Iluv4n6

We enjoyed the Mystery Dinner on Adventure OTS on the the Aug 31 NE and Eastern Canada cruise.  While the Mystery Dinner menu is limited compared to the regular Giovanni's menu, the food was great.  The filet was our favorite dish on this cruise. 
They rearranged the dinning room into seating at six long tables to maximize the number of patrons for the event, while maintaining an aisle in the middle of the dinning room for the actors.  So I can understand that a limited menu would facilitate efficient food preparation and serving for a densely-packed room--and provide a few breaks for between courses for the show. 
 
Giovanni's Mystery Dinner Menu.pdf

I second having magnetic hooks and also suggest bringing a magnetic clip or two.  These are great for hanging my fold-out dopp kit, hats, sunglasses, etc...and we like to use the clip for hanging cruise compasses and any messages for our room steward.
We made the mistake of bringing a short (3 ft) extension cord -- not a power strip -- on our last cruise (Oasis).  I figured it would be OK to bring because it does not generate heat and appears similar, at least conceptually, to a USB hub with a built-in extension cord that also splits power from one outlet into several USB ports.   But I learned the hard way, through a trip to the naughty room on deck 2 to access my luggage, that any extension cord is prohibited.  Probably because it would enable you to draw a potentially unacceptable/unsafe(?) amount of power from one stateroom outlet.
Great question -- we tapped into the brain trust of these boards ahead of our last cruise which greatly enhanced our cruising experience.
 

You guys sound very flexible -- thanks for your willingness to share a visit to the island with our crew.  I also sent you a private message with more info on our group.  Might also be good to know what new van Leo's got to gauge if we would all comfortably all fit -- probably, but might be worth checking out anyway! ?

I saw many other threads recommending Bernard's Tours (https://www.bernardstours.com/) for a day trip around St. Maarten, and thought I'd chime in that I highly recommend them.  Below are some details about our experience, which I haven't seen posted elsewhere and hopefully well help answer other people's questions similar to the ones I had prior to visiting.
 
I was with a family group of 8 people in total, ranging from my son (8 years old) to my father-in-law (80 years old).  Everyone is generally mobile and doesn't require anything like a stroller or walker, although I could see the tour easily accommodating those if we had needed them. We were on Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas with a port call in St. Maarten on Thursday Jan 3rd, 2019.  There were 2 other ships in port that day as well.  We were there from 7AM until 5PM. I made the reservation via their website about 45 days in advance.  We decided to do the private customized tour for 8 people, total cost $495, with a deposit of $100 required in advance.  I paid the remaining $395 onsite as we were starting the tour via a credit card. We had decided not to rush off the boat, so asked for a 10AM - 4PM tour time.  This worked well as it allowed us to eat breakfast and walk off the ship at a leisurely pace.  I got a phone call directly from Bernard at about 9:30AM on my cell phone just to confirm we were still planning on coming. It was a little hard to find the tour lot.  You have to walk past all the small vendor kiosks, through a chain link fence gate, and there are some white tent canopies setup in a gravel parking lot.  It's to the left of the main taxi parking lot, just past the big sign that says welcome to St. Maarten. We asked a random vendor on the pier which way to go and they easily pointed it out to us.  There isn't any clear signage at the tent that it's Bernard's Tours, but all the drivers had shirts with the logo on it. After paying, we were assigned a driver, David, and a 10-12 person passenger van (3-4 rows of seats in it).  The van was very clean and modern and Brian had a small step stool to help my inlaws step into an out of the van.  In between the front seats was a cooler with bottle of water, coke, diet coke, beer, and a bottle of rum.  Brian regularly encouraged us to take whatever we wanted from the coolor over the course of the day.  David had a headset microphone he wore the whole time that was hooked up to the speakers in the van.  Whenever he spoke it was broadcast over the speakers and made it easy for anyone in the van to hear him without blasting us out in the front row. The first thing he asked us was what we wanted to do / see.  We had some general desires, such as some beach time, the french-dutch border, and the airplanes at maho beach.  He then provided us with some maps of the island and suggested we do a route around the whole island with certain specific stops detailed below.  He suggested NOT going to Orient Beach due to us having kids and it being clothing optional.  We readily agreed to his suggestions. We then set of, and were pleasantly surprised to find that he was able to narrate the whole time all about the island, the various major buildings, sites, history, and in particular the impact of the recent hurricanes.  He quickly learned all our names and was quick to address us by them and try to gauge what each of us were interested in. The some of the stops we didn't get out of the van, and were for things like the oldest building on the island, the East Dutch/French border monument, and the big new flagpole on the mountainside. Other tops we generally got out for a while and included: An overlook of Oyster Bay, which gave a view of all the boats still sunk in the harbor due to the hurricane Rotary Lookout Point, an elevated platform with an amazing view of some undeveloped beaches and islands.  Normally there is a guy there that brings in sea urchins for tourists to see, but he wasn't there that day.  We were able to find one or two to pick up close to the shore. The Iguana 'farm', which is just a small roadside stall with 2 ladies near some iguana nesting sites.  The ladies threw out some lettuce and gave the kids sticks with lettuce on them to attract the iguanas and feed them, which was pretty cool to see Lunch at Rainbow Cafe Beach bar (http://rainbowcafe.fr/) on Grand Case Beach.  That area was hit hard by the hurricanes and there are only a few beach establishments open still.  We had about 75 minutes here and it was exactly like something out of the movies, with a perfect beach and water (85 degree weather that day!).  It cost $15 for 2 beach chairs with an umbrella and waiter service, only a few feet from the water.  Altogether we spent about $120 for 8 people to have chairs, some drinks and food and just bask in the environment. A stop in 'downtown' at Marigot Market, to visit a bakery and various street market stalls for some shopping.  We had about 30 minutes to walk around and see the sights and wares available. A stop at the West Dutch/French board monument while crossing over the border to find a geocache for my daughter (David mentioned that he once had somebody hire him to just drive around the island looking for geocaches) A stop at Maho Beach at the airport to see the planes land and take off.  We had about 30 minutes here, and were there at the perfect time to see lots of big jets both coming in for a landing and taking off.  
Altogether, all 8 of us were extremely impressed and happy with the experience, ranging from the myrid of things David told us while driving around about the island and it's people, to the wide range of stops we made and time available to enjoy them.  I'd highly recommend Bernard's tours to anyone going to Sint Maarten / Saint Martin

That is awesome! If you are interested we have reserved the famous Leo Brown to be our driver for the day in St. Maarten. @Matt has made several mentions about Leo in his blogs and podcasts so we were excited to get to have him as our guide for the day. It is just my wife and I for now, but Leo said he has a new van that has room for up to 12 people that he is very proud of. If you are looking for something to do in St Maarten feel free to join us. He mentioned that the per person rate would be much lower the more people there are, so if you are interested let me know and I will give him a call and get an updated quote! We would pay him directly in St Maarten. We don't plan to fill up the van, but we are hoping to find another couple or family to join us. If not, no big deal, I just figured I would rather ask a fellow RC Blog follower than random people on the cruise! He said he can take us anywhere we want to go and he plans to take us to the French side of the island, an authentic restaurant, a nice overlook, and all of the best beaches.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/07/30/freedom-of-the-seas-live-blog-day-five-st-martin

Guess we will be on the same gangway @cruiselife, just boarding a bit later than you!  ? @Scott Johns, have a great cruise! 

We enjoyed the Mystery Dinner on Adventure OTS on the the Aug 31 NE and Eastern Canada cruise.  While the Mystery Dinner menu is limited compared to the regular Giovanni's menu, the food was great.  The filet was our favorite dish on this cruise. 
They rearranged the dinning room into seating at six long tables to maximize the number of patrons for the event, while maintaining an aisle in the middle of the dinning room for the actors.  So I can understand that a limited menu would facilitate efficient food preparation and serving for a densely-packed room--and provide a few breaks for between courses for the show. 
 
Giovanni's Mystery Dinner Menu.pdf

Thanks for the thread.  We have booked the Mystery Dinner Theater on Adventure, which is also at Gionvanni's...sounds like the regular venue for this event across the fleet (i.e., for those ships hosting this event).  Can report back in a few weeks on the menu.  Probably still pretty good even if a limited. 
We enjoyed the Prohibition event on Oasis and are looking forward to MDT on AOS.

Hi Lynda, welcome to the Royal Caribbean Blog forums!
AAA is the American Automobile Association. It's a paid membership group for residents of the US, and was originally known for their automobile assistance services, particularly no-cost towing. But they also have travel services at their local offices and are used by many as a general-purpose travel agency.
MEI is a sponsor of this web site and a dedicated travel agency, who specialize in both cruise travel and also trips to Walt Disney World / Disneyland / other Disney properties. Several of us here use them as our cruise travel agents, not so much for savings we get over direct booking as for the help they provide in various ways after the booking: checking for lower fares when a new promotion comes out, dealing with mistakes made by Royal (e.g., incorrectly canceling someone's excursion or whole cruise), fighting with Royal when a ship charter causes a booking to be canceled and no good alternatives are offered, and so on. Those of us who use them are quite happy with the service they provide.
There's nothing wrong with using cruise.com if you find they give you the best rates and that's your primary goal. Just be aware that if a bad situation arises, like some of the examples I gave just above, you could be on your own for trying to resolve them. It depends on what kind of level of customer service cruise.com provides after the initial booking.
Be aware that the base cruise fare is not really something that travel agencies are free to modify. If you see a rate that's lower than you find on Royal Caribbean's web site, it usually means the agency is giving up some of the commission that they receive from Royal in order to give you that lower rate. And if they do that, there is some chance that it may translate into a lower level of after-purchase service, since they now have less money in their own pockets for paying their agents to go those extra steps. It's not always the case, but it's something to keep in mind.
A local agent may not necessarily give you the same discounted price as the online person. They do, after all, have physical office space to pay for in addition to the regular expenses for staff, salaries, insurance, etc. Honestly, I don't know anyone here who uses a truly local agent that they go see in person; all of MEI's agents are in various parts of the US, and we communicate by email or phone.
Side note: I kind of view leaving behind some up-front discounts on my cruise fare as sort of buying insurance; the extra savings I'm "leaving on the table" is my insurance policy towards good post-booking care. If something goes horribly wrong, or I just need to follow up with my agent on a bunch of things because I'm going somewhere totally unfamiliar to me, I know that I can count on my agent to be there answering my questions or going to bat for me; and that means less stress when the bad stuff happens. Not to mention the good news times when I get an email saying that the latest promotion just saved me another $100, or gave me $75 more on-board credit (OBC)! This is the reputation that MEI has earned over the years, and for my personal preferences about what I look for in a travel agency, this counts for a lot!
There is nothing wrong with having this goal! I think most of us here would like to be on a ship as many times a year as possible! ?
MEI, as noted, won't be giving you any real up-front discounts on the base cruise fare. However, they will constantly be checking the newest promotions as they come out and seeing if that will save you money. If you tell them up front that having a lower base fare is more important than having a lot of On Board Credit for the trip, they will make sure to get you the lowest fare that the promotions make possible. If you happen to be a regular at the ship's casino and are part of the Club Royale program, there is at least one agent with MEI who has a reputation as a miracle worker for getting incredibly low fares on suites and other cabins!
They also do on occasion provide small gifts that will be delivered to your cabin after boarding, sometimes on the second day of your cruise. For instance, my family and I had our first cruise ever this past April, and part of the reason was for our 20th wedding anniversary. My agent had a box of red velvet cupcakes delivered to our cabin from the on-board cupcake shop on the second day of our cruise. It was a very nice surprise! Others here have likewise had similar small gifts delivered depending on the circumstances around a particular booking.
 
I hope this all helps!

It was in my packed luggage, so I had to go down to the naughty room on Deck 2 to retrieve my suitcase on Day 1...This was on Oasis in February.  Basically the same cord as Twangster's got nabbed.  
They set aside confiscated items for you to pick up at guest services during disembarkation, but we did self-assist and I didn't bother to wait in another line for a $5 item.

Yes -- we had a short (3 ft) extension cord confiscated on Oasis earlier this year.

Thanks for sending the link, @hmills96.  CP is still giving me trouble this evening to see whether he Hop on Hops excursion is an option for our Aug-31 cruise.  
In the meantime, I came across a useful link to breweries/brewpubs in a map of the Halifax port area:
https://www.ratebeer.com/beermap?p=0&z=15&lt=4464182&ln=-6357389
As suggested by @monctonguy and visible on the brewery map, there are quite a few beer-infused establishments near the port.  So I think we'll do fine with a stroll around downtown.
We'll check on timing to for a side trip down to Peggy's Cove.  May depend on how early a start we get.??
Cheers!

We are actually on the sailing after yours, leaving Sept 6, and we have brew bus tours for both Portland and Halifax. Portland is booked through Maine Brew Bus, and the Halifax one is actually through Royal Caribbean. Here's the link for Maine Brew Bus. We are really looking forward to it, as we are huge beer people and that's what we like to do whenever we are in a new place! I've dubbed this #beercruise because there's just going to be SO MUCH BEER in the ports. 
https://themainebrewbus.com/drinks-about-town/

@Matt - Thanks for suggesting on your last podcast that we reproduce this cruise review email in the discussion boards.  Yeah, it's lengthy, but we hope some newbies, or others who have not tried Oasis-class ships, will find some helpful suggestions from our first cruise on this wonderful, ginormous vessel... My wife and I have greatly enjoyed your podcast and the awesome website as we got back into cruising earlier this year.  Your advice and advice from others on the message boards greatly enhanced our cruise experience.  We provide our key takeaways at the end.
Prior to our eastern Caribbean cruise on Oasis this February-March, we had only experienced Monarch of the Seas as chaperones for a local high school group trip in early 2010.  We were quite impressed with that ship--the biggest/best from 1990--when we sailed her almost a decade ago.  But we could not fully anticipate the staggering hugeness of Oasis when we first walked up to and boarded her.  You can view all the videos and see all the photos you want, but that can't replicate the visceral impact seeing this beautiful behemoth in person. 
We flew to Orlando the day before embarkation at Port Canaveral and took a van from a travel company from the airport to our hotel in Cocoa Beach--cost was equivalent to Uber and we were the only riders.  Yes, heed the advice of many and arrive in town the day before if you can't drive to the port.  Peace of mind for making your cruise on time without a panic-filled dash is worth much more than a night's hotel stay!   
Although Royal notified us to arrive at the terminal for boarding between 12:00 and 1:00 p.m., we took your advice and arrived early at the terminal, by 10:00 a.m., and were quickly processed and received our Sea Pass cards.  RC staff want to get passengers processed efficiently and did not ask about our scheduled time-slot for boarding as we thought they might.  We received a Gold C&A member boarding card (labelled "Gold-3" to be exact) and did not have to wait long in the main room for the boarding process to begin, starting with Suite guests and working down the C&A ladder from Pinnacle to Gold.  It took maybe 30 minutes at most to get to gold member boarding.  Being pretty geeked out by now, we got our photo taken while boarding and were on the ship by about 11:15 a.m.  
Entering the ship on the Deck 5 Royal Promenade--a cool, glitzy three-deck-high space running up the middle of about half of the ship--we noticed the Globe and Atlas Pub, which called to us to baptize our pre-purchased ultimate drink package.  
Based on RC blog advice, we headed first to a specialty restaurant in Central Park on Deck 8 to make dining reservations for the cruise--this was much quicker than waiting in line at one of the restaurant reservation desks temporarily set up in the Royal Promenade.  We pre-purchased the 3-night specialty dining package and had already scheduled 150 Central Park for dinner on day 2.  We had no line at the desk at Giovanni's and booked a dinner there and at Chop's for times later in the cruise that would work well with our show reservations.
From there we strolled across Central Park and had lunch at Park Cafe with only a 10 minute wait -- yes, those roast beef sandwiches at Park Cafe are fabulous!   We then went up top and regaled in the views from the solarium, and areas for the main pools and wave runners on Decks 15 & 16.  
Our stateroom was open around 1:15 p.m.  We had reserved a balcony room (14204) at the start of the bump in the middle of the port side on Deck 14.  On our previous cruise, we stayed on Deck 3 in a small stateroom with a small window.  A balcony 14 decks up provides an awesome vantage point—almost vertigo-inducing!
My wife's luggage had arrived by then -- not at our stateroom door, but a ways down the corridor with a group of other luggage.  Mine was not yet available.  We met our room steward who told us it might take until 6:00 p.m. for all luggage to be delivered, which seemed odd as our luggage was on the same cart to begin with and I had intentionally avoided bringing in any items I knew were forbidden by RC (more on that later).
After we checked out our stateroom, we headed to the main dining room on Deck 4 to see if we could switch from My Time dining to traditional dining at the earlier seating (5:30 PM), because this would work better with the shows we had reserved, and from our perception through some podcasts that My Time dining could take a bit longer than traditional. We spoke to a head waiter at the desk near the entrance to the dining room and he had no problem assigning us to fill out an eight-person table for traditional dining, which worked well for us and gave us a good opportunity to meet some other cruisers.
After a bit more exploring and checking for my luggage – still had not arrived yet – we attended the muster drill and caught some of the sail-away festivities from the Deck 14 forward wing viewing area (another Oasis tip we learned from the RC Blog website). One last check for my luggage before we headed down to traditional dining.  After a nice meal, we headed back to the room before we were to go to our first show of the cruise, Cats in the Opal Theater at 8:30 PM.  When we arrived at our stateroom door, I saw the dreaded notice that I had to go down to the security baggage checking area on Deck 2 before 8 PM to get my luggage and it was already 7:45 PM by this time.  I dashed down to Deck 2 and was instructed to open my bag and learned, to my surprise, that a short three-outlet extension cord was the contraband item. I was well aware that any liquor (besides two bottles of wine) or any appliance that created heat or a power strip were forbidden. RC staff calmly put up with my dumbfounded protestations and showed me the fine print where it did indeed state that extension cords are not allowed. Mental note made and not soon to be forgotten.
Back to the fun stuff! My wife and I were both intrigued by the entertainment offerings described in Cruise Planner and the large number and types of entertainment venues provided on such a huge ship-- traditional Broadway-type theater, various nightclubs, ice-skating rink, Aqua theater, jazz club, and casino, along with many interesting watering holes.  Being theater buffs, we made reservations for all of the shows available in Cruise Planner.  The first show we saw, Cats, did not disappoint, even though the length of this unabridged show and perhaps its lack of a single main storyline caused quite a few folks to leave the theater at intermission.  We were greatly impressed by the high caliber of the performers at this show, and most other shows on board.  It was rather refreshing to see the show again after about 20 years.  We enjoyed opportunities to talk with actors from Cats after their performances at other venues during the cruise (Dazzles and Jazz on 4). 
We enjoyed all of the shows, and none of them were, in our view, mediocre or worse. The ice-skating show portrayed the story of Hans Christian Anderson and many of his fictional characters.  Although the ice-skating rink was not large by any means, the skaters still reached high speed and did several spinning leaps (sorry – can't tell my sow-kow from a toe loop).  The divers in the aqua show were great. 
We spent a few enjoyable evenings in Jazz on 4 and got to know the performers, including at the Prohibition Event, which was fun but a bit blurry in my recollection.  Good turnout for this event with a full venue and everyone decked-out in crazy 20s fashions.  This was my wife's favorite night of the cruise and the photos taken by RC photographers around the Royal Promenade from that evening are the nicest keepsakes from the cruise. 
Based on recommendations from the podcast, we sampled specialty restaurants by pre-purchasing the 3-night package.  We ate at 150 Central Park, Giovanni’s, and Chops – all very good and worth the upcharge.  But we ended up re-jiggering our dining schedule due to a fortuitous encounter with our main dining room waiter when he was working at Johnny Rockets over lunch the second day of our cruise.  He spotted us as we looking around the Boardwalk and called us over to ask about our dining choices for the cruise – we had mentioned to him at dinner on the first night of the cruise we had purchased a 3-night specialty dining package.  As it turns out, the nights we picked for specialty dining coincided with the two formal nights and the last night of the cruise – in other words, all the dinners when they have the best meal options in the main dining room including lobster night.  At his urging, we went back up to Giovanni’s and were able to reschedule our specialty dining for other nights so we could experience the best the main dining room has to offer on the two formal nights and the last night of the cruise.  
Couple notes on our ports:    St Maarten For our excursion on St Maarten we also heeded the advice of many and took a cab tour around the island.  Matt, thanks for the tip about your friend Leroy Brown.  We were able to reserve his cab for our tour and enjoyed his island banter and stories about different areas and beaches.  He did focus quite a bit on the devastation from the hurricanes last year, including taking us by some damaged resorts and boats/harbors.  Although Maho Beach at the end of the runway and the bar restaurant next to it were back up and running, the north side of the island was hit pretty bad. Nevertheless, we stopped at a lolo in Grand Case-Cynthia's Talk of the Town--and had a great lunch of chicken and ribs...more food than we bargained for, but we got to sample the grilling style on the French side of the island.   San Juan We honestly were not expecting much for our short stop in San Juan (8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) and were originally thinking we might stay on board.  But we were glad we ventured out -- the old town was a short walk from the pier and we strolled through the old Spanish colonial-style narrow streets with their brightly-painted buildings.  Electrical power was spotty as the power cut out occasionally while we were in some shops, but was on a few doors down on the same block.  We sampled mufungo at Cafe Manolin, a Puerto Rican fried plantain dish that was hearty and tasty.      Labadee As first-timers at Labadee, we threw caution to the wind and road the Dragon's Breath, the huge zip line over Adrenaline Beach.  Some have commented on the uneasy feeling on truck the ride up the hill and while waiting on the platform for the zipline.  We did not have a bad experience in the truck ride up or while waiting on the platform.  The ride itself was very smooth and the spring-cushioned stop at the end was not as jolting as we thought it might be.  Our zip-line ride was scheduled at the beginning of the cook-out lunch buffet, and that was perhaps not ideal.  By the time we returned from the ride, the lines were pretty long at the buffet, so we waited until near the end of lunchtime to go through the buffet line.    Some Key Takeaways:
Arrive in or near your departure port the day before you cruise. Reserve entertainment before the cruise—no cost for this! Check RC’s current policy on forbidden items--no more innocuous-looking extension cords for us!. Try specialty dining, but check out the main dining room on formal nights to sample some of the best food included in your cruise fare. Take a few minutes to get to know your main dining room waiter and room steward on the first day of your cruise. They helped us optimize our dining and entertainment schedules to get more out of our cruise. Get your picture taken at least a couple times by the RC photographers.      Consider buying a drink package on a cruise that has several sea days plus a day at an RC resort. If we had had a more port-intensive itinerary with no stop at an RC resort where the drink package is included, we probably would not have bought the full package.  But it was fun to sample a broad range of drinks, including several tasty dessert martinis at the Champagne Bar (just not all on the same night!). Use self-disembarkation for a couple or small group.  Although we had to line up early in the morning, once the line started moving we were off the ship in a few minutes and to the rental car counter before the big crowds.   Keep up the great work on the podcast and thanks to all members who contribute to the informative message boards at the RC Blog website!   Roger & Carol   Finally Thawed (And Now Baking) Tundra, WI  

@Matt - Thanks for suggesting on your last podcast that we reproduce this cruise review email in the discussion boards.  Yeah, it's lengthy, but we hope some newbies, or others who have not tried Oasis-class ships, will find some helpful suggestions from our first cruise on this wonderful, ginormous vessel... My wife and I have greatly enjoyed your podcast and the awesome website as we got back into cruising earlier this year.  Your advice and advice from others on the message boards greatly enhanced our cruise experience.  We provide our key takeaways at the end.
Prior to our eastern Caribbean cruise on Oasis this February-March, we had only experienced Monarch of the Seas as chaperones for a local high school group trip in early 2010.  We were quite impressed with that ship--the biggest/best from 1990--when we sailed her almost a decade ago.  But we could not fully anticipate the staggering hugeness of Oasis when we first walked up to and boarded her.  You can view all the videos and see all the photos you want, but that can't replicate the visceral impact seeing this beautiful behemoth in person. 
We flew to Orlando the day before embarkation at Port Canaveral and took a van from a travel company from the airport to our hotel in Cocoa Beach--cost was equivalent to Uber and we were the only riders.  Yes, heed the advice of many and arrive in town the day before if you can't drive to the port.  Peace of mind for making your cruise on time without a panic-filled dash is worth much more than a night's hotel stay!   
Although Royal notified us to arrive at the terminal for boarding between 12:00 and 1:00 p.m., we took your advice and arrived early at the terminal, by 10:00 a.m., and were quickly processed and received our Sea Pass cards.  RC staff want to get passengers processed efficiently and did not ask about our scheduled time-slot for boarding as we thought they might.  We received a Gold C&A member boarding card (labelled "Gold-3" to be exact) and did not have to wait long in the main room for the boarding process to begin, starting with Suite guests and working down the C&A ladder from Pinnacle to Gold.  It took maybe 30 minutes at most to get to gold member boarding.  Being pretty geeked out by now, we got our photo taken while boarding and were on the ship by about 11:15 a.m.  
Entering the ship on the Deck 5 Royal Promenade--a cool, glitzy three-deck-high space running up the middle of about half of the ship--we noticed the Globe and Atlas Pub, which called to us to baptize our pre-purchased ultimate drink package.  
Based on RC blog advice, we headed first to a specialty restaurant in Central Park on Deck 8 to make dining reservations for the cruise--this was much quicker than waiting in line at one of the restaurant reservation desks temporarily set up in the Royal Promenade.  We pre-purchased the 3-night specialty dining package and had already scheduled 150 Central Park for dinner on day 2.  We had no line at the desk at Giovanni's and booked a dinner there and at Chop's for times later in the cruise that would work well with our show reservations.
From there we strolled across Central Park and had lunch at Park Cafe with only a 10 minute wait -- yes, those roast beef sandwiches at Park Cafe are fabulous!   We then went up top and regaled in the views from the solarium, and areas for the main pools and wave runners on Decks 15 & 16.  
Our stateroom was open around 1:15 p.m.  We had reserved a balcony room (14204) at the start of the bump in the middle of the port side on Deck 14.  On our previous cruise, we stayed on Deck 3 in a small stateroom with a small window.  A balcony 14 decks up provides an awesome vantage point—almost vertigo-inducing!
My wife's luggage had arrived by then -- not at our stateroom door, but a ways down the corridor with a group of other luggage.  Mine was not yet available.  We met our room steward who told us it might take until 6:00 p.m. for all luggage to be delivered, which seemed odd as our luggage was on the same cart to begin with and I had intentionally avoided bringing in any items I knew were forbidden by RC (more on that later).
After we checked out our stateroom, we headed to the main dining room on Deck 4 to see if we could switch from My Time dining to traditional dining at the earlier seating (5:30 PM), because this would work better with the shows we had reserved, and from our perception through some podcasts that My Time dining could take a bit longer than traditional. We spoke to a head waiter at the desk near the entrance to the dining room and he had no problem assigning us to fill out an eight-person table for traditional dining, which worked well for us and gave us a good opportunity to meet some other cruisers.
After a bit more exploring and checking for my luggage – still had not arrived yet – we attended the muster drill and caught some of the sail-away festivities from the Deck 14 forward wing viewing area (another Oasis tip we learned from the RC Blog website). One last check for my luggage before we headed down to traditional dining.  After a nice meal, we headed back to the room before we were to go to our first show of the cruise, Cats in the Opal Theater at 8:30 PM.  When we arrived at our stateroom door, I saw the dreaded notice that I had to go down to the security baggage checking area on Deck 2 before 8 PM to get my luggage and it was already 7:45 PM by this time.  I dashed down to Deck 2 and was instructed to open my bag and learned, to my surprise, that a short three-outlet extension cord was the contraband item. I was well aware that any liquor (besides two bottles of wine) or any appliance that created heat or a power strip were forbidden. RC staff calmly put up with my dumbfounded protestations and showed me the fine print where it did indeed state that extension cords are not allowed. Mental note made and not soon to be forgotten.
Back to the fun stuff! My wife and I were both intrigued by the entertainment offerings described in Cruise Planner and the large number and types of entertainment venues provided on such a huge ship-- traditional Broadway-type theater, various nightclubs, ice-skating rink, Aqua theater, jazz club, and casino, along with many interesting watering holes.  Being theater buffs, we made reservations for all of the shows available in Cruise Planner.  The first show we saw, Cats, did not disappoint, even though the length of this unabridged show and perhaps its lack of a single main storyline caused quite a few folks to leave the theater at intermission.  We were greatly impressed by the high caliber of the performers at this show, and most other shows on board.  It was rather refreshing to see the show again after about 20 years.  We enjoyed opportunities to talk with actors from Cats after their performances at other venues during the cruise (Dazzles and Jazz on 4). 
We enjoyed all of the shows, and none of them were, in our view, mediocre or worse. The ice-skating show portrayed the story of Hans Christian Anderson and many of his fictional characters.  Although the ice-skating rink was not large by any means, the skaters still reached high speed and did several spinning leaps (sorry – can't tell my sow-kow from a toe loop).  The divers in the aqua show were great. 
We spent a few enjoyable evenings in Jazz on 4 and got to know the performers, including at the Prohibition Event, which was fun but a bit blurry in my recollection.  Good turnout for this event with a full venue and everyone decked-out in crazy 20s fashions.  This was my wife's favorite night of the cruise and the photos taken by RC photographers around the Royal Promenade from that evening are the nicest keepsakes from the cruise. 
Based on recommendations from the podcast, we sampled specialty restaurants by pre-purchasing the 3-night package.  We ate at 150 Central Park, Giovanni’s, and Chops – all very good and worth the upcharge.  But we ended up re-jiggering our dining schedule due to a fortuitous encounter with our main dining room waiter when he was working at Johnny Rockets over lunch the second day of our cruise.  He spotted us as we looking around the Boardwalk and called us over to ask about our dining choices for the cruise – we had mentioned to him at dinner on the first night of the cruise we had purchased a 3-night specialty dining package.  As it turns out, the nights we picked for specialty dining coincided with the two formal nights and the last night of the cruise – in other words, all the dinners when they have the best meal options in the main dining room including lobster night.  At his urging, we went back up to Giovanni’s and were able to reschedule our specialty dining for other nights so we could experience the best the main dining room has to offer on the two formal nights and the last night of the cruise.  
Couple notes on our ports:    St Maarten For our excursion on St Maarten we also heeded the advice of many and took a cab tour around the island.  Matt, thanks for the tip about your friend Leroy Brown.  We were able to reserve his cab for our tour and enjoyed his island banter and stories about different areas and beaches.  He did focus quite a bit on the devastation from the hurricanes last year, including taking us by some damaged resorts and boats/harbors.  Although Maho Beach at the end of the runway and the bar restaurant next to it were back up and running, the north side of the island was hit pretty bad. Nevertheless, we stopped at a lolo in Grand Case-Cynthia's Talk of the Town--and had a great lunch of chicken and ribs...more food than we bargained for, but we got to sample the grilling style on the French side of the island.   San Juan We honestly were not expecting much for our short stop in San Juan (8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) and were originally thinking we might stay on board.  But we were glad we ventured out -- the old town was a short walk from the pier and we strolled through the old Spanish colonial-style narrow streets with their brightly-painted buildings.  Electrical power was spotty as the power cut out occasionally while we were in some shops, but was on a few doors down on the same block.  We sampled mufungo at Cafe Manolin, a Puerto Rican fried plantain dish that was hearty and tasty.      Labadee As first-timers at Labadee, we threw caution to the wind and road the Dragon's Breath, the huge zip line over Adrenaline Beach.  Some have commented on the uneasy feeling on truck the ride up the hill and while waiting on the platform for the zipline.  We did not have a bad experience in the truck ride up or while waiting on the platform.  The ride itself was very smooth and the spring-cushioned stop at the end was not as jolting as we thought it might be.  Our zip-line ride was scheduled at the beginning of the cook-out lunch buffet, and that was perhaps not ideal.  By the time we returned from the ride, the lines were pretty long at the buffet, so we waited until near the end of lunchtime to go through the buffet line.    Some Key Takeaways:
Arrive in or near your departure port the day before you cruise. Reserve entertainment before the cruise—no cost for this! Check RC’s current policy on forbidden items--no more innocuous-looking extension cords for us!. Try specialty dining, but check out the main dining room on formal nights to sample some of the best food included in your cruise fare. Take a few minutes to get to know your main dining room waiter and room steward on the first day of your cruise. They helped us optimize our dining and entertainment schedules to get more out of our cruise. Get your picture taken at least a couple times by the RC photographers.      Consider buying a drink package on a cruise that has several sea days plus a day at an RC resort. If we had had a more port-intensive itinerary with no stop at an RC resort where the drink package is included, we probably would not have bought the full package.  But it was fun to sample a broad range of drinks, including several tasty dessert martinis at the Champagne Bar (just not all on the same night!). Use self-disembarkation for a couple or small group.  Although we had to line up early in the morning, once the line started moving we were off the ship in a few minutes and to the rental car counter before the big crowds.   Keep up the great work on the podcast and thanks to all members who contribute to the informative message boards at the RC Blog website!   Roger & Carol   Finally Thawed (And Now Baking) Tundra, WI  

@Matt - Thanks for suggesting on your last podcast that we reproduce this cruise review email in the discussion boards.  Yeah, it's lengthy, but we hope some newbies, or others who have not tried Oasis-class ships, will find some helpful suggestions from our first cruise on this wonderful, ginormous vessel... My wife and I have greatly enjoyed your podcast and the awesome website as we got back into cruising earlier this year.  Your advice and advice from others on the message boards greatly enhanced our cruise experience.  We provide our key takeaways at the end.
Prior to our eastern Caribbean cruise on Oasis this February-March, we had only experienced Monarch of the Seas as chaperones for a local high school group trip in early 2010.  We were quite impressed with that ship--the biggest/best from 1990--when we sailed her almost a decade ago.  But we could not fully anticipate the staggering hugeness of Oasis when we first walked up to and boarded her.  You can view all the videos and see all the photos you want, but that can't replicate the visceral impact seeing this beautiful behemoth in person. 
We flew to Orlando the day before embarkation at Port Canaveral and took a van from a travel company from the airport to our hotel in Cocoa Beach--cost was equivalent to Uber and we were the only riders.  Yes, heed the advice of many and arrive in town the day before if you can't drive to the port.  Peace of mind for making your cruise on time without a panic-filled dash is worth much more than a night's hotel stay!   
Although Royal notified us to arrive at the terminal for boarding between 12:00 and 1:00 p.m., we took your advice and arrived early at the terminal, by 10:00 a.m., and were quickly processed and received our Sea Pass cards.  RC staff want to get passengers processed efficiently and did not ask about our scheduled time-slot for boarding as we thought they might.  We received a Gold C&A member boarding card (labelled "Gold-3" to be exact) and did not have to wait long in the main room for the boarding process to begin, starting with Suite guests and working down the C&A ladder from Pinnacle to Gold.  It took maybe 30 minutes at most to get to gold member boarding.  Being pretty geeked out by now, we got our photo taken while boarding and were on the ship by about 11:15 a.m.  
Entering the ship on the Deck 5 Royal Promenade--a cool, glitzy three-deck-high space running up the middle of about half of the ship--we noticed the Globe and Atlas Pub, which called to us to baptize our pre-purchased ultimate drink package.  
Based on RC blog advice, we headed first to a specialty restaurant in Central Park on Deck 8 to make dining reservations for the cruise--this was much quicker than waiting in line at one of the restaurant reservation desks temporarily set up in the Royal Promenade.  We pre-purchased the 3-night specialty dining package and had already scheduled 150 Central Park for dinner on day 2.  We had no line at the desk at Giovanni's and booked a dinner there and at Chop's for times later in the cruise that would work well with our show reservations.
From there we strolled across Central Park and had lunch at Park Cafe with only a 10 minute wait -- yes, those roast beef sandwiches at Park Cafe are fabulous!   We then went up top and regaled in the views from the solarium, and areas for the main pools and wave runners on Decks 15 & 16.  
Our stateroom was open around 1:15 p.m.  We had reserved a balcony room (14204) at the start of the bump in the middle of the port side on Deck 14.  On our previous cruise, we stayed on Deck 3 in a small stateroom with a small window.  A balcony 14 decks up provides an awesome vantage point—almost vertigo-inducing!
My wife's luggage had arrived by then -- not at our stateroom door, but a ways down the corridor with a group of other luggage.  Mine was not yet available.  We met our room steward who told us it might take until 6:00 p.m. for all luggage to be delivered, which seemed odd as our luggage was on the same cart to begin with and I had intentionally avoided bringing in any items I knew were forbidden by RC (more on that later).
After we checked out our stateroom, we headed to the main dining room on Deck 4 to see if we could switch from My Time dining to traditional dining at the earlier seating (5:30 PM), because this would work better with the shows we had reserved, and from our perception through some podcasts that My Time dining could take a bit longer than traditional. We spoke to a head waiter at the desk near the entrance to the dining room and he had no problem assigning us to fill out an eight-person table for traditional dining, which worked well for us and gave us a good opportunity to meet some other cruisers.
After a bit more exploring and checking for my luggage – still had not arrived yet – we attended the muster drill and caught some of the sail-away festivities from the Deck 14 forward wing viewing area (another Oasis tip we learned from the RC Blog website). One last check for my luggage before we headed down to traditional dining.  After a nice meal, we headed back to the room before we were to go to our first show of the cruise, Cats in the Opal Theater at 8:30 PM.  When we arrived at our stateroom door, I saw the dreaded notice that I had to go down to the security baggage checking area on Deck 2 before 8 PM to get my luggage and it was already 7:45 PM by this time.  I dashed down to Deck 2 and was instructed to open my bag and learned, to my surprise, that a short three-outlet extension cord was the contraband item. I was well aware that any liquor (besides two bottles of wine) or any appliance that created heat or a power strip were forbidden. RC staff calmly put up with my dumbfounded protestations and showed me the fine print where it did indeed state that extension cords are not allowed. Mental note made and not soon to be forgotten.
Back to the fun stuff! My wife and I were both intrigued by the entertainment offerings described in Cruise Planner and the large number and types of entertainment venues provided on such a huge ship-- traditional Broadway-type theater, various nightclubs, ice-skating rink, Aqua theater, jazz club, and casino, along with many interesting watering holes.  Being theater buffs, we made reservations for all of the shows available in Cruise Planner.  The first show we saw, Cats, did not disappoint, even though the length of this unabridged show and perhaps its lack of a single main storyline caused quite a few folks to leave the theater at intermission.  We were greatly impressed by the high caliber of the performers at this show, and most other shows on board.  It was rather refreshing to see the show again after about 20 years.  We enjoyed opportunities to talk with actors from Cats after their performances at other venues during the cruise (Dazzles and Jazz on 4). 
We enjoyed all of the shows, and none of them were, in our view, mediocre or worse. The ice-skating show portrayed the story of Hans Christian Anderson and many of his fictional characters.  Although the ice-skating rink was not large by any means, the skaters still reached high speed and did several spinning leaps (sorry – can't tell my sow-kow from a toe loop).  The divers in the aqua show were great. 
We spent a few enjoyable evenings in Jazz on 4 and got to know the performers, including at the Prohibition Event, which was fun but a bit blurry in my recollection.  Good turnout for this event with a full venue and everyone decked-out in crazy 20s fashions.  This was my wife's favorite night of the cruise and the photos taken by RC photographers around the Royal Promenade from that evening are the nicest keepsakes from the cruise. 
Based on recommendations from the podcast, we sampled specialty restaurants by pre-purchasing the 3-night package.  We ate at 150 Central Park, Giovanni’s, and Chops – all very good and worth the upcharge.  But we ended up re-jiggering our dining schedule due to a fortuitous encounter with our main dining room waiter when he was working at Johnny Rockets over lunch the second day of our cruise.  He spotted us as we looking around the Boardwalk and called us over to ask about our dining choices for the cruise – we had mentioned to him at dinner on the first night of the cruise we had purchased a 3-night specialty dining package.  As it turns out, the nights we picked for specialty dining coincided with the two formal nights and the last night of the cruise – in other words, all the dinners when they have the best meal options in the main dining room including lobster night.  At his urging, we went back up to Giovanni’s and were able to reschedule our specialty dining for other nights so we could experience the best the main dining room has to offer on the two formal nights and the last night of the cruise.  
Couple notes on our ports:    St Maarten For our excursion on St Maarten we also heeded the advice of many and took a cab tour around the island.  Matt, thanks for the tip about your friend Leroy Brown.  We were able to reserve his cab for our tour and enjoyed his island banter and stories about different areas and beaches.  He did focus quite a bit on the devastation from the hurricanes last year, including taking us by some damaged resorts and boats/harbors.  Although Maho Beach at the end of the runway and the bar restaurant next to it were back up and running, the north side of the island was hit pretty bad. Nevertheless, we stopped at a lolo in Grand Case-Cynthia's Talk of the Town--and had a great lunch of chicken and ribs...more food than we bargained for, but we got to sample the grilling style on the French side of the island.   San Juan We honestly were not expecting much for our short stop in San Juan (8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) and were originally thinking we might stay on board.  But we were glad we ventured out -- the old town was a short walk from the pier and we strolled through the old Spanish colonial-style narrow streets with their brightly-painted buildings.  Electrical power was spotty as the power cut out occasionally while we were in some shops, but was on a few doors down on the same block.  We sampled mufungo at Cafe Manolin, a Puerto Rican fried plantain dish that was hearty and tasty.      Labadee As first-timers at Labadee, we threw caution to the wind and road the Dragon's Breath, the huge zip line over Adrenaline Beach.  Some have commented on the uneasy feeling on truck the ride up the hill and while waiting on the platform for the zipline.  We did not have a bad experience in the truck ride up or while waiting on the platform.  The ride itself was very smooth and the spring-cushioned stop at the end was not as jolting as we thought it might be.  Our zip-line ride was scheduled at the beginning of the cook-out lunch buffet, and that was perhaps not ideal.  By the time we returned from the ride, the lines were pretty long at the buffet, so we waited until near the end of lunchtime to go through the buffet line.    Some Key Takeaways:
Arrive in or near your departure port the day before you cruise. Reserve entertainment before the cruise—no cost for this! Check RC’s current policy on forbidden items--no more innocuous-looking extension cords for us!. Try specialty dining, but check out the main dining room on formal nights to sample some of the best food included in your cruise fare. Take a few minutes to get to know your main dining room waiter and room steward on the first day of your cruise. They helped us optimize our dining and entertainment schedules to get more out of our cruise. Get your picture taken at least a couple times by the RC photographers.      Consider buying a drink package on a cruise that has several sea days plus a day at an RC resort. If we had had a more port-intensive itinerary with no stop at an RC resort where the drink package is included, we probably would not have bought the full package.  But it was fun to sample a broad range of drinks, including several tasty dessert martinis at the Champagne Bar (just not all on the same night!). Use self-disembarkation for a couple or small group.  Although we had to line up early in the morning, once the line started moving we were off the ship in a few minutes and to the rental car counter before the big crowds.   Keep up the great work on the podcast and thanks to all members who contribute to the informative message boards at the RC Blog website!   Roger & Carol   Finally Thawed (And Now Baking) Tundra, WI  

@Matt - Thanks for suggesting on your last podcast that we reproduce this cruise review email in the discussion boards.  Yeah, it's lengthy, but we hope some newbies, or others who have not tried Oasis-class ships, will find some helpful suggestions from our first cruise on this wonderful, ginormous vessel... My wife and I have greatly enjoyed your podcast and the awesome website as we got back into cruising earlier this year.  Your advice and advice from others on the message boards greatly enhanced our cruise experience.  We provide our key takeaways at the end.
Prior to our eastern Caribbean cruise on Oasis this February-March, we had only experienced Monarch of the Seas as chaperones for a local high school group trip in early 2010.  We were quite impressed with that ship--the biggest/best from 1990--when we sailed her almost a decade ago.  But we could not fully anticipate the staggering hugeness of Oasis when we first walked up to and boarded her.  You can view all the videos and see all the photos you want, but that can't replicate the visceral impact seeing this beautiful behemoth in person. 
We flew to Orlando the day before embarkation at Port Canaveral and took a van from a travel company from the airport to our hotel in Cocoa Beach--cost was equivalent to Uber and we were the only riders.  Yes, heed the advice of many and arrive in town the day before if you can't drive to the port.  Peace of mind for making your cruise on time without a panic-filled dash is worth much more than a night's hotel stay!   
Although Royal notified us to arrive at the terminal for boarding between 12:00 and 1:00 p.m., we took your advice and arrived early at the terminal, by 10:00 a.m., and were quickly processed and received our Sea Pass cards.  RC staff want to get passengers processed efficiently and did not ask about our scheduled time-slot for boarding as we thought they might.  We received a Gold C&A member boarding card (labelled "Gold-3" to be exact) and did not have to wait long in the main room for the boarding process to begin, starting with Suite guests and working down the C&A ladder from Pinnacle to Gold.  It took maybe 30 minutes at most to get to gold member boarding.  Being pretty geeked out by now, we got our photo taken while boarding and were on the ship by about 11:15 a.m.  
Entering the ship on the Deck 5 Royal Promenade--a cool, glitzy three-deck-high space running up the middle of about half of the ship--we noticed the Globe and Atlas Pub, which called to us to baptize our pre-purchased ultimate drink package.  
Based on RC blog advice, we headed first to a specialty restaurant in Central Park on Deck 8 to make dining reservations for the cruise--this was much quicker than waiting in line at one of the restaurant reservation desks temporarily set up in the Royal Promenade.  We pre-purchased the 3-night specialty dining package and had already scheduled 150 Central Park for dinner on day 2.  We had no line at the desk at Giovanni's and booked a dinner there and at Chop's for times later in the cruise that would work well with our show reservations.
From there we strolled across Central Park and had lunch at Park Cafe with only a 10 minute wait -- yes, those roast beef sandwiches at Park Cafe are fabulous!   We then went up top and regaled in the views from the solarium, and areas for the main pools and wave runners on Decks 15 & 16.  
Our stateroom was open around 1:15 p.m.  We had reserved a balcony room (14204) at the start of the bump in the middle of the port side on Deck 14.  On our previous cruise, we stayed on Deck 3 in a small stateroom with a small window.  A balcony 14 decks up provides an awesome vantage point—almost vertigo-inducing!
My wife's luggage had arrived by then -- not at our stateroom door, but a ways down the corridor with a group of other luggage.  Mine was not yet available.  We met our room steward who told us it might take until 6:00 p.m. for all luggage to be delivered, which seemed odd as our luggage was on the same cart to begin with and I had intentionally avoided bringing in any items I knew were forbidden by RC (more on that later).
After we checked out our stateroom, we headed to the main dining room on Deck 4 to see if we could switch from My Time dining to traditional dining at the earlier seating (5:30 PM), because this would work better with the shows we had reserved, and from our perception through some podcasts that My Time dining could take a bit longer than traditional. We spoke to a head waiter at the desk near the entrance to the dining room and he had no problem assigning us to fill out an eight-person table for traditional dining, which worked well for us and gave us a good opportunity to meet some other cruisers.
After a bit more exploring and checking for my luggage – still had not arrived yet – we attended the muster drill and caught some of the sail-away festivities from the Deck 14 forward wing viewing area (another Oasis tip we learned from the RC Blog website). One last check for my luggage before we headed down to traditional dining.  After a nice meal, we headed back to the room before we were to go to our first show of the cruise, Cats in the Opal Theater at 8:30 PM.  When we arrived at our stateroom door, I saw the dreaded notice that I had to go down to the security baggage checking area on Deck 2 before 8 PM to get my luggage and it was already 7:45 PM by this time.  I dashed down to Deck 2 and was instructed to open my bag and learned, to my surprise, that a short three-outlet extension cord was the contraband item. I was well aware that any liquor (besides two bottles of wine) or any appliance that created heat or a power strip were forbidden. RC staff calmly put up with my dumbfounded protestations and showed me the fine print where it did indeed state that extension cords are not allowed. Mental note made and not soon to be forgotten.
Back to the fun stuff! My wife and I were both intrigued by the entertainment offerings described in Cruise Planner and the large number and types of entertainment venues provided on such a huge ship-- traditional Broadway-type theater, various nightclubs, ice-skating rink, Aqua theater, jazz club, and casino, along with many interesting watering holes.  Being theater buffs, we made reservations for all of the shows available in Cruise Planner.  The first show we saw, Cats, did not disappoint, even though the length of this unabridged show and perhaps its lack of a single main storyline caused quite a few folks to leave the theater at intermission.  We were greatly impressed by the high caliber of the performers at this show, and most other shows on board.  It was rather refreshing to see the show again after about 20 years.  We enjoyed opportunities to talk with actors from Cats after their performances at other venues during the cruise (Dazzles and Jazz on 4). 
We enjoyed all of the shows, and none of them were, in our view, mediocre or worse. The ice-skating show portrayed the story of Hans Christian Anderson and many of his fictional characters.  Although the ice-skating rink was not large by any means, the skaters still reached high speed and did several spinning leaps (sorry – can't tell my sow-kow from a toe loop).  The divers in the aqua show were great. 
We spent a few enjoyable evenings in Jazz on 4 and got to know the performers, including at the Prohibition Event, which was fun but a bit blurry in my recollection.  Good turnout for this event with a full venue and everyone decked-out in crazy 20s fashions.  This was my wife's favorite night of the cruise and the photos taken by RC photographers around the Royal Promenade from that evening are the nicest keepsakes from the cruise. 
Based on recommendations from the podcast, we sampled specialty restaurants by pre-purchasing the 3-night package.  We ate at 150 Central Park, Giovanni’s, and Chops – all very good and worth the upcharge.  But we ended up re-jiggering our dining schedule due to a fortuitous encounter with our main dining room waiter when he was working at Johnny Rockets over lunch the second day of our cruise.  He spotted us as we looking around the Boardwalk and called us over to ask about our dining choices for the cruise – we had mentioned to him at dinner on the first night of the cruise we had purchased a 3-night specialty dining package.  As it turns out, the nights we picked for specialty dining coincided with the two formal nights and the last night of the cruise – in other words, all the dinners when they have the best meal options in the main dining room including lobster night.  At his urging, we went back up to Giovanni’s and were able to reschedule our specialty dining for other nights so we could experience the best the main dining room has to offer on the two formal nights and the last night of the cruise.  
Couple notes on our ports:    St Maarten For our excursion on St Maarten we also heeded the advice of many and took a cab tour around the island.  Matt, thanks for the tip about your friend Leroy Brown.  We were able to reserve his cab for our tour and enjoyed his island banter and stories about different areas and beaches.  He did focus quite a bit on the devastation from the hurricanes last year, including taking us by some damaged resorts and boats/harbors.  Although Maho Beach at the end of the runway and the bar restaurant next to it were back up and running, the north side of the island was hit pretty bad. Nevertheless, we stopped at a lolo in Grand Case-Cynthia's Talk of the Town--and had a great lunch of chicken and ribs...more food than we bargained for, but we got to sample the grilling style on the French side of the island.   San Juan We honestly were not expecting much for our short stop in San Juan (8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) and were originally thinking we might stay on board.  But we were glad we ventured out -- the old town was a short walk from the pier and we strolled through the old Spanish colonial-style narrow streets with their brightly-painted buildings.  Electrical power was spotty as the power cut out occasionally while we were in some shops, but was on a few doors down on the same block.  We sampled mufungo at Cafe Manolin, a Puerto Rican fried plantain dish that was hearty and tasty.      Labadee As first-timers at Labadee, we threw caution to the wind and road the Dragon's Breath, the huge zip line over Adrenaline Beach.  Some have commented on the uneasy feeling on truck the ride up the hill and while waiting on the platform for the zipline.  We did not have a bad experience in the truck ride up or while waiting on the platform.  The ride itself was very smooth and the spring-cushioned stop at the end was not as jolting as we thought it might be.  Our zip-line ride was scheduled at the beginning of the cook-out lunch buffet, and that was perhaps not ideal.  By the time we returned from the ride, the lines were pretty long at the buffet, so we waited until near the end of lunchtime to go through the buffet line.    Some Key Takeaways:
Arrive in or near your departure port the day before you cruise. Reserve entertainment before the cruise—no cost for this! Check RC’s current policy on forbidden items--no more innocuous-looking extension cords for us!. Try specialty dining, but check out the main dining room on formal nights to sample some of the best food included in your cruise fare. Take a few minutes to get to know your main dining room waiter and room steward on the first day of your cruise. They helped us optimize our dining and entertainment schedules to get more out of our cruise. Get your picture taken at least a couple times by the RC photographers.      Consider buying a drink package on a cruise that has several sea days plus a day at an RC resort. If we had had a more port-intensive itinerary with no stop at an RC resort where the drink package is included, we probably would not have bought the full package.  But it was fun to sample a broad range of drinks, including several tasty dessert martinis at the Champagne Bar (just not all on the same night!). Use self-disembarkation for a couple or small group.  Although we had to line up early in the morning, once the line started moving we were off the ship in a few minutes and to the rental car counter before the big crowds.   Keep up the great work on the podcast and thanks to all members who contribute to the informative message boards at the RC Blog website!   Roger & Carol   Finally Thawed (And Now Baking) Tundra, WI  

@Matt - Thanks for suggesting on your last podcast that we reproduce this cruise review email in the discussion boards.  Yeah, it's lengthy, but we hope some newbies, or others who have not tried Oasis-class ships, will find some helpful suggestions from our first cruise on this wonderful, ginormous vessel... My wife and I have greatly enjoyed your podcast and the awesome website as we got back into cruising earlier this year.  Your advice and advice from others on the message boards greatly enhanced our cruise experience.  We provide our key takeaways at the end.
Prior to our eastern Caribbean cruise on Oasis this February-March, we had only experienced Monarch of the Seas as chaperones for a local high school group trip in early 2010.  We were quite impressed with that ship--the biggest/best from 1990--when we sailed her almost a decade ago.  But we could not fully anticipate the staggering hugeness of Oasis when we first walked up to and boarded her.  You can view all the videos and see all the photos you want, but that can't replicate the visceral impact seeing this beautiful behemoth in person. 
We flew to Orlando the day before embarkation at Port Canaveral and took a van from a travel company from the airport to our hotel in Cocoa Beach--cost was equivalent to Uber and we were the only riders.  Yes, heed the advice of many and arrive in town the day before if you can't drive to the port.  Peace of mind for making your cruise on time without a panic-filled dash is worth much more than a night's hotel stay!   
Although Royal notified us to arrive at the terminal for boarding between 12:00 and 1:00 p.m., we took your advice and arrived early at the terminal, by 10:00 a.m., and were quickly processed and received our Sea Pass cards.  RC staff want to get passengers processed efficiently and did not ask about our scheduled time-slot for boarding as we thought they might.  We received a Gold C&A member boarding card (labelled "Gold-3" to be exact) and did not have to wait long in the main room for the boarding process to begin, starting with Suite guests and working down the C&A ladder from Pinnacle to Gold.  It took maybe 30 minutes at most to get to gold member boarding.  Being pretty geeked out by now, we got our photo taken while boarding and were on the ship by about 11:15 a.m.  
Entering the ship on the Deck 5 Royal Promenade--a cool, glitzy three-deck-high space running up the middle of about half of the ship--we noticed the Globe and Atlas Pub, which called to us to baptize our pre-purchased ultimate drink package.  
Based on RC blog advice, we headed first to a specialty restaurant in Central Park on Deck 8 to make dining reservations for the cruise--this was much quicker than waiting in line at one of the restaurant reservation desks temporarily set up in the Royal Promenade.  We pre-purchased the 3-night specialty dining package and had already scheduled 150 Central Park for dinner on day 2.  We had no line at the desk at Giovanni's and booked a dinner there and at Chop's for times later in the cruise that would work well with our show reservations.
From there we strolled across Central Park and had lunch at Park Cafe with only a 10 minute wait -- yes, those roast beef sandwiches at Park Cafe are fabulous!   We then went up top and regaled in the views from the solarium, and areas for the main pools and wave runners on Decks 15 & 16.  
Our stateroom was open around 1:15 p.m.  We had reserved a balcony room (14204) at the start of the bump in the middle of the port side on Deck 14.  On our previous cruise, we stayed on Deck 3 in a small stateroom with a small window.  A balcony 14 decks up provides an awesome vantage point—almost vertigo-inducing!
My wife's luggage had arrived by then -- not at our stateroom door, but a ways down the corridor with a group of other luggage.  Mine was not yet available.  We met our room steward who told us it might take until 6:00 p.m. for all luggage to be delivered, which seemed odd as our luggage was on the same cart to begin with and I had intentionally avoided bringing in any items I knew were forbidden by RC (more on that later).
After we checked out our stateroom, we headed to the main dining room on Deck 4 to see if we could switch from My Time dining to traditional dining at the earlier seating (5:30 PM), because this would work better with the shows we had reserved, and from our perception through some podcasts that My Time dining could take a bit longer than traditional. We spoke to a head waiter at the desk near the entrance to the dining room and he had no problem assigning us to fill out an eight-person table for traditional dining, which worked well for us and gave us a good opportunity to meet some other cruisers.
After a bit more exploring and checking for my luggage – still had not arrived yet – we attended the muster drill and caught some of the sail-away festivities from the Deck 14 forward wing viewing area (another Oasis tip we learned from the RC Blog website). One last check for my luggage before we headed down to traditional dining.  After a nice meal, we headed back to the room before we were to go to our first show of the cruise, Cats in the Opal Theater at 8:30 PM.  When we arrived at our stateroom door, I saw the dreaded notice that I had to go down to the security baggage checking area on Deck 2 before 8 PM to get my luggage and it was already 7:45 PM by this time.  I dashed down to Deck 2 and was instructed to open my bag and learned, to my surprise, that a short three-outlet extension cord was the contraband item. I was well aware that any liquor (besides two bottles of wine) or any appliance that created heat or a power strip were forbidden. RC staff calmly put up with my dumbfounded protestations and showed me the fine print where it did indeed state that extension cords are not allowed. Mental note made and not soon to be forgotten.
Back to the fun stuff! My wife and I were both intrigued by the entertainment offerings described in Cruise Planner and the large number and types of entertainment venues provided on such a huge ship-- traditional Broadway-type theater, various nightclubs, ice-skating rink, Aqua theater, jazz club, and casino, along with many interesting watering holes.  Being theater buffs, we made reservations for all of the shows available in Cruise Planner.  The first show we saw, Cats, did not disappoint, even though the length of this unabridged show and perhaps its lack of a single main storyline caused quite a few folks to leave the theater at intermission.  We were greatly impressed by the high caliber of the performers at this show, and most other shows on board.  It was rather refreshing to see the show again after about 20 years.  We enjoyed opportunities to talk with actors from Cats after their performances at other venues during the cruise (Dazzles and Jazz on 4). 
We enjoyed all of the shows, and none of them were, in our view, mediocre or worse. The ice-skating show portrayed the story of Hans Christian Anderson and many of his fictional characters.  Although the ice-skating rink was not large by any means, the skaters still reached high speed and did several spinning leaps (sorry – can't tell my sow-kow from a toe loop).  The divers in the aqua show were great. 
We spent a few enjoyable evenings in Jazz on 4 and got to know the performers, including at the Prohibition Event, which was fun but a bit blurry in my recollection.  Good turnout for this event with a full venue and everyone decked-out in crazy 20s fashions.  This was my wife's favorite night of the cruise and the photos taken by RC photographers around the Royal Promenade from that evening are the nicest keepsakes from the cruise. 
Based on recommendations from the podcast, we sampled specialty restaurants by pre-purchasing the 3-night package.  We ate at 150 Central Park, Giovanni’s, and Chops – all very good and worth the upcharge.  But we ended up re-jiggering our dining schedule due to a fortuitous encounter with our main dining room waiter when he was working at Johnny Rockets over lunch the second day of our cruise.  He spotted us as we looking around the Boardwalk and called us over to ask about our dining choices for the cruise – we had mentioned to him at dinner on the first night of the cruise we had purchased a 3-night specialty dining package.  As it turns out, the nights we picked for specialty dining coincided with the two formal nights and the last night of the cruise – in other words, all the dinners when they have the best meal options in the main dining room including lobster night.  At his urging, we went back up to Giovanni’s and were able to reschedule our specialty dining for other nights so we could experience the best the main dining room has to offer on the two formal nights and the last night of the cruise.  
Couple notes on our ports:    St Maarten For our excursion on St Maarten we also heeded the advice of many and took a cab tour around the island.  Matt, thanks for the tip about your friend Leroy Brown.  We were able to reserve his cab for our tour and enjoyed his island banter and stories about different areas and beaches.  He did focus quite a bit on the devastation from the hurricanes last year, including taking us by some damaged resorts and boats/harbors.  Although Maho Beach at the end of the runway and the bar restaurant next to it were back up and running, the north side of the island was hit pretty bad. Nevertheless, we stopped at a lolo in Grand Case-Cynthia's Talk of the Town--and had a great lunch of chicken and ribs...more food than we bargained for, but we got to sample the grilling style on the French side of the island.   San Juan We honestly were not expecting much for our short stop in San Juan (8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) and were originally thinking we might stay on board.  But we were glad we ventured out -- the old town was a short walk from the pier and we strolled through the old Spanish colonial-style narrow streets with their brightly-painted buildings.  Electrical power was spotty as the power cut out occasionally while we were in some shops, but was on a few doors down on the same block.  We sampled mufungo at Cafe Manolin, a Puerto Rican fried plantain dish that was hearty and tasty.      Labadee As first-timers at Labadee, we threw caution to the wind and road the Dragon's Breath, the huge zip line over Adrenaline Beach.  Some have commented on the uneasy feeling on truck the ride up the hill and while waiting on the platform for the zipline.  We did not have a bad experience in the truck ride up or while waiting on the platform.  The ride itself was very smooth and the spring-cushioned stop at the end was not as jolting as we thought it might be.  Our zip-line ride was scheduled at the beginning of the cook-out lunch buffet, and that was perhaps not ideal.  By the time we returned from the ride, the lines were pretty long at the buffet, so we waited until near the end of lunchtime to go through the buffet line.    Some Key Takeaways:
Arrive in or near your departure port the day before you cruise. Reserve entertainment before the cruise—no cost for this! Check RC’s current policy on forbidden items--no more innocuous-looking extension cords for us!. Try specialty dining, but check out the main dining room on formal nights to sample some of the best food included in your cruise fare. Take a few minutes to get to know your main dining room waiter and room steward on the first day of your cruise. They helped us optimize our dining and entertainment schedules to get more out of our cruise. Get your picture taken at least a couple times by the RC photographers.      Consider buying a drink package on a cruise that has several sea days plus a day at an RC resort. If we had had a more port-intensive itinerary with no stop at an RC resort where the drink package is included, we probably would not have bought the full package.  But it was fun to sample a broad range of drinks, including several tasty dessert martinis at the Champagne Bar (just not all on the same night!). Use self-disembarkation for a couple or small group.  Although we had to line up early in the morning, once the line started moving we were off the ship in a few minutes and to the rental car counter before the big crowds.   Keep up the great work on the podcast and thanks to all members who contribute to the informative message boards at the RC Blog website!   Roger & Carol   Finally Thawed (And Now Baking) Tundra, WI  

Hi All!
My wife and I would love to hear from any members on what they enjoyed most about sailing on Adventure of the Seas and/or taking in a Maine and eastern Canada itinerary.  We have not cruised on Voyager Class before, but our excitement is mounting for a cruise on Adventure over Labor Day weekend this year, including the sail-away from Bayonne around Manhattan and near the Statue of Liberty--fingers will be crossed for good weather to view NYC during sail-away.   Adventure also looks big enough to offer a great range of onboard entertainment and dining, which we both enjoy, but will give us a nice change in experience from our last cruise, which was on Oasis.
We also posted a more port-specific inquiry on the excursions board. 
Thanks for any comments on what stood out for you about the ship or cruising the northeast!
 
 

Hi All!  Like @Disneynorth we have a NE and E. Canada cruise coming up--over Labor Day weekend for us--with stops in Portland and Bar Harbor, ME, St John's, NB, and Halifax, NS.  At this point we are not overly-intrigued by the RC excursions offered through cruise planner so far, but might consider taking one.  Currently offered RC excursions are: Best of Portland & Kennebunkport, Arcadia National Park and Lobster Bake, and Best of Halifax.  We will peruse Trip Advisor for tips on some port activities, but wanted to hear from others on any experiences with this itinerary that stood out for them, not necessarily for an RC excursion, but that would be good info as well. 
We are also looking forward to sailing on Adventure of the Seas on this cruise out of Bayonne with sail-away around NYC and near Statue of Liberty...and sampling some great beer in the port stops!
Thanks for any feedback on what you liked best on cruising in the northeast!

Hi All!  Like @Disneynorth we have a NE and E. Canada cruise coming up--over Labor Day weekend for us--with stops in Portland and Bar Harbor, ME, St John's, NB, and Halifax, NS.  At this point we are not overly-intrigued by the RC excursions offered through cruise planner so far, but might consider taking one.  Currently offered RC excursions are: Best of Portland & Kennebunkport, Arcadia National Park and Lobster Bake, and Best of Halifax.  We will peruse Trip Advisor for tips on some port activities, but wanted to hear from others on any experiences with this itinerary that stood out for them, not necessarily for an RC excursion, but that would be good info as well. 
We are also looking forward to sailing on Adventure of the Seas on this cruise out of Bayonne with sail-away around NYC and near Statue of Liberty...and sampling some great beer in the port stops!
Thanks for any feedback on what you liked best on cruising in the northeast!

@Pooch and @DocLC, thanks for the suggestions!  Have read a little on Peggy's Cove and it sounds like it is well worth a visit.  We also will want to tour some in Acadia, and will research private tour companies for this.  And, of course,  we will have to sample the best lobster on the planet!

Yes, @Sabrinaklai I finally read this thread.  WOW...and I don't mean about the quarterly promotions, rather the contorted math one may encounter at Next Cruise!  More food for thought...and reason to bring the laptop along as @twangster suggests.

Thanks for this reality-check @JLMoran and your description of the essentially stable pricing for one of your recent itineraries after initial booking.  I would also look at the overall value (price - OBC) before considering re-booking.  
And @mom2mybugs, @Sweety, and @PrincipalTinker, thanks for your feedback including some additional positive experiences with MEI.  I would trust that my TA would stay more on top of price reductions and good new promotions than me! 
My Take-Away: Don't expect substantial savings from WOW or other promotions after initial booking, even though it is worth keeping tabs on prices and promotions because you can realize some real, but probably modest savings before final payment ($300 saved is always a good thing ).   

Thanks for this reality-check @JLMoran and your description of the essentially stable pricing for one of your recent itineraries after initial booking.  I would also look at the overall value (price - OBC) before considering re-booking.  
And @mom2mybugs, @Sweety, and @PrincipalTinker, thanks for your feedback including some additional positive experiences with MEI.  I would trust that my TA would stay more on top of price reductions and good new promotions than me! 
My Take-Away: Don't expect substantial savings from WOW or other promotions after initial booking, even though it is worth keeping tabs on prices and promotions because you can realize some real, but probably modest savings before final payment ($300 saved is always a good thing ).