SUgwoz

Not surprised with this as there was a surplus of Infinity Balcony while a shortage of traditional balcony for the sailing. Was curious if that would occur. Infinity Balcony currently seemed to be over valued and could see future sailings price drops below the standard balcony cabins at least for summer sailings.

Had OVB guaranteed on Icon, barcode trick worked after check-in, cabin officially displaying about 3 weeks out.

I was curious on this part, as I saw 2 weeks prior to a sailing as many as 70-100+ cabins were unsold. Then suddenly the sailing was no longer available for booking. Didn't see how they filled all those cabins even if they offered comps.

Based on Icon, they restrict allowing 2 person bookings to secure a 3-4+ stateroom that is not a suite. Which is why the cost of a 2 person booking is significantly higher than a 3-4 person booking.

Just meaning adult cruise lines don't have to have cabins that accommodate 3-4+ passengers. Allowing for more cabins solos can book.

While Solo cruising can be growing. Solo travelers have inifinite amount of options to travel. Families, particularly multi generational families have a much more limited set of options for traveling. Would think adult only cruise lines could do a better job at focusing on solo travellers.

You are insinuating there will not be enough families to cruise and only older generations will be available? Generally speaking focusing on a younger demographic is playing the long game. Disney World today is not attended because 4 years old want to go, its because the 4 year old from the 80-90s wants to take their family. Majority of the other cruise lines focus on a target demographic to the point of not catering at all if the person doesn't fit it, Royal is following that trend, but not to the point of exclusion.

Agreed, I believe Royal will focus on having a consistent experience on their ships. While steering those that want more classic ships to Celebrity.

You can look at the deck plans, if you are booking a 2 person Oceanview balcony they are generally only on the top floors. The surfside neighborhood is primarily if not all 3-4 capacity cabins as is the majority of the ship.

Embarkation and disembarkation process has been streamlined in Florida ports I haven't seen a scenario where people were queued up when I show up between 11-1130. They just have so many stations of workers checking people in. The check in times encourage where everyone doesn't show up at the same time, but as long as there is no backup in the port terminal the workers will waive everyone to checkin soon as they arrive.

Two separate bookings I know has weak bids on Family Infinite category that still has cabins available with 17 days out. Both still in submitted status. Virtually all other cabin types except infinite balcony is no longer available. Family Infinite had 7-9 available a week ago and now down to two. I am assuming there is a tier process of when and how they upgrade based on availability and bid amount. There is others that got upgraded to infinite balcony from gty balcony for min bids about 40+ days out.

In terms of increase cruising demand, Royal is appealing to a broader audience than it did 10-15 years. Building on that specifically in the last few years. No one was deciding between Disney vacation and going on Sovereign of the Seas. As much derided on these forums, its the families with kids that 20 years ago were unlikely to consider a cruise the ones booking now. As for affordability, Florida has 23 million people. 23 million that can drive to a port vs. dropping $1k+ on flights/rental car etc. on other vacation options. A week anywhere in the US that requires a flight, hotel, rental car can be the equivalent of an Icon cruise for a family in Florida.

So should Royal lower standards to ramp up the Loyalty program even more then? Loyalty program is not wrecking anything, but it is certainly creating headaches when there is a large volume of higher tier members on cruises which is why they are tweaking access to venues. If they didn't create the voucher system, you would have as many as 2000-2500 people on some transatlantic cruises trying to go to Diamond/Crown lounge for happy hour.

20-30 years ago wasn't the majority that make up Diamond and above now new cruisers?

Older ships/transatlantic cruises are primarily filled with veteran cruisers. Newer ships, shorter cruises are filled being filled by newer cruisers. The latter ones being more expensive per passenger.