alfaeric

Again, the ships this is being most touted on are vision and radiance class ships out of ports that can’t handle voyager ships. That’s where the confusion is coming from. Especially for Baltimore cruisers who really want to keep a ship at that port. So much so that the vision won ship of the year.

Would need a retractable deck to fit into Baltimore and Tampa.

Talks about a 3-4k class has been going around a lot. We heard the same. But, IMHO, the ships it’s most announced on are 2k ships with pretty specific height limits. Which this new class won’t likely meet. So I don’t really understand why it’s made such a big deal on the ships from Baltimore and Tampa.

12 nights carry on is easy for us. Heck, just sailed 20 nights w/o needing to do laundry.

Then try not to get so offended when people add to your posts, then. You don't need to react to everyone quoting you.

So sorry to post an optimistic post that progress is being made. Terrible of me. And worse that adding to your post means that I'm arguing with you.

But it does mean that they are on the proposed recovery schedule. Meaning the whole channel should be open to shipping sometime near the end of May. Roughly when the Vision gets back out of dry dock. Which is really good. Cruising is the least of their worries, but if they can get big container ships and car ships in and out "normally", then the couple of cruise ships will be easy.

If they keep on the scheduled clean up time, it will end up being near the end of May that the full channel should be available. The team seems to be progressing well. It will be interesting to see how they take off the remaining bridge off the Dali, and how she reacts to that weight taken off. It was in 2022 that another container ship went aground in the Chesapeake, so they have local experience.

Marmalade is great, but the food isn't Puerto Rican. It's more fusion than pure Boriquen. Riaces is a good choice. And even though it's more commercial than the smaller ones next to it, the quality is really good.

People over reacting isn't a bad thing sometimes.

"One basket" suggests that the ships are ONLY family friendly. They appeal to more people than just families, otherwise there would not be people well over 50 on the big ships. We've never had kids, but love the big ships. Maybe the big ships are not appealing to you, but you can't extrapolate that to everyone. Let alone, it's working in a massive way right now in their favor. There are plenty of small ships in competition, so Royal doesn't have to rush into this.

Reviving this thread as there's going to be a limited access channel opening on Thursday. So it's quite possible the channel will be totally back open when the Vision returns to service.

I always find it amusing how people claim some massive decline in food based on beef. We've been sailing RC since 2001, and I've rarely had a well cooked piece of beef in the MRD. It happens, but it's far from often. (by well, not well done, but done correctly) But somehow, that is an indication of a sudden decline in the food.. Ok. On the other hand, for every person not sailing RCI for *reasons*, the price goes down. Which is a good thing.

It's interesting the difference in what people think is small. Since the new class of ship is enough above 100k GT, it's highly unlikely to fit under the bridges to Baltimore and Tampa. Tampa fits Radiance class ships, which are ~90k, and Baltimore fits Vision, which are ~70k. Since GT is a measure of total interior size, that tells you a lot. If we are actually talking small ports that do require small ships, that's in the 70-90k GT size. I would put Discovery in the mid-medium sized ships- which the Voyager class ships are. But those ships are unlikely to fit into Tampa or Baltimore. And a lot of really small ports. So anytime I hear (and I heard it first hand, too, on the Vision) of anyone implying that the +100kGT Discovery ships will come to Baltimore, I really scoff at that idea. I guess they could make it wider than taller, but that would be pretty wide to be that big and still fit under all of the bridges.

They will still be there. The version of Hairspray is clearly specific for the Symphony. And SNF has been on Liberty for way over a decade- we first saw it on Liberty back in 2012, and then saw it again last December ('23). IMHO, the 5 year thing was more about the type of license they got- and once that was solidified, the Broadway shows have not changed. Grease is still on Harmony, how long has Cats been on Oasis? 2014? WWRY has been on Anthem since she put to sea.