Tapi

At the end of the day, sail on the cruise line that best suits YOU, even if it's not the one geared to your demographics. 

We're a family of 4 (with 2 super active teenagers). You'd think that Royal Caribbean or Carnival would be better choices for us, but we've recently enjoyed Holland America and Celebrity more. 

We just returned from the Harmony of the Seas a few weeks ago, and while we had a great time, we agreed that it's not our cup of tea anymore (even my 13yo son, who lived at the flowrider the entire week), said that he liked our last Celebrity cruise more than this one. 

On 6/25/2023 at 2:49 PM, shiner6 said:

Please don't rub it in that you can afford business or first class--that is not possible for me. 

Have you considered “premium” seating, offered by several airlines on international flights? On Delta (my airline of choice) it’s called Premium Select. It’s a hybrid between economy and first class. Only a few rows in a separate cabin, seats are a bit wider, more legroom and footrest, bigger seat back TV’s, and enhanced meal selections. 
 

I consider them to be a great bargain, and they are frequently considerably cheaper than a first class seat. I’ve experienced it on 10-14 hour flights and it’s well worth the extra money.

Another alternative is to look at airlines like Norse. They are considered a low cost airline, but you can purchase a premium seat for about the same price you’d pay for a regular economy class seat on one of the bigger airlines. Main drawback is that they have a limited schedule and only serve a handful of cities, but you could purchase airfare from where you live to, for example, JFK, and then take Norse across the Atlantic from there. 

Don’t have an answer to your question, but I think I’m done cruising during the summer months in ANY warm climate area. We just returned from a cruise and it was brutally hot. We cut our days ashore short because it was too much for some family members to handle. 
 

The last time we sailed in the Mediterranean, we did so in November and it was blissful. Temperatures hovered in the 60F’s and the crowds were very thin. 

On my most recent MSC cruise (Meraviglia) they only had IPA’s at one bar (Brass Anchor). All the others only had piss water.

One thing to consider when traveling without a passport are the embarkation and debarkation lines.

In many places, passengers are split between passport holders and birth certificate holders. Those with passport breeze through US customs upon returning home (specially at ports with new face recognition portals) while those with birth certificates get to stand in line that can sometimes be at a standstill. 
 

On my last three cruises, the line for birth certificate holders has been insanely long, while I, traveling with a passport, never stopped moving, cleared customs and exited the terminal in 5 minutes. 
 

The one thing that baffles my mind is that some people will balk at getting passports, but will then purchase “VIP” packages to expedite their debarkation . We did a 2 night cruise on Margaritaville at Sea a few months ago and people without passports were paying $400 for this add-on to bypass the long birth certificate line. More than the actual cruise fare. 🤯 

Quintonil, Mexico City. 

Rated as one of the World's 50 Best Restaurants.

https://quintonil.com/

9 minutes ago, Magic#1 said:

 

What travel agency did you use, if you don't mind me asking.

Unfortunately, Cruise Critic doesn't allow me to share that information with you. But conduct an online search and you'll be able to compare different online travel agencies. 

Carnival will always have a very special place in my heart. Lots of great memories. But I reached a point in my life where I just want to try new cruise lines and visit as many new destinations as possible. 

Looking at my cruise history, you can pinpoint the moment I had that realization and stopped sailing on Carnival. It's been a wonderful decision. 

We normally book directly with the cruise line if there's no price advantage, but there are a handful of cruise lines that will offer better pricing through some of their preferred travel agents, so it does pay to shop around. 

That was the case when we sailed to Alaska. After some research, we narrowed it down to Holland America which did offer better pricing through a travel agent. We saved a substantial amount of money by not going directly through the cruise line. 

triple post 😬

Get me away from this keyboard!

double post

5 hours ago, superduper123 said:

@Tapi  Thanks for sharing your thoughts. You've accurately expressed my hesitation of why I have not cruised on this class. Not to mention, I'm older, kids are grown, so all the fun, kid-friendly activities are not important to me.

Reading all the comments on this thread, I've realized a few things. First, we traveled in June this time vs May the previous time, so the crowds may have been more noticeable because, this time, we traveled smack in the middle of the summer break.

Second thing I realized is that, a big reason why we found it harder to find quiet spaces this time is because we were traveling with kids who wanted to do EVERYTHING. They wanted to go to every family karaoke (I've never listened to "Sweet Caroline" or Taylor Swift songs so many times in my life 😂), every trivia, every game, every party, etc. They also wanted to do the waterslides, zipline, flowrider, the Abyss, carousel etc, over and over, all which were either held in pack venues or had lines. Several times, we sat on the floor (like for trivia at the Schooner Bar or for games and karaoke at On Air) simply because they were so crowded. We also ate at the Windjammer A LOT since that's what was more varied for kids, and it was almost always packed. 

When we sailed on an Oasis class the previous time, our son was 15 months old, so we didn't do the majority of the things that we did this time. On that cruise, we spent a lot of time lounging around, and spent more time doing nothing. We would enjoy quiet lunches at the Park Cafe while our son napped in his stroller. At night, we would leave our son at Royal Babies for a few hours while we had a nice, quiet dinner at one of the specialty restaurants, went to a show, or we would head to a nearly deserted Solarium for a bit of down time.

So I'm realizing that I will most likely enjoy sailing on the Oasis class again once the kids are grown, or if it's just the wife and I. This cruise was just nonstop energy with two teen and pre-teen kids! 🤣But I'm so glad we did it. They absolutely loved it. 

1 hour ago, neverbeenhere said:

If you choose Coco Cay on another cruise, you should stay aboard the ship and enjoy a light passenger day. 

We were at Coco Cay with the Independence of the Seas. We had read that, if we didn’t want to deal with crowds, that we should go to South Beach, so we headed there.
 

With two ships in port, and getting off the ship 3 hours after arriving in port, we thought it would be packed by the time we got there, but it wasn’t. We had plenty of loungers to pick from and the beach wasn’t crowded at all. Only thing was that the water was more green than crystal clear blue as we’ve seen in other private islands, bottom was rockier than I expected, and there was some seaweed. Still enjoyable though. 
 

After that, we swung by the Oasis Lagoon and Harbor Beach for a change of scenery, but it looked like an MTV Spring Break, packed to the gills, so we went back to the ship early and enjoyed the semi-empty pools. 

56 minutes ago, Etta1213 said:

You pay extra at coco cay for the water park?  If so, how much is that?

It was $179 when we sailed last week. And those overwater cabanas were going for $2K-$3K. And apparently they all sold out.

2 hours ago, jean87510 said:

I've discovered for us, the specialty lunches work better.  

We did Chops for lunch on a sea day and enjoyed it tremendously. It was a nice break. We pre booked it before departure so we paid less than half what dinner would’ve cost. I’d definitely book it for lunch again. 

2 hours ago, topnole said:

Every cruise I met people from teenager to 70 just enjoying the sun and flowrider most of the day.  After a few cruises, I rarely went on a cruise where I didn’t know someone in line from a prior cruise.  

I noticed that, every time I went up to the flowrider to check on my son, the same people would always be in line. My son talked to a guy in his 30’s who was on his 12th cruise this year alone, and claimed that he only sails on ships with a flowrider. To give credit where credit is due, his flowriding skills did show that he spent a lot of time there!

7 hours ago, GetToLivin said:

When was your first cruise on Allure? I ask because we never sail in the summer in an attempt to avoid the summer crowds, wondering if you enjoyed Allure more if it happened to be during a different month.

We did the Allure in mid May, so I’m guessing that the crowds may have been a bit thinner since summer break was just beginning.
 

There were definitely TONS of families on this Harmony cruise (our family included) being a mid June cruise. I must say that, even though there were many kids onboard (from little ones to teenagers), most seemed well behaved. There was so much to do, that they simply didn’t have time to roam around the ship and terrorize others out of boredom (as we’ve witnessed on other cruise lines that shall remain unnamed). 
 

I’m not a huge fan of summer Caribbean sailings either, partly because of the crowds and partly because of the oppressive heat. It was WAY too hot. We were originally planning on sailing Northern Europe, but had to change our plans a month before departure. Harmony was what fit our needs and days off. 

9 minutes ago, Tlbecker1 said:

Sorry that you didn’t enjoy it.  We always enjoy cruising, I guess we are not that picky, especially if we are on an Oasis Class ship.

Hi Tlbecker1. As mentioned in my post, we did enjoy the cruise and had a great time. 😀 I just think I’m done with the Oasis class of ships specifically. I think I’m entering a stage of my life where I want smaller and less crowded. But I would definitely not say “never again” to this class of ship.

13 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

Thank you for the comments.  Where is the walkway with fountains on both sides?

M

Hi. That’s in Phillipsburg, Sint Maarten. From where the water taxi drops you off, walk left along the beach for about 5-10 minutes and you’ll see it. 

Hi!

We just returned from the Harmony of the Seas a few days ago and I wanted to share some observations about our cruise. We’ve sailed on Royal several times during the last few years, but it had been 12 years since we’d set foot on an Oasis class ship (previous time being on the Allure in 2011 when our son was a little over a year old). We now returned with two kids (our son now 13 years old, and our 11 year old daughter).
 

We had a great cruise, but it didn’t “wow” me as much as the first time. Maybe I’m older and don’t care for the sheer size of the ship and the nonstop activities, or maybe it’s because things have changed some since then. You be the judge. Here are my observations:

- Crowds: It was a bit overwhelming to sail with 5,000+ passengers. I didn’t mind the first time, but it did this time. I remember finding quiet spots away from crowds before, but this time it seemed like I just couldn’t escape the crowds.
 

In all fairness, Royal does a wonderful job keeping the lines moving, and the ship is well designed to handle this many passengers, but the sea of people is still there. There were several daily announcements telling people to move along during meal hours because some venues were at capacity and other passengers were waiting. When we sailed on the Allure, electronic signage informed passengers how full different dining venues were, but that wasn’t available this time (or I couldn’t find it).
 

- Cabin service: We missed having 2 services per day. Our cabin steward did a great job tending to our needs, but she was firm on only being able to provide service once a day. After seeing her working her butt off around the clock to tend to all the cabins she had assigned to her, we understood why. She was spread too thin. 

- Stateroom: First time we sailed on Allure, we had a Boardwalk window stateroom. This time we had an ocean view balcony stateroom. The cabin was pretty standard, but I appreciated the larger shower with a glass door. Two negatives: the multi purpose shampoo/body wash felt super cheap (glad we brought our own), and the trundle bed (instead of a bunk bed) occupied floor space which made  the cabin feel much tighter every time it was open. It was annoying at times.
 

- Entertainment: Still some of the best and most professional at sea, and with a “wow” factor that we still haven’t found on any cruise line we’ve sailed on. We went to every single show and we were truly impressed with every one for various reasons. Grease, Columbus, the Fine Line, and 1887. 
 

- Food: Main dining room and Windjammer were both good and average (although always very crowded). We did two specialty restaurants (Sabor and Chop’s Grill). Both well worth the extra money in terms of food quality, ambiance, and service. Park Cafe was a personal favorite my first time on an Oasis ship and it still is now. Great little place to escape the crowds. We also tried the Solarium Bistro for dinner one night. I personally loved it, but it wasn’t a fan favorite of some picky eaters in our group, but not because there was something wrong with the venue. 
 

Ports: A bit uninspiring, but I know that this is a drawback about sailing on an Oasis class ship: Limited port selection.

I didn’t really care for Coco Cay. It’s overdone. I felt as if I was at the Aquatica water park in Orlando, with thousands of other park goers. The beaches were not nearly as nice as at other private islands in the Bahamas. I personally enjoy a quieter, less developed island, like Half Moon Cay or Ocean Cay.  
 

St Thomas and Sint Maarten are always great ports and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting both of them, even if we’ve been there many times. We found new things to do at both. In St Thomas, we did the Discover SCUBA program at Secret Harbour (booked on our own and highly recommended), and in Sint Maarten we explored the French side (Saint Martin) since we’d never been there before. We explored Marigot and Fort Louis before taking a cab to Maho Beach for the mandatory airplane watching session. 
 

Debarkation: We did self assist and the line was huge. But once again, lines moved very quickly. We were passport holders so we never stopped moving and breezed through the face recognition portals. But the line for birth certificate holders was long and seemed to be at a complete standstill. 
 

-o-

Overall, great cruise but I think I’m done with Oasis class ships. I think I’m in a stage in life where I care more for smaller, more intimate crowds, as well as more diverse destinations. My kids (11 and 13) absolutely loved all the activities available for them (my son lived at the flowrider the entire week). 
 

If I could find a smaller, less crowded ship that combines many of the amenities found on the Oasis class, along with better and more diverse ports of call, I think it would most likely be ideal. I’m guessing that Quantum class may be better suited for us? Thanks for any input and suggestions that you may provide! 

41 minutes ago, MAVIP said:

But with a very large balcony.

The balcony was definitely great! We loved the cabin and would definitely do it again.

On 6/6/2023 at 10:02 AM, Tennant said:

What is the sleeping arrangement for 4 passengers in cabin 4135?

in cabin 4135, we had a single sofa and an upper bunk that opened right above the bed. We called it "the concussion machine" because my wife hit her head hard a few times, getting up in the middle of the night and forgetting that there was a bunk hanging right above our heads!

We enjoyed the cabin, but it's definitely not as spacious as other quad cabins we've sailed on aboard other ships/cruise lines. 

Sounds like the TA pulled a fast one on you, maybe to get credit for the booking before the end of the month, even if you cancel later. 
 

Courtesy holds don’t require a credit card, and many will be good for several days. We booked our upcoming June cruise on the Harmony just a few weeks ago. I did a courtesy hold through my TA (no credit card required) and then called back a few days later and gave them my credit card then. 

The last time we sailed from Miami, the Uber driver took the route highlighted in your map, using the new underground tunnel. They’re express lanes with no stoplights so it was much faster than cutting through downtown and then taking the bridge next to Bayside which is where you’ll usually find a lot of traffic.

The route highlighted was built to avoid the downtown traffic when going to the Port of Miami. I’d stick with it.  

On 5/11/2023 at 9:55 AM, ajouni said:

This is an unpleasant surprise.  We have 2 very expensive, long cruises booked that we will reconsider.  Any thoughts?

My thoughts are that, even though Explora does promote itself as a “multi-generational cruise line”, most likely you will have very little (most likely nothing) to worry about. 
 

First, cruise lines of this caliber attract very few families with small children. Second, the ones that they do attract are usually well traveled and aware of proper etiquette and behavior. And third, if the cruises that you have booked are long, it won’t surprise me if there will be zero kids onboard since families are most frequently attracted to shorter itineraries. 
 

The closest experience I’ve had with a cruise line catering to a more mature clientele but which had a kids program was on Holland America. We sailed on a week long Caribbean cruise during mid-winter break (when many schools are out the entire week). I was expecting to see a larger percentage of kids than usual. 
 

Out of 2,000 passengers onboard, less than 100 were children old enough to register at the kids club. You would’ve never known that there were kids onboard. The few you actually saw were at all times with their families. Always properly attired and well behaved, even attending lectures and asking very intelligent and well thought out questions. It was indeed a pleasure to see children behaving better than many adult cruisers. 
 

Granted, Holland America isn’t a Iuxury line, but it’s considered a premium line and usually shunned by most families with small children. That supports further my argument that, even with a kids program, most families will prefer to sail on other, more family friendly (and affordable) cruise lines.

In a nutshell, there will be a kids program on Explora Journeys, but it will hardly be a cruise line favored by the vast majority of families, specially on longer voyages. Any visions that you may be having of hordes of children, running rampant all over the ship, taking over hot tubs and elevators, and terrorizing adults, will most certainly never materialize. 😀