CruzOnBye

Thanks Matt! Appreciate you taking the time to upload that.

Does anyone by chance have a recent cruise compass for Odyssey? We're going on a 6 nighter next month and wanted to sneak a peak of what the daily activities/show times tend to look like. I haven't seen any recent uploads in the Cruise Compass section of the blog.

Perfect, thank you both for the feedback that helps.

We got the Voom Surf & Stream on sale this week for our Dec cruise. We've never had it before, figured now is the time to try it when it's this cheap. I see you can do texting on WhatsApps and it says Video Calls. Can you only use WhatApps (or similar app) for texting/calling? Or can I use my regular iphone iMessage text/calls when airplane mode is on and connected to ship wifi? We need to be able to touch base with some family at home so would like to know what is suggested for that. 

24 minutes ago, Mrs. Regular said:

Looks like the app is back up, I just scored my Bungalow on Labadee using it.

Thanks for sharing! I checked and I can book on the app now as well. I just scored my Dragon's Breath Zip Line for $97.98 total for two people versus the $178.98 total I had for my Dec Odyssey Cruise. Very happy! 

It says it's down for maintenance now. What a bummer!! I'm ready to spend some OBC!! Hopefully it's up soon. Good luck and happy purchasing everyone!

Our first cruise was on Majesty of the Seas (RIP) and we even got to see Coco Cay before it became "Perfect Day at Coco Cay" and we have been hooked ever since. Our highlights are-

1. Disconnecting from the outside world and stress.
2. Never bored- always something to do, and the option to just chill and relax if you want.
3. So many entertainment options, literally something for everyone! 
4. And we partake in the Deluxe Beverage Package and we love doing a little bar hop all over the ships and having "date nights" on the ship and eating at different places.
5. There is nothing I can do on land/theme park that I can't do on a cruise vacation. If you want fun on land, book an excursion at any of the ports to snorkel, ride roller coasters/zipline, charter fish, etc. You can do whatever you want, whenever you want.

We actually jumped from Majesty straight into Harmony of the Seas and now we're all about the Cruise life. We tried to do at least two a year until Covid. This December we are getting back into it with Odyssey and plan on at least 2-3 bookings in 2023. 

*Also in March this year we did a 5-day beach vacay at St Augustine and spent way more money and energy doing that than we would have if we done a cruise instead. And we had a lot of issues/hurdles during that trip that I never would have dealt with on a cruise. That trip solidified that for our family, it's cruise or bust.  

As of this morning, for my December Odyssey sailing, it allows you book RipCord by iFly for $29 pp. Showing you can reserve on day 2 and 6, both which are Sea days for me on this cruise. I read somewhere you can do a free test run in it for 60 seconds if you've never done it before, but I have no clue if that's true. This will be the first time I've seen it in person.

Update- Tonight my app just added allowing you to add iFly, Ultimate Flowrider Experience and NorthStar Extended Experience as a reservation in the app. The NorthStar shows sold out, which is odd since they just added this today, but maybe it means something else. This is for my Odyssey December sailing. None of these options were available this morning, only the option to add reservations to one show in TWO70 and the Zone Zero activity.

We’re on Odyssey in December and can now reserve The Book in Two70 and also the Zone Zero activity so that’s nice! 

20 minutes ago, Atlantix2000 said:

If you reserve Teppanyaki on its own through cruise planner, there is no surcharge because you are paying full price.

If you buy a 3 night dining package, you can't reserve the restaurants until you are on board, so there is no way for the cruise planner to know whether you will eat at Teppanyaki.  The $10 surcharge would therefore be on your bill at the end of the meal.  The surcharge exists because Teppanyaki is more expensive than the average specialty restaurant and the dining packages are based on the average price of the specialty restaurants.

Thank you so much! That is very helpful. Guess you convinced me....back to the planner I go.

If I just do a Teppanyaki cruise planner purchase by itself and not as a 3-night package, is there no $10 surcharge then? And Is everything on the menu included? Because the menu has pricing for appetizers but I assume that is just if you did a "walk in" and didn't buy as a cruise planner purchase? 

If I did include Teppanyaki as a 3 night dining- does the cruise planner go ahead and add the surcharge? Or do I have to wait and pay that extra $10 when we are on board? Silly questions I'm sure, first time with cruise planner credit and I'm carefully trying to plan

Can you use on board credit for Sugar Beach? I just found out I have alot of OBC hanging out from cancelled 2020 cruise and had no clue. We already paid for DBP for our Dec cruise so I'm not opposed to splurging in Sugar Beach haha

@Okgladgal Okay, I thought I saw 90 days somewhere- that is probably where I saw it as well. Silly apps

Good to know thank you both! I just didn’t want to be “late” on the check in process

I thought the check in was 90 days out from cruise but I see my Royal Caribbean app it shows we can’t check in till 45 days prior. Did that change because of all the health protocols the last couple years? Or could the app be wrong?

2 hours ago, Rackham said:

You're welcome! The zipline is totally worth doing once. Other things that I figured out as I went that might be useful? At the check-in area, they'll have you fill out the waver at the tables to the front-left of the check-in desks. Lockers, big enough for me to store a backpack containing short fins and the rest of my snorkel gear with a towel, are available for all day renting behind the zipline check-in desks. This area is also where you'll return to after ziplining. Booking an earlier timeslot is prudent as wind can shut down the ziplines later in the day.

It's also interesting to see what lies right outside of Labadee and behind the scenes on the ride up to the major ziplines.  

That is really good to know! I'm a planner so all these tips are really helpful to know. I'm excited to try the zipline! We have never done one before.

@Rackham Thank you so much! This is awesome! I appreciate you taking the time to share this map, I am snapping a picture and keeping it for reference.

I'm wanting to book the Dragon's Breath Zip Line for our Dec cruise, and it's showing 8am and Noon time slots left lol! That seems really odd timing. I don't know what time our ship is planning on letting us off-board in Haiti that day. We are early risers, so I don't worry about us getting up for an 8am excursion. Plus, I want to get off the zipline and chill on the beach rest of the day and eat and drink my heart out. But I do worry about if there is a delay off-boarding or some unforeseeable event causing us to get to the zipline on time- what kind of issues have yall seen? This will be our first excursion while cruising. 

If we choose the 8am- for those who have done this excursion, how long do you recon it will take us to walk there? It will be just me and hubby, in our 30s, and likely hungover from the night before  So we are only responsible for getting ourselves there on time! 

11 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

There isn't much to walk around close in Falmouth outside of the port, so probably why not a lot of footage. They do have a Margaritaville in the complex so that may be something to do.

Ahh okay! I thought maybe some "free/inexpensive" beaches or something would be close by to walk to. Hmmm I may need to rethink the no excursion plan for Falmouth because I'd like to be able to get out and explore some. But, I can get down with Margaritaville haha. Thank you!

Does anyone know if Matt has a video uploaded showing a walk-around on Falmouth Jamaica? I watched his full tour of Labadee the other day on YouTube and it was so helpful to know where the beach locations are and see other suggestions he had when visiting. I like to have an idea of what to expect so that was a huge help.

I've tried to look online but all the videos from other Vloggers are several years old; any suggestions on good walk-around videos on Falmouth and also on George Town, Grand Cayman? We aren't planning on excursions for these two locations, mainly just looking for where to walk around/explore on our own as it's our first trip there. We'll be going in December.

Meanwhile, me just over here trying to not be in GOLD status anymore! One day....
 

2 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

I took my leftover pizza from Giovanni's Kitchen on Freedom with no questions asked. They put it on a plate and wrapped it in plastic for me.  Later on I saw they had boxes, so not sure why they didn't think about that earlier on but who knows  I enjoyed eating the pizza later on that evening; even cold it was still great.

Not me walking out with a dozen pizza boxes and heading to the Solarium for a peaceful midnight treat after exhausting my Deluxe Bev Package

1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

I want to add you can take food to go, so taking a pizza would not be out of the question.

I have Giovanni's scheduled for a dinner as a treat to my friends and family on Odyssey in Nov. I know we will each get our own pizza and I am sure I will be carrying most of mines back to my room for a snack later

This makes me so happy!!

Awesome!! Thank you @michaelp1446!! That is great info. I had to look up pistachio pannacotta as I didn't know what it is, but I can't wait to meet it. That sounds good.