Fairsky84

With Royal Caribbean, NCL, MSC, and even Virgin all with their own new (and amazing) terminals at PortMiami, I wonder why Carnival hasn’t developed one. 

8 minutes ago, Covepointcruiser said:

I hope they don’t modify the IV cabins to allow the air conditioning on when the window is open!    How often do you do that at home?    We grew up in a household where we were reminded that our father didn’t work for the electric company and we were not to air condition or heat the outside!   No open doors or windows while the heat or air conditioning was turned on.   Surprised anyone would want it otherwise.     

Not sure you’re understanding the problem people have with IV and air conditioning. In a traditional balcony stateroom, one person can be out on the balcony enjoying the sun/heat and the other person may be in the stateroom with the a/c on. As long as the balcony door is closed the a/c will function. This isn’t possible in an IV stateroom. Opening the window turns off the a/c, and closing the bi-fold doors does not seal off the veranda from the rest of the stateroom or allow the a/c to be on. Therefore, in an IV room you cannot have one person outside and the other inside. You’re either both closed up with the a/c or both sweating with the outside air filling the room without a/c. 

55 minutes ago, villauk said:

Viking are used to this design in their river cruise ships and so are very familiar with the concept, yet didn’t apply it to any of their new builds over the last few years (when they diversified into ocean cruising). Does that not say something? I imagine they would have considered it being relative ‘experts’ after having their river cruising business for many years.

Great point. If anyone should have seen the benefits of IV it would have been Viking.

It’s still surprising to me that Celebrity opted to make almost all the rooms on Edge Infinite Veranda cabins. With such a new concept, I figured they would have tested it with a fewer number of cabins before implementing the design ship-wide. (That appears to be what MSC is doing on their World Class ships). 

1 hour ago, hcat said:

That is ugly....might be the camera.  At least the life boats are tucked in and do not block cabin  windows

Here’s a short video via Twitter that shows the entire model of MSC’s World Class ship. Definitely original looking. You can see the vast majority of cabins are traditional balconies. Worth noting that it’s be built at the same shipyard that’s building Celebrity’s Edge-class ships, so the including of some IV cabins makes sense. 

8 minutes ago, mnocket said:

I think it really comes down to the infinite verandas - everything else can be changed if necessary.

 

One sign to look for is whether or not other lines adopt the IV concept.  The cruise industry seems to "follow-the-leader".  If one ship/line introduces a feature that proves popular, the competition will often follow suit.  If the industry sees the IV concept as the way of the future, I would suspect we will see it in future ship designs (yes this will take time). 

I think you’re absolutely correct. Right now I’m unaware of any other ship that will definitely have IV cabins. However, Richard Fain said Royal Caribbean’s new Icon-class will. That was before reactions from Edge cruisers were in, and it could change.

Also, some have speculated that MSC’s World-class ships will have some IV cabins (see image of the model below). However, based on these images if those are IV cabins they represent only a fraction of cabins with most still having traditional balconies. I wonder if MSC will position IVs as a step between Oceanview and Balcony at an intermediate price point. If so, that would indicate Celebrity made a blunder by filling their premium Edge-class ships with almost all IV cabins. 

The livery of the Celebrity ships have had an interesting history. The original ships (Meridian, Horizon, and Zenith) used a modern blue and white hull inspired by private yachts.

The larger Century, Mercury, and Galaxy followed this same look. Then Royal Caribbean bought the line and ordered the M-class ships. Millennium debuted in 2000 with a very different look that included blue, black, white, yellow, and red. Some felt it was less elegant. I always thought it made the ships look like LEGO toys or superhero costumes. Not exactly the premium style Celebrity was going for.

Eventually, the M-class ships were repainted with Celebrity’s traditional blue/white yacht livery. 

When the S-class was first revealed early renderings of Solstice included a light blue hull. Of course she was launched in 2008 with a white hull, but RCI adopted the light blue idea for Oasis of the Seas in 2009. 

Personally, I’ve always liked the original Celebirty yacht livery. I understand that it probably wound’t have worked well for Edge, and the fleet will look fine with the solid blue hulls. It does make them look more traditional (HAL and Cunard) and less contemporary and modern. My least favorite was the original M-class superhero look.

2 minutes ago, ezelaya said:

Well, other than a giant crane in the middle of the AquaTheater and some rail/balcony damage, that isn't bad. The real question is the Azipod. 

Don’t forget about the dry dock itself. If that is significantly damaged it could be a very big problem getting Oasis repaired.

Glad no one was seriously hurt. We’ll be lucky if the only damage was to the Aqua Theater and nearby decks. I fear there may be much more serious damage elsewhere and unseen.

4 hours ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

The real mistake IMO, is converting the entire fleet, alienating customers, without affectively drawing in new ones.  

Agree. I can understand the 70yr old passenger whose cruise 40+ times not being a fan of Edge. That’s acceptable IF the ship is effectively drawing 35yr olds to cruising for the first time. Is there any evidence it’s working? 

While Edge-class might ultimately be ok for Celebrity once they work out the bugs and make some adjustments, can anyone think of another new class debut from RCI/Celebrity that has been met by so much criticism? Sure, every ship has its oddities but Quantum-class, Oasis-class, S-class... all were nearly universally praised for their design, innovation, cabin comfort, and layout. I don’t recall any M-class fans criticizing S-class when it launched. It was widely embraced as a step forward. Edge is the first new class I’ve seen that has received this degree of pushback, even if it’s not “most” passengers complaining the % is enough for Celebrity to take notice. 

On 3/8/2019 at 1:13 AM, Chiliburn said:

Bring back the Viking crown lounge 

I read somewhere that RCI had the original VCL removed from the funnel of Song of Norway before the ship was sold and stored. If that’s true, I’d LOVE to see them incorporate that original lounge into the design of the first Icon-class ship as a tribute to the line’s first ship. Maybe make it into a small museum with RCI memorabilia.

Carnival is honoring their original ship by naming their first LNG newbuild “Mardi Gras.” Maybe Royal Caribbean should go nostalgic and name their first Icon-class ship “Song of the Seas” to honor Song of Norway. 

On 3/12/2019 at 2:04 PM, Captain Billy Bob said:

I've never seen more than a few people there and there is usually a bartender standing there to assist the robot in making the drinks.🙄 I think some groups also use it s a meeting place. A hugh waste of space.

Totally agree. Just returned from Anthem. The Bionic Bar was usually empty. The two times I tried to order a drink there the system didn’t work. And watching the human attendant use a mop to clean up the liquid on the “bar” spilled by the robots wasn’t very appetizing. Dumb gimmick and waste of prime space onboard. 

3 hours ago, cws said:

Richard Fain says in this 2-month-old L.A. Times article that there will be Infinite Veranda staterooms on a new Royal Caribbean ship:

 

https://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-cruise-edge-20190127-story.html

 

 

 

 

Given the negative feedback from Edge-cruisers, how much you wanna bet Royal Caribbean is busy redesigning the Icon-class to remove the Infinite Verandas?

Honestly, the IV’s feel like the worst cabin design blunder since the Nor. Epic’s split bathroom design. When you get past the hype, Infinite Verandas (Like Epic’s odd bathrooms) were an attempt to reduce overall cabin size in order to fit more cabins. It was a cost saving decision, not a brilliant design innovation passengers would love and pay a premium for. I’m just surprised the IV design was first attempted by a premium like like Celebrity. I would have expected it first from NCL or Carnival or some Asian start-up. I suspect RCI/Celebrity is working overtime to determine how to reduce the number of IVs on Epic III and IV (Opus and Luxe), as well as the Icon-class. It was a rare misstep after decades of design innovation wins for the company. 

I’m wondering what others think about the future of the Edge-class. Clearly, Celebrity took a lot of risks with this new class of ships, and not all of thier innovations have been well received. The goal was to appeal to new (younger) cruisers and that means possibly alienating existing (older) customers. I’m worried they may have only succeeded at driving away their loyal customers without really attracting the younger ones.

Some Edge innovations will be easy to fix. Like the focus on cell phones and some furnishing choices. Others will not. Like the infinite verandas. Will Celebrity make changes on the upcoming Edge class ships still under construction (Apex, Opus, and Luxe)? Is a fundamental rethink of the cabin design with a return to traditional balconies even possible? And does anyone else think the Flying Carpet is unlikely to be a feature on all future Edge class ships? 

Edge may represent the first time a new class from RCI/Celebrity has missed the mark. Going all the way back to Song of Norway and Sovereign of the Seas, company has been known for real design innovations that change the industry. I’ll always appreciate their vision and risk-taking. But Edge feels like a swing and miss to me.

I wonder if this will be a unique livery for this new class of ships, or will we eventually see the entire Carnival fleet repainted.

When Royal Caribbean was building Oasis of the Seas and revealed her light blue hull, we were told it was a special livery for the Oasis-class only. But then the Quantum-class was also given the light blue hull, but none of the older ships were repainted. I’ve always wondered what the rest of the RCI fleet would look like with the light blue hull.

Is this what CCL will do? Will all new Carnival ships going forward get the new look?

Here’s the new livery with a slighly brighter, more Carnival-like blue for comparison...

An alternative...

For comparison... the ship with traditional Carnival livery.

Steal cutting for Carnival’s new LNG ship began today. To celebrate the cruise line revealed a new look for its largest ship ever.

It’s nice to see Carnival do something new to the look of their ships, but I’m not sure about this design. Specifically, the dark blue doesn’t appear to match the blue used on Carnival’s iconic funnel. The dark blue makes thes ship look more stately than fun; more Holland America or Cunard than Carnival.

3 hours ago, Lloyd555 said:

 

Celebrity Cruises has trademarked some short names along with Apex...

 

 

I think it’s a very safe bet that these are the next three Edge-class ship names. Good find, Lloyd.

3 hours ago, Lloyd555 said:

 

Celebrity Cruises has trademarked some short names along with Apex...

 

 

I think it’s a very safe bet that these are the next three Edge-class ship names. Good find, Lloyd.

EDGE

APEX

ICON

AEON

ECHO

EPIC

8 hours ago, Lloyd555 said:

Work has defenitely started on putting the ship name on/by the funnel.

😒 Unnecessary. Ruins the beautiful lines of the funnel.

4 hours ago, CruisingTheWaves said:

as for the funnel, i wish they would leave it alone. the ship doesn't need its name in more than the usual places. i think the lettering adds a bit of tackiness. just my opinion.

I totally agree. Celebrity has managed to create one of the best, most iconic funnel designs in the industry. I’d say it’s as memorable as Joe Farcus’ original Carnival “whale tail” funnel on Tropicale in 1981. This should be the trademark funnel on all future Celebrity ships. DON’T GO FUSSING IT UP BY ADDING ‘EDGE’ TO IT.

Besides, will all future ships have 4-letter names? Sure, “APEX” might work, but if a future ship has a longer name it’s going to look ridiculous on the funnel. 

Finally, Celebrity should know that what you want consumers to remember is the brand name, not the ship’s name. This is exactly why most cruise lines, including Celebrity, started adding the company name to their ships’ names. The funnel ought to be where the brand is predominantly displayed, NOT the name of the ship. Every other cruise line understands this. Leave the beautiful “X” alone on the funnel.

Since you have looked at the deck plans then you can see this cabin is on the edge of a hump

Right, but then why isn’t the same cabin on the port side listed as “obstructed”? Also, there are a number of cabins on deck 14 that have structural supports holding the ‘bulge’ on deck 15 above, but only this cabin is listed as obstructed. I don’t get it.

I’m looking at a cruise on Oasis of the Seas. The cabin I’ve reserved is 14692. Many deck plans (including those on Cruise Critic) show it as a standard balcony cabin. But the ‘official’ deck plan on RoyalCaribbean.com says it has an obstructed view. Can anyone confirm the obstruction and tell me what it is and how bad? Thank you.