Deployment 2025-26 booking season begins

[Tree_skier]

2 hours ago, Morecruisesplz said:

There are plenty of newer large ships to book w/ Royal that are less. 

Exactly, people keep citing, icon, and star prices as if they are indicative of all royal Caribbean prices. There are still value to be had. Harmony out of Galveston has some good prices. I just booked two cruises B2B for December 2025 on oasis of the seas at what I still think is very good value, my travel agent had group space.  First week was a six day for approximately 1750 for a balcony cabin and the second week, the week preceding Christmas, was 2650. That second one was a southern Caribbean cruise and I know those ones tend to have a bit of a premium attached to it.
 

Those are out the door all taxes and price.  Absolutely, you’re going to pay premium for icon and star. If you’re looking for value it’s out there.

[ONECRUISER]

1 minute ago, Tree_skier said:

Exactly, people keep citing, icon, and star prices as if they are indicative of all royal Caribbean prices. There are still value to be had. Harmony out of Galveston has some good prices. I just booked two cruises B2B for December 2025 on oasis of the seas at what I still think is very good value, my travel agent had group space.  First week was a six day for approximately 1750 for a balcony cabin and the second week, the week preceding Christmas, was 2650. That second one was a southern Caribbean cruise and I know those ones tend to have a bit of a premium attached to it.
 

Those are out the door all taxes and price.  Absolutely, you’re going to pay premium for icon and star. If you’re looking for value it’s out there.

Agree, have to look and watch but I'm still finding prices I can live with that are cheaper then even pre-CV

[andreasfcb]

10 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

I wonder if @andreasfcb may be from Germany where debt is still widely regarded as shameful and credit cards are not very popular (although it’s slowly changing).

 

In fact the German word for debt, ‘schuld’, also means guilt. Cash is still king there.

 

 

I'm from Switzerland (as my profile says), but we have a similar POV as Germany regarding credit card debt. It is also strictly regulated (see below).

 

 

15 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

I'm not sure you know what you are talking about.  Switzerland has the highest per capita consumer debt in the world.  

 

 

This is an interesting stat, please let me clarify:

 

Short version:

Switzerland has mostly mortgage debt, nothing else.

 

Long version:

In Switzerland, you cannot get a credit card limit higher than a fraction of your monthly salary. Due to this regulation we have close to 0 credit card debt in average.

We also have basically 0 student loans because public schools are free and universities cost around USD 1500 per year.

The reason for the seemingly "extreme" debt is our mortgage system. In Switzerland, you never have (and you never want) to pay off your mortgage of your house. By law, you only need to pay back 33 % of the total value of the house, the rest can be loaned for ever. Due to low interest rates (low inflation leads to low interest rates, right now a 10 year loan on a house costs around 2 % per year), it is not really desirable to pay off your house. You can even deduct the interest rate from your taxes.

Due to this system, housing prices are pretty high: An average house never goes for lower than 1 Million USD, except if you completely move outside of metropolitan areas. This means that, even though people have high debt (due to their loans that they never pay back), they have even higher wealth (because the houses have a high value). So if you take the wealth minus the debt, there is still a big plus.

 

 

// Sorry for the off-topic. Where is the damn Jewel cruise from Amsterdam. 😄

[Ourusualbeach]

3 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

Exactly, people keep citing, icon, and star prices as if they are indicative of all royal Caribbean prices. There are still value to be had. Harmony out of Galveston has some good prices. I just booked two cruises B2B for December 2025 on oasis of the seas at what I still think is very good value, my travel agent had group space.  First week was a six day for approximately 1750 for a balcony cabin and the second week, the week preceding Christmas, was 2650. That second one was a southern Caribbean cruise and I know those ones tend to have a bit of a premium attached to it.
 

Those are out the door all taxes and price.  Absolutely, you’re going to pay premium for icon and star. If you’re looking for value it’s out there.

You nailed it.  Stay away from the top 4 Star, Icon, Wonder and Utopia and there are still some decent prices, get down to radiance and Vision classes and some great deals on insides and OV (balconies were always at a premium on those ships due to limited availability)

 

I ended up booking Harmony for Christmas 2025.  It will be interesting driving to Galveston instead of Miami

[Jimbo]

10 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

You nailed it.  Stay away from the top 4 Star, Icon, Wonder and Utopia and there are still some decent prices, get down to radiance and Vision classes and some great deals on insides and OV (balconies were always at a premium on those ships due to limited availability)

 

I ended up booking Harmony for Christmas 2025.  It will be interesting driving to Galveston instead of Miami

Spend some of your $$$, you know they have planes that fly from Canada to the States. 😉

[RoperDK]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

You nailed it.  Stay away from the top 4 Star, Icon, Wonder and Utopia and there are still some decent prices, get down to radiance and Vision classes and some great deals on insides and OV (balconies were always at a premium on those ships due to limited availability)

 

I ended up booking Harmony for Christmas 2025.  It will be interesting driving to Galveston instead of Miami

Our preferred port is PC because it is close to family.  I can't believe the pricing now!  Is the Adventure gold plated?  Granted, we like to sail in suites, but geez I can't believe what they are asking.  

[Tree_skier]

2 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

You nailed it.  Stay away from the top 4 Star, Icon, Wonder and Utopia and there are still some decent prices, get down to radiance and Vision classes and some great deals on insides and OV (balconies were always at a premium on those ships due to limited availability)

 

I ended up booking Harmony for Christmas 2025.  It will be interesting driving to Galveston instead of Miami

Not a huge difference in miles.  At least you will get some different scenery.  🙂 

[im2grt2b4got]

Anyone have an idea on when Wonder of the seas will open up for June/July 2025

[Ourusualbeach]

39 minutes ago, im2grt2b4got said:

Anyone have an idea on when Wonder of the seas will open up for June/July 2025

February, with the rest of the itineraries. 

[RoperDK]

Weren't there Carribean itineraries supposed to open up this week?  I'm surprised that Royal waits so long to post sailings.  I was looking at PC in particular and it seems that they are missing a smaller ship that sails 4 and 5 day itineraries.   

[Ourusualbeach]

11 minutes ago, RoperDK said:

Weren't there Carribean itineraries supposed to open up this week?  I'm surprised that Royal waits so long to post sailings.  I was looking at PC in particular and it seems that they are missing a smaller ship that sails 4 and 5 day itineraries.   

Nothing more until February

[OCSC Mike]

31 minutes ago, RoperDK said:

I was looking at PC in particular and it seems that they are missing a smaller ship that sails 4 and 5 day itineraries.

PC only has one “smaller” ship… Adventure. It’s missing Utopia’s 3/4’s and Wonder’s pre-Star 7N’s, which will be released in February as mentioned above.

[Morecruisesplz]

50 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Nothing more until February

Excellent. My wife won't let me look at more cruises till next year. (Like that would stop me.) Perfect timing.

[springaussie]

48 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Nothing more until February

It will be interesting to see if those Trans Pacific’s go on sale before February. 
Quantum and Anthem April 2025.

 

[crzndeb]

4 minutes ago, springaussie said:

It will be interesting to see if those Trans Pacific’s go on sale before February. 
Quantum and Anthem April 2025.

 

I am waiting for Anthem. The sad thing is I reached the magic 340 as a solo cruiser in the Spring, and have yet to book a Royal cruise. I only have 2 next year on different cruise lines.

[cruiselover04]

2 hours ago, springaussie said:

It will be interesting to see if those Trans Pacific’s go on sale before February. 
Quantum and Anthem April 2025.

 

Hopefully they’ll let the cruisers that have got the Ovation booked for a TP in April 2025 from Sydney that they’re being switched to the Anthem if it’s replacing her on the TP. 
 

Jenni 

 

 

 

 

 

[lovesthebeach2]

On 12/6/2023 at 12:00 PM, ONECRUISER said:

Funny thing when started Cruising on Royal it was way more expensive then is even today, not even adding Inflation. At 20yrs old for Honeymoon I had to Finance our First Cruise. The cheapest Cruises I got were during the 10 months post 9/11

I agree….. I think dollar to dollar it was more expensive to cruise “back then”, cruising wasn’t nearly as popular as it is now.

 

And all types of travel were much less after 9/11, we went places that were almost deserted. We had reservations in Disney a month later and the entire trip from flights to parks were empty.

But that’s not something we would like to see again in order for prices to drop.

[Ourusualbeach]

9 hours ago, cruiselover04 said:

Hopefully they’ll let the cruisers that have got the Ovation booked for a TP in April 2025 from Sydney that they’re being switched to the Anthem if it’s replacing her on the TP. 
 

Jenni 

 

 

 

 

 

Ovation is still doing the TP

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

I agree….. I think dollar to dollar it was more expensive to cruise “back then”, cruising wasn’t nearly as popular as it is now.

 

And all types of travel were much less after 9/11, we went places that were almost deserted. We had reservations in Disney a month later and the entire trip from flights to parks were empty.

But that’s not something we would like to see again in order for prices to drop.

We went to Disney World the next Month, was weird as before entering the Park they were Searching all Diaper & Camera bags, strollers and even was checking inside coat was wearing. Just happened to be week of the Florida Anthrax scare. First Cruise Paid $9 plus Taxes, next one was $750 for Owners Suite with no Solo Supplement where coming home couple days before Xmas line was out the door at Miami Airport, Take my shoes off? Just happened to be few hrs the day of Shoe Bomber.

[lovesthebeach2]

2 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

We went to Disney World the next Month, was weird as before entering the Park they were Searching all Diaper & Camera bags, strollers and even was checking inside coat was wearing. Just happened to be week of the Florida Anthrax scare. First Cruise Paid $9 plus Taxes, next one was $750 for Owners Suite with no Solo Supplement where coming home couple days before Xmas line was out the door at Miami Airport, Take my shoes off? Just happened to be few hrs the day of Shoe Bomber.

Unfortunately for us we flew a few days before the American Airlines plane crashed in NY…which was just a month or two after 9/11….We lived in NY then and were afraid to fly home.

[orville99]

On 12/6/2023 at 7:47 PM, RoperDK said:

Our preferred port is PC because it is close to family.  I can't believe the pricing now!  Is the Adventure gold plated?  Granted, we like to sail in suites, but geez I can't believe what they are asking.  

Depends totally on when you book relative to when you want to sail. We always book GS; always book as soon as itineraries are released (usually while on board); always do B2B cruises; always book the same weeks each year, and typically book Voyager class ships. The total price difference between our April 2024 B2B on Adventure and our April 2026 B2B on Adventure is ~$300. All of our other B2B cruises between now and April 2026 vary by less then 10% YOY. If you were to book today, the same two weeks in a GS in April 2024 that we booked when the itineraries were first released would be almost triple what we booked for.

[firefly333]

On 12/6/2023 at 1:53 PM, ONECRUISER said:

Agree, have to look and watch but I'm still finding prices I can live with that are cheaper then even pre-CV

I am NOT finding cheaper prices than pre covid. Neither Galveston or PC.

 

I am finding bigger ships, better choices and more ports I want to see. I do have some newer ships booked and first ever TA but the 2nd leg to see more fascinating ports also is my most expensive booked cruise. ..though the TA itself seems pretty good. I keep reading how TAs are supposed to be super cheap, but I loved having a wide open ship to choose almost any balcony when it came out a couple weeks ago.

 

Havent found what I'd consider a huge deal. I'm in the complaining about prices group.

[ONECRUISER]

2 hours ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

Unfortunately for us we flew a few days before the American Airlines plane crashed in NY…which was just a month or two after 9/11….We lived in NY then and were afraid to fly home.

We took Cruise, Me Solo with 3 young Kids taking a Red Eye getting home early on 9/11. 

[ONECRUISER]

2 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I am NOT finding cheaper prices than pre covid. Neither Galveston or PC.

 

I am finding bigger ships, better choices and more ports I want to see. I do have some newer ships booked and first ever TA but the 2nd leg to see more fascinating ports also is my most expensive booked cruise. ..though the TA itself seems pretty good. I keep reading how TAs are supposed to be super cheap, but I loved having a wide open ship to choose almost any balcony when it came out a couple weeks ago.

 

Havent found what I'd consider a huge deal. I'm in the complaining about prices group.

I scored a few OK prices(compared to others) that are Cheaper then Pre-CV, had to really look. Though in 2025 my usual Cruises are highest I've seen since 90's. 

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, orville99 said:

Depends totally on when you book relative to when you want to sail. We always book GS; always book as soon as itineraries are released (usually while on board); always do B2B cruises; always book the same weeks each year, and typically book Voyager class ships. The total price difference between our April 2024 B2B on Adventure and our April 2026 B2B on Adventure is ~$300. All of our other B2B cruises between now and April 2026 vary by less then 10% YOY. If you were to book today, the same two weeks in a GS in April 2024 that we booked when the itineraries were first released would be almost triple what we booked for.

We might have the same april 2025 on adventure... southern?

 

I didnt know before mid this year I was ready to think about moving. By the time I booked I saw BND post all JS already booked up, not that I personally cared, just thought cant be booked up but I looked and almost 2 years out yep she was right sold out. No idea why that march and april 2025 southern is much much higher than earlier. Just the 8 day southern was much higher than closer in dates.

 

I agree with her, adventure is gold plated prices for my dates. I've never paid this much pre covid per day. I wanted more days but only booked the 3 I wanted most. Would have booked and stayed on longer if the prices werent sky high imo ... again my opinion, adventure prices from dec 2024 to april 2026 gold plated.