KevinJ

4 days into our 8 days on Odyssey and I’ve been quite pleased with the MDR, had two Indian dishes which I’ve never tried before and found them very nice. So far we’ve had a positive experience.

The couple that I have found had a Facebook tag to let them know that it was found. I don't do Facebook. So what I do is take it home with me and then hide it on my next cruise. On my cruise to Alaska I found one, and then left it on Oasis so it made a coast to coast journey, hopefully whoever found it on Oasis did make mention in Facebook.

No No No @SpeedNoodles you've let everyone know now , we always do breakfast there. It mostly seems underutilized so much more relaxing. The selection isn't as large as the WJ but certainly has all the essentials. I'm an early riser so I usually get a small plate there, then when my wife gets up we do the real breakfast.

I've been dithering about getting an annual policy. I've always purchased insurance as a book the cruise. This year it got away from me as I've already purchased reinsurance for each of my 5 2023 cruises ant my two 2024 cruises. So at this point I may look at starting an annual policy in 2024. One of my issues is that I tend to "think" about doing something for quite awhile before actually doing it, some times years!

@Xaa yeah that's what I figure. The savings of not getting the DBP for my son and I, plus the refreshment package for my wife is quite a bit so I have plenty of spend power. It will be interesting to track. I'll also have a couple bottles of wine really should be plenty

My wife can't drink carbonated beverages, so when she has had the refreshment package since I had the DBP, she would either get juices from the bar or one of the flavored waters out of the soda machines. Our next cruise we all just got the soda package, $7.99 during black Friday. She will just use the soda machines. Also got her a coffee card as she has to have her Latte's.

Our Odyssey cruise in Jan will be the first time I'm going without the DBP. With my four and my wife's four vouchers I'll need to manage my drinks. When you have the DBP it's quite easy to have a couple Mimosa's at breakfast and several other drinks throughout the day, one maybe two glasses of wine at dinner, then some evening drinks and during a show. I'll just need to pay a bit more attention. This will be a learning experience as I'm cruising in May without my wife so will be down to just my four, but I'll have five on the second week of a B2B.

Our last cruise on Voyager in Oct I was not real impressed by the MDR food. However we did have a beverage waiter that after a couple days was right on top of things. I'm Diamond but we were traveling with extra family that I wanted to use my vouchers for since I had the DBP, last time I got that for $65. He did a terrific job handling the various drink orders by my family and using either my of my wife's vouchers to cover them, Dinners were longish, but we were a table of nine. I actually was served by the same beverage waiter in Windjammer, the Solarium, and the Royal theater. It was really nice having that personal server

we're getting on Odyssey Jan 14th, my son is getting on Jan 8th and then joining us. This'll be our first time on Odyssey, looking forward to it.

All mine have been posted. I had to due a bit of calculating with the way they break up the refunds to make sure they got everything. Its weird that when you buy multiples of something, like a lunch for all three guests, it's a single charge, but it gets refunded in three pieces. Throw in that parts of some purchases used partial payment with OBC and you better keep good records.

My wife has been on 6 cruises since she got her bypass surgery. As @KristiZ said you can get food just about anytime you want. Be prepared to have the wait staff act concerned when you can't finish your meal. Early on until they get acquainted, my wife has to keep telling them that everything was fine, she just can't eat allot. She also always gets her dessert to go and has it in the cabin later. You should have a wonderful time,enjoy. 

@FSUFAN we had a problem with my wife's mobility scooter on one cruise. This is our own personal scooter not a rental. After the first day the battery charger wouldn't charge. I was thinking i was going to have to find one in our first port, but asked at customer service. They had one that worked great! So definitely ask, the worse that happens is they don't have what you want, but if they don't have it, don't get upset with them.

Getting of Voyager in Oct I saw someone lugging a full size box fan getting off, I was amazed!

I have a B2B in May, I start with 170 so will hit Diamond Plus after the first week. I understand if I talk with the C&A representative they would be able to activate my new status for the second cruise? Next goal is to reach 210 for my Icon cruise to get it's ship block.

I was disappointed in the MDR food I had on Voyager in October so I just booked with Celebrity. I'm going to give Royal a chance to change my opinion during my next six Royal cruises. 

You do have to track all this carefully. I had done some cancelling and  rebooking back in Feb for a June cruise. Totally forgot about one of the items that did not get refunded. When I was making final payment I ran into issues because they couldn't tell me exactly how much I owed due to the refund being stuck in a processing state. Eventually it got refunded twice so I may have actually come out ahead, but for a bit I was very nervous about missing final payment. My 11/18-19 refunds are still not credited but I'm definitely waiting a week or two more to let all the confusion settle out.  

Jan 8 and 14 on Odyssey, was able to reserve "The Book". That was the only one available to reserve.

Can you book a lunch with the UDP on day 1?

Interesting, I recall my first cruise on Oasis in 2017 I had a punched card that I got re-punched when the hole broke. The lanyard I had just had a clip. I just checked 8 other cards, zero punched. For Oasis, Anthem, Wonder, Ovation, and Voyager. I guess I've never noticed as I now use a lanyard with the plastic card holder. Nice to go back over all the cards though, thanks.

We're on this cruise also. I get to celebrate my 70th birthday on board.

Now that I got everything booked, the next phase begins. Reconciling what the Cruise Planner order history shows, what email confirmations I have, what my credit card was charged and making note of what refunds I'm owed. Most of the CC charges are still pending so need to wait for them to actually post. Already have one inconsistency, booked two lunches, then cancelled them and rebooked them on different days. I have all the correct emails, they show up in the app on the correct days. They are not in my order history and doesn't look like I have the correct CC charges, should be four with two waiting to get refunded, but only have two. So how long to wait before taking additional actions becomes the issue.

The best deal for Internet seems to be with the soda package, It's only $11, $7.99 to $18.99. If you add it to the DBP it's $14. I'm spending a ton during this sale, as I'm getting stuff for 6 cruises.

Dang it, got burned by the way the new cruise planner adds the gratuity after in the process. I had the UDP and it looked like the current sale would save me about $60. But after I cancelled my first package the final price cost me $90 more!! Be very care how you reprice some of these packages!

I just booked a Celebrity cruise and their cruise planner site has the same sailing message. Guess they use the same system.

I'm having problems where the app is only showing my Jan cruise, I try linking my others but it says they are already linked. I did book my beverage packages for Jan through the app and got the expected price. Wanted that soda + voom deal.