melski94

We got the luggage downstairs at 9:45 this morning as I was hoping to leave at 10. Called 2 cars, uber xl and lyft.  Uber showed up in 5 minutes but lyft canceled on me after waiting for 10 minutes.  Ugg.  Half the group was already there by the time another uber driver showed up.  No wait in security or any lines at 10:45.  I didn’t upload pics as I figured they could do it faster than me. Eating in Windjammer by 11:20. 
Checked out A0, Ultimate Abyss (btw, you need to wear a shirt with sleeves), carousel, zip line, muster drill and now waiting to register for the teen club.  
Initial thoughts are everyone loves it.  Beautiful and very excited about the food options.  
Trying to get pictures to upload but I’m getting upload failure. I’ll try later. Only image that uploaded was not via Voom. 
This is AO explorers club. 

Happy cruise day!  
We flew in on Jet Blue last night.  I was nervous as we’ve never flown on Jet Blue and we have no status but was pleasantly surprised. Nice leg room, TVs, friendly flight attendants, full size soda cans and chips. We were delayed about 40 minutes but the desk kept making announcements keeping us informed. It’s the little things. 
We are staying at the Springhill Suites in 2 rooms, both are 2 queens with a pull out couch. The hotel has a free shuttle from the airport. We arrived at the hotel around 8:40pm and quickly walked to Chipotle. There’s several fast food options and BJs is right across the street for wine...you can use your hotel key as a membership card. This hotel is packed with cruisers and offers a shuttle for a fee. 

First, I’ll introduce myself, I’m Mel and traveling with my DH, DD18, DS14, DS11, DD6 and MIL (MIL first mass cruise ship).
Staterooms  This trip we have 3 Spacious Oceanview Balconies on Deck 12 (category D3 and D5). DD18 and MIL in one, next to ours with our room connecting to the 3 younger kids. All 3 in a row and hopefully we can open all the balcony dividers.
Why we booked:
This is our fourth family cruise all on RC. We’ve only cruised during Spring Break as that is a good week for vacations for us. DD18 just had a birthday and will graduate high school in May, MIL celebrated 70 last summer and we were not able to go on a trip with her then, and DS14 will celebrate a birthday on this cruise. DH loves the fact it is a Sat-Sat cruise. He hates going to work the day after we get back. I appreciate that we can get back on Saturday and still celebrate Easter as last year we were home very late on Easter.
Our schedule:
Day 1: Embark at Fort Lauderdale
Day 2: Sea Day
Day 3: Sea Day
Day 4: St. Maarten (private island tour)
Day 5: San Juan (walk around forts)
Day 6: Labadee (Beach bungalow and zip line)
Day 7: Sea Day
Day 8: Back to FLL
What we are looking forward to:
*Large ship – first time on an Oasis class ship  *Different entertainment (AquaTheater and Grease)
*New things to do (Ultimate Abyss)
*Zip lining
*Large outdoor track
*DD6 should be tall enough for the big water slides
Concerns:
*DD18 just turned 18 a few weeks ago and worried about meeting other young adults without teen club.
*Is the ship just too big?
*Will the staterooms be too small? They will be the smallest (square footage) we’ve stayed in.
*Is it worth the extra “surcharge” for this class ship? The price per person per night is significantly more than other cruises...even staying in a JS on Liberty last year the week before Easter. We’ll see if we feel it is worth the extra cost.
Even with those concerns, we are easy going and we always have a great time. I’m sure there will be things we love and things we don’t but usually the good outweighs any bad. After all we’ll be on a cruise and we can’t wait.
Right now, I do not have any specialty dining planned. I did buy the drink package during the Black Friday sale. This will be my first time with the drink package but I didn’t want to deal with buying wine in FL when we get in late Friday. I am hoping to take a break in the afternoon from the family to come back to this page so feel free to ask questions.
 

Spacious ocean balconyone thing I like is the connecting door is towards front of stateroom.  On Liberty they were in the middle of the room.  
Someone asked about youth C&A coupons.  This is gold. 
 

Spacious ocean balconyone thing I like is the connecting door is towards front of stateroom.  On Liberty they were in the middle of the room.  
Someone asked about youth C&A coupons.  This is gold. 
 

We got the luggage downstairs at 9:45 this morning as I was hoping to leave at 10. Called 2 cars, uber xl and lyft.  Uber showed up in 5 minutes but lyft canceled on me after waiting for 10 minutes.  Ugg.  Half the group was already there by the time another uber driver showed up.  No wait in security or any lines at 10:45.  I didn’t upload pics as I figured they could do it faster than me. Eating in Windjammer by 11:20. 
Checked out A0, Ultimate Abyss (btw, you need to wear a shirt with sleeves), carousel, zip line, muster drill and now waiting to register for the teen club.  
Initial thoughts are everyone loves it.  Beautiful and very excited about the food options.  
Trying to get pictures to upload but I’m getting upload failure. I’ll try later. Only image that uploaded was not via Voom. 
This is AO explorers club. 

Thats a tough question.  Some will say $0 and others would say $1000 so it depends.  The biggest determination is what have you prepaid....gratuities, excursions, drink package, specialty restaurants?  Those are the biggies. If no drink package, how many drinks per day? I think you should figure out what you plan on spending onboard and then add an extra 20% to be safe.

Happy cruise day!  
We flew in on Jet Blue last night.  I was nervous as we’ve never flown on Jet Blue and we have no status but was pleasantly surprised. Nice leg room, TVs, friendly flight attendants, full size soda cans and chips. We were delayed about 40 minutes but the desk kept making announcements keeping us informed. It’s the little things. 
We are staying at the Springhill Suites in 2 rooms, both are 2 queens with a pull out couch. The hotel has a free shuttle from the airport. We arrived at the hotel around 8:40pm and quickly walked to Chipotle. There’s several fast food options and BJs is right across the street for wine...you can use your hotel key as a membership card. This hotel is packed with cruisers and offers a shuttle for a fee. 

Happy cruise day!  
We flew in on Jet Blue last night.  I was nervous as we’ve never flown on Jet Blue and we have no status but was pleasantly surprised. Nice leg room, TVs, friendly flight attendants, full size soda cans and chips. We were delayed about 40 minutes but the desk kept making announcements keeping us informed. It’s the little things. 
We are staying at the Springhill Suites in 2 rooms, both are 2 queens with a pull out couch. The hotel has a free shuttle from the airport. We arrived at the hotel around 8:40pm and quickly walked to Chipotle. There’s several fast food options and BJs is right across the street for wine...you can use your hotel key as a membership card. This hotel is packed with cruisers and offers a shuttle for a fee. 

Happy cruise day!  
We flew in on Jet Blue last night.  I was nervous as we’ve never flown on Jet Blue and we have no status but was pleasantly surprised. Nice leg room, TVs, friendly flight attendants, full size soda cans and chips. We were delayed about 40 minutes but the desk kept making announcements keeping us informed. It’s the little things. 
We are staying at the Springhill Suites in 2 rooms, both are 2 queens with a pull out couch. The hotel has a free shuttle from the airport. We arrived at the hotel around 8:40pm and quickly walked to Chipotle. There’s several fast food options and BJs is right across the street for wine...you can use your hotel key as a membership card. This hotel is packed with cruisers and offers a shuttle for a fee. 

First, I’ll introduce myself, I’m Mel and traveling with my DH, DD18, DS14, DS11, DD6 and MIL (MIL first mass cruise ship).
Staterooms  This trip we have 3 Spacious Oceanview Balconies on Deck 12 (category D3 and D5). DD18 and MIL in one, next to ours with our room connecting to the 3 younger kids. All 3 in a row and hopefully we can open all the balcony dividers.
Why we booked:
This is our fourth family cruise all on RC. We’ve only cruised during Spring Break as that is a good week for vacations for us. DD18 just had a birthday and will graduate high school in May, MIL celebrated 70 last summer and we were not able to go on a trip with her then, and DS14 will celebrate a birthday on this cruise. DH loves the fact it is a Sat-Sat cruise. He hates going to work the day after we get back. I appreciate that we can get back on Saturday and still celebrate Easter as last year we were home very late on Easter.
Our schedule:
Day 1: Embark at Fort Lauderdale
Day 2: Sea Day
Day 3: Sea Day
Day 4: St. Maarten (private island tour)
Day 5: San Juan (walk around forts)
Day 6: Labadee (Beach bungalow and zip line)
Day 7: Sea Day
Day 8: Back to FLL
What we are looking forward to:
*Large ship – first time on an Oasis class ship  *Different entertainment (AquaTheater and Grease)
*New things to do (Ultimate Abyss)
*Zip lining
*Large outdoor track
*DD6 should be tall enough for the big water slides
Concerns:
*DD18 just turned 18 a few weeks ago and worried about meeting other young adults without teen club.
*Is the ship just too big?
*Will the staterooms be too small? They will be the smallest (square footage) we’ve stayed in.
*Is it worth the extra “surcharge” for this class ship? The price per person per night is significantly more than other cruises...even staying in a JS on Liberty last year the week before Easter. We’ll see if we feel it is worth the extra cost.
Even with those concerns, we are easy going and we always have a great time. I’m sure there will be things we love and things we don’t but usually the good outweighs any bad. After all we’ll be on a cruise and we can’t wait.
Right now, I do not have any specialty dining planned. I did buy the drink package during the Black Friday sale. This will be my first time with the drink package but I didn’t want to deal with buying wine in FL when we get in late Friday. I am hoping to take a break in the afternoon from the family to come back to this page so feel free to ask questions.
 

First, I’ll introduce myself, I’m Mel and traveling with my DH, DD18, DS14, DS11, DD6 and MIL (MIL first mass cruise ship).
Staterooms  This trip we have 3 Spacious Oceanview Balconies on Deck 12 (category D3 and D5). DD18 and MIL in one, next to ours with our room connecting to the 3 younger kids. All 3 in a row and hopefully we can open all the balcony dividers.
Why we booked:
This is our fourth family cruise all on RC. We’ve only cruised during Spring Break as that is a good week for vacations for us. DD18 just had a birthday and will graduate high school in May, MIL celebrated 70 last summer and we were not able to go on a trip with her then, and DS14 will celebrate a birthday on this cruise. DH loves the fact it is a Sat-Sat cruise. He hates going to work the day after we get back. I appreciate that we can get back on Saturday and still celebrate Easter as last year we were home very late on Easter.
Our schedule:
Day 1: Embark at Fort Lauderdale
Day 2: Sea Day
Day 3: Sea Day
Day 4: St. Maarten (private island tour)
Day 5: San Juan (walk around forts)
Day 6: Labadee (Beach bungalow and zip line)
Day 7: Sea Day
Day 8: Back to FLL
What we are looking forward to:
*Large ship – first time on an Oasis class ship  *Different entertainment (AquaTheater and Grease)
*New things to do (Ultimate Abyss)
*Zip lining
*Large outdoor track
*DD6 should be tall enough for the big water slides
Concerns:
*DD18 just turned 18 a few weeks ago and worried about meeting other young adults without teen club.
*Is the ship just too big?
*Will the staterooms be too small? They will be the smallest (square footage) we’ve stayed in.
*Is it worth the extra “surcharge” for this class ship? The price per person per night is significantly more than other cruises...even staying in a JS on Liberty last year the week before Easter. We’ll see if we feel it is worth the extra cost.
Even with those concerns, we are easy going and we always have a great time. I’m sure there will be things we love and things we don’t but usually the good outweighs any bad. After all we’ll be on a cruise and we can’t wait.
Right now, I do not have any specialty dining planned. I did buy the drink package during the Black Friday sale. This will be my first time with the drink package but I didn’t want to deal with buying wine in FL when we get in late Friday. I am hoping to take a break in the afternoon from the family to come back to this page so feel free to ask questions.
 

First, I’ll introduce myself, I’m Mel and traveling with my DH, DD18, DS14, DS11, DD6 and MIL (MIL first mass cruise ship).
Staterooms  This trip we have 3 Spacious Oceanview Balconies on Deck 12 (category D3 and D5). DD18 and MIL in one, next to ours with our room connecting to the 3 younger kids. All 3 in a row and hopefully we can open all the balcony dividers.
Why we booked:
This is our fourth family cruise all on RC. We’ve only cruised during Spring Break as that is a good week for vacations for us. DD18 just had a birthday and will graduate high school in May, MIL celebrated 70 last summer and we were not able to go on a trip with her then, and DS14 will celebrate a birthday on this cruise. DH loves the fact it is a Sat-Sat cruise. He hates going to work the day after we get back. I appreciate that we can get back on Saturday and still celebrate Easter as last year we were home very late on Easter.
Our schedule:
Day 1: Embark at Fort Lauderdale
Day 2: Sea Day
Day 3: Sea Day
Day 4: St. Maarten (private island tour)
Day 5: San Juan (walk around forts)
Day 6: Labadee (Beach bungalow and zip line)
Day 7: Sea Day
Day 8: Back to FLL
What we are looking forward to:
*Large ship – first time on an Oasis class ship  *Different entertainment (AquaTheater and Grease)
*New things to do (Ultimate Abyss)
*Zip lining
*Large outdoor track
*DD6 should be tall enough for the big water slides
Concerns:
*DD18 just turned 18 a few weeks ago and worried about meeting other young adults without teen club.
*Is the ship just too big?
*Will the staterooms be too small? They will be the smallest (square footage) we’ve stayed in.
*Is it worth the extra “surcharge” for this class ship? The price per person per night is significantly more than other cruises...even staying in a JS on Liberty last year the week before Easter. We’ll see if we feel it is worth the extra cost.
Even with those concerns, we are easy going and we always have a great time. I’m sure there will be things we love and things we don’t but usually the good outweighs any bad. After all we’ll be on a cruise and we can’t wait.
Right now, I do not have any specialty dining planned. I did buy the drink package during the Black Friday sale. This will be my first time with the drink package but I didn’t want to deal with buying wine in FL when we get in late Friday. I am hoping to take a break in the afternoon from the family to come back to this page so feel free to ask questions.
 

@rjac  I'm trying to make sure I'm not missing anything...any medical, anxiety, other issues? Are you talking about keeping them there until 10 or the late night party?  I'd address the AO staff with the concerns during registration and see what they can do as the AO staff have always been very good to my kids. A few other suggestions, have 12 yo check on 8 yo once a night and text parents status. Or the parents can call up to AO and check on the child.  Also, the child can use the AO phone to leave a message on the stateroom phone and parents check that phone every once in a while. 
@tiny260 My biggest suggestion is for the 12 yo to go the first night to the teen club. The staff does a really good job with the meet and greet and encourage new friendships. 

Yes, a full breakfast is available but it is over earlier than the other days...I think 8:30 but that may depend on the ship. The hours will be in the cruise compass. Click on cruise compass in the main menu above and look for your ship to get an idea for the specific hours and venues. 

Yes!  I completely agree but I see that I am in the minority here.  I think they are making CoCoCay just for me and my very active family. Typically our excursions are more of an "active" nature, if I just wanted a beach I could (and do) drive a few hours to be there.  If I only wanted a week long quiet beach trip, I'd fly to an all inclusive resort.  We want an adventure!  I think RC is appealing to families like mine with their ships and now CoCoCay.  My family would love this and now I want to look at cruises that will take me to CoCoCay!
I know it won't be free but I don't want it crazy expensive...I do have to buy 6 of everything.

I have gotten the Voom package for my teens but not the younger kids...who don't have a cell phone anyways.  My kids are not that age now but I've had them in AO at that age and will so again soon. So take this as my opinion only.  If it was *my*12 year old, they have a phone and I would get VOOM. My thinking is that the 12 year old has free roaming of the ship and it is nice for them to check in.  Now if it was *my* 8 year old, they don't have a phone at that age so no need for VOOM.  Also, *my* 8 year old would not be able to roam the ship by themselves so I know where they are at night...which is in AO.
I've never had an instance where my kids at any age needed immediate access to me. If it was a true emergency, I would think the AO staff would hunt me down but I've never asked.  On Liberty there were phones to check out for the AO but they are typically reserved for the nursery and if any left for the Aquanauts. I don't know if there would be any left for your Explorer. I just tell my kids I will pick them up by 10 and to have fun...I feel like that sounds dismissive of your concerns but its not meant to be. My kids know the expectation is that in the evening they are in AO and daytime AO time is up to them...there are certain daytime activities that my kids love so we check the kids compass for them.     
  

And they measure for anything that has height restrictions...flowrider, slides, etc.  One of my kids was just slightly under and not allowed.

They are very strict on height rules. It is a liability thing. Sorry!

I have gotten the Voom package for my teens but not the younger kids...who don't have a cell phone anyways.  My kids are not that age now but I've had them in AO at that age and will so again soon. So take this as my opinion only.  If it was *my*12 year old, they have a phone and I would get VOOM. My thinking is that the 12 year old has free roaming of the ship and it is nice for them to check in.  Now if it was *my* 8 year old, they don't have a phone at that age so no need for VOOM.  Also, *my* 8 year old would not be able to roam the ship by themselves so I know where they are at night...which is in AO.
I've never had an instance where my kids at any age needed immediate access to me. If it was a true emergency, I would think the AO staff would hunt me down but I've never asked.  On Liberty there were phones to check out for the AO but they are typically reserved for the nursery and if any left for the Aquanauts. I don't know if there would be any left for your Explorer. I just tell my kids I will pick them up by 10 and to have fun...I feel like that sounds dismissive of your concerns but its not meant to be. My kids know the expectation is that in the evening they are in AO and daytime AO time is up to them...there are certain daytime activities that my kids love so we check the kids compass for them.     
  

As for flights, look at RC air2sea program.  While not competitive within the U.S, I’ve read about people getting very good deals for overseas flights.
Another option is to check out the Hopper app.  It tells you if the price quoted is expected to go down and when is a good time to buy. 

As for flights, look at RC air2sea program.  While not competitive within the U.S, I’ve read about people getting very good deals for overseas flights.
Another option is to check out the Hopper app.  It tells you if the price quoted is expected to go down and when is a good time to buy. 

Travel router worked great!  Thanks to @twangster.  Royal wifi network is named "royal-wifi" or something like that and then there's royal-crew so we called ours something similar to blend in ?
Edit- we set it up at home first and then just connected after we got on board. If you need details, I'll have to ask Hubby cause he did it all. But we used @twangster's instructions in the other thread. 

Did Hubby set up the travel router? Work ok?  Did you set it up at home first or do it all on the ship?  Any tips on what to name your network?  Setting this up is my DH's job today.
Great job on the blog.  I really enjoyed reading it and you've inspired me to try my own next week.  Have a safe trip home!

I just used OBC to partially pay for our internet package. With mine, it showed the total, the amount of OBC and the new due that I used my credit card.  There was a button to select "Use OBC" and I had to put in the amount I wanted to use (which was all my OBC) and then I had to press "Apply". After that, the OBC reduced the total and I paid the rest by credit card.  It was very clear the total was reduced before I put in my cc info.
Does your cruise planner still show that you have OBC?  Now that I used my OBC, it no longer gives me the option to use OBC when I pay. 
My suggestion is to cancel whatever you purchased and try again.  OBC will be credited back to your account.  Or you can call RC directly and try to cancel and rebook.