robmtx

If Mike Pace is the comedian when you go, I wouldn't bring ANYONE sensitive or easily offended. And definitely no kids. He's funny, and picks on the crowd to an extent, so his show is always a tad different. He does have some scripted stuff too.. but yeah, NO NO to kids unless you want to have a lot of explaining to do later. Lately they have been performing in the Royal Theater on Day 1 and Day 7, and this is trimmed down enough for a 14 year old.

Correct! There are generally two surface parking areas. the one furthest back is mixed in with warehouse buildings and doesn't have an exit booth. So they take money up front if you park here. It's also a bit of a walk! they do offer a shuttle, but we chose to use our feet. They also will park some oversized vehicles in between some of the warehouses rather than putting them in the enclosed area (see below) The other surface lot is actually enclosed with a booth at the exit, so you can pay as you leave. You can also pay at one of the kiosks at the garage. I ended right across from the garage and had a very short walk!

How many people for this? If you want to be indoors try the card room on deck 12.

I got in via standby line and got a seat at the bar facing the stage. perfect spot because I could see over everyone's heads and just swivel around for a refill! But yeah, this advice about probably not getting in via standby is good advice. I think I just got lucky that day!

Most memorable Itinerary = Alaska Southbound, getting to see Hubbard Glacier in an active calving moment was wonderful. Most memorable family = Taking the boys to St Kitts and St Martin, and renting private drivers to tour the islands. Our youngest still calls St Kitts his favorite place. Most memorable couples only = Regal Princess in 2015 because it was the 1st with my partner. She and I have been on a boat or two since, but that first one together will always be the most memorable. Most memorable Uh Oh cruise = Anthem Feb 2016. Super Bowl Sunday and we got in a fight with a popup "unnamed" storm off the coast of NC. 150mph winds and reportedly 30 feet seas. All passengers were ask to shelter in place in their staterooms as we had no choice but ride out the storm for close to 12 hours. Most memorable in a bad way cruise = Navigator 2018, my partner became extremely ill on board and the doctor couldn't treat her. We were medically disembarked in Bonaire and after 2 days on the island had to be med-evaced by jet ambulance.

I also had to replace my card twice last voyage and the one I came home with is looking a little sad. I like to keep the cards and this is the only one I've ever brought home looking so pitiful. 😞

I can only hope by saying "1 mile" they were exaggerating. One mile would put you way back where the new condos are (see pic). When we went in June, we got there around 10am and we were backed up all the way 2-tenths of a mile! It took about 5 minutes to drop off our luggage. It, unfortunately, took me another 20 minutes to follow the line of cars to the parking lot... Our trip here for Adventure had no lines approaching baggage drop-off and about 10 mins to park our car (the lot we were pointed to was doing pre-pay which was slowing up the process). Point is - you're going on vacation! Don't let a little traffic get you in a mood.

Aqua80 hasn't been running on night 1. Frozen in Time has been on night 1 and a 10/10:30 welcome aboard comedy show in main theater. They used to have "Reverse Order" schedules (e.g. Cats would run end of week on cruise 1, then run first of week cruise 2), but lately it seems the Oasis entertainment flyers have had the same order of events, just with different comedians, tribute bands, and special performance (night 2).

If you experience interruptions to your vacation, check your Traveler's Insurance for inconvenience coverage. Some will pay a claim for weather related diversions.. some only compensate for any non-refundable confirmed (and paid for) activities you lost out on, while some will just have a flat payout (once per coverage period). Like I think one time AIG plan I had paid $250 for us missing our ports of call. This was the max per plan, not per island we missed. If you don't have this on your standard insurance you buy, look at your options for travel insurance in the future - goes far beyond just missing flights, or getting sick on some policies.

We had a Feb 2023 cruise get chartered and opted to shift to another offer from Royal. We picked the same itinerary, just a different week in February. We completely neglected to check airfare and are looking at $832pp from Philly to FLL or MIA. So we've started looking at switching again, this time paying the $100 change fees, but we can reduce our expenses by almost $600. And now we remember to always check flight and hotel pricing trends first!

Billy Idol tribute band.

Is it like normal bfast you see on rest of ship or are the serving up breakfast burritos? I'd love to get a hold of a good breakfast burrito!

Correction: Sky Class.

There was a confirmation paper delivered to our stateroom. We didn't know prior to sailing.

If getting an Uber, maybe also download and have Lyft as well. You can compare prices and maybe get a better price. e.g. we recently got off the ship in Port Canaveral and Uber wanted $59 to go to Coco Beach! Lyft was $22. Uber was surge pricing at the time while Lyft was not.

We didn't get to choose our bed on June 28th, and we were only ship in. All beds at Chill were reserved. We received our bed assignment 2 days before. The ShoreEx office onboard said the beds were assigned by the island Shore team. When we arrived they were all reserved and so we couldn't make a change. I didn't do any fancy negotiating, so your YMMV if you tried. We ended up liking our chosen spot..Not on the first row, but shadier than most beds.

Also splurging for a milestone in under 60 days - Crown Loft Suite on Oasis (Star Class). We're diamond - But, we can use the suite lounge happy hour without using our diamond drink vouchers? What hours are the Suite lounges usually open for beverages in evening? I'm seeing conflicting reports because the interwebs is a little polluted with outdated info. Anything else out of the ordinary we might want to not overlook? I love our loft location because it's just steps from the lounge and CK.

Data will tend to be outdated, and mostly not useful if you're making a day stop. If you can handle being on the ship, then the islands themselves won't pose a problem for you. Keep in mind, if you choose to stay on the ship, most of the other passengers are getting off and mixing with the local islanders and bringing back whatever they may have been exposed to. Labadee, while technically connected to the nation of Haiti, is more like a private island. Only Haitians directly involved with Royal are going to be let into the "resort area", and they follow the protocols of the cruise line (masks etc) although some of the straw market merchants are maskless.. You can't go by CDC/WHO numbers for Haiti since you're more likely looking at Port Au Prince stats than a private resort with controlled access. Honestly, if you're asking this question about the islands, you should probably not miss your blind spot, and that is the ship itself and the 6,000 random passengers you'll be around for a week+. It's hard to social distance on ships right now, and you can't wear your mask the whole time or you'll starve! You'll always see Govt notices, or cruise line notices about flu, Covid, and don't forget the original bug that started cruising concerns: norovirus 🙂 Point is, I think if you're willing to cruise right now, data from individual islands should be of no concern... just go enjoy it!

Hack.. It was cheapest for us to rent a car one-way from Enterprise. Pickup at Hobby, Drop-off at Galveston the next day. Took short (3.5 mile) Uber from Enterprise facility to pier. Enterprise even offered to give us a ride, but we didn't want to wait. Same concept on the return. We had Uber to take us to the Enterprise place in Galveston where we picked up a one-way rental. The total for two cars + gas was way less than any shuttle or Uber/Lyft round trip. And the added benefit of having a vehicle to run up to Wal-Mart the day before was nice! However, they do close at 10pm at the AP, but you may be able to pickup after hours (you will need to confirm)

We had a bed at Chill Island last week. Perfect. There was some busyness in the water area but overall serene...Until the people showed up for the bed next to us at lunch time. The beds are intended for parties up to 4, but I counted 13 people there at one point. 5 were laying ON the bed, 2 each were sitting on each lounger, and 4 were standing. They also brought their boom box because they thought everyone who rented a bed wanted to hear their music. I informed concierge multiple times, but they were helpless to resolve the problem. Finally, they sent a manager over and moved us to a cabana. I guess they figured it was easier to move us than to evict that party. So, in summary, any area is only as peaceful as the passengers make it. Love Coco Cay, but we often have serene moments ruined by other passengers.

They still haven't brought back the Aerial act version? We haven't been on Anthem since last Nov. The live performers are good (especially Terry, and especially the Aerial act) but the music videos are getting a little old/dated for my tastes. Oh and as for the Gift, it took about 4-5 performances but I get that show now! It was also missing from our Nov 2021 cruise so not sure if it's back, but now that I understand it, it's kinda cool. Back to the topic of Cats, I went to the matinee (two weeks ago) because it was nice and cool in the theater, and not too crowded. I did worry about dozing off and snoring, so I had to leave after 20 mins!

Hi. I wanted to kick up the dust on this post as I had another question about NRD and changing sailings. I have OBC from Royal on our reservations. Will the OBC transfer to the new sailing? Been on hold over an hour trying to talk to a live person, so hoping some of you have changed their sail dates and can tell me that your Royal OBC transferred! 🙂 To be clear, our reservations has OBC from a Next Cruise offer, and OBC from Royal because they chartered my first sailing and I chose this one (that now I want to change). TYIA

Onboard Activities. So apparently we need to attach the "Your mileage may vary" tag to this...

I'm also seeing it on Oasis 9/4.. Whether they cancel that or not is up in the air, but it is definitely bookable.

Slightly on topic, if we booked a cruise prior to April, then in mid-April the cruise was chartered and we took offer to move to another cruise, does the original cruise purchase date still apply, or are we now stuck with the April date as our booking date? Everything else transferred over (e.g. OBC).