OCSC Mike

9 minutes ago, Neesa said:

Oh, there's additional cost, you saw the inaugural pricing right? We just pre paid for the spread & experience!

Fair point... nothing additional to the additional then. Mason Jar costs additional on top of the additional.

You know I saw it, I had an interior on hold for myself and a highly desirable GS on hold in the hopes of freeloading... now someone else has that GS.

3 minutes ago, HeWhoWaits said:

But then there isn't the motion of the ship and the vast expanse of nothingness (our favorite view on board).

Everything's a trade-off.

9 minutes ago, HeWhoWaits said:

I disagree. Another sea day>>>Nassau.

Disagree b/c some people will get off in Nassau and leave the ship a bit emptier when you stay on.

16 minutes ago, Sweety said:

Mason Jar brunch is only on Day 1. I am going to the Windjammer for that awesome seafood brunch.

So jealous of that inaugural WJ spread.   Hope you all enjoy!

You know I love the Mason Jar brunch but not as much as steak and lobster and everything else at no additional cost.

Between the larger group and kids and itinerary, totally makes sense.

I really am looking forward to your review but my post was mostly for humor's sake. My CocoCay/Nassau cruises are 3/4 B2B's on Utopia and we're totally fine going to CocoCay twice and not getting off in Nassau.

I had a similar scenario to yours last October. We had a 5N CocoCay/Labadee itinerary but Labadee was changed to Cozumel due to weather so we wound up going to Nachi Cocom instead of spending nothing at Labadee. To make matters worse, we didn't love Nachi, but that's OK. It gave me an excuse to try Paradise Beach in Cozumel this summer.

40 minutes ago, HeWhoWaits said:

We're a perfect example - I enjoy D+ benefits rather than my "mere" Diamond because I'm tied to my wife's history.

Same deal here. Although we earned most of our points after marriage, she sailed with her parents several times as a kid while our honeymoon was my first cruise.

17 minutes ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

I’ll be there May 21st…stay tuned!  

Great, something else to potentially tempt me away from just staying on the ship and using my vouchers and eating the already included food (especially when I justified my CocoCay/Nassau cruises with the logic that we would be spending zero on excursions).

Looking forward to the review.

5 minutes ago, JFCruise said:

Is it just me, or is the RC login having issues? I have tried to log into the app (it kicked me out) and it stays in the logo spinning. The site does the same thing before giving an error message.

No issues logging into the website here and the app hasn't kicked me out.

45 minutes ago, Neesa said:

Just price so they sell out every sailing some profit is better than none.

Some have suggested the logic is to sell 10 at $3000 rather than 20 at $1500.

46 minutes ago, Neesa said:

I can't fathom the fact that the price doesn't include beverages, at least waters and soda as well. 

FWIW (not a ton, lol) they do include unlimited bottled water. There’s a large container of ice with a bunch of bottles waiting for you and your server will refill it upon request.

12 minutes ago, Neesa said:

May take a page from @OCSC Mike Oasis Pool, lunch and back on the ship for Coco Cay visit.

Spending extra time on the ship during an inaugural isn't the worst thing in the world.

We left CocoCay earlier than usual last month (lack of sleep and heat are a bad combo) but it didn't ruin our cruise of course. I won't let it happen again though, lol. Back to taking dips in the pool and sitting on the underwater bench under the palm trees where the big iguana lives for me!

4 minutes ago, Neesa said:

the things she brings

Well when you have enough luggage for three people... . I kid, I kid.

7 minutes ago, Carlos A. said:

How can you see the room capacity? I've always thought that the system only shows the rooms available based on the number of passengers that you selected previously 

Maybe he went back and just selected 4 passengers to check.

27 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

I still haven't decided if I'm going to bother to get off the ship

Some of us were eagerly awaiting pics of "unique Mexican goodies" but don't let that sway you.

18 minutes ago, ScottD said:

I thought I was the only one... not just on PDCC

Yep, same here. I don't have a super strong reason why when I'm indoors but I still get my own drinks.

I think the only time I really order from a server is if we're in the MDR and I didn't grab a drink to bring in (although the assistant waiter isn't really the same thing as a pool deck server) or if we're seated early for a show. Oh, and I order from our server at specialty dining but that's back to the MDR thing.

23 minutes ago, DDaley said:

a Notes app

Agreed. Exactly what I did for my long-winded live blogs.

26 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Also not team cup clip and I don't have FOMO lol

Where's the "Booooo!" emoji?

Then again, if you never leave your cabin...

4 minutes ago, Sweety said:

I tried the link. No to Mason Jar Brunch. 

Don't try the inaugural, you can see that from your actual booking. Here's August 2nd's 3N cruise for example, and brunch is there...

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/account/cruise-planner/category/dining?bookingId=000000&shipCode=UT&sailDate=20240802

This doesn't mean it will be available for the inaugural, of course, I was just saying that it does appear to be available on other 3N sailings so there's a chance it will be.

7 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

We liked Effectors II but once was enough.  I made reservations but doubt that we will go.

Funny you say that. I remember liking Effectors (not loving it) the first time we saw it. Like you, I reserved it for our 2nd Wonder cruise just for the heck of it and we wound up going... and for some reason we didn't like it that time except for the ending. Maybe b/c we had already seen it. Who knows?

Going forward, we'll only see Adult Comedy, the headliner depending on who it is, and possibly the ice show which we love but I'm not sure how many times I'll want to see it even though we loved it.

7 minutes ago, Sweety said:

@OCSC Mike@Neesa, I was able to book Mason Jar for dinner today. I wanted Brunch, but they are not offering it on the three day cruise.

Perhaps it isn't available yet or it's because it's the inaugural? I'd keep checking.

My wife and I were discussing this over the weekend since we have a few Utopia B2B's booked in the future. There's a tool someone from that other forum created that lets you see cruise planners for future cruises even if you're not booked and I saw brunch offered for whatever random 3N dates in August I chose. You can't see what days it's available but I'm assuming embarkation day since there are no sea days.

Here's the link if anyone is interested... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ukT6gOPcu7coL92LuDcyDaWXQfO88u5kN9FEdHRj5bM/edit#gid=0

You just have to enter the ship and date then use the links to look at whatever you want. Oh yeah, and YOU MUST BE LOGGED OUT OF THE RC WEBSITE to use it.

29 minutes ago, TexanTwoStep said:

Are you all talking about the Coco Beach Club?

Yes.

11 hours ago, WAYNO said:

Yep, get 'em reserved.  We just got off a cruise yesterday, and without reservations, we were unable to see any shows.  It wasn't for lack of trying.  The app was just uncooperative.  Gone are the days of just showing up. 

This isn't true in my experience. There are standby lines for every show. We had reservations for the ice show (my favorite) on Wonder the week before you sailed and decided to go on a different night. We showed up 30 mins before the show and walked right in (they let us in early for whatever reason, normally standby is let in 10-15 mines before the show). Adult Comedy is the only one that may be tough to get into standby b/c the venue is smaller.

11 hours ago, WAYNO said:

Fortunately, we were able to see the Aqua show and ice show, only because the C&A rep got involved. 

FWIW, other than comedy, you didn't miss a ton, IMO. We hated Voices and Effectors II has some neat special effects but it's kind of slow for most of the show and more geared towards families with the superhero theme. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Marvel fan, but it's not that.

5 hours ago, mAdCapper said:

I guess my point is I was on Navigator of the Seas and had no such issues with the bed.

Mattresses can vary on the same ship let alone from one ship to another. We had 3 different cabins on Indepedence in a 4 month span a couple years ago... one mattress was very hard, the other two were not.

1 minute ago, AshleyDillo said:

This is healthy, right?

Sure, it's seafood!

We sit by the Oasis Pool in between the Oasis Bar and Chill Grill. I used to walk up to the back of the Oasis Bar and it was busy but no real issues. 2 weeks ago I got my drinks from the little bar window inside Chill Grill and liked that better b/c it seemed like there was A/C in there so the frozen drinks were even more frozen. It was also less busy.

I'm not a fan of using servers, especially outdoors, between the wait and the melt factor but they are constantly walking past us and service seems reasonable there.

Hope that helps.

5 hours ago, Cruising_Figure_Skater said:

I'm sorry for how long this is, all my travel posts usually are, so please bear with me!

No worries. That's how my trip reports and live blogs have always been. You do you!

Being long-winded while doing a live blog was bothering me though (started to feel more like work and less like fun) so I forced myself to make a bunch of shorter posts with a few pics instead of long daily recaps for my recent one. The change was for me though, not anyone else.