robmtx

We grouped travel agents into four categories, based on individual needs: Book Online at RCI - They are their own TA! Reservation management is handled directly with their call center. Convenient! Boutique/Niche TA - personalized experience, a name you know, sometimes with group sailings and incentives. Big Box TA - OBC OBC OBC! Most incentives available, but you're dealing with a toll free number for support. Unicorn TA - This is that super secret combo between your boutique TA and your big box TA. Personalized service and the max incentives! Go forth and travel! All four have their advantages. I think over time most of us landed on a Unicorn, but many people here prefer the convenience of booking direct. The do-it-yourselfers love the big box guys. Something for everyone!

So for the theater shows with big sets, they'll configure the stage and then leave it setup for turn around. So week 1 may see the main show on nights 4-7 then week 2 that same show would be nights 1-3. this way they don't have to do as much reconfiguring.

You can access the digital version via the App. Just select Other Sailings, and then browse for Icon. I'm sure we'll see some printed ones soon enough too!

Oh yeah we had a 4th one, Anthem in Feb 2020 but that cruise was modified from an 8 to 5 night due to suspected covid onboard prev sailing (when they had to send test kits to CDC and wait 2 days for results!). So I guess we did get 5 nights of $18 boozing 🙂

We bought the $18/day drink package when they had that website error. We had it purchased for three cruises.. Then the pandemic hit.. We never got to use any of our $18/day packages 😞

They really like to recycle their comedians.. Al Romas and Simeon Kirkiles were on the 50th Birthday cruise back in 2019. I've also seen Al on Odyssey and Oasis..

Did they happen to mention if Allure was still getting Ultimate Abyss? the hardware to install it was delivered to the dry dock prior to the original amplified cancellation. But then, I heard that it was decided Allure would never get it, to keep it like the original Oasis classes. But that info was from a captain Q&A almost 2 years ago...

We've done couples massages and regular ones. I don't like going there because I feel like I'm at a timeshare. And no one could explain our charges.. we had a package deal and all the receipts were done individually and it took about a half hour of the receptionist reprinting everything to figure out where the over-charge came from. Also, the massage itself - not peaceful. We heard voices in the halls, banging on the walls, and even one interruption where another therapist came in to talk to ours. It just felt rushed that time (that was on Oasis on a sea day!) So we probably won't go again... Lots of people really like it though, I will say!

There will likely be surge pricing as well. I keep both Uber and Lyft on my phone and compare prices between the two. I have seen Lyft as much as 50% cheaper at same time for same class of car. Most of the drivers drive for both anyway.. But yeah when you get off the ship you and hundreds of other people are on their phones for various reasons clogging up the bandwidth on the cell tower, so reception can be spotty!

They were going to do it on Symphony! But then when the entertainment guru's Googled HAIR it autocompleted Hairspray. 🙂 ((for those who take everything I say 100% literally, this was bad dad humor joke.. my kids loved it))

We Will Rock You is a Broadway production in the main theater, performed by live musicians and singers/dancers. It's one of the best shows at sea if you like rock music (and Queen). This may be the confusion about a "Queen Cover Band"? Not to worry if you think this is going to be a lame musical - Brian May endorses it, and has even appeared in some live performances of the show on land. This is a great tribute to Freddie and worth a look-see. The Music Hall will schedule live band(s) thru your cruise. There may be a rotating visiting band on board, but you'd have to check closer to sail time. Unfortunately, I have seen that tribute/cover bands have been missing from my last couple of sailings, in which case a Royal created "rock band" performs as the house band. Still a good show of course, they'll touch on all the classic favorites!

Sorry to OP if you experienced lots of flames here. But I'd like to add that sometimes picking the right Subject Line for posts net different results. To most, I'd imagine this subject comes off as flaming/trolling. That happens A LOT here, so expect to be on the defensive a bit! As for Quantum class ships - love them! I remember when they first came out and all the complainers going on about how much movement they felt when at sea. I mean it was so so bad, how could these ships possibly stay afloat? I don't hear this much as an issue anymore, yet the ships haven't changed anything about them that would change their stability in open ocean..

Don't forget - Bahamas tax on that too 🙂

Another change - Many complimentary experiences, such as Northstar, iFly, etc., now feature paid extended experiences or paid primetime slots. They continue to offer complimentary times, but the "best" times now cost money. It's still, in my opinion, pretty easy to find decent timeslots for the free rides, but just know that those spaces are limited.

I have seen guest cover-bands sort of just disappear from the schedules this year. We used to get cool tribute or cover bands in Music Hall, but now it's just the house band and singers doing smaller sets.

You can still ask for a paper compass. they'll deliver it to your stateroom daily

We have four restaurants and none of our wait staff tipout to a chef or dishwasher. Chefs are salaried employees. The only people our wait staff would tip out are bartenders, busboys (not dishwashers, and only used on busy nights), and floaters (more helpers on busy nights who don't have an assigned section so they run food, refill drinks ,etc.). The floaters and busboys get a flat rate tipout based on overall sales, while bartenders get a percentage tipout just on the alcohol sold by the waiter. Maybe it's different on a cruise ship because of shady practices of using pooled tips to award 'bonuses' to employees. That's probably where "Other hotel services" comes into play. that bucket of money could go for anything really.

You can say this over and over, but some people will not get it. They believe what they hear only when what they hear is more interesting than what you have to say. "The alarm means abandon ship" is much more interesting than "the alarm means report to your muster station and await further instructions." I appreciate you in depth writeup on this. Thanks for taking the time!

Wonderland's space on Quantum class ships has always been Wonderland - supposedly designed for that space. But yeah, even knowing this, it still "looks" like that space was repurposed, so I can see how you'd feel that way. But the rest of your post is spot on with my opinions. Wonderland on Symphony is a completely different experience than on Anthem. The layout of the restaurant, even it's sort-of hidden location (not being in the central Esplanade area) make it more unique, as well as the staircase that we had to go down from the entrance to get to our tables. So cool. On Anthem, we felt like were sitting in a fish bowl at the local mall.

I think the blasts are the warning? This happens all the time in my kitchen when I'm cooking... but seriously on the general alarm there won't be a pre-announcement like you hear on boarding day during muster exercises. Have you visited Guest Services? They can usually expand on that. Curious to know!

We rent a car at the Houston AP, then drive to Galveston and drop the car off there once we're checked in to our hotel. A one-way rental was cheaper than any shared transport we could find at the time. YMMV. I think we used Enterprise? It was also nice to have the freedom that comes with having your own vehicle for a few hours. We're booked on Harmony Jan 2025 because the prices were really attractive ($1,839 per OV Balcony, 2 connecting balconies total) - the itinerary isn't appealing but our kids haven't been to those ports. With prices these days, I thought this was a fairly good deal!

I just looked and your Dailies aren't loaded in yet. I would say check back about 3 weeks before your cruise.

Is One Sky back in production? It wasn't on our last 3 Oasis sailings (2022-2023)

You skip past that and login with the username and PIN you set up on your phone. You can also go to logout.com on your phone when on the ship's wifi to disconnect it from the internet, and then he can login on his phone without the "Switch device" pop up. This is convenient when you purchase multiple device packages and want a little more control which device you want to bump off the internet!

The internet is per-simultaneous device. If you buy 1 internet device, you just get bumped off when he logs in on his phone. Then you can bump him off when you're ready to resume.