KevinJ

Since we've made Diamond and now Diamond + I only got the DBP once, last October on a family cruise, it was only $55 and I used my Diamond drinks for other family members. I definitely bring wine on board. I get the soda package and will put a couple ounces of wine in some sprite for a nice spritzer. I also found that I drink a whole lot less. With the package 10-15 a day. Without I've rarely purchased out of pocket. When I sail with my wife she doesn't drink so I have more than enough.

All checked in, looks like 11am is the earliest time. We always hang out in the Solarium until cabins are ready. Too much activity in the rest of the ship.

We're starting to finalize plans. Have our excursions booked in each port. Next need to book specialty lunches. I wish I could see the MDR menus for our cruise. There are a couple of nights we don't really care for, Mexican and Caribbean, would like to do our lunches on those days, after a big lunch there isn't much interest in dinner. Keeping an eye out for when entertainment bookings open up. Travel is all set, just need hotel to port transport in Barcelona and port to hotel in Fort Lauderdale. We booked private transport from the airport to our hotel, I felt this would be easier on my family who haven't travelled to Europe before.

Sort of a similar situation. We have booked three of us for Jan 24. My wife is undecided if she wants to go or not. I keep pressing her to make up her mind but far no decision. I suspect that we'll also have to just eat the cruise fare if she doesn't go.

Just finished our first week on Harmony MDR was great. We had the early seating. Service was great, we were usually done in less than an hour, just two of us. All the food was warm or hot, I actually don’t like really hot food. Only had one meal I didn’t like, but I was trying something new. There are several nights that I’m not happy with the selections. The Caribbean and Mexican nights don’t appeal to us. So we did Johnny Rockets. I booked Wonderland for the second week to avoid one night.

10am flight from Boston to Fort Lauderdale tomorrow, we're taking SAS transport from our Hotel to the port Saturday morning for our 10:30 boarding time. Going through all the last minute packing checks. I'll probably check all my documents a dozen times between now and boarding!

The plants in Central Park, on our last cruise I watched a couple of kids doing a thorough search and they found a couple.

We wanted the earliest time for our last Wonder cruise since we had the UDP and wanted to get all our dinner reservations. My son said he would take care of it, he's often up late. When I got up a 7am I noticed he had only gotten a time for me and not himself and my wife. At that point the earliest time left was 11:30. He had just assumed that when he grabbed my time it would apply to the entire reservation. We cheated and all three boarded at 10:30, there were no lines just walked right in to the terminal, easiest and quickest boarding we've had.

On our two sailings this year I had to go to Cafe Promanade or WJ to get our coffee card. My wife gets the x large caramel lattes which take two punches. On day 6 I was waiting for the coffee to be ready and saw someone in the line ask about their coffee card. Apparently they had thought is was loaded to the Seapass card and were just giving them that and hadn't realized they should have had a separate card. Not sure what they ended up doing about it.

They do seem to be catching up with their backlog. I got my Oasis block last week, only took 8 months. It's the new style and looks quite nice.

For our TA, Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale I was able to adjust the dates so we flew in 4 days early, arrive 3 days early due to overnight flight. Also changed the return so that we flew home the day after. I did this through the website by modifying the dates once my ship and date were initially selected. Since it's essentially two one way tickets checking for better fares is a bit cumbersome. The Air2Sea site doesn't let you do a mock booking, it states that you already have a reservation for your cruise.

Black Friday sale last year was the best I've seen. I booked all our internet and beverage packages, plus some dinning for 5 cruises through early Nov this year. Cost quite a bit all at once, but saved quite a bit. I keep checking CP on a regular basis but haven't seen any real deals. I did notice that our TA this fall the DBP dropped to $56, but since I've become Diamond I don't get it any longer. Will be Diamond+ by then and since my wife doesn't drink I could get 10 a day. On my recent cruise 8 a day was more than enough, although I'd grab a couple cans to use up the vouchers and enjoy on the balcony later. I'll be looking at this years Black Friday sale to purchase for the 4 cruises we have in 2024.

we're staying at Four Points by Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Airport/Cruise Port. We've staying there before when we went out of Port Everglades, and it was listed as one of the Hotels that SAS Transport picks up at to get to port of Miami. Also I use credit card points for the stay so it doesn't cost me. I've just booked our hotel in Barcelona for our transatlantic. Wow, I haven't actually paid for a hotel in almost 20 years, talk about sticker shock. Especially staying in a nice hotel near the center of things.

We're on the March 9th sailing. We've found that it's cheaper for us to fly into FLL instead of Miami. So we'll get a hotel there and use SAS transport to get to the cruise port the next morning. I'm doing this at the end of the moth for our Harmony cruise so will have already had an experience.

We're doing Apex next year for an Ireland & Iceland cruise, so I'll be looking forward to your reports of your experience.

If you're on a Quantum class the Bistro might be a good compromise for dinner. We usually do breakfast there to avoid WJ, but their dinner menu doesn't appeal to me. On our Alaska cruise we were fortunate to be in a JS and ate every night in CK at 5:30, it was terrific. We missed one dinner when our whale watching excursion was cancelled the night before and the only thing available would not get back to the ship till all aboard time at 8:30, the excursion was rather disappointing and cost quite a bit more. Certainly seems like you had a communication issue, when you asked about early seating and they said it was not available you moved on to My Time, but they went ahead and wait listed you without making it clear that was happening

On Odyssey in Jan, we had our first experience with the new menu. For me it was an overall positive experience. I purposely tried some things I'd never had before like Indian dishes and liked some and not others. Can't say I recall any issues with food temperatures but I tend to like my meals warm not hot. Like @BrianB we eat at 5:30 and had no issues with service. Ben and David had a late seating and I do wonder if that has a negative effect overall. Staff start to get tired, food my sit around for awhile. On Wonder in March, got to see Matt!, we had the UDP and I did feel some of our meals were not up to par. But again I had ordered out of my comfort zone. My son and I are doing a B2B on Harmony starting May 20th so I'll get another shot at evaluating the new menu.

Children are allowed in the Bistro, just not out in the Solarium itself.

I almost never do the WJ, the place just annoys me with the crowds. The ship is always a mess the first day, which is why we hide out in the Solarium. My son will usually hit the hot tub there. This is our first time on Harmony and it'll be interesting seeing an original Oasis again. I was on Oasis in 2016. Then the next time was 2021 so got to see the before and after. We're working our way through all the Oasis class ships. After Harmony we have Symphony for a transatlantic. Then Allure for a 4 and 3 back to back. Did Wonder last year and again this year. Keeping an eye out for Utopia's schedule.

I always get a Goombay Smash in the Solarium. We like to hang out there waiting for cabins, grab some lunch in the Bistro and avoid the crowds.

The way Airlines have been in the last year I've made several changes for traveling to the cruise port. For Florida we drive, 3 days from NH. If I have to fly we go in the day before and out the day after. For our transatlantic out of Barcelona we're getting in 3 days before, partly because there was a direct flight from Boston to Barcelona that left Wednesday night. My son still has to fly, can't afford the extra time off and he has had issues with almost every flight.

So they've replaced Malaga with Valencia but there are no excursions offered in the cruise planner, I hope some show up. Anyone have suggestions for a Hotel in Barcelona? I'm looking at Hotel Continental or Petit Palace. We have three adults so some hotels don't offer comfortable rooms for three.

We got ours on the 21st.

We had the exact same situation with my son and wife's passports. My wife had also been previously married. As it became apparent that her passport was not going to get to us in time we spent a hectic week making sure we had all certified copies of, birth certificate, both marriage licenses, and her divorce decree, also a state ID. They looked at her ID, her birth certificate and our marriage certificate, which also listed her birth name. I'm not sure what CBP looked at on disembarkation as we had to go through separate lines, it it went quite smoothly. So definitely bring everything. My son's passport came in the day before he flew down to FL, my wife's came in while we were on the cruise. Now that we've got all these documents together I'm making sure I've got them where I can find them again.

Ah @Psycho and Barb our family just gets the male only version. I've had it three times and my son twice, my wife not at all.