Trixie21

Even the small segments of the WC are fantastic itineraries- I wish they would repeat some of these ports more regularly on the normal deployments .

Thanks- that makes it clear. Think ill book a Norwegian fjords cruise for 2024 lol

What exactly is the new legislation - is it banning ships over a certain size , or is it to do with other criteria ?

European deployment is historically released around November time , sometimes in 2 parts. The itineraries for Icon 2 will likely be announced along with the reveal of the ship itself, so not necessarily with the rest of the deployment. However of the rest of the European deployment for 25/26 is released first it will be glaringly obvious if they were intending to launch Icon 2 in Europe. My feeling is that it will go to Florida as well and another ship will be sent elsewhere, as Florida/Cococay is where they seem to get the biggest returns and the demand is there with so many people able to drive to the port rather than have to fly. And yes , its rather easy to get hooked isn't it?

Really don't know. As someone mentioned if large ships are not able to go to some of the key Norwegian ports it kind of changes the normal mix of cruises offered from Southampton in particular, so things could look different for 2025. Could they fill an Oasis and an Icon class in Europe at the same time? I think they would have no issues filling Icon as there would be masses of Europeans eager to try out a new class of ship like that. Icon would have to do the 7 night itineraries from Barcelona/Rome that Oasis class normally do , so the key question would be what happens with an Oasis class? Is there room in Florida during the summer period to add in another mega ship? Or are they going to send an Oasis class to another region? Another post said there has been talk on Anthem that Maybe Allure is going to Southampton for the 2025 summer season - that would certainly be an unusual move. So many moving pieces - have to wait until November to find out for sure !

Thats Icon of the Seas - I was referring to the 2nd ship in the Icon class which I think may be due for delivery in 2025 , although I am not sure about that !

And then do a summer season in Europe i presume ? When is Icon 2 due to be in service? I know construction has begun. Would be amazing if Icon 2 did an initial summer season in Europe.

Ah , that makes sense. So not using a FCD and just booking on board doesn't get extra OBC , and purchasing a FCD and using it to hook onnoard does. Does the OBC get added to the cruise you are currently on , or the cruise you book , or do you have a choice?

Thanks for all the information. What is the benefit to buying a FCD as opposed to just paying a deposit if I wanted to book another cruise ?

Yes we were quite disappointed ourselves. Without going into to much detail , she has to administer a bag of liquid feed every night through an IV line, and the feed needs to be kept refrigerated. All we need is refrigerated storage for the feed bags - she brings everything else with her. RC say they cannot provide storage - Princess will store it in the fridges in their medical bay and we pick it up each evening. Seems quite easy? But they have lost our business - we were nearly diamond plus with them after around 15 cruises . But everything happens for a reason and hopefully we will have a great time on Princess and be happy to book again with them. Just on that topic - are there any benefits to booking a cruise onboard a princess ship?

Thanks - that all makes sense and will hopefully work out fine. I am looking forward to a new experience on princess - we like Royal Caribbean ships but gravitate towards those which provide a more relaxed experience and Princess seems to work towards providing that also.

Thank you ! I'm going to ask one more question if you don't mind. The MDR seems to operate a system called "dine my way". Am I correct in thinking then that there are no set dining times any longer on princess ? So we make reservations in advance via the app and then if necessary we can amend once onboard , as per your previous post. My wife is celiac and we like to have the same wait staff every night as they quickly become familiar with her needs and you don't have to repeat yourself night after night. Is this possible and if so how do you go about it ?

Hi We have just booked an 8 night fjords to see how we like it to begin with. Also my wife has a medical issue which Princess were happy to accommodate us with whereas RC were not able to , which is the main reason we are jumping ship lol. It will be our first cruise since she has been dealing with this so it was another reason to keep the first one short. We did an Arctic circle cruise last year on Jewel of the Seas and it was phenomenal - one of our best ever - we just loved Norway and the 8 night fjords takes us to all new ports bar one so we are really looking forward to it. Also some of these ports are not going to be open to big ships from 2025 so wanted to do it now. I will look forward to your review and I hope you have a fantastic cruise!

Thank you - thats a great summary and very helpful. We use the RC app quite a lot onboard so the medallion app sounds very similar so that's all good. I wasn't clear that the actual medallion acts as a cruise card so thats good info. Does it come with a holder of some sort to go on your wrist or round your neck , or do you have to purchase something on the ship? We have booked Princess plus so have a wifi package each if I have read it correctly. I like the idea of ordering food or drink through the app to be delivered anywhere to you- how well does this work in practice ? I will probably have lots more questions as time goes by , but you have helped a lot already - thanks again !

Hi So we will be new to Princess- we have booked a Norwegian fjords cruise for next year on Sky Princess- we are from the UK. We have cruised a fair bit with Royal Caribbean so not new to cruising. I see a lot of mention of the Ocean Medallion. Could someone give me a brief breakdown of what exactly it is and does? I can see there is a thread at the top of the board but I don't fancy going through 222 pages lol. Thanks.

You could well be right - we shall just have to wait for the actual deployment to see whats happening. No one has pointed out any port bookings yet which would support there being a 2nd ship .

Just 2 of us and yes thanks , I'm aware of what you just said but thanks for pointing it out anyway ! Previously there have been 4 of us which really made the private transfer from Heathrow good value.

No , my 9.15am flight is from Southampton should I choose to book it. My other option is to book a later flight from Heathrow (there are multiple flights to choose from) which is why I was also asking about transfers through princess. Yes , I'm aware the traffic from Heathrow to Southampton can be challenging at times so I would certainly factor that in.

Thanks - appreciate it. We have booked private cars to Heathrow previously and the cost you mention sounds about right. A princess transfer might work just as well though and may be cheaper- i will check it out.

And yes that makes sense because they are warm weather ships . And the northern ports are more suited to the "smaller" ship.

They don't often do longer itineraries on oasis class but I think they would be great - plenty of time to see and do everything on those ships.

Thanks , thats interesting. Even though your scheduled arrival was 7am , the ship was obviously in much earlier and disembarkation began before that. I might keep an eye on this years roll calls and ask about disembarkation to see if that's a pattern or a one off. If we were able to walk off at 7am or shortly after we would have no issues with a flight at 9.15am. Do you have any idea how much the Princess transfers to Heathrow cost ? Do you book them on the ship or on your planner before you go ?

Thanks for posting that - very helpful. Can you recall what your scheduled arrival time was into Southampton?

Do you think Independence AND an oasis class is likely for Southampton? Would Allure possibly start a season after a dry dock? If both were there how would they organise itineraries? Maybe the oasis class on 7 nighters and Indy on a series of longer cruises?

Thats where my thinking is , to be honest. I like to have everything carefully planned and not having to rush off the ship like a mad thing sounds much more appealing lol. Might even book a hotel in Southampton for overnight and see a bit of the city. All the times we have cruised from Southampton and I have never seen anything other than the port area.