AshleyDillo

There's no Diamond discount for purchasing the drink package onboard. You are better off purchasing it in advance through the Cruise Planner if you truly want it or just paying per drink during the day and taking advantage of the Diamond Happy Hour and Diamond lounge drinks in the evening. You could also consider splitting the difference with the refreshment package which gives you everything but the alcohol and you can pay for a shot or two to add to your drinks during the day and then indulge during Happy Hour.

Not at the port, but the airport does have shuttles. I've personally used Alamo/Enterprise/National which has a combined shuttle bus from the port to the airport. You do have to have proof of a reservation to gain access to the shuttle from the port. However you can easily make rental reservations online through without any type of pre-payment or penalties for cancellation. It's about a 15 minute shuttle ride to the airport to pick up the vehicle.

They really aren't much like what you've experienced in NYC as far as clubs. You have to consider that the range of ages on a cruise, so you'll be sharing the dance floor with 18 year olds up through 80 year olds. It can be hopping at times but at other times it's rather subdued. Make sure to catch the Silent Disco when it's offered because that's a fun experience to walk into. You don't hear any music whatsoever but folks are singing along and dancing and wearing headphones. The clubs will stay open until 1:30ish or so. You need to pay attention because they do have the club nights at different venues. Sometimes it will be held in Studio B (ice skating rink) and other times it will be in Blaze (comedy club). One shot per SeaPass card per order. No time limit required between orders but you can't order with an unfinished drink in your hand. You can totally order the shot and then give up your card again to order another round when they deliver the first one if you take the shot right away. Really depends on how busy the bar is. This goes for all venues where you can order drinks, not just the clubs. The majority of the drinks are covered under the drink package, and I know for sure the ones you named will be. They put the popular drinks right at about the $12 or $13 price point. You can even call a better brand of rum or tequila for your drink and it will be covered. I suggest asking for a Kraken Colada! It's really when you venture into ordering wine where you'll find it to be priced outside of the package limits. If you didn't pay for gratuities in advance it will be charged daily to your onboard account. If you want to use the tip envelopes to tip beyond the $14.50 per day service charge you are more than welcome to. You should be able to go into your cruise planner now and make some reservations. Otherwise download the app and once you connect to the ship's wifi on boarding day you can use the app to make reservations. The BBQ is pretty good for being cruise ship BBQ. The portion sizes are HUGE and you get a lot of food for the price. It's $7.99 for lunch and around $13.99/$14.99 for dinner which includes sides and dessert. A single meal can easily feed 2 people there. Playmakers is good bar food and it comes out hot and fresh. It's very reasonably priced as a standalone eatery. In particular I enjoyed the wings (they are lightly breaded), the buffalo crunch roll (think buffalo chicken in an egg roll), and the poke nachos (ahi tuna on wonton chips). Just relax and enjoy your trip. There's absolutely no wrong way to cruise! Everyone has a different experience and gets different things. You've picked a great ship to start with as there's so much to do and experience on Oasis!

I have found on the Oasis class ships that the 5pm hour and 9pm hour dining times were always easy to get. If you have any wait to board and are sitting in the terminal you can even see if you can pick up the ship's wifi. You could use the app if you are on the ship's wifi an make your reservations right there as you wait to board even! If you show up right as the aquatheater show begins and don't mind standing you can typically snag a vantage point in the back. The very top of the aquatheater is a counter height row with chairs along it and you can stand behind that row of seating and catch the show. You can also try the sides of deck 6 or jump up the stairs to deck 7 and catch it from that perspective as well. Gives you a different point of view to catch the show. My last Oasis sailing I walked up during the show and caught bits of it on various nights during the sailing this way.

Mine's just a hybrid of my first name and armadillo. I don't even remember how the armadillo became my "animal" but I just say it's because it has a hard outershell and a furry belly and go with it. ?

Not a problem on Anthem. They have the host stand outside of the door in Coastal Kitchen.

Awesome! I got excited for a sec there but then I realized this was one of our glitch DX sailings! ?

I did Star Class for my first Oasis-class ship experience. Consider me ruined forever on that class ?

You should be able to get milk any time of day. They should have it readily available in the main dining room, Windjammer, Park Cafe, and Cafe Promenade. If you don't see it, ask and they can get some for you, both chocolate and regular milk. Juices are typically only available at breakfast but they have flavored waters and iced tea available at other times. The CocaCola Freestyle machines will only work with the souvenir cup that comes with any of the drink packages. When not using the drink machines you can order soda at any drink/eating venue and pay with your SeaPass card. There isn't any way to have access to the Freestyle machines without a souvenir cup and you can only get a cup by purchasing a package. After the 18% gratuity you are looking to pay nearly $4 for a soda, $5.50 for a milkshake, $6 for a smoothie. If you can catch a good price on the refreshment package that might be a nice treat for your teenager as he will have access to all the non-alcoholic drinks onboard including the frozen drinks, smoothies, and milkshakes. Plus he will get the souvenir cup for the Freestyle machine. The coffee card is sharable. It will allow you to get specialty coffee at Cafe Promenade and Park Cafe but it can't be used at the Starbucks kiosk. You can bring Starbucks gift cards to use at the kiosk, though!

Not sure about the coffee machine in JS on Vision, but they do NOT have a Coastal Kitchen. Coastal Kitchen is only on Quantum and Oasis class ships.

They're a little tougher than port employees for sure!

I just bought a Samsomsite set and it broke the first use. Found out that the warranty requires you to either take it to a Samsonite dealer/shop which there isn't one closer than a 4 hour drive for me. Or I have to ship it to them on my own dime to determine if it's a warranty fix. Fortunately I purchased from Costco which has an excellent return policy. Just be aware of what it actually takes to take advantage of a warranty repair if you aren't located in a major metro area!

This is the way that you would do it. You may also consider purchasing ahead of time through https://www.royalcaribbean.com/royalgifts/wine-liquor and you may be able to have a bottle delivered to your stateroom. Make sure you read the sizes of the bottles closely as they are very small and pricey.

I recall seeing pretzel twisted breads in Windjammer for lunch on the Oasis..so there may be hope. Not sure where else they have soft pretzels on the ship!

This this this. They don't make the actual plan documents available prior to purchasing the travel insurance. However you typically have a "look" period once you've paid for the policy where you can actually review the entire trip insurance contract and see if it fits your needs. Basically once you get those docs walk through a mock claim scenario where you would imagine insurance would kick in. Try to find which type of a claim you have and what the claim trigger is and see if that's covered. Most people truly don't understand how travel insurance works. Even CFAR isn't a catch all..typically it isn't even a full reimbursement of any expenses that you lose out on; it may only be 50% to 75%. These riders tend to be pricey, so it may not be worth it when you consider you are out the cost of the insurance if you cancel as well. I travel enough that I took out a yearly policy with Allianz that cost less than $500 a year for just me. Looking over what are covered reasons for cancelling a trip within the policy I don't feel the need to purchase per trip additional insurance. The couple hundred I would pay for CFAR for a trip relative to the costs of most of my trips doesn't make it worthwhile for me. If I was making trips in the $10K+ price range it may be a different story.

Here are links to the Facebook groups for the next 2 official RCLBlog group cruises: Brillance of the Seas - October 11-18, 2020 Anthem of the Seas - July 16-24, 2021 Not the official group FB, but some of us are in this one: Harmony of the Seas - November 21-28, 2021

The a/c can be set to super chilly. But there's no moving air and some folks need that to sleep comfortably which is why a fan helps.

I believe the Pinnacles board via the Suite Lounge, so they wouldn't be called for general boarding. Usually they will have a make-up show and move all the reservations to that show automatically. Now it may conflict with other things that you have planned, but most of the time they try to make an extra show happen.

On Mariner you pay the cover charge per person and you order one entree per person and then whatever else you want as far as apps and dessert. Soda is included with a JR meal there regardless of having a drink package. Milkshakes are extra if you don't have a package but they will be included with the refreshment package if you choose to dine there.

The $10 surcharge is new. I know it was added after my November 2019 sailing. For the UDP it is listed that Izumi Hibachi is an included restaurant in the FAQ but the T&C of the UDP state that there is a $10 upcharge now.

I hate the time suck of sitting through specialty dinners. I love the food but I'm not one for a long drawn out meal. I'd much prefer to take out food and enjoy it on my own time in my own way. The UDP was great for me with this because I got to order only what I wanted to eat and not feel like I was wasting a dining credit. I tried to make sure I made a reservation for when I was going to drop in to at least be accounted for. Gave me a bit more leverage to ask for the food to go ?

I did Izumi right at 5pm dinner opening..stowed it in the room "cooler" that looks like a fridge..ate it as a midnight snack. Funny they sat me to wait and brought me edamame to eat while I waited too ? I also hit up Chops..I made a solo reservation and popped in and asked if I could get the food to go. They tried so, so, so hard to sell me into sitting down and having the full meal but I stood my ground and seriously 5 minutes later had a piping hot filet on a plate with a room service plastic lid on it..and a roll of silverware with a honking steak knife.

It's a way for them to have bids in the hopper in case of last minute cancellations. Also if someone in one of those sold out categories bids and jumps to something higher, there will be an open room there for a RoyalUp.

Yup. They disable your charging privileges. I want to say it's $200 or so for the shorter cruises..much lower threshold.

With the push to checking in online and streamlining the process to get on the ship, they don't really want to deal with collecting cash deposits at check-in. Basically they'll give everyone a small line of credit now and those paying in cash get to deal with Guest Services at some point to sort it all out. You definitely can't leave the ship without settling up your account. It makes everything run very smoothly for getting onto the ship.