MattG

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):
Category Name Price Avail % Size (incl balcony) Suite - Sea Junior Suite $11,370.16 12% 402sqft Suite - Sky Surfside Family Suite $12,000.16 45% 322sqft Balcony Family Infinte Balcony $14,801.16 44% 335sqft 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.

Woah, this is a thing? Awesome! Does it work at all SeaPass touchpoints? Stateroom door, bar POS, etc?

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:
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.  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. 

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

I have to get better about taking notes in the moment...
Day 2 Evening
It's taken me a while, but I'm finally realizing that while kids are pretty adaptable, tossing them into a new environment really throws them off. Everyone's bit groggy, over-stimulated, being pulled in different directions. Putting myself in their shoes, I can imagine it's hard to adapt when you're still learning the concepts of planning, strategy, where are we going to eat next, etc. The parents always figure that stuff out, but it may not be what you (as a kid) want. Our youngest (M3) came out of Adventure Ocean in a great mood, but by the time we got to lunch, he was really cranky. We first chalked it up to tiredness, but his crankiness read a little differently. We decided to bring him back to the room to nap while the older two did "boat school" (some school lessons while on vacation). I stayed back and monitored nap time while writing yesterday's Day 2 Morning post. He slept most of the afternoon, and the girls came back from the pool to change for dinner right around the time he woke up. 
We all changed for dinner, and went to 150 Central Park. What a classy place 🙂 They had our table for 9 ready, a 5-top and a 4-top, but similar to Chops, we put all the kids on the bench and wrapped four chairs around the other side and turned the 5-top into a 9-top. The servers adapted perfectly, and were fantastic. I ordered the garden martini, and it was sooo good. Super smooth, no taste of alcohol (but it was there!). All of the food was great - the wife got the scallops and the Tenderloin for one, I got the pork belly and the lobster Thermidor. The pork belly was a little tough, but had a great flavor. The scallops were smoky and wonderful. I'm a sucker for lobster, and the lobster Thermidor was a great hit. Then came dessert. 
You guys, the fried cheesecake is everything. All the reviews are true. It's unreal how good this dessert is. It's the fried sweetness of funnel cake, with the creaminess of cheesecake. I'm 100% going back again sometime this cruise to get it again, somehow. The caramel popcorn on top is a great garnish.
After wrapping up at 150CP, we headed over to the carousel to give the kids a few rides before heading off to bed. 
 
Insert record scratch here
 
 
We're coming to realize that, while dinner with our three kids is one thing, dinner with five kids (our three, plus two from the other family cruising with us) is a whole other beast. So many more dynamics to wrangle, while trying to teach good manners in a "fancy restaurant" and not bum-rush the cocktail cart. The youngest was also in rare form at dinner, both refusing to eat and saying he was hungry. I wrangled him and took him down to Cafe Promenade where we got him two apples, and he completely changed and turned back into a happy, bouncing boy. Kids are weird. Add to this that we've eaten at four different restaurants in two days (Playmakers, Chops, Izumi, and now 150CP), we're desperately missing the consistency of MDR. We LOVE the specialty restaurants, and want our kids to have these experiences too. We did MDR last cruise, and know the menus, know the food, and wanted to branch out and try ALL the specialty dining on Oasis, but the lack of routine is taking its toll on the kids. When we were on Anthem, it was a Windjammer lunch and MDR dinner every night and the kids thrived at that routine, and so did the MDR staff, getting to know our family and our needs.
After some discussion and sleeping on it, we may see if we can shimmy our way into a 5:30pm MDR seating for dinner starting Day 4. We want the kids to have a great time too, and if they're fried from the lack of routine, it kinda makes us all miserable. Happy kids, happy parents, happy vacation.
 
  
 
 
 

It’s BRISK today! Driving up from the mid-Atlantic, we went from the upper 30s to the mid-50s at embarkation. We had a 10:30am check-in time, but didn’t arrive to the terminal until 10:50am. When you come off the NJ Turnpike in Bayonne and march towards the cruise terminal, you come down Chosen Few Way and have to make a left turn onto Goldsborough Dr (which turns into Port Terminal Blvd). Well, that left turn sucks. It’s a left turn against two-way traffic with no stop light. So you have hundreds of cars backed up trying to dodge traffic to make this left turn. There should truly be a stop light here, or find some other way to get onto Goldsborough.
So we get to the Terminal at 10:50am, and wait in the baggage check line for about 10 minutes. We’re parked by 11:10am, and head into the Terminal. Security is a breeze, and we go to a check-in line, finish check-in, and right onto the ship by 11:30am.
Once on-board, we went to Spotlight Karaoke for muster. We asked if they had wristbands for the kids, and they said they’d be in the stateroom (spoiler: they weren’t). After muster check-in, we made a bee-line for the Boardwalk and to Playmakers for lunch. The kiddos went straight for the carousel, and rode it a few times while food arrived. We got a bunch of nachos, fries, chicken tenders, and onion rings. Everything went over pretty well. I snuck over to Johnny Rockets and got an order of bacon cheese fries for our travel partners, and Johnny Rockets happily obliged and put it in a to-go box. While we ate, I tried to make dining reservations, but it wanted to charge us (we had UDP), I was getting boxed out of a lot of the reservation times I wanted, and it was slooooow. I gave up after 10 minutes and no reservations, determined to fix it at a host stand.
Once we wrapped up at the Boardwalk, we headed to Central Park to make UDP reservations. I headed into 150 Central Park, and worked with the host to make the reservations. It took a while (20 minutes?) but I was able to lock in all of the restaurants we wanted, at the times we wanted, and kept our two parties together.
Because the reservations were taking a while, I sent everyone else up to Adventure Ocean to register all the kiddos. I headed up there after everything was booked, and the other parents took care of registration and booking. The wife said the AO Babies staff said there were a “lot of babies” on this cruise, and limited us to 7 hours of time in the Nursery until Day 3, when they can shake out how heavily the Nursery is going to be used. We experienced something similar on Anthem last December, so we expected something similar. The older kids are first-come, first-serve, with no limits. Game-on.
After Adventure Ocean, we headed down and found our staterooms were ready. We had interior rooms on Anthem, and walking into a Balcony room and being flooded with natural light will make you never want to to go back to an interior room again. My goodness! There’s definitely a spillover of sound from the pool deck, we heard the live music and sail-away party even through the closed door, but also understand it’s loud because it’s Day 1 and getting everybody wound up. It’s not so loud as to disturb a nap.
Bags weren’t at our room yet, we took another walk around the ship to explore the pool deck. We went up to Deck 15 and walked past the Beach Pool. We saw people swimming, and I dipped my hand in the water and it was WARM! It felt really good! Unfortunately it was still mid-50s and WINDY on the pool deck, so we weren’t swimming just yet. We showed the kids around Splashaway Bay, and got our first soft-serve cone of the trip. We walked back to the Flowriders and Ultimate Abyss, then back down to the rooms where our bags started appearing.
We did pass through the Windjammer, and it was swamped, as expected. I was also surprised to see half of it closed - what gives, on such a busy morning?
We got unpacked, met our stateroom attendant, and gave all the praise to whoever invented magnet hooks. Really, guys, if you don’t have two dozen magnet hooks when you cruise, you’re doing it wrong 😄 We got everything unpacked, and started getting ready for dinner. I realized I hadn’t made entertainment reservations yet, and when I tried to do it in the app again, all the early show times were conflicting with our dining times.
I called the Box Office, and tried to book Frozen in Time for 7pm on Day 2. Nope, fully booked. Ended up booking Day 6 at 8pm. Then I tried to book Aqua80 for 8:15pm on Day 3. Nope, fully booked. Actually, ALL of the 8:15pm shows were fully booked, which is really disappointing. Pro tip: Make your entertainment reservations BEFORE your dining reservations!
We head down to Chops, and our party of five is seated at a 6-top, which a bench for 3 and 3 chairs. Our party of four is seated at a 4-top, but all the kids want to sit with each other 😆. We end up squeezing all 9 of us into the 6-top, at the recommendation of the server. The 5 kids fit on the bench, and the 4 adults round the table with chairs.
Service seems…slow. Coming off of MDR on Anthem in December, the MDR staff had timing nailed for our 5-top. Here at Chops, the pacing was drawn out much longer. Not sure if it’s Night 1 turbulence, or just how Chops runs, but from the time we sat down to the time we got apps was 45 minutes, soups/salads at 65, and mains at 80 minutes. We got the shrimp cocktail and tuna tartare for apps, wedge salad and mushroom soup for second course. All were really, really good. I got a bone-in ribeye for the entree. It was cooked perfectly, but was a little tough - could have used more marbling. The staff coursed the kids mains between apps and soup/salad, which was a blessing because they were about to eat the tablecloths 😆. Unfortunately by the time we got our mains, the kids were fried. We ended up getting dessert to go, and took it back to the room.
After we got the kids to bed, I did my mandatory wander-throughout-the-ship. Started on the Boardwalk to catch the Ravens game, then up to the pool deck to grab some night photos. I’m surprised how quiet the pool deck gets even at 8:30pm: everything closed, except a few hot tubs (but were empty). Same with the Solarium. I decided to go all the way down to the casino and test my luck, coming out a little on top to start off the cruise on the right foot. I wandered over to Jazz on 4 where I wrote the rest of this live blog listening to a great quartet.
Initial observations: Oasis is a great ship - they really nailed the layout, distribution of activities, style, etc. I can’t speak for pre/post amplification, this being my first time here. Everything is immaculate, of course. I do feel more drawn to the elegant style of Anthem, but am excited to do more of the activities package on Oasis (water slides, dual flowriders, escape room, ultimate abyss, etc).
Thanks everyone, and I’ll see you tomorrow! Photos below (in reverse chronological order, not sure why)
 

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. 
 
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. 

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".

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

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

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

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.

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!
 

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

I have to get better about taking notes in the moment...
Day 2 Evening
It's taken me a while, but I'm finally realizing that while kids are pretty adaptable, tossing them into a new environment really throws them off. Everyone's bit groggy, over-stimulated, being pulled in different directions. Putting myself in their shoes, I can imagine it's hard to adapt when you're still learning the concepts of planning, strategy, where are we going to eat next, etc. The parents always figure that stuff out, but it may not be what you (as a kid) want. Our youngest (M3) came out of Adventure Ocean in a great mood, but by the time we got to lunch, he was really cranky. We first chalked it up to tiredness, but his crankiness read a little differently. We decided to bring him back to the room to nap while the older two did "boat school" (some school lessons while on vacation). I stayed back and monitored nap time while writing yesterday's Day 2 Morning post. He slept most of the afternoon, and the girls came back from the pool to change for dinner right around the time he woke up. 
We all changed for dinner, and went to 150 Central Park. What a classy place 🙂 They had our table for 9 ready, a 5-top and a 4-top, but similar to Chops, we put all the kids on the bench and wrapped four chairs around the other side and turned the 5-top into a 9-top. The servers adapted perfectly, and were fantastic. I ordered the garden martini, and it was sooo good. Super smooth, no taste of alcohol (but it was there!). All of the food was great - the wife got the scallops and the Tenderloin for one, I got the pork belly and the lobster Thermidor. The pork belly was a little tough, but had a great flavor. The scallops were smoky and wonderful. I'm a sucker for lobster, and the lobster Thermidor was a great hit. Then came dessert. 
You guys, the fried cheesecake is everything. All the reviews are true. It's unreal how good this dessert is. It's the fried sweetness of funnel cake, with the creaminess of cheesecake. I'm 100% going back again sometime this cruise to get it again, somehow. The caramel popcorn on top is a great garnish.
After wrapping up at 150CP, we headed over to the carousel to give the kids a few rides before heading off to bed. 
 
Insert record scratch here
 
 
We're coming to realize that, while dinner with our three kids is one thing, dinner with five kids (our three, plus two from the other family cruising with us) is a whole other beast. So many more dynamics to wrangle, while trying to teach good manners in a "fancy restaurant" and not bum-rush the cocktail cart. The youngest was also in rare form at dinner, both refusing to eat and saying he was hungry. I wrangled him and took him down to Cafe Promenade where we got him two apples, and he completely changed and turned back into a happy, bouncing boy. Kids are weird. Add to this that we've eaten at four different restaurants in two days (Playmakers, Chops, Izumi, and now 150CP), we're desperately missing the consistency of MDR. We LOVE the specialty restaurants, and want our kids to have these experiences too. We did MDR last cruise, and know the menus, know the food, and wanted to branch out and try ALL the specialty dining on Oasis, but the lack of routine is taking its toll on the kids. When we were on Anthem, it was a Windjammer lunch and MDR dinner every night and the kids thrived at that routine, and so did the MDR staff, getting to know our family and our needs.
After some discussion and sleeping on it, we may see if we can shimmy our way into a 5:30pm MDR seating for dinner starting Day 4. We want the kids to have a great time too, and if they're fried from the lack of routine, it kinda makes us all miserable. Happy kids, happy parents, happy vacation.
 
  
 
 
 

Hi everyone! We're off on another family adventure, this time on Oasis. It's me (mid-30s M), Dear Wife (mid-30s F), and our three kids (6F, 4F, and 2M). This is a sequel to our December 2021 trip on Anthem, and something i've been looking forward to since that trip (being honest - i've been looking forward to this trip before we even embarked on Anthem!)
There are some things that will be the same from that trip:
same family same departure port (Bayonne, NJ) same itinerary (Sea Day, Port Canaveral, Nassau, Coco Cay, 2 Sea Days). But there's a lot more that will be different:
Better wrangle of COVID: COVID was a burden for us last December - getting tests, testing in the terminal, everyone wearing masks, etc. They were all necessary steps, and I wouldn't have changed a thing. However, with vaccines now being available for kids under 5, everyone will be fully vaccinated by the time we cruise. We can't be more excited to have them "in the bubble" with us and be considered part of the fully vaccinated members on the ship. Also, we're definitely taking @Matt's advice and bringing a handful of COVID tests with us!
Oasis-class (from Quantum-class): On Anthem, I felt like we disembarked having done everything we could have done on that ship. COVID knocked out a lot of family activities, which came back throughout this spring based on the Cruise Compasses that have come out from Anthem. Every time I think about kids activies on Oasis, I lose track! I'm really excited for there to always be something to do (Ultimate Abyss, Splashaway Bay, Adventure Ocean, Merry-Go-Round, more pools)
Dining: On Anthem, our goal was to fully embrace the Windjammer and MDR for meals. We also really liked the consistency and structure of both venues when it came to routine with the kids. Our serving staff in MDR on Anthem were, without a doubt, the best part of the entire cruise. As parents, they made our lives as painless as possible. From a food perspective, Windjammer and MDR were good, but not great or mind-blowing. At the time, UDP on Anthem was $220/person, and specialty dining wasn't in the cards. Once we booked Oasis and I got into the Cruise Planner, I saw UDP for $167/day. With 150CP and Chops going for $60+, convincing DW that $24/day for specialty dining was easy, especially with the increased variety on Oasis.
Stateroom: On Anthem, we also had our nanny (20F), so we did two connecting interior staterooms. They were gorgeous and gave us room to spread out. By the time we cruise on Oasis, our nanny will have moved on, so it's just the 5 of us. When I browsed the Oasis deckplans, I saw some 5+ rooms, including Central Park Balcony rooms. It was break-even in cost to switch from 2x interior to 1x CP balcony, so we made the switch. We're very curious to see 1) how the 5 of us cope being in one room, and 2) how the balcony changes the dynamic of the room.
Price: Our price for 2 interior staterooms on Anthem (after taxes, before grats) for 3 adults and 3 kids was $3,228. On Oasis, our 5-person CP Balcony started at $4,471, but with several price drops, promos, and Kids Sail Free, our total on Final Payment Date was $2,332. Unbelievable. Endless thanks and praise to @Sharlaat MEI Travel for making this happen, and for putting up with my incessant requests to re-check pricing 🙂 Thank you, Sharla!
 
Our Goals on Oasis:
Truly embrace specialty dining: having our fill of WJ and MDR, we're going the polar opposite direction and going HAM on specialty dining thanks to UDP. Probably not the smartest idea, but we're doing it for SCIENCE!
Escape room: I'm a huge space nerd, and can't wait to check out the Apollo 18 escape room
Stress less about activities, especially for the kids: on Anthem, I felt like I had to always be planning the "next thing" for the kids. I don't feel I need to do that on Oasis, there's always some place to go or something new to check out.
See Aqua80s: I'm an 80s/90s kid, i've heard this show is fantastic.
Avoid Cats (maybe): Not sure if this will be possible, our kids loved all the mainstage shows on Anthem. Who knows, maybe i'll like it...
Embrace the uniqueness of Oasis: Splashaway Bay, water slides, Ultimate Abyss, super-tall rock wall (20% taller than Anthem), Central Park & the Boardwalk, etc

45 DAYS OUT
Didn't sleep great last night, got up early for work, which worked out in our favor because I was able to secure a 10:30am check-in time!

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".

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".

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".

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".

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".