twangster

Agricultural zones don't tell the whole story nor do they account for unusual weather events that can cause temperatures to occur outside of the ranges defined by the USDA. The zones are a guideline, not an absolute indicator of what might occur. Oasis class was originally deployed only to South Florida where expected temperatures allowed the plants of CP to exist without significant risk from cold weather. More recently Oasis class have been deployed outside of South Florida. New Jersey in October can also get unusually cold overnight for a few days here and there. The start and end of the Oasis class summers in Bayonne have some colder weather possible overnight at times. However the ship doesn't stay in Bayonne for days at a time so temperature swings on land don't tell the whole story. Central Florida has 3 USDA agricultural zones and they tend to account for more moderate temperatures along the coast while a few miles inland it's a different zone. That still doesn't mean that there won't be some weather extremes that results in temperature overnight outside of the zone range. Many folks will cover their sensitive outdoor plants for these colder weather events. Ships tend to arrive into PCN around 4am which is around the daily low temperature point but having been off the coast there is enough stored energy within CP that the plants have not been sitting outside exposed to the nightly temperature swings like a plant would be on land. Soon after 4am once the sun rises temperatures go up. As a result CP isn't exposed to the same temperature cycle that plants on land are. If the ship stayed in port for a few days during a Florida cold weather event the effect would be different. I don't know enough Galveston weather patterns to comment, I'll leave that to folks who live in or near Galveston.

Royal doesn't list on board perks on the website so they can change them at any time. CAS on board offers will be in a letter in your cabin upon boarding.

Royal spends all their money on cruise ships. Royal spends very little on IT infrastructure. Royal's top executive is a bean counter. Bean counters rarely see IT as an investment. Most bean counters see IT as a money pit. Just like Southwest Airlines. It's a small miracle that Royal has not yet encountered a complete platform meltdown like Southwest just did. That day will come.

A friend on Odyssey at the moment shared some Starlink info. Currently Odyssey is still using O3b and uses the 4 x 2 per user cap. He shared pictures of the Starlink antennas from North Star. I'm not going to post them because they are his pics, not mine. Four Starlink antennas above the spa/gym forward, eight antennas above the iFly chamber aft. He also shared that the IT manager said that user migration is occurring tonight. The IT manager moved his service to Starlink on the spot and while it was subject to the 4 x 2 per user cap for this cruise it did have lower latency (118 ms). The IT manager also said that per users caps are being removed for the next cruise on Sunday.

Varies week to week. Full suites can make reservation in advance so the CK manager starts to get an idea how busy the next cruise is going to be. If there are signs that CK is in high demand that cruise they may be more restrictive not allowing JS to book the whole cruise on day one. On the other hand if it looks like a lighter week for CK then the CK manager might be more accommodating. On Odyssey I have been told they are full every night only to drop by and find the place nearly empty and they allowed me in on the spot. One CK manager just starts to get a handle on managing the venue then they go on vacation and a new CK manager takes over and they aren't as comfortable yet so they aren't as flexible. If your cruises lands when the new person just started you may have a different experience compared to someone who sailed three weeks before you.

In other Starlink news Carnival has announced that it will be adopting Starlink for all it's ships in all fleets including Princess. Princess just converted the whole fleet to O3b before the shut down. Now that all Carnival PLC brands are converting to Starlink it raises the possibility that cruise lines will have to be aware how other cruise lines are selling and marketing Starlink. Competition is a good thing and this may force Royal to keep it real.

Ovation is currently sailing in Australia and has not been upgraded. It has been suggested or reported that crew stated it would get upgraded only when it came North to Alaska. Starlink only recently began offering Starlink to residents of Alaska. There are some extra things they had to do to provide coverage so far North. This involves relaying signals between satellites to get far enough South where signals can be sent down to earth at a gateway location. This is the same way that Starlink will eventually provide coverage far away from land in the middle of oceans which isn't possible today. We don't know yet if their solution for Alaskan residents will be used for cruise ships in Alaska or if they'll force ships to wait until they have solved this issue all over the world. That is coming "soon" and maybe before the 2023 Alaska cruise season kicks off. No one knows but SpaceX. If they allow cruise ships to leverage the existing Alaska satellite-to-satellite solution that might overload the network and make Starlink performance terrible for residents of Alaska. That wouldn't be a great way to roll out the technology in its first year of service for residents of Alaska so they might wait. We don't know and they aren't saying.

My much older 26" soft sided spinner and my newer 26" hard shell spinner fits through the carry on x-ray machine.

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Dining/Redesigned Main Dining Menus Redesigned Main Dining Menus.pdf

Allure should have a 2025 dry dock because that would be the normal 5 year scheduled visit to a shipyard for required maritime maintenance. The normal 5 year pattern of shipyard visits is required or they could lose their ability to operate the vessel so it's generally something you can set you watch to.

It's never a good look when an employee or their family is trying to exploit an obvious error.

A couple of weeks ago a guest on Anthem was posting some of the highest results ever documented on that ship. Starlink has not completed building their solution yet. Far from it. Over the next 12 months there will likely be highly variable results. While most service providers in the communication field only make their services available when they have a finished product in that region, that's not how Elon Musk does things. He is "building the airplane as it flies". Give it another 12 - 18 months and Starlink should be a pretty great solution. Until then results will not be consistent all the time.

The higher the CAS # = the more cash we've given to Royal which equates to less cash on hand.

For some the remove and reapply the CAS # works even when it glitches and doesn't complete the save and you save again. A couple weeks ago my cruise points posted for a cruise but they only appeared in the past cruises, my points displayed didn't go up. They asked me to remove and reapply my CAS # which didn't work so they did something else that fixed it.

Old now as they haven't updated it with Wonder or Odyssey but there is this guide https://secure.viewer.zmags.com/publication/8d5cc72f#/8d5cc72f/1

Newer ships too. I've only sailed on four of the Quantum class but had cabin wifi issues on all of them. Leaving the door open a crack worked wonders. All steel construction makes for bad wifi. Steel, walls, steel ceiling, steel floor, steel door. Edge class on X and Wonder have access points in the cabins. That is the only way to improve reception in cabins.

Suit yourself, to each their own. I use a TA because it doesn't cost me anything and they have access to a booking engine that can find things that are much harder to find on the Royal website. A good TA can also access group rates (without using those group rates in a shady manner). The trick is finding a good TA. For some people "good" equates to best perks or most OBC. To me a good TA provides great service. Like many things in life once you establish a relationship with a good TA there are added benefits for a long term relationship.

Are there any fees not originating from Royal? If they charge a penny for anything like a booking fee or cancelation fee beyond what the cruise line charges run away fast. For me the value of a TA isn't the OBC or perks but how long they have been doing Royal and how well they know how to work the system. Be careful shopping for the most OBC or perks. Thar's danger in them thar hills. There is a finite amount of commission they get. Those agencies who carve into commission to give perks don't have anything or much left to justify hours on the phone when the proverbial stuff hits the fan. When I've gotten "good deals" like big discounts or big OBC I've eventually always been let down by those types of agencies when things didn't go right. Some just flat out refuse to call Royal or they make up policy so you don't get price drops because that reduces their commission and they would be underwater on the booking since they gave big perks from that commission, so they refuse to do price drops. Some don't even want to do cabin changes because that is time and there is no money in the booking to cover more time spent on it. I had one agency offer me a rate less than the website. It turns out they were manipulating group bookings, charging me something between group rates and website rates so I appeared to get a discount. My credit card was charged by Royal and also by that agency for a few hundred. When the crane fell on Oasis my FCC wasn't as big as it should have been since Royal only saw the lower group rate figure as my cruise fare, not what I paid before taxes and ports fees including the charges paid directly to the travel agency. Seemed like a good deal at the time. Cost me FCC when they cancelled the cruise. Low bid rarely nets the best experience. Shopping for the most perks is like contracting the lowest bid. It can work out fine but when it doesn't it's a Royal PITA.

On a typical Oasis class cruise just over 50% of the guest count have never sailed with Royal. That's 3,000 guests who have never seen it. Those are guests that are lining up at the Bionic Bar. In December on Oasis it was busy most nights. I'm in agreement it's a gimmick and after trying it once years ago I haven't been back. It's not there for me. It's there as a gimmick to splash in videos about all the cool things on Royal Caribbean that the competition doesn't have. It's a marketing tool. In that role it is successful.

Prior to the shutdown is was routine on Quantum class for the main theater to be first come while the Two70° show required reservations given it's a smaller venue. When Odyssey started doing the same last year it was simply emulating what had occured for years on Quantum class in general.

Don't forget about the two 50% beer/wine coupon one time coupons on each CAS seapass card. By themselves the two 50% off one time coupons aren't huge but when combined with four free CAS drinks it might make the math of the DX that much less appealing.

No. It was supposed to be added in the amplification that was cancelled at the beginning of the shutdown. As a result no Bionic Bar at this point.

You have to call.

Star Class cabins are some of the only cabins where you can't separate the mattress into two single. It's hard to find detailed and specific Star Class information since the vast majority of cruisers never sail in Star Class so threads involving Star Class can deviate slightly. If if doesn't please you ignore it.

Odyssey Entertainment Guide OY Entertainment Guide 2021.pdf