The77thrunner

I can’t sleep tonight and it warms my heart to read these stories. (If I had to pick a favorite it might be the dragonfly pin). Mine isn’t from celebrity but throwing it in anyway. When we took a Royal Caribbean cruise with all of our children we had a wonderful waiter who not only figured out quickly what my autistic step-son wanted (exactly the same thing every time), he cut his steak for him - something he has trouble doing by himself. It was the kind of care that seemed above and beyond to me. 

My husband and I stayed in an inside cabin on Equinox for our honeymoon. Neither of us felt we were missing out, and we weren’t interested in paying more. We were only really in the cabin to sleep, get ready, and...well it WAS our honeymoon. But there are plenty of people who don’t mind an inside cabin. 

I prefer fixed dining and the later time works well for me. We had a bit of a fiasco the last night when we did anytime (on Royal). 

I stayed in steerage on my honeymoon (lol) so did not get that fancy shampoo. But when I smell the lush body wash I bought for the trip - instant happy memories. 

I’ve only cruised twice / once on my honeymoon and once with all seven of our collective kids. We had the late seating fixed for our honeymoon and really found it suited us well. We did anytime in Royal Caribbean with the kids and got screwed the last night was a crappy waiter and crappy table. I was not a fan. 

For the 2020 cruise we just booked we are doing the late seating fixed again. 

When we went on in honeymoon (on the Equinox) they offered us a deal for it onboard and we took it. We had fun going to every single photo station every night. We thought, “For $250, where are you ever going to get this many professional pictures?”

Sad story alert. We were home less than a month and found out my husband had cancer and it didn’t look good. Almost my first thought was, “Thank God we went on that honeymoon and thank God we got all those pictures.” I was the exact opposite of sorry, even though we had laughed about how many pictures we had. He died in September. I am so glad I have them. 😥

I’ve been on exactly two cruises and it just happened that oasis and equinox were the ships. My husbands and I went on Equinox for our honeymoon, then took all seven of our kids on the Oasis about a year later. Those choices were very deliberate and I do feel the Oasis was the better choice for entertainment. However, I would disagree with those who never felt like they were on a ship with thousands of people. We definitely felt like there were thousands of people and many times it felt crowed. I do agree there we’re places to escape that - like Central Park. But the MDR felt crowded and we had some not great experiences because of that. Also not the best for my husband who has PTSD, but of course that is not a problem most people are dealing with.

We never felt bored on the Equinox, though either. We are looking at Celebrity again for our next “just us” cruise.

Ordinarily I would say why NOT dress nicely? You have plenty of other times and places to be casual. But the OP may have a reason for asking that she didn’t state. My husband definitely wore athletic pants to the MDR on our cruise in January a time or two. He was recovering from cancer and chemo and has some other health issues and some nights it was all he could do to get there. Some nights he didn’t get there at all. You just never know people’s reasons.

We had a connecting cabin with our kids and I didn’t think it was noisy. And they aren’t super quiet kids. If I liked the cabin I would stay.

We were on the January 7 sailing. My experience was better than yours, but I can easily see how these things could happen. I came away not ever wanting to do my time dining again (we actually didn’t want to in the first place, but it was that or the early seating, and we prefer later).

In our case they made an effort to give us the same waiter every night but the last - and the last was a complete disaster with a inattentive, sullen waiter who knew we wanted our usual one and did the bare minimum. Not how we wanted to end our cruise.

I’m not an expert - only two cruises under my belt. But having sailed on RCI and Celebrity, I’d pick Celebrity if I were going with just my husband. In fact, we were just talking about it today. The entertainment isn’t as good but the food is better. But it’s all so personal. We really did enjoy Oasis with all our children, but it’s a big ship with a lot of people, and my husband is a vet with PTSD. We liked that Celebrity was a little quieter and more romantic too.

I stuck to praising the good service we got and complaining about our disaster the last night in the main dining room (a party of 22 showed up, so they moved us from the lovely waiter we’d had all week to a noisy table with a waiter who treated us like crap. Nice end to a cruise).

But if I’m going to complain a little more I’d just say Sabor is a rip off. There should be some sort of inexpensive option if you just want to snack on chips and sals and have a margarita.

We just sailed on the Oasis and my whole group thought this policy was dumb and penny-pinching. Royal just got a ton of our money for our big family to sail. We aren’t going to take the stupid blue towels home. But at first we turned a couple in without checking them in because the kids didn’t know about the dumb policy.

We'll be onboard Majesty the day of the National Championship. Will they show the game? Or is ESPN available in room? Didn't realize we'd be traveling during the big game.

Go Dawgs!

Lol just asked the same thing about the Oasis. Go Dawgs!

Crisis averted. Lol.

Um, I can watch this somwhere on the ship, right?!! I went to grad school at UGA and am a huge Bulldog fan.

Our kids are older (and more of them), but we are sailing in Oasis in a week with two connecting rooms (for my husband and I and the “little” kids 13,11,10). My big kids (25,23,20,17) are in their own room elsewhere.

I don’t know that I will be able to resist getting chips and salsa while I am at it. It’s an addiction problem.

Thanks, Bob. These last minute questions are popping up and we are all getting excited to cruise!

Say you are a person going on Oasis in about a week who likes maragraitas. Can you get one at Sabor with the drink package? Asking for a friend. 😉

Following to hear your thoughts. Also live in Colorado, and went to grad school at UGA. And we are in the Oasis in just over a month!

I wore a pink baseball cap while my hair was growing back from Chemo. The Maitre'D did look at me kinda wierd:*

I was wondering about that. My husband is also recovering from chemo and we sail in about a month. I think he is the world’s handsomest bald man but he is very self conscious about not having hair. He wears a hat nearly everywhere.

Wow! Loved those pictures. Anyone who hasn’t gone to look should.

I’m curious too. We are doing same cruise same ship, with all of our kids (10,11,13,17,20,23,25). I pcked the Oasis because it seemed like there would be something for everyone.

Alrighty then. So your advice is to pack the same as 7 day and reuse? That's the kind of advice I'm looking for. Still don't know if I need two bathing suits or three. 🙂

My first cruise was an eleven night for our honeymoon. I packed three suits and wore all of them. The thing with bathing suits is they are small anyway and hardly take any space. One of the best pieces of travel advice I’ve ever gotten was to take your bathing suit wherever you go. You might need it and it doesn’t take up any room to speak of.

After reading the various responses I am at least somewhat reassured. It isn't just posters on boards - the official CC reviews state that you really should pay for specialty restaurants if you want to sail on Royal Caribbean. Except - I don't want to do that when I've already paid for food and they are serving it in the main dining room.

Is it noticeably worse than celebrity? That's my only other cruise experience, and on an eleven night cruise my husband and I only had one meal each that we thought wasn't that great. It wasn't a significant problem i.e. the time - we just had more of something else.