CharmMicah68

I agree that 150 is probably a better option for a "special" night.  Saying that, I will add that I am not a huge fan of 150's menu.  If you like exotic dishes (venison, veal, lamb, duck, etc.), then 150 would be a real treat. We are NOT exotic food eaters (or at least, I am not.  Dan loves lamb.  UGH).  In the beginning (no, not going back quite THAT far  LOL), 150 was a Michael Schwartz venue and the menu was much better, IMO.  I so miss the exotic (see what I did there ?😜) salts that they used to have.  So anyway....food-wise, I prefer Chops but ambiance-wise, 150 is definitely a step up.

Can only speak of 150 Central Park on Wonder, but it was probably the nicest fine dining experience we ever enjoyed on land or sea. The food and service were impeccable and incredible. And the ever present ship photographer shot a very nice photo of us at our table. At least they went easy on the advertising on the print compared to the gaudy prints we bought on Jewel last November. 😀 Chops on Mariner and Jewel were both enjoyable, but I have to say 150 Central Park definitely elevates the game on Oasis ships.

It’s much less of a hassle to just call an Uber or Lyft. 

We lost one my all time favorite port stops today due to the devastating fire on Maui.
The pictures and videos are difficult to look at. The entire harbor, The Lahaina Pizza Company, the many shave ice vendors, Fleetwoods, and the remarkable 150 year old banyan tree……..tragically erased.

I'm American and I still don't understand it.  I get tipping certain people but its gotten way out of control in the US.  I went to subway the other day and was asked if I wanted to leave a tip.....

We just got off Wonder and it was a great cruise.  More "Groups" cruising than I     can ever remember.  It really felt more than the usual.  Having said that, there was a significant reduction in young children then when we were on Wonder in February.  That was insane.  @Neesa knows what it is like on Wonder with an out of wack/crazy kid to adult ratio.  Emphasis on crazy.

We love to tip people who genuinely try to "love" on and engage us.  Selfishly, on busy and crowded ships, it helps to be remembered.  If my wife and I hung out at the Mason Jar Bar nightly.  We tipped the bar crew very well each night.  They were incredible.  We connect (converse and tip) with a pool attendent that will care for us and the Solarium bartenders that will see us through the masses.  We don't do it to be flashy, but to find those who bust their butt.   Especially in light of each day of their lives on a cruise ship being a redundant commodity, and yet they find a way to NOT make you feel like you are part of a "job".  We find THOSE people and tip, tip, tip.  My grandmother constantly told me, "Error on the side of generosity".  So, budget to tip those who make the effort......and then tip to cheer up those poor Cabin attendants that need more smiles in their life.

We just got off Wonder and it was a great cruise.  More "Groups" cruising than I     can ever remember.  It really felt more than the usual.  Having said that, there was a significant reduction in young children then when we were on Wonder in February.  That was insane.  @Neesa knows what it is like on Wonder with an out of wack/crazy kid to adult ratio.  Emphasis on crazy.

We love to tip people who genuinely try to "love" on and engage us.  Selfishly, on busy and crowded ships, it helps to be remembered.  If my wife and I hung out at the Mason Jar Bar nightly.  We tipped the bar crew very well each night.  They were incredible.  We connect (converse and tip) with a pool attendent that will care for us and the Solarium bartenders that will see us through the masses.  We don't do it to be flashy, but to find those who bust their butt.   Especially in light of each day of their lives on a cruise ship being a redundant commodity, and yet they find a way to NOT make you feel like you are part of a "job".  We find THOSE people and tip, tip, tip.  My grandmother constantly told me, "Error on the side of generosity".  So, budget to tip those who make the effort......and then tip to cheer up those poor Cabin attendants that need more smiles in their life.

We just got off Wonder and it was a great cruise.  More "Groups" cruising than I     can ever remember.  It really felt more than the usual.  Having said that, there was a significant reduction in young children then when we were on Wonder in February.  That was insane.  @Neesa knows what it is like on Wonder with an out of wack/crazy kid to adult ratio.  Emphasis on crazy.

We love to tip people who genuinely try to "love" on and engage us.  Selfishly, on busy and crowded ships, it helps to be remembered.  If my wife and I hung out at the Mason Jar Bar nightly.  We tipped the bar crew very well each night.  They were incredible.  We connect (converse and tip) with a pool attendent that will care for us and the Solarium bartenders that will see us through the masses.  We don't do it to be flashy, but to find those who bust their butt.   Especially in light of each day of their lives on a cruise ship being a redundant commodity, and yet they find a way to NOT make you feel like you are part of a "job".  We find THOSE people and tip, tip, tip.  My grandmother constantly told me, "Error on the side of generosity".  So, budget to tip those who make the effort......and then tip to cheer up those poor Cabin attendants that need more smiles in their life.

Wow you Americans certainly do like to tip LOL!

I will admit that it is hideously ugly....but aside from the aesthetics...

Has anyone heard from @ZBrady? I'm just sending uplifting positive thoughts. Hoping it was so amazing there was no time to blog. Is he doing a b2b? It's crazy; we are strangers yet not. I've been thinking about he and his family this week. What a beautiful community we have. Hoping all is well. 

Norway is the world’s 8th largest oil exporter and the 3rd largest natural gas exporter.
Yet they are as fussy as a poodle about emissions from a few cruise ships.
Bit hypocritical don’t you think?

When they can make more money without them than they do with them.

I hope not b/c it left last Sunday. 🙈

@OCSC Mike they have a multi-meat pizza and basic pepperoni as well. 
I loathe Givanni's table but really like the Italian Kitchen version. I ate there on Freedom and Odyssey. We did the mushroom pizza and the one with the egg. Neither were well received; the mushroom had a ton of different mushrooms but absolutely no flavor. The steak was amazing, Hooked also has an amazing steak, both are better than Chops imho. Ooooh the complimentary bread and the calamari are my favorites there.......also the meatball Gigante....and the panna cotta dessert. I am super excited for my Jan Wonder sailing.
I am now wondering if PDCC is our first port, I know a lot of people like having it towards the end, but I think I would like it in the beginning.

Glad you enjoyed hanging out at Mason Jar. The band & bar seem to be a hit (except for that FB poster I guess).  Now you just have to eat there! 😋
If you put enough Tabasco on the burrito it might be good. 🤷‍♂️🤣
Hope you find a replacement excursion.
Happy 4th!

There is nothing better than cruising. Going to try to respond to everything without actually quoting them. Live blogging is a full-time job 🤣
In the time it took to write my last post, maintenance fixed the drain situation, so that was great. I could hear them tinkering with the pipes from the outside; then they knocked and asked to test the shower to make sure. Turns out there was just a lot of hair in there.
Another thing I forgot to mention was we got a voicemail on our phone and a card at our door that our excursion for St. Thomas was cancelled. Supposedly mechanical issues with the boat. They offered us 15% off a different excursion in the same port, but at this point all that’s left is beach days. My dad is pretty disappointed - he used to scuba dive so he was looking forward to doing some serious snorkeling. I’m going to search online to see if there are any 3rd party excursions that would work for us.
So dinner in the MDR - obviously the talk of the town has been the change in policies and new menus and perceived diminished quality. So I was definitely both excited and anxious to try the new dining room for myself and hear what new cruisers had to think. As I mentioned, I had already scouted out our location. Turned out the location was great - in the auxiliary side room next to a window. I was particular I impressed they already had a high chair in place for my daughter. Was not impressed, however, that there were only 5 other chairs at the table. So we were one short for a few minutes until they could find another. Once they added the additional chair things were fairly cramped. Considered requesting a different table but I think things will be fine.
Our server, Tomy, alluded early that we had no-showed yesterday (oops), but I explained that we enjoyed sail away and ate at specialty dining. Awkward moment when we said we ate at Giovanni’s and he immediately explained that tonight was Taste of Italy, but we all had a laugh about it.
Per the standard for the staff, they were great with my daughter and gave her bread and a fruit plate. She didn’t particularly like the fruit they happened to offer, but they had no problem when we asked for a plate of just strawberries. 
Overall, I think the quality of the food was on par with what we have experienced on our previous sailings over the years. I was several libations deep at this point of the evening, but I remember mentioning to Tomy that Taste of Italy was just as good as Giovanni’s - he particularly appreciated this. The only negative was it took about 40 minutes to get our appetizers. Everything else was speedy, including drink service.
The next adventure (pun intended) was taking my daughter to AO Babies. So far this trip she has been fairly clingy and hesitant around strangers, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. When we entered (right at 7:00), there was only one other child in there with the 2 teachers, and (thank god!) Cocomelon on the TV. After the typical check-in procedures, it was time to pass our daughter off to the incredible staff member Star. It took some extra convening, but eventually our daughter was all the way in to the play area and we were out the door. Long story short - she did absolutely great and was fast asleep when it was time to pick her up at 10:00.
So now for probably the most enjoyable part of the cruise so far. We had some time to kill before Voices, so we made it up to the Mason Jar for drinks and to hopefully snag a table for the Country Crew Trio. I don’t exactly enjoy country, but I enjoy music enough to appreciate it and can sing along. Plus I really wanted to try some of their signature drinks. 
Fast forward - by the time it was time to go to the theater for Voices, no one wanted to leave and had already made plans to come back again. We were very much vibing, dancing, and had successfully got several of our requests played.
Heres a funny aside - I am a “very online” person, and was aware of a Facebook post a few weeks ago about this particular user was disappointed in the Mason Jar band because they didn’t actually play country music. Tonight, before playing one of our requests, they preluded the song with something along the lines of, “Now obviously we primarily play country music, but when the money is right we sometimes play other styles, like just last week there was one big spender that only wanted to hear Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys.” Knew exactly what they were referring to and had to chuckle a bit; goes back to the old saying that things are never as bad as they seem and that you can never truly trust what you read online.
Tomorrow is a sea day and is our first time on a cruise for a holiday. Since we missed Voices tonight I think we will try to see it tomorrow as stand by; can’t imagine the Theater will totally fill up. Also we’re planning on MDR breakfast, another thing I’ve somehow never done.
This is already a novel, but time for some replies:
@asquared17 All things considered, things could not be going any better! 
 
@OCSC Mike To celebrate the holiday I will be having a pre-made burrito in your honor. You can’t stop me!
@Sweety You are too kind! I am *very* glad my wife splurged on the photo package. They have already captured some great ones.
@Neesa Thanks for the advice! Effectors is a must-not miss for us; and I do want to report back about Voices tomorrow.
@Ampurp85 Crowds haven’t been bad! I think I went into this with a game plan to actively avoid crowds, so I think that is part of it, but never have I felt overwhelmed or anything like that. In terms of speciality dining, we also missed out on Hooked (😭), which I was also really hoping for. My *guess* is this being a holiday sailing had something to do with it. And yes on the curtains! I will work on getting the link from my wife on those and share those with you. They have completely changed the dynamic of our room and let’s us have some freedom while she is napping.
One final thing - @Matt’s live blog started in the middle of typing this, so took advantage of my very first SuperChat on the YT channel. Thought the occasion was appropriate. 
Happy 4th, everyone. Stay safe, and I’ll try to cover all of the unique festivities on the ship.
Photo Dump (which includes a random photo of the late night lost and found at the towel station, just found that humorous. Also a ride on the carousel before dinner):
 

Don’t panic.  You will be fine.  You may have to be flexible with your dining days/times but you will be able to get the restaurants of your choice.  Just go directly to Izumi after you board and make your reservations.

@Neesa, you're like my favorite person.  Not only do you temper and immediately bounce back from realistic issues, then you feel it might have been too much complaint.  All that and you cut the grass.  Cabash hit the lottery with you as a wife and we hit the lottery with your presence here and your blogs .  Hope you still do them from time to time.
It is in Royal's best interests to protect the value of the suite amenities.  it's what they charge extra for.  I know that will sometimes mean complaints from suite guests that want to include their non-suite traveling companions and so forth, but those are the correct complaints for them to choose vs the notion that a guest will pay additional for a more private experience only to learn that it is essentially walk up for everyone.
Cruising is such a unique type of vacation.  It can of course vary greatly from cruise line to cruise line, then from ship to ship within a line, but also from time period to time period as the mix of guests might include those more inexperienced with cruising and still having some things to learn about being at any resort style vacation.  As those numbers increase, it puts pressure on control systems for the crew that may work with a certain mix, but not the next.
Your blog helped illuminate some of that and your always even demeanor and kind spirit provides a roadmap on how to navigate it all.
I love the personalities and cruising styles of our live bloggers here.  This area has become my favorite part of the forums.

@asquared17 nope, take the elevator up to 18 and the doors on both sides are propped open  2 seperate ways to enter, the doors were open all week. A few of us would close them but even more opened them. It was the if you can find it you can use it neighborhood 
* just to clarify the doors are propped open to the hallways that have cabins located within, once you are in the hallway it's a few more steps to the sliding suite sun deck, no sea pass needed.

oh i am HERE for this!!!!!!! 
such as i am 😆😆😆 but honestly you make me laugh with the shenanigans that always seem to find you, so it’s a mutual joy, my friend 💚
AMEN. and i also have to remind myself of this sometimes when i’m frustrated with my perception of things (deck 11 frat parties rip) but there are limits to bad behavior. again, you handled this much better than most of us would have. 
100% THIS. 
i echo @Ampurp85s earlier thoughts of how you always rallied and kept a positive attitude. i can already tell you the hell my mother would have raised about this and it would not have been nearly as well handled 🙃🙃🙃
wait first of all, i did not know this. and secondly… i am HOWLING 
THE KMART OF SUITE PERKS 
😆😂😆😂😆😂😆
oh man the way i needed that laugh. our snarky jersey really does shine at times 🥰 and i am ever so grateful for it. 
AGREED. 
social media has us in this chokehold that everything is ~perfect and we only share the highlights of our life. but that’s not the full spectrum. and sometimes it’s just a bit of a fail. AND THAT IS VALID, too. 
i can’t wait for @SweetPea and batman’s trip but also… this was a great liveblog!! 💚

@Neesa I don't feel like you were whiny at all. I actually found it to be a positive blog. You always rallied after human error. I often feel like by sharing my honest account of my experience people find it more negative than my intentions. Lots of people forget while it is your vacation, it's also the same for others and we need to remember that. I even have to remind my friends and family of this.
Another thing is if the CEO/CFO/COO of any company tauts an experience they need to provide it. Sky class and suite amenities come at a much higher price. That whole area should have been a peaceful Oasis but proped doors meant anyone could be there, making value lost.
I say blog if you want. I don't always know who is actively engaged in mine but if it is just @asquared17 I am happy. I enjoy having records of my vacations.
 

First, you weren't even close to what I'd call "whiny" for forum-land. You mentioned reasonable complaints (some of the things people complain about are laughable to me but to each his/her own).
If you enjoy blogging, please reconsider. I had no idea if anyone would like my picture-less blog (until I added them at home) and I didn't really care, lol, as long as anyone was reading or clicking the like button. Personally, I want to hear the truth. Your experience is your experience and some of it is subjective anyway (like food). If something bothers you, share it! That doesn't mean I'll experience it or that it will bother me as much but I sure as heck won't stop reading because you had some complaints.
If you decided you didn't enjoy blogging or it got in the way of your cruise, then by all means don't.
Just my two cents. Have a happy 4th!

A few thoughts, will be adding some pics later that are in Cabash phone. First I know this is a fan site, so I do apologize if I offended or came across as whiny. I was just trying to report our true experience. It was very apparent when I started to report some of the short comings many, many dropped off. I think no more blogging in the future. Be that as it may I had some thoughts as I just mowed my lawn, yes I'm home.
Debark was stellar, we had signed up for 0700 with Kenny, but last night he asked if we would like earlier, um yes please! 0630 we hit the lounge and he expressed us to Noreena who was standing by on 5, she walked us to the gangway where there was...ready? A separate line off for Pinnacles, Suite Guests and Keys. We were the first suite guests off I believe. Out of the parking garage by 0645 home by 0840.
I can't say enough about how these two concierges worked in unison and complemented each other so well. When I was asked about I did offer how the teens area is more secure then the suite sun deck OR the "if you can find it you can use it deck" and of course the cluster that was in fact embarkation. Cabash went out early this morning 0345hrs or so (he loves to watch the ship dock)  & he said there were teens in the hot tub and "sleeping together" on the round day bed nearest the ocean port side, lol! Even the last morning, they must have just met, taheeheehee. 
One has to separate what Royal can control and what it can't. @Geezer Of The Seas had a great point at what number is there just too many passengers for the sailing to not be enjoyable. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.  Cabash always reminds me it's a business and business are there to make money. The ship & artwork are beautiful. The elevators for 6936 passengers, many with baby carriages, walkers and scooters as well as 4323 first timers inadequate. Lesser numbers I'm sure would be absolutely fine. 
One can never fault the Company for other passengers lack of manners OR as I think just ignorance in the nuances of sailing with others. I strongly feel most are not purposeful that just don't know.....Except, I would think it is common sense when you see someone in a wheelchair you hold the elevator door for them, don't rush around him with your party so he has to wait some more. Ugh, that one burned my butt! I actually saw this once so I stayed with him and when that elevator arrived I blocked it with my entire body & called him over to get on, then I went on my way. That still get's my goat!!
OMG the water situation was comical. I tried what @asquared17 did, I could not get spring water from the restaurants. Even #CK they would try to pour the ice water and then I would ask for the bottle (sitting right there in the wine bucket) & they would come back with the Tru filtered water ALL WEEK, we took turns guessing how long it would take to get my spring water ( I like it tepid when I eat, no ice) they only gave it to me and then ran and hid the bottle, it was wild. I had the audacity to ask to bring the bottle that was opened for me back to my cabin, NO! Not allowed to leave the restaurant...okay may I please have a few clean glasses? I drained the bottle into my glasses and we brought them back to the cabin, things that make you go hummmmm. Maybe provisioning was short our week. 
So these were my grass mowing thoughts I may have a bit more of a wrap up later today. I'm looking forward to all you guys trips reports moving forward I hope I took the crazies off with me and your sailings are indeed amazing. Cheers to all who stuck around, thanks for joining us.
Take it away @ZBrady I'm excited to follow along...
Oh how I missed you!!!!

Half the fleet represented by this site in July alone