WAAAYTOOO

I find the questionnaire to be absurd and a waste of time for the most part. The only parts that make any sense to fill out are the ones about what I like to eat and drink and the kinds of hours I like to keep. Most of the time I don't think the Genie even reads them although I have read of a few people who believe that they do. I'm sure you've "heard" me say this before but one aspect of Star Class that I do NOT enjoy are the constant interruptions. They seem to be knocking, ringing, calling every five seconds for one thing or another - particularly at the beginning of the cruise. One of the comments that I made to Yen on our last SC cruises was to please try and minimize the interruptions and I don't know what she did, but it worked ! We had almost no interruptions that first day. It's so important just to relax and unwind and if you have to be popping up every few minutes it's just not relaxing at all. That is particularly true in the 2-story suites when you are upstairs trying to take a nap or just relax and someone knocks on the door. We got to where we didn't even answer. We just let them either come on in or turn away and leave. People will often remark, "it doesn't matter what kind of room I have b/c I don't spend much time there". That really isn't true when you are in a big suite. You WANT to be there and spend time there intentionally. It's just nice to have some privacy. You don't always get that with SC.

This is the best cruise news I've heard in years !! YIPPEE !! Thanks.

Those aft JS are very addictive. That's how it started for me ! Have a great time. I didn't realize Explorer was coming home. Nice to see !

The buy-in will be either $75 or $100 and there are lots of rebuys permitted. If they get enough entries, the prize will be a free cruise for 2 to the tournament finals (usually the first or second week in December) and a seat in the finals. If there are not enough entries, they will award the first few finishers cash (after a generous rake). They run the satellite tournaments on sea days during the cruise and generally the final satellite will be the final sea day night.

I guess it’s possible that the son was Pinnacle on his own. It would be difficult but not impossible. If he had his own Pinnacle pin then I would have to believe that he has attained Pinnacle status, himself.

Not THAT terrific...

I was very surprised to find that the sauna/steam rooms had been removed on NAV. I don’t care for them but Dan loves them and he was so disappointed.

We are in a Grand Panoramic Suite on this year’s Oasis Cruise (1 Dec 2019) and in a Star Loft Suite on next year’s Oasis Cruise (6 Dec 2020). We’ve sailed in Star Loft Suites before but it will be our first cruise in one of Panoramic suites up on 17. My only concern is the rather smallish balcony of the GPS. The big balconies are normally a big selling point for us but I’m sure we’ll manage ??. I am happy to try the single floor suite. I’m not all that fond of the loft suites stairs even though the openness of the 2 stories is very impressive. If I end up liking the GPS this year I may switch over to either the GPS again or the OPS for our Dec 2020 cruise (assuming they are still available, of course). If I am turned off by the small balcony I will just keep the SLS and slug out the stairs.

That one I cannot answer. I’m going to guess D+ but it’s just a guess.

No. Not on Royal Caribbean.

I definitely recommend that you check with MLife ahead of time. It’s entirely possible that you could qualify for benefits that I am unaware of. Also, if you are seriously interested in high stakes gambling, you can prearrange an onboard account (line of credit). I’ve never considered doing this but I know it can be done.

Not exactly. Kids are allowed to keep their “inherited” status but only keep the number of cruise points that they have actually earned. So if they “inherited” Diamond status from their parents but only have 50 actual cruise points, once they turn 18 they will be Diamond members with 50 points and will not turn D+ until they have sailed enough times to achieve 175 points (or whatever it is for D+....I can’t remember) on their own.

The casino is cash only. If you want to charge against your onboard account (Sea Pass) you can do that either at the cashiers cage or at a table but unless you are at least a Prime level VIP player with Club Royale (their casino rewards program) you will be charge a 5% “convenience fee”. I think there are some provisions for MLife players too but I don’t know those rules. I believe that all has to be prearranged prior to boarding. There is no such thing as putting your Sea Pass card into a slot machine and getting credit to play. Carnival does that (or used to) but Royal Caribbean does not. Bottom line....if you are new to a Royale Caribbean, bring cash to play in the casino.

$100 OBC was all they gave you ? Holy cow !

I'm not sure how this works on all the ships...I can just tell you that on Grandeur the past 2 Christmas/NY sailings it only applied to Chops. We had the UDP on both of these holiday cruises and we were able to eat at Giovanni's or Izumi on the "blacked out" holiday dates....and to be completely truthful, I'm not sure they actually DID black out Chops. I just don't think those special holiday meals are very popular. My guess is (but I did not try to find out) that if we had shown up at Chops on Christmas Eve or Christmas day or NYE we could have gotten in with our package. We made "other" arrangements just so that we knew we had a place to eat but I really do NOT think that they blocked off Chops on those nights. My guess is nobody bought the [very expensive] special dinners and they just treated those nights like any other night. Maybe on the bigger ships they have better luck with the special dinners.

The time that we went, the event was on Liberty (this was before the O class ships !!!!) and they had the event in the conference room. I assumed that's how they did all of them....but maybe not. We are also on Oasis next year in early December (December 6 - 13). This is precisely what Dan did...played hard on Day 1, went out and then we enjoyed the cruise stress-free !

Actually, we are both poker players but are not involved in the RPT this time. Dan was in it years ago. Not particularly thrilled to find out that this is the RPT Cruise. It was a circus the year we went. But it is what it is. I know it’s held the first or second week in Dec but didn’t realize it was on Oasis this year. Oh well. The casino will be a zoo.

It depends on the ship. Even with The Key people I have always been allowed to book lunch at Chops on embarkation day EXCEPT on Navigator. Even trying to enlist the assistance of the Suites Concierge I was denied. We were able to eat at Jamie's but they had reserved the Chops ONLY for Key people. So far, at least, I have always been able to get into Chops on every other ship if I had the UDP. But there might be other ships, like Navigator, that will deny reservations at Chops for embarkation lunch. NAV is the only one I know of personally, though.

Couldn't agree more re: Dennis. He is tiresome and loves the sound of his own voice. Glad he moved on from Anthem.

Steph, Dan and I will be on the following week (1 Dec) and I do believe that there is a not-to-be-mentioned BOT on that same cruise with us. When I booked this cruise I had absolutely no idea that it was the second cruise after dry dock. I think if I were you and had the very FIRST cruise after dry dock I would be a bit nervous. LOL We are doing a S2S for this one. Brilliance out of Tampa from Nov 25 - 30 (for Thanksgiving). Then the next day we board Oasis (1-8 December). We'll be Star Class on Oasis so I'm not EVEN going to try and figure out dining options at this point. That will be a job for the Genie ! I am certainly not holding my breath that they are going to replace Cats. It's far too late for that at this point unless they've been holding that intel in TOP SECRET and nothing has leaked out yet....highly, highly unlikely. I believe there is a complication with the license agreement and Royal was forced to hold it over...at least that's what I have read. This was a casino comp for us too. I upgraded to SC back before they changed the "rules" and upgrading became not-so-awesome. Anyway, I'm glad you will be on ahead of us. You can let us know what is finished and what they're still working on !!

In that case I would probably opt to book on my own. No real benefit if you don't need the arrival assurance.

YIPPEE !! Sounds awesome. We are only Liberty next week but unfortunately we have the tired old Falmouth/Cozumel/Grand Cayman itin. I much prefer yours. I love Costa Maya. Looking forward to your live blog !

Yeah, the sticker shock is probably the only concern. Holiday sailings are awesome but they are also pricey. I don't know if you must fly to your cruise or not but airline fares are also going to be on the higher side so it's all around more expensive but a great experience if you can do it.

I rarely use A2S for domestic flights but in cases when I MUST fly in the day of the cruise (as opposed to flying in a day early) I normally do use them - especially in the winter. It is just an added "assurance" to getting to the ship on time.

We sailed on Epic a few years ago. That split bathroom was horrible.