AshleyDillo

We have been in an Owners Suite on Utopia this week. It's very quiet up here as there are only a handful of rooms up on the 18th floor. The balcony is huge and the concierges and suites restaurant (Coastal Kitchen) have an amazing staff.

Quoting @chengkp75 from a 2021 CC post that Google led me to: The semi-conductors that generate the heat in these ceramic irons require the neutral and ground to be at the same potential, which they are not on ships.

Icon was out of them June 29, but they did have them on the inaugural. They said they hadn't had any for weeks.

Izumi sushi was empty last night too...only four tables and one was all officers. Agree the B2B process was smooth for the amount of people! There were a handful of us that they didn't have new SeaPass cards for at the theater. Those folks were told they would pull them up by room number when we reboarded and then they would have their cards at Guest Services. What did the kiddo think about it? That parade alone is enough to refute the argument that this ship is too much of a party in my opinion.

You can't churn as many people through in a day if it's longer 😂

In case you need it for reference!

Doesn't smell like stale cigarette smoke yet is the biggest thing I noticed. They're using the same air filtering as Icon so I couldn't smell smoke unless I was on top of someone smoking. There's only one entrance hallway from the Studio B side. Still has the art gallery on the walls, though. Same bar setup as Wonder with the 2 sided bar and a handful of video poker machines. I don't visit land casinos but I sail on Royal often and I've never seen half of these slot games.

I will keep my eyes open for it...since someone has the live covered here I've been doing mine on another site 😂

Gotta keep up with the theme to match the frat party..

It hasn't been crazy..I've scoped out all of the events on my way to the casino. People are there but no one is crazy. The frat party was comically tame. I think the inaugural clientele has not come to party 😂 And the next sailing may not be much different..4 nighter and there are almost 500 B2B cruisers 🤯

Here's the Cruise Compass for days 1 and 2. 1-2.pdf They haven't updated it for me to pull day 3 as a pdf so...

I went on a random 3 night on Harmony (making up the rest of the week of a 4 night charter) and commented that they should do shorties on the Oasis class ships more often to give people a taste and get them hooked. I was told back then (2019 ish) that it was too much work to turn around a ship this big that often...and here we are 😂 Please come back and give your thoughts on this after you sail! I'm curious what a seasoned family cruiser's take would be on this ship.

Yup..Allure is next to us at CocoCay today. No clue what it's like on land, though 😂

I think Thanksgiving may be a little more subdued also since a lot of families do sail then, but definitely come back and give some thoughts! Maybe Florida college spring break (early March) would be a prime example. I was on Wonder's inaugural in March 2022 and our CocoCay stop was something else since we were sharing the island with one of the college spring break cruises out of Miami.

I'm also on a B2B. They are trying super hard to push the party thing. It's as if the intent was to take their new Hideaway concept (both the spot on Icon and CocoCay) and make it into a ship. I actually think it's perfect for those younger parents who still appreciate that party vibe because the ship still has all the family friendly features you expect in an Oasis class ship. I don't feel this inaugural crowd is representative of the target market they are after. I will be back on in September. It will be interesting to see the difference between this sailing and those.

Water is free at CocoCay. They have dispensers at the eating venues and you can ask for ice water at any bar. You can visit the Oasis Lagoon pool and most of the beaches without any extra charges. Chairs and umbrellas are free. There is a Splashaway Bay and a pirate ship water feature which your little one can enjoy. They allow swim diapers at CocoCay whereas on the ship swim diapers are only allowed at the baby splash area. Yes. Nope. The ship handles all the clearance behind the scenes and you don't need to do anything. It takes several hours to disembark the entire ship. You will be assigned a luggage tag number that corresponds with your debarkation time. You leave your luggage outside your door the night before debarkation and it shows up at baggage claim in the terminal. You can elect to take your luggage off yourself but then you are responsible for getting it off the ship yourself which can be difficult with crowds. Yes. You reserve times at the nursery onboard and they will charge you per hour for the time that you use the nursery. Make sure you visit on boarding day to reserve times in advance because space is limited. Yes, but you will have to store them in your room when not in use and space is limited. The smaller the stroller the easier it will be to push around.

Waving from the middle (Indy) of the Royal Caribbean sandwich!

It was painfully slow the first half of 2023 year when I would attempt to work remotely (through a VPN with documents stored on a remote server). This year it has been flying relative to last year. I went back through my Speedtest screenshots and there's definitely a difference in performance.

It's considered changing the itinerary. This is my Allianz annual travel insurance policy.

The slot machines do have to be on, though. Don't assume just because the casino bar is open that the casino is open!

To be fair, Royal has in the past for shortened cruises given pro rata OBC for the missed day(s) based on your cruise fare, same as they are doing for the cruise planner purchases. I'm sure the $75 OBC is far less than that for most. True. My travel insurance policy would cover whatever costs the $200 Royal is offering wouldn't cover to get to/from the new embarkation/debarkation port along with reimbursement of any non-refundable pre-paid flights/hotels/excursions. But it wouldn't cover my decision to cancel.

From all the complaints on our Facebook group you would think this ship is falling apart. Folks were under the impression that a drydock would be a complete overhaul and refresh. She's an old lady..she has her blemishes. You can still have a good time. They're working on all the various issues that people are having the best that they can.

I don't pay extra for dining unless I'm sailing with my mother spending my inheritance so doubtful I will step foot in Gios 😂

I think all the drydock work was the usual check under the hood maintenance. Nothing seems like it was new or updated. The internet has worked insanely well for me, though.

On Radiance now..Samba is still alive and kicking.