Hooper

I had initially booked a BTB on Odyssey of the Seas for this November, 2020 (which was cancelled) and now I have a BTB booked for November / December 2021. The cruises are 6 and 8 nights each. I usually do the prepaid gratuities when I book online or with an agent (all of these booking were done online myself). Given that RCL charges $14.50 USD per person, per day, the grats should be $174 USD for the 6 night sailings and $232 USD for the 8 night sailings. The reason I ask is that when I added the prepaid gratuities for all four cruises, I was charged $520.16 CDN (which is approximately $397 USD) per cruise. It was the exact same amount for all 4 cruises, no matter the length of the sailing. This works out to approximately $33 USD per person, per night on the 6 night sailings, and $24.80 USD per person, per night on the 8 night sailings. We're traveling with another couple on one of the sailings, and they had the exact same issue. When I phoned, RCL wasn't able to handle the math (or my explanation), so I just had them remove the prepaid gratuities entirely. Anyone else have any issues with prepaid gratuities on Odyssey of the Seas bookings? You might want to check...

I doubt they'd swap you over to another ship automatically. More likely just cancel the sailing. I'm in the same "boat" (excuse the pun). We have a BTB booked for November 28 and December 4, 2020, and I'm getting a little nervous. I may, in the next few days, book another sailing for the same dates (maybe Symphony), and then cancel it if Odyssey does end up being delivered on time, and use the credit for a future sailing.

I plan my next cruise... and browse through royalcaribbeanblog.com incessantly... :D

I think I'll stick with Oasis / Allure / Harmony... I love the fact that despite more then 5,000 guests, the ship never feels crowded. 6,000+ in a smaller ship? I guess it's workable...

Starting next year, 2016, Oasis will be departing from Cape Canaveral, to make room for Harmony. Allure will stay down in Fort Lauderdale... so that's something. Personally, I prefer Fort Lauderdale, but only because we usually spend a few days there before boarding. If you were just flying in, and boarding the same day, there wouldn't be much difference, although the bus ride from Orlando airport to Cape Canaveral is a little longer than the cab ride from Ft Lauderdale airport to the pier...

I've never been able to use this either... same as everyone else, I guess. With the number of discounts that are being offered nowadays, I don't imagine anyone books a cruise without at least some kind of offer or deal, so I guess I'll never use this. Besides, if the big wigs are selling their stock right now, maybe I should do likewise... :wacko:

As for the B2B question... I've had alcohol "accidentally" delivered at the end of the first week once, and then last year, they held it until the end of the second week. So, it's 50-50 whether you get it...

There's no cut off time for purchases as far as I know. If you want the alcohol delivered from the store to the ship, there may be a cut off time (usually 1-2 hours before the sailing), but otherwise, you can buy whatever you want while in port, and bring it back to the ship yourself (and then hand it over to staff to be stored until the night before departure, of course)...

I think Quantum is sliding over to China when the next one (Anthem) comes out, and I assume the new one will take Quantum's place in Bayonne. As for Oasis 3 / 4 ... who knows. Not sure what ports can handle them right now (Texas? New Orleans?). Might be seeing some port upgrades soon as well.

November 29, and December 6, 2014, back on Oasis for two weeks...

The helipad gathering on Oasis is worth it, it's normally a closed area, and it's neat to see the ship from a new perspective. I think it requires Platinum or Emerald level to participate.

I greatly prefer the standard dining, and enjoy getting to know new people and the wait staff during the week. I think this is a huge mistake, personally, and wish that they would have left some form of the standard dining behind when they did this. I also enjoyed not having to plan everything out, and one of the luxuries of a cruise is that the dining was something I didn't have to think about, just show up at the same place, at the same time every day, and enjoy a great meal. I'm going on Oasis for two cruises this month, and was happy to hear it won't be instated unti May, 2015. Next time, I may go back to Freedom or a smaller ship.