FionaMG

I'm on this one too. Being from the other side of the pond, I had no idea this was a super bowl cruise until after I'd booked it. I'm sure it will be an eye-opener for me. I have no idea what to expect. It's my birthday that day too!

Good luck and safe travels @CHRIS WONG. Looking forward to your updates.

Good catch!

It depends on how much I want to do a particular excursion. If it's something that's a top bucket list item, I'd be booking it as soon as it showed up to make sure I didn't miss out, especially if it's something that's likely to be popular with other cruisers too. Otherwise, I generally monitor the prices for a few months to get a feel for them and them book as soon as I see a price I'm willing to pay.

I'm actually very surprised that a) a cabin was assigned that early on and b) that they not only sent out notification but also offered OBC for the switch. I thought with GTY cabins they would be well within their rights to reassign right up to boarding day and not owe any sort of compensation as long as the correct type of stateroom is allocated. Agree with @JFCruise's suggestion to wait and see what the new room assignment is and then try and get TA to change it if it's not to your liking. I can confirm what @AshleyDillo says about crew overlapping. This happened to my daughter who recently joined MSC and was put into a passenger cabin for the first week because the outgoing crew member had not yet disembarked at the end of her contract.

The best London station for trains to Southampton is Waterloo. The cheapest ticket option is usually what's called "Advance". These generally go on sale about 12 weeks ahead of your travel date. Once they go on sale, the earlier you book the better the price. I have seen tickets from Waterloo to Southampton for under £10. However, your ticket will only be valid for the specific train you book, so make sure you can make it. If you miss it, you'll have to buy a full-price ticket for the next one. As far as hotels are concerned, I've stayed at the Hampton Inn Waterloo, which is just a couple of minutes walk from the station. There are eating places in walking distance and we felt perfectly safe walking back after dark. It could be a good choice for you, especially if you're not looking for upscale accommodation (it's a typical Hampton, of course with the benefit of an included breakfast) and/or have Hilton points. Also, if you happen to have a sports affiliation, this Hampton Inn offers MVP pricing (or, at least, it did when we stayed there). If you prefer to stay near Victoria, then the National Express coach is your best bet because the trains from Victoria take much, much longer than the ones from Waterloo. For the best price on the coach, book as far in advance as you can. There is a small upcharge if you want to reserve specific seats on the coach. They DO sell out so don't hang on in the hope of getting a last-minute promo ticket because the chances of that happening are slim to none.

Symphony only recently returned from Europe so that's probably why you've not seen any compasses. However, if you go into the current sailing on the app, that is a 6 night itinerary (just started today, 10-16 December) and you can view the daily planner on there for an idea of what to expect on your own cruise. Note that the fact that you are on a holiday cruise will mean differences in the entertainment and activities, so you shouldn't expect everything to be exactly the same.

I'm seeing this too with some onboard activities. On both of my Anthem sailings this year they had North Star and iFly on the cruise planner at $19 and $29 respectively and they sold out in a couple of days. For next year, they have upped them to $39 and $49. Guess what? They've been on the cp for weeks now and there are still plenty of spots available. I would have booked iFly with just a small price increase but they've gone way too far for me. I'll find something else to do with those $$$.

Sorry to hear about your mum @PPPJJ-GCVAB. We lost MIL this year, also to dementia. It's hard.

We lost our fur baby back in June. Six months on and I'm still devastated. We won't be getting another. It's just too painful when you have to say goodbye. But I agree that we would never be away for more than two weeks at a time when we had her.

I echo your thoughts! Just under 4 years for me. The countdown is on!

Not me, unless I win the lottery and have money to burn!

10th of February 2024, Symphony 8 night Southern with Aruba, Curacao and Labadee. It's my birthday and also apparently Super Bowl which I found out by chance after I booked. The only thing I know about Super Bowl is that it's a big deal Stateside . So I guess it's likely to be a busy cruise!

My last gty cabin was not assigned until after check-in at about 40 days out. I have a cruise on Symphony in February and that room has not been assigned yet either. I'm not worried in the least. We've done several gty bookings in the past and never had an issue. A quick trick that will help you know when your cabin is assigned is to go into the app and click on the head and shoulders icon. That opens up a page where you can see "Stateroom" with details underneath. When you have been provisionally assigned a room that will show your deck number and muster station. It may be several days before the actual number shows up but if you've already checked in by then you can see the room number by downloading your setsail pass to your Apple wallet or scanning the bar code if you're an Android user. The digits to the right after the dash will be your provisional stateroom number.

I have this too. It appeared randomly a couple of days ago.

I've been following a live thread by a poster on Symphony over on CC and they were definitely able to use their drinks vouchers for the shakes. She posted a pic.

Welcome to the boards and congrats on the upgrade. I vaguely remember seeing someone else report a situation like this a while back and it did turn out to be due to deck plans not being updated. You can see the location of that cabin on the Harmony deck plan, here: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/harmony-of-the-seas/deck-plans/2219/03 I'd say it's a fairly safe bet that's where yours will be on Oasis.

NJ will probably be included in the Short Caribbean, Los Angeles and North East release, which is not due to go on sale until week beginning February 12th. https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Deployment/2025_2026/2025-2026_Deployment_Opening_Schedule.pdf

I'm glad it's all worked out for all of you. That was a marathon of worry and frustration!

Yes, you are correct, it would be 3 devices for you and 3 devices for your husband. You may want to check the price for 3 devices for one of you plus 2 devices for the other, in case 3+2 works out cheaper than 3+3. Also try 4+1. Whichever works out the cheapest is the way to go. Just be sure your boys understand that since they will be sharing log-in details they can each only have a single device connected at any time. With the multiple device package, if someone tries to connect one device too many one of the other devices will be kicked off.

@Xaa, check out this thread. I think that's the one you mean.

If you think you could use a bit more water and it doesn't have to be branded (or coke or beer), take a look at the cooler bags in the gifts and gear section of the cruise planner. The bags are great and the drinks in them come out pretty cheap.

This is a really good point that applies to other classes as well. I remember being on Serenade close to Christmas and they insisted on having carol singing in the Schooner Bar. Not only was it not big enough but it was also a bit of a mess because there were people there who weren't interested in the carols and just wanted to enjoy their drinks and chat, so it made participating in the carol singing very difficult. Meanwhile, there was a lovely big lounge at the front of the ship that would have been perfect but was massively underused - I think I only ever saw karaoke and ballroom dancing to recorded music listed on the Compass for that particular venue.

While I realise that this is a cause for concern in North America, it depends on the market. Here in Europe (or at least in the UK and Portugal, which are the two I have personal experience of) the system is different. The customer pays the travel agent, not the cruise line (unless they booked direct). The travel agent is billed by the cruise line for all of the relevant payments in the payment period in question (often monthly but different agencies can have different agreements). Consequently, the credit card charge is shown as being to the TA and not the cruise line. There's nothing shady about it on this side of the pond, just a different way of working.

I got a $200 discount voucher for Effy jewellery for winning the flag trivia... BUT it came with a condition... I had to spend a minimum of $600 to get the discount. Um, thanks but no thanks.