Royal just added a 6th port to our 7 night cruise?

[ForeverAfter]

I just got an email from Royal today that they are replacing our 1 sea day with St. Maarten. That makes 6 ports on our 7 night Freedom cruise. Not complaining about going back to St. Maarten again but I’ve had plenty of ports cancelled, never had one added. I’ve also never been on such a port heavy cruise!

[MightyMike]

That does sound port-heavy for Royal Caribbean. We sometimes stay on the ship and consider it a sea day in port. 

[Ourusualbeach]

6 ports  is normal for a 7 night cruise from San Juan. 

[renza]

14 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

6 ports  is normal for a 7 night cruise from San Juan. 

No, 5 ports are normal not 6

Edited February 21, 2020 by renza

[Ourusualbeach]

8 minutes ago, renza said:

No, 5 ports are normal not 6

 

 

Sorry, I was looking at it as 1 Sea day vs 2.

Edited February 21, 2020 by Ourusualbeach

[#1packerfan]

We also had our itinerary modified a bit to allow for St Maarten to be added to our Freedom cruise in Oct.  We are doing the B2B so will have 2 stops in St Maarten.  Personally, I would have liked our last day to stay a sea day after 2 weeks, but I also love St Maarten.  We may just go downtown for a few hours and spend the rest of the day on the ship that second week.  Will decide that later.

 

We have never had more than 5 ports in San juan no matter which ship we take--and this will be our 7th cruise our of PR and our 5th B2B (unless you count San Juan as a port, which I never do since it is the embarkation port).  We are doing a B2B in October and would have had 4 ports the first week and 5 the second without counting San Juan as a port, until they added St Maarten to the second week. 

Edited February 21, 2020 by #1packerfan

[renza]

5 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

It depends on the itinerary.  Freedom does 2.  The one with Aruba has 5 the other itinerary has 6. 

Nope the one that does the The southern Caribbean on freedom has always been five ports not six. I have been on it and scheduled again for June. We just got notified of the change to 6 ports today. 

[Ourusualbeach]

1 minute ago, renza said:

Nope the one that does the The southern Caribbean on freedom has always been five ports not six. I have been on it and scheduled again for June. We just got notified of the change to 6 ports today. 

I edited my post as you were replying 

[lbjen]

Are the extra St Maarten visits part of their pledge to help the islands rebuild? I wonder if they’re dropping off cargo. 

[ForeverAfter]

I know we could choose to stay on the ship but I’m really happy with all the port stops, all of them are new for us except  St. Maarten, which we love! Just trying to figure out when we’re going to be able to enjoy all the new things on the ship!

[molsonschooner]

I would not care for this. I like to have at least 2 sea days on a 7 night cruise

[mugtech]

2 hours ago, ForeverAfter said:

I just got an email from Royal today that they are replacing our 1 sea day with St. Maarten. That makes 6 ports on our 7 night Freedom cruise. Not complaining about going back to St. Maarten again but I’ve had plenty of ports cancelled, never had one added. I’ve also never been on such a port heavy cruise!

Are they charging additional port fees?

[gmros]

41 minutes ago, molsonschooner said:

I would not care for this. I like to have at least 2 sea days on a 7 night cruise

You can always make it a “sea day” while ship is in port. Just stay on the ship. AND... there may even be less people on board! I see that as a win.

[uvadover]

44 minutes ago, molsonschooner said:

I would not care for this. I like to have at least 2 sea days on a 7 night cruise

So stay on the ship at one of the ports and enjoy the fact that it is 75% empty.  Bonus.

[PhillyFan33579]

59 minutes ago, molsonschooner said:

I would not care for this. I like to have at least 2 sea days on a 7 night cruise

In my opinion one of the best times to be on the ship is staying on the ship when it is at a port. 

[LilBlackDress]

When we were on Adventure in 2015, both itineraries were 7 nights, 6 ports 

[robtulipe]

9 hours ago, mugtech said:

Are they charging additional port fees?

Typically RCI don't charge extra if port fees increase for an already booked cruise. For new bookings it is typically added to the port fees total.

If later another port's fee decreases or is eliminated because that port is missed one may not get a refund or only a partial result as the previous uncharged port fee increase is added as part of the equation. 

Edited February 21, 2020 by robtulipe

[ForeverAfter]

Funny, they didn’t mention additional fees!

Edited February 21, 2020 by ForeverAfter

[T-2]

What week are they adding the port, we are sailing on the Apr 5th itinerary of the ABC islands and it would be awesome if we got as lucky.  So far we haven't had any similar great news.  We were in St Maarten a couple years ago but rain made it a challenge to experience the way we'd hoped.  Would love another chance. 

[Sea Dog]

17 hours ago, #1packerfan said:

We also had our itinerary modified a bit to allow for St Maarten to be added to our Freedom cruise in Oct.

Which sailing in October? We are on Freedom Oct. 11th but have not heard from Royal if St. Maarten will be added as our 6th port.

*Updated* Just went to the website and our sailing on Oct. 11th now includes St. Maarten. Did not receive any email however from RCI.

Edited February 21, 2020 by Sea Dog
New Info

[ForeverAfter]

August, Southern Carribean sailing.

[vacationlover_mn]

Weird?  I wonder if they will add additional port fees?

[bonsai3s]

We love the Freedom.

* We sailed her with both the 4 ports (enjoyed the 2 sea days) and the 5 ports.  Most passengers we spoke to said that the 1 sea day (with the 5 ports) wasn't enough and it became genuinely exhausting on that last day...trying to visit guest services, getting photos, packing...etc.....difficult to imagine adding another port.

* Just our observation...but on port days, the main dining room was closed for lunch. Yes, all the other food venues got really crowded at times...especially the Windjammer.

Edited February 21, 2020 by bonsai3s
missing word

[#1packerfan]

1 hour ago, Sea Dog said:

Which sailing in October? We are on Freedom Oct. 11th but have not heard from Royal if St. Maarten will be added as our 6th port.

*Updated* Just went to the website and our sailing on Oct. 11th now includes St. Maarten. Did not receive any email however from RCI.

No we did not either. Saw it on our itin. We are on the 18th and 25th of October

[Big_G]

7 hours ago, robtulipe said:

Typically RCI don't charge extra if port fees increase for an already booked cruise. For new bookings it is typically added to the port fees total.

If later another port's fee decreases or is eliminated because that port is missed one may not get a refund or only a partial result as the previous uncharged port fee increase is added as part of the equation. 

 

Just bumping this because that's also been our experience.