sarbah77

33 minutes ago, RichYak said:

What changed in the last 24 hours?

That's between us and the cruiseline!

(okay. jk. OBC; enough to cover ordering room service every night)

9 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

This is what my DW said.  This is NOT what we paid for.

This is what I'm saying - this isn't what I paid for/this isn't the promise of what I booked. If I booked the cruise when they promised a full dinner buffet and they've taken it away and it replaced it with nothing, why shouldn't I be annoyed? From what everyone says, it's not like I can get a proper dinner elsewhere without a long meal or an extra fee.

54 minutes ago, bonagrad said:

I'm approaching my late 40s , am a DINK, planning on early retirement in Florida with the intention of cruising a lot more.  We are Elite, due to being Diamond on Royal and planned on cruising X a lot more.  We have potentially decades of cruising ahead of me.  We're about to do 180 on Celebrity and look elsewhere.  Is that a smart business decision to alienate younger generations when they need passengers to fill new, larger ships?

I feel this a lot. This is our first cruise - mine, my husband, and one of our friends (we'd invited two others but life got in the way for them) - with Celebrity. I've been tracking on these boards in anticipation of our cruise on 1/28 but started getting more concerned when I first read about the dinner buffet cutbacks.  As a group, we don't particularly care for a long sit down dinner each night. We do prefer the casual grab and go option of the buffet, having done both with RCI. 

I reached out to my TA, who looked into it and came back with an answer for Celebrity last week. Because my TA is amazing, SHE emailed ME today and said "so I reached out again...." and confirmed that they say they're doing "theme nights" on the buffet. So I hopped back on the boards and, who knew! One of the lead topics was about the ship we're going to be on and how hamstrung the buffet has been. 

The fact that this all happened AFTER final payment without any recompense is very frustrating. This buffet is not for us. 

I will say, though, that our TA went to bat for us and we're less frustrated than we were, say, yesterday.

Thank you so much, Danish viking! I look forward to continuing to read this thread as my trip approaches! 🙂

42 minutes ago, Danish viking said:

If you want to take the bus you need cash to pay for your ticket.

 

But don't pay with a huge 1000 kroner note 🙂

 

But where do your ship dock.

Duly noted! 🙂

Our ship docks, per your super helpful links: C331-333 Oceankaj

(C332 I think)

Thank you for taking the time to do this thread each year.  I first looked, last year, when I started researching our cruise, and was crossing my fingers for a 2020 thread!

For our arrival, do we need cash to pay for our transport to our hotel? It looks like (right now) the most efficient route for us is to take the bus, since it stops pretty close to our hotel.  If so, are there ATMs in the airport?

And then, for our departure, I booked us an 11:40am departure after our cruise (we have a layover in Amsterdam).  Is this sort of departure anything I should be worried about? Do I need to pre-plan our ride to the airport?

23 hours ago, paul58 said:

I am guessing that they will not charge the driver the entrance fee. The kiosk for paying the fee is part way up the hill to the fort. There is a small snack bar near the entrance once you get to the parking area & over the years have seen drivers waiting there for their fares to complete their visit to the fort.

Thanks!

(We've been once before, as part of another tour, but I want to spend my time there)

If we were to hire a taxi and have him wait for us, would we also need to cover the driver's fee? (more for planning purposes than for being cheap purposes)

Not likely they are not going to let a once in a lifetime chance to transatlantic on an oasis class ship go to waste. They will release it probably get rather full I imagine.

On our cruise in February, the captain said that it was going to be a non-revenue. Of course, things change.

We’re currently booked on Rhapsody TA but would def be interested in that if they change it [emoji3]

 

What do folks think about Oasis fall TA? Is it likely to be be released or sail back to US empty after dry dock?

 

 

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The captain told us on the Feb 4 cruise that Oasis is going to sail back empty so they finish the work.

I rarely get approached, but saved $20 on Izumi when they did. $$$

 

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I was on the sailing the week after you (the second week of the OP's cruise) and I was never once approached. I was super bummed. I had onboard credit to burn and was looking forward to the opportunity!

I was also traveling with 5 other people and it wasn't worth it, otherwise, to plan to eat in specialty dining.

That said, yeah, the Windjammer was AWFUL if it wasn't lunch. Last year, on Freedom, my husband and I skipped the MDR and had dinner most nights in the Windjammer. It was a really great experience and we were both SO disappointed on the Oasis. So was the rest of the group - whoops. :-/

Did the captain mention if it will be a revenue service?

 

 

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My husband clarified (because my memory is shot, I guess) that, indeed, the $200 million is for the hotel side. I will also note that there are a ton of signs around the ship for Wonderland. There is, of course, no Wonderland.

Margot, from Oasis, said she's going to Freedom after her vacation and then Symphony.

Does anyone have any theories on Oasis for the Fall of 2019? I see a gap between the last sailing in Europe and the first one in Florida. I know it is going to be refurbished and wondering if anyone knew anything about a TA over either before or after refurbishing? Hoping to do that if it is happening....

Just off Oasis yesterday and, according to the captain during the captain's corner, they will be finishing the refurbishment on the way back to Miami. (He also said it would be a $200 million refurb, as well)

Probably not. Maybe Eagles/Pats at this point.

I think my family is hoping for Vikes/Pats, as my husband is a Vikings fan and my family are Pats fans. But we are traveling with a Jets fan, so at least my husband will have a friend rooting with him. I think I'll have to sit in the aisle, if that happens! ;)

It's embarkation day so I would not expect too much besides it being shown in a few venues like the Casino pool.

 

Kickoff is 6:30 pm Eastern time. Try checking the entertainment in the cruise planner. I'm on the week before (getting off on the 4th) and night one is Cats in the Theater and the ice show in Studio B.

Last time I went, it was shown in the Aquatheather and I can't imagine it wouldn't be again, whether or not it's embarkation day? My group, mostly, is going to watch it, wherever it is, and avoid the madness of the first night of MTD. :) (And we have Pats and Jets fans traveling together)

Many thanks to all of you above for your help :)

Plus they promised us no overweight fees. So jammed everything we possibly could in to the biggest of the two suitcases, put it outside our room, and greeted it in Detroit. We had a late flight that day and did the RCI Kennedy Space Center excursion and it was so nice to have one less thing to haul around.

How will the RCI luggage program work out of FLL when I'm using DL which gives us one free bag pp (DL Amex perk)...when the boarding pass is processed will RCI know not to charge us for our bag's ?

I have done this successfully. There is a place to indicate you shouldn't pay and why, with the place for your FF#. We weren't charged. It was great.

Does this ship do that service where they'll take your luggage and check them in for you at the airport (my flight is at 12:30) and you don't see them again until the airport at home?

 

I was guessing it did, so wasn't expecting to carry much off except some smaller bags. So that's why i'm not much of a hurry to be off at 6:30.

Yes, they did this in July. The rest of our family decided to do the self debarkation and waited until the end (they only had carry ons), so you don't have to get off at 6:30 if you don't have luggage to pick up in the port.

(We, actually, were the ones who used the luggage valet service and it was so great)

It's a confusing situation. Freedom's Cafe Promenade uses Starbucks coffee beans, but since it's not a Starbucks venue (it's Cafe Promenade), the beverage packages can be used there.

Interesting. In July, beverages were served in Starbucks cups and it looked like a pretty complete Starbucks menu, too - lots of the froofy frozen drinks.

(Not a coffee drinker and, if spending money, I went for ice cream instead. :D)

6 days for us !! John, looking for a recommendation for dinner on Saturday evening, want somewhere on the water, any thoughts ?

See you on board!

7 weeks for us.

 

Here she goes, about an hour late

 

 

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Beautiful shot! That'll be us, next week... and I hope it's not late so I don't miss sailaway (alas, early dinner)!!

My inlaws (cruising with us next week) were going to take an 11:45am flight home and I said "Uh, do you have trip insurance?" so I'm glad others agree with me. :) They're also not very experienced travelers, so it seemed like a world of hurt.

Good to hear! We booked them once I heard about them in this forum and our cruise is just under 2 weeks away!

I usually use Happy Limo and have had good results. I had booked a minivan for 4 people but a few days ago, the rest of the family decided to follow our lead on getting to the ship and a quick phone call moved us up to a 10 person van for an extra $10.