Jjohnb

Hi, can you provide updates or photos of the Edge now that she's finished her dry dock. Any reviews of the ship, food and service would be much appreciated as well.

It could be a recent change. It had been showing up for my Nov 2024 Icon sailing as recent as a couple/few weeks ago, its now gone and replaced with Giovani's Night 1 + Your Choice (of 1 other). It's listed for ~the same price from what I remember but its really a slight reduction in value, Chops is more expensive than Giovani's. It just makes you laugh now at how creative Royal is getting to increase revenue, cut costs and maximize margins, its their version of Where's Waldo, its a game each day finding what changes they've made.

Perhaps selling the remaining Vision and Radiance class ships to Marella would be a good option? Marella is owned by TUI which is a joint venture owned 50% by Royal. Marella Discovery is the old Splendour ots and Marella Discovery 2 is the old Legend ots. I've watched a couple recent ship tours of the Marella Discovery on Youtube and it appears that Marella has made significant upgrades to it and it's in amazing condition. We've been on the Enchantment and Vision recently and while they are in good shape and feel like home, the Marella Discover puts them to shame. Vision and Radiance class ships would be primary ships for Marella and would receive the required capex where with Royal they are the past and are only receiving the minimum needed to keep them in service until they depart the fleet. Marella Discovery ship tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK0CiyzsaUQ&list=PL0iK2JX-uLJPgoz9BOBPjXVeu9fls36QM&index=11

Royal sailed the Empress out of Philly for years. I'd love to see a ship come back to Philly but it won't happen, the bridge clearances are lower than Baltimore, it took the ships much longer to get out to open water and they didn't tend to fill up as well as sailings out of Baltimore. With Bayonne only an 1 1/2 hours up the NJ turnpike and Baltimore an 1 1/2 hours down I-95, unfortunately, there really isn't a need for a terminal in Philly even if the other logistical issues didn't exist. I do hope that Baltimore holds on as long as possible. Royal did confirm that a Radiance class ship would fit into Baltimore even though they have yet to home port one there.

You are correct, the price of the Alaska cruise I booked now costs over 150% of what I booked it for. I understand inflation but have we seen inflation of 150%? And since they have raised prices so drastically, why do they also need to cut costs and offer a significantly diminished product from what was originally promised? Could the answer be that, at the moment, demand is up and they are greedy? If it's the later, I would like Jason Liberty to tell me when he'll begin paying dividends again to shareholders?

Following are just the changes that I'm aware of but there could be more: There is no longer a tray with apples and pears on embarkation They no longer provide herbal tea every day in cabin They no longer provide a daily tray of canapes They no longer provide a welcome bottle of champagne They no longer provide the individual bottles of upgraded shampoo, shower gel etc They replaced the tote bag with a smaller one They no longer provide a sea pass card holder They apparently eliminated the pillow menu They do not have the yoga mats and in-room fitness items available While some of these items may seem trivial, in the aggregate it's quite a lot to take away after you accepted a non-refundable deposit based on your toting that these things would be available.

I see it as being taken advantage of and not valuing me as a loyal customer (of RCG). I booked an Aqua class cabin with Celebrity based upon the current offerings at the time, they gladly took my non-refundable deposit but have no qualms with eliminating a majority of the Aqua class perks, downgrading the quality of the food and so many other changes. While it may be within their legal rights to do so per the cruise contract, it is not how you treat your loyal customers. Change is a reality and we need to embrace it but so many significant changes is a clear choice between profits and respecting your loyal customers. Laura Hodges Bethge can try to sugar coat things but the reality is the changes have been made and as of now, very few have been rolled back. She was incharge of Royal's shared services center, she is a bean counter (like Jason Liberty) that specializes in cutting cost and that is what she's been doing at light speed.

I'm not sure how they made their selections. I actually received two requests for questions. The odd thing is that I'm Elite merly by the fact that I'm Diamond Plus on Royal. I've only just booked my first Celebrity cruise (Alaska) as all of the cost cutting at Royal has final crossed the line and now it looks like all of the great things I've heard about Celebrity are being eliminated as well (thank you Jason Liberty). My Alaska sailing hasn't happened yet and due to all of the changes that Celebrity is making, I've moved on and booked one Oceania cruise and another Regent cruise. Royal Caribbean Group (RCG) has made it clear that they, after almost 40 years sailing with them, no longer value my business as they believe there are many other people who will fill the vacancy after I leave. That may be true right now but I've been through enough economic cycles to know that after the Covid pent up demand waines and the economy cools, RCG will see a decline in demand and once again will come looking for their repeat cruisers, unfortunately, I may need to tell them that due to the changes I've made, I've needed to cut them.

Thanks, I don't think we would be happy with that swap, it's probably best to stick with the other specialty dining options.

The Edge will be sailing in Alaska in 2024. The Magic Carpet is available for booking for dinner. I'm surprised as I would think it would be too cold, are there any type of heaters on Magic Carpet? While the view would be breathtaking, thoughts on how comfortable it would be dining outside in the evening?

Has anyone seen any Power Up events lately?

I was just on 7 and 9 night cruises in the last two months, everyone was complaining about the quality of the food (the prime rib was so full of grizzle you couldn't even chew it), we ran out of toilet paper, soap and tissues in our cabin (I've never not had spares in the cabin in the past), our cabin steward said he only had one roll of tp on his cart and I could go on and on. Unfortunately, many people were talking about the cuts instead of enjoining their cruises. I'm glad the quality of the Kool Aid hasn't diminished for you.

We really don't and probably will never know the impetus of the survey. I do know that Royal has a consulting firm engaged looking for ways to cut costs. There have been a lot of changes lately with various excuses but the reality and end result is a lesser quality/quantity of food and services and a diminished guest experience. Jason Liberty said it in the last (record breaking) earnings call, they are providing too good of a product for what people are paying and intend to change that (I paraphrased a little but that was the message loud and clear).

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I agree with you, Jason Liberty is hell bent on destroying the incredible cruise line that Richard Fain spent 50 years building! We just got off a 9 night sailing last week and all of the cost cutting was painfully obvious. This is the first in almost 40 Royal cruises where I consistently left the dining room hungry. The portions were ridiculously small and the quality of the food was terrible. And before all those who have drunk the Kool Aid start asking why I didn't order multiple entrees, our poor waiter had so many tables to cover, literally he had about 30 entrees balanced on the serving cart and was running constantly to try to serve them all. Related to Sorrentos Pizza, which was Royal's answer for late night snacks when they eliminated the mid-night buffet, it's ironic that they're thinking of charging for it considering they've cut costs there as well! The pizza is now almost all crust, there is only a very small amount of sauce and cheese in the center, the outer 2-3 inches of crust has nothing. At first I thought it was the person who made it but I tried about 3 pieces over the course of 9 nights and went a few other times and just passed because all the pizza looked just as bad and just wasn't worth the calories! Royal, I believe is also slow rolling the making of pizza to discourage people from eating it. Every time we went, no matter what time of day or night, there was always a long line. Not because the pizza was so amazing, but because there was never more than 1 or 2 pies prepared at any given time and then it took them 5-10 minutes to throw a smidgen of sauce and cheese on a frozen pre-made crust and heat it! I believe this was intentional as many people saw the line and after a couple days knew how slow they were and how bad the pizza was and just left. So once again Royal has lowered the quality and is serving a lesser product and actually wants to start charging or charge more! I guess this is what you get when you put a bean counter incharge of the company. Jason Liberty was a senior manager at KPMG, for those that have never worked in public accounting, that equates to about 10 years experience out of college. Royal then hired him to be CFO. He didn't even have his MBA when they hired him, he got it while working as CFO. When Richard Fain retired after Covid, Liberty was promoted to CEO. He is a bean counter destroying a great company. Carnival was once the giant of the cruise industry, Royal has now surpassed them in many ways, why? because Carnival got greedy, they stopped developing new innovative ship designs (they were developing their own Oasis Class long before Royal and cancelled it due to cost), they stopped maintaining their ships, they were/are rust buckets constantly having mechanical issues, they were cutting costs everywhere, the quality of their food declined significantly... sound familiar? The mistakes that Carnival made that allowed Royal to pass them by, arguably for good reason with innovative ship designs and great advertising, Royal (Jason Liberty) is now following in Carnival's footsteps and making the same mistakes. As someone who has been a huge Royal fan for 40 years, it's said to see, it's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. It may not happen instantly but the pent up Covid demand and dollars will dry up and people will be more selective where they spend their vacation dollars. Given the current level of quality, service and pricing, will it be with Royal?