OCSC Mike

Yes but you get access to the coffee machine in the Crown Lounge for as many cappuccinos as you want. Self-serve, no vouchers required.

Based on my internet sleuthing, no inside info or anything, I'm expecting her to still be doing 7N Caribbean in June until Star takes over at PC sometime in July. Then either Wonder or Utopia will head south to do the shorties while the other remains at PC to do the same. I could easily be wrong but I trust my detective work.

There is a 3-hour complimentary nightly open bar (usually 5-8pm or so). On Oasis class, you also get free beer, wine, seltzer, soda, bottled water in the SL from 11am-11pm daily.

It was a joke. RC recently reclassified come categories of cabins. I believe some aft balconies are now called "Sunset Balconies" or something similar.

According to @Ourusualbeach and going by the last 2 releases, I think it should actually be Tuesday night into Wednesday but anything is possible. As mentioned above, 7N Caribbean other than Star.

Of course. In a perfect world, you would always get a receipt. But if he doesn't happen to give you one and tipping is important to you, you can ask for one. That part is up to you.

This. If you want to tip without cash, ask for a receipt.

Just be aware the printing of receipts varies. On Wonder in June I never got a single receipt for a voucher drink. On Allure last month I got them maybe 50-75% if the time.

Especially now that they removed the suite perks… it really is just a cow butt cabin! 🐄

That’s a shame about the perks. You should be able to switch to the same category cabin for free. I have done that many times.

Plenty of Floridians sail these short cruises way more than twice just for CocoCay & the ship (soon both Wonder & Utopia will be doing them). They don’t find them boring. They go b/c they can squeeze in a short cruise & don’t care about ports. As someone who sails primarily for the ship & loves CocoCay, if the price & my schedule allowed (they don’t right now), I would have no problem doing the same. I did a 3/4 B2B once just to go to CocoCay twice & one 4N b/c the base price was $129pp during a GGG sale last October. Had a great time on all of them. One man’s boring is another’s great short vacation/holiday. Different strokes…

Not recently but had a great time there in 2019. Food and drinks were very good. Had a manager chat me up and after asking what type of food I liked he said he'd have the chef make me something off the menu... wound up being a simple garlicky shrimp and rice dish but it was very good. We'd love to go back but every time we book the Western Caribbean from PC on RC the ship leaves Costa Maya at 2pm and I wouldn't want to book an AI beach club if I had to leave that early.

Sorry to hear that. I would never pay for the beach club but have been treated to it twice and loved the food. I agree the lobster tail is overrated but the filet mignon and coconut crusted lobster sandwiches were excellent both times. Also agree the desserts aren't very good. We had funnel cakes from the Snack Shack for dessert. All that said, gimme the Snack Shack chicken sandwiches and funnel cakes to go with the Chill Grill taco bar and I'm just as happy. I can appreciate a good steak but I'm cool with simple, included food as long as it tastes good.

I've learned spring breaks are all over the map. Some are even in late February apparently. 🤷‍♀️

Yeah, I stopped playing forever ago, but in general, the rules have basically ruined the game. The house edge was too low back when they had good rules I guess.

I bet you could if you read the basic gist of it. Can you quickly add and subtract by one? 😁

Yes and yes.

It makes the house edge so much larger that it's a useless game to a counter. One of your biggest edges as the player is that you get paid 3:2 when you get BJ but when the dealer gets BJ, he/she doesn't take any extra from you. Regardless of if you are counting or not, this rule is horrible for all players.

I agree with better safe than sorry, but since you haven't cruised in a while, if you're not aware... As long as you sailed with a Passport, going through customs now just means showing your face to a facial recognition screen for 2 seconds and then walking right through. I disembarked Allure on 10/30 and was out of the terminal in minutes. It goes very smoothly.

Ah, brings back fond memories of Fremont Street and those single and double deck games. That may or may not be where the trespass story I posted earlier came from. 🤐

That's the irony of card counting in general. Casinos generally lose expected revenue wasting their time taking counter measures against most counters. When I was 21 and didn't have much money, I played $5 tables in Atlantic City just for fun. My expected win rate was maybe $5/hour? I don't remember the math, it was 25 years ago and I haven't played in ages. You actually can't be backed off in NJ (different states have different laws) but they can do other things to stop you... and they actually did... b/c Trump or Caesar's may have gone bankrupt if they freely let me win $4-5/hour. 🤣

You've been watching too many movies of what happened 50 years ago. A pit boss or floor manager will tell you "you are no longer welcome to play BJ here anymore and if you do, you will be trespassed." This is called getting "backed off." If you go back to that casino and get caught playing BJ, they will then read you the Nevada trespass act and tell you that you may be subject to arrest if you step foot on their property again. This is called "getting trespassed." You don't have to believe me but I know what I'm talking about.

I re-booked one to save $1 pp. Same deal, OBC, no reason not to. Saved a little more on the others I re-booked.

No you don't. Card counting is very simple and just takes practice. Nothing changes with more decks except that it becomes more of a waste of time given how small your edge is. Basic strategy doesn't give you any edge, it just makes the house edge as low as possible. He won't even have an edge in the long run due to their terrible rules. But no, they would never take back the winnings.

This.