Navigator now confirmed in California

[Hoopster95]

1 minute ago, BillB48 said:

On my last trip on the Liberty I took a measured length of cord with a weight so that I could measure the distance to the water.  I came up with a height of a little over 50'.....The Canal permits protrusions up to 13' as long as they are 55' above the water.  Is that overhang around the MDR 55???  I really don't know. 

 

Superb real life info BillB ... thx for chiming in on this 👍

Hope you're doing well 

[twangster]

We can all speculate about Navigator and the Panama Canal.  Royal already knows the answer and we will too in the coming months. 

 

If it's possible they would use the Panama Canal for all the same reasons that other shipping does.   If she doesn't use the Panama Canal it likely means she can't.  

Edited July 14, 2021 by twangster

[Chiliburn]

I still can’t understand why they are swapping the 2 voyager class.

 Voyager is already in the pacific.

 

[Shippy]

On 4/30/2021 at 3:04 PM, Ashland said:

Thanks ... just checked my Jan 17, 2022 cruise. Glad I booked my GS when I did.

Wow has the price jumped !!!

   We are on the cruise after you. Booked last week. Although only 4 night, I thought $800. for a Grand Suite quite reasonable

[woodscruise]

10 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

I still can’t understand why they are swapping the 2 voyager class.

 Voyager is already in the pacific

Could it be because of the capacity of the ships. Voyager capacity at double is 3114 while Navigator is 3376 (based on Wikipedia)

[woodscruise]

12 hours ago, twangster said:

We can all speculate about Navigator and the Panama Canal.  Royal already knows the answer and we will too in the coming months. 

 

If it's possible they would use the Panama Canal for all the same reasons that other shipping does.   If she doesn't use the Panama Canal it likely means she can't.  

According to Marine Traffic it is heading for heading for Limassol in Cyprus. Could it then head for the Suez Canal and transit via the Pacific?

[BillB48]

11 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

I still can’t understand why they are swapping the 2 voyager class.

 Voyager is already in the pacific.

 

 

To regularly call at a California port a ship must be able to connect to shore power while she is in port to comply with California's Air Resource Board emission requirements. The Navigator may have been the most convenient ship to equip with the ability to connect to shore power while in port.

[twangster]

2 hours ago, woodscruise said:

According to Marine Traffic it is heading for heading for Limassol in Cyprus. Could it then head for the Suez Canal and transit via the Pacific?

 

A lot of possibilities.  Will have to watch and see what happens next!  

[BillB48]

Heading through the Suez would make a lot of sense particularly if they were going to pick up a crew along the way.  Something that surprised me, there are only two or three days difference in sailing time to reach California by going through the Straits of Magellan as opposed to going through the Suez.  The South American option is the slightly longer route, but 3 extra days might be cheaper than the tolls at Suez.

[Ourusualbeach]

18 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

I'd be glad to trade my aft balcony on Navigator for any balcony they want to offer me on Ovation.  🙂

I was just thinking the same thing.  I just moved my Christmas sailing to Navigator because of scheduling conflicts with the kids and university.  That would indeed be a great Christmas present

[twangster]

While they aren't in a hurry to reach Cali they did offer some TA's a free trade event cruise from Cali so maybe they'll try to get there a bit early.  They could add some earlier cruises or do trade event cruises, or take the slow road, save fuel and reduce transit costs.  The suspense (if you can call it that) is killing me!  Which way will they go?  🙂 

[Chiliburn]

54 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I was just thinking the same thing.  I just moved my Christmas sailing to Navigator because of scheduling conflicts with the kids and university.  That would indeed be a great Christmas present

I doubt we will see any ships in OZ this season the way things are going.

 

Would Ovation sailing longer cruises out of San Francisco to Mexico be viable?
‘Would there be the market for the two ships Ken?

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, Chiliburn said:

I doubt we will see any ships in OZ this season the way things are going.

 

Would Ovation sailing longer cruises out of San Francisco to Mexico be viable?
‘Would there be the market for the two ships Ken?

I don't think there is a market for 2 ships...yet

[Blizzard54]

2 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I don't think there is a market for 2 ships...yet

I believe there could be a market for 2 ships if they tired.  Since they will probably will not be attempting full capacity for a while, the goal is lower.  The biggest challenge is that there would be a short booking window with many people already booked on other things.  They do need to find somewhere to send both the Ovation and the Serenade and options are limited.  Shutting them down until the next Alaska season would cost plenty.  

[Lorey2007]

I'm just a cruiser can anyone explain why RCCL would swap out Navigator especially after all the hype when they announced its return to LA. How likely is this & when would they do it? Does someone here have some inside information or is this just a rumor? If it does happen I would hope  they would do it before final payment or offer full refund after.

[Tree_skier]

34 minutes ago, Blizzard54 said:

I believe there could be a market for 2 ships if they tired.  Since they will probably will not be attempting full capacity for a while, the goal is lower.  The biggest challenge is that there would be a short booking window with many people already booked on other things.  They do need to find somewhere to send both the Ovation and the Serenade and options are limited.  Shutting them down until the next Alaska season would cost plenty.  

How about Ovation doing NW cruises out of San Francisco. Assuming that Canada was willing to play ball we could do Astoria, Seattle, Vancouver and Victoria.

 

Ovation is a good cool weather ship.

 

 

Edited July 15, 2021 by Tree_skier

[crzndeb]

16 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

How about Ovation doing NW cruises out of San Francisco. Assuming that Canada was willing to play ball we could do Astoria, Seattle, Vancouver and Victoria.

 

Ovation is a good cool weather ship.

 

 

I wouldn’t mind something like that, or a 10/11 day RT out of San Francisco to further down in Mexico. I did a couple of those on Sitmar out of LA. There is so much more than Cabo, Mazatlan and PV.

I sailed a RT Pacific Coastal back in 2017 on the Explorer, and it sure was nice boarding at home.

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, Blizzard54 said:

I believe there could be a market for 2 ships if they tired.  Since they will probably will not be attempting full capacity for a while, the goal is lower.  The biggest challenge is that there would be a short booking window with many people already booked on other things.  They do need to find somewhere to send both the Ovation and the Serenade and options are limited.  Shutting them down until the next Alaska season would cost plenty.  

You are right about the short booking window.  When I was moving my HM cruise to NV I thought about waiting to see what they did with OV but moved it now hoping they just swap.  If they add OV to the mix and the dates work I will switch from NV to OV...thanks to CWC

[twangster]

Maybe they could send her back and forth to Hawaii for a few cycles.  Be nice to do that outside of Royal's normal Hawaii "season".

[Ashland]

19 hours ago, Shippy said:

   We are on the cruise after you. Booked last week. Although only 4 night, I thought $800. for a Grand Suite quite reasonable

I think my GS price was awesome....After adding port fees/taxes and less discounts my total for the two of us was $4040 for my 7 nighter....And it just happens to sail on my birthday. Thanks RCI 

[MikeBayAreaCa]

23 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

I'm personally expecting this...

however I was wrong about RCG sending Serenade over to the West Coast via the PC just for a 6 week Alaska season.... then get deployed where? Maybe Serenade redeployed to do the SoCal/Mexico cruises?

I was able to get the Panoramic Suite with no balcony for two including taxes and pre-paid gratuities for $2,958,00 total got our seven day Navigator cruise in February.  I would hate to lose that great fare.

 

Interestingly when I checked my balance this morning the balance was $4,400.00 instead of $2,458.00. Needless to say I was mildly concerned😀  I had to call to get it straightened out.  

[Tree_skier]

34 minutes ago, twangster said:

Maybe they could send her back and forth to Hawaii for a few cycles.  Be nice to do that outside of Royal's normal Hawaii "season".

I would definitely jump on one of those. 

[MikeBayAreaCa]

1 minute ago, Tree_skier said:

I would definitely jump on one of those. 

If they sailed out of San Francisco we would be overjoyed. 

[Tree_skier]

Just now, MikeBayAreaCa said:

If they sailed out of San Francisco we would be overjoyed. 

I’ll take either. One is a 2 1/2 hour drive. The other is 4 hours. Either way no flight 🙂. 

[MikeBayAreaCa]

2 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

I’ll take either. One is a 2 1/2 hour drive. The other is 4 hours. Either way no flight 🙂. 

I agree.  Further for us going to Southern Ca, but have family there.  We go to SF all the time to our favorite restaurant.