Deployment schedule: let the guessing begin!

[PCWalton1]

From the Royal Caribbean Australian Facebook page approx. 1 hour ago.

 

 

Pause the countdown - unfortunately, we will be delaying the release of our 2015-16 Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific cruise season due to technical issues. We'd like to ensure everything is in working order before going on sale, so please bear with us! Stay tuned for the official announcement in approximately 1 week

 

 

 

 

LOL, technical difficulties or technical incompetence? "All right, who kicked out the plug?" :p

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Well, unless the Radiance repo from HNL to VCR in April/May 2016 is a knock out and within my cruising window time frame for work it looks like we will be trying Celebrity in 2016. I really want to book while onboard the Jewel May 3 - May 17.

[PCWalton1]

Well, unless the Radiance repo from HNL to VCR in April/May 2016 is a knock out and within my cruising window time frame for work it looks like we will be trying Celebrity in 2016. I really want to book while onboard the Jewel May 3 - May 17.

 

At the rate they are going, the Radiance cruise may not be out till you return. I am thinking I may book Millennium this week as there are some great aft balconies still left and I would hate to miss out on them.

Then if the Radiance cruise knocks my socks off I can just book that through Royal (I have a Jewel Alaska cruise I want to move :)) and just cancel the Millennium cruise and get my money back.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

At the rate they are going, the Radiance cruise may not be out till you return. I am thinking I may book Millennium this week as there are some great aft balconies still left and I would hate to miss out on them.

Then if the Radiance cruise knocks my socks off I can just book that through Royal (I have a Jewel Alaska cruise I want to move :)) and just cancel the Millennium cruise and get my money back.

 

That's my thought process, too. There are still some balconies I would like on the Solstice. I wish that cruise were a bit longer, but I think I will be able to swing a few extra days in Oahu before the cruise making up for that. There is an overnight in Maui which I like. We will miss out on Kauai, but we were able to be there for an overnight on the POA a couple of years ago. I know everyone raves about that island and it was pretty, but we loved the North Shore of Oahu more. So, back to Turtle Bay pre-cruise for us!:D I am bringing with us on the Jewel a list of preferred cabins. Having never sailed the S Class ships I am having to do a bit or research before we leave.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

At the rate they are going, the Radiance cruise may not be out till you return. I am thinking I may book Millennium this week as there are some great aft balconies still left and I would hate to miss out on them.

Then if the Radiance cruise knocks my socks off I can just book that through Royal (I have a Jewel Alaska cruise I want to move :)) and just cancel the Millennium cruise and get my money back.

 

I was just looking at the Mille itinerary and the main difference is an overnight in Honolulu. Since we would spend 3-5 nights pre-cruise on the North Shore anyway that would not be a deal breaker for me. I am anxious to sail on an S Class ship, so the Solstice is looking sweeter to me.:) I have researched the cabins and am ready to get with the LA once they are open after we board on Saturday!

[PCWalton1]

I was just looking at the Mille itinerary and the main difference is an overnight in Honolulu. Since we would spend 3-5 nights pre-cruise on the North Shore anyway that would not be a deal breaker for me. I am anxious to sail on an S Class ship, so the Solstice is looking sweeter to me.:) I have researched the cabins and am ready to get with the LA once they are open after we board on Saturday!

 

I checked cabins and for what we want the difference is $300 less for Solstice and I really can't get a hotel and meals for that amount. But I just realized the Solstice cruise is over Marie's birthday and she has not had the chance to enjoy a birthday cruise yet. :)

I do like your idea of seeing a Solstice ship and spending a couple days in Honolulu. hmmm

[joandian]

If you're still on, who is the current cruise director?

 

Yes, we are on for the TA. Cruise director is Alan and he just came on board from one of the ships in Australia.

 

Jo

[joandian]

From the Royal Caribbean Australian Facebook page approx. 1 hour ago.

 

 

Pause the countdown - unfortunately, we will be delaying the release of our 2015-16 Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific cruise season due to technical issues. We'd like to ensure everything is in working order before going on sale, so please bear with us! Stay tuned for the official announcement in approximately 1 week

 

 

 

 

They obviously don't know that onboard Serenade. We just received a flyer with the itineraries opening tomorrow and Explorer is listed. Oh well, I'll see what the LA says tomorrow.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I checked cabins and for what we want the difference is $300 less for Solstice and I really can't get a hotel and meals for that amount. But I just realized the Solstice cruise is over Marie's birthday and she has not had the chance to enjoy a birthday cruise yet. :)

I do like your idea of seeing a Solstice ship and spending a couple days in Honolulu. hmmm

 

Yes. I can't imagine a better birthday gift.[emoji39]

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[springaussie]

They obviously don't know that onboard Serenade. We just received a flyer with the itineraries opening tomorrow and Explorer is listed. Oh well, I'll see what the LA says tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the report.

[springaussie]

Hawaii sailings appear in ship calendar view and destination calendar view for Radiance of the Seas in September 2015 and April 2016 on Royal Caribbean Australian website.

No cruises listed just the pretty purple colour.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Hawaii sailings appear in ship calendar view and destination calendar view for Radiance of the Seas in September 2015 and April 2016 on Royal Caribbean Australian website.

No cruises listed just the pretty purple colour.

 

Yes. Hawaii is showing up now on the cruise calendar, too. As you said, no cruises listed but they do show Rhapsody starting at $4,119 :eek: and Radiance at $1,074 departing from Honolulu. Maybe they will be listed by the time I board the Jewel this Saturday!:D

[Hoopster95]

Yes. Hawaii is showing up now on the cruise calendar, too. As you said, no cruises listed but they do show Rhapsody starting at $4,119 :eek: and Radiance at $1,074 departing from Honolulu. Maybe they will be listed by the time I board the Jewel this Saturday!:D

 

Look closely... When you click the purple area, the next screen should show you with a bar the days the cruise takes place... do this with another cruise for example. These Hawaii Radiance/Rhapsody listings are the 4 that are currently available for 2014-May 15

[Hoopster95]

Look closely... When you click the purple area, the next screen should show you with a bar the days the cruise takes place... do this with another cruise for example. These Hawaii Radiance/Rhapsody listings are the 4 that are currently available for 2014-May 15

 

It's up now everyone.... as expected and posted a couple of days ago, 10 day itinerary exactly the same as this year's Sept 2014 run.

 

 

 

 

 

Sailing Itinerary

 

 

 

 

Day Port *** Arrive Depart Activity

 

11-Sep Vancouver, British Columbia 5:00 PM

 

12-Sep Cruising

 

13-Sep Cruising

 

14-Sep Cruising

 

15-Sep Cruising

 

16-Sep Cruising

 

17-Sep Hilo, Hawaii 6:00 AM 6:00 PM Docked

 

18-Sep Kailua Kona, Hawaii 8:00 AM 6:00 PM Tendered

 

19-Sep Lahaina (Maui), Hawaii 8:00 AM 6:00 PM Tendered

 

20-Sep Nawiliwili (Kauai), Hawaii 8:00 AM 6:00 PM Docked

 

21-Sep Honolulu (Oahu), Hawaii 6:00 AM

 

*** All itineraries are subject to change without notice. Please confirm your itinerary on the Review page before purchasing your cruise.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Yes. It's up and available, although not the pricing. Unfortunately, the Radiance cruise is one week too early for me if we are going to try to spend any land time in Hawaii pre-cruise, which is really important to us. I like the extra day in Kauai, but the April 20 date will not work for my employer. So, it looks like we will get to try the Solstice after all.

Edited April 29, 2014 by Sunny AZ Girl

[DonnaK]

Yes, we are on for the TA. Cruise director is Alan and he just came on board from one of the ships in Australia.

 

Jo

 

Alan? He is not one of our regular CDs....

 

I have a friend onboard Serenade for the TA and he emailed me that the cruise director is Bobby Brown.

 

Could Alan be the activities manager?

[Bobal]

Alan? He is not one of our regular CDs....

 

I have a friend onboard Serenade for the TA and he emailed me that the cruise director is Bobby Brown.

 

Could Alan be the activities manager?

 

Donna, funnily enough I just googled this as I will be on the next cruise on Serenade - apparently his name is Alan 'Bobby' Brown :)

[jst4fun715]

Hawaii sailings appear in ship calendar view and destination calendar view for Radiance of the Seas in September 2015 and April 2016 on Royal Caribbean Australian website.

No cruises listed just the pretty purple colour.

 

Is it showing the cruise from Honolulu to Sydney on the Radiance in Sep 2015? Not seeing it on CruisingPower here. Can see the Vancouver to Honolulu and the first three cruises out of Sydney, but nothing else. Getting frustrated with this. If they know all of that information, why wouldn't they put up the other "leg" of the trip? :(

[volunteer cruiser]

Radiance Hawaii April 20, 2016 available for booking now, just reserved a cabin

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Radiance Hawaii April 20, 2016 available for booking now, just reserved a cabin

 

As I stated above, the April 20 date will not work for me. Bummer, as I do love the Radiance Class. However, the clincher this morning is is that despite the one extra day (Kauai) the pricing is way high compared to the Celebrity Solstice. Cabin for cabin the rate for a basic balcony cabin a E2 is $1828 higher than the 1A on the Solstice and a D2 is $2,000+ higher than a SV on the Solstice. I haven't even looked at suites! Since the land time in Hawaii is just about as important to us as the cruise itself we will be able to stay in Hawaii at a nice resort on the north shore or a hotel in Waikiki for 5 days for that difference.

Edited April 29, 2014 by Sunny AZ Girl

[PCWalton1]

As I stated above, the April 20 date will not work for me. Bummer, as I do love the Radiance Class. However, the clincher this morning is is that despite the one extra day (Kauai) the pricing is way high compared to the Celebrity Solstice. Cabin for cabin the rate for a basic balcony cabin a E2 is $1828 higher than the 1A on the Solstice and a D2 is $2,000+ higher than a SV on the Solstice. I haven't even looked at suites! Since the land time in Hawaii is just about as important to us as the cruise itself we will be able to stay in Hawaii at a nice resort on the north shore or a hotel in Waikiki for 5 days for that difference.

 

Sorry to hear you will not be going on this. We decided this is the ship we want to take as we love Radiance and it has the overnight in Maui. I just put 8168 on hold as nothing better than an aft on a Radiance class ship. :)

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Sorry to hear you will not be going on this. We decided this is the ship we want to take as we love Radiance and it has the overnight in Maui. I just put 8168 on hold as nothing better than an aft on a Radiance class ship. :)

 

I hope you have a wonderful time. We also love the aft on a Radiance Class ship. We will be in 9660 for a B2B on the Jewel this Saturday! :D

 

However, it just won't work out for us this time. For the price difference we figure we could pick up Kauai for 3 days pre-cruise or Oahu North Shore for 4. We will still get the overnight in Maui, which is great. The earlier date would have meant that we would have no pre-cruise time in the islands and that is a deal breaker for us.

 

Maybe we will sail together another time. It seems we lost you on the Oasis May 9, 2015, too.:(

Edited April 29, 2014 by Sunny AZ Girl

[PCWalton1]

Maybe we will sail together another time. It seems we lost you on the Oasis May 9, 2015, too.:(

 

The funny thing is this booking is that Oasis booking. It was originally that Rhapsody Hawaii May 2015 cruise but Royal cancelled it. Since they attached a couple hundred OBC to it for the cancellation we have been rolling it forward. First it was that Oasis 2015 cruise because at the time there wasn't much available for 2015 yet.

Then we moved it to Jewel in August 2015 thinking we would finally do an Alaska cruise. Yeah right. :p

So now it is morphing into the Radiance Hawaii April 2016 cruise. What a long strange journey it's been. :)

[Sunny AZ Girl]

The funny thing is this booking is that Oasis booking. It was originally that Rhapsody Hawaii May 2015 cruise but Royal cancelled it. Since they attached a couple hundred OBC to it for the cancellation we have been rolling it forward. First it was that Oasis 2015 cruise because at the time there wasn't much available for 2015 yet.

Then we moved it to Jewel in August 2015 thinking we would finally do an Alaska cruise. Yeah right. :p

So now it is morphing into the Radiance Hawaii April 2016 cruise. What a long strange journey it's been. :)

 

That's how we ended up on the Oasis. RCI cancelled the Serenade and gave us the OBC and as you said there was not much available at that time. Since we really loved the Allure and have wanted to do the Oasis anyway we are sticking with it. We have had a nice price drop in there, too. However, that just went back up, but we got the early booking benefit of the lower price. That cruise is mainly to relax and enjoy the ship. Plus several family members have since joined us, so we are locked in.

 

We will be doing the PNW in October '15 on the Jewel. Since I have never been to any of those ports except LA and Ensenada I figure that cruise will make up for the unexciting Oasis/Allure itineraries. Looking forward to an overnight in San Francisco!:cool:

[carsaw]

As I stated above, the April 20 date will not work for me. Bummer, as I do love the Radiance Class. However, the clincher this morning is is that despite the one extra day (Kauai) the pricing is way high compared to the Celebrity Solstice. Cabin for cabin the rate for a basic balcony cabin a E2 is $1828 higher than the 1A on the Solstice and a D2 is $2,000+ higher than a SV on the Solstice. I haven't even looked at suites! Since the land time in Hawaii is just about as important to us as the cruise itself we will be able to stay in Hawaii at a nice resort on the north shore or a hotel in Waikiki for 5 days for that difference.

 

We felt the same way, will just spend a few extra days in Hawaii. We loved the Solstice so much and wanted to go on the ship again. We called and booked a cabin before the prices increase. I was surprised the Radiance is starting so much higher for balconies but it worked out for us since the Solstice was our favorite ship. :)