PEBBarney

Boarding the Escape on Saturday, already knew about no Captain, now no layered shots or Fireball, wife is not happy.  

Sick of all the games these cruise lines play, not just NCL, all of them.  

24 minutes ago, phoenix1181 said:

If no Captain, what are they using?

 

Bacardi Spice or Kraken

Is Captain Morgan available on the Escape?

Was on the Getaway in late August 2022 and there was no Captain available at any bar, it was for sale in the onboard shop.

We are cruising the Escape after Thanksgiving and are curious if Captain is available.  If we will make due (1st world problems) with Kraken and Bacardi Spiced Rum.  Also, will be frequenting the District Brew House.

Thanks in advance.

Nope, sorry.

Some agreement Norwegian has with the government of Belize, who helped fund the port.

http://gomjstrans.com/MJS_Trans/Home.html

http://www.ridesas.com/index.html

Have used both several times, never had a problem.  Both will pick up from Fort Lauderdale/Dania Beach hotels and drop at Port of Miami.

Where did you go to pre purchase the passes?  

Purchased pre-cruise online. Think they showed up under the Entertainment category.

Just off the Getaway on 8/27 in Port Canaveral, the Vibe passes were still separate keys (and wristbands) that were in our stateroom at embarkation.  

Vibe was mostly empty the entire trip. There is very little shade available, and they only put the umbrellas up when in port.  Bartenders were very attentive.  Overall good experience, but probably wouldn't purchase again.

Pool was human soup with the Symphony & Mariner at the end of May.

With the recent price increase in the cruise planner for the Deluxe Beverage Package, I think it is inevitable. 

The bean counters for Royal are not going to continue to give away (give or take) 4k + drink vouchers on a typical Oasis class cruise to Diamond, Diamond + and Pinnacle C & A members.  Not sure what Royal’s solution will be, my guess is there will be a lot of unhappy high level C & A members.

I, also, believe that the price of individual drinks will be raised by at least $1 each in the very near future. 

And now served in a 12oz can, no longer the 16oz bottles.

Buy now (if still possible), if price onboard is lower go to guest services and cancel right away (will be credited as OBC), then rebuy at the lower price.

My guess is that it won't be lower onboard.  Best you'll probably get is buy one get one at half off onboard.

Down to Oasis and Harmony at Coco Cay on November 29th, Odyssey now show Nassau that day.

Now if we only knew the occupancy levels for the Oasis and Harmony that week.

See this thread.  People have had various experiences.

Mine is shows still pending validation, well after 72 hours.  Not worried about it as I know our vaccination records are authentic.

We don't cruise until the end of November, so we'll see if anything changes.  We have been issued our SetSail pass and bag tags.

3 minutes ago, OACAggie said:

Does anyone know if the vaccination part of the check-in is only for those in the US?

The vaccine requirement only shows up in the app for me, not on the computer.  Which I think is interesting in itself.

3 minutes ago, Anton said:

Please don't be upset with me, but I was happy to read your post. 

Not a problem at all.  We cruise on the Oasis on Nov 28th.

My wife's vaccination card is handwritten and mine has stickers that show the date, manufacturer and batch.

Just checked my app and it shows Validation in Progress for both our vaccination records.  Interesting, as both of ours are the original vaccination cards.

We got our vaccines at different times, hers was earlier than mine due to she works in health care.  She got hers at the hospital she works at, and I got my vaccine at one of the mass vaccination sites in the area at the time.

My guess after digging around a little more is that Oasis and Harmony will be at Coco Cay on the 29th. 

Not expecting Odyssey, as their itinerary (still original) shows Grand Cayman and Falmouth, which we know won't be happening either.  So not expecting them at Coco Cay either.  Expect them to go to Nassau as only the Serenade is scheduled there for the 29th.

We're on the Oasis.  Cruise planner shows us still shows going to Coco Cay on the 29th.

Here's 2 port schedules, which both still list all three there on the 29th.

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/coco-cay-port-392?tab=schedule&month=2021-11#schedule 

https://www.cruisetimetables.com/visitingcococaybahamas-29nov2021.html

Just letting anyone on these ships sailing on 11/28 to be prepared for these three ships at Coco Cay.

I'm not real excited about this, as I figure there will probably be close to 10k people on Coco Cay that day.  Yes, I know the island was designed to handle up to 12k passengers, but that was pre-Covid.  Kind of surprised Royal would do this in the current cruising environment, but it's all about the $$$.

Was prepared for Oasis and Odyssey (both still at limited capacity), but when Harmony's itinerary was changed from Labadee to Coco Cay, that add another 3k+.

Have only been to Coco Cay once since the expansion and that was on a full Symphony trip in Nov 2019.  There still was plenty of room at that point.  Was really looking for to seeing the island again, now not so much.

I guess I’ll just take my 5 free drinks a day, use the coupons on my SeaPass card and buy a couple drinks out of pocket versus buying the drink package for the week. That sure seems like Royal maximizing profits to me, NOT.

And I’m sure there are plenty of other D+ members that used to buy the drink package that no longer will due to the change in the vouchers.  Again, Royal maximizing profits, NOT.

If Royal runs all their businesses/policies like this to maximize profits, they will be in bankruptcy court within 3 years.

All I’m looking for is a price for the drinks package that takes into consideration the increase in the onboard vouchers or even a true percentage off.  Not the current bogus percentage off listed as D+ perk.

Biker19 seems to have summed it up best.

6 hours ago, Biker19 said:

RCI's fair price seems to be different than yours.

Can someone explain Royal’s pricing on the Drink Package for D+ members?  Increase the number of free drinks a day available anytime, but basically charge D+ members the same price for the drink package as any other passenger, doesn't make sense.

As a couple who cruises often on RCCL (close to 400 nights) and has always still bought the drink package, I just can’t understand the pricing with the increased number of vouchers.  We have always purchased the drink package in advance of the cruise because pricing in the cruise planner available to everyone was always cheaper than buying onboard with the 30% D+ discount.  This never made sense to me, I always thought the idea was to reward your loyal customers. But, no big deal it’s vacation.

Now with the increased number of vouchers for D+, we don’t think we will continue to purchase the Drink Package.  We will still drink more than the 5 vouchers given to D+, but just selectively choose which drinks to use the vouchers on and which drinks to pay out of pocket.  Royal will now not be making as much money on us as they used too. 

We definitely used to get our money’s worth with the package in the past, but now with the increased vouchers able to be used throughout the day, there is no way we would be spending an additional $1000 on drinks.  If the discount was 40% (maybe even 30%) and available in the cruise planner pre cruise we would probably still buy the drink package.  But the way I figure, Royal will be losing at least $500 to $600 on us with their current pricing/voucher structure.

Now, I know most D+ plus members are very happy with the new voucher policy.  I am also, I just wish the pricing on the drink package for D+ made more sense.  I am more than willing to pay for the drink package at a fair price for D+ members.

With the current cruising environment, I would think Royal would like to make more money off my wife and I cruising, not less. 

Mine has not been extended. 

I have one remaining that expires in September 2020, hope they do extend.

https://abc13.com/indiana-grandfather-accused-in-toddlers-cruise-ship-death-changes-plea-to-guilty/5967597/

We got our bands reprogrammed in Blaze before we could get into our stateroom, so put them in your carry on bag.  I know we ate lunch and made our dinner reservations before we went to Blaze, but we were onboard by 10:30  The girl had just setup the laptop and pad to reprogram the bands when we got there.  We walked right up, no line, and had the bands reprogrammed in less than a minute.  Check the Compass for times.

On the 1/26/2020 cruise, they were available in Blaze on embarkation day.

We brought ours from previous cruises and had no problem getting them reprogrammed, unlike some of other trips.