walkietalkiegg

I'm way late to the game on this post but was trying to clarify. I'm booking a European cruise in 2019 on Oasis and wanted to make sure the 2BR ATS is still in Star Class, because..... We had our first Genie experience last summer on Anthem and it was amazing! I wasn't sure I'd enjoy it... sounded a little too stuffy for my "fly by the seat of my pants" vaca attitude, but I could not have been more wrong. Our Genie was Joyce and she was a powerhouse! I'm very much ADHD and while meds help, after having this awesome assistant, I wanted to hire her permanently to organize my entire life! Embarkation was not completely smooth. I don't think people at the port were familiar enough with the program, so there was some confusion. We ended up being put in the Star Class lounge area with another family, and it took several port employees to figure out how to handle our luggage. I sent a message to Joyce as soon as we arrived at the port and she did send someone to let us know she was working with another family on disembarking and would be with us asap. She also messaged me the same. Once someone figured out our luggage - someone tried to put it with the other suite luggage and had to tell them I thought ours was different, etc - it was whisked away and arrived before we boarded. When Joyce arrived, she quickly escorted us onto the ship and gave us a grand tour, delivering us to our cabin (at this point I think it was around noon and we arrived at port around 11:30). There were goodies waiting for us and she made suggestions as to where we could eat, etc. We bought Starbucks sometime early that first day, and Joyce asked what we each had and if that's what we enjoy most, then asked for a delivery time and sent our favorite coffee drinks to the cabin every morning. If we didn't want them, needed to change the order or the time we told her! And if we forgot, we left her a note - or sent her a message - or called her. She seemed to be all over the ship all at once, but rarely appeared the least bit rushed or stressed (embarkation days were the exception and that was minimal - and expected when you're arranging for your guests leaving AND arriving all within a couple of hours). We attended more shows that we normally would have, just knowing we had good seats and didn't have to worry about making reservations or standing in line. Sounds silly, but that took the minimal vaca stress out of the picture! Shore excursions were less stressful as well. I've always worried we would miss our guide (first cruise years ago, booked a private excursion and could not find our leader, so I'm paranoid), but we would meet Joyce, sometimes in a lounge for breakfast, and she would hand-deliver us to our guide. I love specialty restaurants, so knowing those were included was awesome. We ended up eating in one twice, and the second time (same server), were asked if we had any favorite dishes from the other restaurants or anything we'd not tried yet that was appealing and then brought those to our table from the other venues! I'm not sure how much influence the Genie had on that, but it was awesome! We ended up doing the theater tour and the bridge tour, though we slept through the galley tour. The theater tour was especially fun, given that my daughter is ms creativity! I asked one of the guides (cast member) if there was an official cast list. He indicated there was not, but had us wait and returned with a hand-written list that one of the cast members had created. He'd copied it for their use and gave the original to us. Very sweet! Oh and our Chef's Table was attended by the lead in the main production! I'm not a big "Oooo look a famous person!" type, but this situation was fun because he openly discussed what it's like to perform and live on a cruise ship for so many months. He and his girlfriend made dinner a thousand times more fun! Again, I can't say enough about the Genie program.... It's unique and makes cruising a different experience. We are going to Cuba in November and I'm very sad we don't have access to the program on that ship (although my bank account is quite thankful).