Does Royal Caribbean always roll out new stuff onboard in March?

[Daghis]

For the past few years, I've taken a spring break cruise in mid-March.

 

Interestingly enough, I've seen several things change right around those times (dates roughly from memory):

• There was a change to NextCruise bookings when they got rid of the two additional "friends & family" certificates in March 2013.
  
• They made another change to NextCruise bookings, significantly reducing onboard credit for open bookings in March 2014.
  
• They started a trial for the Diamond drink voucher program on select ships, including the one we were on, in March 2014.
  
• They had announced, but later temporarily rescinded, a forthcoming change to the Club Royale casino VIP program to start mid-March 2015.
  
• It seems that internet pricing on Independence of the Seas, at least, has been significantly lowered, effective late February 2015.

 

There may be other things I'm forgetting or hadn't noticed.

 

This may simply be a matter of coincidence, and that other changes rolled out during the rest of the year.

 

Does it seem to others that onboard changes happen around this time of year, or is it my overactive/overenthusiastic imagination? :D

 

And, I can't help but wonder what else might be different for me on this next cruise in two weeks.

Edited March 2, 2015 by Daghis

[Clarea]

There do seem to have been a good number of changes in the March timeframe. I believe another was the imposition of automatic gratuities in March 2013.

 

However, there have been a number of other signifcant changes outside the March timeframe:

 

Jan 2011: C&A change from credits to points

 

Nov 2012: Wine allowed to be brought onboard

 

Oct 2013: Singles get an extra C&A point per night

 

Jan 2014: Smoking banned on balconies

[Daghis]

Good catch on those other things, although it may be possible to discount the two C&A point-related ones since those aren't related to onboard activities, but instead administrative functions done on land.

 

I didn't think about the gratuities since I usually have My Time Dining and have been stuck prepaying gratuities for some time, even now that they're automatically charged to everyone else anyway.