SheSellsSeashells

If everything goes according to plan I'll be onboard along with my former spouse and our 11yo. Pre-shutdown we were DCL cruisers; Kid & I were on Oasis last year, but Symphony will be new to all three of us. (I'm excited about the double points I will get for staying alone in a separate cabin.) We're coming down from Boston. Enjoy your cruise! P.S. Did you see that the various shows are now available for booking in the Cruise Planner?

I don't think your dates are correct...I'm booked on Symphony June 14–21, 2024.

I did this in May 2022: I stayed in the hotel next to Newark Penn Station and then took a Lyft to the port on embarkation morning. It was <20 minutes and perfectly pleasant. (The only thing about the area around Newark Penn is that a lot of unhoused people hang out in and around the station, and I've seen people in reviews and on other forums who aren't used to cities be freaked out by that. I also travel to that station from the Boston area for work a couple of times a year — a month ago, most recently — so I can say with authority that it's heavily policed, and I've never been bothered or even looked at twice as a solo female traveler...but everyone's experience and comfort level with that sort of thing is different so your mileage may vary.)

It was great! It ended up pouring rain the whole time we were there (which is apparently exceedingly rare, so you’re probably fine on that front), but our driver, Cutty, took excellent care of us; we saw a lot of both the French and Dutch sides, and he was was able to teach us about the history of the island and its usage as a travel hub for visitors to Anguilla and St. Barths. We visited a bird zoo, got pastries on the French side, saw the “Moses walk,” stopped at the border between the two sides to see the monument, and spent about half an hour at Mullet Bay Beach. We ended up skipping Maho Beach and cutting the trip short because my kid got tired and wasn’t interested in much beach time due to the weather, but we would both do it again in a heartbeat. The only downside (other than the weather) was that the roads are very windy and steep, so if you’re prone to motion sickness it’s tough.

I ordered the cooler + water when this package first showed up in the Cruise Planner. I boarded Oasis yesterday and got 6 750ml glass bottles of water along with the letter saying we wouldn’t get the bag because of supply chain issues, but when we got back to our room after a morning at Coco Cay just now, the bag was on our sofa. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We made it to Miami! Safe travels, everyone.

Don't overlook options like Boardwalk Dog House, Playmakers, and the tapas at Vintages —I'm boarding Oasis on Sunday(!) and according to the app they'll all be serving food by 11:30a, so I assume at least one actually will be. (I've been looking because I also don't do buffets if I can avoid it.)

I’ll be in St. Maarten with my 10yo on our Oasis cruise next month, and I booked a 5-hour private van tour through St. Maarten Presidential Tours—we’ll get to play it by ear and visit a series of spots on our own schedule for $240 cash (+ tip), and they claim it includes a dedicated driver/guide, a van with AC, and a cooler of water/soda/beer/rum punch. I will post a review after the trip.

I'm still not seeing it in the app, but I was just able to book Aqua80 and Frozen in Time in the Cruise Planner on the website.

30 days! I got the email from Royal saying that shows should now be available to reserve via the cruise planner or the app, which I'm eager to do, but I'm not seeing it yet—it still just has the "Lights! Camera! Action!" message in the cruise planner. Can any of you book entertainment yet?

I’m so sad it’s my last night! There were two bars that had bartenders who would start making my drink of choice when they saw me coming (the Solarium and the Trellis)—and it only took $1 cash per drink on top of the DBP during the first couple of days. I will be sure to mention them by name in the post-cruise survey if I’m given the option. I feel like I could never parse any announcements over the intercom, which was frustrating—on this cruise in particular the announcements I cared about where Aqua80-related, and even though I was listening for them, tonight I wandered from the Schooner Bar into an unexpected full Aqua80 performance with almost a full house…I was honestly shocked they would even try high dives and the tightrope walker the night before Bayonne. (The tightrope walker was not, in fact, not able to make it across with the effortlessness he achieved on Wednesday; I left to get a Campfire Cookie at Playmakers after his first couple of attempts to stay upright, which made me feel bad.) I’m SO happy I made this trip, and I honestly think I’d rather come back on Oasis before experiencing a new ship: is that weird?

Random question/observation: why doesn’t my keycard say which deck my cabin is on?! More often than not crew members have that question even after I give them the card proving I have the DBP or whatever else…it’s such an odd thing to omit, if from the perspective of everyone doing guest-facing work the information is incomplete. Also, today has been the least reliable in terms of internet access—I had to postpone a work meeting because I can’t reliably connect to anything. (It’s in no way an issue as my boss knows where I am and was happy to reschedule—just saying.)

(Im an idiot am originally photographed the wrong side.) Are these the ones you mean? If so, I don’t think you’d be able to see much because of all the structures in the way at that angle.

Cruise Director Mike just announced that there’s going to be an Aqua 80 showcase at 7pm! I’m SO excited.

I feel like I’ve really had a Perfect Day—I had firstlunch at the Boardwalk Dog House; watched Aqua 80 rehearsals with a couple of beers, had secondlunch at El Loco Fresh; and then napped in the Solarium until 3:15, at which point I came onto the island as the vast majority of people were walking back onto the ship. I feel sorry for the guitarist scheduled for the 4:15 show, because the audience couldn’t possibly be good and wasn’t. I'm just so happy to be here! I can’t stop walking around grinning like an idiot.