Babsy47

Thank you for the information and taking us all along!

I too have been comparing the Icon and Wonder with the Disney Fantasy for a cruise with grandkids. I’m Platnium on Disney. I moved to RC in part because my kids got older, but primarily I could not stomach the Disney premium price. In my searches for same itinerary, same dates, same cabin (Disney’s are significantly larger), not much of a difference between Wonder and Fantasy. Icon is more. This makes Disney the easy choice with smaller kids for me. Though I may give up while prices remain so high and look for land-based options.

Thank you for taking the time to blog during your amazing trip! I booked that suite for a trip in the spring with DS, DIL and two little grandkids. I’m wondering if there is a bed or pullout in the living area for the little kids by chance?

My fall 2024 cruise still shows the $4000 cabana. That really is nuts!

It can be difficult to get a passport for a baby. We are still waiting for grandson’s to arrive and we leave Sept 29.

If you are going to Nassau, Baja Mar offers a better water park experience than PDDC for less. I would do my water park day there and enjoy the included stuff at PDCC. As others have noted, PDCC slides have long lines. We always end up in the wave pool, and the oasis lagoon is almost as good without a charge. It is hard to justify $200 pp for the PDCC water park.

I believe Wendy was our genie on our Harmony Star class cruise in 2022. She had just joined the ship; our pre-cruise communications were with someone else. She was more quiet than others, but overall she did an amazing job. We were a tough group with kids ranging from 1.5 to 17. She appeared to manage everything seamlessly.

Well, Morongo Valley is not too far from my equally small town of Running Springs. We are on the way to Big Bear and our local pizza place does all right! Sounds like a great adventure!

The issue with escape rooms on ships is that you can only do them once. So, they are really a ‘one and done.’ To me, $40 to experience the adventure once is fine.

Look at USB travel kettles that look like a thermos. The are easy to pack and can be used anywhere.

In the GS, the sleeping areas can feel far more separated and private than in the Jr. Suite. Both have plenty of room for three. It really just depends on how much you value a bit more separation opportunity.

Just a thought on Suite comparisons . . . I’ve done small RC ships in a suite, star class, and whatever is a CL suite class. I’ve sailed Celebrity in a suite, and Disney in a suite. Disney offers by far the least in terms of perks with the largest upcharge (except perhaps on the Wish which I have not sailed). I have not noticed any change in the quality of the suite experience on RC smaller ships. Star class is a somewhat reduced experience for a higher price, but I have felt the other suite classes on the big ships are like they were before the pandemic. Star class is such a premium product that you would think the experience would be kept at the WOW level. Regardless, Celebrity is a great product for adults focused on dining and relaxing. It does not compete with Oasis class or Quantum class with kids in my view. I do, however, think the prices on Coco Cay are absurd. I have that villa suite booked on the Harmony for fall 2024. The Beach Club is over $300 per person, the water park was $188 last I looked, and a Beach Club cabana at around 4k. I paid far less than 4k per person for the cruise and it is star class for 8 nights, making the cabana more per person per day than the cruise!

A coco cay type development in Baja would do for a destination. I enjoy Catalina as a port just about as much as any, but it cannot handle more people and it requires tendering. Ensenada would be good with the addition of a beach/pool destination near the port. It would require a huge investment to build a dock and port like Coco Cay or Labadee in Baja, but one would think the market exists.

We are signed up for out next cruise in September. Can’t imagine it’s worth the price, but it was hubby’s only request so . . .

In all honesty, I get the need to make money. Doing so by reducing quality, however, is not the way to go.

Worried about teens packing for a cruise? We took our 18 year old to college Saturday morning. He did not start packing until Friday night . . . for a year. We had a stressful evening.

My husband and I do not eat meat and I do not like mushrooms or cheese. We cruise frequently on RC and have never had a problem finding enough food. We have not been on Wonder, but we have cruised the other Oasis class ships with no concerns.

We booked directly with the park and cabbed there and back. We also reserved loungers at the beach club, which was great! You might want to compare pricing to see which makes sense. I have found that even with an excursion, I cab back to the ship based on out own schedule.

The primary benefit is a very nice room. Next, the Suite concierge can help enormously; he/she functions as guest services and reservation specialist in one. In addition, he/she can help with tendering and debarkation. The suite lounge offers a nice space. Often as a suite guest, towels are not as closely regulated (this varies). Bath products are much nicer.

To me, it depends a bit in cabin class. Nothing on Odessey can compare to the 17th deck on Oasis. The suite lounge/coastal kitchen combo on Oasis is far superior to the hidden aft suite lounge and interior CK on Odessey. For a non-suite, the difference is not as huge. My family vastly prefers Oasis class because of the slides, extra flow rider, and Central Park. I think the Odessey shows are more of a miss, but this is purely personal preference. Unless the Odyssey itinerary is far superior,I would go with Oasis, but people love both!

On our last cruise, we had the opposite experience. Magnets started arriving on our door the first night and they just kept multiplying. By the final night, we had a menagerie of colorful creatures. Absent any clue as to who left them or why, we simply enjoyed the display and hoped someone would retrieve their items before debarking.

Crescendo of the Seas Aria of the Seas Renaissance of the Seas

Interestingly, it is not there for my April 2024 sailing. But, it is available for our September 2024 sailing at $300 per person. I’m not sure how one justifies that price!!

I’ve had this combination several times on different ships. I’ve taken non-Suite kids to CK, but never the entire group of Suite and non-Suite as that would be too many I think. In Star class, my non-suite family were treated the same as the Suite family, but I did buy the UDP and DBP for non-suite designees. The genie also helped with reservations for non-suite granddaughter. Sometimes, the Suite concierge will invite non-suite family into the Suite lounge; sometimes not. Sometimes non-suite family have been able to check-in with us; other times not. I just ask politely and see what happens.

I’m a bit lost here. I do not think I have ever noticed the label on a sugar packet. I cannot really think of anything other than white, yellow, or pink. In short, if the package contains sugar, why would anyone care what the package looks like?