Dear RCCL - can Los Angeles have one measly ship?

[NHProud]

18 hours ago, Ashland said:

Yes...I know exactly where PCL is located in Santa Clarita and have passed it many times. 

 

We missed doing the 7 night MR cruises so much we at one time did book PCL...Newly refurbished Sapphire and wonderful aft mini-suite cabin location.

 

I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was but it just felt off and uncomfortable...I guess it just wasn't RCI and the feeling that every time we step on board we feel at home and know what to expect. 

Will we ever give it another try...hard to tell.

 

I'm so sorry you're having a bad experience with (RCG?) RCI and your refund...After 25+ cruises with them .... booking directly with them and owning my bookings I can say I've never had a bad or unexpected experience in my dealings.

 

Please be patient and I hope your refund will be processed soon. If not please call them or you TA if you use one again.

 

Happy, healthy sailing to wherever and whatever line that may be next.

 

Ashland , thank you for your kind words .  I do use a travel agent and she has been very diligent in calling and following-up but still no refund .  I even e-mailed customer service and received a response from two different people thanking me for my patience.  

 

A whole different thread ....... what are the advantages of owning your reservation? A travel agent acts on the behalf of her client , can be an ombudsman in case of difficulties ,  you can communicate in person , by phone or e-mail . Just curious . 

 

We lived in Santa Clarita for six years and no loyalty to Cunard . Never again ! 

 

Royal Caribbean Group , they’ve renamed the company. 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2020 by NHProud

[Tree_skier]

22 hours ago, NHProud said:

You must be having a tough day . You seem so negative ! As Ashland said we can always hope and what is wrong with that.  

 

I booked a cruise on Celebrity , same company , to cruise the Pacific coast next year.  Then there’s Holland America and Princess . I don’t know much about cruising but know this much , I shouldn’t limit myself to one cruise line just for the reward perks. 

 

Where in Michigan are you ? I remember all too well the snowstorm of 1967 in East Lansing . 

I was actually booked on Princess to do a NW cruise of SFO.  Unfortunately that one got cancelled.  I would love it if Royal did short cruises out of CA.  I'd probably hurt myself financially but it'd be fun.

[pcur]

We've had some wonderful cruises out of San Pedro and San Diego on Princess and HAL.  Until (if?) RCCL gets back to the West Coast, we are very happy with our choices.  

 

10 night Mexico up into the Sea of Cortez (they both have 7 night cruises, but we prefer the 10 night itinerary)

28 night Hawaii and Tahiti

14 - 16 night Panama Canal:  Princess to/from San Pedro, and HAL to/from San Diego

15 night Hawaii for both, some are from San Francisco with Princess

 

Edited August 4, 2020 by pcur

[ElkGroveCruiser]

And thus another thread is hijacked....lol

[crzndeb]

2 hours ago, cruisefan0110 said:

In 2020, with air being the primary mode of inter-city transportation, CLIA should be lobbying Washington to end the PVSA. Can you imagine the great coastal cruises on both coasts. 

It won’t happen...Chengkp75 is always great explaining, so I finally took a screenshot of one of his posts. I don’t think anyone would want this.

 

 

[LittleMissMagic]

Yeah, yeah, we all understand that the cruising industry is currently on hold and no ships are sailing right now. I'm assuming OP means in the future, when cruising resumes.

I've sailed the Disney Wonder Mexican Riviera from San Diego. If Disney can sail Mexico, RCCL can surely sail Mexico. However, I do think the Disney ships draw passengers just for the Disney name and the ships alone.

Right now SoCal cruise coverage is Carnival Imagination and Inspiration doing the quick 3 and 4-day Baja cruises. And then Princess and Norwegian were both bringing in larger vessels to sail Mexican Riviera during the summer/fall. Norwegian had the Joy over here last year, and I know Princess had the Diamond and at one point Royal Princess. These aren't small vessels, so I'm guessing the market is here.

As far as "gang violence" and "drugs".... there's gang violence and drugs in California. If you live in Southern California, you're not too far from Mexico anyway. For the most part, unless you go looking for trouble, you won't get caught up in gang violence. I think the West Coast cruises mostly attract Californians who aren't really shocked or concerned about the "presence of gangs."

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, NHProud said:

Ashland , thank you for your kind words .  I do use a travel agent and she has been very diligent in calling and following-up but still no refund .  I even e-mailed customer service and received a response from two different people thanking me for my patience.  

 

A whole different thread ....... what are the advantages of owning your reservation? A travel agent acts on the behalf of her client , can be an ombudsman in case of difficulties ,  you can communicate in person , by phone or e-mail . Just curious . 

 

We lived in Santa Clarita for six years and no loyalty to Cunard . Never again ! 

 

Royal Caribbean Group , they’ve renamed the company. 

 

 

Booking and owning my reservations and my extended families is just a personal choice for me/us..

No interest in OBC or having or needing a 3rd party involved. I'm OCD when it comes to monitoring our bookings

and repricing, making any changes at a moments notice and being our best advocate when if/it was ever necessary. So far this has worked out great for us all and I'll continue as we make travel plans going forward.

 

[The Collector]

My favorite West Coast cruise was 7 day on Explorer, Sept 2017. Seattle, Astoria, San Francisco overnight, Victoria then back to Seattle

[Merion_Mom]

1 hour ago, The Collector said:

My favorite West Coast cruise was 7 day on Explorer, Sept 2017. Seattle, Astoria, San Francisco overnight, Victoria then back to Seattle

 

I wasn't on that particular sailing with you, but I have done that cruise, and loved it, too.  ☺️

[crzndeb]

1 hour ago, The Collector said:

My favorite West Coast cruise was 7 day on Explorer, Sept 2017. Seattle, Astoria, San Francisco overnight, Victoria then back to Seattle

I was also on one of the Sept/2017 sailing on Explorer. I loved being able to leave and come back to my home town. The pic I found was Sept 15 2017. I would do that again. 

[TheMastodon]

I thought the Viking Serenade was still doing Catalina and Ensenada ?

[crzndeb]

6 minutes ago, TheMastodon said:

I thought the Viking Serenade was still doing Catalina and Ensenada ?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Island_Escape
 

A little history

[Merion_Mom]

9 minutes ago, TheMastodon said:

I thought the Viking Serenade was still doing Catalina and Ensenada ?

 

 

?????????

 

[Ashland]

8 minutes ago, TheMastodon said:

I thought the Viking Serenade was still doing Catalina and Ensenada ?

She was sold a long time ago and was renamed Island Escape. I believe as of 2017 she was still sailing but not sure now.

[ipeeinthepool]

On 8/3/2020 at 10:12 AM, John&LaLa said:

 

Just go do a bunch of +1, following, or thanks🤣🤣

 

Thanks for all of your help and guidance to reach my new status.  It will take a lot of work to get to 40k

[TheMastodon]

8 hours ago, crzndeb said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Island_Escape
 

A little history

 

 

8 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

 

?????????

 

 

8 hours ago, Ashland said:

She was sold a long time ago and was renamed Island Escape. I believe as of 2017 she was still sailing but not sure now.

 

 

Yes I know - was trying to be funny.  

[CSHS1979]

1 hour ago, TheMastodon said:

 

Yes I know - was trying to be funny.  

 

Funny isn't received well around here

 

Try an emoji next time

Edited August 5, 2020 by CSHS1979

[crzndeb]

1 hour ago, CSHS1979 said:

 

Funny isn't received well around here

 

Try an emoji next time

I think most people are OK with funny, if they know the poster is kidding. You are right with an emoji. It’s hard to know, just from a typed message if a person is serious or not. I’ve been around long on these boards, to know some people are dead serious with some of their questions.

[Tree_skier]

I would love to see Voyager doing 5/5/4's but I could live with a 4/3 schedule. She's the perfect size and class to be doing that.  I know that now with all the uncertainty going forward that 2021 is a write off but I'm really hoping that the screen shot shown earlier is their intention.  My suspicion is that there was obviously some conversation to this end otherwise why would the port of LA post that.  Royal probably had them pull it from the website because they didn't want to tip their hand on itinerary releases.  I'm usually only just over 4 hours drive from the port of LA.  Jumping on a 4 day once a month would suit me just fine 🙂 

[chengkp75]

On 8/3/2020 at 11:36 PM, ElkGroveCruiser said:

When then as they were then called, RCCL, abandoned the Los Angeles market, I wrote Richard Fain a letter and he actually wrote me back.  He explained that even though the ships sailed full, it was poor or sub-standard on-board sales that prompted them to leave when their contract with the Port of Los Angeles expired.  It had nothing to do with previously mentioned Air Resources Board standard or anything similar.  It was strictly a dollars and cents decision.

We truly missed them sailing from LA as we would book last minute, be it the 4 night or the 7 night cruises and did them 3-4 times a year.

Since we can no longer, or at least only occasionally sail RCI from the west coast, we have changed to another line as our line of choice. 

Well, given that RCI left West Coast home ports in 2010, and the CARB requirement for cold ironing did not start until 2010, and was a phased in process, and still allows some "fleets" to call without cold ironing if they don't make too many port calls, it may not have been an immediate concern for him, and with poor onboard revenue, add in the $2 million cost to convert to cold ironing, and you have additional reason to leave the market.

[BillB48]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Well, given that RCI left West Coast home ports in 2010, and the CARB requirement for cold ironing did not start until 2010, and was a phased in process, and still allows some "fleets" to call without cold ironing if they don't make too many port calls, it may not have been an immediate concern for him, and with poor onboard revenue, add in the $2 million cost to convert to cold ironing, and you have additional reason to leave the market.

 

I think you can also find that companies are often times slightly less than candid when they cite publicly the reasons for their decisions.  While I don't doubt for a second the reasons given in Fain's letter are true, there is no PR benefit to state we are also leaving because of air quality restrictions as it will be much easier for us to take advantage of loopholes in the regulation.  Just doesn't play too well with their Save the Waves program. 

 

What I find interesting is CARB comes down much harder on passenger ships in terms of exceptions to cold ironing.  Cruise ships are only allowed 5 visits to a California port without the ability to go cold iron, where cargo ships are permitted 25 visits a year without cold ironing.

[not-enough-cruising]

57 minutes ago, BillB48 said:

 

I think you can also find that companies are often times slightly less than candid when they cite publicly the reasons for their decisions.  While I don't doubt for a second the reasons given in Fain's letter are true, there is no PR benefit to state we are also leaving because of air quality restrictions as it will be much easier for us to take advantage of loopholes in the regulation.  Just doesn't play too well with their Save the Waves program. 

 

What I find interesting is CARB comes down much harder on passenger ships in terms of exceptions to cold ironing.  Cruise ships are only allowed 5 visits to a California port without the ability to go cold iron, where cargo ships are permitted 25 visits a year without cold ironing.

Another cruise line specific penalty; if you convert one ship to cold iron, you lose the 5 visit waiver for the rest of the fleet. 

[Tree_skier]

It's not like anything California does is rational or makes sense.

[chengkp75]

3 hours ago, BillB48 said:

 

I think you can also find that companies are often times slightly less than candid when they cite publicly the reasons for their decisions.  While I don't doubt for a second the reasons given in Fain's letter are true, there is no PR benefit to state we are also leaving because of air quality restrictions as it will be much easier for us to take advantage of loopholes in the regulation.  Just doesn't play too well with their Save the Waves program. 

 

What I find interesting is CARB comes down much harder on passenger ships in terms of exceptions to cold ironing.  Cruise ships are only allowed 5 visits to a California port without the ability to go cold iron, where cargo ships are permitted 25 visits a year without cold ironing.

Well, when you consider that one cruise ship uses about 8Mw of power in port, and a typical container ship without cargo gear uses about 0.2-0.3Mw of power, or about 1/27th of the power, the 1/5 number of calls is more than fair.

[csnarpy]

Voyager is definitely coming to California. I've been told this by a few higher ups from RCL.  A modified plan was supposed to see her sail this year (moved up from next year) but due to CV this has obviously changed.

 

The original plan was make an announcement of VOS the West Coast sailings this September, for sailings starting in 2021. I'm hoping they may still do this but again, CV takes precedence and I'm not sure if they will bother. 

 

Everything is up in the air now, but basically it's not if VOS is coming to the West coast but when is it coming...  at least that's how i now see it.