karl_nj

Still, you need to be careful, as there are times of the year when school is out and you may not expect it.  There are different school schedules in different states, regions and types of schools.  It doesn't come down to just not sailing in July.  Spring break schedules take up a lot of weeks March/April, summer break starts and ends at various times from May to September, some schools are year round and have longer breaks throughout the year, there are random weeks that some schools are off ("jersey week", "yeshiva week", all of presidents day week off, etc.)
 

Perhaps in the future, instead of scrapping Vision class ships, maybe they can just repurpose them as a tender for Icon class ships...

Oh, nice.  Having the MDR open for lunch on embarkation day was always one of my favorite parts about sailing on NCL.

Perhaps in the future, instead of scrapping Vision class ships, maybe they can just repurpose them as a tender for Icon class ships...

Well, not Tampa.

Perhaps in the future, instead of scrapping Vision class ships, maybe they can just repurpose them as a tender for Icon class ships...

Perhaps in the future, instead of scrapping Vision class ships, maybe they can just repurpose them as a tender for Icon class ships...

You have to know their booking numbers and a passenger DOB and last name.  Then you can add in the booking and you should be able to do check-in and cruise planner, etc.
 

It’s BRISK today! Driving up from the mid-Atlantic, we went from the upper 30s to the mid-50s at embarkation. We had a 10:30am check-in time, but didn’t arrive to the terminal until 10:50am. When you come off the NJ Turnpike in Bayonne and march towards the cruise terminal, you come down Chosen Few Way and have to make a left turn onto Goldsborough Dr (which turns into Port Terminal Blvd). Well, that left turn sucks. It’s a left turn against two-way traffic with no stop light. So you have hundreds of cars backed up trying to dodge traffic to make this left turn. There should truly be a stop light here, or find some other way to get onto Goldsborough.
So we get to the Terminal at 10:50am, and wait in the baggage check line for about 10 minutes. We’re parked by 11:10am, and head into the Terminal. Security is a breeze, and we go to a check-in line, finish check-in, and right onto the ship by 11:30am.
Once on-board, we went to Spotlight Karaoke for muster. We asked if they had wristbands for the kids, and they said they’d be in the stateroom (spoiler: they weren’t). After muster check-in, we made a bee-line for the Boardwalk and to Playmakers for lunch. The kiddos went straight for the carousel, and rode it a few times while food arrived. We got a bunch of nachos, fries, chicken tenders, and onion rings. Everything went over pretty well. I snuck over to Johnny Rockets and got an order of bacon cheese fries for our travel partners, and Johnny Rockets happily obliged and put it in a to-go box. While we ate, I tried to make dining reservations, but it wanted to charge us (we had UDP), I was getting boxed out of a lot of the reservation times I wanted, and it was slooooow. I gave up after 10 minutes and no reservations, determined to fix it at a host stand.
Once we wrapped up at the Boardwalk, we headed to Central Park to make UDP reservations. I headed into 150 Central Park, and worked with the host to make the reservations. It took a while (20 minutes?) but I was able to lock in all of the restaurants we wanted, at the times we wanted, and kept our two parties together.
Because the reservations were taking a while, I sent everyone else up to Adventure Ocean to register all the kiddos. I headed up there after everything was booked, and the other parents took care of registration and booking. The wife said the AO Babies staff said there were a “lot of babies” on this cruise, and limited us to 7 hours of time in the Nursery until Day 3, when they can shake out how heavily the Nursery is going to be used. We experienced something similar on Anthem last December, so we expected something similar. The older kids are first-come, first-serve, with no limits. Game-on.
After Adventure Ocean, we headed down and found our staterooms were ready. We had interior rooms on Anthem, and walking into a Balcony room and being flooded with natural light will make you never want to to go back to an interior room again. My goodness! There’s definitely a spillover of sound from the pool deck, we heard the live music and sail-away party even through the closed door, but also understand it’s loud because it’s Day 1 and getting everybody wound up. It’s not so loud as to disturb a nap.
Bags weren’t at our room yet, we took another walk around the ship to explore the pool deck. We went up to Deck 15 and walked past the Beach Pool. We saw people swimming, and I dipped my hand in the water and it was WARM! It felt really good! Unfortunately it was still mid-50s and WINDY on the pool deck, so we weren’t swimming just yet. We showed the kids around Splashaway Bay, and got our first soft-serve cone of the trip. We walked back to the Flowriders and Ultimate Abyss, then back down to the rooms where our bags started appearing.
We did pass through the Windjammer, and it was swamped, as expected. I was also surprised to see half of it closed - what gives, on such a busy morning?
We got unpacked, met our stateroom attendant, and gave all the praise to whoever invented magnet hooks. Really, guys, if you don’t have two dozen magnet hooks when you cruise, you’re doing it wrong 😄 We got everything unpacked, and started getting ready for dinner. I realized I hadn’t made entertainment reservations yet, and when I tried to do it in the app again, all the early show times were conflicting with our dining times.
I called the Box Office, and tried to book Frozen in Time for 7pm on Day 2. Nope, fully booked. Ended up booking Day 6 at 8pm. Then I tried to book Aqua80 for 8:15pm on Day 3. Nope, fully booked. Actually, ALL of the 8:15pm shows were fully booked, which is really disappointing. Pro tip: Make your entertainment reservations BEFORE your dining reservations!
We head down to Chops, and our party of five is seated at a 6-top, which a bench for 3 and 3 chairs. Our party of four is seated at a 4-top, but all the kids want to sit with each other 😆. We end up squeezing all 9 of us into the 6-top, at the recommendation of the server. The 5 kids fit on the bench, and the 4 adults round the table with chairs.
Service seems…slow. Coming off of MDR on Anthem in December, the MDR staff had timing nailed for our 5-top. Here at Chops, the pacing was drawn out much longer. Not sure if it’s Night 1 turbulence, or just how Chops runs, but from the time we sat down to the time we got apps was 45 minutes, soups/salads at 65, and mains at 80 minutes. We got the shrimp cocktail and tuna tartare for apps, wedge salad and mushroom soup for second course. All were really, really good. I got a bone-in ribeye for the entree. It was cooked perfectly, but was a little tough - could have used more marbling. The staff coursed the kids mains between apps and soup/salad, which was a blessing because they were about to eat the tablecloths 😆. Unfortunately by the time we got our mains, the kids were fried. We ended up getting dessert to go, and took it back to the room.
After we got the kids to bed, I did my mandatory wander-throughout-the-ship. Started on the Boardwalk to catch the Ravens game, then up to the pool deck to grab some night photos. I’m surprised how quiet the pool deck gets even at 8:30pm: everything closed, except a few hot tubs (but were empty). Same with the Solarium. I decided to go all the way down to the casino and test my luck, coming out a little on top to start off the cruise on the right foot. I wandered over to Jazz on 4 where I wrote the rest of this live blog listening to a great quartet.
Initial observations: Oasis is a great ship - they really nailed the layout, distribution of activities, style, etc. I can’t speak for pre/post amplification, this being my first time here. Everything is immaculate, of course. I do feel more drawn to the elegant style of Anthem, but am excited to do more of the activities package on Oasis (water slides, dual flowriders, escape room, ultimate abyss, etc).
Thanks everyone, and I’ll see you tomorrow! Photos below (in reverse chronological order, not sure why)
 

I don't think CBP in the US after the cruise is going to be the issue, they know the requirements—it's basically the main part of their job.  
If there is going to be an issue, it will be the contract job port worker who is handling check in at the port.  One of their many jobs is to make sure that nobody gets on that ship that is going to have any issues with immigration at any of the ports the ship is visiting, or any issues with getting back into the country.  If there are issues, these countries are likely going to make Royal Carribean pay large fines, or even say that the ship is not permitted to dock.  If this happens, that person who let them on the ship is going to get into trouble.
So yes, I'd bring some printouts and such with me, just in case.  Based on Murphy's law, if you have it, you won't need it.
I guess if you want to be super safe, double check with St Maarten that the less then 6-month passport validity will be OK.  It is possible that it would *not* be OK if she needed a visa, but she doesn't need a visa because she has the US one.
I doubt they will care anyway, since she is traveling via cruise ship.  The 6-month validity is more of an insurance policy for the country you are visiting, to make sure that you will be able to get *back* to where you came from in case something happens, and you aren't able to leave when you are supposed to.  The ship is going to leave that afternoon.

I guess they need to figure out how to make the drink package look worthwhile, since that has gone up too.

I guess they need to figure out how to make the drink package look worthwhile, since that has gone up too.

Yeah, I totally agree that royal *should* classify them as obstructed, but they don't.
I think the takeaway here is avoid much of Deck 7, as you will likely pay exactly the same as you would for a higher deck, but have more of an obstruction.  At least on Anthem.

I tend to get stressed out about this kinda of thing too, but I think your best bet is to just book the dining package as a child for your daughter and not worry about it.  They will likely just give her the adult menu anyway.  If not, have her order from the adult menu.  Basically, just play dumb. 
In the unlikely event that they push her towards the children's menu, just mention that has been no issue with your daughter ordering from the adult menu in the main dining room, so you don't understand why this is a problem now.
To be honest, I don't think the wait staff is going to care.  They just want you to be happy and for you to give them a "10" on the survey.  Making your daughter sad isn't going to keep you happy and certainly won't make you want to rate them a "10".
If you feel a little guilty about it, do what an American would do—add a little extra tip at the end to partly make up for the "deal" you just got.
If I'm totally wrong and you do need to talk to the customer service folks onboard to "upgrade", I think you have a very good argument to just pay the difference between the price you paid for your daughter, and the price you paid. Bring a copy of the email receipt.  But I doubt things will get that far.

The per-person cost for a room for 2 people is usually lower than the per-person cost for a room for 3/4 people.  So you can't really compare the per-person price for a double with the price for a triple/quad.
I usually book one double and one triple, so I run into this all the time.

I guess one way to compare if the kids sail free is "working" is to put the ages of the kids as 13.  You should then get the "full price", as kids sail free is only for 12 and under.

I guess one way to compare if the kids sail free is "working" is to put the ages of the kids as 13.  You should then get the "full price", as kids sail free is only for 12 and under.

I don't think so. However, once my wife and I had one drink left, so I swung by the trellis bar and asked for two unopened beers. Put them in the cooler in our room and we drank them on the balcony a few days later.

I kinda enjoyed the wine tasting more than I expected.  Especially since I already had the premium drink package.
I didn't know about the 20% off a bottle of wine, that would be pretty useful if I ever book the non-AI rate.

I don't think so. However, once my wife and I had one drink left, so I swung by the trellis bar and asked for two unopened beers. Put them in the cooler in our room and we drank them on the balcony a few days later.

Your other option would be to keep the bottom bed split and go with something like:

 

Your other option would be to keep the bottom bed split and go with something like:

 

Your other option would be to keep the bottom bed split and go with something like:

 

I don't think so. However, once my wife and I had one drink left, so I swung by the trellis bar and asked for two unopened beers. Put them in the cooler in our room and we drank them on the balcony a few days later.

Yeah, you'll be fine. You don't need to book "The Key" or go crazy with specialty dining.
Some things have changed, but you are here and you'll get a few new tips and tricks (like making sure you install the app and book the shows once you get onboard), and things will be great.
I do miss Portofinos on Explorer though.  And the drink prices are kinda crazy now, just prepare yourself.