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Thanks, @AshleyDillo! Will have to remember to do that, so I don't accidently order an expensive beer or bottle of water...

This is a major plus for my wife and I who will be sailing as Diamonds for our first time on Sunday! We prefer the "smart" drink menu anyway, including some frozen multi-colored ones we can enjoy by the pool...

Just wanted to get bloggers' suggestions for any entertaining cruise-themed reads they may have enjoyed onboard or while waiting (anxiously) to get back onboard again! I haven't perused much in the way of cruise-related books thus far, but thought it would be fun to load the kindle with a couple before our next trip. I hope this doesn't mean I have to provide a book report after our trip...

Thanks @Jax! Just was checking out a couple recent cruise compasses for Oasis that confirmed the same thing: Formal Nights on Days 3 & 6 for our itinerary. Looks like we'll have to adjust from our habitual Days 2 & 5 for formal nights... And book Izumi Hibachi for Days 4 or 5.

Makes total sense. But this is the first 7-nighter we've ever been on that doesn't have a sea day on Day 2 so I'm not sure what to expect. May need to dive into some recent cruise compass archives...

We have a W. Caribbean family cruise coming up on Oasis on Feb 6 (test kits have arrived and keeping fingers crossed!). Because Cocoa Cay is on Day 2, would this possibly bump the first formal night in the main dining room to Day 3? So maybe formal nights move to Days 3 and 6 (or 5) instead of the usual Days 2 and 5 on a 7-night sailing. Curious about this because we want to pre-book Izumi Hibachi for our family on a "regular" night...our family wouldn't want to miss the formal night menu in the main dinning room. Thanks!

We have really enjoyed Megan's Bay Beach on the north side of the island (opposite of where the cruise ship docks on the south side). It is easy to get a taxi (or open air buss) to the beach from the port. The ride offers some great views. Megan's Bay is not a resort, but it is an awesome beach and has a nice beach bar with lunch items.

Hi @Kvb! Our family is going on the Feb 6 Oasis W Caribbean cruise...fingers crossed. We also hope production shows will be back up and running by then. One of the first things we'll do when we hop on board is open up the app and reserve some shows. Fun to do when quaffing your first vacation beverage.

Thanks all for your feedback! We may consider Ft Myers to fly in/out of on a future cruise vacation with embarkation in S FL, and when the available flights give us more cushion on the front and back end to not be scrambling to make any connections. I also can appreciate the potential problem of having the *budget* airline cancel the only flight they have for the week, besides my main concern of simply being able to transport the family with a decent cushion. But if I see a good rental car option/price from Fort Myers, I may still be tempted to roll the dice.

Some new airline options are opening up for those of us in the north-woods (e.g., Green Bay) for direct flights to new places in FL this winter. One of the options I just saw was on Sun Country direct to Fort Myers. The price is compellingly low (compared to the cost for flights to FLL or MIA) so it warrants serious consideration for a 6-member family cruise vacation this Feb on Oasis out of Miami. The arriving flight would come in an couple extra days ahead of time. So we would roll the dice and take our covid tests at the hotel after we arrive in FL. The trickiest part would be getting from Miami to Fort Myers for a 3:35 PM flight on disembarkation day. Flixbus departs from Miami Airport at either 9:00 AM (arrive Ft Myers @ 11:20 AM) or 12:00 PM (arrive Fort Myers @ 2:30 PM). This seems kind of tight either getting us all off the ship and to the MIA airport bus stop before 9:00 AM, or for the later option getting from the bus terminal in Fort Myers to the Fort Myers airport ASAP. I would guess that the early option on disembarkation day would be the only one to consider, and that would mean self assist for every one. On the plus side, Oasis is scheduled to dock back in Miami at 6:00 AM. Seems probably too far for Uber/Lyft. I haven't researched any other transportation services between MIA and Fort Myers so far other than Flixbus. Larry's Limos? Although we likely will opt for a more expensive flight to either FLL or MIA that would make for easier connections, Sun Country probably could save us ~$1,000+ in airline cost for our family group. Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions from bloggers who may have flown in/out of Fort Myers for their cruise vacation.

The energy and high spirits of the crew and entertainment staff. They all seemed to take customer appreciation (and appreciation of their own jobs) to a higher level based on our experiences on two cruises this fall. To say they were happy to be back would be an understatement...same for us!

Thanks @DunwoodyDad I may try the app check-in this time for expediency. for comparison, I don't this the website check in process requires an image of the passports, just the passport numbers. Good to know you can add the passport info later and get the same check-in appointment for everyone right away.

Thanks @twangster and @FionaMG I think our family members can play nice with the same login. We'll just have to keep the credentials from the two young grand-kids.

Thanks @FionaMG, for confirming what looks pretty obvious on the website...that I can check in everyone in our family through the linked reservations. But I have learned the hard way that what looks obvious to me may not match how a website or app actually "works." And I am with you about doing check-ins and the majority of my pre-cruise stuff on the website. To save us those total 30 seconds (6 cruisers x 5 sec each), we have head shots of everyone in portrait and landscape mode. Will be interesting to see if RC still only accepts landscape photos for online check in a couple weeks like was the case a couple months ago.

We have a 6-person family cruise coming up on Feb 6 and I've linked the 3 reservations/cabins for CP purchases. After doing this, It looks like I probably would be able to check us all in at the same time (with family member PP Nos and head shots handy). But I thought I'd double-check this in case a family member listed on each reservation needs to login to complete their own check in. Each reservation has at least one adult, so separate check-ins would not be all that hard to do. I would just rather take care of all the check-ins for our family at the same time for ease of mind, and so I know we all have the same arrival appointment. Any clarification on the extended family check-in process is appreciated.

@TeresaMcGood to know. They must use dynamic pricing like everyone else. I will still check in with them first for any central/south FL group rides.

We used Uber for our last MOC-Port Canaveral conncection (~$150 for an XL). We checked with Larry's Limos for an MCO-PC copnnection, but their pricing was easily 3X higher than Uber/Lyft. But Larry's was fantastic and reasonably-priced for FLL to Miami private transportation for a late August cruise.

How many visits to the Champagne Bar? Sad to see this wonderful bar being removed during recent ship upgrades...

Can a 4-device Voom package be easily used across reservations/between cabins? That would be cheaper than buying two, 2-device packages to cover the four adults on an upcoming family cruise. On our last cruise earlier this fall, I don't recall that we received actual codes to login with like we used to pre-CV. Rather, I think all we did was input our name, birthday and cabin number to login. If this is the case, I think if I purchased the 4-device plan under one of our family reservations, everyone else in our family would have to login as me. Maybe this isn't an issue, but I'm not sure... Any thoughts/experiences on this? Thanks!

We took this excursion on the 22AUG21 Allure sailing with a stop at St Thomas. I'd say we were at Meagan's Bay for 2 hours and at the top of the Skyride for about an hour. The excursion included the ride back to the ship. The excursion schedule intended to provided enough time for lunch at the restaurant at the top of the Skyride. While the views were terrific at the top, the restaurant was understaffed and only a handful of the customers actually got lunch. We ordered food but hadn't paid when we had to ride back down the mountain for our ride back to the ship. Some others had paid but received no food when they had to leave. I'm sure they will fix this issue moving forward. We were one of the first cruises back to the USVI and the tour operator told us they were originally planning to staff up for a November cruise restart.

We sailed on Allure for the 22AUG21 E. Caribbean itinerary. Fantastic ship! And I think the last Oasis class to still have a Champagne Bar. We will hate to see that go one day...our all-time favorite watering hole on any RC ship.

Yes -- Two big thumbs up for Sharla!

Fingers crossed we cruise safely on Aug 22. Seems like a lot could still happen in the next couple weeks. Will need to check back with HR at work about travelling out of the country. May have to (or want to) work from home for a while after the cruise...

https://stmaartenehas.com/travel-requirements/ @Jill As I re-read the current St Maartens travel requirements, I don't see a testing requirement for cruise passengers before getting off the ship. I may have looked at the testing requirements for someone flying to the island before taking a cruise. Sorry for any confusion...I'll keep focused on getting my pre-cruise test for Allure Aug 22!

@cruisinghawg Great to have some info on the likely passenger numbers for the Allure August sailings. Will be quite interesting to experience Oasis class at ~1/3 capacity for the Aug 22 sailing. @Luv2Travel Thanks for re-posting the FB announcement from the Allure cruise director confirming all the main shows are rolling out with the first August sailing. They put in a lot of work on short order to pull that off! We will be cruising with some friends who have never been on Oasis class before and we were hoping the most if not all of the big entertainment venues/shows would be open. Big thanks for the helpful responses!