Royal Ships & California

[mcrcruiser]

It has been a very long time since there was a RCCL ship sailing from California  ports   . There is San  Diego ,San Pedro (near LA) & San Francisco  . Carnival has their own  cruise terminal & parking structure in the port of Long Beach 

 

 Our most recent Sunday Newspaper ,the San  diego Union  had a big article on many more cruise lines wanting to service the worlds 5th largest economy of California ,yet ,Royal Caribbean ,Celebrity & Azamara are  all missing   from sailing from & to these several California ports  .Norwegian , Disney , Additional Carnival in SD port & Crystal  plus Princess & Holland America   are doing more & more cruises from California  ports 

 

 Will RCL corporation   place  ships here in California ports  in the near future ?

[ONECRUISER]

20 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

It has been a very long time since there was a RCCL ship sailing from California  ports   . There is San  Diego ,San Pedro (near LA) & San Francisco  . Carnival has their own  cruise terminal & parking structure in the port of Long Beach 

 

 Our most recent Sunday Newspaper ,the San  diego Union  had a big article on many more cruise lines wanting to service the worlds 5th largest economy of California ,yet ,Royal Caribbean ,Celebrity & Azamara are  all missing   from sailing from & to these several California ports  .Norwegian , Disney , Additional Carnival in SD port & Crystal  plus Princess & Holland America   are doing more & more cruises from California  ports 

 

 Will RCL corporation   place  ships here in California ports  in the near future ?

Nope, too many other places they go and been sailing above 105% capacity. No hurry to return... At least Royal started doing few Panama Canal cruises again, so you can take one of those from/to Cali

Edited November 26, 2018 by ONECRUISER

[PhoenixCruiser]

No one really knows.

 

Check out May 2020 out of San Diego 

[John&LaLa]

28 minutes ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

No one really knows.

 

Richard Fain does. 😉

[DaNana]

We used to cruise with RCI out of San Pedro. They stopped when Mexico was not nice to tourists. Keep hoping they will return. Then we don’t have to spend a day flying across the country. 

[Ashland]

Started the addiction to cruising with RCI out of San Pedro many many years ago...We continue to be a loyalist and will continue to hope they return to our coast. In the meantime flying is all part of our cruises domestic/international itineraries.

[Clarea]

13 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

... Will RCL corporation   place  ships here in California ports  in the near future ?

 

Not as long as they can make more profit elsehwere.

[Iamcruzin]

Royal Caribbean has a larger footprint in the northeast than Princess or Celebrity which are my first two cruise line choices. For this reason I decided to book Royal after 18 yrs. I could fly to Florida if I wanted to sail the other two lines but the intineraries aren’t anymore unique than the ones that Royal Caribbean are offering from NY/NJ. I can book a 9 day cruise in a balcony for less than a 7 day cruise out of Ft Lauderdale by not having to pay airfare or booking an over night stay in a hotel. I guess there is too much competition on the west coast so they are following the money on the east coast.

[mcrcruiser]

15 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Nope, too many other places they go and been sailing above 105% capacity. No hurry to return... At least Royal started doing few Panama Canal cruises again, so you can take one of those from/to Cali

Interesting but we have done the full transit on Celebrity ships twice  . Any canal cruise from the west coast ports requires flying at least one way 

[mcrcruiser]

1 hour ago, Iamcruzin said:

Royal Caribbean has a larger footprint in the northeast than Princess or Celebrity which are my first two cruise line choices. For this reason I decided to book Royal after 18 yrs. I could fly to Florida if I wanted to sail the other two lines but the intineraries aren’t anymore unique than the ones that Royal Caribbean are offering from NY/NJ. I can book a 9 day cruise in a balcony for less than a 7 day cruise out of Ft Lauderdale by not having to pay airfare or booking an over night stay in a hotel. I guess there is too much competition on the west coast so they are following the money on the east coast.

Yes we did  the 9 day New England /Canada cruise from Bayonne NJ  with a Royal ship last September . We do believe that Carnival ,Holland America & Princess services the North East as well 

[mcrcruiser]

Just now, mcrcruiser said:

Yes we did  the 9 day New England /Canada cruise from Bayonne NJ  with a Royal ship last September . We do believe that Carnival ,Holland America & Princess services the North East as well .I am with you that it is best if you do not need to fly to get on a ship & save that  fare & the hassles of flying 

 

[mcrcruiser]

2 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Not as long as they can make more profit elsehwere.

Just that California is a huge market for cruising & there presence of absence is very noticeable to the cruising community  .When you add in Arizona & Nevada to the mix ;as those folks could drive to a California port ,this then is a huge market 

[ONECRUISER]

14 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Interesting but we have done the full transit on Celebrity ships twice  . Any canal cruise from the west coast ports requires flying at least one way 

Thats what I meant, most cruises sailing threw Canal are going from Florida to Cali, then next sailing returning to Florida. This on Vision and Jewel. Royal making fortune in other areas, so dont see them staying in Cali permanently.  Maybe if they had bunch of smaller extra ships to station there part of the yr, but not going that way as Royal sheds them to other sister lines 

Edited November 27, 2018 by ONECRUISER

[mcrcruiser]

2 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Thats what I meant, most cruises sailing threw Canal are going from Florida to Cali, then next sailing returning to Florida. This on Vision and Jewel

 Yes & both of those are older ships in their fleet ,especially Vision of the Seas  . Thus ,these older ships are really not exciting to be on  for lack of the newer innovations 

 

 Their Oasis class ships can not fit even into the new locks  . Any ships beam larger than 146 feet   can not fit  either  into those new locks 

[wl2cruise]

17 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

It has been a very long time since there was a RCCL ship sailing from California  ports   . There is San  Diego ,San Pedro (near LA) & San Francisco  . Carnival has their own  cruise terminal & parking structure in the port of Long Beach 

 

 Our most recent Sunday Newspaper ,the San  diego Union  had a big article on many more cruise lines wanting to service the worlds 5th largest economy of California ,yet ,Royal Caribbean ,Celebrity & Azamara are  all missing   from sailing from & to these several California ports  .Norwegian , Disney , Additional Carnival in SD port & Crystal  plus Princess & Holland America   are doing more & more cruises from California  ports 

 

 Will RCL corporation   place  ships here in California ports  in the near future ?

 

 

No,  Because of California's environmental laws.

[Clarea]

1 hour ago, mcrcruiser said:

Just that California is a huge market for cruising & there presence of absence is very noticeable to the cruising community  .When you add in Arizona & Nevada to the mix ;as those folks could drive to a California port ,this then is a huge market 

 

The size of the market does not matter if Royal is able to deploy all their ships elsehwhere and make more money.      I'm sure they have some sort of ordered list of ports vs profit and California is somewhere near the bottom.  Even Baltimore and New Orleans are better for them. 

[buddylover]

1 hour ago, wl2cruise said:

 

 

No,  Because of California's environmental laws.

If "environmental laws" were the reason then NO OTHER cruise lines would be sailing out of California.....this does not make sense!

[not-enough-cruising]

51 minutes ago, buddylover said:

If "environmental laws" were the reason then NO OTHER cruise lines would be sailing out of California.....this does not make sense!

Of course it makes sense, look up any of the CEO shareholder calls over the years. This is discussed regularly. The capital investment required to retrofit a ship to adhere to CA environmental laws is massive.  If you can sail your ships (completely full) almost anywhere else without upgrading very expensive systems, then it’s a no brainer. 

[ONECRUISER]

3 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

 Yes & both of those are older ships in their fleet ,especially Vision of the Seas  . Thus ,these older ships are really not exciting to be on  for lack of the newer innovations 

 

 Their Oasis class ships can not fit even into the new locks  . Any ships beam larger than 146 feet   can not fit  either  into those new locks 

In past the Royal ships too large for PC have gone around the Horn., Serenade is now going repositioning threw PC but way more expensive then Vision's and even lot higher then Jewel's when sailings were released. People forget Royal use to keep their ships even 25+ yrs and Radiance class isn't "Old". She was designed to be the best of Vision and Voyager/Independence Class. Oasis is 9yrs old, Jewel  is just 14...

Edited November 27, 2018 by ONECRUISER

[RSS from SF]

20 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

It has been a very long time since there was a RCCL ship sailing from California  ports   . There is San  Diego ,San Pedro (near LA) & San Francisco  . . . .

. . .

 Will RCL corporation   place  ships here in California ports  in the near future ?

 

-----

For whatever it's worth, the following is something posted last month (October 1, 2018) on an unofficial Royal Caribbean blog site:

 

[ URL for this post ends with:

/2018/10/01/royal-caribbean-ceo-talks-quantum-5-better-pizza-oasis-class-galveston-and-more    ]

 

"

Royal Caribbean CEO talks Quantum 5, better pizza, Oasis Class in Galveston and more
. . . .
As part of Royal Caribbean's President's Cruise on Harmony of the Seas, Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley held a question and answer session with cruisers to address questions and concerns.

. . . .

An update on cruising from California

 

An update on cruising from California
One cruiser asked Michael Bayley about the prospects of Royal Caribbean returning to California and offering cruises regularly from Los Angeles.

" We always are evaluating the deployment into California, whether it is San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc. We know that two of our competing brands are putting ships into California in the next year or so, it will be interesting to see how they do.

From a business perspective, we still can't quite figure out how to make the best sense from a business perspective, so we keep looking at it. I can't say it's not gonna happen, I'm pretty sure it's going to happen. The question is, when. For sure in the next five to ten years there will be a ship in California. "

"

 

-----

 

 

 

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, RSS from SF said:

 

 ...

 For sure in the next five to ten years there will be a ship in California. "

 

 

Note that this did not say "ship based in California", only "ship in California".  This could be the occasional Pacific Coastal or Panama Canal cruise.

[mcrcruiser]

1 hour ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Of course it makes sense, look up any of the CEO shareholder calls over the years. This is discussed regularly. The capital investment required to retrofit a ship to adhere to CA environmental laws is massive.  If you can sail your ships (completely full) almost anywhere else without upgrading very expensive systems, then it’s a no brainer. 

Royal Caribbean ships sail into the most stringent  of environments  in Alaska waters 

[mcrcruiser]

8 minutes ago, RSS from SF said:

 

-----

For whatever it's worth, the following is something posted last month (October 1, 2018) on an unofficial Royal Caribbean blog site:

 

[ URL for this post ends with:

/2018/10/01/royal-caribbean-ceo-talks-quantum-5-better-pizza-oasis-class-galveston-and-more    ]

 

"

Royal Caribbean CEO talks Quantum 5, better pizza, Oasis Class in Galveston and more
. . . .
As part of Royal Caribbean's President's Cruise on Harmony of the Seas, Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley held a question and answer session with cruisers to address questions and concerns.

. . . .

An update on cruising from California

 

An update on cruising from California
One cruiser asked Michael Bayley about the prospects of Royal Caribbean returning to California and offering cruises regularly from Los Angeles.

" We always are evaluating the deployment into California, whether it is San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc. We know that two of our competing brands are putting ships into California in the next year or so, it will be interesting to see how they do.

From a business perspective, we still can't quite figure out how to make the best sense from a business perspective, so we keep looking at it. I can't say it's not gonna happen, I'm pretty sure it's going to happen. The question is, when. For sure in the next five to ten years there will be a ship in California. "

"

 

-----

 

 

 

Interesting about the next 5 to 10 years . IMO  it means nothing  no commitment what so ever on Royal Caribbean's part .  Royal will have to prove themselves worthy of pax switching cruise lines ,if they ever enter the west coast ,specifically  the California  cruising market  .

 

 It just is so very interesting with so many new ships being built  now that there isn't a hint of deploying one or 2 ships to do seasonal sailings from the California ports 

 

 

 

 

[davekathy]

We just hope Celebrity continues with the Canada/US Pacific Coastal cruises. We've done four in the last four years all in September. Two with RC (bummer they stopped, and hope they reconsider) and two with Celebrity. Leaving out of Vancouver BC or Seattle and ending in LA (San Pedro) or San Diego. Great intineries. 

[HBE4]

1 hour ago, RSS from SF said:

 

From a business perspective, we still can't quite figure out how to make the best sense from a business perspective, so we keep looking at it. I can't say it's not gonna happen, I'm pretty sure it's going to happen. The question is, when. For sure in the next five to ten years there will be a ship in California. "

"

 

-----

 

 

 

 

Translation: "Yes, we will absolutely think about the possibility of maybe having a ship in California"

 

My guess, they'll see how well Carnival does before moving a ship out there.