FamilyCruiseFan

Follow up question to this... Looking at a closed loop US cruise, visiting Bahamas. Would the passport rules on this also apply for kids? My kids (all under 13) all have good passports but would be expiring in a few months (less than 6) at the time of the cruise I'm looking at. I didn't know if it made a difference kids vs adults. My take away is, likely okay due to type of cruise and passport still good at the time of use. Thoughts?

Just wanted to throw out there that even though the summer of 2024 dates aren't listed yet, I see there is one date listed for Symphony of the Seas round trip out of Cape Liberty, NJ at the end of Sept 2024. Suspecting it may be Symphony coming up to replace the Oasis in summer of 2024. 

Thanks. I guess I was concerned if the opening seemed fine (low falling out risk) or if anyone else puts something over the opening to secure it more. I think overall I'm probably over-thinking it. I thank you for your response!

Hello! We will be on an upcoming cruise on Oasis this Oct and will be having bunk beds for the kids for the first time. They are not used to sleeping in bunk beds but are very excited (ages 6-11, 4 kids total between 2 rooms). Just looking for any info on if the rail on the top bunk seems secure or if anyone brings anything with them to make it more secure. We are in Ultra Spacious Ocean Balcony rooms. I've looked at some videos of room reviews online but looking for any thoughts from someone who had experience with it. Thanks!

On 8/2/2022 at 4:22 PM, Swar said:

Many of these Countries rely on cruise ships for over 50% some of their GDP (up to 6%). Cruise lines are in a very strong position to dictate the requirements for entry. Flex that economic muscle baby! New rule says that unvaccinated have to test up to 3 days out. So I am now officially unvaccinated and will no longer supply my vax card to have an extra day of no stress. Seriously, did I read that part right? 3 days before - unvaxxed; 2 days before for vaxxed on cruises of 6 days or more

Now the pre-cruise testing window is 3 days before for everyone on those cruises of 6 nights or more...vaccinated or unvaccinated per the recent news out there. 

3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

They were not able to sit in reserved seating areas ?

This is what they passed on to me when I asked them about it....

2nd day of cruise,went to diamond concierge about getting reservations for the comedians and illusionsist show and he told us they were sold out. He said we could wait at door for cancellations and availability. Did get a reservation for aqua 80 on day 5. Lots of top tier cruisers on this ship.

My parents are on this Oasis cruise as well (May 22, out of Bayonne). They have been on over 40 some cruises (most Royal Caribbean) so they know what to expect and they have been disappointed by many things this cruise. The ship is under staffed for sure. Windjammer has been having long lines due to not enough seating. Not opening the time they were suppose to.  My parents who are diamond plus were not able to get a seat at all on many of the shows even through the concierge service. Even the concierge service noted they were definitely understaffed. My parents somehow got My Time dining which they never do (they tried to change it to an earlier time) they said basically they were not able to, but the lines are longer. They did book a night a Chops to finally enjoy a sit down meal. They've never really had issues with dining in the past so they were a bit surprised. 

Aside from that, my parents did comment that port day on the ship was very busy, didn't seem like many got off.  They had heard 5400 - 5500 approx for passenger count. Just FYI stuff!

I hope you have a great rest of the cruise! I am enjoying following the posts. My whole family (party of 8 ) go on Oasis again in Oct, so I am just comparing experiences! 

I have family on the Wonder of the Seas, March 18th to 25th (third sailing) and passenger count is 4900 (800 kids per staff onboard). 

On 1/22/2022 at 7:29 PM, jack_4321 said:

This Cruise Critic thread has been following along since the beginning and they have some great photos from inside sources: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2407590-wonder-of-the-seas-blocks-are-in-the-house

Going to the link here .... then to pg 59 approx ... they show some pictures of the obscured view balcony GS 1700 .... something to think about I guess. 

8 hours ago, CrimsonCruiser said:

I just took a look at the deck plans and all the Grand Suite 1 bedrooms have been clustered around the suite lounge on Deck 17.

I'm not sure how to feel about that. On one hand - great for quick and easy access to the suite lounge/coastal kitchen but it's the second highest deck on the ship so you're quite removed from everything.

Definitely going to need to see what it looks like from a vlogger.

 

Also - square footage coming in at 371

All previous Oasis class deck plans give the same number. So, I think they just got rid of the tv separator thingy and kept the space more open a la the JRsuite style. The harmony/symphony/Quantum style cut the room up and made the individual areas feel really small especially considering the room is already about 20 sq feet smaller than the Freedom class GS

I have been looking at these today myself as some members in my family are going on the Wonder in March and are considering their RoyalUp offers now. I've noticed that there are some marked with an obscured balcony and if you try to book the GS class, they only have one price. It's not like you are taking a cheaper "obscured view" balcony rate (and it's not exactly cheap). Also look at the size of all the balconies in this section. From the deck plans they provide on the website, it appears there is a wide variety for size (and again... no difference in price that I was able to find between one of the bigger vs smaller balcony rooms). Just some thoughts to share!

Question on guaranteed rooms... Does anyone know if you book a guaranteed room (say balcony cabin) and didn't like the assigned location, are you able to call and change it to something else available (assuming there were other open rooms and it wasn't a full sailing) with the same room category?  Never took a guaranteed room before but was considering this in the future. Thanks for any helpful info! 

14 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

The different levels are just based on how many posts you have.  There are no benefits to moving up in rank on the message boards (other than to congratulate yourself for being an active part of our awesome community!!!)

Thanks for explaining because I wasn't sure either! 

On 10/15/2021 at 12:35 PM, RKennedy1279 said:

So today all my offered expired except one.  How long after this does it usually take to know if in fact we got the room we put the bid on?

Also trying to decide if I should tell my wife or surprise her when we get to the ship if we get the upgrade.  Any thoughts?

Go for the surprise! This happened a few weeks before our cruise for someone in my traveling party but it wasn't until about 3 days prior to the cruise like 2:30 pm we noticed the room numbers changed on our reservation that they were notified of the upgrade from junior suite to owners suite! 

17 hours ago, Laurenb0380 said:

Have an ocean view balcony on the Symphony for 10/30 put in bids on 10/7. Today my bids for 1 bed owners suite and 2 bed owners suite are expired but my Grand Suite is still pending. Fingers crossed! I bid a bit over minimum and all we’re considered weak.

This happened to someone in our traveling party on our most recent cruise last week. All offers expired except one but they could no longer modify or cancel the offer anymore. This happened a few weeks prior to the departure. We kept waiting and it was about 3 days prior to the cruise that the offer was officially accepted! I've heard others say the same. Good luck! I'd say you may have gotten it! Give us an update when you find out!

Someone in our traveling party had the same thing happen. They placed a royal up offer on about 4 different rooms, the same day we did the same for the room we were in. Sept 17th we placed bids for our 10/10 sailing out of Bayonne, NJ on the Oasis. On approx Sept 30th I checked our room offers and they were still all pending. For the people we were traveling with, they had only one pending and the rest expired. They were unable to modify any offers at that point. We just thought the other offers were rejected and was holding out hope for the one that was left but still couldn't figure out why we couldn't modify the offer. I could modify all of my offers but none had shown expired. So ... fast forward a bit... Oct 7th (3 days before departure) his room number changed on our reservation on the SeaPass. They got an upgrade from Junior Suite to Owner's Suite (the one that was left pending). I read others post a similar experience on different blogs. So maybe you got it! Otherwise you should have the option to cancel it (as mine said, you can modify or cancel it up to 3 hours prior to departure). Also his credit card wasn't charged until the 3 day mark.  Here's hoping for you! On the other hand we didn't get ours but it was long after we were on the ship that we got the email about the unsuccessful bids. Hope the info helps.

We just sailed on Oasis out of NJ on 10/10 - 10/17, passenger count given to me was 2845 (just as a reference)

Thanks for all of the updates/photos! It really helps with planning. We are the same sailing next week (10/10). I was just curious if you had heard what the passenger count was for your cruise this week? Thanks!

On 9/28/2021 at 10:02 AM, janetmojo said:

Yesterday was another great day onboard!  I awoke early (again) to another pretty sunrise.  Not quite as stunning as the day before but the balcony off the master bedroom (the one with the jacuzzi on it) is a great place to watch the sunrise on the side of the ship since we are currently sailing south.

I got up and updated this blog again foregoing breakfast and the gym to keep you lovely folks informed on my adventures.

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 I did hit the top tier event around 10:15 to check out how many folks were on the ship (728 guests and 1510 crew)

and see Super Mario of course and there was a very good singer who sang a few songs along with the orchestra.  It was a nice event.  I’m glad to see things like this slowly return.

We did the ifly (I have no pictures only videos taken by Israel for us which was super nice of him.)  I did really well this time, I previously tried it on Anthem but that was 4 years ago.  I think I am a little better shape these days and I was more relaxed.  Because they limit it to 4 people per session (we only had 3 people) we each got to fly twice.  I’ve never done any actual skydiving even though we live in the city that is the skydiving capital of the world (Deland, FL) but I wonder if it actually feels similar.  I never wanted to do it because I hate to feel like I am falling but when you do this you don’t feel like you are falling at all (I guess because you aren’t) anyways…

After iFly we stopped to check on our favorite art install of the ship, the giant cat made of roses.  I wonder who brainstormed that up?   “Hey let’s add a giant cat made of pink roses to the side of the ship?”  What exactly was that person smoking that day?  But we like it.  I bet it looks cool when other ships pass as well.

Lunch was at noon at the Teppanyaki restaurant.  It is located up next to the Windjammer on 14 and has beautiful views.  We were the only people in the entire restaurant and I will say it was one of the better times we have done this onboard a ship.  Due to a little confusion on our part we ended up not getting the soup and salad and honestly I was so glad.  We could enjoy our food a lot more not filling up on useless starters   Steak and lobster for hubby and steak and scallops for me.  Not always the best meal for photos but we enjoyed every bite and look forward to coming back for dinner later in the week.

Thanks for the updates! Was that the passenger count for the whole cruise? 728?