Royal Caribbean Dropping 7-8 Day Cruises to Bermuda

[bermudashorts]

Hey auntiebon and kwelguy,
Hard to believe its been a month since our cruise.:(...:D

I agree that its not enough time in Bermuda.
I prefer the smaller ships but I do understand why someone would book the larger ships next year if they had the chance.
Bermuda is the best great place to go.
I personally wont be on RCCL or Celebrity, but will go back to Bermuda on the NCL Crown.
She will be doing all three stops like the Empress.

I cant imagine all the people leaving the ship at the same time.
We also do the scooters when we go. Im sure you know it but make sure you reserve them if you are going next year.
I think there will be a rush on them and you wouldnt want to have to wait for them to truck more over.
We didnt get the chance this year to rent them because of the high winds in Bermuda for a few days, so we took the bus.
As effficient as they are, we wont use them again.
For some reason we took the ride from Dockyard to Hamilton to St georges... 2 hours..ouch,,, thats a killer.

If RCCL is reading, please bring our favorite ship back for 2006.

[Charles4515]

More about Mopeds in another thread.

[url]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=91062[/url]

See the post by MV Photon

[Imagolfnut]

I heard yesterday that the 5-day Voyager (with an overnight stay) to Bermuda may just be a trial run for 2005. Let's hope that's the case and they return the Empress or another ship to continue the 8-day cruises to Bermuda. 5-days to such a beautiful island is definitely not enough!!

Come on RCI - bring back the 8-day cruise to Bermuda!!!

[tinker]

I am hoping too that this is just a trial run for 2005.

When will they publish the 2006 itineraries? I want to be first in line for a 7 or 8 night Bermuda sailing with Royal Caribbean. (The Enchantment would be a GREAT ship for Bermuda,<hint>,<hint> RC!)

[EricNFran]

[quote name='bicker']I checked out that 8-day itinerary when we were first talking about cruises a while ago, and gosh I really didn't like the idea. Days at sea in a row, and then just blipping from one dock to another on the same island for a few days? Didn't appeal to me. I even chose the 5 port Southern Caribbean itinerary over the 4 port one, just to have more port-calls, see more places during the week, etc.[/QUOTE]Funny, as a first-time cruiser, that's exactly what DID appeal to me about this trip. Being in northern NJ and not wanting to fly, my options were somewhat limited. I didn't want to do a Canada/New England trip, and the offerings from NY/NJ to the Caribbean featureded all of a few hours in some of the ports, to maybe a full day in others. I really liked the idea of being able to spend time exploring Bermuda. The changes of scenery outside of the cabin window were just icing on the cake. Obviously

I do agree with the posts about Dockyard, though. I could take it or leave it. I like the Zenith's St.George/Hamilton itinerary but another day on-island would be great. Bermuda has so much to offer that it really can't be experienced in just a Caribbean island-hopping style one-day port call.

I'm really hoping this change of itinerary on the part of RCI is just a stop-gap measure while Enchantment is being stretched. It would seem to me that running Voyager on 5-day turns to Bermuda really doesn't take advantage of the economies of scale that come along from operating a mega-ship. I'd love to see Empress back "home" for the '06 season.

With the move of the X ships to Bayonne, RCI/Celebrity may ultimately decide that they are duplicating the route and decide to stop sailing one ship or the other. We'll see!

Eric

[DannyS]

You have to wonder if Voyager's 9 day Caribbean cruises are what killed off the short Bermuda cruises. There's also the Enchantment Factor. While Enchantment is being stretched, Empress will be taking over her itinerary down in Florida.

One of the reasons there were many cruises to Bermuda was that it was the only "warm weather destination" you could cruise to from the Northeast. Newer ships have changed that.

Many people wanted to go on cruises without flying, and Voyager is doing a great job filling that need for RCI. With Voyager drawing more passengers (and higher rates) than Empress, there is less of a need for Bermuda cruises out of New York.

They're probably trying out the 5 days to Bermuda to see if that can do a better job filling the gap between 9 day cruises than Canada/New England did, and hoping that the people who had done 7/8 days to Bermuda will now take the 9 day to the Caribbean.

The competition from the Caribbean is probably part of the reason that Bermuda agreed to allow larger ships - like Grandeur and Voyager to visit the island.

[erin_cruisers]

Thought I'd post as I just booked the 5 day VOS to Bermuda.
Why?!?!
Well, this is our second cruise, and our daughter and a friend will be coming with us. Our first cruise was on the Grandeur (11 days - Beautiful) and this time we wanted to try a larger ship (at least once). With this ship comes all the extra things to do while at sea (especially for our teens).

Also, we wanted a port we could drive to in one day - so it's Baltimore or NJ. This saves us over $800.00 CAD in airfare (4 people). The Grandeur out of Baltimore is around the same price as the VOS out of NJ, but we wanted the bigger ship as previously stated.

Finally, our cruise had to be taken with a 2 week window due to job constraints. So when we narrowed everything down, there wasn't really much choice.

Does a Mega ship in Bermuda for 2 days make sense? Maybe not to some people, but for us it does. We get to try this huge ship to see if we like it enough to book a longer cruise, maybe in the western caribbean or....
We also get a small taste of Bermuda, again to see if we like it.
On our last cruise to Eastern caribbean we were lucky to have one whole day on some islands. But that was enough for us to say, Hey, this Island is Great - we want to come back here again some day, or nope, we'll skip this one. From some of the posts, it sounds like Bermuda is so beautiful we WILL want to come back. But we won't know 'till WE try it.

I think alternating short AND long cruises to Bermuda DOES make sense, and it makes (almost) everyone happy.

...but that's just my $0.02 CAD

[bUU]

I can tell you that if they run Voyager to the Caribbean from New York, year-round, I'm there!

[Wildroze]

We were recently on the Empress and asked the Captain about the change with the 8 day cruise on the Empress and the 5 day Cruise on the VOS and he told us it was something they were trying out. Hopefully they will return the Empress with the alternating 6 and 8 day cruises out of Bayonne. We have been to Bermuda 13 times now and we never get tired of it. It is my paradise and the extra time in port makes all the difference in the world. I found the service and friendliness on the Empress extraordinary.
We tried NCL out of Boston to Bermuda and there is no comparison. We want our RCCL to Bermuda.

Please give us back our 8 day cruise RCCL.

[Imagolfnut]

In looking at some of the other itineraries, there's no comparison to the Empress's 8-day cruise to Bermuda. I really hope that they bring this back in 2006 (2005 preferably). I guess I may have to take a hiatus in 2005 and see what happens.

[DannyS]

One other note - Jewel of the Seas has a series of longer cruises out of Boston that stop in Bermuda on the way to/from the Caribbean.

[tinker]

I believe the Jewel of the Seas is just doing one repositioning cruise in November of 2005 that includes Bermuda.

I really don't understand why RC didn't replace the Empress with another ship to do a 7 or 8 night Bermuda itinereary but as previosly discussed, I guess they assume the Horizon and Zenith will fill the void.

Lots of new cruisers like the previous poster may book the Voyager and Grandeur and I can ALMOST get it except for the fact that they don't sail until 10:00 p.m. which makes it really a four nighter. Hey, everyone has a preference and any cruise is a good cruise but Bermuda is a unique destination and 5 nights is just not enough.

Sorry to be such a buster on this subject but I just don't get it.

[Wildroze]

We are booking the Jewel out of Boston in October of 2005 and it stops in the Dockyards overnight! I love my Bermuda and the more days there the better. The Empress had the best itinerary this year and I am surprised that they are trying something different.
From what I heard the Empress sold out on most voyages! Why they want to try something different amazes me. We have been cruising to Bermuda (13 times) and still could never get enough of that gorgeous island. RCCL has been our choice Cruise line to Bermuda but I am not going on a 5 day Cruise. By the time you get comfortable you will be on your way home.

Bring back the 8 day cruise to Bermuda RCCL!

[Imagolfnut]

Hi Folks,

Below is the reply I got from RCCL regarding dropping the 8-day cruise to Bermuda. I guess they'd prefer we use Celebrity or another line rather than enjoy their own great 8-day sail to Bermuda. BAH HUMBUG - we still want a Royal Caribb ship 8-day cruise!!! (or at least 7 days). I guess they just don't get it!! or are we Bermuda lovers in the minority?


Dear Ms. Bennett:

Thank you for contacting our office regarding the above referenced sailing.

We regret to learn of your disappointment regarding our service to Bermuda. There are numerous factors that affect the deployment of our fleet, some of which require our ships to relocate to other ports of call. The cruise industry is a constantly changing environment and corporate decisions are made accordingly. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and hope our sister company, Celebrity Cruises, will be able to offer you a satisfying vacation experience.

Ms. Bennett, thank you again for bringing this issue to our attention, as we value our guests' feedback regarding our itineraries. We hope to see you on a Royal Caribbean or Celebrity ship in the near future.

Sincerely,

Carlos Vicaria
Corporate Guest Relations

[AuntieBon]

Or was that response a whole lot of nothing?

Maybe they think Celebrity is a better line for Bermuda but they really don't seem to want to offer a genuine response to a legitimate question :mad:

[RichNY]

Sounds like a bunch of nothing to us too...BTW try to get a balcony cabin on Celebrity...NOT

Back on the silver bird for us.

[Lefty1]

as i want to definitely go on the voyager, unfortunately the only time i can go is when voyager is going to bermuda - i want to try the ship but i really wish trip was longer - this past august my first cruise was carnival miracle out of NY for 7 days and we had a blast, now on to big and better so as a new yorker i want the voyager - i noticed other mega RCC ships leaving out of boston but my husband feels traveling by car to boston to get on ship may be too much.
right now it is a toss up between 5 day to bermuda on RCC or 7 day to carribean on nor. dawn.

[tinker]

That sure is a generalized answer. I wonder how many letters they get on the subject.

Since the Bermuda cruises are so seasonal, not a lot of posts on the subject but I hope they are getting the point. I did a RC survey over the phone and rated the Empress all "9's" and at the end was able to provide a voice mail response and I suggested they bring back the 8 night Bermuda or at least a 7 night cruise.

Hopefully we will see something on the schedule for 2006?!

[rcicruiser]

The Empress of the Seas is taken over the Enchantment of the Seas 4 and 5 night sails when she goes into dry dock to be stretched. If the 5 night sailings are not selling well then maybe next year they will bring the Empress back. We just will have to what ans see.

[Suzy B]

[font=Tahoma]Add us to the list of disappointed customers that Royal isn’t offering more than 2 days in Bermuda! :mad: I understand the Empress will be taking over the itinerary of some of the Vision class ships (Enchantment to start with) when they are stretched. So it won’t be going to Bermuda.[/font]

But come on – how many ships do you need for, lets say, the Western Caribbean? Let’s take a look at which ships currently are sailing a 7 day W. Caribbean:

Voyager
Grandeur
Rhapsody
Explorer
Mariner
Navigator
Grandeur
Splendour
Radiance

[font=Times New Roman][size=3][font=Verdana][size=2]And these are only between the dates of Nov. 18 thru the 28th, 2004![/size][/font] :eek: [/size][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Doesn’t 9 ships’ seam a bit too much especially when the new Freedom of the Seas, will ALSO be sailing the Western Caribbean starting in April 2005! [/size][/font]

[size=3][font=Times New Roman]Although, we do appreciate that RCCL will be allowing Crown & Anchor Society & Captain's Club members to transfer their benefits between the two cruise lines, ;) effective January 2005. We were hoping this would give us the opportunity to sail a 7 or 8 day Bermuda cruise, however the ships that Celebrity has going to Bermuda, don’t have balcony’s & we are balcony people. [/font][/size]

[size=3][font=Times New Roman]Come on Royal Caribbean - there are a lot of people wanting to increase your sales by going on a 7 or 8 day Bermuda cruise! With such a big demand for this, why wouldn’t you want to increase your sales & profits? [/font][/size]

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Stop losing Bermuda cruises to the competition like Norwegian & Radisson. Please bring back the 7-8 day Bermuda cruises! [/size][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Is that too much to ask Royal Caribbean? Don’t you want your sales to grow?[/size][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Suzy B[/size][/font]

[Lefty1]

where is this ship leaving from - another new ship - probably leaving out of florida - i am sure they are doing well with passengers leaving out of bayonne so they should add more, don't ya think?

[bUU]

Given that they've made their decision based on their expertise and professionalism, what else would you have them say?

[RM]

RCI sailing short Bermuda cruises next year made me decide to go elsewhere. 5 days just isn't worth the travel time for us. We'd love the Voyager but only if the cruise was longer.

RCI we'd like a longer Bermuda cruise please!

[tinker]

[quote name='bicker']Given that they've made their decision based on their expertise and professionalism, what else would you have them say?[/QUOTE]

I myself would love to hear them say "that due to all the complaints they have gotten in regard changing the Bermuda itinerary to 5 nights, they are proud to announce that the Empress of the Seas AND the Enchantment will be doing 8 night cruises to Bermuda for the 2006 season!!!!"

[bUU]

So it seems that given that they've determined that that isn't in their best interests, the answer they gave was the best one they could have given.