mdchachi

Magic couldn't dock at CC this week. Too much wind/swells. They tried twice and couldn't pull it off. So spent another day at sea. Even if we could have made it the temps (70-75F) would have been less than ideal for a beach day. Two years ago we were on the Fantasy in February. The ship before us couldn't dock. We made it in but it was a chilly day. Only hardy types (mostly kids) braved the water.

So my question is how often in Feb can't you dock or are temps less than mid-70s. If the odds are as bad as our luck has been seems like it would be better to avoid a Bahamas/CC stop in February altogether.

Just to report back there was little mention of Valentines Day as I expected. At dinner our server brought out an extra Valentine-themed dessert. The cruise director made a few mentions of the holiday. That was all I noticed.

I would but we'll be in the magic this time.

This will be our third year in a row on a ship on Valentine's Day. And I concur, it's barely acknowledged. If you want romance you'll have to come up with it yourself.

Thank you everyone! I love hearing what options have worked for others.

So how did it go? What did you end up doing?

Eden Rock may not be the best place to go.

http://www.idivecayman.com/Cargo-Ship-Devastates-Eden-Rock

This latest disaster occurred when the Russian cargo ship “Saga” attempted to leave Georgetown dock but somehow managed to miscalculate the environment and ended up running aground on the reef. The destruction, which has so far been under-estimated, includes the collapse of a swim through on the world famous Eden Rock dive site and the crushing and displacement of huge chunks of surrounding coral.

How do I ensure no roaming charges when using my phone. Do I log in voom prior to sail away?

Best thing to do is turn off roaming capability in the settings on your phone. Then you're sure that won't happen. It's also a good idea to turn off cellular voice & data while you're sailing in general. Otherwise it will use up the battery quicker as it continually looks for cellular signals to latch on to.

NY Daily news quoted a passenger as saying that he heard second hand that the guy had gone overboard after having a big argument with his mother.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/coast-guard-searches-texas-man-fell-cruise-ship-article-1.2554468

Just out of curiosity has anybody won or seen anybody win at the casino crane game? I'm talking about the machine which typically houses stuffed animals or toys but in the casino it was full of packs of cash of $100. Cost was $1 a try. Needless to say the $1 I put in there wasn't a winner.

Similarly there's a machine that moves up and over as you try to time it to push a "key" into a slot to knock down the prize. I watched about 20 tries in a row as people attempted to get to the $1000 bundle at the top. Again at $1/try. Some of the slots were empty which would seem to indicate that some of the lower prizes had been won.

I'd keep it that way just to be safe. When you check-in for dinner, if it really is double booked they'll immediately release the other table and give it to somebody else. No harm done.

OR if it bothers you, call RCI and ask them to check it and sort it out.

However I've had problems with this last approach. Last cruise I tried to ensure two MDR reservations were linked but they said it had to be done by the travel agent. So we followed up with the travel agent (Costco). I later called RCI to confirm that they were linked and was told they were. However just before our first dinner, we discovered that we were assigned to different tables in different dining rooms. Even weirder though was that my kids were assigned to their aunt/uncle's table and my wife and I were by ourselves. To their credit, they were able to sort it out quickly on board and assign us a 6-person table for the duration.

Still would like some personal feedback/answers if possible for Western Caribbean Oasis of the Seas breakfast venue times and suggestions/experiences.

 

Thanks again.

For a couple examples, last week it was :

- WindJammer 7:00-11:00 Day5, 6:30-11:00 Day6

- Solarium 7:30-10:30 Day5 & Day6

- ParkCafe 7:30-11:00 Day5 & Day6

- AmericanIcon 8:00-10:00 Day5, 7:30-9:30 Day6

- JohnnyRockets 8:30-10:15 Day5, 7:30-9:30 Day6

- WipeoutCafe 8:30-11:00 Day5, 7:30-9:30 Day6

(Day5=AtSea, Day6=Cozumel)

If you are early risers you won't have a problem anywhere you go. Due to our location on the ship & other factors we didn't try all the venues.

We liked the Solarium because it's so light and airy plus we never found it crowded and it had a decent selection (but not much variation from day to day). It's buffet style. I think we ended up eating three mornings there.

We tried Johnny Rockets once which has table service with the usual/typical selections you'd expect. It could be very nice but it wasn't ideal for us because we were heading west and the morning sun was somewhat warm and uncomfortable on the boardwalk seating. So if I had to do it all over, I'd have gone there when heading east.

And we ate in the AmericanIcon (main dining room) three times. Once for Character Breakfast, once with our travel-mates and once on disembarkation day. I guess if I'd have known I'd be eating there on disembarkation day I may have wanted to try somewhere else like the Windjammer or ParkCafe. But still it's the "fancy" table service option and was good. I'm sure WindJammer would give you the most options but we didn't make it there for breakfast.

We didn't try Park Cafe for breakfast mainly because we ran out of time. Also it seemed to have less selection & seating. I don't think Wipeout Cafe makes much sense for breakfast unless you're making a straight beeline for the pool or something. Of course room service is another option if for some reason you want to eat even earlier or just relax on your balcony.

One tip given to me by our waiter: if you like made-to-order omelettes or scrambled eggs, ask for "real eggs." If not they will use the pre-mixed powdered stuff. I'm not sure if that applies everywhere or just the main dining rooms.

We just came off the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Oasis as well.

 

Beer prices, at the Atlas pub on the main promenade (Deck 5). All beers were $6.50 each, with like 4 exceptions. (note: that doesn't include the auto 18% gratuity). So you're looking at $7.68 on average for beer.

Last week we were charged $6.50 for a 16 oz budweiser and $6.95 for a 12 oz Heineken. One of the biggest mistakes of the trip. I could have had 4 more oz beer and paid 45 cents less.

While I'm on the subject, the other terrible thing that happened was that I put my toiletries in my backpack when we disembarked because the suitcases had been taken the night before. At the airport I remembered to put my toiletries bag into the suitcase but completely forgot about the nearly full canister of hair mousse. So needless to say, it was taken from me and dumped unceremoniously into the trash by the TSA.

;)

We were on Oasis Jan 30th 2016 and they offered the 10 drinks for $75($92 with gratuity) the last couple of days. It can be shared.

Had the same experience last week except the price was $79.

So if you get say a guarantee inside stateroom , could you potentially get an outside

Yes. That's what post #15 said.

By the way-- We had 6:30 MTD on the IOS last week and had the same staff and table every night. We also did MTD on a 10 day Seranade cruise last November and had a table for 4 at either 6:30 or 7:00 scheduled every night-- always had same table and same dining staff--so don't assume MTD means different staff each night--you can set up dinner reservations at the same table anytime you like for each night

 

I can't figure out why everyone would not prefer this option but then again I dislike Strawberry ice cream and prefer vanilla over chocolate too

I suppose it depends on your experience. My brother-in-law tried it and disliked it immensely. He planned out every day, reserved all the time slots he wanted based on shows, time in port, etc. And yet still spent a lot of time standing in the MTD line to get in to eat. Not sure which ship. It may have been when it was first introduced and they could have been still working out the kinks.

1. I am shocked that they admitted you to MTD. They absolutely "don't do that". You can't just switch into MTD "one night".

We asked at the American Grill in advance when we boarded if we could come back down there for dinner and they said no problem. Perhaps it had something to do with that particular night and the fact that we were still on the early side for the MTD rush. We certainly didn't insist on dining in one of the dining rooms. If they had said no it wouldn't have bothered us. We'd have gone to the Windjammer, no big deal. They did give us pretty much the worst table. The one closest one to the front doors that everybody walks by.

If you are at my table or one my waiter serves, and you show up 30 minutes late, you do impact service. The waiter has to stop serving on time guests and take your order. Then instead of worrying about serving the main course, he has to run to get your appetizers. It goes on. Rude to be late

I wasn't paying that much attention but on the Oasis at least I didn't feel that they were somehow coordinating incoming courses with other tables. That would be hard to do -- some people may be rushing through dinner to make their show. Others may be having a leisurely, relaxing dinner.

Has anybody actually talked to waiters about the impact to them? Based on my experience last week (see below), I'd be surprised if they thought it was a big deal. (Or even a little deal.)

People whined about not wanting to be told when to eat. So Royal Caribbean instituted My Time Dining. Now people pick traditional dining, but think that they should just be able to show up when they want to.

You may be talking about me here. I'll tell you why I had this thought. It's because the Oasis waiter encouraged us to do so just last week.

On the Jamaica stop we didn't get back to the boat until a little after 6; we couldn't make the 6pm dinner so we went to the MyTime dining room around 7:00 and got seated right away. Less than 15 minutes later our normal waiter stopped by to greet us; apparently when his early diners didn't show up they shipped him down there to work (not our table though). The next night he said if we were running late for whatever reason to come to the MDR anyway. When I joked about not showing up so he could get a break he explained it doesn't work that way. They get dispatched to areas that need service, or they will put MyTime diners at his empty tables. I'm not sure why he still wanted his customers to come even when late. Maybe it prevents him from being assigned to other areas or maybe it affects his compensation somehow.

Of course if I had seen this thread a week ago I'd have asked him about the impact of consistently showing up 15-30 minutes after official start time.

Perhaps somebody cruising soon could ask the question ("I know it's 5:30 dining, would it be a problem if we come at our preferred time of 6:00?") and see what they say.

If you take your own wine on the board, how does that work? Do you bring your own glass with you to dinner, or is it just to have around the ship? Sorry this may be a dumb question, first cruise coming up in April and drink cost/packages are making my head spin!

As Bob said, you're free to take it anywhere even to dinner. (Actually it didn't occur to me that you could take it to a bar but I guess it makes sense.)

You're in luck because they used to charge a $25 "corking fee" to open your $8 wine (in my case) at the dinner table.

To chill it, it (barely) fits in the room refrigerator. Or let it sit in the ice bucket for a while.

This is extremely rude and inconsiderate of staff.

How does this negatively impact the staff? So if you start at 5:30 or if you start at 6:00 what's the issue? If anything, I'd think it would be helpful not having all their tables seat exactly at the same time.

The downside I see now is that many tables in traditional go unused, These are tables that cannot be used by My Time, so the staff cannot use them to reduce the My Time lines.

On the Oasis at least they send MyTimers up to the MDR if tables are going unused. Perhaps their computer systems have been updated to handle this compared to older ships.

If I'm not mistaken, you can still show up at 6 or 6:15 and get served no problem. It's not like there's going to be a bunch of my-time diners coming in early who will take your table. If so, this accommodates everybody except perhaps the staff who lose a half-hour to do the things they need to do.

For Squirty, that wouldn't work. Squirty's grandson is apparently seven years old. :)

Why wouldn't that work? My 9-year-old can fit on the cabin couch. He's admittedly small for his age...

It's ok. Squirty decided to go up to the Grand Suite. :)

On second thought the couch can be used as a bed without pulling it out into bed mode. So it would work if the grandson is still young. The pack & play would fit fine.

(Just mentioning this in case anybody else views this thread and it could be useful to them.)

You probably saved over $100!:)

That's the best way to look at it. Or I lost $16 on the extra two bottles. :)

(I'm not the type of person to buy expensive drinks or wine at dinner. It's just not worth it to me. So RCI didn't lose any sales from me. I made it through the entire 7-day cruise with 3 bar charges -- one 2-for-1 beer (gold coupon), one 2-for-1 glass of wine (gold coupon) and one pina-colada-in-a-pineapple. These three transactions cost me about $40.)

The cruise line allows you to bring on two 750ml bottles of wine per stateroom, regardless of how many guests are in the stateroom.

And many people report success in bringing two bottles per carry-on. It worked for us a couple of weeks ago. I had intended for us to go through different security lines as people have recommended but I realized I had only brought one printout of the boarding pass so we ended up going through right after each other. Security didn't bat an eye. We had no problems and I got my fancy $8 bottles of wine on board.

So, will I be able to use my phone while out of the room (to stay in contact with my daughter) then switch to the I-pad when I am in the room? Thanks!

You mean get a two-device package and switch between phone & iPad for yourself while your daughter keeps one? Yes you can do that.

After you login keep the login screen handy so you can easily logout to free up the connection for your other device.

Make sure to use wifi messaging. Apple iMessage or Skype, WhatsApp, Line, etc.

You can use the iPad to stay in touch with her as well. It runs all the same apps.