KLA

Well, I have a new 'dream' port stop. That looks like it would be incredible. 

9 hours ago, Pima1988 said:

Congrats.  We are JS and still waiting.  Bummed right now, but will be happy either way

Keep on checking - when we did our RoyalUp to a JS from a Balcony it processed two days before. I'm surprised ours came through this early! 

22 minutes ago, rjac said:

Good for you! What ship and itinerary?

Symphony of the Seas, St. Maarten/St. Thomas/PDCC

Royal Up offer just processed for our 4/30 cruise - OV to OV Balcony! YAY! 16 days! 

Without looking up anything about this at all - could this have been one of the routes that had St. Petersburg removed from the itinerary which caused some port shuffling?

17 hours ago, Planeprincess said:

I just saw this on another site and wanted to know if anyone has done this recently? 

Did you have a note from the other parent giving permission?

If other parent is deceased did you have to bring death certificate?

Did you just provide the child's passport?

In both cases of my brother and I (divorced parent) and my niece (loss of parent), we just brought all of the documents mentioned - just in case. 

When I was about 12 and I travelled out of the country for the first time with my mom, we had a bit of panic at the airport in maybe missing our flight when my mom didn't realized we needed that notarized letter saying it was okay to take us with her. Fortunately, my dad was able to fax the document directly to the airport and we made or flight but now we just err on the side of bringing all of the documentation with us. 

When we brought our niece and her mother with us on a cruise, we had her father's death certificate with us just in case that came up as well. 

Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. 

1 hour ago, rjac said:

What did you think about the views from the landscape style windows? That sold us and yes, we had no problem going just about every night!`

It was one of our favorite parts of the space. We ate a bit later than most other diners appeared to in CK so there was tons of room (and also, low capacity anyway), so they set us up with a space so we sat next to each other and could both look out the window as the sun was setting. Amazing. 

Also adding on to my previous comment, the Coastal Kitchen experience I had on Odyssey was by far my favorite dining experience I've ever had on board. Marlon (our waiter) was our favorite and we loved chatting with him each night. Really hope to meet him again on another ship.

8 minutes ago, twangster said:

CK access for JS has always been better on Quantum class ships.  It tends to be Oasis class where CK access for JS can be more difficult.  

 

This was my experience on Odyssey - they encouraged us to come back every night and let us make reservations through the week ahead of time. I don't expect the same experience on Allure later this year, but will definitely be trying to go every night! 

1 hour ago, Pima1988 said:

I sad to my hubby that our week is probably the best.  Past spring break.  During Prom season, at least in my area.  HS ACT/SATs.  College kids end of school yr and their  college graduations.  Thus, for many people, especially with kids of any age this week would not be ideal.  

The amount of interior left are insane.  OV and promenade or central park view are abundant too.  

Definitely agreed - the placement seems to be in a good spot! We picked it because of my birthday but we also usually cruise in October for similar reasons (kids in school, ships are a bit calmer) so this seems to work out well. 

On 4/8/2022 at 3:00 PM, Pima1988 said:

What I find interesting is how many CLS are available.  I think it was 6 as of yesterday.

It honestly looks like a lot of everything is available. I'm wondering if since we're just outside of the spring break window we'll have a bit lower capacity as well. 

1 hour ago, need2cruz said:

My husband ordered 2 desserts each night on our Feb cruise, but he would always get 1 now and 1 to go.  On the last night he told the waiter he didn't need the "to go dessert" that night.  But our eager to please waiter insisted.... and brought 4 large chocolate chip cookies.  I decided to put them in a ziplock bag and we ate them on the flight home the next day.  It was nice to have.

Thank you for the reminder to stash a ziploc bag for some coconut cookies...

1 hour ago, Pima1988 said:

Congrats.  I am on the week after you ...no news for us, but I have hope bc 3 weeks out and there are multiple GS, OS and CLS still available.  Believe it or not they still have an Aqua available, the only 1 I did place a bid on, but might do so now.  We have a JS on the hump, so I won't cry if we don't get it, but I placed the same amount for the CLS so I am hoping we might get it.

What I found interesting is that I do a fake booking about 2x a week.  For months the JS were sold out...couldn't pick or do a guaranteed, now this week JS guaranteed is available to purchase.   

Never have done royal up before I wonder if this is a sign that they are going to start handing out royal up bids. 

Also on your sailing - wondering the same. Lots of different categories still available. 

12 minutes ago, RDU said:

KLA, that's the same excussion that we signed up for!  Agree with RDDAILY, would love to hear how it is!

Awesome! Will definitely let you know. 3 weeks until we leave!

I was kind of hoping that we'd have better luck with Royal Up going from an Ocean View cabin to a balcony of some type, but starting to lose hope that could be the case. Either way, very happy with our cabin location on deck 8 nearby Central Park. 

That said - considering printing my luggage tags just so that my cabin might change shortly after 

I adore Radiance class, and absolutely loved my experience on Empress. I went out of my way to book a second sailing on Empress right after my first one (before the pandemic cancelled those plans). I typically lean towards the smaller ships as opposed to Oasis class, but I also agree with @twangster's comment that I don't see it happening with Royal. 

Actually, I think I liked Odyssey a bit more over the Oasis class (though having the opportunity to sail her while capacity was so low might have contributed to that point of view) - but obviously I'm going to be perfectly happy on any cruise ship I'm on. My next two cruises are on Symphony and Allure.

From my understanding, CBD (generally) is fine within the US however varying countries have differing laws around CBD. Taking that along with you could be a bit of a gamble. 

1 hour ago, GatorCruiser said:

I was just on her from mar 19-26th, Had a blast, service was either fine to excellent. only playmakers was slow once when they had just opened on a sea day, and sometimes the pool bars got overwhelmed. Otherwise it was no different than when I sailed her in 2019. Shes a glorious vessel

SO happy to read this - I'll be sailing on her at the end of this month. Any other big recommends or can't-misses that come to mind?! The only other Oasis class that we've sailed is Allure.

I'm on the sailing after yours (4/30) - following!  

Definitely glad to see this - especially from the standpoint of them being in a position to be able to invest in that technology. 

46 minutes ago, BB1 said:

Has anyone used Clear? Would it make that much of a difference, especially in Miami using American airlines?

While I don't have Clear, I do have precheck and global entry and I would stand by my previous recommendation that you're running a risk on an early flight. 

It looks like Thermal Spa passes are still available on my sailing - I know that these are pretty popular, but I've never been to one or seen one. What's typical use for these and does anyone have positive/negative experiences on board (Symphony)?

38 minutes ago, Chill said:

We were assigned a cabin in our original booking category. Does that mean we didn't get our royal up? They're all showing as pending still

Was the room assignment a guarantee booking? You may get your guarantee assignment before a Royal Up offer is accepted. 

If they're all still showing as pending, you're still in the running for a Royal Up! 

14 minutes ago, GatorCruiser said:

I would agree with @dr martini , pool bars are slammed, though flashing a little grease to the pool waiters helped the drink issue. We’ve eaten at hooked, 150 central and Jamie’s and have had good to great service across all three. Windjammer I will try to avoid at all costs. We’ve been getting light bites for breakfast at park cafe each morning. I can’t comment on MDR as we haven’t been yet. Trellis bar has been busy at times depending when you went. My kiddos are my governor for visiting other bars so far. Saw flight and it was awesome. Haven’t tried to get them into adventure ocean yet so I can’t comment on availability there. Seems like staff could be the rate limiting step in terms of overall service. But I’m just happy to be back in symphony nonetheless 

If the biggest issue is bar service - I'm suddenly seeing giving up drinking as a big perk 

Thanks for the tips! We also tend to avoid the Windjammer (other than for dinner on occasion when we don't feel like getting cleaned up for the MDR) so it sounds like this will work out well for us even if capacity is high. 

I guess on that note - any thoughts or reviews on Hooked? In theory it sounds great but I'm concerned about seafood quality and if it's worth the visit.