Marc Van Niekerk

Interesting, We have a B2B on Mariner in October. First leg shows discounts with current sale second shows nothing changed! On the good side, I just saved money on a cabana for leg one, but no savings for our excursion second leg. Also noticed before sale that the DX package on the 4nt was cheaper per day that on the 3nt.

Any chance you post a link to this fabulous spreadsheet?

Does anyone know if the Cafe Select card is usable on a B2B? We have a 4nt, 3nt back to back on Mariner and I'm not sure I can drink the 15 coffees of a full card on a 4 night or 3 night on their own. Thanks

We got the bottled water package on Symphony and were greeted by a case of 1L Evian when we got to our stateroom. We had a complimentary soda package which does not include bottled water so this was a great addition to the cruise. The other bottles were C&A gifts and I'm not sure what the reason was for the beer, but I sure didn't complain 🙂

Thanks for the excellent live blog! Such incredible information and photos. You set the standard for these things.

@Lovetocruise2002 You certainly do, one of the great features of Oasis class. Don't underestimate the breakfast at El Loco Fresh either. It was quite good. @Karahvacatimes Wonderful blog. brings back so many great memories for me of our time on Symphony.

Day 4 - St Thomas Our day in St Thomas got off to a relatively quiet start. We were scheduled to arrive in port at 10 AM and so we had a nice breakfast before heading out to take some phots as we arrived. After the ship had docked we got ready for our excursion. We had booked the Magen’s Bay Beach Getaway. This consisted of a van ride to a lookout overlooking the beach and then on the the the beach, some free time at the beach and a ride back to the port. The vans were an open air type where you ride in the back of a truck converted to a bus. Note to self for next time, get a picture of the vehicle..... Here are some photos from the ride to the lookout. As you can see from the photos there were 6 ships in port. There was actually still one to arrive. This was going to make for quite a busy day at the beach. Once at the lookout we could see the beach and it’s unique heart shape. After a brief stop to allow for photos we made our way down to the beach itself. On the return to the ship our driver stopped briefly so we could get a better view of Symphony as we approached. Back aboard the ship we were greeted with some chocolates and treats for my birthday. Dinner was a Chops. The food was great, unfortunately the service was a little off as there was a large group dominating the staff’s time and there was a family with two young children who didn’t really want to be in a restaurant and weren’t afraid to make their unhappiness known. After dinner I caught a sunset photo as we left port as well as an evening shot of the Big Wonder.

While that may be, the last thing I want to do on a cruise is argue with the staff in a restaurant about what’s covered. We bought our meal and enjoyed it regardless of the technicalities.

We found on Symphony last month that the UDP did not cover Playmakers.

Day 3, Sea Day First I want to commend the others who do this live blog thing. Not nearly as easy as it seems. Our sea day was spent quietly aboard. Caught the stowaway piano player on the boardwalk. More tightrope practice which I personally found fascinating and kept being drawn to watching. Jazz Quartet on the Boardwalk And finally the performance of Hairspary. We had never seen this show before or really looked in to the story and we enjoyed it very much. The performances were fantastic. We had dinner tonight at Wonderland and I did not bring a camera which was a shame as they had the Hatter making the rounds. What an interesting character. He found out it was our anniversary during the cruise and brought a dessert and sang for us. Tomorrow is the island of St Thomas and we have an excursion to Megens Bay for a Beach Break.

What can I say Matt? No Drink Package, no bad influences on a Group Cruise (and yes, i'm looking at you) maybe there is a reason.... In truth, we had a great cruise just the two of us. I will note that I got on her good side by waking every morning and heading down to Cafe Promenade to get her a Soy Latte.

Excellent! A @twangster live blog to christen the newly refurbished ship. Can’t want for the photos to roll in!

Thanks! The source of my photos are a mix. The majority are from my DSLR but a few sprinkled here and there are my iPhone.

Day 2 - Nassau Bahamas I pick up on Day 2 where we were scheduled to be in Nassau from 7 am to 2 PM. This was a rather short day and since we have been to Nassau several times and are scheduled to be there twice more this year we elected to stay aboard. I got up fairly early to try to catch the sunrise as we came in to Nassau only to find that we were already tied to the pier. Thankfully the lighting was agreeable for some photos. We chose breakfast at Johnny Rockets. JR is probably my favorite place to grab breakfast on an OASIS class ship. Since we weren't going ashore we visited the hot tubs. While there we noticed that the crew were practicing their lifeboat drills. Our day was rather leisurely and I took a little stroll to grab some photos of the scenery and activities aboard and to sneak a shot of my wife on our balcony reading. Set sail was rather uneventful and I managed a couple more photos as we left port. There was some setup going for the massive tailgate on the Boardwalk for the SuperBowl including this Ice sculpture. I was also able to watch the tightrope walker practicing from our balcony. Dinner was at Chops and as usual was fantastic, punctuated by my favorite appetizer the Tuna Tartare. Not being much of a football fan, we had arranged to cap the night with the ice show 1977 in Studio B Tomorrow is a Sea Day. We will pick it up there.

I have brought wine on my last 3 cruises and never been charged a corkage fee.