Is RCI planning any new ports of call, or new itineraries?

[ssb]

Port fees are expensive for overnights

But an offset is ships are not using fuel to propell the ship

[ivanrocko]

Port fees are expensive for overnights

 

But an offset is ships are not using fuel to propell the ship

 

 

I agree.

 

 

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[midwife1021]

Havana would be imteresting.:)

 

YES! I heard someone else talking about RCCL adding Cuba, but I think it was pure wishful thinking.

[71Corvette]

You may want to do a more extensive review of the ports of call visited by RCI ships. Our Brilliance repositioning cruises from Boston to Tampa regularly stop in St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Barbados and this April, Serenade will visit Bonaire enroute to Boston from New Orleans. We have visited Antigua, Martinique, Grenada, Curacao, St. Croix, on several RCI cruises in past years. Not every cruise is St. Maarten, St. Thomas, San Juan or Nassau.

 

No additional research required, I've done plenty of looking for new and interesting itineraries out of Florida in the past year. Perhaps clarifying my original post is necessary though.

 

I listed many of those ports as examples of places RCCL ships already go, just very few. In my opinion they should open up these islands to more cruises leaving from Florida, right now only a very small handful of cruises from Florida stop any any of these ports. If you can visit them from New York on Quantum, why no go there with ships leaving from Florida?

 

I agree that in years past there seemed to be a bit more variety in the ports of call. Lately, however, the variety of ports for departures from Florida seems to be on the decline. In my opinion it's gotten even worse following the creation of Falmouth which resulted in the elimination of two far better choices - Ocho Rios and Montego Bay.

 

Unless more variety is offered soon we'll be sailing other lines which offer more varied itineraries. Hopefully it doesn't come to that - we like RCCL.

Edited December 22, 2014 by 71Corvette

[TravelerThom]

...I listed many of those ports as examples of places RCCL ships already go, just very few. In my opinion they should open up these islands to more cruises leaving from Florida, right now only a very small handful of cruises from Florida stop any any of these ports. If you can visit them from New York on Quantum, why no go there with ships leaving from Florida?...

The ports ARE out there IF you sail longer than one week. The large majority of passengers are unable to sail for longer than a week, and there are a limited number of ports that can be reached in one week out of Florida (or out of Cape Liberty). Indeed, for the Quantum to reach anything as "exotic" as St. Kitts (which I hardly think of as exotic) you are looking at a 10 night sailing, and St. Kitts is done on a number of 7 nighters out of Florida. The ONLY ports that Quantum reaches that are not done regularly on 7 night Florida cruises are Martinique and Barbados, and these appear only on three 12 night cruises at much higher prices than I can reach those ports for out of Florida.

 

Thom

[ivanrocko]

The ports ARE out there IF you sail longer than one week. The large majority of passengers are unable to sail for longer than a week, and there are a limited number of ports that can be reached in one week out of Florida (or out of Cape Liberty). Indeed, for the Quantum to reach anything as "exotic" as St. Kitts (which I hardly think of as exotic) you are looking at a 10 night sailing, and St. Kitts is done on a number of 7 nighters out of Florida. The ONLY ports that Quantum reaches that are not done regularly on 7 night Florida cruises are Martinique and Barbados, and these appear only on three 12 night cruises at much higher prices than I can reach those ports for out of Florida.

 

Thom

 

 

Those ports are in the Southern Caribbean itinerary.

There are many places in the area that are NOT ports of call:

1) Havana, Cuba

2) Turks And Caicos

3) Puerto Plata or Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

4) Cancun, Mexico

5) Barranquilla, Colombia

6) Maracaibo or Caracas, Venezuela

7) Trinidad and Tobago

 

 

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[TravelerThom]

Those ports are in the Southern Caribbean itinerary.

There are many places in the area that are NOT ports of call:

1) Havana, Cuba

2) Turks And Caicos

3) Puerto Plata or Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

4) Cancun, Mexico

5) Barranquilla, Colombia

6) Maracaibo or Caracas, Venezuela

7) Trinidad and Tobago...

Yes, the ports I listed were in the Southern Caribbean; I was specifically responding to a comment about ports on Quantum out of NY being better than ports out of Florida, which I don't think is true.

 

I am all in favor of a large port selection (in the last year I have been to several new-to-me ports [Lerwick Scotland, Torhavn Faroes, Hanga Roa Easter Island]). I have sailed via commercial boats to islands in the Caribbean that many people have never heard of (Saba, Statia, Nevis, Montserrat, Îles des Saintes, Carriacou, etc), but it is HIGHLY unlikely that RCI would ever consider going to places that small.

 

I am confident that RCI would LOVE to sail to Havana and plans to do so as soon as it is allowed.

 

Grand Turk port was built (I don't know all the details) by Carnival and is therefore essentially closed to RCCL. Ports in Dominican Republic are visited from time to time, but never seem to gain traction for reasons I don't understand. Cancun has essentially no port structure. IF RCCL invested money probably all of these areas are available for development.

 

I have been to both Columbia and Venezuela with RCCL (but not the ports you mention), and I have been to Trinidad (but not Tobago). They certainly are possibilities, but they are too far to be done on one week cruises out of Florida, and one week is the sweet spot for selling cruises.

 

You have good ideas - I have just been playing the Devil's Advocate on your suggestions.

 

Thom