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0917182150.mp4 0917182150.mp4 ....and now the highlights from yesterday!! After our breakfast stroll we made our way to the beach pool to relax. This is our first summer cruise and was glad for partly cloudy skies cause that sun was hot! After a couple hours of time we moved to the shade of the solarium and again was again impressed with the layout of the area on this class of ship. We average one drink a day so we pay per drink and had a wonderful surprise. We decide to split a pina colada and our bartender asked if we wanted two straws. As we waited I gave my sweetie a kiss or two and bam, two drinks appeared. It was a nice gesture that will be remembered for years. Lunch was at the Park Cafe and featured the made to order salad. Having the tongs not touched by thousands is a big plus. Later in the afternoon I hit the track which I can confirm is the best I have seen at sea. Being dedicated space on deck five makes its usable all day long and at 2.4 laps per mile limits the gerbil wheel feel of going around and around. A typical solid dining room dinner was followed by a set at the piano bar, the headliner show and then some funk by the ship orchestra at dazzles. The headliner was Savannah Jack and kept the almost full Opal hopping for about an hour. I was a tad disappointed in the funk set at dazzles cause a lead singer was missed. All in all relaxing sea day with good food and still overwhelmed with so many entertainment options at night. My mission today is to have a blast taking the "5 star tour" and pricing out the vodka and soda!

Waiting for the headliner show so just enough time to post a few photos from the OTS. Beautiful calm seas ahead of a port day at St. Thomas.

I am still new to this board but have read and learned so much over the past few months. Thank you all. Right now I am laying in bed on the 2nd day of an Eastern Caribbean itinerary. I have sailed Voyager and Freedom class before and was excited but worried about the size of this class. My verdict is in, Oasis class gets two thumbs up. Here are my observations from the first two days: - it's all about the width. The extra space creates venues that are not just larger but not pass throughs to other parts of the ship. Boleros and the Schooner bar are two examples much more self contained and pleasing. - Where are those crowds? The ship seems less crowded than the other two classes I have sailed. Using advice from you all, embarkation lunch at the solarium, Park Cafe for snacks, first night at a specialty restaurant and even using the Coke machine in the arcade all were great suggestions! - Entertainment... I liked Cats. The talent was top notch. Oasis of Dreams was terrific unique. Spent an enjoyable hour in the Schooner bar listening to the piano player. - Having the solarium in front of the forward elevators makes the whole area more peaceful. Again less through traffic compared to other classes. - Had a couples massage right at sail away from Port Canaveral. Got to say it was a great way to leave the stress at the Port. The one thing I can confirm crowding were the pools for a few hours. They seemed more like hot tubs with so many people in them. Tomorrow is the first sea day so I am looking forward to exploring more and trying out some other RCBlog tips. Feel free to share more! ?

I remember that!!!!!!! https://www.cnn.com/2013/12/17/travel/carnival-cruise-triumph-problems/index.html

You know it's bad when people go to the cashier and ask to change a 5 dollar bill.

Found it... Episode 245 Email from Christine Around 48 minutes into podcast

I don't deny kids can behave badly. But I also have seen far more annoying drunk adults on cruises than loud children.

Everything is going just as I planned!

Thanks, it's nice to e back. Cold beer, warm showers and the RC Blog.

My wife and just completed a breakfast stroll through this ship to sample many of the possibilities. Here we go... First stop at 7:30 was the Solarium Bistro. Wonderfully quiet and sat outside while having the basic buffet spread. Two thumbs up for the vibe and the view. A thumbs down for the coffee from the coffee drinker who said it was way to dark. Next up was the Park Cafe that was not crowded and very peaceful. The coffee was much better and noted the bagels and 3 types if cream cheese for tomorrow. We did grab a muffin and sat outside in the park watching people, workers tending to the plants and even a real bird who must have hicrhed a ride from Port. Now to Boardwalk at 8:30 and that must have been Johnny Rockets opening as there was a line of 20. I assume they would be seated fast and we may try it another day for the made to order food. Lastly was the Windjammer and there were still seats open but much louder and busier than the three other places combined. Now the hard choice, were to find the right setting to lay out. So many choices! I love this ship!!

"Poop Cruise" - awful to be on, but a great band name. Maybe Pablo Cruise missed an opportunity.

I was on Liberty in July, the Captain would only commit that liberty would be in Galveston through 2020 but not beyond, this was announced at the Top Tier event, I asked the Suite Concierge and he would not comment any further either. I agree with @Oliver , I don't think filling the ship will be a problem, I have been on 4 cruises out of Galveston at different times of the year and between Navigator and Liberty I have never seen a ship sail even remotely not at 100% capacity. I did try and get a hotel on a Memorial day weekend and the rooms were getting scarce, so I just stayed in Houston, where I normally do for business and then had a nice 50 minute drive down to the port Sunday morning (About the only time driving in Houston is not hectic).

Just remember, it could always be worse. I have some friends who just went on a cruise earlier this month on the Carnival Triumph. I don't think they knew that that ship was the host of the infamous "poop cruise" in 2013.

EEEWWWWWWW!!!!!

@Matt has written about the Hallowe'en festivities in previous blog posts, you can find them all here. ? Have a great cruise, I love this holiday too!

I think @Nancymc may have been either referring to Serenade of the Seas (12 night Southern Caribbean cruise scheduled on October 28th from Boston) or Symphony of the Seas (12 night Transatlantic cruise from Barcelona on October 28th). (Sorry, I got nosy and googled LOL.)

Without paying anything more? That's astronomically unlikely these days. I've been on this blog for a bit over a year and a half, and in all that time I've only seen one person post that the "upgrade fairy" came along and gave a truly free upgrade like that. The best I've seen of late is where some people will get a call from Royal offering an upgrade for a nominal rate (say, a couple hundred to go from a regular balcony to a JS, instead of the more-typical several hundred dollars difference). The days of free upgrades and last-minute deep discounts on unsold rooms are pretty much done and gone, especially on newer ships like Oasis that are still very popular and continue to sell out on every itinerary. If you want a free or very cheap upgrade post-final payment date, you'll have much better luck on the smaller / older ships that have lost some popularity to their bigger brethren. And even then, if it's a popular itinerary like the western Mediterranean or a leaf-peeping cruise to Canada and New England, you still won't be likely to score anything.

I was leaning towards fjords. The constant struggle between me and my wife is that she is a beach/ocean kinda gal and I prefer the mountains. We cruised out of Barcelona in May, which was amazing. All of you headed out in a few weeks are going to love it! Plus, it won't be so hot, which is a plus. The highlight for our family was the Leaning Tower, words can't describe how cool it is to see in person. The one thing we wish we had was a mulligan for Rome, when we went there we were on a not great shore excursion (and the kids were tired and grouchy by the time we made port there). So that is the big draw for us about doing the Med cruise- and I think I'd like to check out a bigger ship with more offerings.

Abe is awesome!! We had him on the 1st Thanksgiving cruise on the Harmony in 2016. Then we had him last year on the Freedom for 2017 Thanksgiving. And now again on the Symphony Thanksgiving cruise 2018!!!

"Fall"

It Has Been spotted that in 2020 that Serenade will be in Alaska In The Winter. Look Your Self https://www.portofastoria.com/Cruise_Schedules.aspx I Think It Will Do Alaska In The Summer And The Caribbean In The Winter. Like The Norwegian Bliss If You Think that will happen let me know

The metropolitan area has 6.5 million and is the 5th largest in the country. We won’t have any problem filling an Oasis class ship. The issue will be the money enlarging the port to accommodate it and who pays for it.

I got it for $10.79 a day too for Same time frame (Feb 14th cruise.

I got $10.79 for the President's Cruise and $11.99 for a T/A. Both were purchased on the same sale. Pretty safe bet to buy now.

I just purchased VOOM for my cruise that's 383 days out! ? That's a fluke if I've ever seen one...11.99 per day...better check your cruises out.

I have never seen it below $11.99 a day. I would grab it now and just monitor the price in case it goes down further, but I doubt it will. I just purchased it at that price on my upcoming cruises in April and July

You can cancel and re-book if you see a better price. $11.99 is a good price. I booked mine as well for April 2019

@kjw83 Buy it now and you can cancel later if it drops for below what you've paid. That's as low as I've seen it go.

A Quantum Class ship in Southampton: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/02/07/royal-caribbean-ceo-confirms-quantum-class-ship-coming-southampton

In my experience, pretty easy. The key is not to wait to the last minute. If you make reservations on the first day, you should have little to no trouble getting what you want.