thrifty99

Here is a video I made on Oasis a few years ago walking at a brisk pace from one end of the ship to the other. Gives you an idea of how big it is. It took a little over 3 minutes. I think the video is small enough to post here. Sorry about the shaky video - before image stabilization was better on phones. Oasis hallway compressed.mov

That is a pretty safe one to bid on as if you win the bid you are still guaranteed to be near mid ship. We always choose a cabin near the aft elevator banks. We were at one of the furthest aft cabins once and it is no fun walking so far to your room. If you have never been on an Oasis class... it is a long walk from one end of the ship to the other.

Correct. So if you pay $30 for a specialty restaurant that has the 18% included. When you get your bill to sign at dinner there will be a line for an additional tip and it is up to you if you want to add any more at that time.

Correct - no longer a nightly Diamond event. You still get the 3 drinks nightly at any bar or at dinner during Happy Hour times. We had no Diamond events / gatherings on this cruise. Attached are the Diamond benefits offered on this ship.

I would suggest looking at the activities on board for each ship on RC's website. There is not too big of a difference in the Jewel and Rhapsody for activities for a 12 year old. I don't believe either has a Flowrider or Water Slides. If you want more fun activities like those for your son then you will need to move up to a higher category of ship. The good news is since he has never had them on a ship before, he won't miss them. Once he enjoys those activities it is more difficult to cruise without them.

I wrote a review of our Jan 18-25th Majesty cruise (link below) and I believe you saw / commented on it. I posted copies of the daily Cruise Compass there. What are the questions you have? I'd be happy to answer anything I can.

We were just there a couple of weeks ago. 2 ships in port that day (not big ships... Majesty & Mariner). We enjoyed all the included amenities (don't want to make anyone mad using the word "FREE"). We hung out most of the day at the beach but also went over to the lagoon pool for a while. We were the 2nd ship to arrive, but I think by only a short time. Get off the ship as quickly as you can to get some chairs & umbrella closer to the water. And be sure to head over to the Snack Shack. They have great funnel cakes for free... um, I mean they are included. The only complaint I have is the pool was not heated and the water was very cold. I assume that is the same for the water park. It should be warmer for you in March (I hope). I can't comment on the actual water park as we did not do it. It may depend on how old your grandkids are. There were plenty of younger kids hanging out at the beach all day having a good time. If they are older, that may be boring for them and the water park would be appreciated.

Not sure how often they change, but 2 weeks ago it was Mike. This was January 18-25.

I went back and looked back at my notes / conversations from our September Harmony cruise. The key words in the RC Visa program terms & conditions are: "If Royal Caribbean cancels the cruise vacation you have booked, we will offer a credit of equal value of the reward redemption." With these shortened cruises, RC is not technically cancelling the cruise. And then you are dealing with a refund along with Future Cruise Credits (FCC). It is the FCC you can get less than expected as they may use the lower cruise fare (after the RC Visa credits) in calculating the FCC. That is what they were telling us back in September on the shortened Harmony cruise. In the Anthem situation this week it is similar. They are still offering the shortened cruise and you are deciding if you want to take it or if YOU will be cancelling the cruise. If you decide to go on the shortened cruise, you will get a pro-rated cash refund based on the total cruise fare paid (including what you paid with RC Visa credits), but the FCC may be calculated using the lower amount (cruise fare paid minus the RC Visa credits). Again, this is based on the one time we had to deal with this and in typical RC fashion we kept getting different answers depending on who we spoke to. If you are just going to take the full refund and not cruise you will probably be okay, but be sure to confirm the amount of the refund to be sure it is calculated on the full amount. If they will use the lower amount then you need to be sure they will refund the RC Visa credits back to your account (something they told us was difficult to do). Hope that helps.

Our favorite specialty restaurants would be ranked as follows: 1. 150 Central Park 2. Wonderland (for the first time visitor due to the unique experience) 3. Izumi Hibachi 4. Chops 5. Jamies Itallian Since this is your once in a lifetime wedding cruise I would suggest the Unlimited Dining Package. You can get this usually on sale for $175 per person so you can try all the specialty restaurants. What we liked is you can go back to another restaurant (or the same one) on the same night. So if you have an early 5:30 dinner and then later in the evening you decide you wanted to go back to another restaurant for that great appetizer or dessert you had earlier in the week, you can do it.

That was me who posted on another thread about our Harmony trip last September and the nightmare we had with the RC Visa credits. I saw someone posted: "Correct. Once the points have been converted to cash, they will be refunded as cash, not points." That is totally the opposite of what happened in our experience. They definitely did NOT treat it as cash. Here is a thread I posted after our experience last Fall. My recommendation is to contact the RC Crown & Anchor phone number first. Ask to speak to a special team that handles these unique payment / credit situations regarding the RC Visa Credits. That is the team that seemed to know the most. We ended up getting our 4 nights refund and 5 nights FCC based off the total fare including what we paid with the RC Visa credits, but the Executive Relations office told us this was an exception (and really only did it as I had a voicemail from someone at RC who had already agreed to this). I forget which it was (the cash refund or the FCC) but one was going to be calculated on the lower amount after the RC Visa credits were applied. Since it sounds like the OP is going on the shortened cruise, they would possibly be in the same situation we were in. Good luck and I hope you get an easier resolution with a lot less hassles than we did.

Hi Minnie - we were also on the shortened Harmony cruise back in September and are booked on the Harmony again in April. Just be extra careful / aware on your Harmony cruise. I’d suggest avoiding food served with shared utensils (Windjammer self serve stations) and stick with food served by crew. I see too many clueless passengers coughing into their hand and then grabbing a serving utensil. As others said, use sanitizer as much as possible and don’t touch your face with your hands. With the additional restrictions on who can travel and health screenings you are probably safer on your upcoming cruise than we were on the Majesty 2 weeks ago. Have a great cruise!!!

We received FCC from the shortened Harmony cruise last September from hurricane Dorian. We ended up with a 3-night cruise versus the original 7-night cruise. Our offer was a 4-night refundable OBC and a 5-night FCC if we sailed. You can apply it to something already booked but be aware it is calculated by the actual cruise fare paid PER PERSON for the cruise affected. Depending on the sale you booked the cruise under the 1st passenger may have a significantly higher cruise fare than the 2nd passenger. And passengers 3 & 4 in the same cabin have even lower fares paid. We applied the FCC from Harmony to a Majesty cruise we took 2 weeks ago. Pricing worked out that I still had additional FCC left after we booked the Majesty cruise. But I could not apply it to our upcoming Harmony cruise in April until after I completed the Majesty cruise. So you can only apply your FCC to one cruise at a time. We did also get the full 7 nights C&A points for the shortened 3-night sailing. edit: I should also note that we had used $750 in RC Visa credits on the Harmony cruise. That was a mess. We were not going to get any of that back in the refundable OBC and/or FCC as they were saying that was not $$ paid for the cruise fare. They also said they could not refund the $750 Visa credits used... they would just be gone. We escalated this up the line and kept getting different answers from RC depending on who we talked to. Luckily one person left us a voicemail that we would get all the refunds / FCC based on the cruise fare prior to any of the Visa credits. They ended up honoring this as an “exception” since I had the voicemail. We learned to not use our Visa credits on cruises with a higher chance of changes (hurricane season).

So do you read this as the 4 are still hospitalized and being watched? 11:31 AM EST, 02/07/2020 (MT Newswires) -- Four cruise ship passengers were hospitalized out of 27 who were screened in total, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday. The passengers were on Royal Caribbean's (RCL) Anthem of the Seas cruise ship, according to media reports. The four were taken to the Newark's University Hospital, where isolation rooms are available, NBC News reported. According to NBC, 23 Chinese nationals were screened after getting off the cruise but tested negative and are on their way back to China. None of the 27 Chinese passengers are from Wuhan, the report said. In a statement released Friday, Murphy said that the hospital is following protocols on infectious diseases and that there have been no confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in the state.

Sold it at $113.20 for a quick $2,100 gain this morning. That is a little more than what we paid for our Feb 2021 Odyssey cruise while on Majesty 2 weeks ago. Figured I would use the headlines this morning to pay for that. Watching the news releases on Dow Jones Newswire as they report updates pretty quickly. NJ Governor office just reported there are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state. I also see Royal today announced they bought into a joint venture with Hapag-Lloyd Cruises (German tour operator). I wonder if they will have cross cruise line loyalty programs when this deal closes.