Dumpling214

Generally I booked show times no earlier than 8:30. I have a phobia of being late to things, especially reserved ones…..

Definitely not bad! Especially for an Oasis class ship. 

The room I’m interested in is listed as 2188 pp for 7 nights, slightly over your recommended range but still somewhat acceptable 

Thankfully, I have no show schedules for the first and last night. I want to take the first night carefully and slowly as well as putting the last night as a way of relaxing and being sad that the cruise is over on my balcony. I’ll be dining in a specialty restaurant on night 1 so hopefully the MDR mess won’t interfere with the specialty restaurants. 

I have a spreadsheet I have been pricing cruises in since 2020 and you can see the massive upswing in price per night since then! I used to only book a JS if the ppn (total for 2, not per person) was around $400. Pricing for 2024 and 2025 has been so much higher, every ocean view balcony I have priced has been $340 or more per night and the JS are up around $540 per night for ships as small as Rhapsody. Ovation in Alaska has a JS ppn of $1022! That seems crazy. I’d say a JS in the $500-$600 per night range would be considered a good deal with today’s pricing, especially if you get CK access!

Thankfully, I have no show schedules for the first and last night. I want to take the first night carefully and slowly as well as putting the last night as a way of relaxing and being sad that the cruise is over on my balcony. I’ll be dining in a specialty restaurant on night 1 so hopefully the MDR mess won’t interfere with the specialty restaurants. 

I agree with @WAAAYTOOO the first night seems to always be a flustercuck. Evry other night is smooth sailing. It is not always crew either but so many first time cruisers. They spend a lot of time explaining which dining room they should be in: even though it says it on the seapass, there are signs and they often making many announcements. This causes a backup/delay and lots of people either miss the first night shows or arrive later than expected. 

It has been our experience (recently) that the worst night for MDR is the first night.  For whatever reason, they seem to be the most disorganized and rushed, but slow, on the first night.  So I would be a little cautious about scheduling shows on night #1 but not at all concerned for the rest of the cruise.

Glad that you enjoyed it! 

No problem with dinner at 6:00 for a show at 8:30.
To be quiet, it is necessary to arrive at 6:00 and to be even better, we look before what we will choose:-)

We had three people in our party and Dinner rarely took much more than just over an hour... maybe 1.5 hr.  We never sat for even close to 2 hours, You should have plenty of time to eat, relax for a few and get to the show. They also know if you have a show booked, so if you do have a show closer to dinner time, they will rush it along a little for you. 

We got a massive deal on it otherwise way out of my price range.  But it was just heaven!

They are very nice 

I definitely think that the balcony rooms are too tight for my travel party, especially with three people (no children) in the room. From the pictures, there is basically no room for someone to walk between the gap of the bed and the wall without side-stepping a bit. In comparison, the Junior Suite is much wider and has so much space in the "living room" that it managed to look bigger and more spread out than the Grand Suites. Additionally, the Grand Suites have balconies that are bigger but not wider than the hump Junior Suites. Since I like wider than longer balconies, I really can't justify paying $400-500 extra pp for a Grand Suite in terms of the perception of space. Of course, these conclusions are made just from looking at online pictures. Eventually, if everything goes well with the Junior Suite, I might move up to try an Owner's Suite. This blog has been so helpful so thank you again to everyone who replied! 😄

As Pooch said, get a JS on the hump so you have a deeper balcony. The JS comes with 2 lounge chairs so the extra balcony space is a plus. We also like deck 8 with access to Central Park but those cabins book up fast. The biggest con with a JS is you'll want to try other suites eventually 😆

i’ve always wanted to experience this but q-class was a one and done for us. i missed central park too much 😂
we vacillate between an ocean view balcony and a JS. JS is always my entry level of choice BUT if it’s the difference between taking a JS cabin OR getting to go on two balcony sailings — especially in the winter — we’re going twice in a balcony 😂
i will say i do find a balcony a bit tight for us as far as storage/packing up goes, but we are pretty neat in our cabin anyway and there are only ever two of us. if i was traveling with three, i’d one hundred percent be doing a JS. 
also i sorely missed the walk in closet on our last sailing on harmony… but i’m also happy we were able to go for $750 pp, so it was my cross to bear 😂

I'm probably in the minority but my biggest drawback is the tub on Oasis class.   I prefer a shower.
I've only had the split/separate tub and shower on Odyssey (Quantum clas)...which was amazing!

The walking distance and deck location can make your JS fun or an aeorbic workout. For Wonder (actually all our trips on any ship) mid ship, around Deck 8 to Deck10 seems to be a decent location for setting up camp on an Oasis (or Mariner or Jewel) vessel. Minimal noise from public venues, slightly noticeable port to starboard roll on Wonder  while underway, but nothing to make you reach for the distress bag. We were on deck 9 near the aft stairs and elevators. Made it easy to go up/down without relying on the always crowded, never available elevators. Public venue noise was not at all an issue.

Deck 8 on Harmony last month was a great JS location.  Close to Park Cafe for a morning pre breakfast & we had a hump balcony so it was several feet bigger.  Still get twice a day housekeeping service.  I did miss being walked off the ship at disembark.  Of course the previous Harmony cruise was in an Owners Suite so that was an adjustment 😄😄.  If I could ask for anything, maybe a little bigger bathroom.  I mean I didn’t need the bidet but still the JR bathroom was kinda small.

Thanks for your opinion, $2400 could be spent on specialty dining and better shore excursions, and more. However, the price would be more expensive after booking two cabins because of the double occupancy from one solo cabin, and I'm hesitant to try out the even "lower" category balcony cabins (boardwalk, central park). 


Thanks for all the replies! To add additional information, I am the chill type of person so I would likely spend a lot of time on the balcony and possibly skip some port days (probably less shore excursion $$$); I see the cruise ship as my destination/resort. Calculating just from the double points standpoint, a balcony would cost around $185 for a point while the Junior Suite would cost $150. So from a moving up the ranks perspective, the Junior Suite is worth it. The biggest interests I have for the Junior Suites are definitely the bigger room, bigger shower, and bigger balcony. So my conclusion is that I'll try the Junior Suite first and see if everyone likes it or not. I rarely go on vacation even before COVID anyways so I have the savings to splurge on a cruise. The only fear I have is that I might become addicted to cruising 😃 Thanks again for the replies!

Thanks for your opinion, $2400 could be spent on specialty dining and better shore excursions, and more. However, the price would be more expensive after booking two cabins because of the double occupancy from one solo cabin, and I'm hesitant to try out the even "lower" category balcony cabins (boardwalk, central park). 


Thanks for all the replies! To add additional information, I am the chill type of person so I would likely spend a lot of time on the balcony and possibly skip some port days (probably less shore excursion $$$); I see the cruise ship as my destination/resort. Calculating just from the double points standpoint, a balcony would cost around $185 for a point while the Junior Suite would cost $150. So from a moving up the ranks perspective, the Junior Suite is worth it. The biggest interests I have for the Junior Suites are definitely the bigger room, bigger shower, and bigger balcony. So my conclusion is that I'll try the Junior Suite first and see if everyone likes it or not. I rarely go on vacation even before COVID anyways so I have the savings to splurge on a cruise. The only fear I have is that I might become addicted to cruising 😃 Thanks again for the replies!

Thanks for your opinion, $2400 could be spent on specialty dining and better shore excursions, and more. However, the price would be more expensive after booking two cabins because of the double occupancy from one solo cabin, and I'm hesitant to try out the even "lower" category balcony cabins (boardwalk, central park). 


Thanks for all the replies! To add additional information, I am the chill type of person so I would likely spend a lot of time on the balcony and possibly skip some port days (probably less shore excursion $$$); I see the cruise ship as my destination/resort. Calculating just from the double points standpoint, a balcony would cost around $185 for a point while the Junior Suite would cost $150. So from a moving up the ranks perspective, the Junior Suite is worth it. The biggest interests I have for the Junior Suites are definitely the bigger room, bigger shower, and bigger balcony. So my conclusion is that I'll try the Junior Suite first and see if everyone likes it or not. I rarely go on vacation even before COVID anyways so I have the savings to splurge on a cruise. The only fear I have is that I might become addicted to cruising 😃 Thanks again for the replies!

Thanks for your opinion, $2400 could be spent on specialty dining and better shore excursions, and more. However, the price would be more expensive after booking two cabins because of the double occupancy from one solo cabin, and I'm hesitant to try out the even "lower" category balcony cabins (boardwalk, central park). 


Thanks for all the replies! To add additional information, I am the chill type of person so I would likely spend a lot of time on the balcony and possibly skip some port days (probably less shore excursion $$$); I see the cruise ship as my destination/resort. Calculating just from the double points standpoint, a balcony would cost around $185 for a point while the Junior Suite would cost $150. So from a moving up the ranks perspective, the Junior Suite is worth it. The biggest interests I have for the Junior Suites are definitely the bigger room, bigger shower, and bigger balcony. So my conclusion is that I'll try the Junior Suite first and see if everyone likes it or not. I rarely go on vacation even before COVID anyways so I have the savings to splurge on a cruise. The only fear I have is that I might become addicted to cruising 😃 Thanks again for the replies!

Thanks for your opinion, $2400 could be spent on specialty dining and better shore excursions, and more. However, the price would be more expensive after booking two cabins because of the double occupancy from one solo cabin, and I'm hesitant to try out the even "lower" category balcony cabins (boardwalk, central park). 


Thanks for all the replies! To add additional information, I am the chill type of person so I would likely spend a lot of time on the balcony and possibly skip some port days (probably less shore excursion $$$); I see the cruise ship as my destination/resort. Calculating just from the double points standpoint, a balcony would cost around $185 for a point while the Junior Suite would cost $150. So from a moving up the ranks perspective, the Junior Suite is worth it. The biggest interests I have for the Junior Suites are definitely the bigger room, bigger shower, and bigger balcony. So my conclusion is that I'll try the Junior Suite first and see if everyone likes it or not. I rarely go on vacation even before COVID anyways so I have the savings to splurge on a cruise. The only fear I have is that I might become addicted to cruising 😃 Thanks again for the replies!

That's not a bad upgrade price.  I've paid more...
 
And to me, always worth it.😎