OCSC Mike

22 minutes ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

It’s easiest to link when on the cruise planner.  Log in and pretend you are reserving something.  Click where it says to add a guest and it takes you to the screen where you need to put in the last name, birthday, and reservation number of the other person.  Once you add and click that room will be linked to you.  Do this until you have added everyone (well every room) and you are golden.

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.

16 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

If things go according to plan I'll be 2 points from D+ by mid-July. If only we had cheap 2 or 3 nighters here in Europe. Sigh... Can you believe tge 3-night Symphony cruise before her trans-Atlantic in October costs more than the 7-night itinerary in the couple of weeks before? Nearly $900 pp for the cheapest cabin!

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.

54 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

Or, since your location is Florida, look for the cheapest last-minute short cruise you can find (2, 3 or 4 nights) and one of you book it solo in an inside. That would give one of you the points you need for D+, and the other piggy-backs the status.

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.

19 minutes ago, Neesa said:

3 GS are cool, opening all those balconies up super cool.

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.

27 minutes ago, Neesa said:

I'm thinking when I receive the concierge email if I can't secure some earlier show times I will respectfully ask if they can reserve us the earlier times. 

We were able to move some stuff around even once on board that way. I'm sure you'll be fine.

28 minutes ago, Neesa said:

We are going to Nachi Cocum I'm Cozumel for the first time as everyone on this site raves about it! We have cococay club day passes we purchased last black Friday sale...the cabanas for the 3 of us are to pricey, I just can't do it. A party like yours makes so much more sense.

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.

18 minutes ago, teddy said:

I believe the age of cheap cruising is coming to an end.
 

We have two weeks at the end of May/beginning of June where we could take a cruise and were looking for last minute deals.   I think we’re still looking at prices through the “restart lens”.  It’s hard to justify paying both airfare and the cruise prices on such short notice.  Both have jumped substantially.  

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.

34 minutes ago, Neesa said:

@OCSC Mike OMG, thanks so much you made me chuckle! I'll talk to you for sure!! 8 people? You are brave. I think since you explained your experience maybe the earlier shows will open at the 30 day mark. I look forward to hearing about your experiences on the ship. I'm nervous about so many people. Funny, I was going to book the one you are on but we were sailing with another family (teens were tight) and they begged us to change the date so they could make it, thus 06/25 not my choice!!! Fast forward our schedules and finances are challenging (college around the corner) we almost canceled; kids had a falling out and now the other family did cancel. 

Thanks for the 411! Did you RUB? Were your offerings ridiculously high like ours? I hope for you an aging sailing!

@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.

22 minutes ago, Neesa said:

Yay, the suite neighborhood! We are in a CLS and will be doing #CK nightly. Curious and excited to hear about your experiences. We are staying the night before at the Residence Inn driving over from Tampa. You are going to gave thr best time.

 

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.

32 minutes ago, USFFrank said:

As much as I would like have more cruises listed on my upcoming sailings list, it's getting harder to justify the costs to do that.

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.

1 hour ago, Neesa said:

Happy check in day! I was fortunate enough to secure the 1030 slot. The shows are available to book but it's strange they display the times of the shows but will only allow you to book mostly the late shows. 2230 and later! Example, day 3 ice show 2030hrs & 2230hrs but only 2230 is available to book, do they hold back the early shows? Inquiring minds want to know. 

That's a new one. I'm on Wonder 3 weeks before you. All shows opened up for us 30 days out around 6:30am et or so and all were available b/c I was the one frantically booking everything for my extended family of 8.

P.S. I only popped into your roll call b/c I started ours and haven't had a single response, lol. I'm just talking to myself over there.

27 minutes ago, CruisingNewb said:

I'm American born and bred Asian. Can't use chopsticks if my life depended upon it.  I get the blunt of ridicule at every Asian restaurant I eat at.  So you are in good company! 

Hey, I can get by with my chopstick skills (not a fan of trying to shovel my rice though, lol), I just don't use them for sushi, which you told me was proper.

Have you tried searching a site like TripAdvisor?

On 5/9/2023 at 2:06 PM, twangster said:

They are not small.

Agreed. The RC definition of "small" has become quite skewed as larger classes were introduced. It's "smallER" than the bigger classes but by no means small.

We were looking at a cheap cruise on Enchantment just for the price... now THAT I would find small.

13 hours ago, Adpcruise1 said:

imessage works without the plan

Pretty sure that was just an unintentional glitch awhile back that has since been fixed.

I've also never used the chat feature in the app but people don't seem to like it. Something about not sending you push notifications like regular texting so you have to check for new messages manually. It was also hacked a week or two ago but that was apparently rectified.

6 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

I can check in my cabin mates as well as any linked reservations when I use the app, this is for picking arrival time.  after that each person can log in at their convenience and complete the check in process: papers, credit card #, contact info etc…

This is what we do for extended family cruises.

20 minutes ago, Levi is good said:

I tried to search this question online and on the board, can Discover card be used on the ships?  I know you can pay for a cruise with it.  

If you mean can Discover be used as the CC on file for your Sea Pass account... yes.

24 minutes ago, CruisingNewb said:

Not only is it acceptable to eat sushi with your hands, it is the traditional method to which sushi should be eaten.

That's kinda what I thought but I'm far from an expert. I just know I prefer nigiri to rolls but will take what I can get because my wife won't go near seafood, period, let alone raw fish, lol. She'll eat hibachi or tempura chicken so Japanese isn't totally off the table at least.

Thanks for the support.

17 minutes ago, tonyfsu21 said:

I agree re: Wonder. An icon class ship in PC will change everything! I realized over the past few years that I prefer PC to the other FL options (even though I live .5 miles from Port Everglades). I don’t mind the drive and my kids are young enough to enjoy a pre cruise vacation at Disney. I would really enjoy an Icon class ship option in PC!

Ha, talk about different strokes... I refuse to drive anywhere other than PC. The convenience is too appealing and that's with an hour drive. If I had a half mile drive...

Given your drive also involves taking kids to Disney (which is close enough to me that we hear the MK fireworks every night), that makes sense (not that it has to, we all like different things). I have sailed from Port Everglades twice although once was 21 years ago for my first ever cruise (honeymoon on Voyager when it was new-ish) so I barely remember it. PC does run smoothly.

I'm also not overly excited about Icon but I'll admit I've only glanced at it so I really shouldn't pass judgment.

44 minutes ago, tonyfsu21 said:

Yep, this does make sense. I personally would rather sail Utopia to St Maarten and enjoy an ice cold Dutch beer at Big Baastards beach club than only get a 4 day vacation on that massive ship. It’s all about revenue though at this point. 

You can do that on Wonder. They're not going to be all that dissimilar AFAIK.

Regardless, my main point is Utopia doing the short cruises just means PC will have 2 Oasis class ships doing the 7 and 3/4 instead of a smaller ship doing the 3/4. So unless there's something so unique on Utopia that would make someone take a short cruise (or a 3/4 B2B) just for the ship, it really doesn't affect someone like you (or me) who would prefer a 7-night Caribbean cruise.

Now when we wind up with an Icon class ship here, then things become different.

Wait, sushi isn't a finger food? Who knew?

1 hour ago, HeatherP said:

We sail December 30th and I am interested in when I will be able to find out which specialty restaurants will be open for lunch on sea days.  Has anyone sailed recently and can let me know?  

I'll be on Wonder in 3.5 weeks. Mason Jar has "brunch" on sea days (and embarkation day) that starts at 10am. Other options are Chops. Hooked, Izumi (both hibachi and traditional), and Giovanni's Kitchen. So basically all of them except 150 and Wonderland.

23 minutes ago, jticarruthers said:

after a few visits with 2 Freedom class on the island at the same time I am already leaning towards staying on the ship

To each his own. Our last 3 trips were with 2 Freedom class ships there and we had no issue with the crowds whatsoever.

Looking forward to being there alone on Wonder next month and possibly a couple more times next year.

35 minutes ago, tonyfsu21 said:

I still don’t see Utopia on 3 & 4 night Bahamas sailings. Seems like an absolute waste of a massive ship. If Wonder moves out of PC then Utopia does the 7 night PDCC & Caribbean routes IMHO. 

From what I've read, it actually maximizes revenue for RC. More people at Cococay and the prices for short cruises are already getting crazy on smaller ships.

I believe Disney also does well doing short cruises with some big ship out of PC so RC is following along.

It likely won't be permanent, but my impression is that it is almost a certainty that Utopia will be doing those short cruises to start.

I’m in the middle of using MEI for the 1st time myself. I almost always booked on my own over the years (unless I needed a TA for a certain sale rate) using last minute deals & GGG sales since we live an hour from PC & have flexibility at certain times of year.

Now that prices are a bit crazy, I decided to explore other options. I admit I am most interested in the pricing my TA was able to offer for this particular cruise (significantly below what I could get on my own) but so far the service via e-mail has been excellent as well.

I’ve already had him price what will likely be our next cruise after that. The price is only a tiny bit lower than what I could get myself but what’s interesting is I have always booked guarantees (we don’t care much about our cabin) so that’s what I use as my baseline price. Using the TA, I have been able to choose my cabin in both cases.

I’ll miss playing the GTY game (ok, maybe not) but even if his price is similar to what I would pay on my own, being able to choose my cabin is obviously worth something (maybe not as much to me as to RC according to their pricing) but definitely a benefit. If I compare apples to apples, his price for that next cruise is also a good amount less, just not as much as this 1st one.

On 3/31/2023 at 8:38 PM, ChallengeGal said:

made sure I had the info required to check in ready to go.  That was very important and expedited the process.

For future reference and for anyone else, you could have just chosen 10:30 in the app & gone back to sleep. You can fill out everything else later. The app saves your check-in time once selected.