Explorer B3B 5-28 April 2024

[OCSC Mike]

58 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I had read about it before but never realized how awesome and different this area is !  It really sets Wonder apart from its older sisters.

Glad you're enjoying it as much as we did. I know I only had the one suite experience to compare it to but I agree it was a huge difference. My FIL only booked the Wonder cruise because he saw/read about the new suite neighborhood layout. Most of my family barely left except to see shows. The suite sun deck was a ghost town for some reason and we had the same two daybeds all week. The staff knew we were coming every morning after breakfast and had towels out waiting (we didn't ask, they were chair hogging for us, lol).

 

58 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Yes, making Pinnacle has made a huge difference in our cruising life.  We now get to enjoy everything that we love about sailing in suites except for the big cabins.  I’m sure there will be times when we have some access(s) limited, but those have been, up until now, very rare.  I’ll take it !

We're never getting to Pinnacle but I love this and it would totally be us. Forget the cabin, gimme the perks!

[Ampurp85]

@Sweety You are so close, congrats. With what I have on docket, until Oct 2025, I will just cross the 300pt threshold. I definitely didn't think I would get there so fast. So, Pin still seems in reach over maybe the next 5yrs. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

17 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

We spent a nice afternoon up on the Suites Sundeck and I have to say, “WOW” !  What an incredible place.  I felt like we had a private pool (it’s actually just a big hot tub and boy was it HOT), bar and comfy day beds.  I really fell in love with this sundeck.  Unlike the other O class sundecks, it is located right in the same location as the Suites, CK and SL (deck 18) and not way up forward like it is on other O class ships.  I had read about it before but never realized how awesome and different this area is !

If you like the sundeck on WN, you are going to love the one on Icon! IMO, the Grove is like WN suites sundeck but even better because you have food there.

17 hours ago, Sweety said:

I will have over 600 points after this year. I  can't wait.

You need to retire so that you can get there faster! You are so close!

 

[Lovetocruise2002]

16 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

So, Pin still seems in reach over maybe the next 5yrs. 

Being Canadian, having to fly to each cruise, and being at the mercy of the school calendar, I think I have about 5-6 years too before we make it. Just in time for retirement!

[OCSC Mike]

5 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

IMO, the Grove is like WN suites sundeck but even better because you have food there.

That’s more fact than opinion in my book. 

[SweetPea]

Oh I'd love the Wonder to come to NJ for a season. Thus far, my experiences on Royal suite decks has been completely underwhelming. I'd sail Wonder just for that! Glad you're enjoying it.  

[OCSC Mike]

22 hours ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

So my Symphony cruise this month still shows being at PDCC on the 19th with Indy.  HOWEVER, Because of the Labadee fiasco Royal changed our schedule and WE are now joining Wonder on the 20th!!  That is TWO Oasis size ships together!  Both arriving at 7am!  Cruise mapper has not updated the Symphony schedules!

Circling back to this... CruiseTimeTables.com seems to be updated more than Cruisemapper. They show you there with Wonder.

https://www.cruisetimetables.com/cococaybahamasschedule-20may2024.html

[WAAAYTOOO]

Today was the Top Tier Event.  We missed nearly all of it.  I thought it started at 10:30 but it must have started at 10:00.  By the time we got there they were introducing the top cruisers and it was nearly over....so I didn't get any intel on how many pax there were in the various C&A levels.  I had heard earlier in the week that there are 36 Pinns but I didn't confirm that info today.  It was hotter'n blazes out there anyway, so I'm not sorry that our trip to the AT was cut short.

The Pinn luncheon started at 11:30 and we did manage to make it for that.  The lunch was very good, as it almost always is.  Shrimp cocktail, filet and carrot cake for both of us.

Tonite is dinner at Hooked.  Looking forward to some oysters.  I hope they're better than the last ones we had there.

Dan is at the Suites' Sun deck while I'm down here doing my daily computer stuff.

Not much happening today since it's a sea day.  Tomorrow is COZ (I think).

[OCSC Mike]

2 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

It was hotter'n blazes out there anyway, so I'm not sorry that our trip to the AT was cut short.

In March the Top Tier Event (which we usually skip) on Wonder was in Studio B. If it's back in the AT in June/July I think we'll go back to skipping it... although it does give me an excuse to pop into Playmakers for one of the two drinks I really like there.

5 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

The Pinn luncheon started at 11:30 and we did manage to make it for that.  The lunch was very good, as it almost always is.  Shrimp cocktail, filet and carrot cake for both of us.

Sounds like exactly what I would order.

[Sweety]

I am thinking about doing Hooked on Utopia.

[JustMeJoe]

On 5/6/2024 at 5:10 PM, OCSC Mike said:

We're never getting to Pinnacle

We never say NEVER!  

[asquared17]

YUM hooked

[Pooch]

On 4/13/2024 at 9:38 PM, WAAAYTOOO said:

We picked a 10 night EX in March 25 for Dans comp.   I won’t be able to book it until tomorrow so I hope there are still some of the pano ocean views left by the time I get around to booking.  I’ll take care of that while we’re in 

 

OMG, Roger & I are talking about dipping our toes back in and have zeroed in on the 3/20/25 10 day on EX.  Is this God’s way of telling me to book?!?!?!?

[AshleyDillo]

10 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

That’s more fact than opinion in my book. 

It's a +1 for food, but there's less shade on the Icon sundeck which is a -1 for me.

[Pooch]

We sailed EX on Oct 2022 and thought she looked a little tired.  Did the work done in 2023 perk her up at all?  I am hesitant to book because of a few issues.  We are huge sports fans and sailed during the World Series.  Only one very tiny lounge had TVs and getting a seat was harder that loungers on the pool deck at noon.  Any more TVs in evidence?  Biggest issue was my rusty tuna can balcony with filthy glass barriers.  Any idea if they’ve at least washed the windows???

[asquared17]

@Pooch you’re alive!! i must have been missing you on the forums, my friend!!!

[Pooch]

Hello my friend, how are you?  Been gone a long time and not really back now.  Just had a few concerns about Explorer & trust Raye’s opinion.  Then I’ll be gone again.  Very bad interaction here that I don’t care to go through again so I’ve sworn off cruise (actually all) forums.

[WAAAYTOOO]

So glad to see you, @Pooch!  Even if it’s just a peek-a-boo !

No, EX hasn’t really improved any.  She’s still got rusty balconies but she’s still a fun ship.  With the way Royal is going, there are SO few ships left doing long cruises but EX is one of them !  We’ve cruised on EX a lot recently and have a number of cruises booked on her.  Come and join us !

[WAAAYTOOO]

Hooked was good - better than the last time we had it, on SY.  My homemade clam chowder is better, but theirs will do !

Bloodbath in the casino.  I couldn’t win at anything I tried.   Horrible.

Before I forget (again) I wanted to mention that our bed is as comfortable as any Royal Caribbean bed I’ve slept on INCLUDING any Star Class bed !  It’s really comfy.  Several years ago when they replaced all the mattresses onboard all the ships with those horrible slabs, I almost died….but I guess they learned their lesson about buying cheap mattresses.  

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

16 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

Circling back to this... CruiseTimeTables.com seems to be updated more than Cruisemapper. They show you there with Wonder.

https://www.cruisetimetables.com/cococaybahamasschedule-20may2024.html

Man!!! That’s a lot of people on PDCC for the day!  

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

7 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Hooked was good - better than the last time we had it, on SY

Ok…so I booked Hooked for lunch for my grandsons, daughter, and self while we are on Symphony this month.  What was it that turned you off?  Both of my grandsons love seafood…which is why I changed from Jaime’s to Hooked.  Should I switch to Chops or just try it out?

[asquared17]

6 minutes ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

 I booked Hooked for lunch for my grandsons, daughter, and self while we are on Symphony this month. 

we had hooked on symphony and LOVED it!! i think you will have a great time!!

we are also planning to go back when we are on her again in december 

[Pooch]

8 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

So glad to see you, @Pooch!  Even if it’s just a peek-a-boo !

No, EX hasn’t really improved any.  She’s still got rusty balconies but she’s still a fun ship.  With the way Royal is going, there are SO few ships left doing long cruises but EX is one of them !  We’ve cruised on EX a lot recently and have a number of cruises booked on her.  Come and join us !

I have to say I missed all of you here so much.  It is wonderful to see you all again.  We are definitely leaning toward that cruise and we both miss being at sea.  The prospect of meeting you in person has really tipped the scales!  Met Twangster in 2022, Super Mario in 2023 now WAAAYTOOO in 2025!!!

And ASQUARED17 look!

[asquared17]

1 hour ago, Pooch said:

And ASQUARED17 look!

THERE THEY ARE!!!

you have been missed, my friend  

happy to see you even for a short time

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Ok…so I booked Hooked for lunch for my grandsons, daughter, and self while we are on Symphony this month.  What was it that turned you off?  Both of my grandsons love seafood…which is why I changed from Jaime’s to Hooked.  Should I switch to Chops or just try it out?

 

1 hour ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Ok…so I booked Hooked for lunch for my grandsons, daughter, and self while we are on Symphony this month.  What was it that turned you off?  Both of my grandsons love seafood…which is why I changed from Jaime’s to Hooked.  Should I switch to Chops or just try it out?

I guess I was thinking about the oysters, in particular.  We loved oysters on the half shell and the last time (SY) we were there the oysters were pretty meh.  They were fresher this time as was the shrimp.  I love a good ol’ fried seafood meal (unhealthy as it might be) but I hadn’t had one in a very long time.  It tasted great !

I had the Royal platter (fried) and Dan had the fisherman’s (or Captains….cant remember) which was broiled.  The only part of my meal that I thought was a little underwhelming was the fried calamari.  It was obviously frozen, but it was ok.  The rest was very good.  Little pieces of fried cod, coconut shrimp and calamari.  Big plate of French fries.
 

Unless your team are seafood snobs I think they will enjoy it.  You probably make your own clam chowah too, so they may not like the ships quite so much !

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 hour ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

 What was it that turned you off?

I know this question is for @WAAAYTOOO but I will throw my two cents in. We did not like Hooked that much because we found it really oily. Many of the menu items were deep fried. Don't get me wrong, we like fried stuff, but it was overload. It might have been partially our fault for what we ordered. I would probably give it another go if we had the UDP or Star, but be careful with what you order.

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, Pooch said:

 The prospect of meeting you in person has really tipped the scales!  Met Twangster in 2022, Super Mario in 2023 now WAAAYTOOO in 2025!!!

Oh, God !  We are not in the class with those 2.  Please adjust your expectations.  

I sure hope you decide to come on the cruise though.  It would be awesome to meet you, too.

[Lovetocruise2002]

3 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Oh, God !  We are not in the class with those 2.  Please adjust your expectations.  

I don't know...I still want to sail with you and Dan!

[WAAAYTOOO]

2 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I don't know...I still want to sail with you and Dan!

Us, too…

[Pooch]

19 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Oh, God !  We are not in the class with those 2.  Please adjust your expectations.  

I sure hope you decide to come on the cruise though.  It would be awesome to meet you, too.

You are in my book!  One of the first to make me feel welcomed here

[Neesa]

41 minutes ago, Pooch said:

You are in my book!  One of the first to make me feel welcomed here

I second this! @WAAAYTOOO was my first interaction on these boards! 

[OCSC Mike]

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Oh, God !  We are not in the class with those 2.  Please adjust your expectations.

Mario who? I don't see his ongoing live blog from the past month here.

We're all #teamWAAAYTOOO here.

[Ampurp85]

I third the fact that @WAAAYTOOO was the first person to make me feel welcomed here. I was also glad @Pooch stopped by and hate the negativity she experienced here. 

But on the Hooked topic, it wasn't too great on Wonder. Not a huge seafood fan but found their steak to be the best I ever tasted on Navigator. It was pure salt on Wonder. My brother got the seafood feast and captain's platter on Wonder, he was slightly disappointed with the catch of the day in the captain's platter. I know @asquared17 loved Hooked because of the massive lobstah!

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

We are not in the class with those 2.  Please adjust your expectations.  

I have not met the others listed but would like to say you and Dan are TOPS!  I do hope Peter and I will sail with you two again sometime in the near future and this time get to dine with you as well.  

[asquared17]

6 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I still want to sail with you and Dan!

7 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Oh, God !  We are not in the class with those 2.  Please adjust your expectations.  

can confirm raye and dan are the best!!!!  no expectations need to be adjusted!!

 

5 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I know @asquared17 loved Hooked because of the massive lobstah!

you know the way to my heart.

 

i will say we didn't have anything fried when we went to hooked -- gigantic shrimp cocktail and huge lobster, both steamed to perfection and tasted divine!

[Sweety]

I will meet Dan and Raye on Adventure for our Christmas cruise. Woohoo. Can't wait.

[WAAAYTOOO]

Today is Roatan.  We were excited to get off as we had heard that the new port area was done.  Nope.  Far from it.  Still mostly construction going on.  Perhaps that bit of misinformation was referring to the fact that they had completed the land fill....yes, that is done...but the buildings are definitely still under construction.  We will probably still get off but are disappointed that the construction is still under way.  Honestly, deep down, I questioned how the area could be done as the last time we were here (which wasn't that long ago, truly), they were still reclaiming the land where the new terminal area would be located.  I knew it couldn't really be done...wishful thinking.

Last night was Chops.  I guess I'm just getting Chops-overload with so much cruising over the past month.  It was fine...nothing wrong, but I was just - meh.  It didn't help that we had eaten lunch in the CK (we almost never eat lunch) and I was still pretty full from that.

No shows last night but I did FINALLY have a winning evening in the casino.  I just played UTH and ended up leaving with about $80 more than I started with.  That's a huge win, considering the past few nights !  Here's a cool story....for me, at least.  As many of you may or may not know, my real name is Ramona.  I have been "Raye" my entire life but my birth name is Ramona.  It is a very unusual name, for Americans.  [Both the Latin countries and Romania, believe it not, claim that the name Ramona is native to their cultures...anecdote].  So I sat down at the UTH table and handed my card to the dealer who looked so confused.  She turned to the lady to my right and asked to see her Seapass card.  Believe it or not, she was Ramona, too !!!  The dealer thought maybe the wrong person had been signed into the system but no....   I'll bet I haven't met more than 3 other Ramona's in my entire life and here I was, sitting next to another one of me !!!!  She was a much better gambler than me, apparently.  She had many thousands of promo chips in front of her and later went to the cage and brought more to the table.  Yikes !  It must have been good luck for me to be playing with my Ramona-sister, b/c I did have a winning session - finally !!!

I went to GS yesterday to retrieve one of the info pages that details all of the [important] staff members - Captain, HD, Cruise director, etc. and once again (you may recall I had this problem on one of the earlier cruises....can't recall which one it was), the paper they had was out of date....so she promised to have it updated and sent to my cabin.  That sounds familiar....that same promise was made to me on whatever other ship that was....and no bueno.  Never received anything so I'm not holding my breath this time.  I'm trying HARD to provide you guys with some USEful information but I'm getting NO HELP !  

 

[OCSC Mike]

3 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I'm trying HARD to provide you guys with some USEful information but I'm getting NO HELP

Food recaps and personal anecdotes are useful to me... they're getting me ready for my own Wonders and are entertaining! I know who the captain and CD are (not that it matters much to us). Nice of you to try to help though.

Ooh... that reminds me. Someone here mentioned that the band onboard right now that plays in Music Hall and sometimes on the Promenade was very good (Centerpiece). We're not big music people but I googled them and found some YouTube videos from various ships and they did sound good doing some Queen and Journey covers. I don't recall you ever really mentioning music so I don't think you guys are into listening to the band either but just figured I'd mention it. Have you happened to hear them at all? Now that we've been on Wonder twice and seen every show twice (except Voices, once was enough), we only plan to see the ice show and comedy going forward (and possibly the headliner depending who it is) so we need something to do at night. That's not a complaint btw, I enjoy having an open schedule after dinner, just need to fill it with something (besides my 6th meal of the day, lol).

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 minute ago, OCSC Mike said:

Food recaps and personal anecdotes are useful to me... they're getting me ready for my own Wonders and are entertaining! I know who the captain and CD are (not that it matters much to us). Nice of you to try to help though.

Ooh... that reminds me. Someone here mentioned that the band onboard right now that plays in Music Hall and sometimes on the Promenade was very good (Centerpiece). We're not big music people but I googled them and found some YouTube videos from various ships and they did sound good doing some Queen and Journey covers. I don't recall you ever really mentioning music so I don't think you guys are into listening to the band either but just figured I'd mention it. Have you happened to hear them at all? Now that we've been on Wonder twice and seen every show twice (except Voices, once was enough), we only plan to see the ice show and comedy going forward (and possibly the headliner depending who it is) so we need something to do at night. That's not a complaint btw, I enjoy having an open schedule after dinner, just need to fill it with something (besides my 6th meal of the day, lol).

Yes, Centerpiece is appearing in the Music Hall, which is right around the corner from our room on deck 8.  Sometimes we do go to see the band on other ships...and we actually stopped in one evening on this trip, on our way back to the room...and TBH, neither of us was very impressed.  Maybe we just caught them on an "off" song.  We haven't been back.

You guessed right in that we are not big live music fans.  I have heard the live music in CP in the evenings and it seems to be quite good if you're into live jazz.  We are not...but it's worth listening to if you want a nice, calm experience.  We enjoyed it when we were staying in the CP balcony b/c it was right there--- but we don't go out of our way to go and listen.

Couldn't agree MORE with you re: Voices.  I thought it was awful...but some people enjoy it...  We went to see the ice show, the AT show and are going to see the Effectors on the last night (even though it's kinda lame...but we're going anyway, I guess).  We don't go to any of the comedy shows on any of the ships b/c I have been to far too many really bad ones and I've heard ALL of the cruise ship jokes.  Done with those.

We've been popping into the SL for HH in the evenings which is something we almost NEVER do.  We enjoy being up there on this ship, for some reason.  Last night we went to Vintages which is something else that we almost never do.  We also rode the UFO, which I haven't done in probably 10 years.  It was fun !

Believe it or not, Dan and I both used ALL 6 of our drink vouchers yesterday.  The first time EVER !  Most days I don't use ANY of mine.  Go figure...

[Pooch]

Does that mean we can “share” in March.  Lowly Diamond so I only get 4