DDaley

I had noticed that but hadn't thought of how cool that picture will be! Hope you have a great cruise, can't believe it's actually/finally happening

Can't wait to read your blog as well! I will see if I can get a passenger count estimate for your sailing at the Crown & Anchor event.

Getting excited for my first taste of Oasis class in just 7 days! This will be my third (& fourth!) cruise with Royal and cannot wait to see the mega beauty herself, having never seen anything bigger than Freedom class in person. This will also be my first semi-Side to Side... semi in that we have to spend a night in Miami between cruises. Still counts to me, twooo cruises, one vacation! Booking this came about because my boyfriend and I cruised in August 2019 on Freedom from San Juan and I got hooked on Royal and cruising in general. Right after that we went on Holland America’s Oosterdam in December 2019 and it further made clear our preference for Royal. I couldn't stand to wait in dry dock til Jan 2021 (at the time) so I snagged this 4-nighter on Oasis to hold us over. Like everyone else, this cruise has had several iterations and rebookings; it started as a May 2020 cruise, got swapped for a Nov 2020 cruise and finally Lift & Shifted to this Nov 3, 2021 itinerary. I added the Freedom 4-nighter right after as a way to see the renovated Coco Cay while also extending the value of my cross-country flight! I have been to Coco Cay once before (summer '98, baby!) so it should be fun to see how it's changed. Itinerary The mini Oasis sailing was originally slated as Labadee, got switched to Cozumel due to the unrest in Haiti and then switched a THIRD time to Nassau and Perfect Day at Coco Cay. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) that means we’re essentially going on the same cruise twice on different ships! Oasis Day 1 - Departs Miami Day 2 - Perfect Day at Coco Cay Day 3 - Cruising Day 4 - Nassau - Day 5 - Debark + turnaround night in Miami, Penguin Hotel South Beach - Freedom Day 6 - Departs Miami Day 7 - Nassau Day 8 - Cruising Day 9 - Perfect Day at Coco Cay A vacation with Perfect bookends! Hard to complain about that. Who’s Going - my fiancé (Adrian) and I (Daryl) Cabins Oasis - Ocean View Balcony 10554… our first non suite. Ahh! We will see how we fare with the smaller room and lack of walk in closet! Haha Freedom - Ocean View Balcony 1880. I am excited to be on deck 12 with easy Lime & Coconut access. I also put in a bid for a GS that was slightly above the “weak” segment so we’ll see! Pre-Purchases I got us the DBP + Voom Surf and Stream for both legs of this trip - $61/day on Oasis and $75/day on Freedom. $75 was the sale price, too! Since this may be my only OA class for awhile I also snagged us the 3-night Dining Package for Oasis so we can try Chops, CP150 and Giovanni’s. I am also thinking about adding Giovanni’s again on the Freedom leg because the menu appears to be different! I kept waiting and waiting for the UDP to appear for OA but it never did. We will also be using some leftover OBC at Playmakers and Portside for sure. Excursions Since our itinerary was changed so many times for Oasis I really don’t have anything scheduled for our first 2 PDCC and Nassau stops. In Nassau we are thinking we will do a walking tour I found on these boards and grab some conch fritters at Oh Andros, then have a chill beach day at Coco Cay. I am eyeing the Up, Up and Away balloon but I hear it has a low chance of going up this time of year. At $74 each it seems pricey for those few minutes of incredible views but I may just yolo book it. On the Freedom leg, we booked the Snorkel & Sail excursion in Nassau and have Thrill Waterpark tickets for PDCC. I got these for $46.99 and haven’t seen it that low since! (I had them on a Nav cruise for the outrageously low price of $29 but it was sadly cancelled) Mid Cruise Hotel We are once again being cruising renegades as the best non-stop flights to Miami leave San Diego the night before the cruise and get in at 5am on the morning of, eliminating the need for a pre-cruise hotel. I feel like the 12 hours of wiggle room are enough to get us through. We have never been to Miami (Aside from our forced overnight near the airport on the way home from San Juan last time) so I wanted to stay in South Beach to get a real feel for it. I chose Penguin Hotel for this stay! Ocean Drive, directly across from the beach and had a “penthouse” (read: third floor) suite with a luxurious 1,000 sq ft “terrace” (read: roof of the hotel). I am anticipating a Bird Cage Art Deco vibe! One does want a hint of color. Hmm, what else? I bought the 6 pack of Binax AG Card tests, so that’s our Covid Testing Plan between cruises although Royal said they would take care of it. I like to always be prepared juuust in case! I hope to up my game on the live-ness of this blog, and take more ship pictures this time as I marvel at the beauty of Lady O. I am excited to see the AMP Freedom received since we last sailed her, too. Only 7 regular sunsets before the ultimate: SHIP SUNSETS are back in my life!

I went to Magens both pre-pandemic in August 2019 and post- in August 2021 and both times we had no trouble finding a taxi (aka converted truck/bus) whenever we decided to leave. On both occasions there were about 3 taxis lined up and waiting for return trips. I can also attest to there being no trash (??) anywhere on the beach.. maybe that previous comment was determined from the parking lot/ticket window alone? Keep in mind the beach entry fee is $5 pp once you arrive.

A Panama crossing was on my list but I will make sure to look for this as a stop. Everything I know about Cartagena I learned from the 1984 romantic adventure classic, Romancing the Stone, so your skyline photo makes it look so impressive!

yep, to echo what @Pattycruise said, 3:00 is the starting point I think. I have two November cruises and I have updated the check-in time 3 times on each; from 3pm to 1pm and then again to 12pm/11:30am. Once you fully check in you can continually check the app for earlier times and change your time while retaining the existing passenger information.

I am very surprised it's still only these 4! Although if we go by the time it took them to change it for Cozumel the first time, we should get an updated cruise planner on Thursday.

Looks like 2 excursions have populated so far for each port, hoping this means the IT team is in there now getting it switched over. As for deals, I saw last years "Spooktacular savings" sale started around Oct 29 but our sailing date wasn't included in the applicable sailings. I really hope we get another sale!

You can do this now in a tricky way which is how I found all the cruises going to the ABC islands.. Some cruises only go to A and C but I wanted all three so I searched for Bonaire as a port destination and got all the results that included it! You can do this by going to the hamburger drop down menu in the upper left > Cruise Destinations > Cruise ports. This brings you to a full list of the ports RC sails to. Find the port that interests you, click on it and scroll down to the list of itineraries available that include the port. Use the blue on white navigation to scroll to the end of this list and click "View all itineraries in this category" Boom!

The one thing I have left to purchase only fluctuates in price during the advertised "sales" - I do check every day. I have been buying Christmas presents and putting off my last purchase but I am hoping it goes down one more time prior to then.

My Oasis sailing changed from Labadee to Cozumel and it took 8 days to make the change in the cruise planner. The same cruise changed AGAIN this morning to Nassau and Coco Cay so I am in the CP waiting place again, too. I wonder if there will be another sale before Nov 3... Halloween savings?!?!

Hmm, every other day there is only one ship listed, I wonder if they will swap around the Freedom; it's supposed to go to Cozumel right before. Maybe they'll get swapped for Nassau too??

I am on Freedom the day after we disembark and am now going on two IDENTICAL cruises, at first I was disappointed to miss out on Coz again, but I guess it's cool we can explore Oasis and not worry about what we may be missing on our first stops in Nassau and Coco Cay.

Keep checking! My Nov 8 Freedom has gone from a 3pm check in to 1pm and then bumped again to 12pm and my Nov 3 Oasis just opened slots as early as 11am when I had previously had a 1pm check in.

Earlier check-in times opened! Earliest I saw was 11:30am a minute ago.