whitsmom

We like to use the main dining room for breakfast.  We ordered off the menu and had great service too.

They can limit the $$ spend per day on each seapass you select - just go to guest services.  We have done this for our Grandkids.

On 2/24/2019 at 8:22 AM, Goldie 2001 said:

Has anyone purchased it before? thinking about it but would like some info....thanks!

I got it on the Oasis for my older Grandson.  There are 10 punches on the card.  If you do the math, it made each specialty coffee about half price.  It was a good deal for him as he only had the soda package.

You can get specialty coffees at Café Promenade and Park Café.  If you have the deluxe drink package or the refreshment package they are included.  You can get the coffee card (10 coffees) if you don't have the a package. 

On 2/23/2019 at 8:34 PM, Angelicious said:

@spiralqueen, I have purchased the soda packages for us both. Also the Evian package of 12 1L bottles and a coffee card for myself. I just wonder if that will be enough for us! Thank you for being so kind! This is an awesome group!

What I did on the Oasis was got the refreshment package for me and the soda package for my Granddaughter.  With the refreshment package I was able to get all the specialty coffees that I wanted, all the bottle water that I wanted, soda, and several frozen N/A drinks. I did get the refreshment package on sale at $18/day so it was a win-win situation for us.

We did the all photo package on the Oasis in 2017.  We took advantage of all the photo opts and especially on formal nights as we had all the family together and did family pictures. We got 150+ digital pictures.  Well worth the money spent.  We don't get it every time but I wanted updated family pics and was not disappointed.

On 2/5/2019 at 3:41 PM, chris25 said:

My wife and I are sailing on the Radiance in February 2020 and was wondering if anybody had any information on the ship? We've sailed on the Symphony in October of 18 and Allure back in 16. We loved the ships and through talking to several people throughout our trips. A lot of people loved the smaller ships and we just wanted more opinions on it and what to expect from the ship. Is there anything new with the Radiance like a refit or anything? We are doing a 16 night top end cruise of Australia and can't wait!

We were on the Radiance in July 2018 for Alaska Cruise.  We loved the ship.  The only problem we had, was that the mattress was terrible!  This is the only time in all our cruising that we had mattress issues.

Just now, SpeedNoodles said:

Interesting - I had the app, but was told it was no longer necessary (by someone, can't remember who).  I disembarked Mariner on Friday and had my passport in hand, but nobody ever asked for it or looked at it - I was stopped by someone who scanned my face, it must have matched up with something they  had on file, and I was on my way - nobody ever looked at my ID of any kind, spoke to me, or looked in my bag.

I flew in from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic to Atlanta airport and had to go thru customs before continuing to my connecting flight.  I think the only port in Florida that uses the Mobile Passport in Port Everglades. 

I used my Mobile Passport app for the first time on Saturday when we arrived into Atlanta from Punta Cana.  The line was crazy long and we got into the Mobile Passport line and in less than 10 minutes we were done!  We would have been at least an hour in the regular line and probably would have missed our connecting flight.

2 hours ago, Sweety said:

Blessings to your family. Here are our plans:

Harmony, April

Navigator, May

Navigator, June

Adventure, July

Mariner, August B2B2B

Explorer, December

Navigator, December side by side.

Wow!  I am jealous!!

1 hour ago, Sweety said:

Please let me know about the Northern Lights. That is on husband bucket list.

I am so excited about it!  We booked a Collette trip (thru my AAA travel agent).  The trip includes airfare and they even pick us up at home to take us to the airport and take us back home. 

Even night we go on the Northern Lights hunt!!

30 minutes ago, Boston Babe said:

Dealing with health issues here with hubby, will know more Monday after our visit to Hopkins so we COMPLETELY understand!  So I YOLO'd!  We will take each cruise at a time and see where we land.

Grandeur-Feb 14th, 2019, Southeast and Bahamas

Celebrity Summit, May 12th, our lovely Bermuda

Grandeur- July 25th (25th wedding anniversary) NE/Canada

Either Anthem or Equinox- Nov 9th for hubby's birthday (haven't made the decision!

I'm so happy your hubby is doing well!! 

I hope you have a good outcome on your hubby's health.  Mine had what they call a widow-maker so to say that we were extremely lucky doesn't even touch it.  We haven't retired yet so we can only fit so many trips in right now.  We have a 5-6 years more to go; however, we need to do more now while we have more income.

Just now, Pima1988 said:

Adventure in July to Bermuda/Bahamas for 8 nights.  Otherwise nothing on the books since our daughter is getting married in the fall, and that is draining our checkbook really quickly!  Looking into cruising out of New Orleans early next yr. for my birthday.

I remember all too well on having a daughter getting married and draining the checking account.  Try to plan ahead to avoid the last minute stuff as I think the last three days before the wedding were the most stressful for us.

Since my hubby had a heart attack this past June (4 weeks before our Alaska Bucket List Cruise/Land Tour), we have decided to vacay a little sooner rather than later (having went thru that changes your prospective to things).  Here are ours:

February 2-9 2019:  Hard Rock All Inclusive Punta Cana

July 13-20 2019:  Condo in Orange Beach (with Family)

November 17-24 2019:  NCL Cruise out of New Orleans (with Family)

Jan 30 thru Feb 6 2020:  Magical Northern Lights Tour in Iceland (another Bucket List Item)

19 hours ago, Todd W said:

Just a heads up, I'm seeing $44.00 for the deluxe bev package on LoS for April.     I originally purchased on the buy one, get one 50% off ($47 pp) so this nets me approx $50 in savings so i'm happy to take it lol

Sweet savings!  We will be on NCL in November and their UBP is $99/day or the Beer & Wine Package is $65/day.  We are port intensive and will have the Grands with us so decided to just pay as we go. 

On 1/11/2019 at 8:23 AM, kontraxed said:

The vast majority of my cruises are on Royal Caribbean but occasionally I will cruise with another line. Recently, I booked a cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line. I was utterly amazed when I looked at my cruise summary on their website. It was wonderful! It listed all the details, payments, addons (like promo drink packages, specialty dinner packages, etc.), trip information, ship information, and so on. Basically, it had all the information on my cruise laid out in a very user friendly way, the way that Royal Caribbean used to have it. I knew I wasn't happy when RCL changed to the Cruise Planner and now I know why. I wish RCL would, at least, go back to the cruise summary information page the way they used to have it.

I have a NCL cruise booked for November and I thought the same thing.  My NCL cruise summary is easy to use and has everything there.  RCL should go check out "the Other Guys!"

On 1/13/2019 at 2:28 PM, melski94 said:

Also see if your phone allows WiFi calling. Some carriers/phones allow it.  It would be in your settings under carrier.  You can try it at home first to see if it works by putting your phone in airplane mode. 

We put our phones in airplane mode and used the WiFi calling feature to make calls home.  Make sure you have that.  I tried it on our WiFi at home before we left to make sure that it worked.  I have an iPhone if that makes any difference as I am not sure about the others.

On 1/15/2019 at 11:46 AM, KJ1231 said:

Sorry, but have to disagree.....

I did Radiance southbound in June and we used the balcony a lot! I'm a birdwatcher and was out there looking for sea birds (whales, sea lions, dolphins were seen as well!). The view from our port side balcony as we sailed south from Hubbard was incredible. Waterfalls, additional glaciers, snow capped mountain peaks above the clouds, etc. I have no idea what was on the starboard side. From advice here we asked for additional blankets when we met our cabin steward and used them to sit on the balcony.

In Juneau the "air show" was awesome after we got back from excursions. We sat and relaxed on the balcony as seaplanes took off and landed next to the ship.

I guess you could always sit in the Windjammer or other enclosed spots if you don't think you can handle the chill. We preferred the balcony and would pay the extra again...

BUT - if the choice is balcony or excursions, then excursions wins. If you can afford to do both - DO IT!

 

We did the Northbound in July with a balcony and I was out there every chance I got.  Also, having land on both sides for most of the trip, we have our normal AT&T cell service (actually it was better cell reception than home)!  Only one time did we have to put our phones into airplane mode and use WiFi calling (if needed). 

The way I look at it, Alaska views are why we went in the first place so then a balcony was just part of the trip.  We used FaceTime to show our Grands the view from our balcony many times throughout our cruise.

We did the Northbound Radiance and 3 night cruise tour at the end and we did Denali. The cruise tour thru Royal Caribbean was awesome.  It was a perfect ending to a perfect Bucket List vacation.  They have longer cruise tours if you can stay longer.

This is good to know.  I am hopeful that as the time gets a little closer, we can get the airfare a little cheaper.  I think they know that the cruise people want the noon and early afternoon so they charge more. 

I am starting to look at my flights for my cruise in November.  The airport is about 28 minutes from the terminal.  The Sunday flights for noon and later are really jacked up (Delta).  If we have a private shuttle to pick us up, what would be the earliest flight before noon (if that is even going to be an option).  We have to be back for work on Monday. 

On 12/31/2018 at 11:54 AM, HtownHolly said:

OK that sounds like a good idea. Hopefully it's not just another one of those thin quilt-like mattress protectors they put on top of the mattress. That wouldn't make any difference, lol.

Thanks

We had to get a mattress topper on the Radiance; however, it was a quilted type which was NOT soft at all.  Our Cabin steward said that was all they had.  The mattress was the only thing we had to complain about on our Alaska cruise.

We were on the Oasis in July 2017 and the pizza wasn't bad.  It was used by our family of 9 as snacks usually after dinner as we had early seating.  I personally did not eat any of it; however, with 5 kids and a couple of husbands - there were no complaints!

We took ours on the Oasis in 2017.  We couldn't fly it on the ship but we used it in Labadee.  We got some good pictures of all of our gang in the water with the ship in the background.  Ours is small and can be palm landed.  Hubby palm landed it but forgot to tell the drone is was a palm landing and he cut his finger.  The staff got him fixed up with band-aid.