Todd W

awesome, thank you sir!

I'll have to follow suit with our first ever cruise (Mariner back in '13 I believe. Was her last tour in the US before heading out to Asia at the time. Oh to be young and clean shaven once again lol

@WAAAYTOOO our LoS sailing is April and it dropped to $44 a few weeks back. keep an eye out, i'm guessing once you hit within 90 days that price may pop up again for you hopefully.

Galveston can handle it. while not as big as RC Oasis class, Breeze always seems to be filled up and later this year (or maybe it's moved already) Vista will be porting out of Galveston also

when are you sailing? Thats the same room and ship i'm looking at in April 4 '21

thanks everyone. sounds like this may well be possible for the other 4 people involved. Hoping they jump in on it because thats the only way we can afford it right now lol

yep i got ours on the buy one, get one 50% off a few weeks back which i think netted the cost to $49pp. a week or two ago, it dropped again to $44pp so i dropped and repurchased. Seems to be trending for people who are at 90 day mark or less before setting sail.

For me, any deal i can get is always great however if it comes with stipulations or time restrictions, i have to take them each on a case by case basis. As an example, If i'm relegated to getting a great deal for spec dining but can only use it on certain nights and/or at certain times, more often than not, i'll pass on the savings so as to not be bound by their schedule. I'd rather pay full price and go when and where I'd like. The more relaxed the stipulations are, the better chance i'll take at jumping on an offer (or putting in a bid in this case) for a package deal.

we took our 2 boys a few years back on their first cruise. they were 12 & 14 at the time and i was of course concerned about letting them have time of their own. However we found a plan that worked great for us. I made sure both kids had cheap watches before the cruise for starters. First day on the ship our plan was check back in with us ever 2 hours. We made sure they knew where we would be and where they would would be at any given time, within reason. If we changed our schedule or if they changed location, we left each other sticky notes on our cabin room mirror. The primary rule we set in place for them, if at any point you missed check-in times with us, they were going to be attached to our hip for the rest of that day as well as the next. Surprisingly, we had no issues what so ever. kids generally checked in earlier than expected and because of their extra "freedom", we found that in a lot of cases, they would find us and hang out with us for a bit. as each day proved to be successful, we would ease up on the check in times and give them a little bit more freedom. Our kids had a blast, we had some awesome, worry-free adult time and still had plenty of family time as well. system worked great and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

awesome post @twangster, thanks for putting it all in great a perspective that i've never considered before

yeah thats been my problem. regardless of what the rooms sleep, i can't plug in anything except 4 people.

i know this is very vague but does anyone have any idea what the cost for 6 people in a star class 2 bedroom aquatheater suite would run? for example I know i can price 4 on Oasis in '21 for 2,300 pp (roughly 9,700 base price before taxes and what not). I haven't reached out to MEI because i'm just trying to do some fact finding to see if it's even feasible for the other 2 couples. best case scenario given maximum advanced reservation (2ish years ahead of time)

I wonder if its too much to hope for her to port out of Florida in which case may pave the way for an Oasis class to shuffle over to Galveston for the new terminal ?

love the name as loosely translated to mean epic voyage. very cool!

House is typically bottom shelf stuff. Call is choosing the exact brand of liquor going into the drink. Glenfiddich and soda instead of a bottom shelf scotch and soda. Kettle One dirty martini instead of unknown vodka as a few examples. I would imagine from a cost perspective, CALL liquor would be much more expensive on a ship. i would certainly inquire but it really depends on what the people invited will drink.

I totally agree. i have no issues at all adding something extra, usually to keep my drinks on the stronger side. hah! I was just more concerned about my perception of the package rules which has been alleviated. I shouldn't make assumptions of anything cruise related without 2 cups of coffee first.

Awesome, thanks Joe. I figured as much but i've had too much time idle time on my hands today at work and some of what i've read just made me overthink it all. appreciate the quick reply.

Our April cruise on LoS will the first time we've had the deluxe drink package. I was just curious, since the drink package includes grats into the total price of the package, I won't be charged extra for grats on a $12.00 "max limit" drink will I ? Thought process being, with the addition of gratuity on a $12.00 drink, it will make the final price $14.16 @ 18% . I'm assuming not because thats double dipping but just wanted to be sure.

absolutely! i'm a huge fan of all things from Buffalo Trace. Thats a great sipping bourbon, never tried it mixed in a drink. I got hooked on Bulleit when we went to NOLA and haven't tried anything else in my Old Fashioned's since.

I've recently renewed my love of whiskey. I can't get enough Bulleit Rye Old Fashioned's with raw sugar instead of syrup, luxardo cherries if available served neat.

Check over on that other site. I found old posts from people who were on that cruise with you. might try asking them if they have them.

@deany welcome and congratulations! First cruise is a biggie! Lots of excitement and lots to prepare for. many of us have our RC bookings switched over to the blog partner MEI-Travel, i along with many others highly recommend @michelle Gives us the more personal touch and never has me worried about any price changes that may save me money or timelines and such. I'm happy to leave it all in her hands.

as long as the bar is stocked appropriately, you can essentially order any drink from any of the bars. Chocolate martini's are pretty much a staple drink so you shouldn't have any issue on any of the ships. it may not be on the menu at all bars but you can certainly still ask for them to make you one.

as i understand, it can "sell out" but reappear again later

any feed back on Jeff Arpin? we are cruising in LoS in 90 days. our group of 8 is planning on hamming it up for the 70's party and saw he doesn't participate. General consensus between a few of the forums is most who've had him as CD aren't looking forward to him coming back. I hope it won't be a total flop