Biff215

I was thinking that, although I also didn’t see it anywhere in the cruise planner. Not a big deal, just glad we got it in time!

I jumped on the $76 last night before the sale ended. Now I notice it’s no longer being offered. We’re a week out, does it disappear at that point or did it sell out?

On Harmony in August ours never got delivered. Guest Services refunded the purchase then sent them the next day which was cool of them.

We just purchased the package for next week on Mariner. It gave us 8:30 for the first night with no other choices, even though I can see that all times are available at each restaurant. Sounds like I should have no problem getting that changed once on board. Another question, should I make any lunch reservations at that same time? And are Johnny Rockets and Bamboo Room included in the $35 credit?

Mariner for January 10 is currently $76. Seems hard to beat and might tempt us to try specialty dining for the first time.

Today I’m seeing $65/day and buy one get one 50% off. Looks like there is currently another sale.

Good catch, thanks. Strange though as Izumi’s normal price is about the same as Chops or Jamie’s, so why the upcharge? Already going to pay $10 for each of my kids, so not sure it’s worth it to pay more for us as well.

It’s dynamic pricing all based on supply and demand, hence why Oasis-class ships tend to have the highest prices. Think about it. If the price was more reasonable the park would be packed and perhaps sell out, making no one happy. I don’t like the pricing either, but it just makes it easier for me to say no and enjoy a free chair on the beach. That’s my perfect day!

We were making the same decision this past month for early January. Based on what has been said above, we preferred Navigator but ultimately chose Mariner based on price and airfare. Don’t think you can go wrong either way as they’re sister ships and very similar, unless Hooked/Hibachi or slides/Sky Pad are that important to you.

Thanks! No wait list was available but we did snag My Time reservations for 5:30 each day. We’re just used to having the same servers all cruise and fear we might not enjoy this as much. Plus with three nights the price of the package is more reasonable and seemingly perfect to try out the specialty restaurants for the first time. Just trying to make sure it will work out for us.

I believe it’s Chill Beach. It was our first time there in August and we had a blast snorkeling along the rocks. It wasn’t the best we’ve ever seen, but we brought our own masks so it was free and fun. Saw a lot of small fish and one ray. I would also recommend just finding some chairs on the beach or at the pool and just enjoying the day. Other than drinks, we found no reason to spend extra money and truly had a perfect day. Hoping for more of the same in two weeks on Mariner!

Hi Everyone- Thinking about getting the Unlimited Dining Package on Mariner in two weeks. It’s just three nights and we booked the cruise recently, so early traditional dining wasn’t available. Just a couple questions we’re curious about. First, is Izumi all “a la carte” or just for sushi? It appears Hibachi is a set price on cruise planner like Jamie’s or Chops. Just want to make sure we could use the package and not just the $35 credit you get elsewhere. Also, the package is only offering me an 8:30 courtesy reservation on the first night. What are the chances of changing that to earlier and eating at a more traditional time the other nights at the specialty restaurants? Our kids won’t last until 8:00 although they would enjoy these restaurants. Any help or advice would be appreciated, thanks in advance! Brian

We'd welcome the change also, even though we rarely gamble on the ship. It never fails, we always end up walking through there trying to get someplace else on the ship. We always figure it out and avoid it the next time though. On Harmony it was fairly isolated and avoidable. On Independence I remember the smell on the Promenade where the stairs come up. We live outside Atlantic City and going smoking-free has been tried and didn't last long. There are now specific areas for smoking on each casino floor, but unfortunately they're all connected to the non-smoking areas, makes no sense. Unfortunately it causes us to avoid the resorts altogether even though there are non-gaming and family friendly experiences we could enjoy. It's just impossible to avoid.

We booked two rooms this month on Harmony and often ran into the same issue on the cruise planner. One day it would link them perfectly while other days we would get the error. Of course the latter would always happen when there was something worth booking! kind of glad now that I didn’t bother calling, hope everything worked out!

In my opinion it’s not worth it but I also don’t have a “need” for it. I enjoy the time off the grid and usually have cell coverage at some point or at least free WiFi while in port somewhere so I can check calls and emails. I can’t imagine paying the price they charge regardless of speed, but to each their own!

Honest question...so if these sales aren’t typically worth it, when and where is the best time to book? We usually either get lucky and find a price we’re happy with or make a late decision and just live with it. Our dates usually aren’t very flexible which doesn’t help.

We loved CocoCay last week and didn't spend a dollar other than a couple of drinks at the pool bar. I would welcome a second stop here. I'm all for showing my kids the culture of other "real" places, but it's hard to beat a private island. I agree the water park prices are ridiculous for a family. Ours hovered in the $90+ range in the cruise planner. Just can't justify that for four people and long lines, but to each their own. The balloon also looks very cool and I"m sure people are enjoying it, but we'll choose to spend our money elsewhere.

We made them. I have a 3D printer so we found designs on Thingiverse.com that we liked and painted them with paint markers. Not an option for everyone obviously but it turned out awesome and at a lower cost than past decorations that we bought on Etsy.

We used it on Harmony last week without buying a wifi package. It worked well for the most part between my wife and me. We usually did get push notifications as long as you keep the app open (don't force quit it). I ran into some issues where I couldn't send a message or receive them so I would restart the app and sometimes turn wifi off and then back on. It was fine if I encountered this while trying to send a message but I wouldn't realize it if my wife was trying to message me. My wife didn't experience these issues though. It seems that the iMessage loophole has indeed been closed, no luck sending or receiving those to people on or off the ship. We were appreciative to have the option in the app though on those rare occasions where we split up, it's better than nothing and certainly better than paying the insane wifi prices. We enjoyed being disconnected most of the week, other than St. Thomas and included wifi on a St. Maarten beach.

I really enjoyed using the app before and during our cruise last week on Harmony. A majority of our activities were available on there at least a week out, so we went through and made notes of the things we didn't want to miss. During the cruise, the app worked pretty much flawlessly and I used it way more than the paper Compass. The only thing lacking is times for most of the sports deck stuff and kids' activities. It would be nice if they could add these, even if they were in a separate section. The app is fairly huge for some reason (over a half gig) so I'm sadly going to have to delete it until our next cruise!

Back from an awesome week on Harmony! Door decorations worked great and were a hit, particularly with our neighbor's kids who we would occasionally hear playing with them. With our two rooms being a few doors apart, they definitely helped us all easily identify the correct door to knock on (or open) as we bounced back and forth! Now these magnets will find a new purpose either here at home or in my classroom.

I'd be interested to know the same thing. In the past, we were told that AO staff would pick up the kids approximately 45 minutes into the meal. I assume this is why it would make it difficult to do with MTD unless you time it just right. On my past two cruises on Independence, it didn't seem to matter to the AO staff whether or not you had Family Time Dining. You just wrote your kids' names and info down on the clipboard. Technically anyone could have dropped their kids there, even if they weren't currently eating (it was outside the MDR doors on the bottom floor).

Thanks everyone. Our kids really enjoy the food and servers on a cruise, so the Windjammer or Adventure Ocean probably won’t fly. We’ll head straight for the MDR when we board and plead our case. If that doesn’t work, we’ll just show up early for My Time. I believe I read the first seating is 5:00 on Harmony, can anyone confirm? I don’t remember it ever being that early on other ships so it’s throwing me off a little. If that’s true, I’m not sure how Family Time would work if the club doesn’t open until 7.

I'll post pics after our cruise with them all up, but here are two examples. The kids and I are obsessed with printing articulated (flexi) stuff from Thingiverse, so most are of that variety. I always use these square magnets I got on Amazon, I just reinforce them with some Gorilla Glue to make sure they stay. Each piece gets as many magnets as I can fit on them, and sometimes I cut them into small pieces to make it work.

Hi All- We're on Harmony next week but we only booked about a month ago. My Time Dining was all that was available and we couldn't even waitlist for something else. The earliest time I was able to reserve was 8:15. We have an 11 and 6 year old so we'd prefer something earlier so they can still go to the evening Adventure Ocean session. In the past we've done Family Time Dining so they could leave early directly from dinner. First questions: I know we can request a different dining time once on board. Should be go to Guest Relations or the MDR? What do you think our chances are of getting it honored? (we're arriving at the port around noon). If that doesn't work out, can we still try to dine earlier with My Time Dining? Is that typically a long wait and will you have different servers each night? This situation is new to us so any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Brian Edit: Sorry, I just realized there was a Dining sub-forum, please move if needed.