ARandomTraveler

I did a cruise on Spectrum in August that left from Singapore and ended in Japan. It was 12 days. I think they only did that longer route a handful of times before moving back to China for the shorter cruises. It seems like there's a big draw for gambling on the Asian cruises, so maybe those 5 day routes are conducive to the Asian gambling market moreso than the US/Europe/Canadian market for longer tourism routes. Not sure, but I really enjoyed the 12 day.

I book independent excursions 100% of the time on Caribbean cruises. But on my 12 day cruise in Asia last summer (Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan), I didn't even consider an independent tour, I booked ship tours for the whole thing. I wasn't willing to risk it in countries where there are very few reviews for independent tours, the language barrier is pretty extreme, and where there was a level orange travel advisory from the United States in some of the ports. I wasn't willing to get left behind.

Get on the waitlist as soon as you board.

The only port that checked my temperature was Hong Kong back in august (2023).

I doubt you'll have any issue. I brought honey back from Japan a few months ago with no issue. I brought it back on a plane.

Wow

There is actually another one by the bed that you might not notice if you aren't looking for it, there's a USB outlet in the phone that's on the nightstand.

I was told the same thing on Spectrum. All 3 of the different service providers I had let me know they work for a 3rd party company who is not Royal Caribbean, and they don't receive anything from the service charge, and that if I'd like to add a tip that goes directly to them I can do so (or some version of that - one of them said "this is the service charge that goes to royal Caribbean, and if you'd like to add a tip for my service specifically you can add it here"). I don't know if that was true or not, but I tip anyway so I just gave them another $20 per service. It's already so expensive, what's another $20? It's not worth making a fuss about and if you're unsure and would rather err on the side of making sure the service provider gets something, don't stress about the fact that you added extra.

Good point, I'm pretty sure every ship I've sailed had bad reviews, including Symphony and Spectrum which had both sailed for less than 2 years by the time I got on them. Loved them both, including all the other ships I've sailed (though I haven't done anything smaller than the Voyager Class ships).

I wonder if the travel agent made a mistake in the pricing they quoted you during Black Friday. I have the same cruise booked, but for July, and I booked it more than a year in andvance, and my price was $4600 for a balcony, no drinks or wifi included. I checked the price during Black Friday to see if it went down but it hadn't, it was around $5900. I know travel agents get good deals but $4010 for concierge class with drinks and wifi sounds too good to be true. Maybe it was a real price, but I wouldn't be surprised if the travel agent made a mistake when they gave you the original invoice, and that might be why they aren't able to go to celebrity and argue their case now. If they had the paperwork, seems like it would have been an easy fix. edited to add that I forgot I forgot my price included $800 to make my reservation refundable, so my price would have been $3800 without that. I still think the price you were quoted was really low, but if you have the invoice from the travel agent, they should honor that price for you, regardless of what celebrity is charging them.

I would keep fighting for the refund, but in the meantime, maybe the friends should agree to take the total refund and distribute it equally amongst you.

Darn that pesky Nancy, always ruining everything 😂

That stressed me out! So glad that worked out for you.

Bummer, they're taking away one of the fun Easter eggs on this class of ship (room 6305, the Ben and Jerry Sweet). Correct me if I'm wrong on the room number.

Liberty, Voyager, Spectrum