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MoneyMan702

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About MoneyMan702

  • Birthday September 20

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    Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati
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    Cruising, weight lifting, fitness, making memories with my wife, constant personal and professional improvement

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  1. Matt, also of note: We went to Chops on this sailing and were actually going to be charged a corkage fee. That was certainly a first for us. The waiter I had told me that this came “from the top” and that he had never really enforced it in all of his years with the company. It also sounded like the enforcement of it was relatively recent. The timing of this seems rather suspect considering the recent changes to the carry-on wine policy. As always, I am a sample size of one, but I’m curious if people will start reporting more instances of this in the coming weeks. I don’t see enforcement of this going over particularly well. I’ll just pop my own corks in my stateroom from now on, I guess.
  2. On Oasis currently and we go to CocoCay on Day 7. Last sea day is Day 6. We did go to Labadee on Day 3, so our cruise is kind of “sandwiched” with good RCI beach stops.
  3. This is my first ship with a Bionic Bar, and I haven’t even seen it work. I think the Champagne Bar is a better venue all the way around. Sometimes bigger and cooler isn’t better. I tend to agree with you.
  4. My wife, son, and I are on Oasis right now and I have a few random bits of information. Matt posted an article a few days ago about Wow Bands possibly being back. They are definitely back on Oasis, at least for now. My wife and I got them from Guest Services on Monday. Still $9.99 The Bionic Bar is out of service and scheduled for maintenance. I think it has been down for the entire cruise, but the signage didn’t appear saying that it was out of service until Monday or Tuesday. I haven’t seen a single drink made there or any crowds there the entire cruise. Greetings from San Juan!
  5. Welcome to the party! We actually booked a cruise on Independence we just disembarked yesterday after I made this roll call, so it was the first cruise post-baby and post-COVID instead. It was a blast! I’m already ready to book more!
  6. Fair enough. A lot can change between now and September, too. I just dread the thought of getting a 15:00 boarding time or something late like that, and especially since that is in the middle of normal nap time. Fingers crossed that we can either get something early or that they continue to seemingly disregard this I’d we do get a late time. I also love getting on the ship early to start vacation as early as possible and square away things like specialty dining and now the nursery service.
  7. What is enforcement looking like nowadays? I can’t even check in for my cruise in September til July 29th, so I have no idea what time slot we will be set to arrive at. I have zero intentions of being there waiting for the “floodgates” to open at the very first boarding time like in the “old days” pre-COVID, but I do have some concerns about getting a 3 PM slot when that is right in the middle of my sons nap time. I’ll definitely go through the proper channels to get an earlier time before all else. But I guess I am curious just how bi lg of a deal it is so long as they aren’t getting swamped right away by half the ship wanting to board at 10 AM. I don’t want to buck the system, but I am curious if this being enforced nearly as much as it was in the beginning. My gut would tell me that based on comments on this post from March, probably not. We are sailing on September 12th out of Canaveral on Indy If that helps add any context to the conversation.
  8. Totally agree. There wasn’t a bad choice so long as it had H20 Zone or Splashaway Bay. He would be content in an inflatable pool. Hah. Yeah, he doesn’t love loud noises at this point. Things may change by then though. That is great news to hear! I definitely wanted to check out San Juan since we have never been there. We visited St. Thomas in 2018 and considered using that as a day to stay aboard. Easily walkable is definitely our preference for this trip with him. Thanks for the input. Now hopefully I don’t forget between now and then.
  9. Sorry. Oasis of the Seas. The itinerary for March 5, 2023 goes to CocoCay, San Juan, St. Thomas, and Labadee. The only port of those three we haven’t been to is San Juan, and we love simplicity of being able to get off and go to the beach more or less straight from the ship at both of Royal’s destinations. We may make use of the Nursery service while at San Juan so the wife and I can enjoy some time in port together. It is also a later stop from 2 PM til 10 PM. The Odyssey itinerary on March 5 also goes to Labadee and CocoCay, but ports at Falmouth which we didn’t particularly love. Add in that the Oasis itinerary was a bit cheaper on a cost-per-night basis and is 7 nights vs 6 on Odyssey, and the decision became quite clear for us. Can’t wait to be back on the water!
  10. We ended up booking Oasis, mostly due to itinerary and because we thought Oasis might suit him better at his age than a Quantum vessel. I definitely want to get on Odyssey or another Quantum-class ship someday relatively soon though.
  11. Thanks for all the input and commentary on this topic previously. The wife and I booked our first cruise since December 2019 for March 2023 on Oasis. Little dude, who will be 2-1/2, will be along for the journey. Baby splash zones were a must for us, and the choice came down to Oasis and Odyssey for this trip. Oasis won on a cost-per-night basis and due to a slightly better itinerary to us subjectively.
  12. Hello all! My wife and I just booked this cruise earlier tonight. This will be our first cruise since December 2019 due to COVID and having our first child. Our son will also be cruising with us for the first time. This will be our fifth cruise with Royal and overall, and our second time on an Oasis-class ship. My wife and I are both in our early thirties, and our son will be around 2-1/2 at sailing. We look forward to meeting you all!
  13. Haha. No worries. Glad I could help. From what I can tell, you should be good to go, but hopefully some folks with more knowledge about Quantum can chime in. I actually just saw my OP on this from last year and read where Quantum is good to go. Matt also chimes in and said a ship with Splashaway Bay is good to go, and I certainly trust his input. We are looking at booking a trip next February or March when my son will be approaching 2-1/2 years old, so I imagine this will also still be a consideration for us at that point.
  14. Spectrum has a Splashaway Bay Area on Deck 14. From my understanding, all of the ships with Splashaway Bay or H2O zone, or essentially Freedom, Quantum, and Oasis Classes have areas for swim diapers. I believe Navigator also does post-refit, but it is the only Voyager class vessel that does if that is true. I see what APPEARS to be the area for swim diapers on a couple of videos for Quantum I was watching. I hoped to pinpoint the exact time it popped up if I could make heads or tails of it, but I couldn’t see the signage. The small splash pad areas on these ships are filtered separately with UV sterilization above and beyond typical filtration and chlorination, and they are drained at the first sign of an accident. The water is also exchanged much more frequently due to the significantly lower volume. The CDC Vessel Sanitation Program doesn’t allow for swim diapers elsewhere on ships originating from the US without those measures in place. So, given the age of Quantum relative to older ships with baby splash zones, and in comparing it to Odyssey, it appears that the swim diaper splash zone is the small circular part of Splashaway bay on the port side toward the bow of the ship. That is where it is located on Odyssey as well, but the aesthetics are a bit different. Take a look at Deck 14 on the plan.
  15. We love the MDR and specialty dining. For me, the decision to get a dining package is based on the variety of specialty dining venues on the ship, itinerary length, and a variety of other factors. Three or four nights is what I would consider perfect for most ships and 7ish night itineraries, as you will split your time between complimentary and specialty dining. We did the ultimate package on Allure and didn’t regret it since we got to try out all the specialty dining on board. We also did ultimate on our 4 night Mariner sailing since it wasn’t much more than the 4 night package that didn’t include lunch at specialty restaurants on sea days. We have done 3-5 night packages otherwise since though. On ships with fewer specialty dining options, I’d go with a shorter length dining package. As others have said, the $35 credit at Izumi is more than enough to cover a huge amount of food.
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