MattG

4 hours ago, TXcruzer said:

I am curious where you got the numbers for availability%

Each of the room types I listed happens to be clustered in a particular part of the ship, and in a limited number of decks (Junior Suites are all forward on upper decks, Surfside Family Suites and Family Infinite Balconies are Aft between decks 9 and 12). I basically did a mock booking and counted the number of remaining rooms, and divided it by the total number of each room type as listed here:

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Icon/Icon_Categorization_Grid.pdf

Going to re-up this a few months after it's original posting with some numbers (This is for 21 September 2024, 2 adults & 2 kids):

There are still lots of Family Infinite Balconies available (44% unsold), and the price is higher than Sky-class Surfside Family Suites (roughly same availability) AND Sea-class Junior Suites (12% availability). It's also hard to argue "The Family Infinite Balcony room has more space!" because it's roughly the same size as the Surfside Family Suite. 

So I'm paying $2800 more for bunks and no suite amenities (and the ability to hold up to six people), when the Surfside Family Suite has the same availability? 

Full Disclosure: I'm biased because I have a Family Infinite Balcony booked on Icon for the fall. We actually have 5 in our party (2 adults and 3 kids) so neither the Junior Suite (max 4) or Surfside Family Balcony (max 4) are options for us. If I could get a rollaway bed, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

Hi everyone, 

We're cruising on Oasis in the next few weeks. When reviewing the recent Cruise Compasses, i've noticed no bands or (many) evening events taking place in the Music Hall. It seems unusual for RC to not be using an entertainment venue like this for long periods of time. Anyone know why? Is it the lack of a band on contract? Is it a technical issue? 

August 13, 2023 - https://issuu.com/hochmania/docs/cruisecompass_1-merged/9

June 30, 2023 - https://issuu.com/hochmania/docs/cruisecompass_1_4_-merged/14

June 9, 2023 - https://issuu.com/hochmania/docs/oasis_of_the_seas_06-09-2023/9

May 14, 2023 - https://issuu.com/hochmania/docs/cruise_compass_-_oasis_of_the_seas_-_may_14-21_202/15

34 minutes ago, RockerDom31 said:

I always went with paper copies of everything

This is what we do as well, it was a pro-tip I learned from this board. There's always 5+ of us traveling, and i always wedge a printed SetSail pass in each person's passport - it's that much easier to hand over to the check-in agent and get onto the ship!

I've been sitting on this opinion until the final revision of the menus came out, and have two thoughts:

1. The greatest travesty is there's no sign of the Apple Blossom a la Mode in the desserts on any evening. This is criminal. Everyone i've spoken with has raved about this. 
2. WHY are the Chef's Recommendations only at the top? The Chef's Recommendation entree should also be listed with the rest of the entrees, the Chef's Recommendation dessert should also be listed with the rest of the desserts. The Night 1 menu does this, but the rest do not. Now my eyes are bouncing back and forth across the menu to figure out what I want for each course. 

For #2, what they should have done is deleted the "Chef's Recommendation" section at the top, and added that item in bold/outlined in the proper course section of the menu as "Chef's Recommendation". That way it gets highlighted, but isn't segregated at the top. 

It may depend on whether the ship has adopted the new menu, and therefore the new lobster tails (cold water from Maine). 

The demand exists for an Oasis-class ship from NJ. My primary guess would be Symphony of the Seas comes up from the Caribbean to take the summer itineraries. Normally she goes to Europe in the Spring, but she's in the Caribbean through the end of April 2024. That would leave Fort Lauderdale without an Oasis-class ship, however. 

The other option is Allure finally hits dry dock/amplification in Spring 2024, then comes up to Cape Liberty. The reasons i'm leaning away from this are 1) it takes away 3/4-night Oasis-class cruises, and 2) it's pretty deep into the season to take a ship out of service for amplification. However, Port Canaveral still has an Oasis-class ship with Wonder of the Seas.

14 hours ago, Ryan79 said:

The biggest savings are on beverage packages and excursions.

I've seen the strongest discounts on CocoCay excursions as well as the photo and internet packages. The weakest (or non-existent) discounts have been on dining packages. Drink package discounts have been minimal, nothing different than a normal "sale".

5 hours ago, ecgz88 said:

For the restaurant price in Cruise Planner, Do I need to wait for online check in start to see the price?

As long as you have a reservation number, you can link your reservation to the Cruise Planner website (royalcaribbean.com/booked) and begin looking at dining venues and prices. 

5 hours ago, ecgz88 said:

and I just checked Oasis Chops only 90 seats, so is it will be really difficult to book a seat?  since buy dinning package can only make reservation when boarding.

Not difficult at all. We had a party of 9 people (4 adults, 5 kids) and were able to get a table to fit us all at the dining times we wanted each night. If you can get an early check-in time (say, before 12pm) and go directly to a specialty restaurant the moment you get onboard, you can make all your dining reservations at once. If you get a dining package, I strongly recommend planning out which restaurants to go to on which nights, and have that handy when you meet with the specialty dining host staff. If you have a 3-night dining package, I recommend looking at the MDR menu for nights you have a less-interesting menu, and for UDP I recommend hitting up each specialty restaurant at least once before going back for a second round. 

14 hours ago, Team Vaseline said:

around 3/4 beers a day, also enjoy specialised coffee's,

You're not hitting $59/day with this kind of spending. Ditch the drink package and go pay drink-to-drink.

14 hours ago, Team Vaseline said:

may wait till closer till cruising day see if the offer comes down.   Thanks. 

Famous last words. The Black Friday sale pricing holds the same logic as every other day on the Cruise Planner: If you can afford the currently published price, buy it now, and assume the price will go up tomorrow. If the price drops in the future, you can always cancel, refund, and re-buy at the lower price.

14 hours ago, Team Vaseline said:

Quick question, first time cruiser have been offered drinks package at reasonable rate not a very heavy drinker worth it or not.   Thanks

 

So much detail missing from here to offer any kind of reasonable feedback. 

• What are you considering a "reasonable rate"?
• What does "worth it" mean to you? 
• What is "not a heavy drinker"? 

General consensus is 5-6 drinks per day, every day, is needed to break even on the Deluxe Beverage Package. If you can meet or exceed this, then financially speaking you'll spend less on the package versus per-drink.

On 11/18/2022 at 10:54 PM, Luly said:

Can I just book 5 out of the 6 of us then tell them to add her at embarkation when I make the remaining reservations?

Yes, on embarkation day, just go to the Chops host stand, and say "our 5-top is actually a 6-top with a child" and they'll ensure you're seated at a table of appropriate size. 

On 11/18/2022 at 10:54 PM, Luly said:

I have a 12 year old who would probably prefer a petite filet over the kids steak at chops. And a 7 year old who would rather have shrimp over chicken tenders at Giovanni’s. Can they order off the adult menu? 

We didn't test this our our cruise with the kids, but i've heard that it's possible to order adult entrees for children. No guarantees.  Others may have more accurate input.

Pre-cruise reservation availability is only a percentage of total available reservations. Once you get on-board, all reservation times are available. 

Last month, we had UDP and before the cruise, I went in and looked at booking availability for multiple restaurants, and only found very early and very late seatings. When I got on-board and went to book all my UDP reservations, I had pretty much any time I wanted. The host confirmed the pre-cruise availability is not "the whole picture".

On 10/29/2022 at 9:04 PM, twangster said:

I hate to say I told you so, but I warned of this many times before.  Not aimed at any poster here, but switching satellite providers while retaining the outdated and archaic practice of throttling users will yield very little difference in the user experience.  

The satellite provider hasn't been the problem all along.  Royal has been.  This throttling on some ships with Starlink but not on other ships with Starlink is an experiment is trying to determine what they can get away with while looking to introduce new packages at higher rates that provide better speeds.  

For all those that were excited about the Starlink coming to Royal news - Ha Ha!  Jokes on you!   

Have to disagree with this - throttling is not the only thing that impacts performance, latency (ping) is a huge factor with regards to quality of service. We also don't know the total throughput available to RC on O3b, but it's certainly going to be less than what Starlink provides (100Mbps+)

RC certainly isn't throttling or introducing additional latency on their connections, so even 3Mbps at 60ms latency is going to be a better product than 3Mbps at 500ms+ on O3b. Plus, after testing, RC has the option of opening up the throttle a bit on their profiles (probably with a Surf&Stream+ package for additional $?), something they couldn't do on O3b. 

I'd rather have 1Mbps on 60ms than 10Mbps on 600ms anyday. 

Fellow foodie here. Some thoughts:

• I agree that not including Wonderland in your foodie trip is an unintentional oversight - you should fold that in somewhere.
• Your only sushi experience is the sushi-making class (I think it's a California roll), whereas Izumi's full menu is much more adventurous. Consider booking a proper Izumi reservation to experience their full menu.
• 150CP does not do lunch. 
• I would drop Solarium Bistro from your list - it's nice, but there are far better foodie experiences onboard. 

If cost is not an issue, then go with whatever makes you happy. UDP makes sense if you're wanting to save $ over booking multiple individual reservations. In your case, if you were to drop Sip.Tour.Brunch and On a Roll Sushi Making Class and replace with specialty lunches, your UDP will go farther. 

Central Park balconies WILL have noise during the day - the pool deck music will spill over, and when the band plays mid-day it's audible through the closed door (though very soft). At night, the Central Park balconies will either have complete quiet, or an acoustic guitarist that's very pleasant.

5 hours ago, Bankai said:

Is lobster still served in the MDR on formal nights?  I'd hate to miss out on lobster.

4 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

Usually not on the shorter sailings.

Yes and no. @AshleyDillois correct on the shorter sailings. On 7-night sailings, Lobster Night is on Day 6, which coincides with the second formal night. 

For comparison, here's Anthem's CocoCay page for 10/29/2022 sailing (3 days from now) - all the SOLD OUT cabanas really justify the price hike we're seeing going forward.

22 minutes ago, JazzBassMan said:

Probably just Royal throwing it out there to see if they get any overexcited people that want to book everything immediately.

I don't think the Cruise Planner is open for any other 2024 cruises, so I agree that this is Royal having to put placeholders in with the option of coming down in price if enough people don't bite. 

We just booked on Icon for 9/21/2024 (thanks @Sharla!) and out of curiosity, I jumped into the Cruise Planner and found some interesting items (comparison against my Oasis 10/0/2022 cruise):

Dining:

• "Amazing experiences coming soon"

Spa & Fitness

• "Amazing experiences coming soon"

Beverage:

• Deluxe Beverage Package: $83.99/day (normally $105/day) - For Oasis 2022, lowest I saw was $66/day (normally $98/day)
• Refreshment Package: $29.99/day (normally $34/day) - Unchanged from Oasis 2022
• Classic Soda Package: $8.99/day (normally $13.50/day) - Unchanged from Oasis 2022

Perfect Day at CocoCay:

• Thrill Waterpark: $160.99 (normally $179) - for Oasis 2022, this was $74.99 (normally $89)
• Coco Beach Club: $268.99 (normally $299) - For Oasis 2022, this was $160.99 (normally $179)
• Thrill Waterpark — Cabana And Full Day Pass: $1,499 - For Oasis 2022, this was $699
• Coco Beach Club — Overwater Cabana And Full Day Pass: $3,799 - For Oasis 2022, this was $1,999
• Perfect Day CocoCay Zipline: $97.99 - Unchanged from Oasis 2022
• Beach Bed: $199 - Unchanged from Oasis 2022
• Up, Up, & Away Helium Balloon Ride: $65.99 (normally $74)

Internet Packages:

• VOOM SURF & STREAM: $23.99/day (normally $26.99/day) - Oasis 2022 would go between $20 and $26/day

The Key

• $45/day - Oasis 2022 would go between $16.99 and $34.99/day

Chef's Table is a fantastic time: equal parts food, wine, and social experience with the other foodies around you.

A few considerations:

• Select an evening where you can devote 3 hours to this meal. Don't pick an evening that has activities you want to go to (headliner show, Love & Marriage show, comedian, etc). You're going to miss those activities because you'll still be at Chef's Table.  
• Other evenings you'll be going to the Main Dining Room. If you haven't yet download the Royal Caribbean app, do so now, select your cruise, go to Dining, then Main Dining Room. You can browse the rotating menus, and go to Chef's Table on a night where the Main Dining Room food doesn't interest you as much. 
• Some minor points on each day: 
  • Day 1: May not be the best idea - you'll will be busy, and you'll want to decompress and just enjoy the ship. 
  • Day 2:  May be good, as a positive experience at Chef's Table will put you in good spirits for the rest of your cruise
  • Day 3: If you're planning on an intense day in Cozumel, make sure you can get back in time to shower, change, and arrive for the start of your meal
  • Day 4: If you can get fully packed and ready to walk off the ship the next morning PRIOR to your Chef's Table start time, this would work as well.  

On 10/22/2022 at 1:57 PM, MarcBerger said:

But according to the deck plans I saw, OCEANS ADVENTURE is directly across from PLAYMAKERS....how and why?!?!  that makes NO SENSE.

 

Uh, on the contrary, I see this as an absolute WIN. On Oasis, AO and Playmakers are on opposite sides of the ship, and it took FOREVER between dropping off kids and watching football. Now it's only a few steps!

@not easy being green

@Baked Alaska

What are your embarkation dates and ships? I want to investigate something...

DAY 8 - Back to reality

We always seem to drag out our last day. We request the latest disembarkation time, and we stretch our morning a bit. We got up, showered and dressed, and crammed the remainder of our things in our carry-on bags, and headed down to the MDR for breakfast by 7:30am. There was a bit of a line but it moved quickly. I got the market breakfast bowl again, and it was delicious again. 

We said goodbye to our travel family, and headed towards Deck 5 to get off the ship. It was quick and orderly, and before we knew it, we were on the gangway headed back to the terminal. Down the escalator, shuffled through the suites waiting area, and into the luggage warehouse. We found our bags and flagged down a porter for help. We headed to Customs where they have the face recognition cameras. Everyone got the green light, and we followed the porter out to the garage. I grabbed the car, loaded everything up, and we were out in pretty quick time. 

Because we were so close to New York, we decided to drive north and see the city. We headed towards 81st street to check out some of the playgrounds on the west side of Central Park. We played between two playgrounds, then hopped on the subway to Times Square and hit up one of my favorite places in New York City:

After a quick lunch, we hopped back on the subway and headed down to Battery Park so the kiddos could see the Statue of Liberty. We almost hopped on the Staten Island Ferry to get a better view, but after doing the math we realized it would put us home after sunset. We settled for checking out the statue from the water:

In the distance, you might be able to see a familiar sight, a farewall call from our home for the week:

Next post: thoughts and reflections

 DAY 7 - Sea Day

Today was our last full day. Everyone slept in laaaaaate. We're usually up and at breakfast by 7:30am. Today, we didn't get to breakfast until 9:00am. We first headed to the MDR, but the line was very long, so we aborted and went to the Windjammer. We were able to drop the kids off just before 10:00am, and headed to...

Apollo 18! The escape room! I'm a HUGE space nerd, so this was a MUST DO on our trip. The host started a few minutes after 10:00am, and there were about a dozen people in this group. It felt like a lot of people, but by the end, it you realize you do need that many people. You go in and start with a video briefing, then you have 50 minutes to finish the puzzle. Not giving away any spoilers, but there are some HARD puzzles in this room. This 100% requires teamwork of finding artifacts, sharing information, and relying on the unique knowledge and problem solving skills of each team member to figure out how to solve the problems. 

Here are some photos of the room, with light editing to remove any spoilers or hints:

The host is there to nudge you along as you get deeper into the countdown. We solved the puzzle with 4m 24s remaining: 

It was super cool. Totally want to do it again (and i'll prob forget how to solve the problems by then!)

After the escape room, we lazily walked through Central Park, and found a secret spot on Deck 7:

We made our way back to AO to pick up the kids, then went to Solarium Bistro for lunch. It was a mirror of the Windjammer menu, but not nearly as busy. There was no menu service during lunch, but here's the menu for dinner:

We headed back to the room to pack and say goodbye to our stateroom, and this view:

Our travel family wanted to stick with Izumi Sushi for dinner, and we wanted to try MDR, so we split for the first time on this trip. We headed to Deck 5 and were seated in about 10 minutes. Without fail, my first trip to the MDR starts with a shrimp cocktail and escargots:

All delicious. My last dinner on Oasis was the braised lamb shank: 

Tomorrow is disembarkation!