Christie

Thanks so much for the answers!

 

The reason I am asking is that we are doing an excursion in St. Thomas. (Not one by RCI) They have told us to be in front of the windmill at 11am their time. The schedule does say that the ship docks at 8am so we will make it in time, but I'll just need to confirm if we are on Eastern or have switched the hour ahead to Atlantic time (The time in St. Thomas), so we aren't an hour early meeting our guide.

Unfortunately, it sounds like this varies per ship and you won't know if you will be switching to local time until you are onboard. We did switch to Atlantic time last week on Anthem, but when I sailed on Freedom in September, the ship time never switched to Central time so we kept our watches to ship time.

For what it's worth, even when I can't live stream video onboard, I've always been able to Facetime.  Must be something with the compression or something.  Hopefully it will work for you!

I've seen laundry two different ways- fill a bag for $30 or per article of clothing (Really cost prohibitive). 

 

There are spin classes on board!  They are usually for an extra fee (around $10) and will be listed in the cruise planner. 

They usually play movies in the aquatheater pretty often

I feel like I haven't noticed this on Anthem, but I'm not paying for drinks. On several instances though, bar tenders have mentioned that they printed out new bar menus just before our sailing. I'll explore some today.

We switched times on this eastern Caribbean cruise, but you don't need to do any math for subtracting hours. Whatever is listed for port time is Ship's time regardless if the ship's time matches up with the actual port time. Does that make sense?

I think it really depends on how you like to vacation. Is food important to you? Activities onboard? Entertainment? Intimacy with the staff?

 

I've sailed on Oasis, Freedom, and now Anthem. I thought Anthem would be my new favorite ship, but I'm sticking with Oasis. I do love the modern decor of Anthem, so I think I would adore Harmony.

 

That being said, I need to get on Harmony!

Strange, its that documented somewhere. I thought the point of the new and only beverage package is that all drinks up to $12 or $13 are included. 

 

They are- just not out of the machines.  If you walked up to the bar tender and asked for the same drink, it would be included.  And $13 was what we were told tonight in vintages.  I think the machines just don't have a way of verifying your drank package status

I've stayed in an A1 and it was amazing! You can always book directly with royal and then transfer your registration to a travel agent. They should give you around $1000 OBC for this type of room (the travel agent, not RC).

 

PS staying star class is AMAZING. highly recommended

Totally understand being a planner. There is so much to do on Oasis, so make sure you plan "exploration" time.

Nice! Which ship and itinerary?

 

As someone who travels with 6 people, I would say try not to overbook yourself.

Confirmed- the self dispensing machines are not included in the drink package or star class benefits

For our Christmas sailing next week, there was nothing above junior suites available when we looked.  I would check back every day, and occasionally something would pop up in sky class.  Then final payment date hit and when people had to pony up the $$$, they backed out.  We booked 2 star class rooms right around final payment date.  So check back often!

When we ate Sabor for lunch towards the beginning of the cruise, they offered at the end for us to do the guac making class.  This was a great deal!  They taught us how to make the guac, all the margaritas, and then included lunch and a margarita and the avocado tool.  It was a limited menu but still great.  Highly recommend it!

Looks like you figured it out!

Another fan of the triangle hash browns. Recently found out they have 300 calories each. Oops. But that's on land, not at sea.

I definitely liked Sabor better on Freedom than Oasis.  I am sad that my two upcoming cruises don't have Sabor.  What was I thinking?

I think we were in 4

I've been thinking about this idea: Instead of buying a drink package, we buy individual wine bottles. Wine starts out at about $33 each. And RCCL allows you to bring on two bottles. So if we go through a bottle a night with dinner, we'd buy an additional 5 bottles for $165. What do you think? Alcohol package for two for $165.

 

This would be great if you only want to drink at dinner

Looking for someone who has actually tried the self dispensing wine machines in Vintages and had the Ultimate Drink Package.  Did you just scan your sea pass card and it dispensed wine?  Really looking forward to a wine water fountain!

We did a hilltop cabana last year.  I'm not sure if it was 5, but it was higher up (the higher the digit, the higher on the hill it is).

 

Be aware that the stairs going up the hill are not level or a consistent height.  If you have anybody with mobility issues in your group, I would highly suggest against the hilltop cabanas.  Also, if you're carrying a lot of stuff (we have a toddler, so we have stuff), you will struggle getting up there.  The attendants will help you though. 

 

Definitely quiet up there, but we found it particularly hot even in December.  The fan didn't make much of a dent.  You can walk out to the front and see down to the water.  My dad got great shots of my husband and I swimming with our baby.

 

The food was ok.  They had lamb when we went.  Honestly, the WJ is better.  

Has anybody done the deep sea fishing in Labadee?  Did you catch anything?  How early did you leave?  TIA!

When soda was included. Except Disney everone else stopped years ago.

When you remember when Disney did not have free soda

My kids put most questions into context of being on a cruise.

 

Examples!  Gabby is hysterical, so I can only imagine how this manifests.  

Hey Kat, I've seen people recommend the vacuum bags that you roll up to take the air out for packing the memory foam pillow. It will still weigh the same obviously but will take up a lot less space.