D4

On 2/26/2024 at 2:11 PM, BobH5849 said:

Could they deny your boarding when checking in?  We have a friend that might be ready to cruise again by then.  She recently lost her husband and is an emotional wreck so she may not be ready to cruise.

I'm confused.  Are you booking 3 people in the 3 bed cabin OR are you booking 2 people in a 3 bed cabin now and thinking you might add a 3rd person later?

If you think you might add a 3rd person later, be aware that sometimes the total capacity of the ship is reached and you won't be able add a 3rd person even though there is an empty bed in your cabin.  Cruise ships can be at full capacity even when there are empty cabins.  That happens when there are a lot of cabins booked with 3-4 people in them.

We got off Wonder on Sunday.  We had 5:00 early dining and were seated at a able for 6 people.  The other couples came the first night but skipped lots of nights.  The second evening when we were alone at our table at about 5:20, the head waiter asked if we'd like company.  I asked if it would be MTD people and he said yes.  We said sure because we'd love other people to talk to.  We told him to feel free to seat others with us any night the table wasn't full.

There are some exceptions, such as:

Drinks at the Starbucks stand in the middle of the atrium are not free for Diamonds.

I was on Wonder last week. On sea days, they had a stand by the pool selling pineapples that had the middle cut out with alcohol for $14 or non-alcohol for $10.  I thought it would be cute for some pictures, but they were not free for Diamond members.

I am celiac and cruise a couple weeks each year.  

I bring a lot of prepackaged snacks with me for my travel days to and from the ship (2 flights each way), to eat on the ship, and at ports. 

You're not supposed to bring ship food off the ship.  They have dogs sniffing everyone's bags at some ports looking for food, but prepackaged food is ok. 

I bring an unopened jar of cashew butter in my checked luggage.  I bring several bags of tiny milk chocolate chips (from the baking aisle), Rice Krispie treats, protein bars, etc. in my carryon luggage.

The Windjammer has yogurt in big bowls that people scoop out of.  I ask the worker for individual yogurts (they keep them in a fridge behind the counter.)  I put them in our cabin fridge to eat later as snacks with my cashew butter and chocolate chips.

I eat lunch every day at El Loco Fresh.  The first day of each cruise I talk to the head person there to make sure I know what is gluten free.  I don't take anything from their condiment bar because of the possibility of cross contamination.

I always get early dining and preorder my food for the next day.

i trust the desserts at the Cafe Promenade because they are behind glass and you have to request them.

I'm very careful in the Windjammer buffet.

Have fun!

Since you said you're not very tech savvy, make sure you find out how to change the settings on your phone while you're on your cruise so that you don't get a huge bill from your cell provider.

You might not find out about an upgrade until after you've boarded.

We've eaten dinner with people on the first night that haven't unpacked because they were still hoping to be notified of an upgrade.

Since your kids aren't in school yet, unless you must travel during spring break (like if you're a teacher), I'd avoid the whole spring break season. 

19 hours ago, brillohead said:

 

The one leaving with her would need to get an "in transit" pass and the SeaPass for the second cruise at Guest Services the last morning.  I would set it up earlier in the cruise so they have it printed and ready for you to pick up.  

After taking her off the ship to meet her ride, you'd then need to wait until General Boarding is started to get back on the ship.  The "in transit" card allows you to bypass the checking-in process.  


When it comes to changing rooms, I prefer to go meet my new room's attendant the night before and make arrangements to bring my suitcases down to the new room around 8:30.  This gives the previous occupants time to get out, and then I just put my items in the closet so they're out of the way of the cleaners.  I also check with the new room attendant to see what time I can get into my room that day -- usually they have my room available by 11:00, so I can go in and get unpacked right away.

You can leave your luggage for the room attendant to move, but they have so much to do that I hate to add on to their turn-around-day tasks.  Plus, by moving them myself, I know for a fact that nothing got forgotten or lost or put into the wrong room (I know of people who have had that happen).  Additionally, my belongings are available to me right away, whereas sometimes the room attendants don't get them delivered until mid-afternoon.  

 

There really isn't anything to "do" the morning of turn-around-day, so moving my luggage burns up a couple minutes of my time.  

We try to have the same cabin on B2Bs, but sometimes we've had to change and I also prefer to move everything myself.

Unfortunately, I think each time we've had to switch cabins, we've also hit the timing where the cabin stewards are shuffled to different locations of the ship.  So although I've tried to meet the new cabin steward ahead of time, they've always said they'll be assigned a different location.  I think they switch locations near the beginning of each month.

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

FYI, your sailing on Odyssey is the 23rd not the 24th.

 

The sailing is sold out so unfortunately  there won't be any accessible cabins left

It doesn't hurt to ask if there is an accessible cabin available. 

The ship can reach maximum capacity without selling every cabin, especially on a holiday sailing.  That's because many families will have 4 in a cabin.  Once they hit their maximum lifeboat capacity, no more cabins will be sold.  The ship may sail with some empty cabins.

2 hours ago, Mongo69 said:

Is SB really popular with kids going cruising? Where do they get all the money? 😂

A lot of families with kids in school take their family vacation during Spring Break  (high school and younger)

38 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Late February to late April is American spring break

I agree with this.

@bayou cruiser If you're trying to avoid kids, you can take a long cruise during this same time frame (such as 9-11 nights.)  We've done that several times and had very few kids on the ship.

I’m so happy for all of you!!!

If it is at CoCoCay, they don’t use paper tickets.  It is tied to your key card.

2 hours ago, GTO-Girl said:

Taking your phone off of airplane mode was a huge mistake!!  That is why you have such a big bill!!

True.  Even if you weren't actively using your phone, just having it off airplane mode means all your apps were getting data.

Since cruise lines are pushing people to use their apps while onboard, I think the cruise lines should do more education to help people avoid big bills.  

On 10/18/2023 at 3:43 AM, Airbear232 said:

As others have noted, you can use it any way you choose.  We don’t drink, but we enjoy mock tails, lattes, fresh juice from vitality spa and water.

Unfortunately, the vouchers are not valid for Starbucks.

12 hours ago, fpcruiser said:

Just do the check in time and let your friends do the rest later.

I agree that the friends can fill in all their details later, but I assume @hazeleyes46 would need their friends sign-on information to get into their booking to be able to choose a check in time for them.

I'm so sorry.

It's good that you have travel insurance.

Did you actually cancel the cruise or were you a no show?  Many trip insurance policies require you to actually cancel the cruise in order to for a cancellation claim to be paid.

On 6/21/2023 at 1:51 AM, TheBucketLister said:

1.  What was the up charge for the unlimited and is it based on what you originally paid for the 100 photos?  For example I paid $125 for the package on Anthem.

2.  Also there was no option to get a mix of print versus digital, it is either one or the other?

On my 2022 Oasis cruise, the up charge to go from 100 pictures to unlimited was $70.  A year later, the cost was $100.  
 

They looked up my account each time so they could see what I paid.  Royal didn’t list the unlimited option in the cruise planner or on the onboard signage, so I have no idea how they determined the up charge.

I wouldn’t have even known unlimited was available if a photo worker hadn’t mentioned it to me when she kept seeing me at their kiosks trying to pick my pictures.

You cannot mix physical prints and digital.

On the Oasis, you view and select your pictures from their kiosks which are available 24x7.  Once you click “buy” on a picture, you can’t undo that choice.  The screen always displays how many pictures you have left to select for your package.

1 hour ago, lasekeye said:

I’ve yet to sail with Royal (this fall though), but with Air tags a reliable internet/data connection is req.  … does this ship offer this?  I wouldn’t trust the ship to provide quality internet/data good enuf for a runaway small child.

I was also going to suggest an Apple AirTag.  The air tag doesn't have it's own internet connection.  It is detected by nearby iphones.  I use them in my luggage and can always see them on the cruise ship.  Every once in a while, one of them doesn't update its location (for whatever unknown reason),  so it could send a person into a panic unnecessarily.

So I wouldn't count on the air tag, but it might be a useful tool.

On 6/18/2023 at 9:13 AM, Monkey0313 said:

They don't offer the unlimited package for the cruise I am going on next month. Did the unlimited include speciality dining pictures? Every picture you took?

I bought the 100 picture package on the Oasis in 2022 and again in 2023.  In each case, I was able to upgrade to an unlimited package onboard for an additional fee.  (They didn't list the unlimited package online or on the signage in the ship photo department.  I had to ask in the photo dept if unlimited was available.

Each of my pictures were great quality ... between 2 and 4 MB.

I never went to the specialty restaurants.

I had to choose to either get all 8x10 printed photos or to get an email with a link to the digital files.  There was not an option to get a flash drive.  I get the digital files.

I could have other people in my pictures as long as me or my husband was in the picture.  We made new friends onboard and included them in our pictures.  I then emailed those friends the digital pictures they were in.

20 hours ago, Fontaid said:

Pick a port day - have a couple of people go order several whole pizzas from Sorrentos, someone else head to Park Cafe and pick up several different sandwiches and salads, have someone else get more food from Cafe Promenade and have everyone meet at one of pools where you can all get together at the same time. PARTY!!!  Cost - $0  If you don't like this, maybe it will help you think of a better way to celebrate. And tell her CONGRATULATIONS from everyone at Cruise Critic. 😀

I like this idea!  I imagine that not everyone in the extended family would want to pay extra for a specialty restaurant.

5 hours ago, SG65CB said:

Basically the in transit pass will allow you to leave the ship, go on your tour, then get back on the ship without having to check in like the new passengers. You will only have to go through security when you get back to the ship. When you have your back-to-back cruiser meeting ask them how to get off the ship and go on your tour without going through customs or waiting in customs line - usually they bring a customs officer on board to process the back-to-back cruisers so you won't ened to go through customs again.

Keep in mind that Royal is frequently inconsistent on how they do things.

For example, we've never had a B2B cruiser meeting and we've always had to get off the ship and go through customs with the other B2B people and then get right back on the ship.  It would be very convenient to have a customs officer come on board because DH is a very slow walker and it's hard for us to keep up with the group.

Do you happen to have a refundable deposit?  The price you see online now is the price for non-refundable deposits.  I don't think you can see the price for refundable deposits without going through the whole booking process.

25 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

The package would include all pics in which the occupants of cabin A are in - so if any occupants of cabins B and C are in any of the pics with occupants of cabin A, those pics would be included.

Correct.  And just to clarify, only one person in the picture needs to be from cabin A if cabin A bought the photo package.  The people in cabin A can invite other people to be in their pictures.

Also, if the couples in cabins B or C wanted a picture of just themselves, a person from cabin A could stand with a gap between themselves and the couple and then crop the pictures later to just include the couple.

You have to choose to get all printed 8x10s or all digital pictures. 

12 hours ago, GEORGIEGIRL said:

I love that idea. Is it only on the "Wonder"?

Oasis of the Seas also has it