darketower

We booked a 2021 sailing with MTD and we didn’t prepay our gratuities. Our TA asked if we wanted to prepay and we said no. No issues at all. Of course, we booked a couple of months ago.

Ok, now i just feel dumb....I should have got that. It’s always the math!!!

I don't think so - the OP said she was looking to cruise in August - i have yet to see a kids sail free promo in August. They usually don't have those for prime sailing months.

We always fly out of JFK when we book travel out of NYC - tried Laguardia once and the traffic was horrible. Haven't tried it again. We are booked on Oasis in August and will be driving down the day before. We were on Harmony last summer and if Oasis is anything like Harmony (she should be) it will be awesome. I love the Oasis class ships. There is so much to do, not just for the adventurer, but for all. When we were on Harmony, we never felt like it was over-crowded. The entertainment was fantastic - Grease was awesome, the comedians and pub singers were equally as good. I highly recommend you catch many of the videos floating around you tube in addition to any of the blogs from @Matt in regards to the Oasis class ships. There are a few on the newly amplified Oasis and it would do you good to watch them to get a feel for them.

We were just on Navigator last August and it was great - the slides were a great addition. I can't speak to the price now, but it was reasonable back in August. As everyone else is saying, it really depends on where you are looking to cruise out of. If you are going out of Cape Liberty, the Anthem of the Seas might be a good choice. While I wasn't a big fan of the Anthem, my son who was 17 at the time, absolutely loved it. There was a lot of things to do, from rollerskating to bumper cars and much much more. I'm actually reconsidering my stance and thinking about booking another cruise on Anthem based on the amount of people here who love her - I'm thinking maybe I was being too judgmental the first time around.

Is anyone going on a cruise to Coco Cay in the next month or so planning on getting a cabana or day pass to the beach club? We are debating getting a cabana and would love to see some pics or video beforehand. Thanks in advance.

We live in Worcester, MA and we drive down the day before for the same reason we fly down to Florida the day before - to avoid the stress of something coming up that is completely out of our control - traffic, weather, construction, etc etc etc. We also like to get on the ship right at 10:30 am, which would mean waking everyone up by 4:00 am for the drive (again to factor in several additional hours just to be safe). Yes, it's an added cost, but one that helps me feel a whole lot more relaxed at the start of my vacation.

Yes, we saw designated smoking areas while we were there.

Following. We are booked on Mariner in April - looking forward to your pics and posts

Hello 2020, the countdown is on for: Mariner April 20-24 Oasis August 16-13

We usually do pretty well in not overindulging, but on our last B2B cruise, we raved about the warm chocolate cookie for dessert on our second night and our waiter made sure we had it every night the rest of our cruise. And by making sure we had it, I mean he brought out 2 of them per person every night....I didn't want to seem unappreciative, so i made sure all cookies were eaten each night.....completely derailed my health initiative.... :-)

We were sitting around and my son just said he found a video of the oasis that he wanted to show us, and it was yours!! Great job! The family loved the tour. Your reaction to the promenade reminded us of our first time on Harmony. Thank you.

Unfortunately for us, someone kept writing lewd comments on our white board. It was disappointing and we finally had to just take the white board down.

Same thing happened to us on our last cruise. Won’t be leaving anything on our door again.

Welcome to the boards. No question is stupid here. You get what’s called a sea pass card that is your room key and also acts as your personal credit card. You use it to charge everything to your room. It’s about the size of a credit card and it’s plastic. No worries getting it wet. I know some ships also have a bracelet type device called a WOW Band that serves the same function as the sea pass card. It’s supposed to be easier than carrying around your sea pass card. My 20 yo son swears by it as opposed to a sea pass card.

We've only been on four ships so far - Freedom in 2007, Anthem in 2016, Harmony in 2018 and Navigator in 2019. Because she was our first, Freedom will always hold a special place in our hearts. We loved the cantilevered hot tubs over the sides of the ship. As much as we loved Freedom, Harmony was truly amazing! There was so much to do and see and we never felt overly crowded for a ship with so many people on it! We enjoyed the newly amplified Navigator, but, we didn't think it compared to the Freedom or Harmony. Anthem has been our least favorite ship so far. The promenade area seemed narrow compared to the other ships. Whenever we walked through it, we always felt crowded. The one thing we did enjoy on Anthem was the Solarium - we felt that it was the best of all the ships so far. Looking forward to Mariner and Oasis next year. Would love to go back on Freedom soon as well.

US Citizens are taxed on all income wherever it is earned. Obviously there’s more to the tax code than just that, but it’s the starting point.

That is correct. We always have our cc set up and then just review the charges throughout the cruise to ensure no issues.

Welcome to the boards! The formal nights are not really formal anymore - they call them "Dress your Best" or something along that line - I don't recall exactly from my last cruise. When we went to dinner on formal night, the attire ranged from formal to vacation casual. The majority of people were smart casual. Other restaurants on board are open on formal nights as well, so you can always choose to dine somewhere else, which may or may not have a smart casual dress code also, unless its the Wind Jammer which is always casual!

We had a JS on deck 10 on Navigator in August. We loved the view. I will say that when we were at our railing, we could see all the balconies below us, so if that is something you wouldn’t like, I would recommend getting a cabin on the highest deck. We didn’t notice any of the noise issues that were mentioned by others

Can't wait to hear about the "new" Oasis - we are scheduled on her for next August!

Like @Lovetocruise2002, my wife is also a school teacher and I'm a CPA, so we are entirely restricted to cruising in the high premium summer season between late June and early August. We had a 9 year gap between our first cruise on Freedom of the Seas in 2007 and our second on Anthem of the Seas in 2016. However, since then, we have gotten hooked (the wife says I'm addicted) and have been on 3 cruises, including a B2B on Harmony of the Seas in 2018, in the last 3 years and have two scheduled for 2020. We are fortunate that we are now empty nesters and also have the means to afford going on cruises, but as a CPA, I'm still very conscious of how much we spend on vacations and am always trying to make sure we don't overspend. We try to book as early as possible and scour the website regularly for any deals. Also, we both feel like the ship is our vacation destination, so we are able to keep our costs down by not doing a lot of excursions. When we do decide to try an excursion, we search the cruise planner for sales/deals on extras that we would like and we only buy them when we feel they are at a price-point we feel is worth it to us. On our last cruise on Navigator of the Seas, we won our royal-up bid for a JS and got the drink package for the first time ever, and we loved it. Now, i'm fighting an internal battle between my inner cost-conscious CPA and my new found desire to just say YOLO when it comes to cruising. maybe the wife is right - i need help.....

Unfortunately, you don't get double C&A points when you upgrade via Royal-Up. We went to a Junior Suite from a balcony and they made that clear up front at least.

Sorry if this is obvious, but what does KSF stand for?? Nevermind.....

We got our assignment several weeks ago for our April '20 Mariner of the Seas sailing