BLAMBKY

Dunkin donuts? Water slide ?

Yep, Dunkin event was before getting on the shuttle for embarkation. It was close to Homewood Suites, apparently, my DH dislikes their, meaning Homewood Suites, coffee....

Water slide was on Good Hope excursion in Jamaica. If I had not knocked myself royally I would have gone again but having already lost the go pro and one goose egg was enough. Lol, and we had yet to do the zip line portion!!! Btw- I was worried that the family thrill excursion would not be enough for my group, it was PLENTY!!!

Yes, but a bit late. On the next sailing go to the M&M and ask about TAs there.

Honestly, I have given up on M&M. I am one of 4 in our party and the only one that checks into roll call board, so do not want to give up our time with such little meeting & mingling....

I am glad you had a great time, got to love cruises lol....what were the bumps, like to hear them curious.....

 

Sorry can't help you with your question, I book directly with the cruise line but I am sure others will be happy to give advice.

Bump One- Boarding day, DH went to Dunkin' Donuts to get coffee & as he was walking away from the counter, plyboard wall piece came off of counter & scraped the back of his leg terribly. It looked awful & I was afraid that he was going to have to go to medical before getting off the ship. Thankfully no infection & still healing.

Bump two- My son used his go pro head mount on tubing part of excursion. At the end, he jumped in the river & he mount & camera came off. 😩 He lost his Go Pro but he handled it ok, went on to enjoy the rest of our day.

Bump 3- I went down waterslide with waterproof camera. It popped up & hit me on corner of my eye....yes, little goose egg & nice bruise. Seriously, we looked a MESS! 😜

Bump 4- We did the zip line in Labadee. We thought we needed close toed shoes. My daughter brought her Chacos Sandals to wear after zipping. Some how they never made it back to the ship. At least someone in Haiti will get good shoes & put them to use.

So not a perfect cruise but darn we had a blast! 😉 Btw- after this cruise, we decided we need to work out before the next one. We are exhausted! Could not have asked for better service or food in the MDR.

It was a great trip, a few bumps but great! The food & service was just as good as we expect out of Royal. I do not know why people complain about the desserts still. The carrot cake, Chocolate Royal cake, the hazelnut, the dark chocolate cookie are all so yummy! Yes, I need to hike off all them off when I get home!

Now back to my question, booked next cruise on board. I know I can do better using a TA for price, OBC and extra perks. Anyway to easily comparison shop?

It's a door that is opened...walk off! There are no huge delays when you are docked! No worries!!! If, for some reason, they are delayed in opening the doors..your private excursion will wait....or they will have NO passengers!

This is not 100% correct. Royal excursions do get priority. On Liberty last year they did a get a ticket system for other early departures, not fun. One reason that I went on and booked using Royal, when I have not in the past. On Oasis yesterday (Jamaica) they had certain royal excursions meet in theater, get a pink sticker & they got off first. Everyone else Royal excursion & independent tours went AFTER them. We had no problem meeting our scheduled tour though...

She is telling the TRUTH on much improved desserts! That cake IS yummy! And if you are a chocolate person check out the dark chocolate cookie w/ice cream! It was last night (Wednesday) 3 of our 4 ordered it, we all swooned! I thought I would want a second....could not finish it all, so rich!!! If only, I was as rich! ;)

On Oasis now, I brought a photo poster for my son's graduation celebration. I put it on his cabin door, no problem. I used 3M strips. Interesting thing about the photo part, several people have said Congrats to him. Pretty sweet! Bonus, it makes it very identifiable to not pass up their cabin.

Hi, BLAMBKY! Please say hi if you see us! I would like to meet you :)

 

I don't know any details. Just praying for the family.

 

 

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I would enjoy meeting you too! It is a BIG ship though, actually ended up on same cruise as my boss (found out day before I left!) but have only run into them twice. If you see us, introduce yourself! BTW-so glad that you made it! hope it is a restful & relaxing trip for your husband.

APDMOM, on here with you family home asked me about BW incident today. Had you heard anything? Told them I thought the medical evac was person from Columbus Cove, saw that with my own eyes from the beach....

Thanks all, sounds like for the most part I should not be concerned with it.

The answers below are probably correct, but if your not hanging your dress outside I wouldn't think it would be a problem. When the ship is moving it gets sucked backwards pretty quickly.

My guess is I leaned against an aft railing during our after dinner walk. Think I most likely just need to pay attention before sitting in the Aqua theatre area.

I had a favorite dress come home from a Celebrity cruise with soot spots. Does Oasis seem to have this issue? If so, any areas where it is more problematic? If looking, can you see it to avoid it?

In the past I have booked mostly private excursions, this time I booked all of them with Royal. One thing I noticed is that the excursion cost will change. I do not know if I just lucked out on booking when they were on sale (I did not receive any notice from Royal) or if it was just from booking earlier. I looked today and everything that I have booked is at least $20 more than when I purchased it. When you are paying for 4 people at 3 ports that adds up to quite a bit, so I thought I would share it as to possibly help others.:) Ready to sail, but not packed! Guess what I am doing today!

As far as I understand, the onboard booking rules are the same as long as you don't book a full suite (GS and above).

 

No penalty if you transfer to a travel agent.

:') Since this fall I will have TWO kids in college, no problem staying in non suites!

Our cruise is weeks away, and I just realized that they have changed their on board booking details. We used to get reduced deposit & obc to use on current or future cruise. As long as you changed but did not cancel, you would still get reduced deposit & obc. Do you now get penalized for changing, not cancelling the booking? Are there benefits to booking on board any longer or no? If you book on board but transfer to travel agent, do you get penalized?

For some hints that might be useful we have found the following: During the period that your interested in could very well have a majority of senior citizens, not a lot of families and at times by 10-11:00 PM, clubs, casino and other areas are substantially less persons than say mid Feb through Apr: We have land vacationed in ST Martin during the 2nd week of Jan and the winds can be very strong and cooler, we did this for a few years, but then switched to mid Feb: Other than that have a wonderful vacation.

That is another thought that is helpful to consider, thanks! I know when kids had a 2 week fall break (first two full weeks in October) and we cruised there was more international families, which my kids loved.

In 2015 out of Tampa and in 2016 out of Port Canaveral, we had the misfortune (random luck as we booked both about 90 days out for January sailings) to have a cold wave dip down into the South the day before heading south, thus our day of Embarkation was colder that we wanted. We wore sweat shirts that day.

 

Have never had rain all day. Had brief showers though on Embarkation day. Would not stop me from booking again.

Wow, I had not even considered that aspect! (This is one of those reasons I ask all questions, never know what you will learn!) I will possible cooler sail away weather to our conversation about cruising during this time frame. Was the weather cooler during ports or typical Caribbean weather? I believe it is pretty consistent, except for tropical storms.

LOL - and that list could continue to expand into a whole new thread of its own......but I will resist temptation! :D

 

Well OK, just one....will the seas be rough? ;)

 

OP - all in fun. :)

:cool: No offense, I get it. I will add- Will I get seasick? :')

Eastern Itinerary usually cost more than Western on Oasis-IMO. Melinda

I have noticed this too! I really would like to do Southern route again but do not want to worry about winter storms w/flying. ;p

I think he's asking about the week of Jan 6/7 or Jan 13/14. Anything you book now for January will probably be cheaper than any GGG sale, they haven't been that great lately. As for which week is less expensive, you'd have to price it out, probably pretty close.

 

 

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Thanks, I have not really paid attention to the GGG sales lately, so this is helpful!

We like to sail in January and so I normally watch these sailings (Oasis class primarily for us). My observation is that the first week after the holiday sailings is generally priced a bit more than the second and third week. We have usually ended up on dates like the 18/19 or 25/26 of January.

 

No idea about the GGG sale pages.

 

BobJ

Thanks, I knew someone had pricewatched & sailed in Jan., who could give observations about this timeframe. You just confirmed what I thought was the most likely case. Now I just need to decide if I want to wait until we cruise to book....

I think virtually all RC cruises are more expensive now than in 2013/2014.

:) Goodness, I guess I should double/triple read my post before hitting the last button. It should have read the JAN. 13/14 sailing.

Thinking of switching to first two weeks of Janruary cruise, instead of summer now that both my "kids" are in college. Would the Jan 6/7 sailings (Freedom or Oasis class) be more expensive than the 13/14 sailings? Can anyone recall if they have shown up on the GGG sale pages?

I remember on Freedom seeing celebration messages (Happy Birthday, Anniversary & such) in the cruise compass. Do they still do that for a fee? Do they do it on Oasis? If so, if I wanted to add a Congrats to my Grad! Where would I have to go to sign up for this?

Royal is not known for their desserts. Most have a gelatin consistency.

The desserts in the specialty restaurants are better.

I love my sweets too and they have made HUGE strides in them! I really like the creme brûlée, chocolate sensation. There were others but I do not remember the names. No worries, plenty of yummy things now!