Babsy47

Perhaps he is staying in the 80k a week cabin?

I love diving and almost always use a third party. The only exceptions are Nassau where Stuart’s Cove is the only alternative I have found and Coco Cay. Cozumel is amazing. I generally use Scuba Tony. Roatan is even better. I’ve use a couple different operators that arranged travel from the ship. Belize is great!! St. Thomas has amazing diving. I have not found a good operator in St. Martin. In Cabo, we had an amazing private charter. Catalina has good diving and Ensenada is fine. Costa Maya is ok, but not great. I generally charter a boat, but I usually have at least four divers so the increased cost is manageable. The problem with ship dives involves the varying comfort and air consumption of divers. On one ship dive in Cozumel, as an example, one person ran low after 15 minutes. If we do a charter, our first dive is usually at least 50 minutes (can be longer based on depth). In Cabo, we saw a sand waterfall, but it was at about 90 ft in tricky currents so the dive master said he often could not take groups. I read lots of reviews and then email with several alternatives before choosing one. That said, I am heading out on Friday for a cruise with grandkids and am solo diving in Cozumel and Grand Cayman. Because it is just me, I chose the ship excursions. We will see how it goes . . .

My Labadee excursions/cabana were cancelled by RC and amounts have already been refunded to my card,so I’m not sure folks need to worry about OBC.

I don’t think Royal knows either . . . Likely part of the problem.

My April 14th Oasis cruise is replacing Labadee with a sea day. I am jealous of folks who get a replacement port!

We will be on Oasis in a few weeks. As kids, mine were obsessed with CATS. We had a video of a Broadway show on VHS and they would watch, dance and sing. I must have watched that video 200 times. They are now looking forward to the show on the ship! I guess if you know every single word to every single song, it helps.

There are restrooms where you get off/on the ferry. There are very nice restrooms at the museum about half way through the tour route. It is a nice, civilized site and the tours are very helpful to understanding what is there.

We are in the same cabin with the same itinerary in April, so I am really looking forward to this one! To help with child going to college . . . We took our first cruise in 2002 when oldest was 12. Our April cruise is with oldest, DIL, and two awesome grandkids (1 and 3). Our middle son and his wife are in the adjoining CLS. Youngest, sadly, is still in college and cannot come, but he and I will go together on a mom/son cruise between last day of class and first day of summer internship. Our family grew as the kids aged, and sharing the cruise experience with kids and grandkids is amazing!

GTY works for us when we are only two without a child. Ship movement causes us no issues and we have no deck preference on most ships. Thus, where a significant price difference exists that can pay for something like the UDP, we go with GTY.

I’m not sure it really makes long-term business sense to dramatically increase prices while cutting service. We are now paying far more for cruises. It seems the entertainment, staffing, and food cutting should stop.

Some group needs to build a something fabulous and family in Ensenada. The city has great weather, super friendly folks, and a relatively good infrastructure. Giant pool, aviary, nice shopping, and a kiddie pool with slides would do it. Extra points for beach access! They have a very nice park with great pools and a ropes course, but it is a long drive from the port in very bad traffic.

My teen son and I flew a redeye to Newark and then had a flight to Europe in the evening. This was a weekend day and we had an absolute blast touring NYC on our own. First, we rented a car, drove to Manhattan and parked near the Statue of Liberty boat trip terminal. We took the earliest Statute tour. Upon our return, we visited sights around a deserted Wall Street and got brunch. We then took the subway to the museum at the start of the High Line walk, which we both loved. We walked the High Line and then marveled at the strange stair globe structure at the end ( it is enormous). I think we may have stopped for ice cream on the High Line (I loved that walk). Next, we wandered to the Empire State Building and did the tour; it was very well done for a building tour. At this point, we found another meal and made our way back to the car via subway. We found said car and returned to the airport for our flight to Europe. It was a truly memorable day for a mom/son duo! I reserved the Statute of Liberty, museum, High Line, and Empire State Building ahead. This was in 2021 and COVID restrictions existed. Thus, I would guess that reservation are not that necessary anymore.

We could not dock on my last cruise on Allure (‘December). But, it was super windy causing high seas. In Nassau, waves were crashing completely over what is slated to become Royal’s new beach club. It made me wonder about the viability of that beach club plan. It was quite a sight from the balcony. While we could have gotten off in Nassau, it was cold, super windy, and rained part of the day. We ended up never getting off the ship anywhere and still had an awesome trip! And, as a bonus, we saved all the shore excursion funds.

Where is good snorkeling?

Buy a Baha Mar day pass on their website and take a taxi? Nice beach, good food, etc.