Lexster

How did I miss that? Sorry for the dupe topic!

I've got a cruise booked for May and I'm starting to gather info for travel plans. Anyone have any good hotels they stay at when they go out Port Miami that tends to not be etremely expensive? I'd love to be in one of the hotels right near the port, but when I look up pricing for May it's insane, like almost $300-400 for a night for most of the surrounding hotels.

Yep, 11 is I think generally the earliest you can get unless you have the Key. That's the time we had for our last one. We breezed right on through check-in.

You connect to the SSID, yeah, it'll be obvious. When you try to go to a web page, a login page will come up, but I believe you can ignore that if you're using the free wi-fi. At that point, just go into the Royal app and you should be able to do things within the app.

We were able to book shows the second we got on the ship. It's super easy to look through what's available and choose what day/time you want to attend the show. I would definitely recommend doing it once you're on. Just basically take a seat in the Promenade or whatever your ship has and do it since shows will fill up very quickly.

Not to get into a complain-fest about this, but yeah...just one anecdote. Husband and I were trying out the mini-golf course on Oasis and we're not even through Hole 1 when a bunch of kids run up to play on one of the golf decorations. This girl runs past and just kicks my ball. Not intentionally, but like...it was like they didn't even notice us there whatsoever. I get that they'd kids, but still. I also experienced what you described where one person would hold a place in line and their friends who show up and just cut. Not even a "hey, do you mind? They're with me", just pushed right in.

Maybe the feeling comes from waiting longer in lines than expected. Like, we all know there will be lines, but should I need to wait 20 to 30 minutes for a coffee at Cafe Promenade? If lines continue moving, then things tend to not feel quite so crowded, in my experience. Another thing I noticed is on Oasis in May there were fewer events than I expected (likely due to things not back up to full speed in the entertainment department), so people had to make use of fewer events and venues than normal, which also leads to the feeling of being crowded. For example, they didn't do an aqua show. They only had two "previews" because the people were new, so that's one venue that never had passengers in it.

I'd second this. I was on the Oasis back in May and there were clearly staffing issues and some folks who didn't quite know what they were doing. Disembarkation was a disaster every time. Everyone lined up, but the crew were not making sure passengers were lining up the correct way. There were no indicators of where the line should flow. People just ended up cutting and forcing their way in. No fun.

I had sooooo many virgin Pina Coladas. They actually have a few specialty mocktails on the bar menus, too. One I remember was a Blueberry Nojito. That was super good.

I tried it on the Oasis of the Seas back in May and it was good, but...I wouldn't say I'm "tantalized" as the Royal Caribbean Press article says. It's sliced beef in a roll, so...it really rides on how good the beef is. For me, the roll seemed stale. Actually, that was a problem throughout that sailing. The rolls were often hard, but sometimes I'd get one that was soft like it was freshly baked. Overall, it's free, so definitely worth a try. Maybe the quality varies ship-to-ship.

I'm curious about this as well. I was looking at Mayan Eden, myself.

I just booked this cruise and saw there wasn't a Roll Call for it, so figured I'd start one! The countdown begins!

Yeah, the nice thing is it's just for one meal, so if you don't like any of them, you don't need to sit with them for 7 nights.

We actually had better luck at Izumi. We got seated with two couples who were pretty cool. We exchanged numbers with one of them, which was fun. Got our first cruise friends.

I may do that for a different cruise, but I always worry I'll be seated with people I don't like for the entire cruise.

I don't mean to argue, but that's simply not correct. Square has tap-to-pay terminals. Also, I literally just downloaded an app called NFC Credit Card Reader on the Google Play Store and was able to skim my own debit card. It shows my card number and the expiration date. These things are easily done.

I'm aware it is rare, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. Newer cards absolutely can be skimmed. There are numerous devices out there which basically act like portable payment terminals. Square is an example. All they need is to brush up against your wallet and they have your card number. We literally didn't use the card the entire trip, so there's nowhere else it could have happened.

I'd find it very unlikely that someone randomly guessed his number on the one day we got off the ship in a port with his wallet. All the thief bought was $300 worth of steam stuff. Not saying it's impossible, but I think it more probable that it happened in port.

It wasn't invite only, but it was just a short 30 minute demo, basically. As far as I'm aware, it was only done two times one of the days and they made announcements 30 minutes beforehand. They weren't on the cruise compass. So, basically I never got a seat because it was filled up as soon as they announced them.

As I said, this wasn't the only bartender who did this. He was just the first one and I had the longest conversation about it.

It was a friendly tone and if it was once, I would have been okay, but he commented on it multiple times asking me if I was sure. When he gave me the drink, he said "Your /virgin/ Lime and Coconut", like emphasizing the virgin part which I felt was just unnecessary.

Hey, all we just got back from Oasis OTS and Nassau was one of our stops. We were only off the ship for maybe 30 minutes before getting back on, but in that time, my husband's debit card number was stolen. The very next day, he got an alert of suspicious activity on his card. He never even used it. It stayed in his wallet the entire time, so be aware that there must be folks with portable card skimmers walking around the area right off the port since we only went maybe a block or two away from the cruise port before getting back on the ship. My advice would be to leave any cards on the ship and only carry cash if you plan on looking in the shops at all. Also keep your money in your front pocket since it's harder to pick-pocket. We were also offered "some lines" from a random guy on the street, so be aware of that as well. Some people are not shy about offering illicit stuff even with police a half a block away.

I saved all the cruise compasses. I'll send em to the blog in a day or two once I get back into my routine.

We just got off the Oasis of the Seas for the May 8th sailing. I did note this on the RC survey, but just wanted to see if anyone else here has experienced bartenders shaming you for not drinking alcohol. We got the refreshment package and while most of the time we had no issues, toward the end of the cruise, I asked for a Lime & Coconut with zero alcohol and the bartender kind of badgered me about it. I was like, "I have a refreshment package, I don't drink alcohol" and he was like, "Really? You want virgin? No, come on." Made me feel a bit weird. I don't drink since I don't like alcohol, so...just give me my drink and don't try to make me feel like I'm a terrible person, okay? This happened two more times toward the end with different bartenders. Is this normal?

We just got off the Oasis of the Sease and I emailed that address. I asked for a table with me and my husband by a window and we got exactly what we asked for. It was awesome.