Lexster

I was disappointed that I couldn't get a model when I went on the Oasis. We went on the first day and there weren't any. Hopefully Harmony will have some.

2 hours ago, steverk said:

I also notice what appears to be an infinite veranda mock up.

What's an infinite veranda?

My thoughts:

The video finally shows the inside of that ball, but still not indication what it's for! Those could be seats, but they also look like steps. At first I thought maybe a light show, but it's a bit too surrounded on the sides and too open in the front and back for that. I definitely think it's some sort of visual spectacle.

The colored waterfalls look cool.

They're bringing back Central Park, it looks like. I'd assume the Boardwalk as well unless they have another idea for a neighborhood.

Building a ship from start to finish in three years is just crazy and shows how far all kinds of technology has gotten to be able to make that happen. Pretty cool.

9 minutes ago, Pooch said:

Yes, we did Cozumel and Costa Maya in 2018.  Never been to Honduras. The March cruise was Eastern Caribbean.

Cool, I've never been. I'm pretty excited. Our first cruise only stopped at Canaveral, Coco Cay, and NassauI so pretty excited to have more opportunities for shore excursions. I booked Nachi Cocom on Matt's recommendation. We've never done an all-inclusive resort before.

12 hours ago, Pooch said:

And my brother’s first cruise too!  Originally 3/21 on Rhapsody then did a lift & shift to Harmony.  That’s how we got the OS.  It was half price with the price protection.  Day before, weather up & down the east coast.  We were able to get a flight out.  He & his son had 3 flights canceled on them at 3 different airports.  Felt terrible that we got to go & they didn’t.

That definitely sucks. Have you ever done a Mexican itinerary before?

2 hours ago, Pooch said:

Hi, joining you!  This will be a redo for my brother’s family.  Weather delays caused them to miss our March 2022 Harmony cruise (we made it and had a great time!) so we are trying again.  Loved Harmony and our ridiculously large OS.  We are all in JS this time.

Nice! We're actually going with my father-in-law and brother-in-law! It'll be the brother's first cruise. I'm curious to see the differences between Oasis and Harmony. We went on Oasis back in May.

On 8/18/2022 at 8:35 PM, JP8 said:

And don’t forget to visit Vitality Cafe for smoothies and fresh fruit juices. Enjoy your cruise!

I did this a lot. They have some really good smoothies.

On 8/10/2022 at 11:20 AM, Kmcdmfma said:

Have seen comments on problems with soda package. Including complaints on cups and ease of access. Does any recent travelers have comment? Traveling in October. Have bought package in past and looking to see if there is a drop off in value. Thanks

In May I was on the Oasis OTS and I will say we had a few issues with the Freestyle machines. The one in the Solarium Bistro never worked. It was in an update cycle pretty much the entire cruise, so we never got to use it. Flavors were missing from other machines at various times as well. It was a little disappointing and I really wish there were machines in more locations on the ships. On the Oasis, they're only in the Windjammer, next to Sorrento's and in the Solarium Bistro. My main issue is you can't /just/ go in for a drink if you're near the Windjammer. They make you stop and wash your hands (and usually have to wait in a line to get a free sink) which makes just slightly too long for a quick pop-in. And there's almost always a line at the machines next to Sorrento's. And one of these was almost always out of everything since I'd guess they're the ones which get used the most. I didn't complain or anything since it wasn't a /big/ deal and I figured they'd fix things when they were noticed, but it was an issue throughout the cruise. I hope these things improve or that maybe it was just a one-off for our cruise. At the very least, you get soda from all the bars and venues too.

11 hours ago, AlohaLivin said:

Hi - this thread began a few days ago on this same topic, the responses may be helpful to you

 

 

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.

15 hours ago, Sydnie said:

Thanks so much for the helpful replies. Looking forward to our trip. We got an early check-in time (I think) at 11am, so the plan was to head right up to the windjammer and setup the reservations while people are starting to grab food.

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.

3 hours ago, Xaa said:

I have a follow-up on this.

Is there a procedure for connecting to the ship's network?  I assume the SSID will be something obvious, is there a password needed? 

We've ordered Voom as well, do I expect those credentials prior to sailing or to be in the room?

Bill

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.

5 hours ago, Sydnie said:

As stated in the title, could someone please tell me how to book show reservations on the app? I am a major planner and want to be prepared. We are traveling with a large group and I am pretty much leading everyone (with many first time cruisers) with all the bits of information, making daily schedules, etc. I've looked up videos on how everything else works and have found everything I have needed thus far, but I am struggling to find this bit of information. Specifically I want to be sure that I am actually making a reservation for the shows and not just "adding to calendar", since I saw mentioned that there is a difference in those. If it makes any difference, we will be on Allure in September, so I am looking to book Mamma Mia, Aqua and Ice Shows (and trying to get the same show time slot for all of the rooms on our sailing).

Sorry for the silly questions! Last time I cruised about 4+ years ago (then we had to wait for my youngest to be old enough to enjoy a cruise!), the app really did not work and it was miserable, so I am really excited to hear it's been greatly improved since then. 

Thanks so much in advance for the help and tips! Appreciate you all.

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.

11 minutes ago, Neesa said:

I agree with this 100% and dare I say...I think it may be us the passengers (general terminology not every single person) 

This is our 5th Oasis class since the Royal come back. Everyone has spent the money they want to do everything..   now. Sad to say common courtesy for others has all but disappeared. People are only concerned mostly for themselves, no one is patient and as the week goes on it gets worse. 

In line somewhere? Well the one person in front of you is just holding the spot get near the action (park Cafe make your salad for example) the rest of the party show up. Did you push the button for the elevator? The doors may open but the people who are closest have pushed in and now it's packed....wait for another. And these are adults, the children are watching. In the Suite Lounge there are teenagers every night half naked, bikinis or trunks for boys with no cover ups traipsing all over. Wait, mom dad is this okay with you?

I know capacity is crazy but cruising etiquette has pretty much disappeared right now and the crew still masked is working hard and is tired probably instructed to just let things be. Who throws food over their balcony, smokes on the balcony? The customer is changing thus the experience. 

It's time for my Royal break, I'm going to reset and rethink sailing in the future. Even if just for a minute. 

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.

18 minutes ago, jeffmw said:

I don't understand this. Is it a staffing thing? I've been on Symphony at 100% capacity and it never felt overly crowded or full. Something is going on right now that suddenly people are complaining about the crowdedness on the ships when it was never a major complaint in the past. 

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.

17 minutes ago, PatsFanBrian said:

You're describing some of the more common complaints these days, although lack of pool chairs is an age old pain point.

I believe the unusual lines are due to the ships still working to get back to full staff strength combined with a high percentage of staff that are inexperienced.  When we were on Explorer back in late June, at Capt's Corner, the hotel manager noted that while the ship was approaching full staffing level, the biggest issue was the inexperience of the crew.  Everyone's learning to sail again.

The pool chairs, unless you're at the pool by 9AM, will always be a challenge.  That has nothing to do with staffing levels.

Hopefully this is just a one off for you and the next cruise will be a better experience.

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.

On 5/6/2022 at 2:45 PM, FoxMCO said:

Anyone have any recommendations on mocktails? We don't drink so want to get something fun to celebrate our little trip.

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!

40 minutes ago, LovetoCruise87 said:

We may have to try that. Thanks for the idea. 

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.

7 minutes ago, LovetoCruise87 said:

That's my thought as well. With my luck we would have a couple who monopolize the conversation every night. lol

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.

2 hours ago, endofturn said:

My wife and I took 5 cruises with just the two of us. Having random dinner partners for the whole week was part of the fun for us. Met and became Facebook friends with much of them. Some we even met up with after the cruise as well since they lived close. 

You met new folks, talked about your day and plans, etc. 

Of course it is totally up to you, you can always request to be at a 2 top.

Personally we loved the traditional dining and meeting the same folks for dinner every night. A lot of the times we'd go to shows or have drinks with them afterwards as well if we felt like being social..

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.

19 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Right, but those aren't proximity scans like someone standing close to you.  Square you have to physically scan the card, not just get close and use RFID.

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.

10 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

RFID skimming of credit cards by proximity is extremely rare and newer cards can't even be skimmed like that.

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.