OCSC Mike

I like extra free stuff, lol. I make good use of the coffee machine but I'd use that for an iced coffee if allowed.

The same thing exists here in the US. It’s not limited to “3rd world countries.”

My bad, The physical climate is pretty crappy too.

Not sure but I've seen several people mention not seeing it so it's very possible.

As I've mentioned before (having stayed in Sky Class all of one time until next month makes it twice), nothing against our GS on Harmony, it was very nice, but we appreciated the perks far more than the room itself.

I'll second this recommendation. We had an all day personalized tour planned with Rony in 2019 but sadly the ship could not dock in Roatan due to high winds. We plan to use him again when we're ready for a re-do. We communicated with him quite a bit ahead of time via e-mail.

Hey stranger. I believe happy hour will be 4:30-7:30.

They also want to maximize the number of passengers visiting CocoCay as that generates a lot of revenue for them.

FWIW, I had success calling C&A for status updates when it took 5-6 months to get the block I earned last June. It did arrive in about 5-6 months as I was told.

I don’t think it’s odd. Because everyone is different, as you correctly mentioned, that’s really impossible to answer. We cruise pretty frugally and do most of our spending pre-cruise (internet, specialty restaurants, etc.) So our typical final bill is almost nothing. My advice is to think about what you, personally, might spend $ on once onboard & make a rough budget. Food or drink you haven’t pre-booked? Shopping? Charge casino to your room? Bingo? I spend so little onboard that I’m probably forgetting stuff but you get the idea.

Thanks, one follow-up question. Not the best comparison given that Icon is the first of its class, but were its prices inflated from the jump or does RC not take advantage of the increased demand?

Oh come on, it's nice here for at least 3 or 4 weeks a year.

@twangster I'm assuming you're a good person to ask. How does booking go when a new ship's inaugural sailing is released? Do cabins fly like Taylor Swift tickets? Are TA's waiting to grab a bunch of cabins? Are they already given a block of cabins? Is it not as crazy as I'm envisioning? I'm just asking out of curiosity, not trying to make any trade secrets public. Any sort of cliff notes version would be fine. TIA.

Welcome! I had given up hope on anyone else actually on this sailing posting, lol.

So I popped into my cruise planner today for the March 2024 cruise I just booked yesterday using MEI for the first time and unexpectedly found some OBC. I had no idea where it came from as OBC was never mentioned by my new TA. I was actually afraid it was an IT glitch b/c I have the same exact amount sitting in my cruise planner for my cruise next month. It turns out it was indeed a surprise from the TA. I was already happy with my experience... now I'm even happier. Just thought I'd share.

You can also do this by clicking on "add a cruise" at the bottom of the main page of your account that lists your future cruises.

I don't check Europe prices but judging by Florida pricing, I'll believe anything these days. By dumb luck, the numbers worked out in our favor this time. After our June 4th cruise we'll be exactly 7 points from D+. Unfortunately we may not be able to cruise again until next March but we'll see.

Lots of similarities here... We have one specific home base that we always grab at Cococay. Think we've been in that spot ever since our first visit. It wasn't until our most recent trip that we took a walk in the morning (after securing out home base) b/c my wife didn't feel like snorkeling and found a short nature walk way out by South Beach. Nothing overly exciting other than a rooster who wasn't happy to see us based on the noises he was making, lol. We haven't been to Labadee in forever. I've seen one or two itineraries that do go to both there and Cococay but they're not that common and might have been 5-night cruises or something. I could definitely see doing something like that. SL is 11-11 beer, wine, hard seltzer, soda, water. Then every night is a 3-hour open bar happy hour from like 4:30-7:30 with the snacks/appetizers. I tend to head there around the start of happy hour and just have my snacks and drinks until dinner. My wife mostly uses her vouchers for virgin drinks and even then doesn't always use all 4 and I'm not a huge drinker so we've never gotten the DBP. Definitely no need for it with the suite perks. We'll be 7 points away from D+ after this cruise, then it's 10 vouchers and I'll have to make sure to drink more. The only specialty restaurant we're going to is Mason Jar for brunch just b/c it's unique to Wonder and the menu looked good. Also, my SIL booked it without really asking anyone but me so no one had much say in it, lol. We'll pop into Playmakers but that's not exactly specialty. We had burgers for dinner there multiple times on Independence and loved them. I'm a big fan of a couple drinks there too and my BIL has never been on a ship with one so he definitely wants to go. The whole college thing must be a big change. I can't relate of course but totally makes sense that you'd want to hit pause until you see what things are like.

We did this when we were 4 points away from Diamond. Hopped on the cheapest 4-night cruise we could find since we live an hour from PC before going on our next longer cruise on a bigger ship.

Realizing that our nieces could just let themselves into our cabin from the balcony last year was also super cool, before we found the extra deadbolt type lock. We were able to move some stuff around even once on board that way. I'm sure you'll be fine. We're mostly staying on the ship besides Cococay. The OTW cabana we had last year was amazing and I'm sure this one will be great too. And the beach club food is very good. That said, I'm just as happy stuffing myself with tacos, chicken sandwiches, and funnel cake while sitting by the Oasis pool there without spending a penny besides tipping for my D drinks, lol. We went to CocoCay twice in 7 days in July and once in November. I'm not even a big beach/pool person but we love it there. The rest of the family is pretty content to just enjoy the suite neighborhood and ship amenities so we're saving excursions for when we do Western again (tentatively June 2024). We haven't made it to Nachi Cocum yet either but that's the plan for Cozumel next time. I'm sure it's great! We did a small all-inclusive beach club in Costa Maya in 2019 (Nohoch Kay) and had a good time. Unfortunately we couldn't dock in Roatan b/c of high winds and that really put a damper on that cruise. We had never been there before (still haven't) and had a private tour all planned out to see a bunch of stuff. My wife even collected a large duffel bag of school supplies to donate to a local school in the tour operator's hometown (one of our planned stops). She wanted to see monkeys and hold a sloth of course but we enjoy seeing some of the non-touristy areas in certain ports. So that will also be on the next trip there. We can have a good time never leaving the ship (besides Cococay), especially with a suite on Wonder, but it's time for some excursions after this, lol. I just finished booking Eastern on Wonder for next Spring Break. I used someone from MEI for the first time and he had a much better rate than I could get myself. My wife likes snorkeling and I'm OK with it when paired with a boat that serves food and drinks (noticing a trend yet?) so I'm just finalizing stuff like that for St. Martin and/or St. Thomas.

Yep. I've moved on from what I used to consider "good" deals to what I now deem "acceptable" deals. Not having to fly certainly helps in my case and we're not ready to stop cruising (I just booked one today for next March) but it's certainly an adjustment.

@Neesa Yeah, as much as I enjoy pre-booking rather than booking via the app on boarding day like RC was doing after the restart, this was a bit hectic. I knew the family wanted to eat in CK every night around 6 but we're ages 9-70+, lol, so 10pm and later shows are out (other than when we go to adult comedy with my BIL/SIL and my wife's parents take my young nieces back to the cabins). Fortunately I had a little blank chart ready to fill in and I'm a math/logic puzzle guy so I think I did a pretty good job. My sister-in-law did the planning last year but she had plenty of time to plan b/c of the booking onboard policy and having the show schedule sent from the suite concierge. I've read many different stories about shows opening up at all different times but never one like yours. I'd keep checking frequently if your schedule allows. Sorry to hear about all the stuff you went through with the other family and the kids. Hopefully you can put all that behind you and enjoy the cruise! Don't be nervous about that many people. My wife is a teacher so we sail almost exclusively in the summer with full ships and lots of kids. It's never bothered us but we're used to it and don't have kids of our own so when it's just us, we tend to hang out in areas kids wouldn't. It's not really to avoid them, we just prefer the Solarium to the main pool (I need shade not sun), we don't need to go on water slides, we don't spend a ton of time on the Boardwalk, etc. Other than the main pool area, Oasis class is so big and spread out that it really doesn't feel insanely crowded, even at full capacity. We joked about Royaling Up to get away from the rest of the family but if you saw over in my roll call, we have 3 GS's right next to one another so it was never really an option. But yes, the prices were up there. The price my FIL paid for the GS's was high enough to begin with. Your CLS looks amazing. I've seen videos; that's as close as I'll get. We had an amazing time last May on Harmony in a GS for the first time, loved the perks even more than the room (CK, SL, sun deck, etc.), but we're very frugal when it's just us. We stopped getting balconies a while ago when we realized we barely used them and are perfectly content with an interior. We'd rather spend the extra money on excursions or another cruise. Everyone has their preferences. Apologies for how long-winded this was. I get that way on forums but this was pretty long even for me.

Thanks for taking pity on my empty roll call. I'm responding in yours so I'll cut this response short and ramble over there.

Amazing how quickly prices have skyrocketed. PC had $129 4-night Indy cruises as recently as October in the GGG sale. I fully expected Wonder to be a bit overpriced as the newest ship (for now), but the other ships are up there too. Everyone just has to decide if the new prices are worth it to them or not.