RobInMN

I believe that the issue with Baltimore is the bridge heights more than anything else. So, if they decide that they want to continue to service Baltimore, then they will limit the height and use retractable stacks to make sure they can continue to use that port with newer ships. Vison and Radiance class ships aren't going to be in their fleet forever. Either they will be replaced by something that they can get under the bridges, or they will abandon Baltimore.

It's based on comments made by Michael Bayley as well as various captains. But note that when we talk about replacing Radiance, we are talking about replacing it in use, not size. I think everyone is expecting it to be somewhere around the size of Voyager. Currently, the Voyager class is not designed to go to "exotic" ports or go through the Panama Canal. Radiance was designed as a Panamax, and has self-contained tendering abilities. I personally believe that it will be new Panamax (Neopanamax), LNG, and likely have self-contained tendering abilities. Height will be limited by bridges that get them to certain ports as well as Bridge of the Americas. But overall, Voyager sized. I also think that there's a possibility that it will have fewer passengers than Voyager since cruise ship passenger counts is starting to become a limiting factor to populate destinations, and that will likely spread. This could easily result in it being a more expensive option than Oasis/Icon.

You are assuming there there is a 1:1 people to devices. If you have more devices than people, then the second option gives you more control. It's still not necessary, but it has a definite advantage. There's 2 of us, we have 4 devices. I still do option 1, but I can see where option 2 could work better for people, especially if one of those people is playing online games. You wouldn't want someone else logging into a new device to kick you off if you are in the middle of a game. Since we have Android phones, we have the option of doing a WiFi hotspot on our phone's WiFi connection to connect our other devices, so we don't even have to worry about kicking anyone off. This is only good as long as you are together. If you plan on using WhatsApp for communicating with each other when you are not together, that won't work.

2 people with 1 device each: Each person has their own "account" and their own log in. Each person can switch which device they are using without affecting the other person. 2 people sharing a 2 device plan: There is 1 "account" and 1 log in. If either person attempts to connect a 3rd device without first explicitly logging out of their current device, then the system will kick one of the current devices off, connecting the new one. Anecdotally, the belief is the system kicks off the device connected the longest. The first way is more controlled. The second way can be much cheaper. Especially when you go to 3 or 4 people.

In the "Project Discovery" thread, @Jumping Cruiser posted this: I would tend to agree. Project Discovery may look something similar to this. Yes, it's a parabolic bow. Anyway, to me it does have a slight Royal Caribbean vibe to it. Looks like the bridge may be deck 10 (like Voyager/Freedom class) or 11. For reference, Radiance is 9, Odyssey, Oasis and Icon are 12. and a pool deck maybe at 14 (counting a deck 13). So might need to drop a deck or 2 depending on where they decide they want to be able to take her?

No. I've never said small (others may have). In my opinion, there is a 100% chance it will be bigger than the Radiance class. Most comments from captains seems to put it around the size of a Voyager/Freedom class. There is no way they can fit in the expected amenities with a passenger count that makes economic sense in the size of a Radiance. They will have to balance that with size restrictions on where they want this ship to go. New Panamax? Bridge heights for ports they want to go. If they use LNG, will they want to go back to Flam? Geiringer? How about Honnignsvag? The pier there was already about 1/3 the size of Jewel. Yes, smaller just means smaller than Oasis and probably Quantum. My comment was the fact that Michael Bayley, and many captains have all made comments about a new "smaller" class of ship and there are some people that post here (like the person I was responding to) that don't seem to believe that RC will ever build a smaller sized ship, only going larger with every new class. It's to those people that I am asking, "So Michael Bayley and many RC Captains are all lying?"

No. Legend is apparently the name for Oasis #7. Someone posted that according to the website code, Icon #3 will have the code TR

We just finished the Panama Canal cruise here last month. We booked it the day it was released. Largely thanks to a previous "Booking season begins" thread here.🙂

I've never been on Gate 1, But I did 1 Vantage back in 2005 with my Parents and did GC recently with them again. Vantage and GC were basically the same (including the ships). I believe that Vantage (at least back in the early 2000's) was owned by a brother of the GC owner. But yep, they are no more, so that's a moot point. Anyway, my wife and I a not fans of GC in the slightest. We are fans of AmaWaterways. Our biggest complaint about GC is the cabins. The dual fold-down single bunks is unacceptable to us. We want the actual bed that you get in an Ama cabin. Bathrooms are much nicer also. Ama uses a single cruise director. The biggest difference I would point our with this is that on Vantage and GC, we had 4 CDs such that the entire cruise ship was divided between them. This is your CD for the entire cruise, and they lead all the tours. They are expected to know everything about the places you are visiting, and you will be with the same large group of passengers the entire time. There are no options. Not in only in what you are doing, but the pace also. You either do the designated excursion or you don't. and if you do, the entire group stays together at the pace of the slowest person. I can't speak to other companies other than Ama, but Ama's single CD is more of a coordinator. They do not lead any excursions, instead they are the are the go between with the local expert guides. They are the one that arranges for the appropriate number of guides for the different excursion options (yes! you have options!!), and your groups are almost always kept to small group size (with the exception of some evening all ship events). Not only that, but most walking tours are divided into easy, normal and active, each with their own guide.

All correct statements. I also thought the "big" announcement would be Project Discovery since Michael Bayley has said they hope to announce it this year. It does seem like it's being mentioned more frequently at the Captain Q&A's (and maybe just because more people are asking), so I'm hoping that is a good sign. But correct. No official announcements have been made up to this point.

+2

That seems to be the prevailing indication from Captain Q&As

Ours also. It was a weekend neighborhood thing. While I thought all 3 Sovereign class ships had been scrapped, only her 2 sisters have been. Apparently Majesty is currently owned by Seajets, and "laid up" (whatever that means other than out of service) in Piraeus, Greece. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majesty_of_the_Seas Not sure what a ferry company is going to do with a former cruise ship, but their wikipedia page says that they've purchased 4 and plans for them are yet unknown.

Correct, nothing official, and certainly no actual details has been published, but Michael Bayley has commented at least twice, and numerous captains have commented about a new smaller class ship in the design phase. Bayley has said they hope to make an official announcement sometime this year. Your comment was that RCI will only do big ships, and leave the smaller ships to Celebrity. This seems to run counter to what insiders are saying.

Yes. Sorry to freak you out. "Dropping" as in not scheduling new, not cancelling already announced ones. And I was probably a bit overreactive. They are not necessarily dropping all of Norway, but they are severely limiting where they are going. You'll note that starting in 2025, there's no Radiance class from Amsterdam. So no Flam, or Geringer, and no Arctic Circle up to Honningsvag like in previous years up to this summer. They are only scheduling the southern "big" city ports. We'll have to see if they continue with your itinerary in 2026 & beyond.

So... everyone's been lying?

This isn't so much a "yes, but", as much as it's additional info. There's no argument or disagreement here. You are saying the same thing as far as "earning" goes. Nothing was said previously about what is displayed in the app. That may be what you were intending to say, but not what you actually wrote.

in 2005 we went with my parents on Vantage (went bankrupt a year or 2 ago and liquidated). Was not a fan anyway. We did another one recently with my parents on Grand Circle (Christmas Markets). Again, not a fan. The crew was nice enough, ship & food ok, but the cabins are a non-starter with us. Twin fold down single bunks over a dual bench table. We are spooners. Doesn't work. Reminds me of a camper. Tiny bathroom. Hated the format of having no excursion options and being spit amongst 4 CMs that led all tours themselves. We've done 3 cruises (1 plus a b2b) with AmaWaterways and have another (4th) booked for Spring. We love them. The b2b was on AmaMagna, and that ship is amazing for a river ship. (find my review in the River Cruises forum). Love the multiple, small group, excursion options and the fact that they use local experts for tour guides.

I don't necessarily love the smaller ships, in and of themselves. When it comes to the ship, I love the Oasis class and the amenities the newer ships have to offer. However, I love where the smaller ships can go. We loved our Artic Circle, and Iceland & Ireland cruises. We loved doing the Panama Canal. Very excited that this new class will give us the best of both. Not to mention the fact that RCI is dropping the Norwegian fjords due to the new environmental restrictions that I believe they will solve with this new class (LNG?)

Most of those countries don't use the Euro. Any tour guide and bus driver used by Ama will accept Euros. The CD should let you know which countries may accept Euros and should tell you what the current conversion rate should be, but note that any change will be in the local currency. Some countries are more accepting of Euros than others. We brought a couple hundred in Euros and kept changing for smaller currency at the front desk to use for tips. We did both weeks on the Danube, and this did become problematic on this stretch of the Danube as many people were doing that and they didn't have a great way of getting more once we were no longer in Euro countries. We did not get any local currency on our cruise and just used a CC that has no foreign currency transaction fees whenever a CC was accepted, and Euros other times. We don't do a lot of shopping.

Have you done river cruises? We've done a few now and enjoy them. They have the advantage that oceans cruises do in the sense that your hotel travels with you, and obviously river cruises go places you can't get to from ocean ports. We don't like doing the same Caribbean ports over & over, and do some of the other itineraries more, but occasionally will sail for the ship just to see/experience a new one. Anyway, we've done Nuremburg to Luxemburg, Nuremburg to Vienna, Vilshofen to Budapest to Bucharest, and next Spring will be doing Basel to Amsterdam. At that point, we'll have gone all the way from Amsterdam to the Black Sea. 🙂 The River Cruises sub forum is active enough.

This plus this correction Everyone earns their own points in the cabins that they stay in. Minors "get" their parent's status. Once they are 18, they are allowed to keep that status (but again, not points), until their own earned points reach the next C&A level.

Current threads/discussion on the new class. It's been hinted at for about 2-3 years now, but more recently captians have been mentioning it at Q&A's and Bayley has even dropped mentions. No real details, just that "it's smaller". But there's lots & lots of speculation.

BTW, We did the Grand Danube, where the first week was basically what you are doing (only in reverse). I believe there is almost 100% overlap. We also did the Prague extension (pre for us) and went to Gogollo on turnaround day. Full review is here:

Vison Class isn't really a traditional ship "Class". It basically comprised 3 pairs of ships and while it's unclear if all 6 ships were all built under the "Project Vision" umbrella, the class name was apparently named after the project, rather than any specific ship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision-class_cruise_ship It would be like using "Genesis Class" instead of Oasis Class.