, Dominican Republic instead.  We booked because of St. Lucia so not sure if I will keep this one.

[FManke]

I personally would be more concerned about itinerary changes than ship changes. I know everybody has personal favorites when it comes to ships and it seems like the changes are between somewhat comparable ships. It's not like they are taking you of Brilliance and putting you on the SS Minnow! At least you're cruising, right?

[Lovetocruise2002]

4 minutes ago, FManke said:

I personally would be more concerned about itinerary changes than ship changes. I know everybody has personal favorites when it comes to ships and it seems like the changes are between somewhat comparable ships. It's not like they are taking you of Brilliance and putting you on the SS Minnow! At least you're cruising, right?

Very true.  On my roll call group for the now former 8 night Southern Caribbean sailing on Brilliance, the reaction is mixed.  Some see it as quite the upgrade because Indy is a larger class ship with way more activities.  Then there is the other camp who are not as thrilled because they booked the sailing for the itinerary.

For me personally, my feelings are quite torn on this one, assuming I can even go in July (if I can't by then my sanity is really going to go).  We booked this original sailing on Brilliance for two reasons:  St. Lucia was a port of call (have not been able to go back there since my honeymoon in 2002), and even though I am #teamOAclass, we were looking forward to sailing Brilliance again just the two of us since we have not sailed her since 2005.  To add to the excitement for this sailing, we were able to grab cabin 1600, which is a rare aft corner GS.

The swap to Indy for us means that we are back to a regular GS on Deck 10 (no aft GS on Indy), no more St. Lucia (which was pretty much the only port of call that mattered to us), and we have already sailed Indy post-amp.

The more I think about it, the more tempted I am to jump ship back to Brilliance, try to get my cabin back, and sail out of Tampa, a port that I have never had the pleasure to sail out of before. The only trade off would be that I lose one night as Brilliance will only be doing 4, 5, 7 night sailings.

[BarbieBell]

You know the cruise lines had no choice about the 2020 cruises being cancelled due to the pandemic and we had 7 that hit the bricks much like many of you I’m sure. However this ship switch-a-roo is all on Royal now. Folks continued to book future cruises, rearrange flights, hotels, tours etc and to support the cruise industry and this is an unnecessary kick in the pants.  The emails I received notifying me that my April 21 Transatlantic from Galveston to Copenhagen and the following Baltic cruise May 9 had been cancelled also contained the following statement:  “These changes are being made after tapping into market research and listening to feedback and input from guests and trade partners.......” hummmm I guess after over 50 cruises with Royal I didn’t rate any input or consideration before they continued to obliterate our future cruise plans. Odd thing is the Adventures TA was almost sold out, so there’s many folks trying to figure out what to do with these darn future cruise credits or whether to jump on the ole Lift & Shift wagon AGAIN.   I didn’t think anyone could take the fun out of planning and experiencing a cruise, but it’s starting to look like RCI has a team assembled  that’s fully capeable. Right now you may be thinking your cruises are safe and you still have something to look forward to but it’s my cruises cancelled today and maybe yours tomorrow.  Sorry but it seems to be a thoughtless trend on the part of RCI and we are not being treated like valued customers. 
 

 

 

 

[FionaMG]

I'm guessing it's not been published yet but when/if anyone comes across the PDF for the new 4/5 night itineraries on Adventure out of Barcelona and would care to post that would be great.

Thanks. 

[princevaliantus]

17 hours ago, Morganno said:

If I were in charge I would make no announcements until the sailings were posted.