FamilyCruiser123

This will also be our family cruise! First time we all will be traveling together, and first cruise for 4 of us. We have a party of 13 with 4 adjoining oceanview balcony rooms on Deck 6- Well 3 adjoining rooms and one room in between the fourth. We booked this cruise a year ago so seeing the numbers drop from 350+ to only 30 days has been very exciting. This will also be my first time on Wonder and am looking forward to comparing it to the other Oasis Class ships we've been on. Have our excursions, shows and escape room booked and ready to go!

We have a total of 13 (8 adults and 5 kids- the youngest being 2). I've reached out to a few private charters and they've told me that their catamarans are going North to Palm Beach since July is the start of Hurricane season.

I just received an email that our St. John Trunk Bay Beach Break excursion for our upcoming Wonder of the Seas trip was cancelled due to time constraints. We are within two months of our cruise, and all other excursions are sold out (we have a group of 13). Our itinerary shows that we will be at St. Thomas from 1:00-8:00. Are there any ways other than renting a private boat to get over to St. John? We have been to Trunk Bay before and were looking forward to going back since we prefer it over Magen's Bay.

Fellow cruiser! This will be our first Boardwalk balcony room.

I've had a similar issue with a change in cabins for my Feb. 27 cruise. We were also moved from a 12th floor oceanview balcony room to a 14th floor oceanview large balcony room due to social distancing protocols. No problem as we had friends sailing on the 12th floor but we do not necessarily need to be next to them. So in the end we get an extra 30 sq. ft. on the balcony. With times being as wild as they have been the past few years, I'd be more than happy if the story ended there. However, two days later we were "upgraded" through RoyalUp to the same exact large balcony room on the 14th floor. Our credit card was charged and I immediately called Royal Caribbean to find out what the issue was. After spending over 4.5 hours on the phone throughout the day, I was finally connecting with a member of the Resolutions Team who told me that there was nothing he could do and I needed to email RoyalUp (since they do not have a phone number to contact). So I have emailed RoyalUp and it has been 4 days without a response. Has anyone had an issue like this in the past or have any advice on handling this? I would be fine with my bid being accepted for an actual upgrade (Ultra Spacious Oceanview Balcony) or just getting my money back since I was never upgraded. And just to clarify, it has been confirmed by Royal Caribbean that my original room was moved due to social distancing protocols and not because of a RoyalUp upgrade. Any advice would be much appreciated.

How did the Key work out for you? We’re you able to still take advantage of the various perks even though there were certain Covid protocols? We have the Key purchased for an upcoming cruise on Oasis in February and I am wondering if the other perks (besides Voom and the Chops welcome lunch) were noticeable, or if they were basically nonexistent with the protocols in place.

Thanks for the response! And thanks for the video, Matt. Very helpful!

Has anyone purchased The Key during a recent sailing and care to share their experience? I have it for an Oasis cruise at the end of the month and have a few questions about how it actually worked. Is free room service still offered? Was there still 25% off specialty dining onboard? What were the hours for Flowrider, Zipline, Rockwall, etc.? I was a fan of The Key pre-pandemic but am worried that the experience will not be the same.

Thank you! That is very helpful!

Our February cruise on Oasis is my first cruise that I will be trying out a specialty dining restaurant. I am looking at doing the Chops +1 and going to 150 Central Park. Since I've only eaten dinner in the MDR, I have a few questions on the dining experience in a specialty restaurant: 1) Since I have the DBP, does that include the drinks up to $13 in specialty restaurants? Are there any different rules/ limitations on ordering drinks in the MDR and a specialty restaurant? 2) Is it frowned upon to have a toddler in a specialty restaurant? We are cruising with a 9mo old and are curious to see if we need to book Royal Tots during our specialty dining nights.

Thank you very much for the information! That sounds like a perfect day for us in St. Maarten. Hopefully by February/ March things will look a little more normal for our ports of call, but I guess we will have to wait and see. That is also very reassuring that your cruising with toddlers went well. I have heard very mixed reviews that have definitely put its fair share of doubt/ anxiety in my mind!

My cruising experience is about to change drastically and I'm looking for any tips and tricks to assist my transition. We are going on our first cruise as a family of 3 at the end of February on Oasis of the Seas. My son will be 10 months old and we are looking for appropriate shore excursions (since scuba diving and snorkeling experiences are no longer an option for us) that are "baby-safe". We will be travelling to St. Maarten and St. Thomas and are looking for the best way to get to a beach that wouldn't be too far from the ship. Thus far our calls to Royal Caribbean can only give us the information that we can find online, and have no advice on transportation to the beach, specifically if the transportation will be able to accommodate a car seat. Any additional tips or advice for cruising with a toddler is appreciated!