wreckem2013

Yes. I doubt very much Royal will be calling on it anytime soon. I know they are looking at the issue every week but until there is some sort of order in the rest of the country they aren’t going to go.

Seward cannot currently handle larger ships. However the owners of the Seward cruise port announced its expansion back in 2022 and recently gave updated plans with an expected completion of spring 2026. In the promotional materials for the project they have rendered picture of the completed port with a Quantum class ship docked. This project is in conjunction with RCCL and the plans are for the ability to handle two ship at the same time, and the ability to handle quantum class ships. I am planning on booking a B2B or a cruise with post cruise tour during the quantum class’ inaugural season to Seward. Fingers crossed it’s the 2026 season.

Be thankful they didn’t do a medivac because without cruise insurance you would have owed tens of thousands of dollars for it. Medivacs are rare, generally when they are far from a port or life threatening emergencies. I’ve only ever seen one and it was in Europe but I’ve seen plenty of people disembarked at the next stop.

Those rolls of carpets were there in July….

Did back to back on Radiance in Alaska last summer. Also did Serenade last spring break. Didn’t have any issue on either. Comparing them to a newer bigger shop and rugs they are dated but they were well maintained and I didn’t smell sewage either.

But Allure is coming back to Galveston when Harmony goes to dry dock in 2026.

The there were reports that a senior RCI corporate officer said there would be a Wonderful announcement regarding Galveston soon. So there has been rumors of Wonder to Galveston but Allure has been moved back to Galveston in 2026. Will Wonder be going to Galveston to do shorter cruises I doubt it but we will find out what the other ships for Galveston will be next week?

The crown lounge on Allure is going to be moved. Everyone might as well accept it. Same with the slides. Sabor, is a goner as well. Those are all pretty much done deals. Giovanni’s Table is probabky be flipped to Giovanni’s Kitchen. It’s what is replacing Sabor and the Crown Lounge that is not fully known. Sabor is probably playmakers but who knows what they will choose for the resturant to replace the crown lounge. Hopefully they turn studio on air into a piano bar or something .

Yeah ever since they brought Oasis class it’s been 98% of the time the same three ports. I remember when we were able to do Grand Cayman and Jamaica out of Galveston.

Allure is going in for a massive Amplification in 2025. But that also the loss of one of the better crown lounges. Then again Harmony goes off dry dock and a likely amplification once it leaves Galveston. With the year round revenue they make out of Galveston, they should always get a better ship than New York. But we don’t. I guess this puts to bed rumors of Wonder coming to Galveston once Star starts sailing.

20 dollars at playmakers is a lot of food for one person.$40 for two is even worse. First time we had Playmakers was on Odyssey during Thanksgiving 2022. We both maxed out our $20 each and had a lot of food left over. Now we eat $20 worth of food for lunch and then go back late night a couple hours after dinner and get two camp fire cookies.

Yes. They have discontinued their business relationship with Ben & Jerry’s and are removing all associated items.

With the soda package, most of the time if you order soda in the MDR or speciality restaurants you will end up getting a can. In specialty restaurants it’s 100% of the time in my experience. Now if you go to a bar and as for a can they are going to charge you for a can. I use my left over Diamond vouchers at the end of the night to get cans of soda for the room so I can be lazy and not have to go to the bar/free style machine.

My Thanksgiving on Symphony is currently at $71. We share Coco Cay with Oasis that day I believe. I’m paying close attention for when my spring break cruise on Symphony opens for Coco cay bookings to see how much it is on there. We will be there with Wonder on the trip. Also pricing is based on current sales as Royal uses dynamic pricing so it’s also impacting the other ship there at Coco Cay the day Icon is there. In theory it should be priced the same as Icon. You can expect days with Icon and Oasis class or two Oasis classes there the same day to get more and more expensive as sales are made. While days with only one ship at Coco cay will always have the cheapest.

It’s pretty clear that Vision and Radiance class ships are going to be retired in the next 5 years or so. I don’t think the Voyager class ships will be far behind.

We did back to back on Radiance this past July. Did whale watching in Juneau and Icy Strait. Both have the potential to be phenomenal. We saw a large pod(15+) of hump backs do bubble net feeding Juneau for about a hour. Saw a pod of orcas with young calves in Icy Strait.

Odyssey was doing it for select airlines on its New Years cruise.

Number of shots are based on size 1 shots is tall 2 shots is grande 2 shots for iced(they don’t have tall for iced)

Those obstructed balconies on Liberty are most likely the aft balconies.

Haha. This is Royal Caribbean where there are differences in a lot of experiences(udp, vouchers, coffee cards) across the fleet.

Obstructed Oceanview Balcony is a completely different category than Oceanview Balcony. If you bid and win a RoyalUp you won’t get another obstructed balcony.

UDP works best on ships with more restaurants and playmakers. Which is mostly the newer big ships. Also I actually prefer the playmakers burger over the chops burger but the chops truffle fries are better than the garlic parm fries in playmakers. On Odyssey we did the following over NYE Giovanni’s twice for lunch(meat and cheese board plus pizzas and go bananas) Giovanni’s twice for dinner Teppenyaki once for dinner Teppenyaki once for lunch Wonderland once for dinner Chops twice for dinner Playmakers twice for afternoon snacks and three times for late night dessert(read: skillet campfire cookies). We did lunches at 12 afternoons snacks at 4 dinner at 8 and late night desserts at 10:30. If I’m on any of the new ships there are enough restaurants to make UDP worthwhile. Just booked a back to back on Voyager in Europe in 2025. It will be the next time we we eat in the main dining room. Probably a 50/50 split.

We switched to specialty long before cuts to dining. After doing the MDR on Navigator on a 12 day and 14 day back to back in Europe in 2016 we have never really wanted to go back. First time we ate in the main dining room since was on our B2B on Radiance this last summer but even then we ate at Chops 3 times those two weeks.

Yep. The only time we have ever done the Beach Club was during our Adventure cruise porting out of the Bahamas. On the third sailing after startup. 800 people on board. Cococay was a ghost town both days but we still paid for Beach Club on both days. I woudl probably go as high as $150 for Beach Club but I haven’t seen it offered anywhere under $225 on any of my crusies.