Neeny12

As others have said it’s not on Allure - yet. Hopefully after being amped

🍸🍹To those thinking it not worthy:

I guess you haven’t tried a custom drink at the Bionic Bar 😉. It’s not our only bar, but not all bartenders can or will pour generously even with a great tip. I’ve been there when they can and sadly when they are not allowed (monitored by a supervisor).
And before you comment about the human aspect of a bionic bar, there is an attendant who keeps it stocked and serviced so we always tip the attendant. 🍸🍹😉 Cheers!Cinzano!Aviva!

On 1/9/2023 at 12:36 PM, heatherwillis said:

Thanks for bringing up this question about printing out a concise ""my calendar"" for your cruise. It sounds like you're used to having a summary of your entire trip that shows arrival and departure times and other important details, and you're looking for a way to print it out.
I'm sorry to hear that it seems like the old calendar feature is no longer available. It's definitely convenient to have everything on the app, but I can understand how it's nice to have a physical copy of your schedule as well.
One option you might want to consider is creating your own calendar using a program like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. You can enter all of your arrival and departure times and any other important details, and then print it out to hang up in your room. Also, you could try searching online for an august 2022 calendar template that you can customize with your specific cruise details.

I do this on Excel. I just re-use a previous version with similar itinerary and then change the dates, flight and confirmation numbers. 
I also created a generic calendar for clothes so I don’t overpack.

Another great Live. Thank you!

4 to 2 now

Just an FYI in case you can’t get the game on the ship:

Junior’s game
Canada just scored. It’s now 3 to 2 😁

I’m late to the party! Looking forward to following along. It’s been awhile since we’ve been on Harmony and we’ll be on in mid-April with a similar itinerary. Coco Cay will be new to us.
Nice to see the Ken Jarvis meet up. I miss the Periscope days but I guess there are other ways out there now. 😉

Debarkation and a leap of faith:

Backstory: On our very first cruise with Celebrity we put our luggage out to be collected in the terminal and despite The Incident we only did this once more on our first cruise with RC. 
The Incident: As I have learned in cruising, luggage is placed outside your room before 10pm and the cruise line takes it to the terminal for you. However unlike the airport, there is no carousel that brings it out. Instead it’s all just placed together in an area and you have to find it out of hundreds if not thousands of pieces of luggage. In Italy, one woman tried to walk off with my suitcase. I stopped her in time. Truth be told many do look alike, although did have bright coloured laces tied to mine. I didn’t realize this drop off in a general area was a normal thing until we switched to RC. After that cruise, I was too nervous someone would take my suitcase and also due to earlier flight times, we began keeping our luggage and walking off with it.

Suite perk: After a leap of faith in our Concierge, I was assured the Suite luggage would be in a different area. We were all escorted down from the Suite lounge and we were allowed to debark ahead of the crowds at the gangway. We were led right to the grouping of Suite & Pinnacle tagged luggage. 
Now not to say my luggage still can’t be taken by mistake or otherwise, but having the perk to get ahead of the crowds was nice. That being said, I am still likely to walk my luggage off the ship next time.

That’s all for now. Thanks to everyone for your very kind words. It helps the grieving process.

If you have any questions, I would be happy to continue to answer them.

Back to the hot tub and back to sleep:

Actually we are off the ship, but the cabin that we had was 12648 on Oasis of the Seas. We never did get into the hot tub - and we do have one at home so no issues with it. It just never worked out. 
I have been so sleep deprived these last several years due to one thing or another, but I have had the best naps ever on our balcony loungers. A solid 1/2 hour each day with a towel to cover the lounger and one of the bed pillows. Even today on South Beach, despite the noise, I got a solid 1/2 hour. I hope this continues as I am now sleeping great at night too. 😁

Activities and Entertainment and Voom Surf&Stream🏄🏻‍♂️🎭🎸🎺

No excursions for is this cruise as it was short and my guys wantec to put some serious time on the FlowRider. They did well by the end of the cruise. 
There was a very good jazz band in Jazz on 4.
Humans was the band in the Music Hall they played great Top 40 and Alternative tunes and all were danceable.

I don’t remember who was playing the Schooner Bar but his voice wasn’t in tune so we never went in there.
Brendan Lane was the Pub singer and he was a lot of fun. My son went there every night and we went the last night. He was fabulous and really engaged the audience and got them to participate in songs and other activities (I don’t want to give it away 😉). My son also spent lots of time at Blaze and made some new friends during this cruise. He’s in his mid 20’s and finished a university degree then changed directions and went to the Sheridan for Computer Animation - it’s a top school in this field and he’s done really well so far. He’ll be finished in June. He’s been trying to connect for industry week seminars and interviews and has so far been able to participate. He’s going back to to do Special Effects next year then that’s it - he’ll be finished school.😁

Dining and The Bar Tab:

This was our 3rd time on Oasis of the Seas and the second time after amplification. Since we were in a suite we ate at Coastal Kitchen for dinner. I didn’t see a real difference between the quality there and the MDR where we usually dine. The benefit to CK was the free cocktails in the lounge (5-8).

It wasn’t always convenient to run up to the lounge between 11-11 for the beer, wine and pop, so we only got some of our drinks at the lounge. In the end for four days of the cruise, we spent about $50pp per day (excluding 18% and any over and above gratuities) on alcohol and non alcoholic drinks.

😉🍸🍹🥃🍺

The little things on this Oasis trip:

The Suite deck has towels that you don’t need to check in or check out. We’re very diligent at returning ours anyway but stopped checking out towels from the pool deck towel station. 
Magnets that hold the bedroom doors open in our stateroom. 
The wait staff gets me a surprise non-dairy/vegan dessert from the MDR each night.

C&A took care of getting the record straight on our past cruises, getting my son to Gold instead of pre-Gold. And very kindly closed my late daughter’s C&A account.

And if there was any sign that my daughter is with us in spirit, it’s finding her favourite colour of her favourite flower in Central Park. 

The No Drink Package & Lounge Drinks Only Test🍸🍹🥃:

With the complimentary drinks in the Suite Lounge plus what we have purchased elsewhere on Oasis of the Seas, my account is still no where near the cost of the DX on this sailing. 
Trust me on this, for those who say you have to drink a lot, when on vacation, we always get our money’s worth (including lots of non-alcohol) out of a drink package. 😉🍸

🥶 Ok the AC is just too cold and I turned up all the thermostats to the warmest setting on the dial. They must have an override setting. I tried the open balcony door trick (at least open for 45 minutes) and it still didn’t change.
We’ve had a long cold winter at home. Apparently it doesn’t want to leave because it’s zero (C or F) degrees at home 😬

Pickleball:

First time we ever played this game. My DH is naturally good at racquet sports so he picked it up quickly. We played yesterday on our first sea day and the court was crowded BUT Pickleball players are as gracious as they are kind. They played a game then let the sideline groups play a game. 
On our first port day it was less busy with only one group of 3 players so we subbed in a player each game.

Even with the challenges I have with my knee, it didn’t seem too difficult on it.

I need to learn how they score the game as you need to shout out the score during the game. We get to play once more on our last sea day tomorrow. 

Tip: Pickleball players tap their paddles with the other players when the game is finished. 😁🏓

40 minutes ago, Neeny12 said:

Yes those glasses of sparkling wine were complimentary as is wine, beer and pop 🇨🇦(sodas 🇺🇸) between 11am & 11pm on Oasis class ships (although I heard this might not be the case on Wonder OS?) Cocktails between 5&8pm.

We do pay for alcoholic drinks at other bars but it’s not so bad because this is a great perk. 😉🍹

Embarkation and the laser focussed Wedding Planner:

We were checking in at the Suites entrance at the port and while I had my head down and my hand already on my documents, a Wedding Planner nearly rammed me with a cart full of bins of silk flowers 💐. Then she told me to step aside. We were in line ahead of her and her very large wedding group and we were the only ones ahead of their group. It would have taken just two minutes for the fellow to check our documents - they were in my hands. Well step aside we did, because I really didn’t want to get rammed by that flower cart. 💐💐💐💐 Other than that it was a very smooth embarkation. My DH and DS went to get their FlowRider bands. We stopped in at the Suite Lounge for drinks and then the rooms were ready around 1pm.

And to put at rest the rumours, yes the hot tub did survive the Amping in 2019.

I couldn’t get in that tall bathtub (knee issue) so I’m using the other shower 😉

Pre trip report:

The hurdles and hoops:

Hurdles: DH had his English name on his OHIP 🇨🇦(Ontario Health Card) so his vax proof was in English but his passport info in his French name.
Hurdle 1: Get my DH’s OHIP card updated. Done.

Hurdle #2: Get his vax QR code updated. Done sameday that he called it in.

Hurdle #3: Get DH booosted because it was possible at that time that it could be added for the cruise. 
Hoops: DX for 3 adults or not? I had heard on these boards that Oasis class were doing complimentary drinks in the Suite lounge between 11am and 11pm. We always get the DX even when it was the 4 of us (that was a hit let me tell you, but worth it at the time).

We passed on the DX and hoped for the free drinks. Worst case we would pay full price for DX. 😬🍹🍺🥃

Flights and Hotels oh my oh my:

Hotels on Miami beach were far more expensive for our on beach hotel (really right on the beach was $465USD in 2019 but now over $900USD at time of booking. We opted for Hampton Inn Brickell night before the cruise. Nice area lots of great restaurant choices. They offered free breakfast, small pool, and 24 hour gym. Great jazz band was there the night we stayed.  Shuttle was $8USD pp BUT our rideshare was around $25 plus tip and took us direct to the port in about 20 minutes - no milk run to other hotels or other cruise lines at the port. 👍

Staying across the street from the beach post cruise for two nights. Taking DS to experience Joe’s Stone Crab and Santorini’s.

Flights: 

Just really expensive this time. My knee replacement surgery in 2019 regressed so much that I have 80-85 degrees flexion. This is not really conducive to sitting in Economy or any tight spaces. We opted for Business Class. I had more legroom but when the guy in front of me tilted his seat I realized I had to do some creative pivoting to get out of my seat. Bulk head seats weren’t available (and you can get bumped for someone with a disability). You also can’t sit in an exit row if you have any kind of mobility issues.

We pre-ordered a car service as we usually do, to pick us up at home, but they didn’t show. They said they didn’t have our reservation. We used a rideshare instead. 

Upon arriving in Miami, we took a rideshare to our hotel and ate at Batch Gastropub - the food was good and they had unique cocktails.

That’s a lot for now. I have to get some lunch. 💜

We’re back at it after tragedy and tribulations. Bittersweet as it’s just three of us, my son, my husband and me. Our daughter passed away Feb 2021.

We lost both our dads only a few months before our daughter, and also my dads remaining siblings in the six month span prior to his passing. All were unexpected and two of our seniors passed from Covid. 
After the fog of this past year, we move forward. I know my daughter would have wanted us to have fun. She was always fun and never waisted a moment. 💜

We are on Oasis for this short cruise. Got a good deal on a Grand Suite 2 Bedroom which oddly enough was cheaper or comparable to two balcony cabins at the time I booked.

It’s a Sky Class suite and we scored what was rumoured to have or no longer have a hot tub on the balcony. You’ll have to wait for the reveal on that one.

This is a long start and I have to rush out to learn to play Pickleball. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

💜

Just found this thread.
Just happy to be happy about something like cruising again. These past two years have been horrible for us. The family losses from Covid and nonCovid have been devastating. We lost an entire generation, in only one year - 2 from Covid and then the unthinkable - one of our adult children. It makes you appreciate what you have left and to never take anything for granted. Do your best in life, call your parents, aunts and uncles and other family often. Hug your children every day. 

2 hours ago, topnole said:

You don’t need to do boogie board first as far as I know.  At least you didn’t before Covid.  
 

May not want to waste time on boogie board.   It is mostly the younger kids.  It is way less challenging and it bangs up your arms and body pretty good.  Go straight to stand up surfing if you are athletic.  

It’s actually part of testing. DH did it last time and it is stated on our RC cruise planner that it is required before attempting stand up surfing.

Whether or not it is enforced is a whole other topic.

DH wasn’t too happy that he had to do it on our last cruise in 2019. But he and my son will likely do it so they can get their rides in. 

FlowRider is a to do for his boys. Start early in the cruise so they get the hang of it. No lessons needed as the staff will show them what to do. They will need to sign a waiver at the sports desk and do the boogie board test first but it should be fine if there are no physical issues. There is the Wipeout bar right beside the FlowRider. Zipline and the Abyss dry slide are on that deck also. 

Is the FlowRider larger on Wonder since there is only one or does it look the same?

Great photos and review. Thanks!