OCSC Mike

27 minutes ago, RafaellaCG said:

I tried through the website but it quotes a different price.

There are a limited number of cabins available at the GGG prices. It could be that what you wanted is no longer available. Have you called RC?

I booked a GGG price online last week just as I would any other cruise.

14 minutes ago, USFFrank said:

This may sound crazy to most readers here

Doesn't sound crazy to me. Everyone has their preferences.

Not checking out every included food venue for each applicable meal/time and/or not trying more things before it's too late.

Caveat: The food is a big part of cruising for me if you couldn't tell.

1 hour ago, Adriana said:

Does anyone wear their pin? I hear different perspectives on this. If I were a pinnacle (one day!), pretty sure I would wear it out of sheer joy! Gotta admit, I am pretty excited about my first Diamond cruise coming up. 

I don't even remember getting a pin for Diamond.

Getting close to D+, won't be wearing that pin if that's a thing.

1 hour ago, Adriana said:

The vouchers can now be used anywhere, not just DL. 

Ashley meant if you're in the DL and you order drinks, they will count towards your vouchers. The poster was asking if there were still complementary drinks during happy hour in the DL outside of the vouchers... which of course there are not.

20 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

They also love the shallow shelf in the Oasis pool and also the beach entry shallow waters!

They sure do.

I learned last trip that there are pretty large iguanas in the trees/bushes on that island by the submerged bench in the pool. One came out to hang by the edge of the pool for at least an hour.

Wild chickens running around too of course (I won't make the standard chicken sandwich joke).

Lots of fun wildlife on both land and sea there.

10 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

The taco bar at PDCC is the main reason I get off. The fresh tortillas and option make it a must for me, even over the crispy chicken sandwich. The only thing is the seagulls are aggressive and will try to steal your salsas.

The aggressive seagulls bring back fond memories for me of summers at the Jersey shore, especially if they're going after my funnel cake, lol.

Last visit they were landing on top of the lounge umbrellas in the entire section by the pool we prefer to sit at.

You do not want 4 adults in a standard balcony cabin. It's crowded with 2 adults and 2 children.

3 hours ago, tonyfsu21 said:

Ok, so I haven’t really spent much time outside the beach club at Coco Cay but I must say the Taco Bar is on point! The ingredients are fresh and the tortillas were piping hot. Excellent selection of fresh condiments and including a variety of sauces. This is a must try! A+

Agreed, huge fan! The fresh tortillas are a very nice touch.

Favorite dessert hack in that area... take 2 of the chocolate chip cookies to the soft serve ice cream machine and make an ice cream sandwich... then eat it at an unhealthy speed before it melts.

I hope you also found one of the Snack Shacks. Excellent chicken sandwiches, mozzarella sticks, and amazing funnel cakes.

I enjoyed the Beach Club food when my generous in-laws got us a cabana a few months ago but I'm just as happy stuffing myself with the above mentioned food at no extra charge.

14 minutes ago, Ramja said:

Do they still have the ability to set your preferences?  I can't find anything on the website now. You used to be able to find it under your profile.

If they do, you likely have to call in. Same as how you can't change your welcome gift/beverage preference online anymore and you have to call in.

Not that I’m D+ (getting there), but this sounds like the pre-RoyalUp “upgrade fairy.”

Years ago I vaguely remember choosing that I would accept free upgrades but I thought that was essentially replaced by RoyalUp.

1 hour ago, steverk said:

I have a sailing scheduled for September on Radiance.  As far as I can tell, we will be the only ship at Coco Cay.  So not many people in port.

The Chill Island cabanas are currently listed at $699.

That's even better than Indy being the only ship, although anytime you're the only ship there, you'll find tons of empty space.

To answer the question...

Indy 10/24/22 (only ship on Cococay) - $699

Wonder 6/4/23 (only ship) - $1299

Did I mention above how wildly the prices can vary?

17 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Is that 50% off beer and wine by the glass? Is that unlimited for the cruise or a certain amount? 

It's 2 coupons for the entire cruise (per person of course).

Be aware that cabana prices vary wildly depending on season, how many ships are on Cococay that day, etc. Here's an extreme example...

I just booked an Indy cruise for October during which we'll be the only ship on Cococay that day (very excited about this, even though we had no problem being there on Indy along with Freedom twice last month). An over the water Beach Club cabana is $1499, and the beach version is $999. These are actually very low prices for Beach Club cabanas given that they come with lobster, filet mignon, etc. On a family cruise booked for June 2023, those cabanas are currently $3799 and $2499 respectively.

1 hour ago, Bob_KY said:

One reinforcing comment to @Swar and @OCSC Mike - Girdwood was fantastic.  A must is dinner at 7 Glaciers Restaurant. 

I had read about 7 Glaciers. We're not fine dining people except for special occasions but I know it's highly regarded. We actually ate at 2 inexpensive local places in the downtown area. Once was very good, the other not so much. It was fun and interesting to be amongst the locals though. As I mentioned, it's a very "interesting" place beyond the tourists.

12 minutes ago, Kathleen said:

Pursuit Travel

That's the company I referenced above. Wasn't sure if it was OK to mention them by name.

Could not have had a better experience.

17 minutes ago, Swar said:

Denali was incredible. Saw a moose deliver twins. The Ranger dog area was pretty neat also. The road to the cabins has been washed out and it may be a couple of years to repair it. Flying to the cabins is the only known option. We had clear views of Mt. Denali for a lot of the train ride up - beautiful.

Your moose encounter beats mine. That's amazing. We stayed one night in the front of the park after two nights in the back. We took the shuttle into Glitter Gulch (I think that's what they call the town part with the lodges, stores, restaurants, etc.) and while talking to another couple on the way, our driver slammed on the brakes. By the time we could look up a mama moose and her baby were running away from us across the busy road.

It's a shame about the road being washed out. We enjoyed the bus ride, as long as it was. Saw tons of animals including a mama grizzly and her two cubs. On our way back out, in the early AM, we had an entire bus to ourselves plus one lodge employee who was hitching a ride into town for supplies, but he went to sleep in the back so it was just us and the driver. He was nice enough to ask us if we wanted to skip any stops and/or spend extra time at others to just let him know. We wound up with four free Denali travel mugs and that's what I bring on every cruise now for my extra large cappuccinos to go from the DL/SL.

24 minutes ago, Swar said:

We did a 6 day DIY before our cruise out of Seward in May. Landed in Anchorage, took a Uber to a BNB (recommend you stay as close to downtown as possible), Did a Princess Train the next day to Denali, stayed two nights in a Princess Hotel there. Then train back to Anchorage, Uber to Girdwood for two days. Then train to Seward the day before cruise. Train fare was @$600 total. Did not go up to Fairbanks, but the train does go there.

P.S. Girdwood was my favorite. Best restaurant I've ever been to and the Alyeska Ski Tram is incredible. We stayed in BNBs and not the resort there.

https://doublemuskyinn.com/

https://www.alyeskaresort.com/

https://girdwood.com/

 

We stayed in the Alyeska resort, it was indeed beautiful.

Went into the actual town of Girdwood twice, that place is a trip! Our glacier hike guide called it "Weirdwood" and we immediately understood. We actually did our laundry at a laundromat there that was attached to a marijuana dispensary, lol (it was roughly halfway through our 18-day trip). Some of the the locals we met were, ummmm, let's say interesting.

Staying in the lodge in the very back of Denali (end of the road, 93 miles in or whatever) was a huge highlight. It's very cool back there (albeit pricey) and flying around Mt. Denali was amazing.

In 2018 my wife and I did 10-days DIY* on land traveling from Fairbanks down to Seward, all by train, followed by a 7-night Southbound cruise to Vancouver.

*An outside company spent a year planning the trip with my wife and our final itinerary was revision #57 or something.

Granted this was an over the top trip (length and budget-wise for us) for our 40th birthdays but I will give my general opinion to spend as much time on land as possible and do it before the cruise. I have nothing against the cruise ports but our biggest highlights came during the 10 days on land.

9 minutes ago, Vlad said:

Can you use this diamond drink vouchers during dinner? Main Dining room? 

And they are good for anything?

Specialty coffee as well? 

Yes to MDR, yes to coffee. Anything up to $13 (and if you go over you can just pay the difference).

There are only a couple venue exceptions, Bionic Bar and somewhere else.

36 minutes ago, brdjnr said:

At any rate, I (think I) fully understand the JS is basically a big balcony cabin.  However when I was booking, the price difference in a balcony cabin and JS was $2 CHEAPER total before gratuities.  Am I missing something?

I've come across pricing that doesn't make sense before. I doubt you're missing something.

I'm considering an Indy cruise next month and picking my own promenade view is cheaper than an interior guarantee... and it's been like that for a while. Just some sort of goofy inventory/algorithm thing I assume.

P.S. You also get double points for your "big balcony cabin."

In 2018, wife and I both bought inexpensive lightweight hiking boots from Amazon that looked more like sneakers... and we spent 10 days on land before our cruise and did quite a bit of hiking including in Denali, on a glacier, as well as dog sledding up on another glacier in the mountains. Plenty of walking around various towns on concrete, trails, etc. Wore them on the ship as well.

They were basically sneakers with extra tread (waterproof of course) and it looked just like we were wearing sneakers with jeans. Wore them for all 18 days of the trip.

WJ has dinner on every ship afaik.

20 minutes ago, alibobali said:

ah yes, pre-breakfast -- i refer to it also as "first breakfast" to be honest, the coffee is usually an afterthought for me, since i am that psycho who travels with their own cold brew and will have some before departing the cabin in the morning -- but this is good to know. i noticed that the coffee machine was offline a few times when i had gone early in the morning last time we sailed on oasis, but i figured i was just there too early for signs of human life

the big espresso machines make me nervous for that reason; i worked at starbucks for many years prior to getting into retail and into the tech field now and the thought of everyone being able to just punch whatever combination of keys in kind of blows my mind. then again, i am the type a/control freak person who makes their own coffee, so maybe i am not the right person to advise on this the automatic machines are so finicky and have so many things that can set them off -- it is definitely a treat to use them but they can throw error codes so easily. (or maybe it's operator error for people like me haha)

Everyone has their preferences. I make cheap stuff with flavored creamer at home so anything the machine spits out is an upgrade to me. I'm not picky.

9 hours ago, alibobali said:

the diamond lounge is nice to visit in the early mornings; i used to get up early to exercise around 6 and then hit the DL on my way back to the cabin for a quick yogurt or fun pastry and coffee. it's not usually as overrun as some of the other elite lounges (or at least, it wasn't pre-covid, so take this with a grain of salt!) and typically is quite mellow and relaxing.

It's a ghost town in the early AM (based on Harmony and Indy over the past few months).

Be aware, not sure how long you exercise, but the coffee machine may not be prepped and ready until 7am and breakfast was put out later than it used to be on both my recent cruises.

My wife gets up even earlier than you to go running most mornings (yes, she's nuts) and my routine had always been to go to the DL for several early morning cappuccinos and a couple pastries (I call it pre-breakfast). I had to settle for my coffee at 7-ish on both ships.

One DL concierge told me HQ decided to not leave the coffee machine on overnight as they often had pre-covid b/c they found too many people were breaking it while it was unattended. Made no sense to me b/c it's on and unattended all day between breakfast and happy hour but oh well. Minor annoyance but I still enjoy my free cappuccinos.