Stay tuned...new homeport announcement tomorrow

[shibby sails]

Charleston is a great city/port but it can hardly handle the Carnival's Sunshine, I doubt it can handle another cruise line. Plus the city's "flounders" don't want to upgrade the port.

[Sunshine3601]

Based on the fact strong sales for grandeur out of barbados my guess is another island that doesnt follow cdc rules.  Cozumel is my guess.  

[Ourusualbeach]

9 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Based on the fact strong sales for grandeur out of barbados my guess is another island that doesnt follow cdc rules.  Cozumel is my guess.  

Grandeur was not moved to Barbados to skirt the CDC rules.  If that had been the case she would be there a lot sooner than Dec 5.  She was put there because Royal believes it will be a more profitable route than other opportunities.  The same will hold true for tomorrow’s announcement. 

[RCCL Fan]

UGH --- well this is disappointing.  I was expecting "the news we've all been waiting for" to be an announcement on when cruises would restart. whether that be July, October or December.

 

Not... here's a new homeport.

 

I hope there's more than that.

[Ourusualbeach]

18 minutes ago, RCCL Fan said:

UGH --- well this is disappointing.  I was expecting "the news we've all been waiting for" to be an announcement on when cruises would restart. whether that be July, October or December.

 

Not... here's a new homeport.

 

I hope there's more than that.

The original announcement was postponed.  The home port is entirely separate. 

[Tree_skier]

5 hours ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Navigator going to CA?

 

5 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

That would be my guess.

 

4 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

My money is on California. 

Glory, Hallelujah!  

[Tree_skier]

In celebration, I'm going to spend the rest of the night watching Love Boat reruns on Youtube.  As a 12 year old boy I fell in lust with Lauren Tewes (Julie, the cruise director)

Edited March 17, 2021 by Tree_skier

[PhoenixCruiser]

We would absolutely love to be able to cruise out of CA again.  So tired of having to fly to FL or San Juan.

[SNJCruisers]

26 minutes ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

We would absolutely love to be able to cruise out of CA again.  So tired of having to fly to FL or San Juan.

Never heard of Carnival, Princess, or Norwegian?   And to a lesser degree Oceania, Disney and Holland America?  If you take the Royal blinders off, you'll realize that there are many choices out of California in 2022.

[Ashland]

34 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

Never heard of Carnival, Princess, or Norwegian?   And to a lesser degree Oceania, Disney and Holland America?  If you take the Royal blinders off, you'll realize that there are many choices out of California in 2022.

Yikes...stop raining on our west coast RCI parade.....

[hallux]

9 hours ago, davekathy said:

Be careful when you say Cali. North up the coast to Vancouver BC.  South down the coast to Mexico. 

Those are the routes NCL does from San Pedro, I've done both but the Vancouver one is purely a repositioning trip to get the ship to Alaska.  I'm not sure if the main/newer terminal in San Pedro is NCL-exclusive.  The older terminal is where I've seen a Celebrity ship, the Eclipse, and that might be the biggest ship they can port at that terminal.

[Teeara]

13 hours ago, soremekun said:

They have given in to my demands.  Oasis class and Quantum class will homeport in Boston.

You heard it here first.

Now that would be awesome!  ;o))))

[Goodtime Cruizin]

10 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Grandeur was not moved to Barbados to skirt the CDC rules.  If that had been the case she would be there a lot sooner than Dec 5.  She was put there because Royal believes it will be a more profitable route than other opportunities.  The same will hold true for tomorrow’s announcement. 

 

It could take that long to prepare for the logisitics, the port, etc. But placing a small ship, at a small port is a perfect plan. And let's be honest here, it's hard to make profits when your balance sheet shows zero $$ income.  

[Ourusualbeach]

3 minutes ago, Goodtime Cruizin said:

 

It could take that long to prepare for the logisitics, the port, etc. But placing a small ship, at a small port is a perfect plan. And let's be honest here, it's hard to make profits when your balance sheet shows zero $$ income.  

I guess we will agree to disagree.  It doesn’t take almost a year to get things ready to homeport a ship in Barbados where the infrastructure exists and the country already has a number of ships home ported there.  Perhaps in the case of Cozumel where they need to build a pier.  I stand by my original statement that homeporting a ship in Barbados was not a way around the CDC

[jean87510]

4 minutes ago, Goodtime Cruizin said:

 

It could take that long to prepare for the logisitics, the port, etc. But placing a small ship, at a small port is a perfect plan. And let's be honest here, it's hard to make profits when your balance sheet shows zero $$ income.  

And I think it was a great move.  We are booked on the February 20 sailing even though I swore I wouldn't book anything.  I couldn't resist the new ports.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

1 minute ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I guess we will agree to disagree.  It doesn’t take almost a year to get things ready to homeport a ship in Barbados where the infrastructure exists and the country already has a number of ships home ported there.  Perhaps in the case of Cozumel where they need to build a pier.  I stand by my original statement that homeporting a ship in Barbados was not a way around the CDC

 

OK.

But stopping/visiting a port vs 'home' porting require different types of logistics and preperations for the ships, the passengers, the port personnel, and of course the supply chain.  It'll be interesting to watch, but I do not see the CDC allowing cruies to start from the US by Dec. It's my belief that they are waiting for the so called 'herd immunity' to be in full force. As of today, it's anticpated that just less than 30% of US citizens fit that criteria of having Covid anti-bodies in their system, either by the disease itself or injection of the vaccine. I may be surprised and see that we reach a plateau sooner where the CDC identifies a % and says to the cruise industry, 'You're good to go'. But IMO, there is a long way to go before we get to the  point of cruising out of US ports. 

[Joseph2017China]

As ships start sailing, one thing is certain.  The CDC is very anti Cruises.  USA is a huge cruise market, but until the CDC allows it, the big companies need to start rethinking home ports.  We think that a giant processing building is needed for boarding, when in reality the short term, a big tent, and porta potties outside is all you need.  ( I already experienced this).  The ships will go where they are welcome.  I love driving to a ship in the morning, but the reality is, most people fly anyway except for the short trips.  Imagine if the cruise line starts a ferry service to the Bahamas from Florida?  They have ferries all over the world doing it, so why not in Florida?  You can get all kinds of creative when needed.

[Ourusualbeach]

3 minutes ago, Goodtime Cruizin said:

 

OK.

But stopping/visiting a port vs 'home' porting require different types of logistics and preperations for the ships, the passengers, the port personnel, and of course the supply chain.  It'll be interesting to watch, but I do not see the CDC allowing cruies to start from the US by Dec. It's my belief that they are waiting for the so called 'herd immunity' to be in full force. As of today, it's anticpated that just less than 30% of US citizens fit that criteria of having Covid anti-bodies in their system, either by the disease itself or injection of the vaccine. I may be surprised and see that we reach a plateau sooner where the CDC identifies a % and says to the cruise industry, 'You're good to go'. But IMO, there is a long way to go before we get to the  point of cruising out of US ports. 

They are not stopping / visiting Barbados.  They are homeporting the Grandeur there from December through April

Edited March 17, 2021 by Ourusualbeach

[nelblu]

10 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The original announcement was postponed.  The home port is entirely separate. 

Any reason for the postponement?

 

[nelblu]

How about Antigua to complement the Royal Beach Club.

[Ourusualbeach]

19 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Any reason for the postponement?

 

None given

[Canadianmama3]

24 minutes ago, nelblu said:

How about Antigua to complement the Royal Beach Club.

Oh I would love that.   I’ve done land vacations in Antigua and I love it there.   I would love to do a cruise out of there with a few days in Antigua pre cruise.  

[Sunshine3601]

12 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Grandeur was not moved to Barbados to skirt the CDC rules.  If that had been the case she would be there a lot sooner than Dec 5.  She was put there because Royal believes it will be a more profitable route than other opportunities.  The same will hold true for tomorrow’s announcement. 

Yes, I understand.  I like the opportunity to visit new islands which the new grandeur itinerary offers so we booked a b2b for feb 2022.  

[Goodtime Cruizin]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

They are not stopping / visiting Barbados.  They are homeporting the Grandeur there from December through April

 

Yes... I know. In fact that's what I posted. Hence the delay to facilitate the supply chain.

[Bobal]

2 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

They are not stopping / visiting Barbados.  They are homeporting the Grandeur there from December through April

 

19 minutes ago, Goodtime Cruizin said:

 

Yes... I know. In fact that's what I posted. Hence the delay to facilitate the supply chain.

 

But it's not a new thing to have Barbados as a home port, a number of cruiselines already do, and not just small ships. We were due to sail from there last March on MSC Preziosa which I believe is around the same size as Voyager class. P&O also start voyages from there. Barbados is already well set up as a home port.