ARandomTraveler

St. John's, Antigua or St. John, US Virgin Island would have been nice, but way too far away, unfortunately. Sailing during September/October is cheaper for a reason. It's kind of like buying something from the "mystery bag." You might get a great deal on something good, or you might get the item the store couldn't sell to anyone else. It's a crapshoot.

Yikes. I'd be really upset if I were them. My only advice is to call that 1-800 # and hound them until you reach someone who can send documentation about the date and time etc. Big fail on RC's wedding dept.

They never got confirmation they could do the wedding and they booked the cruise and invited guests anyway? 👀😬 I found this brochure online, make sure they're calling the wedding # and not regular customer service. 1-800-WED-RCCL. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/pdf/royal-weddings-brochure.pdf The brochure says a wedding needs to be booked at least 90 days before the sailing. And it also looks like there's a few decisions to make about the package, payments to be made etc. I don't think this wedding is happening in 3 weeks.

I avoided Oasis class ships for 10 years, partly because of the need to do all the reservations ahead of time. It seemed intimidating and stressful. All the different room categories also confused me. Being a regular reader of cruise critic though, I inevitably learned all about oasis class, the pros and cons of all the room categories, the info about the reservations and the shows etc etc, and eventually it wasn't intimidating anymore. Went on Symphony last year and it's now my favorite ship class. If I was a new cruiser and ended up on an oasis class ship and was unable to access any of the shows I'd probably be very disappointed, but I can't imagine ending up on any sort of cruise or resort vacation where I hadn't read up on it before booking the trip. If someone does that, and they book at the last minute as well, they shouldn't be surprised that they missed out on a bunch of stuff.

We've been able to watch college football games on our phones with the Xfinity app (that's our cable provider). We can watch it live as though we're at home. You have to purchase internet on the ship in order to do this.

That was super handy! There were so many foods and snacks at the store, and signage that we couldn't read otherwise, it was probably the #1 use for us.

I didn't feel vibration in any area of the spectrum. However, since I wasn't sailing in a suite, the only time I had access to the aft of the ship was in 270 (most of the cabins and aft areas of the ship are reserved for suite class guests only). I didn't feel any vibration in 270 though.

Are we talking "oldest at the time we sailed" or "oldest in the fleet in general right now?" Oldest: Explorer in 2004, when it was pretty new, but of all the ships I've sailed , it's the oldest one right now. The oldest ship I've sailed (meaning, it had been around the longest by the time I sailed it compared to the other ships I've sailed): Adventure Newest: Spectrum Favorite: Symphony

Also both. No issues either way. I didn't even consider that there might be an issue 🤔.

I wouldn't be surprised if they're charging 18% on that bill 😂

I know someone in a wheelchair/walker who sailed on Enchantment in May and was only able to get off in 1 port because they couldn't use the tenders. They also often couldn't leave their handicap accessible Junior suite without help, so on port days when they were on the ship themselves, they were stuck in their room.

Is this a real deadline 😂 Same sale they have every week, seems like it's been running all year. Won't be surprised if tomorrow the sale is "extended" another week.

Yes, you can take the bands you buy on harmony and then use them again on odyssey. You just take them to guest services and they link them to your room. If you're at a restaurant or the pool, the attendant has to take the actual band with them to get your drink. I started carrying my card with me to hand them for that, but would use the band at the bar, and to open my room door, which was the most convenient use of the band for me.

Full body scan and a blood pressure check. Bring your medical records just in case. Printed, not digital copies. (hopefully this translated as a joke, but just in case, I was kidding).

I love sailing from San Juan, mostly because the ports you can get to on the southern route are some of my favorites (Aruba, St Lucia, Antigua, Barbados). San Juan would be an ok port stop if you have enough time to visit the forts. Their beaches aren't my favorite, they're a little more rough and not as crystal clear as other Caribbean islands, unless you go to the other side of the island, in which case, you need a long day there, plus a rental car. If it's one of those routes where the port stop is short in San Juan, I wouldn't pick it, I'd do the St Thomas route.

They did seem pretty plentiful, it's just that everyone coming off the ship needs one, and people with a lot of luggage, or more than 3 or 4 people in their group needed more than 1 taxi. I was one of the first groups off the ship and the taxi line was still an hour long, despite a constant flow of taxis. It was a Saturday though, so maybe there are usually more taxis, but they were tied up that day.

On the Spectrum (same class as the Odyssey) there was a bar inside the windjammer, and they made fresh squeezed OJ there. I drank it every day, sometimes twice because it was so delicious. But the oranges were coming from Southeast Asia, where the fruit is plentiful and sweet and juicy all the time.

I thought the $500 was for an external VOIP app or something.

You don't need the VOIP thing if your phone allows wi-fi calling. If you have an iPhone, you can just go into the settings on your phone, click on "cellular," then click "wi-fi calling," and then turn on the option for "wi-fi calling on this phone." Of course you'll need to pay for the ship's wi-fi, but you don't need to pay for any other special VOIP plans or SIM cards etc. I used my cell phone to call the United States from the middle of the South China Sea while I was on the Spectrum of the Seas in Asia a couple weeks ago, no problems except for one phone call that I was making in the proximity of a typhoon that made the connection a little bit choppy, but all other phone calls were the same as they would have been on land.

I'm not sure if the Wonder has something different about the layout that makes the rooms or the noise levels different from Symphony, but I stayed on the Symphony, 9th floor, right outside the elevator bay and door to Dazzles (room 9264) and you can definitely hear the music and it's loud, but it ends around 11pm. It didn't bother me at all, but I don't need things to be quiet when I sleep. If you need complete quiet in your room, don't book a room near there.

We were in Japan for about 3 weeks in august and Google Translate worked just fine. Download the Japanese dictionary before you leave home in case you don't have good wifi when you're out-and-about in Japan. Google translate also allows you to read the kanji on the labels of food and on signage, and since many things are very efficient and automated in Japan, you can often get by without really having to talk or communicate with words.

Not true at all! I just disembarked in Yokohama a couple weeks ago and it took 20 min to get off the ship even though we were one of the first groups allowed to leave the ship at 8am (meaning we didn't get outside until almost 8:30am). Then, if you need a taxi, the line was almost exactly 1hr long (I can't imagine how long it was for people who got off later and had to stand in a longer line). The taxi ride to Hanaeda airport is about 30min (pending traffic, which could, and probably will, double that time). Or, if you take a train from Yokohama Train Station to Hanaeda airport, the train will take you an hour (not including the time for the taxi to get you to the train station). For an international flight, you need to get to the airport a couple hours early, so factoring in a conservative time estimate of 1.5hrs to get off the ship, another hour by taxi or train, and another 2 hours early to the airport, I wouldn't book a flight out any sooner than 1pm, and even then I'd be a little nervous. I'd be more comfortable booking a 3pm or 4pm, just to be safe.

They should give a quick warning to cover your ears.

We stayed overnight in Hong Kong a couple weeks ago and we could come and go anytime, day or night.

Starlink on Symphony last November worked great. High speeds all the time, no matter where we were on the ship. We even streamed football games. Starlink on Spectrum last month, terrible. But that was more of an issue with the Chinese government than the actual wifi signal.