er345

6 hours ago, cruise_co said:

 

Edit to update: They insist we need to ask if we can move the lunch to day 3 on the ship. I have just cancelled for our group of 6.  Will just add the internet separately.  Just saved myself over $500.

Good call!

2 hours ago, monctonguy said:

Every cruise ship I have been on has them overflowing with kids...quite annoying to say the least.

 

cant imagine its any different now that its amped.

This. ^^^^^^

Sorry my post isn’t very helpful. I haven’t been on Navigator. But I couldn’t help myself because hot tubs consistently filled with kids is a pet peeve of mine. 

Thanks, Hoopster, for all of your valuable information.  Your review was phenomenal.

Thanks to you I have my plan mapped out for when we board to divide and conquer and reserve everything we need to. Luckily we will probably have a late breakfast at the Seattle hotel so we won’t be in a rush to eat. And I’m planning on getting in line early for the teens to try the trapeze and bumper cars. 

47 minutes ago, rsharp83 said:

WOW Bands

 

Jury is out for me on the bands. I’d say so far it’s been kind of useless. Swim up bar at Coco would be useful. But everywhere else you need to remove band to send with waiters or drink servers. And just now I got a water at Promenade Cafe. I showed her my band and she ask me to please bring my Seapass card next time. Well, if I have to bring my card then what the heck is the WOW Band for?? 

Hmmm. This is perplexing.  Someone else recently reported having similar issues with the WOW bands.  Luckily we never encountered that on Symphony.  Yes I had to take it off sometimes to hand over, but it seemed a lot of bars, and definitely the specialty coffee place had the scanner handy so you could just tap your wrist. I usually had both with me anyway, but I would be very annoyed if I had to go back to the room for the card.  

This topic caught my attention. I have never heard of this before.  It does sound like fun! I could see how it might be difficult on the largest ships.  But I would love to participate if I saw this on a cruise.

Just because thousands of people have gone down in short sleeves without injury does not mean that the people who get burned are not following the instructions. It’s could be how you are centered at the first shove off.  Since the staff can’t give you a push (at least not when we were on) you have to sort of scoot up to get started.  If you are off center slightly maybe that causes you to bank more at the first curve.  For me that is where it went bad.  The mat slid too far up the side of the slide and once I landed on my side there was no hope of righting myself. 

If you hit rough seas it is possible to feel it on an Oasis class ship.  We had a long stretch on Symphony in March where it was kind of amusing trying to eat dinner as everyone at the table would sway one way then the other. I could feel it well into the night.  Luckily in bed it was more a rocking side to side which wasn’t too bad.  One of our group spent a whole day in her cabin because she is prone to motion sickness. Hopefully you will have smooth sailing but I would suggest bringing several choices to prevent motion sickness so you are prepared if one kind works better.

Tntt, thank you for posting this warning.  You are just trying to be helpful for future cruisers.

 I think until you are in the slide it’s hard to realize how impossible it is to adjust your position once in motion. And holding your arms exactly as they instruct does nothing to help if you are going down on your side. 

As as I posted on the other thread, I now have a 3 inch by 2 inch pink scar on the back of my arm.  I am old so I don’t really care, but it might really bother some people. 

The slide can be fun. Future riders just bring a long sleeve shirt to put on before The Abyss. Having just short sleeves isn’t enough. 

49 minutes ago, Tntt said:

I just got off the symphony and I rode the abyss, I followed directions like they told me to, but while sliding my mat shifted and i slid the remainder of the slide on my right arm, burning it so bad taking off the skin to the white meat on my arm. I was in alot of pain had to get medical attention on the ship. I think the abyss has a flaw and royal needs to fix it. When you got burnt on the abyss did you file an accident  report or did you contact royal Caribbean corporate office? 

I filed an accident report while in the medical facility.  This was about 3 days after the incident once it began oozing on the sheets and my clothes.  I mostly filed the report as a formality so I could be treated without having to pay. Had I known this was an option I would have had it taken care of 2 days earlier.  The person who handles these came to see me to follow up. Sorry, but I can’t remember his title.  I also got a follow up call in my room later to see if there was anything else I needed. But I said I was fine.

FYI it’s been 3 months and I still have the pink scar about 3 inches long. I was in pretty severe pain for about 2 weeks after it happened.

Your injury sounds worse.  I am sorry other people have to experience this.

I agree that there was nothing wrong with asking this question about boarding.  I was wondering the same thing.  When we fly as a family we always board together with my husband’s group.  This seems to be the norm at the airport.

I’m sure there are many families traveling with a suite and a non suite room.  That will be the case for our family of four.  While I am perfectly prepared to all board in the regular line based on our C&A group, if the suite line was an option for us I would use it. I agree it was brave of the OP to ask.  NOT because of a sense of entitlement, but for braving the near certain criticism of others here.  I wish more people would just answer with polite information.

This is the first time for me.  But I am so excited to be traveling on Ovation that I checked in at the 90 day mark. I’m happy to have my set sail passes printed.  On Symphony we checked in using the app and then closer to cruise time I never could access my account on the computer to print them.  I got error messages for a month. Luckily on Symphony you can check in with the phone app at the terminal.

50 minutes ago, CRUISEFOUR said:

I’ve booked an excursion a couple weeks ago through the ship and now I can’t see it anymore to monitor price drops. Has it sold out or am I blocked from monitoring it?  Is there another way to monitor it after it is booked?

I had the same thing happen.  The excursions I purchased stopped showing up in my options on my cruise planner.  But when I went into the previous orders I could see what I purchased.  I clicked on the excursion name to bring up the description and it showed the current price.

I am loving reading your cruise news! Thank you so much for sharing these. I am mighty impressed with your pre cruise planning.

Thanks for the review.  The New England/Canada itinerary is next on my wish list. I was wondering what we would think of one of the smaller ships.  Glad to hear nice things about it.

No one seems to be able to crack the code of RCI sales.  Meaning there is always something on sale and they are always changing week to week.  I was pleasantly surprised to find one of my excursions marked down even further with this sale so I rebooked it on Friday to save some $. But the other one was now at a higher price.  

I just checked the brands on mine. I have a set of three from LL Bean and a set of three from Sharper Image.  Whatever they cost at the time was well worth it.  I have used them multiple times a year for over 10 years. I especially LOVE the LL Bean ones. I went to check the price on the LL Bean ones for you and they are back ordered until July 18th. 😔 

I’ve seen so many out there.  For me the key is making sure the large one is big enough.  I don’t need many tiny bags for socks and underwear.  But I love having my cruise clothes sorted and just slide the bags right on the shelves or in the drawers. so I use multiple large ones.

Although I like Crystalspin’s suggestion of using smaller ones to pack a complete outfit for cross packing.  We usually take a carry on with first day clothes for everyone for our pre-cruise hotel. This would be a good way to separate them.  

After reading about the magnetic hooks here on CC, I used them for the first time this spring.  I only wished I had packed more. They were so useful, I bought another set for the next cruise.  

I also packed tea tea lights based on recommendations here, but never used those.  I think I will pass on those for future trips. 

Thank you so much for looking into the Escape Room and getting us info on this! I will make sure that is the first thing I try to reserve.  I’m also glad to hear that I will get to see the fabulous cast on our 8/23 sailing. Looking forward to the shows.

Definitely time for a new suitcase.

Looking forward to reading this entertaining review. As an obsessed cruise planner with a DH who really doesn’t care that the beverage package dropped in price etc. I can relate to this.

3 hours ago, rattla said:

 

I think you’re making the right decision. Not sure I could do all the Dinners and the Lunches as well, would be a bit overwhelming.  I think it’s better to stick with what you’ve done and I’d imagine it would feel more special for those meals?

Thanks for the input.  I agree, I think it will be overwhelming to try and squeeze in enough specialty dining to justify the unlimited package.  I saw the price drop and had a momentary FOMO. 

Also I meant to say the kids will be on their own if we get into CK.  Somehow it turned into key when I was typing and we definitely don’t have the key.

Ours also went on sale today for $175.  I’m torn.  I already have the 4 night package for 4 of us, purchased at $100 each.  We are on a 7 night Alaskan cruise on Ovation.  There are 4 specialty restaurants so I planned to try and get reservations for each one.  I also booked the Solarium for one night.  If I am lucky I will get a CK reservation for one night with our Junior Suite.  (If we get that DH and I will enjoy a nice evening there and the key ds are on there own.)

So I can’t seem to justify upgrading for possible lunches on 3 days and only one extra dinner.  Is there something I’m not thinking about that would make me want to upgrade? I don’t think Ovation has a Playmakers and I know it can’t be used in Vintages.  

If it works like the other dining packages, the gratuities are built into the price.  When I bought the 4 night dining package there was nothing added at check out for gratuities like they do on the beverage package. 

2 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Freedom did it in the Jammer. 😱

Well that helps with my memory.  We did the chef’s table about 10 years ago and I couldn’t remember if it was on Independence or Freedom.  But ours was in a very nice private room, so it couldn’t have been Freedom. It was outstanding! I would very much like to do that again when it’s just DH and I. 

Hoopster, thank you so much for the beautiful pictures! And we have been curious about the entertainment so I’m happy to hear about the new show.  I love the steampunk vibe. I’m glad there is something else worth seeing in addition to Pixels.

1 hour ago, twangster said:

 

The problem I have is Royal charging standard pricing for Voom in Alaska knowing they can't and won't deliver anything close to a standard Voom experience.  Don't buy it folks unless you absolutely need it. 

I bought VOOM for a second device thinking my teens could use it to text us onboard. Now I’m reconsidering.  I’ll have to find out how the Royal IQ messaging works and maybe use that.  I hate to pay for VOOM that won’t work.