alfaeric

+1 - we did Alaska and Greek Isles on Enchantments little sister, the Rhapsody. Loved it. For a port and viewing intensive cruise like Alaska, the upsides of having an older style cruise ship outweighs the loss of any bells and whistles. If you can somehow manage to get one of the massive balconies with a corner aft suite- quadruple bonus.

Awesome. The stuff they had to take out was quite good, so nice to know they fixed it.

So you've seen in in the last couple of weeks? We got to see the opening week- and the first two show days had some issues with the hoist system that held the actors in two numbers and then the disco ball in another- and it failed after that. The last two days of shows didn't have those numbers- and the Purple Rain number is really amazing to see. The last day of the cruise, they were working out adding some stuff to replace the few min missing. The whole show as intended is awesome.

The college games are very much up to ESPN, so if there's something you *really* want to watch, it will have to be streamed. Since there are fewer NFL games- there will at least be the 1pm, 4pm, and 8pm Sunday as well as the MNF games. Apparently the NFL has some broadcasting agreements with the cruise lines.

Park Cafe in Central Park is nice. Go to the aqua show- it's amazing. And hopefully they have ironed out some of the hoist issues so that you get the original show. Other than that- spend time exploring the ship, but it can be a little overwhelming to see everything.

One thing to add- magnets. Better than tape, as everything is metal.

The corner aft cabins are amazing. In two years we did Alaska and Greek isles with a corner aft on the Rhapsody, and spent a huge amount of time out there. Rhapsody is a ship for the destination, not the ship- as others have suggested. It’s small enough so that you can get exhausted on shore and have enough energy to do what is left on board.

We had 5100 two weeks ago on the Oasis, and we didn’t think it was any worse than before. Then again, we noted the MTD issues pre-pandemic, and eat early. That 8:00 issue has been around for many years. Even at Coastal Kitchen.

+1 We started at the Cathedral, and then wandered the old streets to it's right and then back to the ship.

While the market is neat and all, you can do both- realistically. We hired a tour for Ephesus, and got back in time to wander the market. And also walk up the waterside.

Just got off the Oasis and spend exactly $0 on drinks, and we had quite a few an evening. Another option is to put that drink money to a GS or higher. Do suites get the same drinks on your account per day?

that's been our experience as well. For many years now... Also, we were just on the Oasis, and had no problem using the BOGO that was offered to us. Another confirmation that this is a ship to ship thing. I'd also wager that it would also depend on how many reservations there are for the first two nights- there was hardly anyone booked the first two nights at 150, but they were packed the rest of the week. And BOGO fills that void.

Yes, there was at least a white night.

Sorry, I do not. I saw it on the schedule a lot, but never looked into it. Have a great cruise!!!

I was trying to stream some video, which was problematic. Getting on this board was reasonably easy- although I did lose connection every once in a while on board. The odd one was my main email- for some reason, it would not connect- I don't think it was a Voom issue, though.

From what we hear, we were really on time- the week before was horrible weather. Other than it being cool as we left New York, the weather was amazing. The number of really sunburned people was really high as we saw people leave CocoCay. And we were one of them- even with good sunscreen.

It's 90 min now. My contention is that it should be 80 min with a 10 min intermission. Better if it was 70 with a 20 min intermission- there were plenty of songs and character intros that could be dropped without impacting the story. Let the people free without leaving during the show.

So that horny male cat is part of a family show? Who knew.... His whole spiel was about how manly of a cat he was. To pretend that Cats is morally better is far from true. I also remember when the cavity cat abducted the leader. And then showed up in his skin- holy crap, he murdered and skinned the leader. The violence. Good thing there was magic to fix this problem. At least you can understand the story/music to have an opinion of the stereotyping. Cats is so bad, there could be some hidden messages that you would never know.

My one post review of our recent sailing on the Oasis- I know there are a number of posters who were also on this trip, as well as some prior. This is our experience and my opinion. SO YOU KNOW- we are Royal loyalists. So much so that we became Pinnacle on this cruise- which was a reason for us to celebrate, among others. The first other reason to celebrate- this was our return to cruising since Feb 2020. The second- we both retired at the end of April- so this was a trip, not a vacation. I'll go in order of experience.... We did our pre-cruise testing at a local health center- and the time spent away from people paid off- tested negative. Whew. But the test wasn't a big deal at all. So that we can keep isolated, we chose to drive to the cruise- first time ever. It's about 9 hours for us to get there, and we broke it into two- staying at a nice city in Pennsylvania on Friday night and in the Country Inn in Elizabeth Saturday. The small town experience was really cool, so we are looking into driving to both Boston and Baltimore for future cruises. (Actually, we've already planned a camping trip to Boston before and after a cruise later this year) Having the time to do that is a real treat. I posted before that it took about an hour from arriving at the port in our car to stepping on board- the car traffic really was slow- I think there was a lot more space to allow cars to unpack than they were allowing, but that half hour was what it was. The second delay was choosing the wrong line for security. Every single person had some kind of issue that honestly took another half hour. Once past that, check in was fast, and we were right on the ship. The delay meant that our cabin was open when we stepped on board- and since we carry on all of our luggage, we went straight to our cabin and unpacked. Easy. The E-Muster was next to finish. We did most of the work as we prepared Sunday morning at the hotel, so all we needed to do was check in. Done. Then it was cruise on! This was our 5th cruise on the Oasis, and 10th on an Oasis class. So it was pretty familiar. But seeing it all again was a real treat. Central Park, Boardwalk, Promenade, Studio B, Costal Kitchen (we were in a suite)- we soaked it all in. It's been many years since we went to 150, but we noticed that the menu was VERY changed from the previous trips, so we booked it for Sunday night. Great choice, I must say. Best meal we've had on a ship in some time. So we changed a booking for Giovanni's to 150 later in the week. I know it's expensive, but we found the value, for sure. The next day, we got our Pin, and then were invited to the Pin Lunch- which was so big we didn't have dinner. What a luxury. Tuesday, lunch at JR's was so big that once again, we skipped dinner, LOL. W-F was at Coastal Kitchen, and it was good every evening. Well, except for the pretty darned tasteless deserts. But that was ok- we are not sweets people. One positive note was that the servings were more appropriate for us- we rarely left food, and we were never stuffed. I know others eat more, but getting extra orders is still possible, and eliminating waste for those of us who don't eat as much is a good thing. Entertainment was pretty darned good- weighted down by Cats. There was a pretty funny ventriloquist the opening night. We didn't go to any other headliners, as I don't like Billy Idol. Aqua 80 was a very new show to us, and we were lucky to see it's opening acts with this group- as they spent the first few days of the cruise practicing REALLY hard. One of the benefits of having an open Aqua Theater is that you can watch them practice and rehearse. So much work they had to do so that they were ready for Tuesday's opening show. And what an amazing show- it was a mash up of a LOT of 80's music with dancing, diving, and syncro swimming. Totally awesome show for us. We were both able to recognize all of the songs- but I'm not great with titles, so I could not name them all. The mash ups of some of the songs were pretty interesting, like Purple Rain, Every Breath You Take, and Careless Whisper.... Speaking of that mash up- it only lasted two days/4 shows before a communication issue meant the hoist system took out some major parts of the aerial- hope it's fixed for you as it was really cool. The jazz club was really cool, BTW, but we didn't see the comedians in Blaze. For the most part, this was a throw away itinerary. We didn't get off the boat at Port Canaveral. Just nothing there to do, and it was a really hot day. Coco Cay was actually a perfect day- not a cloud in the sky all day. So we spend all of the time at South Beach. BTW, it's pretty funny how people bash the Perfect Day at Coco Cay having not been there after the change. The old beach area is exactly the same as it ever was- layers of chairs in front of the snorkel area and the beach next to it, the rentals, etc. The new over water cabanas then are there, and to the end of the beaches to the south is South Beach and then a end cove beach where there was just ONE couple lying out. There are hardly any people down this area and it's super quiet. Pretty awesome. The water park area looks like a blast if that is your thing. And the food is light years better than the old beach BBQ. Nassau- we always go for a run. It was hot, then it rained. Which helps one cool down. But would suck if you were doing another beach day. Oh well. Sorry to see that our favorite harbor side restaurant was closed.... But life goes on. Lots and lots of construction at the port, BTW. Speaking of running, Oasis class ships are the best ships for people who want to run. The track is on Deck 5, covered all the way around, and is 2.4 laps per mile. All of the other ships we've been on, the track was the most exposed top deck and the track was short- around the obstacle course of sunning people. For the sea days, we just hung out and did whatever. Not all activities were back going, but most of them appeared to be there. Things are getting back to normal. Enough people wore masks to not make anyone feel odd wearing one, and at the same time, you knew that everyone else on board was vaccinated (to a limit, of course) and tested negative to get on board. We saw that numbers were going up here at home as well as in the New York area- but I honestly didn't see anyone get put into isolation. We never felt anything the entire time, too. BTW, Voom sucks. We got the surf and stream package as part of the suite- and there were plenty of times it dropped the internet. I had to stream the F1 qualifying at Spain, since ESPN decided to put in rock climbing instead of race coverage. Managed to figure out what was going on, but it was off a lot, too. Good thing I don't really use it. All in all, we had a great time- celebrating getting back on board, retiring, and our turning pinnacle. Fun time, for sure.

Go for it. The music is better- and you can actually understand the words. There's an actual storyline, with a handful of sensible sub plots. The biggest complaint I've seen of Grease is the use of cigarettes. Stereotyping goes a long way in Broadway- ever seen West Side Story? Or even Mama Mia? Perhaps Chicago is better at it's stereotypes? Did you catch them all in Oklahoma? I can go on. But all of them have real stories and understood music. Heck, even the very modern and incredibly fast paced wording in Hamilton is easier to understand than Cats.

Good for them, it helps start a lot of careers based on the talent required to do it. And I'm sure both had some seriously cheap discount tickets pretty fast to keep up demand. At the same time, some people don't seem to want to accept that people dislike the show SO MUCH they will walk out in the middle of the show. In addition to not liking the show, I don't think I can accept the fact that Cats removed the aerial show from Oasis. That's criminal.

So we saw Cats on our recent Oasis cruise. Had to see what all of the hubub was about. Went in with less than zero expectations, and the show certainly lived up to those. First of all, IMHO, they need to add an intermission to the show, keeping the whole thing at 90 min. That way, for all of the people who leave, they can do it all at once instead of coming in late, moving to the center of the isles (where the open seats are) only to go back doing the exact same thing. It was pretty distracting to see through all of the people coming and going. But why is the show so hated? I'll tell you why I hated it (but I sat through the whole thing). First of all, the music arrangements- it was if ALW was just copying a lot of the "Modern" music going on at the time of the late 70s, with uncomfortable harmonies going on. So you at multiple voices singing odd notes, then the pretty quiet music behind it with different dissonance- and the result of that is the words sung were almost impossible to actually understand. Some of it was also so quiet that you could barely make out they were even singing. Next, the "story". All but one or two songs were about individual cats and who they were. Which is fine if those songs were setting the viewer up for something they would later do. But no, they were just songs of cats that we never saw again, other than the horny male cat and the aging formerly glamourous cat. Thieving cats, tap dancing cat, old cat, etc- they did their thing and were never seen again. The song and dance associated with each were totally a waste of time. One of the whole points of the "story" was to pick a cat out for rebirth... wait, are they dead? Why do they need some kind of rebirth? And when it finally happened to the very obvious choice, it was just a ride off stage to the sky. Which was just also nothing. Also, I could have sworn the leader was dragged off by another cat without any real resistance... so much for being a leader. Then his skin re-appeared on one of those cats- so he's dead, right? No- the last cat was magical, and brought him back to life so that he could make "the choice". What in the world was all of that? Did any of it have any purpose? Lastly- while the cast seemed really great, it was pretty clear that not a lot of talent is really required for all but the cat singing "Memories". With the lack of real harmonies, no high end singing skills were required, and the basic moves not in sync- no high end dancing moves are required- plus it was very rare that singing was combined with dancing- Cats had to have been one of the cheapest of the musicals of all time- you can get cast right out of college with basic skills and let them move on. Which appears to apply to Royal- there were only two shows for +5000 passengers, both of which had plenty of open seats. The other shame about this show is that it eliminated the aerial show that was previously on the Oasis- which was a GREAT show. Nope, Cats eliminated that.

The games have been alternating on ESPN and TBS/TNT. And I see that one of the conference finals will be on ESPN and the other on TNT. Hopefully, ESPN Caribbean will show all of the TNT games instead of half of them. (I was just as frustrated Saturday morning when they weren't showing F1 qualifying that was on ESPN2 here in the states, especially since all of the practice sessions were shown)

Not all the games, though- I was paying attention... 🙂 The ESPN games, 100%. But the TNT/TBS games- it looked like 50% of those were on one of the ESPN channels.

We use the occasion to wear something neat, whatever that might be. Considering the best work wear I had for the last two years was a tshirt and jeans, this was a big step up.