ARandomTraveler

I guess that makes sense - the 4 day gives people some days to start and finish their vacations without the stress. The 3 day still requires people to take time off work but they get less sailing days. I wish they'd hit up somewhere besides Nassau. At least switch it up every other sailing.

I'm bummed it's sailing 3/4 night itineraries, but I'll still probably book it at least once. It doesn't make sense to me to have a 4-day Mon-Fri sailing, if you're gonna do that, may as well make it 7 because people already have to take the full work week off. And if I'm paying $500/person to fly to Florida, I'd rather stay a whole week than just a weekend. If the prices aren't completely outrageous, I'll probably book a b2b just for fun, but I'd be willing to spend more money if it sailed a better itinerary.

I signed up for the email where they're probably just gonna tell us that bookings will be open soon, and that they'll be even more expensive than Icon. I signed up anyway.

Don't ask questions 👀

Assuming you are American, you do not need a Visa for Singapore. But you do have to fill out this form before you get there: https://eservices.ica.gov.sg/sgarrivalcard/

If you hold a US passport, you need one for Vietnam. Apply using this link. https://evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn/trang-chu-ttdt You do not need one for Singapore. I don't think you need one for Malaysia either, but double check just to be sure. Currently, you do need to be vaccinated against covid to visit Malaysia, but that might change by February. For Singapore, even though you don't need a visa, you have to fill out this form before you fly there, and I believe you also need to fill it out again before your ship returns to Singapore. https://eservices.ica.gov.sg/sgarrivalcard/

Thank you. I wasn't sure how picky they would be about it being an actual address (and also that the address was a residence vs a business or seaport address), it's good to know they approved your visa using the name of the ship, so I'll do that. My cruise route only visits Nha Trang in Vietnam, so we arrive and leave the country from Nha Trang seaport (which is a question on the visa), but the application also asks what city/province you're visiting, and Nha Trang isn't an option. So annoying. Coincidentally I just did my check-in for my cruise and they sent me a confirmation email, but in that email they also sent reminders to get your visa, and about needing vaccinations to visit (Malaysia) and to fill out a disembarkation form for Singapore before we leave the cruise, even though our cruise actually ends in Japan. I guess they're using info for the route Spectrum is currently sailing. Not super helpful.

I like the Voyager class ships (which explorer is part of). I actually prefer the slightly larger Freedom class ships over the Voyager class (and Oasis class might be my new overall favorite), so in my opinion, the voyager class ships are "small." The explorer is big enough to be able to find something to do everyday, but not so big that you leave the ship feeling like you never saw most of the ship. The other thing I like about this class is that there is a lot of outdoor space where you can get fresh air and sunshine. I also like that it has a promenade (the indoor area of the ship that is open, basically from one end of the ship to the other and has a bar, a cafe, some shops etc.) which Grandeur doesn't have. I've never been on Grandeur or that class of ship, but don't think I would like it because it's smaller, older, and lacks the promenade inside the ship. I love St Lucia. If given the option to sail to St Lucia on grandeur or explorer, I would pick explorer. If given the option to sail St Lucia and the only way to go was to sail on the Grandeur, I'd opt not to go.

This was my experience as well. I had about 800 euros for my trip last fall and came home with almost all of it. Not only are credit cards used everywhere, but you don't even need the actual card because they take Apple Pay everywhere (at least in France and Italy they did).

My Chase Sapphire Reserve doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee, but it DOES charge a cash advance fee, so using the credit card to get cash out of the ATM is a bad idea.

Question - I'm filling out the form right now, and there's a question on the application that asks for an "intended residential address in Vietnam." What did you put there? The email from RC said to use Nha Trang seaport for your "entry and exit," but that's not what the form asks for. Also, Nha Trang is not even an option in the "city/province" section, but I googled it and it's in Khanh HOA, so that's what I selected. I can't imagine everyone is filling out this form correctly with this garbage info RC gave us.

I would highly recommend leaving from Puerto Rico at least once. Beware that it will cost you quite a bit more money because airfare is usually kind of pricey, and hotels in San Juan are somewhat expensive (they have a really high tourism tax). But it's worth it in my opinion. There are other islands besides the ABCs that are also great. St Lucia and Barbados are 2 of my favorites. I like both of those more than Curacao (I haven't been to Bonaire). In Aruba you can also check out the Aruba Trikes tour, it's a 3-wheeled motorcycle tour through the island, you can seat up to 3 people on the trike. I've done that tour twice.

Aruba was my favorite too. So much so that I've been back a couple times for land vacations.

Is it possible that they used to obtain the visas for everyone pre-pandemic and now they don't? I just don't feel comfortable showing up to the ship and hoping they did it for me, especially since the email is giving us the info to do it ourselves.

We are on this cruise as well. I've been struggling to figure out whether I should just do the ports on my own or book tours. I don't want to miss out on seeing special sites because it's unlikely I'll ever come back to these places again. However, if there are things to do within walking distance of the port, I'd be ok exploring on my own. It's so hard to figure out because there's so little information on this cruise route. I did get an email today from Royal Caribbean with the links for applying for visas (you'll have also received it). In Singapore, we're staying at the Marina Bay Sands. I booked it almost 10 months ago, and we'll have a view of the gardens by the bay and it cost almost $800/night, even booking way in advance. I also have a backup hotel booked, the Conrad Centennial Singapore (it's a Hilton branded hotel). It's quite a bit cheaper, not quite as centrally located, but gets good reviews. You might check that one out if Marina Bay prices are too high. Thanks for starting this thread, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one having a hard time figuring out how the heck to plan for the ports.

This seems like such a great service! I've looked at a couple websites that explain the service and how to use it, but it doesn't look like there's a place at the Yokohama cruise port where you can walk off the ship and send your bags to a hotel or 7-11 in Tokyo. I wonder if we were to just bring a big bike lock and tied our luggage up at a bike rack or something, if that would work to go to the Ramen museum before heading to Tokyo. Are bike racks common out there?

I got an email from Royal Caribbean today and they gave the info about who might need to apply for visas, and it seems pretty clear that everyone has to apply for their own (they don't do it for you).

The water is prettier (it's more calm, it's crystal clear, and it's warm for more months of the year than the islands that are on the eastern and western routes). These islands are also much less crowded because less tourists make the longer flights to get there, and less ships visit these ports, especially in summer. They're just prettier, and more unique in my opinion, and they have a different vibe than say, Cozumel, Nassau, Roatan, St Maarten etc. Barbados and St Lucia are also on that list of southern route islands that are gorgeous and unique.

Thanks for the heads up, I'm gonna go put a deposit down on that one. Last time I did the ABC route, they changed the itinerary and skipped Bonaire, so I obviously need a do-over.

I figured it's probably because there's only 3 left and so they're priced really high. I can do 2 insides for about $7000 vs $11000 for the one balcony. It's for the October 5th 2024 sailing. I didn't pull the trigger on the inside rooms yet because I'd really prefer to do a balcony for a 16 day cruise, and I just need to convince myself that $11,000 is worth it (it's probably not). I'm doing a 12 day cruise this summer in a balcony on a much nicer ship (spectrum) and it cost me less than $5,000. Of course the rest of the vacation, (airfare, hotels, and the land portion of that vacation) is costing me 5x that amount, but if I'm just comparing the cruise fare, it's ridiculous to be charged $11,000 a year and a half in advance when I got a similar trip on a nicer ship for less than $5,000 when I only booked it 10 months in advance. I might put a deposit down on a refundable fare to hold the room and watch to see if prices drop, but I'm unlikely to take a 16 day cruise on a crappy ship in an inside room for 11 grand.

I'm excited to see these Panama Canal cruise itineraries! There's a few 14-16 day itineraries going from Los Angeles and ending in Ft Lauderdale in 2024. I almost booked one today until I saw that the one I wanted had balcony cabins starting at $4400/person, plus an additional $2000+ to make it refundable ☹️. I guess I discovered this itinerary too late because there's only 3 balconies left, even at that price.

When I was doing research for Italy and France, a lot of things I read (and Rick Steves videos I watched) said to be prepared for a strike on at least one form of transportation while you're there because they happen all the time. I think train strikes happen more than airline strikes. Not sure about Spain, but you should be prepared with a backup plan just in case, especially for Rome, even if your backup plan is just making sure you have travel insurance that covers strikes and will reimburse you for having to buy new airline or train tickets, or extra nights in a hotel while you wait out the strike.

Doesn't seem like there's much value in booking on board anymore. I remember back in 2004 when the next cruise desk offered increasing amounts of on board credit each passing day of the cruise to try and entice people to book another cruise. They gave out $600 of obc for booking a regular balcony. It may have just been that particular cruise I was on, but I remember the discussion about what a great deal it was. Those days are long gone.

Not with this recent strike, but I had travel affected by an airline strike in France last September. The airline (Air France) let us know a couple days in advance that the strike was going to happen, so we changed our travel plans to leave on an earlier flight. My travel insurance policy paid for the additional hotel night, and reimbursed me for non-refundable tour tickets etc. so it worked out ok, although we did miss a day in Italy because of it.

True, the one that goes to Aruba and curacao have those 2 southern islands on them, but it also has one of the private islands, and so many sea days, so I guess that's more what I was thinking - that itinerary is missing the opportunity to hit up so many other islands. But to each their own I guess. If I was going on the cruise to hit up southern islands, I'd personally choose to leave from San Juan where you'll get more islands, and not "waste" one of the port days on a private island you could get on pretty much every other itinerary. If the only 2 options for the southern route are to sail the odyssey or symphony, I'd pick symphony, Aruba and Curacao route.