rockmom

7 hours ago, trevorcruise said:

I'm in the process of booking a balcony cabin on an Oasis class ship.  We are a family of 4 (kids 13 and 9) and really liked having a Pullman for our oldest on past cruises.  My understanding is that the Oasis class ships do not offer Pullman unless one books a suite. My understanding is also that turndown services was eliminated for cabins at Balcony level and below.  Assuming this is the situation, how does the Stateroom attendant handle the Trundle?  ie. does he leave it out all the time (how would we get around the cabin?) or does he put it away (is it up to the passenger to pull it out every night?).  I'm fine with pulling the trundle bed out if needed....just curious how it all works.  Thank you!

Which Oasis class ship?  Because if I recall, when we were on Oasis, it was a pull out sofa bed, not a trundle.  So you had to share the sofa bed.  You might want to check on that for the ship you're choosing.  

3 minutes ago, big al said:

 

Thanks! My unlimited dining, as I quoted, is $289.00..if I took all 3 you post here, it would be about $153.00, which is not too bad..did you end up booking this? Let us know how it goes if you can,  & enjoy the Indy!

 

Big Al

I only booked 2 lunches--one at Chops and one at Giovanni's.  I'm sailing solo on this one AND I'm on Anthem the week before and have the 3 night package on that one, so I'll suck it up and eat at the MDR, the Jammer--or pay for some of the 'snacks' at Playmakers on Indy.  Those snacks are so good (and bad, lol)  

I'm on a 5 night sailing on Indy at the end of this month.  Here's the current sale/onboard prices for my sailing.  Currently the Unlimited Dining is on sale for $233 before the 18%.  The lunches at Chops and Giovanni's have been $18-$22 depending on the sale.  Hibachi lunch is on sale for $35 right now.  

6 hours ago, FionaMG said:

Right, well I guess I'm filing this information away for possible future use. It does sound really good. Well, apart from the cameo factory. 😂

you cannot escape the cameo factory.......We had that stop as the first one on our itinerary, and I'm thankful for that.  If it was at the very end, I'm pretty sure I would have been tired and cranky.  But it is cool to see how they make them.  

We did it summer before last and it was AMAZING!  It's a long, packed day, but worth it.  We booked through the ship because we knew it was a very, very long excursion with potential for delays since it went to several places--and quite a distance, not to mention a bus and the cruising the Amalfi part. We wanted to ensure we wouldn't be left behind. And our tour was the very, very last to get back on the ship and it was past 'all aboard' by about 20 minutes, so we made the right choice.  

43 minutes ago, Starry Eyes said:

If paying to upgrade them to Sky class at today’s prices to a bridge too far, you could consider placing an upgrade bid via RoyalUp (if they get a RoyalUp offer from balcony to a Sky class suite).  If you have their reservation number (and their consent), you can check for RoyalUp offers with this link.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/booked/cruise-room-upgrade 

RoyalUp should be happy to take your credit card number rather than theirs when submitting a bid if this is a gift to your kids.  Then, like so many other cruisers, you can sit back hope the bid is accepted.  

but I do think this can be a longshot.  So many bid on these, very few get them, especially with ships almost always sailing at full capacity these days.  

I was just on Harmony 6 weeks ago.  They definitely monitored closely. Only the people actually in a Sky or Star class suite were allowed to use the Coastal Kitchen, suite deck, suite seating, etc.  I saw several 'groups' be turned away at the door when trying to bring in non-suite guests.  Junior suites 'may' be able to get a dinner reservation at Coastal Kitchen if there is room, but not able to access anything else like the suite lounge, sun deck or show seating. 

1 hour ago, SplashOfWater said:

Adventure Apr 26th - Labadee replaced with Cococay. Icon is there that day so it will be VERY crowded.

hmm, Independence is there with Icon on April 26th.  Unless you mean your sail date is the 26th and you're with them on May 3rd?   Be warned, they finally added in our options for excursions at Coco Cay--and because Icon had been the only one there, most things are filled.  And the ones that are not, are very expensive. I know someone on Icon for that week so asked them if they could share what the pricing is for the same day we are all there.  They have the Hideaway day pass available to them for $28.99 with a 'regular price' of $39, but we have it offered to us for $65.99.  And so on.  Someone in my roll call called Royal this morning to ask about that and the rep told them "Because people on Icon paid so much for for their sailing, we are giving them a break on pricing for Coco Cay'.  And I thought I had heard it all.....that rep is out of their mind, but whatever.  Oh, and my Hideaway day pass for the week prior was only $20.99 with a 'regular price' of $29.   You'd think since we lost Labadee (totally understandable) and are now given Icon's 'leftovers' for Coco Cay, that WE should be the ones getting a break.  Sigh....

Makes sense for the comedy shows for sure since those things sell out and have long standby lines. No need for a kid to take up a spot.  

1 hour ago, colesc15 said:

Up to this point, we're on Wonder in a lite over a week and April 1st, cruise mapper still has Wonder as the only ship in Coco cay. I assume cruise mapper doesn't update with all these ships being shuffled around, but is there anyway to tell if one of the other ships swapped out Labadee for the Coco cay day since it's rare for only 1 ship to be there lately? 

Cruisemapper isn't updating all these changes so you can't depend on it to be correct during all these cancelations and re-routing to different ports.  Will they eventually catch up? No idea. 

Indy--4/22 sailing.  Replaced with two ports, Bimini and Perfect Day, and moved Nassau to a different day.  

3 minutes ago, lovelife said:

Just received notice we are visiting Grand Turk instead of Labadee on the April 4 Independence sailing.  Woo Hoo!!  Yay for Grand Cayman on the April 8 sailing also.

Ugh, we are on April 22 on Indy--and we got Bimini.  We did also get PDCC, but I'm there the week before already. And Icon is there with us on this new itinerary--and they were supposed to be the only ship, so I'm guessing most things are booked up at PDCC already.  I know it's a free beach day, but I was hoping to not have 5 days circling around the Bahamas and picked a Labadee sailing to go farther south.  

I'm on the 5 night on Indy 2 weeks later, on April 22nd.  We got our updated itinerary today as well.  I wish we had been given Grand Cayman.  We have Bimini, but they also moved Nassau to a different day and then added in Perfect Day (Icon is already there on that day so it will be busy). So anyone that excursions for Nassau now needs to change them, if they can, to the new day.  I'm figuring since Icon has been booked in at PDCC for a while, and was supposed to be the only ship, that a lot of things will already be sold out.  Nothing showing in our cruise planner for the new itinerary and I'm hearing it could be a while before that populates.  

On 3/17/2024 at 9:50 AM, DennysDad said:

Does anyone know if Cruise Mapper Port Schedule is being updated with these changes?

So far they have not been updating Cruise Mapper's port schedule.  

Thanks for sharing!  I'll be there next month via a short sailing on Indy, I'm also sailing solo.  I think I'll try to do the same walkabout as you just did--and end with a Labadoozie of course! I booked the cruise specifically for Labadee as it's one of my favorite ports, so I'm crossing my fingers we still get to stop there. 

What are the 'not good' reviews saying?  I sailed on her in October and thought she was in great shape and the staff was wonderful.  I enjoyed it so much that I'm sailing on her again in 45 days. I will say that in October I was in one of the Jr. Suites that was added on when she was 'amped' and for this next one, I'm in a regular balcony cabin that I'm sure will have the older, dated decor.  That's not a big deal to me.  So I guess it depends what things you're concerned about.  

2 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

I had booked it for my Feb Anthem cruise for much the same reason... Then I read about the DJs and such. Doesn't sound like a nice calm place for reading, unfortunately.

Agree that this will be 'party central' much like the big huge pool parties at Las Vegas hotels. Nonstop DJ keeping the 'vibe' going.  Also, on the other end is the full sports bar with lots of TVs as well as things like a pool table and shuffleboard.

18 minutes ago, sdear said:

Specifically looking for the dining plus one, but the "sale" price has been the same for months.

That one rarely, if ever, changes or at least hasn't in recent memory. I am also not seeing it offered at all on a couple of my sailings.  The current Black Friday sale IS the Black Friday sale and runs through Black Friday.  They just started in incredibly early compared to past years. I know on many of my upcoming sailings things are now show as sold out so their plan worked (things like excursions and The Key).  

1 hour ago, BecciBoo said:

There are no other ships with ICON when we are there  September 13th so I suspect they will limit the ships when she is there.

It does seem for your sailing that you're currently the only ship that one date.  Other weeks in the fall have Icon and Adventure paired up.  By then they are also working in Utopia as well as some Celebrity ships. So you lucked out, at least for now, that you're sailing seems to not have another ship there with you. 

40 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

 

 

I looked at a lot of dates and I couldn't find any in 2024 that another ship was there, but maybe that site has the schedule wrong.

that site must not be correct. Cruisemapper is showing Icon with Mariner literally every single Friday starting with Icon's first visit on Feb 2nd.  

Just now, George C said:

They were definitely included in all our visits , if you show up late they may have run out of them.

good info, last time we had a cabana, so didn't realize that you could get them at Barefoot without the cabana.  Thanks!  

No.  Unless things have changed recently, only people who book cabanas or bungalows get complimentary floating mats--and then it's just two total mats for the cabana/bungalow.  

5 minutes ago, njkruzer said:

 

Yes I know we each get 2 days and will share.   Just hoping for some extra!

at least there's a decent sale going on right now.  

4 minutes ago, ShillyShally said:

Agreed, especially on ships that don't have CK and a JS doesn't give you suite lounge access.  The cost even on those ships between balcony and JS is significant enough wifi wouldn't break the bank at all.  

yep, irks me that if you're in a Grand Suite or Owners suite on, let's say, Navigator or Freedom, you need to purchase wifi. The suites on those ships are not 'cheap' by any means. Toss in the Wifi, Jason Liberty.......

So it's ok to add more people to the suite lounge/happy hour and Coastal Kitchen, but not ok to toss in the wifi?  That's pretty messed up, at least in my opinion.  I still think it's wrong that they don't include wifi with all full suites across the fleet.