berkeleykel

Here's my review from a few years ago out of Venice. I think the finer details differ depending on ship and port.

Major blog fail, this cruise ended almost 10 months ago and I never finished up the last post. It's been haunting me in my sleep! For the sake of good order and to clear my conscience, here's a brief summary of debarkation and overall thoughts: Day 8 - Disembarkion -We left the room right around 8am with our own luggage. We took it with us to the Windjammer for breakfast and then left the ship around 8:45/9. It was crowded but mainly with Rome-Rome passengers so we were some of the only ones with luggage and were able to get a table pretty quickly. -Getting off was super quick and our car we had pre-booked with Sun Transfer was waiting for us (around 15 minutes early!) with the car seat we had requested. It as a quick drive to the airport. -We flew home with Vueling and had priority family check-in (I forget the exact term). There was a dedicated check-in area that was a bit hard to find but probably saved us 30 minutes over checking in at the main desks with the masses. After waiting at our gate and close to boarding time, the gate suddenly changed and everyone ran en masse about 10 minutes down the terminal to our new gate. This gate was much less orderly - boarding was just a free-for-all and our priority boarding was not respected. When we scanned our tickets, we were told our seats had changed and instead of the front row seats we have paid EUR 150 extra for, we were sent to random seats in the back of the plane. No explanation for why our seats were given away. I was told I would be refunded the cost if I filled in a form online. Long story short, 10 months later and hours of my life wasted, I never got that EUR 150 back. NEVER FLY VUELING. -The flight itself was fine and we landed back in London a few hours later. Overall thoughts -I think the ship was perfect for kids, especially younger kids who can't do a lot of the more adventurous activities. My toddler could play in the splash pool and the indoor and outdoor playgrounds, ride the carousel, play mini-golf, watch the ice skating and aqua theater shows - so much age-appropriate things to do! -However, we discovered that Oasis class ships are not what my husband and I would personally prefer. We did not like that we couldn't tell we were even on a ship half the time -- many venues didn't have windows and the ship as a whole felt designed to be inward-facing (promenade, boardwalk, central park) rather than outward facing. We really love soft entertainment like quiz shows, but the venues were too small for the amount of people so unless you got there super early you'd have to standard at the entrance and couldn't hear. We felt like we were inside a mediocre mall rather than on a cruise and if we wanted to spend a week inside a mall we could do it much more cheaply back at home. We will put up with Oasis class ships until my kids are older but then I think we'll head back to smaller simpler ships. We did really like the Aqua show and the ice skating though. -August was way too hot for us to do much sight-seeing at the ports with young kids. For us this was okay since we live in Europe and can come back fairly economically, but if you are flying from the states paying thousands on airfare and this is one of your only chances to see Europe, 0/10 I would not recommend. Do a week by land and visit London (I may be slightly biased in this view)! Alternatively, I though the Greek Islands cruise we did from Venice a few years ago when my oldest son was 3 was much easier with kids as there was really only one long day (Athens). -Don't fly Vueling. They have now joined Ryanair on my do not fly list. -WOULD WE DO IT AGAIN? Haha yes, we have the same itinerary booked for this August on Symphony. To compensate for the heat and port-heavy itinerary, we've decided to do a B2B this time so we can do half the ports the first week and half the ports the second week. I think this will be a huge luxury. We are also surprising the kids by staying in the UFS for the second week. They will find out once they enter the room! I think this will help break up what might have become too monotonous of a trip for them.

Gothic Quarter is a great place to stay. With one day in Barcelona I’d prioritize either Park Guell or Segrada Familia, whichever sounds more interesting to you. Check TripAdvisor for restaurants. Las Ramblas is fine but most restaurants on it will be tourist traps so never sit down without checking reviews first.

There is an excursion called "Explore Florence" that gives you 3 hours of independent touring. I'd be wary of a tour that promised more time than that because of the length of the drive (I think it is like 2-3 hours each way). If it is not a Royal excursion you'd want to leave a couple of hours to spare in case of delays. I did not go to Florence because I think that much time on a bus sounds miserable even for an adult, let alone young kids. I did La Spezia instead. There are details in my blog below (we were on Wonder last year but the itinerary is the same on Symphony this year). We also did the Coliseum on our own (fast train to and from Rome and a semi-guided tour of the Coliseum with a tour guide provided by the Coliseum).

Barcelona is easiest. The ports are much more accessible on the 7 night Explorer itinerary though. To see much on the Western Med itinerary would mean LONG days. Personally I don’t think cruises are the best way to see the Western Med but a great way to see Greece and the Adriatic

I have not been on a holiday or free day but I wonder if they would still sell the guided tour tickets (didactic tour) for the coliseum for that date, which could help avoid the lines eta - never mind, looking at the April free Sunday just now it looks like they don't do guided tours at all on the free days. Sorry!

I like just enough roll to "feel" that I'm on a ship. I don't have another Oasis class experience to compare it with, but on Wonder we kept forgetting we were on a ship at all as we hardly felt any movement.

I had a midship balcony on deck 9 on Wonder and didn't hear anything.

The cooler had ice and four cans of waters stocked already when we arrived. For the two complimentary drinks you can basically order anything that the Lime & Coconut can make (cocktails etc). We were also given a Lime & Coconut cocktail menu to take back to our cabana, but after your initial two drinks everything is priced as normal. Pretty sure there is no option for food. Also the description says storage is provided, but I didn't see storage except for the top of the side table that doubled as the cooler. I really would have appreciated a locker or similar.

I booked a casita two days on Wonder last summer. One was a port day and it was probably a waste as there were plenty of loungers available. On the sea day we would not have had lounger if not for the casita. I booked ahead on the cruise planner, but to pick the location I had to go to one of the bars near the pool deck from 9 am on the day to reserve the specific casita. I then had to go back to the bar to check in later in the day when we came back to actually use it. Some had already been booked by 9 am and had their names written on the casitas. I assumes those were star class as I wasn’t given the option for choosing ahead and our name was never written on ours. We did have someone’s stuff on our casita when we got there on the pool day but the attendant moved it. It didn’t offer the best protection from the sun but I’d consider booking one again for a sea day especially as we don’t tend to hit the pool deck early so have less chance of finding loungers.

Was it during school holidays? If you want warm weather but minimum kids, September is a good option (at least in the Med/Adriatic where it will still be hot).

My son was glued to playing Super Smash Bros on the Switch in AO. I’ll see if he can think of any other games, but I can only remember that one because he became OBSESSED.

Royal's reputation is Royal's problem, and they could bend the rules for everyone's personal issues if they wanted to. In the short term they'd be out of the fee income, but would it work out for them in the long-run due to increased goodwill from customers that bring in repeat business? Maybe, maybe not. My guess is they are concerned that things like this would be too easy to make up and too administratively difficult to police (by requesting proof of illness and relationship). So I'm not saying I don't understand Royal's position. But it isn't a given and Royal is making a choice to increase its revenue at the expense of some bad goodwill now and again. The OP being frustrated is also entirely understandable.

For UK and EU bookings there is a significant discount you can only get by calling (some have had success chatting on the website but I haven't). GBP 43 pn. I've heard it is now for new bookings only, but not sure how recently you must have booked for it to be considered "new".

You must have looked up the fare for a single person? I think the $192 is based on double occupancy. I can pull it up fine.

On the Key, make sure you are comparing apples to apples. You can usually get a two-device plan cheaper than 2 one-device plans, so there is only an incremental cost to adding a second plan, whereas with the Key you are paying the full price per person. A polo shirt will fit in nicely in the dining room most nights. You may want to bring something more formal for the formal nights (polo will be a little underdressed compared to many people), but formal dress is optional and if you were in a polo you'd still be better dressed that those who will inevitably show up in t-shirts. I think it's unlikely that you'd find yourself accidentally ordering something over the drink plan amount. They are not trying to catch you off your guard. Maybe if you specified a top shelf liquor or something, but I'd imagine they would flag if it would incur an exchange charge knowing once they see your card that you are on the DBP. I loved Rhapsody and all the evening game shows and activities in the Centrum. I hope you have a great time!

Watch out! After stating affirmatively two days ago I was NOT going to book this ship for the foreseeable future, I kept peeking at prices and room options just for fun...now booked for Aug 2024 in adjoining Surfside Family Suites. The 99 GBP pp deposit for UK bookings was too tempting. I'm really not thrilled with the lack of an ocean view, but for families who want Sky level suites and some separation between kids and parents without paying $20k+, this seems to be one of the best options (assuming the balconies can open so we can treat them like connecting rooms, which I think is a pretty safe assumption). Adjoining Sky junior suites would have had the benefit of being located in the suite neighbourhood, but there are so few of those and they were already sold out for the dates I could do. I think the kids at least will probably like the surfside view.

Anyone have a guess as to whether Surfside Family Suites with adjacent balconies will have the ability to connect balconies?

I will book when it (pretty please) comes to the Med. Not flying 8+ hours with kids for a cruise. Unless I can get a steal of a price on the Ultimate Family Townhouse at some point, which might be worth flying to Miami for. I think I have a better chance of Icon spending a summer in the Med.

If you do a normal search it should come up as an option if you filter by ship. May need to sign in first.

$70,000 on the US site. $99,000 sticker price before discounts applied.

Priced out the Ultimate Family Townhouse for August...£56,000 for 2 adults, 2 kids

Does the cruise contract actually state that the final payment deadline turns off the “48 hours from reserving” language? Not to mention that even if Royal had the better contractual argument (not clear at all to me that they do) it still would be incredibly misleading to put a 48 hour best price guarantee at check out for a booking to which it would not apply, when clearly it is being used to induce booking. @Ptrg did Royal claim you were outside the 48 hours or that the policy just didn’t apply to your booking?

Is it standard for Caribbean cruises to have the early seating at 5:15/5:30? Seems crazy early to me and I have young kids!

Yes it’s still going on. It’s been posted to multiple forums, there is one called Royal Caribbean Cruises UK that may be helpful if you are UK based