grod19

same, on some nights you could hear a murmur from the crew bar but again it wasn't a disturbance to us.

I got back about a month ago from the Anthem of the seas 11 night trip from NJ to the Caribbean. We were staying in a forward facing room on deck 8. Throughout the trip there was a massive banging sound in the room. A friend was staying in the front as well on the opposite side of the boat and heard it as well. Metal smashing on metal type sound. Almost like someone dropped a couch. Talked to guest services and they had some people come to the room and they said it was the waves hitting the front of the boat. I was a little surprised by this as we are many decks up from the water level and I could only imagine what it sounded like at the water level. Anyone else stay towards the very front and have this issue? Luckily we all sleep pretty heavily, so it didn't ruin the trip.

Thanks all for the feedback. Seems like there are no real bad balconies except for personal preference and maybe pool deck noise. I wanted to make sure there wasn't anything like quantum class where I could end up with the view of a life boat or whatever. Appreciate the info. Very helpful

I will see you there! We are on the same cruise!

Was it called gulmohar or is there another one?

Going on anthem next week (San Juan, st martin,, Antigua, st Kitts and st lucia). For the bourbon drinkers out there, anything decent onboard? What about at the islands? Is gulmohars still a good place to visit? Last time I was there (pre covid) they were getting expensive. Any other places to check out?

Thank you. It is a $500 difference so it is significant saving.

Considering booking a guaranteed balcony room on Oasis. With that in mind, what are the worst balconies on Oasis? I don't see any listed with major obstructions or anything similar to what Quantum class has. I assume the ones right next to music hall are loud but are there other things I am missing? How are the ones on 6 behind playmakers or Johnny Rockets? Trying to figure out what the absolute worst case I could end up with.

Their menus are on their fb page. Ec to usd conversion late is 2.6ec to 1usd

Any suggestions on what to eat/drink or what to avoid? We were there pre covid and loved it. Going back in a few weeks

We did Oasis in Sept. The times listed above are what we experienced. The younger of the 2 will need reservations to go to AO babies and there is an hourly fee. We had a terrible time getting hours for our 18 month old. I think on our 7 day trip we got a grand total of about 10 hours of care for her. The older one can be dropped off anytime they are open as long as they aren't at max capacity. Good luck

was onboard in sept. We struggled to get our under 3 daughter into the nursery. They had very few hours available and honestly I wasn't thrilled with the staff there. I think we ended up with a grand total of about 10 hours all week that we were able to drop our daughter off. I think it was $6 an hour for the little one. Our 4+ year old LOVED the AO. I believe they were open 9-12, 2-5, and 7-10 for free and then late night hours with a charge after that. We never had issues dropping him off and all the kids came out smiling with good stories and arts and crafts each night. Definitely make it a priority to go there as soon as you can onboard to sign the kids up and to book hours for your little ones.

I recently stayed in 12729, the room was fine and there is a slight view of the wake but not a good one. If you want to be connected to the ocean, boardwalk rooms are not for you. The 2 biggest headaches, it is a long walk to the room and the aqua show is LOUD and you can clearly hear it in your room.

Thank you. I avoid times when school is out for exactly those reasons.

Recently cruised Oasis and had the hardest time getting our daughter available hours in AO babies. My pre covid cruise on Anthem, AO babies was open all day. On Oasis it was 9-12, 2-5, and 7-late. Is this standard across the board now? We are cruising again on Anthem in January and want to set expectations early. Have other families struggled to get hours in AO baby or was it just our luck because there was a lot of small kids on our cruise? If you don't mind listing which ship and when you were traveling it would be helpful to me when discussing your experience

I also found cash tips occasionally lead to a 5th or 6th free drink from time to time. And I had no problem using my wife's. On a few occasions one of us was out and the bartender just told us they used the other spouses drinks.

correct, sorry I always forget there is a soda package and a mocktails (refreshment) package. In my brain there are only 2, booze and no booze!!!

Was the shower warm all the time? We cruised 2 trips before you and there was no cold water. The shower was always hot

c-leg is right. I would be giving my 4 diamond drinks to the non diamond wife and I would just be drinking my package drinks. This way she gets 4 free and I would need to have about 5-6 drinks a day to break even (not a problem)

If that is an option that is an awesome loop hole!!!! I might have to call up and see if that is an option

I am working on some details for our upcoming cruise and wanted to see if anyone had any first hand experience with what I am thinking. First off we are 2 couples, in 2 different rooms. One couple is diamond so 4 free drinks a day. The husbands drink and the drink package would be worth it, the wives would probably come up short of making it worth it, especially with the one having diamond status. So my thought was to put the men in one room and get the drink package for them. If I do this can the Diamond husband use his diamond drinking for the none diamond wife? Are there any downsides to this besides the minor headaches of 1) remembering what your room number is on paper vs where you are actually sleeping 2) Diamond husband needs to be there to get non diamond wife a drink. If the wives got to use the 4 diamond drinks each day and the husbands had the package that would be ideal for us. I recently read a review that said you can purchase the drink package for just one person in a stateroom if you call up? This was shocking news to me, anyone else experience this? I had heard in the past you could get one person the non alcoholic package and one the alcohol package but never just getting one person the package. Lastly, are there any other downsides I am missing with this plan? Or is there a better plan that I am not thinking of?

I believe my last review a few years ago was about 6 pages long so I tried to cut back. Left out a ton of things but hit the high points

I can't comment on Grandeur but I just got off Oasis 2 weeks ago. On Oasis you needed to reserve hours ahead of time to drop off your kid. On the first night we were given 8 hours to book. They had nothing available till night 3 at that time. I am sure this will vary based on the number of kids onboard. Regardless I would go early on the first day to sign up and get your hours.

My family (Me 40M, DW 38F, DS 4, DD 18 months) and I just completed our Oasis trip (sept 4-11). I wanted to throw together some notes to highlight some of the unexpected and address some of the issues/questions that are constantly brought up on here. First off Oasis is an amazing ship. Lots to love about it and a million things to do. Having 2 small kids we didn’t get to do much nightlife but still loved being onboard. The kids loved the splash area where they could play but it is a pain for the parents having one in diapers and one not. They aren’t allowed in the same space to play and they have the “kiddie pool cops” watching like hawks to make sure they don’t enter the wrong space. This is rough on the parents as we were both always “on duty”. I had one kid, and the wife had the other. I can’t wait for them both to be old enough to play in the same space. We didn’t find the areas around the pools to be overly crowded and could always find a spot for our stuff. I did lots of walking in circles to get my daughter to nap each day and always found many free chairs. I loved all the bars being spread out on the pool decks as opposed to other ships that have a main bar or two. Overall the pool deck was my favorite of all the ships we have been on. There were 2 things I absolutely hated onboard. The shower temperatures and Adventure Ocean Babies. The shower temp was always warm to hot. There was no cold or luke warm water. After spending a day in 95+ degree heat I wanted a shower to cool off and that wasn’t the case. I basically spent 7 days sweating nonstop including in and after a shower. As for AO babies, what a train wreck. I don’t get how a cruise line that can get 6k people off and 6k people on a ship in a day can’t figure out a better process for day care. First you have to sign the kids up during certain hours, I went 7pm day one. Took 2 minutes to fill out the info on their tablet (Dear Royal, make this available in the Royal App so I don’t have to go to AO to do it). Second for the AO Babies you need to sign them up for specific hours you want to drop them off. Of course that couldn’t be done at 7pm when I signed them up. Had to come back at 8pm when they opened. When I came back I was told I had to wait so they could let all the parents dropping off their kids go first. On the first day you get 8 hours to sign your kid up and the hours available were VERY limited. The earliest I could get was 730-10 on night 3, 4, 5. On day 3 you get a few more hours to use. All in all we got a total of 10 hours use out of AO babies. They also called us one night to come check on our daughter because she would sleep for 2 minutes and then wake up screaming. When I got there the lady was rocking her in the stroller and told me “she just fell asleep”. My daughter had both feet pointed straight in the air. Who sleeps like that??? I told her to rock her a few more minutes till the feet came down and she would be fine. Sure enough 3 minutes later (yes I timed it), my daughter was out cold. I was not impressed by AO baby at all. Our son loved the 3-5 year old group and even asked to go a few times. They did some sort of craft or project every night and all I saw was smiles from the kids leaving that group. My only other complaint, god that ship is LOUD. The shows in aqua theatre blast all through the boardwalk. Anything happening on the promenade echoes all through the main section of the ship. And during the day, pool and band noise fill central park. The one night our kids fought hard going to bed so daddy just wanted a calm quiet drink. Between the aquashow and 70s dance party the ship was insanely loud. Central park was quiet but the bar there is very tiny. Usually I am all for the noise and the party but that night I wanted something calmer and didn’t have much luck. I found the food to be very good. Our dining room team was top notch. The one even rocked our daughter in her stroller back to sleep so I could cut my meat into pieces before I took over the rocking duties. We never went hungry at windjammer. Thought there was some good options each day. I didn’t eat a ton because of the heat. Wife had el loco fresh and liked it. Not amazing but not bad. Breakfast/brunch in the dining room was good. Chicken and waffles had a good kick. Overall pleased with the food. Not amazing but never hated any dish. Loved the French onion soup. For the first time in ages we didn’t get the drink package. The 4 free diamond drinks made it cost prohibitive for us. For each free diamond drink I threw a buck or two to the bartenders. Sometimes when I was out of diamond drinks for the day I wasn’t charged for the next drink so sometimes 4 free was really 5 or 6 or……. Overall loved the Oasis and had a great cruise. Definitely would book again, just can’t wait for both kids to be 3 and potty trained. Feel free to fire away with any questions and I will do my best to answer them. I attempted to keep this short and failed miserably

If you are a drinker and the wife isn't (or vice versa) I would definitely split the kids up so you can get the drink package!!!