MaritimeR&R

It appears RC corrected the pricing on SBs. I just booked the Jan 25, 2016, 12 night for half of what they were previously charging.

Yes, they called me late morning and said they would be adjusting the prices and thanked me for bringing it to their attention.

I have to wait until later today for them to straighten out my reservations and give me the SB cabins that they pulled from the inventory for me.

Does anyone know the square footage of the solo cabins on Quantum/Anthem? I was wondering how they compared to the solo cabins on NCL which are 100 square feet.

Studio Balcony cabins on both ships are 119 sq ft with 55 sq ft balcony

Studio Interior cabin on Quantum is 101 sq ft. Couldn't pull them up on the Anthem. Assume that if they are available, they are probably the same.

High numbers

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2032957

B][/b]

Spoke with Resolutions Dept. this morning regarding the SB pricing on all Anthem sailings because the SB for one is more expensive than most D1 and D2 cabins. If you try to book 2 in the SB (wanted to see if there would be a price change) the category comes up sold out even though all the cabins are available.

Resolutions checked all the deployment dates and it appears, unlike with the Quantum where those cabins sold out within hours, most are available.

They agreed that the pricing seems off and are contacting Revenue on Monday. In the interim, they are holding the SB cabin for the 3 sailings I had initially wanted (before the sticker shock) out of inventory. They will be calling me back on Monday to let me know if indeed there is an error.

I will post an update once they get back to me.

After checking out the pricing for regular SB's (not the ones that are part of the family configuration) on most of the Anthem sailings, I decided to write Adam Goldstein to ask for an explanation as to why the SB cabins are priced more than a D1 for 2 people on some sailings and $100-200. cheaper on others.

The C&A reps. thought it strange as well and had no explanation.

Why would any solo traveler pay more for a smaller cabin that only gives you one point per night of sailing when you can get a regular balcony for less and get double points?

The logic escapes me. Anyone have any ideas?

Anthem arrives Nov. 4th in Bayonne. Three non-revenue, 2 night cruises follow with the first revenue cruise to be a 12 ni. Southern Caribbean itinerary on Nov. 10th.

Supposedly according to Vicki Freed, we will be "keeping the Anthem of the Seas year-round once she starts in the Fall of 2015." I think the truth of that will depend on whether or not the problems with a Bermuda deployment of a ship that large are resolved by Spring of 2016.

Booked a balcony stateroom for the January B2B eastern and western Caribbean: - 22 days at sea- without having to fly! :D

So, I called this morning with fullest intention of booking a B2B in January or Feb on the Anthem and figured, like with the Quantum, as a solo traveler booking an SB would render the best price. Once she told me the price, I asked her to check on the difference between booking the SB and a D8. We were both surprised.

The SB on the Jan 15th 10 night E.C. sailing was $3,953.92 total without my C&A discount--single points for the sailing.

A D8 for the same sailing was $3,237. without my C&A discount.

The SB on the Jan 25th 12 ni W.C.sailing was $4,922.78 total without my C & A discount--single points for the sailing

A D8 for the same sailing was $4,394. without my C&A discount.

I booked the D8's and saved $1,245 (and will get double points since I am solo).

Total cost of the B2B for 22 nights = $6,981. (including my C&A Diamond Balcony discount)

I don't know if this is the case for every sailing, but if you are looking at an SB, you might want to compare the other balcony prices to it before booking.

Did you establish an online C&A account at Royalcaribbean.com?

 

Log into your account. Now the site knows you are a C&A member so you should be able to 'plan a cruise' using anthem and your month of sailing. But the website keeps going down.

 

If you want to book now I would just call C&A.

According to the rep I just spoke to, the reason bookings can not be made until later is that "dynamic dining" for those cruises has not been loaded into the system, and that it must be there before they can complete the reservation. He also said to his knowledge, there was no tiered booking. You just have to be C&

A.

That's definitely what happened last time with Liberty, but there have also been plenty of occasions where they weren't loaded at all until later in the day but people could call and book. I actually think that's what happened when Anthem's European itineraries opened if memory serves me.

 

Either way, we'll know more once one of our resident TA's checks CruisingPower or someone calls.

I called about 1am this morning and the only thing that the "supervisor" knew was that they had received an email stating that C&A members would be receiving an email this morning.

He also was able to tell me that after once Anthem arrives at Bayonne on Nov.4th, there were to be three non-revenue sailings, each 2 nights: Nov.4, 6, and 8. So, if he is right, the first revenue sailing should be Nov. 10th.

To all those reading this thread: Please note: The purpose of my posting of the 65% drop as initially reported by Reuters was to inform.

I apologize to any and all should you have mistaken the second part of that post. It was my opinion with no underlying negative motivations towards RCI or anyone else.

I hope the above satisfies any and all critics.

And I said you ought not speculate (which is what a guess is, afterall) when your speculation is based outside of facts.

 

I know it is hard when you realize your initial post is made with no basis in fact, but its best to just admit you posted rashly in an effort to attack a company for doing something you didn't like (DD and moving the ships) when, in fact, we won't know the impact those choices had for sometime now.

 

 

Ships base occupancy on "double" occupancy (two people in each room). If every room had two people it would be 100%. Some rooms sail with 3 or more and some sail with 1. Ideally, ships should sail with about 105% occupancy.

 

Interestingly, this is where the triple/quad limit comes into play when people are told their room could hold three, but they are not allowed to put a third person into it at this time. It is because the ship is projected to hit over a certain % occupancy which would put them in violation of maritime laws that have to do with # of lifeboats onboard vs # of passengers.

Now who is speculating. Or do you perceive yourself to be a mind reader.

How could they have possibly impacted Q1 profits? DD wasn't announced until the end of Q1 (which gives it no time to impact Q1 profits) and the "switcheroo" you mention was announced in Q2.

 

Please do not speculate unless you have some facts on your side. Someone will read what you said, read nothing else and believe it even though it is wrong.

IF THEY READ WHAT I SAID, then the word "guess" should have been clearly visible to them. I saw no reason to define the word "guess." Insofar as speculating about a topic, these boards are filled with the thoughts/opinions of others on a topic, everything from which room or drink is best to "should we do this" or "should we do that."

I think (and please note; this is my opinion) you should find another post to critique.

Sorry but doubt any of those things listed had anything to do with the report.

Yes, that is the initial report I read. The main purpose of the post was to report the drop. The other was as I said, "a guess."

Other items of note from the 1st quarter financials:

 

1) Six voyages were shortened or cancelled during the quarter. The net impact from these events is expected to be recovered within the fiscal year. These disruptions adversely affected net revenues for the quarter due to refunds and future cruise credits.

 

2) Operating costs (excluding fuel) were up 1.3% over the comparable period for the prior year. These increases were pretty much across the board....except for food costs. Food expense actually decreased from $119.5 million for the first quarter of 2013 to $118.1 million for the first quarter of 2014.

 

3) Ticket revenue was in line with expectations across most key itineraries and as expected, Caribbean yields were down slightly while yields in other itineraries were up nicely.

 

4) On-board revenue yields increased 3.4% as the company continued to see the benefit of our fleet upgrades and onboard revenue management initiatives.

 

5) The number of passengers carried during the 1st quarter of 2014 was 1,278,234 compared to the 1,261,292 that were carried during the 1st quarter of 2013.

 

6) Average occupancy fell from 104.9% for 1st quarter 2013 to 104.5% for 1st quarter 2014.

Good information: was not published at the time of my post -- only the initial reuters article.

http://www.seatrade-insider.com/news/news-headlines/voyage-disruptions-send-rcls-q1-to-lower-end-of-guidance-but-full-year-outlook-goes-up.html

Read that as well and forgot to include it in my post. However, I tend to think that whereas it is more than likely that the voyage disruptions (they always have some) played a big role in the drop, the other things I listed were likely contributors as well.

What about this ... when I go to

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/quantumoftheseas/meet-the-ship/itineraries/

 

and hover with my mouse over Shanghai I get the message

 

"From its home port in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Anthem of the SeasSM will be sailing to the Caribbean. Detailed itineraries will be announced in 2014."

 

 

 

 

Could it be that the home port will me Ft Lauderdale? Or is this a glitch with the web site?

Announcement for Anthem of the Seas out of Bayonne Fall 2015 is official.

Quantum of the Seas out of Shaghai May 2015 is also official.

That is either a glitch or someone didn't bother to update the page.

Royal Caribbean responded to the announcement of the fall as "expected" and paints a brighter outlook for the remainder of the year given its new deployments.

Reuters report -- guess the switcheroo announcements, dynamic dining and extreme pricing on some of their ships didn't get the reaction Royal Caribbean was expecting.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/24/royalcaribbean-results-idUSL3N0NF4NH20140424

So it's pretty much just a switcheroo of the Quantum class ships.

 

Instead of Q-Class 3 going to China, Quantum is.

 

Anthem homeporting in NJ. (replacing Quantum)

 

Q-Class 3 homeporting in Southhampton (replacing Anthem)

 

Logical reasoning by RCCL. I bet Bermuda not being ready, made the decision easy. They probably wanted to get a Q-class in China quickly anyhow.

If we can count on what Vicki Freed said as true, given the outrageous prices on Liberty for Bermuda, can you imagine what the prices will be on Anthem!

Well that's encouraging! Probably dependent on Bermuda's dredging as many of us have speculated. Hopefully the year round Quantum Class ship actually comes to pass.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

"Encouraging" is definitely the right word, Dave. But I am not getting my hopes up -- too many "wow" changes lately for my appetite.

I keep checking the Crown & Anchor webpage but still nothing there. Do you think that they'll let us know via that web page when the itineraries are actually available to look at? I'd like a couple of hours before sales open up to decide which to do. lol.

No straight answer given about early publication of itineraries, but Anthem likely to remain in Bayonne year round after fall 2015 deployment: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2031365

When a comment regarding the negative effects of the movement of Quantum to China for U.S.-based TAs was made, she responded: "no worries! We will be bringing 3 ships to the NE in 2015 and keeping the Anthem of the Seas year-round once she starts in the Fall of 2015." So perhaps, Bayonne will keep Anthem.

When asked if the Anthem deployments and itineraries would be made available BEFORE the opportunity for C&A members to book her on April 25th, she stated: "We are very excited to reveal the itineraries for Anthem of the Seas. Please continue to visit the latest deployment updates," so no straight answer was given.

The rest of the "chat" didn't reveal anything that wasn't already public knowledge.

We purchased an RCI Open Booking in January 2014 (note that OBCs have been reduced for more recently purchased Open Bookings). This Open Booking has been applied to the 13 night Liberty TA leaving 1 May 2014. We got $150 Open Booking OBC PLUS we were able to get a $115 C&A Savings discount off the list price. Note that we were NOT applying for a Balcony Discount, so possible it could have been Balcony OR C&A Savings - I'm not sure about that, but I do know that we got Open Booking OBC AND C&A Savings. As stated by others Open Booking OBCs have been greatly reduced, but you have a 2 year old grandfathered certificate. C&A Savings are also in a state of flux, so hard to say how any of this would work out going forward.

 

Thom

Used one of my open bookings last week; it was grandfathered so I got my OBC for a JS plus my C&A diamond balcony discount and didn't have to pay any additional deposit. If I had booked a GS or above I would have had to pay an additional deposit.

I don't require RCI to do more than they do. I wash my hands frequently and sanitise everywhere. I take responsibility for my own good health. I carry sanitiser with me 24/7. Ashore. As well as on board. It's a fellow passenger's state of hygiene that needs addressing. It would not inconvenience me in the least if they did away with self service buffet.

Washing your hands is the best defense. The following excerpt came from an article published in the New York Times Jan 14, 2014 issue. They are usually spot on with their info:

Studies show that alcohol-based sanitizers, particularly those with 60 percent ethanol or more, can reduce microbial counts on contaminated hands and reduce the spread of some strains of the flu. But against norovirus, the severe gastrointestinal illness gripping many parts of the country, they may be useless.

Some viruses, like influenza, are coated in lipids, “envelopes” that alcohol can rupture. But non-enveloped viruses, like norovirus, are generally not affected.

Bleach is effective against norovirus, and can be used to decontaminate countertops and surfaces. And for people, the best strategy may be washing hands with plain old soap and water.

In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied 91 long-term care facilities. During the winter of 2006-07, they identified 73 outbreaks, 29 of which were confirmed to be norovirus.

The facilities where staff members used alcohol-based sanitizers, were six times more likely to have an outbreak of norovirus than the facilities where the staff preferred using soap and water.

The C.D.C. says that as a means of preventing norovirus infection, alcohol-based sanitizers can be used “in addition” to hand washing, never as a substitute.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Hand sanitizers can reduce the spread of some viruses, like the flu. But against norovirus they are largely ineffective; better to use soap and water.