Vision of the Seas sailing from Bermuda starting June 2021

[Ocean Boy]

11 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

I love visiting Bermuda, been many times, was there twice in 2019, and considered flying in this year but I decided months ago that it was too complicated. 
 

For a while they got their cases under control but unfortunately it has gotten bad there. Lot of hospitalizations.Deaths every day. They had a good start vaccinating but there is a significant faction of anti vaccination resistance based on kook theories. 
 

My thought exactly.

[billslowsky]

10 hours ago, dsvd79 said:

$99 roundtrip from EWR to Bermuda on United.  This is the August 28 sailing.  I am very tempted.

I don't know what you saw but I don't see anything close to that price either on the UA site or googleflights.  And United would charge $70 per checked bag.

[Sunshine3601]

16 minutes ago, billslowsky said:

I don't know what you saw but I don't see anything close to that price either on the UA site or googleflights.  And United would charge $70 per checked bag.

Royals air2sea has arranged special pricing with various airlines for flights to the islands they will call homeport.  Go to their choiceair.com website and select the quick price tab.  

A couple weeks ago I booked united flight to barbados for next february cruise on grandeur.  Our flight is $350 cheaper pp than if I booked direct with united.

You get refundable rate, no penalties and you dont have to pay till final payment on cruise is due.    The price you will see includes taxes too.   If cruise gets cancelled you get full refund.  And luggage fee is only $25 vs $70.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Sunshine3601

[Charles4515]

This article in the local Bermuda press seems to confirm my speculation that bookings have not been good. 

 

https://www.royalgazette.com/tourism/news/article/20210422/cruise-company-subsiding-flights-to-boost-passengers-on-bermuda-cruise-report/

[Jimbo]

12 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

This article in the local Bermuda press seems to confirm my speculation that bookings have not been good. 

 

https://www.royalgazette.com/tourism/news/article/20210422/cruise-company-subsiding-flights-to-boost-passengers-on-bermuda-cruise-report/

More expense for Royal Caribbean.

 

Hope Royal Caribbean is prepared for these cruises, we all know American customers are much more bitchy then the current sailing customers in the other countries.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Jimbo

[DCGuy64]

Wow, some people are just naturally pessimistic, I guess.

The cruise lines can't sail from the US = bad news.

The cruise lines decide to start cruising from outside the US = "that'll cost too much," i.e. bad news.

The cruise lines subsidize the cost of the airfare so it doesn't cost too much = demand must be down, i.e. more bad news.

You can't win with some people. They'd gripe about a drought that's killing their plants and then gripe when it rains because they can't mow the lawn. 🤷‍♂️🙄

 

[Charles4515]

21 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

Wow, some people are just naturally pessimistic, I guess.

The cruise lines can't sail from the US = bad news.

The cruise lines decide to start cruising from outside the US = "that'll cost too much," i.e. bad news.

The cruise lines subsidize the cost of the airfare so it doesn't cost too much = demand must be down, i.e. more bad news.

You can't win with some people. They'd gripe about a drought that's killing their plants and then gripe when it rains because they can't mow the lawn. 🤷‍♂️🙄

 

 

It sure does look like bad news when the airfare to a destination which is traditionaly very high is $99. Many chose US to Bermuda cruises over flying in the past partially because the airfare to Bermuda was high. The Bermuda to Coco Cay itinerary is not very good in my opinion and that would affect bookings. I think the Viking cruise out of Bermuda will sell much better.  The Viking itinerary is a lot better. I think the other outside the US Royal itineraries will probably sell better.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Charles4515

[DCGuy64]

I'm of the opinion that anything the cruise lines can do now to get people back to sailing is a good thing. If it takes subsidizing the airfare, so be it. I think it's a great idea, I could tell from reading some of the posts that people were hesitant to fly to Bermuda due to the cost. If you want to be a pessimist, go right ahead, I won't try to stop you. Anyway, time will tell!

Edited April 23, 2021 by DCGuy64

[twangster]

The only thing holding me back really is Bermuda announcing it has a process for cruise ships guests.  

 

I'm tempted to book knowing CWC is available but not sure how that works with A2S if cancelling a week before sail date.  "Refundable with fees" - what does that mean?

[dswallow]

31 minutes ago, twangster said:

The only thing holding me back really is Bermuda announcing it has a process for cruise ships guests.  

 

I'm tempted to book knowing CWC is available but not sure how that works with A2S if cancelling a week before sail date.  "Refundable with fees" - what does that mean?

 

If you choose to cancel, the fees will be whatever's been shown there, which usually is the $15/$20 Air2Sea fee plus up to $200 in cancellation fees, which if applicable would've been disclosed with the booking.. pretty sure you just hover your mouse over that or maybe have to click on some little "i" next to it and you'll see the amount while browsing. If Royal cancels, they refund everything. The grey area is probably if you fly there and then get a positive test, Royal gives you refunds on the cruise, etc., but what about the flight part and things like that? 🙂

[Sunshine3601]

I have a b2b booked on Freedom out of cape liberty to Bermuda (5 nights each leg).    I highly doubt Freedom will be sailing out of NJ this August so I called just to see why they said.    I asked if I could take the funds I had paid for leg1 of the b2b and use them on Vision sailing for same week.    Very nice rep put me on hold for a bit came back and told me Yes, definitely could do that and I would get a $95 refund to my credit card as it was cheaper to book this 7 night sailing then the 5 night sailing I had booked.       So I booked it!    

I may just do the same with the 2nd leg of our trip and turn it into a b2b on Vision as I love sea days, love bermuda and will enjoy a day of playing at coco cay got and we got wonderful aft balcony cabin.       

Figure my money was just sitting there waiting for Royal to cancel my August so I why not apply it to something that is more likely going to happen.    

A lot can happen from now till August, hopefully for the better!

[Jimbo]

15 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I have a b2b booked on Freedom out of cape liberty to Bermuda (5 nights each leg).    I highly doubt Freedom will be sailing out of NJ this August so I called just to see why they said.    I asked if I could take the funds I had paid for leg1 of the b2b and use them on Vision sailing for same week.    Very nice rep put me on hold for a bit came back and told me Yes, definitely could do that and I would get a $95 refund to my credit card as it was cheaper to book this 7 night sailing then the 5 night sailing I had booked.       So I booked it!    

I may just do the same with the 2nd leg of our trip and turn it into a b2b on Vision as I love sea days, love bermuda and will enjoy a day of playing at coco cay got and we got wonderful aft balcony cabin.       

Figure my money was just sitting there waiting for Royal to cancel my August so I why not apply it to something that is more likely going to happen.    

A lot can happen from now till August, hopefully for the better!

Should have did both weeks while you had that rep on the phone, might not be so easy next time you call.

[Sunshine3601]

2 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Should have did both weeks while you had that rep on the phone, might not be so easy next time you call.

I had that same thought after I hung.  I was on the fence about doing it and I wanted to ask hubby.

He says yes, we are going thru all the hoops to get there so why not do b2b.  I'll guess I will call back tomorrow.  

[Vera/Lee]

I booked the first sailing out of Bermuda and got an email today to bid on "Royal Up". I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to bid on a Grand Suite. We are D+ and have a JS booked. What additional benefits would we get? The balcony would definitely be nicer, but I'm concerned that they are under the Windjammer. Any advice?

 

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, Vera/Lee said:

What additional benefits would we get?

 

Any advice?

Very few.

 

Only you can determine what a GS is worth and see if that is within the Royal Up range.

[Coralc]

On 4/22/2021 at 7:19 PM, dsvd79 said:

$99 roundtrip from EWR to Bermuda on United.  This is the August 28 sailing.  I am very tempted.

Gosh. I wish it was that cheap to fly from CA. But it would be a really long flight. We would love to visit Bermuda one day. But I think we will wait to do it as a long port stop. 

Edited April 28, 2021 by Coralc

[Vera/Lee]

On 3/24/2021 at 9:04 PM, death_star said:

This makes sense. It's a very short trip from home base in Miami and they'll have the regular rotation of the idle ships anchored off shore to ferry supplies. Will be interesting to see where they bunker fuel. Freeport stop maybe?

Day 3 is a technical stop in Freeport.

[Ocean Boy]

On 4/28/2021 at 12:14 AM, Coralc said:

Gosh. I wish it was that cheap to fly from CA. But it would be a really long flight. We would love to visit Bermuda one day. But I think we will wait to do it as a long port stop. 

Bermuda is well worth it. We were docked for 3.5 days. Loved it.

[Sunshine3601]

Did anyone booked with air2sea get notified of flight change with american airlines?

We booked for 11am flight out of phl now aa changed it to 850 am.  No biggy other than I have to wake up earlier and no train that early in the morning on weekends.

[Vera/Lee]

20 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Did anyone booked with air2sea get notified of flight change with american airlines?

We booked for 11am flight out of phl now aa changed it to 850 am.  No biggy other than I have to wake up earlier and no train that early in the morning on weekends.

I'm booked with air2sea for the 11am flight out of CLT for the first sailing. I have not been notified of a change. 

[twangster]

Anyone notice all suites are unavailable for all dates?  They all went at once, for all dates, at some point last week.  

 

All available cabins have jumped 40% higher too it seems.

[Sunshine3601]

2 hours ago, Vera/Lee said:

I'm booked with air2sea for the 11am flight out of CLT for the first sailing. I have not been notified of a change. 

Looks like it is just flights out of phl that AA changed.  

[Sunshine3601]

17 minutes ago, twangster said:

Anyone notice all suites are unavailable for all dates?  They all went at once, for all dates, at some point last week.  

 

All available cabins have jumped 40% higher too it seems.

 

18 minutes ago, twangster said:

Anyone notice all suites are unavailable for all dates?  They all went at once, for all dates, at some point last week.  

 

All available cabins have jumped 40% higher too it seems.

We booked a b2b for beginning of august and I saw the big price jump last week.   Yes, very strange all suites show as sold out for all sailings.   Maybe there will be specials for royal up....wouldnt that be nice😉

[Vera/Lee]

8 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

 

We booked a b2b for beginning of august and I saw the big price jump last week.   Yes, very strange all suites show as sold out for all sailings.   Maybe there will be specials for royal up....wouldnt that be nice😉

I wonder why all of the suites were marked as sold out, overnight. Could it be because they can not open the Concierge Lounge? The royal up offer I got before that, started the bidding at $150 per person for a GS from a JS. I thought about bidding, but didn't want to risk getting a cabin under the Windjammer.

[Vera/Lee]

23 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Looks like it is just flights out of phl that AA changed.  

I'm glad they're bringing the flights in at different times. It will be easier for everyone. -I would love to get on the ship earlier!- I wish we were on the same sailing. Maybe one day.