OCSC Mike

Hey @Dawn G., welcome to the forum! The above post should answer most of your questions. You CAN just show up for the shows, there's always a standby line, but it's easier/better to have reservations. If you have any other questions, fire away.

Before. No dining discount until you hit D+, then you get one BOGO dinner per person.

As someone who grew up outside of Philly I can tell you that good/authentic ones are hard to find in other parts of the country. On the ship? Stay away. While nothing is likely to be a super high quality or perfectly authentic version, other things (like key lime pie or hot dogs) are good enough to try, IMO.

We were there in October and it was similar... almost too quiet... but very peaceful. You assume correctly... unlike one YouTube video I watched before our first trip there in which the woman commented on how expensive everything was, lol.

GL @Neesa! We generally just blow through our free play on whatever machine speaks to my wife... then she actually hit some small jackpot and cashed out $90 on Wonder last June and then $80 on Allure in October. Back to nothing in March but that's what we expect. I know it was Press Your Luck on Allure, not sure what she played on Wonder... possibly Little Shop of Horrors? She'll usually pick out something related to pop culture or something with an animal theme. NOTE: This isn't advice, just sharing anecdotes. I spent plenty of time playing blackjack in my younger years but haven't gambled on a cruise in forever. I used to go play for an hour to kill time if my wife was taking a nap... nowadays I'm more likely to just go get some more El Loco Fresh and a margarita.

Post-cruise add-on vacation or are you just flying home from MCO for whatever reason?

Not necessarily... someone could cancel, someone in an OS could Royal Up to a higher level suite freeing one up, etc. Your chances of winning are always going to be very low but not ZERO.

Yes. It was either included in the price you saw or 18% was added when you went to purchase it. From the Cruise Planner... For ships with the following venues, these are included with an additional surcharge: Izumi Hibachi/Teppanyaki — $15 surcharge. Chef's Table — $49.99 surcharge.

She says to someone who just posted it on a public internet forum.

If you specifically booked an OCEANVIEW BALCONY GTY, that means you will be assigned an OV. You cannot be assigned a Central Park or Boardwalk Balcony. Those are not OV, those are considered NEIGHBORHOOD balconies and are less expensive. Once you are assigned your OV, you can request to switch to any other OV in the exact same category. Different OV's have different sub-categories. 1D, 2D, 3D, 4D, etc. So if you get a 3D, you can only switch to another available 3D. Hope that clears things up.

So funny. This must be over 30 years old. My wife got it sailing as a kid with her parents.

I bet at least 90% of people would... strong likelihood that we're gonna be the 10% and not even bid, lol. My wife said she'd try a new cabin type for the heck of it (we've had OV balconies and a CP interior before) but she'd really only want the be in CP for the peacefulness and to possibly hear the music at night. I don't think she'd be happy with a Boardwalk Balcony if it was noisy. Some other possibilities aren't too appealing like getting a connecting room or being on deck 14. We're not picky but we do have SOME preferences. It's her call in the end. None of the above would really bother me that much but an unhappy spouse would.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

OK, guess it's only sorta new. I've never seen anyone mention it before.

That makes sense, when people were winning bids left and right and ships were far from full capacity. This one seems pretty odd to me.

Never seen anything like this before. There’s a promo that lowered the min bid on a Neighborhood Balcony for my June 2nd Wonder cruise from $150 to $30. I have an interior. Just sharing b/c it’s new and strange, not looking for bidding advice. Obviously on paper I should make a small bid even though balconies hold virtually no value to us.

Working for me... Windows PC with Firefox and Chrome.

If you booked a regular GTY (not an ocean view GTY) you will almost definitely be given either central park or boardwalk (but it could be an OV). You get no say whatsoever in which type or where it will be. That's the trade off for the less expensive GTY. What you can do (assuming you booked from North America) is request to be switched to any other cabin in your exact category once it is officially assigned (assuming any are still available).

Sorry to hear... unless I'm mistaken, that menu is just a mix & match of random MDR items from different theme nights. A mystery small menu would never work for my wife anyway but I'd be disappointed too. Our Utopia B2B's are over a year away but we already talked about using turnaround day for Mason Jar brunch. Switching topics... your mom's shenanigans are literally endless! You're such a good daughter in so many ways. I hope she realizes that.

In my subjective opinion, it varies greatly by ship & even by night on the same ship. Every night has a theme (you can see them in the app) & you will usually find about half the MDR menu for that night being served in WJ. We really enjoy the cook to order pasta/wok stations on ships that have those. I can’t tell you that you will like it better than lunch but the options change more from night to night based on the theme whereas breakfast/lunch repeat a lot of the basics everyday. Dinner has repeat basics too, of course, but the theme items will be very different.

100% agree with that. It’s not that I want to eat at 5:15, I just don’t trust MTD. Glad it’s worked well for you. We also like going to WJ after & will likely only eat in the MDR 4 out of 7 nights with our current routine so it works for us. We definitely don’t eat that early when we eat elsewhere. If/when that new middle traditional seating slot around 6:45 becomes available for booking pre-cruise, we’ll likely try to get that.

I hope that line works better than what I saw on Wonder in March. We came out of early seating on deck 4 and had to fight through a sea of people backed up to the elevators. I normally just request a 2-top by a window but I asked for deck 5 for next month to avoid it. Still don’t understand why fixed times vary from ship to ship, especially in the Caribbean (I could see Europe being later). Late seating on Wonder is 7:45pm now. I know it’s typical of RC to not standardize things like this across the fleet… I just don’t understand the logic (if there is any). OK, he’s fine, lol… and I bet he is. I was joking earlier. I certainly don’t wake up every single morning wanting a huge breakfast… then it passes of course.

Even your brother? Is he OK? I'm concerned.

I actually didn’t like it very much for a while & with my wife’s pickiness & sailing ships that had cook to order pasta/wok stations in the WJ, we kinda stopped going for a while. Ironically, it’s recently that I’ve found it better and my wife is OK with a handful of the menus… when so many people are posting about the decline in food.

Guess I’m getting double dessert on Italian night. I like the chocolate hazelnut cake (more like molten lava cake) but I’m sure I’ll like that too.